Digital Photography School - Lomo Cameras

A few days ago I stumbled upon an online tutorial that seemed very interesting. It was on how to change a digital photo to look like it was taken with a Lomo camera. I was intrigued to say the least.

After reading through the tutorial I thought I'd give it a try. This photo was taken (by me) at the LA Auto Show a couple of years ago.:


I ran through the tutorial and this is the result (I did crop it a bit):

So, if you're wondering how some photos look so good, and others are just so so, try giving digital photography tutorials a try. You may surprise yourself!

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The Great NieNie Cookie Sale - Spritz Cookies for all!

If you haven't been to my food blog today go there now! NOW I SAY!
I'm participating in a fundraiser by baking cookies and selling them on the net from 8 a.m. to 9 p.m. today only! You can bid and get superb home baked spritz cookies from me, all for a good cause!

All you have to do is bid/claim item 44, 45, 46, 47, or 48!
Bid at Landra's place!

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The Book List

The world is giving up on literature. We're all too busy. We read how-to books, cook books, self-help books, books related to our careers and a plethora of short stpries and essays pertaining to current events. However as a whole adults have dropped their literature books on the shelf. So I've got this list.

And what a list it is. You've probably seen it before. We were all forced to read during school. But how many of you have read or re-read any of these books since? I've read the bold titles. Some of them not for a long time. Others have been read in their native tongues. And by the way, where is Dumas on this list?

1. Pride and Prejudice-Jane Austen
2. The Lord of the Rings-JRR Tolkien
3. Jane Eyre-Charlotte Bronte
4. Harry Potter series-JK Rowling
5. To Kill a Mockingbird-Harper Lee
6. The Bible-Have you read it cover to cover?
7. Wuthering Heights-Emily Bronte
8. Nineteen Eighty Four-George Orwell
9. His Dark Materials-Philip Pullman
10. Great Expectations-Charles Dickens
11. Little Women-Louisa May Alcott
12. Tess of the D’Urbervilles-Thomas Hardy
13. Catch 22-Joseph Heller
14. Complete works of Shakespere
15. Rebecca-Daphne Du Maurier
16. The Hobbit-JRR Tolkien
17. Birdsong-Sebastian Faulks
18. Catcher in the Rye-JD Salinger
19. The Time Traveler's Wife-Audrey Niffenegger
20. Middlemarch-George Eliot
21. Gone With The Wind-Margaret Mitchell
22. The Great Gatsby-F. Scott Fitzgerald
23. Bleak House-Charles Dickens
24. War and Peace-Leo Tolstoy
25. The Hitch Hiker’s Guide to the Galaxy-Douglas Adams
26. Brideshead Revisited-Evelyn Waugh
27. Crime and Punishment-Fyodor Dostoyevsky
28. Grapes of Wrath-John Steinbeck
29. Alice in Wonderland-Lewis Carroll
30. The Wind in the Willows-Kenneth Grahame
31. Anna Karenina-Leo Tolstoy
32. David Copperfield-Charles Dickens
33. Chronicles of Narnia-CS Lewis
34. Emma-Jane Austen
35. Persuasion-Jane Austen
36. The Kite Runner-Khaled Hosseini
37. Captain Corelli’s Mandolin-Louis De Bernieres
38. Memoirs of a Geisha-Arthur Golden
39. Winnie the Pooh-AA Milne
40. Animal Farm-George Orwell
41. The Da Vinci Code-Dan Brown
42. One Hundred Years of Solitude-Gabriel Garcia Marquez
43. A Prayer for Owen Meaney-John Irving
44. The Woman in White-Wilkie Collins
45. Anne of Green Gables-LM Montgomery
46. Far From The Madding Crowd-Thomas Hardy
47. The Handmaid’s Tale-Margaret Atwood
48. Lord of the Flies-William Golding
49. Atonement-Ian McEwan
50. Life of Pi-Yann Martel
51. Dune-Frank Herbert
52. Cold Comfort Farm-Stella Gibbons
53. Sense and Sensibility-Jane Austen
54. A Suitable Boy-Vikram Seth
55. The Shadow of the Wind-Carlos Ruiz Zafon
56. A Tale Of Two Cities-Charles Dickens
57. Brave New World-Aldous Huxley
58. The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Mark Haddon
59. Love In The Time Of Cholera-Gabriel Garcia Marquez
60. Of Mice and Men-John Steinbeck
61. Lolita-Vladimir Nabokov
62. The Secret History-Donna Tartt
63. The Lovely Bones-Alice Sebold
64. Count of Monte Cristo-Alexandre Dumas
65. On The Road-Jack Kerouac
66. Jude the Obscure-Thomas Hardy
67. Bridget Jones's Diary-Helen Fiedling
68. Midnight’s Children-Salman Rushdi
69. Moby Dick-Herman Melville
70. Oliver Twist-Charles Dickens
71. Dracula - Bram Stoker
72. The Secret Garden-Frances Hodgson Burnett
73. Notes From A Small Island-Bill Bryson
74. Ulysses-James Joyce
75. The Bell Jar-Sylvia Plath
76. Swallows and Amazons-Arthur Ransome
77. Germinal-Emile Zola
78. Vanity Fair-William Makepeace Thackeray
79. Possession-AS Byatt
80. A Christmas Carol-Charles Dickens
81. Cloud Atlas-David Mitchell
82. The Color Purple-Alice Walker
83. The Remains of the Day-Kazuo Ishiguro
84. Madame Bovary-Gustave Flaubert
85. A Fine Balance-Rohinton Mistry
86. Charlotte’s Web-EB White
87. The Five People You Meet In Heaven - Mitch Albom
88. Adventures of Sherlock Holmes-Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
89. The Faraway Tree Collection-Enid Blyton
90. Heart of Darkness-Joseph Conrad
91. The Little Prince-Antoine De Saint-Exupery
92. The Wasp Factory-Iain Banks
93. Watership Down-Richard Adams
94. A Confederacy of Dunces-John Kennedy Toole
95. A Town Like Alice-Nevil Shute
96. The Three Musketeers-Alexandre Dumas
97. Charlie and the Chocolate Factory-Roald Dahl
98. Les Miserables-Victor Hugo
99. One flew over the Cuckoo's Nest-Ken Kesey
100. The Scarlet Letter-Nathaniel Hawthorne

As I peruse the list, there are some, I would not categorize as literature. Maybe pop literature, but not the classics I've grown to enjoy. There was an absence of books I thought for certain would be on the list like Slaughterhouse Five, Atlas Shrugged and Frankenstein. I know I've not read many of them lately. Maybe a good read in is in order for fall. Where to start?

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Simon's Cat is My Favorite Cat

I'm a cat person. I guess Simon is too!

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Soft Glass - trials and tribulations

I was recently given a present for my birthday. I had the opportunity to go to Glass Obsessions for a class. The class was to learn to make implosion pendants from soft glass like the ones shown above. I usually work with Boro glass. Boro is Pyrex, a hard glass. You can heat it up and take your time working with it and have good success. But I really wanted to learn implosion methods and thought it would be a good experience.

Boy oh boy. It was a hot day, and I got so warm I nearly passed out! The heat combined with a nice hot summer day and the frustration of learning a new skill nearly kicked me around the block! The other class participants did well, and we had a good instructor, I couldn't handle the heat. bleh. I did learn the technique and should be able to make a few pendants with the boro glass I have. I did learn a HUGE level of respect for soft glass artists! The glass is a lot softer than boro and can only be heated to a certain level before it is dripping off your rod and falling to the table. It takes finesse and lots of practice. My hat is off to the soft glass flameworkers of the world!

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