What is in your cup?

[Stitchawl]

Wow! If the past week or two has been beautiful, today's ride put them to shame. On Paul's beauty scale, today had to rate at least 500 Helens. Most of the red Maples were past their prime, but the rest of the trees were nothing short of spectacular. Vivid yellows, bright saturated browns, brilliant greens... If I hadn't been riding with a group, I would have been stopping every five minutes for another picture. This has been an amazing Fall display! Now home, sucking pomegranate juice out of a bowl of fresh seeds, and getting ready for dinner. (Tip: For those of you who love pomegranate but can't be bothered with trying to eat them, fill a big bowl with water and split the apple under water, and brush out all the seeds UNDER water. 3-4 minutes, drain, and all you have is a big bowl full of seeds to suck on by the spoonful, no stained fingers, and a handful of rind to throw away!)

Originally Posted by pdurrant

It was just the incongruity of the cars with the stone pillars and trees.

It's that incongruity that makes it uniquely Japanese. New cars in an old temple. Business men wearing navy blue Armani suits, black wingtip shoes, and white socks. Monks riding to work on a motor scooter. Glass and steel Mega-malls as bookends with a 700 year old temple between them. Magnificent looking pastries with absolutely no flavor. This is what separates Japan from the rest of Asia!

Originally Posted by CRussel

Tomorrow will be a fun day. Gotta clear out the coop where poohbear_nc's friends hang out. Give the girls a nice new bed of shavings with fresh diatomaceous earth mixed in to help keep things dry in the winter. Just a barrel of fun and laughs.

Wear a mask. Leptospirosis isn't much fun...


Stitchawl

[Stitchawl]

Originally Posted by orlok

Have a good trip, and I look forward to receiving the instructions, as I spent ages on it, and ended up just ditching it all. Not that I feel the need to tamper with my pictures, you understand. It's for a "friend".

Here ya go... It a picture I took of myself last week, but needed to make me look about 5 years younger...

1.Open image and double click Layer Mask (little box with the circle inside at the botton of the tools pallet.) Select 'selected area,' Opacity 50% Click OK.
2. Select paint brush, completely soft edge, adjust size to just cover wrinkle (Use '[' or ']' to change size while over wrinkle.
3. Paint wrinkles. Adjust brush size often to match size of wrinkle. You should be seeing red lines as in Photo3. If not, go back to Layer Mask box and select the OTHER choice...
4. After all the wrinkles have been painted, single click on Layer Mask box again. The painted areas become selections. (Much easier than trying to use any other selection tool for this.)
5. Click on Ctrl+J This turns the selection into a new layer.
6. Select Filters/Blur/Gaussian Blur. Move the slider to the right about 1/2", release, and watch the wrinkles disappear. Now bring them back and only move the slider just a wee little bit so the wrinkles just get a lttile smaller but not completely disappear. Click OK. See Photo2
7. Select Layer/Flatten Image, and save. Done.

This reads MUCH more complicated than it is to actually do... Cheaper than Botox shots!

The first was the original, the third after selecting with the layer mask brush, the middle the final result. Click back and forth quickly between the 1st and the 2nd, looking at the areas that were worked on.

Stitchawl

[orlok]

Thank you. I'll give you k for that when it lets me do so again. You know, you remind me of someone...

BTW, I assume these instructions are for Photoshop. Which version are you using? I had PSE and CS6 installed before I had to obliterate my system and reinstall everything. Not got round to loading either of these yet.

[pdurrant]

Coke Zero #1 in my cup. Just had a slice of my fresh wholemeal bread for breakfast.

[pdurrant]

Originally Posted by Stitchawl

Wow! If the past week or two has been beautiful, today's ride put them to shame. On Paul's beauty scale, today had to rate at least 500 Helens.

Half a million ships-worth of beauty! And you didn't expire from delight?

Or perhaps you mean 0.5 Helens? 500 ship-worths of beauty is still impressive.

[Stitchawl]

Originally Posted by orlok

Thank you. I'll give you k for that when it lets me do so again. You know, you remind me of someone...

People say that I look a lot like George Clooney. Or was it Wally Cox?

BTW, I assume these instructions are for Photoshop. Which version are you using? I had PSE and CS6 installed before I had to obliterate my system and reinstall everything. Not got round to loading either of these yet.

Yes, PhotoShop. I have CS5 loaded, haven't gotten around to installing CS6 yet. Don't really need it for what I do, but I have it just in case I actually pay attention to all the tutorials I've bought... Waaaay more powerful than I know how to use... This 'face lift' works in virtually all versions of PhotoShop going back 8-10 years....
Many of the upgrades were more for graphic artists and illustrators than for photographers, until CS5, which REALLY pulled out all the stops for us photo guys. Then the third party folks also ran it up the flagpole with things like Nik Color Effects Pro, Vezia, Imogenic Noiseware Pro, etc.


Stitchawl

[Stitchawl]

Originally Posted by pdurrant

Half a million ships-worth of beauty! And you didn't expire from delight?

Or perhaps you mean 0.5 Helens? 500 ship-worths of beauty is still impressive.

Come on... You KNOW I screw up numbers! Yes, 0.5 Helens was what I was after. It was mind blowing but I managed to retain my sanity. I think, had it been a full Helen, I may never have recovered... How come they didn't add this function into my Multi-calculator? I've got Ohms. I've got Amps. I've even got Log, Cos, Decreasing Term Mortgage, and one for ROI. You'd think something as important as a Helen would be covered, wouldn't you?


Stitchawl

[orlok]

Originally Posted by Stitchawl

People say that I look a lot like George Clooney. Or was it Wally Cox?

Yes, PhotoShop. I have CS5 loaded, haven't gotten around to installing CS6 yet. Don't really need it for what I do, but I have it just in case I actually pay attention to all the tutorials I've bought... Waaaay more powerful than I know how to use... This 'face life' works in virtually all versions of PhotoShop going back 8-10 years....
Many of the upgrades were more for graphic artists and illustrators than for photographers, until CS5, which REALLY pulled out all the stops for us photo guys. Then the third party folks also ran it up the flagpole with things like Nik Color Effects Pro, Vezia, Imogenic Noiseware Pro, etc.


Stitchawl

Had to look up Wally Cox, and I can see the resemblance to George Clooney (), so the answer to your question is "both"?

I'll give it a shot when I have CS6 reinstalled, thanks.

[Stitchawl]

There's a high flyin' bird, flying way up in the sky,
And I wonder if she looks down, as she goes on by?
Well, she's flying so freely in the sky.

Lord, look at me here,
I'm rooted like a tree here,
Got those sit-down,
can't cry Oh Lord, gonna die blues.

Now the sun it comes up and lights up the day,
And when he gets tired, Lord, he goes on down his way,
To the east and to the west,
He meets God every day.

Lord, look at me here,
I'm rooted like a tree here,
Got those sit-down, can't cry
Oh Lord, gonna die blues.

( http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D91M4-zy5pQ )

I shouldn't read the quiz thread before posting here...

Good morning all! Monday morning coming down... Just received a photo someone shot on yesterday's ride. It's a picture of me and mine... and my wife.
Big mug of Keemun tea to start my day. Rice and kimchee to power it up. That's enough garlic to kill an elephant but it sure tastes good. We were able to buy some REAL Korean kimchee, properly fermented, rather than the junk they sell in the supermarkets sparked up with Lactic Acid for speed rather than flavor. Big law suit going on for the past couple of years about this. The Koreans are demanding that the Japanese producers call it something other than 'kimchee' as it's not made the same way. Should be in the courts another 5-10 years before it's settled. Things don't happen fast in Japanese courts.

Stitchawl

[Latinandgreek]

Water on my night table. Good night everyone! I'm going to read a bit and (hopefully) fall asleep.

[Billi]

Coffee on my morning table. Have a great week everyone!

[dreams]

Decaf sumatra coffee in my cup and enjoying some pumpkin and custard pie slices. Yum.

[Stitchawl]

Originally Posted by orlok

Thank you. I'll give you k for that when it lets me do so again.

I already have enough karma. Couldn't you give me chocolate?



Stitchawl

[ProfCrash]

Pu-Erh in one mug, Apple Cinnamin Oatmeal in the other.

[orlok]

Originally Posted by Stitchawl

I already have enough karma. Couldn't you give me chocolate?



Stitchawl

I could, but you and your diet would hate me in the morning...