Last week Maegan's school planted pinwheels for international "Pinwheels for Peace" day. Since this was Maegan's school I was assigned to cover it for the school system's tv news. And since I was there covering the event anyway, why not grab a quick sound bite from my own daughter...

Labels: Maegan, video

This is awesome if you use Adobe PhotoShop! Other than being funny, I've been using PhotoShop for over 10 years and I picked up over a dozen useful shortcuts that I didn't know before.



From Deke.com

TRANSCRIPT:

Time: 00:00.00
#1: Wanna copy a layer? I say jump it: Ctrl+J.
You a Mac user? Awesome.
#2: When I say Ctrl, press Cmd, the one with an apple on it.
#3: For a new layer, press Ctrl+Shift+N (Cmd-Shift-N on the Mac).
#4: To delete a layer, get the move tool and press Delete (or Control-Delete).
#5: Every letter selects a tool.
#6: Except F for full-screen,
#7: Q for quick mask,
#8: and D
#9: and X for default and switch colors.
Who knew X stood for "switch"?
#10: Press a number to change the opacity.
#11: Or two numbers for better control.
#12: Press Shift+plus to advance a blend mode;
#13: Shift+minus to back up.
#14: Press Shift and Alt with a letter for a specific mode.
#15: Mac folks, Alt means Option.
#16: Ctrl+plus zooms in.
#17: Ctrl+minus zooms out.
#18: Spacebar gets the hand so you can drag the image around.
#19: There's also Ctrl+spacebar in
#20: and Alt+spacebar out.
#21: Ctrl+spacebar-drag to zoom way the hell in.
#22: Ctrl+Z undoes.
#23: Ctrl+Alt+Z backsteps.
#24: Ctrl+Shift+Z steps forward.
#25: Ctrl+Shift+F fades an edit.
#26: F12 reverts,
#27: Itself an undoable operation.
You hear that? You can undo a revert? That's a hell of a tip!
All that pasteboard stuff works too:
#28: Ctrl+X cuts.
#29: Ctrl+C copies.
#30: Ctrl+V pastes.
Dan Gookin of DOS For Dummies fame joked that V stood for "vomit," as in vomiting up the Clipboard. His publisher refused to print that. They actually refused to print that!

Time: 01:15.43
#31: Photoshop's most essential command? Image Size: Ctrl+Alt+I.
#32: It's partner, Canvas Size, Ctrl+Alt+C.
#33: Ctrl+F repeats the last filter.
#34: Ctrl+Alt+F for different settings.
#35: Using a selection tool? Drag to start a new selection
#36: Or move a selection outline.
#37: Shift adds to the selection.
#38: Alt deletes.
#39: Shift and Alt finds the intersection.
#40: Press the spacebar to move the selection on-the-fly.
#41: Ctrl+A selects everything;
#42: Ctrl+D selects nothing.
#43: Ctrl+Shift+I selects what's not selected and deselects everything else.
#44: Ctrl+Alt+R brings up Refine Edge.
#45: Alt-click with the lasso tool to draw straight-sided selections.
#46: Shift-click with a brush to paint straight lines.
#47: Press Alt with a brush to get the color-lifting eyedropper.
#48: Press Ctrl to get the move tool.
#49: Ctrl+H hides selections and other "extras."
What's an extra? Press Ctrl+H and find out?
I gotta quicken the pace. Shit!
#50: Ctrl+1,
#51: 2,
#52: 3 to switch channels.
Hell yeah, I'm counting those as three!
Here's another one:
#53: Ctrl+tilde for full-color composite.
#54: Ctrl+L for Levels,
#55: Ctrl+M for Curves,
#56: Ctrl+B for Color Balance,
#57: Ctrl+U for Hue/Saturation.
#58: Add Alt to bring up the last settings.
#59: Mash your fist on Ctrl, Shift, and Alt and press B for Black & White.
#60: In Levels and Curves, Alt-drag that white slider triangle to preview the clipped highlights
#61: Or that black one for clipped shadows.
Want to duplicate an image? Don't choose this [Duplicate];
#62: Just click here [Create new document from History state].
#63: Press Ctrl+W to close an image.
#64: Y to save changes,
#65: N to abandon them.
#66: On the Mac, that's S and D.
#67: Either way, it's Esc for Cancel.
You know, Esc. C'mon, Esc!

Time 02:48.36
#68: Press Ctrl+T to invoke Free Transform.
#69: Press Enter to apply or Esc to skip it.
#70: Ctrl+Alt+T transforms a copy.
#71: Ctrl+Shift+T repeats the last transformation.
#72: Ctrl+Shift+Alt+T plays a transformation sequence.
#73: Press a bracket key to change the size of a brush.
#74: Press Shift+bracket to change its hardness.
#75: Caps Lock for precise cursors.
#76: Alt switches dodge to burn and burn to dodge.
#77: The comma and period keys cycle through gradients.
See this tool [sharpen]? Worthless. Look at this. You want this? Worthless!
Yes, that's a tip: Don't use the tool!
#78: Bang, there's another one!
#79: Ctrl-click a thumbnail in the Layers, Channels, or Paths palette to load a selection.
#80: Press slash to lock a layer's transparency.
#81: Press tilde to hide the image while viewing a mask.
#82: Press backslash to view the layer mask.
#83: Ctrl+Backspace fills the background color;
#84: Alt+Backspace: foreground color.
#85: Add Shift to fill just the opaque pixels.
#86: Press Shift+Backspace to get the Fill dialog box.
Hey, look at that!
#87: That's trans lock's opposite [Behind mode]. It locks opacity.
What the hell is it doing here?
#88: Ctrl+bracket moves layers forward and back.
#89: Add Shift to go all the way.
#90: Alt+bracket selects layers.
#91: Press Shift to select multiple layers.
Press Ctrl+Shift+A to select all layers.
#92: That's wrong. It's Ctrl+Alt+A!
I don't even know what Ctrl+Shift+A does.
It doesn't, Adobe, it doesn't do anything! I don't think it does anything.
#93: But Ctrl+G, that groups layers in a folder.
#94: Ctrl+E merges selected layers.
#95: Ctrl+Shift+E merges visible layers.
#96: Ctrl+Alt+E stamps a layer onto the one below.
#97: Ctrl+Shift+Alt+E merges everything on a new layer.
#98: Ctrl+Shift+C copies a merged version of the layers.
#99: Ctrl+Shift+V pastes an image in a selection.
#100: Alt-click here [Add layer mask]
#101: Or here [Cancel to Reset]
#102: Or here [trash without warning]
#103: Or here [color ramp to switch background color]
#104: Or here [eyeball to hide all others]
Yeah!
#105: Or here [horizontal line to make clipping mask]
#106: Or here [color swatch to delete].

Time: 05:08.16
Holy crap, I just went over! 106 tips! No! No, no, no.
[to off-screen director]
You should've stopped me, you should've let me know. That's your fault.
[to viewer]
That's his fault. I do not fail. Remember, I do not fail!
Alt-clicks out. I want them all out. Gimme that time back!

Time: 05: 27.92
[clock rewinds]

Time: 04:56.73
Okay. Nicely done, me. For those wondering why I left out your favorite tips,
#100: Like Tab to hide all palettes
#101: Or Shift+Tab to hide just the right-side palettes.

Time: 05:00.00
I didn't! Ha ha! I just mentioned 'em. Works for me!

Labels: cool, video

When I was little I learned to walk by holding on to a child's rocking chair and pushing it across the floor. It glided nicely on carpeting, not too fast like with something with wheels would be. 35 years later, Darah is also using a child's rocking chair to learn to walk - the exact same chair I used when I was little.

Labels: Darah, video

Darah learned to stand up on her own and by the end day she's mastered it. Now we can't keep her off of things.

Labels: Darah, video

Maegan's swing set broke last weekend so I had to go to The Home Depot to pick up some bolts to fix it. While I was there I picked up a baby swing for Darah.

Labels: Darah, video

Labels: Darah, video

I hate raking leaves. Maegan loves when I rake leaves.



P.S. You'll notice that Maegan is wearing shorts. It was in the mid-70's today.

Labels: Maegan, video

Labels: Darah, video

Introducing the most useless webpage on the entire internet: BoomerCam, 24/7 live streaming video of my Rat Terrier, Boomer.

After getting broadband internet access last month I decided to dust off a cheap, $10, Windows 95 era webcam that was just sitting around in a box of old computer equipment. After downloading a free webcam application (Yawcam) I was up and running. I didn't want myself to be on camera so I pointed it at the dog instead. For more information read the FAQ on the new BoomerCam page. BoomerCam will now on the navigation menu under Kitchen Sink.

Did you see anything? Post it in the comments below.

Labels: dogs, video

Last week I showed Patty how easy it was to upload video to Google using the Gmail account she already had. Since I showed her, she's been shooting video uploading it every single day. She wants to show Darah to her father in Afghanistan and her younger sister in Hawaii. As an example, here's today's video, which features some nice smiles.

Labels: Darah, video

Happy Friday with the famous "Dramaitic Prairie Dog"



Of course, this wouldn't be a worldwide viral video phenomenon if there weren't dozens of parody responses. Here are links to a few of the best.

• "Curses"
• "Jedi"
• "Dr. Evil"

P.S. Here's a link to the original video clip from a Japanese gameshow.

Labels: funny, video

This video is over a year old but still funny. Well produced too.

Labels: funny, video

Here's a short video of Maegan practicing her electric guitar by playing Jingle Bells.

Labels: Maegan, music, video

I know I'm behind the times but I just stumbled upon this video posted on somebody's blog. Apparently it's been popular around the internet for the past six weeks. Very impressive and original choreography. Given the poor production quality of this video I originally thought this was just some stupid human trick, but this is a real music video by a band I've never heard of called OK Go. Well their idea to spread their music through an interesting viral video worked on me because other than the fact that I enjoyed the video, I also like the music and I may see what else they've got.

This video also remindes me of another viral video I like which featured "dancing": Where The Hell Is Matt.

Labels: funny, internet, music, video

My family out of town still hasn't seen our new dog Hobo yet and I wanted to test out Google Video so I I killed two birds with one stone. Here's a short 18 second video clip of Hobo playing with Boomer that I shot with my digital photo camera.

Labels: dogs, video