artiztik

 

I love Open Source applications. Whenever I can use an Open Source app over a costly mainstream one, I'm on it. Therefore, I decided that I will post reviews of the top Open Source applications I use personally.

Today, I am praising GIMP (GNU Image Manipulation Program). It is an awesome, feature-rich, image editor. I use GIMP to create and edit images for my web site, cover art for my stories, and for creating profile pics and avatars for sites like Facebook. It is extremely powerful, and loaded with more tools and functionality than I will probably ever use.

I can't say that it does everything Adobe PhotoShop does, but I know it costs less: PhotoShop on Amazon.com is roughly $200-$700, whereas GIMP is free. I highly recommend downloading GIMP before you go out and purchase PhotoShop or similar software. You may find that it does everything you need, and you'll save $$$.

I also think the name is pretty cool. :)

- Buck

Yup. Dreamed I was attacked by a mountain lion. I would find things to throw at it, distract its attention.. sometimes it would eat what I threw--bones or something, I can't remember. But it would finish with things quickly and come back at me, over and over.

That's it. That's the dream.

I woke up at midnight. Took a while to get back to sleep.

- Buck

I've been a Palm user for almost a decade, and it's been quite a while since they have done anything really innovative. (No, I don't consider the Centro an innovation.) Giving up the rights to their Palm OS was a blow to us hardcore fans of Palm. The OS hasn't been updated in ages. I've been expecting the company to fail and go under for a while now.

Then today I learn that they have unveiled a new smartphone, with a brand new OS called WebOS. Thank you! It's about time. (I just hope it will support Palm OS apps, but I may be dreaming there.)

Apparently, this new phone has a large touch screen (like the iPhone) but also has a pull out keyboard. And it is the first phone I know of to use wireless recharging technology.

Palm may have finally pulled ahead of the pack. I'm psyched.

If you want to learn more, Google "WebOS" or "Palm Pre". You'll find plenty of articles with more details than I am going to go into here.

Yea!

-Buck

...now all I have to do is write it.

Normally, I don't have a story complete in my head before I start writing it. But this time, I have it from start to finish. Between having an upset stomach, and this story bouncing around in my head, I woke up and was unable to get back to sleep.

So, I'm putting that novel on hold again until I can finish spilling this latest story into my computer.

It will be entitled Recognition.

OK, may as well get busy now. Later.

- Buck

Happy New Year, People!

OK, not to get all sappy and crap, but I hope everybody has a great 2009. Much love, laughter and luck.

As I have said before, I don't make New Year's resolution any longer. I don't think it makes sense to pick January 1st for a date to start making changes. Do it any time.

That said, I do think I will adopt the wise and immortal words of Bill and Ted: Be excellent to each other, and party on, dudes!

Peace.

- Buck

OK, where to begin. I was on a snowy slope where an insane downhill race was taking place. There were trucks and bikes and weird contraptions all flying downhill. Kind of like that Red Bull Flugtag contest thingy, but on the snow.

There is a sudden quake, and I looked up to see two polar bears the size of semis wrestling. Every time one fell the ground shook.

I went inside the resort and it was one antiseptic kitchen after another. Almost as if each kitchen was a model to demonstrate appliances, counters, and cabinet facings.

In this dream, I knew I was dreaming. I wanted to capture and remember the details so I concentrated very hard on the kitchen cabinets, but they transformed as I watched them. From granite to black, to tan and white, and the shape and size of the cabinets and counters changed so that I couldn't see any one configuration for very long.

Far out, man.

The ski resort portion of the dream was not surprising, as me and the boys had been planning to go boarding today. Where the kitchen stuff came from... well there was a lot of cooking happening at our place this week for the holidays.

- Buck

In this dream, Ayden and I were exploring a Victorian-style house that doubled as a gambling hall and saloon.

We had a purpose of some kind, trying to figure out some mystery. We encountered one room that was set up as some sort of rat habitat, with places they could crawl (made of empty coffee bean bags). That was weird.

Then I ran into a guy with a plastic bag full of coins demanding that I pay him the money I owe him so we went to a cashier so I could cash a check--or something.

- Buck

OK, can we please, as a nation, as a self-proclaimed civilized society, stop thanking God for Fridays? I'm not knocking the religious aspect of it, but I do have three specific arguments against this practice:

• Friday's are inevitable. Yes, they will logically follow Thursdays. And if you are going to thank the big man for seeing to it you survived until Friday, shouldn't you thank him for Saturdays? Even Mondays?
• There are better things to thank God for. Seriously. Your health, your family, the fact that you were not born as a skunk.
• It's played. Yes, it's old. People have been saying TGIF since the 60's, or maybe even before, I don't know. And look at the picture... The phrase was made famous by a disco movie, OK? Enough said.

Let it go, people, let it go.

- Buck

A scary dream.

Dreamed that we had a friend's kid over--I think it was Tristan, sorry Stan & Marcelle!--and he was sleeping in Ayden's room. I heard glass break in the morning, and got up to check it out. My kid's window was broken (and his room was now at ground level) and both boys were gone.

I freaked. I ran all around the neighborhood, questioning people and getting really rough with some guys walking around.

I finally came back home and Ayden and the other boy were back. They said they had got up early and went for a walk. Whoever broke the window did it after they had left.

Not a fun dream.

- Buck

I returned to work yesterday after being out for four weeks, and I received a bizarre greeting.

I pulled into the garage (after driving in through the snow with no incidents) then walked up and called for the elevator. I step in and press the button for my floor, and a huge friggin' bird descends from the ceiling and flutters around the elevator car. Before I even have time to duck (no pun intended) it flies out and away. I just got to see a flurry of gray and red, I have no idea what kind of bird it was.

Since I was there so early (6am) it's possible that bird had been in there all night.

Nice "welcome back", eh?

- Buck