Thursday Thoughts

After two weeks of blogging, I've had some thoughts about it. Certainly I've gained new respect for anyone who writes a blog on a daily basis. I had no idea just how long it would take me to do this each day. I have lots of ideas, but it takes more than that. Scripts have to be written, links researched, the content needs careful proofreading ( and still I've had to go back to correct errors ). I need to create or find freebies. Lessons take the most time, since they require a lot of images and careful explanations. I have to find someone to test them and then make changes based on their experience. It's a big job.

Still I've enjoyed much of the process. I've learned some new things, met some new people and had the pleasure of sharing my knowledge and passion for PSP scripting. I'm not ready to give that up, but I'm dealing with a lot of physical constraints and something has to give.

So what to do? I don't think I have the total answer yet, but one piece of it will be to cut back on the number of posts each week. I'm happy with my daily categories and I plan on sticking to that format. But I won't be posting every day. So one week, you may get a Tuesday Tip and another a Friday Freebie.

If you've enjoyed following my blog, I hope you'll find this a satisfactory arrangement. If you miss a certain day or are interested in a particular topic, please let me know. Popular request will undoubtedly rule here. Since the scripting lessons are dearest to my heart, you'll continue to see those for sure. After quite a bit of initial interest, I haven't seen posts for the 2nd lessson. Recognizing that most of us have a lot of demands on our time, I'm going to extend that lesson for another week, before posting the third one. My goals is to post these twice a month. We'll see how it goes.

Though I'll be posting less, I hope that this approach will result in the best quality of scripting information for all of you.

Thursday Thoughts

The PSP Affair - Part 2

I took a sip of coffee, savoring the flavor, concentrating on remembering it. The ability to associate a name with a taste was just one of the things that strokes had wiped from my mind. I struggled to find names for flowers, birds and people too. As I sat the mug back on the table, it sprang from my hands, landed on the floor and began to spill it's contents across the floor. I did remember one thing quite clearly - this was the second time in 30 minutes that I'd spilled my coffee. A wave of self-pity washed over me.

It was time to begin my first PSP class. Why had I ever imagined that I could handle it? My clumsy hands would never be able to use graphics software. And how could I learn, if I couldn't even remember simple everyday things. What had I done to myself?

Nevertheless, I tackled the course. It took almost 3 weeks to complete the 1st lesson. The results were not stellar. But I kept going and it got a little easier. I had never considered myself an artisic type - in high school, I had chosen math classes over art. But as I continued the class, I began to derive a lot of pleasure from my PSP creations. Still, there were lots of rough patches along the way.

I sat one day playing with a page curl effect. I can't remember why, but I know that I was trying to make all four edges curl in and meet in a point at the center. It sounded simple, but I couldn't seem to make it happen. Unable to let it go, I persisted, becoming more frustrated with each try. Finally, I had to do something to vent my frustrations.

I added another layer to my image, selected an Easter Egg picture tube and proceeded to cover the layer with eggs. It became my virtual punching bag, as I slammed egg after egg after egg onto the layer. Some of the frustration diminished and I even managed a wry grin at the mess I'd created. Not yet ready to tackle the effect again, I selected the warp brush and began to swirl that eggy mess until the color began to blend. The result was quite formless, but the color was amazingly pretty.

Perhaps a Kaleidoscope would add some structure to this warped mess. I didn't play with the settings, just quickly applied the effect.

Then, my mouth dropped in surprise. A pretty flower in shades of green was the result of my effect and beneath it was revealed my half completed page curl.

And that's how Warped Eggs began.

Come on back tomorrow for Friday Freebies!

Tuesday Tips

This tip is for any PSPXI or PSPX2 user, who has been frustrated by slow-downs or crashes.

PSPXI was my first PSP version and I loved it at the start. Over time, it became increasingly slower and crashed at the most inopportune times. I got used to exiting and restarting at regular intervals and that helped a little. I stopped leaving PSP open when I wasn't using it. But when it crashed 4 times in 2 hours, I gave up. I acquired PSP9, since I'd heard so many good things about it. The crashes disappeared and everything ran faster, but I really missed some of the features I'd had in PSPXI.

Last week, I was searching for something else and found a hint that seemed too good to be true. But I gave it a try. And it worked. I intentionally left PSPXI up for 3 days and there were no slow-downs or crashes. I shared the hint with my daughter and she experienced the same happy results. I don't have PSPX2 yet, but I've seen comments from PSPX2 users, who say this works for them too.

1. Close PSP
2. Use Windows Explorer to go to your
   C:/Documents and Settings/your user name/Application Data/Corel directory
3. Rename the file ImageDB.db to ImageDB_SAVE.db
4. Rename the file thumbnails.db to thumbnails_SAVE.db
5. From the menu, select File/New/Text Document.
   Name this file ImageDB.db
6. Right-click on this new file and select Properties. On the General tab, check the "Read Only" Attributes box.
7. From the menu, select File/New/Text Document. Name this file thumbnails.db
8. Check the "Read Only" box as you did in Step 6

Evidently the slow-downs can be caused by the Photo Organizer, which uses large amounts of CPU time. These instructions replace the Organizer's data files with a blank file. It does disable your Organizer. I don't use this feature, so it seems like a fine trade-off to me. If you try to use the Organizer after completing the steps, it will show the palette, but display a message: "no files match your criteria."

I'd welcome comments on how this works for you.

Tomorrow is Wednesday Where (in the WWW), a day devoted to interesting and useful links. Hope you'll check it out.

Sunday Starters

I love children's art. Until the fault-finding adult world convinces them to do otherwise, children delight in their creativity. I strongly believe that we need to take time with the children in our lives to foster that creativity. It's a gift for a lifetime. I find that crafts, puzzles and games that require thought are fine tools for honing creative skills.

So Sunday will be my "starter" day. A day to start fostering creativity in your children, your grandchildren, your nieces and nephews, your neighbors' children, your friends' children ...

Well, I think you get the idea. And if you still find yourself without an available child, just look for that kid hiding inside you!

Since Easter is just a week away, I thought I'd share a few fun Easter links for children. Thanks to my granddaughter who helped to select these links and gave them a thorough six year old's test.

Decorate a Funny Faced Egg
Online Easter Coloring Pages
Printable Easter Coloring Pages
More Printable Easter Coloring Pages
Easy Online Easter Puzzle
Easter Egg Concentration Game

Tomorrow is Monday Mix-Ups. Even I am not sure what will happen! So check back to find out.

Saturday Scripts

Expand your PSP power with customized scripts. Do you enjoy animation? Scripts can help you create smooth animations quickly and accurately. Into photography? Scripts give you the power to speed image processing. Want to display graphics or photos on your website? Use a script to create an image display page for any images that you select. Scripts combine the power of PSP tools with the flexibility of the Python scripting language. Scripting allows you to create customized PSP tools that meet your specific needs.

Scripting is powerful, but it takes knowledge and practice to reap the rewards. Even though my background in computer programming helped me with some of the aspects of scripting, I have spent countless hours in the learning process. And I'm still learning more. I've worked on a structured way to share the knowledge that I've gained with you. Hopefully, it will make your learning easier and faster. Assignments will give you opportunities to practice what you've learned - a very important part of this process.

I've really enjoyed my first blogging days. A big THANK YOU to Tricia, who took my site graphics and setup this blog for me. Thanks to everyone who has stopped by and commented. Now I'm feeling like a kid at Christmastime. I can hardly wait to see what you think of Lesson 1.

Lesson 1 will be answering the question, "What is a Script?" Just click to check it out.

Don't forget to come back tomorrow for Sunday Starters. Creative fun and games for kids and the young at heart!

Friday Freebies

While Easter brings lots of PSP opportunities, making eggs is my favorite. Today's freebies are 33 Easter eggs in .png format. But that's not all. For those with the DIY urge, two scripts let you create eggs at the push of a button. In fact, each of the eggs that have been included were created from these scripts. Instructions are included with the download. I'm sure you'll enjoy letting the scripts take care of the repetitious work, so you can focus on colors and decorating.

If you haven't used scripts before, don't despair. Enjoy the eggs and spend some time making them your own. Many can be colorized quite easily. And there's always room for decorations. So enjoy. And tune in tomorrow for Saturday Scripts. Saturdays will be devoted to learning all about scripts. You'll be writing your own before you know it!

Thursday Thoughts

The PSP Affair, Part 1

My romance with PSP started two years ago. Yes, romance. I can assure you that no man in my life has every received this much of my time or fascination.

It started as therapy. Two strokes had robbed me of many things I had taken for granted. For several months, I had been a prisoner in my own body. Unable to do the simplest of things - roll over in bed, stand up without a walker, take care of basic hygiene. Looking up, down or in a mirror produced incredible dizziness and nausea. Despite these symptoms, I somehow knew that I had to keep moving , even when the movement was clumsy and the world seemed to sway in front of me. So I continued the struggle each day and very gradually my persistence was rewarded. The vertigo resolved and the walker was replaced with a cane.

Despite this huge improvement, I still lacked many fine motor skills. My fingers seemed disconnected from my brain. Buttons wouldn't button, pens wouldn't write legibly and objects continually leapt from my hands. My thoughts were disconnected too. I couldn't keep my mind focused on anything. Conversations and TV shows had large blank spots. The day's reading disappeared overnight. It seemed reasonable that my fingers and mind needed the same persistent exercise that had helped my body. My daughter had become involved in virtual scrapbooking and I loved her creations. So when I saw an online course for PSP, I decided to give it a try. I hoped that the struggle to learn something new and control graphic tools would be the therapy that my mind and fingers needed.

And that's how the affair began.

I'll share a little more of the PSP affair in next Thursday's Thoughts. But be sure to check back tomorrow for Friday's Freebie.