Listening to the Voices in my Head

The reasons I want to keep him

Wing knows I'm a bit.. lamed from volunteering at SupaNova 2012. I know I'm not supposed to stand for hours on end, but ... that is what ended up happening. Was fun, not as good a con as I had hope, but ok. Too many new rules and regs for con goers, or just different. I got asked about it a lot, but hey.. I was just a willing con-slave.

My new bagless cyclonic 'sucky things' aka vacuum cleaners arrived. A Dyson hand held for small jobs, and a stand up one I just got from Catch of the Day. I used it on the runner in the front entry way, and the kitchen. Egads, the amount of crud .. I could have made a "Crud Puppy". heh.

Wing is sweetly cooking dinner. I did do the dishes and vacuumed, albeit rather stiltedly and slow. I'm sure I'll recover.. just a matter of how fast. :)

I like FireFox as my main browser

I have for years. But for the past two 'updates' to 12 and 13 have really sucked! When my browser/computer grinds to almost a halt, and I start task manager and see that FF is using 2.6 gb (no, not a typo) of memory, and there is only one page open, that is one helluva memory leak!

I do have Chrome on my computer, but there are certain tools I have in FF that just aren't there in Chrome, so switching to just Chrome isn't an option. So, I downloaded earlier versions, and have 'down graded'. So are, no humongous memory leak. Yes, I know there were issues with previous versions, and all the FF support people go on and on about the problems with earlier versions, but the issues with the current version makes downgrading the right option .

Big H.T. to Alan

With must assistance from Alan, we got the pool emptied and hosed out, two ground covers cleaned, one hanging on the clothes like, the other already folded up and tucked away into the shed.

Owen, the tree lopper can, for the nifty sum of $858 remove the very large, yet dead, tree, and clear out the dead shubbery. And as a bonus, he will remove the Black Nightshade plant, too.

Right now, I feel cold and damp. Lots of outdoor cleaning/clearing done though.

Maybe I needed to 'splain it a bit clearer?

Just got back in from sweeping up a bunch of muddy rotting leaves. They had previously been fermenting and clogging the gutters. I asked Alan if he could clear them. I should have been a bit clearer and said "Clear them into the bucket and empty it elsewere".

He cleaned out all the gutters, but dropped the mess on the walkway and front yard area. I just swept and shoveled the soggy mess into my wheelbarrow and trundled it off to the front yard to perform mulch/fertilizer duty. Hosed off the walkway, as trying to sweep it clean just smeared mud around. Also hosed off the shovel, broom and wheelbarrow, and put them back where I found them (not like the hand truck aka fridge trolley and ladder that was left in the middle of the shed.) *sigh* THAT sort of BS is why the house is a mess.

Also waiting for the tree lopper/removalist to get here for an estimate. Fun fun. :p

Overall, very disappointing

I had high hopes for Photoshop CS6E. It does have a few new things that are good. Content aware move/delete is good. The 3D tools are good.

But.. I don't know what bright spark decided to get rid of the 10x10 pixel Bridge Icon to 'save room', but whoever did that should be fired. Browse in mini bridge? Uhh no, I don't use minibridge as it takes up 1/4 of the workspace. Most of my tried and true plugins that worked flawlessly in CS5E either didn't work, weren't recognised or would crash. The plugin creators worked fast, and updated them to work with CS6... most of the time.

Let's move on to Adobe Bridge: to say it's slow is understatement. Even if you close it on a certain folder, restart bridge so it opens in that folder again, it treats the images as if they were newly imported, "Building Criteria", rebuilding the thumbnails.... each and every %#$$$^# time. Were their code monkeys actually MONKEYS??!! I have tried ever tweak and adjustment listed on the Adobe Forums to no avail. I posted about it on the Adobe Forums, and hope that more than Corporate Shills or brown nosers trying to snipe at people can answer it with something that works! CS5 E Bridge loads noticeably faster, so I know it's not the computer.

My suggestion: if your camera RAW file is supported by CS5 and under, don't bother with this. To me, CS6 should have been released as a patch or update for CS5 with Adobe Camera Raw support for newer cameras.

That's a first in a long long time

Rode my bike to dental exam/cleaning appointment. Hygienist very pleased with the progress. Go back for check up in 3 months.

On the way home.. let's just say I met with a slight accident. Part of a sidewalk/bike path I take to get back home had been undermined, and the soil on the left side of it had dropped about 2 inches (6 or 7 cms). This wasn't visible, and when I came up to it, I felt the jolt of the bike dropping down like off a curb, applied disc and drum brake, and put my left foot out to re-acquire balance. That's when the soil erosion came into play. I was overbalanced, felt the bike falling. Was almost at a standstill, so I let go, tried to clear it and not let the bike crash too hard to the ground. I took a bit of a tumble, landing on left hip, leg and hand. I think I was more surprised than hurt. This is the first time in decades that I have had a tumble from a bike.

Anyhow, I got back on.Rrode away with nothing more than a foot sized patch of damp soil on my left leg, a bit of dirt on the brake handle, and I managed to scoop some of the dirt into my carry basket.

Who said going to the dentist can't be exciting?

It's a sad day in the SciFi world

It's the end of an era. Arthur C. Clark, Isaac Asimov... and now Ray Bradbury.



R.I.P Rad Bradbury

Author of Fahrenheit 451 and The Martian Chronicles

Ray Bradbury — author of The Martian Chronicles, Fahrenheit 451, Something Wicked this Way Comes, and many more literary classics — died this morning in Los Angeles, at the age of 91.

Venus Transit - 2012

I knew when the transit was supposed to occur, so I was set up and ready to go. There was about a 15 second break/thinness in the clouds, and I took 6 photos.

I really didn't think I had gotten anything.

Oh me of little faith.




This is cropped down and the itty bitty dot that is Venus is a bit difficult to discern, but it's on the bottom left curve of the sun.

Also, the reason the photo is bluish in color, is stack of filters to prevent my retina from being burned out. That's why I thought I hadn't gotten anything, the images on the screen looked like a bright spot on a dark background, with no details. Should have known to check on the big screens first.

As much as Adobe Customer service sucks, CS6 has some good things

Now, I've liked how CS5 handled making/stitching panoramas. They weren't always perfect, but for the most part, very good, and any bobbles could be fixed.

Just for giggles, I decided to open 6 photos in CS6 that weren't taken to be a panorama. They were of the same area, but some a bit higher or lower, and not in a smooth left to right order.

Imagine my surprise when CS6 made an excellent panorama. There was just one itty bitty spot I had to apply the clone brush to fix, but that was it. And this was from using 6 photos that weren't meant to be a panorama! I can only imagine when it will do when I do take photographs that are to be made into panoramas.

Well, it's that time of the year again

And I know it is because if my legs getting itchy rash again. Wattle trees are in bloom in neighbors yard, so my clothes are getting coated with pollen when I hang them outdoors.

Time to start putting them on a indoor drying rack, or using the dryer. Oh yeah, no more fresh from clothesline sheets for a while either. (insert mope here)