An tSiúlóid…

As I'm typing this, there were some trials (and errors of course) on some little project which really consumed my time at home recently. Anyway, I'm still working on this and let's hope that I get something useful out of it! Frankly, I'm not sure what I'm doing or have done already, but we'll see. I'll explain things later when it is time to talk about this little idea in future posts, hopefully. Meanwhile, I'm actually living from one weekend to another and now waiting for the New Year's holiday here (which will be only one day). Not just to sleep more as much as I can, but to ease my mind a bit (specially about driving the damn car to and from work). Anyway, who's not sick of driving cars right now in this place with traffic jams taking up the roads for more than 12 hours a day?

Budgie

Since I was not doing much with my camera and as I was trying to kick myself a bit to move and do something, I've found some new target for me here: Our parakeet (a.k.a Budgie). We had this bird for a while and I truly hate to see birds in cages but, well, as usual, I don't have a say in this in this home of mine. I have to say though, he kind of have a weird character. I can feel it.

Nostralia

So, what I did, I just placed the cage on a table (as usual) and placed a speedlite beside it on another table and started to shoot a bit randomly; Why randomly? Well, it is an animal and I can't control its pulses, specially being inside a cage! Thus, my mind was set to do a lot of cropping work later on when examine the shots. To overcome the bars or the cage, I've used my 100mm macro lens (at f/8) in hope that the bars would not be too obvious; However, they helped me at some point as we will see! And for some reason, I've used my converted Canon EOS 7D here without any filters (no IR, nor Hot Mirror), and guess what? I was able to retain the original colors back with the adjustment of the white balance while processing the photos quite easily. Just as a remark: The main source of lighting here is the speedlite and not the ambient light, which means there is an abundant amount of infrared issued through, but without using any filtration system, I was good to go and I got the colors back (well, to be honest, I was hoping I would get something vivid or strange in terms of colors).

3D-Keet

Parastrakt

Taking many pictures on burst (successive) mode did help me as well to inspect the shots for some chances to make anaglyphs. They were not many in fact and apparently f/8 was not enough with this macro endeavor (the shallow depth changed as the bird moved and I was trying to follow him up!). Anyway, my main aim was to create abstracts actually and not anaglyphs, and this is why I was thinking of the crops from the very beginning of this random shooting, as you might have seen already up with Nostralia. I didn't name the pictures even prior to this post; I'm just putting the names now for easy reading and pointing!
Looking at some of these images, I've remembered some of the photos I've seen from some photographers here where they did use telephoto lenses with close objects like birds and horses and that really gives me an idea that I might try one day with my Sigma 70-300mm lens one day with this bird, as apparently this macro lens didn't block out much spaces, as can be seen in Parastrakt in the lower right corner (this image was flipped and rotated to be in that form by the way). The irony is, the first image I've shot in this series, was the latest to be processed and yet, probably so far, the most beloved to me! Behind Bars.

Behind Bars

Behind Bars was one of the first shots I've made in this series but for some reason, I didn't check it out till later after processing few images. I loved the lines formed by the ribs of the cage, with some of them being in focus and some blurred. Originally, I tried to work in color but then I realized that this image is more dramatic and more eye-catching in B&W and probably the emotions do show better in that way. I can see fear in his face (what about you?) probably because of what was happening around him with flash pulses striking his face. What I really like about this image, too, is the way that blurred lines of the ribs blend on the head of the bird like bands of inverse colors; This is definitely a trick I need to think of using in some of my future shots if possible. So far, there had been few images I need to check, and some I need to re-check in this series to see if there is any potential left in them.

The Stroll

With the "somewhat" lack of activities, and after watching some photography videos on Youtube, I got some passionate kindle going on inside of me to do some shooting outside (specially with the winter season right now). I do miss going out at night but anyway this is not the case here. I'm starting simple: A stroll around my workplace.
The thing was like a challenge and I used to do some challenges of that sort often and specifically around my workplace, where I would pick my camera with one lens only and go around my workplace trying to shoot something and come out with something unique. This time, though, I packed a camera with a lens (50mm), plus few items (2 mini-tripods which I didn't use anyway and intervalometer, beside a pinhole cap). As I started to work, an idea sparked inside of me to do some Anaglyph-dedicated shooting, which I did (despite the annoying flies!).

The strolling kit packed in a little camcorder bag.

In order to quicken my work a bit and also to get as much as possible out of the scene in order to be merged as an anaglyph later on, I put the camera on burst mode. It was partially cloudy day, but nevertheless, I could work in the range of 1/1000s of a second for the shutter's speed, and that made my work easier as all I had to do is just press the button and move gently to get a set of images with slightly different perspective. Working with 50mm lens here did not give me the choice to get closer (I didn't bring with me any extension tubes for macro jobs), and there were some instances where I wished I did bring those with me. However, the killing mistake was to use a very shallow depth of field (f/1.4, the lowest f-number for this lens). This aperture proved to be so sensitive to the movement that two successive shots can be so different in terms of the depth of field (and the location of the depth or the sharpness of the image). Anyway, I did escape with some useful images after all and some of them were good to be merged anyway!
 Some shots, I think, are better off to be in B&W as well because of the drastic and quite eye-attraction they cause away from their normal colored looks. I've discovered this by chance as I was trying to remove the color distraction from some images before converting them into anaglyphs. Sometimes, and for some images, the original colors can be quite an obstacle for a proper 3D Anaglyph viewing.

The Negative Bloom
Despite being like a negative or invert in colors, it is a direction conversion into B&W with a play in the tones.
One of my favorites.

But anyway, back to the main purpose of the stroll, which is regular shots, with some abstracts if possible. Escaping from the flies outside, I came back in into my office and started figuring out a way to use the pinhole cap this time (0.22mm) and shoot something towards the window. Actually, the idea for this shot was the reason I thought of bringing my camera to my work, because when the lights are switched off, the window becomes the main source of light; A majestic scene in winter time and the cold weather! Maybe because of the warmth that it provides? Seriously, I'm in this job for about 13 years now and I don't feel this, with such sun rays coming through the window, but only in winter alone. Well, it might have to do with the direction of the sun as well and how the rays enter the room, who knows?! In anyway, it was something to think of for a shoot!

My Dreams Window

The challenge, though, was how to I'm going to shoot this without a tripod? Even though the sun rays were strong enough to shorten the exposure, yet the exposure was in terms of seconds (ranged from 4 to 30 seconds depending on the angle). I almost gave up on that actually, but then I thought while use this relatively-long exposure to my advantage and create the abstract by moving the camera vertically in a line (as much as possible). Which I did, but then I did also add some motion blur when editing the photo later on. I wonder if such images are welcome in stock websites!

Doppel

Even though I was aiming to do a long exposure originally with this pinhole cap and through the window for the people who would usually walk outside, but the circumstances were unlike it. Not many people out there, and no tripod. Thus, I had to satisfy myself with this for now. However, I thought of one last exposure to make with the help of the whiteboard which is hanging in my office. So, I just stuck the camera by hand onto the whiteboard (pressing not too hard for stabilization) and took the exposure like that pointing to the same window, and hence we can see the reflection of the window in Doppel. To tell the truth, I was really thinking that I shot the two windows in my office for a moment! But then I remembered that the second window is covered in curtains still. Dementia at its best.
This was the end of the stroll and in fact up till this moment of typing this, I'm still checking and processing of these images. There is a plan to do it again and that time would be with my Voigtländer 20mm lens. This would be challenging somewhat because it is a wide angle and so many elements might be involved. The good part about this lens is that closest focusing distance is about 20cm which allows for some intimate moments with objects! This said, I'm already planning to upload some of these photos into my accounts on stocks websites and writing the info and keywording is surely a time-consuming task that must be done anyway, and pretty soon.

Finale

Well, because of the scrambled mind here I was not so fortunate to write down a new poem. I really wished to post one here to be my last poem for this year, but alas, my core couldn't stand it with imagination. I'm, though, mainly focusing on pinning down my thoughts about life and recording them for future reflections on my thoughts. It is all recorded in this open document, which I might produce another similar version of it for the year 2019 specifically.
I've been feeling some rage inside of me lately. It's not weird to be enraged, but this time it is a bit weird in a way I can't explain. I mean, a rage to the limit of despising the very thing about the human nature or let's say of those around me. Arrogance? I don't quite think so. Probably just tired. So tired. I'm missing the time when I would just sleep any time I want without worrying about anything. Anyway, let me hit this post button for now and go ahead and work with those images… in hope that I get something ready for the next post in 2 weeks. I leave you now with one of my favorite Muwashshahat by one of my favorite tenors, Sabah Fakhri...

Alexander 6, V111.

A bee is busy picking on roses and flower around, but TJ is busy picking stuff from one lab to the other. Today, I've finished my work with the rice samples, virtually, and all is left is to put on the data into a spread sheet. The hilarious thing is, I've found out some mistake I did when writing down the production and expiration dates. I've found in the sheet that a sample was made in 2012, and will expire in 2016! I lost some time looking for that sample again just to write down the correct dates then. Because of this busy time, I hardly had time to read at all. But, on the other hand, I will be able to read as much as possible from now on, every morning (till) noon since I have nothing to do from the early morning! Virtually let's say!

I received a weird phone call from the "Social Insurance,"  governmental agency that usually deducts some money from our budgets every month to feed the retired people (and also steal some :) ). They asked for my bank account number or some paper to give including that information, to give out some money. I was like "government? give us money? how?" Technically, I'm not used to such thing, because all I know is that we work and get salaries from the government, to give it back to the government, specially with the upcoming ideas hovering around about issuing a law for the "income taxes" like if people don't have enough debts themselves already. However, it turned out, after a long talk with my brother, that the money is like a compensation about my brother's handicap after he had been enrolled into this category and now the SI agency is going to give that amount of money in form of salaries into my late father's account. It is a complicated law, but this is how it is. In fact, I don't feel it is my own money really, and I had a debate with my brother that I should transfer that money to him when I get it. My argument is, if my late father was alive now, wouldn't he give this money to his handicapped son? I guess he would.

Away from this fuss, I've worked yesterday on another image, and this time in HDR. This image specifically was part of a mini-panorama which I didn't really touch before because I thought it was not good enough. However, I picked this slice of the panorama and worked on it. It had been some time since I worked on HDR images, that is, enhancing an HDR image before tone-mapping.

I called it "The Mysterious Window"

This view was taken from a balcony inside the Aughnanure Castle and it was shot handheld. The edge of the balcony itself was apparent in all the slides forming the proposed panorama, and because of this I decided it is not a good panorama. However, I've found out another use for it now. As Christian Bloch describes working with HDR images "painting with light", this is exactly what I was trying to do, converting the bright scene into some dark, mysterious scene, and also helping convering the edge of the balcony! I've discovered now that there are many things I didn't touch still, and there are many panoramas taken that are not essentially to be a panorama after all! A single slide of them would be fine I guess to build up some nice image. That option now expands my stack of images from Ireland taken last year into a bigger pile even, but not necessarily all of them would look nice anyway!

Amazon asked me to write a review for the book that I'm still reading now. Although I can do it write away, but I just prefer to finish the book completely and then write a review, so that I can build up my opinion about it in a more concrete manner. The book after all is a MUST if I should say to any photographer, whether a landscape or any other type of photography is involved.

 

Well. Time now to pack everything and leave this place. I leave you now with a song I do really love and like, and reminds of many things in my life...

__________
2641. Alexander started to eat some herbs in front of him
2642. but their taste was more delicious than meat and fruit
2643. and Alexander felt satisfied and no more hunger he had
2644. thus he asked the Hermit: what are those herbs O good man?
2645. in my whole life I never tasted something like that!
2646. the old man then smiled gently and said to Alexander
2647. "this is the food of the humble and worshipers,
2648. the more you forget yourself and remember the One,
2649. the more He shall feed you and satisfy you dear"
2650. Alexander soon became satisfied and not hungry anymore
2651. then this he said: tell me O Hermit all what you know,
2652. why am I here and what I am supposed to know?
2653. I have been told that you have all the answers!
2654. the Hermit then smiled calmly and this he said
2655. "verily I know what others do not, O dear,
2656. but tell me first, do you know who you are?"
2657. Alexander stared in a strange way for this question
2658. and this he said: yes! of course I do know!
2659. but the old man replied: tell me your name then
2660. Alexander said: weird of you to ask me this!
2661. did you not say you know everything?
2662. who is seeking the help of the other now?
2663. the Hermit smiled back and this he said to Alexander
2664. "the infinite problem of mankind, impatience"

Alexander 6, V69.

The heaviest part now is gone. I've booked my place in the B&B in Ireland, and now just waiting for the receipt. Next step now is to work on the tickets and the visa. I think I will pick the Turkish airlines this time as well, like last year. I wouldn't bear sitting for like 12 hours in the airplane in one line from Abu Dhabi to Dublin!

I was supposed to this phone call to book the place since last Thursday but my laziness did not allow it to happen! Anyway, after calling several times today, it went through later on. They told me they will call me at 10 O'clock, which is like 12 O'clock for me. I was hesitated to get busy with anything fearing that they might call (in like 20 minutes from my first call), but then I couldn't help it and I fell asleep on the couch to recharge my batteries to get back home later! They called however after almost one hour or so and thank God I didn't yawn while doing this!

After some back pains yesterday and putting many sprays and a sticker, which reduced the pain a bit, I had to take one Cataflam pill to put down the pain and sleep, and the effect lasted until this morning and I barely woke up. Well, I slept in the office which is normal by now with or without any medicine!
I've been surfing the net thinking seriously of getting a VR head now, and calculating what possibilities I have in here and there. There are many stuff, but mainly one brand that got my attention and that was Novoflex. They got plenty of types in various prices, but nevertheless, not cheap to an average user like me!

 

Something like this is what I need for decent panoramas.

Now, I'm hoping and wishing that I would be able to buy this and get it before going to Ireland. The main awkward point is, for such tripod heads, the weight is always a matter of concern. The above head for example may weight almost 1 kilogram. Not something sweet in your bag containing your camera tools. You would already have a similar weight from the lenses in your bag.

My lab panorama is still under attack with my approaches and yesterday's trial with SmartBlend plugin didn't work out. It is baffling for now and seems no escape from doing a heavy job in Photoshop for correcting the stitching errors. Meanwhile, I do want to work more on the previous images taken from Ireland, and also to play some games that I've downloaded and forgot!

 __________
1633. Alexander asked Biryári: and what shall be done there?
1634. Biryári replied: I could not understand the texts clearly,
1635. but the words say "and the red haired hero shall be there,
1636. where the three moons stand upon the mounts, he will be there,
1637. and to the help he shall come, as he always did and does"
1638. and the only place I know where the moons are like that,
1639. is the valley of peace where the moons remain on mounts
1640. Alexander asked then: and text did not mention who to help?
1641. but the old man nodded with his head for the opposite
1642. Alexander then requested some guidance from Biryári
1643. and Biryári wished to travel with the hero as a guide
1644. but the hero refused that and said: O good old man,
1645. if you come with me to there, who shall feed your wife?
1646. give me the way and I shall try it myself O good man
1647. and back to his reason and mind, Biryári agreed
1648. so Biryári guided Alexander to the Ring Mountains
1649. where they lie at the eastern boundaries of the forest
1650. and Alexander asked Biryári: are there lot of creatures?
1651. then Biryári said: none occurred to me while I work,
1652. but be careful of anything when night time comes,
1653. always settle down and keep a fire burning
1654. thus Alexander asked: and how to make a fire there?
1655. and Biryári smiled and said: you forgot that I am a woodsman?
1656. then Biryári helped the hero to get ready for the trip

Alexander 6, V33.

Well well, the first day of my leave and it was a hard-working day. I went on shopping to get presents for my nieces, and got me a new sandal instead of the piece of leather I used to wear. I tihnk it was a sandal 10 years ago or something (literally). I took some time also going around to some yachts marinas to ask about probably tours to Miskan island, but I couldn't find anything. I have to see for myself in another time. They say you can go to Failaka island first and then from there, you can sail to Miskan. I have to ask further. I don't want to shoot into the dark.

Before all of that of course I went to have a breakfast in Burger King, and I wonder now if they do have a restaurant by this time. All the breakfast meals were removed and replaced by one and only one meal; egg and cheese. Sorry, but I think I can do this at home can't I? So I went on with my own way like that with no breakfast, till I got me some french bread and turkey breast with some energy drink, which later on, I needed it heavily. But after leaving BK, I've noticed how the wind was hard and the sun was tearing the way amid the clouds. There were those things as well. I don't know what's their purpose, but well, I think they are supposed to give some shade for the beach dwellers. I decided (and luckily the camera was with me) to work on a scene a bit if I can. It had been some time since I worked on a scene. Most of the time, I was going on and on with panorama stuff. I shot trying to include the sun as well, I tried the fisheye lens in a single shot as well just for fun. Finally, since the panorama trials are in my blood, I went on doing a fast rhythm photography with my fisheye lens. It was just plane rectangular panorama, no up and down and no angles or anything.

After arriving home I worked on pumping something I got for my niece. I think called "baby gym" to keep her in. All parts needed pumping and so, I did the manual pumping all the way. I feel the muscles reaching my tongue now. Then, to the images. Of course, I couldn't let go of catching some HDR sequences here, specially that the sun is in the scene and it might be a good idea to control the light later on. I'm intending to upload some of these images on Canstockphoto, but not yet. There is a lot of work in cloning involved. The cloning part is so hard because of the trash thrown on the sand every where on the beach. Yes, we have clean people.

Primary Version

The image above was done in a haste for putting up in this blog. More to come but I'm not sure I'm going to upload here as well.
Now back to my QTVR games. Just before I go to bed yesterday (which was earlier really and sounded like a regular day!), but I had a thought of playing around with that Aughnanure Castle panorama. The Autodesk stitcher hanged on while loading the large panorama, but went OK doing the small one. However, I worked on doing both later on with PTGui and I've just found out that option to make the panorama cylindrical and not completely spherical. All what you have to do is fix the "tilt" angle. This will maybe require more than one trial, and it all depends on the height of the panorama in hands. As for Aughnanure Castle panorama, it was enough to have -21 to 21 degrees of tilt to view the vertical distance completely.




As for now I have to think of regulating and fixing my time somehow to work on Alexander's story transliteration. I don't sit idle regarding this specifically for one week until Sunday 18th.
I leave you now for verse 33 from Alexander VI. I really need to nap a bit.shoppinh
__________
769. after the gate was sealed behind Alexander on the other side
770. nothing appeared to Alexander behind him except of lands
771. like nothing was behind him or above him
772. like it was not night time just a while ago
773. Alexander stood up and gazed around him
774. but nothing he saw but mountains and hills and some green lands
775. while some rivers flew to the right and left
776. he kept on walking for no obvious destination
777. and he gazed into the sky above him for many times
778. but he did not find a sun, although it was a day
779. and he felt the gentle heat of the air breeze without a sun
780. then he saw some plants on the ground and he felt hungry
781. but he was afraid that such food is not suitable to eat
782. but then he saw a strange bird falls down from heaven
783. it was a bird he never saw like it on Earth
784. thus this bird came down and picked the fruit of the plant
785. and stayed away to eat them peacefully
786. thus Alexander knew that such plant is not poisonous
787. and he began to eat from it like he never had food before
788. and the taste of the fruit was never something he felt before
789. but suddenly he saw a large shade covering the ground
790. and he wondered how come there is no sun but a shade is here?
791. and he gazed to his back and saw a huge creature
792. something was staring at him with furious eyes

Alexander 4, V1.

Still struggling. I seem can't fill the interior circle for my new work of "Caisleán Achadh na nIubhar - Little planet". The projection makes a hole in the middle which will be filled with white in case I saved as a JPG, unfortunately. I'm trying to work around this problem for a week now! And as always, my RAMs are always a pain.

Early Friday, that is, after midnight and the beginning of Friday, I went on a little semi-adventure after dropping my friend back home, alive. While driving here and there that night I noticed that beautiful building that I insisted on snapping it, and since my friend was a chicken I had to drop him back home and then get to work. I wonder if he was afraid of ghosts at that time or just afraid of cops. However, I went on roaming around that building here and there trying to catch a good spot to snap it, and in the same, an isolated one somehow. I went into some weird alleys, full of dust and bumps and my car almost turned into a bicycle, but the angle there was not so good. After all, I roamed around again and found out a nice spot although it was not so isolated but yet it was somehow a quiet place; the parking lot in front of the Khalijiya complex, where the DHL facility lies. There far away in the parking lot, I used my telephoto lens in a speedy manner in that cold weather that I didn't check even some settings for mirror-lock-up before shooting, and snapped the image;

The images were hard to compose though into HDR. I took 6 images (2 series of 3 shots, with focus changing from f5.6 to f16). The problem is, the wind played a role and shook the tripod a bit. Photomatix played a nice role in aligning the displacement somehow but Photoshop did not. The technique of aligning images is described in the HDR book made by Christian bloch, and seems the Photomatix algorithm is more complex than its counterpart in Photoshop. However, some work was needed later on to cool down the colors (the original image was yellowish) and to crop the image to remove the objects at the bottom that were blocking the way of my lens. I'm not completely satisfied about it but at least, I tried. The moon at the top is a later addition, beside, there was a crane on the top of the building that I had to clone-out.

It's not the first time I take a picture of this building by the way, but that night was special. The blue lights in the building were magnificent.

__________

1. thirty days and thirty nights the hero spent
2. in the lands of the bulughmans, the nomads
3. he taught them arts and crafts
4. he taught them how to speak in manners
5. he taught them how to write and read their own words
6. their letters were called the Bogol
7. and their tribes as the bulughmans
8. and then he taught them how to build houses
9. how to plant trees and how to find water
10. then he prayed to God to bless the lands
11. and clean the hearts from envy and mischief
12. as much as He desires so to be for them
13. then the rumbling started among the men
14. some are tired and some want the homelands
15. while some asked for more lands to takeover
16. and now Alexander had half of what he had
17. he stood in the middle of his camp
18. one point from his hand and everyone was silent
19. and after praising God and His favors
20. and after he reminded them about his vow
21. he announced firmly to them
22. that he will not move or get back
23. until the commands of God reveal themselves
24. or until his soul is taken away from his body

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...

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!

Caisleán Achadh na nIubhar (again)

Today, I went walking back to the castle of Aughnanure after breakfast, because I had some ideas for some photos that I wanted to apply and see. For my surprise I discovered that there are some things that I didn't see before in the last visit. There is a tower in the corner and seems the inner structure has gone, and the niches in the hard rock wall were filled with some plants.

I had to get out of narrow tower though in a hurry because the wasps seem to have a nest there, and the weather was nice and shiny which made all sort of activities for all these insects!

Also in the castle, I discovered a passage that I did not go into before and it leads to the back of the window that made a shot of before, and I found out that it had ornamentations at the back with an arc. Since I couldn't catch the whole scene with my lens, I decided to go on and make separate several shots for every corner in that window, to stitch them together later on.

On the way back, I was barked at by a dog near one of the houses and I tried to stay calm as much as possible. Combine this with flying wasps all around you, and you will have a very nice feeling!

Tomorrow, hopefully, I'm thinking of some shopping... if the time allowed me to!