Privacy and the Robot

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Privacy. It’s one of those serious topics I try to stear clear of on this site full of Space Camp pictures and really bad jokes. But, for some reason, yesterday I had an epiphany. Maybe it was because someone posted 60+ photos to a certain shared site from my drunken birthday fiesta. Maybe it was because I read this essay over at Rockstarmommy. Or maybe it was because I was up most of the night as a police helicopter circled my neighborhood looking for who knows what. Or maybe, just maybe, it’s because I was so freaked out about the police helicopter and it’s hour of shining a spotlight right over our house that I actually let my husband show me how to load his gun in case of an emergency. And I effing HATE guns! And I HATE that he has one in my house. But I was so scared, I just let him show me. Ah, the joys of living in an urban area.

Anyway, I started thinking about all I do to keep my family safe. We have smoke alarms, burgler alarms, carbon monoxide detectors and a Rottweiler. Trent keeps a bat by the front door and a baton by the bed. We babyproofed the whole house and keep a video monitor by our bed in case Lu wakes up during the night. When I head in to work at an un-godly hour, I get a security guard to walk me from my parking garage to my office building.

But then, I hop on my computer and upload hundreds of photos for anyone and their mother to see. I upload pictures of Christmas, Easter and Labor Day. I upload pictures of my daughter, my nieces, my nephews. And yesterday I started to think about how these photos of those gorgeous kids could be used in the hands of the wrong person. And what was I doing to keep that from happening? Nothing. Actually, I should have just said, “Hello, creepy internet prowler, would you like a picture of my daughter in her swimming suit? Maybe just in a diaper? Great, enjoy!”

So, in lieu of my strange awakening, I’m trying to decide what to do with all of my thousands (seriously, thousands) of photos that I have stored on Flickr. Now, I love Flickr, and I’m going to continue to use it, but I’m just not sure that anyone who wants to login or search the site should be able to do a search for “baby” and have a picture of Lucy pop up. So yesterday I took drastic measures and made all 2500+ of my photos on Flickr private. When pictures are set to private, you have to login to Flickr and be denoted as one of my “Friends” to see them (you can join Flickr, and add me to your Friends by clicking here – if you already have an account on Yahoo!, then you can use that same ID for Flickr by clicking here…damn corporate sellouts).

I know this is just one more site for people to belong to, and, trust me, I get it. Between MySpace and Facebook and my four internet-based email accounts, I’m just about sick of signing up for crap. So, after a few more hours of deliberation, I came to a compromise. I’m going to keep pictures public if they can be found in my Most Recent category or My Favorite Photos category (these can be found on the left hand side of this page). Once a picture is moved from Most Recent, I will probably make it private, unless it is a Favorite Photo that I’d like more people to see.

I’m not sure if this is the final solution, actually, I will probably revise this a zillion times before I decide what to do permanantly. I just think that Lu and the other kiddos in my life didn’t ask to be a part of this site, and it isn’t fair for me to post photos of them when they can’t object. As for myself and the other adults around me? Well, if you don’t want your picture up here, you’d better let me know, and I’ll take them down right away. If you don’t care, then be prepared for photos of yourself doing the robot on the internet for everyone to see.

The Robot

Update: Looks like I’m not the only one freaking out about this topic…it’s got the whole Internet up in arms.

Colorado

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A few weeks ago I headed off to Denver for a work conference, leaving Lu behind for the first time since she was born. I’d like to tell you how horrible it was, how I cried and bawled and changed my mind at the last minute, rushing off the plane to be with my little monkey. But, people, I didn’t. I sat my butt on that cushy Frontier Airlines seat and read me a magazine. An entire magazine. Do you hear the birds singing? The clouds parting? It was the most magnificent flight of my life. Then, that night, I drank cocktails with real live adults. Maybe one or two cocktails over my limit, but hey, what can you do?

And maybe, if I’d remembered that in less than 24 hours the rest of the family would be joining me for a long weekend, culminating with another flight, this one consisting of a toddler stomping on my lap and screaming and throwing toys at the poor lady in front of us, I’d savored those cocktails a bit longer….

Special thanks to Allison and Steve, who not only fed us and provided us with lots of beer and wine and a warm place to sleep, but acted like a Lu-tantrum was funny instead of exceedingly embarassing.

If you can’t view this show, click here or here. Or get a better computer. Or possibly a more advanced computer operator. That’s you. Yeah, you.

And now for something totally different

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It’s another Space Camp Thursday, with absolutely no space camp pictures. Sorry folks, I figured you all needed a well-deserved break from all that zero gravity fun as too much of it may make you a bit loopy. Trust me.

So today, in honor of my 25th birthday, instead of embarrasing pictures of me at 13, here are some embarrasing photos of me from my formative toddler years.

This one’s a doozy…what the Fug Girls call “a scroll down fug.” At first glance, it’s just a cute baby picture. But then…
Foxy
Yes, it says “Foxy.” And yes, it was prominantly displayed at every, single family get-together, graduation party, wedding or anywhere else where someone could say, “Heeey, foxy!” I’m not sure what the photographer at Sears or my parents were thinking, and I’m not sure I want to.

This one’s a great shot for three reasons. One, my older brother is looking studley. But it’s 1980s studley, which, let’s be honest here, isn’t so studley. Two, my dad’s haircut. And three, my younger brother in a sailor suit.
Me and the Boys

Here I am rocking the mullet that would later be passed on to my poor daughter. Again, note my dad’s haircut. Totally. Awesome. I think I’d like the bowl cut to be back in style. Can someone take care of this for me? Consider it a birthday gift.
Rocking the mullet

And here I am practicing to be a either a Hollywood starlet or the winner of America’s Top Model.
Tyra

See…
America’s Next Top Model

Birthday
This one’s from my first birthday party. Quite the shindig, huh? My older sister looks so happy to be at such a fun event. Actually, she looks like she’s ready to bolt her 16-year-old butt out the door, into our 1980 Datsun and out to a high school party, which would probably have less cake and more keg-stands. I, on the other hand, look ecstatic. My first experience with cake…mmmmmmm. That’s still the face I make when someone puts a cake in front of me.

Actually, this picture kind of reminds me of someone.
Twins
Frightening, isn’t it.

10 Things

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As another year of my life is about to come to completion, I’ve been thinking a lot about how I’ve spent WAY too much time grumping around complaining about all the things wrong with my life. I’ve decided, as a birthday resolution, I’m going to try and spend more time being happy about all of the wonderful things in my life, instead of focusing on the things I’m not so happy about. Because when I am negative about my life, it doesn’t make my life any better. It’s the same, only grumpier.

So, in no particular order, here are 10 Things I’m Thankful For today:

Summer Nights at the Pool
Evenings at the pool in the late summer or early fall when all the pool bunnies have scattered. It’s still warm enough to be a great time, but it’s quiet and peaceful. You can sink underwater and hold your breath, and, for a second, in the muffled silence, feel 10-years-old again.

Sloan with a Broken Leg
My niece broke her leg a few weeks ago and is now scooting around in a wheelchair. Thank god she is going to recover, but it could have been a horrific ordeal. I’ve never before been so thankful for not only health, but happiness as well. When she bejeweled her cast and had her toenails done with little, orange flowers on them, her eyes lit up like they hadn’t since the accident. It was a very good thing.

Traveler
I am so blessed to have been able to travel the world and see things some can only read about in history books. I can tell you what it smells like in the Sistine Chapel, how to find an apartment in Portugal without knowing any Portugese and how to find David Hasselhoff or Vin Diesel anywhere in Europe without really trying. Now that’s what I call a life experience.

The Professor
She’s big, she’s bad, she’s horribly ignored by her humans who always seem to be running around with too much to do and no time to rub her belly. She’s Professor Molly McGoo, Ph.D. She is the dog we always wanted, the dog we always needed. She thinks she’s a cat and is sweet to our baby. And she makes me feel safe when Trent works late. Good dog.

Storm Rolling In
When a storm rolls in, bringing torrents of rain and darkness to the late afternoon. Perfect for napping.

Sunset at the Farm
Sometimes nothing seems more boring than Kansas. But other times, like when you get an amazing sunset out in the country, you realize how lucky you are to live in a place where things like this are possible. Somewhere over the rainbow, indeed.

Heat
In many instances the simple things, like having a working heater, can be lost in the shuffle of all of the needs and wants of daily life. But it wasn’t too long ago I lived in an apartment where, during the worst snowstorm of the year, Trent and I huddled up to the stove, wearing gloves, hats and coats, drank some rum and attempted not to freeze to death.

Just Kids
The boy drives me nuts sometimes, but we’ve really managed to make this thing work. And by “this thing” I mean our wonderful, wonderful life. Some days I can’t believe it, that we’ve managed to make it through all of the rough stuff in the past few years and end up in a place where I don’t only love him, I like him (most of the time). And, the feeling is returned 100% (most of the time). We’re both strong and independent, but we’ve found a way to be those things and be nurturing for each other. It’s a tender balance, and we work every day. When I look back at old photos of us I want to tell those two young, naive kids that it’ll all work out. And also, spend more time laughing and less time yelling.

Her
Her. Her kisses. Her dance moves. Her laugh. Her smile. Her sobs. Her whining. Her life. Her spirit. Her.

Bloggin’
This blog was something I started over three years ago. I had no way of knowing how it would affect my life. From devastating live changes to daily grumps, this site has seen it all. It’s led me to new outlets, like photography, that I probably never would have found without it. It is my voice. It is my therapist. Something I can turn to when I feel like I can’t talk to anyone. Who new a simple blog could add so much to a life.

For more things to be thankful for, click here.

Before and After

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http://ice-station.com.mx/lid1936.html I’ve had a few questions posed about my use of Photoshop on recent pictures, so I figured instead of spewing more verbal nonsense that no one understands anyway, I’d just post a few before and after shots. These should show, somewhat, how the process I use takes some flat pictures to a new level.

First, here’s a shot straight out of the camera (SOC) of my daughter, Lu, showing us all how incredibly photogenic she is. I think she gets it from me.

Lu Flowers Before
Not bad, right? I mean, the subject is obviously a bit hostile, but other than that it seems OK. In focus at least.

I took this picture into my beloved Photoshop in RAW format. If you have a point and shoot camera (one that doesn’t have interchangable lenses), you probably can’t shoot in RAW. The pro to shooting in RAW format is that you can change bits and pieces of the shot before you really begin to alter it. I’m very bad at explaining this, aren’t I? Well, a shorter way to explain this is that if you shoot in RAW, you can make the picture brighter or darker or more vibrant or more shadows all with the click of a mouse. It’s fairly awesome.

Anyway, I tweaked this photo a bit in RAW format, then, once I opened it in Photoshop, I used a plugin called Portraiture to enhance it. This plugin smooths facial tones so you can’t see uneven skin tones and also gives the photo a healthy glow. Then I sharpened the all over photo and ended up with this.

Lu Flowers After

Not bad, eh? The trick is to make the changes subtle. So subtle, that, hopefully, it doesn’t look like you’re a Photoshop pro, but a photography pro. Here they are for better comparison.

Lu Flowers Before
Lu Flowers After

More examples? Well, why not. Here is my dog, Molly, right before she flopped over and begged to have her nipples rubbed. Slut.

Molly Before
Seriously, right after this she sulked off because I told her that whoring herself out for treats will get her no respect. And I may have mentioned that Rottweilers are supposed to be ferocious and she was embarrassing to the breed. Tough love rules in my house.

So, the picture is a little bit boring. The dog is cute(ish), but, come on, brown grass, no light. Bo-ring. I decided to take the photo, which was shot in JPG, not RAW format, into Photoshop. I tweaked and tweaked, but couldn’t quite get it right. That is, until my beautiful Portraiture plugin took hold. I set the sucker to the Glamour setting, bumped up some colors and vibrance and TADA!

Molly After
The next candidate for America’s Next Top Model. Looks fierce!

Here they are, together.
Molly Before
Molly After
Subtle is the word of the day, people. Say it with me! Sub-tle-ty!

OK, one last one. A SOC shot I LOVED of my little family.

Those I Love Before
The sunset, the farm, the wagon, the baby, the dog, the bearded husband….sigh. Life is good. But wait, could it be a bit better?

Those I Love After

Here are the two of them together.

Those I Love Before
Those I Love After

So, what I really use Photoshop and other camera tools for, is to enhance what’s already there. I don’t want a photo to look so altered you can’t see the details that make it wonderful, I just want it to really reflect what I see, even if it isn’t quite reflected straight out of my camera lens. What do you think? More altering? Less? No more geek talk? Give it to me!

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