Life of Pi

Yann Martel's Life of Pi is a terrific book. I listened to the audible.com version and the reader's voice was as much a joy as the story. This book is wonderful. It is a strange story, but if you open your heart, you can have a grand time. Do not try too hard to look for a deep meaning. Just enjoy. Relax. Believe.

Pi Patel is a clever, serene boy with a wild tale to tell. This story is a bit like The Wizard of Oz. Let your inner child choose a book this time.

Enjoy!

Christmas Wrapping

Hey, any thoughts out there regarding slaving myself out to wrap Christmas gifts? I mean, a lot of people grumble about the wrapping part of the gifting, but I find it kinda fun. I mean, when the cats are not helping and there is enough flat surface at the correct height for comfort. I especially enjoy weirdly-shaped objects, and wrapping things that there is no way to disguise. What sort of pay schedule would such a venture warrant? Anyone? Beuller?

A dream come true... facial recognition photo cataloging

OK, Riya sounds absolutely amazing. This software, which is still in the alpha phase of development, can recognize and tag photos with the people in them (once you train it with a dozen images or so of each person) It can also figure out the text in signs in the photos, so you could search for "Niagra Falls" and find the photo you took of the sign there. I have thousands of digital photos and like with the other areas in my life, I am not good at keeping on top of the organization of them. I have so many pics without tags and so many duplicates. This could be a real sanity saver. AND IT IS FREE! Ok, sorry to scream that from the rooftops, but how cool is that?

Of course, if you are worried about Big Brother, you may want to shout it from the rooftops to warn us all. I welcome dissenting comments here, but I think this is a phenomenol tool and am not worried about the government being able to id me in photos as a result. Hello, they already have facial recognition software, don't they? If Big Brother wants to bore some lowly probationary agent with tracking me, have at! I am sorry to say, the life and times of Timbrely are not likely to spark a very large case file. I am just not interesting enough to be tracked ;)

Pride and Prejudice (2005) movie review and ramblings

Pride and Prejudice (2005) with Keira Knightley and Matthew MacFadyen was a real treat. I have been remiss in reading the classics, and did not know the storyline going into this movie, but I thoroughly enjoyed it. This is one of those romance movies that reminds you what it feels like to be so in love that you physically ache to be with that person. OK, if you have never allowed yourself to fall that deeply in love, I am sorry for you. To be drawn to someone on such a level, to "love so much it hurts" is something we should each feel at least once in our life. It does not have to be a smart choice or the person our friends would choose for us. It does not even have to be the sort of love that can carry us through marriage, thick and thin, better or worse; it just needs to be deep down to our core love.

I am not talking about lust or stalking or anything dark and sinister. I am talking about youthful love. This is about feeling that your are in the wrong place if you are out of sight of your love. Imagine or remember feeling pulled like a magnet, flutters inside at this person's touch or voice. When this person touches your hand, feeling electricity.

It is in all of the love poetry, in all of the truly romantic movies. The truly amazing thing is to have felt it, and to be able to relive that feeling when you read a great poem or book, or watch a great movie.

"Better to have loved and lost than to never have loved at all" So true, because once you have experienced that feeling, you can relive it, and dream of finding it again, and imagine having found it again, if only for a moment before really knowing someone, and seeing that it is not to be. That is worth losing it. Never regret having loved. Never regret moving on. Only regret ignoring your true feelings, for or against love. If the love is not there, do not linger pretending or wishing it was. If the love is there, do not waste a moment of it. Carpe Amor

And yes, I am a sap. But that is what I have to say about Pride and Prejudice.

This movie is a bit like watching Shakespeare. The language is difficult to wrap your mind around initially, but be patient. This is a great comedy and if you relax and let yourself get into the language, you will have a great time. There are subtle interactions between the characters. So much is said in a look. The actors do a terrific job of this. I think if this had been played in French we would have still understood the story.

The costumes are great too. So many period pieces use luscious fabrics and impossible to fathom patterns. Pride and Prejudice uses beautifully simple costumes. The Bennets are not wealthy and they are down to earth people. Elizabeth Bennet wears wonderful dresses that look like cotton, wrinkled and plain, yet she is stunning. The viewer can imagine these dresses were hand made by someone, with the tools of the time. They look so real. I cannot explain it. I loved the costumes. They are not the most flattering (to the men or the women) but somehow they pulled me into the movie.

The settings in this movie are beautiful too. I would like to know where this was filmed and go there. There is a scene where Elizabeth is standing on a cliff and the camera is far away. It is a vast hilly countryside. Everything looks so wonderfully untouched.

In my visits to England I have only been through a very small portion, but now I want to go all over and find these hills. Then I want to sit on that cliff (not as close to the edge as she stood LOL) and simply be.

Audiobooks

I listen to audiobooks while I drive. I have a subscription to audible.com so I get two new books each month. Prior to this website's offerings, I was paying $35-$75 for a book on CD. Now I pay $19.95 for two, and I can re-download them if I lose a CD. I usually just put them on my iPod nano and listen there. (I use a cassette adapter to pipe the sound through my car stereo)

I am listening to
Robin Cook's Marker and Michael Connelly'sThe Lincoln Lawyer right now. (when I carpool I listen to one, and when i am alone I listen to the other)

To get into the holiday spirit, I highly recommend:
Roger Highfield's The Physics of Christmas especially for your favorite science geek. This book explains the science behind all of the mysteries of Christmas, including how a turkey cooks and why Rudolph has a red nose. You can listen to a sample directly from the website.

If you have plans to visit London, you can have your own personal guided tour by bringing
LondonWalks along. These audio tours take you through popular London sites while giving you an indepth perspective.

You should also checkout the San Diego Zoo's podcasts on iTunes for a similar offering if you are ever in San Diego. (Our zoo is amazing, with or without an audio guide)

The Physics of Christmas
LondonWalks
The Lincoln Lawyer
Marker

Holiday Crafts

I have borrowed a Sizzix die-cutter from a friend and will be attempting to make gift tags and bags with it.

I am using WunderUnder fusible webbing and cute Christmas fabrics. I bought plain brown gift bags with the handles and cardstock and will adhere them. I plan to use the alphabet dies to make custom gift tags as well (maybe just the first initial with to and from written on them)

I am also stitching felt stockings for my niece and nephew. I found some cute kits with all of the pieces drawn on the felt, so I just have to cut and sew. (oh and stuff and bead and sequin and cut replacement pieces for when I lose one and line them with sturdier fabric)

Every year I do a little painting. I am not a painter really, but I enjoy painting the little wood shapes. It takes patience but it very relaxing. This year I found glossy acrylic craft paint (at Michael's) and it is great. It looks much more "finished" with very little effort. A Sharpie permanent marker covers a lot of sloppiness. I outline the design when I am finished and I like the look. It is very coloring book-ish. I have not gotten into the whole shading concept. I like bold solids.

When I am not bouncing between these, I also am making some of those Quilt Magic thingies mentioned in a previous post. Never a dull day because it is never the same craft. :)

Cheers.

Su Doku

I have just been introduced to the puzzle called Su Doku. I enjoy logic puzzles, and while this one has very simple rules, it is pleasantly challenging. 'Not so challenging as to be too frustrating, but enough so that I will stick to pencil for now. (a coworker solves them in ink!)

The premise is a 3 by 3 grid, with each square subdivided again into 3 X 3's making it 9X9 overall. The goal is to fill in the digits one through nine while never repeating a digit in either a row, a column or a square. You are presented with a smattering of digits already placed and you must complete the grid.

I have seen smaller grids in books, as well as larger grids requiring letters to allow for enough unique characters. There are also grids with different geometric delineations to restrict the duplicates (two criss-crossed squares etc) and even one that requires that no duplicates be entered in either of the two diagonals.

My father has written an app to assist in solving (managing your digits) but I have not yet seen this. I have been playing with FileMaker Pro to design a workspace, with varying degrees of assistance.

The book my father gave me suggests jotting in the possible numbers as you find clues, but I prefer to use elimination. I mark tiny x's in the nine positions within a square until I have only one possible number left. Then i erase the x's and write the number. Unfortunately, sometimes by the time I have erased the marks, I have forgotten the number and have to figure it out again. :]

This is where the FileMakerPro would be convenient. I have even considered using Excel as a workspace, but with FMP I could make a stand-alone app, if I ever work it out to my liking. If I do get there, I will make the app available perhaps.

I am curious about the rules for generating these puzzles. They always indicate the difficulty level. Are there more than one possible solutions for the easy ones, or simply more obvious correct numbers?

OK, it is time to go check woot.com and then go to bed.

Cheers.

Su Doku
Woot!

Santa is on his way

Ah, Santa is getting his stuff together. I have a feeling time is going to begin to accelerate very soon and many of us will feel the crunch. I am just glad I do not have to deliver to the entire planet.

BTW if you enjoy science, and want to get into the holiday spirit, I highly recommend "The Physics of Christmas" by Roger Highfield. It is a terrific book (the audio version is available on www.audible.com) that explains the science behind the holiday, including why Rudolph's nose is red, the thermodnamics of cooking a turkey, how to deliver toys to all of the world's children, and so much more. Surprisingly, the book does not get bogged down by the science. I mean, yes, there are certainly some highly technical explanations for some of the holiday magic, but there is such a wonderful tone throughout, you are left feeling holly and jolly.

So I vote we all start getting into the holiday spirit as soon as possible; let someone else have the good parking space, smile at the movie ticket tearer, say "please" to the gas station cashier, wave thanks to the car that let you into the lane, even though you did not even give them a chance to refuse. And plan ahead. We all grumble that the stores put out the Christmas stuff earlier and earlier, but think of it as giving you more time to enjoy it. Shiny things are nice.

Remember, Santa is a busy guy. Make sure you get your letters sent off soon!

Gift Giving

I feel as though Christmas has become more about stress than joy. It is important to me to give gifts which show that I have some inkling about a person, or at the very least that I gave it a lot of thought. I personally do not want random stuff, and I figure other people feel the same way. I mean, any gift is appreciated, and I am certainly not a minimalist. I love my toys and gadgets. Still, I would be just as happy if the gift exchange could be trading off taking eachother to dinner or a movie, or something we both enjoy.

In surfing the web I came across something that intrigued me. I am not so inclined toward the "a donation was made in your name" gift idea, unless it is a charity which is dear to the recipient's heart and life. This is different though. I have seen companies that name a star for your recipient, or adopt a whale/wolf/sloth/whatever. I have even heard of purchasing a plot of ocean as a gift (pretty cool in its novelty) but this site offers tree planting in honor of your friend or family member. There are no plaques or signs or maps to go visit their tree, so it is like the donation in someone's name but I still think it is a warm fuzzy. The Christmas gift they offer is a nice little package. They plant a tree in your choice of state or country, and send a certificate, a card and a leaf ornament.

They also sell seedlings that you can plant yourself and create a memorial that can be visited and nurtured. For the trees that they plant, treegivers.com enlists the help of youth organizations around the world to do the planting, with the help of experts to ensure these trees are going to thrive.

Maybe most of us could stand to get a little less under our tree this Christmas and put a few more trees out in our world. It can only help, right?

Quilt Magic

About a year ago I was visiting a friend and noticed she had a craft project sitting, unfinished on her countertop. She had lost her motivation when she found out she had to cut out 160 little triangles of fabric. I enjoy mindless tasks and managed to blaze through the fabric. We finished her faux-quilt and it now hangs in her dining room.

Basically, the QuiltMagic is a piece of one inch thick dense styrofoam, with a 1/8 inch layer of foam padding glued to the top, and then the surface is lasercut with a design, which you then lay fabric over and tuck the edges into the lasercuts. It comes out looking like a hanging quilt and you only need scissors and a butter knife to do it. It is surprisingly relaxing (except for the really small, odd-shaped pieces that won't lay straight or tuck too far into one side, leaving too little fabric for the other side.)

Quilt Magic

CraftROBO

I REALLY want one of these nifty gadgets. The CraftROBO is a desktop cutter. It functions similarly to a plotter printer... but instead of a pen there is a knife. You create or delineate your graphics in vector form on the computer (propietary graphic format I think) and then you send your printed image (with registration marks) through the cutter and it cuts out your designs. You can make fancy pop-up cards, scrapbooking accents, vinyl stickers, paper sticker (you can set it to "kiss cut" through only half of the material, leaving the backing intact)

There is another device called the WishBlade, but from what I gather, ttf fonts are not supported on WishBlade, but they are on CraftROBO.

Apparently there are some legal agreement conflicts floating about and vendors cannot sell the CraftROBO in the US until January. (no guarantee they will not re-enter into a similar agreement, but here is hoping) The unit is much more expensive in the UK (duh) and I do not want to have to get a power adapter.

If I ever get this gem, I will post pics of my chops.

CraftROBO
A wonderful WishBlade dealer

Here I plan to post everything from craft projects to computer info to editorials. Hopefully someone will find something I say interesting enough to reply.

Cheers