Day 30!

Well, I ended up missing two days (or not fixing two days!) in my posting. Perfection is way over-rated! I can't believe tomorrow is already December 1st. This year has flown by.

Today was the last day of registration until right before the semester starts in January. We had a few uptight students who had not seen their advisers and were trying to get in to see them. They have to get a PIN to register, it is our way of making sure they see their advisers each semester. We will have a more desperate crowd in January when late registration opens back up. Everything usually always works out though.

Except I sometimes end up looking about as wary as this cat when a students come through the door wanting to know if they can get a seat permit into a class that is already wall-to-wall students. What I particularly don't like is when they start giving me reasons why I should permit them into the class. It doesn't matter how good their reason is, if there is no room for them, there is no room. And if there IS room, I will give them a seat permit with or without a good reason!

Day 28!

I am glad to know I still have people stopping by! Of course, now that puts the pressure on me to try and make it worth your while to stop by! But I don't have anything much to say tonight. I kind of wish I had a few more days off to hang around the house and maybe get some things done. Christmas holidays will be here before I know it and then I will have an abundance of time at home!

Observation

I was goofing off this afternoon, reading old posts and realized that six years ago today, on this very day, I posted my first post on this blog! Hard to believe it has been that long ago. Happy Blogaversary to me!

I really was poking around trying to figure out what it was that I used to write about and trying to figure out how to get back into the habit of blogging regularly. I have been doing the NaBloPoMo (every day except Thanksgiving) but those posts have been more posts for quantity rather than quality.

I took a Leisure Learning class a couple of weeks ago that was supposed to be about how to create greeting cards in Photoshop. I really did not learn anything new and the class was a bit disappointing. My jump drive that had my photos on it did not open on the computer I was using so I was forced to find a couple of gorgeous images to combine and this was the result of my being bored in class. Since I observed this is my sixth blogaversary, I thought it an appropriate image to include.

At the beginning of the class, when the instructor discovered the computer would not let her have the images off HER jump drive, she had us pull Christmas images from Google to use. Nary a word was said about copyright issues. I did not approve of that sin of omission. I was a bit wary of posting these images but I think I have distorted them enough that they are not easily recognizable (and I am not even sure about the ethics of saying it is okay if you distort the images beyond recognition). Anyway, she had us get a Christmas hat, a Christmas baby or animal picture, and a Christmas stocking. Well, when I got bored and realized I was not going to learn much more than I already had, and I'd finished playing with the traditional Christmas card motifs, I decided to do something a little bit different. Actually, I did not decide that, it just happened.

Here is the result:

 

I really love the pig with the Christmas hat! Sorry both images are so small. I am not sure what I did to them. 

Coffee Time

My favorite home coffee mug. I'm not sure how well the color will show up- it's a lovely cobalt blue. Makes me think of the old Milk of Magnesia bottles.


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Please Don't Pop the Bubbles

Bubbles

It was forty-five minutes until time to go this afternoon, the last day of work till Monday after Thanksgiving. One of the professors pulled out her bottle of bubbles and I tried to get pictures. It is harder than it looks! But totally fun!

Yes, the picture that is dated Monday, November 22 was actually taken this afternoon. "Oh the web we weave when at first we choose to deceive"--oh the web we weave when we try to commit to posting every single day in November, and the goal becomes more important than being honest! Nah, I am being totally upfront about my backdating one or two (well, okay, I think three) posts so that it would look like I have faithfully posted every single day.

I'll be back tomorrow. For reals.

Don't Pop My Bubble!

THNIK!

Just finished a long hour trying to figure out why I could not get connected to the internet (when the problem first presented itself, I took a nap to see if it the problem would fix itself). I restarted and ran a virus scan, then tried to connect to the network and discovered I had inadvertently hit the button that turns off the wireless capabilities of the laptop. Sigh.

"All these tools of tech waste our time if we're not careful." Bill Gates

 (Misspelling of think is intentional, in case you were wondering!)

My Grandfather

My grandfather and his faithful dog Trip. He was born April 1, 1901 and died in December of 1984.  He was a trip, quite the character who never met a stranger.

I've Been Thinking

(and it doesn't hurt!)

I'm thinking about some kind of artsy-fartsy project thing I could do for next year. Something where I did something once a week, not high quality, but just do something. I can't quite decide on a theme.

I've also been thinking about setting up a couple of theme days for the blog as a way of helping myself to post more regularly.

We shall see. . .

Pathways

They've been working for months on the sidewalks around the quad area outside our building. Last Friday was the official opening. Now they have closed off the other door we've been using to enter our building while the sidewalk construction was going on. I am confused! But my paths are lovely...




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Trying Something

I missed Wednesday. I'm going to see if I can back date the post from my phone. No, I can't back date from my phone! Had to come to my laptop and do it. It is sort of cheating, I know, but I'm doing it anyway. If I don't I might just give up and not finish out the month.



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Fall Color

I believe this leaf is from a Bradford Pear tree. It makes beautiful flowers in Spring and gorgeous color leaves in the fall but alas, makes no pears at all!


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One of These Days

One of these days, I am going to get my groove back...

Sunday in Five Five Word Sentences

Did not feel well today.

Did not get out much.

Didn't even go to church.

Hope to feel better tomorrow.

Not too sure I will.

Posting Dribble Daily :)

I am keeping up with my quantity but I am not doing that well with quality!

Today I attended a Leisure Learning class on making greeting cards in Photoshop. I suspect I knew as much as the instructor knew about PS, though we might have known different things! I did learn, or I got reminded, of a few new things. I am not at all sure I got my money's worth.

This afternoon, I became aware that I was not feeling too well. I took Tylenol and Mucinex and slept most of the evening. I think I am ready to go back to bed now.

G'night!

It's the Little Things...

The Things We Hold in Our Hearts

I'm Real, Lady

When I took pictures this past weekend, I saw this gator down below the boardwalk. A man had told me where to look for him, otherwise I would have missed seeing him. But in looking at him, he was so still and his mouth looked so plasticy pink I thought he was fake. And his mouth was open the whole time. I walked all the way to the other end of the boardwalk laughing about the guy who got fooled by the fake gator.

However, when I came back by the gator, he had changed position! I STILL thought he was fake! I thought he was a fake animated gator. Look at that cheesy grin. Would you think that gator was real? I stood there for quite a while looking at him. A few times he would slowly open and close his mouth (as if the movement were timed). Finally he lifted his back leg and started scratching at his belly. That's when I decided he was indeed real. Moments later he moved up into the bushes a little more and stared at me with his beady eyes as if to say, "There, are you convinced now that I am real?"

Ooops!

I'm just a little late with Tuesday's post, ahem. I thought of it last night when I went to bed. It was nearly eleven so I could have hopped up and posted something really quick but I didn't. And today I don't have much to say. I'll post a couple of "fall color" pictures taken at the Texas Welcome Center.

Where Are You Headed?

I'm not real sure at the moment exactly where I am headed. What I know is that it is important to note what I see and to keep on moving.

Louisiana Welcome Center

Hubby and I motored over to Beaumont, TX yesterday to wander around Barnes and Noble. On the way over and back, we stopped at the Texas and Louisiana Welcome Centers for me to take pictures. It was a great day to be outside in the fresh air.

It was a bit difficult for me to concentrate on taking photos with this warning in my head! I was a bit disappointed because the boardwalk that goes into the swamp was still closed from Hurricane Ike that came through back in September of 2008 (according to Wikipedia, 112 people were killed in that storm). I was able to walk alongside the water to get a few pictures.

I love seeing the reflections of the trees in the water. There were several fish jumping in the water. Believe it or not, I did get two pictures of that but one was too far away to be a good photo. The second one was closer but the fish was right at the edge of the photo. I eventually gave up and entertained myself by taking pictures of the water circles that were left after the fish jumped!

Such a tranquil scene, if one can forget the warning about snakes. 

This rock shape reminded me a dog's head coming out of the water. It also has the look of an alligator, but the "ears" on the back ruin that illusion for me. I am fairly certain this was just a chunk of concrete that was coincidentally formed this way and not an artist's deliberate work. 

There was something about the juxtaposition of the rocks and the water and the flowers that pleased me about this sight.

This is probably my favorite image of the day (from the Louisiana side). It is a cypress "knee", a part of the root of a cypress tree. When I was a child, I had an aunt and uncle who had in their house a couple of cypress knees that were polished and varnished. I was always enamored of those things, loved the gnarly beauty of them.

There is so much beauty all around us if we would only stop and notice.

Your Story

I bought a Wacom tablet a while back and I have been trying to get better at using it to write on my photos. It is a bit  of a challenge. I want to use the tablet in Photoshop with my brushes and selection tools. I've had trouble with the pen part of the tablet not working but that problem seems to be ironed out now (knock on wood!).

Persimmon in Niche

A man nearly 'bout mowed me over coming out a door that opened into the hallway. I quickly jumped out of the way (an impressive feat--me, being quick). I was not in the least offended, but the man apologized and offered me a persimmon and I didn't know what else to do so I took it. Plus, i pictured a pomegranate when he said persimmon and that would have been very tasty. 

We had quite a conversation about persimmons as we walked down the hall. This one is not yet ready to eat, according to the man in the hall.

Corn Maze!

I wore rubber boots and while I was taking photos of the birds in a pen, chickens were pecking at my boots!

This is one of the birds I was trying to photograph when the chickens attacked my boots.

This guy looks to be the guardian of the corn maze. He looked a little grumpy to me. That is the corn maze in the background. I had read about corn mazes on the internet and thought they sounded like fun. This one was a bit anticlimactic, maybe because we only went on one small corner of the maze (I had come with my boss and her son on a first grade field trip) and I could see over the top of the corn in places. Maybe I will go back on a weekend when I could walk the complete maze.

All in all, I had a pretty good time. It was a beautiful day to be outside in the fresh air. I needed a day like that to get out and just have a bit of fun. 

I Contain Multitudes?

I bought a Wacom tablet that came with Photoshop Elements 7 software which I installed and have been playing with for a couple of weeks now. I had been using Photoshop 7 before but it had been acting weird on my new laptop so I am glad to have PE 7 and may eventually purchase PE 9. I've heard about some of the improvements and I think I would enjoy using it.

They are redoing the quad area of campus. They have been working on it for a couple of semesters. I think they are about to get it finished. I saw these three buckets in the sand pile and they intrigued me. I had been reading a couple of books written by a Jungian analyst who talks a lot about our unconscious and how much affect (effect) on us. One of the points he made was that when we talk about and refer to ourselves as "I" we really have no idea how much larger we are than just the conscious parts of ourselves that we are aware of. Very interesting. Or at least I thought so. 

Words

I remember when I used to just open this little blank Blogger screen and type away. Thoughts came easily then. Now it seems I have to think harder about what I want to write and even in thinking harder, I can't really come up with anything too significant to say!

Registration started yesterday for grad students and seniors, with the juniors joining in today at one. I stayed steadily busy all day long with helping students who needed permits to get into certain classes. I love most of the professors I work with but there are two women (one not in our department) who always confuse and complicate things. I must have gotten twenty emails today from the two of them about their getting things done for their advisees. One student came in with a form that needed to be signed by our department head and also the head of the nursing department. When I told him the department head was not in, he informed me that the secretary in the nursing department had signed for their department head. I informed him that I was not the secretary for the nursing department and we did not do that kind of stuff in our department!

So, tonight I am tired and lazy, but I got a post done and I said at the beginning that I was not going to worry so much about quality as I was going to concern myself with quantity!

I think I am going to head to bed and listen to the election returns.

(Amended to add: I did not go to bed! I played around in Photoshop with some leaf photos I took this evening after we had a much needed rain. Here are the results.)

Experiment

I tried this once before, doing a post from my phone with a picture but the picture turned out to be way too big when it appeared on the blog. Let's see what happens today...


Okay, good news! It worked! (Isn't this an exciting "first day" post?? Stayed tuned for more riveting writing and more poetic photography! LOL)

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