I'm Back...

...just updating y'all... all went well with my cataract procedure... the worst part was getting an I.V. started... was 'poked' 5 times... youch.  Evidently I have 'thick skin'... who'da thunk? (BTW, I'm STILL not 100% convinced that's Ginger in that pic... ...but for this instance, let's just say that it is...)

But the procedure itself went well... a bit odd, as you are definitely 'awake', just not too 'with it'... but they shine lights in the eye to be worked on, but 'soft color'... not as bad as it sounds. It was definitely not FUN, but could have been a lot worse...

With that, will have to 're-calibrate' my glasses in a few weeks, as the new lens they put in my eye is pretty well focused - weird how that works. The sight out of the eye is 'sharp', but still a bit distorted due to the detached retina... so can't really read too well with that eye, but should take some of the 'general strain' off of the one good one I have left...

Thanks to all for the thoughts and prayers... they worked!!!

Hope to get back to 'regularly scheduled programming' here by the weekend... it's been a bit hectic at work, as well as for my daughter, who is wrapping up a science fair project/exhibit, and is also taking some verion of the SAT tomorrow (for 10th graders, even tho she is only in 8th Grade... hmmm...) But she is a smart cookie, so should do well.

Hope all is well with everyone... and with that,

...KIG!!!

Hu
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Doggie!!!

...at the request of that all-knowing, all-seeing, infinitely wise lady known as Mrs. Huey, who informed me of this whilst perusing FaceBook, I give to you...

...The Dancing Doggie known as Ginger Rogers!!!

...here's the scoop... or link...

Dancing 'Ginger Rogers' Doggie

In general, this pup is quite fond of the 'waltz', as best as I can tell... and her video placed on FaceBook has gone 'viral'! Hopefully the new home will be great for her, and the owners can play her lots of 'swing time' stuff!!! I am pretty sure Ginger would get a kick out of this, and knowing her fondness for animals, would be happy to know this one has found a new home...

Well, other than this - which may well have made the rounds on FaceBook's Gingery area, but I'll post it here for posterity as well - not too much happening in Hu-ville... ...well, except that I have cataract surgery next Tuesday... hopefully a pretty 'routine' deal... but messing with one's eyes is always a touch and go type of thing, even though I'm in REAL good hands at the UAB Callahan Eye Foundation clinic... one of the best out there!

I'll probably check in sometime 'post-op'...

And I plan on 'advancing' the 'GingerLIFE' project this weekend as well... still 'patching up' the covers, but should be ready to print soon... stay tuned...

Until then,

KIG, Y'ALL!!!

Hu
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GingerLIFE Magazine Covers to Frames, Part Two...

...hey y'all!

Well, I've made some progress regarding "touching up" my scanned LIFE covers... here's a (somewhat) brief overview as to how to use Microsoft Paint to surprisingly great effect...

...FIRST, the pics posted a few days back (as the one above) are from the internet somewhere... thus in pristine condition, it appears... well, in REALITY, my editions of the magazines, while not in POOR shape by ANY stretch, still have a few spots here and there to patch up... SO, here's how Hu is accomplishing that task...

FIRST, open up the pic in PAINT - it should be a .jpg file if at all possible... Paint is 'persnickety', if anything, regarding its compatibility with other filetypes (like most all Microsoft programs...) ...here's the 'path' you take to do this, just in case there's anyone out there taking notes:

 As for the work to be undertaken... HERE is a close-up of MY Ginger&Fred LIFE cover, showing a all-too-noticeable 'pock mark' in the background, hovering menacingly over Freddie's noggin...

 Oh-KAY... so, what to do... Paint has a VERY cool feature, which at the end of the day is 'copy-and-paste'... here's how that rolls: FIRST, just pick the 'select' box as shown below:

 This gives you a 'crosshair' cursor (which is more than a bit hard to see when traversing over b/w pics...so squint WELL!)... so just find a 'pristine' area of background which will ultimately be 'copied' over the pock mark... hopefully the rectangle 'selection area' shows up to the right of the pic below:

Once you have this 'box' sized to your liking, you 'copy' it - here's the spot for that:

NOW, you can immediately hit the 'paste' button at the far left - this will place the 'selected box' you copied in the top left corner of the work area (I placed it over Fred below in order to get it to show up...):

NOW, just scoot that puppy over the pock-mark area, and... VOILA!

Adios, pock mark!!!  ...in the spirit of full disclosure, I actually used a lot of 'small' paste boxes over this particular pock mark, due to the fact that the 'shading' varied across the rather large pock mark area... so I 'copied' boxes as close to the area as possible to match shading as close as possible... not PERFECT, but a WHOLE lot better than the original state!

This is just one of the cool aspects of Paint... while there are other 'third-party' programs out there which are most likely better, Paint is pretty decent for 'basic' editing of pics such as this... I'm sure many of y'all can run cirles around my efforts here, but hey, I'm feeling pretty good about the prospects of the intended results here...

WELL - back to work for the Hu-meister... this part may take a few days, as there are four of these, of course... so... until then...

KIG, y'all!!!

Hu
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GingerLIFE Magazine Covers to Frames, Part One...

Well, here's an ongoing GingerProject Hu has cooking...

Ginger appeared on LIFE magazine four times... of course, Hu has all four copies in his extensive collection of Gingerbilia (as I'm sure a lot of y'all have as well)... and it has been a desire for quite awhile to somehow frame each of them for display, but decent frames have heretofore been a bit out of reach, budget-wise... and, of course, a quality copy of the covers would be needed, as the mags need to stay in the GingerLibrary, not hermetically sealed in a wall frame...

HOWEVER, Hu and the Crew were out doing some 'post-Christmas' shopping, and just happened to stumbleupon some pretty dang cool 11x14 frames... for about a third of their normal cost! Four of these frames were purchased, with the thought of actually DOING this project within the year...

SO, with the frames at hand, the thought turned to somehow cranking out a decent copy of each cover, which...well, will ultimately be each picture proper! To this end, I have a few utilities in place; namely, a 'large-scale' scanner-printer, which will scan and print up to 11x17... that's not all that common in 'non-commercial' type 'all-in-ones'... it's an HP 7610 series, BTW... highly recommended by Hu.

 AND, as to what type of paper one should use, a trip to the local Staples yielded 6 sheets of 11x17 'glossy' photo paper... not sure as to the specifics of it, but just know it's better than plain ol' copier paper... so that's done.

AS for ink, anyone who has a printer at home knows the cost of ink is purt near prohibitive when considering printing photos - especially large ones - but I've loaded up all new cartridges, so...we'll see... but the refill cartridges run around 65 clams (four cartridges - black, cyan, yellow, magenta), so this may 'stretch' the project timeline a wee bit...

This sets the table for the project... stay tuned for Part TWO of this glorious experiment, where I will post some actual 'step-by-step' photos showing the progress, most likely the 'editing' proceess for the copies prior to printing...

Until then...

Keep It Gingery, Y'all!!!

Hu
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Ginger's Birth House...

...is being not only bought, but will hopefully be turned into a museum!!!

...anyone who has followed G-ology the last few years know that I always wanted to see something like this done for the 'place where it all started' on 100 West Moore Street in Independence, Missouri!

Now it appears it may happen - here's the link to the website - "The Ginger Rogers Birthplace Project". It is part of the Three Trails Cottages, LLC site, which is a home preservation / restoration company... in other words, the PERFECT situation for this century + old house! At the minimum, they are purchasing the property, restoring it, and will 'retro' the house as close as possible to the turn of the century...20th Century, that is... so that's AWESOME by itself!!!

Of course, any undertaking of this nature requires financial support... that's where we can all assist. Check THIS page out, which is a funding site for the project. Speifically, one may purchase brick pavers which will be part of the site, but engraved with your name or whatever you wish to engrave on them... see the site for details. ...pretty cool they used my Ginger in gold pic which was the Gingerology header for quite sometime... which was colorized by Maria, a Gingerologist from years past...

WELL, this is where we can actually take part in what should be a great GingerProject!!! I'm figuring out what I can do as far as donation goes... hopefully y'all can contribute... heck, if we all can just do a $50 donation, it should go a long way to bringing this project to fruition...

I'm truly planning on getting up to KC this summer, and FOR SURE meeting with these folks to discuss things... I am an engineer, as well as a code official, so maybe I can help out with something... although they appear to have a pretty solid team set up to cover all the angles.

Hope we can make a difference... yeah, there's plenty of needy causes out there, but this one is a pretty special one that is close to me, as well as y'all, I'm sure...

KIG!

Hu
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