Sporadically · Updated

So I'm trying to figure out: how can I show my work, while still having the project make sense, and without bashing my teammates, even though they deserve it?  So far ideas are:

• print a copy that only contains my part of the project
• print the entire project but only show my work until requested otherwise
• show the entire thing but explain which parts are mine, in the hope that they will see how much better my work is than the others on the team. The hazard is, what if they don't remember which parts are which, and think that *I* would have submitted a drawing so bad that the walls wobbled?
• fix minor errors (e.g. spelling, formatting) in the rest of the book.

What should I do?

1. What kind of work do you do, and in what kind of organization?  (Kind of work: e.g. is it thinking/concentration work, meeting-heavy, or interruption-based, like reception?)
2. What is your office in general like, in terms of its design, furniture, and environment?
3. What is your personal workspace like, in terms of its design, furniture, and environment? Which of your furnishings and equipment do you use, or not use? Are there ones you need and don't have?
4. What do you like and dislike about the space? (both personal and common)
5. What would make the programmers' floor in my Ministry of Technology project look unstodgy? Like a cool and pleasant place to work?
6. What would make the executives' floor in my Ministry of Technology project look impressive while keeping theme with the programmers' floor below?  I would like to keep the programmers from gagging on the smell of money and pomposity, but it still has to impress VIP visitors.

• Wallacks, Omar de Serres, Amazon or Algonquin bookstore gift certificates
• USB hub
• teas: peach honeybush, cherry/berry herbal, pomegranate rooibos
• filleting knife for fish
• travel mug with that's approximately a normal cup size
• drawing or watercolours books or lessons
• a cushy footstool or two -- one for living room (golds, reds, and browns), one for tv room (black/espresso, brick red, cream, or navy)
• peppermint essential oil to use in cosmetics making
• rip our CD collection to MP3s for me
• replace part or all of our tape collection with MP3s however you see fit
• one of those teeny whisks
• a double boiler
• silicone muffin pans
• pyrex casseroles with matching lids (we have unmatched ones)
• rectangular pyrex casserole sized for 2-4 person batches of lasagna
• chauffeur a shopping trip for computer backup hardware
• chauffeur a window shopping trip for a new office chair
• help install the ceiling fan that's sitting in a closet
• something to hold triangles and stencils on the side of my drafting board but which doesn't interfere with the parallel rule clip

I have at most 15 classmates, most of whom also take the bus and the one that I know drives lives in Kanata, not downtown. I do not know anyone well enough to ask to sleep over, or even to know if they live in walking distance of campus. Ottawaridematch.com did not turn up any workable matches -- all at least 6 blocks away on both ends with at best 30% schedule match. All the residence rooms are full and cannot be rented. I would either have to pay for cabs or a hotel room, if there's one nearby.

I have classes:
8am - 11am Wednesday
9am - 2pm Thursday
8am - 11am Friday

Is there anyone who could help out with getting me to or from class this week, especially for Wednesday?

I'm getting

• 1lb Natramulse (emulsifying wax) (could be split)
• 1-2lb pure pressed golden cocoa butter ($10/lb in 1lb lumps, but $9/lb in the 5lb size)
• 1-2lb Ghana ivory unrefined shea butter ($11/lb in 1lb lumps, but $10/lb in the 5lb size)
• 1oz Optiphen (preservative)
• 4oz sodium lactate (humectant)
• 50ml  each of these essential oils: 10x folded orange, european lavender, patchouli, and maybe balsam peru (could be split)

I'm getting the 2.53GHz Macbook Pro unless I chicken out before it ships. The reason that I might chicken out is that the whole kit is going to cost $2900 after tax even with my education discount. My inner accountant is screaming in horror, since I very rarely buy things this expensive, and I had not factored in $300+ of tax when I was weighing numbers in my mind.

The reasons to get the 2.4GHz Macbook (which just got a stellar upgrade today) would be that it's smaller, lighter, has longer battery life, and costs $960 (after tax) less.

The reasons to get the 2.53GHz Macbook Pro over the 2.4GHz Macbook are:

• twice the RAM,
• better hard drive,
• bigger screen -- important, since I am a big-screen junkie who works with graphics a lot.
• better CPU (twice the L2 cache of the other, which makes it faster than just the raw GHz does),
• separate graphics card with 512mb of memory instead of integrated graphics with 256mb of shared memory, PLUS the integrated graphics. Translation: more capable graphics card plus more memory available for my programs to use, and the less-powerful card to save battery power when I'm not flogging the RAM.

And, I just realized the secret weapon hiding in the better graphics card on the Pro: Snow Leopard. That's the next version of Mac OS, which is going to offload extra processing onto the graphics card when it's not busy. The Pro laptop has two graphics cards, both of Nvidia's newest and shiniest lineup, one of them with as much RAM as my entire computer had for the last 7 years. So when Snow Leopard comes out, the Pro is going to get lots faster than the plain Macbook will.

Since I can afford it, I think I have just firmly talked myself into spending the extra $1000 for the almost-maxed-out Pro. (I'd have to spend another $300 on the 2.8GHz CPU to really max it out.)

I want my shiny new hotness to arrive soon, please. 

And yes, do look at the rest of the exhibit while you're there.  My other favourite piece is Cairn Cunnane's iron and glass creation which looks a bit like a city crossed with a floor lamp.

Candela is at:

Cube Gallery
7 Hamilton Ave. N (near the Parkdale Market and Tunney's Pasture station)
Saturday and Sunday only, 10am - 5pm.

Tonight and tomorrow night (Wed and Thur) I am once again chained to the drafting board til the wee hours of the morning, so come by and console me in my misery.  I also need to do some research on transitional housing for refugees, which is not as company-friendly, but I mean to put a nice big dent in the drafting first. After all, if I haven't done the research by studio time tomorrow, the prof will likely let me go do some in the CAD lab, but drafting is due Friday morning, no exemptions.

Friday evening I hope to take off and go enjoy open mike night at the Umi Cafe. 

Tonight is the first At Home.  I have a site plan and stuff to do, and would like not to be bored silly the entire time. I also might end up installing a printer if I get done fast enough. I am home as of now, and would love to see people while I'm metaphorically chained to the drafting board.

Your result for The Commonly Confused Words Test...

English Genius

You scored 100% Beginner, 100% Intermediate, 93% Advanced, and 87% Expert!

You did so extremely well, even I can't find a word to describe your excellence! You have the uncommon intelligence necessary to understand things that most people don't. You have an extensive vocabulary, and you're not afraid to use it properly! Way to go!

Thank you so much for taking my test. I hope you enjoyed it!

For the complete Answer Key, visit my blog: http://shortredhead78.blogspot.com/.

Take The Commonly Confused Words Test at HelloQuizzy

I quibble with the answer key for:

30. The salad is tasty__ however, the soup tastes even __________.
a. : / best
b. : / better
c. ; / best
d. ; / better
The correct answer is ; / better.

With the "however" in there as a conjunction, what we really need here is a comma, not a semicolon. "The salad is tasty; the soup is even better" would be a better use of the semicolon.

After checking the answer key, I got two questions half-wrong according to it, out of 40, including the quibble above.

I have figured out a trick to lessen the manual labour in removing the background.

1. Just in case, duplicate the layer your product is on.
2. Make a new layer and fill it with a colour approximating your page background, using the Paint Bucket.
3. Switch back to your duplicated layer.
4. Select the background, probably via the Magic Wand, such that your selection is mostly correct.
5. Now hit Q to go into Quick Mask mode, and use the Brush and Eraser tools to touch up the selection. This is way easier than repeated magic-wanding.
6. Now that the selection is touched up, fuzz its edge with Filter > Blur > Gaussian Blur at approximately 1px. This will reduce the opacity of, and thereby soften the edge of the resulting product shot-on-transparent-background, which looks way better than the hard edge, because you can never get the edge perfect.
7. Delete the background. You might have to inverse the selection first.
8. Touch up as necessary with soft Eraser or commands from Layer > Matting.
9. Delete unnecessary layers, e.g. your original layer and your dark test background.
10. Save as something with transparency support, probably PNG format.

*cackling with glee*

On a more sane note, I'm not going to run out and buy my laptop right away. I want and can afford a Mac, and Apple has *something* up its sleeve right now that's going to hit before the end of September. Nobody outside Apple knows what it is, but odds are high that it's some kind of laptop refresh. So I shall wait impatiently for another few weeks in case they announce the new iWant while the back-to-school promotion is running.

Hurry up and announce, Apple! I want my shiny thing!

Second, I found a prophetic Onion article, "Bush: 'Our Long National Nightmare Of Peace And Prosperity Is Finally Over'" You should read it. And then I found the annotated version, which links to all the stuff that Bush actually did. Approximately 3 of 38 prophecies did not come true, and that's if you're being a little generous. I just hope the US can do better next time...