Sam Is Going To A New Home,
Tonight is the Jeremy Hotz show in Kitchener.
We have front row tickets!
Jeremy always does a "meet-in-greet" for the fans after the show.
I have some photos from the last show I have matted for him to sign, and I am going to give him a miniature of his Dog Sam.
Don't tell him! LOL
It took me 30 hours to complete Sam. I had a couple of small photos that showed me his shape and colours. It was interesting making a long-haired dog. I have to basically affix every long hair on its own then when all the hairs are in place I have to groom him! I didn't know grooming was so difficult! I now appreciate the work my friend Pauline does....
I can just imagine the weirdness of it all......Jeremy Hotz's Canadian fan gives him a miniature of his dog made of.......matted hair wool! I am sure I have just given him a new line for his show LOL
Saturday, February 28, 2009
Wednesday, February 25, 2009
Jane Fonda Is Writing A Blog, and she is on Twitter!
I have a strange list of folks who are famous who I think are quite interesting.
One of the women who has always interested me is Jane Fonda.
She was the activist actress who could piss of my Dad the easiest, so in my secret delight I have always thought she was awesome! I know Mom likes her too.
So I was watching TV the other morning and she was in an interview about a new play she is doing in New York called "33 Variations". My ears perked up even more when I heard her talking about her blog and using Twitter.
Jane's website is http://www.janefonda.com
Her Bog web address is http://janefonda.com/category/my-blog
Perhaps she will notice us and come read our blogs....
Thursday, February 19, 2009
I Started Another Blog Today
It is not under my normal profile, as I have restricted it a lot.
It is one of pointers and tips to prepare for your Ontario Drivers License G2 and G road tests.
If you want to see it you can go to Keep It Between The Lines
Wednesday, February 18, 2009
I Will Have No System For A While......
Well it seems that my RAM lite issue was not the only issue I have to deal with.
There is a motherboard issue with my laptop that I use for all my publishing and A/V.
So the baby is going back to HP to have the motherboard replaced.
My shipping box arrived today from HP, so I will be sending her back before the week ends.
Alex and I are just finishing up some video formatting and uploading for my virtual classroom, and my future classes, and when I am done, I will remove the battery from my laptop and pack her up and send her back to HP.
They told me it will take 15 days to get it back.
So if my posts are a bit boring these next few weeks you know why...
My Son Alex has updated his blog and is promising open source release for some code he developed for part of the 4000 Project before the end of the week as well! See what he has going at http://automaticpixel.com/blog/
I will be able to do some work from one of the satellite units in the house.
I have spent the last few days jigging some of my apps so I can access them from my terabyte of external hard drive backup for my system and my 500 G external for my A/V. Yes, I am over backed-up. But boy am I glad I am......
I had to beef up my back up when I changed to my new camera. My new camera shoots in RAW format, and each file is quite huge. And, of course, I also have two copies of each photo. One in original format and one in JPEG that has been sized for the web through Adobe. I upgraded to the terabyte for my system backup because the 500G size filled up and I was having trouble backing up some of my stuff. Vista uses the majority of the 500G just backing up Vista. There isn't a whole lot of room for personal stuff. So it is easy to max out the back up.
I figure that possibly some other layman on the net may be having some troubles and might want to know what other regular ole folks use to combat the limitations of laptop use, so I figured I would share.....
Now I will tell you what happened to the laptop which was a clue the motherboard is going:
First the Wireless LAN device stopped working suddenly. My computer could not even find the wireless network to connect to and the wireless device indicator light glows orange instead of blue. I could still use a hard wire to hook up to the net, so I can still use the computer for the time being, but with no guarantees I can keep using it... Then the screen on the laptop was losing an array of colours and began to look extremely pixelated, yet my external monitor was fine. HP flashed the BIOS for me and I got my screen colour back temporarily but it began to deteriorate again and within hours - back to worst case.....
I run a Compac Presario that I purchased in 2007.
Carl did a lot of research on help from HP and on forums to see the symptoms, then we called HP...
The computer has been limping along all week while I finish up stuff and do some extra manual backups on some little things like email and games etc.....just in case.....
I Beta test games through Pogo and I have kept a few I really like, and I don't want to lose them.
I think I have to describe myself as the middle-aged not so tech geek. I am only Geek by osmosis. My Husband is one of the Original Geeks (he still has a working AppleIIPlus). He graduated from Computer Sciences at Seneca College in Toronto in the mid '70s and has been a very technical guy all through the years, even when he moved up the executive ladder he stayed true to his Geek heritage-LOL. My Son Alex is an Uber Geek! I think he will be someone to watch and follow for the next few yrs. At 19 he opened his own successful Web Development Company called Automatic Pixel Productions. He has contracted for big Canadian and American companies over the past few years while attending University, studying Computer Science. He is the only "kid" I know that worked 40hrs a week in 7 days while attending University full time. And the only "kid" I know who misses University to attend business and IT conferences and symposiums, instead of missing because of hangovers LOL. He is now 22, and a Computer Sciences student at Trent University.....
Now how did I get all my A/V knowledge? Well that is the other Son. My Son Cam is at Seneca College. He is just finishing his degree in Corporate Media Production. The first step for him. His second step will be TV production, and then film school. He has aspirations to be the next Kevin Smith....
Personally I think he will be a good screenplay writer and director. He has a gift for writing.
He is also a performer, and comedian. He studied standup at Humber College at 15. That's right...15!
I really got into photography while following his band around for a few years, and my early blogs were about that experience of shooting PR videos and photos as he was the Lead Singer for a Progressive Metal band. He is 20 now....
I think I am really really lucky that I live with some of the most Nerdy, Geeky guys on the planet. Without their influence I don't think I would have ever gotten into blogging, which ended up my own therapy for my recovery from my brain injury in 2005. And of course, now my other therapy for recovery was knitting and I walked into Needle Felting with that, and now I have my own web gallery and I teach knitting and needle felting from the virtual classroom and run my little life from my home in countryside north of Toronto (which is quickly becoming urban). Who'd of thunk that I would have left the trucking industry and then become a driving instructor and then become a web-based uber blogger and crafter.....not me! Perhaps one day I will have the guts to post a timeline of my career path. I think you would all be surprised where my education started, where it turned to new paths, and what I have gotten to do in my life.
Here are a few tidbits on the path (just for Bill my Loyal reader LOL)
I was a Junior Forest Ranger in 1980 in Thunder Bay.
ESL instructor
Bartender
I graduated high school in 1982 with an OSSHGD which is the highest of high school education in Canada. Which is a University bound qualification. I studied Arts and Sciences.
My first post secondary Degree is in Dental Technology...Basically I was a dental scientist.(my degree skills include health science degree, and engineering education in Metalurgy and Studies in ceramic and polymer technology
I had a family
Competitive Fiddle player and house band and studio violinist
I went back to University and studied at OBC/OTS (Ontario Bible College and Theological Semenary) How's that for a shock! Now all the witches are going "What?!" (It is easier to argue a theological point when you battle on common ground. Gotta become an expert some how.....)
I also went to Seneca College and studied part of a Computer Sciences degree.
Teacher and library assistant, and ESL assistant
Then there were the yrs as an online editor.... (ahah bet you didn't see that one coming LOL)
Sex Shop crusador!(that needs a whole other blog!)
Trangender Transformation specialist(yep, an interesting part of my life where I instructed Men who were Women inside to understand what it is like to be a woman, and to help them understand a woman's thought process so they had information from a real live woman that they could relate to and ask questions to)
Then trucker gal
YD instructor
And now what you get today.... middle-aged, retired, and finding her inner knitter and needle felter. Who writes about her weirdness for the world at large, or at small.....LOL...."Superstar!"
So now I have talked-up my family, and made you laugh with my CV, I will leave you to go back to work on my back-ups..... :)
Friday, February 13, 2009
Tomorrow We Say Goodbye To A Friend,
I sit here tonight in a surreal mood. Something that feels like I have just been on a creepy amusement park ride, and I am waiting in line for another weird thrill. It is sad and scared and lost all at the same time.
It isn't that often a person has to say the next words about one of their friends, at our age.....anyway.....but.......
On Monday night one of our friends died suddenly and tragically. The shock of the news on Tuesday morning was enough to make our hearts stop.
Our friend Paul Bruton was the husband of my friend Norma. In late 2005 or early 2006 Norma and I became fast friends as we worked on our recoveries from neurological injury. Paul and Norma and Carl and I have hung out ever since. (well as much as Norma and I have been able to hang out anyhow).
It was because of Norma's yarn shop that I recovered as well as I did. Knitting was part of my physical therapy and rehabilitation, and I spent many many days at the shop.
Paul was an Ontario Yarn rep, so most every yarn shop in Ontario has had him pass through their front door. He really knew his fibre!
Paul was a very nice guy. I know that all the yarn people I know thought the world of him, and I know Norma really counted on him a lot these last years as she has not been so well. Norma would always joke that she really needed him around cuz she can't cook to save her life, but I know it was more than that. He treated her Mom like a queen and really respected her friends, and was easy to get along with. I think he helped her balance most of the time.
I know what that is like. Cuz I tend to be all over the place and Carl pulls me back to reality when my mind swoops me into the obcessive weirdness of my artsyism where time stands still and my world is caught up in my imagination.
Carl and I have been stuck in a rut all week. Feeling quiet and dull while thinking about Paul. It is hard to believe I won't watch him walk into the shop with his ear-to-ear smile and a story. It is hard to believe we won't go over to the house and sit around the kitchen table for hours gabbing about nothing in particular........
One of our buddies is gone.
You don't really prepare yourself for the death of a friend. It is just a little too close to the home age where we all have to think about it but never really want to....Reminding us that we have to live for the now and not keep putting off stuff with excuses of next time or next year, or next week.
So with this promise to Paul before we say goodbye tomorrow....that we will live for NOW....and no longer wait...
