Christmas Card!

My latest Photoshop project for school was to design something using pictures and text. Our teacher suggested a magazine cover, but he said it could be anything, book/CD/DVD cover, or even something more useful, like a Christmas card. I went with a Christmas card. I’m not really sure who I’d want to send this to though. It would have to be someone with as weird a sense of humor as me… :p Here is the cover of the card.




I wanted to incorporate my own photography into the card. No stock images from me! :) Doesn’t look too extraordinary does it? I wanted it to look like your average 99 cent card at Dollar General. Nothing too special. Until you open it. Here’s what the recipient would find inside…



The story behind this picture isn’t one I ever shared on my blog but my facebook friends may remember a few years ago when I came upon a burning car and stopped to take pictures. I have no idea where the original files for those pictures went, so I was so glad that I had posted them to facebook so I could retrieve them there! Once I came up with this weird card idea, I just had to make it.

And of course, no card would be complete without a back.



The little holly berries I made myself in Photoshop too. I’d never done anything like that before, so I was happy they turned out so well.

Family, Friends, and Felt

Happy Thanksgiving!

What are you thankful for this year? Here’s my list. It’s pretty short if I trim off the regular stuff, like food, clothes, a home, and such. (Though I am still thankful for those. :) ) First and foremost, I am thankful for my family and friends, but after the important things, I am thankful for The Muppets! :D And Cheesecake. :)

Today was great! It didn’t start off too great, I had to get up at 6 in the morning in order to be at work at 7. I ended up a couple minutes late because I had to scrape ice off my car, there was fog at one point, and a deer ran into the road as well. Thankfully the only thing I ran into was the fog. Work was fine though. It went by really fast because we were so busy. At 2 o’clock the store actually closed for the Thanksgiving holiday. Hy-Vee is normally open 24/7, so the store closing is something that people aren’t used to. At two they had me go and make sure that no one else came in before someone could get down with the key to lock the store. I ended up having to turn away about a dozen people. I felt like a bouncer or something…

After work I went home and checked my e-mail, facebook etc. I ordered some things on eBay for something that I’m not going to blog about yet, but I will, I promise! :) Mom had made a casserole while I was at work, so I ate some of that and went to visit my grandma with my cousins, and afterward we walked back to their house, where we set out for the theater. Shaina, Sasha, my Aunt Sherri and I all went to see The Muppets, and we all loved it!

There’s a line in the main song, “Life’s a Happy Song” that goes, “I can’t seem to wipe this smile off my face.” That basically sums up how I feel about the movie. I could expound upon just how much I love the movie, but it would end up being an endless string of quotes of my favorite lines, and descriptions of my favorite gags and jokes, which would mean far less coming from me than if you were to actually watch them for yourself. I loved the songs, I loved the jokes, I loved the characters, I loved everything about the movie! The part of the movie that I was most apprehensive about was the fact that they had invented a brand new Muppet who was basically the star. I was afraid I would not like the character, and he wouldn’t fit with the old characters. I was wrong. I loved him. Walter is a great character and he fits in perfectly. This movie exceeded my expectations, and anyone who finds the Muppets even slightly amusing needs to see it!

After the movie, we drove home where we had cheesecake, and both Pumpkin and Apple Pie. Sasha is pretty much the cheesecake queen, and Sarah is an amazing pie maker, so I ate way too much sweet stuff. :) Then we just stood around talking until I decided that it was time I went home, as it was after 11. And then I decided I needed to write a Thanksgiving blog before I went to bed, so here it is.

I am thankful for my family, who are also my friends, who also love the Muppets, and wanted to spend the evening with me laughing at their hilarious, crazy, random, Muppety antics. :D

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone!

A Day On Facebook

EDIT: I updated this post in a few different ways. The new post can be found HERE.

I’ve noticed many repeated themes throughout the last few years of using facebook, and I was inspired to turn them into this post. This may be the first of many, as I still have ideas for new characters, and new things I could do with this. Let me know what you think!

Disclaimer: This post is not intended as anything more than a humor piece. I am not trying to single out any one person to make fun of. That being said, these are all based on various friends I have on facebook, (Or friends of friends) so you might see yourself or your friends here somewhere. Most of these characters are based on more than one friend as these qualities are often in lots of people, and some of my friends inspired more than one of these characters. So you shouldn’t be offended, unless you’re Angry McToiletMouth. You should be ashamed of yourself. :p

Joyful Exclamations
Unicorns & Lollipops!
Lurking Liker Likes this

 

Whiney McDramaPants
The Werld is SO mean! I H8 Evry1!

Supportive Illiterate I LUv U Never 4gt that! UR speshul no matter wut ani1 sez!

Diggin’ 4 Dirt What’s up? Details? Txt me!

 

Rainbow Sunshine
Isn’t God wonderful?!
Lurking Liker Likes this

Joyful Exclamations YES! So amazing! And He made bluebirds! I love bluebirds! :D <3

Rainbow Sunshine I love them too, Joyful! They’re such precious creatures!

 

Vaguely McDramaPants
Why can’t these people just grow up and get out of my life?! They never have anything nice to say!

Supportive Illiterate U rock! Dont let nyone tell u difrent If they doo their a CENSORED !

Diggin’ 4 Dirt What’s goin on? Text me!

Vaguely McDramaPants Thanks, Supportive! You rock too! <3

Whiney McDramaPants I know just what you meen Sis!

 

Joy Lyrical
“Love! Happiness! Sing Hallelujah!” – FamousSinger
Rainbow Sunshine and Joyful Exclamations Like this

 

Gloom Lyrical
“Sorrow, Melancholy, Despair, Bitterness” – FamousGothBand
Whiney McDramaPants Likes this

 

Grammie Happy
Grandbaby 2 made an oopsie on the carpet! I love her so much!
Lurking Liker Likes this

Rainbow Sunshine Grandbabies are such a blessing from God, aren’t they, Grammie?

Grammie Happy They sure are, Rainbow!

Joyful Exclamations I love babies!!!

 

Angry McToiletMouth
You can CENSORED  & CENSORED   CENSORED !!!!! Stupid CENSORED !!!!!
Whiney McDramaPants Likes this

Supportive Illiterate Ya! U Tel then! Ur awesum! Don’t let the h8ters gt u down!

 

Joyful Exclamations
I LOVE GUMMY BEARS!
You Like This

 

T. M. Info
Woah! I tottally ate too much beans and now I have serious gas! LoLz!!!
Supportive Illiterate and Lurking Liker Like this

Supportive Illiterate Ur so funy TM! Luv U!

 

R. W. Republicrazy
DIE DUMBOCRATS! NOBAMA NOMORE!
G. O. Pachyderm Likes This

Lefty T. Parrot YOU RACSIT CENSORED !!!!

 

Mamma Frazzled
ACK! Kid #1 Just ate a bug while Kid #2 ate a scoop of sand! I can’t turn my back for a second!
Lurking Liker Likes this

Joyful Exclamations Your kids are so funny!!! I love them!!!
Lurking Liker Likes this

 

Literate Quoter
“To read, is to become much smarter than you.” – FamousDeadGuy
Lurking Liker and Gloom Lyrical Like this

 

Fanny LuvSports
WE’RE #1!!! YAY SPORTS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Franky Sportsfreak Likes this

 

Franky Sportsfreak
GO FOOTBALL!!!!
Fanny LuvSports Likes this

 

Rabid Liberal
Gobama! WOO!!!!!!! U never do anything rong!
Lefty T. Parrot Likes this

Lefty T. Parrot You are so right! Those Tea CENSORED s  CENSORED !!!

Indie Pendant Well, I think Obama has made a serious error in judgment here, but it can’t be easy doing his job.

Lefty T. Parrot Who asked you, you Right-wing CENSORED ?!?!

Indie Pendant I am no Republican! Why can’t we all just get along?

R. W. Republicrazy OBAMA NEEDS TO GET KICKED BY AN OSTRICH IN THE FACE!!!! LOL!!!!

Rabid Liberal Stop posting this garbage on my page!

R. W. Republicrazy HE HAS MONKEY EARS!!!!! :D

Rabid Liberal CENSORED !!!!!!!!!
Angry McToiletMouth Likes this

 

Joyful Exclamations
I LOVE LIFE!!!!!  :D <3 <3<3
You, Rainbow Sunshine, Grammie Happy, and 37 Others Like this

One Week Left!

Till “The Muppets” comes out in Theaters! :D

The Muppets have been making the rounds promoting the film, and they were on Good Morning America. The interview with Kermit and Miss Piggy was SO funny! :D

Aside from the film itself, I am also excited about the soundtrack. I love this song. I’ve watched this brief clip of it a whole bunch of times. :)

In closing, I will leave you with this TV spot that just hit YouTube. It am so pumped for this movie! :D

The fact that there is a new Toy Story Toon from Pixar premiering with the film is just the icing on an already amazing cake! :D

Are Dinosaurs Still Alive?

As my friends, and long time readers of my blog know, I am big into cryptozoology. This semester in my online geography class, we were to write a five page report, and a post for a discussion forum, on any topic we chose, as long as it tied into geography. I managed to tie cryptozoology into geography. It wasn’t that hard to do. :)

For the five page paper I am going to do cryptozoology as a whole, mainly focusing on legendary creatures, Loch Ness Monster, Bigfoot, etc, but for the discussion post I decided to write about my favorite area of cryptozoology, the fact that dinosaurs could still exist. Some people’s discussions have been a couple measly little paragraphs. Basically they wrote down a few things and called it good. For mine, I ended up writing what amounted to a three page paper. So far the response to it has been of great excitement. As I figured, none of my classmates had any idea that there is still a chance that some dinosaurs have survived their own extinction, and I quite possibly blew all of their minds wide open. :) Today, I will share that paper with all of you, and if you didn’t know that there may still be dinosaurs in the world, prepare to have you own mind blown. (Unless you are a closed minded doubter who scoffs at anything science can’t explain. If so, I pity you. :) )

 

Are Dinosaurs Still Alive?

Jonathan North

Are dinosaurs still alive? If you were to ask the average Joe on the street you would of course get the only sensible answer, “No, of course not.” But for a few people who have dedicated their lives to the discovery of unknown animals, a relatively small scientific field called cryptozoology, you would get a very different answer.

“But dinosaurs died out millions of years ago,” skeptics argue. “The only proof they ever even existed is the fossils, right? They can’t possibly be alive today. Science says so!” As a creationist, I would disagree with the extinction date, but there are other creationists who would still use a similar argument. The only place anyone sees dinosaurs is in the fossil record, so the natural assumption is that they are all extinct. But just because something is accepted as truth by the scientific community does not always mean it is true. Science is constantly being rewritten as new evidences are discovered.

Have you ever heard of a Coelacanth? Said to have been extinct for 65 million years, coelacanth fossils were used as direct proof of evolution, due to the fact that they had fins that looked like they could have been legs. In 1938 the scientific community was turned upside down by the discovery of living coelacanths. Science books had to be rewritten because one of the main proofs of evolution was shown to be alive and well, and it was completely a fish, not a fish/amphibian hybrid as had been previously speculated. If scientists had missed seeing this fish for thousands of years, isn’t it possible that there could be other animals known only through the fossil records still alive today?

“Wait a minute, you might ask. “This is all very interesting, but isn’t this a geography class? What does any of this have to do with geography?” Well, in this case, geography is the most important factor. To be an unknown animal, that animal needs somewhere to hide.

“Yes,” some would argue, “But oceans are one thing. Land is another. Scientists have explored all over the earth, and haven’t found dinosaurs. How does this help the case for cryptozoologists holding out hope for a live dinosaur?”

While it is true that for the most part all lands have been explored at one time or another, there are some places that it simply isn’t possible to get to with all the scientific equipment necessary to search for dinosaurs. Deep in the African Congo, there are miles and miles of deep jungle so dense that scientists can’t possibly explore it all very thoroughly. Even the native Africans that live around those regions seldom venture in.

“Ok, so there are places we can’t get to, I get that,” one might concede, “but the inability to easily explore, does not equal proof.”

And that would be the end of the argument, except for one thing. As you’ll see in the paragraph above, I wrote “Seldom.” The native Africans may not go that deep into the jungle often, but those that do tell stories of huge monsters that live there. The most famous story they tell is of a creature called Mokele-mbembe. In their language this means “One who stops the flow of rivers.” When asked to draw a picture of this beast, the natives draw what is clearly described as a sauropod dinosaur, a long-necked dinosaur like Apatosaurus, or Brachiosaurus. These natives are not educated, and would have no idea what a dinosaur even was, but the fact that their “Monster” looks so much like what we call a dinosaur, should give one pause.

Mokele-mbembe may be the most famous example of what might be a living dinosaur, but it is far from the only one. The Congo in particular, but all over Africa, is a source of many stories from the native peoples, claiming to have seen monsters.

The Emela-Ntouka, or “Killer of Elephants” is an enormous beast thought to be a ceratopsian, like Triceratops, but with a single huge horn. Some have described it as a giant rhinoceros, but it is said to have a long thrashing tail like a crocodile. It lives in the swamps like Mokele-mbembe and natives say that it hates elephants. The way it uses its horn is what gave it its name.

The Mbielu- Mbielu- Mbielu is yet another massive swamp dweller. This one is thought to be a stegosaurus as its long name means, “The animal with planks growing out of its back.” Natives say that it spends all its time in the water, and algae actually grows all over any exposed skin. It has never been seen out of the water, so they do not know what its legs look like.

The Kongamoto or “Overwhelmer of Boats” is a much smaller creature than those previously mentioned, but is significant because, though technically not a dinosaur, from descriptions given, it would seem that it was a type of pterosaur. It gets its name from the fact that it swoops down at fisherman. Like the others, it would seem that it prefers the swamps. In western Zamibia it has been sighted in a swamp that is believed to be the abode of demons.

Dinosaur sightings are not limited to Africa, though this is where most sightings occur. For years there have been stories of dinosaur like animals all over the world. Even in America people have claimed to see animals they describe as three foot tall T-Rexes, Velociraptors and Pterosaurs.

Australian Aborigines tell of a terrifying creature called the Burrunjor. It walks on two legs and has two small forearms. They say it is about 25 feet long. Does this not sound eerily similar to a theropod dinosaur, such as Tyranosaurus Rex? Even more compelling is that fact that unlike the African cases, these stories do not just come from the native peoples. In the 1950’s, cattle ranchers in Northern Australia, reported that many of their cattle had been killed or half-eaten by a mysterious animal. The ranchers had found giant bipedal tracks and some heard thunderous roars, while others heard it crashing through the jungle at night. A farmer claimed to have seen a Burrunjor from about 250 feet away. In 1961 a tracker gave an account of a huge reptile walking on two legs through a swamp near the Gulf Coast. He said it was about 25 feet tall. In addition, to the Australian sightings, people in New Guinea, Boliva, and South America have reported sightings of similar creatures.

Skeptics would point out that scientists can hardly take the word of an uneducated tribesman at face value, and they would also question the word of an everyday farmer, but again we can go back to the coelacanth. When the coelacanth was discovered by scientists, it was very well known to the native peoples where it was discovered. They were using it as a source of food. There have been many species that western science was unaware of that were just common knowledge to the people in the areas that the animals have been found. The Gorilla, the Panda, and the Duck-Billed Platypus, just to name a few. All species generally disregarded as native lore by scientists until actual proof was produced.

I do not know if dinosaurs still walk the earth today or not, but to disbelieve based solely on the fact that “Everyone knows they’re extinct” to me is just closed minded and foolish. There is so much in our world that we know nothing about. People sometimes just assume that scientists know everything, but that isn’t the case at all. I for one am glad that they don’t. I think that the mystery is all part of the fun! I love to think about what fantastic things might be out there just waiting to be discovered, or in this case RE-discovered!

“Anti” Humor

I really love good bagpipe music. I love great accordion music. I love Opera where the soprano hits the really high notes. I like broccoli, cauliflower, lima beans, and fruit cake. Why am I telling you this? Because according to “Funny” people. All these things are universally detested by humanity. This is simply not true. But I don’t get mad about people making fun of these things. (Though I do admit I think the anti-fruitcake jokes are getting pretty old. The jokes are staler than the cake at this point. :p) Quite the opposite. I think these jokes are very funny.

Today there were two comics that had examples of such “Anti” Humor, and I found both of them to be downright hilarious, so I decided to come here and share them with you. :)

 

Agnes is always hilarious. :D

Hang Out With the Muppets?!

Monday morning the Muppets posted on Facebook that they had just joined Google+. I was thrilled. I love the Muppets as I’m sure you are quite well aware, and hardly anyone I know uses Google+, so I was really glad to have someone new to add to my circles. When I got to Google+ to add them, I found this video.

The Muppets were having a LIVE hangout chat on Google+ ?! AWESO – wait… I had to work at that time. Boooooo!!!!

Well. it turned out not to have been a total loss, because the next day, the Muppets posted the entire chat to YouTube. It was not quite what I thought it was going to be, the fans did not talk directly to the Muppets, it was a live chat between some of the Muppets, Jason Segal, (The Male lead of the new movie) and a couple of the people who made the movie.

I suppose this does make sense, if it was a chat between everyone who attended the hangout it probably would have been chaos. So anyway, here is the video for anyone who might want to see it. I know I have a few friends and family members who love the Muppets as much as I do. I also know I have at least one friend who hates them, so if you are that person, or you also dislike the Muppets, you don’t need to watch it. You know who you are. :p And don’t worry, I don’t think less of you for your dislike of the Muppets. I just pity you is all. I pity you very, very deeply. :p

While I’m writing about the Muppets, in case you have yet to see them, here are the final trailers for “The Muppets”. Although, if you don’t remember the first trailer, you may want to refresh your memory before you watch the final one. Here’s the first one.

Okay, NOW here is the final Parody trailer.

and finally, the latest actual trailer. Probably the final one before the film’s release.

I can’t wait for Thanksgiving! As it looks now, I will probably be seeing it with my cousins that night!
*Kermit scream with wildly flailing arms*

The Nightmare is Over!

Well, the day that I have been dreading all semester has come and gone. Do you remember what I said I did not want to do? Here’s a hint, Biology. Here’s a second hint, Baby Pigs. Yeah. Thankfully it wasn’t as bad as my imagination had made it out to be. I still wouldn’t in a million years choose to do it over again, but it wasn’t as dreadful as I had thought it would be. It was made a whole lot less awful by the fact that there was only one pig per table and another guy at my table wanted to be the one wielding the scalpel. So I didn’t have to do any of the slicing and dicing. I still had to watch and help find organs, but I was ok with that. The actual cutting was what I wanted to avoid. So I’m quite happy that that is behind me now. :)

On another positive note, our Photoshop class has FINALLY have moved into the Mac lab at the art center! Of course, we’re two thirds of the way through the class, now, but at least we get some time in there before the semester ends… Today we pretty much learned the basics of how to use a Mac. It was very easy. And fun too. When I have enough money I’ll be switching permanently to using Mac products.

In painting class we’ve done quite a few more paintings, but I haven’t gotten photos of any of them yet. I don’t want to photograph them while they’re still wet, and I haven’t seen them after they’ve dried to take pictures. Which is for the best in the case of my self portrait. I look like I have leprosy. When I get it home I’m repainting anything that has skin tone. And this time I’ll be using store bought pre-mixed flesh tone. I won’t be attempting to mix my own skin colors anymore…

Well that’s about all the interesting school news I have for now. One of these days I will get my paintings posted. It may not be till the end of the semester, but I will post them! :) What I won’t be posting is pictures of us dissecting pig fetuses. No one wants to see that…

An Almost Perfect Picture

When I go to the zoo, sometimes I will get one picture that I instantly know I have something special. Saturday I almost got that. Well, technically I DID get it, but it could have been just a little bit better. It probably won’t surprise you to find out that it involves a giraffe. :)

To my knowledge the big male giraffe never goes outside. At least I’ve never seen him out there. After I’d photographed the other giraffes for awhile I went inside to see him. I had never noticed before, but up on the wall they have a water trough for the giraffes to drink from when they are inside. It’s a lot easier for them to drink that way than they’d have to do in the wild. Here’s a picture I took a couple months ago, so you can see for yourself.

As you can imagine, this is one of the few times they are vulnerable to predators, plus it just looks uncomfortable. So the high trough make a lot of sense.

As I was taking a few shots of him drinking, I didn’t even notice a zookeeper walk in. She entered the shot, and kissed him on the nose! It was so sweet! That is where the “Almost” comes in. I got a shot as she leaned in, and one after, but no actual kiss.

Before:

After:

Regardless of not getting a shot of the kiss, I still LOVE the before shot. :) I’ve been contemplating putting it on my photography blog all by itself, I love it that much. :) Barring the chance of taking a better picture between now and next year, I think it will definitely be one of my entries in the photography contest at the fair next year. :)

Photoshop: Using Layers

The latest assignment in Digital Photography was to combine at least three pictures in Photoshop using layers. I pretty much had no idea what I wanted to do so I started looking through my pictures trying to find ones that looked like they could go together, eventually I settled on doing pictures of things in the sky, and joining them all in one. Here’s the three pictures I chose.

And here’s the finished project.

I haven’t quite figured out any practical applications for this new skill, but it is pretty fun. :)