I downloaded the Clonezilla ISO file and burned it to a CD using a program called Tuxboot.  I inserted my new drive and rebooted the computer from the ISO.  I followed the instructions and 1 hour later I had cloned my drive.

I rebooted my computer on the new drive and I got a Windows error that the drive would not boot and that I should insert the Windows Vista media to fix the error.  I could not find my Vista media at the moment, so I booted from the original drive.  I found that the cloned drive had been written to the 1TB drive with the original partition.  I used Windows disk manager to resize the partition to the full 1TB disk.

When I found my Vista media I rebooted the computer using the cloned drive and fixed the boot error.  Then I rebooted and the new cloned drive worked.

Clonezilla is open source software and it works.

So tonight I was watching NCIS LA and I heard that Linda Hunt playing the OSP’s operations manager Hetty Lang had a line where she said that she had a complementary team of independent thinkers. This statement is the reason for this Blog post. I want a team like this.  Yeah, I am sure that I am an independant thinker, but to have a whole team like this may be like hearding cats.  On the upside it would be like having an endless view of all sides of a problem and easy acceptance of a group solution.

So how do you build a team like this? How do you cultivate a team like this?  I am not sure I have all of this figured out, buy I am exploring the possibilities of building such a team.  Well one way that I know I want to build the team is to treat my team members that way that I liked being treated when I work on teams.  I will motivate my team with positive encouragement and not resort to berating criticisms on work performance.

I want a team of a complementary team of independent thinkers.

Normally I like to live each day like any other and not place a lot of importance on special days. This is the first time in about 5 years that I have taken more than a week of continous vacation.  So for me the end of the year usually means that I have a time to stand down from work and spend time with family and friends. Giving the gift of presence and being in the moment is how I want to live every day.  Every day is special if you want it to be special.

This year I spent two weeks with my wife brother  John and his wife Phyllis. Sylvia and I flew out to Santa Rosa California and we spent time among northern California’s finest wine drinking organic food eating hippies. I even got to drive a Toyota Prius for a few hundred miles along the coast.

Once Sylvia and I returned home we watched two end of the world movies. We watched 2012 and Terminator 3 Rise of the Machines. No matter how bad the future mat seem it is always good to know that a movie can make reality look better.

Every time I go back to California I sort of get home sick.  This time I felt like a long lost visitor. Yeah it is cool to have a Whole Foods and a Fry’s, but the small houses and traffic I do not miss a bit. It is refreshing to visit California but after living for two years in SW Georgia it is always good to be in a place that feels like home.

One facet of my life will be transformed in 2012 and that is my diet.  When I moved to Texas I sort of gave up on eating healthy foods.  Even though I was running and biking I felt that my health and diet were OK.  Now that I am in Georgia I have not been as active as I would like and by eating habits have been not so good. My excuse has been that there is not a good source for organic foods in my area so I will just eat what is available.  Well I am going to trasform this attitude and support my wife’s efforts in eating more organic fruits and vegetables.  I use to work in a health food juice bar and that experience made a powerful impression on what I eat.  Most times having the knowledge is not enough to make a transformation, you have to choose it make the effort to reach your goal. So for 2012, more smoothies, home made juices and less fast food.

I will continue to take each day as it comes and I look forward to the many experiences that I will have in 2012.

Sylvia and I are on our way to visit her brother in Santa Rosa California.  I have never flown this far in an jet before.  This is the biggest jet that I have flown in. As I close in on my 60th birthday I am glad that my brain can still get the wow factor from doing stuff for the first time.

I am writing this blog post on my Asus Eee PC that I hacked the Chrome OS on it.  I really love Chrome OS and I am looking forward to getting my hands on a Samsung Android phone sometime in 2012.

So in the interest of sharing technical information I will tell you how I am able to get more then 30 minutes of free WiFi from eBay.  Every time I get a timeout message I bring up a new web page and type in a different email address that is valid.  The authentication works if the email address is valid.  Of course I am only using email addresses that are mine, but I suppose any valid email address will work since you do not have to read the email to access the wireless network.

I am writing this as the jet is flying over Pueblo, Colorado at 414 MPH ground speed at 28,000 fetet

Getting the face right

For this blog please reference the original drawing below. One of the things that I wanted to accomplish with this project is to learn how to paint using digital tools.  Converting a complex drawing is also a task at hand, but I really want to get good at using Adobe PhotoShop to render a decent image that meets my expectations.  I also wanted to fix a few things that I could not do in the original because of the limitations of the color pencils.  Look at the left eye and notice that I added two eye lashes that I wanted to add in the original but making major drawing changes with color pencils after you have built up a lot of color is near impossible.  This is where traditional painting and digital painting have the advantage, you can apply color on top of color with better results than you can with color pencils.

I am also using layers to organize the elements and get the colors and details aligned to give better depth perception on the face.  In this progress image you can see that I have placed two colors of stripes which is the layer underneath the bright yellow facial swirls.  I have started to add the missing lower part of the image which did not exist in the original.  The lower lip and chin were not available in the original because I have changed the proportions of this image when I enlarged it from  14 x 17 inches to 30 x 40 inches.

The original

I really like being able to think with my pencils, but they do limit what I can do with the image once I start drawing.  I have resisted using digital methods for a long time, but the ease of clean up verses traditional painting is like it is non existant.  I am not sure if digital prints will sell better than original art for me at this point.  At this stage in my creative journey I am still experimenting with digital painting.

Full-screen view shortcut

This shortcut is not supported on Picasa for Mac

Picasa includes a helpful shortcut that allows you to view your photos full screen in the main Library view and also on the ‘Edit Photo’ screen.

Hover your cursor over the photo you wish to view full screen.

Press and hold the Ctrl + Alt keys on your keyboard.

via Full-screen view shortcut – Picasa and Picasa Web Albums Help.

My fist computer was a Mac II.  I when I cracked a solder joint on the mouse input upgraded the motherboard to a Mac II FX for $2,500.  My next computer was a Mac II CI.  After trying to run AutoCad 3D on it and seeing no end in sight for expensive hardware (compared to PC) I switched to the PC world as soon as Adobe and Illustrator running on Windows.  So now I have come full circle back to using a Mac to draw some twenty four years later.

If you look to the left side of this partial view of my drawing you can see that I am smoothing the colors together.   I took the original file which was 15 x 22 inches and I scaled it up to 40 x 30 inches.  When I am finished I will have another piece of original artwork, but it will be larger and can be printed on archive quality paper or canvas.

When I draw with color pencils I can create and think from my imagination a lot better than I can when I work on my computer.  Discovering different ways to be creative is what is great about creating art, sometimes you have to use many tools to get that idea out into the real world.  Now that I have the idea out I can refine the shapes and colors anyway I want.

Lonnie drawing using digital methods

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via Install Firefox 8 on Fedora 16/15, CentOS/Red Hat RHEL 6.