My Dad still has some slight problems with his memory after his brain surgery years ago. He will on occasion mix up words. It is usually quite subtle and if you aren't paying attention you might not even notice. However, he recently called my Brother to tell him that our Aunt had an accident in her wheelchair. Somehow it locked up on her and she got thrown out and broke a lot of bones. She's been in a wheelchair for many years so you can imagine what my brother was thinking when my Dad told him "Aunt Barbara is in the hospital, she got thrown off a horse." Chris was all, "What the HELL was she doing on a horse?" My Stepmom in the background screaming "A wheelchair Mark, a wheelchair." the whole time.
I myself have learned to pay close attention to what he's telling me. However, I chose to get directions to my brother's wedding from him a few weeks ago and that resulted in me going to the wrong town entirely.
In all my years blogging I never really get that personal... but this mother's day I thought I'd share something with you.
I always have great difficulty picking out a Mother's Day card, because none of them ever apply to the relationship I have with my own. "Thanks for being so wonderful." "Thanks for always being there." "Thanks for not being a judgmental bitch." Well.. you get the idea. I don't speak to my mother anymore. My choice. Tried my best to make our relationship work but found it to be impossible. I am still cordial to her when I see her, but I don't go out of my way to make that happen. Nevertheless, it is Mother's Day so I did get a card and a gift.
I wanted to make my own card. Something along the lines of "Hey, remember when I was 7 and you thought it would be so funny to pretend you had murdered my older brother? Remember how funny my younger brother and I thought that was when we found him laying on the kitchen floor covered in "blood" with you cackling like a mad woman? No, we weren't terrified at all you crazy bitch. Great Parenting! Thanks for not being a raving psycho!" However, I refrained. Instead I picked the least personal card I could find, and mailed it to her.. despite the fact that she lives less than a half a mile from me. I also called her this morning. She screens her calls though so I made a point to call from a number she would not recognize so I could just tell her voicemail Happy Mother's Day instead. Then I called my Step-Mom to wish her a Happy One and chatted warmly with her about everything under the sun for an hour.
Seriously though.. how in the hell could anyone think it would be funny to prank a small child with something so terrifying? I was old enough to understand death, but not yet clever enough to tell the difference between ketchup and blood. Specially with a large butcher knife covered in it, and my brother as well. I, however.. was old enough for my survival instinct to kick in and grabbed my younger brother and ran like hell. No, not traumatizing at all. It was my older brother that ran after us yelling.. "Sissy, we were just playing. She said it would be funny!", while she was still laughing her ass off. Yes... yes.. so fucking funny I had forgotten to laugh.
Happy Mother's Day...
Watched LOTR: Fellowship of the Ring with another idiot. Well, not so much as watched it, but caught the end of them watching it. This time it wasn't someone convinced that the Hobbits (in particular Elijah Wood and Sean Astin) were really midgets. No, this time it was someone that has obviously been trapped under a rock their entire life. I mean it's not like it was based on a classic book trilogy that many of us read in school, or one of the greatest movie trilogies of all time... released years ago....
Idiot: Worst ending to a movie ever!
Me: (Just stares in disbelief)
Idiot: It didn't even finish. They were just starting the quest!
Me: Uh.. this is the Lord of the Rings... You did realize that right? Surely?
Idiot: They never saw any Lord. Just stops way before they do anything really. Am I suppose to just guess what happens? They should have atleast finished the quest. So stupid.
Me: Yes... completely stupid. (Pulls out the two towers box set which was underneath the Fellowship one in the first place)
Idiot: What is this?
Me: Hrm.. similiar movie. Made by the same director. With the same cast. Sort of like, you know.. part of a trilogy.
Idiot: Screw that. I am NEVER watching another movie by that idiot. He sucks at endings.
Me: Have you ever heard of J.R.R Tolkein?
Idiot: Yeah, he wrote Catcher in the Rye didn't he?
Me: (Walks off..).
You have four unexpected guests showing up for dinner in less than an hour, you haven't been to the store in days, and you want to impress them with a delicious meal. What do you serve them?
Well, if they are unexpected... how the hell do I know they are coming for dinner and why would I be preparing? I guess that means I'd be serving them all knuckle sandwiches. Way to try to mooch, jerks.
Show us a picture you keep on your desk.
As mentioned in my previous post, I've been working on my own projects in a new domain. Still a work in progress but thought I'd mention the name. BustedToy.com. Totally fitting me, you think?
I have neglected my own web projects for years to help a friend make online games. Something I have never enjoyed. I have also been neglecting my photography and should be kicked in the teeth for that. That's all about to change. Last week I bought a new domain and hosting. I feel at home again. Stay tuned...
I was standing around early this morning in my paternal grandmother's front yard, looking around at the family already gathered at such an early hour.. waiting for new information.. any information about what had occurred in the middle of the night. That is when my cousin Lacey declared to me, "This is the part of the process that I hate the most." Yes, I agreed. It's the waiting around for details about what exactly has caused a loved one's death that seems to make time slow down to a standstill. My family has been through this process many times, but it never gets any easier. It just becomes more familiar. It's the curse of a large family. The larger the family, the more loved ones you will lose. However, the more loved ones you will have around you to help you cope.
I am very close to the paternal side of my family. Most especially my aunts. I have two blood aunts, Connie and Bonnie, who I've always been extremely close to, and I feel the same type bond with most of my uncle's wives as if they were my own blood. My Aunt Rosemary for example... though she has been divorced from my uncle for atleast 15 years I still love her as much as I always have.
Shortly after I graduated High School my Aunt Bonnie had a long struggle with cancer and was expected to die. Doctors were pretty convinced that there was in fact no way she could possibly live through it. That entire period was heartbreaking. She proved the Doctors wrong though. She beat it. She hadn't died, but her marriage did and she ended up moving in permanently with my Grandmother. My Aunt Connie was already living there and had for a number of years. I stayed with them a lot. I was in fact asleep in the room with my Aunt Connie the morning when relatives shook me awake to tell us that my cousin Monica had died. Monica, was also my best friend. It was Aunt Connie that helped me in my first hour of trying to come to grips with what I'd just been told, and then afterwards when I struggled with the "what ifs". It was she and my grandmother that assured me that Monica would have died had she been sitting in the house, or out in her car. That if it's your time.. it's your time. These are words I still hear in both their voices, everytime a loved one dies.
When I was young Aunt Connie was married to a millionaire, who years later I came to understand had beaten her often. When you get older you are able to process things you have seen or overheard at an earlier time. The bruises... the brothers threatening to "go hurt him".. none of that had made sense to me when I was young. Nor did I fully understand why my Aunt Connie was always showing up to all my dance competitions or recitals. Why she was always the one bringing me the outfits. When I was in my teens I realized that all the dance lessons I took, all the travel expenses to competitions, all the expensive costumes.. couldn't have possibly been covered entirely by my parents. At the time my parents had been struggling to raise three kids and get their careers going. No one ever verified that for me.. but years later I hugged Aunt Connie out of the blue and said "Thank you". She asked "For what baby?" and I said I realize it was you that paid for my dance training."I was happy to do it" she said. I made her proud. I realized she'd done that for me, but no other niece. Dance had helped mold me into who I became. Without her.. who knows how I'd be today.
I've always adored my Aunts. Connie, despite her sometimes heavy drinking was always someone you could rely on in a time of need. I often worried about her though. Not just from the drinking, but because she couldn't drive well. I lost count over the years of how many cars she wrecked. My last count was 19. Once she had even broken her back and had spent over a year in recovery. Bonnie.. is always there if you need her as well. Even though she is currently suffering chronic pain she'd do all she could to help someone. Years after having beaten cancer, the aftermath hit. The chemo that saved her had taken a massive toil on her body. Now she is suffering from a condition that causes constant pain. Doctors have not yet been able to help. I spent my early twenties worrying I was going to lose one aunt to cancer, and the other from herself.
Earlier this year my grandmother had a stroke and my stepsister was the one that called to inform me. When I got to the hospital I asked all my blood family members why they hadn't called. I knew full well that no one ever likes to make those type calls. I left the hospital that night having exchanged cellphone numbers with practically my entire paternal family. I promptly then gave them all a special ringtone as most of them (including my stepsister) never really call me unless something is wrong. The dozen or so that call me often, already had their own ringtones.
Three minutes after eight this morning I heard that dreaded ringtone go off and I sit bolt upright in the bed I'd just climbed into. I had not been able to sleep and was just about to attempt it. I looked at my cellphone and saw it was my stepsister calling. Right away I knew it was going to be bad news because of the early hour and the fact she never calls unless something is wrong. I instantly thought Oh God it's my Dad, then Oh no it's my Grandmother. Maybe it's her kids I thought as I was flipping open the phone to answer the call. As I said hello she said "Krystle... It's Aunt Connie" and my heart dropped. I was not expecting that one at all. My first thought was she had had another wreck... but then she followed it with "She was killed this morning."
The words used to give me comfort in times like these and the voice I hear them in have long been hers. "You know she loved you and she knew you loved her too. She's in a better place now."
What is the scariest experience you've had with Mother Nature?
Submitted by jacolily.
Let's just say stepping outside your house and seeing a tornado heading straight for you is not exactly the most peaceful feeling in the world. Not to mention that the panic of actually seeing one approaching pretty much freezes you in your tracks. Not that you could really outrun one anyway, but being able to make the effort would be good. If you've never seen a tornado before consider yourself lucky. I have
witnessed a few of the scary bastards and would rather not do it again.
You know the saying... Everything's bigger in Texas. Well, that includes tornadoes.
A tornado went over Kemp when I was a child. It was kind and spared this entire town. It didn't touch down until it was right on the edge, where it wiped out a mobile home sales lot. They were twisted like pretzels. Scary sight indeed. Fortunately no one was living in them since they were just demos. There were a few that were still standing after that, but the Lot soon went out of business. No one wanted to buy a mobile home after seeing what the tornado did to them. I can still remember the sound the tornado made as it was passing overhead. Bone Chilling really. It sounded like a freight liner passing by... amplified about 40 times. The house was shaking and I felt certain the windows were about to shatter. I just knew we were all going to die.
That memory was the first thing that flashed into my mind when.. as an adult, I was staring right at a cyclone heading for my house. I was only frozen in place for a few seconds.. but it felt like an eternity. Luckily the tornado changed it's path and I was spared again.
I wrote this tutorial for the technique group on Flickr about four years ago and it started a bit of a 'masking' craze. I haven't used Paint Shop Pro since then. I'm fully converted to Photoshop now. I also rarely convert an image to partial black and white these days. That ship has sailed for me it seems.
End Result
This can be accomplished in Photoshop and Paintshop Pro (and surely other software as well) but I chose to write my tutorial based on the method I used in Paint Shop Pro, since there are many tutorials out there on how to accomplish this in Photoshop but I had never seen one on Paint Shop Pro using my method.
Many of you probably already have Photoshop and not Paint Shop Pro.. but PSP is easy to come by. You can download a free trial at jasc.com. It's much cheaper than Photoshop, so those of you who are currently without a good digital image editor, you might want to think about getting yourself a copy. I used PSP 6, so while some things have probably changed in the newer versions, I am sure they left the options named the same.
First let me just say that it's my opinion that a good masking job never ruins a photo.. but merely adds to it, whereas an awful masking job obviously turns a photo into an eyesore. Practice the method until it doesn't fall into the later category or I will gouge my own eyes out upon viewing your photo.
Deciding which image would look better partial black and white (and for what reasons) is up to you. Decide on an image.. and which parts you want turned black and white and which left in color and then open it in PSP. If you want to edit it any other way (contrast.. color balance) then do it BEFORE you convert it to partial black and white. It's best to start with an image that will be easier to edit. Don't pick an image that's too busy for your first try. Pick an image where the part (or parts) that will remain in color don't have too many twists and turns. Tricky edges are a bitch.
To the right is my before image. I wanted to turn everything but the Sexy BC Rich Warlock black and white.
Once your image is opened..click on the 'retouch' tool and an option window will pop up. In my version it's a little hand icon. (Noted in the 'at work" screencap below) From the retouch option window.. click the middle tab (might be positioned differently in your version) and select saturation down from the retouch mode. Then go back to the first tab, and make sure that your paintbrush is set for round and that opacity is set at 100%. You should set the size of the brush higher to start and go lower the closer you get to the parts of the image you want left in color.
Conversion in Process
You will need to look at the larger version to make out the toolbars.
Essentially what you will be doing is drawing out the color. Every part of the photo that you want converted to black and white, you need to draw on. Zoom in and out if need be. Just make sure you cover every pixel that is suppose to be B&W. I normally start by drawing out the color further away from the parts of the image I want left in color.. then I work my way in.. decreasing the size of the brush (and zooming into the photo) the closer I get to parts that are to be left colororized. It gets tricky when you have to do the edges on what remains color and what is to be converted black and white. It's just like trying to stay between the lines in a coloring book, and i'm sure that's something you all can figure out.
The important thing is that you know the method used.. and you work with it. It's nothing more than using the retouch tool in Paint Shop Pro to 'color' the saturation out.
Here are some more examples. All done within PaintShop Pro (NOT Photoshop).
There is a Cutouts group on Flickr and they have links to tutorials on how this can be accomplished in Photoshop and other software.
