I like to read.
I feel a little bit adrift if I don’t have a book (or three) sitting on my bed stand.
It’s good for my soul.
Last year I read a biography of Albert Einstein (part of a biography kick I was on). Among all the interesting things I learned about physics, scientific theory, and his unfathomable genius, there is one quote that has really stuck with me.
An interviewer asked him what it was like to be so brilliant, and Einstein replied that he didn’t consider himself that much smarter than other people he just thought he was more curious.
He felt that it was his curiosity that made him push past the obvious and try to learn the how and why something worked the way it did.
It probably helps to have a 350 IQ too.
*** Now I have to make a witty transition from talking about the most brilliant physicist in modern history to talking about myself.
Lest anyone mistakenly think that I am in the same league with Dr. E, I’ll share a few little tidbits about me:
I stink at physics/math/theoretical-gobbly-gook.
The Nobel Prize search committee has not been calling
I flunked out of college German (long story).
Having cleared up that misconception, the ONLY thing that I have in common with the author of e=mc2 is that I’m a little curious too.
Not curious enough to figure out how big the universe is, but curious enough to learn something new.
That curiosity is what led me to learn about saving money to I could be a full time Mommy.
Then it lead to making things at home so I could have little luxuries that weren’t in my budget.
And then it led to blogging and sharing all of my very random musings about my life.
Right now my curiosity has been piqued by a new thing: PhotoShop.
I have been hopping all over the blogosphere and I see these AMAZING examples of people who really know how to make pictures zing (like Darcy and Amy and Ree) and I want to learn how to do that.
My fingers are itching to learn how to do that.
I have checked out every PhotoShop book from our local library in order to learn how to do that (that is a grand total of one book – it’s a small town).
But here are some good tidbits that you will want to know:
You can get a free, 30 day test drive of Photoshop from Adobe. I would highly recommend this since you don’t want to squander money on something you won’t use. I’m taking advantage of this offer to make an informed decision between PhotoShop Elements 7 and Photoshop CS. I’m leaning towards CS but it costs a bit more, so I need to make sure.
EVEN MORE EXCITING is a free PhotoShop tutorial being offered this week from Jessica Sprague. I signed up and I can’t wait until it starts on July 6th – I need someone to explain the whole layers thingy. And the magic wand thingy. And the mask thingy (as you can see, I’ve already mastered the lingo).
Wish me luck!
(If you know of any other PhotoShop resources for a newbie like me, please leave a comment below. I’m eager to learn!)
{ 2 comments… read them below or add one }
Oh, I LOVE Jessica!! You'll learn a lot from her! I'm constantly scouring the web for PS and PSE tutorials, too. I've found a few on youtube that help, too. I like to see things DONE, not just all written out.
Have fun playing with Photoshop!!!
I totally agree Stephanie!
I'm only on day three of her free tutorial, but my understanding of photoshop as increased by a GAZILLION! It is so much easier to watch someone do it than read about it (which is funny, since I'm a big fan of books!)
I'm still using the free trial of CS4, and I'm inclined to buy the CS3 package instead of Elements. Looks like there are some inexpensive options via Amazon. What do you use?
I'll be sure to check out YouTube – thanks for the tip!