Just go try it. It’s easy, it’s fast, and you’ll make the coolest videos you’ve ever seen from stills.

WOW!

The best part is that you tell it a couple songs you like, and then it finds songs which are musically similar. It’s better than buying an album for 1 or 2 songs (which I’ve been guilty of) – and you’ll discover music that will sing to your heart which you might never have heard of.

You can give individual songs a thumbs up, or thumb down. You can add extra songs to seed it, and then just listen for a bit. It’ll get to know you, and in no time flat, it will pick out songs that are your favorites without you ever having entered them specifically.

It’ll remind you of songs you loved a long time ago but that got pushed back in your grey matter somewhere.

It’ll find new songs and new artists that you’ll love to listen to.

It doesn’t matter how eclectic your taste is. Mine goes from Ennio Morricone to Country; from classical music to Andrew Lloyd Webber. From the thrumming trademark soundtracks of Hans Zimmer to the melodic intricacies of Ravel; from Pop hits like “Take A Bow” by Madonna, to oldies like “Unchained Melody” by the Righteous Brothers.

And if you ever wonder why it’s playing a song for you, Pandora will tell you what it is about the song that made it one of the selections. It’s just SO COOL!

I think you’ll love it, too.

Pandora Radio

But you still can’t save a setting on a filter.

I’m sure there are Photoshop devotee’s out there who are asking, “Why would we need to do that?”

I’d just like to be able to save a preset setting on the built-in filters in Photoshop for whatever it is I was working on. That way, next year when I come back to a similar project, and want to duplicate the effect, I won’t have to guess whether I used 40% noise or 200%noise. I don’t have to guess which Texturizer setting was used at what strength. I don’t have to remember what the crystalize cell size was, or any other filter I apply.

You’ve been able to save settings from built-in effects filters in Paint Shop Pro since at least version 8, probably even 7. And it’s what fraction of a price that Photoshop is?

Maybe the guys and gals at Adobe just memorize everything, but my grey matter is just not as young as it used to be. Alas!

So, there, I’m whining, and I feel better. I just think people everywhere would find this an AWESOME addition to Photoshop. I don’t understand how people live without it. Sticky notes? A Photoshop Diary? Write everything down in the notes/annotations text?

I’ve started on some Christmas things already, but it seems it’s pulling together now in a completely over the top scrapbook kit for SNL this month. My code name for this buffet of gold glitter? Have A Holly, Gaudy Christmas…

The Classic Colors of Christmas in reds and greens are accented by lots of gold, glitter, and some of the traditional icons of Christmas decorating; Holly, Poinsettia, ornaments, bows, ribbon, wrapping paper, and tags. A full size matching gold frame can be made smaller for just one portrait, or left as a glittery border.

Bring on the Glitz!

My daughter found this awesome little internet tool that will help people make their list, and help everyone else buy exactly what the person wants! It’s at Kaboodle – and it’s just a killer concept.

There’s a plug-in for your browser (MSIE *and* Firefox-wahoo!) that lets you just hit the button on your toolbar to add the item you are looking at on that page to your list at Kaboodle.com.

No copying URLs, no guessing at linking formats, no wrong things – just does it. Very very cool. I signed up.

This weekend I’ve been playing with getting a new soft abstract technique working while still retaining the recognizable shape of what it is. The Poinsettia Study to the left is one of the results. (I’m still trying to decide if I like it or what.)

So I’m not particularly apalled that Starbucks put out their Christmas decorations and menu this week, that there’s already Christmas specials being advertised for the 3-day Veteran’s Day weekend kick-off, or that my dear sweetheart of a husband already has emailed the family his Christmas list.

I rather like it that others are joining me in my 8 weeks of Christmas! While I was working on the Christmas Luncheon Poster, tickets and all the rest of the things that go with it, I pulled out my Christmas MP3′s, cranked up the speakers, and played my fav Christmas music for two days in the office.

Some people chuckled, some shook their heads, but you know what? Nobody ever complains about Christmas music. It’s some of my favorite music. From Mannheim Steamroller to David Huntsinger’s Winterlude … from Chicago 25 (the very CHICAGO and whimsical nod to Holiday favorites) to Vanessa Williams’ “Do You Hear What I Hear?/Little Drummer Boy” medley. Oh!! and don’t forget Manhattan Transfer’s cozy and tight swing sound to some of those seasonal classics, too.

Bring on the Christmas!

Pastor Keith likes to teach in a series of messages about a particular topic. This week that was brought to a screeching … pause … while he traveled out of town for meetings and a guest pastor taught.

That meant all the screens had to change, because the subject would not be the same thing. So I landed on some Fall imagery as a fairly safe thing to go with. It’s the end of October, after all. Even here in California, the leaves are turning. So here’s what I did…

I found this wonderful image to start with over at Stockxpert.com by Javarman, a talented graphic artist from Russia.

There were only a few wee challenges to overcome in making it useful to my specific needs:

• It was too light in color
• The aspect ratio was off for both screens and the bulletin cover

But it was still close enough and I felt it could be shoe-horned into the sizes I’d need, so I purchased it (it was either the medium or large one-I forget, that was days ago, and I’ve slept since then…) and started to work to use this as our theme. If all went well, it’d be able to be in use for any single, stand alone Sunday messages this Fall or next fall.Fall; leaves and branches in reds, oranges, browns, and a smattering of gold.

A couple hours later, I had a preliminary design I could run with for the main screen and the bulletin, and concepts for the rest of the coordinating screens.

Javarman’s image textures were deepened and highlighted with the usual Photoshop tricks in multiple layers until this dramatic darker image was born. First for the bulletin cover, 8.5 x 7.10 inches at 300dpi; Then for the center screen that’s double wide, in 2048×768 pixels. Coordinating side screens were added for Worship, Prayer, Miscellaneous texts, and the sermon outline in the same colors with a leafy backdrop and various layers blended over it.

So, there, it’s done and it’ll get me through the 2 times we’ll need a Fall image this year, and whatever we may need one for next year. After that, I’ll probably have to come back and re-visit a generic Fall screen. I don’t really like using the same thing more than 2 years.

Note: Awesome praying hands photo by eyebiz, at stock.xchng.

A couple of the major center screens:

Coordinating side screens:

I finished the tutorial for easy-to-make Round Candy Frames this month for Photoshop and Paint Shop Pro. When they were done, Kokonut’sMom ‘translated’ it for Digital Image Pro.

Koko makes beautiful scrapping pages, she’s got an incredible talent for design. Thanks to her, the tutorial is available for all the major graphics programs. Wahoo!

I hope you enjoy and learn from this tutorial. Remember, Candy Frames are not just for Christmas. My first two were actually for scrapbook kits which were in the summer time! Let me know how you use it, or improve on it, please!

• Tutorial for Photoshop and Paint Shop Pro
• Tutorial for Microsoft Digital Image Pro