You May Lose!

So what?

Explore your ideas, follow your dreams not for the thought that you may lose but for the thought that you may win.

 
Your choice… choose right!

 
However, be strategic . Have a winning mentality. Plan your course of actions. Work hard. Work smart.

The Re-builder

The truth is, we are living in a broken world. This means bad things happen to us all. As long as we remain in this world, bad things will continue to happen. As true as that is, the truth also is, we have a choice to make. Either we allow those bad things to take shape in our heart and then become bitter towards everyone OR we can choose to pick up the pieces, confront, forgive, extend grace and heal.

 
The healing process is difficult but it’s worth it. We are made to heal and then help others who go through such bad things to heal also. But if you choose to remain bitter, things get from bad to worse. It then gets to a breaking point with no redemption (a point of destruction). You don’t want to go far down on the choice to remain bitter.

 
Through a relationship with Christ, you have the power to heal and then be a re-builder who rebuild families, overcome hurts, and restore relationships.

 
Will you choose to be a re-builder or be owned by bitterness?

Want To Become A Billionaire? Solve One of these 10 Problems

Do you really want to be a billionaire? Billionaires are known to be astute problem solvers. If you want to become a billionaire, here are 10 of the many problems which you can solve one. The real challenge, and the greater value and more lucrative pursuit, would be to come up with the solutions to problems that have befuddled people for decades or more.
1. Wireless Power/Electricity

Digital devices have become so small that it can be cumbersome to plug them into a power source. Longer-lasting batteries? Nope!

2. 2. Rural, Remote Internet
Everyone agrees this is a priority. But there appear to be a hard way and an easier way to achieve it. The former involves lots of expensive regulatory clearance and installations. The latter, currently spearheaded by Google, is called Project Loon.

3. Cheap, Scalable Solar
There are two ways to reduce the cost of raw solar power. One is to have a super-cheap photo-voltaic cell, with the trade-off off that it’s inefficient. Of course, more efficient cells cost more to make. So everyone is racing to find a material or process that eliminates the trade-offs.

 
4. Clean Coal
The technology was recently the subject of a cover story in Wired, which said carbon capture and storage “may be more important — though much less publicized — than any renewable-energy technology for decades to come,” since it would allow the world to keep burning its most abundant fuel source. But it goes on to note that “developing reliable, large-scale CCS facilities will be time-consuming, unglamorous, and breathtakingly costly.”

 
5. Super-Low-Cost International Payments
while this isn’t a problem that touches the average consumer directly, the fees paid by financial institutions to wire funds overseas can eventually filter down.

6. A Pill That Really Makes You Lose Weight

 
7. Cheap Desalination
Water shortages continue to make the list of the world’s most pressing issues. This year’s crippling drought in California further drove the point home. But desalination plants have proved way too expensive and inefficient to build.

 
8. Detecting or Predicting Major Weather Or Natural Events

9. Uncrackable Passwords
wired has said 2012 was the year passwords broke. Hackers have, through brute force, so far been able to break through practically every firewall ever invented. There must be a better way. And engineers are working on them.

10. Death
It’s happening. Google — yes, it has appeared several times on this list, but that’s because it’s interested, and it can — just hired biophysicist Cynthia Kenyon from UCSF to join its Project Calico anti-aging team. Her experiment has produced roundworm as old as the equivalent of 80 human years but looks and acts the equivalent of 40. Google admits it’s a moonshot, but it’s proved pretty decent at those.

Teach Me

Do you make it easy for others to teach you? When someone tries to show you a different way or point out another route, do you react with humility? It is difficult to keep pride from rising up. But pride is what keeps us from learning well.

If you don’t have a teachable attitude and aren't open to learning new ways, how will you be able to know the right things to do? You need to be teachable. Someone is with the answers you are looking for. Pride won’t let you get those answers, humility will.

Master the Game of Money

What do you think of when you hear the word money? Like religion, sex, or politics, few topics elicit such strong emotions as that word. It can make people feel guilty when they have it – or ashamed when they don’t. It’s intensely personal and highly changed.

Money has the power to create or the power to destroy. It can be blessing that turns your dreams into reality… or a burden that you’re always chasing. One thing is for sure you must Master money and the game of money, or it will master you.

Using Photoshop to Put an Image Inside Text

For this tutorial I'll be using Photoshop to put an image inside text. It requires a clipping mask, which is easy to make once you know how. Photoshop CS4 was used for these screen shots, but you should be able to follow along with other versions.

To begin, right click on the below link to save a practice file to your computer, then open the image in Photoshop.

Name the Layer

In the Layers panel, I will double-click the layer name to make it highlighted, then type in the name, "image."

Add Text

In the Layers Panel, I will click on the eye icon to make the image invisible. I'll then select the Text tool from the Tools panel, click once on the transparent background, and type the word "GOLF" in capital letters.

For now, it doesn't matter what font I use or its size, since I will change these things in the steps ahead. And, it doesn't matter what color the font is when creating a clipping mask.

Change the Font

The font should be bold, so I'll choose Window > Character, and with the Text tool selected and the text highlighted I'll change the font in the Character panel to Ariel Black. You can choose this font or one that's similar.

I'll type "100 pt" in the font size text field. Don't worry if your text runs off the sides of the background, since the next step will fix this.

Set the Tracking

Tracking adjusts the space between letters in selected text or a block of text. In the Character panel, I will type -150 into the set tracking text field. Though, you can type in different numbers, until the space between the letters is to your liking.

If you want to adjust the space between two letters only, you can use kerning. To adjust kerning, place an insertion point between the two letters and set a value in the set kerning text field, which is to the left of the set tracking text field.

Free Transform

With the text layer selected in the layers panel, I will choose Edit > Free Transform. The keyboard shortcut for this is Ctrl + T on a PC, and Command + T on a Mac. A bounding box will surround the text.

Scale the Text

When I position the Pointer tool on a bounding box handle it changes to a double-sided arrow that I can drag to scale the text. I'll drag the bottom right corner handle downward and outward, until the text nearly fills the transparent background.

If desired, you can constrain the scale by holding down the Shift key as you drag. And, you can click and drag inside the bounding box to move it where you like.

I will move the bounding box to center the text on the background.

Move Image Layer

The layers have to be in the correct order before I can create a clipping mask. In the Layers panel, I will click on the square next to the image layer to reveal the eye icon, then drag the image layer to position it directly above the text layer. The text will disappear behind the image.

Clipping Mask

With the image layer selected, I will choose Layer > Create Clipping Mask. This will put the image inside the text.

Move Image

With the image layer selected in the Layers panel, I will select the Move tool from the Tools panel. I'll click on the image and move it around until I like how it's positioned inside the text.

You can now choose File > Save and call it done, or continue on to add some finishing touches.

Outline the Text

I want to outline the text. I'll open the Layer Style window by choosing Layer > Layer Style > Stroke.

Know that there are other ways to open the Layer Style window. You can double click the text layer, or with the text layer selected click the layer style icon at the bottom of the Layers Panel and choose Stroke.

Adjust Settings

In the Layer Style window, I will check "Stroke" and make the size 3, choose "Outside" for the position and "Normal" for the Blend Mode, then move the Opacity slider to the far right to make it 100 percent. Next, I'll click on the color box. A window will appear that allows me to select a stroke color.

Select a Stroke Color

I will click on the color slider, or move the color slider triangle up or down until I like what I see in the Color field. I'll move the circular marker within the Color field and click to select a stroke color. I'll click OK, and click OK again.

Create a New Layer

I would leave the background transparent if the text was needed for various applications - such as a brochure, magazine advertisement, and web page - since each could have dissimilar backgrounds that might not match my background color. For this tutorial, however, I will fill the background with a color so that you can better see the outlined text.

In the Layers panel, I will click on the Create New Layer icon.

I'll click and drag the new layer down under the other layers, double-click the layer name to highlight it, then type in the name, "background."

Select a Background Color

With the background layer selected, I will click on the foreground color selection box within the Tools panel, since Photoshop uses the foreground color to paint, fill, and stoke selections.

From the Color Picker, I will click on the color slider, or move the color slider triangle up or down until I like what I see in the Color field. I'll move the circular marker within the Color field and click to select a color, then click OK.

Another way to indicate a color using the Color Picker is to type in a HSB, RGB, Lab, or CMYK number, or by specifying a hexadecimal value.

Color the Background

With the background layer still selected, and the Paint Bucket tool selected from the Tools panel, I will click on the transparent background to fill it with color.

Save the Finished Image

Here's the end result; an image inside outlined text on a background color. Choose File > Save, and it's done!

How to Use the Adobe Photoshop Tools

The tools available on the Photoshop toolbar and menus are the basis for working in the software. Learning tools such as the crop, clone stamp and marquee, and the use of tool presets, will help facilitate design and improve workflow.

Open the Tool Presets Palette

Open the Tool Presets Palette

Creating tool presets in Photoshop is an excellent way to speed up your workflow and remember your favorite and most-used settings. A tool preset is a named, saved version of a tool and specific related settings such as width, opacity and brush size.

To work with tool presets, first open the tool presets palette by going to “Window > Tool Presets.” Depending on the current tool you have selected in the Photoshop toolbar, the presets palette will either display a list of presets or a message that no presets exist for the current tool. Some Photoshop tools come with built in presets, and others do not.

Experiment with Default Tool Presets

You can set up presets for almost any tool in Photoshop. Since the crop tool comes with some simple presets, it’s a good starting point. Choose the crop tool in the toolbar and notice the list of default presets in the tool presets palette. Standard photo crop sizes such as 4x6 and 5x7 are available. Click on one of the choices and the values will automatically populate the height, width and resolution fields of the crop toolbar. If you click through some of the other Photoshop tools, such as the Brush and Gradient, you will see more default presets.

Creating Your Own Tool Presets

While some of the default presets are of course helpful, the real power in this palette is creating your own tool presets. Select the crop tool again, but this time, enter your own values in the fields at the top of your screen. To create a new crop preset out of these values, click the “create new tool preset” icon at the bottom of the tool presets palette. This icon is highlighted in yellow in the screenshot.

Photoshop will automatically recommend a name for the preset, but you can rename it to fit the use. This can come in handy if you are often cropping images to the same size for a client or project.

Once you understand the concept of the preset, it is easy to see how helpful they can be. Try creating presets for a variety of tools, and you will see that you can save any combination of variables. Using this feature will allow you to save your favorite fills, text effects, brush sizes and shapes, and even eraser settings.

Tool Presets Palette Options

The small arrow in the top right of the tool presets palette, which is highlighted in the screenshot, gives you some options for changing the palette view and your presets. Click to arrow to reveal options to rename presets, view different list styles, and even save and load sets of presets. Often, you would not want to display all of your presets all of the time, so you could use the save and load options to create preset groups for specific projects or styles.

You will see there are already some default groups in Photoshop.

Using tool presets consistently can save you a great deal of time, avoiding the need to enter detailed variables for each use of a tool, especially when you are repeating tasks and styles.

How to Use the Photoshop Marquee Tool

Uses of the Tool

The Photoshop marquee tool, a relatively simple feature, is essential for several tasks. At the most basic level, the tool is used to select areas of an image, which can then be copied, cut or cropped. Specific sections of a graphic can be selected to apply a filter or effect to a particular area. Strokes and fills can also be applied to a marquee selection to create shapes and lines. There are four options within the tool to select different types of areas: rectangular, elliptical, a single row or a single column.

Select the Marquee Tool

To use the marquee tool, select it in the Photoshop toolbar. It is the second tool down, below the “move” tool. To access the four options of the marquee, hold the left mouse key down on the tool, and select one of the additional options from the pop-up menu.

Select an Area of the Image

Once you have selected the marquee tool of your choice, you can select an area of the image to work with. Position the mouse where you want to begin the selection and click the left mouse button, holding it down while you drag the selection to the desired size, and then release the mouse button. For the “single row” and “single column” marquees, click and drag the marquee to select the one-pixel line of your choice.

More Selection Options

With the “rectangular” and “elliptical” marquee tool, you can hold down the “shift” key while dragging the selection to create a perfect square or circle. Notice you can still change the size, but the proportion remains the same. Another useful trick is to move the entire selection as you create it. Often, you will find your marquee starting point isn’t at the exact intended spot on the canvas. To move the selection, hold down the space bar and drag the mouse; the selection will move instead of resizing.  To continue to resize, release the space bar.

Modify the Selection

After you have created a selection, you can modify it by adding or subtracting from it. Start by creating a selection on the canvas. To add to the selection, hold down the shift key and create a second selection. This new marquee will add to the first… as long as you continue to hold the shift key before each selection, you will add to it. To subtract from a selection, follow the same process but hold down the alt/option key. You can use these two methods to create countless figures, which can then be used to apply filters to a custom area or create shapes.

Putting the Selections to Use

Once you have selected an area, you can apply different uses to that area. Use a Photoshop filter and it will only apply to the selected area. Cut copy and paste the area to use it elsewhere or alter your image. You can also use many of the functions within the “edit” menu, such as fill, stroke, or transform, to only change the selected area. Remember you can create a new layer and then fill a selection to build shapes. Once you learn the marquee tools and use them with ease, you will be able to manipulate not just the whole, but parts, of your images.

How to Use the Photoshop Crop Tool

Uses of the Photoshop Crop Tool

The Photoshop crop tool serves two main purposes. The first is to crop, which means to cut out an area of an image by selecting the area that you wish to keep. It is also handy for quickly resizing images. These functions can also be used at the same time to crop and resize a photo (or any type of image) at once.

Open an Image

 

To practice with the crop tool, open an image in Photoshop; click “File>Open,” browse for the image on your computer, and click “Open.” For the purposes of this tutorial, a photo will work well, though any type of image will do.

Choose the Crop Tool

 

Click on the crop tool icon on the Photoshop toolbar (pictured). You can also use the keyboard shortcut “c.” When you roll over your photo, the cursor will resemble the crop tool icon; unless you have your cursors set to “precise” in the Photoshop preferences.

Select the Crop Area

 

Position your cursor where you want to start your crop, which will depend on what you want to cut out of your photo. Left-click and drag to select the area that you want to remain in your photo. If you want to adjust the starting point of your crop, you can hold down the spacebar to move the selected area, and then release it to continue drawing your crop square.

Remember the area you are selecting is the part of the photo that will be kept…the rest will be removed.

Release the mouse button to finish selecting your crop area. You can now click and drag your crop square to move it, and drag the corners to adjust it. To cancel the crop, hit the “Esc” key on your keyboard.

Crop the Photo

Notice that the area outside of your crop is darker. This will be “cut out” when you crop your photo. To complete the crop, double-click inside of your crop area or hit the “enter” key on your keyboard. You are left with your newly cropped photo.

Resizing Images with the Crop Tool

The crop tool is also handy for resizing images, without using the “Image>Image Size…” command. With the crop tool still selected, notice the toolbar at the top of your screen has blank fields for width, height and resolution (pictured). You can fill these fields in with dimensions of your choice, and then crop the image to immediately resize it to those dimensions. For example, enter a width of “300 px” and a height of “200 px” with a resolution of “72.” Try to crop your photo and notice the aspect ratio is stuck to fit your dimensions.

Finish the crop and you have a 72 dpi 300x200 photos. Here you are achieving both a crop and a resize in one step. You can also fill in only one or two of these fields, allowing you to crop photos to a specific width or height and let the other dimension work out for itself.

You can also enter inches by using the abbreviation “in” instead of “px.” This is helpful for cropping a photo to a common size for printing, such as 4x6 inches at 300 dpi. Remember you don’t actually have to crop anything out of your photo to use this resize function…simply enter your dimensions and select the entire image with your crop tool, and it will still be resized. Be careful about selecting dimensions that are larger than your actual photo, which would result in a loss of image quality.

How to Use the Photoshop Clone Stamp Tool

Open a Photo

The Photoshop clone stamp tool allows you to copy one area of an image and copy it onto another area. In order to practice this, open a photo in Photoshop. To do this, go to file>open, browse to the photo on your computer, select the filename, and click open. Any photo will do for practice, but if you have one that needs some retouching use that one.

Choose the Clone Stamp Tool

The clone stamp tool is located on your Photoshop toolbar. If you do not see the toolbar (a vertical set of icons), go to window>tools to bring it up. Click the tool (see below) to select it. You can always see what a tool is by rolling over it and waiting for the tool name to appear.

Choose Brush Options

Once on the Photoshop clone stamp tool, you can set your brush options (located at the top of the screen). Brush size and shape, opacity, flow and blending modes can all be selected. If you want to copy an exact area you will leave the opacity, flow and blending mode at their default settings and only choose a brush size and shape.

Select an Area to Copy From

The clone stamp is such a great tool because it lets you copy from one area of a photo to another using any type of brush. This can be useful for tricks such as covering up blemishes (by copying from another part of skin) or removing trees from a mountain view (by copying parts of the sky over them).

To select the area you want to copy from, move your mouse to the area you want to duplicate and Alt-click (Windows) or Option-click (Mac).

The cursor will change to a target. Click the exact spot you want to start copying from.

Paint Over Your Image

It's now time to retouch your image. Click and drag over the area you want to replace or correct and you will see the area you selected in step 4 start to "cover" your photo. Play around with different brush settings and try replacing different areas of your photo until you get the hang of it.

NOTE: Remember this tool can also be useful for fixing images other than photographs. You may want to quickly copy an area of an illustration or fix up a background graphic for a website.

How to Use the Photoshop Save for Web Tool

Web-Ready Graphics

As a graphic designer, you may often be asked to deliver web-ready images, such as photos for a web site or banner ads. The Photoshop “Save for Web” tool is a simple and easy way to prepare your JPEG files for the web, helping with the trade-off between file size and image quality.

NOTE: For this tutorial, we are looking at saving JPEG images. The Save for Web tool is also built to save GIF, PNG, and BMP files.

What Makes a Graphic “Web-Ready?”

Resolution is 72 dpi

Color mode is RGB

Generally reduced in file size for faster loading web pages.

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Open an Image

To practice with the “Save for Web” tool, open an image in Photoshop; click “File>Open,” browse for the image on your computer, and click “Open.” For the purposes of this tutorial, a photo will work well, though any type of image will do. Resize your photo to a small size that you may use on a web site. To do this, click “Image>Image Size,” enter a new width in the “Pixel Dimensions” box (try 400) and click “OK.”

Open the Save for Web Tool

Now let’s assume somebody asked you to deliver this photo, at 400 pixels wide, ready to be posted on a web site. Click “File>Save for Web” to open the Save for Web dialog box. Take a moment to browse the different settings and tools in the window.

Set Up the Comparison

In the top left corner of the Save for Web window are a series of tabs labeled Original, Optimized, 2-Up and 4-Up. By clicking these tabs, you can switch between a view of your original photo, your optimized photo (with the Save for Web settings applied to it), or a comparison of 2 or 4 versions of your photo. Choose “2-Up” to compare the original photo with the optimized one. You will now see side-by-side copies of your photo.

Set the Original Preview

Click on the photo on the left side to select it. Choose “Original” from the Preset menu on the right side of the Save for Web window (if not already selected). This will put a preview of your original, unedited photo on the left side.

Set the Optimized Preview

Click on the photo on the right side to select it. Choose “JPEG High” from the Preset menu. You can now compare your optimized photo on the right (which will eventually be your final file) with your original on the left.

Edit the JPEG Quality

The most important setting in the right column is the “Quality” value. As you lower the quality, your image will look “muddier” but your file size will go down, and smaller files mean faster loading web pages. Try changing the quality to “0” and notice the difference in the photos on the left and right, as well as the smaller file size, which is located beneath your photo. Photoshop also gives you the estimated loading time below the file size. You can change the connection speed for this loading time by clicking the arrow above the optimized photo preview. The goal here is to find a happy medium between file size and quality. A quality between 40 and 60 is usually a good range, depending on your needs. Try using the preset quality levels (i.e. JPEG Medium) to save time.

Save Your Image

Once you are satisfied with your photo on the right, click the “Save” button. The “Save Optimized As” window will open. Type a file name, browse to the desired folder on your computer and click “Save.” You now have an optimized, web-ready photo.