phone is dead :-(

i finally got so fed up with time warner, i ordered verizon FIOS about 10 days ago. it’s not due to be installed until 25 march, however.

i paid the time warner bill online on 2008.02.26. shouldn’t be a problem, the payment isn’t due for another week. right? leave it to TW to mess it up, however. somehow, in the process of “changing ports” for my digital phone service, they managed to drop my billing information. the phone’s out; it’s been out for two days now. and the “recent activity” page is showing credits to my account for the next month’s service. according to the site, they owe me $57.89!

not so! i’m not switching service for another 28 days… the tech support agent assured me he was working on the problem and would call me back… i have no idea how long it’s going to take. but this is just one more good reason to switch

not bad at all

so i trimmed most of the photos to 160 pixels wide, and cut down the number of pictures. then i combined 7 photos of costumed attendees to a nice composite about 480 pixels wide. i love layers

i have to remember to name the layers as i create them. sometimes the thumbnails are small enough that it’s a little hard to identify which layer i want to move or transform… still, the results were nice and the entire review with 14 pictures capped out at 168kb…

changeing layouts

sometimes the best laid plans aren’t… i thought i was almost done with the newsletter supplement, but when i got the pictures inserted, i hated the look of it. that happens sometimes.

needless to say – i’m back at the drawing board, and adjusting the layout and the size of the images to suit it better. it might take a few more days, and i may end up cutting the number of images down by a large percentage. it’s just a newsletter, after all… it shouldn’t look cluttered and hard to read.

newsletter

i write a monthly newsletter called “Digital Papyrus” for the Other Worlds Cafe SF chat group (there’s lots more than just chat). this week, i’ve been working on a supplement – a mini-review of LOSCON 34, which i attended Thanksgiving weekend in 2007.

i am totally enthralled by adobe lightroom. i’ve used adobe photoshop for many years, but lightroom puts some “speed” into my work process. having recently convrted to a dSLR camera, i now have some huge photos to work with. lightroom simplifies cataloguing and some of the early editing, without damaging the files.

even though the pics i took at LOSCON were .jpgs from a “point and shoot” camera, lightroom helped me adjust the tones and details immensly. and the CS3 “quickselect” tool helped me create smart objects in a number of photos in less than a third of time it would have taken just 6 months ago (before i upgraded).

should be able to finish this issue in just an afternoon, now

bill-pay

so i’ve neglected my inbox for almost 3 weeks. my bad… good news; only one bill was late, and only 1 day late at that! i do love managing my finances online. instant payments can really save your bacon

another really cool advantage to online banking is the ability to find up-to-the-minute account information. i was able to balance my checkbook and three credit accounts to the penny as of 2:20pm this afternoon. there’s nothing better than knowing exactly how much you owe and what funds you have to rely on.

i just wish Quicken home & business was available for the mac…

sidestepping frustration

i’ve gotten so fed up with the “transition” period at my web host, that i’ve transferred my blog here for the time being.

6 months is way too long! they’re taking their sweet time getting it done., and i’m not at all sure whether any of my changes are even possible at this time. once they’ve transferred the files, can i make new changes at the old log-in? i can’t use the new one, as i still don’t have access. they’ve transferred my DB and now it says none of my pages are writeable (i had a hell of a time getting the files i needed to transfer this much here.) i can’t even get a backup of my site anymore (good thing i keep a copy on my HD, right?)

so – this now looks like plain jane, and horribly lamer than it was before. but at least nothing’s lost.