*There have been small updates to the following menu items: “About me…”, “Reading…”, “As Seen On…”, and “Cats…”
Once again, I’m starting late. My favourite eldest daughter came over today, so we sat and watched “Agents of Shield” (because there were no more episodes of “Person of Interest” left to watch until the next season is released 😦 ) and then, when we’d finished watching the last remaining episodes of “AoS” (until next season) we watched “Agent Carter” – another “Marvel” production – until we ran out of episodes of that too! (but she’s bringing some more next week! 🙂 ) By then we were starting to scrape the bottom of the barrel a bit, so we started watching “The 100”. Unfortunately we only had time to see two episodes before Julian had to drop her off home – and I had to scoot off for my evening Stair Walk. I did manage to get her to read a few bits and pieces of my blog – well, she is doing a Creative Writing course at uni, and I wanted her opinion of it, and it seems I pass muster 😉 I was actually more concerned about the way that I changed “person”, or “viewpoint” three times in the “About this site…” section, usually a big “no-no” in writing, and she said that the only reason that it does work is because I’ve left a very obvious break between the three segments – so that’s all good – the only thing that concerned her a little was the “welcome to my mind…” comment at the end – but you all knew what I meant, didn’t you? (well, I hope you did, anyway! For those who didn’t, basically, what I was saying is “what you see here on this site is pretty much the way my mind works all the time – weird, but “mostly harmless”! 😉 )
Anyway, I did try a few graphical experiments this morning before Lee arrived – unfortunately, I produced nothing even remotely good enough for public consumption, but again, I did learn quite a bit more about the way Word Press processes and displays colours – not patterns, though. It’s quite interesting – and where it oh-so-helpfully says “Or chose your own colours” – well… you can, but you can’t. If you chose a dark but clear colour (mmm… it’s a bit hard to describe what I mean here – you might just have to trust me on this one!) you should be able to use black, or any other dark coloured text. But it won’t let you! It won’t even let you if you use your own (dark-ish) background image! Word Press automatically changes the text to a pale colour, as soon as the colour reaches a certain level of “darkness” (or perhaps it would be better to call it “depth”? Because I’m not talking about “dark” as in adding more “black”, but “dark” as in the shade of the colour becoming deeper… if you see what I mean…?) Anyway, so if you want to use a deeper shade for the background, the program will automatically switch your text to a pale colour. Yes, you can change the pale colour to any pale colour you like – but you can’t use a dark text, even if it is, or would be clearly visible – which is annoying. But! What I’ve found that I can do, is go ahead and choose a dark text colour, then very slowly and carefully lower the depth of the background colour until it reaches its “tipping point”(where it suddenly switches from being a dark text to a pale one) Allow me to be technical for just another moment – when the background colour reaches that “tipping point”, I write down its number (all colours have a hexadecimal number) and adjust my background image to that shade of darkness or light. It’s a compromise, but it seems to work. I should get a chance to do a bit more work tomorrow, anyway, so we shall see what we shall see then 🙂
Weigh-in this morning. I went down 5 points, to 91.0kg Arrrggghhh! Why?! It’s too much in one go! Expect me to be back up again tomorrow… 
(stupid bloody body! I want to lose weight, not bounce up and down like a yo-yo!)
I have no idea what’s going to be happening tomorrow – hopefully not much – I really want to do a bit more playing around with these colours and graphical problems. I was actually talking to Lee about art this afternoon, and saying that I wouldn’t mind getting back into painting again, but every time I start psyching myself up to buy some oils and brushes, I think “What would I paint?” I really only paint faces… er… and trees, and plants, I suppose, but I don’t “do” conventional art, like “still life with ducks” or whatever. I don’t “do” portraits (though I have done a few miniature “biro on paper serviette” ones, for which I got paid about $2.00! 🙂 ) I dunno… painting is messy… Flipper would probably walk through my paints and leave paw prints all over the furniture… Maybe I’ll just stick with computer graphics… it’s easier! (and cleaner!) 😉 Julian was complaining the other day that we never get anything done – not properly, anyway. And I can see where he’s coming from. We need to get a few more Estate Agents in to value this place (we’re not silly enough to go with only one evaluation!) and the Pent House apartment upstairs looks like it’s going to be for sale soon – and I want to have a look at it – not necessarily with a view to buying it, but to start getting an idea of what’s available, and how much places around here are likely to fetch. It’s a sort-of a “split level” apartment, with the lift opening up right into their hall. There are a couple of rooms on that level, then stairs going up to the main living area. Now that stairs are no longer a barrier to me, that shouldn’t pose any problems anymore, and neither should Town Houses, or two-story places (boy I’m glad I’m walking those four flights of stairs, three times a day! I’m fitter than I’ve been for… I hate to think how many years! 🙂 ) So, we want to organise that. We need to sort out The Family Business, which at the moment is in a parlous state… Sorry, dinner calls…
+————————–+ * Dinner & Television Break * +————————–+
*sigh* You know, I absolutely love seeing my daughters, and I love being able to spend time with them and talking to them. But… why can’t they come in the morning?! That way I could spend time with them, and get my blog done on time (or more or less on time, anyway) Of course, that way I wouldn’t get much time to spend on my graphics, or to play Rift… 😉 My mother always said that she’d like to build a big compound – I would too! A big, Roman-type villa, with a central courtyard and fountain open to the sky. One wing would be for us, a second wing for Lee and Neale, a third wing for Kate and Terry, and the fourth wing for games, entertainment, and hobbies. Extensive grounds outside would house stables, a rabbitry, and whatever other pet facilities were needed… plus a vegetable garden. My grandparents had enormous “cages” built for bantams, and pheasants, and quail, and also around and over fig and cherry trees, so that the birds couldn’t get at them – and I love figs and cherries, so we’d have some of them too, and fishponds. And a gardener and “groundsman” to look after it all 🙂 [cue song: “Wouldn’t it be lovely” from My Fair Lady] Well, according to himself, he’ll be spending a full day in the office – hopefully not all of it on Body Corporate business! This means that I’ve practically got the day to myself, to stuff around with Rift and graphics – so hopefully I’ll be able to get a bit of worthwhile work done. Anyway, drop in again tomorrow night and see what progress (if any) has been made on the work we have ahead of ourselves – whether I’ve made any progress with working out how to circumvent the restrictions placed on me by Word Press, and if that stupidly big weight drop this morning has rebounded on me or not. Whatever happens around here, you’ll all be the first to know about it! 🙂 But until then, please bee good, don’t walk under ladders, but above all – stay safe! 🙂 ciao, all! 🙂
My Word! 