Lajnúc...

"Lajnúc" [Ankh: lujQnwC] is a word I made today (beside other words) meaning "Side." This word made me lot of trouble to settle it down in fact. Because I discovered that wherever it was mentioned in the manuscript in the verses before, I was going over the word by some trick in expression without the need to translate it directly. I had to double re-check that I did not make a word for it before, since I discovered that I am re-making some words all over again in another way, like the word "Simple" which I made it all over again in another verse I've recently translated, but then I discovered it was made up already before but I didn't notice. After the final add-up for these words into the dictionary there must be some adjustments and cancelation of some of course, beside the change in the translation itself. It surely requires keen eyes.

Today is Wednesday and as usual, TGIW. But this one is a special TGIW, since tomorrow it is indeed a holiday. I had some thought about my translation work, and I think I will take the manuscript with me back home and work with my laptop (connecting it to the wireless I've just made up in my room) and have a go with the translation during the holiday. Yet, I'm not sure if the mood swings would allow me to!

Back to our word "Lajnúc" it originates from the preposition "lajanc" meaning "beside." "Lajnúc" is a noun, and can be used to mean the side of a shape or any object in general. Thinking about it now, I really don't know how did I twist my translation to overcome this word before! After all seems my prevention came to an end where I must make a word for it.

Planning today to continue the work with that Window image. This time, I have to try to do it all in 32-bit format and then use other softwares to do the job for me in enhancing the colors. For this reason, I loaded all the images into a stack of layers and started to organize them manually and aligning them in groups, but yet this work is not done yet. I'm sure I'm going to need to restart my PC as well or something to "rejuvenate" my memory. Thinking seriously now about getting a 64-bit system with zillions of RAMs.
Been thinking as well if the focus of the images that I've been taking is a bit blurry because I don't see clearly through the viwfinder... there must be a way to calibrate that!

Seems my hopes of traveling back to Ireland by the next year are a bit hovering over some hard rocks, just by thinking about the expenses that are waiting for me... hope all goes good though. I might get some hope by next October if I couldn't make it by May...

Xácúj e-Tuxunin...

This is one of the words that I had to make today while translating. Xácúj e-Tuxunin [Ankh:Xacwj aetoXoniN], is a composite that I made out for the word: Chimney.
Xácúj is a word that comes out from "xacaj" meaning "to exit," while "tuxunin" means "smoke." Thus the composite meaning leads to: Smoke Outlet.
The yield for today is 2 verses as usual. Though I had to do them in lengthy hours since I feel powerless today. Not enough sleep, and also a feel of depression because of some photos rejection from Canstockphoto this time, specially, the Window's photo;



Now, I have to go over again with some pains-taking processes to try and make up this image again, almost out of scratch. The thing is, stock photos sites seem not to like the HDR images of tonal adjustments, but better they like everything natural and normal. Fine then, I shall keep the tonal play for myself for fun.
I placed today my order of 3 books into Amazon. Total charge is $155 with shipments and stuff. Let's see if the DHL is attempting to take extra charges for delivering books as "customs" charges. I hope one day I won't have to sell my pants in order to pay something. Let's hope.

A calm day somewhat, despite the drowsiness. It had been some days since I did some doodling with my black pen. I even did not try to upload much of my doodles and sketches into these stock sites. I must find other sites. But the work is going on with other photos from Ireland, regardless of the rejections;

My thoughts are away trying to figure out how or by what sense shall my photos be as clear as water? Is it really possible to make images look like they are scanned from a glossy paper, but directly from the camera? Would I need to clean the sensor now? Would I need a cleaning kit for my sensors now? I feel awkward...

60...

The yield for today's translation work is the usual, 2 verses. Yet, it made me feel somehow special because it is page #60. That means 60 verses had been translated so far into Ayvarith from English. Regardless of the errors and mistakes that I found out in the numbers, and considering the whole story of Alexander (part VI) takes up to 3000 lines, 24 lines for each verse, that makes almost half of the story left to be translated (65 verses). Well, with the same rate of 2 verses per day, I might need 2 months or so for this! But ah well, I already spent as much with it.

Today's verses were a bit tough since I had to do lot of words creations and fabrications, which slowed me down a bit. Plus, the fact that I couldn't get any coffee at the end of the day before 2 hours of my leave made it worse actually!

As had been foretold already by the "weather" forecast, Fotolia rejected all my images (6 of them or 5) that had been submitted during the last weekend. Normal to me by now, as I don't know what technicality needed here. Yet, Canstockphoto website is a good one for hobbyist like me, and in fact some people did buy some of my photos before. I think all what I need is some advertising (and this is what I do below at the end of each entry if you noticed). I guess more work needed on that side.
Bigstockphotos is another website that I totally forgot about. I remember it was worse than Fotolia when it comes to details and clarity. Anyway, I think more work would or should be done in other fields other than the stock sites. They barely feed a bird.

I keep on fixing photos from Ireland still, and this time I shall try to make another 30 images and put them online, and then make another email containing all of those. At this time I might have to concentrate more on those non-panoramic and regular shots that I had in Ireland. Yet, I have some plenty of panoramic shots that are not touched yet so far and I need to work on them later on or so.

The details in this image can be seen after clicking on the thumbnail. A description is available below the image.

Well, would I be able to take some photo of some haunted houses? I will check it out this week, but, I do prefer to do this somewhat around morning time... better... isn't it?
Finally, my salary is here (with some extra money I guess for some previous days) however, I paid almost half of the credit card debt, and I think I won't be waiting to order the books I wanted from Amazon! But... I better think about it a bit before I rush into it. The books are saved on my list there anyway...

want to buy them for me? Thank you!

Fatal Error...

After a shaky weekend I start this week with a day that started with some trials for accidents. I'm waiting for next Thursday with great hope, because it is an off-day. Last week I was able to translate only one verse of Alexander's story, and today I felt - a bit - the urge to translate 3 verses to compensate for my usual rate of 2 verses a day.

I discovered another killing mistake with the numbering system for the lines. The numbers jumped 6 lines ahead, from 1383 to 1389 just like that, which made that specific verse shorter! I don't know what kind of "twist" shall I use as an excuse for this yet, but I'm intending to keep the numbers as they are. Any change or shift or corrections to the order of numbers, shall twist the whole thing for me specially when it comes to the order of words used and lines.

The numb state is still hovering around with me being not able to write anything. Nothing at all. All what I'm concerned about is photography for the time being and waiting for my salary now to clear some debts on my credit card. After that I'm going to order some new photography books. November had almost gone now without me being able to visit Miskan island on the north of Failaka island, because of working conditions here. I need just one "man" to help me out with my plans on this. In the mean time, I shall work on more photo processing, and playing more games that are waiting on the queue!

I spent some time this morning also to submit some of the images that I've uploaded to Fotolia and Canstockphoto websites, and of course the reply of Fotolia was amazingly fast with rejection as usual. Anyway, nothing to be surprised for. I've been uploading these images for some time during the weekend mainly, but not in mood to write down the keywords and the titles for them, thus the perfect time for such activities is, the work time in the office where I am awake and doing nothing!

In the mean time as well, I do think of some plans to visit some of the old deserted (haunted maybe aswell) houses and take pictures of them, in "special" times... yes... special. Yet, I don't know any of such houses near by or so, so I have to ask around and maybe as my brother for some help. Thank you, not going to do it alone!

TGIW

TGIW, Thank God It's Wednesday. I still remember these words when they were used by Linda over the SuperStation on the radio. It was that time when Wednesday was the end of the week and people would prepare for the weekend. Nowadays, even this phrase would still be valid. It is Wednesday and only one day left to the weekend, thus you might play a psycho trick on your brain and say to yourself "aha yes, only one day and I'm free!"

My mood was off by the morning already when I discovered that my wallet is missing. Although I found it later on when I reached the office but I'm still pissed off for what happened already. I had to borrow money from my mother just to get myself breakfast! I spent half the time at work trying to calm and not interacting with anyone. For this reason, the yield for my translation today was one page so far till the moment of writing this entry, and I don't think I will be increasing the amount for this day. Despite the fact that one hour is left still to leave this place, yet I don't feel I have the power and the mood enough to continue working on that.

I wonder where all my powers for writing poetry had gone? Is it something that would come back? I feel so awkward and out of balance. So confused that I just can't write anything, not even complete the story that I already began in www.writing.com.

Still yet, not all my time is to waste. At home I still work on some images, specially those that were taken into panoramic shots in Ireland. This time, with the help of other softwares, I do not use the HDR option in photoshop itself, but I always do it outside, then use photoshop to photomerge and stitch the images. Although I found out some programs that would stitch as well, but Photoshop is still better for this work.

And more to come...

Because of my "turbulent" sleeping habit nowadays, I do barely play any game after getting back home. Eat, Sleep, Wake up, Eat, Sleep, Wake up, Work... I need some brainstorming I think... Literally!

A Father?

It is Tuesday, and of course yesterday was a Monday, and you might know by now how much I like Mondays, NOT.

I was so drowsy and absent-minded yesterday that I didn't feel like writing anything in this blog, but I had some strength to work on my translation for Alexander stories, and did 2 verses already, as usual. As I go further, I get more grip on the language itself and sometimes I discover some of the grammatical mistakes that I did here and there (originally) and sometimes I discover some mistakes with word making and such. There are some words that need to be changed specially that, as I go further, I developed some kind of a sense for the conlang and I wouldn't like to go systematic anymore. I think it would be true for other conlangs developers? Maybe.

And with the tiresome body and eyes I didn't stop doodling. I go on senselessly and unconsciously rubbing the tip of my pen against the paper piece, as I always do in boring meetings and classes.

The previous sketch was actually done upside down in the beginning. Then suddenly I found out that when I turn it around, it would be something like a crown and a head, and so I continued that way.

Finally, I managed to make a somehow reduced image (with the help of other softwares other than photoshop) for the shot that made me pain since I got back from Ireland: The Window (An Fhuinneog).

The image here is somehow elongated because it was merged in cylindrical algorithm. I made another one in spherical, which was a bit more normal to the eye, but unfortunately the lower part was scrambled for some reason. The main sots (66 of them) were reduced by 70% to make the formation easier, but after all I had some problems with memory, as always. Some part of the completed image later on was not there and the area was transparent. I fixed that with a little trick of using the symmetry along the vertical axis. Without boring details, it just involved using the "auto-blend" option in photoshop for two layers.

The image now is in 8-bit JPG format, and yet, it is 30MB which forces me to reduce the size a bit. I'm sure after all, it will be refused by Fotolia anyway.

Despite the shuttered sleeping time, yet I managed to sleep for 3 hours before I come to work. In these 3 hours, I had a weird dream. So many events, yet all what I remember now is, me, carrying a little baby girl and running in some place jumping trying to reach some where. She had weird round black eyes, and yellowish golden hair. I was thinking in the dream, that this is my daughter...

The Birdy...

First day of the week. Quiet working conditions, but tiresome mind and body.
The yield for today was the usual 2 verses in translation, and yet I cannot write ay poem or any story, just trying to so something with my black ink pen.

The sketch above is something I did last week, and of course out of boredom as usual. I called it the bird from hell. I don't know really how I do it or why I do it, it is just my hand works by itself. I thought it is a good idea to make a vector image out of it for Fotolia, and after all, as usual, it was rejected. I think it is time to move on and look for other sites to post my pictures and photos, otherwise, nothing will spread. Despite what people say about my photos, they are always rejected (while shaky images get accepted). I wonder if I can find myself another business with such photos.

I decided to give it a try again with the image that made my life hard enough till now, that is the window of Aughnanure castle which was taken on several parts (66 images each composed of 3 shots, totaling 198 shots). Now, I'm trying a new approach and hoping my PC's memory will aid me on this. This time, I worked on converting the shots into a form of reduced HDR images converted to 8bits (which I discovered later on to be really 16-bit images and the software did not do as told). I reduced the sizes of the 66 images by 70%, but I do not have a tool to batch-convert the files into 8-bit images, and that forces me to do all the photomergy operation with the original 16-bit images and then convert the whole thing into 8-bit, if the operation was complete that is. I still get memory issues to cope with.

On the other hand, my stupid AIM suddenly disconnected me and never want to join the network again. I can join AIM in the laptop, and mobile, but not in own PC. I tried to re-install it, but yet no luck, and THAT screws my mind a bit. Let's hope I can do something about it today when I get back from work... yeh... work...

Last Friday there was unpleasant incidents at home that made me really think of killing someone... why do I always get the burden on my back? And why people do remember me only when troubles come? I do need to change this...

Thursday again...

This is the place where I work... everyday. You check the tags for some of the "strategic" points that we have in this place!
I was called to take photos around the place and for some new devices that we don't have pictures of yet, to upload the images later on to our website. I can't recall what's the address of our website though! I took photos around, for some labs and for the class room, and at the end when people started to leave the building, I moved my car away from the front of the building and started to shoot. I didn't bring my tripod to allow my hands to move freely. It is either my sensitivity for captivity, or it is the tripod's weight that made me think twice to take it out with me for this occasion.

The composition of this image was a bit of a hard work. It is simple, but the memory in my PC now sucks big time and made me think seriously of changing the system to something faster. Anyway, I had a trick to go around it and minimized the originals to make working with them a bit faster and easier. Also, with the help of other softwares (beside the usual photoshop) I was able to produce vibrant colors out of the HDR composition. Another difficulty showed up when composing the image with photomerge is when there was a plenty of empty spaces and the image is rectangular (naturally!). It might not be a big deal if I want to save the image as a GIF (because transperancy is saved) but since JPG is required here for web and other purposes, I had to work around the lower left corner and cover it with the Clone tool.
I wonder if this occasion is the beginning of some side-career related to photography... who knows!

I've put some books on my Amazon list in order to order them later on... when I balance my budget again after the stupidity that they made with my salary here. I'm thinking seriously as well of getting a new set of lenses, and a camera body, and a dedicated flash. All of that will seriously be around 1000 K.D. if not more. But first, I have to clear up my visa a bit.

I made a scan for some of my gibberish and sketching that I usually do when I'm partially unconscious. Might submit them to stock sites later for fun. I'm trying to make a vector image in EPS format or something if possible. I didn't work with EPS format before and I don't know anything special about it, yet when I save a file I get some dialog box with some options that I didn't understand any! Just saved it anyway!

Yield for today is 2 verses... and it is Thursday, let's see how the weekend goes this time...

Still Greasing Up...

Despite my work with the translation, I still need more activity on my way. I hardly translated 2 verses today.
My sleeping time is a bit of a mess and I really don't know how am I driving to home after going out of this place. When I get back home I forgot all about this tiresome time and I start working on my photos and trying to get out something out of them. I got really frustrated and annoyed with the many refusal for my images after spending hours on creating them and enhancing them. I can't understand what do they really want. Moreover, I found out that some people actually submitted shaky images and still these images were accepted into some sites. I feel that whatever I do, is useless and helpless.

Yet, with my work with the translation, such work does not require much thinking, but merely making up words and direct work, while my work on the story is still hanging into the air without anything I can write with. My mind is empty of ideas and I can't continue writing just right now. My mood does not help and makig shadows over my head. Ideas for poetry hover around my head, and yet I can't gather them in a concrete way.

With a time of boredom waiting for the time to leave my work place, I started to sketch some lines across a tiny white piece of paper which later on developed to some imaginative sketch made of lines and dots. I think I shall scan these later. I did not make any topic out of thefirst lines in the first place but seems my hand is working all by itself.

I took some shots today around our building, maybe I shall pin these down here later as well. I got lot of work waiting for me out of the work place itself. My real work with my beloved photos. At least it is something I do like doing...

I got a surprising feeling out of a sudden, that whatever I do or whereverI go... I'm alone.

Greasing Up...

With my effort to get back to my old routine and heat before I travel to Ireland, I decided today after some time of working on some emails to go on and hit the translation pack. I spent around 2 hours translating 2 passages or verses (that is 48 lines), from English to Ayvarith. I discovered that y hands did not lose the touch of the pen still, which is good, and I went on sparking memories of some old words that I didn't use now for some time. The irony is, sometimes when I try to memorize a word in Hebrew, I do remember the Ayvarith equivalent instead!

I hope this is a good start. I have lot of other things to do beside this translation work: the story (blackened image), the new site building, photography and a long list of games to play!
Now the translation and the story writing is mainly a job I usually do in the office and not at home, since my mood gets screwed up more (it is already screwed however) when I get back home. The photos are mostly done and tried at home because of the software things. Yet, I should not stop my camera from clicking as I have plans not done yet at the time being.

I worked on sending a massive email message to most of the people I know containing images from Ireland. That was part 2, and more to come later.

Here you go with the images sent over the email. Enjoy...

A Stop...

Working on some photos and preparing to send a massive email for all people I know including these 30 images I got from Ireland.

I got depressed when I see all my photographs and work is refused by stock sites. I think it is time to move on to some other stocking sites.

Problem occured with my DHL shipment because of broken glass and the lady at the Waterfront, the place where I stayed, refused to receive the shipment in that condition. It was mainly my mistake actually. I sent her a fax today, and I hope she gets it since she didn't reply to my emails at all. I hope she will accept them without the glass. It is embarassing indeed.

I get a feeling that nothing works fine in my world. Maybe I should consider this as a normal feeling since this is the way it should be in Kuwait. On the other hand, I'm still trying to find some other outlets for my photographs from Ireland. With some new softwares, I'm able to produce better HDR images even.

My mood is so screwed that I can't work on any of my projects; The translation, the story, and the new homepage for the Ayvarith conlang. I wonder if chocolate would help with such cases...

Wireless...

It is my first week at work and I was burning my fat, but not in work, but in some other matters. At work I'm still trying to get my previous mood for writing (which did not work all the time except at work, specially when the time was close to leave the office).

Yesterday was just too much. I woke up at 11pm Tuesday and went to work Wednesday morning without sleeping, and yet I had the urge to go and buy the wireless printer that I wished for and also to my ISP headquarter to get the wireless router that I wanted for some time now (and it was a must now since I have a wireless printer, since I don't have a wireless adapter in my desktop PC).

After coming back from work, I spent my time working on my new stuff and turning my room into a real mess. I just realized later that I was awake for more than 20 hours just at 9 O'clock. Thus, I had to fall down like a dead horse and decided to continue the work today. I went back home after spending some time in the office and just as if by miracle everything with that damned network in my room was done correctly! Now, I have to work on connecting this printer to other laptops around the house.

For all of this I didn't work on many photos recently. Plus, my progress is so slow and I didn't even begin working with my translation for Alexander's story so far. I got back working with the window's photo that was taken from Aughnanure castle, which is still a challenge. I minimized the partial photos thus photoshop can work a bit easier and faster (relatively) but yet no luck. I wish if I can take these photos again to compensate for such a mistake! Anyway, I'll try to think of some trick, hopefully!

Back to Work...

My first day at work. Nothing has changed. Blabbering, clumsiness, and yet, stupid administerative people.
I spent the previous days playing one game or two and working on lot of photographs (specially those that were made into panoramic views). Not all of them turned out great and as usual, fotolia refuses all. I'm planning to order some stuff from outside and I need indeed some cash for it, even though it will be over the visa of course.
I didn't post much here, specially the photos, but hopefully I will make an email later for a group of photos and I shall spread the email all over.

In case you want to receive the email later on, please, leave me a note here or send me an email (the same ID of this blog @ gmail), and I shall work on it.

A little example of what I'm working with;


Now, I need some time to grease my mind and my nerves to cope with the daily stress as usual. Also, I have to push myself to write poems and to complete what I began with that story and also with the translation of my story, Alexander. The stress seems to be coming from my private work rather than from work for the first glance, but in Kuwait, everything brings a stress I believe. I also plan to look further than stock sites to sell my photos, but I just need a start point to begin with...