The Page

Here’s a template for a comic page that you can open in Photoshop set to comic industry standards.

Download Photoshop Comic Page Template
 
 
 

Shading Plug-in for Photoshop

This plug-in adds the functionality to add comic style shading for black and white comics just download the applicable version.

I have to say this is my new favourite font! Lavanderia, created by James T. Edimondson the same fella that created Duke the font I use for my logo. Lavanderia is just a beautiful working open type font with all sorts of extra ligatures and decorative elements for all your design needs. Its simply brilliant, I just love staring it its curves.

Whats involved?

Well first things first – I went to my family doctor and was referred to a gastronomic specialist. I met with that doctor weeks ago and we decided due to a history in my family where two members on my mothers side passed away from a rupture in the intestinal wall which made them go toxic and die, to have to procedure done. Normally they wait till your 40 here in Canada. But like I said preemptive.

So I got a prescription for two medications and piece of paper with the instructions.

5 Days prior – no foods with small seeds.

2 Days prior – Normal breakfast, normal Lunch, Clear liquid Dinner till after the procedure.

So that’s all I’ve had since lunch yesterday. The jello is much better as a filler than the tea or broth.  They don’t want us to have Red or Purple dyes as they can be mistaken on the camera as blood, or bleeding. So in about 2 mins I have to take the next does of meds, And then in an hour I take the Uber meds that are really going to flush the hell out of things I’m told. I’m not looking forward to that. Then tomorrow at 5am I need to take another package of the uber meds and then at 11:15 I have the procedure.

The procedure itself is only like 15-20mins but the hospital time I’m told is 4 hours for pre-prep and after monitor. They did warn me there’s like a 1 – 1000 chance they might tear through my bowels, which certainly made me feel better. But at least if they do, I’m all cleaned out.

Omg – I’m hungry. I have a whole new respect for being able to just go out and get some food. Or even something to drink.  Well we’ll see how things go tomorrow.

So, how did it go?

Well the day before was easily enough to handle, that was until you drink the packet of pico-salax! Holy hell, that chemical flushes everything that goes down your throat right through your ass. Showing no sign of bias either, even water got the flush. Then there’s there 3L of water you need to chug within 3 hours of taking it. Sure that doesn’t sound so bad right.. but wtf it made me nauseous and cold. I was under a blanket when I wasn’t on the can. finally around 10pm it all came to a halt so I could sleep – then started back up around 4:30am. Which was fine as I needed to drink another dose of that lovely Pico-Salax, oh god noooo. I don’t know about the cherry version but the orange version makes you want to wretch. I made sure I had a chaser before I chugged it. I wonder about the poor bastard that discovered the effects of the chemical in that packet that flushes everything.

I think the worst part thus far is the burning from the stomach acid that’s being passed. I’m really thankful that these tests only happen every 10 years and I pray that I don’t need one sooner. Sure sure it’s better than dying but some kind of invasive scan would be a lot better.

Well I’m going to go drink more water and wait till 10:30 when I leave for my appointment. More to come.

The Procedure

Well just like I had heard from many people the procedure itself was a breeze, I didn’t feel a thing and didn’t feel any pain.  I brought my paperwork to the hospital with me and waited my turn. I was a little perturbed at the lack of tact by the nurses who were discussing lunch plans in front of people who hadn’t eaten in 2 days. But for the most part they were amicable.  Eventually I went from the waiting room to the prep room. A sort of nurses station I had a chair I could sit in and an area that could be curtained off. I was told that I had to put my clothes in a bag provided and then put on the hospital gown and only the gown. I was also assigned some booties to wear. After I changed I sat in my easy chair, which was surprisingly comfortable. Then a nurse came and took my information, asked why I was having to procedure and checked my pulse and blood pressure. For some reason they had in the system that I had high blood pressure but I don’t so I had them remove it. Then came the IV, oh how I loath needles of any kind. I bravely offered my arm and immediately proceeded to turn white. The nurse tried to re-assure me that it was fine, that she in fact faints when she gets a needle. I told her I knew it was all in my head. This of course was true but trivial as I was already on the downward spiral of a panic attack. I turned white, got nauseous, then got really hot, started to sweat at which point I mention to the nurse that I need some assistance. She came over and reclined the chair all the way back so the blood rushed to my head. Then she put a cold cloth on my head.

This is where it gets funny, you see at this point they bring in a 50 year old woman who was seated beside me, but we were separated by a curtain. The nurse goes in and starts the whole deal with her, why are you here, do you know whats involved blood pressure and so on.. but every so often the nurse leaned against the curtain and would ask if I was alright over there. To which I replied doing fine.. feeling much better. Then after one of the times the lady says ‘oh is he finished now and in recovery’ to which the nurse says, ‘no he hasn’t been seen yet’  well you can imagine how this set off her anxiety. She starts breath a little faster and becomes visibly nervous. But the nurse assured her that it was just that I didn’t like needles.

At this point I’m feeling better so I sit back up in the chair, and the nurse comes over to inform me that they have an older patient that can’t walk and the patient needs to use the area that I was using. So they were going to move me out into the hall where I would  wait on my stretcher. Few minutes pass and eventually its my turn to go into the room. So the nurse comes along and says okay up off the stretcher… walk into that room. So I move into that room then the nurse rolls the stretcher into the room and says get back on. What the hell, why couldn’t you just roll me into the room lazy sonnova.. lol but I said nothing smiled and was polite, after all these were going to be the people that would shortly jam a camera up my rear.

The nurse gave me some drugs which didn’t kick in till long after the procedure was complete. But that’s fine the camera itself is so small I hardly noticed it. It was really really cool to see the insides of my intestines. Every thing was smooth and shiny. I didn’t have a single polyp. So he said I don’t need to see him till I’m 50. SWEET!!!

Afterwards it was into the fart room, thats right they have to inflate your intestines so they can look around, and afterwards that air needs to go somewhere. So you’re now in a room with all these old people farting. Pphherrppt!  once the staff feels you’ve let enough air out because it does cramp something fierce they let you go. Where upon you fart for a good part of the night. Don’t you dare try and hold that back or you are in for some seriously sharp tummy pain.

Once we left the hospital I made a B-line right for the best burger joint in town I knew and had me some of the best tasting burger I’ve had. Well that’s it in a nut shell, really there’s nothing to it. The cleanse by far the worst part. Drinking that Picto-Salax was evil.

This is where I’m starting. Its a base model with the smallest of the engines.  I can’t imagine how fast the other models are because the 2.7 has some serious balls to it. The following is not in any order its just my collection of parts from around the web that I would love to see all on my car.

Hood Struts

Why these were not just added is beyond me. I mean common they’re 18 bucks and the hood is designed for these parts to snap in there. Even my mechanic says to me ‘why aren’t these included? ah well – on to the next part.

$19

Hood Scoop

This scoop is the best one I’ve seen short of getting an entire hood replacement, and to boot, the company will pre-paint for a fee before they ship to you.  Here’s the unpainted parts. My plan is to put some kind of LED lighting inside here. Doesn’t have to move like Knight Rider but lights would be cool. $289.99

Signal Light Mirror

Not only are these safer I think they really help other drivers know what your doing. I’ve seen them on trucks and I really like them. The kit that they offer seems pretty straight forward to add on to your vehicle. Click any of the images to go to the websites to buy these parts.. and if you want to send any to me I’ll be happy to send a private message with my address. lol $199.95

Pillar Post

I’m still a little bit on the fence over these. I’ve seen some that have had some bondo used to smooth the lines where it connects to the car. This really goes back to the original charger. Which is partially why I like it.

In any event I’ll post it because they’re not off the table yet. $209.99

Rear Window Louvers

Being a child of the 80′s I think these are cool. I know they stopped making them on cars but these guys offer them for the Charger. They just make the car look bad ass. You can also see how they smoothed out the pillars on the back there too.  $475.00

Open Grill

I don’t think I have to mention how epic this looks. I also want the fin that’s attached below the flood lights. It really brings it all together. $255.20

Hurst Gear Shifter

This accessory really helps to give the Charger a more retro appearance. I had looked at getting the Chrome Mopar ‘T’ shifter. But I really think that this would look bad-ass in the car.

$319.95

Decals & Emblems

I’d like to get the RT emblem, and the Scrollwork ‘Charger’ Name

< $69.95

$49.95 >

Danko – the dudes that make the grill modification also are working on this wide body modification, it’s not available yet but it wont be long before it’s on the market.

This is the front fender that compliments the wide body design it’s $503.20

So at the end of the day after all these mods are added. I’ll get wheels, tinted windows, and a Mopar Blue paint job, which is going to be around $4000 here in Canada.

So total mods value will be $2392.18 + $300 tint + $4000 paint + $1500 tires = $8192.18

And that’s gonna give me something like the blue car just above there.

Then the engine mods happen. K&N Cold Air-Intake, Performance Sparkplugs, Computer Tuner – thats gonna add another $800. for a HP increase of roughly 10HP. But she’ll sound like she’s got more under the hood.

Update

Well after thinking about it. I think I’ll settle for the more reasonable changes.

Paint Job $4000
Grille $279.20
Front Body Vents $503.20
Front Spoiler $199.00
Scoop $289.99
Wheels + Tires $1255
Tint $300
Charger Symbol $49.95

Total Cost: $2876.34 + Paint + Tax + Shipping

Whats New in CS6?

Well for one the entire site GUI (Graphical User Interface) has been given a facelift.. and she’s lookin’ awful pretty. Here’s the loading image.

Once that finishes loading here’s what you get. (click on the images to enlarge)

One of the first things I noticed was the navigation on the top right for selecting the workspace you wanted has changed to a drop down. check it out below (CS5 to the right)

This used to be buttons at the top to select the workspace layout you wanted, to clean it up they merged it all into a drop down – very nice. Now this feature has really put a smile on my face. They took a page out of the InDesign book and added Paragraph and Character Styles. How often have you had to lay out a pamphlet or similar text piece and needed more verbose text control.

Oh wow, they also added a ‘Type’ selection in the main navigation. It also comes with palette pop outs, so no more digging around in the window menu for character and paragraph palettes – it’s right there at the top of Type menu.

Hmm, that extrude into 3D reminds me of illustrator.. they’ve really packed some things into this… Well lets look at something familiar like the Layers palette. Seems nothing in the new CS6 goes untouched.

This really is taking on the appearance of a more professional image editing software. They’ve separated some of the features differently than before. I can see two camps of users forming already the purists and those that really embrace this new CS6.  Here’s the new Effects area of the layers palette.

The order of the layers styles is different? I wonder why they changed it? They’ve added layer filtering so you can filter by effect or name, or many other numerous variables. So say you wanted to see all the layers with Drop shadow.. you could filter the palette to only show those layers.

Well this is all I’ve managed to dive into in my first jaunt – I’ll post more as I dig in again tomorrow. But so far I do like what Adobe has done with the place.

I know! The title to this post is enough to make any designer grin ear to ear. I’ve seen a few of them in my time but at the end of the day in most cases you got what you paid for. After finding this site I thought hey I could go and search other Free Stock Photography (that’s an SEO Keyword right there) websites out there and make a list of them, but then I remembered my rant about bloggers who list. I also noted that the site I’m about to tell you about searches all their artwork too (in most cases).

www.everystockphoto.com

It was pure serendipity that I came across this website. I was looking for some materials for an advertisement for an ‘EarthDay’ event going on and the image I found came from this site.  This is seriously useful though – it searches any free image archive I can and returns to you images that meet your search parameters.

Was this information useful ? comment and let me know.

The Ultimate CSS Gradient Generator

I was super happy with this page when I found it. To think that I can use the sliders and tool menu’s provided very similar to how I’d use Photoshop or Illustrator to create a gradient. This was created by the good folks at Colorzilla.com and so far I’m pretty blown away by it.  There’s not much to go into really its such a straight forward tool. It gives you the sliders, the preview and then the exported CSS to use for your stylesheets.

In this day and age of threatening policies to snap down and identify who you are on the web and what your looking at by governments or anyone for that matter protecting your privacy is starting to become a big deal. In an age where relevancy engines target advertising at you and try and fit you in some demographic that will isolate you and stereotype you with their products, its enough to make you want to not surf some days.

Your not alone. The folks over at  anchorfree.com want the same thing as you – to be able to surf the web from where ever you are and have the same experience as anyone. How many times have you hit a website to hear that you can’t see it because its not permitted in your region. Or have reached a site to get ‘Your Version’ of it. I don’t want to be targeted – I want the same experience as the next surfer.

That’s exactly what this software does. Hotspot Shield when activated gives you an anonymous IP address so you can’t be target by scripts that would alter the content on you.

Download Hotspot Shield Here

A great example of this program in effect is using Netflix while it’s running. You get all the shows and programming that the US see’s. If you visit Google you see Google.com and not Google.ca. I’m going to try hitting up some of the American television websites and see if I can see their content as well.

Enjoy.