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» Guest Rant: There are bugs in my programming by Elizabeth Gast

I am an imperfect person. Who isn’t? Like a finely crafted computer program - even though a lot of work, time, care, thought, stress, blood, sweat, tears, and sleepless nights went into developing my human data - I still have bugs to be worked out. I will always have bugs. Overreacting is one of my bugs. I overreact quite a bit, but after a given amount of time I will look back and realize that I have overreacted and then try to mend my ways in order to fix my ‘bug’. Overthinking is another one of my bugs. Usually, I can over think something to the point of killing it. Like when I write something. I will go back, even after publication, and adjust my article 10 to 20 times adding, deleting and rearranging until I drive myself insane trying to make what I am writing perfect. Overthinking is one of my bugs that I doubt I will ever fix.

The key to dealing with these humanistic bugs is to focus on the parts of your internal programming that do work. Also, being around people that point out your working parts and pat you on the back for them helps a lot. Without these pats on the back a person can end up feeling overlooked, unappreciated, and unloved. And who wants to feel like that all day? Unlike the development of a computer program, having someone point out my bugs doesn’t help in the removal of them. In fact it can make them bigger and more destructive. I know what my bugs are. I know I need to fix them. That is my job as the developer of me. The job of those around me (aka friends, family, bf) is to feed my ever-precious ego so that I have the steam to keep working on my bugs. Without those "warm fuzzies" as fuel, my developing engine shuts down and refuses to produce.

When I was in college I decided one day that I was going to make it a point to tell people the nice things I thought about them when I thought them. Even if it just meant blurting out random statements out of nowhere. I would start to say things like "You know, I like you. I think you’re smart." or "You’re fun. I hope you know that." or "I just thought you should know that I think you are pretty awesome." It was amazing what a difference this made in my social life. People always wanted to hang out with me because I made them feel good about who they were. Soon, they started to return the compliments. "You’re fun too!" "You’re so cool!" Turns out, I loved hearing it just as much as they did.

More often than not, the world of today is focused on fixing the bugs in the system. Generally we are very quick to point out the flaws in those around us. People just don’t walk around saying nice things to each other or giving out ego boosts. And if they do, the other person has this immediate "what do they want from me?" reaction. Which is really kind of stupid because nice statements are really just that - nice! This is such a simple thing that makes such a huge positive impact that I really don’t understand why it is seen as more of an attack rather than the building up of someone else’s system. Seriously, we as an evolved plant should know better.

Thriving on problem solving like I do, I have fallen victim to the "bug elimination syndrome" many many times - another personal bug in my human programming. I forget sometimes that I am not the only one who needs ego fuel. So in the promotion of fixing one of my internal bugs…

I just thought you should know, I think you are pretty awesome.

» Adobe Lightroom 2 - The Missing FAQ

I posted a while ago about a new great book called Adobe Lightroom - The Missing Manual. Well now with the release of Lightroom 2, Victoria Bampton, the author has already released her updated version for Lightroom 2 (Adobe Lightroom 2 - The Missing FAQ). I’ve just reviewed the book and I think it is brilliant and does truly cover a hole that has been empty. I think it is a very well spent £14.95 (approx. $29.95) where you get almost a little lexicon on Lightroom that you can always keep handy. Thanks also to Victoria for providing all of my readers with a discount code. Upon purchase, just type in the following code (without the quotes) "BM2008" and you’ll get a discount!

• Read my Review
• Visit the Lightroom Queen

» Wednesday Artist Interview with Will King

There was a while ago that I used to be running these artist interviews pretty often but it slowed down a bit a short while ago because it’s been hard finding people that want to be interviewed. Nominated however by a friend of mine, Elizabeth was this time around the great photographer, Will King (who by the way nominated another person you’ll perhaps see next week) who shoots some really great photography. Now, Will is one of these cool photographers that masters a lot of areas. He shoots very nice landscapes and yet he captures some truly great wildlife photos. Anyway, enough with the intro talk and let’s get right to it!

Tell us a little bit about yourself?

I’m a husband and a father of one boy. My daytime job is a Network Security Analyst. I’ve been an avid photographer for about three years and have been using Photoshop for about two years now. I love and respect all genres of photography. My favorite subjects to shoot are landscapes and seascapes with dramatic light.

Do you have any formal training/what is your background in art?

I have no formal training in photography or art. I study the works of others and ask a lot questions. I have read several photography and Photoshop books and of course I’m a NAPP member which has been extremely beneficial.

» 1Password application out in the App Store!

I’m an avid fan of the Mac application called 1Password that helps you store and manage your passwords. I was thrilled to hear that they were coming out with an iPhone App as well and even more thrilled when I heard the price of it. Free! It really helps to have your database on your iPhone as well because after a while of using 1Password you rely on it a bit to remember a few of the hard passwords you just cannot remember. So if you are using 1Password, check out the currently free iPhone application in the App Store. If you are not a 1Password user, check out my review of it.

» QT: Enable Lightroom 2 to run in 64-bit mode on the Mac!

Most Mac users are probably aware that you can now run Lightroom 2 in 64-bit mode. However important to notice is that you need to do just one thing before you can unlock that goodness. Just find the Lightroom 2 application in your applications folder and select it. Then press Command + I (Get Info) to bring up the info about the app. You should be seeing a checkbox that says "Open in 32-bit mode". Just uncheck that box and you have Lightroom running as a 64-bit application!

» Lightroom 2 learning resources

With Lightroom 2 out and about you are obviously just waiting to put your teeth in it and just learn the tips and tricks and the stuff behind using the new features. So where do you go? Well, I’d say you first go right to the Lightroom 2 Learning Center from the guys over at the National Association of Photoshop Professionals. It’s a free great learning center where you’ll learn the most about the new features that you need to know. Definitely go and check that out.

If you are also a member of Kelby Training and subscribe to their online training (if you are not you should be) you should go ahead and watch their two new online classes. Both are by Matt Kloskowki and the first is a three part class, Lightroom 2 In Depth, part 1, 2 and 3. The second class is Lightroom 2 Power Session. All of these classes are great ones and will definitely teach you all you need to know, from start to finish about Lightroom 2.

You can also go and visit the official Lightroom community over at the Adobe site! (Thanks to A.J Wood for the tip!)

In case you are still asking. No I’m not going to do a Lightroom 2 Learning Center for the site here. I am going to do a special podcast episode walking you through the new features (it’s going to be longer than usual because of that) but no special learning center from me this time. Now go and have some fun with LR 2 and enjoy the super program.

» Lightroom 2 is released!

Adobe has today announced the immediate availability of Lightroom 2 which is really cool. It’s got a lot of new and cool features and you can read more about it in the full press release. If you want to take a look at all the new features and videos about them, the great people over at NAPP (the National Association of Photoshop Professionals) have launched a Lightroom 2 Learning Center with all the new features (and the cool stuff) covered! I’m going to get some videos up on the new Lightroom features in due course here as well and stay tuned for a post about my favourite features once I’ve gotten to play with it for a while.

» Worldwide Photo Walk, Saturday August 23rd

On Saturday, August 23rd there will be a worldwide photowalk held in promotion of the upcoming Photoshop Lightroom 2 for Digital Photographers by Scott Kelby. I’m going to be hosting the one in my home city of Gothenburg, Sweden. Go and check out the full deal over att Scott’s Blog and view the video below that explains it as well. I haven’t finalised the details for the walk here in Gothenburg just yet but they will be in a day or to. So if you want to join in my photo walk, check out the page here.

» Site Updates: Easier Searching + Video Tutorial Problems

I’ve noticed that the search feature of the site has been way too hidden. Some of you might even ask if there even was one. I went ahead and changed the header this morning to now include a search box. Just type your search query and hit enter to search the entire site. Posts, tutorials, reviews, quick-tips and all! This however made the photos go away that was in the header before because of two things, a) the site is more focused on general media and design and not so much on my own photography and b) I needed more room in the header for the longer navbar (which will be filled up soon ;)) and for the search box!

One of my readers, "Capricorn36" sent me a comment that the videos weren’t playing. So I checked into this and found out that my video hosting site, Revver decided to change the embed code for the movies (without notifying me) so all have been black with an error. I’m working on fixing all the tutorial pages right now and they should be working at the end of today!

» End of the week goodies

It’s the end of the week and for me a countdown for when schools back on again (it’s just three weeks left now). At least it’s going to be three weeks of relaxing and hard work here. Here are some unexpected end of the week goodies.

• First off if you are interested in hearing a little first hands on thoughts about the D700 from tech master, Terry White, then check out his latest blog post, where he is posting his first impressions of the camera.
   
• The first iPhone application to support the major bunch of IM services there is has been released. It is called Palringo (app store link) and available for free in the App Store. I’m going to review it shortly after I’ve had some more experience using it. So far I can at least conclude that it is the best one out there.
   
• I talk about NAPP a lot here on my blog and I’m getting some questions on whether they really are good etc. I decided to take the time to write a review of them which is now available in the reviews center.
   
• Lastly a little look into the future. I’m working on developing some new cool things for the site and one of them is going to be a mac dashboard widget that displays the daily quick-tips being posted on the site. Another one is going to be an iPhone (and mobile) version of the site for better access on the road. Stay tuned!

Have a nice rest of the Sunday and if the weather is as nice where you are as it is here, get out there and have fun!