secret project 2- update

They loved it.
:)

secret project the second

A Handmade Thanksgiving by not.rachel | Make Your Own Book

This post was written nearly immediately following order submission of my latest secret project. I even interrupted my other post-writing as regards how I'm finding out that who I am and pursuing a course tailored to me is okay to make this announcement, instead.

I'd taken a bunch of pictures documenting Thanksgiving preparation. Normally, pics like this languish on the hard drive of my family's main PC. (I still had pics from 2006 on there) One day, I say...I'll order prints and frame them or but them in a book...or one of the boxes/bags that hold all the pics we took with our film cameras before joining the digital era. (It took us a while.)

Through diligence, patience, prayer, this tutorial, this book, some dozens of tweets of encouragement (tweetpals) and frustration (me), a strange thumbnail caching issue, several lists, careful font selection, and many late late nights, I made a photo book.

What started as 625 pics (purely overwhelming, I got down to down to 200+. That was reduced to 100 or so, hi-res PSDs and JPGs further edited in various ways to correct color and brightness. Along the way discovering things about photography's post-processing mini-me Photoshop Elements. Like secret project 1, which also involved a beasty amount of photos, I learned a lot...about myself and about the process of creating something big like this. (and that I really really suck at project deadline estimation)

I also gained a new appreciation/admiration for people who create photo books or put together portfolios for a living. It's so tricky to tell a story with no/few words, just bold images. Layout helps. But does layout determine photo choice or should photos determine layout? (I found a balance worked. Pick a layout you think will work, then tweak it when you've chosen and edited the photos.) Then there's the pesky issue of captioning (or not), and order, and getting all bound and determined that a certain photo had to be on the facing page only to find another pic that created the PERFECT ending...but when added, threw off the entire layout by making extra pages necessary.

This is a very late Christmas gift to the family. I ordered it tonight. I squee'd when I previewed it. I hope it prints as nicely (or close to) as it looks on the monitor. I hope they like it.

about bad movies

How it started:

Tweetpal asks, "Nicholas Cage, what are you doing?"
I reply, "Is that with regards to his new movie, Season of the Witch?"
She says, "yes lol."

Now, Nicholas Cage is one my least favorite actors. Also on the list are Steven Segal and Keanu Reeves. So the movie has a huge strike against it even without knowing the plot. But I was wondering the same thing as my tweetpal. However, the general 'what-the---?' reaction as things exploded and Little Dorrit whispered and capes swirled was contrasted with a sense of intrigue. This would be a bad movie, not matter who was the lead actor, it was just not going to be good. I was annoyed at myself for getting to the point where if the local theater gets that movie, I just might go on their discounted ticket day. (Tuesday) Supporting an actor I don't like is a capital offense. But why? Why am I almost willing to fork over my hard-earned money and two precious hours of my life to see something that I know in advance I will. not. like.? _{(strange punctuation-ing there...apologies)}

Then I found this article, while searching the title of the movie. Apparently, I'm not alone in-

• a) being fairly certain that this isn't award-winning filmmaking.


• b) wondering what it is that causes me/us to want to watch such badness.

The article: When Does a Bad Movie Become a Must Watch Spectacle?
I have no real answer.

in a word- happy new year

This year I want to work harder to make time for things that keep me sane and balanced. One of those things is writing. It's one of my ways for expressing myself creatively and for tracking moments. My goal is to write everyday...but I will not beat myself up too much about this. However, I've set the bar kinda low, because I know school causes great craziness. The minimum...one word. One word that I either learned, love or sums up the day. If I can get out a blog post or journal entry, short story or poem, so much the better. But I want to find and develop my voice, organize my thoughts into longform pieces...not just tweets. Here I go...

first