Organizing Impossible

I have been looking for some software for organizing my pictures for quite a while. There is a features set I have in mind for this software, and it seems impossible to find.

  1. tagging
    • show which tags I have already used
    • tagging auto complete
    • tagging information stored in an open format (XML)
  2. archiving pictures to DVD
  3. ideally NO picture manipulation (no resizing or retouching)
  4. ideally open source software
  5. works with my existing pictures folder hierarchy

I have been following this LifeHacker article on that very topic. I am currently using the YYY-MM-DD-Topic folder hierarchy that a lot of the commenters say they use. I really want better searching capabilities though, so software is needed.

I don’t like Picasa. Memory Miner sounds cool , but there is no windows version yet (I am hopefully on the mailing list for the windows Beta).

ACDSee is heavy duty, but maybe ACDSee Viewer will work – more investigation needed.

Pixvue is now abandonware.

Adobe Photoshope Elements

Corel Snapfire – UI sucks

This guy talks about IMatch. I might download that and try it but $59.95 USD? That is a little pricey for me.

There are lots of things to investigate, but I still feel like whatever I find isn’t exactly what I am looking for.

Downstairs Food

For the last few months we have had Aphro’s food and water in our bedroom, and her litter upstairs. This was due to the rat problem downstairs. Now that the rats appear to have been dealt with, we put her litter back downstairs.

Then the problems started. Apparently she got lazy. Or maybe she is mad. Maybe she was just confused. In any case, Aphro has begun to pee on my clothes, and has pooped in our office closet. How do you motivate a car to walk downstairs to use the litter instead of my clothing?

The topper was yesterdays vet visit. It was Aphro’s regular yearly visit. The vet complimented her teeth and said they were in excellent health, and had very little plaque and no gingivitis. The TD food does work! However, the vet also mentioned that Aphro is overweight. Other than that, she is in excellent health.

To help with weight problem, we moved her food and water back downstairs near the litter. Hopefully she will now remember to use the litter, and that by having the food down there she will get more exercise and/or eat less food.

I am tired of having peed on clothing. Yeuck.

Date Training

July 7, 2007

This is a date I need to entrench in my mind. It is the date of a big race I am in. The 24 Hours of Adrenaline, in Canmore Alberta.

This date is not very far away, yet my conditioning is nowhere near where it needs to be. My training should pick up soon as I start to ride to and from work on a regular basis. This ride will be out to Oak Bay and back. Since I moved on from NewHeights, I have basically stopped riding, and haven’t got much exercise at all.

This has to, and definitely will change.

Today I got on my trainer for the first time in a while. It was hard, but it felt good to sweat. It also reinforced that I need to ride more. I was slow, and worked very hard, but I accomplished my goal of a 3 minute warm up, a 30 minute ride, then a cool down.

1 training ride done, lots to go.

Snowdrop Possibilities

Yesterday I broke out the light box to take some pictures of some snowdrop flowers from our backyard. It was a fun little bit of time spent while Sprout was sleeping. The background of the first 3 shots is the lid from a cookie tin. As I spend more time taking pictures using the light box I am beginning to foresee new possibilities with it.

I posted my favourite shot over on my photoblog for yesterdays picture.

WWE Interesting

Sunday I got out to see the WWE when it was in town. Jim’s friend got the seats, and I was stoked since they were first row. First row yes, ringside, no. Hard to explain, but our row of seat started off at ringside, but extended out away from the ring. Bit of a bummer since mine and Jim’s seats were essentially what we had last time. Still great seats, but not ringside like I was expecting.

The show was as fun as always. I brought the small camera this time, but very few of my shots turned out. I hate using the highest ISO setting, but that is what was needed to capture anything remotely interesting.

The matches were fun to see, and some of the wrestlers are extraordinary acrobats.

Then there are the WWE Divas. There was a Diva contest while we were there. Essentially a bikini contest. If you can call those strips of fabric bikini’s that is 😉

The Undertaker was fun to watch, and so was Benoit. Most of the matches had their good points. All except the first one. The first one was lame. It was over very quickly (too quickly).

The headlining match was Batista against Mr Kennedy. I saw Batista last time. Behemoth, but good wrestler to watch.

All in all it was a fun day.

Necessary Construction

Here is another deck update. On the weekend of Feb 3, the deck guy came by and finished the stairs framing, then covered them, and covered part of the deck. But he ran out of wood. This past weekend he stopped by and dropped off the necessary wood.

The weather this weekend doesn’t look like it will be conducive to construction.

Sigh. I just want it done, and so does our landlord.