That Pretty Much Sums it Up ...

I was reading a blurb in a Photoshop magazine about a website that would make a word cloud for you (for those of you who don't know what a word cloud is ... mom ... it is a cluster of words where words that appear more often are bigger than those that appear only once). It can make it out of a set of words you paste into it, a document or a website.

So ... of course ... I plugged in my blog. It only uses what appears on the 'first page' thus giving a pretty good snapshot of my most recent mindset ....

It is called Wordle.net. Go have some fun!!!

Pink

Pretty much: 'The Birthday that Wouldn't End' would explain this week. What with having two actual birthday days (and as Chelsey puts it ... all without the DeLorean ...) thanks to a really fast plane and crossing the international date line ... to coming home to red birthday roses that Gary had Ryan go get for me, to having the coolest tripod arrive on my doorstep yesterday and finally lunch with friends today ...

Courtney gave me the prettiest tulips! She told me since I had a facebook entry of "Red" for the roses, now I could do a "Pink". My house is looking very colorful and festive!

When I got my little buddies home, they were a bit wilty:

I was a little nervous that they might not pull out of it, but made for great photographs. I like photos of tulips all bendy ...

And like little troopers, they pulled out of it:

So ... for as far as birthday weeks go - this one was great (except for that part about aging ...)!

Night Roses

A Non-Post Post

I use this blog as a journal of sorts and wanted to record a momentous occasion on the off chance that I will ever take this blog and (horror) put it in book form.

That being said .... DON'T READ IT!!! I know I come off as a spoiled, obnoxious, whiny world traveller - because, well, lets face it, I am a spoiled, obnoxious, whiny world traveller.

So STOP READING NOW!!!!


*** WORST FLIGHT EVER ***

As in my life.


And that is saying a lot - I have been on a lot of flights.

Funny thing .... you would THINK it would be that grueling 14 hour flight from Australia to LA - just the time alone makes it grueling - a few misplaced horrors would make the flight unbearable - which it would. But no misplaced (or perfectly placed) horrors - just got my 'airplane zen' on and watched crappy movies and soon enough LA was looming in the early morning horizon.

It was the relatively dinky flight from LA to Houston - 3 hours ... how bad could it be?

Stupid People:

I should have realized this was not going to go well when, as I boarded for row 29 of a 34 row plane, watched as an elderly gentleman proceeded to fill up TWO ENTIRE OVERHEAD BINS with suitcases. How he and his wife got them all on is totally beyond me. After stowing all their stuff, they proceeded back to ROW 34 and sat down. What? As I was watching, I started counting rows since I had nothing else to do since he was blocking the aisle and none of us could do anything until he was done decimating the space for everyone aboard - and he was stowing everything smack dab above row 29. Dang - I was going to have to stow my stuff in the compartments well in front of my seats - so I did - and so did everyone else.

And so it began - everyone would enter with a bag, walk to their designated row, open the closed bin (a CLEAR sign it was full) see that it was full, turn around and make their way forward to stow their own luggage - thus shuffling EVERYONES luggage forward and causing a record loading time - over an hour to get everyone on board.

Dumbest Invention .... EVER:

Continentals new planes have a entertainment system like the Qantas planes: movies, TV shows, music, games, flight path. The difference: Qantas has a remote that is embedded in your armrest that pulls out. Continental decided - by someone apparently smoking weed and drunk at the same time that it would be a good idea to MAKE IT A TOUCH SCREEN. On. The. Back. Of. Someones. Chair.

So I sit down and notice that you are able to use the entertainment system even while sitting at the gate. Apparently the neanderthal behind me discovered this also. It only takes a light tap to make the thing work ... except when it doesn't, but being over zealous he decided to put some zeal into his game playing and so about every three or four seconds my head would get a 'THUMP' and bump forward. Thump. Head bounce. Thump. Head bounce. Thump. Head bounce.

Think having a kid behind you kicking your seat and your are there.

I was almost in tears before we left the gate - and too chicken shit to ask him to stop it. Granted I was in to my flight adventures by about 24 hours and this might have had something to do with being bothered that someone seemingly was slugging my headrest about every three seconds ... FOR THE ENTIRE 3 HOUR FLIGHT.

Inconsiderate People:

A woman and her daughter sat down beside me. Totally fine with a hyperactive, screaming-at-the-top-of-her-lungs 2 year old - since she was by the window - me - on the aisle. Until the seat belt sign came off and the mom got this really, really cool idea that she would a) move to the window seat b) move her daughter to the middle c) flip up BOTH armrests - one being mine - a thin protection from shrieking girl and d) promptly fall asleep on the window - leaving her TWO YEAR OLD SHRIEKING DAUGHTER TO FEND FOR HERSELF. Fending for herself involved a complicated laying down position that included her feet CONSTANTLY KICKING MY LEGS, POKING ME, PUSHING ME. But you know me - didn't want to start reprimanding, touching someone elses child - so I just took it.

Thump. Head bounce. Kick. Thump. Head bounce. Kick. Thump. Head bounce. Kick, kick, kick, scream, scream, scream.

And the Totally Bizarre.

During this lovely three hours - I decided to escape to the restroom for a refreshing change of pace. Get in and 3 seconds in to this - the door almost bashes in and SOMEONE STARTS POUNDING ON THE DOOR.

WHO DOES THAT ON AN AIRPLANE? It says 'Occupied'! WHO DOES THAT ANYWHERE?

Totally freaked out my frazzled nerves. Got out and some lady barged her way past me.

I was convinced at this point I had slipped into some bizarre alternate reality ... and not a good one. I was exhausted, frustrated and getting enraged ...

We land, and of course set a record for getting off the plane since no one was by their bags and each person had to approach their bag, get it down, put the stuff in their hands in the bag and then continue on down the aisle. Amazing how long that takes.

So cruising the Bush Intercontinental Airport I was ... well, not in the best of moods. I wanted to kick puppies. Hell - I wanted to kill puppies - cute ones. Lots and lots of puppies ....

But got home to these:

Gary made Ryan go out and buy me flowers - a belated birthday present from my boys. It went a long way to fixing things.


But I really, really don't want to head back to the airport in less than two weeks for our family vacation in California and Oregon ...








Go Figure ....

I Missed this Puppy ...

OK, Gary is going to be APPALLED! He really misses the dog and lately has wistfully wished for a boxer puppy. OVER. MY. DEAD. BODY. The last time we had two dogs - one ate a hole in the wall and an entire couch ...

I do miss ALL my children ...

But about 5 seconds after the wheels touched the tarmac here in LA - I turned on my Blackberry.

It started downloading 3 weeks worth of e-mails and facebook notifications. I was in gadget heaven as we taxied to the gate. I LOVE having my e-mails, my facebook, my text messages in my pocket. I don't know how I lived without it before my Blackberry.

Pathetic, I know, but there it is.

And - it gave me something to do here in a little restaurant in LAX: a bottomless Diet Pepsi, a table, my computer ... and my trusty Blackberry in my pocket. If you gotta just sit in an airport for two hours waiting for a flight (yeah! I actually got through all the lines with enough time to catch my breath and then some ....) - surfing, blogging, e-mailing & facebooking is most definitely the way to go!

Does This Seem Smart to You?

Saw a hot air balloon go where none before it dared to ... float ...

Seriously - thought bodies were going to be raining from the sky - and a big 'POP'.

OK, so Gary thinks this balloon was not mere inches from the building, but just looked like it:

Still, I'm thinking there is good reason why all the balloons I see (a normal occurrence on Sat and Sun mornings) are over by Story Bridge and a good distance from 'balloon popping buildings'

Why this one decided to meander through downtown Brisbane on a Monday morning is anybodies guess ...

Magical ....

First off - this was a 'No Photo Sunday'. Weird. I. Take. Photographs.... All. The. Time. So - why I didn't snap off a single shot is beyond me. In Sydney. On the way to the airport. The airport. Brisbane. Nada. Like I said .... weird.

But! Here is something cool! This little ditty (which is in CS4 but I didn't realize it until I saw a tutorial on CS5) is super magical.

Two images - same panorama. Do you see a difference? OK, I admit - it is smallish - since it is a panorama - double click on them ... I'll wait ....

See it?

Yes? No?

I absolutely ABHOR people in my photographs. I know, it is a character flaw, I really don't like people all that much - got a degree to work with computers just so I could avoid people (that didn't really work out all that well - 'cause, well, people BREAK computers and I would have to fix them - the computers, that is ...).

OK, I am not that averse to people - but close. But in my photographs? Yeah. I. Hate. Them. I even told Gary to get out of my shots of the Opera House - how mean is that?So ... I get up really early when everyone else is blissfully sleeping, hope for a bad weather day so there wont be mobs, or I take a few token shots that I never look at again because I don't like them. I don't know why I am wired this way ... I just am.

SO ... Took out these guys:

Boom! Gone!

And these guys:

Gone!


These guys:
Adios.



Him:

Bye Bye.



And him:

All in all - I washed away 7 groups of people from the above photo.

How? Am I magic? Far from it - but Photoshop is. The trick: 'Content Aware'. Select the person (using what ever - the lasso is fine, it does not need to be exact). Hit 'edit' 'fill' and when the menu pops up - in the drop down menu - select 'Content Aware' and photoshop does its best guess on what is behind the offending person and fills it in.



SERIOUSLY .... HOW COOL IS THAT?!?

I did the selections quick and dirty so don't look too close - but I'm digging my 'Abandoned Opera House' photo ...


OK, OK, here is one piece of another panorama - with obnoxious guy taking a photo:
AND without obnoxious guy taking a photo:
How cool is that?

AND FOR AJ:

'Eagle Eye AJ' noted that while I had gotten rid of obnoxious camera guy - I had not gotten rid of his pants reflected in the granite. I give you, AJ, a better version:

Reflection gone! (Good eye - at 2:00am when I was playing - didn't even see it ...)

Finally ...

It worked! One of my panoramas of the downtown skyline plus the Opera House and Harbour Bridge actually stitched together. I don't know what is up with my Photoshop these days ... I used to be able to do this (even in the dark - which is harder because of the tripod ...) but now - I can't get some of the easiest things to stitch together. Sometimes if I go to CS4 or even Photoshop Elements 7 - it will stitch - which I find a little creepy - who knows the inner workings of Photoshop CS5.

But no worries! I got more than enough to call the trip a sucess!

Being too short, Gary set this shot up for me - with the tree in the foreground. All I did was press the button - so pretty much Garys photo:

I know, I know - you can see too much of the road - but it gets über skinny if I crop most of it out. I am hoping the rainbow water makes up for some of its shortcomings ...

Well, sitting at the airport with more than an hour to go in this Business Lounge ... who knows how many 'posts' I have in me?

Sydney Opera House - Up Close and Personal

Had more photos from our tour of the Sydney Opera House yesterday ... they are cool - and it is way cool up close, so I thought I would share.

A newly renovated lobby. Doesn't show some windows and doors that were added (you can see them) but they are about 12 feet deep - the depth of the walls that they had to dynamite holes in to open up and lighten the lobby. HUGE walls!

A close up of the glazed tiles that are on the outside 'sails':

Concrete inside - only part I could find. The architect of the Sydney Opera House bowed out due to political pressure (original time estimate: 3 years; cost estimate: 7 million dollars (1970'ish) when he bowed out: time: 15 years cost: 107 million). Thus the outside buildings are designed by a Danish gentleman and the inside was designed by someone else - I forget (a group) and the outside of the buildings do not touch the inside buildings ...

Also - this concrete shows just a bit of the outside structure - which was designed to fit together like Legos. Where were Legos invented, class? Yes! Denmark!

Cool photo that shows absolutely nothing (ok, Harbour Bridge is peeking out on the left):

Lovely artwork on the walls:

Rainy shot of the peaks:

Exterior, clearer shot of the 'sails' and the design that the ceramic glazed tiles make:

Well, that is your lesson for the day.

I will post some night shots when I get home - headed to the airport here in a few hours (or will post them at the airport). A little bummed - some of my panoramas won't stitch - dang!

Saturday in Sydney

Got to Sydney Friday night ... in the rain. What is up with us and vacationing in the rain?

Saturday morning saw a few rays peeking through:
Then we did something we didn't do last time we were in Sydney - take a tour inside the Opera House. We weren't allowed to take photographs in the theatres, but she gave us permission in this one ... for some reason. I contains the largest pipe organ in the entire world:

Had a good time getting close ups:

And panoramas:

Then headed to the Capitol Theatre for 'Wicked' and I was going to cheat and take photos during the production, but I couldn't do it - having been politely asked not to (as a group - not me personally) so all I have is the interior of the theatre:

This evening we took a taxi over to the botanical gardens to get night shots of the Opera House and Harbour Bridge from another angle than last time ....



... to come later ...

Airports are Boring

Sitting in an airport ... 'spoiled' style. In the Business Lounge - so all the hors d'œuvres and soft drinks I can eat / drink ...

So I can't really complain - just a mini jaunt to Sydney to take photos and watch 'Wicked' again. We have very little imagination right now, apparently ...

Airports are incredibly boring to photograph so I give you a sign (in the airport):

Thought it was cool looking - I can identify about two things in the entire layout - but I think the far right thingy is the new tunnel under Brisbane - believe it drives right under our apartment and Story Bridge or close to their environs .... I saw a map once - but it eludes me just at the moment ...

Have not driven it - we have not had a reason to go from one side of Brisbane to the other - having a final destination in the middle. Maybe someday ...

Well - this is boring drivel ... I will stop - hopefully blue skies in Sydney and a ton of wonderful photographicable things for me to take advantage of ....

... later

Thursday was a good day in Brisbane ...

Got some lovely photos ...

And ONLY ONE panorama night shot. Dang - the night before I leave for Sydney to take NIGHT SHOTS I can't seem to take a series of photos that will stitch together in Photoshop ...

Off to practice, practice, practice ...

My Dreamland is Scary ...

Not that it does not have anything weird, odd, scary and downright sad to pull out of my psyche, but still.

I have not been feeling well and have done a bit of napping. Napping for me during the day is a highly undesirable event. Having all sorts of weird, scary and downright creepy dreams - but I figure sleep is sleep - even if I am being chased by monsters and sometimes my body just needs sleep ... or what ever it is ...

But today the most bizarre, startling thing happened. I was back in 1985 that's NINETEEN EIGHTY FIVE - what - 25 years ago? I was a 'Computer Engineer' at Morton Thiokol and worked as a 'small systems specialist' which basically meant I kept the tons of small computers running, fixed them when they were broken - and the other 12 men in my group worked varying jobs on the four very large IBM mainframes.

It was an annoying job. It was a job for a computer detective. Interviewing the major suspects - computers generally don't just up and die for no reason - thus the one that touched it last was the major suspect. First question: DID YOU INSTALL, PLUG IN ANYTHING ON THIS COMPUTER? The answer was always a resounding 'no'. And then they would mutter that some 'little girl' was no way, no how gonna ever fix this damn thing .... under their breath but loud enough for me to hear.

Generally it ended this way - after 3, 4 or 5 hours I would continue to ask the same question in varying ways and would eventually get a 'oh, wait' I installed this game, this mouse, this device this WHATEVER ...yeah - right before it stopped working ... I would uninstall ... what ever they had put on there ... and what do you know - computer was as good as new.

Idiots ....

But one day - I was called to to strangest building. As a car took me up there, my stomached lurched. Painted on the side of the building ... THE SIZE OF THE ACTUAL BUILDING ... was this sign:

Yeah, and me trying to get pregnant.

I tentatively walked in and was met by 4 men. They explained that they were all scared of the computer, it just generally ran by itself and now it was not running.

I remember looking at it - a unix - not something I was great at - and asked for the users manual. The rounded up a greasy book - that had been thumbed through by someone with filthy hands. I looked around and realized that the entire place was filthy. I had no idea what they did.

I mean - what does bio hazard materials have to do with building Solid Booster Rockets for the Space Shuttle I ask you? Sitting down on a creaky filthy chair I started in. It was broken - I was suspecting that it might just be the filth that did it in. My last job at JPL took me to airport hangars (on that Top Secret project I can't talk about) and the major problem we had there was keeping the computers clean enough that they didn't spontaneously up and die - which they often did.

Suddenly there was an alarm! The 4 men weren't running out of the building but I decided to ask if I should be concerned, hey hey, about, well, you know - anything? They said I was toast if there was a 'three short whistle' alarm. I remember thinking I really, really didn't want to be there.

I remember having to ask to go to the bathroom - since there was only a 'mens'. They told me 'just a minute' they needed to go clean it up. Forty five minutes later they told me to go ahead ... eeek!

The whole experience was ... unsettling to say the least. I remember resolving their problem (for the life of me I forget how ...) and being so relieved when the car came and picked me up - dropping me off in the safety of the administration building (even in the event of a huge explosion - not common - but did occur - you were working with rocket propellant - it just blew out windows - didn't flatten the two administration buildings since they were located a ways away from the production of the rocket propellant and a hill or something if I remember right was between us).

Why the trip down memory lane? This afternoon my mind, for NO REASON WHATSOEVER decided to relive that day. Everything in my dream was EXACTLY as I remember it - down to begging to use the toilet.

The clicker - as I was busily working on the computer, trying to figure out what was going on (a little hazy, I must admit) three short bursts of the whistle ... and I awoke shaking in a cold sweat...

Sydney! Here we come ...

.... again!

Tried to book various trips for the last 4 days and NOTHING was working out. Something always caused troubles ... so we decided to just fly to Sydney and watch Wicked again ...

Going to go to the 2:00pm show so that I can take night shots Saturday night ...

I expect it will be just as fun as the first time ...



... except without the fireworks ...

Stuff

So ... took my GOOD camera to church this time and wandered the same haunts I wandered last week - but with that 'lets take photos of textures' in mind ...

But first - I thought I would place a side by side comparison of May of 2009 (left) and May 2010 (right). See a tiny difference?

Yes, there is a high rise apartment building rising quickly above us ... It has been interesting. I can't see the building, but from the office (where I can see into the windows of those two apartment buildings on the right ... I can see the crane and hear the workers. I find it odd that they work 24 hours on this building, but at night they are WAY quieter than during the day. How does that work? Do they hired super good guys for the night shift that can do the work quieter? Save up more quiet work for the evening?

All I know is I can really only hear them when I am in the office - so it has not bothered me at all. Sort of ruins the skyline though ...

My texture photos (now I have a beach set and a church set):

Granite

Bushes

Bushes

Plants

Rock Wall

Tree Bark

Tree tops

Plants

Palm tree bark

Ripples on Brisbane River

And my masterpiece - made with a flower photo and the last two textures - the palm tree being made into the borders and the ripples as an overlay to make the texture in the photo ....

Off to bed ...