WildOats

Well it’s almost May now. All I can say is, when is it going to warm up already? It’s been in the 40’s here almost non-stop. We’ve had a few days that were in the 50’s, but mostly it’s been in the 40’s. I’m very ready for the spring, and can’t wait for summer to get here.

The other wekend, the rain stopped for a few minutes. So I decided to go to one of the gardens here in Seattle. I’ve seen the sign for it on the highway many times. But I’ve just blown by it without thinking. But for some reason, it dawned on me to maybe go check the place out. So since the weekend wasn’t frigidly cold, and it wasn’t raining, I decided to check it out.

Well all I can say is, It’s in Seattle. So that right there tells you all you need to know. In other words, don’t expect much, or you’ll be disappointed. Just like with almost everything else here. But I digress. Anyway, there wasn’t much to it. On top of everything else, since it’s been cold, it’s not what I’d call lush.

I walked around for a few hours. They have some paths, A few TINY water features. There are some trees and stuff, but it’s really too early. Not too much is in bloom, so it’s pretty sparse. I may give it another try in the summer, just to see if it gets any better. I walked around a bit. Took a few pictures, but wasn’t inspired very much at all. Here’s the best of the bunch. Yea yea I know. Not much to write home about. I told ya.

Have you ever wished or better yet had your groceries delivered to you. I mean instead of going shopping at the super market, you just wait at home and have them delivered to you, like pizza. A while ago when I still lived in Florida I first heard of having your groceries delivered to your house. But at that time, I was more into Organic food, so I basically bought my food at this Organic food store, but they didn’t deliver. I did the Organic thing for a few years, until I noticed that the quality of the produce was really starting to fall. I also started noticing that the store was not supplying all the Organic stuff they used to. So I basically stopped driving all the way across town, to buy crappy produce, and paying a mint for it.

That’s when I started shopping at the super market. And believe me, after going a few times I immediately remembered the ‘have your groceries delivered’ part. But this was a few years later, and the super market stopped doing that. Needless to say, I never had my groceries delivered.

Fast forward to now. I once again remembered the part about having my groceries delivered. So I went online, and found out that a super market out here in Seattle does deliver. I decided to look into it a bit more. After reading up a little, I found the first delivery was free. How could I lose? I decided to give it a try.

I went online, and opened an account. Once you do that, you can start shopping. You can either search for each item you want individually, or you can shop by the aisle. I mostly shopped by the aisle, but did a few searches for things I didn’t see. Overall it’s nice and easy. You see a picture of each thing you get, plus there’s a write up, and you see the label of the items. So it’s the same as seeing it in real life basically. Then you just put in how many you want of each item. It all goes in your cart. You can also write your preferences, if they need to substitute your item. You can change the size or brand or whatever, if they don’t have what you ordered.

The shopping part is easy. It’s a LOT easier than dealing with all the idiot people at the store, clogging the aisles and stuff. But that’s a separate story. Then you just check out. When you check out, you pick the day you want it delivered. Then it shows you the time slots that are available. You then pick if you want a 1 hr, 2 hr or 4 hr delivery window. The delivery charge was $13 for 1 hr, $7 for a 2 hr, and $5 for a 4 hr window. Well since my first delivery was free, I went full tilt for the 1 hr window.

Well the delivery was today. I have to say it was great. It got here during my window. And they brought it up to the 18th floor. The stuff is all in the plastic bags like when you buy it at the store. But then they put the bags in these plastic container bins, and they stack the bins on a hand truck. Lickety split, in about 2 mins all the stuff was in my apartment. Taa Daa done!! I didn’t have to drive to the store. I didn’t waste gas, get frustrated by traffic. I didn’t have to fight to get a parking spot. I didn’t have to deal with the people shopping at the store. I didn’t have to schlep the stuff out of my car and haul it up 18 flights to my apartment. Nice huh?

Overall I liked it. I just might do my grocery shopping like this all the time now. I’m definitely doing it again next week. I’ll see how it goes the next few times. But I think this might be the start of something good. If you’re thinking about trying it, go ahead test it out. You just might like it too.

The past few days I started playing around with Corel Painter. I have never really used any Corel Products before, that I know of. But I decided to give this a try. The software comes with a little tiny ‘how to’ book. But I have to admit, I haven’t gone through it at all. I leafed through it quickly, but it kinda seemed too much, at the time I was looking at it. Sometimes things seem that way to me. “Oh it’s too much right now. I’ll get to it later” That’s how I felt when I was  looking over the little booklet. But I did go to YouTube and checked out a few vids on it. After seeing how other people worked it, I decided to give it a quick whirl.

Painter from what I understand so far, is exactly that, a program that lets you paint digitally on your computer. Well I’m no artist by any stretch of the imagination. I can barely draw stick figures. With the painter program you can pick all different types of brushes, and chalks and other things. Things I don’t even know what they are. And you can do all the painting and drawing on your own. Well I didn’t try that. That’s way too far beyond my capabilities.

There’s another feature that the program has. It’s called autopainting. That’s what it sounds like too. The program paints by itself. You pick the brushes, and you can control the randomness of the brush strokes, how hard the brushes push on the canvas, all those things. Then you hit play and it paints for you. You can start and stop it. You can control the size of the brushes, so you can control how detailed the paintings get. It can be more abstract or it can be very detailed, to look like a picture.

The best part of it, is that you can start it off using a picture. So for me that’s great. I can take a picture of something, and then run it through the program, and turn it into a painting. How cool is that? So I really haven’t figured the the thing out yet, but I gave it a quick try. I took a picture of the kitty, this is the original.

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I took the picture, and ran it through the painter program, tweaked the dials a bit, and come up with this.

Well I know it’s not going to be hanging in a museum any time soon, but for me, a person who can’t draw or paint or anything I think it’s kind of cool. What do you think of it?

Well I’ve had a few weeks to play with my new iMac. I love it. I really didn’t have any doubt that I would. I’ve been very happy with macs since I converted years ago. I love the new display, I love the new keyboard, and I’ve gotten used to the trackpad. The track pad is like a trackpad on a laptop, but it now replaces your mouse or trackball.

I haven’t used a mouse really ever since I’ve started using computers. To me a mouse was always awful to use. My wrist hurt, and I HATED how you always have to move the darn thing ALL over your desk. I always felt like I needed a separate desk just for the mouse itself. I went with a trackball as soon as I could and have never looked back. Now with the trackpad you don’t even have the ball like in the trackball. It took me a few days to adjust but it’s very nice. It also has gesture control to it, so it’s like using an iPhone. You can go up and down, and scroll back and forth, things like that. Apple did a nice job with it.

Now I’m starting to look at upgrading my photo editing software. I’ve been using Photoshop Elements for a few years now. At the time I bought Elements, I had no idea how to use anything photoshop, and the price for the full blown Photoshop suite, made my eyes graze over. So I went with Elements because it was simpler and cheaper. But over time I’ve learned how to use it, and now need something that’s more powerful, so I guess I’ll be looking at upgrading to the full blown Photoshop suite soon. I’m looking forward to getting that, and start doing some photo editing again. I haven’t really been taking pictures or editing for a long time now. I guess I’ve kind of gotten out of the habit.

So that’s about it. Just a quick update on how the computer is coming along.

Woo Hoo!!!!! I got a new computer. All I can say so far is wow. I like it a lot. I’m not really a computer guru at all. In fact I’m pretty computer and tech illiterate actually. I guess that’s why I like macs better than pc’s, they’re simpler to use and a LOT less frustrating.

My very first computer I bought back in 1995 I think. I needed it because at the time I needed to make some power point presentations. Using that computer was an awful experience. I suppose some of the problem was my fault. It was my very first computer, and I really had no idea what I was doing or how to use it. For some reason computers don’t  come with a good users manual. And back then I REALLY could have used some sort of manual for guidance. You’d think for something that’s as complicated as a computer, they’d supply you with a book or something. But anyway, after a while that darn thing crashed a lot. I mean a LOT. At it’s worst I’d say maybe 10-20 times in an hour. Wouldn’t you call that a lot?

After a while of dealing with that, I got another computer. I ordered it online, with a ‘huge’ display. And by huge I mean the whole monitor was huge and weighed a ton. The actual screen was tiny, maybe 15-17 inches, I don’t remember the exact size right now. This was before they had LCD or LED displays, this was a regular glass screen thingy. This computer was a step up, and it was a bit faster and at first it didn’t crash much. But as time went on, well you guessed it, it also started to crash a lot. I put up with it for a while, and then decided to get another computer.

So online I went and bought another computer. I kept my previous monitor, after all it was ‘huge’. This computer was another step up, and was a bit quicker as well. In the beginning it ran well, but as time went on…. yada yada. Same deal with the crashing. I put up with it for a while, but started to think about what I could do to make my computer experience better.

This was back in 2004-2005. I kept hearing a lot of good things about Apple and their Mac’s. I kept hearing how much more stable macs were. How much easier they were to use. How much more intuitive they were. I was starting to think about buying a mac, but at the same time I was a bit nervous. Why? Well at the time I didn’t know anyone who actually had a mac. Everyone I knew used a PC. What would I do if I needed help with a mac? Who could I go to? I also thought, what would I do, if after I bought a mac, I either didn’t like it, or couldn’t learn how to use it?

Well time went by, and I did some research online, and found a few mac forum sites. I finally got enough courage to get a mac. The only thing that bothered me was the price. They ’seemed’ like they were a lot pricier than PC’s. About that time Apple released their mac mini. It went for $499. I thought I’ll get that, and if I don’t like it, I’d only be out that in the worst case scenario.

So that’s what I did. It turned out to be the best computer I had ever bought. The cheapest Apple computer was far better than all the other computers I ever had. After I bought it, I was kicking myself for waiting so long. That was back in 2005, and I’ve been using that little computer since then. I’ve had that computer on and running, no sleeping, the hard drive spinning 24/7 since then. I only shut the computer down after I did an update, and it makes you shut down. Otherwise it’s been running it’s little heart out all this time. I’ve had very few problems with it. Very few crashes or lock ups or freezes. No viruses at all, I don’t run any anti-virus. Talk about liberating!!! Well as good as that little computer is, it’s now over 6 years old, and the chip inside was a generation old when I bought it. So that just shows you how much life I got out of this computer.

Fast forward to today. I now have a 27″ i7 iMac.   http://www.apple.com/imac/design.html

At the Apple store, when you look at the two versions of the imac (22″ & 27″) side by side, the 27″ makes the 22″ look small. So I decided to get the 27″ version. Well I buy the computer and the guy brings it out. I couldn’t believe how big the box was. Then I went to pick it up to carry it to the car. Wow, this thing is heavy. I thought these were supposed to be light weight.

I got the computer home and set it up and the thing is HUGE.  It makes my 21″ screen I’m using for my mac mini seem tiny. I haven’t done any photoshopping or intensive things with the new computer yet, but I’m sure it’ll run circles around my old computer. The display is very crisp, I love it. It comes with a really sleek keyboard, that I actually like. I’m usually picky about keyboards too. It’s wireless which I LOVE. Anyone who knows me, knows how obsessive I am about wire management. I also got the trackpad which is wireless too. Here’s the best part, since I get online by wifi, the only cable to the who thing is the one power cord. I love that.

So anyway, now I have to start setting this computer up, and moving stuff over to it from the old computer. Hopefully it won’t take too long to adjust to the new set up. Wish me luck, I’m off to go play.

The short answer is HELL YES!!!

The long answer is still YES, but it’s more complicated. Up here in Seattle, there is a dry season and a wet season. Kind of like in Florida, but it’s reversed. In Florida the dry season is in the winter, but rainy in the summer. In Seattle the so called ’summer’ is the dry season, while the winter is the rainy season. In the summer it doesn’t rain as much, but in the winter it rains ALL THE TIME. It’s gray all the time, and it’s wet out ALL THE TIME. Here’s the best part, after raining all month. After it being wet out constantly, after it being cloud covered and gray non stop, after it being cold and damp the whole time, at the end of the month, the amount of rain we get……… a tenth of an inch. A tenth of an inch????? You’re kidding right? In Florida in an hour you can get 2 inches right there. But at least after an hour, the rain stops, and the sun comes out again. Not here.

The locals here, like to say that if people outside of the area ask, you’re supposed to say that the weather is bad, then they give you the wink wink nudge nudge. Kind of implying like we(the locals) know better. Like the weather really isn’t bad. Once again. You’re kidding right?  It cracks me up.

So, to answer your questions. Does it rain a lot in Seattle? Hell Yes it does.

2011???? Holy cow. I almost can’t believe that it’s 2011. Time has really just been screaming by. I remember when I was a little kid, how adults would always say that time is just flying by. But to me at that time, just getting to lunch that day seemed like forever. I remember sitting in school and looking at the clock on the wall, and swearing that it was broken. It’s not moving!!!!! Flash forward to today, those adults were right. Time does go by too quickly.

Even more unbelievable is how long it’s been since the last time I’ve posted anything. I was doing pretty well for a while, but then I somehow got off track. I’m going to get back on track and start posting more. Now I just have to come up with stuff that’s worth posting….lol.

So that’s it for right now. I just wanted to put up my first post of the year. I’ll be back soon with more. Check back!!

Wow, it’s been a while since I’ve written anything here. I guess I haven’t gotten my stride back since my move out here. For the longest time the weather was just horrible. But now it’s starting to get better, so I guess I might be able to take some more pictures. I’m not sure if it’s an east coast-west coast thing, or a warm weather-cold weather thing or what. But I’m not too inspired to shoot much out here. Nothing has been grabbing my attention at all.

But I’ll try to start making more of an effort to go out and shoot more. The other day I was out walking by the water. I did notice one thing that kinda caught my attention for a bit. Over by the water there were these rocks and boulders. So I walked over there to check it out. Some rocks with moss on them. Some small rocks, then bigger ones. Nothing to spectacular. I was doing my best to get a nice composition of the rocks, but nothing was working out.

I continued on my walk. A little further down I saw this rock formation. I guess someone had piled some rocks, one on top of another. It reminded me of those formations that supposedly happened on their own. I forget what they are called. But they’re supposed to be some mystical/other wordly odd things. Anyway here’s what I saw. I caught this using my iPhone, so the quality is probably not the best.

Well, does it give you some mystical type feeling or what?

Ok ok, it’s been about a week now since my last post. No one has said anything about my ’space needle’ picture, so I guess it’s time I told ya more about it. Basically it’s not a picture of the real space needle.

While out walking, I passed by this empty plot of land. I guess they’ll building something on it soon. But anyway, in the corner of the plot, someone had put this replica of the space needle. It was just a bunch of spare parts I guess, but they did a good job of it. I thought it was a riot when I saw it. That’s when I started thinking about if someone were to take a pic of it, would people be fooled into thinking it was the real deal.

So with that I couldn’t resist. I only had access to an iPhone, so I made due with it, and took the shot. I got down low, to give it that I’m small compared to this thing view. I still had to crop the picture a bit to remove some stray parts out,  and then I posted it here.

Here’s another pic of the scene, but in this one you get a much better idea of what this thing actually looks like. So anyway, was I able to fool ya?

Well it’s finally starting to warm up here in Seattle. The past 2 weeks or so the temperature has been in the 70’s and sometimes (although very quickly fleeting) into the 80’s. All I can say is….it’s about time. It’s been so cold and so dark and so rainy for soooo long. I’m really happy that spring/summer are coming.

With the improving weather, I’ve been able to spend some time outside, and start to see some of the sights here in Seattle. Which I’m glad about, because till now, I’ve been pretty much hanging out in the apt.

The other evening I was out walking and came across something that immediately makes you think….Seattle. What’s the one thing, when you see it….makes you say Seattle? Well for me it’s probably the space needle. Seems to be a big deal here in Seattle.

So while I was out walking I saw this. Luckily I had an iPhone with me, otherwise I would have missed this shot. If the photo looks a little sub par, it’s cause it was taken with a camera phone.

Anyway, I did the best I could with what I had. It’s not as big as you’d expect from the pics you see. It also looks like it’s fallen into a bit of disrepair. But anyway, what do you think?