Archive for February, 2007

Of Walk-Abouts and Great White Sharks…

Tuesday, February 27th, 2007

“I dunno…
I
think it
might be cheaper
to send
her to Art School.”
It was, ummm…. “suggested” that I go back to my Walk-Abouts.

“But I walk everywhere!” sez I.

“You walk to get somewhere. You should walk to see something,” sez They. Firmly. “And take pictures.”

Aha! I see a way out of this…

“I fried my camera.”

“You need a camera? You can have my camera. Here take my camera.”

Gawd, I hate this. I’m not very good at “Gee, thank you; that’s very nice.” It tends to come out sounding more like, “I don’t need your steenking camera!” And you know what they say: “Pride goeth before the loss of a camera offer”, or some such drivel. One of these days I’ll have to try “Don’t look a gift-horse in the mouth” on for size. I smoothed things over by saying I would consider going on a Walk-About. Eventually.

“You should go back to church, too,” sez They. Firmly.

Which is why I found myself wandering up to the Locks yesterday, borrowed “Crappy-Cam” in hand. I hadn’t planned on going to the Locks, which, I guess, was kind of the whole point. I think I probably ended up there because I’ve never been there in the winter before.

February 26, 2007 - Sault, ON Waterfront & Boardwalk
“Sault Ste. Marie, ON Waterfront & Boardwalk”
Taken February 26, 2007 with Centrios “Crappy-Cam”




February 26, 2007 - Ice-Bound
“Ice-Bound”
Taken February 26, 2007 with Centrios “Crappy-Cam”




February 26, 2007 - On Thin Ice
“On Thin Ice”
Taken February 26, 2007 with Centrios “Crappy-Cam”




February 26, 2007 - Sault Locks Footbridge
“Sault Locks Footbridge”
Taken February 26, 2007 with Centrios “Crappy-Cam”

And, tougher-looking by the second, Crappy-Cam Owner has the pink hair again. I think she looks pretty cool, actually.

02272007-KyTough.jpg

She’s been working on a science fair project for school. She wants to be a Marine Biologist eventually. Specializing in sharks.

02272007-Great White.jpg
Specifically the Great White.

I dunno… I think it might be cheaper to send her to Art School. She shows a lot of promise there, too.

I’m Too Old For This…

Thursday, February 22nd, 2007

School, that is… my learning curve is close to non-existent, now, I think. It takes me forever to get the hang of things, and then, all of a sudden, it all comes clear. Hopefully, I can retain it, though, because I got a job offer. Fingers crossed, and all that.

I got The Web Design Assignment from Hell back - 95%. I want to be happy about it, but truthfully, I’m just tired, depressed, and wishing I was doing anything but this. Oops. Probably just jinxed myself.

Cartoon House - Les Becker

What Was I Thinking?!

Tuesday, February 20th, 2007

I have a new hero, and her name is Jenny Owen Youngs. Her song F**k Was I made me laugh out loud today. And now that I have it on repeat in winamp, have the lyrics memorized, and can sing it without laughing (almost), I am beginning to see some of the merits of singlehood: Merit #1 being that I Can Sing Out Loud Whenever I Want To.

I believe I may have to hook up the karaoke machine now… And CRANK IT.

Bridge to Terabithia

Sunday, February 18th, 2007

Ky's Eyes

Ky and I went to see the movie tonight. I don’t know why I never read that book - until Kyla mentioned a school assignment about it (she’s already read it twice), I had never even heard of it. I’m so ashamed of myself.

The movie was wonderful. I have never been quite that enthralled, I don’t think; it was just so perfectly “me and Mike Valley” (Well, except for that really nasty bit, but something nearly as bad did happen in 1975, and I don’t think I’m over it even yet). If I had read Bridge to Terabithia when it came out in ‘77, I would be a very different person today, I’m sure.

Mike, are you out there somewhere? Did you see the movie?

Did you think of me?

Redesigning…

Sunday, February 18th, 2007

Not just this space, although I suppose it never looks like I’m doing much here, when I pull it all down again minutes later….

I’m working with CSS in school lately, rebuilding “old” html code. The worst part has been having to take html pages that have been written using caps - you know:

<HTML>
<HEAD>

<TITLE>Your web page title here</TITLE>

</HEAD>

<BODY>

</BODY>

</HTML>

…and lowering the case.

Of course, the “soon-to-be” standard is working out badly for those of us who are used to coding in caps, of which I am one, having always done so because it’s easier to navigate when I’m troubleshooting. I’ve been trying to write in lowercase but it’s hard to get out of that habit.

So this latest assignment has me reworking an old “HTML” page and rewriting it using CSS. The only really buggery part to all that has been the stupid caps.

Notepad doesn’t have a blanket “lower the case” function that I can find… Word adds nasty bits in that can (sometimes) be removed later with Dreamweaver… sort of.

So I Googled (gasp! No way!) and I found a new text editor and I’m very impressed with it. There’s a ton of features that I won’t even begin to get into here, because the best for me is that I can change case in seconds, no matter how big the file is, so it really doesn’t matter any more if I slip up and start coding in caps at all. Makes some things a lot less frustrating now.

It’s called EditPad Pro and if anybody wants to give it a go, you can get it here. There’s an eval download if you just want to try it, too, at the bottom of the page.

I’ll post the link in the sidebar under “Tools” as well.

Atchoo!

Monday, February 12th, 2007

Sheikh andPatchouli Squish

So, it turns out my kid is allergic to the cats. Specifically, the big orange hairy one, but Dr. Who says that will turn into “allergic to all cats”, even the short hair, over time.

Solution? Well, the doctor says to get rid of the cats, buy a vacuum cleaner with a hepa filter, and vacuum every half hour for seven or eight months, and that’ll probably do the trick. Ky told him where to stick his “get rid of the cats”. I pretty much told him where to stick the vacuum cleaner.

He suggested an over-the-counter allergy medication, but the look on his face told me he didn’t think it would work. He says the fact that we don’t have forced air heating or AC works in our favour (not to mention Sheikh and Patchouli’s), but it might be a few weeks before we know if it’s going to work or not. If the allergy is severe enough, I guess we’ll have to come up with something else - Ky insists that if the cats go, she’s going with them.

Well, it’s been a week, and my lovely, princess-like, feminine Girly-Girl has stopped snoring like a chainsaw. Sheikh, on the other hand, still snores, snarfs and gargles all night, and most of the day, too. I wonder if it’s possible for a cat to be allergic to himself?

Snow Day!

Wednesday, February 7th, 2007

Snow Day

Schools aren’t closed, but the busses are cancelled, which leaves me at home with a very happy child. It looks as if the recycling truck has been cancelled as well, although that remains to be seen.

You notice those holes in the snowbank, though? That’s where the City Guys actually dug around and pulled out the trash bags that the plow buried. Talk about deserving an “Above & Beyond” award!

So, I’m having a Snow Day, today, too. I get to sit at home (where it’s warm) and work on the Web Design Assignment from Hell. This one is SO crap that I took a break and did the next assignment and even have it back (95%!), and still haven’t got the crap one ready for marking. Yet.

I have, however, discovered an innate talent for cartooning. This is a sample from one of the page mock-ups from said Web Design Assignment from Hell:

Lalleys Sample

So, that’s going to be my day. Well, that or continue to sit with a lapful of large, warm cat. It’s winter in Canuckia, after all…

No Bows, No Blades; Leave Your Weapons Here.

Sunday, February 4th, 2007

Not much to see - probably won’t be for quite some time, unless you just want to look at all the pretty colours. This space will mainly be for design practice.