Dog Eyes

As I sit here eating my lunch, Lucky is right beside me- mooching. I swear that dogs have this magic ability to make you feel ANY AND ALL GUILT just by looking at you with their big, melting eyes. They don't need to be able to talk; their eyes say everything: "Feed me or you'll be a horrible person.... just a SMALL piece of ham won't hurt.... OH SO YOU WON'T FEED ME?! FINE. I'm just going to slink away like I am VERY hurt and make you feel worse than you did to begin with."

It takes EVERYTHING to resist throwing my dog a piece of food. He gets this angelic "I never do ANYTHING wrong" look on his face and will nose my lap and drool slightly to catch my attention/ In the end, he usually gets a few scraps. Today, he got some ham and saltine crackers, which to him was apparently a feast because he left me alone after that... and promptly went to mooch from Grandma.

Has your pet ever done something funny/annoying like this? Let me know in the comments!

Maddie

New language, Computer coding and more GIMP!

I have been very busy today- Dad found new homeschooling websites for me to study on! First, Dad found a site called Duolingo- a site that teaches languages for free! I checked it out and set up my account, and I really enjoy it! I am currently taking French and can already say a couple of things. The exercises are simple and fun but still teach basic French. It has actually become my favorite school subject! You can try duolingo here: www.duolingo.com 

But Dad's creativity in teaching me didn't end here. He also found me a site called code academy to teach me- you guessed it, computer programming! At first, I flipped out because I thought that he was giving me the course that he himself had trouble with. However, I was wrong- code academy starts you off with the most BASIC encoding, and works you up slowly. Much like duolingo, it has simple exercises that educate you JUST enough to not annoy you. Try out codeacademy here: www.codeacademy.com 

And finally, on top of all that, I had another assignment due for my GIMP class. You had to edit a photo and add text into it. Here is what I came up with:

Well, that draws this post to a close....

Til' Tomorrow,
Maddie

CAKE PAN MADNESS

Last night at 9:00 pm, Dad was on facebook checking the online garage sales and saw a GREAT deal- $2 specialty cake pans! After PM'ing the lady saying he was interested, me and Dad were invited to come look at them- right away! Me and Dad went out... and returned with 15 new cake pans! Among them are Scooby-Doo, Strawberry Shortcake, Garfield, Dora, and my personal favorite, Winnie the Pooh.

When my sister saw the Scooby-Doo pan, she pretty much DEMANDED that I make brownies for her... so I will most likely be doing that later in the day or over the weekend. If I do, I will put up pictures of how they came out. The pan isn't a full cake, but 6 small molds that will make perfect sized mini-cakes! In any case, I am very excited to try out my new cake pans AND to share my creations with my readers.

Have any decorating requests? Leave 'em in the comments!!!
Maddie

More GIMP

This morning, I have been playing around with GIMP. I created 2 cool pictures, mainly using the tools "Invert" and "Layers". I also used the heal tool to fix up the backgrounds of the photos, and finally, I merged the layers together which makes a smaller file size.

Here are my creations:

I thought they came out pretty well- considering the starting photos. The photo on the left is actually just my sister sitting on a stool in my very, VERY messy room- I edited out my clutter and dresser, and turned the camera flash into a hairpiece. Here is the original photo:

If you don't already have GIMP on your computer, you should install it, as it is a LOT of fun. It is free, and so is the course offered on coursera. Tell me what you think in the comments, and also, leave me a few editing ideas to try!

Maddie

NJ --> NH

This weekend, my family and I went to NJ. One of my dad's cousins had died and we went for the funeral and wake. But this blog is not about being IN NJ oh no- this is about the CAR TRIP. Now the 6 hour car trip we take usually consists of these few things:

• An unhealthy intake of sugared foods
• Unusual family banter
• My sister poking and prodding me, and then falling asleep
• Unnecessary pit stops 
• And the dog whining constantly over NOTHING.

This trip was pretty uneventful, if you ignore the fact that the dog jumped over the seat into my lap mid-trip. I fortunately got him back in the trunk before my Dad got too upset. Also- I apologize for not blogging. I am trying to get back on track and back to a more normal schedule- I am going to wake up at 6:30 tomorrow and get my blog out early.

Well, that ends this post.

Maddie

Amusing Myself

After working on some of my math today, I found myself in need of a good laugh- and what better way than to look at funny amazon reviews?! For those of you who don't know, my dad runs an online amazon store (please see BuyBuyMomma) and sometimes when I browse, I read customer reviews. Some of them are funny, and I found an article on a website that had compiled a funny collection of the reviews.

Here is the link: http://www.geekosystem.com/funny-amazon-reviews/

I also make loom bracelets to keep myself occupied. I just yesterday figured out how to make them without one falling apart on me, and then made my sister one. The trick is to set up the loom right to begin with- if you don't do this, your whole process is done for. Here is my question for my readers: What do YOU do to keep yourself occupied? Let me know in the comments. Also, if ever you are bored, check out StumbleUpon- you just enter your interests and it will bring you to sites in that repertoire. www.stumbleupon.com

Maddie

GIMP Class

As I have mentioned before, I am taking a photoshop class from SUNY. It's going very well, and I actually edited a picture of my sister really well. I got a lot of compliments on it, and it wasn't even a hard edit. Here is the before and after picture:

I cropped, resized, and changed the color scale from RGB to Greyscale. I then edited out a few of my sister's blemishes and finally fixed one of her eyes using the heal tool.

GIMP is the free version of PhotoShop and gives practically the same effects. You can download your version here: www.gimp.org

Please try it out, and if you'd like, check out coursera. www.coursera.org

Maddie