November 29, 2002
11/29/2002 16:50:00
The Leaky Cauldron is a weblog about Harry Potter. We say the movie this morning, and found it very enjoyable. I thought it moved more quickly than the first one, which tended to get bogged down in exposition.
11/29/2002 07:02:00
I took this photo of Smoke fence fighting with the dogs this morning. Every horse needs a hobby, though teasing large predators doesn't seem like a good idea to me.
November 28, 2002
11/28/2002 08:28:00
Jack is making saltenas for his contribution to the Thanksgiving meal. Fortunately, he only makes them once every few years, since the recipe has about a million ingredients. He learned to like them when he would go out to lunch with some South American coworkers in Northern Virginia.
11/28/2002 08:07:00
- 1 dog + 2 bones = happiness.
- 2 dogs + 1 bone = trouble.
November 27, 2002
11/27/2002 09:28:00
This tree has been identified as sumac. Here is an photo which is very similar to the one that I took.
November 26, 2002
11/26/2002 10:21:00
Search Engine Watch compares various search engines, and provides tips on how to use them properly.
11/26/2002 08:42:00
NY Times article on research into the causes of obesity. (NY Times - registration required.)
11/26/2002 07:44:00
Cats Are From Mars. You always knew they were different....
November 25, 2002
11/25/2002 20:47:00
LJ Designs, a small sewing pattern company with interesting garments.
11/25/2002 05:20:00
This essay explains why I find myself using Amazon so much to buy books, even though I would like to support my local bricks and boards bookstores.
11/25/2002 05:16:00
Steven Berlin Johnson, a weblog. He is the author of Emergence and Interface Culture, and uses his weblog to discuss the cultural implications of Internet technology.
November 24, 2002
11/24/2002 10:21:00
Dudley is recovering from a rough day yesterday: I took him and Lody to play with their friend Brody. Since we were there most of the day, Dudley played himself out. He barely had the energy to eat his dinner last night.
November 22, 2002
11/22/2002 10:24:00
PC Pitstop At PC Pitstop we can help you get your PC in top form -- running fast, stable and secure.
11/22/2002 08:59:00
Lists for every sort of household category, including a sewing kit.
11/22/2002 08:55:00
The Diarist's Workshop, has a good resource page and gallery for art journaling.
November 21, 2002
11/21/2002 11:14:00
Internet Privacy for Dummies, a website about spam and other Internet privacy issues.
November 20, 2002
11/20/2002 16:43:00
Better-Whois.com, a site to find out who owns a domain name.
11/20/2002 10:38:00
Article from Discovery News about what makes a gray horse gray.
November 19, 2002
11/19/2002 13:13:00
Instructions to convert photos into carvable images.
November 18, 2002
11/18/2002 18:42:00
Photos an English friend took on her walk this morning.
11/18/2002 18:13:00
I saw this sign as I was walking at lunch time near work: what to do when encountering a mountain lion. Needless to say, I watched the shrub tree stands closely for a tawny form on my way back.
11/18/2002 09:37:00
Tonight (early Tuesday morning) may be the last major Leonid meteor shower for thirty years.
11/18/2002 08:57:00
Real life spam solutions. Unfortunately, it sounds as though the best solution is still in development, but not too far off.
11/18/2002 08:22:00
Rubber stamping techniques from an Australian site, including my favorite directions for a folded passport.
November 17, 2002
11/17/2002 07:17:00
Books and Boxes website. It has a gallery of a artist's books.
11/17/2002 07:12:00
There were lots of deer around our property this morning. I took this long range photo of deer play fighting. I could hear the occasional click of their antlers.
November 16, 2002
11/16/2002 17:18:00
Ms. Lily (also known as Her Royal Highness) sees me.
November 15, 2002
11/15/2002 08:09:00
An article from the ABC News site about the benefits of weight training for women.
11/15/2002 07:36:00
A whiter shade of pale: taken from our deck this morning. The lyrics from the Procol Harum site, including two stanzas that have never been recorded.
11/15/2002 07:11:00
The Cryptic Web, an eclectic site that features eraser carvings, among other things.
November 14, 2002
11/14/2002 13:49:00
Web Design Group was founded to promote the creation of non-browser specific, non-resolution specific, creative and informative sites that are accessible to all users worldwide.
November 13, 2002
11/13/2002 18:41:00
Jack was playing around with the settings on the digital camera the other night, and took this photo of me at my desk.
11/13/2002 07:48:00
Jack wants to celebrate his fiftieth birthday at Durty Nellys.
11/13/2002 07:43:00
Definition for chinook, the warm west wind of the Rockies.
November 12, 2002
11/12/2002 15:58:00
Turtorial from Dogmestic about how to make a concertina album.
11/12/2002 08:32:00
Dover books clip art with CD-ROMS. Good for use in carving soft blocks, and with miscellaneous art projects.
11/12/2002 08:07:00
Start of Fee discusses paid services on the World Wide Web.
11/12/2002 08:05:00
Cougars in Colorado. (NY Times - registration required.)
November 11, 2002
11/11/2002 18:40:00
At lunch today, I walked toward Garden of the Gods.
A dried flower of the yucca plant. stonebridge.jpg A one lane stone bridge that once carried traffic across a wash.
11/11/2002 16:10:00
Abandon ware: a website devoted to software that is older than five years and no longer supported.
11/11/2002 08:32:00
A gallery of rubber stamped projects from Judi-Kins.
November 09, 2002
11/09/2002 17:35:00
The End of Free is a weblog that discusses the end of free services on the World Wide Web.
11/09/2002 17:20:00
When my trainer checked Rags on Thursday, the abscess had not completely opened, so I had our vet visit on Friday to lance it. This vet said she had done this a lot this summer, and believed her after watching her work with her assistant: it looked like they had an assembly line set up. Rags behaved well for the vet, and was good when I cleaned the area this morning. Jack held him this morning, but I don't think I will need Jack to do so again. I should be cleaning it for at least a week, and then evaluate whether I need to keep doing so.ragsgraze.jpg
November 08, 2002
November 07, 2002
11/07/2002 11:02:00
Rubber Stamping website associated with the Delphiforums rubber stamping forum.
11/07/2002 09:01:00
My good news this morning was also the bad news. The main abscess caused by Rags' pigeon fever seems to have opened and started to drain. This is good news because it has given Rags a lot of relief from the discomfort of a huge abscess on his chest: he was cantering around the field like a foal this morning. This is bad news because now we will have to keep the area cleaned and flushed out with Betadine solution. My trainer is coming by tonight to help me with the first cleaning.
November 06, 2002
Learning to use the digital camera
I am having a blast fooling around with the digital camera. I have to admit that I feel seriously challenged when it comes to digital graphics. I am a bit of a technophobe (a shameful admission for someone who has been involved with programming computers for over seventeen years) and depend on Jack to do most of the setup and troubleshooting of digital devices in our household.
Every few years I try to learn how to use a graphics package without much success. I had to force myself to learn how to use our first scanner, because Jack showed signs of impatience when I would make him scan my stuff. After a few dogged attempts, I have learned to make PaintShopPro produce simple web graphics: though I still get twitchy when we upgrade, and they rearrange all the menus.However, in my digital camera, I have finally found a tool that is simple enough for Elaine to use. Jack was trying to tell me yesterday about focal lengths and exposure times, but I managed not to listen. I think I have used all the buttons on the camera now. I have used the close up setting, the far away setting, and played with flood fill and the red eye switch. I have even used the timer, to make a ghastly self-portrait that I will erase. I skimmed the manual and plan to read it again, and have even used it for troubleshooting. (Large white patches on the picture means that you were probably blocking part of the lens.) I am inordinately pleased by the photos I took on my walk Sunday morning and uploaded to my website as a small photo-essay.I don't know if these photos are art, or even creative, but they do accurately reflect what I saw, and what I was trying to capture in my early morning walk.I have no doubt that the reason I have taken to this camera in a way that I never have any digital package or conventional camera is because of the immediate feedback that it offers. There is a small LCD screen on the back of the camera, so one can get some idea of what one just shot. However, I don't really know how things have turned out until I get back to my PC and download the photos and look at them on the monitor. This is soon enough that I am learning what works and what doesn't work, instead of having to wait to get exposures back from the developer. Being able to quickly crop shots and do minor color adjustment with PaintShopPro doesn't hurt either, and I have even started looking at some of the other photo enhancing techniques in PSP.Feedback is important. Of course, digital graphics packages offer feedback, but, in my case, the feedback was always "hmmm, that wasn't what I wanted or expected." I think the only reason I managed to learn to use the scanner was that there are a limited number of options when you scan an item, and you get immediate confirmation whether the option you chose resulted in a suitable scanned image.In fact, when I think about it, most of the things that I enjoy offer some sort of immediate feedback. Programming does, because the computer usually tells you pretty quickly if the code that you just wrote does what you intended. Dogs and horses generally let you know how they feel about what you just did. (Cats and plants are much harder. At least cats will tell you when they need something, even though they are frequently fibbing. Plant just wilt and die.) I think one of the reasons I gravitated to the paper arts away from sewing is that the turnaround of the project (and hence the feedback) is much quicker. Now that I want to start sewing again, I am going to have to think of ways of getting that feeling of feedback without waiting for the final product.
11/06/2002 08:55:00
Discussion notes for Curse of Chalion: one of my favorite novels by one of my favorite authors.
11/06/2002 08:09:00
This morning, as I fed the horses, I saw a shooting star due east where the sky was just starting to lighten. Here is a photo of the Leonids over Joshua Tree National Park. NASA provides the Astronomy Picture of the Day.
November 05, 2002
11/05/2002 20:03:00
Finally, a photo in which Lily's ears are pricked forward. This may have something to do with the carrot that she suspected was in my pocket.
11/05/2002 05:32:00
The Carving Consortium is now being hosted as a bulletin board.
November 04, 2002
11/04/2002 09:00:00
Paying too much attention to spouse's back pain can make it worse, says study.
11/04/2002 08:47:00
Kodak Digital Learning Center has lots of information about how to use a digital camera.
11/04/2002 08:39:00
Joy of Sewing with Antique and Vintage Sewing Machines.
November 03, 2002
11/03/2002 09:01:00
Last night we received a bare dusting of snow, just enough to frost our surroundings. This is our place, as seen from the north on my morning walk. To see more photos from my walk, click here.
