I love playing around with graphics even if I’m not a Graphic Artist by training. In my soul I am an artist so when I play with images I am a graphic artist, no? So last I was in an artsy mood and got a bug up my butt to do something. I have been a little bit antsy from staying at home with the new puppy so now that I have moved my desktop computer into the family room so I can keep an eye on little Guy and work with a bit more power than my iPad provides, I was absolutely itching to create. I decided this site looked too “Summer.” And Fall is definitely here. We’re supposed to only get up into the 80s today and down into the low 60s at night here in Tucson! Yes!
INFRASTRUCTURE
I use the Feather theme by Elegant Themes which allows me to easily upload header images which are called logo images, for some reason I cannot fathom, by Nick Roach, the guy who creates these WordPress themes that I use on my stand alone WordPress installation through the hosting account I have with Host Gator. It works well through the Firefox browser on the 2009 upgraded large screen iMac that I have.
PREVIOUS IMAGE REUSE
I started out by searching my computer for the layered graphic I created for the header I was using up until last night.
I found the single layer version of the image that was a .png file, but I could not find the layered ArtText file in which I’d created the image. Grrrrr. I hate it when I skip over such a basic step as saving a copy of my creation in the native format of the program I am using. Art Text allows me to export images as various types of files. I chose to export a .png format with an alpha, or transparent, background.
ART TEXT STEPS
So when I am using Art Text I remember to do this:
And not this:
So because I had not done this second action, I could not rework the original image and just replace the dragonfly with the bat. So I had to recreate the image. I can never leave things alone when given a chance to change them, so I altered some elements of the image. I replicated the overall feel of the image but made a few changes. You can see the Art Text tool bar showing some of the layers at the bottom of this image:
As you might have been able to tell, I do the logo image and the text as individual images both of which I export as .png format images.
LAYERING IMAGES AS LAYERS IN GIMP
Once those two images are created using ArtText, saved as an ArtText file .artx and exported as a .png, I open them in GIMP. I create a blank transparent image in the size that I want the new image to be. It looks like this:
Then I insert one of the images as a layer:
Then I add the second image (of the words) and position it to the right of the first layer image and save it with the title I want:
THEME INTERFACE
Then, finally, I save this image in a format that my theme’s GUI (graphic user interface) can recognize and upload it.
MANY WAYS TO CREATE IMAGES
I use ArtText because it a very functional and easy to use logo, icon, and button creator. If your were greatly skilled in GIMP or Adobe Photoshop you could do all this in one graphics program. I had to get something out quickly once and bought ArtText and learned to love it. GIMP is Open Source, which is not the same thing as free, but there is no cost to download the program, and it is available for most platforms. Since I don’t have a lot of money to support the project, I promo it whenever I can, such as in this post to help the project. You can also donate money. If you regularly use an open source product, giving back as much as you can is the proper way to support it.
LESSONS LEARNED
Save or export as many versions as you will want at the end of the process immediately upon creating any sort of file! That is the most important info to take away from this post.
I now have a header image that I can alter for Thanksgiving, Christmas, Winter, Spring and so on. I wanted to alter the header as a way of keeping a site fresh but familiar while reusing elements of pre-existing projects to save time and energy. Wheels are wonderful, but there are no good reasons for reinventing them.
Sharing Information, Sharing Smiles
Yesterday a set of comments on the blog post I wrote the previous day, Saturday, reinforced a very powerful bit of information which I have a tendency to forget over time. We all know different things. You may well say, “Of course!” At the most basic level, sure, we all know this, yet as a writer, blogger, and graphics nerd; I can forget that the things with which I work, day in and day out, are not common knowledge.
I was unsure as to whether I would be writing something that was of no practical use to anyone when I wrote a short post on a basic resource for free images. I didn’t want to insult anyone’s intelligence, and I’ve known of this resource for ages.
But those fears went away when one reader commented that she had bookmarked the resource and thanked me. The other comment that popped up Sunday morning was reinforcing the info I had shared as a known quantity but one of high quality. Today another reader thanked me. I love sharing information that is useful.
So today I’m wondering, how do I find out what it is that I know that others don’t know that they might want to hear about? I’m at a loss. I mean I can ask you the readers, and I am going to ask you, but other than questionnaires and scouring my analytics, what else is there? How do you determine the topics on which you write? What are the subjects of which you would like to see more? There is a poll on this topic in the sidebar; please fill it out if you would be so kind. It will remain open through October 31st. Do you like my reviews, my information nerd articles, pet articles, personal stories, or political stuff? You can always leave a comment too. Thanks!
9/11 Myths and Misinformation
This morning somehow, I think I was sleeping on the remote and punching buttons while I slept, I awoke to Fox News programming on which a guest, Retired General Michael Hayden, NSA Director leading up to and during 9/11/2001 was spewing vitriol about President Obama (please don’t say just Obama.) The Presidency and the current occupant of the highest office in the land is worthy of being shown respect no matter what your politics. Hayden is one of the people who were heads of Government Agencies that were charged with protecting the United States from the very kind of terrorist attack that they allowed to happen. Not only was he in a position of authority then, he was later with other higher level appointments and with nomination for head of the Central Intelligence Agency.
- He was Director of the National Security Agency (NSA) from 1999 to 2005.
- From April 21, 2005 to May 26, 2006 he was the Principal Deputy Director of National Intelligence
- And from May 30, 2006 – 12 February 2009,he was Director of the CIA
- On July 1, 2008, retired from the Air Force
Other Faux (pronounced Fox) Facts about September 11 that make my blood boil:
- Condoleeza Rice’s statement that “I don’t think that anybody could have predicted that these people would take an airplane and slam it into the World Trade Center, take another one and slam it into the Pentagon, that they would try to use an airplane as a missile …” is disingenuous at best. Some reasonable people knew in 1995 that something like this was being planned, as well as the warnings the Bush Administration had in August 2001. She should have made the President listen to her when she discussed the PDB in August 2012.
- “George Bush kept us safe.” Duh, the 9/11 attacks happened almost a year into his presidency. If Faux News can say that Obama is responsible for economic events that happened before his election, let alone his taking of office, then surely former President George W. Bush must take responsibility for an attack which had been warned of in one of his Daily Presidential Briefings almost a month before the attacks.
Richard Clark is one of the only people who admitted responsibility for screwing up and has talked about the guilt he feels for allowing 9/11 to happen. Read or watch his testimony before the 9/11 Commission to get the full impact of his apology to the American People. If you get a chance to watch the Secrets of 9/11 which I saw watched on Destination America Channel, formerly Planet Green, one of a group of Discovery Channels, I highly recommend it. It is not a 911 conspiracy product. It is fact filled reporting. Watch it if you can.
In the mean time, here is a video of Richard Clark talking about the build up of a 4th Branch of Government that was made 8 years ago that most people still don’t really comprehend. Just because there was a terrorist attack on the U.S. in September of 2001, something that had happened before, there is no justification for turning our country into a police state.
Here is another good summary article you should read: NSA Analyst: “We Could Have Prevented 9/11” if you want a more recent summary, May 2012, of what we know about that horrible chapter in American History.
This is a tough anniversary for the many people personally impacted by what happened 11 years ago today. So if you are not mourning personal losses suffered that day, why not pay respect to these thousands of souls lost to the physical world in the attacks by reading up on facts, not opinion pieces, about what happened.
Blessings to all the innocents who have, do, and will suffer from the ceaseless pursuit of war by we humans. If you are a praying person, please say a special prayer for peace today.
Deja Vu All Over Again Within The Women's Peace Movement
I am approaching the ten year mark for becoming a peace activist. That is a big chunk of my life and probably worthy of some reflection.
Working with groups of women to create public messages that cannot be missed and are memorable has been a big part of my life over the last decade. I became involved in working for peace, which is distinct and stands apart from being anti-war.
Working for peace has allowed me to find my personal power and true convictions. My search for peace and how I can help create a more peaceful world for my daughters and granddaughters has opened areas of understanding about my personal and family history and indeed about culture and humanity that I could have missed had I walked a different path. I have found meaning behind phrases. The courage of conviction means much more to me after facing adversity and knowing that truth and goodness backed me up. It is not a zealous fervor, rather it is a calm peace.
Working for peace, for me, requires being peace. After years of involvement I can now see themes and threads within the cloth of the movement. The patterns repeat and can prompt questions about the very notion of progress. I’m not sure that things ever really get better. Overall things just change. We can have some influence over the aspects of our lives where that change occurs, however. We, as a culture, can change the areas where we direct our focus. The places we focus our attentions are the areas where we put our practice and the areas where our visualization of goals can change outcomes.
I like the birth of movements and strategies. Small numbers of newly energized people more easily focus on large unifying goals, and differences have not had time to become entrenched. Ten years down the road that is less likely. The differences between the Democrats and the Greens, for example, in the ranks of the women’s peace movement are more evident as tactics that clearly frame different belief sets become the focus of disagreements within the larger group. There is a reason beyond simple financial considerations as to why 501c3, also known as “nonprofits,” steer clear of allegiance to particular political groups.
I love working for peace and pressing progress towards the area of peace. I dislike internal, fracticious divides as to who is more left or right. I dislike absolutes. I dislike oversimplification. I dislike the internal absolutes that divide people who should be working together for advancing overarching principles. Whether these divides are political or religious, we sometimes have to look beyond the differences to commonalities. Where can we work together? This is the question we should be asking ourselves.
I have no room for division. We can only advance toward common goals. You can call these goals progressive or conservative, but neither is accurate, we can only move toward preservation of our best aspirations as we move forward in time. The words of a woman who lived 150 years ago echo in my thoughts as I write this. I will listen for her voice in the messages that I hear this week I will align myself with the women who echo her message in calls for present and future action. That is all I can ever do.
The Eyes On The Ice Have It
In this second week of political theater as the Democrats prepare to take the stage after a week of Republican drama, I am thinking a lot about truth and lies. One of the things that I have seen recently that I cannot get out of my “mind’s eye” is a satellite image of the Northwest Passage that has opened in the Arctic ice.
Satellite images show the recent opening of a navigable route through the Arctic ice cap. For centuries explorers looked for a short-cut above the North American land mass for a direct route from Europe to Asia. A small sail boat has navigated the northern passage. A sail boat with no ice reinforcements on the fiberglass hull has made it through where only one freighter equipped with an ice-breaking, reinforced hull has previously made it through. There is less ice on the northern polar regions of our world than there has ever been since the birth of human civilization.
So what does this have to do with Republican and Democratic Conventions? A lot. Romney got lots of laughs when he said “President Obama promised to begin to slow the rise of the oceans and heal the planet. My promise is to help you and your family.” The end of world as we know it is not a laughing matter from my perspective and the scientific knowledge that informs it. More than anything else I want my daughters and granddaughters to be able to have a good life on as predictable of a political and climatological playing field as is possible.
I wish everyone would take the world’s situation with the seriousness it deserves. My heart aches when I think about what we could be doing to slow the changes that are escalating all around us. Our grandchildren will not understand why we allowed this to happen to their world. Playing politics when our world’s climate is destabilizing is selfish, short-sighted, and unforgivable. Making jokes about the change to our world is disgusting. Refusing to act on the change that we know is happening for personal gain, is criminal.
This week as I watch the Democratic National Convention I will be watching for remarks about future worlds that will be very real for the little ones I so love.
You Can Register Voters On Your Website!
You can put a voter registration box on your website!
Yes! Americans can register to vote through your website!
Get The Code Here!
I did and this is the form that was created for my website. Use it to register if you haven’t already! Or you can go to the page that has only the Voter Registration Form.
This is so cool. Thanks to the Queen of Spain Blog for facebooking this so I found out about it. Now, after you have registered and put this on your site, be sure to read the Queen’s post about her daughter’s reaction upon finding out there had never been a woman President of the United States! Our daughters are our future.