My Christmas Tree

christmas-tree-2008
Go on, laugh.

Feel better?

Story regarding tree starts now:

So my apartment is a small two room plus kitchen, bathroom, and a few closets. Not miniature by any stretch, but it’s a challenge to fit a full sized Christmas tree (whether it’s real or plastic) for the season, as well as to store decorations and the tree (if it’s the fake kind) for the other 11 1/2 months.

I went with my imagination and made this tree out of squares of felt I sewed together in a Christmas tree-like shape. The ornaments I bought at the dollar store with the exception of the pewter wolf and pewter cat. I purchased those at the recent One of A Kind Craft Show and Sale a couple of weeks ago. I’m hoping to add a small and interesting ornament each year, but I have to be careful not to buy anything really delicate like glass balls or fragile wire creations.

I got a kick out of making the Christmas tree. It’s a little out of the ordinary and easy to change each year. Next year I’m going to pick up some LED lights to brighten up the room. I still need a tree topper but haven’t had much luck finding or making something that I really like. I found a few craft books that had instructions on how to make angels out of clothespins and tulle, or stars out of styrofoam and glitter paint. But none of them hit that happy craft spot. I’ll just save that spot on the top of the tree until I see something I love.

As far as gift giving goes I limit it to those nearest and dearest. My best friend is getting some treats and so is my mom. The Sweet Baby Cat and I decided to buy a 32Gb Ipod Touch for each of us when the Apple Store had their Black Friday sale in November. Ahhh! No puffy sweaters! Life is good.

Oh, the Ipod Touch is excellent. I love being able to listen to music, watch videos, have my favourite photos, and my contacts, calendar (oh disorganization, I’ll best you yet), and get to play games, roam the internet, have free apps galore (my current fav is VeganYumYum’s recipe collection – free! Go look!) and not have to pay for the accompanying cell phone costs when compared to the Iphone.

I’m tolerating the snowfall and cold weather with as much good cheer as a summer worshipper possibly can. I don’t like riding in snow and ice so my bike has slowly turned into a glorified coat rack. Geez, I feel guilty typing that out. I’m going to clean up my bike as soon as I sign off. But once Christmas passes I’ll be back to my winter whining. In the meantime I have to stave off the winter fat (and burn off the stubborn fat) by swimming, assaulting the walk/run track and the gym at the nearby communty centre. I’m already salivating at the thought of conquering the hill on Poplar Plains Road this spring!

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How to upload photos from a lomo camera — as asked by Googlers

I noticed “how to upload photos from a lomo camera” was listed several times as search engine terms on my blog stats page.

So, here it is!

It was incredibly easy. When I dropped the film off at the developers, I asked that the photos be saved on a CD. When I brought home my lomo photos and CD (and it felt just like Christmas, let me tell ya), I slid the CD into my laptop and imported them straight into iPhoto (yes, I am a Apple Addict). Then uploaded them to Flickr and here. 

Yes, it was that easy!

For non-Apple people I imagine it is very similar. Just slide in the disk and follow the directions to your photo application.

From now on I am not having the photos printed. I’ll get them burned to a disk. Less waste, fewer boxes of photos hanging around, and the CDs are thin and easy to store. I’ll only print off favourites.

Fish eye in the cemetary

Next week in Lomo Land: I’m almost done not only a roll of Fish-eye lens photos, but also the first roll of Oktomat film! This is the most thrilling part of Lomography — what weird, wild and original photos did I make. Can’t wait!!

Technology Lust: Oh, if this were a real cellphone!

  
(Thank you, Xavier, for the youtube link!)

I would buy this in a heart beat. C’mon, it’s a toaster, a heater, a defibrillator, an iron, blow dryer, shaver, and AND it has a self destruct mode. Sounds wonderful!Much better than my current cell. Stupid thing. I can’t hear it ring (yes, the volume is on loud), the screen flashes on and off whenever I press any button, the camera takes horrible pictures, and I can’t get rid of the installed pictures and sound files because they are locked. At least it has Bluetooth. I use the Bluetooth to upload ridiculous candid recordings of my friends as my ringtone (Hi Jane, do you forgive me yet?).

Craptastic Cellphone
My craptastic cellphone

I’m waiting until my contract ends, then I will pick out a better cell. Maybe with the self destruct mode…