GO GET YOURSELF A SNOWFLAKE!

Now it's getting cold and snowy, it's time to get your own personal snowflake from SnowDays (free, fun and very lovely). If you search hard, you just might see mine there!

And as promised, a little piece of artwork (for a change...)

FONT FRENZY, SYSTEM RESTORE POINTS etc

Hi gang

I bet you didn't know that if you have too many fonts on your system, it can start behaving very strangely....

I've been using FontFrenzy, a free programme, which I think is totally brilliant.

What it does is to move all those boring and unnecessary fonts that are originally installed with your computer. These go into another folder - I FontFrenzied mine and ended up with 61 (some of which are really boring to look at, but necessary in the running of the machine) which was a whole lot better than the 752 which I ended up with when I had finished reloading the computer with the CD label maker, Photoshop, my web design programme and my desktop publishing programme. FontFrenzy takes a snapshot of all the fonts in your sytem, moves them and then you can ReFrenzy at any time you want to reinstall them. You can also adjust the size so that you can actually SEE what your fonts look like.

Some systems don't like FontFrenzy. Mine doesn't like the latest edition (link above) since I put in the new hard drive.

I do advise you to try this one (above) first as it doesn't have a nag screen. I run Windows XP Pro and it kept trying to download all the folders onto my Desktop. Windows Service Pack 3 can also affect it. If your system doesn't like it, simply re-run the programme to disinstall it.

However, being me, I was determined to get the programme again (I can't live without it) and found an older version: FontFrenzy1 This worked perfectly for me. The only drawback is that this version has a nag screen.

I also like to use another free programme, AMP Font Viewer, to organise my fonts. The icon sits on the Desktop. Double click this to bring up the programme - and why I love it is this: it shows you all the fonts you have loaded, and behind this is a tab to show you all the fonts you don't have loaded! So all you have to do is browse, to point the programme in the right direction (eg: the FontFrenzy Fonts folder) which displays all your fonts (again, you can readjust the size so you can actually see what they look like) and you can install temporarily, just for that one use, or permanently. So I can zip through all my fonts, upload all the fancy ones my heart desires, and then dump them again by DeFrenzy-ing with FontFrenzy. I love to download any new freebies that take my fancy, and this means I don't overload the machine and slow it down.

I have now spent a little time creating a new folder in My Documents, and labelled it FONTSfolder. I then created more folders under this heading, so my sub folders are called things like Dingbats, OldFashionedScripts, ModernScripts, Typwriter, Grunge etc. I then copied fonts from the Font Frenzy Fonts folder into the various categories (although you can also do this via FrenzyMan, right in the programme). The reason I used AMP Fonts Viewer to do this is that I now also download all my freebie fonts right onto my Desktop, unzip them using another brilliant freebie: JustZIPit and drag-and-drop them straight into category in My Documents. So I can dip into them as I wish (and it saves DeFrenzy-ing them all and reinstalliny my favourite fonts).

If you have masses you have collected, this is a quick way to organise them all. It's a good idea to do a backup CD so that you have all your weird & wonderful, can't-remember-where-I-got-them-from fonts all in one place. I have various free CDs with fonts on that came with scrapbooking and computer magazines: again, it's worth going through these and saving your favourites, then you can dump all those discs and do even more decluttering.

IMPORTANT: BEFORE YOU DO ANYTHING HOW TO CREATE A SYSTEM RESTORE POINT

Before you make any major changes to your computer, especially if you aren't very confident, it's always a good idea to make a System Restore Point. If you have a computer manual, read up how to do it... or trust me and follow my instructions below (which should be pretty much the same for any PC).

WHY BOTHER WITH ALL THIS STUFF?

The reason you should do it is that if you have made a mess of installing FontFrenzy or any other programme, or moved your fonts and made a mess of it, etc - you can reverse it using System Restore, so it's like nothing ever happened! However, you can't use System Restore until you have created a System Restore point as your computer won't have anything to restore to!

To create a System Restore Point, click on your Start button (bottom left-hand corner of your computer screen) then click Accessories, System Tools then System Restore. You'll see two buttons, the top one is System Restore, and the lower one - which is the one we want right now - is called Create a Restore Point. Click on this and type something in the box (eg: FontFrenzy & AMP Font View installed). Click on Create, then click on Close. That's it!

To use System Restore, go to Start, Accessories, System Tools, System Restore, then System Restore which restores your computer to an earlier time. You'll see a little calendar - some of the dates are bold. These are system restore points. Click on one of these (it might be an automatic Restore Point, which your system does from time to time, or it might be one you labelled yourself, eg: New Printer). Click on the one you want, click OK and let the computer do the rest. It will take some time, all the desktop will disappear, the screen will go black, etc, then it will reboot with a little box telling you if the Restore was successful or not. Click OK if it was, and everything will be back to normal!

I bet you feel loads better now!

BACK UP & RUNNING!

Well, gang - it's been a while...

I am very happy to say I am finally up and running again. It's been a long hard slog and a very steep learning curve.

However, armed with strong cups of coffee

and therefore alert as possible (virtually hyper: you could have scraped me off the ceiling!) I mentally girded my loins, took a very deep breath, tried not to whimper - and went for it!

Suffice to say: the computer now has a new hard drive, more memory (1GB) and a brand new super powered graphics card - all put in by me with my own hands! Plus I was also stuck on the end of the phone for nearly an hour, having to reconfigure the actual hardrive itself - lots of black screen with white letters and numbers scrolling across, then actually typing in the actual commands to make the thing work. THEN another 3 hours feeding in the programming discs. I hope I never have to do it again in this lifetime!

I am now finally able to slowly load up all my stuff, and the machine does seem to be behaving better (you can tell I'm being cautiously optimistic...)

One regret - I totally love Font Frenzy (see Geeks R Us links on the right) as it takes out all the fonts except the ones the computer actually needs to run - and puts these all into another folder. Which meant I could happily download all my fave grunge fonts, and get at them at any time. So thanks to Windows Update forcibly putting patches etc onto the machine, I now have Windows Service Pack 3 - which has rendered the Font Frenzy unuseable. If I hadn't gone through all this agony and spent days loading stuff back on, I'd be tempted to wipe the machine down again just so I could keep it. Hopefully, Sound Ministries will write an update and then I can happily go on using it. Waaah.

DID YOU KNOW - if you have too many fonts installed right into your Fonts folder on your computer, that it can render the machine a little unstable. Try to keep it down to 300 if you can! (Now you know why I love Font Frenzy - I'm addicted, and keep dowloading all these freebie ones, and had over 600). So if you have too many fonts, you might want to transfer them into another folder elsewhere, and just load them in when you actually need to use them.

Anyhow, now I am back in some sort of order, I'll catch up on posting the life drawing classes - these pix are backing up! Incidentally, I have now done 2 sessions of the Photoshop course, so you might start seeing better pictures in the next couple of weeks. I am still trying to get my head around Raster and Vector layers. As they said in Airplane the movie, "What's the vector, Victor?"

See ya.
B&Whotos from Tack-o-Rama (see Links) and typewriter pic my original photograph

MORE BLOODY COMPUTER WOES

Image from Tack-o-rama (see Links, right)

Rats and double rats - the computer is still not fixed. The technician came Wednesday as promised (a miracle in itself) and pronounced the computer not very well at all. So the new hard drive was delivered yesterday (!) by DHL, but I am still awaiting the discs without which the hard drive cannot be programmed as my reboot disc is also corrupt. Oh joy. And now I have to depend on the postal system...

So fingers & toes crossed that the discs arrive tomorrow and then Sunday I will be attempting to replace my very first hard drive (Himself not being very good at the electrical side of things, and also one of Those Men Who Do Not Read Instruction Manuals).

Meantime, although the hard drive and discs are being paid for by the insurance, I have had to buy new memory myself (1GB) as every security programme uploaded takes its memory from the same area as Windows - so although my computer tells me I have 85% unused area, it's obviously not in the same place as all my other stuff, as Windows keeps telling me I am out of Virtual Memory. So what DO people load up? Tons of Excel documents? You can bet Bill Gates made sure there'd be plenty of room for geeky stuff and accounts stuff and other unnecessary (to me) rubbish.

The technician also told me I don't have enough graphics capability - I am not a gamer, and apparently most of the graphics capacity is aimed here, and not towards photos, artwork etc. Which means I have had to buy a graphics card - and now have to find out where to insert it (don't tempt me...) as this one has to go in some slot in the motherboard. The other option being not to have many photos or fonts on the computer - which is what I mainly work in.

So the next question is, if I have a hard drive, what is a motherboard, and what relation is it to the hard drive? I take it they are not one and the same thing.

Oh for the days when I worked in an office and the nice young IT man down the corridor used to come and change the toner cartridge for me, and all was magically updated overnight without my lifting a finger... It's all a very steep learning curve I could well do WITHOUT. And all due to some smart little shit with nothing better to do than send out computer viruses as a "joke". I got a Trojan back in May which has permanently damaged the machine, and this is the result.

Still, I managed to replace the modem on my old computer when it got fried in a lightning strike (luckily for me, I had the windows open at the time - the lightning flashed right through the living room - we are right next to a telephone post). I was on the phone at the time, and it went ZZZZZPT. Luckily I dropped the phone at the time or you might not be reading this post... Suffice to say, I replaced the modem (it took a couple of tries as they had sent the wrong one, which explained why it wouldn't fit) not that it was because I was female. Thankfully, things seem to have moved on a little, and I am not encountering so much prejudice when I shop in Maplins for computer-related bits & bobs. So I will certainly be giving this my bestest shot.

SO... once the hard drive has been replaced and I have reloaded the programmes, I will then be able to load up Week 3 Life Class drawings. I'll keep you posted!

COMPUTER WOES

I'm in a down mood tonight - the usual: the stupid computer is playing up again. So I feel like this (left).


I'm of an age where I shouldn't sulk or scream. As an adult rational being I should be able to cope with this calmly and serenely.

Whereas I feel more like chewing the carpet - or seeing whether the damn machine can swim (after I use a sledgehammer....)

After numerous phone calls, the tecchie guys have decided that although I am but a feeble brainless female who can't tell a jpg from a url, that the machine isn't behaving properly and may actually have a fault! So finally it looks like the very expensive extended insurance may pay off - I am actually getting a Personal Visit from a Technician on Wednesday. Which might actually fix the problem - the machine needs reformatting (ie: wiping the memory off completely and reprogramming from scratch) and guess what? They don't give you reboot discs, only recovery discs - so I can't do this myself. And they now think the recovery disc is probably corrupt anyway! Oh joy....

I'll put it this way... if this doesn't fix it, never mind the 2 years the insurance still has to run, this machine is out the window and I'm going shopping! Watch this space.

Aaaaargh!

LIFE DRAWING CLASS: WEEK 2

WARNING: IF YOU FIND THAT NUDE IMAGES OFFEND, DON'T LOOK!

As promised, here are the last sketches for Week 2 of my life drawing class. These are both of Suzanne, on A1 size paper with a soft, dark brown chalk pastel. Fixative was cheap hair spray! (I bought Tesco's Own unscented, the theory being that if it's cheap it is also unscented, won't have conditioners etc, so will basically just be a coating.)

Both poses were completed in the one 40-minute session - I think around 25 minutes for the first one, which is more "finished".












This pose took around 10 minutes - I didn't get to finish in the time, which I am sorry about! You can see I had started with the shoulders set too high, and managed to adjust this before the session ended - but I would have liked to flesh the sketch out a little more.












Watch this space next week - it's another male model!

Each week, we leave the afternoon's work for the teacher to critique, so I have to wait until the next Tuesday before I get the previous week's work to take home. I think this is a ploy to stop us all either:
a) fiddling with it and perhaps spoiling it, OR
b) thinking it's totally awful and then binning it!

Actually, when I look at the previous week, I don't think it's as bad as my initial impressions - which gives me the courage and impetus to keep on. And post the work for you to see, unretouched and Warts & All, which I think is the best. I noticed in the course print-out that we are listed to do a complete painting... should be very interesting! I think I have a spot earmarked - a fairly large patch of bedroom wall - but it all depends on the model and the pose of course. And whether I could stand looking at it first thing of a morning (I am so NOT a morning person...)

LIFE DRAWING CLASS: WEEKS 1 & 2

WARNING - BEFORE YOU LOOK AT THE SLIDE SHOW, THIS CONTAINS NUDE IMAGES.

Maybe some of you remember my mentioning I wanted to sharpen up my drawing skills, as I haven't "drawn properly" for quite a few years! So I signed up for a short course at our local Adult Education Centre: one 3-hour session once a week for 10 weeks, and I have to say I am enjoying it hugely.

It was pretty scary, as I hadn't drawn for so long... but it soon came back! I started off drawing A3, then A2 and am now on full parent-sized A1 size sheets. It looks like I can't draw small! Each week, we have to leave the drawings for the teacher to critique, so I only just got these back otherwise I would have loaded them up earlier!

All the sketches are entirely unretouched, so you are seeing them exactly as I drew them, mistakes and all.

WEEK 1:

Studies 1 - 4 are of Ken, a 70-year old man, who was stooped, balding, with an endearingly squashy tummy. The first two sketches (001) are warm-up studies, each pose taking 5 minutes. The next two (002 & 003) show Ken sitting in a chair. Each pose took 15-20 minutes, and were drawn with black crayon. The next (004) is a back view using watercolour crayon, dampened down with a wet paintbrush, 10 minutes.

WEEK 2:

The model was Suzanne. The first pose (005) was a 5-minute warm-up study in pencil, and the next one (006) was drawn with dark brown chalk pastel. This one took around 15 minutes. Both these were on A2 paper.

I will load some more (the light was too bad to photograph the drawings properly - they are so huge, I had to stick them up on the back of the bedroom door). I think I can definitely see some progress!

Until tomorrow...