picasa, left-handed

[same_sky]

I am playing with Picasa tonight and it is so awesome. I mean, I've been using it for a long time now but I have never been the sort to really mess with picture organization. We were early adopters of the digital camera thing, and we figured out a system that fits our style early on and we have stayed with it. (Basically, we just keep pictures in folders based on months, previous years in subdirectories, and give them specific folder names, ie: 0912 - December 2009. That keeps it readable and yet sorted correctly.) Anyway, I started playing with the People albums tonight. DUDE. It recognizes people! And it is incredibly accurate (considering) on who it recognizes as being who! Color me impressed. And even cooler is that the mistakes it makes are generally understandable--young children are often fairly interchangeable, after all. But, the most mistakes I've seen have been related to my cousin's kids--it picks up one instead of the other. And the coolest of all? It was sorting through pictures from a visit from the Possum family, and it showed two pictures of big_bubba and asked if it was Erik. :)

And yes, it put a picture of me in with my mom's pictures. I was just waiting for that to happen. I wish I'd saved a screenshot because it was kind of eerie to see them side by side.

So yeah, I have a lot going on, obviously.

I was falling asleep here so I decided to go to bed. Apparently I couldn't stand the thought that maybe I'd get enough rest, because I drug myself out of sleepiness with a vengeance. I'm so dumb sometimes.

I have been stressing about Evie's left-handed tendencies. I don't care if she's left-handed, but I DO care about theoretically scarring her for life by pressuring her. She has tended to pick up writing utensils with her left hand. I haven't wanted to tell her not to but I also haven't wanted to encourage her if that's not what she really WANTS--I think the world is a little easier for right handed people so if that's what you are, all to the better. So, I have not said anything one way or another. At the same time, I have noticed that she is really not that great at writing. She doesn't have much control over the crayon. Anyway, a couple of days ago, I was trying to show her how to draw stuff and she was all "I can't do it!" (wthout trying, of course.. her teen years will be difficult) and so I took her crayon away and stuck it in her right hand and asked her if it was easier to write that way. She scribbled a little and said, "Yes!" In the bathtub that day, she was playing with her bath crayons and had a similar conversation with M, and apparently, she just plain old didn't know it mattered which hand she held the crayon in, but now that she does, she finds it much easier to write with her right hand. So, yeah. Every time she's picked up a crayon since then, it's been in her right hand, and her writing has been a little more controlled as well. Another instance of overthinking on my part. Of course.

Anyway. M took E out to play in the snow this evening, and they had so much fun. They built a snowman and then he let her go sledding down our sloping backyard on a trash can lid. (I was glad I didn't have to watch that part very long, but it was incredibly cute when I did see it from the window. Stressful!) I stayed inside and cooked dinner. I am just not an outside person.

Exhausted. Must go to bed whether I want to or not. But I still have almost fifteen thousand unnamed people in Picasa! I have more sorting to do!! :) hehe. Silly project, I know, but enjoyable.

Comments

[helloheather.livejournal.com]

OMG, now you have me sorting people in Picasa. I woke up early this morning (still night time, actually), and couldn't get back to sleep because I was stressing about chores (PATHETIC!) I thought I'd slip out of bed and hop online for a while, and I read your entry. Then I thought maybe I could figure out this new (to me) feature of Picasa (which we have used for years and adore...I just haven't been very explorey with it.) And...BEHOLD! It was tons of fun. I love how the program kind of "learns", and if you confirm that yes, that is a particular person even when they make that stupid face, then it goes and finds every OTHER picture of that person making the same stupid face, and you realize that maybe that person makes that face quite a lot, actually. HILARIOUS.

Also, I noticed (like you said) that it's not so hot with distinguishing babies from each other. But also not so totally hot at distinguishing really old people. Is this your grandmother? HELL NO THAT IS A MAN!

HAHAHahahahaha!!!

Thanks for a new hobby.

[carrieb.livejournal.com]

I wouldn't have told her to put it in her right hand either. THere is so much stuff about not scarring them for life by making them write with their right hand if they are really lefties. Nice that you did figure it out, though! My granddad and Mike were/are both lefties that wrote with their right hands b/c their mothers forced them.

So now I really can't try to convince myself that Erik looks like me. Dang it!

Btw, do you ever watch Nick Jr.? There is this commercial with a couple having a baby, then the doctors go away for nap time or snack time or whatever (because wouldn't life be cool if it were like preschool?) and I swear they call them Mr. and Mrs. Possum.

[same-sky.livejournal.com]

I KNOW! It is awesome! I love that feature that finds it new people after you confirm the people before. I have never even LOOKED at that People album, or really, used the albums at all. I am surprised at how good it really is at distinguishing little kids from each other. Even with mistakes, MOST of them were accurate. I have one cousin who it just cannot get a handle on. It has suggested it is Evie and every single other kid in my family.

There have been plenty of times that I have looked for specific pictures, like say, of my niece because I run into someone online that asks about her, and I can't find any pictures at all of her. Or, for photo projects of some sort. I can see this being pretty useful. Plus, it is fun.

[same-sky.livejournal.com]

OMG, it just suggested that I was a like seventh grade BOY, one of my niece's pictures that were transferred to my computer at some point. I think I shall go cry now.

[same-sky.livejournal.com]

No, sadly, Picasa says that Erik looks like Mike and you know that Google is the ultimate authority.

I am glad that I am not the only one who would have been worried about doing the wrong thing. I sent an email off to a teacher friend to ask her opinion but I guess it's been resolved before I even have heard back from her. hehe.

And no, we don't have Nick Jr. :( But it is awesome that the name is catching on! ;)

[helloheather.livejournal.com]

I know it is morbid, but I keep thinking of how, when someone passes away, you so often see those picture boards at the visitations. Those picture boards are my FAVORITE THING to look at at funerals and stuff. Having pictures sorted like this would sure make it easy to find all of your pictures of any one person in kind of a hurry, if you were ever to need to. FOR ANY REASON.

Morbid thoughts, but also, you know, practical and crafting thoughts.

[same-sky.livejournal.com]

I thought that too! I just didn't want to say it because it sounds so bad. That is not why I am doing this, universe! :)

[helloheather.livejournal.com]

Uh oh. Looks like I borked Picasa.

Adding all those albums and making it think so much screwed it up. We have a LOT of pictures stored on there. So much so that we keep having to buy additional hard drives, etc. So...looks like I am asking Picasa to think too much about all those pictures, and now it has decided it's going to be a big baby and not work.

I think I am going to have to have Rob undo whatever all I did. He is my IT guy. He says everything he's read now (since I revealed my activities and borkifying to him this morning) says that it could take Picasa about three weeks to get through all our photos. And that's three weeks of it sort of not functioning very well. AWKWARD!

Ah, well, it was fun while it lasted.

[same-sky.livejournal.com]

Oh no! :( That stinks.

[kapuhi.livejournal.com]

I'm left handed and have no memory of anyone ever telling me to use one hand instead of the other. I did have access to left-handed scissors in school, which I liked, but y'know, I learned to do many things right-handed as I went through life. Being left-handed isn't hard, really. :) And it's nice to feel different, even if it has nothing to do with an accomplishment of my own.