Blended Paths

Used some brushes from redheadstock at dA for the archaic symbols and the gears, along with some of the retro looking squares. http://redheadstock.devian​tart.com/ Trying some new things with drop shadows, bevels...etc.

Wow.I am really surprised at the interest that's grown in my website due to thebaby photo contest I'm holding over at my Facebook fan page. I've had a fewpeople sign up here, and I say, "thank you for your interest!" OK,granted some of the new sign-ups are trying to sell something to do withadvertising and such, but still. /smirk and laugh

TodayI am determined to update several things here at Blended Paths. The first is -wait for it! - adding some new photography! The second is adding a new video folderfor my new YouTube channel (which, surprise surprise, is called BlendedPaths)and sharing with you in this blog what that channel is about. The third isobviously the front page and adding info about the baby photo contest, mostimportantly, to the front page.

As for now, I am in a writing mood. I have been having these strange dreamslately. Three nights ago, I dreamed about Sarah Palin. I was campaigning withher (WITH, not for - how odd, on so many levels) and was at a mic proclaimingmy love for my friends and my gratitude for them and their being who they areand supporting me. Then, night before last, I dreamed about Kate Gosselin(again). The first time it was more about her brood of kiddies - somethingabout a sunglasses shop and them surrounding me around a rack of sunglasses,and my telling them not to touch and Kate coming around and saying, "Thankyou." I stood there with my jaw on the floor. The dream night before lastwas more...I wouldn't think "intimate" would be a word that properlyportrays it, but I can't think of another word at this early hour so I'll useit. The two of us spent some time at her home in Pennsylvania and I gave her myopinions about her choices about botoxing her face and how beautiful she usedto be but she was letting this fame thing and strive for physical perfectionruin what was nearly perfect just a few weeks ago. She was unhappy and kickedme out. Whatever. Then LAST night, I dreamed that I got back in the loop withmy ex-fiancé and his family, some very...let's just say "well-off"folks, and was about to marry him again. The difference was that I was alreadymarried to Jeremy. I have no idea. I woke up thinking, "Thank God I didn'tmarry that guy." That's who he is to me at this point - "thatguy." That was one high school sweethearts type situation that didn't workout, being that he dumped me on Valentine's Day of his senior year (I'd alreadygraduated, the year before). But, whatever - my life is good the way it is. Iwould only change that our house isn't built yet.

So,moving on - about the YouTube channel! I created the channel BlendedPaths forone purpose - to share slideshow type videos of photography, and to do screencapture videos with voiceovers to server as tutorials for using Photoshop andother programs for different things. Some of the recent videos are about how touse iMovie and Quicktime in Mac (which are standard software on a Mac) to doscreen captures and voiceovers - basically, how I actually create the tutorialvideos. I will soon be creating a video album here to share these videos viaBlended Paths so that you don't have to go to YouTube to actually view them.

Wow- I just looked up and it's daylight! Guess I better get busy uploading photosand getting those videos on this site, but the first thing I have to do isupdate the front page! Have a great Sunday!

It started out just as ordinary and unpleasant as every day before it (at least for the past several weeks) - severe nausea and yuckiness from being pregnant, goals to do things with the knowledge that most of those things probably wouldn't get done - the usual.

Then, I got an e-mail that led to the end of a very...how does one say it...odd friendship, and along with just about everything else in my life right now, I felt...nothing.  No regret, no sorrow, no sadness - perhaps a little bit of insult...  Aside from that, I moved on to washing dishes (yes - I DID finally do that myself!).

Then, I FINALLY got around to fixing the Photoshop problem with my desktop by reverting back to CS3 - hence the actual reason for this post.  With major anger and disgust in my heart (for having to go back to CS3 and lose the 3D of CS4...), and in order to keep myself from having to reload my desktop, I did it.  I cleaned it all up and reinstalled CS3.  I was thinking, "at least I have SOMETHING to work with on the desktop again...and there's always CS4 on the laptop...it will be fine."  Then I realized the funniest thing - I am back on a desktop kick and rarely using the laptop these days, as Jeremy has adopted it for his own stress relief (Pogo) in the evenings and during the day I never turn it on...  LOL  That led me to my next thought:

"Why does one truly need TWO computers?"  I've been asked this question numerous times by family members and friends alike, none of whom can seem to understand the convenience and necessity of having both a laptop and a desktop.  With the new-fangled abilities of laptop hard drives to hold vast amounts of data (at last!), it does, at this point, even baffle me - but then I remembered, "I'm a photographer.  THAT is why I need, and prefer, both." 

You see, as a photographer, and one who takes shoots ridiculous amounts of digital film at a time, it is very necessary to have HUGE amounts of storage space - almost as necessary as it is when you're dealing with film and paper prints, yet, even MORE so somehow.  I myself have one back-up drive that is 750GB.  Inside my desktop I have two 250GB drives, and I have two other external USB drives, each with an 80GB capacity.  One of those drives recently died, and luckily I had it backed up to the back-up drive (it was the drive with ALL my photos of the past year and half or so on it).  My laptop has a 250GB drive, as well, but as a music fan, my laptop has about 40GB of music on it, and my desktop about 70GB.  So, that's a large chunk in and of itself.  Add to that the massive amounts of software and ridiculous amounts of space that Windows uses, and you're down another 20-30GB.  Finally, add to that my video (my favorite movies ripped from my DVDs and all those home videos we shoot and never get around to burning), and there is yet another 30-40GB (easily more without maintenance). 

So, just in music, software, and video, I've easily "wasted" about 90-150GB of drive space (the higher number on the desktop, hence the TWO 250GB drives).  This number doesn't even include photography - AT ALL.  And, right now, after cleaning and backing up, I have only about 10GB on my desktop drive and about the same on my laptop drive (about 300GB on the back-up drive).

So, this is my rationalization for having so many computer(s) drive(s).  The other reason it is great to have both a laptop and a desktop is that the desktop is heaven when working at home, but the laptop is great and necessary for trips and portability.  Home networking makes this quite the treat and usefull tool, as well. 

All in all, I have to admit - it would be hard for me to manage all my photography and other files and media without both my computers - so I do not feel the least bit embarassed or out of place to have both of them! 

So, I do not know exactly why my iGoogle template has not shown up publicly (yet), but at this point my only resort to share it with you is to post this screen capture of my iGoogle home page (literally, this is my homepage for my browser).  I certainly hope that you like it, and I do wish that it was available to you!!  Perhaps, should I create another template, I will figure out what I did wrong with this one as far as it's lack of public availability (if I DID do anything wrong with this first attempt)...

Want to get your photography out there in a different realm?  How about creating and sharing an iGoogle theme using your photography?  Some pictures are more suitable for this task than others - obviously you want to use a photo with a landscape rather than portrait layout...

Want to try it out?  Head over to iGoogle Theme Maker and give it a shot...

If you want to get more in-depth with your theme creation and know a bit about XML, head over to API Theme Info and download the pieces you need.  Instructions are provided if you're not sure what you're doing.

A couple of tips:  one downside to creating a theme is that you can't preview your image - so be sure to give yourself enough width on the crop of your image that it will cover the whole header (of iGoogle) when you click "create".  Once you do this, can't go back.  Another downside is that it takes a couple of days for your themes to show up in the index (if you publish your theme), so you'll have to wait to share your creation with your friends.