Update Stew, and a Question
Aug. 18th, 2006 11:00 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
cybermathwitchFirst, I'm a little confused. I just upgraded back to a paid account (yay! squee!), and figured, as according to the site, that I'd have 30 userpic slots. Cause that's what it says, right?
How do I have 105?
I'm not complaining mind you - more pics = yay! - I'm just wondering how that happened (and if it's really true, and not a site glitch.)
On to more interesting developments:
I have a new journal. Yes, *another* one. But there's a good reason this time, really! See, ever since I was old enough to draw, my mom taught me to sign my work with my initials. So I've always signed any artwork I've done "klm". I made a big chunk of icons and a couple wallpapers of BSG last night forbsg_challenge, and when I was saving them it occured to me I didn't have a way of translating that over into the digital world. (Also, in purely practical thoughts, I needed a place to upload the images and didn't want to make this account a sponsored account. I didn't realize I would be upgrading this morning.) So I checked, and while "klm" by itself was taken, klm_art was not. So there you have it. There are 20 icons and 2 wallpapers, all from the Mini-Series.
Teasers (also, my new default icon - see above - is from this batch):
follow the fake cut (rules, credits, disclaimers, etc. are all within)
I meant to make one of Laura and one of Helo, but at 4am I pretty much collapsed.
The whole story:
Ok, my primary graphics software is MicroGrafx's Picture Publisher 8 (not the official site, as it was acquired by Corel ages ago) which is from, oh, 1998, 1999? But it's a good, solid program with a LOT of flexibility and a fairly intuitive user interface. (I tried *once* to navigate Photoshop and was thoroughly confused. Or maybe it was Corel Draw? One of the major programs, anyway. And I'm very good at learning computer programs, usually.) I was having a bit of difficulty one the "Out of Step" wallpaper, though. Specifically, the text was flat out refusing to enlarge enough to be readable but not pixelated and chunky. A few months ago I downloaded Serif's PhotoPlus 6 because they offer it for free on their site. (They actually offer several "outdated" copies of their software for free download, 'tis tres cool.) So I figured, what the hell, I'll see if it'll do the text art. It pretty much did, though I still had some problems with the sizing. (I blame my original resolution on the images in retrospect.)
I got it all put together, stumbled across an effect I really liked, and was laying it over a background to make it fit the standard 1024x768 measurements, when the program crashed on me. Like an idiot I hadn't saved between applying the effects and laying the image onto a new base. ::headdesk:: I went back and did the effects again (though I couldn't reproduce how I'd managed to copy the text layers the first time, so it's not as precise as it was before), saved the .jpg, and imported that into Picture Publisher 8 to add the background and the credit text at the bottom (since that was supposed to be small anyway.)
Onto more icons. Which were going swimmingly except for a couple bobbles on the anti-aliasing of the text effects (I think my program is on it's last leg, because it didn't used to have that problem) until I started getting "your computer doesn't have enough memory" warnings. And not just warning pop-ups, but those really old Win 3.0 style warnings that mean that the computer can't even pull up it's own pretty pop-up boxes. I don't think I'd ever actually seen an XP computer give those before. PP8 locked up on me, with two icons in the process of being saved, omg, ::headdesk:: and wouldn't respond.
Here's where I'm clever. Even at 3:30 in the morning.
I used the print screen key to capture the screen (including the two icons). Then, as soon as I crashed out of PP8 and reloaded it, I pasted to a new image, used the cropping tool, and voila - icons. ::whew:: ::loves her print screen key:: (The icons in question, btw were the base for "Pilot Sex!" and the completed "Nothin' but the rain". I had to go back in and add effects and text to "Pilot Sex!" of course, but I think that "rain" turned out really well despite my hack.
I kinda wish the text on my "prayer" icon had come out better, though. It's a bit blurry.
After all of that, I nearly cried when I tried to figure out how to upload and post everything to the journal and the comm. I knew the theory behind doing it, and knew all the different steps, but I couldn't seem to get them to line up in my brain where I could actually do them. I hadn't actually ever done a post that way before, and again, 3:30am and no sleep. LJ's Scrapbook loves me though, and I didn't have to frak with trying to upload to Picasa's WebAlbums.
Finally, I found an article about the Japanese royal family - specifically a comparison of Crown Princess Masako and Princess Kiko and how they approach their duties and obligations. Princess Kiko is about 8 months pregnant with her third child (she has two daughters) and everyone is waiting to see whether it's going to be a boy or a girl, because right now there's not actually an heir to the throne in that generation. (Crown Princess Masako and Crown Prince Naruhito have one child, a 4-year-old girl name Aiko. Currently though, Japanese law doesn't allow a woman to inhereit the throne.)
How do I have 105?
I'm not complaining mind you - more pics = yay! - I'm just wondering how that happened (and if it's really true, and not a site glitch.)
On to more interesting developments:
I have a new journal. Yes, *another* one. But there's a good reason this time, really! See, ever since I was old enough to draw, my mom taught me to sign my work with my initials. So I've always signed any artwork I've done "klm". I made a big chunk of icons and a couple wallpapers of BSG last night for
bsg_challenge, and when I was saving them it occured to me I didn't have a way of translating that over into the digital world. (Also, in purely practical thoughts, I needed a place to upload the images and didn't want to make this account a sponsored account. I didn't realize I would be upgrading this morning.) So I checked, and while "klm" by itself was taken, klm_art was not. So there you have it. There are 20 icons and 2 wallpapers, all from the Mini-Series. Teasers (also, my new default icon - see above - is from this batch):
follow the fake cut (rules, credits, disclaimers, etc. are all within)
I meant to make one of Laura and one of Helo, but at 4am I pretty much collapsed.
The whole story:
Ok, my primary graphics software is MicroGrafx's Picture Publisher 8 (not the official site, as it was acquired by Corel ages ago) which is from, oh, 1998, 1999? But it's a good, solid program with a LOT of flexibility and a fairly intuitive user interface. (I tried *once* to navigate Photoshop and was thoroughly confused. Or maybe it was Corel Draw? One of the major programs, anyway. And I'm very good at learning computer programs, usually.) I was having a bit of difficulty one the "Out of Step" wallpaper, though. Specifically, the text was flat out refusing to enlarge enough to be readable but not pixelated and chunky. A few months ago I downloaded Serif's PhotoPlus 6 because they offer it for free on their site. (They actually offer several "outdated" copies of their software for free download, 'tis tres cool.) So I figured, what the hell, I'll see if it'll do the text art. It pretty much did, though I still had some problems with the sizing. (I blame my original resolution on the images in retrospect.)
I got it all put together, stumbled across an effect I really liked, and was laying it over a background to make it fit the standard 1024x768 measurements, when the program crashed on me. Like an idiot I hadn't saved between applying the effects and laying the image onto a new base. ::headdesk:: I went back and did the effects again (though I couldn't reproduce how I'd managed to copy the text layers the first time, so it's not as precise as it was before), saved the .jpg, and imported that into Picture Publisher 8 to add the background and the credit text at the bottom (since that was supposed to be small anyway.)
Onto more icons. Which were going swimmingly except for a couple bobbles on the anti-aliasing of the text effects (I think my program is on it's last leg, because it didn't used to have that problem) until I started getting "your computer doesn't have enough memory" warnings. And not just warning pop-ups, but those really old Win 3.0 style warnings that mean that the computer can't even pull up it's own pretty pop-up boxes. I don't think I'd ever actually seen an XP computer give those before. PP8 locked up on me, with two icons in the process of being saved, omg, ::headdesk:: and wouldn't respond.
Here's where I'm clever. Even at 3:30 in the morning.
I used the print screen key to capture the screen (including the two icons). Then, as soon as I crashed out of PP8 and reloaded it, I pasted to a new image, used the cropping tool, and voila - icons. ::whew:: ::loves her print screen key:: (The icons in question, btw were the base for "Pilot Sex!" and the completed "Nothin' but the rain". I had to go back in and add effects and text to "Pilot Sex!" of course, but I think that "rain" turned out really well despite my hack.
I kinda wish the text on my "prayer" icon had come out better, though. It's a bit blurry.
After all of that, I nearly cried when I tried to figure out how to upload and post everything to the journal and the comm. I knew the theory behind doing it, and knew all the different steps, but I couldn't seem to get them to line up in my brain where I could actually do them. I hadn't actually ever done a post that way before, and again, 3:30am and no sleep. LJ's Scrapbook loves me though, and I didn't have to frak with trying to upload to Picasa's WebAlbums.
Finally, I found an article about the Japanese royal family - specifically a comparison of Crown Princess Masako and Princess Kiko and how they approach their duties and obligations. Princess Kiko is about 8 months pregnant with her third child (she has two daughters) and everyone is waiting to see whether it's going to be a boy or a girl, because right now there's not actually an heir to the throne in that generation. (Crown Princess Masako and Crown Prince Naruhito have one child, a 4-year-old girl name Aiko. Currently though, Japanese law doesn't allow a woman to inhereit the throne.)
