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"Reports of my death....."

Joined
Jun 10, 2004
Messages
794
Likes
14
Location
Ames, Iowa (about 25 miles north of Des Moines)
Website
www.robwallacewoodturner.com
....and I won't finish the oft misquoted Mark Twain quote.

I just got through scanning and reading about 7 months of Forum posts after a year+ hiatus from participating here. This past academic year I was serving as the President of the Iowa State University Faculty Senate, representing over 2,100 faculty with both the University administration and with the Iowa Board of Regents, in addition to doing regular "prof" duties. Because of these added responsibilities, my time for turning and turning-related activities was seriously diminished, and this was also the major reason why I did not run for a second term on the AAW Board of Directors. I am now finding the time to get back to turning seriously after being away from the lathe almost entirely between mid-January through late May of this year. It is good to be "back in the saddle" and making shavings again! Fortunately, as President of the Ames Area Woodturners chapter, I was "turning vicariously" through our member's activities, seeing their show and tell pieces, and seeing demonstrations. This aspect of being part of an active woodturning community (even if you can't be active!) is really important, and it certainly helped me to not experience "total woodturning withdrawal"!

It was great to see some of you at the 2016 AAW Symposium in Atlanta, and at Turn On! Chicago in July! Thanks to all of those who participated in the auctions at these symposia, and for making them so much fun for me to call! I am already looking forward to Kansas City in just a mere 9 MONTHS!

I hope to be able to participate a bit more here in the coming months and look forward to seeing what " y'all " have been up to during my "absence"!

Turn safely!

Rob Wallace
 
Last edited:
Hi Bill!

Thanks for your reply!

Yes, I re-set my password. I tried uploading a new avatar file, but don't know why it is coming up so distorted. Does the original file have to be square in format?

Pacem vobiscum.

Rob
 
Hi Bill!

Thanks for your reply!

Yes, I re-set my password. I tried uploading a new avatar file, but don't know why it is coming up so distorted. Does the original file have to be square in format?

Pacem vobiscum.

Rob
Always good to chat with you!
I assuemd the flattened look was from overwork. :-)
 
distorsions drive me nuts to look at. So Bill-why are some (like your avatar) not and others are???? Gretch

I have tried uploading four different avatar images, including one that I intentionally cropped into a square format (1:1 aspect ratio), and no matter what image I upload, it still comes out distorted in the final posting. Perhaps we just live in a twisted world?

Rob
 
You need to upload a square image. Beware that some cropping schemes don't really crop ... They just hide part of the image ... cropping on an iPad for example might not work right because the cropped portion isnt correctly reported to other applications. Also, iPhone images somethings come out sideways if you have orientation locked. It would be best if you upload a 300 X 300 pixel image. If you use a smaller image, it will come out fuzzy. Rob, that's a really dark picture.
 
Bill - This is #4 of the images I tried this morning as test images; not all were this dark. I'll have to get on another computer and run an image through Photoshop to make it truly square (like the subject!). Is there deeper meaning in the description "dark picture"? ;)

Off to teach...

Rob
 
Rob- thanks for coming back-was just wondrin......Now I know you just got twisted with age. That's the kind of word I like to turn-character!!!!
 
The Puddy Tat and I have been together for so long, nearly twenty years, that we communicate by telepathy. He's my photography exposure and white balance consultant as well as being a willing model. His main job is being a paperweight to make sure that nothing is blown away by a breeze.

About avatars, Rob if you will send me a good image, I will resize and crop it for you.
 
Bill - This is #4 of the images I tried this morning as test images; not all were this dark. I'll have to get on another computer and run an image through Photoshop to make it truly square (like the subject!). Is there deeper meaning in the description "dark picture"? ;)

Off to teach...

Rob

The image pixel dimensions are 287 wide by 192 tall ... not exactly square. This means to convert it to 300 X 300 the width is just barely stretched and the height is stretched a lot, thus we have a slender Rob Wallace. It wasn't easy to to fix the image, but I did crop it square 192 X 192, then edited in Camera Raw, and finally resized and a few other tweaks before saving. So, here is an avatar ready image, but you probably have some better sharper images that would be preferable.


Rob Wallace avatar.jpg
 
The Puddy Tat and I have been together for so long, nearly twenty years, that we communicate by telepathy. He's my photography exposure and white balance consultant as well as being a willing model. His main job is being a paperweight to make sure that nothing is blown away by a breeze.
My best cat (Dewey) or DUI (named after I got my son out of jail at 1 am several years ago!!!) helps me with the computer mouse. Nudges make it difficult to type. Not sure if he wants to take it away from me, help me with typing or wants attention . :D Gretch
 
My best cat (Dewey) or DUI (named after I got my son out of jail at 1 am several years ago!!!) helps me with the computer mouse. Nudges make it difficult to type. Not sure if he wants to take it away from me, help me with typing or wants attention . :D Gretch

They see fingers dancing around on the keyboard and it's an obvious invitation to join in. And what is a mouse good for if not to be played with?
 
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