Buttermilk

This goat is awesome --- but also kind of a dick.

How-To Tuesday: Colour Calibration

This month’s How-To Tuesday is on Calibrating your computer monitor. First things first, if you are running on a newer Mac System, you won’t need this as it more or less does it itself.
I am going to show you two ways that I am able to colour calibrate my monitor, however, both methods requiring either specific software or hardware.
The first way is through Adobe Photoshop. If you have Photoshop CS3 or older then there will be a program called Adobe Gamma that does a subjective colour calibration for you. Adobe Gamma is a little hidden in CS3 so here is a YouTube video that really nicely shows you how to find and use the program:

Using Adobe Gamma in CS3

The other way I calibrate my monitor is through a piece of hardware called Spyder3Pro. Essentially you place this device on your monitor and run the program. It senses the lighting in the room and by displaying certain colours on your monitor can set a calibration to get the truest colours possible. It is made by Datacolor and is a little on the expensive side, mind you it is still cheaper than Photoshop.
You may be asking yourself, why does colour calibration even matter? Well, if you are into photo editing or photo manipulation, then you will want to ensure that the colours you are seeing on your monitor will be what others see and more importantly what will come out of the printer once you want a hardcopy – colour calibration can do this for you. I have found that my calibrating my monitor, I have to do a lot less work when I want to print.

PIXELS

Dave found this on youtube quite some time ago. As I do with things like this, I emailed the link to myself and then forgot to post it. Anyway, I think it is not only really well done, but just a amazing idea to begin with.

Optical Illusions

I love optical illusions. There were tons of comments about this being fake, either way the drawings are neat.

Extreme Sheep Herding

Dave found this one day at work and I was simply amazed. Yes it is technically an add at the end – but the abilities of the sheep herders (and their amazingly talented dogs) is amazing.

Way Back Whenesday: Ace of Base

Ah Ace of Base. She saw the sign and it was all that she wanted.
I remember not only listening to this band constantly, but also doing dance routines to it for class. In Ms. Veltkamp's grade 4 class she had us do a song and dance routine. She had fake guitars, keyboard, etc and you would lip synch to any song you wanted. My group of 4 or 5 girls chose Ace of Base The Sign as our song and it was fabulous. I can remember some of the steps we did while we sang (that is what my role was - dancing and 'singing'), but unforunately can't describe them well enough for this post.
I also remember the rehearsal I skipped to hang out with my boyfriend. During the rehearsal Crystal fell and hit her head on the corner of the keyboard and cracked it open. She had to go to the emergency room and have stitched put in.

Way Back Whenesday: Mr Rogers Neighbourhood

Mr. Rogers Neighbourhood was a children's television show that aired from February 19, 1968 to February 20, 1976 and then again from August 27, 1979 to August 31, 2001.
The show was simple and calm, unlike a lot of children's shows nowadays and always started with Fred Rogers coming into the home, taking off his outdoor sweater and putting on his indoor sweater. He would then remove his outdoor sneakers and put on indoor sneakers.

Way Back Whenesday: Looney Tunes

"Where's the Kaboom? There was supposed to be an Earth shatterin KABOOM!"

Every Sunday evening Dad and I would watch Looney Toons, The Bugs Bunny and Tweety Show. We would watch it so regularly that I can hear the announcer saying the title in my head right now. One of my favourite characters was Marvin the Martian. As a matter of fact, he is still one of my favourite cartoon characters.My dad however, liked Duck Dodgers (in the 24 1/2 century!).

Whack-A-Kitty Part II

A long while back I posted about a YouTube video called Whack-A-Kitty. So freaking cute the only 'words' that could describe it were O M G.
Now it seems there is a part II:

I love these kittens and this video makes me smile uncontrollably.

Cube Illusion

Whenever I randomly draw things, I end up drawing them in 3D. I will draw a box around an important phone number or person's name when I am on the phone and then make that 3D. So this little video is even more neat...but really it is just super cool all on its own.

Way Back Whenesday: My Little Pony

Weren't my little ponies wonderful?! I personally had three of them and I loved them dearly. And look at the technology of them - I mean, they can turn their heads ever so slightly!!
From what I can remember, I had a little one, like the ones in the commercial here (though mine didn't have a bib), a mommy pony and then another one. I am pretty sure I used them as Barbie's horses now and then, but primarily played with them on their own.
The strongest memory I have was when we went to the house (mansion) of one of my dad's bosses at P&G. I brought my ponies so that the little girl and I could play while the grownups talked. The little girl had multiple bedrooms and her third floor bedroom was basically just a playroom - it also happened to be her My Little Pony bedroom. She must have had 50 ponies at least and it made my measly three seem like crap.
My Little Ponies are used a little differently nowadays and by older people. On DeviantArt there are artists that manipulate Ponies into really awesome creations, like the one below. My favourite of these artist is Spippo.

Way Back Whenesday: American Gladiators

American Gladiators aired from 1989 to 1996. It was a tournament show that put regular people (selected by certain tests of strength and agility) up against the Gladiators. These were trained 'pros' and were absolutely massive in terms of muscle. Tyler and I watched these shows on the weekend while playing in the basement. Later on, it was referred to in several shows we watched after school including Saved by the Bell and Family Matters.
There was a revival of the show in 2008 apparently, but it only lasted two seasons.

Way Back Whenesday: Duracell Tester Strip

Grandma Conlin always had one of these tester strips in her junk drawer and Madison and I thought it was the neatest thing. Okay, maybe it was just me. Either way, they were neat. They did not however, work nearly as fast as the commercial makes you think. In fact, sometimes they were so slow that you had to hold on to them long enough for them to become very hot.

Way Back Whenesday: Rainbow Brite

Though I didn't watch the TV show on a regular basis, nor owned any of the dolls, I remember Rainbow Brite perfectly. My friends had her dolls, and those of her little sidekicks and we would play with them now and then. The show was pretty classic though - Rainbow Brite, her little sprite sidekick and her colour pals would fight the evil villains of the show.

Way Back Whenesday: Hocus Pocus

Hocus Pocus was one of my favourite Halloween based movies when I was growing up. I thought the song Sarah Jessica Parker sang to lure into the children was really pretty and I always wanted to be her character when I was watching it.
If memory serves, it is also where Chris' cat Binx got her name - though they thought she was a he when they first got her and her name was therefore Zachary Binx after the boy/cat in the movie.

Techno Jeep

Dave sent me a link to this one day at work. I think it is really awesome. It is called Techno Jeep and more stuff from the creator can be found at Julian Smith TV.

DJ Earworm

A couple days ago Jerrica posted a link on her Facebook wall:

Turns out it is a mash-up of the top 25 (most popular) songs from 2009 (as determined by Billboard Magazine) done by DJ Earworm. Since Dave loves music I sent the link to him and he in turn starting looking for more from him and found his website with tons of mash-ups on it including his annual top 25 mash-up from the past few years. The mixes are absolutely amazes and as another friend put it further proves that American pop songs are so similar that they can be made into one song - I add to that, if you are good enough at mixing.

Way Back Whenesday: He Man

This was one of Tyler's shows that we watched while playing in the basement. He also had various toys based on the show that he would play with. The reason I am posting this is not because I remember watching the show or him playing with the toys, but rather because I would steal his purple cat, which was the bad guys (Skeltor) battle cat named Panthor, and use it as a toy for my Barbies. I don't know exactly why I thought a giant cat would be a good house pet for Barbie, but the purple colour likely had something to do with it. Anyway, what respectable evil villain has a giant purple cat as a pet - really now?!

Way Back Whenesday: Teddy Ruxpin

Teddy Ruxpin was one of my favourite children cartoons. His voice was soft and soothing and I loved him very much. I wanted to get one of the Teddy Ruxpin talking dolls, but they were deemed too expensive or generally unnecessary. I did however have one of his friends. I don't remember what they are called but they were the little jumpy guys that followed Teddy around. They were cute and I had a hand puppet one. You could move it's mouth, eyes and antenna and make its neck really long (as it was essentially a sock). (image found through Google) I took it to daycare one day and then lost it shortly thereafter. I found one at daycare and must have thought it was mine so I took it home. A few years later I found two of them sitting in my toybox and realized that I had actually stolen the one from the daycare - oh well.

The Cutest AT AT

Though this is freaking adorable, I promise I will never (let Dave) dress our dog up as an AT AT. But look at how cute this little guy is - especially when his owner starts singing and talking to him and his little tail starts wagging.