Wordless Wednesday

Photography and Free Cameras

I love taking pictures... I just wish I had a better camera! There are websites out there that can help make your pictures better by showing you how to use Adobe Photoshop and providing "actions". Actions are a series of recorded steps to help a photographer achieve a look without having to manually apply each process. They can come in handy when you are editing a lot of pictures at one time. One really good website I've found is MCPActions.com. They have a lot of quality information about photography on their website, and today I just found out they're doing a giveaway! They're giving away a Nikon D700 or a Canon 5D MKII. Click here to see the post about the giveaway and get more information (... and give me another entry :D).

It's always fun to play around with actions and see what other people have done, and have your photos look great afterwards. I would love to finally have a good camera! I really hope I win the contest. Please, even if you don't plan on entering, just click the link and help me out. I will forever be in your debt if I win :P

You can find MCP Actions here on Facebook and Twitter.

Here Kitty, Kitty

Do you ever get the feeling that you're being watched? You're alone in the house, but you get this prickly feeling on the back of your neck. Wait. Did you check on the cat? I bet it's staring at you right now. Just around the corner. Cats are not as innocent as you might think they are. They are very good at playing "cute".

Does your cat ever knead you, bring you dead animals, throw up grass, or go sprinting around the room for no apparent reason? Well, your cat just might be plotting to kill you. Of course your cat might just be the friendly kind. Maybe. But never fear! There is a quiz you can take to find out for sure! I've always wondered about Skittles. She is, for the most part, the nicest cat I've ever had, but she does do some rather odd things.

You can be petting her and she'll be purring and enjoying it and then, for no apparent reason, hiss at you and attack! I always thought she was just suffering from mood swings, but then I took this quiz... It has opened my eyes. Of course, I can't let Skittles know that I'm on to her! Okay, okay! I know all of you who have cats are worried now, so I'll share the quiz with you. It's located at CatsWhoThrowUpGrass.com.

I am a cat person. Always have been- always will be, but now I know better than to let my guard down! Cats are wonderful creatures that can be very loving (and apparently evil at the same time). If you've ever owned a cat you know that they're more than just pets. Skittles sleeps with me every night I'm home, cuddles with me when I need it, and is always the first one to greet me in the morning (mostly because she wants the treats in my nightstand drawer).

Here are my results for Skittles. There is an 11% chance that she's not plotting to kill me! I guess I should feel special.

On a non-homicidal note, the SPCA finally had their volunteer orientation this weekend! Yay! Needless to say I will be spending quite a bit of time there (: I'm even thinking about doing a "pet of the week" sort of thing to try to help some of the animals in the shelter find their own forever homes. Don't worry, I'll post a few dogs every now and then (;

Wordless Wednesday

I Should've Known...

Just as I feared, this job offer was too good to be true. What a load of crap. I got called by Academic Advantage a week ago. They were offering me a job as a tutor. Of course, I haven't had a "real" job in over a year, so I jumped on it. The orientation was last night. The first sign that this wasn't for me was the guy giving the orientation; he was... odd. Physically and the way he spoke, and I'm pretty sure that was something he was born with, but still. Second red flag: lady over the phone said $19/hour; he handed me the contract right as I walked in and as I'm reading it, it says $17/hr. I spoke with a few of the people around me and they were also promised $19/hr.

As the night went on many more discrepancies followed. One gentleman left very shortly after going over the contract, then another woman left. There are so many ways for you to get fined by working there! File your paperwork wrong and they fine you 35 dollars. Turn it in after the 2nd of the month and there's another 25; turn it in after the 6th and you might not even get paid. There is a certain number of hours you have to work with each student before the end of the school year- don't finish those and they will charge you $27 per hour for every hour you did not complete. Besides these deal breakers, there were so many other things that just didn't feel right. The group of ladies I was sitting with didn't feel 100% sure about this thing either. Everyone in the room was asking very confused questions, to which the man would answer "You'll have to call the Academic Advantage and talk to them about that. I'm just a lowly orientation man." Really? So in other words, you don't know anything.

I left at the part where we were supposed to give all of our information to him. No, he's not a supervisor or anything like that, he's just a tutor in the program. I decided against it and I told the girls I was talking to goodbye. I really hope they decided to leave too.

When I got home, and I feel stupid for not doing this in the first place, I looked up some more information about Academic Advantage and I found so many negative responses towards them. One person claims to have been charge $810 for them not being able to find a replacement tutor for him, even though he was promised he wouldn't be penalized. Another man posted that Academic Advantage is "an ethical disaster." They tried to charge him $4700 and are withholding his pay.

Well, now I know. And now all of you know. Please stay far far away from Academic Advantage. Time to pick up on the job trail where I left off. I didn't want to tutor germy kids anyway.