Mission

A good friend once said to me: "If a door opens in front of you - get off your ass and dance through it...laughing."

I'm trying, Nancy!

Friday, October 29, 2010

Playing with Picasa

Yes, I realize that these aren't new pictures.  I've discovered Picasa, and the whole bunch of new photo editing tools that goes with it, so I'm just playing around with them.  I wasn't really happy with the limitations of the other collage maker that I was using so I turned to my cyber-pal in New York for help.  (Hi Monica)
Hmm, I just noticed that that little one 2nd from the left needs to be cropped.


I  like the idea of superimposing muliple images, but there's some kind of trick to doing it properly and I obviously haven't mastered it yet.  Monica says it's easy, so I guess I'll keep on trying until I perfect the technique. 
See, this one just gives me a headache.


This one is slightly better, but I still don't like it.

  
Another type of collage that's super easy to do.



Gringos in Paradise - Malana Ashlie

I was psyched to read this one.  A middle aged American couple move to Honduras.  Right up my alley, I thought.  Wrong!  First of all, she is a tad new age-y for me.  I mean whatever floats your boat and all, but that's just not my style.   Mostly, I just wanted to slap some sense into her!    She did reform her thinking by the end of the book, and even started to learn some of the language, but too little too late for me.
 
Example:  She's too lazy to get off her ass and cook and clean her own home, so she hires a local maid. (I'm allowed to be judgemental - I paid 10 bucks for this book) She is then bewildered when said maid has no interest in learning English. (Ms. Ashlie spoke maybe 6 words of Spanish at that point).  "But I was just trying to help her..."   Yes, well, wanting to help her would indicate that you think she has a problem.  She is Honduran, she lives in Honduras and she speaks the language of the country fluently.  She doesn't have a problem.  You can't communicate with her - YOU have a problem! 

 Another example:  She bemoans "will I ever fit in here?..."  Then she goes on to describe how most of her neighbours, and in fact most of the people in the town, stroll around the streets in the evening until their houses cool down enough so they can sleep.  They chat, they share gossip and news, the children play etc. etc.  Then she proudly says that she and her husband have air conditioning, so they don't have to do that.  Will you ever fit in?  Um, I don't think so.


6 comments:

Mel150 said...

Oh, no, now I feel guilty! Diana came over with a note this morning which read, and I quote," I wanna know if u need sombody to clean the house. I'm here for a comfortable price. I can do it!"

So I said, sure, and showed her the broom and mop and asked her to sweep and mop a couple of rooms. Mind you, she's only ten. She swept, mopped, did the dishes, did some dusting, made my bed, (hey, I didn't have time!), folded some clothes and things that were hanging around, cleaned the hall bathroom, and oddly, rearranged my kitchen table where my cutlery lives. I gave her 70 pesos, her face lit up and she gave me a big hug. Judge me, go ahead!

Cheryl said...

Hahahahahaha! Hahahahaha(snort)hahahahaha! I cracked up when I read that. Too freakin' funny!
What a little entrepeneur Diana is. You're gonna have to learn to be lazier and messier to keep her busy. I think that lit up face and the big hug are your judgement.

Anonymous said...

O.K. I don't know the language perfect but I keep trying to learn it. And we do have someone come in once a week for 3 hours to clean. True confessions here !

Anonymous said...

I'm going to get Tamara from downstairs to defrost my fridge, but she's American and owes me 100 pesos.

Carl

Cheryl said...

No, no no! I'm not slamming the idea of domestic help, and I'm all for supporting the local economy, but this woman didn't appear to DO anything else. (Well, I suppose she was busy writing a bad book) That and her piss-poor attitude ticked me off.

Anonymous said...

WHEW !!!!! Jessica will be happy her job is safe.