Wednesday, December 31, 2008

Cheating at Practice / GreenSmoke

Practicing in Photoshop is hard, when you take it seriously.

I need to start being a little more hones with my photoshop posts... Sometimes I do a review piece, instead of going out and doing a project.
Sometimes I just don't have the time... and today is one of those times.

I did this piece before my blog even existed. It's the prototype for the one called Crimson Chaos, which is the basis of my blog background. That makes this GreenSmoke ancient. I don't remember all that went in to it... Let's just say that you can do an almost unlimited number of things with filter> render> clouds. It's not incredible, but it was the most effort I had put into a piece yet at the time... like I said, it's pre-TLC.

In other news, I didn't know TLC was my blog's name abbreviated. How cliché.

New Year's Surprise

I was pleasantly surprised to be introduced to this awesome "translator bot" tonight by Marianne. I dunno how she found it, but I'm grateful... It's kinda freaky how smart it is.
It's not perfect, but I thought it might be a person for a sec...

It's a google bot you can put on your google chat list. It will parrot anything you say to it back to you in the language you've chosen! It's awesome. She was kinda confusing me for a sec when she spoke in Japanese - correctly... I was like... well... fast learner? cheater helping?

I didn't know what to think. Usually the grammar of translators is very poor. This one's not perfect by any standard, but it's better than I am. Faster, if nothing else.

The link she gave me is here:
http://www.google.com/support/talkgadget/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=89921
It's not only in Japanese... you could use a Russian/Spanish/French/German/whatever-you-want one!

Tuesday, December 30, 2008

Looking for Lyrics

I'm taking the songwriting more seriously now. I'm going to go write a song. It will be a while until it's finished.

I will post it when I'm satisfied with it, though. I'm excited... I haven't written a song in ages.

In other news, I've got four songs finished perfect lately, and am left with an almost-clean slate.
I've been working on Lee's what it does to us and Secondhand Serenade's Fall For You. Along with Jack Johnson's Banana Pancakes and Sitting, Waiting, Wishing that's quite a lot in just a month or two.

I do need to get better with lyrics... I find myself making up songs as I go about my day every now and then... I just can't make up stuff that would go with guitar, stupid as it sounds. Perhaps I need to write more down, or keep scratch paper with me.

Monday, December 29, 2008

Photoshop Links

My laptop is FIXED!!! kinda... anyway, it's functional again.
so I'll be able to start posting all the posts up to today. (whatever that day is for you when you read this, lol...)

Anyways, I have links from the more pick-what-you-want-to learn field to the very beginner stuff.
Even if you have some experience in Photoshop, the beginner stuff works as a good set of reminders, and can speed up your work, if not give you inspiration.

This one's group of things called How to Master Photoshop in a week... I'm still reading it.
http://elitebydesign.com/how-to-master-photoshop-in-just-one-week/

Here's a good misc group at PaintBits - I've done a few.
http://www.paintbits.com/2008/06/27/photoshop-tutorials-you-should-see/

This one tries to explain pen-tool paths. I'm going to look at it - it's probably valuable.
http://www.elated.com/articles/photoshop-paths-explained/


Here at Tutorial9 they have a lot of useful stuff well-sorted. They attempt to cover everything, and at least cover all the bases
http://www.tutorial9.net/category/photoshop/

This is a list of drawing tutorials I found just today. I intend to spend a while here.
Drawing is where I have trouble - I'm not naturally artistic... these should help, though!
http://psdfan.com/inspiration/25-amazing-photoshop-drawing-tutorials/

Sunday, December 28, 2008

Obsessed with iKnow...

iKnow's website has helped me incredibly in learning - it seems to be all I do with Japanese these days... I need to go work on learning how to write.

Just because you recognize a kanji doesn't mean you can draw it on a napkin, for example. They can get relatively similar also, and are easy to confuse if you don't take the time to sort out differences.

Anyways, I only have a few new things lately, nothing special...

I do have a new pair of opposites...
軽い - karui - light
重い - omoi - heavy

to pay is 払う - harau

and I already knew to read, 読む - yomu

Saturday, December 27, 2008

Fall for You (Round Two)

I've been working on this (by Secondhand Serenade) today. With my messed up laptop charger, I've not much else to do.
Oh well. More time with my guitar...

It only uses four chords, really, but I get the order of them scrambled up.
They're C,Am,F, and G. Very straightforward - but very confusing...
Also, I only seem to know about half of the words. That doesn't help. I need to fix that.
By the time this is actually posted, I hope to have it perfect. That will be one more down.

I hoped to write something about Christmas / New Year's celebrations as far as songwriting goes, but it never happened... how typical of me... I have this terrible lyric-writing that's been haunting me for months...

How am I supposed to tackle it?

Friday, December 26, 2008

More Time Off...

I'm really wanting my laptop to be fixed - I'll finally go say something to my Dad about it...
I have looked at photoshop tutorials today, but I didn't find much inspiring.

I'm going to get a whole bunch of links together for the next post - It'll be beginner tutorials for those interested. I'll skim them myself - there are some things I never learn to use, simply because I don't find them useful, and often I'm mistaken in that. Also... I forget things. I'm human. So shoot me.

That's all I have in the Photoshop biz right now...
I've been practicing with selections and the pen tool, but to no significant avail.

Thursday, December 25, 2008

Vocab... Once Again.

I need to go out and do something original with my japanese.
It has become a hum-drum boring-ness. I need to learn to use it better.

Anyways... today I worked on more vocabulary.

Some more familiar words, and some totally new ones.

Amid the mainly review ones was:
kaeru - to return, to go back
It's marked at 80% competion. It may be one of the first ones I completely pass off!

The new ones were:
冬 - fuyu - winter
胸 - mune - chest
重い - omoi - heavy
払う - harau - to pay
読む - yomu - to read

yomu I already kinda knew. good to have it practiced, though.

They covered 年 - toshi - year, one I already know fully.

Also, I spotted 寒い - samui - cold in one of the example sentences.
That's helped un-confuse me - I get it and 暑い - atsui - hot/warm(weather) mixed up.

Wednesday, December 24, 2008

The Blame Goes to Me...

...and it all comes undone again.

I can't believe I let this happen to me... I'm rather annoyed. It's technically not my fault, As I have tried to take care of it, but I'm going to end up so far behind it'll be days before I put up what's actually going on that day in my life.

Oh well... today I worked on What It Does to Us by my good friend the rekceD eeL.
It's getting near perfect...

I wanted to work on Confident, but I haven't been able to remember the chords, and (being the dum-dum I am) I didn't write them down anywhere. So I'm going to have to go ask him.
I have the lyrics, strangely enough...

Speaking of lyrics, Alyssa still wants those I wrote a while back for her birthday... and I will, girl. Hold on just a little longer.

I'm going to write a song, I'm sure of that, but I'm not entirely sure of the topic. I guess we'll just have to see, now won't we?

Monday, December 22, 2008

The Works I Promised...

This post is coming extremely late, but I didn't have any control over that fact.
My laptop's charger broke, so I haven't had access to all my computer stuff in ages. I'm back now, And did a few pics I'm proud of.
This is not one of them. You can see why I never got around to Christmas stuff - it doesn't please me. I can't do anything worth looking at when it comes to ornaments, and it's hard to find a good tutorial, anyway. I did learn a bit about gradients and spheres, so it's not the end of the world.






This is Smoke on the Water - A little piece I did when I was bored... It's not much, but it shows off my favorite water trick.




Say hello to my favorite one, Leaky Rainbow. I like it - It's a great concept piece, if nothing else. I learned how to use brushes in newer ways... I've started to create my own brushes, and two of them are in this one. I learned how to do some of this in a tutorial I read recently. It's my new fave, though it's nothing special...

New vs. Review

I did a whole bunch online this evening at iKnow. Unfortunately, it was all old news.
The "new" material had several things I already knew.

The only reason I did so much was because of that.
They are getting into old garbage I figured out at the very beginning.
So... lots of time for review. There will be a few new things, but there's nothing wrong with reviewing what you know.

Today's new words are:

体 - karada - body,health
待つ - matsu - to wait (for)
低い - short, low
名前 - namae - name
夫 - otto - husband
起こす - okosu - to wake up
次 - tsugi -next
美しい - utsukushii - beautiful
結婚 - kekkon - marriage

Sunday, December 21, 2008

Another One Down

I finally have Banana Pancakes perfected!!!
That's something to scratch off the to-do list.

I've been needing to get stuff cleared up.

Now I need to take a peek at the other stuff.

Right now the work-in-progress list includes...

-Confident (Lee)
-What it Does to Us (Lee)
-Fall For You (Secondhand Serenade)

-I'll Be (Edwin McCain)
-Hit Me With Your Best Shot (Pat Benatar)

and misc Christmas songs.

I have been thinking of writing a song. I was going to a while back, but I didn't have the time.
I think it's about that time...

Saturday, December 20, 2008

The Brush Technique How-to

I have had trouble coming up with good Christmas-themed works.
I've been working on this pathetic little ornament, but I still don't like it. I hate to go without a new picture, but I've come up with a solution. I'll have several next time around. I promise.

It's not very hard to make sparkles and ornaments and ribbons - all you need is a little creativity. That's where I have trouble - I'm a total robot when it comes to creativity. I hate doing things from scratch. I hate it. It drives me nuts if little things aren't perfect or if they're permanent. I like to keep my options open.
Oh well. I'm just going to have to get over it - and the sooner the better.

Today I'll cover brushes and technique.
You need to know this definition- I didn't until recently.
Jitter = a randomness generator
a size jitter makes the same thing in different sizes randomly.
an angle jitter rotates things to different angles randomly.


The brush menu (top right, window>brushes, or F5) has magical properties. you can do all kinds of things with it. Open it with the brush tool selected...

---Brush Tip Shape - an expanded version of what you see when you right-click.
Here you can flip it over the X and Y axes and rotate it to any given angle. You can change the spacing, which spreads a scattered(read on) brush out.
---Shape dynamics - contains jitters of size, angle, and "roundness"
Along with spacing(see Brush Tip Shape), size/angle jitters can be your best friend.
---Scattering - scatters the brush everywhere. Great for sparkles, etc.
You can toggle whether both axes are scattered, and can increase the count (w/ jitter) of the brush.
---Texture - applies a texture (image pattern) to a brush.
You can control the properties of the texture, particularly the scale.
---Dual Brush - applies a brush-to-your-brush.
Using it is a bit tricky - It's best to find a bigger or smoother brush and set a smaller or more random brush as dual. If you succeed with it you'll get wild results.
---Color Dynamics - a color property jitter.
It has Fore/Back color jitters with Hue, Sat. and Brightness. The Purity jitter is the most important with the latter two - it regulates the amount of blacks and whites.
---Other Dynamics - the opacity and flow jitters.
They'll randomize how solid it comes out.
---Noise, Wet Edges, and Airbrush -These are pure property-less special effects.
They come in handy, too, so experiment with them as well.
---Smoothing - makes a drawing tablet's strokes less sharp
---Protect Texture - ensures that all of your different brushes use the texture that you specified.

Friday, December 19, 2008

Japanese for the Day

No - I didn't leave out my regular post.

This evening was crazy, but I did study earlier in the day, for a little bit.
I was cleaning my room all day - and good thing, too - I didn't think anyone would end up going in there. But I was wrong.

Anyways, the words of the day are a little odd. Some of them are old.
死ぬ - shinu - to die
乗る - noru - to ride, take (taxi,car,bus, etc.)
書く - to write (already knew this one)
安い - cheap (inexpensive)
頭 - atama - head
話す - hanasu - to say,tell (knew this one, too)

I must say, the whole "my dog got sick and died" example (with pic) was rather... I dunno... politically incorrect? slightly disturbing, at the very least. Not that it bothered me, but still...

hanasu and kaku I already knew. Technically, kaku is new. I knew the kanji by itself as the noun "sho", or "writings."

Eliza's Coming !!!?

Eliza Owen, one of the (if not the) closest of my friends is going to be stopping by this evening. That's kinda crazy, considering she's had two birthdays since I saw her last. I'll be strange - it's been so long...

That's the headline of today, aside the fact that I dug up my old Japanese stuff (which in comparison doesn't even register on the radar), which I will deal with next post.
Tonight will probably be a night I'll remember for some time, whether for good or ill.

All I know is the house is clean (finally) and my mom made brownies. Yum!
But seriously... This occasion is sure to be anything but typical.

...
...later...
...

The funny thing about tonight is I never had a brownie. Eliza had at least two I believe...
She's known for being the Sugar Angel.
天使の砂糖 (That's Tenshi no Satou.)

Anyways, that was fun, and a lot less weird than I thought it would be...
We haven't seen each other in almost a year and a half, but it was just like old times...

I still am curious how our parents got along... they didn't say anything or make any remark. I felt like there was bound to be some comments coming, but they said nothing, which is surprising. I almost wish they had - makes me wonder...

エライザ/ Eliza... what can I say?... All I know is she's one of a kind.
The kind everyone wants, but nobody deserves.
If there is such a thing as too much fun, only she would know. She's the best friend anyone could have. Everyone needs an Eliza... lol...

If only, if only the woodpecker cried...

Abi and Drew were here too, of course.
アビ/ Abi is the lovable older sister - Who I seem to share a plane of reality with, as odd as that sounds. We both are in college and both have been using the invisalign braces, and just got them off at the same time. It's funny how much we seem to have in common, despite how different we are...

ヅレウ/ Drew is Eliza's adorkable twin brother, who is her total opposite in every way. And yet he's cool. A little obsessed with Halo, and nerdy, but we all love him anyway. He's writing a sci-fi book about something. Supposedly I'll be aiding with it.

Well, that's all I got to say about that. wow. just wow.

Thursday, December 18, 2008

From Guitar Hero?

I've been watching my brothers play Guitar Hero III (sometimes with my real guitar in hand) and I've been thinking of learning something from it.

I'm not sure what, though - all I know is I do have an amp now, and it makes sense that I should learn a song meant for an electric guitar.

I still find Guitar Hero a bit cheesy and fake, as impressive as some of them have been on occasion. Still, there are classics on it, or at least some that may become classic, and I would be foolish not to take advantage of what's available.

I do have stuff I need to catch up on, like I'll Be that Lee suggested.
I figured out the chords to Hit Me With Your Best Shot (Pat Benatar) just by listening.
That's a start.
It's E, A x2, C# x2, B x2
E - 779997
A - 577655
C#-9 11 11 10 9 9
B - 799877

Wednesday, December 17, 2008

Chrome Blossom

I've re-discovered this tutorial I found long ago.
It teaches you the way to make the top of these two images.
I haven't found a good use for this yet, but the big accomplishment was finding it. It took me forever to find it on the internet. This is a tutorial I visited long, long ago, back when I knew precious little of photoshop. So long ago,
that even if I did bookmark it, it would have been lost to time on my dad's computer.
I found it though!!!

What you have to do is paint-bucket a color of your choice and then filter> render> clouds, then distort> pinch (100%) two or three times, render> lighting effects , and then (filter)sketch> chrome and set the layer blending mode to linear light.

This one I tweaked with my crazy difference gradient trick on a layer mask. And then duplicated the layer mask as a normal layer set to overlay.

Tuesday, December 16, 2008

Expanding My Vocabulary

I've learned a lot of new words recently.

This is all thanks to using that iKnow website's application. It's been very handy.
I have several study cards laid out, with what is approaching a hundred words.

A couple I know off the top of my head -

始める - hajimeru - to start
買う - kau - to buy
売る - uru - to sell
分かる - wakaru - to understand
若い - wakai - young (got these two mixed up at first)
少ない - sukunai - few, little
高い - takai - tall, expensive (building, price)
帰る - kaeru - to return, to go back
変える - kaeru - to change (I still confuse these)
家 - uchi/ie - house/home
作る - tsukuru - to make, to create
置く - oku - to put
聞く - kiku - to hear/listen, to ask
飛ぶ - tobu - to fly
住む - sumu - to live

and a few more I had to look at that I knew but couldn't remember...

時間 - jikan - hour, time
知る - shiru - to know
近く - chikaku - near, close to
近い - chikai - near, soon
顔 - kao -face
言う - iu - to speak/say
続く - tsuduku - to continue/follow
思う - omou - to think
走る - hashiru - to run
立つ - tatsu - to stand, rise
戻る - modoru - to return, turn back

I'm not perfect, but it's helping me a lot! I'm excited!

now, I know and can use more Japanese!
今、私はもう日本語に知る使う!

Finger Frustration

I was going to have a song to play for people, at the very least... there was a little Christmas party tonight at our place my mom threw.

I didn't get that chance though... there were millions of little kids running everywhere. The only reason they didn't destroy my guitar is because I had my brother get it to my room.

I've had a water blister on my thumb from playing my guitar too much and/or too hard. It's really irritating and disabling. If I ignore it and play anyways it just gets worse. So that's out of the question... Which is sad, too, because now I'm home - I have my amp and Darren has his drums...

I wonder if we could put some kind of band together... we just need a kid who can play a bass. but we lack that, so I don't know...

Monday, December 15, 2008

I'm Home!!!

The ride home was a pain; I've never had to go all the way across the country by myself.
I managed to figure it all out. Flying isn't as complicated as I thought it would be.

I took off at around 3 and touched down at 10:30. It wasn't that long, though; It was only an hour to Salt Lake City and 3 1/2 to Atlanta. But I changed time zones, adding 2 hours. Including the before, in between, and afterward stuff of baggage checkin/out and waiting and traveling it all added up to my whole day.

I'm still going to miss Rexburg...

The ride home inspired me to do some sky and airplane inspired photoshop projects. I need to go and look for some airplane brushes... I know a few places to look, including DeviantArt.
I might even incorporate both with something Christmas related.

Saturday, December 13, 2008

iKnow Where I'll Be Learning Now...

I found a cool new site yesterday that taught Japanese very well.
It uses a flash-card like memorization, but all different kinds of recognition, and has audio. It has example sentences, and is clean and well organized.

The website is called iKnow.
My only problem is I don't, or at least haven't yet, had the time to learn or do much there. I did do some, though, and it has helped me with my common verbs enormously.
Some of what I picked up in one go:

思う - omou - to think (v)
時間 - jikan - time, hour (n)
使う - tsukau - to use (v)
言う - to speak, say (v)
少ない - sukunai - few, little (adj)
多い - ooi - many, numerous (adj)

It seems to be an incredible site. My only worry is that it might not be free forever; however, there doesn't seem to be any restriction set as of yet. It's probably the best learning tool I've yet discovered...

Friday, December 12, 2008

Silver Bells

I started playing random Christmas songs while I was playing my guitar tonight. I don't know what's come over me. I love Christmas all of a sudden. Came up with multiple ways of playing Silver Bells...

I still have exams and crap I don't want to deal with tomorrow - I don't have much to look forward to, either. I just am "in the mood" for Christmas this year. Weird.

Anyways, I developed a great way of learning to play a version of anything. If you begin to play like a child hitting single notes on a piano, you can eventually find the key something is in, and switch the single notes for chords that contain them. Finding appropriate ones isn't as difficult as you would think it would be; it's much easier than playing piano, anyway.

So get out there and learn to play some Christmas songs! I don't care if you play piano, guitar, flute, clarinet, or a tuba or ukulele for crying out loud! It's Christmas time, and there are good songs out there. Yes, many have been played too often and are irritating. Some of them still have their charm, though, and should be sought after.

Thursday, December 11, 2008

It's Christmas Time!!!

In honor of the Christmas holiday approaching, I've changed my blog background to a cool red and green.

I might just make a permanent restructuring of font, color, background, and style after New Years. We'll see, though. I want the back to be something to last, not flashy, but comfy.

I'm excited for the holidays. I hope to incorporate Christmas into all of my sundry hobbies - and Photoshop is no exception. I need to go look up some good Christmas-themed brushes.

Hopefully I'll have a whole showcase of Christmas works by the time that day comes.

If anyone with photoshop wants links to the brushes I use, I'll be leaving links.

Wednesday, December 10, 2008

New Words and Kanji

I have a new word I've picked up.
It's it's music, ongaku.

音楽

The kanji are sound (on) + music/comfort (gaku).

Take note there's a homophone here, which occurs (very!) often in Japanese.
gaku is also learning, or 学
so gaku ≠ gaku if we're talking 学 and 楽

Keep also in mind that in general, 音読みis for pairs and 訓読み is for individuals.
Why?
alone, 学 is gaku, and
alone, 楽 is raku. gaku is the chinese onyomi for pairs for 楽.
(See Kanji - the Chinese Characters for further explanation.)

I'm hoping to get more words like this lodged in my brain once school is over and I have time... It's going to be sad when it ends, though... I'm going to miss all of my friends...

Tuesday, December 9, 2008

Picking Up New Sounds

I've been looking to broaden my range in every conceivable interpretation of those words. For one thing, I need to work on my singing. For another, I need to learn to create more varying tunes on my guitar, and I need to find some new stuff to listen to.

I think I'm going to attempt I'll Be that Lee proposed. That might help with vocals.

The current song I've been working with has made my hand all cramped in new places... Ultimately, that means I'm doing new things, which is a good sign of improvement.

The new thing I'm looking into is Dashboard Confessional. Some of their songs are easily recognizable - though I didn't know I liked them. Kyle, a friend in a class mentioned them as a place to find songs to learn... sounds like a plan.


However, my main concern is getting new things to play, and I still don't feel like I've found success, even though there's lots of songs I'm still working on... it's some kind of loopy desire I seem to have all of a sudden to want to be able to play anything... even though such a thing isn't feasible.

Does anyone have ideas for Christmas songs to learn? Piano or guitar, I'm in the mood.

Monday, December 8, 2008

Forest Downpour

While this isn't an incredible piece, it's a beautiful proof-of-concept.
My new trick: Gradient Difference.
If you take the gradient preset of red, blue, and yellow, and you set the mode (at the top) to Difference, you can use it repeatedly over itself for a wild little multicolor effect. If you take that effect and cycle the colors with H/S/L (ctrl or cmd+U) or with Levels... (ctrl or cmd+L), there's lots of exploration to be done. This one was made by a layer of verticals set to difference mode and 50% opacity laid on another random one colorized green. I like it, though it's nothing incredible.

Sunday, December 7, 2008

Iku versus Okonau

I am rather annoyed with this character. What character is it?
This one.


It has a double meaning.

I hate double meanings.

行く, iku, is a word I am familiar with; it means "to go"

行う, okonau, is a word... but wait... THE SAME KANJI ??? That's retarded.
okonau is the verb "to do".

I have them straightened, so there's no confusion... but I am still learning more complicated verb conjugations, and how and I supposed to know which is which in a real context ???

That's my annoyance of the day.

彼 は 読み書き が できる。
kare wa yomi+kaki ga dekiru.
He can read and write.


And that's the word for today - できる/dekiru - to be able (to).

Saturday, December 6, 2008

Boys Like Girls

My Favorite Band Ever!!! Look them up... They're incredible.
I've kinda been a fan since high school. (those were the days...)
The Great Escape and Heels over Head are some of my faves.
Five Minutes to Midnight and Hero - Heroine are also incredible.

Even those with a slightly different taste might like Thunder and Learning to Fall.
Everyone should hear their songs, if only once. Some will like some better than others, but they're bound to like at least one... unless they're very picky people.

I just got the CD, and it was worth it.

They're my inspiration, and I'm excited to get home to my amp and my bro's drums...

I don't know what I'll write, but it will be something inspired by them. It'll be so strange being home when it happens...

I might write about a number of things - there's going to be a lot of things going on in my life in the near future.

Friday, December 5, 2008

Liquid Sky

I made another combo with my Liquid Heat and Violet Splash.
This one's nothing special; however, it's slightly different in that I used VS twice
and LH once. I used the blending modes Lighten on LH and Overlay on 50% opacity for the top VS.

I think it came out well; I may make a pack of all my recent works for wallpaper in a bit. I don't think I have enough to do so at the moment, but I will. If anyone's interested in getting the compilation, I may put it on DeviantArt and put a link here on my blog. Also, if you click on the images here in my blog, they open in a new window in their true size. You can right-click->save them from there.

Thursday, December 4, 2008

Starting Cards

I finally have my cards begun, and though I don't have much, I have a plan that has been put in place. I put the kanji and pronunciation on one side, and the definition on the other.

It should help me to get the things I don't have memorized, and the things I do attached to the new material.

My current words are:

教会 - kyoukai - church
天気 - tenki - angel
聖徒 - seito - disciple

名誉 - meiyo - honor
責任 - sekinin - responsibility

音楽 - ongaku - music

私は音楽が大好きです。
watashi wa ongaku daisuki desu.
I like music.

Wednesday, December 3, 2008

Secondhand Serenade

They sing Fall For You, one of the songs I've been learning on my guitar.
It uses:

Am - 002210
C - 032010
F - 133211
G 320003

I just got the CD it's on, and I must say I'm pleased. They're pretty good.
It's A Twist In My Story, the latest addition to my collection of music.

I hope to start getting a few more things to add... I haven't had much good and new music in a while...
I'll be going back home in a little over a week, though, so I can fix my iTunes and update my iPod.

That's two Apple products in the same sentence. Yuck.
Let's make some things clear: a) I like apples, and b) I hate Apple
Just for clarification. They try to be trendsetters, and pretend to typify "cool". I find the amount of decisions their software makes for you distasteful. They are stable, yes, and so are stones. but rocks don't grow, do they?

Anyways, I like having my music portable, and haven't had that luxury, as I've had to switch to my own iTunes (I used to use my mom's laptop). I don't want to lose the stuff that's on my iPod that isn't with me - so my iPod is kinda missing new stuff. That's ok, though - I'm often busy, and don't need it very much.

Tuesday, December 2, 2008

Violet Splash

I've been looking for something purple, and I think I found it. It took a large batch of my personal tricks. Aside from cloud and arrow brushes, it's almost completely original.
In this one, I used a few filter> render> cloud layers, and changed their color and brightness and contrast, along with the blending mode. My favorite chrome water trick was placed on screen. I played with a few subliminally placed gradients, to improve the "lighting" of the image. The flare was a natural by-product of my experimentation; it wasn't intentional, though I did encourage it's prominence.

Monday, December 1, 2008

Back to the Kanji / Addressing People

I haven't worked on kanji specifically in ages. I need to.
I got a cool little keyring of about a hundred blank cards at the bookstore today.
It should help me with practice. It was cheap, so if it proves as useful as i think it will, I'm going to go back and get a few more.

In 日本語, you refer to yourself and others in different ways, depending on context.
For yourself, the common "i" is
私, わたし.(watashi)

わたし(watakushi) is the formal pronunciation.
僕, ぼく, (boku) is the casual/fairly polite for males.
girls can use あたし, (atashi) but it has a very "cutesy" or "girly" sound, so some prefer watashi.
also... 俺、おれ is a very rough one used by guys in certain extremely casual contexts.
わし is used by some middle-aged males.


In addressing others, attaching -san to the first or last name is common. often, Japanese prefers using the specific name. 先生 (sensei) is used to those that have significant knowledge.
other forms of -san are -kun and -chan. Assuming equal or lower status, -kun is a male form, and -chan an endearing female form.

The three levels of politeness are 1-Name(w/suffix), 2-nothing, and 3-あなた(anata). I use it often, but in a real context, anata could come off as rude, unless they're a friend.
きみ (kimi) is a close female form, like anata. It also could be taken as rude, though it implies closeness.