I abso-stinkin-lutely LOVE my job

I know I have mentioned it before but I will say it again.......I LOVE MY JOB! Graphic manipulation is fun but taking pictures of something as fun as baby ducks -words cannot describe that. Now you might be wondering why on earth I would need to take pictures of ducklings ...........and even if you are not......(in her best Italian accent says) I'ma gonna tell you.....

A bazillion years ago (approximately) someone made the mistake of calling ESSDACK (the place I work) ESSDUCK, and since then our little mascot has been the rubber ducky. Now I happen to be in the farm store a week ago (no, I do not live on a farm, or near a farm) and they had gotten some of the cutest little baby ducks in, they had chickens too, but they are gross. I happen to know a big wig there and asked if I could rent the ducks for an afternoon. He told that wouldn't be necessary and I could borrow them. So this morning I made the trek back to the farm store to borrow some ducks. I brought them back and of course most people oooo'd and ahhhhh'd because let's face it baby anythings are cute -except chickens, like I said, they are gross.

I took pictures of the ducks by themselves, in groups, sitting, standing, running toward me at break neck speed, with Starbuck the cyber-safety pup, with Kevin Honeycutt and his ipad. (He made a video). We had a fun time with the little critters.

I learned that although cute as can be, baby ducks poop alot and then they stink.....because their food is probably made of ground up bugs so duh? why wouldn't their poop stink? Anyway, I digress.....had a great time of taking pics of the babies. So now I have roughly 250 pics of baby ducks that I can use for something, sometime, in some way...  Just gotta figure that out.

Plight of the Creative Bone

Heavy sigh, ahhhhh, the plight of the creative bone.....   I don't know why it is that sometimes, certain people just get the urge...I liken it to spring fever and cleaning. Spring comes and you just want to clean stuff out. That is what the creative urge is.....for some it might be learning to knit, then knitting a scarf for everyone you know (even if it is mid August) then putting the needles away never to be used again. For some people it is some sort of class, or purchasing some sort of equipment or being inspired by HGTV (the H standing for Heaven or Hell, depending on whether you are the husband or the wife). For me it can be sitting and playing at my computer for hours.......yes, my husband has informed me, HOURS.

Sometimes you just want to be creative. No particular reason, you just feel the "need." OK, so maybe not ALL people feel that way, some just want to get through whatever task is at hand. Yesterday was a little of the creative day for me......I was going to shoot photos for background for a podcast and was waiting at home for "the call." I was checking out the cameras, (I use a Nikon D50 and a little pocket for candids - Panasonic Lumix), gathering lens, making sure sufficient battery and card space and all that jazz and starting goofing taking pics of myself. Now some might consider this weird, and it is........but I use those to play with and I don't feel bad when I chop my own head off or make it look really weird.....but feel kinda guilty doing it to others, so I like to keep a variety of pics in my "bank". Also I like to change and it is probably time to change the banner on this page in fact.........

So I started going through Stumble upon......I love that, if you don't have it, it's great, check it out. And saw a picture of a woman looking through the blinds.....I thought......hmmmm I can do that. So if I would have been really industrious, I could have just taken the stupid picture of me looking through blinds, but never one to take the easy route, I set off to "create" the illusion. Now the initial thought was me looking out the blinds but after several tries and not finding the right starting pic, I decided what the heck and went the other route. Someone looking through to me. Now I didn't have alot of time, but in the end I was quite satisfied with the outcome.

Of course as you can guess, I used my very favorite filter in the whole wide world......Topaz Adjust. I see in my email this morning they have some upgrades out so I'm excited to check that out. So with that filter and with a little cleaning up of the photo and a few tweaks here and there, creativity addiction successfully quashed, at least until the monster rears it's head again... : )

Little Cabin in the Woods

This past weekend I went to a little cabin in the woods in Missouri. It is located on Table Rock Lake and is in a beautiful area. Now I must admit the very thought of spending time in place with no internet access, felt like my umbilical cord would be severed. My communication with the entire free world, coming to a complete stop, all the necessary social networks halted, I could not even fathom how I would survive. But I went, and after the initial withdrawal period, I must will say, had a wonderful time of relaxation. I read an entire James Patterson novel in one day, sat on the deck watched birds and wildlife, took a few pictures.......was nice. Now, granted it was only for 2.5 days and I could not wait to get back and get plugged in, but for that brief moment of disconnect, I think I actually breathed.

Here are some pictures from the weekend.

 and here is a little poem I wrote about it........
Sitting in the shade,eyes closed in quiet contemplation,
Aluminum frame chair, plastic webbed seat,
T-shirt and sunglasses, and old blue jeans,
lazily dangling flip flopped feet.

Cool breeze, slowly moving the leafy canopy overhead
Causing soft tendrils to cascade gently around my face,
Blowing and tangling my carmel colored hair without regard
I tuck a curl haphazardly behind my ear, interlaced.

Sounds drifing from the  brush and trees,
Birds wing softly flapping in flight above
Calling to one another in playful banter
Melodious sounds and cooing of doves.

Beaks noisily pecking on the bark of the trees
Hungry bellies looking for tasty morsels to eat
Males with bright plummage, females nearby
Lighting on moving branches, clutching tightly with feet.

The sun starts to peek from behind the clouds in the sky
Random beams, gleaming down on my skin
warming my shoulders like a comfortable sweater.
Tilting my face to welcome the warmth from within.

The smell of the foliage, earthy and sweet
soft musky smells drifting with the breeze
The wildflowers interuupting the browns and greens
with color that pops, releasing their perfume with ease.

Curling up with a book, in the serene location
Nature giving me beauty and peace as a backdrop
Rest and renewal coming to fill my tired body
all interruptions and stress coming to a well deserved stop.

iPad: The Latest Gadget/ Kevin Honeycutt: The Ultimate Geekster

OK, so Kevin, one of the educational technology specialists in our office got an iPad. When I was naming this entry I wanted to call Kevin a geekoid, but when looking up that word, it was defined as a person that was socially inept......Kevin is far from socially inept so, I chose the word geekster. I couldn't really find a definition for geekster.....but in LoriLand that is a word, and if there was a picture of it in the dictionary, it would be Kevin Honeycutt.

Now I frequently take pictures of our people doing their podcasts so they have stills to use and today I took pics of him and his iPad while he was filming an episode for our parent resource site, My Kids Turn. He has posted them for people to use in presentations on Kevinhoneycutt.org and on Flickr. You can see the podcast episode, Raising Digital Kids: iPad- The Latest Gadget,  for Raising Digital Kids that he made for MyKidsTurn.com, it is also on you tube.

Before the filming started, we were goofing around with lighting,  I'd like to do new staff pictures with some black and whites so I used Jerry Butler, one of our tech gods, as my model. Afterwards I used the Topaz filter (have I mentioned lately how much I LOVE, LOVE that filter?) and I smile every time I look at it. We voted and can't decide if he looks like a poet or a serial killer..... anyway I will share that also.


More of the ipad photos can be seen on my flickr page.

Don't be offended...........

 

I am sorry, I know there will be some that will be offended, but I just couldn't resist. This just makes me laugh, having dogs of my own, I could just see one of them being so proud to bring me this as a little token of their love. But never-the-less, I hope your easter basket contains a special gift for you.