Sunday, August 30, 2009

Harrút...

Empty mind and a boring weekend, this is how my life had been lately. After putting the final dot in the second chapter of my story, I'm trying hard to write something in the third chapter now, and I hope this block will go away soon. Been encountering weird people all over the AIM network, some of them were fun, but I get bored easily with their stupidity.

Today I encountered a beautiful article about HDR composing Here. I got many tips that I never knew about before. Got to try them out soon!

I guess not much for this post today, specially with just the start of the week, although I've been making some new words with my translation today. The new word is "Harrút" [hurWwt], meaning "breeze." The word is originally a diminutive form of the word "Harrá" [hurWa], meaning "air." I wasn't really in the mood to make a picture for the word today! uuuuuuuuse your imagination!

Time to pack and get back home now, and sleeeeeeeeeeeeeeeep....




Thursday, August 27, 2009

Tuxunharrá...


A new dizzy morning. I was barely able to get up and drive this morning and go to work. Hope the end of the day comes fast; it is the last day of the week and work time better fly away from my mind quickly.

Today, I put the end of the second chapter of my story, Blackened Image. I was going to type further, but I thought it is better to end it at this much, with a count of 12012 words. That would be around 17 pages. I really don't know if this is too little for a chapter or too much for a chapter, but in scientific books, a simple chapter is difinitely more than 17 pages! Well, I think this is mainly because of the images and diagrams used in illustrations. I'm going to spend some time now to spell-check the chapter (not by reading it again of course!), and I think the first chapter needs it as well.

On the other hand, sadly enough, 2 of my photos were not accepted in www.canstockphoto.com. The first one was the one of the dome in Kuwait University campus, claiming that it is a copyrighted material, and thus could not be accepted without a release. The other photo was for the little bush with the dramatic effect, claiming that it is underexposed. If the art of the image is to make it underexposed, then what can I do to get it accepted?! I might consider submitting the original photo this time, with some addition in saturation. More photos are on the queue and I hope no more problems for the near future!

Of the words that I made up today while making a translation for the "daily verse," there are 2 words that I liked. Why? I don't know! They are:
1. tuxunharrá [toXonQhurWa], meaning: fog. The word itself is in fact a combination of 2 other words. I use this method a lot now as I made plenty of words in such a way to make a fast solution for new words without the need to generate new ones from solid background. But I'm afraid to use it a lot. However, the 2 words are: tuxun [toXoN] (smoke) + harrá [hurQa] (air), so the total meaning would be in the sense of: aerial smoke.
2. h'aztún [xuzQtwN], meaning: particle.

Some extra words are derived from these two:
a. katuxunharrá [kutoXonQhurWa]. Literally it means: like fog, or simply: foggy. An adjective in English, but in Ayvarith it is a little phrase (prefix + word).
b. h'aztúní [xuzQtwnY]. An adjective meaning: particle-like, or so small in some sentences.
c. dia,-t'ániþ h'aztúní [diApaniT xuzQtwnY]. This is my favorite one. It means "Particle Physics." The word "physics" is a combination of a prefix and a word (dia,: science + t'ániþ: nature), so literally it is "science of nature." The word "science" here is even an abbreviation of a larger word: dia,déa, [diAQdeyA]. You can think of the prefix (dia,) as the (-logy) suffix in English.

Flipping through some of the grammar pages, I found out some repetitive and a systematic mistake that I used to make. I put down a note to fix that later WHEN I'm going to build the page again somewhere else.
Although I devised a handwriting cursive form for the Ayvarith script, yet I can't say I'm so fast in adapting it, but I'm using my own developed fast rhythm writing, which is composed of separate letters, but each letter is more cursive than the calligraphic version (which is used for the image above). There are shapes as well that are not listed in this font, but I use them almost permenantly with my handwriting, and most of them are for end-of-word shapes. The changing in the shape of the letter at the end of the word can be used as well as an indicator for a word's end specially in places where spaces are not much available or the words are compressed together. Pardon me for now, I have no power to make a new font for such shapes!




Wednesday, August 26, 2009

Facrad [fucQrud]*


The turbulance in my sleeping made me dull. Yesterday, I barely wrote some lines in my stories, after being asleep in the office for like 3 hours. I barely drove to the work place to make my attendance with the damn fingerprint, but I didn't want to make a sacrifice here by going back home with the same eyes. Everytime I remember how the situation should have been and how I did not get the cooperation that I was hoping for from colleagues to use my new "crack" for such machines, I feel very disappointed. We are waiting for an attendance scanner device to be installed in our building just so their highness would be comfortable and not afraid to do the fingerprint mimicking, and that means it might work by 2020, hopefully.

The yield for today is 1 verse, reaching line #720 as it is recorded in the original draft. Of course this is with the mistakes in numbering that were discovered before, but I keep it that way.

I got some of the stuff that I need before travelling: locks, dog leash, hook screws, extension plug. The most amusing part was to buy the locks. They were for KD4.3 each!! That is around US$12.9 for each. I can't deny there were some cheaper varieties but this one looked nice enough and I need two for my backpack and my suitcase. Why is it that high, I just don't know!
On the other hand, the dog leash was something like 20ft long (as written on the card that comes with it), but I would need something around 6 or 7ft only, so I'm going to check if I can cut it into smaller portions. I don't have a dog! But the leash will work with the hook screw to stabilize the camera (a bit) instead of using the tripod everytime (or sometimes you can't at all), and here how it works:

1. Connect the hook screw to your camera's base.
2. Connect the leash to the hook. The leash is better be longer than your height a bit.
3. Step on the leash on the ground and raise your camera up to the maximum you can go. Of course the maximum should be fit to your eye level.

I learnt this method from one of the books that I had on PDF. Hopefully I will mention my resource when I get back home. [Canon DSLR, The Ultimate Photographers Guide - 2008]

For some time, I think I'm falling in love with my own work. I don't mean to be a snob, or some arrogant, but working with some photos makes me eager to see the personalities that I've created out of ordinary photos. Not to say the owners of the photos were ugly or anything, but adding the sparkles and colors to some ordinary photos, makes my imagination go vivid and wild. Could it be used for story-writing some day? Maybe, who knows.

One of the words that I encountered today in my work with the translation, and did not find any words done for it before, was "separate." Thus from reading the Hebrew, Aramaic and the Arabic words for that meaning, I decided to make up the word "facrad" [fucQrud] (to separate). I wouldn't go to explain the various tenses for such a verb but maybe some main points worth mentioning here:
1. Verb: facrad [fucQrud], meaning: separate.
2. Verbal adjective: mifacrad [mifucQrud], meaning: separated or separate(adj).
3. Verbal donor (noun): facrúd [fucQrwd], meaning: separator.
4. Noun: facradah [fucQruduH], meaning: separation. Masculine.

The change in the word's gender in case of verbal adjectives or donor's name is due, by adding the (-iþ) ending to it, with "þ" meaning as "TH" in "thing."

* In Ayvarith, the "C" is similar to "S" sound but with more rounded lips that go outward. Close to the sound of "S" in the word "Sun" in English, or somehow close in sound to the German "ß."





Monday, August 24, 2009

Ávanúnú


A day that starts with a severe diarrhea is not to be counted in your life span, this is for sure. Now, I think I can make some connection between the dates (food) I take by night, and the diarrhea I get next morning. I think I over-ate those. I still feel some upset in my intestines and my body is just so tired to do anything.
No photo shots for days now, as I'm walking slowly with my life, or trying to at least, with other things on my mind. Seriously, to do everything I wish to I would need the power of 10 men... and the time of course! The traveling time is approaching and I must prepare some stuff already, and a new shoe is a prime concern! You don't wanna go to some foreign airport and the people checking your stuff go "EEEW," right? Yep, that's it.

Today, as usual, I was lucky to translate one verse of the story, but the weird thing is, I was writing down in slow motion. I couldn't speed up my pace! I kept my handwriting small relative to how I used to write down the other pages. This is why I like handwriting analysis. In such situations you wouldn't know what is really going through you, but with handwriting analysis you can discover deep within this brain the true feelings that are beamed through your fingers to your pen. Unfortunately, I didn't device a way to analyze my handwriting with Ayvarith... as I am the only speaker (and not fluent as well) in the whole world! Feels cool somehow, duh!

After I made this "simple" translation, I hit the engine and went on to pick some stuff that I need for my camera and to get a new shoe (as mentioned before). The humidity is lessened today, but the heat in general is still awful. The streets were fine though! I thought I will face such a traffic jam by 9:30 a.m., but I didn't! Ramadhan this year has a soothing effect on people, so I hope it lasts until the end of the month. People usually prefer to stay away from the streets (generally speaking despite the traffic jams in previous years), and would avoid going in this sun, but for me I think it is a sort of a challenge. It is either indeed the blessed mercy of God that befell on me to make me do my stuff today under such a heat, or it is my self-esteem and stubborness, that God bestowed upon me as well, but I felt the urge to go out and finish it even with such weather. I sweated to much and I do feel my throat like a piece of wood, but I feel relaxed in the same time. To me, it is always a matter of mood in fact. When I don't like to go out of work to do my stuff outside in normal days, it is mainly a matter of the mood itself and not the lack of strength or time, but today, I was eager to do it all! Hallelujah. I don't want to strike myself with an evil eye. Unfortunately, I didn't find a CF memory card, but at least I got myself a camera remote and got myself a new battery as well. And now I just remembered that I didn't get a plug-head for my camera charger from the TSC store, after getting my shoes from there. UGH!

On my way from the cameras store to TSC, there were some cops here and there (some in black cars and some in those clown-like cars for traffic). I passed the yellow light while a black police car was beside me, and although it passed with me I was scared that something might happen or so. You don't know the mood of those guys here! Then, Just in the next traffic light, as it turned green, a cop was flashing his lights and turning on the red and blue and the siren, I thought something was going to happen to me personally or that cop reported my pass for the yellow light, but the clown-car passed me by and blocked the way of the other road coming from the right. Did I say I hate Mondays before? Well, today is no exception, but it was that close to my mind. However, I won't feel safe and sound, until the day is completely over!

You might wonder by now about the title and the image on top. This word I encountered in the text that I've written (and forgotten), and it means "his ancestors." I liked the way the word sounded, so I decided to put it here today. Doesn't sound cute? You judge!
When I made this word, I didn't really have some specific conjugations in my mind, but in some way the words just formulate as if by magic in your brain and spelled out. Let's peek a bit into this word, Ávanúnú* [Ankh sequence: aavunwnw]**:
1. Origin: originated from the word "Avvá" [Ankh sequence: auvWa], meaning: father.
2. Singular form: Ávanú [Ankh sequence: aavunw], meaning: ancestor.
3. Plural form: Ávanún [Ankh sequence: aavunwN], meaning: ancestors.
4: Conjugates:

a. my ancestor, ancestors: ávanuwáy [aavunowaY], ávanúnáy [aavunwnaY].
b. your ancestor, ancestors: ávanúká [aavunwka], ávanúnaká [aavunwnuka].
c. his ancestor, ancestors: ávanwú [aavunww], ávanúnú [aavunwnw].
d. her ancestor, ancestors: ávanuwá [aavunowa], ávanúná [aavunwna].
e. our ancestor, ancestors: ávanuwáyun [aavunowayoN], ávanúnáyun [aavunwnayoN].
f. your (plural) ancestor, ancestors: ávanúkun [aavunwkoN], ávanúnakun [aavunwnakoN].
g. their (m) ancestor, ancestors: ávanúm [aavunwM], ávanúnim [aavunwniM].
h. their (f) ancestor, ancestors: ávanúne [aavunwne]***, ávanúnin [aavunwniN].

5. Related words: avvúnah [avvwnuH], meaning: ancestry.

While writing the pervious information I discovered that I might need to add/remove some stuff from the grammar page that I made before! Anyway, I would do it as I do the new page after GeoCities close down!


* The "v" sound in Ayvarith is a labial (done by lips only), like in Spanish.

** Ankh sequence is the sequence used by the Ankh font, which I use to type with Ayvarith. Ask me if you like to have font!

*** The original suffix for feminine plural third person is [-in], but in this case and to avoid the mix with the original plural of the word itself, an "e" is added at the end.

I need a shower... NOW!





Sunday, August 23, 2009

Slowly Passing...

Today, is the first working day in Ramadhan. Everything is fine, since I used to fast in regular days before so today is nothing really. The only thing I'm afraid of is, the traffic jam. Although the ministry of education decided that no schools will start until the end of Ramadhan, but still you would expect a traffic jam when you go out of work. Beside the traffic jam, just stay away from the smokers (who stop smoking at day time because of the fasting). They tend to have a bad temper (more than the regular non-smoking people). Beside the day traffic jam, you will also have the regular night time jam, which is doubled in this month because people can't do much in their day time, thus they have to do everything by night. I, myself, plan to get myself a CF card for my camera and maybe a remote control for the camera and also an extra-battery. All of that is available in one store maybe in the area of Hawally, the Heaven of traffic jams.

So far, I translated one verse today at work, and I think this is all what I can do for today. The verse had many words that needed fetcing as well there was some cumbersome moments when I made some new words and found out later that I made them already in some other way. The problem is that all new words are written on the original paper, beside the story line, thus I cannot search for them electronically, but I have to flip the papers and look carefully, i.e. more time consuming. I got tired already from translating one verse, and I'm wondering if I'm going to write anything for my story today.

Still waiting any response from my previous English teacher, which I caught in www.classmates.com. She was the celebrity back in 1999 in Kuwait University, I was 19 back then, and everyone wanted to register a class with her. According to some follow-up news, it seems she is in PA, USA right now, and she teaches French. The funny thing is that I read in some of the ratings that she uses Arabic words sometimes to explain things in the French or the English classes! She must got a grip on the language in the years she lived here!

For fun, I decided to put on here my handwriting analysis, and I'm waiting for another one as well (there are some graphics that I couldn't put in here), and the analysis was made by Quantum Enterprises, specifically by Mr Andy Hunt. Here you go:

Personality Description

To begin the analysis, the subject's handwriting shows some rigidity and tautness, as if the forward movement of the pen has been carefully restrained. This indicates a somewhat more conformist and conventional personality than the average. The subject leans more to the conventional in dress and behaviour.

The pressure used throughout the script is average in intensity, indicating that the subject is able to maintain a balance between too much activity and too great a degree of lethargy. As a result, he lacks the intense drive and enthusiasm shown by writers with heavy pressure, but will be equally tolerant of inactivity in those who use a lower pressure in their script. He will be good at working methodically at the more routine tasks.

The subject has a signature that is larger than 77% of the population and as a result sees himself in a relative position of power and responsibility.
The large signature also ties in with the assertive nature of the subject. The subject is confident in his approach to life. (See below for a full description of the subject's assertive personality).
The subject has a strong need to succeed in all things he does. He hates to loose and will appear to be quite a strong competitor.

The signature is also underlined, expressing a certain amount of confidence on the part of the writer. He feels that he has an above average ability to cope with the daily challenges of life. He is more likely to take chances in order to achieve success and more readily accept the blame for mistakes when he is responsible than writers who do not underline their signature.
The underlining embellishment is also a mark of enthusiasm and exuberance.

The handwriting shows some signs of a perfectionist personality. The subject may seem to be more orderly and methodical than most, and be somewhat over-concerned with small details and fussy about trivial matters.
His space saving style of writing reflects a desire to conserve, both in material things such as money, and relationships. He will usually be punctual, and thus appears to be reliable and conscientious.
He may attempt to appear morally superior on some occasions and will usually go by the book, following the letter of the law and abiding by those in authority.
He will generally be undecided about the best course of action to take, and will appear to have a number of self-doubts.

The comparative height of the capital letters to the 'ascenders' in the script indicates that the subject has a mildly assertive personality. In conjunction with a large signature this means that he will be more confident and dominant in relationships and can find it relatively easy to strike up conversation with strangers.
He is likely to speak out forthrightly and can defend himself quite well if under attack. In a quarrel he could argue quite openly to defend his rights. He is more likely to complain about shoddy goods or poor service.
He will also make a good host and can liven up a party.
He would make a good leader, but may be intolerant of other people if their views clash with his own. He prefers to be taken seriously and may become irritated if he is not.

Several 't' bars in the script point downwards, which indicates that the subject exhibits a certain degree of ambition.
He has an above average drive to obtain goals and objectives, and likes to succeed at things that he attempts. Obstacles are often regarded as challenges to be overcome, and he likes competition and action.
This characteristic, in conjunction with a large signature, shows that once the subject has set himself a goal, he may be a difficult person to stop.

The handwriting shows some signs of expansiveness, and this is an indication of an extrovert personality. The writer has an above average need for space and dislikes being confined. This hunger for space is reflected in the script.
This expansiveness shows in the subject's social relationships. He is likely to be more comfortable in company than on his own, and perhaps takes life more lightly than the average person. He may become quite easily bored, and often yearns for change and variety.
He is likely to express his feelings and moods quite freely, and is reasonably unconcerned with disorder or lack of control.

A variation in pressure throughout the script indicates that the subject is more prone to anxiety than the average person, and may be the victim of emotional upsets.

There are some indications within the handwriting of compulsive behaviour.
Compulsiveness is an anxiety reducing strategy in which the subject makes a ritual out of many of the most trivial aspects of life. When attempting to solve problems which cause anxiety, he will attempt to do so by constant and repetitive efforts. This will be maintained, even if the problem turns out to be insoluble.
Such an exaggerated determination means that the subject is often regarded by others as being conscientious. However, because of these rigid problem solving strategies he finds it difficult to look at problems from a fresh angle and to consider a different method of approach. Often, this rigid problem solving procedure, whether at work or in personal relationships, is not an attempt to reach a solution but a defence reaction. Typical compulsions are checking the doors and windows a prescribed number of times each night, even if one check would be sufficient, worrying about 'bad' thoughts for fear that they will come true, and checking and re-checking every piece of work to avoid any possibility of mistake. All these, and many other forms of compulsive behaviour are best summed up as 'not being able to leave well alone'.
At present, the subject's level of compulsive behaviour is probably a mild inconvenience, but it could prove to dominate his existence. This should be taken as a warning sign to take life rather less seriously, to strive for less perfection, precision and order, and to relax more often.

There are cases of isolated ambiguity throughout the script which shows that the subject is over-concerned with concealment. He is attempting to cover up, and keep aspects of his personality or private life hidden from view or cloaked in mystery.
This type of handwriting is found in professions which demand a high degree of confidence keeping, such as lawyers, bankers and doctors.
It is wrong to interpret isolated ambiguity as a sign of a deceitful personality, but it does show a need for the subject to hide some part of his personality or background which may cause embarrassment or anxiety.

There are a few indications in the handwriting that, at the time of writing, the subject was suffering from mild stress. This may be temporary, for example if he was upset, tired, or working against a deadline. However, the subject may be living at an unacceptable level of stress, one which is beginning to affect his physical well being.
These are warning signs in the handwriting, and indicate that the subject should pause and reflect on those aspects of his lifestyle which may be causing long-term difficulties. He should try to reduce them whenever possible, relax more frequently, check his diet, and perhaps take more exercise. Stress can be beneficial, but if allowed to get out of control, it may prove a hazard to mental and physical health.

HANDWRITING ANALYSIS SUMMARY (Specially written by Andy Hunt)

The above text has been produced by the Graphonomizer (TM) software and describes the personality and emotional aspects identified through handwriting characteristics. The text below is an attempt to further bring the identified personality traits into a more meaningful summary of the subject.

The sample provided is a scanned image, which will mask some of the more subtle pressure changes. This is further affected by the use of the writing implement (roller-ball pen). However, the sample is a good size and exhibits many interesting and identifiable characteristics.

The overall flow of the handwriting is slightly restrained. This gives an indication that Taher is generally more of a conformist individual who prefers to dress and behave conventionally. This seems to be somewhat of a contradiction to the extravert facet of his personality, which indicates someone who is less in control. Exraversion is mostly shown by the strong rightward slant of the letters. However, the extraversion score is mild and is more an indicator of a need for social interaction rather than a wild party-goer. When there is loss of control it will be through possible signs of a quick temper. Although the Graphonomizer report hasn't specifically picked up on this, there are some sudden sharp increases in pressure which indicate that Taher may occasionally 'fly off the handle'. As he does not show a score for aggression, these bouts of temper will remain restrained and mild.

Taher has quite a large signature, telling us that he feels important within his own sphere. Coupled with a mild score for assertiveness, this boosts Taher's confidence and shows him to be the dominant individual in relationships. The assertiveness is detected by the relatively large capital letters in relation to the ascenders (e.g. 'b', 'd', 'f' etc.). Sometimes the capitals are extremely high as in the word 'But' halfway down page one.

Furthermore, a mild score for ambition indicates that Taher has a need to succeed, which will be supported by his confident, assertive nature. Ambition is shown by the proportion of downward pointing 't' cross-bars.

The falling lines, relatively small writing and crowded words indicate that Taher has a perfectionist personality. He is over concerned about details and making sure that everything is just right. He likes things to be in order. This may be detrimental to his need for achievement, as perfectionists often hold back, unsure if they are taking the right course of action.

There are some signs of anxiety within the handwriting which are almost certainly connected with some significant signs of compulsive behaviour. There are many examples within the handwriting where Taher has returned to letters and overwritten or added further strokes to try and improve the clarity. The word 'journey' on the first line is a good example of this. These signs tell us that Taher has difficulty approaching problems from a fresh perspective and he may show behaviours that are connected with this such as frequent hand washing and checking and rechecking to see if something has been done properly. If he has lost something, Taher may keep going back to the same place to look, even though he knows it isn't there. This is often a sign to strive for less perfection before this becomes a dominant part of his existance.

There are also signs of a need to conceal within the handwriting. This is shown by isolated ambiguity, where some words are not decipherable on their own and can only be read within the context of the whole sentence. As mentioned in the main text, this can be associated with professions that require confidence keeping (such as lawyers and doctors), but it may be an indicator of a part of his personality, or life, that Taher wants to keep to himself.

Finally, there are a few resting dots in the handwriting, showing some mild stress. This can be shown temporarily in the handwriting, and may be caused by the general fatigue of a hard day's work.

In summary, Taher is a confident, assertive and ambitious individual, who is perhaps held back by his attention to detail. He is reasonably sociable, although generally conformist in his behaviour. Taher may have trouble addressing problems from a new perspective, has a need to conceal some parts of his personality or past, and may be suffering from mild stress as a result.





Saturday, August 22, 2009

Twister

With the beginning of a new day I tried to tidy my room a bit, but seems I can't get over the Single Guy Syndrome. I soon felt tired and failed to do much in fact. At least I picked up my clothes from the lazyboy into the closet. "from" and "into," concentrate on these two words. I got a phone call on my room's phone asking for mom; typical for the first day of Ramadhan and the annoying phone marketers.
However, I went on another round trying to fix up my panoramic shot two nights ago. This time, I had to go on composing the HDR's again from scratch. In the last trial with HDR composing, the highlight was so much that the halo around light sources contained so much noise and grains. This time I tried my best to overcome with problem by lowering down the highlight amount in all composed HDRs and using the "equalize" option to suppress the highlight more. In fact this option also increases the contrast.






Headache, Headache, Headache...

An awful day. The headache just doesn't leave my head. I don't know what pill to take, and the humidity just makes it worse.
After going around as usual on Thursday's night, and after dropping my friend back, I went to the seashore to take some photos finally after delaying the plan for one or two weeks. The humid weather makes it good for light sources, so I didn't want to miss the chance for taking photos that night. I got back home finally at 2:30 a.m., and worked directly on the photos. I'm not so satisfied with the results though. Each snap took some seconds for the shutter to close and open again, and in that time, the camera might have shook a bit, despite the fact that I was using a tripod but there was some breeze in the air. I tried as well to make a panoramic shoot for one building (which I don't know what it was exactly), and like any panoramic shoot, several pics are taken, but this time I had to take 3 shots for every part of the building going all the way up to the top. I could have taken all the building in one shot but with a zoom-in and making a panoramic shoot, you can enlarge the building enormously. Still, I am coping with the noise in these images.

On the other hand, there is always the typical shooting for the Kuwait Towers and this time from afar (and I did this one before as well). The humidity I guess helped to add to some sparkle and halo around the light sources in the image. The image is composed in HDR but also been twisted around with colors and contrast. Otherwise, I think it would be a dull image.

As for now, I have to find something to eat (though I don't feel like it) because it is the beginning of Ramadhan, the month of fasting. With this headache I can't force myself to eat, but maybe some dates and milk would do. I don't know what pills to have now to calm down this damned headache. Maybe some Cataflam would do! Not a weekend that I would like to have again in my life...





Thursday, August 20, 2009

More Humidity, and Stupidity...

Well, it is a quiet day relatively, beside the annoying humidity still. I decided to work on some translation and I finished 2 verses so far, and I think this is enough for today. After finishing the first verse, I went on to buy a new rollerball pen as the one I was using started to jerk off. Thank God we have some store in the campus. I got a new one and I'm just so happy about it! I might sound like a baby or a crazy old man (like those who don't believe I'm from Kuwait) but I was so happy about it. I have some passion for pens and pencils. The feel of something smooth going down from your fingers into the paper, and the shiny luster of the ink just before it gets dry over the paper, all of that makes me live in my own world. I like it mostly as smooth black ink. I do write in other colors, like Green or Blue sometimes, but the most precious of all to me is the Black. Writing with Black does give me a sense of writing a manuscript; an old manuscript that is, specially when it comes to write down the Ayvarith alphabet (abjad if I should be precise and not alphabet) on paper.

I wrote some lines for my story... but the ideas are progressing so slow and I can't think of something to complete the story with. I think this what happens when you force yourself to write something without having the mood to write in the beginning. Just a blank sheet of paper filling your brain.

I was surfing through some of the old photos and I found out this:

Mashmoom

It was taken with my old Sony. When small, the picture looks good, but I don't know about the real size. I think I would find the original somewhere in the old DVDs I have made as back-ups. This plant is sacred in Hinduism, and it is used and planted for its smell. The Indian call it Thulsi as I was told, and in English I think it is called Bagel or Bagil (?) while in Arabic, it is Mashmoom. Ironically, the Arabic name tells about the usage of the plant, since "Mashmoom" means (the smelled one). As simple as that. This image sparked in me the love of winter again (the image was not taken in winter in fact), but winter and spring come together hand in hand, to me at least. The plant still exists in my house right now although there is more brownish parts right now after the seasons that passed along already. A sensation of hope of happiness goes through, as I look at it... but when...




Wednesday, August 19, 2009

Humid...

Today is so DAMN HUMID. These are the simplest words that I can describe it with. Let's see what other beautiful things I had in this day:
1. Pick my sister from the garage (her car's battery went dead last night).
2. Going back home of course and dropping stuff (along with my sister).
3. Aftre coming back to work I had a little rest then went on with my friend driving him here and there to do some paperwork around the campus.
4. I got a heavy dose of unuseful blabbering as usual.

All of that was in a nice, romantic humid weather. Needless to say what happens to my hair in such situations! Made me really uneasy with myself. I'm at home as I'm typing and I'm planning for my next BIG shower. The main problem now is that, in such weather, taking a shower can prove really fatal and you won't be dry again til September comes!
All of that made me really uneasy and I was coping to stay awake and type something for my story. I typed few words but after all I had to give up and take a nap in the office for like 30 minutes at least. On the road, I had to play Twister again, not only because of my absent mind from the tiresome weather, but also for the stupidity and the amazing driving of some people. I had to slow down on the left lane just because I had the mood to make the guy behind me fly off the handle... and guess it worked.

One of the latest discoveries recently, is that Stupidity started to spread over the internet with me finding out that some guys think I'm lying about my identity when I say I'm from Kuwait. Moreover, when I tell them the weather is humid today, they laugh and act the know-it-all and ask "Kuwait? Humid?." I do feel sorry for them really, but I can't help it with such weather today and such mood except to curse them all the time. Let's hope their tomato sauce won't get deeper into their minds.

Away from all of this stupidity, I made ready some of the photos that I took already in the past few days.

The topmost photo is, of course, for the Kuwait towers. This image was combined in HDR and some contrast play is applied after that. To smooth it even more, I had to apply a "surface blur." The final touch, and the hardest, was to blur the front and make the towers show firmly at the back. The idea sounds a bit weird to me because it is typical to see the subject against a blurred background, but not a blurred foreground. My eyes isn't used to it.

The lower image was one of the images I took in the morning of my birthday, where I combined the HDR image and then applied the dramatic effect. A larger image is better to be viewed here, because of the complexity of the subject.

Finally, and because of this MARVELOUS day, I couldn't translate anything in my story. I was planning already to do something, at least one verse if possible, but with all that running up and down I just couldn't do anything at all. Needless to talk about my screwed mood already.

THURSDAY! HERE I COME!!!!!!!!!!!!!




Tuesday, August 18, 2009

Officially, 29.

Well, the day that I dislike the most had passed. My birthday. Not only that, but it was on a Monday. My morning was the usual: going to do the fingerprint. Although I had some plans to go to the coast and take some pictures at night, at Monday's midnight, for the Kuwait towers beside some other buildings on the coast. Unfortunately, I was so tired and dizzy after dropping my friend back home, so I just headed back home to have a nap. I left the camera in the car, thus when I went to do the fingerprint by the morning it was there and I had the chance to snap again, but not into the glass dome (though I wished to do so), but on some other plant on the outside of the building. I had triple shots every time I snapped at it, and in every time I change the settings of the shot, from A-Dep to Av (Aperture priority). I think the best result was taken by the Av setting, with aperture being smallest, and thus I got a blurry background and a focus on the foreground or the subject of my shot.
After I made the HDRs at home, which by now are like a standard for my shots (and they take lot of space in the camera and on the hard disk), I had to change and fix the colors to give some effect. One effect that I made by coincidence was that when I changed from the 32-bit format into 8-bit format (usual task to do when you combine your images into HDRs), I changed some settings (without going into details) and it made that dreamy effect on the image. Usually I make this effect by making 2 layers of the same image, and blurring the above layer a bit and blending it as "soft light."
One other effect I made with this plant, and it was my favorite, it was the dramatic effect, where the colors and hues give a sense of antiquity and/or drama. Pale.

3 Bushes

The image above contains a cut-out of the 3 main shots with their color manipulations. I used to think that HDRs make some twist in colors, but now I think I was wrong. I guess it is all about fixing the degree of exposure and making the details of the object show up equally in shade and highlight. Sometimes I become an addict of something and can't stop doing it, so I hope I won't be an addict to HDRs, or else I might lose chances of some nice shots where equal exposure is not an ultimate aim or desire.
You might have noticed already that I changed the email address that I put as a watermark on my images. I think since I put images on this blog, I better use the gmail address instead, specially that this is a blog about the Ayvarith conlang after all.

One of the amazing things that happened to me yesterday, that is my birthday, I received a phone call by 10 O'clock almost from a relative, who got me into lot of troubles before, and this time he was telling me to be prepared to attend to some expert and do some paperwork. Well, it is a tiny paperwork as it seems for now. What makes me annoyed is the fact that he called me on the 17th, not 16th and not the 18th (today), but specifically at this date to tell me about such thing. I hate courts and authority stuff... I have some bad allergy against them, and in a country like this where the law is mixed with myths (yes, myths), I don't find it digestible to be in the periphery of such places. I'm writing these lines while sweating hard even after washing my face when I got back. Now, I'm waiting for some time and then get to some computer with electronic leaves system (the new system applied here) in order to make changes to my leave. My plane is supposedly to fly on 29th at 2:15 a.m., but I found out that my leave really starts up on 30th! I got mixed up with the dates when I started to do the stuff around here. I was really nervous and in a hurry. Always been in a hurry in fact.

Because of this running up and down, I don't think I'm able to hold the pen and write down the translation, but I'd rather think of some events to take place in my story. I'm spreading myself too thin in projects that I cannot finish as it seems. If I do take stimulants to peek up my performance with these, I think it would take me like a week to have a heart attack. Also in the meantime, I sent some scans of my own handwriting to get some analysis. I made an analysis like 2 months ago, and I got some interesting results. I might post the analysis here one day, well, after removing sensitive points that is!

I performed as well one experiment for a 360 degrees panorama and rendered the images with spherical coordinates. I found out that I can make a 3D environment and make it interact with the mouse dragging and clicking, but unfortunately I'm no expert in such things so I can't say how to put it on the web. I think Flash or Java is required here (2 things that I know NOTHING about). After all, still, I made a still panoramic view for my room (which sucks) in a 360 degrees rotation. The images are taken only for a mid-height band and I would need similar work to represent the room completely. Tedious work that I don't need for the time being! But it would be fantastic to let others be in your room without leaving their chair on the other end, right?!

My Room

Click to see the full image

The original panorama image was actually 8 meters wide (around 27ft?). You'd need a CD to copy that image in PSD format!
However, the repititive sequence of the image is natural since the images were taken in a circle around the room, and hence the repeated door and stuff beside it. Though it would be cool to have a room with 2 doors like in ig castles! One door to the main hall and the other would be out directly to jump into the yard! Weeeeeeeee... (thud)!





Sunday, August 16, 2009

Greasing The Engine...

The first day of week here, and it starts up with a headache. It was indeed an unbelievable disaster just to open the side door and get into the building and head to my office! All what I did is, instead of waiting for this damn sick old man to open the door in 15 minutes, I just figured out that I can get into the side door and open the inner door of the labs and then be in the main hall to head to my office, and what a big issue was it that they are working on a request to change the lock of the door! Hail Stupidity!

I worked today slowly on the translation and made out only one verse, which took me almost like 3 hours from the early hour of the morning. I think this is the only verse I'm going to translate for today. I hardly put my mood into it and there were some words that I could hardly go around and made up from previous words in the dictionary. I get even sicker when I think that I have to build a website again, or more accurate, a "webpage" that is. I didn't decide yet on which domain shall it be.

I thought of some plans for tomorrow. I won't be here at work, but I'm going to do the fingerprint thing and leave. I was thinking of going to Failaka and get back if the time permits just before the official attendance check-out, but I don't have the schedule for August. I don't know if I'm able to get it today. I can hardly wait for my vacation at the end of september, which reminds me that I have to buy lot of stuff. A suitable suitcase (the type you drag around) and a backpack I think is better than a handbag. I pray so everything goes as smoothly as possible. It is my first time to travel alone, and wished if I have some company... at least to chitchat along the way.

My only joy for the time being is to look for something to snap with my camera and play around with it. I, somehow, don't even have the power to write down my diaries. It was so dusty yesterday and in such weather I feelthe urge to sleep more than usual. I can't remember when I was awake yesterday and I even woke up at 9 p.m. just to sleep again after 3 hours and barely wake up this morning to go to work. One reason why I hate the yellow! However, I would need to stay late tonight to go on for some photo snapping by night, if I was able to. In that case, I would neglect the idea of visiting Failaka at all, but I have to fix my sleeping time so that I would be awake all night until morning time to do the fingerprint sickening thingy.

I was wandering under the dome this morning, again, and I feel that I didn't take my enough from snapping at this glass work. I might do it again some time later. I'm spending the time in my office right now, trying to write something extra for my story on writing.com. This is better than working in a useless job, and useless place like this college, which has useless future.




Friday, August 14, 2009

Stimulus

Quiet weekend. Not going out or anything but sitting here facing my photoshop and mangling with my photos. I woke up at almost 9 p.m. last night and stayed awake until the morning of today. Diarrhea was attacking me now and then. I think it is a consequence of the change in weather or the wave of dust we had lately here. However, by the morning time and just before the sunrise begins, I started the engine and went over to the beach beside some restaurants there to try to catch a glance of the Kuwait Towers and convert the images into an HDR. Boy, was I sick of the situation! Kids and families were sitting there before the break of dawn and playing soccer as well! The most amazing interaction was, when I was pointing my camera in some direction and then suddenly and icecream guy looked at me and just stood there and not budging. I know what's the definition of being rude but this guy can be set as an example!

However, I left the beach in a hurry as I couldn't catch much and the sun started to rise already. I think HDR are best when you have a dark atmosphere somehow and not to catch photos under plain lights. This is my impression at least. I might post some photos for the Kuwait towers later on though.
After leaving the beach I was heading to some market to buy some stuff for my own breakfast but unforutnately on the way I felt such a severe pain that made me get a U-turn and head back. On the way back though, and despite the pain, I decided to stop a moment after I glanced some view that captured my attention, and so I decided to snap it. Of course, after snapping, the work at home starts:

The picture above was taken from several angles but I think this is the best angle it was taken with. At home, the picture was composed into HDR and then several processes took place to enhance colors and give some other effects to the image. This scene reflects the old and the new Kuwait and whether we are building or knocking down our heritage to be a nation without a history. The old muddy house below dates back somehow to the 1950s at least, judging from the way it was structured.

Last night as well, and since I was not going out anywhere, I spent most of the time playing around at some of the photos I took of the dome, that I snapped on the 12th. I had a problem since the best image I had and composed into an HDR was in fact not centered and the right side of the image was cut. After many, many, many trials and hours of working on it, I think I got a fine result by now, although I can't say it is as pretty as the one I did before and posted in the last entry. This image was composed of sticking and gluing parts of other images together and doing a short panoramic merge for 2 images and then taking parts from other images to fix the lost area. After all, I took the complete half (left side) of the image and tried to complete the right side with it. When all failed because of the light and shadow in the image itself, I got some success, when I converted the image into a rectangular coordinates then back to polar (guys who deal with photoshop know this from the distort menu). This move filled in some empty spaces in the image which made me crop it later on with some equality on the sides.


Just few hours ago, I was also working on the panoramic view, taken from the same hall of dome, and despite the colors, it had in fact lot of noise and remove them I had to sacrifice somehow with the sharpness of the image, which makes me reluctant a bit to submit it to stock photos sites. They are hard to accept such "normal" photos even! The real size of the image is supposed to be 240cm tall and around 110cm wide, and sorry can't convert this to feet right now!


Notice that the "pipe" looking thing at the top of the image, is in fact the pillar that was just behind the camera. The photo shoot was running from the ground level (at 0 degrees) and I was pushing the camera upward for few degrees between every shoot. At the end, when the camera was at the final position (90 degrees) you can see the result is a pillar going on the top of the image!
i have to make some cleaning for the images taken in the past 3 days. I have 3 folders so far and the PSD (photoshop format) files are mixed with JPGs. The size of the 3 folders reached almost 2GB!!! I have to remove stuff, and store it the usual way in its own folder to be packed later on on a DVD, but that does not mean my work with the dome is over yet. I'm still planning to look more into it so I might get a new idea and new construction that can be made with what I have so far.
An idea just occured to me, I might make a shoot of my own work place from the outside. But such a building is a sensitive place to be posted in stock photos!

It had been some days now and I didn't do any work with my Alexander's story, which made this blog more like an artistic place for photography and not the conlang of Ayvarith. The translation is almost stopped. I have to think of some way to stimulate me on writing more of the translation! Now, with my partner's coming back from vacation, I think I might have some time for myself and try to write down both, the Alexander's translation and the Blackened Image story. The month of fasting, Ramadhan, is on the doors by next week or so, thus I don't know how am I going to do, specially that I need some stimulants (coffee, redbull, ...etc). I pray my mood would be in a better situation by the coming days. Mood is very important in writing, and for this I didn't write any poems lately, and my pace with other activities is downed. All what I'm waiting for, for now, is my vacation...




Thursday, August 13, 2009

I wish if I was...

My mood swing today was extreme that I was not able to focus or anything... even during writing these words. I had nap for like one hour in the office just to release some of the pressure that was hovering around my chest.
Today, is suposed to be the international day for left-handers, but anyway for someone like me in this corner of the world, it isn't a big deal. Is it? I was a bit disappointed though because I was trying, for the second time, to catch more photos for the same building and same dome like I did yesteday, and this time in rather a systematic manner and fixing the camera in specific spots. I downloaded the images down into my laptop in the office and I think the images were not up to level, specially that the center of the dome was not captured. I got an idea to combine the photos I had yesterday with the photos taken today and see if things can get even. All of that anyway should be done at home ONLY. Anyway, the idea did not work and still I cannot photomerge photos to form a complete image of the dome. I'm trying now to fix it myself, which is not an easy task. I still have hope that I will do something out of it. Beside fixing the pieces together like a jigsaw (which is a hard task to do by my own with the presence of some geometrical distortions), I have to fix the color level to make it all consistant within the same hue range! I think I will spend days working on this and yet, I don't know if I will do it right at the end!

With the disturbance in my mood, I recalled the lyrics for the amazing folk song, Carrickfergus. It gave me flash backs of days that sometimes I feel sad to leave, and sometimes feel happy for leaving them behind.






Wednesday, August 12, 2009

Experimenting...

1. A quiet day relatively, with a visit from my colleague, who is officially in a leave. However, I was almost going to cancel this day from my schedule and sleep more, since I stayed awake late last night (technically, stayed awake until today's dawn) and had a sleep for 3 hours only and was almost going to be late from my usual going-out time. When I was just leaving I remembered that I was planning to take photos from inside in one of the buildings in the campus. It was so damn tiresome to just get back to my room to bring the camera and the tripod after reaching my car outside. I didn't even go to buy me something for breakfast the usual way. I just flew over to campus directly. After doing my fingerprinting thing in the same building, I got out the tripod and started to work. Some cleaning guys, who were the only inhabitants alive there, kept on staring at me... like an alien! Well, I kept my nerves down with that.

I had some difficulty as I wanted to take a photo of the dome with some depth (not depth of field but the dome with some of its surroundings), so I tried to lower down the tripod as much as possible to work with it. Of course because of that, I didn't know what I'm catching, because I wasn't able to look into the viewfinder and snap. As as I said in the previous post, it was a chance to check for HDR's capability in this case. HDRs aren't good in general with moving objects even if the movement was tiny... it can show clearly on the image after combining the layers. Anyway, after many trials, here and there and changing a bit of the position of the tripod, I think I got satisfied with the list of photos I have in the current time. The building is there to be snapped at any time!

Going then to my office, I ran the wizard's wand (which you know by now) and started to work on the photos and boy, did I not want to crash my laptop down. I think I do need a new one now with some 4GB of RAMs if possible. In fact, my work on this laptop was just to experiment a bit and not to add a final touch, as the real work will begin at home. On location however, I got the idea of trying a panoramic shot as well, but this time length-wise and not width-wise as it is usually taken. I did photomerge these photos with my laptop but the work was done so slow and yet it was cumbersome. I need to check back at home with more advanced tools with it. After working around a bit and converting to HDR, I loved to do just a tiny experiment and saved the image as it is in 32bits, as a TIFF. The size was 90.8MB. I laughed. I deleted the file. Ta Da! However, still, I got back to reality again and coverted the file to JPG and made a tiny fix in colors to get the final touch on one of the scenes:

The rest of the work will continue at home. Although I wanted to write down some lines in my story but unfortunately, I was swept away and I'm writing these words in a hurry before I leave the place. I have a game, and photos to work with allllll day...


2. Now, after getting back home, I feel a bit energetic to work with my new photos! That reminds me to recharge the cam's battery... I need to buy another battery and another CF memory card. It is just embarassing when you feel yourself into the shot really and then your camera just stops focusing correctly! I tried it! The charger sucks anyway. Couldn't fit it into the electrical exntesion in my work place so I had to wait til I get home. The first thing to do now is to work on the photomerge, as it is a hard task to me still, then I shall work on the HDRs a bit and play around. Guess won't have a spark of ideas to write down anything in my story today. Ah well. Pass.






Tuesday, August 11, 2009

Overdose...

A slow day. I was almost about to give my back to work and sleep again. Although I slept earlier yesterday, which is something that soundsl ike a miracle, but still, to wake up this morning was like a torture. I had some neck pains for some time. I have a long queue list of photos that people want me to change or do something about and Im totally running of ideas, and my mood is getting low down that I can hardly focus. I discovered yesterday that I had a game that I didn't play yet, and installed it but didn't feel like doing anything about it. But still, yesterday was a good day for writing my story. I wrote a big portion relatively, in the second chapter, and just put the final touch before leaving my work place. I think I spent one hour typing without stopping. Also today, I had an idea for writing an 8-line poem for a Bite-Size contest in www.writing.com, and I called it 1798. It talks, very briefly, about the Irish rebellion of 1798, which was put down few months later brutally by the British forces at that time. These short poems I rarely post in my Poemhunter account.

After arriving back from work yesterday, I stayed and worked on my new little design for my niece. It isn't much of a thing though because the original photo was not good enough, plus the noise thing and the background which made it hard to separate the subject, but some people already liked it:

In Principio

The line reads: In principio, non vi è stata la bellezza. Meaning: In the beginning, there was the beauty. I hope the translation is correct, and thanks to uncle Google!

At the moment while I type these words, I feel my blood pressure is rocketing the sky. Seems I've taken some overdose of caffeine or something. I had some Redbull and coffee yesterday by night, and this morning too, and I won't cease to drink soda anyway as long as I am at the work place. I stopped fasting for the time being and it helped me out now to stay awake in the afternoon time, when I usually sleep if I was fasting. This day seems to be idle so far, and my head is so heavy. I'm thinking of giving myself a little holiday next Monday, for my birthday.

I just remembered that I was planning to get my camera and tripod to the campus today, but unfortunately did not remember this until this very moment of writing this entry! My memory sucks. I was aiming at taking a photo for a dome of one of the buildings in campus, which is relatively a new building. The good thing about it is, there is a spot on the ground marked with some floral design, thus you can easily fix the tripod in that location and flip the camera for 90 degrees and shoot. It would be a good chance for an HDR experimenting.

Photobucket

HDR image combined by photoshop from 3 different exposure rates. The image was taken in one dark winter night, or after midnight, at 3 a.m.
For a printable size of the same photo, please visit my portfolio in www.Canstockphoto.com, simply by clicking the signature down.




Monday, August 10, 2009

Begone Summer!

Idle idle idle. Got many ideas to do, but did nothing. Makes me a bit angry with myself. Yesterday for example, I was thinking of writing more in the new chapter of the story in writing.com, yet, did nothing. On the other hand, I spent most of the day (after work) trying to fix a photo for my niece. The original photo was not good, as the naughty girl kept on moving and my camera experience did not help here, add to that she was covering her face whenever she looked at me with the camera. Cute! But I made a design of her previously:

Opus Dei

"Opus Dei" means "The work of God." Usually, there is an expression used here by some people. They say "God had drawn this with His own hand" noting something beautiful. Thus, I used "Opus Dei" with the same sense. The circle around the head resembles a halo, but I think I made it too thick. Should've been thinner. it is supposed to be an engraving on a wooden plate, but maybe I should've worked on it a little bit more and made some extra stuff on it. I'm working on another photo for her right now, and I tried to change and stretch some aspects of the face, trying to make her a bit older than she really is. She's 7 years old.

It had been also long time since I got into any contests in www.writing.com, which makes me think for now, is writing really my thing? Some people told me I have the skill with writing, but I'm not sure of that right now. Could it be that the summer is confusing my brain and makes me inspirationless? I hope this is the case here. In this country, you wouldn't get much nice views or nice weather in summer. Needless to talk about the frustration and the state of disturbance that spread among people in summer.

Although I'm happy to get the Irish visa finally and hopefully will fly on the 29th of September, I still have some fears. It is my first time to travel alone, and the first time to "really" travel, as my only 2 flights out of the country were to Iran (in 1996 and 2008), which was more like a pilgrimage traveling rather than a vacation traveling. The time of the flight itself makes me feel hard about it: first to Istanbul, Turkey, and remain there for 4 hours, then flying to Dublin. From Dublin I must check out a way to get to Galway and from Galway I think I have to get a taxi or something to go north where the resort lies. It is a nice spot called The Waterfront. I just hope the view is as it is in the photos! Although they said that October is not a good time to visit Ireland, but if I like winter here, then I'd hope to like it there. My other concern is, the swine-flu thing. I don't know what kind of procedures they are following right now all around the world, but the news are contradicting each other. The WHO announced it as a 6th grade epidemic, meaning, as I think, it is more dangerous than the avian-flu before. I know an English girl who got cured already from that and she is fine as she said!

Winter, Winter, Winter... when dost thou come!

On anothr note, a generous donor allowed me to put their picture here. I did it some months ago. The line at bottom reads "Beannacht na Sí" (where the "ch" is replaced with a dotted C), meaning "Bless of the fairies," and reads as [byan-nakht na shee, Irish Gaelic]. The age is to be for your own estimation!

Beannacht na Sí





Sunday, August 2, 2009

Alone...

It is the beginning of August, when my birthday comes on the 17th!

It is now the first day of the week, and I'm all alone in the office as two of my co-workers are absent. The two are on leaves for various reasons, moreover, one of them asked for an expansion because he is still ill. The other was given a leave, as mentioned in previous posts. Thus, I can say that loneliness creeped not only into my own life, but even to my work as well. The situation is good except for having to type and answering phone calls. If it was for working in the lab, I don't have much problems. This day as well was spent somehow in idling around with chatters. I didn't do anything with my translation for days, which makes me feel a bit bad and out of control. My mood swings are severe these days.

On the other hand, despite my mood is affecting my ability to play some of the games that are waiting on the queue, I spend much time on photoshop and doing some designs for some "people" I know. I'm putting the word (people) in quotes, as you will know later what I'm talking about. They are cute people let's say! :)
My desire and running after beauty makes me chasing all over the photos and trying to change them however I can. I'm typing this as my photoshop at home is open still and still got an image of my little niece under the process of the making. Some of them (people) were kind enough to give me the permission to post the images here, in this
boring blog.

Jaqueline (Belleza Bendita):
A girl with latin blood running down her veins. Well, no need to mention where is her place. She endowed me with her grace of 2 photos, and here are the results (click thumbnail):

Jaquie1

Jaquie2
I've been fond of latin beauty, always. She told me that in the second image, she was wearing contacts. To me, I think there is no difference. The eyes are beautiful with or without the contacts... but I would prefer to go natural with her hazel-colored eyes. I like her name too; it has that French sound to it. Age is for your guess as I won't tell in here!
Go on girl!

Renee:
A very moody girl, but she was cooperative enough to give these 2 photos. I see the Irish looks in her while she doesn't agree much with that and insists that her looks are more German than Irish, while amazingly enough, her name has a French tone. She has mixed roots anyway, but for some reason I can't stop thinking of the Irish roots when I see her face. After all, the judgement is yours. This play with her photo was hard. So hard in fact. This is due to the original size of the photos, and to the poses in the photos. Yet, one of the photos (the first to come later after this), in my point of view, was relatively nice and smooth with a dreamy effect on it. Thus, it was so hard to decide what to do with it or what kind of decoration should I amalgamate it with. I hope, however, the two designs are fine for people to see.
The second image contains the first verse of "Those Endearing Young Charms." A famous poem and song, first written by the infamous Irish poet, Thomas Moore.

Renee frame


Renee (endearing)

I couldn't come up with better ideas except of putting a frame with Celtic designs on it. The wooden frame and the Celtic design are two solely made. Well, the Celtic thing was downloaded, but the frame was made from scratch with photoshop. The details of the wooden veins do not show clearly because of the size, but they need a bit of concentration maybe.


There are other works that I need to check if I can post or not, or to check if I SHOULD post or not. Not everyone might like to see their photos posted.

Away from this and back to the world of Reality, I've started to write some lines in the next chapter of the so-called "Blackened Image" story. I go to work now without picking my translation pack (in the envelope) where I keep the papers written with my own handwriting in Ayvarith. I want to completely concentrate on my story right now and well, I can barely have the mood to write down something, but it's going on, I hope.

On another note, I started writing my "black diary." I'm still thinking of a secure place to keep it, but can't think of something. Some names are mentioned there... so it better be in a secure place...