LEARNING MORE AND MORE...AND THAT'S A GOOD THING

This morning, I brought my CD that I had recorded Celine Deon on last night to my car and it worked in my CD player.  Hooray!  I still have to find out if Justin Bieber's songs went on it though.

Slowly, but surely, I'm learning the ins and outs of all of this music recording.  I have learned, however, that sometimes the names of the artist or songs aren't shown on the screen of my MP3 player or on the CD when played in my van.  Oh well.  Another thing I believe I can't do is erase songs on either my MP3 player or the CD-R CDs.  Also, there is no way to type in the name of the song or artist on the tracks that have no information but anonymous artist or just a number of a track.  Oh well again.  But still, OK.  I can live with these little shortcomings.

I also am learning that some song names that I'm not familiar with which were downloaded could be a little surprising.  Like on Celine Deon's songs, some are only instrumental and arranged in a different way than the original song.  I believe I downloaded more than one of her popular songs knowing this and without playing the songs first, which I didn't do because I wanted to be surprised, so that was OK.  In fact, I'm listening to music now that is a bit out of my normal genres, but I'm pleased that I do.  It broadens my field, outside of the box, is what you might call it. 

Like Justin Bieber.  Who would ever think I'd like his music?  "Baby, Baby" is one song, and one I couldn't get out of my head is "If You Were My Girlfriend."  The lyrics on that one are so cute, you have to listen to it. 

This kid is very talented and he knows it.  I'd be surprised if he makes it until he's 25.  He's 19 right now and the kind of publicity he's getting doesn't fair well for him.  He's young and just a skinny little kid with all of these girls, and his on again, off again girlfriend, Selena, is one of the most girls I've ever seen.

In the meantime, I guess I'll go on a walk now and continue listening to the songs on my MP3.

ONE DRAWING A DAY - DAYS 25 & 26

Yesterday, while trying to get music on line, I ran into, somehow, updates of apps I have on Windows 8, so I updated them.  Somehow along the way, I ran into apps that do different art effects to photos, drawings and other artistic things you might want to throw at these programs.  What a blast, and I came away with about a half dozen of these program apps and thought that they would be a lot of fun.

The photo below is a stock photo they provide you with in a program called Goo.  You get to manipulate yours or their photo, so I chose theirs, since it was right there.  This program is very easy to use, but only has one function, as do the other art manipulation program apps I found.

This program does do a bit more than one function, all functions pretty similar, but yet, a lot of fun.  Maybe as I look into these great little programs a bit more, I'll find out they do much more than I thought.

LEARNING THE HOW TOS OF RECORDING MUSIC

Yesterday I did a lot of experimenting with my MP3 player...downloading music into it.  Windows Media Player is what I've found to be the simplest to do this with, but first you have to go out on line and get the music, download it there, create a playlist and then it will go to Windows Media Player automatically, at least I think that's what happened.  What a job, especially if you don't know exactly how to do all of this to begin with.

All in all, I recorded Whitney Houston on the MP3 player plus I recorded a CD for my car, which, this time, it worked.  I also was able to record Justin Bieber along with Whitney.  Today, I recorded Celine Deon.  I put her on a CD which I still have to see if it really did record on the CD, although it said it did.  I haven't tried uploading the Celine Deon on to my MP3, but will eventually.  I still have a lot of music that came with my MP3 and my addition of Whitney Houston and Justin Bieber to listen to before, maybe, I add Celine Deon.

All in all, this just keeps my brain learning new things, which is a good thing, although at times, very frustrating.

MY NEW MP3 PLAYER

While doing my laps around the local high school's track, I noticed a lady with an Ipod or Iphone.  I didn't get close enough to her to notice which one.  When I heard a voice come out of it saying something and then a beep went off and her saying, "Ok, I'll start walking."  Me, being the gadget gal I am and as curious as I am, went on line to find out what program she might have had on her Ipod/Iphone. 

Sure enough, I found a free, they said, but really after two months you had to pay a monthly fee for it app.  Of course, I couldn't download it and it was only to be used with an Ipod/Iphone/Ipad.  These devices are really expensive and I wasn't about to go out and purchase one, but I did look into getting an MP3 player before, but wanted to get my new smartphone before that so I could have everything with me while on a walk/run.

I couldn't find a walk/run program similar to the one that the lady on the track had, except one, which you couldn't listen to upfront but could download it to an MP3 player.  So I went shopping for a MP3 player. 

I saw one on line which had all of the features I really would need and then some.  It even recorded video and you could also load e-books, although with the small screen it had, I don't think I'd do that.  It also had a camera and an FM radio.  It was only $20, but is really cute and it came in red.  I got it.  It also had a lot of songs already loaded on it and a few videos.  So I got it, took it home, read the instructions, set it up to my liking and went on a walk/run yesterday. 

The FM radio worked pretty good.  There were a lot of trees on the trail I went on, so I lost the connection a bit along the way, but all in all, for such a small, light MP3 player, I thought for just this radio alone was a great purchase.  I also thought, in case of emergency I could tune into this radio for emergency news on the radio.

I then tried the already loaded music.  The first song was kind of a punk rock song.  You know, the pounding for some of the song, but parts of the song were really kind of nice.  Soothing and kind of lifting to the spirit as I walked along.  I even did some skipping, side stepping and a little dancing as I walked/ran along.  Some of the songs were at different tempos which I used to time the speeds of my walk or run, depending on the tempo of the music.  It was great fun and the time went by so quickly as I walked/ran along with my new MP3 player.

Usually, I like to walk/run along without anything blaring in my ears, just with my thoughts and to clear my head, watch people walking/running/biking by.  But maybe being a new toy, I was caught up in the various things that can be done.  Before I knew it, I had gone 45 minutes before turning back to my car. 

One thing I did notice though, I was so in tuned with the player, that I didn't notice things or people around that much.  I was so engrossed as to what the music was saying or the people on the radio were saying, that I kind of was oblivious as to what was going on around me.  Yes, I was in another world, a different kind of world while walking/running on the trail.  I don't know if that's a good thing or not.  I knew to keep as far right on the trail as possible so others could pass if I couldn't hear them.  Sometimes I was able to hear people or bikes coming behind me, but once a guy came running behind me and it kind of startled me.

This nice, little gadget also came with a 4G micro card in it, so that will be enough memory to load plenty of songs on it.  So, until I get my smartphone in July, this little device will suffice.  Too bad it doesn't have an economical phone in it along with a GPS or ability to load Google maps and I'd be set.  All of that will have to wait until July when my current cell phone service will be ending.

There was even a little video showing how to load music or videos on to the device.  How nice, since I've never used this kind of device to upload music on.  This MP3 player is very easy to use and to get to different modes.  It's light, small and I used an old cell phone case which clips on to my waistband to carry it in and then I wrap my keys around that, so my hands are completely free of carrying anything while I walk/run.

I'll be using it again today, checking out the rest of the many other songs which came already loaded on to it.

ONE PAINTING A DAY - DAY 24

Fashion show

ONE PAINTING A DAY - DAY 23

I just got a trial offer for the ArtRage that came with my computer.  This is an upgrade.  I've tried it out here.  It's a bit easier to use, but still not the Painter 12 program.  I can purchase this program for a mere, I believe, $40.

GIRL WITH RED HAIR AND DRESS

 

 



ONE PAINTING A DAY - DAY 22

Today, I tried doing a Zentangle, but my freehand, even with a stylus and pad is still shaky.  But in my sketchbook that came along with my Bamboo tablet I let the program do the straight lines.  Maybe I'll keep letting the program make the straight lines and circles and eventually get my Zentangle like that, although I know it will take quite a bit of time.  This is a very simple version, just the beginning of one.  Picture lines and patterns in each of the shapes.

ONE DRAWING A DAY - DAY 21

Today, I actually tried a painting.  Not too bad for a first try, although this did take me quite a bit of time.  An artist challenged artists with this program to paint her cat.  This is the first try, using numerous settings and tools.  I'm still getting used to them and it is a lot of fun.

PAINT MY CAT
Painted with  the ArtRage program which was the paint program which came with my Bamboo tablet and stylus.

 



EXPERIMENTING WITH MY NEW WACOM TABLET, PEN AND PROGRAMS

Last night, after 5:00 PM, my Wacom tablet/pen/programs arrived.  Yes, UPS does serve until 7:00 PM.  I opened the box just to see what it actually looked like, took out the information, held the contents in my hand and waited until today to get used to all of the contents.

So far, the programs that came with it are kind of skimpy, but the pen has some getting used to and you have to set all of the tools to your liking, along with your tablet and pen settings.  All of these settings.  Ugh!  So my first five hours of seeing all of what is in all of this has left me exhausted.  However, I did get to sample a lot of things and below you can see some of the samples just tossed up on the canvas.  Even with a pen, my markings are a bit shaky, but in time, I hope I'll get more confident in using the pen.  Right now, I've only used the tablet in the programs that came along with the tablet and pen, but maybe later or tomorrow I'll try the tablet and pen with my Microsoft Office and my Photoshop Elements 11 along with my little Paint program. 

There are some cute stencils (the hearts), tube paint (on the bottom) which I haven't seen in any other program.  However, these programs don't have kaleidoscope, the one I really wanted.  They do have, however, a Pro program, one up from mine, which has it.  It's $50.  Sure beats the Paint 12 program for $250.

ONE DRAWING A DAY - DAY 20

 Done with Painter 12.  Experimenting with brushes and effects.

HOUSE WITH SMOKE COMING OUT OF CHIMNEY