Sunday, August 30, 2009

Semi-related link: Pietopia

This is such a fantastic concept.
The contest was (since they've declared their winners already) to figure out what flavor of pie describes you right now, what's going on in your life and/or how you're feeling.

The resulting pies range from hilariously complex to home-town simple with a twist.

Go look at the fabulous art posters designed to represent the winning pies. Maybe make one or two of them, I know I want to.

Pietopia

Gifts - Mystery Pressure Canner

Hey everyone!
Those of you who could make it, thank you all for coming! Those of you who couldn't, thank you for your best wishes, it's been wonderful receiving the cards and emails from you.

I have a question!
We arrived home last night to a fabulous pile of gifts inside the front door courtesy of the friend who was watching after the cat and the hedgehog. Most of them gave some indication who sent them. One, did not.

The pressure canner was shipped by an Amazon Affiliate who felt no obligation to give any indication who actually placed the order. And I can't write a thank you note unless I know who sent the gift. Please help!

Did you send us a pressure canner? Please let me know if you did.

Edited to add: Never mind. Amazon has this wonderful feature called a "Thank you list" which shows who ordered what items. Mystery solved!

Wednesday, August 12, 2009

Flower Script - how-to

How To Make Your Own Flowers (or Snowflakes!) With Joel's Abstract-Flower Script

1) You'll need to have a copy of the free GNU Image Manipulation
Program (GIMP).  You can get it from http://www.gimp.org/

2) Once you have the GIMP installed on your computer, create a file
that has the script text in it and call it something like
abstract-flower.scm

3) Put that file in your GIMP scripts directory (on my computer, with
the default install, that directory is C:\Program
Files\GIMP-2.0\share\gimp\2.0\scripts )

4) Start up the GIMP

5) Create a new image.  This is going to be your petal, which will be
repeated around a circle when you run the script.  (You'll probably
want to create it with a transparent background so that it can easily
be incorporated into other things).  Draw on the image with the
paintbrush or (probably for better results at least getting started)
the pencil tool

6) When you're ready to try making a flower, go up to the Filters
menu, then down to Extensions, and click "Abstract Flower"

7) Tell it how many pixels you want your image to be moved out from
the center of the flower that will be created

8) Tell it how many petals you want the flower to have

9) Click okay and watch the fun animation of the rotation progress bars

10) Admire the nifty result

11) (optional) Merge all visible layers so that you're left with one
that contains the entire flower image

12) (optional) Repeat steps 5 - 12, get a feel for how it works, and
make awesome designs!

Enjoy!

Flower Script - save as .scm file

;; abstract-flower-petalCount.scm -- a script for GIMP
;; Author: Joel Jorgensen
;;
;; Creates a flower by making copies of the selected layer (the number of copies
;; being the number of petals specified minus one because you already have the
;; original), offsetting them by the radius specified, and rotating them by
;; successively larger portions of a circle. Used to do the flower art for
;; our wedding.

;; Mmmm, pi. It's just everywhere in this wedding! ^_^
(define *pi* (* 4 (atan 1.0) ) )

;; Recursive function that is the heart of this script.
;; Creates a copy of the (offset-by-the-radius) original layer
;; Adds that as a new layer to the image.
;; Rotates the layer by an amount dependent upon which iteration this is
;; (Each new copy gets rotated farther around)
;; Increments the iteration
;; If it's not done, it recursively calls itself and passes all of the existing
;; stuff plus the new iteration value
;; (The image height is used to determine the pivot point, so each petal is
;; rotated about the center of the image, which is then the center of the
;; flower when all is said and done. Yay math!)
(define (add-petal img petal iteration rotationAmount numPetals)
(let*
(
(newPetal (car (gimp-layer-new-from-drawable petal img)))
(imgHeight (car (gimp-image-height img)))
)

(gimp-image-add-layer img newPetal 0)

(gimp-drawable-transform-rotate newPetal (* iteration rotationAmount) FALSE (/ imgHeight 2) (/ imgHeight 2) TRANSFORM-FORWARD INTERPOLATION-CUBIC FALSE 3 TRANSFORM-RESIZE-CLIP)

(set! iteration (+ iteration 1))

(if (< iteration numPetals)
(add-petal img petal iteration rotationAmount numPetals)
)
)
)

;; The function that starts it all and gets everything set up so that add-petal
;; will have the desired effect.
;; Gets the width of the source petal (the current layer)
;; Calculates the height of the image to be created as being twice
;; the height of the current layer plus the radius offset (twice because
;; we're going around a circle, and so we need to add room for the petals
;; on the other sides)
;; Calculates the petalHeight as half the image height
;; Creates a new image to hold the flower
;; Makes a copy of the source petal
;; Sets the iteration to be the first iteration
;; Calculates the amount to increase the rotation (in radians) each iteration by
;; dividing the number of radians in a rotation by the number of iterations
;; that will be performed (the number of petals)
;; Prevents each step from being undo-able (instead you can undo the whole thing
;; as one bulk operation)
;; Adds the copied petal to the new image
;; Moves it to the center top location
;; Calls add-petal, which kicks off the recursion to create and add the rest
;; of the petals
;; Displayes the new image
;; Re-enables undo for individual steps
(define (abstract-flower srcImg srcPetal radius numPetals)
(let*
(
(width (car (gimp-drawable-width srcPetal)))
(imgHeight (* 2 (+ radius (car (gimp-drawable-height srcPetal)))))
(petalHeight (/ imgHeight 2))
(newImg (car (gimp-image-new imgHeight imgHeight (car (gimp-image-base-type srcImg)))))
(petal (car (gimp-layer-new-from-drawable srcPetal newImg)))
(iteration 1)
(rotationAmount (/ (* 2 *pi*) numPetals))
)

(gimp-image-undo-disable newImg)
(gimp-image-add-layer newImg petal 0)

(gimp-layer-resize petal imgHeight imgHeight (- (/ imgHeight 2) (/ width 2) ) 0)
(gimp-layer-set-offsets petal 0 0)

(add-petal newImg petal iteration rotationAmount numPetals)

(gimp-display-new newImg)

(gimp-image-undo-enable newImg)
)
)

;; Registers this script with the GIMP so that you can actually run it
;; Some descriptive comments for when you're looking for it in the Script
;; Library
;; Set it up to take
;; an IMAGE (the current image)
;; a drawable (the currently selected layer; the source petal)
;; the radius to offset each petal from the center of the flower
;; the number of petals you want in your flower
(script-fu-register "abstract-flower"
"_Abstract Flower"
"Creates a flower by making several copies of the current layer, offsetting them by the amount of the radius, and rotating them different amounts to form a circle. Works best for images with a really sharp border. (Bonus Feature: Can also be used to create snowflakes! ^_^ )"
"Joel Jorgensen "
"Joel Jorgensen"
"2009-01-21"
""
SF-IMAGE "Image" 0
SF-DRAWABLE "Drawable" 0
SF-ADJUSTMENT "Radius" '(40 0 4096 1 10 0 1)
SF-ADJUSTMENT "Number of Petals" '(10 0 4096 1 10 0 1)
)

;; Adds the script to the menu so you can easily call it
;; (In my version, it actually shows up under Filters > Experimental
(script-fu-menu-register "abstract-flower" "<Toolbox>/Xtns/E_xperimental")

;; EDIT (Don't copy this part) fixed the last line so it will actually add
;; it to a menu instead of throwing some bizarre error about <Prefix>

Friday, August 7, 2009

Transportation on Sunday

Parking at the Plummer House for the reception is limited. Please carpool or take the shuttle. There are only about 15 parking spots at the top of the hill, so it's a bit tight.

The Jorgensens have the big van that will be used to carry people and the hotel has a shuttle that will run to and from the Plummer House.

To everyone staying in the hotel, they have a shuttle that sounds like its readily available to guests if they just ask for a ride. They request understanding that based on where it is in town it can take from 5 to 30 minutes to arrive for an unscheduled pick-up.

We do have a couple of scheduled shuttle runs on Sunday:
1:30 it will pick people up to take them to Holy Spirit.
3:00 it will be ready to pick people up after the ceremony.
3:45 there will be a run up to the Plummer House. There can be a second one at this time if needed.
6:00 and 8:00 are the two scheduled times to go back to the hotel, but again, if you want to go back at a different time, you can give them a call.