Who’s that? Picasa knows – even after one glance. Facial recognition has been built into Google’s free photo editing software, Picasa, since 2009. It’s remarkably good. You type in a name on one picture of a person, and it instantly identifies and labels all your photos of that person. If Picasa isn’t certain who the person is in a particular photo, it … read more I’ve just seen a face
Month: September 2016
Making room for art
About a year ago, I took a few drawing classes that made me very unhappy. The teachers offered little in the way of actual instruction. There were no learning objectives set out, no clear progression of skills outlined for us. We drew the model and the instructor made random comments and remarks that were intended … read more Making room for art
Denim wrap-around
Wonder where your old jeans got to? They might be wrapping my dinner. We’ve been testing out services for delivery of ingredients and meals. A new one, Freshly, offers freshly cooked meals that just need to be warmed up. All their meals are gluten-free, no processed sugars, high protein, low carb. And they do really taste … read more Denim wrap-around
echo echo echo
I wake up in the middle of the night wondering where my jewelry is, or a certain shirt. I have had nightmares like this. Wandering around, looking for things that I owned. Now it’s just my life. Stuff in the packout company’s storage, stuff at the house waiting to go into a dumpster, stuff at … read more echo echo echo
On shaky ground
Friday’s visit to the house was the first time I’d walked out on the lower deck since the tree was removed and broke through it. I thought my feeling of vertigo was strictly emotional. That my sense of the deck as extremely unsafe arose because my own personal foundations had been rocked. It turns out that my intuition … read more On shaky ground
Hot notes
He threw a note out, and I caught it and rode it. I was up the hill where it was hot and sunny but close enough so those cats could chill me. The green flowed all the way down to the stage, I was high enough to surf the rhythm. The crowd was spread out like … read more Hot notes
1959 odds
If you were born in 1959, what are the odds of pulling a penny with the year of your birth from a $25 box of rolled pennies at the bank? In the wee hours of this morning, I came up with a completely unscientific answer: One out of 2,500. I stayed up late sorting pennies, … read more 1959 odds
Jagged edges
As I stepped out onto the broken deck, I felt a shifting, an instability, as though the whole house was moving under my feet. Vertigo… the house weaving as though to spin and suck me down into the earth. Though I wasn’t there when the oak fell, the impact hits me whenever I enter the house. We … read more Jagged edges
Braced to walk
Braces – ugh. The word evokes jagged bits of metal and leather straps. Polio victims and adolescent teeth. And orthotics – ugly shoes with two-inch soles. Tom went to get fitted for a brace today. His ankle and tibia muscles are weak from the stroke, which makes it hard for him to walk correctly, so his physical therapists … read more Braced to walk
Counting my pennies
The day was a struggle. Couldn’t find things, couldn’t do art, my brain was not working, my feelings were painful and confused. I broke out a new brick of pennies, and sorted four rolls into years. I was still crying at the end of those 200 pennies, but I felt a little bit better. So I … read more Counting my pennies