Tis that time of year when people go footie mad and not just because of the Vuvuzela's, although they are feckin awful, click the link if you haven't heard them.World Cup fever has struck again and England are playing a bloody awful game at the moment. Wednesday will either produce a big sigh of relief as they scrape through to the next stage or the swift removal of the all flags and other paraphernalia, with mumblings of 'there is always next time'.
Not that I am even a huge football fan, I just get caught up in all the excitement and then kick myself for wasting time watching the daft game. Unless we win (as in England), then I am a big hairy hypocrite and am all 'IN YOUR FACE WORLD' and 'GET IN THERE, YOU BEAUTY' or something.
Wedding Photographs: I am having a break from editing the wedding photographs at the moment. Suffering from nightmares about your own sisters face is never a good thing! Only joking (sort of). I need to concentrate on some other stuff at the moment and the PC hamsters (Herbert and Sherbert) needed a break from heaving that amount of data around their hamster wheel. I can't afford to turn them into hamster butties just yet, so I am being kind, before they set RSPACPCH (Royal Society for the protection against cruelty to PC hamsters) onto me.
Doodle Stuff: A while back the ever so lovely TJ sent me some paper samples, so I have been using them to practice some more watercolour doodles, some for a secret project and some daft ones, like the one above. Watercolour paper is uber expensive! So I have ordered some cheaper stuff for now and shiny new pens that will make it easier to add the finer details, the Pigma Micron Pen #005 0.2mm Black Ink
to be precise. As the Sharpie ultra fine, is nowhere near fine enough and I have made a right pigs ear out of some doodles using the Sharpie.Other Stuff: I am finally tackling the humongous task of turning this blog into a book, no not for publishing or anything ridonkulous like that. I need to print it out for my personal development folder (for counselling diploma) and it is far too big a job to just print off and bind myself. So I have been looking around for ages to find the easiest and cheapest way to do it. I have looked at Blurb, Lulu and Blog2print so far. It seems there is no easy and cheap way to do it, especially when your blog is nearly 4 years old. Blurb's software looks the best, but it wont even 'slurp' my blog (blurb lingo for uploading). Using Lulu meant converting blog to something else and then uploading and then something else, so I was already switched off. So finally that left Blog2print, this one uploaded the blog easy enough, but seems expensive and have split blog into three books so far...!
Update! Since starting this post I have fixed the blurb issue and it has now slurped! So I am now going to see which ends up being cheaper, will it be blurb or blog2print?
If you have used either please let me know! Or if you have printed off your blog before and made it look lovely, also get in touch.
Music of the moment: I just love the imagery of pines dancing, as a tree hugger, this tickled my fancy indeed. It also doesn't hurt that his voice is beautiful. I give you Mr AA Bondy: I can see the pines dancing.
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Oh, let me know how you make out with the blog printing. It is one of those things I absolutely want to do, but not sure the most affordable way to do it. I had even gone so far as to start deleting the nothing posts that were just jokes and forwards to help save on the pages and cost. I stopped journaling in hard copy form when I started the blog in 2005ish, but since I have had a hard copy journal since I was 10, I don't want them to just stop. I hope to have the blog in print form to share with my daughter and future other children someday.
ReplyDelete@Lisa
ReplyDeleteHey I will absolutely will indeed let you know, I HAVE to do it, so in the next week or so I will have sent it off to one of those companies.
I would recommend that you do it year by year, or even every six months if you have published a lot?
I will explain my editing process once I decide on the final product!
Blurb software just crashed twice, so that has pissed me off again! grrrrrrrrr!
Damn shame about that Algeria match. USA was robbed against Slovenia!
ReplyDeleteClaire....Susan here (and Zebra's:)) had to drop by and let you know I'd found your little home on the web and it's adorable! So glad you connected with me @twitter!
ReplyDeleteNot only is the vuvuzela deemed offensive, the players have also found solace in blaming the World Cup official ball, Jabulani.
ReplyDeleteSo far, England is in a sorry mess, upfront they lack teeth and Greene is not a confident keeper.
Still, with England's quality, they should be topping the group instead of staring at elimination.
Paul
Completely in the dark about this World Cup thing, as I don't own a TV, or read any newspapers, as I don't wish to know a single thing about what's going on in the world. Glad that aphorism of mine provoked the idea of a future post. Am looking forward to reading it. Lovely, summer day here in New York. Hope it's likewise where you are.
ReplyDelete@Gangster
ReplyDeleteEngland deserved to lose, I think there were asleep most of the game. It is a shame, because if they don't win on Wednesday, a lot of toys will be thrown out of a lot of prams!
In regards to USA game, welcome to the world of football and its sometimes shocking referee calls!
@Susan/Zebra, Hey thanks for popping over! I am loving my twitter finds :)
@Paul did you leave this comment just to drop links???????????? Shame on you!
Also it was David James in goal in the Algeria match.
@NP
It is just some men running about on a field, nothing that exciting really. The UK in particular gets caught in football fever and its the only time you will hear the national anthem being sung, kinda funny really.
Will let you know when I use the aphorism (with proper links to you). It wont be in the future, but definitely in the distant future :)
It is rather overcast with bursts of sunshine and a lovely breeze :)
Trying to catch up via iPhone whilst at work (sshh, don't tell anyone!) so may end up making some horrendous typos!
ReplyDeleteAs for the World Cup, haven't been paying attention what with two kids having the nerve to graduate in the same week, my gallivanting around Florida, and everything else going on but I've heard bits and pieces here and there - particularly about those noisy horns! Truth be told, I couldn't give a tired PC hamster's behind about sports!
I'm not surprised to hear you need a break with the wedding photo editing! It took me about that long with Frank & Dawn's photos! They'll still be there when you get back to them!
I'll be interested in hearing how that whole blog printing thing turns out for you. How expensive is expensive? Oh, and Amanda loves the Micron pens and swears by the watercolor paper though you're right about it being costly. Still, she swears it's worth it!
Football completely baffles and bores me, and the drone of the Vuvuzelas which seems to haunt my ears whenever I dare turn on the TV or radio is really rather a pain :D Suffice it to say, I can't wait for the World Cup to end...but hey ho, life goes on :)
ReplyDeleteP.S. It's really wonderful to find another blogger from Liverpool (I'm from there too), it truly is a delight to meet you.
@Linda I can barely read anything on my phone, so I wouldn't even bother typing a comment, so bravo to you!
ReplyDeleteYou are not missing out on anything in regards to the World Cup, not enough close ups of nice legs anyways.
Oh yes they will be there waiting for me, I just can't leave it to long or will lose all momentum.
It all depends on what exactly you want to print out and in how many chapters, will go into more detail when I decide which company to go with.
The pens are brilliant so far, they arrived this morning, so much easier to do the finer details. The paper is definitely worth it so far, well anything got to be better than the printer paper I was using.
@Sam
Hey Sam, thanks for popping over to my blog. You mean you don't like the madness that happens when world cup fever is upon us? hehe. I dread to think what town will be like if they lose on Wednesday though?
Had a peak at your blog and it is beautiful, in looks and the way you write, I shall definitely be back to have a proper look.
Oh and yes it is lovely to meet another local blogger! The Blogworld is so huge, that it is nice to find local bloggers too :)
Hi there
ReplyDeleteMy house is a football-free zone. I am blissfully unaware of what is going on most of the time - but today my 22year old son is coming round so no doubt I shall be updated.
As for balls flying around, well its almost Wimbledone upon us so we shall be dodging all sorts of flying spherical missiles!
Didn't know about the blog software. I keep a word document copy of anything I write - not 100% sure why, perhaps to validate my existence - often so i can pretend I have made notes for a tutorial I am delivering!
Be really interested to hear how you get on with the printing out of the blog though.
It's going to be one hell of a reflective journal!
Q. (by snooty lecturer) "And just what has been your experiential learning in your 4 years of blogging....
blessings and smiles
@Julian
ReplyDeleteHey Juliana :)
My dad is such a BIG football fan, that it can't help but rub off on me. Hence the reason why I have a fantasy world cup team in his online league thingy, haha.
I can't stand Winbledon or tennis though, bloody boring, even more so than football :)
Great idea about the word document! If I had started blogging that way, it would have been a much much easier task! Unfortunately even when I plan a post, I still use the blogger post creator to write the post, so only have a few saved to word.
Haha! I have used this blog as my pretend excuse for keeping a personal development journal for four years, so you can definitely use your blog as tutorial prep :)
Tell me about it! In regards to reflective journal, it is far more telling than I had realised.
Great question from snotty lecturer:
A; Hmmm I think I will just deliver it to their desk, with a note 'just bloody read it'
:)
Use code b2psummer to receive 15% off your next order from Blog2Print (valid until July 7th)
ReplyDeleteHi, Claire! I am the "Judie" that Juliana mentioned at the end of her post.
ReplyDeleteThe only reason I watch tennis is because my husband used to be a high school tennis coach, and when he was younger he was the junior Provencial tennis champ in Alberta, Canada. I tried to play tennis, but I was always wetting myself with all that running.
I used the word documents when I was writing my series of posts called The Road Home. Usually I don't use word, but I had way too much to say and thought I had better save it in word in case I changed my mind (I did!)
Please keep us posted on the printing and what you find out! I've wanted to do this but haven't a clue who'd read it!
ReplyDeleteYour pens sound great! I'm using a 0.3 and thought it was small - special ordered. I like a super fine point pen for finishing work. When I took oil painting classes I tried it on the cheap and finally broke down and bought better brushes and used good canvases. Watercolor paper is so much fun to play with.
Have you ever looked through a "Dick Blick" catalog? Their prices are pretty good....
Have fun with all of those creative juices running amok!
~~~Blessings~~~
@cvanderlip Thanks for the heads up on the discount! Have to get my arse into gear and get my books edited. The editing software was being a right pain in the arse the other night.
ReplyDelete@Judie! Sorry for the delay in replying.
Tennis is definitely not your game then! Well its not my game either, I am bloody awful at it.
Great thinking in writing longer posts in Word documents, I am definitely going to start doing that.
Thanks for popping over! It is much appreciated :)
@Gracie,
Hey dude! Will definitely write a LONG post on the printing out thing, as I think it is something that will be very useful for quite a few people.
To be honest I had no clue how small the 005 would be, but it is certainly been great for adding the finer facial features on my doodles and it doesn't run if I use it before I use my water colour pencils which is very cool!
I hadn't realised how much water colour paper varied too, the one I used is far too bumpy? I think, for scanning, as the texture shows up a bit too much.
Why did you tell me about the Dick Blick site! I love it! Wish I had a lot of money to spend! lol.
When did you last paint?
Wow ... absolutely lovely ... and enchanting .. I'm sure the book will be the same. I can check in the usa for alternatives to creating books tho they may not be more effective .. still ideas and I'm a deffinate .07 person ... how don't u wreck a .02 ikes ...
ReplyDelete