The Time Sink

...and in general news: today was year-end inventory at work; the counting process went well, now for the spreadsheet work. Today was the first day of Easter vacation for the boys; tomorrow Daniel is having two wisdom teeth pulled. Yes, that will be interesting; we'll see if Shelley survives.

Both boys did go swimming today; so yes, it really is that warm here. ...and yes, that snow shot was taken yesterday; it really is that nice up there.

Grandma note: Daniel survived. Actually he's doing quite well as of late Tuesday evening. Shelley made it through also, but she was the one who really needed the sedation! Daniel has a recheck on Thursday and that's making us a little less worried.

Peace and harmony at home on the tooth front; he's doing what he is supposed to do which makes her happy.

...and the new washer is up and running, but only after I had to reset the connection for the dryer's exhaust hose since we flip-flopped the two machines. Oh, and switched the door hardware on the dryer from right to left.

Sometimes the irony of the web is just too perfect... Earlier today garret linked to an article about how dieting doesn't work. Okay, that'll be an interesting read, maybe. ...but with the inclusion of Google ads between the headline and the body of the article and a rotator ad in the middle of the piece? Well, check it out for yourself (you can click the image for a slightly larger version):

...and somedays I'm just walking by a car and see figurines on the dashboard and decide to capture the scene. They'e called "Homies" and have been around for a few years in gumball machines and such. Dave F. has been know to use them on his train layout; this the first time I'd seen them used across a dash...

Photo notes... I'm a strong proponent of Lightroom for RAW (and jpeg) processing on the Windows side of things, but I use The Gimp and LightZone on the Linux side (most of the stuff here on Daynotes). Lightroom handles more than I need, but I've learned a few things to improve my style by running my photos against LightZone's zone and tone mapping (short version of an old lesson: do it right in the camera and you'll have less to deal with in the darkroom).

Now LightZone has made things a little more interesting for Aperture and Lightroom users: you can buy their 'basic' (no browser version) product at a discount. Okay, that's nice of them, but there's still the integration and flipping back and forth and ... no, wait! Whoa, they've set things up so you can take advantage of the "additional external editor" setting in Lightroom to send your processed shot to LightZone. Yeah, yeah, big whoop. ...but once you've done whatever you'd like to do in LightZone, the default save can be set to drop the photo back into LightRoom.

Okay, that's kinda' cool. I used some of LightZone's capability to help recover the shot of the "Homies on the Dash" (shot through a passenger side window with the sun coming though the windshield) and to fade out the leaves on the orange blossom shot from today. All in all, it seems to be a worthwhile tool at the discounted price point.

Happy Easter, everyone!

Click image for larger version

"Any sufficiently advanced technology is
indistinguishable from magic."
Arthur C. Clarke, "Technology and the Future"

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