So, I finally shelled out for a long distance plan on my cell phone.

I feel so free! I can call anyone! Anywhere (within Canada)! Anytime!

I have been going without a long distance plan since I first got my cell phone. I have tried the "call me back" method. I have tried the "email instead" method. I have tried the prepaid phone card method. None of these are practical for me. I'm too forgetful to ask for a callback (and it isn't always okay to ask - my Dad or someone with a long distance plan, sure, but not everyone has one). I like talking instead of just emailing (and not everyone I talk to LD has email - hello, Granny!). Prepaid phone cards are too impractical (seriously... dialing an access number, then entering a 16 digit code, then dialing the telephone number manually... I know it doesn't seem hard but honestly it makes it too frustrating to even want to bother. Not to mention the sometimes sketchy reception.)

I've resolved over and over to watch my usage but to no avail. Today I sat down, figured out how much my bill would be WITH the unlimited plan, and then reviewed the last 12 months of my phone account. I've only been below that amount three times, and two of those times were only under by less than four dollars.

So, long distance plan it is. Added bonus is that now every item on my bill (basic minutes, long distance, text messages) is unlimited, so now my phone bill will be the exact same amount every month... which is also about $15 less than I had budgeted (for those accidental overages). Win!

I feel so liberated.

I should be leaving work right now.

I came in uber early ... did not take a lunch break or any break really (assuming you do not count my short dalliances on teh weeb as a break) ...

Leaving now means only breaking two promises for people I said I would see today. I need to stop promising things to people.

Oh well, at least I am stopping to write in my far to empty journal.

----

Life continues on ... moving massive amounts of money around and trying to line all my weasels up in a row to make sure that the home purchase goes smoothly. Closing date is a week away with possession a few days after that, so not much time left.

I think I am going to hire these guys to assist with the move. Wore out much of my friend goodwill last time with my epic move and although this move will be smaller, it would be nice to have some pros along for the ride. I will still badger available friends for assistance though. *grin*

Ok. 5 minutes are up ... time to move on to fixing that thing over there and making that thing over there do what it is supposed to do ... or else MELLIS SMASH!

... I think I need to get my butt in gear and set up my photoblog at my own domain. I can't stand that changing colour thing anymore (made it to the fifth post before I felt like it ruined a photo, lol).

Matt? Care to help me out with that?

Discovered a third party site that allows you to change your fonts on free wordpress themes... genius. That's the only thing I really dislike about wordpress.

I'm not really satisfied with the layout. The tradeoff is that now I have fonts but this little badge at the bottom of my site that says I use their service... meh, small price to pay. I've settled on the medium flickr size for my photos... large is just too big for most layouts. I hate the smaller size though. Ugh.

I suppose one day I should just bite the bullet and set myself up with a photo blog at my own domain... I do pay for the thing anually, after all. But I fear that stupid internet wayback machine and I'm not sure what'll happen if I put stuff up there.

Being technologically illiterate is kind of frustrating, sometimes. I used to be kind of good at these things. Ah, well.

Today's photo is up.

A few days ago, Chris told Gwen the knock-knock joke involving bananas and oranges ... you know, the one with a punchline that goes, "Orange you glad I didn't say banana?" Gwen, at 20 months old, not only remembered the joke, but put her own twist on it.

Gwen: Knock knock.
us (me, Chris, Uncle Mikey): Who's there?
Gwen: Nama! (Banana)
us: Banana who?
Gwen: Knock knock.
us: Who's there?
Gwen: Nama!
us: Banana who?
Gwen: Knock knock.
us: Who's there?
Gwen: Nama!
us: Banana who?
Gwen: Knock knock.
us: Who's there?
Chris (whispering to Gwen): say orange.
Gwen: Yes, please.

I went to see Avatar in 3D last night - 3D took some getting used to. It made me feel sick for about 5 minutes. In the end I liked the effect well enough, but I'm not sure that technology is perfected enough and it certainly isn't really worth the extra four bucks for the movie ticket. Of course, Silvercity was ONLY offering that film in 3D or Imax 3D so it's not like we had much of a choice.

I LOVED the movie. Maybe I went in with low expectations, but wow. It was one of those movies that grew on me. For the first hour or so I was kind of just interested, but by the end I was so invested and the final scenes were so great. I had a few continuity quibbles and one or two moral questions about the "hero" but overall - loved it. We snuck booze into the theatre and at a particular moment in the climax I may have been doing some enthusiastic fist pumping.

During the film I got increasingly confused, however, because I (thought I) had been doing some reading about the casting controversy in the film... but the actors in question never appeared. A little research when I returned home showed me that there is actually another Avatar movie coming out this year, based on a TV show - although, the title has been truncated to actually remove the word "Avatar," I suppose to relieve confusion. I was still confused.

I'm sure some of you guys, who I know are much more into this stuff than I am, are already more than aware about the casting controversy in The Last Airbender, but if you're not - go read. So much fail.

And, on the topic of race - Avatar as a metaphor for our treatment of First Nations and American Indians? Spot on. Maybe that's why I had such a strong reaction.

I just realized that I spent the whole day wearing sandals. It's freakin' January and I was wearing sandals.

Hobbes is happy to be home.

Also, if you look closely, you may notice that he burnt off most of his left eyebrow investigating our dining table candles yesterday. Oops, kitty!

Finally reformatted my computer, installed Lightroom and Photoshop, and got everything working. I'm kind of useless with technology sometimes, so this is actually a rather big deal.

I'm having a really great New Years Day. Among other things, I went outside to take some photos as part of my 26 for 26 intention #9: take a photo every day. I also started a photoblog to keep track of it (yep, another blog. Sue me.)

2010 is off to a decent start.

Last gig for 2009! Can you believe? My 37th concert this year. Crazy. Frank can even top this with 39 concerts.



( Christmas Festival - 20th December, 2009 - Rockfabrik, Ludwigsburg )

This is it - our last concert of the year 2009 was over. :D

The day after the Winger concert we went to the Knockout Festival in Karlsruhe. The line-up was very interesting:

Hammerfall
Edguy
U.D.O.
Pink Cream 69
Rage
Pussy Sisters



( Knockout Festival - December 12th, 2009 - Europahalle, Karlsruhe )

In December we went to a couple of more concerts, but I didn’t have time to write about it. Let’s see how much I remember a couple of weeks later.

On December 11th we went to Switzerland to see Winger. I had the day off and so we left early to avoid traffic jams and stuff like that. You never know what will happen on a Friday in winter.

Winger:



Markonee:



( Winger + Markonee - 11th December, 2009 - Downstairs Pub, Worblaufen (CH) )

I've been struggling for months with an inability to view any custom ringtones on my iPhone. Despite following all the usual instructions for creating & uploading an .m4r file, and even despite being able to see a list of custom ringtones in iTunes, I've been unable to access them from my Settings/Sounds/Ringtones control panel, or from any other list on the iPhone proper.

Late last night I figured it out. Apparently iPhone custom ringtone names, unlike both music tracks and built-in ringtones, may not contain any spaces. I renamed all the ringtones with underscores instead, and they promptly all appeared the next time I synched.

Okay, so here's my plan for Knitting 2010.


Step 1: Finish all on-the-needles projects. This includes:

1. The Bacon Scarf. My brother will be happy to know that I'm clipping along quite nicely now.


2. The Asymmetrical Cabled Cardi. I managed to rip it back and pick up the cable stitches, but now I have no idea where I am in the cable pattern. Really just need to sit down with this and stare at it for an hour or two to find my bearings.


3. Bird in Hand Mittens. It would be really nice to finish these right away so I can actually wear them before winter's over. I have one finished but need to cast on the other. It was a really fast knit, as I recall.


4. Swallowtail Shawl (awful phone picture, ugh). I'm SO CLOSE to being done this. I think I'm halfway through the border.



Step 2: Start and finish projects I have the yarn for.

This includes the Noro Striped Scarf, which I want to cast on just because I need a patternless project for mindless knitting. I also have about four or five skeins of gorgeous sock yarn that are dying to become shawls. Etc. My goal is to be stash-less by the end of 2010.

Step 3: Pick out all my favourite patterns, buy the yarn, and knit them (one at a time!). No more gift knitting. Which is not to say that I didn't enjoy gift knitting. I did. But I'm feeling the need for a year of knitting selfishly. Once my hat/scarf/mitten/sweater stock is going strong, maybe I'll start knitting gifts again.


Tonight I wound up every skein that was still unwound. I also finally threw out the skein of kidsilk haze that my kitten tangled beyond repair (*heart breaks*). I've picked out the stuff I'll never use and it's getting destashed.

Progress!

So they're stuck in Calgary. The frustrating thing is that because of the nature of our standby passes we can never make any bookings or changes at the desk. So, while standing at the desk trying to figure things out, he has to phone an 800 number. Which, at the moment, requires waiting on hold for 30-60 minutes. He missed a flight to Abbotsford that had 15 free seats, because he couldn't get through on the phone. Very frustrating system sometimes. Oh well - that's the price you pay for cheap air travel.

My poor kitty has been in his carrier for 18 hours. Alex is trying to get them on a flight to Victoria tonight, in the hopes that he can at least take the kitty oustide to go for a pee. No chance of doing that in Calgary, because he can't get outside the secure area and it's -20 anyway.

My poor guys. I want them home!

eta: they made it on the Victoria flight. Total relief!

So Alex and Hobbes are stuck in Toronto. He didn't have my luck with standby (where there were five seats available on the evening flight the Sunday after Christmas!) and he's already missed two planes today and the rest are sold out with a standby list. He's going to try again tomorrow.

I'm kind of worried, as he has to work on the 31st. If he can't get home tomorrow, he's fucked. I'm trying to encourage him to get himself to Calgary or Edmonton - at least the flights are shorter and more frequent, and there are more alternatives like the bus. But it sounds like he might wait until tomorrow regardless (which I don't really understand, but I'm not there. Maybe all the Calgary flights are full as well.)

It's too bad I didn't take Hobbes with me. Now kitty's going to have a lot of waiting around in airports. Hopefully his presence won't fuck up Alex's return trip (only two cats are allowed on the plane at a time).

Send some standby-mojo his way!

We decided to take Hobbes to Ontario. The thought of leaving him home alone all day for five days or so was just too heartbreaking. I struggle with a lot of guilt about the amount of time he spends alone in about 650 square feet with very little to do. But I also struggled with the idea of the stress of that kind of trip.

(I know, rationally, that all of these options are still preferable to a life in a shelter. But I can't use that to excuse every situation that is less than ideal for the poor little guy.)

In the end, we decided to risk the stress. I bought him a pheromone collar and Alex bought some children's gravol on the vet's advice (which freaked me out, honestly, as gravol makes me anxious...). He made it safe and sound. Alex said he was obviously stressed and not impressed, but he was very quiet and didn't poop or pee in his carrier. Win!

They flew out two days before me. When I got there, he was still tentative but clearly enjoying the new stimulation. By the time I left, he was basically king of the house and had already broken a planter and was constantly annoying Alex's mom (who doesn't like cats) by jumping on the counters.

He was the same cat, but... different. No neediness and frustration. He was calmer and slept more. I kept finding him sleeping in different places all over the house. He had more people to interact with. He basically just seemed more entertained and stimulated.

Now, I'm terrified he's going to come home and just be a bored, stir-crazy, depressed and lonely kitty.

We're still planning on getting him a girlfriend. I'm struggling about whether or not we should finally declare him to the landlord first (and risk having to move). Hiding one cat is one thing... hiding two is another.

Sometimes having him feels selfish. I wish I could give him the life I feel like he deserves.

But it's better than the shelter... right?

I can honestly say that I have not been up this late in at least 4 months.

I don't generally look into cameras, since I'm nowhere near the point where I would replace mine. But I was reading a review on the Nikon D300s in a photography magazine that Santa put in my stocking and... well, all signs point to Nikon for my future. I was reading they included a quiet shutter release feature... omg that would be heaven for me. Do other DSLRs have this? I've never heard of it before. But like I said... I don't spend much time reading gear reviews.

It's totally not an informed opinion, this love of Nikon. I just love it. It might be a grass is greener thing, I admit. But everything about them just seems... better. To me. The way they look, sound, feel. Better.

And more expensive, of course.

One day.

I have so much I wanted to post about but, as usual, don't know where to start!

I'm looking forward to the new year. I bought myself a Christmas gift - a book about editing with Lightroom - and my brother gave me a tablet for editing which is SO AMAZING (thanks again, Bro!) and a sweet book about exposure. I'm taking a fine-art oriented class with my favourite teacher starting mid-January. I'm not too interested just yet in fine art, but I think it will be good while I'm thinking about style and presentation. The emphasis is on portfolio development which I could use. We'll see how it goes.

I'm sure I will spend the next three months tweaking my budget so I can justify buying a new computer with my student discount. Luckily, the course was given to me at 50% off due to my massive three page letter bitching about my Wedding teacher, so that adds to the list of justifications (I saved money!). I probably won't do it but we'll see how close I get :D

Flew in late last night and have many observations about the state of airline travel, but I'll spare you for now. All I can say is, standby is amazing when you get on (hello $220 round trip including taxes/fees!) and thank goodness knitting needles are still allowed in your carry-on.

Hope everyone had a happy holiday :D

There are far more things to do in my life than I could possibly spend the time and energy to accomplish.

Really, this leaves me with only a few choices. On one hand, I could decide that everything has to happen, and I have to do it all myself. Then I can burn myself out to get it all done; or I can fail -- or I can even combine these, for extra-crunchy breakfast angst!

On another hand (there are multiple hands here, all reaching in most obligingly just when they're needed), I could decide that everything has to be done, and I get to manage how. Then I can start to delegate; ask for help; leave for myself as many fun bits as I can, while leaving time for the high-level organizational tasks that only I can do. Or, alternatively, I can refuse to take any high-level responsibility, and shop forlornly for somebody who can live my life for me. On the whole I think the first alternative sounds like more fun.

A third hand allows me to decide that it's just not all going to get done. Then I could sit down and prioritize what pieces are most important to me, or most practical, or highest on whatever other metric I'm using for triage. In my experience this step is depressing, in a very literal sense; it leaves me with no energy to do anything. And so once again there's another approach: I could refuse to decide. I could accept that some things in my life will happen, and others won't, and which pieces are which is going to be an organic process, decided only ever in the moment according to my mood at the time.

Some of these choices are saner than others. Some of them are healthier; some of them are more productive; some of them are more fun. There's a lot of overlap.

I do believe that I'm growing towards a system of personal organization in which all three major approaches play a part. I am responsible for all major aspects of my life: work, home, person, parenting, friendships, relationships, creativity, schedule. Everything has to be considered, at a high level, and I'm the one who has to do it. But there's such a thing as too little management -- and if I believe that my responsibility extends down to each finest detail, I'm guilty of it. No, once I've claimed the big picture, I get to manage. I can decide this week that I'm delegating most of my parenting, largely ignoring work and relationships, asking for help with creativity, and focusing my own effort on schedule and home. Next week I can make a completely different set of decisions.

But at the finest level of detail, I don't necessarily have to prioritize at all. My home will never be perfect; my work will never be finished; I will never spend enough time connecting with all my friends; but five minutes of open, unstressed attention -- no matter how petty the task -- will always improve my lot. Down in the midst of a lifelong to-do list, there is simply no need to spend any time deciding on the next thing. If the answer is important, I'll already know what it is, and I'll be working toward a specific goal. In every other circumstance, there's such a thing as too much management -- and optimizing an NP-complete problem is a great way to get mired in it. If I just start with something interesting, I won't get everything done, but I'll have a richer life for puttering away.

Last year I cast into the Yule fire my fear of management, of taking responsibility for others ... ultimately, of taking responsibility for my own overburdened life. Last month I hired a new staff member to take over most of my old job at work, from the days when I had time to be just a programmer. Last week I moved my computer into my bedroom, so that I could write down an idea, or a task, or an expense, every time I think of it. (And also so that I could listen to music as I wander about the main floor of the house, but really the robust solution to that problem is an AirPort Express.) Today, at the belated recommendation of dabrota and vuge, I installed OmniFocus at home and synched it with my iPhone.

There is always enough time; there is all the time in my life. The only question is what to do now.

Not "next." Just now.

Just PSP, no PS, but I don't think I have been that pleased with a set of icons in MONTHS!*happy_sigh* :D

I'm watching the travel channel as they show us the pirate festival every year in New Orleans.
In honour of good old Jean Lafitte, this year coming up it's pyratecon:
http://www.pyratecon.com/

Even a pirate burlesque show on the street.
It's April 16-18 weekend... I know at two people who's birthday is right around then.. and one of them is planning a visit... Yes, Lenore I'm talking at you!

And then there's the Cajun Zydeco fest June 11-13:
http://www.tabasco.com/taste_tent/festivals/cajun_zydeco_festival.cfm

And while that's cool, I know at least one wonderful lady down here who expressed a desire to see more cajun stuff ... (yes, Vanessa, I'm talking at you!) and even cooler than that is a festival out in Lafayette that overlaps the first weekend of jazz fest. Want to come?
It's the International Festival deep in cajun country, on the weekend of April 23-26. I'm told it's an amazing weekend of cajun food, music and fun all the way out in Lafayette and worth missing the first weekend of jazz fest.
That's here :http://www.festivalinternational.com/site.php

Of course, Jazz Fest is April 23-May 2 and is the oldest biggest awesomest jazz 2 weekends. This year's headliners have been announced.

Whoever had the idea to use concert pics for wallpapers should get shot. Oh wait... that was me....

No really - quality is not good enough. My next project will be 24 with hires photos. There is nothing more frustrating than to sit on two wallpapers for, wait... 5 hours and the result is NOT what I had in mind. :/



The idea was good. But quality? Colour? Gaaah! Noooo. :P

Making wallpapers is fun. :D Even if my entry doesn't sound like it. ;)

Conclusion: Curves in PS rule! :D