In Honor Of Cecil

             
          Please Note:  Public domain images has being used.

Dentist felt remorse for killing Cecil ? I don't think so or he wouldn't have killed Cecil in the first place ! 

 Hunters usually hunt  animals for food and not for fun. This coward needs to be punish for killing a protected species, at least in Cecil's case. 

People can destroy this coward  by attacking his wallet for example for  not being  his patients anymore. .

I hope the courts fines him heavily and maybe the people themselves will forbid him to live in anybody's  neighborhood.

Now since we are on the subject of felines there are at least two species of cats that kill for fun even tough they are well fed  The first one is a Panther and the other one is the ordinary house cat but for  the latter we don't have to worry about  "alive" people being eaten.

Crossing a black cat's path is to suppose give  a person bad luck  superstitious nonsense of course ,unless the black cat is a black panther then it's definitely bad luck. Panthers can reach a speed of 35 miles per hour.

Now if you do cross a black house cat's path  what does it mean? It  means simply that he/she is just going somewhere.

One  habit house cat may do is to return home and show his/hers owner a dead mouse or dead bird in its mouth. Don't punish your cat ,he/she is simply giving you  (the owner ) a gift.

Sometimes a house cat might drop a dead mouse or dead bird by anyone's garbabe can.This time the house cat is offering a trade. In cat's  way of thinking 'Give me the contents of your garbage can and I will give you a dead mouse or bird' . 

As for the top picture I have made  from public domain resoures I am placing it in the public domain. END

Painting Stars Using Photoshop Very Easy.

There are several ways to paint stars with a brush. The most easiest way is to define a brush. First download a picture in this case a star. In photoshop go to 'image' then 'resize' and resize the picture let's say 285 by 279 pixels.If you do not want the black background  just the star itself ,then use the magic eraser tool to erase  its background.

Now you're ready ,simply go to 'edit' and then click 'define brush' and that's it.  The define brush will be the last  in your menu of  brushes.

Now  if the black background was erased via the magic eraser tool the define brush image will just be that of  a star itself.

Now to add color simply go to 'window' in your photoshop ,choose 'swatches' and choose  your favorite color.You can use your define brush to paint or just use your define brush as a stamp tool which I have in the picture below.The following picture I had used a flowered pattern stamping a flower one at a time.

Now the define brush or even a 'define pattern' for that matter is handy if you want to set up a digital signature.

Another trick:   Suppose you use the photoshop's pencil at its lowest pixel level, Can't see it?  Well, simply go to 'enhance' then click 'invert' if the pencil was writing in black  it will show up white. When done just 'invert' the picture again.

click here for Little Star sung by The Elegants.

Mouseballus Geocery Store Gimmicks

Okay, you go to the store and purchase one carton (12 cans) of mouseballus' soda for $2.50. Later that week you pick up a flyer and it says 'mouseballus carton soda 4/ $11 or 4 for $11'. Did the flyer say it was on sell  ? Or did they simply say 4 for $11.Did you actually save any money ?  Let's find out.

First let's do the math in our head. We know it is 4 for $11, for now let's forget about the extra dollar and call it 4 for $10 .The trick is reduce it to one item. We divide each side by two which gives us 2 for $5 ,and then divide by 2 again which gives us 1 for $2.50.

Now for the extra dollar ,we divide that $1 by 2 which is fifty cents, and again divide it by 2 and get 25 cents. We add the 25 cents to the  already $2.50 and we get $2.75 meaning for each set of 4 cartons of soda pop you buy the store is getting an extra 75 cents. If you bought 8 the store will  be getting an extra $1.50.

Here's another example: One 2 liter bottle of soda pop costs $1.62 but you see in your flyer they are on "sell" at  3/$5 or 3 for $5.That actually averages out to $1.67 per bottle, so instead of saving you money ,the store is actually  getting an extra 15 cents for each set of 3. If you bought six the store will be getting an extra 30 cents.

Yet another example: The canned goods at the store is 89 cents each ,then you see in your flyer 'canned goods 10/$10 'meaning for each canned good you buy the store is getting an extra 19 cents.So for each set of 10 the store is getting an extra $1.90,If you bought 20 cans the store is getting an extra $3.80.

Now outside of the store aisles you may see a display of shelves that may contain potato chips and/or other snack food. That doesn't mean they are sell it is just stuff they want to get rid of.

Food gets old and the store has no choice but either throw them away or reduce the price. For example a package of steaks originally  sold for $14 but now they are $5 off or $9. Respect your vegetarians for without them maybe meat  prices wouldn't be going down

. As for me I am an omnivore meaning I eat fruits, vegetables and meat. Being  just a vegetarian may be a better health choice ,but I am in my mid-sixties so my lifespan  may be almost over anyway, so I am going to enjoy my steaks.  ;)

Who knows ? If I am lucky enough to be in my mid-nineties I may take up smoking and drinking. LOL

Penny And Sheldon 2 + 2 = Fish

There are a lot of fan fiction stories of "The Big Bang Theory" on line. Here's mine:

One day while looking around her apartment Penny decided to buy new furniture but she had no  extra money. So to make extra money Penny made a bet with Sheldon for $350 that he could not solve a puzzle. They both agreed on a 12 hour time limit.

After putting up her swivel green chair for collateral  that Sheldon loves so much , Penny took out her compact  from her purse and  started  to powder her face and  told Sheldon this puzzle:  2 + 2= fish,  3 + 3 = 8 and 7 +7 =triangle.

"I got it" said Sheldon "You just ate fish at the Bermuda Triangle". "Nope, that's not it" said Penny "I will tell you the answer in about 12 hours.

After the 12 hours were up Penny told Sheldon the answer, she also told him she gave him a hint with her compact.What does the compact contain?  For one thing it has a mirror.Amy and Bernadette were also in the room.

Penny goes on to explain: " When you take the mirrored image of the number 2 and overlap it with the original image  of 2 you get  a image of a fish."

"With the mirror image of the number 3 if you overlapped that with the original image of 3 you get the number 8"

"Now with the mirrored image of 7 if you overlapped that with the original 7 image  you get a triangle"

Sheldon was amazed and told Penny "That's clever, how come I did not pick up on that  ?"   Penny explained "Well, Sheldon ,you are too use in thinking in scientific terms that you usually over look the most obvious "

Sheldon   writes a check for $350 and gives it to Penny. "Wait, Penny don't leave until I deduct that amount from my balance" .After which Penny takes off to go shopping.

When Bernadette was sure that Penny was out of hearing range ,she began  to speak "That was very kind of you, Sheldon"  (Sheldon pretends that he has no idea what Bernadette  is talking about.)

Amy speaks up: "Oh common Sheldon !, We all know you knew the answer  all along ,and it is all right to have a soft spot for Penny. After all, Bernadette and I love her too, she's our friend."

[ But why is Sheldon being so generous ?  It's because one Christmas Penny gave Sheldon an  napkin autographed by Leonard Nimoy that he wipe his mouth on and Sheldon can't seem to pay Penny enough for this extraordinary gift ]

Same Tune Different Lyrics and Jody Miller

What does the kids' songs ABC, Ba Ba Black Sheep and Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star have in common?  They all have the same tune but different lyrics.Below is a song (with a different tune) sung by Roger Miller titled "King Of The Road":
        King Of The Road sung by Roger Miller

Now enter Jody Miller. I have had seen Jody Miller one year performing at the Ohio State Fair while Jody was singing I took out my binoculars for a closer look. Jody spotted me and smiled (ear to ear ) at me. Hey, Jody Miller smiled at me if we had twitter back then I would be definitely be tweeting about it. :)

In 1968 : Jody Miller volunteered to perform at the naval hospital in Chicago,Illinois. It was about 9:30 PM when she entered our hospital room and we were also told that she was also one of the  dancers from "The Gary Moore Show" a fact I did not know.

Unfortunately, when she was finish performing she did not receive any applause what so ever, it was late and we were  all tired. I haven't felt so guilty in my life, even to this day.

Maybe, if we weren't so rude , we could  probably have gotten  pre-sign personally signed  autograph pictures.I am just hoping that Jody forgave us; Anyway, it was cool to have her in the same room with us.

Below is a song titled "Queen Of The House" sung by Jodi Miller using Roger Miller's "King Of The Road" tune:

      Queen Of The House sung by Jody Miller


Below is a song titled "Wolverton Mountain" sung by Claude King this song is in stereo but the 45 RPM shown in the picture is not, it would have been posted on the label:
    Wolverton Mountain sung by Claude King

This song  below is titled: "I'm The Girl From Wolverton Mountain" sung by Jo Ann Campbell using Claude King's tune but with different lyrics: 

     I'm The Girl From Wolverton Mountain

This song below titled again  "Wolverton Mountain" with Claude King's lyrics but this time sung and played by Louie Armstrong a jazz singer.Have no idea what this song's genre is ,but it seems to me it is country with a mix  of  the blues and jazz:
Jazzy Wolverton Mountain by Louie Armstrong

                         Finis

Bionic Woman And The Subconscious MInd

First let me point out controlling bionic limbs with toughts is really not far fetch as it sounds. In fact it is possible to amplify the nerves electric signals with a device, but unlike the fantasy science fiction shows like "The Six Million Dollar Man" and "The Bionic Woman" they won't be jumping 20 feet in the air or turn over a car with a bionic arm

The Bionic Woman is a spin-off of the "Six Million Dollar Man" Lindsay Wagner was cast  for The Bionic Woman for her sister's birthday  "The Bionic Woman Parts I and II".The Six Million Dollar Man's name is Steve Austin.

Jamie was planning to marry Steve Austin but while  skydiving Jamie had a parachute accident, it got caught in tree limbs and the parachute ripped dropping Jamie 20 feet to the hard ground .Jamie was later  made bionic.

In part 2 of The Bionic Woman her body began to reject her bionics causing her extreme pain and she ran off,at the hospital she died.The story was going to end there but ABC got tons of letters to bring  The Bionic Woman back.

In  the episodes of "The Return Of The Bionic Woman" when Jamie was brought to life she suffered partial amnesia.When Steve visited Jamie in the hospital  her first question was "Who are you ?" then she started to feel extreme pain. Dr. Ruby Wells re-check her bionics ,as well as her human body and everything was fine.Once again Steve tried to visited Jamie and again she felt extreme pain.

Steve figured out later that it was him causing Jamie subconsciously  physical pain. Even his picture in the newspaper would set her extreme pain off, so Steve decided to leave, so Jamie can enjoy her life without pain and they were never to see each other again.

Both "The Six Million Dollar Man" and "The Bionic Woman" both have cartoon overtones. Both Jamie and Steve have bionic legs and a bionic right arm. Steve also has a  bionic right eye while Jamie has a bionic right ear. Why on the right side for both Jamie and Steve? To make it easy for the directors.

By the way, when you see Steve or Jamie jumping on top of a building it is actually a stunt person jumping backwards, then they run the film backwards.

click here for more details of The Bionic Woman

click here to see Lindsay Wagner's Picture

Making A Perfect Circle And Other Photoshop Tricks.

Did you ever wanted to make a perfect circle using photoshop? It does take quite a bit of time, so what to do?  Simple, cheat just type circles in your browser, choose images and download the circles that already have been created.

Once in photoshop you can erase the white or other color background by using photoshop's magic eraser tool, then use its marque tool to select ,then go to "edit" then  "copy" .go to a different background and then click "edit" and "paste" which then can be resized and/or  moved by using photoshop's move tool.

Now for animation: 

Notice the picture below it has one background and 26 layers. The eye icon means that the layers are visible. 

In the picture above we see all 26 layers ,to get to one layer  visible we can uncheck the layers one by one ,but that takes up too much time, but we can use "alt and left click" to choose one layer, let's say layer one and the other layers will become invisible and the eye icons will also disappear except of course for layer 1.

However the background will also become invisible, so we have to recheck the background ,then we can save the first  frame as a1. Once that is done we uncheck layer 1, and then check layer 2 and we can save the second frame as a2  and so on.

Frames saved as: 

       a1,a2,a3,a4,a5,a6,a7,a8,a9,     

b1,b2,b3,b4,b5,b6,b7,b8,b9,

c1,c2,c3,c4,c5,c6,c7,c8

What happen to "a10" or "b10" well, if you save a frame as "a10" it will go in front of "a1"  which will make the frames go out of sequence.Same with "b10"  it'll go in front of "b1".

Now all these frames will be saved in the photoshop (*PSD *PDD) picture format which unfortunately windows movie maker cannot use. However, we can convert those images into another picture format automatically using Photoshop Elements 2.0.

If you have Photoshop Elements 2.0 you can go to "file", "batch processing" as you see in the picture below all the images will be converted to the jpeg format in which windows movie maker can use and of course the "rename" box is left unchecked. A "source folder" and a "destination folder" must be chosen.

Then it is just a simple matter of adding all these "frames" in windows movie maker, set the time for each frame and then add music.See my finished animation below:

Note: If you open your frames folder and the icons are not in ascending order: Right click on a blank space inside of your folder, click on "sort by name"  if you want the images in descending order just click on "sort by name" again. 

In some operating systems there may be ascending and descending check boxes, so once you choose "sort by name"  check one of those boxes as well. (finis)

Remembering Karen Black..R.I.P

Karen Black was an actress who died in 2013 from cancer, tomorrow July 1st would have been her birthday which would have made her 76 years old.

Believe it or not:  Karen Black has a sister named Gail Brown who was formerly an actress on the soap opera "Another World".Black and Brown ? It's just one of those things.

The first movie I saw starring  Karen Black was "The Great Gatsby".In one scene the director and camera man did quite a tight close-up of Karen Black's face which was about 4 feet tall on the screen WHOAAAAaaaa!

In 1974 I use to live in a small town that didn't have any entertainment not even movie theaters  fortunately they had a pharmacy that sold Greyhound bus tickets.

One Saturday and still in 1974: I took a Greyhound bus to Danville, Illinois to see the movie "Airport 75" the cost of the 30 mile round trip ticket back then was $5.25 also at the time if you saw the movie  once , you can stay in the theater and see it again. The cost of the movie ticket was $3.50.

The Greyhound arrived at the bus station in Danville,Illinois about 9 AM Central time, so I had to fool around a little bit until the theaters open usually 2:00 PM.

Mainly I went shopping they had a clothing store there called "Gary's" and I bought 3 pairs of blue jeans at 3 for $5  and I also bought other items from other stores as well.

Where did I store all those items after they have been bought ? Well, back at the bus station ,they had lockers where you put two quarters in a slot, turn the key, open the door, put your bags in and pull out the key and keep it in your pocket until you're done with your business.

Not only that I went to food places like "Steak and Shake" I usually ordered a steak burger sandwich ,french fries and a milkshake "At 9:30 in the morning ??!!! " ; "Yes, at 9:30 in the morning and a lot of onions and red/green peppers, please." I had a cast iron stomach back then, also I had done  a lot of walking from place to place in Danville.

After the movie I did a lot more fooling around,maybe going to another movie theater showing  a different movie, until 7 PM which was the time the Greyhound will have  taken me back home.

In 1983 I have ask for Karen Black's autograph via  U.S.A snail mail ,back then celebrities  gave autographs out for free just for the asking. 

In 1985 I finally received Karen Black's autograph and for some reason it came from a hotel in Toronto, Canada.In the picture below notice the gold emboss in the upper left corner, also notice in her autograph where she crossed the lines (over lapping) they are darker indicating a live signature.

Click here for Karen Black's picture when she was young.

Below you can see a full Karen Black movie titled "Trilogy Of Terror ( one hour 12 minutes)"  Remember tough the year was 1975 and only so far they can go according to the 1975 Television codes.

click here for Trilogy OF Terror (1975)

Yes, there are pictures  of Karen Black's sister Gail Brown online but this blog is about Karen Black.(Finis)

IRS Scam And Other Bad Stuff

Yes, there is an IRS scam going around which actually is a phising and getting your money scam. Strange that they want to get your personal info. If they were from the government they already know who you are. 

I did get a call supposely from the IRS. I made a video below:

As for other bad stuff for example you're watching an youtube video  a ad pops up saying you need to update your drivers.

Don't trust the ad. 

If you suspect your drivers need updated go to "Optional Updates"  at the Windows update site ,to see if there is a fix and they'll fix it free of charge.They may list other optional updates ,just install the ones you actually need. Optional updates are just that "optional" ,and not for computer security and safety.

. One day I had to install an optional update because I couldn't play Netflix movies anymore ,but once the optional update was installed everything was fine.In fact, it was Netflix itself that told me to go to windows update (optional).

As for important and/or critical updates they should be installed automatically or if not you can install them manually.

Windows 8 and 8.1 comes with its own free antivirus and malware scanner called "Windows Defender"  people with windows 7 can download "Mircosoft Security Essentials" free for home or small business use.Big businesses are charge.

I usually do a full scan on Thursday night since I will be watching TV for about 4 hours anyway. Yet, after the scan said everything is fine ,I went to this site saying I have malware. Well, I am not going to fall for it but going to trust windows defender instead.

Don't trust the pop-up below .or other pop-ups like it for that matter, and definitely do not click the download button.

After a windows update scan you may see the program "malistious removal tool"   which definitely needs to be installed. This tool looks for specific prevalent malicious software and worms.

Worms look for security holes and change or destroy your computer files.If you do have a worm or malistious software they will report it to you and tell you what has to be done. 

If everything is fine it will just run silently in the background as an extra protection for your windows computer.  (end)

My Late Dad Who Was In The Marines

As you may know this coming Sunday is Father's day.
Picture below is when my dad was in the nursing home.

Near the end of the funeral I was honored to recieve the American flag that rested above his coffin. 

Notice the flag is folded into a triangle (12 folds). Now they say each fold means something, I don't believe so ,or else 

when I was in the Navy each fold of your clothing should also mean something. 

All of our clothes regardless what they were, where always folded into triangles to save space (spare sailor suits, raincoats, jackets etc.); Of course, our spare hard shoes couldn't be folded but they went into our duffel bags as well.

Believe it or not the Navy is part of the Marines except the Navy doesn't have any obstacle courses training, nor do they have sergeants.

click here for My Dad Was Buried Valentine's Day

My Daredevil Days

One summer day in Columbus,Ohio (1967)  my parents ask me if I want to go to the "Dead Man Caves" it'll be fun. It was fun for awhile, until I had to cross a swaying wooden bridge that was about 100 feet in the air.

My parents walk across the bridge as it was nothing but I was on my hands and knees crawling. My parents keep telling me "Don't look down"  but I made it unfortunately I had to cross this bridge again on the way home.

The following summer  my parents ask me again if I wanted to go to the "Dead Man's Cave" and said yes again because I forgot about the wooden bridge. Summers after that I said "NOOOO!" Even if the wooden bridge had hand railings I am still not walking across it. Never <(  HWTS !

In the years of 1965 to 1968 I had  a membership for the Columbus,Ohio Olympic Swimming Pools.

They had two pools one which had water no greater than 6 feet ( no diving board), and another one with a diving board about 70 feet high in the air.

Most of the time I was swimming in the 6 foot pool until I decided to show off in front of the girls (I was a teenager),and to dive from a diving board that is 70 feet up in the air. I done this stunt three times during the summer months and figured that was enough.

In the late 1968 in Chicago,Illinois: I was in the Navy boot camp and had to jump off a platform that was more than 70 feet in the air.I figure it may be 150 feet.

They told me before I jump: to cross my arms, cross my legs like anchor and keep looking straight ahead ,akin to what a ballerina dancer does when she/he is spinning keep staring at the same spot.

Needless to say I was scared. A sailor came over to me and ask "Are you scared ?" and before I could answer I was pushed in.

I'm glad that I'm retired. My daredevil days are over :)