Helicopter Hieroglyphs Explained

                 [Click on any picture to bring up a larger photo]

I can't solve all of the (cue reverb) MYSTERIES OF THE UNIVERSE, but I have solved one.  There are a set of hieroglyphs in Seti I's temple in Abydos, Egypt that certain people have decided show the ancient Egyptians had, or knew about, helicopters, tanks, submarines and jets.  Yes, I can see how it looks like that, but the truth is, of course, mundane.  It took me a day to figure out what was going on.  (Yay Google images, Wikipedia and an amateur interest in hieroglyphs!) 

I wish I could draw this well

From the same website as the last I found a great tutorial on turning an object into a line drawing.  To give it a go I used one of the photos I took in San Francisco while my mom, sister and I were standing in line waiting to eat breakfast in a tiny joint called Dots.  I love the curved window and the stone work.  The tutorial uses a long barrel revolver as an example so I thought I would try something completely different (of course).  I ended up with this...

(More after the jump...)

My Sister as Pop Art

The quest to figure out Photoshop continues.  My latest tutorial was for a Warhol-esque halftone from a photograph, and this is what I ended up with:

It is a simple, yet complicated tutorial (depending on your familiarity with Photoshop...most of this stuff is new to me).  I learned several things from this pop art tutorial from melissaclifton.com.  The most important is that I need more photos of my sister because most of mine are candid type photos she wouldn't be impressed with me using, second is that you want clothing and hair to be different tones from each other for this kind of transformation (which I don't have), and third is you want the starting photo to be very low contrast (contrary to logic) which I worked with by fiddling with highlights and shadows. For as dark as the end result is, it was mostly a black mass before, and I almost gave up until I seriously lightened the original and started over.  The original photo after the after the jump...

The waxy path

I finally did a Photoshop tutorial for making a wax seal that I have had my eye on for weeks but put off  (knowing I would want to individualize it)  and when I took it on, it DID end up sending me off in several directions that I am thankful for.  Because of it I ended up getting a basic grasp on working with the pen tool (never used it before) and then I was pushed mentally to come up with a logo that could fit within the seal -- I love the logo I came up with so much that I think I will stick with it for a while.

The following set of seals shows my progression of thought...

Happy Mom's Day Mom!

I made you something so you would know I was thinking about you.  Love you!!

Religion and Politics

Both upset me, so I shall refrain from talking too much about them for the time being.  Instead, a tee-hee picture to totally change the mood.

The FIRST Amendment

Show me a Republican who understands the separation of church and state as a part of the constitution and doesn't use religion as a selling point and I will listen... 

There isn't one.

Till it happens I am a Democrat.

Clarification: War is Hell

I didn't make it clear with my Afghani fast-food post that I am pro troops but anti-war.  I want to make that clear now.  I think we need to leave, and I think that the longer we stay the more we are hated and the more we fail.  But I don't blame the troops for following orders.

I have had several friends who were ex-Vietnam vets and they were screwed over by our government and our people when they returned.  I never want that to happen again, no one who knows better does.  Troops do horrible things under orders, under fear, in the name of survival...some of it is choice, some of it isn't, and it needs to be looked at piece by by piece, but war makes people crazy. They will never be ok again.

And for what purpose?

Europe is pulling out of Afghanistan, the US needs to as well.  We all fucked up, time to go.  We backed the wrong guy, we made the place worse than it was and can't fix it.  President Karzai...I suggest you  run. (away)