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Source: Photoshop design tea spoon stock graphics in photoshop.

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Source: Photoshop design tea spoon stock graphics in photoshop.

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In this Photoshop tutorial we are going to explore some cool ways to use Quick Masks and the halftone Pattern filter. We will first examine the technique, then I’ll show you a few ways to apply it. In a Dark Place movies Angel film

Step 1

Lets get started by opening a new document. For the sake of being on the same page just make sure you’re working at 72ppi so my filter settings will work the same for you later in the lesson. Lets leave the background layer white for now and add 2 new layers by hitting the New Layer icon at the bottom of the Layers palette. Name these layers Shape Spice World dvd and halftone respectively because I’ll be referring to the layers by names as we work. Mo’ Better Blues film (*note: If your layers palette isn’t visible, you can open it by choosing Window>Layers from the main menu.) September Dawn movie download My Bloody Valentine video

Step 2

With the Shape layer selected lets draw an object on the stage. For my example I’m going to use the star I use in the PSHERO logo. I’ve made the star into a Custom Shape which I can now retrieve anytime I need to use it by choosing the Custom Shape tool from the tools bar and then selecting the star from the Custom Shape gallery as shown below. Be sure that the Fill Pixels icon is checked.

Step 3

Now I’m going to choose a nice red as my foreground color (#6b120c) and click and drag my shape onto the stage. Remember that by holding down the Shift key you can constrain your shape.

Step 4

Here’s a neat little trick if you ever want to center something to either to whole stage or to the center of any selection: Press Command-A (PC: Ctrl-A) to select the entire canvas. Now switch to the move tool by pressing V. When you switch to the move tool, you will notice a new set of options appear at the top of Photoshop, a few of which are the Align commands. If you press Align Horizontal Centers and Align Vertical Centers icons, your shape will be moved to the exact center of the selection. If you didn’t already know that little trick, I bet you’re doing your happy dance about now… or maybe that’s just me. The Watch hd

Step 5

Ok, enough monkey business, lets get to the meat of our tutorial. Holding down the Command (PC: Ctrl) key, click on the icon in the Shape layer in the Layers palette to load the shape as a selection. From the main menu choose Select>Modify>Expand and when the dialog box pops up enter 10 pixels and press OK. Now feather the selection by choosing Select>Modify>Feather from the main menu. Use a setting of 15 pixels and click OK. (*note: In Photoshop CS2 the feather option is in the main drop down under the Select header in the main menu. In CS3 it was moved to the Select>Modify sub-menu.) The Fisher King move

Step 6

With the selection made, expanded and feathered it’s time to enter Quick Mask Mode by simply pressing the Q key on your keyboard. You’ll notice that everything outside our selection turns pink (because it’s masked) and that because we feathered the selection, the pink mask gradually dissipates as it enters the selection.

Step 7

From the main menu choose Filter>Pixilate>Color halftone and set the Max Radius to 8 pixels and leave the other settings at their default (the default should be 108/162/90/45) and click OK. Now the area where we had our gradient before has been converted to a series of expanding dots (halftone).

Step 8

Exit Quick Mask Mode by pressing the Q key again and instantly the area that was transparent during our masking process is converted into a selection. How awesome is that?

Step 9

In the Layers palette click on the Halftone layer to select it. Press the D key on your keyboard to reset the foreground color to black and then fill the selection by pressing Option-Delete (PC: Alt-Backspace) Press Command-D (PC: Ctrl-D) to deselect. I’m also going to lower the Fill opacity of the Halftone layer to around 30% so the contrast is less harsh.

Step 10 Amityville II: The Possession movie Room at the Top dvdrip

Ok, now that you’ve got the technique down, lets try some other things. Below I’ve opened a photograph, duplicated the background layer which contained the photo and then filled the original background with white. buy Journey to the Center of the Earth

Step 11

Using the Rectangular Marquee tool (keyboard shortcut M) I drug out a nice rectangular selection. (*note: For this example I’m not going to be expanding or feathering the selection.) Syriana video

Step 12

Now press Q to enter Quick Mask Mode, apply the exact same Color Halftone effect as before (*note: You can press Command-F (PC: Ctrl-F) to quickly apply the last filter you used.), then simply press Q again to exit Quick Mask Mode.

Step 13

Old Joy psp Now instead of filling the selection with color, lets press the Create Layer Mask icon at the bottom of the Layers palette to convert the selection to a Layer Mask.

Step 14

Add a little Drop Shadow and an Inner Glow with some creative settings…

Step 15

And you have a creative little edge effect.

Step 16

Try it around text! In this example I used the expand and feather technique from the first exercise.

Step 17

And for my final example I created a Quick Mask with a Reflected Gradient from the center out, then used the Free Transform with Warp turned on in order to bend the halftone into the shape you see in the final image. Broken Trail psp (*note: Because of the broad nature of this tutorial I haven’t included a file for download.)

Source: An Exercise In Quick Masks and Color Halftones

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Source: Photoshop design travel bath sink plug stock graphics in photoshop. | tutorialqueen.com

ฝรั่งเศสได้รับการยอมรับการศึกษาที่มีคุณภาพในศิลปะและวิทยาศาสตร์. ที่ยังไม่ได้ยินของ Sorbonne และประวัติของมันผู้ที่ไม่ได้กล่าวถึงผลกระทบของการปฏิวัติฝรั่งเศสในวัฒนธรรมสมัยใหม่หรือตรวจสอบกับชมเชยความเร็วของ TGV (รถไฟ vitesse แกรนด์) – หนึ่งของฝรั่งเศสสร้างสรรค์เทคโนโลยีล่าสุด? ถ้าคุณกำลังพยายามตัดสินใจว่าฝรั่งเศสเป็นสถานที่ที่เหมาะสำหรับการศึกษามหาวิทยาลัยของคุณคุณควรตรวจสอบข้อมูลต่อไปนี้.

1. มหาวิทยาลัยเทียบกับเฉพาะโรงเรียน

มหาวิทยาลัยมีหลักสูตรปริญญาตรีในสาขาและช่อง – วิจัยวิชาการและวิชาชีพ. ในปีการศึกษา 2002-2003 มหาวิทยาลัยฝรั่งเศสเรียนกว่า 1.5 ล้านนักเรียน. นักศึกษาต่างชาติได้ถึง 10 เปอร์เซ็นต์ของทั้งหมด enrollments. เนื่องจากมหาวิทยาลัยของฝรั่งเศสเป็นสถาบันสาธารณะสมัครเปิดให้นักเรียนถือฝรั่งเศสรับปริญญาตรีหรือเทียบเท่าปริญญาที่ช่วยให้คุณสามารถเริ่มต้นการศึกษามหาวิทยาลัยในบ้านของคุณๆประเทศ (เช่นประกาศนียบัตรโรงเรียนสูง Bachillerato, etc).

โรงเรียนเฉพาะสามารถสาธารณะหรือเอกชนแต่แตกต่างหลักระหว่างนี้และมหาวิทยาลัยเป็นที่โรงเรียนจะเลือกเฉพาะใน admissions และสมัครนักเรียนไกลน้อยกว่ามหาวิทยาลัย. พวกเขามักจะฝึกอบรมนักศึกษาเพื่อสมัครงานวิศวกรรมการจัดการศิลปะสถาปัตยกรรมและด้านอื่นๆ. Grandes écoles โรงเรียนพิเศษที่เลือกมาก. การจัดการให้มากและโปรแกรมวิศวกรรมที่เตรียมบัณฑิตของอุตสาหกรรมการแข่งขัน. โปรแกรมเหล่านี้มีชื่อเสียงมากและถือว่าสูงในฝรั่งเศสและทั่วโลก.

2. โรงเรียนบริหาร

ฝรั่งเศสมีประมาณ 230 โรงเรียนเอกชนของธุรกิจและการจัดการหลายที่ร่วมห้องสำนักงานทนายความของการค้าและอุตสาหกรรม. นักศึกษาต่างชาติที่จบสองปีของการศึกษา postsecondary สามารถสมัครเข้า, นั่งสำหรับการสอบเข้าและใน 3 ปีได้รับปริญญาธุรกิจ.จบแล้วสามารถสมัคร MBA หรือปริญญาโทเฉพาะของ.

หมู่ที่ดีที่สุดที่รู้จักกันโรงเรียนของธุรกิจและการจัดการ École des Hautes Études Commerciales, เรียก HEC, École Supérieure de Commerce de Paris (ESCP-EAP) เป็น, École Supérieure nationale de Sciences Économiques et Commerciales (ESSEC), École des Hautes Études Commerciales du Nord (EDHEC), École de Management de Lyon (em Lyon) และ INSEAD.

MBA ในประเทศฝรั่งเศส

Master of Businessโปรแกรมบริหารเป็นที่นิยมมากในฝรั่งเศส. ในความเป็นจริงบางด้านบน International Business โรงเรียนที่อยู่ในประเทศนี้. หลายโปรแกรม MBA ฝรั่งเศสจะสอนภาษาอังกฤษ. ชั้นเรียนมักจะมีนักเรียนจากหลายชาติ. เข้ามากเลือกและมักจะมีการสอบ TOEFL และ GMAT สำหรับภาษาอังกฤษที่ใช้โปรแกรม. บางโปรแกรมอาจต้องสัมภาษณ์.

3. โรงเรียนวิศวกรรม

ฝรั่งเศสมีประมาณ 240 โรงเรียนวิศวกรรมรัฐและเอกชน. ให้ทั้งหมดdiplôme d'ingénieur, ระดับปริญญาโทที่ใช้เวลา 5 ปีให้เสร็จสมบูรณ์. แต่ละโรงเรียนมี specialties ของตนเอง. แต่ละโรงเรียนยังมีความต้องการใช้ที่แตกต่างกันแต่เหล่านี้มักจะรวมไฟล์ใบสมัคร, สอบคัดเลือกและสอบสัมภาษณ์. นักเรียนที่มีถึง 4 ปีการศึกษามหาวิทยาลัยสามารถสมัครเป็นนักศึกษาโอน.

ระดับปริญญาโท

โรงเรียนให้ 1 ปีเฉพาะ mastère วิศวกรรม. ต้องการรับสมัครสำหรับโปรแกรมนี้รวม diplômed'ingénieur หรือ 5 ปีการศึกษา postsecondary. ประมาณ 20 โรงเรียนนำเสนอ diplôme d'ingénieur spécialisation de. นักเรียน 5 ปีการศึกษา postsecondary อาจได้รับปริญญานี้เฉพาะใน 1 ปี. นักเรียน 4 ปีอาจได้รับใน 2. โปรแกรมเหล่านี้เป็นที่นิยมมากกับนักศึกษาต่างชาติเนื่องจากพวกเขาสามารถรองรับผู้ถือของ 4 องศาปี.

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นักเรียนอาจได้รับปริญญาเอกด้านวิศวกรรมหลัง 3 ปีของการทำงานประสบความสำเร็จในห้องปฏิบัติการวิศวกรรมโรงเรียนมักจะร่วมกับอุตสาหกรรม.

4. การเลือกและการสมัคร Academic Program

คุณสามารถค้นหาโปรแกรมวิชาการโดยแวะไปที่เว็บไซต์ต่อไปนี้: ข่าวล่าสุด Search. เมื่อคุณเลือกโปรแกรมที่เหมาะสมน้อยคุณจะต้องกรอกใบสมัคร. นี้สามารถทำได้ในกรณีส่วนใหญ่ผ่าน CampusFrance หรือติดต่อโดยตรงโรงเรียน. ต้องการรับสมัครแตกต่างกันสำหรับโปรแกรมแต่ละสถาบันแต่ส่วนมากตัดสินใจเข้าเป็นได้ในเดือนมิถุนายนไม่กี่เดือนก่อนปีการศึกษาจะเริ่มในเดือนกันยายน.

5. สถานที่และค่าใช้จ่าย

ตำแหน่งของโปรแกรมของคุณเป็นหนึ่งในปัจจัยสำคัญที่สุดในการเลือกโปรแกรมการศึกษา. เฉลี่ยค่าใช้จ่ายอาศัยอยู่ในฝรั่งเศสจำนวนถึง 1,000 ยูโรต่อเดือน. แต่คุณต้องทราบว่าค่าครองชีพในกรุงปารีสอยู่มากสูงกว่าค่าใช้จ่ายในภูมิภาคอื่นๆ. มีหลายพื้นที่ดังนั้นในฝรั่งเศสมี – คุณสามารถเลือกที่จะอยู่ใกล้ทะเลเมดิเตอร์เรเนียนใน Nice หรือในเมืองสงบเงียบของ Lille – ชั่วโมงจากปารีส. CampusFrance, ก่อการนำการศึกษาที่สูงขึ้นในฝรั่งเศสกล่าวว่า

"ปารีสไม่ได้ผูกขาดในการศึกษาคุณภาพสูง. กรุณาสังเกตว่าขณะนี้เกือบจะไม่สามารถที่จะหาที่พักราคาถูกในปารีส. ตลอดหนึ่งประเทศพบสถาบันการศึกษาของกิตติสูงในฟิลด์ทั้งหมด. และมหาวิทยาลัยไม่เพียงแต่; ในความเป็นจริงมากที่สุดโรงเรียนของธุรกิจและจำนวนโรงเรียนวิศวกรรมด้านบนอยู่นอกปารีส.

เรียนเฉลี่ยโปรแกรมมหาวิทยาลัยประมาณ 300 ยูโรต่อปีการศึกษา. ในโรงเรียนของรัฐวิศวกรรมเรียนปีประมาณ 600 ยูโร. เรียนที่สถาบันอื่นๆโดยเฉพาะโรงเรียนธุรกิจมีมากขึ้น. ติดต่อโรงเรียนธุรกิจโดยตรงสำหรับข้อมูลเกี่ยวกับค่าเล่าเรียน.

6. วีซ่านักเรียน

นักเรียนเข้าโดยสถาบันการศึกษาจะได้รับจดหมายที่จะเปิดให้ยื่นคำร้องขอวีซ่านักเรียนได้ที่สถานกงสุลฝรั่งเศสในประเทศของพวกเขา. (ชาติของประเทศสมาชิกสหภาพยุโรปไม่จำเป็นต้องมีวีซ่า). นักเรียนจากนอกยุโรปที่มีการวางแผนในการศึกษาในฝรั่งเศสนานกว่า 6 เดือนต้องได้รับวีซ่านักเรียน.

CapusFrance ข้อเสนอเหล่านี้ 3 ชิ้นสำคัญของคำแนะนำ:

1 – วีซ่าท่องเที่ยวไม่สามารถเปลี่ยนเป็นวีซ่านักเรียนในประเทศฝรั่งเศสหรือในประเทศอื่นๆของสหภาพยุโรป.

2 – ถ้าคุณวางแผนที่สมบูรณ์ทั้งสองโปรแกรมในการสืบมรดก (เช่นโปรแกรมในภาษาฝรั่งเศสเป็นภาษาต่างประเทศตามด้วยการศึกษาโปรแกรม) ได้รับการตอบรับกับโปรแกรมทั้งก่อนการยื่นขอวีซ่าของคุณเพื่อให้วีซ่าของคุณจะถูกต้องสำหรับระยะเวลาของการศึกษา. วีซ่าฝรั่งเศสไม่สามารถขยายในประเทศฝรั่งเศส.

3 – นักศึกษาต่างชาติของประเทศทั้งหมด (ยกเว้นชาติสหภาพยุโรป) ที่อาศัยอยู่ในฝรั่งเศสนานกว่า 3 เดือนต้องได้รับอนุญาตให้นักเรียนที่อยู่ (ซึ่งแตกต่างจากวีซ่า) ภายในสองเดือนมาถึงพวกเขาในประเทศฝรั่งเศส.

7. ทำงานในประเทศฝรั่งเศส

ต่างประเทศนักเรียนสามารถทำงานในประเทศฝรั่งเศสถ้าพวกเขามีอยู่อนุญาตและลงทะเบียนเรียนในสถาบันที่ร่วมในแผนสุขภาพนักเรียนของระบบการคุ้มครองทางสังคมฝรั่งเศส (Sécurité Sociale). กฎหมายฝรั่งเศสอนุญาตให้นักศึกษาต่างชาติสามารถทำงานนอกเวลา (19.5 ชั่วโมงต่อสัปดาห์) ระหว่างปีการศึกษาและเต็มเวลาในช่วงพักผ่อน. ค่าจ้างรายชั่วโมงต่ำสุดในฝรั่งเศสเป็น 8.27 ยูโรรวมก่อนภาษีใด.

กฎหมายแรงงานฝรั่งเศสสถานะต่อไปนี้: "ตามสภาพการจ้างงานให้บุคคลที่ไม่ใช่พลเมืองฝรั่งเศสต้องถือใบอนุญาตทำงานถูกต้อง. นักเรียนที่ประสงค์จะทำงานจ่ายต้องได้รับอนุมัติการจ้างงานชั่วคราว. (นักเรียนเศรษฐกิจยุโรป Zone, แอลจีเรีย และโตโกได้รับการยกเว้นจากข้อกำหนดนี้.) ติดต่อนักศึกษาต่างชาติอย่างเป็นทางการที่โรงเรียนของคุณสำหรับข้อมูลเพิ่มเติม.

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The copyright of all photos is owned by Feathers By Angel LLC. Permission to republish our photos- in print, online, or any other form, must be granted by the owner or our assigned agent in writing.

I was kind of confused about the way tuxpaint handles backgrounds.  They’re really supposed to be sort of paint-by-number kinds of things, so they’re actually *foregrounds*.  That’s why all the hats appear behind the city.

With fascinators still being a large trend in bridal fashion for both brides and ‘maids, it’s no wonder that Jade Rose Couture has caught my eye. With retro birdcage veils, floral pins, and funky feather hairpieces, all of the ladies of the day can add a dose of fabulous whimsy to their big day ‘do.

Click here to view the collections and shop online.

The feather… …. is dead. You are most welcome. Now about my fee….

mah furst kill wuz free.

Picture by: Peter Hasselbom Caption by: Desami via Advanced Lol Builder

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You’ve heard them singing carols in the office.  You’ve heard them karaoke down the pub. This is the best time of year to decide which of your colleagues merits the last phrase of the offering formula:

maa-kheru; true of voice.

We’ve had kheru, voice, before.  It was in the complex little group of signs which make up the standard phrase for “an invocation offering of bread and beer”:

where “invocation” is literally “that which comes forth by the voice”.  And there’s kheru, right in the middle of the group, like a wooden spoon ready for stirring the pudding (which would make the other signs a chopping board, a bag of flour and a bottle of brandy in seasonal montage straight out of the Lakeland kitchenware catalogue.  Except they’re not.)  But you know it’s an oar, and the other signs are a house, a loaf of bread (naturally) a jug of beer and the invisible owl.

So now we have the oar again, twice in one formula.  They did like sticking their oar in, the ancient Egyptians.  But what’s the first sign,

maa?  A doorstop?  An eraser? Nothing so mundane.  The wedge-shaped sign maa (very easy to draw) represents a platform or pedestal, as here supporting a figure of the god Ptah (from Tutankhamun’s tomb furniture):

(Ok, you could use him as a door wedge, I’ll give you that.  But he would be far from mundane.  There could be a whole interior design industry in this for someone – and that someone will need an office, and that office will need hieroglyphs…. I must stop getting carried away.) 

Back to maa - the pedestal has that distinctive shape because it in turn is a representation of nothing less than the primeval mound; the first bit of land to appear from out of the waters of chaos at the very creation of the world.  The Egyptians were used to seeing mounds of land rise from the water every year, as the floodwaters of the Nile receded after the annual inundation, leaving behind fertile silt which they could cultivate.  (So, we have to assume that Ptah is standing on a little island, with the waters of the primeval ocean lapping almost at his feet, at the bottom of the little slipway on his pedestal.)  The Egyptians assumed that this was how the gods had first created the land on which they lived.  To them, this pristine terra firma meant the world the way the gods had created it, the way the world was meant to be.  Maa meant “true” or “right” or “just” in the sense of  ”the proper order of things”.

Here is an example of the maa kheru group in a  carved relief:

 True of voice:  the “of” is unwritten but understood from the construction.  The maa hieroglyph is easy to draw:  a thin rectangle with one slanting short side.

But if our tomb owner Senusret was “true of voice”, what did that mean?  They didn’t have karaoke in the netherworld, did they?  No.  It was much worse than that.  To get into the Egyptian afterlife, you had to win the divine version of the X Factor.

Anyone who thinks the X Factor is hell on earth will get the idea of the Egyptian afterlife.  If life on earth was Round 1, to go forward to the afterlife or Round 2, you had to impress a panel of judges.  Here’s a scene from the show:

On the left,we have the tomb owner being led onstage by his divine sponsor, the god Anubis.  In the middle, the scene shows an early version of the machine used to record the audience’s verdict.  Back then, in the days before electronic voting buttons, they used a weighing scale.  In the right-hand pan of the scale is a feather, representing truth, order, justice and all those primeval virtues.  In the left is the tomb owner’s heart.

On the right of the scene, in their own special booth, sit the judges:  Osiris, the Simon Cowell of the underworld, sits on his throne, backed by two divas of the day, the goddesses Isis and Nephthys then, and fronted by four lesser judges, his own four sons, who stand on a lotus blossom.

The format of the show is this:  to qualify for the next round of existence, the tomb owner has to declare that he has led a good life on earth.  But just saying so is not enough; he has to prove it.  To test whether or not he is speaking the truth, the gods weigh his heart against the feather.  If his heart is not weighed down by sin and falsehood, it will balance the feather and he will be let through to the next round.  If it is heavier than the feather, it will be thrown to the crocodile-headed she-monster waiting by the weighing scale, (her name is Devourer-of-Hearts, but let’s call her Anne) and the tomb owner will be thrown off the programme – you are the weakest link, goodbye.  That won’t happen, though, because in the finest traditions of audience voting reality TV, Anubis is rigging the result by fixing the scale.  The Ibis-headed god Thoth is standing by like the Lottery adjudicator to verify the outcome.  And sure enough, Anubis is conducting the tomb owner, who has been proven to be speaking the truth, to Simon, sorry, Osiris, who declares him fit to go forward to the final. 

And ever after, our tomb owner is known as “true of voice”, as a sign that he has passed the test and successfully entered the next world.

So there we are:  at the end of the offering formula.  You know it all now:

Hetep di nesu Usir neb Djedu, netjer aa, neb Abju, di ef peret-kheru (em) te henqet, kau apedu, shes menkhet, khet nebet nefret ankhet netjer im, en ka en imakhy Senusret, maa-kheru.

“An offering which the King gives (to) Osiris Lord of Busiris, the great god, Lord of Abydos, that he may give invocation-offerings (consisting of) bread, and beer, meat and fowl, alabaster and clothing, and all good and pure things by which a god lives, to the ka of the Revered One, Senusret, True of Voice.”

How’s that for a Christmas list?

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It’s Amazing What Can Be found On Etsy

Check My Faves Out

]]> http://waterfriend.wordpress.com/2009/12/20/birds-nests/ Sun, 20 Dec 2009 15:05:24 +0000 waterfriend http://waterfriend.wordpress.com/2009/12/20/birds-nests/

Crows’ nest is just a few dry sticks and leaves, somehow arranged on the small branches of tall trees. From the terrace of a five storey building I used to watch it from very close. There is a saying in Malayalam: like a crow’s nest.

Then there is the nest of the tailor bird. Now I do not see it. It is something of a marvel. Hanging from the branch of a tree, it is safe from snakes etc. which eat the eggs. Inside the chamber, it is furnished with soft material like feather etc. Even in rain and wind, the young ones are well protected. I wonder if we can imitate it, with artificial materials for our stay in forests, infested with elephants etc.   We can comfortably watch tigers and bear etc from close quarters.

Narayana pakshi, I think it is the swallow, makes its nest inside the room in old houses. It brings a small ball of mud and sticks it on the roof (ceiling. Then it goes out and brings another which is attached to the first one. Slowly and patiently, it goes on doing it, keeping in its mind the final shape of the nest, with a window one side ! Such architectural skill, similar to the tailor birds’, with very strong structure, is something to wonder at  !

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After several months on vacation, I feel like I’m still needing rest, particularly in the past week. My eyes have taken on a life of their own, and they are, slowly but surely, losing that very life. While that happens, I try desperately to regain control of them, to stay awake during the day.

All right, enough drama.

On Sunday night, I logged on to website of the credit company, the one that’s putting me through college without hassle. They recently implemented this “virtual certificate” thing that would be as easy as downloading and printing instead of the usual, which is to go there and receive it in person. The instructions for obtaining the certificate are easy enough: log on with the password given, download the certificate, press “Print”. Too bad I could only get as far as step one.

I was looking at an empty page. There was supposed to be a file there, which I could easily download, print and take to college to be quickly processed. But there was no such file. I had not yet ensured my stay in college for the upcoming “four-mester”, because I had not yet paid by showing them that piece of paper that currently takes the place of money.

The next day, Monday, I called the credit company. I was given an e-mail by the nice lady from customer service, to which I would send my credit account information. I didn’t get the address right the first time, so, when the message kept getting rejected from two different mail accounts, I began to feel that my luck was worse than I imagined. This problem just didn’t want to be solved.

Thankfully, I called again and the customer support lady sent me a message to which I could reply. I saw that I got the address wrong, because the hissing from the phone can cause things to not sound as they should.

After a while, I got a reply. Turns out that their system thought that I was finishing college in December. That is, now. I’m not, obviously. I had to call someone else to inquire about an extension to my credit time. After making the call, the lady who answered told me that I had to write a short letter (“Dear nice credit company people …”) requesting those additional months and provide a summarized grade report of my college career thus far. Done and done.

I dreaded going out, as usual, but I had no choice. Like before, public transport wasn’t the most appropriate method of getting there, so I took my time and walked … fast. When I got there, I met the lady from customer service, who, after saying “No problem” to my apologies for being such a bother, told me that I had to go to the second floor and give my papers to the other lady, the one who told me about the letter and the grade report. I planned on using the elevator but I noticed that it wouldn’t go below the third floor. I took the stairs instead.

After delivering the papers, I was sent downstairs again to pay a certain amount of money that I was also asked to bring. Being too nice, I asked the cashier if she preferred credit card or cash. I already had the cash in my hand, because I knew the answer. Once I paid, I was supposed to take the receipt upstairs. As I headed for the stairs, I saw a man standing in front of the elevator, waiting. I walked in front of him and uttered “Stairs are healthy”, to which he replied “Is that so?” as the door the the staircase closed behind me.

I delivered the receipt, and the lady said that I would be getting a call the day after or sometime after that. College weighs heavier on my mind as days go by, so I wasn’t able to sleep much, waiting for that call. A whole day went by, so I called yesterday, and they told me that it doesn’t take too many days to process such a request and that I’d be getting that call. My father also went there, even though I told him not to, to pressure them a little. We have different kinds of patience, he and I. While I mostly lose my patience when deadlines approach, he tends to become impatient when too many things go wrong at the same time (well … I can also really lose it in such a case, so I got a really bad patience deal). Otherwise, he remains calm, and he calmly went there to help me a bit.

My father gave me the name of the second-floor lady, which I already knew (that’s how I guessed that he went there), and told me to call her. As I didn’t remember the extension to her office, which seemed to be missing from their answering service, and there was an ongoing power outage, I told myself that I would call the next day, which is today.

I called in the morning, and I was told that it –my request– was being processed, but the person who had to sign it wasn’t there. A while later, I got another call about the request letter I had written, and something about the monograph, the January-April period, and there was even a mention of the month of May. I didn’t fully understand what the second-floor lady meant, but she said that she’d take care of it, so I just said “Okay” and hung up.

In the afternoon, I called a few more times. When I finally got a hold of them, the second-floor lady told me to call her tomorrow morning (yet another night of not sleeping well) to see if my certificate, presumably non-virtual, is ready. I generally pay the entire college term on the first pay date, so it pains me that it has gone by and my place in the upcoming monograph course has not been set in stone as usual. I’ve got until Saturday, but I’m wondering what would’ve happened if I had not find out about my December time limit as soon as I did. I was perhaps a bit too confident about my remaining college time going so well that I didn’t consider something like this happening. Good thing I acted semi-quickly.

By the way … on Monday, an hour or two after my going to the credit place, there was another college meeting, where the courses were announced. Graphic design students will only take two courses, neither of them being what I voted for. We’ll be taking corporate image design (again) and web “programming”. Those are things I tried to stay away from.

I put programming in quotes, because it will likely be Dreamweaver again, and it seems like a safe bet to say that we’ll be looking more at the WYSIWYG mode instead of the actual code. While such a mode may work well, I’d much rather make pages from scratch instead of dealing with the messy code generated by visual editing. Makes for a cleaner, more understandable result when you know how your site is built. As for corporate image design, we’ve seen that too many times already. I guess the whole voting thing from the previous meeting was just to make us feel special or something like that.

Our course teachers are from outside of college, as they cannot be ones with whom we’ve already taken classes. According to the woman who preceded the meeting, they had to be people with “more field experience and less teaching experience” (oh, yay) and they will be “our contact with the world out there”. Just what we need? I didn’t recognize any of the names she gave us, so our “teachers” are, in fact, complete strangers. How lucky are we, reader?

Anyway, I’m keeping my fingers crossed for tomorrow, which makes it a bit difficult to type. If I can finally pay the upcoming final term in its entirety, my mind will be almost as light as a feather.

Last night I was relaxing away, painting my nails and putting on some tan (work xmas party tonight, thought Id better get semi-presentable) and drinking a glass of Brown Brothers 2000 Cab Sav (good stuff!!)…. as the hours wore on I found myself tiring of watching Sex & The City so logged on to browse around a few of my favourite sites (mainly facebook, ebay, hotmail, forever21).

During a routine stop by at Forever 21, I was annoyed to see a whole bunch of new items – this annoyed me as I’d only placed an order 3 days ago. I didnt really intend to place another order but it just kind of happened that way (I totally blame the wine).  I was making up my cart, a fave thing I enjoy doing just browsing and seeing how much the items would come to when I realised this stuff was awesome and I pretty much had to buy it.  I only brought 3 things, as the shipping is kind of costly I did browse around hoping to find more but really 3 things was all I loved.

I was wrapt with these 3 things, especially the headband (it is in Diva for $17.99, I considered buying it for a split second the other day)

 Lace Babydoll dress - $19.80

 Soldierette Tux Blazer – $29.80

 Headband – $3.80

• New PJ’s and a nice long cotton robe
• New Overnight bag (for small adventures that are too big for my keepall)
• Apple AV Connector (to watch the DL’ed TV shows from my iPhone on my tv) – wrapt when I found out this was possible

On another note, the Vintage coat I blogged about the other day arrived yesterday.  It was a total dissapointment. It was not at all a coat, more like an oversized shirt with buttons…. It should be illegal to post items for sale on eBay with only one picture, coz people like me created ideas in their heads of what they SHOULD look like and then are totally dissapointed.  If anyone wants to buy the coat Ill sell it for $20 and include free postage, if not – its either a return to the seller (which I doubt they will allow) or a repost on eBay. Its not ugly, its just not what I imagined. I hate when that happens.

Tonight is the work Xmas party, time to don my outfit from a few posts ago….. I havent even given in a trial yet – I tend to find that trials leave room for further contemplation and then end up changing the whole outfit, so Ive decided Ill give myself 10 minutes to get dressed before I have to go and then I cant change a thing, although I must remember that I did try that last year and I ended up arriving 20 minutes late to the party in a totally unhappy outfit that annoyed me all night, therefore degrading my mood completely. Meh, why do companies have work parties anyway – no one ever wants to go!

Peace and Happy Shopping.

xoxo

This year’s Christmas decor at our house is looking pretty similar to last year.  But, I did add one project, which didn’t turn out quite as planned, so I need all of your help!

Here is our tree, similar to last year, but always fun!

Here is the feather boa wreath- also always fun!

And the new project for the year was clear ornaments with the blue and peacock feathers in them for the table.  (Very cute when Rachel Ray did it!) My problem is that the ornaments were too large to fit more than a few in the cake stand.  Also, the feather look a bit blah to me.  What do you all think?  Hunt down smaller ornaments?  Different feathers?  New vase/plate?  Hmm…

Let me know what you think!

fethers… yum.

Hint: This is NOT the Upper Peninsula, I can guarantee it.

This blog is dedicated to the many readers who randomly discovered this blog by utilizing a search engine.  You know who you are.  The reader who types in “close up pictures of puddles” or “never mind what I have posted yesterday” or “cauliflower brocoli salad” and end up on this blog. 

WordPress.com gives us all sorts of statistics, and search engine statistics are some of the funniest.  You wonder why in the world people would type in “people running in snow filled night”.  You sometimes even make up funny stories about it. 

I am here to tell you the all-time top searches that resulted in finding this outdoor blog during the 365 day commitment.  Are you ready?   (Don’t tell me you already can figure it out, based on the title!) 

The first and third top searches were status quo.  Centria.wordpress.com and Opening the door, Walking Outside were to be expected.  But who would have thought that 111 hits have resulted from the search “Palm Trees”?? 

Look at that palm tree blow!

(For all you new or itinerant visitors, the palm tree photos came from a trip to Fort Myers Beach, Florida, back in late March.) 

Search Term #4:  wood splitter.  Well, this is a perfect Yooper (Upper Peninsula) search engine term.  And do we know about wood splitters!  We are expert wood splitters.  (I can say this with assurance after a whole year of operating the lever.  We have not split off any fingers or other accessories and hopefully we never will.  Perhaps I should leave out the word “expert”.  Let’s substitute “experienced” wood splitters.) 

My husband with our lovely wood splitter (back in April)

Search engine term #5:  Sand movement on Lake Superior.  I am curious about that one.  Eighty seven hits followed these words.  Were they all the same person?  Is there a group of sand movement analysts?  Did my blog offer them anything concrete for their research?  (metaphorically speaking, of course…) 

Sand movement on Lake Superior. In and out, and out and in...

Then we have the feather-searchers.  Eighty two feather searchers have landed on this blog.  I have posted a few photos of feathers, and we have lots of birds in the Upper Peninsula, that’s for sure.  Here is one of my favorites from late June: 

Bald eagle tail feather in the sand

#7 search engine term:  dead bird.  Hmmm….  Sixty two views on this post from searching for “dead bird”.  Unfortunately, my own search on this blog did not find a photo of a dead bird.  They apparently had more luck.  I have a vague memory of photographing a dead–maybe–robin or chickadee in the yard.  But neither my memory nor the blog search engine could discover it.  It’s hiding somewhere in this year-long blog.  Fifty cents to the avid blog reader who can find it!  Just kidding! 

#8 (and we’ll stop here):  the infamous Vegetable Scraps!  I have told you before that searchers keep landing on this blog seeking Vegetable Scraps.  Maybe they are looking for soup recipes.  Maybe they want to make brocoli-cauliflower salad. Instead they arrive at a photo of scraps we throw out for the deer during the winter time.  I thought this photo back in January looked almost artistic. 

The infamous vegetable scraps

If you have a blog for two or three or more years, the search engine hits can reach into the thousands, so I’m told.  It’s odd to think that years down the road people may still be typing in “palm trees” and arriving at this Upper Peninsula of Michigan 365-day outdoor commitment blog. 

For any of you who are reading this post (having typed in palm trees, wood splitters, sand movement on Lake Superior, feather, dead bird and vegetable scraps) I have a little note for you: 

Sorry I missed you!

P.S.  very cold today for the outdoor adventure.  Eleven freezing degrees.  It took three trips in and out the front door to fulfill the commitment.  In and out…kind of like sand movement on Lake Superior…

One macro lens, one feather, one drop of water and a bit of glitter glue.

My blog is two months old today. Yeah!