CM Simpson: Writer & Gamer

So, I'm doing my blog cruise this morning (because I haven't done one for almost a month), and I drop into the Aurealis site to discover they've announced the finalists. I'm not one of them, but there are a lot of fine writers who are. Why don't you head on over and check them out. You can find the Aurealis site HERE , and the finalist announcement HERE .

One of the things I was curious about was how to insert different backgrounds into an image once I had isolated it... and I wanted to see what some of the effects in Gimp did when used as backgrounds. Last week, I explored the Blend and Bucket Fill tools in the Toolbox dock, and the Difference Clouds and Plasma effects under the Render-Clouds option in the Filters drop-down. This week, I wanted to look at some of what might be done with the Colorize option under the Colors tab. BEFORE: What you Need: I usually have the following dockable dialogues visible as I work: Toolbox, Brushes,Tool Options and Layers-Gradients. You will need to be able to see these to work through the following steps. I have assumed that you already know how to resize an image using the drop-down menu under image. Please let me know if you don't, and I will write another post to explain it. How to Colorize an Image Background: Make sure you have a coloured background. (I used my P...

There is an amazing amount of birdlife around my house. This fellow was part of a small flock of galahs that settled down to feast on grass seeds and flower heads not far from my back fence: They noticed the camera with human attached and kept an eye on it: But ot even the youngest one let it disturb its feeding: I tried to capture more than one of them together, but this proved to be almost impossible, and got a very direct look from the youngest of the flock: In the end, they moved to what they thought was a safer distance and I was able to take a group shot.

Well, things have really slowed down with the start of the university semester. I’ve had to withdraw from one writer activity and turn down a beta read (sorry, Greta) already, and was almost late in prepping things for the C.M. Simpson Publishing release schedule – apologies, Ellie. I did manage to complete some short work, this week on the bus, but, as it’s not in the computer, yet, it doesn’t count. I will have to see if I can manage better, this week.   Overview New words produced: 2,070 Old words revised: 0 Works completed: 7 (for inclusion into a larger work) Works revised: 0 Covers created: 0 Works published: 0 Works submitted: 0 Competitions Entered: 0   Tier 1 Tasks Annual 13: Added 329 words Annual 14: Added 1,741 words Tier 2 Tasks RomNov14A— Country Rush : Added 1,296 words Publishing Tasks Created 1 blog posts for this blog; Did final edit, format and upload of Ellie Moonwater’s Candy Cane Dancer for C.M. Simp...

One of the things I was curious about was how to insert different backgrounds into an image once I had isolated it... and I wanted to see what some of the effects in Gimp did when used as backgrounds. BEFORE: What you Need: I usually have the following dockable dialogues visible as I work: Toolbox, Brushes,Tool Options and Layers-Gradients. You will need to be able to see these to work through the following steps. I have assumed that you already know how to resize an image using the drop-down menu under image. Please let me know if you don't, and I will write another post to explain it. How to Create an Image: Click on the 'File' drop-down at the top of the Gimp workspace. Click on 'New'. Decide on the dimensions of your new image and type them in. Click on the 'Advance' option and increase the number of pixels to 300 dpi. (This is the minimum setting for most on-line art requirements.) Click 'OK' A new image area will app...

This not so little lady almost caused my son to leap out of his skin. He had called me out to photograph another spider, when I saw this large dark shadow on the fence about two metres behind him. It took me a little whle to realize this really was a huntsman, just the biggest, fattest huntsman I had seen in... oh, forever... Good thing they're not poisonous.

Very slow week, this week. I slacked off a good deal, had one night of classes and a day of roleplaying, and also worked out I wasn’t feeling a hundred percent. Hopefully, things will improve this week, even though I will be much busier. Stuff got done, but a lot less stuff than should have gotten done. My bad. Overview New words produced: 1,207 words Old words revised: 0 Works completed: 7 (for inclusion into 2 longer works) Works revised: 0 Covers created: 0 Works published: 0 Works submitted: 0 Competitions Entered: 0 Tier 1 Tasks Annual13—Added 426 words Annual14—Added 781 words Publishing Tasks Created 1 blog post for this blog; Created 1 blog post for the C.M. Simpson Publishing blog; New Arrivals The following ideas arrived this week: Poem296—Merciful Rain: a series of haiku about rain; Poem297—Out Amongst the Stars: about being amongst the stars; Poem298—If you are Lonely: a poem of hope, even in loneliness ShortStory211—...