It’s been a while since I posted anything. It’s been a while since I read anyone else’s blogs. I’ve been hibernating a bit, martialling my energy to get through the last few weeks and in trying to relearn who I want to be. The past few years have changed me, there’s no question about that, but some of the changes are things I’m not happy with – I get angry easier than I used to, and I forgive less quickly – and I’ve been taking some downtime this week to try and take care of myself.
I’ve got a short list of projects to start, projects to complete, projects to breathe into and consider. As I’ve come up to the 30-pound-gone mark (which puts me back down to about where I was in Philly, and damn if it doesn’t feel a lot skinnier going down than it did going up), I’ve replaced clothes. With spring here and summer around the corner, I’ll need a full complement of summer clothes – mostly shorts and capris – that fit. I’m not consciously creating a new image, but my influences have changed, and that changes subtle things. Shoes, for instance. A year or two ago, I couldn’t find nice spring shoes – flat, yet sandal-like – in any kind of style that I like. This year I visited exactly 3 stores, and bought a pair of chunky Keen Mary Janes. Rubberized soles, of course, to handle splashing through puddles better.
I’ve been through more photo organizing software than I care to admit. Having my photos on the Mac does create this bit of quandary – what software to use? I started searching before Apple’s Aperture or Adobe’s Lightroom were on everyone’s lips, and Picasa, which I used before the computer conversion, doesn’t have an Intel Mac version yet. iPhoto, which came preinstalled on my Mac along with the rest of iLife, just doesn’t cut it for anything over a couple thousand photos. I tried dividing them up into years, and that seemed to work for a while, but I couldn’t remember which album a particular image was in, and the final straw was finding out that in the process of dividing the photos into two separate albums, I had managed to eliminate an entire card full of images and saved the thumbnails. So I had a wonderful folder of pictures which were about 300 pixels on the largest side. Not particularly useful.
Up until recently, I’ve been using QPict, which does the job, and has lots of useful quirks and features. I may continue using it, in fact.
What’s changed, though, is the camera. With my new Digital Rebel XT (6MP of RAW goodness!) came a whole host of Canon software, one of which is designed to organize photos. And the accompanying memory card came with yet another. And, due to some other things that have happened recently, I’m using Creative Suite a little heavier than I was before, and getting acquainted with Bridge. What’s a girl to do with so many organizing suitors?
