It has surely been a summer of celebrity deaths hasn't it? My goodness. The latest, of course, is Frank McCourt. I was a huge fan of Angela's Ashes; I only wish I could remember how I came to read it. Knowing how much I admired him, Jonathan sent me a link to this: Memories. I can only imagine the fond memories former students would write about my infamous sister-in-law, Judy. Those who know her know just what I'm talking about! Through the years, because we share the same last name, I've heard so many wonderful comments about her--"although I got a D in her class, she was my favorite teacher," "she was such an influence on my life," "hardest and funniest teacher I ever had," to name just a few that come to mind. This has gone on for over thirty years! I even met a young man at the convention I did in October who had her back in the 80's, he told me how much he loved her. Judy and Mr. McCourt share a few things--both are Irish, Catholic, and witty. One thing they don't have in common is sentence diagramming expertise, a skill that Mr. McCourt seems to have lacked. Judy, on the other hand, can diagram like it's a competition sport! She's finally having a summer to herself--maybe she'll start writing.
Oddly enough Maureen called yesterday afternoon hoping I'd remember a book we both read a while back. She reminded me that x-rays were part of the plot. Although I couldn't remember the name of it, I did remember that photography was also featured in the novel. Wracking our brains together did nothing, however, after we hung up she did a little searching, coming up with the name, Evidence of Things Unseen. If you didn't read it the first time I blogged about it try doing so now. So what pray tell, aside from plugging the novel again, am I getting at? Well....just the other day I was considering how much all my years of taking x-rays has helped my photography. Jokingly, when people ask how long I've been a photographer, I answer, "most of my life, I just used bigger equipment!" Which is actually true. I learned how to look at things in a three dimensional way which I think helps my compositions. When x-raying, say a wrist, you take three different views showing how the same subject takes on a totally different look, something I try to do with what I'm photographing these days. I learned about contrast, particularly with mammograms. Exposure time--in today's cameras, ISO. You get the picture.
It has been a while since I've passed on a household tip hasn't it? I'm rectifying that as of today! Baby wipes apparently are just as good, if not better, than a stain stick. A shirt I tried on at JCrew had makeup on the front which the clerk removed in a jiffy with a baby wipe. Obviously it wasn't my makeup because once again I went out looking like a hag. That, of course, is beside the point. They tell me it works miracles for all sorts of clothing mishaps.
Speaking of mishaps, my external hard drive has essentially eaten my iPhoto library. Sad, but true. I spent nearly two hours with Apple support folks this afternoon confirming what Matt already suspected. I would be crying if not for Picasa which copied loads of my pictures (lots, and lots of terrible ones I might add); as well Roger has nearly 500 images of mine, much to his amazement. When we began working together he never dreamed I would try and sell so many different images! He has a backup system times three so I think those are safe and sound.
Jonathan gave Bruce three months of movies on Netflix for Father's Day, which has been very interesting. Bruce's que has included some really terrible movies, one of which garnered a 5%, yes I wrote 5%, on Rotten Tomatoes. I watched for about fifteen minutes, bitterly complaining the whole time, and then looked it up on RT. It was one with Mandy Moore and Diane Keaton, the title of which I've promptly forgotten due to the utter stupidity of the movie. Anyway, when I sent Jonathan an email telling him about it, he hardly believed that a movie had that low a rating. When I saw it made me laugh much harder than my fifteen minutes with the movie! I'm urging him to rethink the queue!
Time to reformat the hard drive--I hope I can pull this off by myself!
1 comment:
I use baby wipes to clean all the time! Lisa
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