An SFX look at 2011

As promised, here are photos of some of my adventures from 2011 that I never got to show you before.

But plain old photos wouldn't be much fun. Not when I can jazz them up a bit with some creative editing. It's special effects time!

I have 12 pictures here. Ideally, there would be one from each month of the year. But events aren't evenly spaced like that, and as a result the photos here are heavily tilted toward last summer's adventures.

Not this one, though. Turn the hands of time back to last April ...



That's when we drove down to Detroit to visit my son and his girlfriend at their place; he had moved to this apartment in early 2010, and we didn't go down there that year. In spring 2011, we did. We saw that they were happy together, and that his cat and her dog were getting along ... well enough. Last summer, they officially became engaged, and the wedding is planned for April.

(By the way, they are laughing about something on her cell phone. Seems they have cell phones surgically attached to their hands.)

Here is a sad story ...



As you can easily see, these are robin eggs, reflected in a hand mirror. I was standing on a chair on my porch, holding the mirror in one hand and my camera in the other. Looks just like nature, don't you think?

A taste of winter--yuck!

Just a quickie note today. My wife and I had planned to drive down to visit K and her guy later today, but a winter storm forced us to reconsider and reschedule. We'll try again next Tuesday, K's next day off work.

We're getting just light snow right now, but it's supposed to get more intense tonight, with heavy snow and winds out of the north. There's no sense trying to pick a fight with Mother Nature. Next Tuesday is supposed to be cold but otherwise quiet, so I'll take it.

This is the first real taste of winter for us in a few weeks. Temperatures have been mild, and snow scarce. Even yesterday, we had highs in the low 40s and just an inch or two of snow in the yard.

In the next couple days, I plan to post some photos from 2011--different shots I haven't posted for events I never wrote about. Still to come, when/if I get the time. The photos are a teaser.

But lack of time remains my enemy when I want to write posts. Can't get around it--too much other stuff to do. I needed several nights to go through my 2011 photos and choose (somewhat arbitrarily) which ones would be most interesting ... and then deciding which special effects to use on them.

Yes, this time, I am digging into the Phototshop Elements toolbox to see what I can find. Also, since I recently started using Google Chrome as my browser, I am looking at some of the online photo editing programs and the special effects they offer. It's fun playing around with them.

My smartphone has some goofy editing software (built-in light leaks, film scratches, cheapo lens effects), but I think they only edit photos you take with your phone. That's something I don't do too often: That's why I spent the money for quality cameras.

Several times, when I wanted to work on photos, I opted to watch movies with my wife instead ... because she enjoys doing that with me. Earlier this week, we watched "The King's Speech." A fine movie, but by the time it was over, I was tired and didn't feel like working on photos.

Last night, I got my chance, and I edited seven photos. I have four left to do--but then I went downstairs to watch the end of "Seabiscuit" with my wife. We followed that with a couple Laurel and Hardy shorts. Then it was time to feed the kitties and head upstairs.

Four photos left. But maybe not tonight. Since we couldn't visit K today, she wants to have an online chat with me tonight. Also, there's the third test match (cricket, if you don't know) between India and Australia, which starts at 8:30 p.m. tonight (local time), live from Perth.

I had been having problems lately with my computer, not being able to buffer streaming video from YouTube. Yesterday, I got a different cable modem (same model), and it seemed to work just fine. I'll find out for sure tonight. High def cricket from Western Australia, right into my computer room. Until I start getting sleepy.

Planning ahead in 2012

While I wrote here about things I did in 2011, there is also an untold saga: Things I did but never wrote about, at least in a blog post.

Why? Various reasons. Time, mostly. Time is often in short supply for me, and my priorities are always subjective and subject to change. At some point I decide between this and that, and in 2011 they usually went against writing down the adventure. Right away, at least. I often opted to save it for later, when I have more time. Ha!

Inevitably, details of the story start fading from memory. But when I go places, I still usually bring a camera along, and the images can bring those memories back. Good. Bad. Funny.

Before long, I plan to select a number of images from 2011 and sort of doctor them up with special effects from photo editing software--including several online editing services. (Yes, that's something you can do, too.)

That's still to come, once I find the time to dig through those archives and decide which ones would make the best stories. Would you believe that my wife and I stayed at a Radisson Hotel last summer? That was part of our big adventure, and it's absolutely true.

I'll tell you the story of our "Night at the Radisson" later on. When I get time.

****

As for 2012 ... I am keeping my expectations very low, especially on national affairs. Such as the election. I hate to be a cynic, but the lunatics are running the asylum right now. I'm talking about you, Congress. Hardly anybody wants to compromise or give an inch. Not even a hundredth of an inch.

And thus we are where we are today. They're beyond hope. Vote the rascals out.

As for my own life:

The big event of 2012 will be in April, when my son gets married. A very big day. We will be in the Detroit area for the better part of a week. The ceremony takes place in the late afternoon at a suburban golf course--they also do weddings there.

At some point, my wife will be getting a dress, and we will do some spelunking in the attic to find some photos of my son from over the years. Then they will go into the scanner, and the images get e-mailed down to them for the wedding reception entertainment.

That's our big highlight. Beyond that, my wife and I will take a trip or two together, or maybe we will go on a bus tour. She is very eager to do that with me. I'm OK with it as long as it takes place when I can get away from work without leaving the office high and dry. Our staff is very small.

I'll take my younger son on some trips, too. (He doesn't drive, you know.) We didn't do a lot of that in 2011--some, not a lot. It was hard to find time, but I owe it to him. At least now I've got a good car, so I don't have to worry about that any more.

I want to visit my friends S and T several times and visit K fairly often. Of course, K only lives about an hour away, so it's much easier to visit her. K works all summer, but we'll find ways to get together and spend happy days. And nights. We may try camping for the first time--there are enough national forests in the area. I think K would be willing to try it.

I may lose another friend, N. Due to a complex family situation (centering on a 29-year-old high functioning Down Syndrome man who is now an orphan), she may be moving to Illinois some time this year. I visited N in early December, and it's very much on her mind.

Also, I want to cut back on work, especially during weekdays in summer. Frankly, there isn't a lot to do in summer outside of weekends, so on those weekdays I can go places with my wife or son or my other friends.

Here is something from 2011 that I haven't told you about: Last fall, I took a voluntary pay cut at work. The paper is struggling due to the bad economy, and I made the offer to help them out. I am still full-time, but making about 75% of what I did before. Not that I was making a lot--but advertising is down, and that's what pays the bills at a newspaper. Making matters worse is that our owner died about two years ago, the paper was later sold, and the new owners are very profit-oriented.

What's going to happen? None of us can see that. It's like a foggy day, and we can only see a half mile or quarter mile down the road. I'll try to be ready. What's that they say? That 10% of life is what happens to you, and the other 90% is how you react to it?

I'm somewhat conceited, yes, but not so much that I think I can control what's going to happen. No way. I just hope and pray I'll be ready and can react the right way.