How I Get My Adobe On

Many decades ago, we spent a long weekend in a Lotus 1-2-3 workshop. By Saturday night we were experts on everything spreadsheet. Now we’re wishing for a weekend seminar on Photoshop…but the local community college is putting all its continuing ed energy into…no kidding…Introduction to Facebook! Become a Mystery Shopper! Cupid’s Cuisine! Sigh. So we’re [...]

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How I Check (Yesterday’s) Weather

Ever wonder where the weatherman gets his information? “Yesterday’s low was xx degrees, two degrees below our record, set back in 1948, of xx+2 degrees.” I mean, you can’t just know this stuff, right? Turns out, you can. Courtesy of Weather Underground, the free weather resource that predicts tomorrow’s climate, and records yesterday’s. After typing [...]

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How I Learn Photoshop

We’re taking an online computer art class. Not that we’re any good, mind you. But learning Photoshop and Illustrator has been quite an adventure. Now that we’re hooked, we’re looking around for all the tips and tricks we can lay hands on. That’s how we ran across this tremendous resource: PsDesigning. It’s a collection of [...]

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How I Conquer the Travel Bug

Back in the early 80′s we had our first bedbug encounter, at a trashy little rathole in southern Taiwan. Head to toe. Those nasty critters left scars! We’d pay good money not to do that again! Fortunately, we don’t have to pay good money. The Bed Bug Registry is willing to warn us for free [...]

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How I Make Movies

Just when we were about to drop a spare five hundred bucks on Adobe Creative Suite 5, along comes XtraNormal, this crazy cartoon movie maker — and it’s all free — that allows rank amateurs like yours truly to create animated videos just by clicking and typing.  So many funny movies on the site, but [...]

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