It's a Picnik kind of a day

I have long been a fan of the picnic, in all of its incarnations.
Some of my fondest memories from childhood are the delicious lunches my Mum would pack for an outing to the Avon River or sometimes to eat between church meetings, as we had to drive about 30 miles to church. Ham and butter on white bread, potato chips, maybe an apple or an orange. Somehow, being outdoors and away from home made everything taste even better than usual.

The Teddy Bear's Picnic is another childhood memory. I would hear it on the radio once in a while, just often enough to memorize the words of the chorus, but never the verses.
Today's the day the teddy bears have their piiiiic-nic!

Then there is the Cadbury Picnic bar, a particular favourite of Jeff's. Packed with wafers and milk chocolate and caramel and rice crisps and nuts, it is a serendipitous concoction.

Every time my sister or my Mum wants to make Jeff happy (which isn't very often, teehee!) they send him wads of Picnic bars. And the rest of us mooch from him.

I have discovered a new breed of Picnik and it is awesome!
Picasa has incorporated a link to Picnik in its editing programme and I am becoming quite fond of it. Registration is free, although you can sign up for their Premium version for even more options.

I took my basic grapes photo and played around with it to give you an idea of the possibilities. Bear in mind that each of these is only an example of the editing preference. There is an infinite number of ways to execute each one of these to create your own magnum opus. All of these edits are under the Create tab.

First, the original photo, with just the contrast adjusted.
Pleasant, but a little boring.

Orton-ish gives it a lovely depth and sense of light and shadow.

Vignette.

HDR-ish.

I cannot remember how I did this.
It has an Invert on it, but combined with something else.
Whatever.
I like it.

Waterfall with fade.

Duo-tone.

Pixelate.

Posterize.

Hsl filter

Ripple blocks.

Smudge.

Kinda like looking through privacy glass.

Pencil sketch.

Hypnotic.

1960's with Doodle.

This is lame, but I can see cool possibilities.

Focal zoom.

There is so much more, but my wrist screams at me if I spend too much time on the laptop, so you will have to try it out for yourself. I can see some real art work coming out of this programme, can't you?

Have fun.

It is so easy to lose yourself in the Wonderful World of Picnik.

Evil grin.

Rockin' photo books

I know that several of you have already seen my photo book on facebook, but other of my readers are allergic to facebook or never check their news, so here is a link if you want to look at it. You can click on the pages to zoom in, then click again to get back to the original view. I have such fond memories of our Australia trip and I wanted to preserve them in hard copy.
Picaboo had a freebie last month, so this 22-page, hardcover, full colour book only cost me $13, including shipping.
I spent about seven hours on it, but now that I am familiar with the software I think the next one will be much quicker. Here's one of the pages, the only one without text, as it happens.

Some of you are excellent photographers and I wonder if you have made books using Picaboo or other websites. I would love to hear about your experiences. And if you haven't made one yet, give it a try.

If you want to start small, I made a softcover book for Mum to take home with her at Hotprints. They offer four free books a month, you only have to pay $2.99 shipping per book, which is probably less than you would pay for the prints. I was very happy with the quality of the book. Some of my photos were a bit pixellated, but I would upload at a higher resolution next time. Hotprints also has less editing options, but it is fine for a simple photo album.

And now, I think, to bed.

The brain doctor

But first, weirdest search engine reader of the week: "nostalgic older women in full cut panties".
Really?
I hope they found out that I am just not that woman!

My first introduction to Dr. Oliver Sacks was when I saw the movie "Awakenings", although I didn't know it at the time. A few years later I took a Psych class while working on my music therapy degree and his name popped up. I read Awakenings and The Man Who Mistook his Wife for a Hat and I was hooked. Dr. Sacks is a rare combination of scientist and physician (neurologist) who can also write a riveting book that is   composed entirely of case histories. He has been referred to as "the poet laureate of medicine" and given an award, by Rockefeller University, which recognizes the scientist as poet.

I am slowly working my way through his entire body of work and am constantly impressed by his powers of observation as well as his empathy. Dr. Sacks has seen some extraordinary cases of neurological dysfunction and his accounts of his patients are gripping and empathetically written. You never get the impression that these are just case studies, but that they are people in whom he is deeply interested.

He has become one of my heroes, even though he describes himself as an old Jewish atheist.

When I heard that Dr. Sacks was coming to Portland to lecture on his new book, Musicophilia, I knew I had to be there. I bought two tickets, one for me and one for my trusty sidekick. The one who goes along with all my adventures. You know who he is! And even though I was on crutches and in pain from my broken leg at the time, we went to the lecture.

Upon arriving home, I was inspired to write to Dr. Sacks. I described one of my elderly music therapy clients and told him of all of the wonderful ways in which she had responded to musical interventions. How she had no short or long-term memory to speak of, yet she remembered me from one week to the next. That she also remembered how to play short, familiar songs that I taught her on a little xylophone. I told him how happily she responded to me, even though she was quite deaf and unresponsive to social overtures from other people, and how the caregivers marveled at how alive she became during our sessions. I asked Dr. Sacks if he would consider writing a book devoted entirely to music therapy anecdotes. And I told him about the sad state of funding for music therapy in Oregon.

I had heard that Dr. Sacks responds to every letter he receives, but I didn't quite believe it.

Then, a few weeks later, this came in my mail.

His writing is difficult to decipher, so here is a transcription:

Dear Ms Osborne

Thank you for writing. I was most interested – and moved – by your description of the power(s) of music therapy with your elderly lady with dementia (I would like to quote from your letter sometime!); but upset – and surprised – when I heard that Oregon has “pretty much ruled out” any funding for MT.

A third of my book (Musicophilia) is in fact devoted to stories of MT in relation to various conditions (Parkinson’s, Tourette’s, aphasia, Alzheimer’s etc.), trying to define its powers and limitations, and their neural basis.

I hope this part of the book will help “legitimate” the real potentials of MT – and maybe help to reverse unfortunate and ill-considered decisions, like Oregon’s withdrawing of the funding it needs.

Again, thanks for writing

With kind regards

Oliver Sacks

If you want to try one his books, I recommend starting with The Man Who Mistook his Wife for a Hat. It is interesting and amusing and you will think thoughts you have never thought before.

Wearing my ❤ on my bumper

I know that many of my friends refuse to use bumper stickers because they consider them to be tacky.

An indicator of great lack of taste.

Myself, I consider them to be a sign of my passionate nature, and have justified my use of bumper stickers with the thought that I only have two and they're tasteful and funny. 

But then I found the Kiwi that had been lost for a couple years (since my last trip) between the pages of a book. The Marines sticker is an original and is my personal favourite.

And then Soldier's Angels sent me a magnet as a thank you for all the blankets.

And then Jeff talked me into some magnets at the militia man's booth at the fair this summer.

This one is allowed, it was one of the originals.

It is who I am.

I couldn't resist this one when we were in Oz.
It was a fundraiser and is on the back window, so technically exempt from tacky bumper sticker laws.

Don't even know where I got this one.

On the other side of the back window.

And I do believe this one on the front driver's side window saved me from a ticket last time I got pulled over.

So it's staying!

Oh dear.

I think I may be verging on white trash bumper sticker heaven.

So, NO MORE BUMPER STICKERS!

Oh.

Wait a minute.

I haven't put this one on yet.

I'd better go do that right now.

Rob needs me.

Pardon my participle...ummmm, preposition

I have been inordinately proud, over the years, of the fact that I knew how to not dangle a participle.
I admit, I felt slightly superior to the masses who don't give a hoot, and I sometimes went to great lengths, in my writing and speaking, to hang it up high.
To whom, I would say, did she write?
And I would feel blessedly literate and well-spoken.


And then.
I am upended by one of my facebook friends.
Who was talking about dangling a preposition.
And then it hit me!
All these years, it's prepositions that I have been hanging high!
Not participles.


Oy.


So I Googled it and found this witty and informative blog that explains all kinds of grammar snafus. The blog's writer is D L Seltzer, who works for the University of Pittsburgh. Whether it's a girl or a boy I do not know. I would love to just copy and paste the article because it's funny and helpful, but that would be tacky. So, here's the nutshell version, but I recommend you read the whole thing for yourself.


A (present) participle is a verb ending in "ing" that can be used as an adjective and sometimes a noun. It modifies a noun. When the participle is close to the noun, no problem. But when the participle is somewhat removed from its noun, hilarity ensues. The classic example is: Flitting gaily from flower to flower, the soldier watched the bee. As you can see, the soldier is certainly not flitting gaily. Although Obama would be okay with that, I suppose. The correct sentence would read: The soldier watched the bee flitting gaily from flower to flower.


As you can see, it's difficult to get in trouble with participles. Prepositions are another matter, and D L Seltzer has an interesting (and rather liberating) take on the topic. 


First of all, what is a preposition? 
A preposition usually indicates the temporal, spatial, or logical relationship of its object to the rest of the sentence. The book is on the table. Some common prepositions are over, among, between, but, until, at, and of.  You will find a dangling preposition at the end of a sentence or clause. That is behaviour I simply cannot deal with. That one is easy to fix. That is behaviour with which I simply cannot deal.
However.
And this is a big however.
Our friend, DLS, says that, according to the best sources, if the amended sentence is more clumsy than the original, go with the original.


What?


How dare she/he?
Bubbles are bursting left and right.
I tell you, I will never waste another minute of my life struggling with a dangling preposition.
If it will not go gently into that good night, it will stay where it is. 

What was I thinking?

Not much, apparently.
Here is our latest baby doll, born almost one week ago.
In North Carolina.
It's killing me, people, killing me.

Elsie Anastasia, 8lbs 8oz.

Who was disobliging enough as to quit breathing a couple of times, so was kept in hospital until today.

Now living the good life with Mom and Dad.

Three weeks until I hop on that plane to North Carolina.

Friday morning madness

This post is not about grandchildren.

Well, indirectly, because without them I would have no excuse for this morning's activities.

I spent almost three decades without feeling the urge to attend garage sales. The last couple of years I have discovered that good neighbourhoods have terrific garage sales. I guess our town just needed a few good neighbourhoods. One of them has an annual garage sale. Every year! My friend and partner-in-crime, Barb, and I have become regular attendees. Every year, without fail, we clean up on bargains. 

A couple of weeks ago on a Friday, while out for our morning walk, we scored unexpectedly. We got two boys' bikes for $2 each. She got the small one with training wheels and I got the bigger one for Daniel. Well, that set the bar pretty high for our expectations this morning. We started walking early, up the hill behind the golf course, and then we toodled down to The Oaks. 

Today, Barb ruled. She bought a Pak'n'Play so that she doesn't have to borrow mine any more. She got four nice kitchen chairs, a jogging stroller, and some other goodies for the grandkids. And, I might add, she paid less than asking price for everything.

My haul pales in comparison, but I didn't spend as much either!

First, this lovely little footstool, which is going to be handy for many purposes, I think.

Cha-ching! $3.

Bethany asked me to keep an eye out for a bike for Natalie.

Cha-ching. $10.

Not such a bargain, but I talked them down from $12.

I have been looking for another scooter for my house, because the kids fight over the two we have.

Cha-ching. $2.

Or was it three?

A little bird feeder thingie, which we don't really need but it was only $1.

Puzzles, like new, for 50-75c each.

Can't have too many puzzles.

I think these DVD's are new, for $2 each.

For Annie's kids.

Books, for Annie's lot, about 50c each.

I've been looking at my favourite shoe website ever since I got home and just ordered Jeff and me a pair of cowboy boots each.

For a total of $360.

Cha-ching, cha-ching, cha-ching!

Go figure.