Month: November 2004

Dusty road part 2 (Altered)

I’ve created a new section in the gallery, called Altered. This is where I’ll be putting any photos that I’ve manipulated beyond shrinking and labeling. For example, the dusty road picture attached to this post is one that I had been thinking needed some sort of work to make it pop (for lack of a better word). So I fired up GiMP and did the roughly1 following:

  • Copied the entire image into a new file, to preserve the original.
  • Created two layers in the image containing the entire image.
  • Selected the bottom layer and applied a 5px Gausian blur.
  • Selected the top layer and set it the mode to multiply.
  • Flatten the image to save it as a JPG.
  • Resize and label.

I really like this altered version vs the original one. Also in currently the altered gallery is a picture I took of some clouds and that tonight I ran through the same basic steps to enhance it. This version of the image also really pops! 🙂
(more…)

As you might have heard, the activation servers for Half-Life2 are now allowing people to start playing. *sigh* It’s at times like these that I find my empty wallet depressing. This is the one game that I’ve been waiting for all year, but I’m broke. I’m especially broke because I want the game on DVD and the only way to get that in the US is to buy the collector’s edition (~$80). Ouch! Ah well, maybe being broke is a good thing and they’ll put out a normal edition (~$50) on DVD later for the US. They’re already releasing a DVD version for Europe that doesn’t require you to spend all that extra money for the collector’s edition; so it’s entirely possible.

You are CATNIP
What herb are you?
brought to you by Quizilla

Purple Saber
You have a Purple Lightsaber.

Purple is associated with wisdom, dignity, independence, creativity, mystery, and magic. Purple denotes high spirituality and religious aspiration. Purple also represents Peacefulness and Purification. It also has a sense of intuitive understanding and a feeling of intimacy with the world.
What Colored Lightsaber Would You Have?
brought to you by Quizilla

Kudos to AWelkin for links to the quizzes. Though I have to say that any quiz that claims that a person has “high spirituality and religious aspiration” after answering “Because he/she is a badass” to “Why is that Character your Favorite?” has issues. That purple *shudders in disgust* is the color of my lightsaber is doubly proof that something is wrong with that quiz.

One of the new books I picked up recently was Just A Geek by Wil Wheaton. I’ve been reading his blog for a while now and really been enjoying it. So when I last was hitting up Amazon.com for something to read; I decided to get a copy of his book. Currently, I’m 16 pages into and I ran across a line that was just so damn funny that I had to set the book aside or risk tearing it up while I was laughing on the couch. That line is….

If you ever get a chance to pee next to a rock star, make sure you do it.

While peeing next to Billy Idol would certainly be a moment to remember; given my druthers, I’d rather be standing next to Rick Nielsen of Cheap Trick fame. *shrug* He’s got better guitars and I like Cheap Trick’s music better. So my faithful CoffeeBear.net readers, which rockstar would you like to be standing share a restroom with?