In the year 2009…

• Newly inaugurated president Barack Obama will request that I actually appear in photos with him instead of using Photoshop to insert myself.
• I will continue to mutter “should have bought a mac” under my breath whenever I am informed that someone’s PC is “acting funny.”
• Former president George W. Bush will finally run out of trees for “chain-sawin’” on his Crawford, TX ranch.
• Miley Cyrus will increase dramatically in her ability to be annoying, but will be unsuccessful in reaching the same heights as  her father’s creepy hairdo
• The continent of Africa will unite under a common goal.  Will it be clean water? A solution to the AIDS epidemic? No – Ending adoptions by annoying celebrities like Brad, Angelina & Madonna.
• Speaking of Madonna, she will release a new album entitled “Pause” Critics will celebrate the album as a new-era in her creativity. She will receive her AARP membership card.
• Knute Larson, now Co-Senior Pastor of The Chapel will use the exclamation “Yo!” ninety times. Each time teenagers will wonder to themselves if he really thinks that’s “the cool thing” to say.
• Facebook will become the worlds most popular website, followed closely by Zombo.com
• Starbucks will be available anywhere thanks to a new technology they call BarInsta!® – drinks are sent by demolecularization from the nearest location and received via a microchip enabled coffee collar. There will be three sizes – Groot, Malaki & Duża.  (All mean large in Dutch, Filipino & Polish)

Special Bonus Predictions!

• Scientist will create a vegetable that looks like cauliflower and tastes like watermelon. No one will want to eat it because it will be called brain fruit. It later will be found to cause bleeding from the ears. And death. Sweet, tasty death.
• Lawyers will figure out a way to sue the governtment for continuing to issue pennies when they are obviously not worth anything. The goverment will lose and oddly enough, will owe each American 4¢.
• After discovering a frozen wooly mammoth embryo and implanting it in an elephant, biologists will celebrate its arrival naming it Snuffleupagus. They will then set out to grow a really big bird to provide it with a “best friend.”

Q. Five names you go by:

1. Josh
2. Smith
3. Dad
4. Daddy
5. Smithers

Q. Three things you are wearing right now:

1. Lands End Fleece Slippers
2. A Chris Tomlin t-shirt
3. Old Navy Jeans

Q. Two things you want very badly at the moment:

1. A clear definition of what my job will look like over the next year or two
2. To be able to look back a projects at home and know they are complete and correct

Q. Two things you did last night:

1. Wondered why they insist on rolling Dick Clark out – let the man die already
2. Browsed the iTunes App Store in anticipation of getting an iPhone

Q. Two things you ate today:

1. A slice of cheesecake
2. Too much popcorn when watching Bolt with my wife and kids

Q. Two people you last talked to on the phone:

1. My mom
2. My mother-in-law

Q. Two things you are going to do tomorrow:

1. Enjoy a day off
2. Hang a ceiling fan

Q. Two longest car rides:

1. Kalamazoo, MI
2. “Clearwater,” FL

Q. Two of your favorite beverages:

1. Coffee roasted by my Dad
2. Coca-Cola

Q. The people you’d like to respond

1. Kirsten
2. Jeremy Bear (Hey, I did it after months of nothing – you can do it after years. Besides, you’ve got that fancy new version of your site done now. Crackalacka…)
3. Derrak Ostovic

Take two pictures
1. The first should be empty to create a static background to work from

This is your starter image - you could make yours scarier looking than mine if you want it to be really “ghostly”

2. The second should contain you or the person you’re going to make a “ghost”.

See that creepy looking guy with the menacing gesture - yeah, that's our ghost. Casper's got nothing on this guy.

Use a tripod – it will make the shots line up better. For the second shot set the camera to self-timer mode to give yourself time to get into the frame

Photoshop work
1. Open the two photos in Adobe Photoshop and arrange them so you can see at least part of each photo
2. With the Move Tool (V) click into the photo with your ghost subject
3. While holding shift, click & drag the photo with your ghost subject into the empty photo – this should, if you’ve taken the photos from a tripod or otherwise made the camera sit still, perfectly align the two photos so that everything in the background lines up perfectly.  To check this, change the top layer’s blending mode to difference.  If everything is lined up the only part of the image that won’t be black is the part where your ghost subject is.  Be sure to change the blending mode back to normal before you continue
4. Change the opacity of the top layer (with your ghost subject) to 50%

Top layer's opacity set to 50% - It's already kind of ghostly at this point, but we can do more.

5. At the bottom of the layers palette click the new layer icon to create a new layer.
6. Select the brush tool and be sure that you have a nice round brush and that your brush hardness is set to 0% and change the flow setting to 50%.

Brush Settings - You can see I picked a pretty big brush and set the hardness to 0%. This creates a very feathered soft brush.

7. On the new layer you just created,  paint over the ghost subject with the brush tool in a blue – in this example I picked the following:

Color Settings - you can pick whatever color you want to make your Ghost glow.

The results of brushing over the Ghost subject

H: Now change the blending mode on the blue layer to Screen and watch your ghost appear.

Layer Blending Mode Settings - choose “Scream” – I mean “Screen” from the dropdown list at the top of the layers Palette

Final Results - Not too scary but definitely ghostly.

Play with the blending modes and colors to manipulate the image in any way you like.  Try adding shadows and highlights with lighter and darker colors.

Added some filters (glowing edges, various noise, etc.) The point is have fun - experiment, its the best way to learn how things work.

An exceptionally well-worded post about the urinal. Every guy wants one in their home, if they say they don’t – they’re lying. I would, like the author, choose the floor urinal.

Speaking of urinals – check out the big, blue, robotic, urinal-cleaning elephant.

Video footage of NASA’s new methane powered rocket engine. Wow.

If you haven’t heard about Rickrolling see wikipedia. If you haven’t seen it with Beaker & The Muppets you’re missing out.

Steve Carell (From NBC’s The Office & the upcoming Get Smart movie) has 10 pieces of advice on How to Act Brilliant.

Helium-balloon flying priest. Seriously.

Google Street View – kid falls off bike as Street View Van catches the before and after.  Click the arrows and rotate the angle to watch it happen.