Paul and I attended the local Linux users group on Friday, mostly because blogger Jennifer was going to give lessons in Gimp, an open-source photo editing program. I learned some good stuff and am enthusiastic about Gimp, so I came home and fooled around with a few photos that I thought I’d share with you. Paul has now gotten interested in Linux and has spent some time using it and will probably keep working with it just for fun.
The picture at the top is of a panga pulled up on the beach at Playa Norte. One of the things that Jennifer taught me was to measure to make sure your horizon is horizontal. This picture needed some correction, believe me! I love this one too since we just bought a large painting by Trevor Bennett of some Mazatlán pangas. (Here’s a link to info on the First Fridays artwalk)
Next is a house on Belisario Dominguez and Romanita de la Peña. This is such a fantastic home, I love the Victorian cutouts holding up the window covers. Below that is a closeup of the upper porch. And I adore the half circle wrought iron on the side! Oh, and for all you old building nuts, here’s a link that both bloggers Sandy and Jennifer gave me. It’s a wonderful site with pictures and history of many of Mazatlán’s Centro Historico buildings.
x
x
If you’re my Facebook friend you will have seen me in the hammock chair in my profile picture. I love this picture of Paul – he just needs to stretch out and he can have a nice nap!
x
It’s been foggy lately in the mornings, and the other day we noticed through the fog a cluster of fishing boats. (Yes, pangas!) I’ve never seen them in so close.
x
x
And then, because every time I see them I just get happy, I had to put two recent pictures of little Consuelo. She is almost three months old, and I can’t believe I have only spent time with her once. Adam has been traveling on business a lot lately so it is hard to plan ahead. Last night on the phone with Adam, Consuelo was fussing in the background…but she settled right down when he changed to speakerphone and let me talk to her. That’s my girl!
x
x
So there you have it! Blog Post a la carte!
Michael
March 22, 2009¡Ay-yay-yay! Look at that Consuelo. ¡Que guapa!
Apropo of nothing: watch out for a commenter saying “Can i take a one small pic from your blog”. I did a search and it is everywhere. ¡New comment spam!
Bob Mrotek
March 23, 2009I discovered GIMP awhile back but I am just now getting comfortable with it. It is amazing. There are so many things you can do with it but it will probably take me years to become really good with it. The best part, however, is that it is free so how can you beat that? I recommend GIMP to everyone but I also recommend a big dose of patience 🙂
Jackie
March 23, 2009Tha house is amazing. I love the grills and the iron work fence. I am a big fan of taking photos of pangas too. So many different varieties and colors.
Kate
March 24, 2009This post leaves me with LOTS of questions. First, I need to tell you that Consuelo is definitely a keeper! Thanks for the link to the historical houses; I’ve already spent a loooong time reading the descriptions. Love ’em! Now, the questions. I googled panga and found lots of information describing vessels of different shapes and sizes. Why are these boats in your photo called pangas? They appear to me to be a fairly routine kind of fishing boat, without some of the specifications for pangas I found on google. Is GIMP similar to Picasa, only more sophisticated? And, a site for LINUX has me totally confused. Looks like another language. If you care to answer some of these questions or elaborate, my email is on my profile page on my blogs. Many thanks. Kate
Nancy
March 24, 2009Michael, Thank you, thank you.ç
Bob, Yes, I am loving the Gimp and the whole concept of open source.
Jackie, They always seem so photogenic, don’t they?
Kate, I’ll reply here and copy you at your email.
Thanks, Consuelo is the manzana de mi ojo.
Glad you liked the historic houses link. Some of the translations are hilarious.
About Pangas – here’s a cut and paste from the web about them “A panga is an extremely seaworthy fishing boat made of heavy duty fiberglass in combination with wood.Powered by outboard motors,pangas are fast with a cruising speed of 25 miles per hour. Pangas are used extensively thoughout Baja California and are especially designed to be launched from the beach.”
Gimp is a much more sophisticated photo editing sofware than picassa. It is open source, which means people have developed it for fun and they make it available for people to download for free. Go to http://www.gimp.org. We were Photoshop users before we changed to Macs and we didn’t want to spend $600 to replace it, and Gimp is perfect. If you like it you can donate using Paypal to help support the work. Same thing really with Linux. I believe it was started by people who were ticked off at Microsoft’s control of the world with Windows, and they also wanted to be able to use the command line (like in DOS). Anyway I would read Chuck and Jennifers excellent explanation at http://www.mazlug.org/index.php?name=News&file=article&sid=1 for more information. There is a whole world of open-source software out there. I am using NeoOffice on my Mac and it seems ever bit as good as Microsoft Office. There’s Open Office for Windows and Linux. And many many more. Thanks for asking, I hope this helps.
Lise
March 25, 2009Hi Nancy–
Loved this post, and all the photos. And I love pangas too, have many photos of them from various places lined up on the beach. They are so colorful. It was great seeing Paul in the hammock, what a nice shot. And little Consuelo, too cute! Hope you get a visit from her soon!! I check in often, and am so glad to have met you and that you keep up the blog. Take care, Lise
Nancy
March 27, 2009Lise! Hi! I think about you guys every once in a while and would love to know how your experience in Mexico changed each of you! Want to do a guest blog post on the topic?
Take care, and email me back if you are interested! Nancy