Tuesdays with Muerte

2008 BYU Education Week has been great! However, during some slower hours of the day, I can sometimes be found sneaking off to the library to hone my photoshopping skills. At the library, there is a set of 8 discs called, "Total Training: Photoshop" by Deke McClelland. Each one of Deke's video lessons is about 25 minutes long and focuses on only one aspect or tool of photoshop. The two examples below are my practice for lessons on "layers" and "Composites". Click this one to see details enlarged! Additionally, here is a video of Deke "Unplugged" (a.k.a. On Speed) to give you a flavor of his personality. I must apologize for posting this when I know there are bad words in it. Just watch the first minute to see a portion without language. Isn't it always the way that the best people at anything are always the most eccentric? (Click on the TV monitor next to the play bar to make the video full screen.) CONTAINS 4 "H-words...

My three roommates and I spent our last night together doing guy stuff. After packing and moving boxes out to the cars, we ate a nice steak dinner together and exchanged things we didn't want. Then we tried a bottle of Xango given to us by a neighbor who was also moving. We used shot glasses since too much of that stuff gives you the runs. Finally, we sat around watching my Betta fish chase the guppy that I recently bought. (The Guppy originally had his own bowl but since he is mostly black, he blended into the rock background and was not amusing at all.) Dan was the one talked me into tossing him in. We at ice cold, mint pie with whipped cream while we spectated. 10 minutes went by and still no carnage. We all gave up on the action and went to bed sure that the Guppy would be floating in the morning. I was the first one up the next day for education week and to my surprise. Both fish were casually swimming about on their prospective sides of the tank. The Betta would sne...

I sat down at a friend's apartment the some weeks ago and realized that I was surrounded by Rubik's Cubes. There were at least 5 of them floating around the room. Some people were whizzing through them, while others just stared at them with furrowed brows. It had been a few years since I had picked up a cube and wondered if I could still manipulate one. On the mission, Elder Bradshaw called it "Baptizing the Cube" when he was able to make the last side turn all blue in under 3 minutes. My best time was around 2:30 seconds by the end of my mission. Since then, I've never been able to break 5 minutes... There was one among the Cubing Group who seemed to be the alpha male. He was distinguishable because he was the only one spinning the layers with a single hand and had a bottle of lubrication in his pocket. After proving to myself that I could still "Baptize the Cube", I asked the alpha male if he would impart a portion of his additional wisdom upon ...

With the start of the Olympics this past week, everyone around these parts is all "fired up", as Michael Phelps would say. As I watch nearly everyday, I catch myself saying, "I could do that" after almost every Olympic event; volleyball, tennis, gymnastics, and diving--easy breezy. In addition to watching the Olympics, I spend about an hour everyday out by the pool reading Les Mis. My ritual involves laying my towel down on the edge and read a chapter with my legs dangling in. I rotate a quarter-turn, counterclockwise every chapter. After four rotations, I jump in and swim around. If I still feel like reading, I do another round. While I've carried out this ritual the last few weeks, I've made quite a few friends who also frequent the pool everyday at about noon. One day, an impetuous girl named Shannon decided that she wanted to make a really big splash, so she coaxed everyone out of their lawn chairs and to the side of the pool. After we all jumped ...