I must confess my love for Photoshop

I have to admit that Adobe really has done a wonderful job with their digital imaging editors! I’ve been playing with them for a while and it’s true, we’ve had a long lovely relationship. I wish I had more to put in here but I have a couple of simple things that I’ve done starting with my Halloween blog stuff!!

 

 

 

I hope you could tell which was the before and after pictures and yes thank you, I think I did a good job removing that Mexican from that picture too! So that’s a few of the pics I’ve played with but also you can build from the bottom up and create a whole unique image. Here’s a couple that I’ve done (some under the direction of my wonderful creative wife):

 

SO for all of you that were expecting something good I’d like to take this opportunity to just quickly apologize to those people, I’m sorry.

 

 

 

I love Photoshop.

All things Halloween!

Well I’ve never been one to get really excited about All Hallows Eve … lately haha! Crazy Halloween movies was something I used to really look forward to. The treats, the spooky feeling as you’re watching a movie with “jump scenes”, and the laughing as we all claim we’re not scared or we saw that coming was an integral part of this time of year. Well that’s been laid to rest really and it’s one dead thing I doubt will be returning from the grave! My wife isn’t a huge fan of scary movies, in fact I think she’s an anti-fan of scary movies UNLESS they were made anytime before the ‘80’s! Also she hasn’t been too adamant about me eating candy by the buckets either!

BUT I think I’m starting a new tradition. PHOTOSHOPPING HALLOWEEN STUFF FOR MY BLOG!!!! YAY!!! So I hope that you all can enjoy my spooky horror rendition of my bloggy bloggy and don’t worry! CHRISTMAS IS NEXT!!

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

Windows Live Writer

So I thought I’d throw this out there right quick. I was investigating Windows 7 and all that the new OS is all about and I ran into a review about some of the tools that are sneaking in as well. Included in the Windows Live Tools is Windows Live Writer made especially for making blogging easier.

As you can tell it works. This is my second post within a year!!! HUZZAH!!

So anyway, I’ve been ripping through the programs features and I’ve found some HUGE advantages to using WLW.

1. Photos: No more tedious loading, positioning, html editing. Just insert and play with the sidebar features just as you would in word.
2. Drafts: Save drafts locally AND/OR save drafts to your blog from within the program.
3. Multiple Blogs: Quickly switch between any blogs you might have with a drop down menu. No more signing out and signing in!
4. PLUGINS!!!! The potential for new features via plugins is exciting! I already have a bunch from embedding flash movies to entire photo albums!

So those are some of the things that just popped into my head about Live Writer. Of course Microsoft hasn’t had a perfect track record with … well a whole lot… as of late….ever .. . anyway so I have a couple of brow raisers.

Blogger which is connected is also linked Google and Gmail (which I looooove!) are also connected to something else that I had no idea about!! Picasa! Some might say, “But Aaron! Everyone knows this!” and to them I would say, “Shut it, no one talks like that!”. So if you are like me and wasn’t aware that when you’re logged into Gmail that you’re also logged into your Picasa account which holds all the pictures you’ve EVER posted to your blog then do the following:

• Login to your gmail account
• Open a new tab
• Type picasaweb.google.com

Welcome to your online web photo albums! So anytime that you post from Windows Live Writer it will also be placed into your picasa web albums (side note: if any edited photos that you’re trying to publish with your posts through WLW just go into your picasa online album and create an album named “Windows Live Writer”).

But all in all this program makes it much easier to publish, quicker to publish photos, and much more convenient to arrange elements that I like.

If you’re interested here’s the link for Windows Live Writer.

The Story of My Loving Wifester! Part 1

So without further ado here is the story of my wonderful homemaker (she literally made my place a home!) and how I lied, cheated, and stole to get her to marry me! Ah-just ah-kidding!

I was raised a small chinese girl in upstate Canada.

OK OK, I'm not small or chinese and there is no upstate anything in Canada because there are no states other than states of mind.

Here's the true story.

 

After high school I felt a little lost. I knew I wanted to serve a mission but I had no money. All through school I hadn't looked for work. I felt it was important to enjoy my youth while I was weaning off my parents. Sure I had odd day jobs when I needed money but nothing with shifts or job security. Earlier in my life I had ventured to hold back on receiving my patriarchal blessing, I figured I would hold off and get it when I felt lost or in need of direction. If there was a time I needed that navigation it was right after high school. I got did what I needed done and went to receive it. It was awesome. I had questions answered and I felt confident now even though there was no visible path in front of me.

Aaaaaand what did that have to do with Amber? Haha! Well if you want the story this is what got the love ball rolling!

SO, how was I going to raise enough dough to pay for my mission!?!?! (And I did want to pay for the whole thing by myself!) I remember kneeling down and saying a prayer. It was really sincere. I remember telling God about my goal to pay for the mission myself and that it meant a lot to me but I would need a job. I had an overwhelming feeling that things were being taken care of.

The next day just before dinner I was sitting in the kitchen hanging with my mom like I often do, when the phone rang. My cousin was calling for me and was wondering if I was looking for work. He told me about it and I felt the same feeling of confidence I had the day previous. I began my days working in the oilfield. It wasn't a rigging job or anything but building the innovative Mahkesis Cold Lake Project. A construction job. In 4 months I would have my mission paid for. That was the goal and that was all I expected. 

So I arrived and started working. My schedule was I would leave for work at 5:30 AM, work and get home at about 8:30 PM. I had a simple routine. Make instant potatoes, heat up some chunky soup, eat a cheese bun, check my email, shower and brush teeth and then to bed! One day as I was checking my email I thought I’d do some random googling (it was new and exciting then) and I threw in the word “LDS” in the search bar.  I had just broke up with my girlfriend and of course I wanted some time out of the game. That may seem unrelated but I saw this one website LDSMingle.The website was for Single Adult LDS and coming from a fresh breakup this seemed like an interesting opportunity. I could unofficially meet people and be completely honest about me and just see what happens without ever having to worry about getting too involved, BECAUSE I WOULDN’T HAVE TO !!! Perfect plan right?!? I thought so, a perfect chance to gauge my worth in the LDS community without getting my hands, “dirty”? (That doesn’t mean what that means…) OK, lets try that again, so it was a good idea I thought because I didn’t run the risk of having to tell someone I didn’t want a relationship right now and that I was sorry yadda yadda. All I had to do is … wait… see who looked at my profile… go to bed. That’s better.

 

I had a best friend, Matt Adams, that lived in the area and we decided that we’d stay up and hang out. I told him about the site and he joined too! We actually were completely honest and we had a lot of fun with it. So long first part of story short even after my 4 month goal the Lord blessed me that they kept me for 10 months, earning enough for the mission and I went, leaving my profile forgotten.

 

This is the end of part 1 *beep*