OpenSource Open Mind?

Everytime I sit down to "do a little research" on a subject, I am NEVER disappointed in the wealth of information I can find online. How did I EVER get anything done before the internet? There's always video, free information, quite possibly a free piece of software that will perform the acts of majick I'm looking for or if you prefer, there's always someone willing to sell it as well. I use to think "you get what you pay for" applied to software and information, that is no longer the case. There are some incredibly talented benevolent creatures on this planet. They toll their little butts off and then just hand it over to the public, imagine that!! Luckily there's karma to take care of them :) You can also make a donation on their website or at least be sure to give credit where credit's due!! Some of my recent discoveries are:

Bootstrap from Twitter: http://twitter.github.com/bootstrap/index.html - Web building

jQuery: http://jquery.com/ - Scripting made (somewhat) easy

OpenOffice: http://www.openoffice.org/ - this is free equivalent version of Microsoft Office

GIMP: http://www.gimp.org/ - image manipulation program

Inkscape: http://inkscape.org/ - similar to Illustrator or CorelDraw

SourceForge: http://sourceforge.net/ - tons of open source software to browse

Happy Surfing :)

Sew I've been sewing...

I have a couple of hobbies... One of the most recent is teaching myself how to sew. Well www.youtube.com is mostly teaching me how to sew, I'm just trying to follow along without getting too frustrated. The last two days have been spent on an unfinished skirt. It is now finished!!

It was suppose to be a four tiered skirt, but as luck would have it, I ran out of material, could not find anymore of the fabric and was forced to leave the last tier off. It fits perfectly lengthwise now, it would have been way too long if I'd added the final tier. I was also able to use my new handy rolled-hem foot (thank you Mom for suggesting that one!), the fabric I chose does not like to be pressed, so the bottom hem was becoming an issue.

The rolled-hem foot was perfect for the bottom edge of the skirt. The skirt has many many flaws, I'm just glad it's wearable and it goes with all my boots!!

So, I've played with fabric and thread, it's time to get back to the programming class.

Best Math Resource

I've come across tons of online math resources, most free, some subscription based. This one is by far the best IMO and it's free. Plus it has a sense of humor!!

http://www.coolmath.com/

It is very kid oriented, luckily I'm completely OK with that =)

back to work...

Payback time...

So all those hours wasted in class... algebra specifically... looks like I'll be revisiting that subject. Damn!! I don't know what my problem is with algebra, but it carried over into college as well. I had a tutor and still managed to fail that class with flying colors! The thought of having to do that again is making me nauseous. I think I saw the word trigonometry also... HOLY SHIT!

I have my algebra resources ready, wish me luck =)

Freeware I adore you! Open Source you scare me!

Learning something new... I think I've opened an entire can of worms this time! I spend a lot of time playing computer games. So I'm very interested in the makings of a game. I have some freeware 3D graphics software along with some that I've purchased plus a little graphics experience to use them. I now have a slew of open source holy-shit-what-am-I-suppose-to-do-with-this software. However difficult, I am still in awe at the amount of freeware, shareware, open source out there that is absolutely worthy of a price tag and I am very grateful to those kind souls. By the way, if you download something for free and there is a "donate" button on that site, you should seriously consider hitting it if you are using and enjoying the download. Play NICE and everyone gets along :) Just sayin...

So I'm at a site for complete programming beginners (that would be me!) and so far after 20 minutes of reading I'm still following along... there just might be hope. To be continued unless I get scared off and then it'll be on to another project :)

Nina on Ice

I like to ice skate, it reminds me of my roller skating days. The first time Nina tried to ice skate she made it about two minutes on the ice before exiting the rink. She fell down twice and that was enough for her. She spent the rest of her time at the snack bar spending her allotted $10 and she couldn't have been happier.

We are going to NYC in about two weeks and Mike wants the kids to ice skate at Rockefeller Center. So we figure Nina could use a little practice before she takes to the ice in NYC.

This time when we get to the rink it's just her and I and we have one goal in mind. I'm thinking "Good, she's focused this time, no problem".

Seriously, I cannot remember the last time I laughed SO HARD! Just entering the rink was an ordeal. About two steps in and down she went, giggling the WHOLE time. She was hanging onto the wall, with both hands, and still fell down! I was laughing so hard I couldn't pull her back up. She reminded me of Bambi when he first sailed across the frozen pond... all legs and arms, trying to find her center of balance. Luckily she had a very good sense of humor today and laughed throughout the whole ordeal. She also stuck with it and after about an hour she was starting to get the hang of it. We finally made a few loops around the rink without falling once.

I was doing really well keeping my balance and trying to help Nina keep hers, but in the end she finally brought me down once. It took us a minute to get up because we were laughing so hard.

I think we'll try to squeeze in a few more practices before we get to NYC.

~Diversions~

Another blog??? What the heck was I thinking?? I don't even have my website done. AH, I know what this is... a subconscious DIVERSION to keep me from finishing. I guess it's not so subconscious if I'm writing about it though. Damn, I'll have to find another excuse.

Not really sure what this blog is going to consist of... probably not much.... maybe some product reviews. Possibly a restaurant review or two. My husband is ever the critic when we go out, so maybe I'll put his food reviews here as well.

It's raining. That's good and bad... see we were suppose to go to Enchanted Rock this morning for a lovely hike in the hill country. I got up at 6am, which is a feat in itself. I am not an early riser. Fixed my hair, even put on a little makeup... should have checked the weather last night... DOH! Son knocks on the door and informs me of the weather situation DAMN! I guess I'm fixing breakfast now, unpack the trail mix, and console one very upset daughter. We really need the rain though and it looks like it's going to be a nice constant drizzle all day. Happy trees! (Bob Ross cracks me up)

I'm thinking about leaving all the typos in this post as free therapy for my friend Feathermaye who has serious issues with typos... muhahahahaha... just kidding! I'm totally leaving all the punctuation errors though. I can't bring myself to not run spell check.

Headed out to the studio, I hear beads calling my name. Oh wait! I have a website that's calling my name... sigh... ok, ok I'm going to work on it.