Have you looked at Google Arts & Culture, the mobile application?

When I first downloaded it, I was enchanted by the window it represents into the art world, as you can enjoy art from museums all over the world.  Living in a city that is about 300,000, we don't get a lot of fine art masterpieces come through locally (although there is the UK Art Museum, which has lovely exhibits, and the Headley-Whitney Museum, among others, which has fine pieces of jewellery and other objects there, among others).

Then in January, Google came out with a feature of the application that allowed the user to take a self-portrait (aka 'selfie') of him- or herself and 'match' it to a piece of artwork in the database.  It is a cool feature.  It was, however, regionally-locked, and much of America and most other countries couldn't actually access it.  Not only that, there was no explanation--it just didn't appear unless you were in a region that it worked in.  After some time of frustration, I finally found a news story that explained it, after I'd looked all the way through the application in vain.  I was not alone.  Thousands of negative reviews in Google Play ensued.  It's a fine application in and of itself, but the tantalising feature got dangled generally on the Internet and many found they could not begin to play with it, sometimes because they lived a mile from someone who could.

Fast forward to March.  The other night, I was getting ready to sleep and was in bed, in the dark, and happened to go onto the application to discover that the feature was there.  But of course, I couldn't take the self-portrait without getting up and turning on the light.  [You can't use an existing picture; it has to be taken by the camera right then, and then you can use Google's facial recognition processing to search.]  So I thought, well, next time I think about it, I'll try it.

Last night, before bed, I tried, and couldn't find the feature again.  So there was frustration again.  Then I tried to think what had been different the other day, and the answer was that I wasn't on the data plan; I was on the house WiFi, something I hadn't had back in January.  I went on the WiFi, tried again, and it actually showed up.  And this was the first result (you can try different ones, and it gives you the percentage matched):

Ignore the fact that my hair is sticking up (I had just gotten back out of bed and taken my CPAP masque off).  The nose and eyes and chin are pretty decent.  So I decided to learn more about both the artist (Jean-Baptiste Isabey), who was born almost exactly 200 years before I, and his subject  Louise Rosalie Lebfèvre, an actress and singer from the time.

This is the full portrait:

And here is a portrait of the artist and his daughter by fellow artist  François Gérard :

Anyway, it was fun.  I would suggest trying different forms of connecting to see if you can use it if you are regionally-locked otherwise.  I use a VPN for security and some say that helps, but for me, it was going on my local WiFi rather than the cell service.  Google has a webpage for the application and the self-portrait feature at which you can learn more, with a link to getting the application, whether on Android or iOS.

Okay, I've finished getting ready for the game and rested.  Time to get a shower before Brenda gets here.  Have a great day.

The cold continues...

It's supposed to be six degrees tonight (Fahrenheit) with a wind chill down to minus 15.  I went to the store on my way home tonight and it was so cold going out, as the wind had picked up.  We're not really getting the snow you see further South, just a few flakes here and there, and I'm thankful, as it's too cold for salt to do much good.  A lady on the UK shuttle was talking about a friend in Myrtle Beach freaking because they'd had a lot of bad weather.  When I lived there in 1972, we had an ice storm followed by seven inches of snow.  We wound up piling into a neighbour's recreational vehicle and driving to Garden City so that we could plug up at a K-Mart parking lot--all nine of us.  It was miserable.  So yes, it does happen, but rarely.

Today started a bit shaky.  I didn't get paid till about 9 am (it's usually there at midnight) due to the New Year's holiday, so I didn't get breakfast at the University of Kentucky Dining but rather ate some homemade bread that I'd brought for lunch.  But it all worked out.  It was a slower day, especially about mid-day, and we got a lot done on queues.  I showed one of our co-workers who helps out in her department how to do check out.  All in all, it was a pretty decent day.  I didn't get a shower this morning, mainly because I couldn't contemplate it as cold as it was, I wanted to save time, and also because my friend went to the bathroom and I didn't realise he was finished for ten minutes.  He said he told me, but I didn't hear.  Anyway, by that time I was past the window for the shower, but really, the idea of getting wet and then going out in this didn't appeal to me.  So my hair wasn't as nice, but really, I have thin, baby fine hair, so it pretty much never really does much of anything.  This afternoon they sent an e-mail out saying that we were going to rebuild the employee directory on the intranet, where employee photos are listed by department and name, so you get to know your co-workers.  We had it at the old place, and apparently, they took it down when they moved.  I was trying to show one of the new co-workers in our department who the care managers were, for example, and the doctors, and it wasn't up anymore.  Anyway, they sent out the e-mail stating that they were bringing it back and instead of having pictures from our badges (which are usually bad), they invited people to send in a favourite self-portrait, take one in our work area (for which they are giving a prize for best 'selfie'), or the public relations department will take one if we'd like.  So I looked through some pictures and didn't really like any of them, and decided to take a picture in my work area, even though I didn't feel like my best.  It came out pretty well, actually.  Here it is:

YKWIA says I always do this thing in portraits where I put my head out like a turtle.  He's right.  But this isn't too bad.  I could use some makeup, and the hair isn't as bouncy as usual, but they always say hair is easier to style when dirty.  Of course, I just combed it.  But anyway, that's what I sent in for my 'selfie'.

I did better with my blood sugar.  They've been running normal, but I haven't eaten much lately and yesterday it was hard to gauge how much insulin to take. I wound up testing my blood sugar AFTER lunch, and it was 56 or 58.  I downed quite a few glucose tablets, as that was all I had with me, and brought it back up.  But I was pretty shaky.  Today I dialled the insulin down, taking 55 units of Lantus this morning, I think, rather than the normal 70-80.  That definitely helped.  If I can come down on the two insulins, I think that would be a wonderful thing.

We ate some wonderful soup with egg and homemade bread along with a lentil salad for dinner, then shared an apple that Brenda left on Sunday for us to try--it's the Opal variety.  It was very good.  I found some 'lunchbox'-sized McIntoshes at Kroger and got some.  That is my favourite variety, and I hadn't seen any at Kroger in probably a good three or four years.

The cat and the dogs have been fed; I didn't leave the dogs out but a few minutes.  The night is not fit for man nor beast.  The cat's in his post-prandial cuddling phase.  He likes to curl up with us afterwards.  YKWIA is reading, and of course, he wants in his lap.  I think I'll go listen to some music in bed, and so he'll probably come in and climb up on me.

Tomorrow I have two doctors' appointments, with my psychiatrist at 8 am, which is pretty early, about the time I usually get to the University, but it's further away.  I have to take a shower before I go, either tonight or tomorrow morning. I think I'll try to do the latter and wake up earlier. My ophthalmologist and field of vision test are at 2 pm.  On the bright side, because I'm coming and going for appointments, my boss put in for me to have one of the five spaces in the back parking lot.  Yay.  They're doing a lottery for any spaces that aren't used on a daily basis, which is fun, too.  But tomorrow, I get one for its intended purpose.

So, I think I'm going to sign off here.  Have a good night.