Hello

I know I posted something on Christmas - mostly just a greeting but blogger ate it. So a belated Merry Christmas.

I had to extend my trip in Brussels by a couple of days due to some unanticipated issues on the work portion of the trip. And while staying was the only real good decision to make, it made for a challenging week before Christmas. You never really know how much you need 2 more days until you don't have them. I had gifts to buy, a house to clean up (the clan was coming over to our place), jet lag to get over, etc. etc and work to go to. I did manage to get through it all - course I did give up a few things and was behind on some other things - ie I didn't make any cards this year and I still working on the souvenir thing I am putting together for friends from the trip.

I took about 1000 pictures on the trip - not all worth keeping. I have been working on downloading them onto the computer and then trying to figure out how best to share them with others. I had decided on flickr thinking that by using a smaller size file, I could manage with their storage limit - no!!! In addition to a size limit, they have a quantity limit. Also, when viewing the slide show, you don't see the photo titles and descriptions - arghhhhh - I spent all this time getting the photos up there, adding the titles and descriptions - grrrrrrr. I also need to give my cousin all the photos on a CD and even on that end, I can't figure out how best to give her the photos with captions. CNET had a high rating for some photo software that can do slideshows with captions from Adobe and it was free, so I downloaded it and it didn't work - geez. It's like these photos just aren't meant to be shared.

Now that I've got the family gatherings behind me, I can focus on other things. Like sharing the trip - started a separate blog for that. Want to read a bit and start knitting/crocheting again.

So what did Santa get me? Well, my trip was my big treat. Our family does secret Santa and I got a robe and socks and a kitty plack. I had been wanting a robe and you can never have too many socks and the cat plack is just great (The cat and it's housekeeper live here). My sister flew in, which was nice and we spent some time together. Got some cute earrings from friends.

Have a safe new years.

I hope it's not this cold in Paris

It's been cold here - a bit colder than we're used to - 47 degrees Fahrenheit, 8 Celcius - cold. Doesn't help that I just got my hair cut and the protective layer around my neck is gone. At least I got one other thing off my list, getting my hair cut.

Picked up a 2 gig SD card for the camera, finally got a Paris map. Still need to pick up one of those plug things so I can charge stuff there, get some euroes (sp?), I need to make a list of all these little things - I thought I had but I can't find it.

Remember how I said I was going to fly to Brussels, I changed my mind. A friend told me that the train ride would be far more enjoyable and convenient. So I looked into the train again and found a great deal, 25 Euro! The plane was about 150 euro. Made that decision easier - got the train ticket online.

My class project hasn't been working out too well. I knew I could never do that painting justice but I am doing a horrible job, don't know enough about the program to do a good job with it. So I think I will be abandoning that one and starting with something else. Something not so ambitious. Aside from that project, I have one more project to complete and then I am done.

Progressing

I've been making a steady amount of progress both with my class work and the trip to Paris.

The unfortunate part of doing my class work on a PC vs a Mac is that I don't have all the fonts that are available with the Mac, so I will have to complete the text portions in the lab next week. I picked my wild card project - Van Gogh's Starry Night. It's a challenge but any project I picked would have been.

So many decisions on the trip. Decided to fly to Brussels, vs taking the train. The train will take me to the other side of town from the Airport and where I am staying and I am really overwhelmed with all the other decisions to make and want to skip wondering about how to get from the train station in Brussels to the hotel. Although the train would have been nice.

I think I will go to 3 museums - Louvre, D'Orsay & Pompidou. Of course there will be the standard sites - the Eiffel Tower, the Arc, Siene, Notre Dame. I've got many links and emails to go through that I've been saving on places to visit. I will try to go through them Sunday. I want to keep this leisurely - with sites in the morning/afternoon and strolls/shopping in the afternoon-evening. Taking trips is so much work!

Braved the crowds today and picked a few things at a great sale. I picked up gloves and thermals.

Also working in a knitting project - cat blanket - the kitties have so many sleeping spots and not enough blankets.

So much to do

I definitely need to cut out all the extracurricular activities between now and the trip. I've got so much to do and I've been busy reading and crocheting.... just like me isn't it?

I am done with Son of a Witch, since I had no expectations, it think I liked this one better in a way. Would have liked a happy ending though but in it tied up many things.

I was contemplating on what project to start on next but like I said, got other things I must get to before the trip. I've still got to wrap up the projects for my illustrator class. I will be spending a better part of the long weekend working on that. I have yet to figure out how I will be getting from Paris to Brussels - train or plane??? Probably be the train but since I haven't researched that, it's one more thing I've got to do. Time is ticking away.

Thankfully this year, I get to go to someone elses' place for Thanksgiving, minimal cooking, some driving though and it's on Saturday.

I suppose blogging is extracirricular as well, huh?

Happy Thanksgiving. Enjoy the eats, drive safe and happy shopping.

The second book, crafting and more

I had my annual holiday stamping workshop over the weekend. It's just an afternoon of holiday projects to get the creative juices going for the holidays - unfortunately, I am the one who had the creative block and was stumbling through the process. I guess in a way it was good that I had trouble, that way the others got to see that I too, like them, have trouble with the creative process sometimes (often!).

K, Tania and Smariek came over. Smariek has never been to one of the stamping dates and appeared to enjoy it - it's always fun to be around other creative people. Smariek brought over her completed caps and we got to admire her handy work. Tania shared her wire wrap jewelry - very pretty rings - Tania had both Smariek and myself pick one out for ourselves - I wore mine all weekend. I will have to remember to take a picture and share it here. Smariek also got to try crocheting a bit with Tania - I don't dare teach anyone to crochet given my incredibly poor technique - I crochet like one knits. I haven't seen K in a while and she's been busy with all that lifes throws at people but it was good to see her and I am glad she was able to break away to come by.

Smariek bought me a French at a glance book for my trip - just what I needed! Now all I need to get is a map. Couldn't find fog in there though - found "it is foggy". I have a feeling that while I am there, I will be mixing in some Spanish in my attempts to communicate.

Also picked up a handbag that may comfortably carry these books, a camera and my wallet. Most of the bags I found were either too big or too small and for some reason I didn't seen any bags with long shoulder straps - I guess they aren't fashionable anymore? Forget that they may be practical. Still need some gloves - will try to take advantage of the Thanksgiving sales....

I've started reading Son of a Witch, the sequel to Wicked. So far just building up the story - not bad.

Picked up a new cat toy today and they're actually playing with it! Most often, the toys bought just sit around collecting dust with no interest from the little munchkins but this one was definitely popular - at least for this evening. That's Hobbs in there, getting all wide eyed.

The plans are set!

Drum roll please!

After much consternation, the big details are set for the trip next month, tickets, hotels & dates all done. 6 days in Paris and then to Brussels. The only detail I need to finalize is getting from Paris to Brussels - there is a 1 hour flight at 7:30 am (7:30am!!!!!!) from Paris, and I am thinking maybe the train would be better.

Picked up this book today - lots of photos on just about everything. Funny, just read an email from S suggesting something like this.

I've been told it will be cold, so need to prepare for that - I have a nice cashmere scarf but need to get some gloves & some thermals. I don't know about a cap or hat, never been my thing but I may need it.

I need a tote/handbag that I can stuff the scarf and gloves into when I am not wearing them, along with the camera(s). Should I take the camcorder? Maybe I should leave all the shopping for when I get there? A coworker suggested I go with an empty suitcase and shop there for clothing - I am not sure that' such a good idea in many ways.

But that's enough about Paris and the trip. Got a nice card from one of the interns that worked with us over the summer. He moved on to Daytona Beach to be a pilot. It was nice to hear from him again. Was it only 3 months ago that he headed back to school?

I am done with Wicked. I am not sure what I had expected but I have mixed feelings after having read it. Some parts I really enjoyed, ie the times in college with friends, Elphaba's sharp wit, some parts were a bit depressing and some plain strange. Too many parallels with the real world. I had heard so much about the musical and figured it to be a good read and it was but maybe just a bit too descriptive and complex. I don't think I've ever seen the Wizard of Oz but know the story some what, but I guess I never knew a house would fall on the sister! I checked out Son of the Witch at the same time, assuming it's the story of the son. Didn't much care for his character in Wicked.

Better get to bed at a decent time tonight.

The cat will find the yarn

A corner made for the cats which they never used. So I took it over for the air purifier and stashing yarn.... now a new cozy napping spot - how do they know?

It's been a while

Gosh - it's been a while since I've posted anything here. Where did the time go?

I've been busy with the every day things. The time change has gotten the whole routine off a bit, especially since it's dark even before I leave work. Been knitting/crocheting caps and keeping up with Cap-Karma. Read a book - Prey by Michael Crichton. Starting Wicked tonight.

Other than the normal things, I've been trying to finalize my trip to Paris. Yes, I am going to Paris next month. I am pretty excited about it, a little anxious about being in a strange place by myself but that's what adventures and traveling are all about, right? It should be lovely there, right before the holidays - the city of lights in the season of lights. The extended family are all going on a cruise at the same time - got invited to join them but it was out of the question given my plans - but honestly, 11 days on a boat is probably way too much for me.

Before I get on that plane, I've got to complete my illustrator class - I am getting way behind with the assignments. This second class exercises are much more involved and challenging. I've also got to pick a "wild card" project, which is basically a free choice project that we pick to illustrate using the many techniques we have learned. Choice is not a good thing for me as it takes me forever to make creative decisions. I supposed I should decide on what I want to do this weekend since I have less than a month to finish it.

From one site to the next and discovered....

I was going through my email and checked out a site linked in an email and went to another from there and came across a story about a boyfriend who hijacked his girlfriends' blog - check it out.

A day up north

We're having a bit of the Indian summer around here - I have no idea why it's called an Indian summer but I think it just means unseasonally warm for the time of the year. It was 80 plus degress Fahrenheit.

I had plans to go see Tania. She lives up north. I haven't seen her in a while and she invited me over to see the new digs and possibly learn some lampworking. I got to a late start and ran into a lot of traffic and decided to take the scenic route - by the beach and through the Presidio. For once, it was a great day and I had my camera so I took advantage of both to capture the day.



According to Google map, she is approximately 60 miles from here but since I took the scenic route, it was probably a little longer. For the most part the drive was just fine until I reached closer to Petaluma/Santa Rosa and then it got a bit busy. Once past Santa Rosa, I had to drive west and I was sure I was headed the wrong way - I had followed the instructions Tania gave me but all I could see was vineyards and fields. I kept thinking where has she moved to? the sticks? If I hadn't called and checked, I might have turned back to make sure I didn't miss my turn.

She has a really nice place - a nice cottage feel - the details are just great but it was also a nice size. She showed me around a bit and then we walked downtown for lunch - yes, we walked just a few blocks and there it was. It's a nice town with pretty homes and interesting architectural details - I would just love to live there - well except for the heat and the commute and um the country and er spiders. Still love it though... well minus the spiders (can you see that I have a phobia here).

We had lunch at a Thai place and then walked around and checked out the stores. We went to a yarn place and picked up yarn - yes, I bought yarn. L wants a new cap and I picked up some very nice yarn to make a few caps. We also stopped by the bead store and the Pottery painting place that also has classes on fused glass (Tania was interested in getting information to take a class). To top it off we went to Screaming Mimi's for ice-cream and then walked back.

Back at her place, Tania demonstrated how to make a glass bead and then I got to try it. It was very interesting to make one for myself. That's me concentrating on the flame and bead. I am wearing the UV protective glasses - they make seeing the color of the work a bit difficult but being that the glass is molten, it's pretty much orange and I probably couldn't make out the color anyway. I put down a layer of white glass first and then a stripe of purple. While the stripe was not perfect, the bead is round! I had figured that my first one would be distorted but it was not.




Tania had made some caps for the Cap Karma project - I had her model them for that blog. Talked crocheting and knitting and the blog and who knows what else - oh yes, and stamping, flickr and wists......

Can't believe how much we squeezed into one day. By the time I got to leaving it was late and I had a long drive ahead of me.

Managed to stop at the Legion of Honor on the way home and took one last photo for the day.

Walking shoes, shin splits and monkeys.

Overall not the best week I've ever had and the not worst either but I am glad it's over and tomorrow is a new day and next week a new slate.

I've been trying to keep up an exercise program - I've been brisk walking on a treadmill - I started about a month ago and for the first 3 weeks all went all - I managed to keep it up about 5 times a week for about 30-40 minutes. Last week my right leg started to hurt below the knee, never had that kind of pain before. Had to look it up but didn't know what to look up - it was suggested that maybe I was wearing the wrong kind of shoes - huh? Wrong kind of shoes - they are shoes you run in - Nikes at that - wrong kind of shoes? Well turns out that if you're a walker, running shoes can cause problems - still puzzled by this. They are well made well supported shoes..... Further research indicated that such pain is called shin splits and is known to be a problem with exercising on the treadmill and possible with wrong shoes. Derailed the exercise program for a week.

I have size 5.5 feet - any idea how hard it is to find everyday shoes in that size? Well it's even harder in the athletic shoe variety. I am sure the mall stores that specialize in athletic shoes would have that size and also charge 3 times more than they should for them. I found that to be true and didn't find anything in the standard places. I can't really tell the difference between the walking shoes and the running shoes, aside from what it says on the side of the box. There are definitely more of the running variety than the walking variety. Finally found some at the S department store in the mall - $30 (vs $80 in the mall specialty store) for a nice pair of reeboks - never had problems with reebok. BTW, what's with all the pink athletic shoes for grown women?

With the shin splits hurting less and a new pair of "walking" shoes, I am back to the exercise program. I am trying not to push as hard and go as fast.

Monkeys - should I talk about monkeys.... I will get into it a bit I suppose - what was so bad about this week? Well, work wasn't so great. What does that have to do with monkeys you ask. If you live in this country, you've definitely seen the ads by Career Builder about "working with monkeys" - they are actually quite funny. Early this year, Career Builder had a lot of ads at the airport with this campaign - so we had 6-8 foot tall monkeys on the walls with different puns - "We failed as a team but I blamed you when I told the boss", "Don't worry about your project while you're gone, I've already taken credit even before you've left"..... you get the idea. A lot of the coworkers have had opinions about the monkeys every where - it was definitely doing it's job of getting attention. So when I have bad days at work, I think about monkeys and jack asses (one tv ad refers to that as well) and well you get the idea. So do I think I work with monkeys? No, I don't. I just appreciate having it to laugh at when I have one of those days.



If you haven't seen the TV ads - you can find them here: http://www.careerbuilder.com/tv/

Almost done with HP6

For those who don't know what that means - I am reading the 6th Harry Potter Book - The Half Blood Prince - again and am almost done. I read it last year when it first came out and now that it's out in paper back, I picked up my copy and read it again. When it comes to a good book, it's hard for me to do anything else until I am done, including sleeping. So I've got one more chapter to go and then I am done. I knew the end was going to be difficult to re-read and it was (OK, so I cried, you would, too, it was sad). SPOILER ALERT -- if you haven't read the book, be forwarned that I am giving away some of the suspense here. I had to re-read the book to find clues on whether or not the big "D" actually did die and whether the Half Blood Prince really did it. And I am not convinced of either. There is a lot of discussion on the internet regarding both and so I guess I am not the only one who'd like for it not to be true.

Until the next and last book, life goes on....

Christina at work just knit her first pair of socks, and ever since I saw them I've wanted to knit a pair - I know it's insane. I have been thinking about a pair of knitted Gryffindor socks. And while I am on a HP kick, I would also like modified Gryffindor scarf - friends big hints here. A Weasley sweater would be nice but this little one would be cute too - with a "V" of course.

Better get to reading the last chapter.

My creative outlets

I noticed that while I talk about being a creative spirit I haven't actually said anything about my creative outlets - seems like a lot more work stuff here than fun stuff. Well, unfortunately, this creative spirit does have creative blocks more often than I would like. And between having more creative work to do on the job and the illustrator class, I get the creative outlet at work.

So what have I done lately....

1. I am crocheting a cap right now, standard double crochet just to get back into the swing of cap making.

2. I made an ankh rosary for Nik-nik - like a rosary only with the eygptian cross rather than the crucifix - to wear not to pray with. Don't think beading is my thing although I do dabble a little.

3. Crocheted a blanket for my aunt's dog - he loves it.

4. A little photography - just experimenting to see if I have an eye for it - I don't. I think Nik-nik got that talent in the family.

Haven't done much of the paper crafts, which really is my thing. But with the holidays looming I really ought to get back into it.

So what have I been doing with all my free time? What free time? Reading (James Patterson, Dan Brown, JK Rowling) I guess, surfing....

Nice Long Weekend

It's a three day weekend thanks to Columbus Day.

Smariek and I went to the San Carlos Art & Wine Festival on Saturday. It was a really nice day, weather was warm but not too hot. The festival was nice - the art/crafts booths were better than I had seen elsewhere before. We took our time looking around and taking in all the booths - particularly the knit/crochet wares and the handmade jewelry. We stopped by one particular booth, that I had visited at another festival, to shop for earrings - we took our time going through 5 or 6 baskets of earrings and picked a few for gifts (and one, maybe more for myself). S noted that she couldn't possible do this sort of thing with her DH, and I agreed that this is definitely the kind of thing to do with girl friends and not men. We ended the day with a late lunch at Mimi's.

Today was another warm day - um, aren't we into fall - didn't it rain last week? What season are we in? I spent a lot of time sleeping - a perfect afternoon of napping in the sun - I guess the cats are rubbing off on me... hehe. Went into the office to finish up on my reading for the illustrator class - the exercises in the book need to be done with the software which I don't have at home. Now I am all caught up and ready for the final on Tuesday.

Plans for tomorrow? Nothing yet.... A lazy day reading or crafting? Definitely sleeping in.

Cap Karma

Last year, I inherited a lot of yarn - more like a car full of yarn. I needed to do something with it that represented the person they came from, decided on making caps for chemo patients. There are a couple of knitting groups at the airport, so I offered up yarn to anyone interested in making caps to donate. The community responded in a huge way and we made and donated about 125 hats -many of the knitters & crocheters used their own yarn for the cause.

We are now ready for round 2. With this round, I've started the blog "Cap Karma" and given our project a place to share their creative spirit. My close friends know that knitting and crocheting is not my creative outlet of choice but I've really come to enjoy it more through this project. And it's surprising to me how this project has become such a cause at work and with some friends.

I've got Smariek (pseudonym) not just knitting caps but helping with the Cap Karma blog. And TF is also working on some. Last year at work, ladies I only passingly knew would walk up to me and start talking about what they've seen and how they are so excited about the project they are working on. I was surprised to find out how my emails to a few had been flowing through the community.

I'm having trouble deciding on my first project - all this pressure! Really, I am not that good at either knitting or crocheting.....

The blue angels!!

The thunderous roar

There is absolutely nothing like the thunderous roar of a fighter jet. And for me, there isn't any other rush quite like it.

I am grateful to be in a part of the world where the sounds of fighter jets are not associated with dread of what's to come. Although there was a time after 9/11 when I didn't like seeing fighter jets in the area.

It's fleet week (http://fleetweek.us/fleetweek), and that often includes the Blue Angels. The Blue Angels are the Navy's precision flight demonstration squadron - flying F-18 hornets. Both last year and this year, the Blue Angels have come into our airport for the event. And they really know how to get the buzz going with their fly by over the city.

They arrived today and will be practicing over the city the next two days. I got a glimpse of one of them coming in. All of them didn't arrive as scheduled probably because of the weather. Really tough getting a picture of a plane flying so fast!



Hoping to catch them out and about the next few days....

Preparedness Exercise

On Sepember 20th, I participated in the airport's annual crash exercise. Airports' are required to have the preparedness exercises so that everyone that has a role knows their role should anything happen. It's a full scale exercise, with volunteers for passengers, family/friends greeters, the response teams from the Airport and surrounding mutual aid. Make-up artist to give people realistic wounds. The whole nine-yards.

When you sign up for the exercise as a volunteer, you get to chose whether you want to be a passsenger or a family/friend greeter. Being my first time, I figured why not be a passenger. I was chosen to be an uninjured survivor.

All passenger volunteers had to report in at 6am (6am!!!) for make-up but knowing that I was uninjured, I was told that it was OK for me to arrive a little later - 7:30am. A local high school helps out with the exercise by providing a bus full of students to play passengers. When I arrived, I saw people walking about with their make-up. It wasn't just make-up color, it had texture - very gory looking stuff.

The one thing that does not get exercised is the actual crashing of any planes. We just board the plane and wait till someone tells us to put our heads down and grab our ankles. As I was climbing the stairs to go into the plane, I noticed a kid in front of me had something sticking out of his ankle - it looked like bone - his bone - it really looked like his bone was sticking out of his skin - made me want to get sick. The plane was an old one used just for this purpose and quite small, especially considering all the teenagers on-board - at some point I was wondering what I was thinking signing up to be on a plane full of kids. But once the exercise started everything moved quickly. We were told if we were not simulating being injured we should walk off the plane - the folks that were simulating injured people stayed behind. About 3o of us walked off the plane and stood to the side on the field - we were out just in time to see the fire trucks arriving with their water guns blazing - it was a site. Shortly after that other fire engines - mutual aid - started arriving. In a real life scenario, the airport fire fighters would be fighting the fire and the others would help with rescue and treatment.

As we were standing by watching, ambulances started to arrive to simulate their roles. There was so much going on - it was hard to decide what to watch. The doctor from the clinic came to check in on the un-injured. The firemen came around to check on us and sort us by injuries - greens were OK to go, yellows needed treatment and red needed immediate treatment. The greens (including me) were loaded onto a bus and we were waiting there. A couple of the firemen (one very cute one) came to check in on us and so did volunteers from the Red Cross - all playing their roles very well.

Sitting on the bus, we could watch the "injured" being wheeled to the triage area and get sorted and treated. We saw ambulances taking people to the mock hospital and someone even got air lifted in a helicopter. Eventually the bus took us to the terminal to be reunited with our friends/friendly. As I was entering the waiting room, I was given a sheet of paper telling me who would be meeting me - an Armit Upadhay - never heard of him. I was greeted by a Red Cross volunteer who asked how I was and if I needed anything and then escorted to a seat where a Chaplain from a nearby city was going to aske me a few questions. All these years at the airport and I had no idea the extent of community involvement in such scenarios. The chaplain asked me if I was alright, if I needed anything and then filled out a form to help me get reunited. I had no trouble with my questions but was a little lost at on the greeter part since all I had was a name - I made up the rest and then went and took a seat. The other volunteers did the same.

In another part of the airport, volunteers playing family and friends were arriving to meet this plane and they had to eventually find out what had happened and try to get information on their end.

The exercise ended 2 hours after it had started. Some of the people had been reunited. A few minutes after the exercise, long time buddy Mark comes over and askes why I hadn't come looking for him, I told him I had no idea he was supposed to be Armit. Turns out all I had was a made-up name and he had a whole bio on me and my so called trip around the world.

Afterwards, all the volunteers met up for lunch - got to chat with Armit and a few of the other visitors. Got to hear all the comments from all the players. A very educational experience and I will be sure to participate again.

So what's next - Fleet week and the Blue Angels this week. Umm - isn't this supposed to be work?

Illustration - graphics

Here are the graphics I was referring to in my previous posting on this subject.

The F-35 illustration - took hours.











The final product

Sleepless

I haven't slept through the night since mid-July, since that awful cough. First it was because of the coughing, then the congestion and now it's just a habit? I feel I could use the sleep yet I am somehow functioning with about 5 hours. I now have those lovely eyes that I haven't had since college all nighters.

In the beginning, I would eventually fall back asleep but now it's taking longer and longer to get back to sleep or not at all. Not much on television worth watching - actually that isn't entirely true. I did catch the Oprah bra and jean fitting show - Oprah is on at 1am! Turns out about 85-90% of us are wearing the wrong size bra - who knew. Go get fitted ladies - Nordstrom does that. Not sure who else. And about the jeans, too many of us are wearing the wrong jeans for our shape - now that's not a surprise.

So what else is on in the middle of the night, turns out TNT shows reruns of X-Files at around 4am - I caught it on two Saturdays but it wasn't on this past Saturday but on again this morning - Monday. Who watches X-files at this hour? It's too bad they don't run it at a decent hour, I would like to watch that again.

The days are getting shorter and colder - burr. May even rain on Wednesday.

I guess I'd better get going. May as well get to working.

A nice Saturday afternoon.

A couple of weeks ago, as I was walking through the airport, I saw this woman walking towards me, holding a green hula hoop in her hand. She came up to me and asked me if I had a little girl, looking at the hoop in her hand, I said no. She told me she wanted to give the hoop to someone and not throw it away. I told her she could take it on the plane with her and while that is the case, it was a bit cost prohibitive either to take it on the plane or to ship it. I felt quite bad, she told me that her friend had decorated it and gifted it to her. She was headed home to Australia and was sad about having to throw it away. Having attachments to such things myself, I knew exactly how she felt and offered to give it to my cousin Nik-nik (nick name). I assured her that it was going to a great person and a good home and I had promised to send her photos of Nik-nik with the hoop. I gave her a hug and got her email address.

Today I delivered the hula hoop and Nik-nik did indeed like it and got those pictures to send to email to the lady. It turned out to be a fun day. We went out shopping for a bit, checked out some clothes, went to Ulta, got some Starbucks and headed back to her place. While at Ulta, Nik-nik offered to straigthen my hair to see how it would look and I took her up on the offer, so we got right to it when we got back. It's funny, I used to fix her hair when she was a kid and now she was working on my hair. She did a really detailed job and my hair is straight as straight can be. While she was at it, she continued with some make up. It was a fun make over and so unlike me - I looked like I was ready for a night on the town. The straight hair takes a little getting used to but it looks good. Nik was so happy with herself, she said I looked so much younger - like a 21 year old - really funny that girl. Hehe, 21 years old - ha! But it was fun...

All in all it was a really nice afternoon.

September 21 column by Jon Carroll

Tried to link right to the column but that didn't work, so here it is.

By Jon Carroll

We live in a left-click universe. We see the bedroom, we click on the bedroom icon in our brain, we walk into the bedroom. We see the on-ramp to San Francisco, we click on the on-ramp icon in our brain, and we drive onto the freeway. We see our sweeties looking pensive and devastating, and we click on the sweetie icon in our brain, and we advance toward our sweeties with purpose in our eyes.

Sometimes the system crashes, and we advance toward someone else's sweetie, but then we get the dialogue box from our real sweeties: "End relationship now? Yes. No." and we come to our senses -- or we don't, and we get the "fatal error" message, with the red X and the "clunk" sound, and then we are living in apartments with plastic furniture and vermin in the walls.

Our brains work the way our computers work because we made the computers. If the interfaces were at least marginally intuitive, they'd be worthless. Our brains do not crash as often as our computers do; on the other hand, our brains cannot retrieve the primary exports of Albania in .033 seconds.

Sometimes the two worlds overlap. Back in the '90s, I had a tiny problem with the game Myst and its successor, Riven. I played it to the exclusion of my duties as a human idea. I would start playing it at noon and look up 15 minutes later and it was dark outside. Total eclipse? No, addictive behavior. I wasn't much on the fast twitch games, but Myst waited until your brain figured out the puzzle. It did not taunt you. I like that in a game.

When I re-entered the real world from the Myst world, I noticed that my forefinger would still twitch. I'd see a manhole cover. "I wonder what's under that manhole cover," I would think, and my finger would jerk spasmodically. "Let's go in the building!" Twitch twitch, no, walk walk. Right. Real world.

I have often wondered whether the basic rules of computer repair might be usefully applied to human beings. The first rule is: Turn it off and turn it back on again; whatever is wrong will probably no longer be wrong. Going to sleep is sort of like turning your brain off, and it does work wonders. The problem may not go away, but the solution is likely to appear.

The second rule of computer repair is: Jiggle some wires around. I wonder if that could be a good new method of brain surgery. Don't cut anything or graft anything; just jiggle stuff around, close the patient up and see what happens. It's not very scientific, but computers are large machines that would appear to require scientific analysis, and yet "jiggle some wires around" is sometimes all it takes.

The third rule of computer repair is: Never ask why. If something good happens, accept that it has happened and move on. Not a bad rule for life either. "Deserving" doesn't come into it; who knows whether your computer deserved to be fixed. Who knows whether you deserve that new job. Say "thank you" and move on. Courtesy always helps -- although not with computers.

So we live in a left-click universe, and what we need is a right-click button. We could figure this whole thing out if we had a right-click button. Say you are at the on-ramp to the freeway, and you can see the traffic jam already starting. Right click on the on-ramp and select "Create shortcut." Already you want to live in the right-click universe.

Suppose you are somewhere you should not be, and you hear a step on the stairs, and you desperately want to be somewhere else. In the left-click universe, your only choice would be to hide in the closet and pray. In the right-click universe, you could "Open link to new window." Then you jump out the new window! Genius!

Or suppose you said something you should not have said. Right click, hit "rewind" and try it again from the top. On the other hand, if you really like what's happening, right click, select "loop" and you can do it forever. If you're not happy with your home, right click, select "quality" and click on "a lot better."

Or suppose you are out in nature, and you have walked to the top of the hill and gazed over the fabulous expanse of landscape, the fields golden in the setting sun, the sky overflowing with purple and red, and you wonder if anything could be more perfect, and you wish you could see this same view forever. Right click, select "set as wallpaper," and voila!
********************************************************
This is your brain. This is your brain
on a cord connected to
a doohickey
that can,
to be frank, perform miracles.

There shall in that time be rumors of things going astray, erm, and there shall be a great confusion as to where things really are, and nobody will really know where lieth those little things with the sort of raffia-work base, that has an attachment. At that time, a friend shall lose his friend's hammer, and the young shall not know where lieth the things possessed by their fathers that their fathers put there only just the night before jcarroll@sfchronicle.com.

Page E - 6 URL: http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2006/09/21/DDG6PKEABO1.DTL
©2006 San Francisco Chronicle

My first original illustration

I've been taking a class in Adobe Illustrator - mostly so that I can adjust graphics files when necessary at work. The class while not difficult has been challenging mostly because I've been using AutoCAD for 12 years and it's been confusing because I am so used to the commands in CAD and tend to want to use those commands instead. Also some things in Illustrator are not intuitive (nothing in CAD is intuitive but I've used it for 12 years and you do catch on after a while).

Adobe Illustrator is a far superior product for illustrations and CAD is for drafting and it does that well. It surprises me that the things that work so well in CAD haven't found their way into Illustrator.

So far all the illustrations I have worked on are either exercises out of the text book or projects created by the instructor. The other day, H, my manager, asked if I would make a logo for his remote control plane club. He had a concept in mind which included a jet and their club name. Course, I had to ask what kind of jet and he says a high performance jet (need to remind him that I don't have his background in jets.....) Anyhows, I created a silhouette of a blue angels ( http://www.blueangels.navy.mil/index.htm) plane (f-18), which looked pretty cool, but he comes back with F-35. What's the difference between a f-18 and a f-35 profile silhouette - not much to the untrained eye. So I drew the top view based on some illustrations found online. Took a while to get it done and give it the right shadows to create the curves and give it dimension but it did look pretty good. I'm not far along enough with my knowledge to tweak certain details but at the scale being used, what was done looked pretty good - at least he thought so.

Important lesson about doing these things, it's all about what the client wants. I thought the silhouette had a sexier look but it's all about the details on the plans for these guys - so top view of the f-35 it is.

I am going to keep this as a work in progress, I plan to keep tweaking it as I learn more.

So glad I don't illustrate for a living, with all my OCD, I'd never get a project done.

V.

In the fog

It seems a bit silly but I've been wanting to do this for some time now and have been hung up on what to call my blog.

Somehow "In the fog" seems right in so many ways. Sometimes a state of mind, mostly the weather here (by the most beautiful city in the world). And so very coincidentally also what the weather was like in the town I lived in before I moved here.



I lived and went to school there for 3 years. On my first day there, I remember standing at the front of the building, looking out the gate to the hill beyond and the fog and mist rolling in. It's a boarding school, and so often when I am reading the HP books, I am reminded of my time there. I found a picture of the school online. It looks much smaller than I remember.


That's enough of a walk down memory lane.