Jason's+page

I'm new to wikis - and accidentally posted on Jakes page before manging to find my way here - multitasking during class while listening to Kathreen should probably best be kept to a minimum!! I just wanted to add to what Jake was saying (and I totally dig this man's enthusiasm) about the TED talks - that they have been criticised as being tailored and catering specifically to corporate interests. It's not obvious in all the talks, and I'm not against the idea in general - but I am an advocate of healthy skepticism when big money interests are involved. Here's the talk that made me think it would be good to filter the TED talks from a number of perspectives: [] And here's my favorite TED talk: []
 * YES!!!**

He makes 'armegeddon' relatively amusing and really brings it down to Earth. I've been a TED fan for awhile - just saying - it's always wise to keep an eye out for peoples hidden motivations/agendas.

//On a different note:// Here's a link to one of my favorite art sites with some (brilliant) inspirational West coast artists that I've 'lurked' in over the years (Lurk just reminds me so much of the devil in Neil Gaiman's 'Good Omens'...): [] And this one is also really excellent if you're looking for backgrounds, desktop art, or amateur and professional artists: []

I'm also new to blogs, but feeling stoked about the possibilities: [] Should be podcasting some original music by the end of the week - I was playing in 3 bands (2 original, 1 cover) and teaching full time high school EFL until my most recent 5000 km puddle jump - right now focused on upgrading skills at UVIC... Cheers!!

I wonder if anyone had heard about the recent (last week!!) Twitter virus before our last class? [] I have to say - with supermassive connectivity comes the potential for disastrous misuse by angst ridden hackers... Might even be considered amusing techno-social commentary in some circles. Megalomaniosaurus egos of Twitter, beware!!<?>

**PHOTO EDITING ASSIGNMENT!!**
The original photo was taken by 'Wonderlane' on October 7, 2007 using a Nikon D70. Userpage:[| http://www.flickr.com/photos/wonderlane/]

Exposure down to -33, contrast up to 45. Increased color saturation filter. Added text: "Namaste", font "birth of a hero". Simple. Effective. Looks cool. Heaps of options if you're willing to throw a few bucks their way.
 * PICNIK**.

As expected, steep learning curve. Experimented with layering, cropping, and filters for a few hours. Greatest difficulty was in re-sizing cropped items to match size with background layers. I used the 'artistic' softglow filter and a sharpen filter to fuse blended colors with sharp lines, then layered a picture of myself taken at Horth Hill in Saanich last year. The final (3rd) layer is the 'shri yantra' mandala symbol. I used a brush to darken the eyes of skeleton, bhudda, and self, and added the 'sparks' brush feature to the center of the eyes. Used the 'transparency' function to bring all 3 layers into the level of appropriate focus, and that's about it!! The final (overall) effect is is somewhat busy and bizarre, but after 3 hours of negotiating the program, I'm done!! The good thing is that experience with these programs is cumulative, and the next time I wander into gimp to edit something, I'll have a good knowledge base to begin with.
 * GIMP.**

Picnik is a breeze compared to GIMP - and has some cool fonts and effects you won't find elsewhere...but with gimp the scope of visual editing possible is practically limitless. With technical mastery of the gimp program you'd be limited only by your imagination. Picnik is great for a quick edit, and knowing some basic functions in gimp can open a whole range of higher possibilities. There are plenty of tutorials for gimp online. In a pinch, enjoy Picnik, if there's more time (and Zed's dead)...bring out the GIMP!!
 * Final Analysis.**