Preseason Oilers

The Edmonton Oilers got thier first win of the preseason vs the Panthers via the shootout. Shades of last year as this has been a shootout filled preseason for the Oil. I am waiting for the regular season to begin as preseason is always decieving in the sense you never know who will be playing where. I do love the depth the Oilers appear to have this year. Lots of youth and speed...they added some gritty guys as well. I don't think they'll be as easy to push around as they were last year. Who knows, I am a diehard Oiler fan and I won't be really able to brag about my team until they start to prove themselves on the ice. I am just hoping they are better then Calgary for once, lol. I am sick of that whole Calgary mania that has swept over Oil country. It's time to put that madness to an end and start some Oiler mania. The weekend is here and I need to rest up and do some work as well. Hope everyone has a wonderful weekend too.

Adobe CS4 News Today

Adobe is releasing info about it's next CS4 today. I am VERY interested to see what new they are offering. What caught my eye when reading about it was the 64bit support. I now have a Vista 64 bit machine with 6gb of ram. This makes my workflow so quick and I love how seamless I can edit from lightroom to photoshop on it.

From Adobe's site these were the features that got me most excited:
Industry-leading color correction enhanced
Enjoy dramatically enhanced color correction with reengineered Dodge, Burn, and Sponge tools that now intelligently preserve color and tone details.

Adjustments panel new
Simplify image adjustment by easily accessing every tool you need to nondestructively adjust and enhance the color and tone of your images; on-image controls and a wide variety of presets are also included in the new live and dynamic Adjustments panel

Masks panel new
Quickly create and edit masks from the new Masks panel. This panel offers all the tools you need to create editable pixel- and vector-based masks, adjust mask density and feathering, easily select noncontiguous objects, and more.

Auto-blending of images enhanced
Easily create a single image from a series of shots that have different focal points with the enhanced Auto-Blend Layers command, which smoothly blends color and shading and now extends your depth of field, automatically correcting vignettes and lens distortion.

Auto-alignment of layers enhanced
Create accurate composites with the enhanced Auto-Align Layers command. Move, rotate, or warp layers to align them more accurately than ever before. Or use spherical alignment to create breathtaking panoramas.

Extended depth of field enhanced
Combine a range of images, each with a different exposure, color, and focal point — with options to preserve tones and colors — into a single color-corrected image.

There is probably more for me to love about it but I'll wait until I can try it out. I think the great thing about the 64 bit support is it's ONLY available to windows users, yeah that's right MAC peeps.....I said windows ONLY....hehehhehe. Love it. Anyway, it's a cool and cloudy day and I wanna go crawl back in to my warm bed instead of going off to work.

I must add NHL 09 for my xbox is awesome. Love playing it and have not had this much fun playing video game hockey in ages. Go OILERS....love that there is a new 3rd jersey design for them this year. I can't wait to see what it looks like.
-Randy

BDAY WEEKEND

It's Jenn's bday weekend and we're gonna hang with friends and have a great time. Looks like O'Neill will come out and we'll be with the Wolfe-ster as well. Looks like the weather will be sweet too. Good old fall weather hanging in there. I hope I have better fantasy football luck this Sunday too. VERY exciting, Oilers start preseason this coming week vs the KINGS. I could of had tickets from a co-worker but we couldn't make it. Oh well. Go OILERS!!! :)

5d MARK II Details

CANON ROCKS....yet again they amaze with a wonderful new camera. Of course I need about $3000 to get it....that's a small prob. BUT wow!!!.....1080HD video quality, makes for some cool options. I am interested to see what people do with it.

Click here for details:
http://www.dpreview.com/news/0809/08091705canon_5dmarkII.asp

5D and Photoshop CS4

I heard through the grape vine (other blogs) that adobe will be announcing their creative suite 4 on Sept.23rd. That is VERY cool. I am a photoshop LOVER and it'll be interesting to see what new features they are going to be adding to photoshop. I am a BIG lightroom fan now. I kind of hope there is some lightroom like features built in to photoshop. I think it would be cool to use presets or something like that in the new photoshop. Also Canon shooters are eagerly awaiting the new 5D successor. I just wish I had a million dollars to buy every new toy that comes out.
As for my "personal blog", I've decided to start doing some photoshop tips and add some pictures to give some visual instruction. I will try and have one up this week. It'll prob be some very basic stuff, so don't expect anything earth shattering. It's picture day today and I forgot as usual...hehehe. Good thing I never buy school photos.

Weekend is Ending

Well, the maternity shoot went great. I got to watch some football on Sunday. Also got the garage floor painted. So when winter comes the Matrix will have a nice new clean floor to drip salty snow all over. We also went to Trina's BDAY party with the Wolfe. That was a lot of fun....played charades (cringe)...ok, that part wasn't my fave but it was cool watching people be silly....(I was prob the wost).

My fantasy football did ok....although old man power favre could of helped me a bit more. I think I will be 2-0 after Monday. I also think Lindsay beat her hubby, he's gonna be mad, heehhehe. Well, another busy week ahead. Closer to Jenn's 35th bday...hope we can party it UP and not be sick. Lots of staff are sick, kids are sick, going to be tough to sneak through healthy this month. Anyway I am off, here is an edit from my shoot this weekend. Check my photography BLOG for more edits.
-Randy

Weekend is here

This is going to be a fun weekend. I am doing a Maternity shoot which will be fun, hoping to get some amazing shots. Also, more fantasy football fun. I have to admit this fantasy football is awesome. I love watching it now and hoping for my players to do well. Thanks to Lindsay for getting me hooked and her hubby Marcus for making the league. I am also hoping to see Shantelle and drop off her Wedding photos, BIG thanks to her for being such a patient and understanding person.

Not much else going on, I am fighting off a cold and hope to stay healthy. It's such an easy time of year to get sick. I am gonna do my best, trying to avoid all pop and drinking LOTS of water and healthy liquids. This has been one LONG and exhausting week but I feel very good about it. It's nice to be back in to the swing of things.

Long Week

First full week of the year and my body feels drained already, however it's the middle of the week and hopefully there is light near the end of the tunnel. I am looking forward to the weekend. It's been a busy week of work and I can sense a few stressed people, including me at work so I am probably not alone in wanting the weekend to arrive sooner then later.
I do have problems getting out the door to work. My sweet little kitty Nahla cuddles up in my lap when I check email and now she is in a warm little ball on my lap, purring and cuddling. She's so warm I don't wanna get up and go anywhere, she's pretty much begging me to head back to bed and sleep the day away and right now that is a VERY tempting idea. heheheh. I could go for the cat life. :)

Fantasy Football Sunday

Well, I might have my 1st win on fantasy football. I'll have to wait and see after Monday night football. It'll be interesting if I can win, considering I made some silly mistakes with my lineup.
The weekend was good...got to hang with Lindsay a little. Went to Red Willow church and saw my buddy Trevor Boller "The High Roller" for a bit...he is one busy dude. We never see him much. After church we went out to Nestor's farm for his corn roast and it was FREEZING cold. The food was yummy and seeing his dog Indy (a puppy I rescued off the rez and gave to Nestor) was nice.
I did watch football a bit today, saw oldman Favre win!! :) Also painted a bit of our garage floor. Looks good and so clean. Finished some wedding edits for Brianna (check my photo blog). Anyway off to sleep I go...BUSY day tomorrow.

Labour Day ReMatch

Today the Esks and Stamps battle it out again in the Battle of Alberta. It never gets old when an Edmonton team can have success vs Calgary. I am not the biggest CFL fan but it's sure nice to see Edmonton doing so well. I would like to attend the game but maybe I am just lazy, cuz it seems like a good idea just to catch some of it on tv.
Last night I was all excited for NFL to be back, then I sat down on the couch and according to eye witness reports (Jenn and our cats) I was snoring within seconds. I guess this week of back to the classroom has been exhausting. I did wake up for the 2 minute warning and saw that I did not miss anything. The Giants rolled to their 1st win.
On a nerd note, I am getting an illuminated keyboard from bestbuy. Turns out computer companies like to package really BASIC keyboards with their desktops. My tower is awesome for power but my HP keyboard is not so hot. When I am using the control key in CS3 I keep hitting a silly hot key for some windows help. It drives me crazy...so hoping this new keyboard will not only help me during those late night photoshop sessions but be more user friendly in CS3. I'll try and review the keyboard when I get it. Maybe I should write a review for my desktop too. :)

Tired

I am very tired. This whole back to work thing is exhausting. However it's been a great start to the year. I have really positive vibes about the year.
I do love that NFL football started today. Jenn's not so thrilled as she is NOT a big football fan. Well, the weekend is around the corner and I am looking forward to going to our friend Nestor's farm for his annual Corn Roast. It'll be a good time I hope. Also, there is always NFL football and I hope my Fantasy team does well. This is my rookie year as a fantasy football player. I am entered in a league with a teacher from work who won it last year. I hope I do okay and don't finish last.
Well, off to bed I go. This edit is a previous shoot with a model named Jen. She shot with my 5 times and is a fun and natural looking model to work with. I am just loving lightroom 2 and was able to fire off this edit really quick using the POWER of my new HP. Love the 64 bit system and 6 gigs of RAM.

Castle Crasher Fun

The first day of school was fun. I really enjoyed seeing my students again and being back to work felt alright. I admit, I do miss vacation but as the weather gets cold...it's pretty fun doing some work again.
Last night Jenn and I played a xbox live arcade game called Castle Crashers. It's a silly side scrolling retro style arcade game similar to the tmnt games of the 80's and 90's. It's a 4 player game and has an rpg feel to it with the ability to customize your character. It's kind of hard to explain why the game is cool...but it's funny, cartoonish and just really unique. In a world of 3D style games and virtual worlds, a game like this which is just silly and fun is refreshing to me.
I was also able to play with my powerhouse of a PC and do a few edits from some older photo shoots. I am still amazed it runs so quick with lightroom 2 and cs3. (drool)

Another Year Begins

The 2008-2009 year is about to begin. My students will be coming back and I have to admit I am quite eager for the year to start. I have a lot of personal goals this year and really feel positive about the changes I am going to make in my professional and personal life.
I also am happy that on the weekend Jenn and I were able to get a new computer. I now can edit on a 22" widescreen HP monitor. I am very impressed with it's bright screen and now in photoshop I can see MUCH more then previously possible on a 19" screen. One thing I noticed right away was the level of detail in the different blacks I could see. For all the comp geeks that understand this, it's got a 750gig hard drive, 6gigs of RAM, and a quad core intell. It's sad but as I get older these numbers start meaning even less to me. All I know is it's quick...and runs a 64 bit Windows Vista. I also am running Lightroom 2 in 64bit mode. It's crazy cool and I can't get over how much power this machine has. I've been running a LOT of stuff with photoshop and it still refuses to slow down.
Well, that is the BIG news. It's also good news for people waiting for edits. This means I will be able to process faster and hopefully get photos out sooner then later. I know I am already quite slow. :)