At last, Dragon*Con pics and vids

Disclaimer: Nearly all of these pictures are quite craptastic. Zoom + no flash + noob photographer = bad pics. Most of the video is bad too; our seats were not close so I could only film the video screens, but you get to hear these guys playing, and that's what's important. :D

Dragon*Con pics

and video


EDIT: I switched the links from a Fotki album to a Photobucket album and YouTube video. I had not realized that the free Fotki account would expire at the end of the month.

EDIT AGAIN: I switched the links all back to Fotki. I decided I like it so much better than Photobucket that I'm willing to pay the account fee.

test 1

Meg, thanks so much for your guidance!

Here's my first stab at a watermark.


Too light? Too dark? Too small? Too big?

Edit: take 2


What about this?

Today's update

So I was a little disappointed with how tired I was today. Yesterday morning I'd felt pretty good and I'd been hoping to improve upon that, but today...not so much.

The orthodontist's office called about Jake's appointment today, and my blood froze. Crap was I missing the appointment right now? But thankfully, she calling to ask if we could change it from 5:40 to 5:00. And since 5:00 had not happened yet, I wasn't late! So that worked out. And also -

Best.
Ortho.
Appointment.
Ever!

Doctor swooped in, looked at his teeth, asked if he was wearing the retainer at night (yes), and told him to stop wearing it immediately because those two teeth that hadn't come in yet that are currently big gaping holes in his tooth line and causing him to be self conscious are NOW coming in! Woohoo! (Anyone remember the Worst Ortho Appointment Ever? And wow, it was almost exactly a year ago!)

I also spent a good part of the day picking out new stones for the healing stone bracelets, because I'm starting to run out of them. This took much planning and comparing and purchases from three sources, because I don't like to use chips or faceted beads but I like to minimize the use of round, regular shaped beads, so it takes a lot of research to find more 'natural' and irregular shaped beads, for the look I'm going for with these bracelets.

I'm also kind of stupid today (you know, my decreased mental acuity). Not sure if it's the meds or what. Takes a while to organize my sentences when speaking, and my spelling is sucking more than usual. And when we went to the grocery store just to pick up bread and a few things for Jake's lunches, I lost all control and bought things like frozen appetizer assortments and chocolate cake and a tiny little frying pan big enough for one egg that I REALLY didn't need but it's so cute because it's got a cute little cartoonish chick hatching out of it's egg on the handle. I DID draw the line at buying the matching whisk, though. I'm not made of money, you know!

And I've come to the conclusion that I've been extra-emotional for a couple weeks now. Not sure if it's the ruptured ovary or the meds or just being sick or what. And I know it's normal and ok to cry when your aunt dies but I feel like the tears are just dropping at the drop of a hat and I hope I can hold it together ok at the wake and funeral.

Oh, and the boy is HIlarious! His dad came to pick him up yesterday and asked me to fill out some stupid health form for Boy Scouts, and I loudly (not yelling) and repeatedly protested the need to fill out all this stupid stuff when we have the health form from the doctor and in the end I just wrote "see attached form" and attached the form. As I handed it to him, I said, "I had a ruptured ovarian cyst a couple weeks ago and we have a theory that it is making me a little more emotional than usual". At which point the boy immediately and dramatically clutched his dad's arm and loudly whispered, "Help me!" Even The Dad had to admit that was damned funny.

My Aunt Cora just died.

My dad (he's 64) is the 'baby' in his family. He's got a brother, two years older, and two sisters more than 10 years older than him. Aunt Cora was 75. She's been sick with cirrhosis of the liver for a while now (no, she was not an alcoholic), and we knew this was coming. I had to miss our family reunion this year (two days ago) because I've been so sick. But now I hear she was in bed and unconscious the whole time so it's not like I would have been able to visit with her anyway if I'd gone.

She raised five children, including one with special needs, who lives independently. She lost her husband maybe 20 years ago. She lost her only son in a three-year battle with cancer in 2005 (he was 50).

She was a really nice lady and I am very sad.


(PS: sorry all of my posts are pity parties these days!)

Can't ANYONE take their own Gorram photos?

I found another person hocking woven crystal heart pendants using MY picture! I don't get it. I'm not even that good of a photographer. If you are MAKE these things, how hard is it to just take a quick picture of it?

This one's just selling them from her blog, I guess it's been going on since Jan. I only found it now because I'm updating my Etsy shop and I don't have any of my pics on my laptop, so I was looking for my pictures online (the ultimate in laziness...plus, I'm allowed to steal my pic...because it's mine). I won't put a link to her here, I'm giving her a chance to do the right thing. I couldn't find an email for her but I made a comment in her blog to please remove the pic.

Guess I need to go ahead and start using watermarks. What's the easiest way to do that? Make a logo with some translucency and layer it over my pics?

UPDATE: She's removed it.

EDIT: I need to add that I am cheap, and the only photo editing tools I use are Paint, and Serif PhotoPlus 5.5. I have so far been unable to create a translucent image that I can paste onto a pic and have it look nice.

Pills are good

One of the medications I have seems be JUST for the itching. I can take 1-3 pills up to 4 times a day. Favorite. Pills. Ever.

I might actually be on the mend. This morning I got up, did the dishes, cleared up the kitchen table (somewhat) and cooked breakfast: Fried egg/mushroom/cheese sammich and Firefly tea (I haven't had a hot, tasty breakfast beverage in DAYS!), all the while, singing along to the Dr. Horrible soundtrack (What? Sing-Along is right IN the title!) Sammich was good. Tea was delicious. Now I'm going back to bed to rest. (I also just want to mention how much I love my laptop. I can sleep with the internet now.) I REALLY need to do two loads of laundry today, too.

Angela: Your bracelet is made, I just haven't been able to get to the post office yet! Stupid international mail. Why does Canadia have to be a different country? I'm SO sorry for the delay!!

Did I even show you all the autographs?

The two comics are to go with the comic I already had signed by Nathan and Alan (from Ebay, for the Kids Need To Read Charity). It would be cool if I could get everyone's sig on these, huh?

And thanks for the ideas from when I needed help decided what to have signed!