myJaxon

I’m getting ready to start a new project. It has been in the works for about four years now, but I finally have a scanner so I can get started. The project is scanning in 20+ years of family pictures so that both parents can have a copy of them as well as for basic archival purposes.

You really don’t see photo albums any more, at least not like you used to. I do a lot of scrapbooking, but I’m not really adamant about it since I have all of my pictures online. It’s easier to share them online than in albums and it doesn’t take as long. Granted, I tend to do a better job showcasing them when I put them in albums, but it takes longer. Of course, I take a lot more pictures now that I have a digital camera. That is probably the biggest impact digital cameras have had - they can hold more pictures than a roll of film. You can buy memory cards that will store up to hundreds of pictures on one stick where before you would have had to use multiple rolls of film. And even though you’re taking all of the pictures, you can see what they are all ahead of time, there are no more surprise at the photo lab. No more shots of your feet or the sky. You know if your shot came out or not.

Anyway, back to the topic at hand. So I’m going to be scanning a ton of pictures and thank god we just updated the server. Otherwise I have no idea where I would put them. I have a feeling this project is going to take me some time since Ian isn’t exactly a fan of sitting next to me in his high chair for long periods of time. Granted, I’ll have nap time and after he goes to bed for the night, but seriously, this isn’t all I’m going to be doing. I’ll be lucky if I have it done by the end of the year. Plus, this is only the first stage of the project. The second stage is converting all of the VHS home videos to DVDs. This I should get done a lot quicker and sooner than the photos. I generally have the TV on for background noise, so I can be coping the tapes while Ian and I play. Plus there are a lot less tapes than there are photos. The only thing with the DVDs is I’m going to be doing an exact copy. At the moment, I don’t have any software/programs that I can use to chapterize and modify the tapes. It would be nice to get rid of the footage that is pointless (aka walking with the camera lens pointed at the street). If anyone can recommend a program, I would appreciate it. Remember, I run Linux at home, so not all programs will work on my machine. We’ll deal with that hurtle when I need to though.

Other news - the Ren Fest trip is this weekend. There is 9 of us going. Plus I think PJ said she had a few people joining us as well. This weekends them is Highland Fling, so there are going to be a lot of kilts there. I know for a fact that PJ said Chris will be wearing his. It should definitely interesting, especially considering we’ll have Ian (6 months) and Zsolt (18 months) there to liven things up. I haven’t been to this one in a couple of years, so it should be fun.

Ian has started a new trend lately. I’m not sure how I feel about it either. Usually I would nurse Ian when he was tired and that would get him fall asleep for his naps. Lately, however, nursing hasn’t been working. What has been working is rocking him to sleep, but you have to start it at the right moment. It also means he is fussy longer because the rocking doesn’t keep his mouth as busy. This is good because I don’t have to nurse him to get him to sleep, yet it’s not so good because it takes him longer to fall asleep. Although, this is the last hurdle to getting him to fall asleep on his own. He’s already figured out that he gets a bath, pajamas, and a bottle at night and once the bottle is done, I can generally put him in his crib (still awake, but drowsy) and he’ll fall asleep within 10 minutes. He still makes some noise, but he’s not crying, just making noises. We just need to work on the whole rocking = nap time routine.

Some sad news….we’re definitely getting rid of Chaos. We’ve been having some problems with her over the last couple of months and originally we were going to try and find a shelter for her or another home. However, I’m at the point where I just want her gone. We’ve made up our minds, so I don’t want to drag it out. If we wait to find her a home or a shelter who will take her, we may end up changing our minds again and who knows what will happen because of that. I’ve already contacted a few shelters and they are full due to the influx of kittens (it is kitten season). I really don’t want to take her to the Humane Society, but we may not have any choice about it. I told Jesse that if we’re getting rid of her, I want her gone by the end of the month. Jesse is having some obvious mixed feelings about it. He really loved Chaos - she was social, he could play with her, and she was starting to sit in his lap while he was on the laptop. It’s just been since Ian came home that she’s been having problems and she’s made it that we have to choose between her and Ian - and we all know that isn’t really a choice at all.

I do have good news - my sister is getting married! She’s been with Jayson for two/three years now and have been living together for the past year. He proposed to her two weeks ago and they are getting married at the end of September. Yeah, it’s kind of soon, but the wedding that they are having, there is no need to wait and plan. They are going to be married in a hot air balloon. That is how they met, while crewing for Tim and Missy (or through, not sure which one) and they are constantly at all the balloon rallies in the area (that they can get to). It was only fitting that they get married in a balloon. They are going to throw a reception, but not until November. The balloon ride is hard to pinpoint since there are so many factors to go into it. But now I have two months to do a bridal shower and of course she adds another wedding this year (she’s #6 for me this year). This is going to be a busy fall.

Alright, enough rambling on.