Photoshop

Today I discovered the fun of photo manipulation on photoshop. I've used it a lot for photo editing, (fix lighting, remove trees sticking out of peoples heads, stuff like that), but never actually drastically changed an image. Tonight I scratched the surface of the manipulate things in can do with just my photoshop elements. I did these dogs tonight. Originally they were in a grassy field. This wasn't too complex, I only used about ten layers, and it took me only about two hours, but I really like how it turned out.

I've really want to take up digital painting, but that's impossible at the moment with my touch pad on my laptop. Now I've found something to entertain me while I save up for my graphics tablet.
I'm planning on eventually taking one of my pictures of my pony and somehow turning her into a ninja pony. How awesome would that be?

The great enigma

Since I posted about my dog last time, why not do my horse this time?
So, you probably don't know this, but my horse is very confident in herself. Almost nothing in life actually scares her (with the exception of cows and chicken wire), though that doesn't prevent her from spooking at stuff for the heck of it. I like to describe her as a conniving feminist diplomat. This pony has got an agenda. She mess everything, up play with all the other horse's minds, and worm her way to the top, all while staying friends with everybody. She makes herd dynamics very interesting with the things she does to the other horses. For example, sometimes if she's bored she'll play "chicken" by running straight towards another horse that's laying down to make them get up. Now, she'd never actually run them over but they don't know that.
        I'm telling this to make a point that my pony is very sure of herself, and a bit of a "lone wolf" around the other horses. She rather independant. She likes people, attention, and working (though she doesn't think she does) but she's not like those insecure horses that won't take a step if they aren't sure your sure. She can take care of herself, thank you very much.
Here's the enigma: My horse gets upset when she thinks people are angry at her. It doesn't help that I kid you not, my horse is a perfectionist. She gets mad at herself when she doesn't do things right.
      My trainer just sold one of her horses, and took another one on trial. She was working with the new horse, who had absolutely no ground manners. This new horse also was kind of dull. She wasn't listening, and my trainer had to wallop her with whip to get her to pay attention. (I want to point out right now that she was not beating this horse, and the whip she was using was a dressage whip. She had given the horse a chance to listen without being smacked, and the horse was totally fine). She also was saying "WHOA" very intensely.
Poor Jazmyne got so upset. She was so confused she thought my trainer was mad at HER. The whole time I was warming up she was very stressed, and got all "worrisome" every time the new horse was reprimanded. The new horse finally was stopping when asked, so she got put away. I had my trainer come and tell Jazmyne that she was a good girl, because my horse got so upset. As soon as my trainer "approved" her, she relaxed and was all normal again. I thought it was really wierd how much that reprimanding bothered her, even though it wasn't directed at her.
My horse wouldn't do that for everyone, but she really respects my trainer, and I couldn't believe how upset she got because she thought my trainer was mad at her.
I know it seems like I'm anthropomorphizing a bit, but if you were there you would understand. It's crazy how multifaceted and diffrent each animal's personality is.

Awesome Sauce Animals: Meet Ellie

Since today is my dog's birthday, I think it is appropriate to do my blog post on her. I've owned my cockapoo Ellie since she was ten months, and today she turns six years old. I got her in 2006 about a month after my 13 year old cocker spaniel, Keyosha (don't ask, she came with the name), had died. Our friends had gotten Ellie, but their other dog and her just did not get along, so to make a long story short, I got Ellie.  Ellie was abused as a puppy, so she was scared of men. In fact, she wouldn't even approach my dad for two years, but know she can often be found next to him on the couch mooching some pets. 

Ellie and me are best buds. I'm definitely her "person." She sleeps with me, and I'm pretty much they only one she'll listen to for obedience commands. She always wants to be where ever the people are, and loves to go on trips to grandma's and grandpa's at the lake.

I compete with Ellie in obedience (Graduate Novice), agility (Novice), rally (excellent (highest) level), showmanship, and team obedience. We've won lots of trophies in agility and rally, and we've been on the cover of the winner's circle. We've done pretty well in obedience and have won several classes, but right now, Ellie keeps breaking her out of sight stays at competition, so we've yet to qualify in Grad novice. She's very energetic about working as long as she's having fun. She loves agility in particular, and often likes to go run the course by herself. She especially loves the teeter totter and the chute (tunnel with a collapsed fabric chute on the exit end), and the a-frame. The only thing she doesn't like is showmanship, she tries to take a nap because she thinks its boring, but if she's actually awake we do quite well in showmanship as well.

Very much the social butterfly, you can find Ellie trying to make friends with every dog she meets, and trying to get pets from any kids and women she meets, and most men after she warms up to them, though she's terrified of cats.

She loves snow, water, and seagulls, and just wants to be part of the action whether you're sitting around the camp fire or playing a round of ninja. She'll let little kids hug her, tug on her ears or whatever. If they're annoying her, she'll just get up and move, she doesn't have an aggressive bone in her body. I've taken her to lots of 4-H functions, and she loves all the attention she gets from the little kids, and they love it when she does all her tricks.

She's the best dog ever, she's my dog in a million and I love her to pieces.

 

Ellie in resignation after I wrapped her leg with my horse wraps

 

Romping at the dog park

Waiting to run in agility. I wish I had a picture of an agility run on my computer. Ellie competes at 8", though normally when she jumps, she majorly over clears it and normally jumps over where the 20" bar would go.

The fish with legs and his friends

My argument is that the following story makes absolutely no sense,

The Fish with Legs and His Friends

by The Furry Fairy Alfonso the long haired

The fish that  had five legs jumped out of the motor boat and pulled his sandwich out of his metal lunch box. "What a fine day", he said with a twitch of his fin. All of a sudden a vat of sulfuric acid fell from the sky and onto the seven legged fish. He lost three of his legs and was in a lot of pain so he had to go to the hospital. The surgeon came and put stuff on his legs and he ended up dying because he wasn't in water and I don't know why he had legs or was walking anyways.
His friend Mildred the stuffed animate penguin organized his funeral service. She turned it into a tropical themed luau party, and they ended up frying him up in a dish of fish and chips after the doctors deemed him safe to eat. The served him with a side dish of a garlic and dill dipping sauce, but Mildred the stuffed animate penguin ended up choking on one of his bones for her inconsideration of her friends deceased body.  She died too, so they ended up chucking her body into the ocean because the didn't want to pay for a coffin and a proper burial in a cemetary.
The five/seven legged fish that died from the acid bath had a really crummy group of friends. THey ended up being arrested for distrubing the peace when the public heard about their disrespectful actions. There was a trail and they were all convicted of reallly sucking at the skill of being even a decent friend because they ate him after he suffered a violent death. They were thrown into prison and forced to work on the kitchen staff for the rest of their lives.

THE END

Blogging is the pits

Frankly, I find this blogging thing very annoying, and here are my reasons

1.) I do not believe the process of blogging will make you a better writer, just because you have an "audience" (see point two). When you blog, you are more apt to write in a casual, conversational tone. Since this is not graded. I could. write in incomplete. sentences that. were not. capitalized and culd. by mispeled. If I write a blog like I was talking to someone, I'm not working on writing skills, I'm working on figuring out a speech, and simply writing it down (which is not a good thing anyways, you should be able to give speeches without reading off a written script by now). I doubt anyone in this class puts more then a couple minutes or a few passing thoughts into what they will blog about and quality is not top priority.

2.) Just because you have a supposed "audience" does not mean it will motivate you to write. So maybe 20 other people at most might look at your blog. You don't really care, and you're doing this for English class, not because you actually want to do this, so it simply becomes a plug and chug to complete it without much regard for what your audience thinks, because they honestly don't really care all that much.

3.) The time you spend blogging, and looking at other blogs just so you can write something down to get your weekly comment in can be better spent elsewhere. The time I've spent blogging today, I could of used to study for my up coming biology laboratory practical, or I could have gone to bed early, or worked on something else important with a deadline. Instead I'm wasting my time doing something I care zilch about, which for the most part reflects the feelings of others.

My proposal is to remove this blogging requirement from this Composition I class. It really is a bother, and I don't think it makes much of a difference in a person's writing ability so it purpose is not fulfilled. My writing has not improved this semester because I blogged, in fact some of my worst writing is manifested on this blog.
Let's end this inane insanity.

Car ride fun

Of course there are dozens of games to pass time during a long car ride. Maybe you've played the alphabet or license plate game, twenty questions, I spy, or the vacation game. If you've been on a bus or fifteen passenger you might have even played mafia in the car. All these games are well and good for having a bit of fun,and they do help to pass the time, but they normally only affect you and the people playing them. Everyone else in the car can just tune you out if the want to. Now where's the fun in that?

To have a real fun time in the car, you don't just play games for entertainment, you play games with the other passengers minds. Now this is not the game to break out in the very start of the ride. No, you must be subtle in the approach, or at least the time.

I am sure you are all familiar with the song "ninety nine bottles of coke (beer) on the wall." For those of you that are not, here are the lyrics

There are ninety nine bottles of coke on the wall

there are ninety nine bottles of coke

you take one down and pass it around

there are ninety eight bottles of coke on the wall

The song goes on, inserting each preceding number until you get to zero. There are two things you need to know about this song. One, that you may begin to loose you voice after 100 straight verses,and two, this song really has a way of getting on people's nerves. This my friends is where the mind games part comes in.

At some point in your car ride, when everything is pretty settled, and getting kind of mundane and boring, break out into song and begin the first verse. My guess is you'll get .4-3 verses in during the first try. If you have some one tolerant in the car, you may be able to get to "There are 89 bottles..." At some point however it is almost guaranteed one of your fellow passengers will ask you to stop politely, or threaten you with death. Look dejected and sulk for a moment, but then get on with your life as if your random bottles of coke singing desires have been sated.

Once you have them thinking you are no longer going to be singing, and everything is all boring again, start up right were you left off. This might be at eighty two bottles of coke, or half way through the first verse depending on how volatile your fellow passengers are. Again some one will threaten you with bodily harm. Stop again, and wait. By this point they will probably think that it was just a passing phase and you are truly done. However, your little mind game has just begun.

At some point, again restart from where you left off very quietly. "there are eighty one bottles of coke  on the wall (pause) eighty one bottles of coke (pause) you take one down (long pause)..." in fact pretend your done. Wait about a minute and then finish "You take one down and pass it around etc.etc." You will now start to see the paranoia set in. To continue your game, just start off where you left off at random times, never letting them know when, where,or how. Do it right and you will have them all jumpy about when you are about to begin again. You have officially paranoid them, good job. If you can get all the way to zero, even better job.

Now you may also have a very tolerant driver who actually hates the song and is annoyed, but will let you sing anyways. If this is the case, just let 'er rip for all one hundred verses. It will take you ten minutes minimum, and your voice will need a rest afterwards,so it's a good way to pass some time.

Have fun terrorizing your family and friends

Do you speak...Parlez-vous Francais?

I don't know about but you but Il bogues vraiment me lorsque la langue change juste at random. You are fine just going vous affaires et  the language suddenly becomes french. Dernièrement, cela s'est passé à ma famille on Netflix, even when the show does not have french as a Langue de choix de draft de, or even as a subtitle option for that language.
Sometimes it will start out in English but à mi-chemin, grâce à cela changera, and then all the other episodes of that show will suddenly be french too. Otherwise, it will Démarrez comme français, and that particular episode will only be in french while all the other episodes remain in English.
So I'm sure you are thinking,just put on the subtitles, but the subtitles won't work, even when it has them as an option. I've been wanting to watch this one thing for over a month, and every time I try, the darn thing is in French! It is really getting frustrating. My mom is pretty much fluent in French, so she'll translate a bit here and there, but she's not going to act as an interpreter for an entire episode.

I will close with this:

Salut

Si vous êtes assez ambitieux pour mettre dans une forme quelconque de traducteur, bon pour vous ! Enfin bref, je déteste vraiment avoir à apprendre les langues étrangères, vous essayez, mais ils ne collera pas, donc je suppose que je suis bloqué avec jamais vu cet épisode particulier.

Prenez une minute pour vraiment réfléchir à langague, combien leur sont, comment chacun est unique, elle vraiment est l'esprit et rend juste que vous souhaitez arrêter de penser parce que c'est tellement écrasante.

Cordialement vôtre,

La fée Furry