A Tale of Three Pictures

For the last few weeks on Facebook, there's been this photo challenge.  The challenge entails posting 7 black and white pictures of your everyday life - with no people in them - and then tagging a new friend each day to do the same.  Of course I assumed I'd eventually get tagged and because I'm a sucker, I knew I'd have to go for it.  Today, I'm 3 days in.  Now, the other part of the challenge is that you're not supposed to comment on the photos at all on Facebook.  But I love the stories behind pictures just as much as I love photos, so I'm going to tell you the tales of the first 3, even if they're not entirely exciting...

Photo 1 - Day 4 of a 4 day Adobe InDesign Class.  It was a long week, but it was also pretty great.  I learned a lot about the product, which I'm hoping will mean lots of opportunities in print and print production around the corner.  And of course, the banana is there because I love bananas and that was half of my breakfast.  : )

Photo 2 - The front page of my December Daily album this year. Yes I realize it's only October, but the only way I can stay on top of December Daily is by pre-doing a lot of the inserts.  Also, I LOVE the way it turned out.  This has been the cutest year so far for this scrapbook - even without any photos added.

Photo 3 - St. Mary's church in Annapolis MD.  Such a beautiful church inside and out.  I just couldn't resist a fun uppy shot of the steeple!

Learning Things

Today was the first day of 2 classes that I'm taking.  And after 8 hours of learning things in 2 different classrooms - for the first time in about 10 years - I have to say I'm exhausted.  However, I loved both of the classes and I loved learning new things.  I'm one of those nerds that gets excited about taking classes.  I'm usually all for taking classes in things that have no bearing on what I'm doing right now. Though that gets a bit pricey, so I only actually take classes for my job or a future job.

In today's instance, the first class was on InDesign.  This program may help with my job, but the best part is that it will help with a possible new job in Publishing which is something I'd love to get into.

The second class is on Interior Design which is the first in a group of classes I'm taking in Theatre Design.  Hopefully this will help in writing about theatre and may possibly take off into a future in the theatre.  

The problem is that both classes are super interesting, but neither actually work together in regards to a new job.  For now, I'm loving just learning all the stuff.  Though, I'm still not sure I'm good at either of the subjects...Fingers crossed, aside from any future jobs, I'll at least do well.  

Currently...

~ Super pleased with myself that I just figured out how to create a quiz in Adobe Captivate, all by myself in only an hour.  I thought it would take me to Friday, but I knocked that sucker out tonight.  Woohoo!

~ Rocking out to Bruce Springsteen's new single off his new album, thanks to The Good Wife. Haven't been a big fan of his new stuff in the last few years but "High Hopes" is fabulous!

~ Super excited that in about 5 minutes time, I will get to snuggle under the nice warm blankets and fall blissfully asleep for the next 7.5 hours.  I have no idea why but it's been such a struggle to keep my eyes open today.  I've been looking forward to my bed since I left it this morning.

~ Looking forward to the new EW magazine that hits newstands tomorrow - or so I've been told.  A certain famous deducing detective made the cover, and it's pretty exciting stuff!

~ Craving some craft time.  I've loads of ideas in my head right now, but I've been so sleepy or involved in other things to get them accomplished.  After the Christmas decorations come down on Saturday (yes, it's January 15 and they're still up - don't judge), I plan to give me some me time in the craft room.

~ Hoping to finish up "A Fork in the Road" tomorrow, to move on to yet another food book in the stack of food books that have invaded my bookshelf.  The goal is to finish 36 books this year (2 down - 34 to go after tomorrow!)

~ Staring at the pretty pink fingernails (yes, that's right, I said fingernails for the first time ever!) that are on my fingers right now.  If all goes according to plan, I'll be having my first ever manicure in about 2 weeks time.  One resolution down, just a few more to go.

~  Dreaming about the hand pulled noodles I will finally get the chance to devour at the new Chinese restaurant we read about today.  Dad-Daughter Foodie date tomorrow night - Can't wait!

Sunday Snippets

~ After spending 3 paragraphs ranting on the merits of Adobe Captivate, well, I'm a bit more captivated this evening after realizing all the craziness that I was seeing, was actually caused by me and not the actual program...So there's that.

~ Still flabbergasted over the ending of Sherlock we've waited 2 years for.  After 717 days, it was over within 12 days. Sad but completely, and utterly fantastic!  I'm just hoping I won't be waiting until 2016 for the reslolution.

~ Giving Hollywood royalty liquor then expecting them to make sense when they've received an award just seems like a bad idea.  Also, the Hollywood Foreign Press is way off base on the winners of these awards!

~ Now that I have the beginnings of finger nails for the first time ever in my 30 years, I've sort of become obsessed with painting them.  I think I've blown through 5 different colors in the last 5 days...

~ Off to finally see Frankenstein in DC tomorrow.  Slightly worried that I'll be a bit of a wimp but it's Benedict Cumberbatch and Jonny Lee Miller!  How could you not want to see it?!

So Not Captivated

I consider myself to be a fairly technologically savvy person.  I can't create an app or code a website, but give me some time I can figure out most programs for myself.  However, for some reason, Adobe products completely confound me!  I've taken a few lynda.com courses on Photoshop but I still haven't been able to figure out my Photoshop Elements.  I think I've got it, then of course I go ahead and do it and absolutely NO-thing happens!  

For the last few weeks, I've been working on a course in Adobe Captivate.  I gave myself some extra time, so I could play with the program.  I figured out how to import a PowerPoint all by my lonesome.  I added interactives, shapes and graphics.  Everything was working perfectly. But today, I attempt to preview all the beautifully working elements I've added and ZIP. Every one of the interactives is broken.  Buttons disappear, font goes back to original and shapes fade away.  In other words, it turns into basically a really slow slide show.  Awesome.

Not only do I not know how to fix anything, but I also have no idea how to start from the beginning and make the issues not happen again.  Considering I wanted to hand it in by tomorrow morning, I'd say I was a little stressed out.  So much for a relaxing Sunday!

Adobe Newbie

After months and months (ok, probably about a year or so) of waffling back and forth on whether or not I was a Photoshop girl, I still haven't decided yet I suppose.  I'm so indecisive!  I got lucky and received Photoshop Elements 12 for Christmas (Thanks buds!) so I suppose it was sort of decided for me. And I spent the day researching all sorts of digital scrapbooking goodies on Project Life, Pinterest, and Etsy. Needless to say, I couldn't wait to get home to install the program and get started.  

Well the program is installed and...and...and...I haven't a clue what the heck I'm doing! I took a few classes on lynda.com a few months ago on Adobe and remember thinking it was intense then, but I assumed I'd remember some tips and tricks so I could at least upload a picture or 2.  Yeah, not so much... The worst part about this is that I have all these nifty free downloads and templates to start playing with and I can't even figure those out.  

Thankfully, DigitalProjectLife.com has anticipated these little intricacies of Adobe, and has provided a link to JessicaSprague.com which not only has classes for Photoshop Elements but also nifty Scrapbooking courses for Wacom tablets - of which I have also no idea how to use. Thank God for technology!

My New Toy

This is my new toy.  The Canon Rebel T3.  Ain't it pretty? ; )

 

With this super-cool, light-weight little baby I have high hopes of one day being paid to take pictures like this:

Though, until I master all the bells and whistles (way more buttons than my old stand-by point and shoot1) or install the drivers and all the other technological like stuff that comes with it AND I purchase Photoshop (which I'm sure comes in handy when selling amazing shots), I suppose I'll settle for shots like this:

Visually Interesting, though not nearly as impressive

 

Can't wait to get going and start learning - I have some very specific plans to get on with! 



Friday Five

1. Neapolitan Bundt Cake: O-M-G! I should have taken a picture of this amazing dessert.  It was almost too pretty to eat...almost.  The cake was unbelievably delicious and made by my personal chef...my dad.  Absolutely To Die For!

2. Nicole's Classes: I've been dying to learn how to use Photoshop and InDesign and this looks like the perfect way to do so.  I can't wait to take the class!  It seems so much easier and much more comfortable than having to actually get to a classroom.

3. Re-reading a great book.  I read "A Cook's Tour" by Anthony Bourdain when it first came out and LOVED it, just like I've loved everything he's written since.  But I'd forgotten just how good it is.  He's said that for his first book, he sold his soul to the devil, the devil being the Food Network.  Which may be so, but I still find it entertaining as heck.  He's since gotten a little more hard-core in his writing, which doesn't bother me but it's fairly refreshing to read without having to gloss over the F-bombs.

4. A newly organized room and closet.  This is such an OCD thing to get excited about I know, but it's so nice to see that my tiny extra room isn't so tiny when not filled with crap.  Thanks to my wonderfully clean-freak mom, I can actually sleep in the bed now that I can reach it.

5. This article.  I admittedly knew nothing of this child and her mother until last week.  In the age of childood obesity, this little girl's mother should be locked up for child endangerment in the least, abuse at the most.  I agree wholeheartedly with what this reporter said and wish more people thought like that!  If they did, these shows may not ever make it to air.