Gary: Enabling my Addiction

As shown in the previous blog, Gary completed the dresser for the guest room / Ryan's room. He spent the rest of the day making a mirror to go with it from an old mirror we had. He was so efficient that he had it whipped out and finished in no time - complete with multiple coats of Deft Oil.

So ... he is DONE.

Done.

Done.

Done.

He woke up this morning crashing from a saw dust high, with no project planned - we were going to head to Huntsville to a wood place and buy some specialty wood for him to play with, and I was going to take sunrise photos along the way - but somehow that fell through. The man was bereft of joy - completely beside himself and refused to get out of bed! He had lost his will to live. Apparently saw dust withdrawal is a very serious condition ...

I finally got up and headed to the doctor to pick up my morphine prescription and on the way back got a phone call from the man. He was out of bed! Headed off to swim and to go buy the wood he had planned on buying earlier - just at a closer wood store.

He wanted to play with some pretty, exotic wood but the difference in price is significant. Oak, a board foot is around $2.50 - and adds up rather quickly the way we burn through it, but some of the stuff he bought today was $17.95 a board foot. You do not just 'play around' with stuff like that!

So - he has decided to make me some wooden containers out of the exotic woods. And make some practice containers out of cheaper wood first. OK, wooden containers ... may not sound that great to you - but to me?

Well, let's put it this way ...



... I have a thing for wooden containers. A HUGE thing for them! Well, containers of any sort - I am not sure why. If it is smaller than a bread box and holds stuff - I am so enamoured with it - somewhere deep in my DNA somewhere is an itty bitty box holding the sequence for the love of containers ...

I have literally avoided going to the Container Store because I am afraid of what I might become while I am there. Well, and what my shopping cart, or carts might get filled up with. Sort of like an alcoholic avoiding bars. A lovely side effect of being a total 'container freak' is I will always have a place to store my jewelry that I collect .... see how that works out?

.... and about anything else that needs to be stored somewhere cute!

Gary decided to look around at my containers to check out the joints, hinges and whatnot so we started touring ... room by room ... my containers. Well, at least my wooden containers ...

I have them in my office up high:

and down low - on my desk storing bits of this and that:

More near my desk, more bits:

My shelves are crammed full of containers - their origins span the globe their woods vary:

Containers on the floor:
My jewelry is spread out throughout my bedroom - by category:

I have some of Gary's moms jewelry in a lovely wooden container from a place near where I grew up and she lived:

Most of my jewelry resides in containers stacked all on top of each other ... probably not Gary's style to build ...

The craft room is riddled with containers - holding all sorts of sewing and craft supplies - one of them with a very cool hidden opening:

Even the bathrooms are not spared - gotta have cotton balls and Q-tips somewhere:

More shelves, more containers:

Specialty ones I had made for me -

A Norwegian Tine - a sewing box filled with old fashioned sewing, knitting and crocheting items ...

Their even hidden! My Armoire is absolutely chocked full of containers - all filled with my treasures:
More shelves, more containers ...

Norwegian ones complete with their form of toll painting - rosemaling - probably not Gary's style either:

But the wood he got to make my containers out of! It is absolutely beautiful!

Some walnut:

This beautiful wood called Zebrawood:

And this called Wenge:

He told me to go Google 'small wooden containers' and pick out some that I liked. My goodness! I'm like a kid in a candy store - so many cool containers, how to choose, how to choose? And ... there are literally a TON of images of 'small wooden containers' on the web ... I pretty much want them all ...

The man is a bit happier now. Calmed down a bit. He is not actively snorting sawdust this evening - not out in the garage, but with wood in the garage, a project he can begin tomorrow, he is back to his wonderful self again!

What Have I Forgotten?

As I oh, so smugly, put it yesterday - I am finished with my computer install. Everything is now done ...

OH! Wait! Except I forgot about ALL MY FONTS! All my PURCHASED fonts that were under the 'windows' folder that wouldn't let me copy it because it was in use ...

OH! Wait! There is a thunderstorm raging outside - Quick! Order a surge protector! Wait ... I have one - whew!

OH! Wait!

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.

Yeah - that's what I am going to be saying next Monday AFTER my son and his friend have blown away my computer, pimped it out, put Window 7 on it - and, oddly enough - renamed it to: "Edward: The Destroyer of Worlds" ... and it becomes a gaming computer and I am SOL ...

I have TRIED to remember everything ...

I keep thinking about it, going through the motions of all my tasks to see if something is missing, and yet something is niggeling in the back of my mind ... I have forgotten something. Which, I know, the chances are 100% that I have forgotten something or, more likely - many somethings ... but sadly - since that is the nature of the beast ... it is forgotten.

When I finally realize what it is, I will have to decide whether or not it was important enough to purchase again .... hopefully not ...

What I have on my computer I am impressed with. I like Windows 7 better than Vista - a much needed improvement. And everything is running correctly and smoothly. One new feature is your wallpaper can be a series of photos instead of just one and can change at what ever interval you want - 30 seconds to 1 month ...

So I quickly went through my photos and grabbed a few - I am currently living in 2004 - 2006 since I have a favourites folder of my photos from our time in Norway. Right now Ryan is at the Louvre ...

And I have one more piece of software to install - sitting up there patiently waiting for me to get my act together and stop just sitting here staring into space ... thinking, thinking, thinking ....


Someone more on the ball than me?

Gary - he is all done!

I think it turned out rather wonderfully .... and GOOD NEWS!!! He likes it too!!!





Off to think, think, think ...

Googleland

I am almost done with my computer setup. I am onto piddly tasks and software that I remember using once or twice - so everything major is on my computer and working. This is much earlier than I thought it would be. If I had to come up with one word that would describe my fortune in completing this odious task early, it would have to be:

GOOGLE

I have been in the land of Google for a few days now. I don't know how I ever lived without it.

I am so 'done' with my installation, that this evening I remembered that every now and again, for a newsletter that I write, I want to use a graphic from a series of CD's I bought years ago. The format of all 26,118 black and white drawings is .tif. Photoshop does not play nice with .jpg and .tif together since .jpg files are 8 bit and .tif files are 16 bit. I used to have a converter that converts the .tif file to a .jpg file. Tried to find my registry key for the program and couldn't find it. So ...

... I googled: "how to convert a .tif file to a .jpg file in photoshop"

and found a photo.net forum that discussed just this! One person mentioned going into Photoshop and changing the mode from 16 bit to 8 bit ... but, for some reason - for these ancient files - the option was not available to me. Someone mentioned Adobe Bridge had a batch program that would convert the files. Adobe Bridge comes with Photoshop - so I got in and tried it. I worked great!

Problem is - you had to select the files and mine were spread throughout a complicated hierarchy of folders - and I didn't want to have to go through all the folders selecting files ... I'm lazy that way ...

And then I saw the magic words "I just use XNView and process them all at once ... it is a free program and works great". So ... I Googled: "XNView" and there it was, free and looked safe. Installed it on my old computer ... just in case it was some sort of virulent Trojan Horse and it was wonderful! Also - it let me select the top level folder and it would convert all the files in all the folders below it! With 2 clicks of the mouse - I CONVERTED ALL 21,118 FILES!!!

I am so in love with google right now! So enamoured by it and how easy it has made my life these past few days.

Can't find a feature in Windows 7?

GOOGLE IT!

Can't remember the name of the converter software?

GOOGLE IT!

Need to study up on firewire cables?

GOOGLE IT!

You get the picture. I am in Google Heaven!

And all of a sudden, I wondered ... where in the world did they come up with the word 'google'?

I asked Ryan and he said he thought it had something to do with a really big number ...

... which was pretty close and the word the inventors (or what ever they would be called) thought of when they named it ... although they misspelled it. The word was 'googol' and what they were going for. But THAT word had a history. How do I know this?

I GOOGLED IT!

Here was the answer in 'Yahoo answers' to the google: "were did the word google come from"

"Although it is often stated that the comic strip was not the inspiration for the name of the Google search engine, a linkage is evident and can be traced in a simple fashion:

the word "Google" was introduced in 1913 in The Google Book, a children's book about the Google and other fanciful creatures who live in Googleland.

Thus aware of the word's appeal, DeBeck launched his comic strip six years later, and the "goo-goo-googly" lyrics in the 1923 song focused attention on the novelty of the word.

When the mathematician and Columbia University professor Edward Kasner was challenged in the late 1930s to devise a name for a very large number, he asked his nine-year-old nephew, Milton Sirotta, to suggest a word. The youth was obviously a reader of the comics page, as he told Kasner to use "Google" at a time when the comic strip was at a peak of popularity.

Kasner agreed and in 1940 he introduced the words "googol" and "googolplex" in his book, "Mathematics and the Imagination". Milton Sirotta died in 1980.

This is the term that Larry Page and Sergey Brin had in mind when they named their company in 1998, but they misspelled "googol" as "google," bringing it full circle right back to Billy DeBeck"

Somewhere else I read he wanted a word for a number that was a one with 100 zeros after it and in his book, called it a googol.

Unlike (probably) you ... I find this fascinating.

I may have a bit too much time on my hands ...

3,000,582,139,904 ...

I don't believe I have had a Trillion of anything before ...

... but now I do!

Actually I have 3 trillion internal bytes and 3 trillion external bytes - so lots of bytes. It should hold me for a little while ...

Ryan did very well this year in suggesting presents. I am beginning to think that he actually gave it some thought. Actually this year and last year.

Last year we did the 'let's limit our present price to $25.00' and Gary and Ryan pooled their resources and got me a Kindle - yes, I can do the math ... they CHEATED. And I SO got them presents they would like for under $25. But I didn't complain much and started right in on playing with my gadget.

This year Ryan suggested to Gary that if I wanted a surprise - he could get me a PC Tablet. They are very cool and work with Photoshop. It doubles as a mouse pad so here it is to the LEFT of my keyboard:

Yes, I am left handed, and unlike many I know - cannot drive a mouse with my right - so all that is working out well for me now. The PC Tablet has a mouse - and a mouse pad, and a pen. It has controls you use with your non-dominant hand - thus mine are on the right side:

This actually involved turning the tablet upside down. The steering got freaky - you would move left and the arrow on the screen would, predictably, go right. Not an easy task and the install asked if you were using it as a lefty or righty and I answered 'left' and it fixed the mouse steering. But the really cool thing about having a tablet is the pen:

I discovered later - that it comes with a variety of tips - I will have to figure out that part later:

The install software did not fix the pen and it was driving me crazy. I had an e-mail sent off to the company - but Saturday to Monday is a very long time to not play with my new gadget. At 2:00am Sunday morning, Ryan and I were playing around and he suggested doing something in the control panel. We found the tablet and the pen properties and were able to swap them - so even though it was not working when I wrote my 'Some Assembly Required' post - it was fixed soon after that.

The really fun thing to use this with is Photoshop. There are times when the precision of the mouse is not good enough and it is hard to steer. The pen works way better in these instances. I skipped all the parts in my Photoshop books that discussed using a tablet ... now I need to go back.


Here is what looks like scribble using the pen - but is a very good likeness of part of my signature:

So - Ryan did well for a gadget for me! I will get hours discovery and fun from it. Unlike what he suggested to me that I get Gary so he would have a surprise - a universal remote. COULD OF been hours of discovery and fun for Gary - but Ryan just programmed it for him. He is busy out the the garage for some reason ...

A First ...

We are horrible about sending Christmas cards ... we used to send out a newsletter - when the kids were young ...

and cute ...

Went to Norway, came back with a change of address - no one knew where we were and we sort of dropped off the grid ... (except for family - we broke down and gave them our address)

Last year - when we decided on a $25.00 limit for presents I came up with the idea of making a calendar for Gary. The price was right and I had a few photos lying about ...

So this year I decided to make a calendar again. Gary, upon seeing it online decided that we would send it out to our families in lieu of cards. That we hadn't sent cards in 6 years didn't seem to come into play here. I was a bit embarrassed.

Whats worse, my father - THE MOST WONDERFUL PHOTOGRAPHER - sends out a calendar every year - so for my family - this was just, well ... stupid. But we did it anyway and I forgot about it.

Until last week when I got a few phone calls of thanks and kind words (thank you Cherri and Jodi ...). And then I got the WEIRDEST call.

Jill, my sister called, said she loved my calendar and her co-workers wouldn't believe that her sister made it and that it was not a professional calendar she had purchased.

Jill: "Would you, like, tell them that you are my sister and that you really are Lori Hurst?" (There is a 'photos by Lori Hurst' on the cover)

Lori: "Are you serious?"

Jill: "Yes! They don't believe me!"

(Yelling in the background)

Jill: "OK, they believe me now that I called you ..."

Lori: "Your friends are really weird ... but rather nice - tell them thank you."

Jill: "OK, bye."

Lori: "Bye"

And that was the end of it ... until the next day when I got another phone call from Jill asking if I had any other calendars.

Jill: "One of my friends really, really wants one - she will pay anything ... oh, and she wants you to autograph it."

Lori: "Dude! What is wrong with your friends?"

Jill: "Just ... do you have one?"

Lori: "I could probably come up with one - but I'm not charging and I AM NOT SIGNING IT ..."

Jill: "OK, at least let her pay for the shipping ..."

Lori: "No. You realize this is way beyond weird ..."

Jill: "Sort of ... but it is really pretty."

Lori: "I will get one in the mail"

Jill: "OK, thanks, bye"

Lori: "Bye ..."

So here it sits:

UNSIGNED and ready to be mailed. This has to be a first for me ...

But, when I mentioned it to Gary - he said I should post the photos ... so it would be in my blog book. So - I am posting them ... I am sure I have posted all of them before ... and what I would really like to do is post all the 'runner ups' but there are way too many ...


Cover:

January: Brisbane, Australia:

February: Yosemite, California:

March: Sydney, Australia:

April: Texas Wildflowers, Texas Hill Country:

May: Millaa Millaa Falls ~ Cairns, Australia

June: Heceta Head Lighthouse, Oregon:

July: Melbourne, Australia

August: Austin, Texas (point of interest - random shot out of a moving car window - cropped, of course):

September: Tasmania, Australia:

October: Australia:

November: Byron Bay Lighthouse ~ Byron Bay, Australia:

December: Hill Country, Texas:

For some reason ... the rule is the photos must have been taken in the year the calender is being made. I don't know if I got that from my Dad, or if I made that up ...

... it is just the way it is ...