I always thought I’d want to go to my high school reunion - if for no other reason than to surprise folks. Then I get the invite in the mail, and I’m… not so enthused. I mull it about for a day, and decide that it’s not worth coughing up 50 bucks just to prove that I’ve grown past the age of 18.

My mistake was then settling down to watch Grosse Point Blank. I am now filled with ambivilabnce. Bleah. Stupid Libra side of my personality coming out…. grumble….

Just ran across an interesting bit of freeware called ArtRage. It’s a stripped down natural media paint program a’la Painter, except better. Severly feature limited - I can’t see ditching my sketch pad any time soon - but still intriguing.

The following paragraph is taken from The Complete Guide to Isometric Pixel Art - but it could apply to ANY situation where a user has been duped by the media, pop culture, a malicious bystander, or their own sad brain into thinking that not knowing how to use a computer should in any way impede them from…. using a computer.

To even begin to be able to understand Isometric Pixel Art you need to have a fair understanding about how to work the basics of computers. This includes operating the mouse, keyboard, loading saving, etc. I know this may sound silly since you’ve managed to get yourself to this website, but constantly I am asked by people if I could teach them how to do this sort of art, even when they are unable to even do basic operations on a computer. So please people, before even continuing from this point forward, if you are lacking in the basic computing skills please go to a course or something. Then come back when you are ready.
- Rhys Davies

I get users like this on a …. not quite daily basis, but often enough that I am tempted to take them aside (hard enough to do over the phone) and ask them if they would insist on competing in the Indy 500 without knowing the gas pedal from the brakes.

Adobe Creative Suite 2.0 slated for early 2005 release. Right now, I don’t care about new features - Photoshop CS has all I think I could possibly need (though hey - maybe they’ll give me something so grand I’ll decide I can’t live without out it. Who knows?) What I am concerned about? Backwards compatibility.

90% of all the user supplied art I handle at work is vector line art, and NONE of my vendors can take anything higher than Illustrator version 9. The printing industry is famous, BTW, for the slowness of it’s upgrade cycles. A huge portion of my job, therefore, is to be a bridge between upgrade happy business users who think that newer software is always better, and printers who don’t understand why they should upgrade anything that still functions. (I’ve seen old-school vendors who grumble about the linotype machines going away.)

This is not a problem with Photoshop, regardless of the relative cluelessnesss of the end user. There’s a nifty option called “maximize compatibility” that makes it real simple to make sure anyone can open your .psd. (and most of the time, a bitmapped file is sent to me as a .tif anyway - which I can open *anywhere*.)

Illustrator though? Is *horrid*. If you save an .eps or .ai file straight from Illustrator CS, there is /no option/ for backwards compatibility. You have to export your file as a “legacy eps”. This command is not only counter intuitive, it’s frelling well hidden from the average user! It’s so damm hidden I’ve had to post a tutorial for my poor users, and even then half of them couldn’t get it right.

I was loosing so much time walking users though the export procedure for Illustrator CS (30 minute calls with hysterically frustrated users wherein I provide free training and tech support do not make me a happy camper) that we’ve finally upgraded from version 10 just this week. Not ’cause I need any of the new features, but because now we can take Illustrator CS files directly. Without the time sucking hysteria.

Of course, the only users who had a problem with my directions? Were the ones who shouldn’t be allowed near a graphics app in the first place. (Putting sales guys in charge of art files is usually a bad idea. I really prefer it when our customers let me deal with their graphics people directly.)

But one is still expected. They’re saying it won’t be as big as the one in 1980. Funny, that - the eruption coverage is one of the first pieces of news coverage I can remember watching. I was four years old. And the national geographic issue that went all out covering the eruption and it’s aftermath (January 1981) is my favorite issue.

Not terribly sure *why* this was the case - probably had something to do with my six year old self being obsessed with volcanoes. And geology in general.

So, right now I should be doing dishes, laundry, and attending to not one but two different clients. Instead, I’m boggling over the fact that pretty soon, it seems Mt. St. Helen’s is about to blow. Again.

And PBS is showing Henry V - the St. Crispin’s day speech is going on right now. Love, *love* that movie.

The full text of the Bush/Kerry debate, part 1. No big suprise who I think came off looking better. The kicker? The shrub comes of sounding even *worse* in print.