Gimp

So I just realized its been almost 2 weeks since my last blog entry. Now I doubt anyone really noticed but just in case sorry... but in all fairness I did mention once the weather was nice I would be outside a lot. Lets see a few things since my last post #1 I realized I'm one chunky monkey I plan on doing a big blog on that at a later date. #2 I got my bubble popped on Monday 4/27 when I found out that Johnson & Wales has filled up their 2009 class and therefore I wont be able to go to culinary school until a later date (the pain is still to fresh to blog about. So I guess I'll fill you in on what I've been distracting myself with, I want to introduce you to GIMP. Now GIMP stands for General Image Manipulation Program basically its just like photoshop, but with one major difference. GIMP is FREE!!!!! It is an open source application available on Mac, Linux and PC's.

Now I am no way an expert or even remotely good at photo editing but that's the great thing about Gimp. I actually found it easier to use than my free trial of Adobe photoshop CS4, and with some help from Youtube I found plenty of tutorials. Below you can see some of the stuff I figured out just after a few hours of playing around. I will also put the photos in the order of how I did them just to show the learning curve.

Instant Liposuction

Logo Design

Silly Photo Editing

Pop Art


Tilt Shift Lens Effect


As you can see with a little creativity, patients, and youtube video help you can take some of your old photos and kick them up a notch. If you want to download Gimp for your computer just click Here. Well hope you enjoyed what I've done remember I've only been fooling around with this for just a couple of days. Let me know what you will be using Gimp for and for those who use it already feel free to leave me some tips. Since tips rhymes with snips it reminds me ask that you please help control the pet population and have your pet spayed or neutered.

Target Practice

Today was a pretty good day, with temps in the mid 70s and all the house work done it is time to relax. We were originally thinking we might get to go to the beach today but Shannon had to give the WAIS exam to some student and didn't get done till about 4. I thought i would be cute and set up the beach chairs in the back yard so that when she got home she could at least pretend we were at the beach, and that was nice until...... I realized our yard would make a perfect shooting range for the BB gun.



Now as you all know I'm a highly skilled marksman. I'm so good that the Navy Seals called me last week with questions about how to adjust for windage while they were trying to rescue the U.S. Captain from the Somalian Pirates. Now Shannon on the other hand.... this was her 1st time to use any kind of a weapon, and I will have to give her credit once she learned how to look through the scope she wasn't half bad. To make this fun for her I created a few targets to help ease her into it.



As you can see we have a plain ole Bulls Eye, then on the left is Zombie Man and on the right the evil Lord Voldermort. Now all those little black marks are shots. As you can see we payed attention in our Zombie survival classes and remembered you have to shoot them in the head. I guess the same goes for ole voldie too. haha but like I said as you can see for her 1st time Shannon did pretty good. While we were shooting we even got a few spectators. The Dulaneys' were hanging out doing their normal Friday Family night and some out ended up convincing us to try a "William Tell" shot with an Apple. And as you can see.......



I told you I was good. This led to a little friendly competition between Shannon and I and quickly spread to Daniel. Only thing he didn't want to have to drive around the block. Now If you remember we had a little gap in our fence that was small enough for hunter to get from the Dulanys in order to retrieve the occasional rouge Frisbee. Well we had talked about putting in a swing gate so we didn't have to pull a Wilson every time we wanted to talk, who knew today we would actually make come through on that plan.



Next thing you know we had the whole crew over here, and since Daniel couldn't hit the broad side of a barn we quickly moved from target practice to Bocce Ball. All in all it was a pretty good time Drew helped water my yard (twice) and couldn't get over he was now playing where Hunter plays. Grace Anne had fun creating her own game using practice golf balls and the cardboard box we used as a target. The girls watched for a while as Daniel and I faced off in some intense games of Bocce Ball (BTW hes actually pretty good at it actually both him and Lori were pretty good by the end of it all). All in all it was a pretty good afternoon. Maybe one day I can get Shannon out to a real range and put her skills to a test. With that said remember help control the pet population and have your pet spayed or neutered.

Take your stinking claws off me you DAMN DIRTY ANTS!

Ok I was out in the garden tinkering with my buckets for my upside down tomatoes and after about 3 minutes I felt like someone had taken a tazer to my left leg. I looked down to see it covered in these DAMN DIRTY FIRE ANTS. Now I know for those of you here in SC you guys are used to them or at least are better at avoiding them than I am, but for you folks back in Arkansas enjoy your freedom while you have it. As you can see they are coming for you.



Now I tried to get some photos but the little $#*@'s were hard to zoom in on. so I looked online and got some good visual aids check this out. This "artist" took liquid metal and poured it down a fire ant mound and let it solidify then he dug it up. Apparently this guy goes around now doing this to different mounds and is making a killing (no pun intended, ok maybe just a little pun). Just because I hate to waste a photo, the picture that just looks like dirt is about 1500 fire ants.



I don't really have much more to say other than I believe they are writing checks their thorax cant cash. They want war, ILL GIVE THEM WAR. If any of you Fire Ant Veterans have any tips please let me know. Remember help control these red devils and figure out how to spay and neuter them. Damn fire ants my leg is still burning.

LivingSocial

So I've been playing with this LivingSocial Application on Facebook and am having a really good time. I think it's kind of a cool way for people to get to know you a little better. It's neat to see how your friend's minds work, what they are interested in, what things you might agree on or even what new thing do they know about that you haven't discovered yet. Well I've decided in case any of you want to get to know more about me and what i like here are some screen shots of my answers. If you haven't added this app on facebook yet you need to. Check it and enjoy.









Remember help control the pet population and have your pet spayed or neutered.

Now im offically rocking the Farmers Tan.

Ok sorry for the delay I was looking at the blog last night and realized it has been over a week since my last post. Well I have to apologize even though I doubt any of you really noticed. Although alot has gone on since my last post i have just failed to post about them So ill give you the cliffs notes then share a little of my weekend with you. On Tuesday I did a Memphis style boston butt for Clem and Kristen Coleman. It was about time someone introduced them to BBQ that wasn't cat food and pickle juice. Lets see what else.. Shannon and I and now Lori Dulaney have been tearing up the neighborhood on our bikes. Its always better to ride with a group. Top speed so far is 21mph. WOOHOO! Im sure there are some other things but I cant think of them right now. So I guess its on to my weekend.

1st It was time to get my Gardens in shape. As you can see here I have added some soil to my garden that i built last year and Shannon and I got our seeds planted. Our $25 investment should yield about $200-300 worth of fruits and veggies. Oh I will also be creating a few upside down tomato gardens so check back in the future for that blog.


After all of our work was done We got to play our new favorite sport Bocce Ball. Now normally we try and find some place that has good grass and flat surface like at the intramural fields at FMU but occasionally we will go for a wacky game in the back yard where you have to watch how you roll because one stray weed can send your ball completely off target. Just so that in future posts I can brag about how I beat Shannon I will admit this weekend was hers in the world of Bocce Ball. She beat me 75% of the time. Must be the grass getting its revenge since i was the one who had mowed it earlier this week,but we had a good time even Hunter tried to get in on the fun.



Last but not least of course we had to have a picnic. We were doing our grocery shopping last week and got a heck of a deal on tilapia fillets so we decided to do a nice southern fish fry. We of course just used our Zatarain's Crispy Seasoned Fish-Fri and coated our fish and Shrimp and went to town. Hey also wanted to point out something instead of breaking out or Fry-Daddy (which i think sucks it never keeps a normal temp and always stinks) I decided to try frying all this in my Wok. It worked perfectly from now on that is all I will fry in.


I guess that is the long and short of my weekend. If you ever want to know more about what I'm up to follow me on twitter. I have become a twitterholic. Well that is it for now. Remember help control the pet population and have your pet spayed or neutered