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Post by Morgana Le Fay on Mar 2, 2006 8:36:46 GMT -5
I'm an invisible reader... You're quite interesting, some of your thoughts and comments. Very stimulating to read.
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Post by Tiana, eh? on Mar 2, 2006 21:40:14 GMT -5
Well, you know I read... (shrugs) And I don't always post my first time, and for every post, the thread gets viewed at least twice...
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Post by Jandalf on Toast on Mar 4, 2006 1:29:04 GMT -5
Yay! I have lurkers!! Although I'm afraid there won't be much in the way of meaningful content today... ENTRY FORTY-TWOForty-twoooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!!! ...The end. WoC: celeberrimous, which is very or most highly celebrated. Three cheers for the celeberrimous 42! Jandalf out.
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Post by Jandalf on Toast on Mar 6, 2006 16:27:01 GMT -5
ENTRY THE FORTY-THIRD
What a weekend...I spent the majority of Saturday trying to keep it as uncluttered as possible, and consequently it became cluttered. Sunday wasn't half bad overall for the first part of the afternoon, and the second half wasn't bad either, but I had far too many little things to look after in between everything, plus right in the middle of the church service I got hit with this nasty feeling of nausea. Not the flu kind, just the dizzy kind. Maybe something's wrong with my inner ear or whatever does the trick, because for the past few years the floor will start rocking around at random for a bit. It'll leave for a few months, and then come back and hit me a few times a week... @_@ At least I learned to compensate. Kind of like walking on a rocking boat, except nothing is actually rocking. I still feel dizzy even when I sit down.
So I pumped myself full of prayer and Gravol and the nausea part went away, at least. Usually Gravol doesn't work all the way on its own, ye see, and there was just a little nausea left to beat down after the prayer. I'm still feeling dizzy, though. This bout is lasting a while.
And then last evening, the Powerbook I was bidding on at eBay was running out of time. It had already risen over the amount of money that I previously wanted to spend, but I reassessed what was going on. The thing had been upgraded considerably, and it came with over $1000 USD worth of software. Therefore, bidding $1100 (also in USD) on it was still a very good deal, overall.
Which was how I changed my mind with thirty seconds left on the auction. I plugged in $1100, clicked the "affirm" button frantically, and it redirected me back to the auction page where I was the highest bidder. With one second left.
(dies)
I was almost sweating. I won it for the price of $1050. W00t! Good thing I waited until the last second (literally). Okay, maybe I got a little overly excited, but it was fun - that's my excuse. Bidding could get addicting, I see...in amounts of that sort, anyway, which are relatively high for me thus far. My precious MONEYS. Adrenaline. Woooooooooo.
Also that afternoon/evening, Tiana and I discovered we could do a fairly decent imitation of each other for the most part... (cackles)
There was also a lot of scholarship hunting that followed. MORE scholarship hunting, I mean. Ow, my brains.
Plus I finished the golf course menu's edits. Whew.
Plus I raided the cookie jar.
It's going to take me all week to recover from that weekend. And to top it off, today I discovered that I'm allergic to the assistant manager's cologne. I used my puffer. I haven't touched the thing since the last hayfever season ended.
Snrk. That's all there is to be said. Oh, my life.
WoC: scaevity which is unluckiness; left-handedness.
...Why didn't anyone tell me the two were connected? I'm a southpaw, and therefore afflicted with scaevity! ACK!!
Jandalf out.
EDIT: Grr...where did I put that Gravol...
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Post by Jandalf on Toast on Mar 9, 2006 22:56:17 GMT -5
ENTRY THE FORTY-FOuRTHWhy does "forty" have no U, and "fourty" does? (puzzles) ...Anyway. I have decided to found the Problem Club, because everyone I have ever met has had a problem of some kind, and whoever wants to is welcome to take the icon and make themselves a Problem Club member. No matter what your problem is, you can belong. Having a problem (or numerous problems) is the only requirement! WoC: misqueme, which is to displease; to offend. Hmmm...misqueme...miqueme...Meqime... Heh heh. Jandalf out.
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Post by Tiana, eh? on Mar 9, 2006 22:59:25 GMT -5
Meqime is thus proved offencive...
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Post by Jandalf on Toast on Mar 9, 2006 23:21:05 GMT -5
I suppose I'll be the Problem Club president...I'm going to need a vice-prez and a chairperson, and maybe a secretary and a treasurer. All for posterity's sake. No one will actually be doing anything except dealing with their typical problems...
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Post by Tiana, eh? on Mar 9, 2006 23:31:38 GMT -5
(whines) But I can't do anything like that... I already have enough problems!! I guess I'm automatically vice-prez, MASTER.
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Post by Chelsegorn on Mar 10, 2006 17:53:05 GMT -5
I have problems too!!
I LOVE the Jandalf tombstone! It's fun!
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Post by Tiana, eh? on Mar 10, 2006 17:57:23 GMT -5
We were making tombstones while chatting the other day... it was strange... (grins wryly) Hi!
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Post by Dûncariel is Dead. on Mar 11, 2006 11:27:03 GMT -5
Ooh, can I be secretary? I have proooooblemmmmsss...... collllege faaairs aare eeeating meeeee aliiiiiiiiiiiveee..............
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Post by Jandalf on Toast on Mar 17, 2006 1:52:20 GMT -5
ENTRY THE FORTY-FIFTHAll righty...now we have a president who doesn't preside (moi), a vice-prez who doesn't vice-preside (Tiana), a chairperson who doesn't...chair...people... (Chelsegorn, unless she says no...heehee) a secretary who doesn't take notes or organise anything in particular (Dûn), and a treasurer who doesn't treasure anything for the Problem Club. Who's the treasurer, you ask? Even if you don't ask, I'll tell you, because I feel like it. Oh, yeah...that's right. Who's the tyrant now? This is the part where I start laughing like an 3vil maniac. ...Anyway. The treasurer is one of my "coworkers". I put the word in brackets because he doesn't actually work in the same community, but he's with the same company. So technically he's a coworker. He drops by the store sometimes when he's got part of the evening to burn, and I told him we still needed a treasurer. So now we have a treasurer. He's also the same one who, after looking at the monitor screen for perhaps 0.2 seconds, named the subject of the following sketch "Phil". I still don't know why I scanned it in if it was unfinished. But I think I almost prefer it this way. (considers) I don't know who Phil is supposed to be, either. But I think she's had better days. Perhaps my inner stress is making itself known through Phil. O Phil, Be Now My Expression Of Great And Disastrous Turmoil Of The Brains. At least I'm not working Saturday. There's a home show going on in the mall, which means traffic is going to spike, which means it's going to be like Christmas Eve, sales-wise. Auuuugh. Wait. I am working Saturday. But only for one hour or so to cover one of the girls' lunch. ...One of the girls. Snrk. There are only two. Why aren't they hiring anyone else to work the tills? Like maybe two more people? Just two more part-time employees would solve so many issues...phnargh. It's a good thing I'm not in management, or my brains would be charcoal by now. The worst thing about this year is that almost all my ranting is about work. That's so depressing. I wish I could go back to having no life. It was a lot more fun, and I actually managed to expend some of my imagination's energy that way. Now I have to suppress it for over nine hours straight every day, or I might get fired. Drawing all over the walls and making monkey noises is bad PR, you see. What I'd really like to do is move off of this stupid continent, or at least away from Canada and the States. All this crazy-talk about SUCCESSNOWORYOU'REWORTHNOTHING. I want to relocate to a country where the pace is a bit more sedentary so that I can fit in some time to think. If you so much as watch the commercials here, you can see that everything is obsessively aimed towards meeting the needs of a jam-packed life, 100% geared toward wild success...nothing encourages the insanely busy to step back and reconsider what they're doing to themselves. Everything's just made to lessen the time it takes so you can do even more with your already stupidly busy day. I'm sick of seeing it everywhere. Maybe some people like living like that, but I can't stand it. For me, it's completely unproductive. If I'm rushed to finish a project that involves something I enjoy doing, it will turn out like crap compared to what it could be if I had time to draft something, step away, return to it and consider what I could do differently, start over, patch the two together...it's a process that doesn't fit in to the hectic life of the average North American. It's not that I'm trying to concoct a massive excuse to be lazy...I just want OUT. If I go too far into it, it's going to drive me insane, and I mean in a bad way. I'm just not cut out to naturally deal with it, and I'll get sick with stress before I marginally begin to see how to live with it. By that point, I'm wondering if I'll even be myself anymore. Whew. That's a pretty summarised version of that rant, anyway. All thanks to Phil. WoC: obstrigillate, which is to oppose or resist. I hereby obstrigillate the above mentioned norm of this society. So there, herd instinct! Nyaaaaaaaaaaa (that was me sticking my tongue out). I blow my nose at you. Jandalf out.
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Post by Tiana, eh? on Mar 17, 2006 22:47:09 GMT -5
Phil is a boy's name...
Yaar.
(considers the meaning of life) My computer sucks. Now we just need a domain name...
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Post by Dûncariel is Dead. on Mar 18, 2006 23:08:41 GMT -5
Phil... *cackles* Oh, but she rather looks like a Phil....
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Post by Tiana, eh? on Mar 18, 2006 23:58:18 GMT -5
Need a thread for the Problem Club... or something...
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Post by Jandalf on Toast on Mar 28, 2006 0:07:45 GMT -5
Wheeeeeee... ENTRY THE FORTY-SIXTHI can make wood. Really. It's fun. In fact, it turned out fairly well, enough to spur me into making a tutorial. It is for Photoshop, however; I don't know how many other programs would have similar features, but it might be worth checking out and playing around with. Also, I'm not sure how many versions back one can go with Photoshop and still get this to work. But anyways. On with the stuff! STEP ONE Take out the MIGHTY NEW-PICTURE WINDOW OF DOOM. Make the image about three or four times as wide as it's high. Seriously, I mean it. STEP TWO Set the foreground colour as 61270E (R: 97; G: 39; B:14), and the background colour as B8724B (R: 184; G: 114; B: 75). They don't have to be these, specifically, but it's a good idea to go with something around that range as far as contrast goes. You can use whatever the heck colour you like. (grins) STEP THREE First, go to Render > Clouds. Then go to Render again, and this time choose Difference Clouds. Now, select Difference Clouds three more times. Each time you make it go inverse and back again, it gets slightly more...um...grainier? Something like that. Anyway. Here's what we end up with: STEP FOUR Go to Distort > Polar Coordinates. Select Polar to Rectangular and hit OK. Now, rotate that sucker 90 degrees counterclockwise, and we are ready to do some liquifyin'. STEP FIVE If you don't have the liquify feature available to you, guess what. Dat's perfectly okay. All it takes, in such a case, is a little more patience with the smudge tool, which is usually represented by a hand pointing its index finger down at an apparent surface. Anyhow, in case you do have access to the liquify tool... A number of nifty features, such as bloat, pucker, and all them other disgusting-sounding yet rather useful things. Just play, because you can always cancel and redo it, or use the eternally wonderful Ctrl + Z. As I said, stretching out the dark areas with the smudge tool instead of using "bloat" in the liquify feature is very possible with a small amount of extra time. Also, feel free to make some of the streaks narrower and warp them around a tad. Here's what I got in any case: STEP SIX Optional step for tonal purposes and suchlike. If you want to, simply play with the Brightness + Contrast/Hue + Saturation tools. Or you can duplicate the layers and use the Multiply layer style if it's available, like so: This is a shot of the first bit of wood I made, shown after I duplicated the layer and used the Screen layer style: The end. Oh, yeah, I guess I should also pop in a Word. Hmmmm... WoC: melalgia, which is pain in the limbs. Ow, my melalgious extremities! Jandalf out.
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Post by Tiana, eh? on Mar 28, 2006 3:48:01 GMT -5
But be aware that most of us do NOT have photoshop!! If you want someone to actually USE your tutorial, I'd suggest posting it on SSD, or something... solidsnakedesigns.com.
Considering I use two different programs, and do not have a cloud filter on either of them, your tutorial is UTTERLY USELESS for me! W00t! I've managed to get a few photoshop filters to work for me, but this one won't.
Force, do I wish PSP had a lense flare and a cloud filter. Just THOSE STINKING TWO FILTERS!! THAT'S ALL, DARNIT!!!!!! [/rant] The clouds aren't THAT hard for me to stimulate, I guess... but lense flares sure are.
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Post by Jandalf on Toast on Mar 28, 2006 17:51:31 GMT -5
Actually, it's quite possible with PSP. I just ran a quick trial to see, and it turned out pretty well, although I grabbed a terrible lighter colour...makes it look all nasty and green. Snrk. I went with the same initial dimensions, 4000 high and 1000 wide, and used the smoke brush at about size 250 to dab the darker colour over the lighter background, then I went into Distort and did polar to rectangular coordinates: I'm pretty sure that with a little time with the smudge tool, maybe something else as well, would give a very similar effect. There are members here who have Photoshop anyway, as well as the tutorial sites that give links to tutorials, which could be used as a way to generate a little extra site traffic here on the side.
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Post by Tiana, eh? on Mar 29, 2006 0:41:04 GMT -5
But it's more wooork... (whine)
Maybe make a subboard for tutorials in the pictures board, so that way more people will notice it.
And really, we don't have that many members with PHOTOSHOP. Force has Elements, I believe... Duncariel and you are the only two I think who actually have Photoshop itself. And PSP takes so freaking long to load on me... (mutter complain)
(is now out to get 200 dollars and get a tablet before she dies of carpal tunnel syndrome from trying to CGI pictures with a mouse)
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Post by Jandalf on Toast on Mar 29, 2006 22:27:42 GMT -5
I knowwww...it wasted two whole good minutes...
Hmm. Thar's an idea, if anyone else does have tutorials they want to share. Or links to tutorials and such.
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