I Am Not Skilled to Understand

Just some lyrics to get you thinking today...

Beautiful
by Shawn McDonald

As I look into the stars
Pondering how far away they are
How You hold them in Your hands
And still You know this man
You know my inner most being, oh
Even better than I know, than I know myself
What a beautiful God
What a beautiful God
And what am I, that I might be called Your child
What am I, what am I
That You might know me, my King
What am I, what am I, what am I
As I look off into the distance
Watching the sun roll on by
Beautiful colors all around me, oh
Painted all over the sky
The same hands that created all of this
They created you and I
What a beautiful God
What a beautiful God
And what am I, that I might be called Your child
What am I, what am I
That You might know me, my King
What am I, what am I
That You might die, that I might live
What am I, what am I, what am I, what am I
What am I

No, I'm not looking at you!

I'm in the library at Delta, waiting for Emerson. Every time I glance in the direction of the door, I appear to be staring at the man at the computer diagonally across from mine. I've gotten several looks back, and now he's "ignoring" me. Even though I'm not actually looking at him!
Last night was incredible, but it was way too short. The only purpose it served that I could see was to make me miss Hiawatha even more than I already did. It also made me miss my class, since Robert and I talked about St. Paul and our friends all the way home.
But, I'll be okay. I think disappointments may be God's way of making me rely on Him more.

Edited 3/19: The man got up and left about 2 minutes after I wrote that. It made me laugh. I saw Washy today. Sometimes I just wish we could go back and do 8th grade over and over. It was one of the best years of my life, school-wise, and I miss it like no other.
Today on the way home I listened to "Goodbye" by Audio Adrenaline, and it made me sad all over again.

I'm a Deviant!

Howdy y'all!
I just wanted to post real quick and tell everyone about my new photography site on DeviantArt.
The title of this blog is the link, and I've posted a few pictures to tease your brain. :) So go check it out!

"Into Narnia" Piatt Christmas 2007
"Random Tree" Piatt Fall 2007"Black and White Icicles" Piatt Christmas 2007

Well-Structured Arguments, Good News, and Sore Throats

I guess it's about time to write again, huh? This was one of the busiest, craziest, most joyful weekends of my life. In this blog, I will attempt to sum it up in three headings: Well-Structured Arguments, Good News, and Sore Throats

Well-Structured Arguments
The debate tournament was incredibly... fun. Picture this: Alyssa is tired, due to waking up at an ungodly hour of the morning to get ready for the tournament. I have never faced a team that was not made up entirely of novices. So far, I'm just laughing and joking with friends. Then- postings are up?! I go to check postings, and I'm facing a 3rd year team (I believe), who has been to finals twice.
The round was fun, though, despite my nerves during the 1AC. We lost, of course, but it wasn't a slaughter by any means. In fact, I think we only lost on Solvency.
Our other rounds were fun that day, too. The final round, we faced a team we have faced before, and we were entirely sure that we had won the round. We argued their main points, hammered them with evidence, got them to admit faults of their case in Cross-Ex.
Pride goeth before a fall. We lost. It's so subjective based on the judges, and this judge apparently had decided that it was customary to wear earplugs during the Negative team's speeches.
On Saturday, I argued Topicality for the first time ever. The plan WAS completely non-topical, but the judge ruled that the round should continue. It was lovely, though. Because the team we faced had never before won Topicality, they had no idea how to argue the other three issues. :)
All in all, it was a great tournament. We went 4-3, and Heidi and Andrew won the final round. Four of the eight top speakers were from Kairos. Heidi won everything ever. Our club was successful, and we were happy with our record.

Good News
Sunday was the WinterJam Tour Spectacular. I went with Aaron, Emilyy, and Madison. My debate partner was there, too. I've been praying for his salvation all year. Tony Nolan, the speaker, was engaging and funny. When I peeked after "The Prayer", my partner and BOTH OF HIS PARENTS were standing, proclaiming that they had just received Christ. Emilyy and I were looking around, and I grabbed her and began screaming, "EMERSON EMERSON EMERSON!!!!" It was an amazing moment.

Sore Throats
Talking all day Friday and Saturday, and screaming all afternoon Sunday, left me with quite the sore throat. I've already covered the talking part, so now let's discuss the screaming!
WinterJam was incredible. The line-up was as follows: Group 1 Crew, PureNRG, Real Encounter X-Treme BMX, Mandisa, NewSong, Skillet, Tony Nolan, Intermission, BarlowGirl, Connersvine, and MercyMe.
We arrived 3 hours early to get in line. It was a blustery Michigan-winter-y afternoon. The wait was well worth it, however, when we got into the arena and claimed floor seats- 3rd row, center stage.
The screaming began almost immediately upon being seated. Mandisa was incredible, and Skillet was... indescribable. I lost almost my entired voice during "Rebirthing." Other highlights of their performance were "The Last Night," "The Older I Get," and "Savior." It was an incredible show, full of screaming, jumping, arm flailing, and head banging. Pictures WILL be up soon.
Needless to say, when I woke up on Monday morning, I could barely speak. Was the weekend worth it? Let's review quickly.
First, the debate tournament. Was it worth the sore throat? YES! Debating, hanging out with friends, making new friends, and gaining knowledge. Plus Cracker Barrel? Totally worth the voiceless-ness and tiredness.
Second, WinterJam. Worth it? FOR SURE! Skillet, Salvation, laughter, growing friendships, cousins, and screaming? Just one of those things would have been worth my current state.

I'm at the library now, while Mom and Bo have their teeth cleaned. That explains the longness of my post! Pictures will be up soon from the weekend. They're already on facebook
Later, loves!

Tutorial Numero Uno- Part Two!

Here is the second part of that tutorial! This is where I'll show you how to create the sunblast in the background and add it to your original photo.
Let's get started! Remember... I did this in Photoshop CS3.

Make sure your foreground and background colors are set to the default. You can do this by pressing "D"

Step One: Open a NEW image that is the same size as your original photo. You can check the size of the original photo by going to "Image>Image Size"

Step Two: Select the "Polygonal Lasso Tool," as shown in the screenshot below.


Step Three: Click in the middle of the page. Begin to make long, lopsided triangles. After one is complete, press "Ctrl+Backspace" to fill it. I know that didn't make sense, so look at my screenshot.
Step Four: If you're stupid like me, you just filled all of those spaces with WHITE. For the next step, they need to be BLACK. So, use the Magic Wand tool. Select as many as you can, then hold down "SHIFT" to select the rest. Do an "ALT+BACKSPACE" to fill them with BLACK!
Step 5: Go to "Edit>Define Brush Preset" and save your picture as a brush.

Step 6: Open up that original PSD again!
Step 7: Use the Magic Wand tool to select just the background. Find some fun brushes that fit with your picture, and put them everywhere! This does not include the sunblast brush that we just made! We will use that later! If the brushes touch the actual picture, go back and reselect just the background. I didn't make a screenshot of this step, sorry.

Step 8: Select the sunblast brush that we just made. Put it on the picture. It should look something like this: (of course, if you used different brushes, like me, it will be slightly different)
Step 9: Use the text tool to add words. You can add some fun text effects, too, if you want! And, voila! Your beautiful picture! Now, go register for Hiawatha, and you will be finished!

Tutorial Numero Uno- Part One!

This is the first part of the first of hopefully many Photoshop Tutorials. Please note that I used Photoshop CS3 to make this tutorial. If you have problems following it, that is probably why! In this tutorial, I will be showing you how to make a fun "sunblast" image. For my tutorial, I will be using the incomparable Family Force 5.
The first part of this tutorial shows you how to take a basic image and convert it to a PSD (an image with no background). If your image is already a PSD, then skip to Part Two!

Here is the before:
And the after:

I
Let's get started! I found this picture at Jesus Freak Hideout. If you want to use this picture, head on over there and search for "Family Force 5"

Step One: Open up your picture

Step Two: Select "QuickMask" mode (see screenshot)
Step Three: Select a brush tool. Begin to paint over the areas that you do NOT want selected. This is important! No matter what color you have selected, the brush tool will paint in red. That's what it's supposed to do! It should look something like this:


Step Four: Once you have all of the background painted, click on the Quick Mask tool again. Then do a "ctrl+I" to invert your selection:
Step Five: Click delete. The background will either turn white, or turn into a grey&white checkered color. Then save the file as a PSD, as seen below.

Voila! A PSD image! Now you're ready for Part Two!

Photography

Here is the first installment of my "Photography" blog. I hope you enjoy it!

This first picture is of three of my closest friends and myself. It was taken on my road, just down from my house. The background sketch effect and the pop-out effect were done in Photoshop CS3. You can find the tutorials here: Pop Out Effect Background Sketch
I did not write these tutorials, and I take no credit for them.




This next picture is one of the roses that my mom got for her anniversary. She asked me to take pictures, so I had a little fun with it. This picture was edited in Photofiltre. I don't remember the exact filters and such, though. Sorry!




Photo number three is my lovely collection of smelly spray, in a whole new way! A rhyme and a photo, all in one post! I used the Pop-Out Tutorial from earlier, along with some radial blur effects and such, also in Photoshop CS3.








These last two pictures are from Piatt Lake. It's only the best place on the planet. Piatt Lake also happens to be where the Hiawatha of my blog title is located. These pictures were edited by God. No software was used. These are both in taken in the same night, at different times.












I hope you enjoyed my photography. More will follow after this weekend hopefully. Prepare for debate and WinterJam pictures!

Here's an Idea

I was just on MySpace, looking over the profiles of some of my "friends," and I had an idea for all the lovesick girls, whose profiles are completely devoted to one boy: How about if you quit worrying about your "boyfriend". You are NOT in love with him. He is NOT in love with you. The chances that you will be together forever are EXTREMELY slim. Trust me.
So, instead of worrying about "him" ("your love"), how about if you worry about Him. Your Love. He loves you PASSIONATELY. He pursues you. He is chasing you. He will NEVER leave you. This boy, your current "love of your life," he WILL leave you eventually. So quit focusing on him, and focus on HIM.
Here's a hint, too: If you don't know who the HIM is that I'm talking about, do one of three things:

1. Get a Bible
2. Keep living miserably, searching for love in your "boyfriend"
3. Send me a message or comment. I'll point you towards someone who can hopefully help you.

I hope you'll take this to heart, and give it some thought. It's taken me a long time to get to the point where I can say this and mean it, and believe it. He WILL be everything that you need. Let Him fill your void.

Well, look at that- a blog!

Well, here we are. My blog. Welcome, enjoy, and all that good stuff.
In this speech I will be giving 5 reasons why you, judge, will hopefully agree with me when I say that the affirmative team should win this roun- what? Oh! I'm sorry! This is NOT a debate round!
Okay, let's try again!
In this post, I will be giving 5 reasons why you, reader, will hopefully agree with me when I say that this blog is worth your while!

1. Honesty. This blog will be cuttingly honest, sometimes to the point of sarcasm. I will endeavor to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, so help me God.
2. Lack of spelling and grammar errors. I don't know about you, but nothing bothers me more than spelling and grammatical errors, particularly on something public (IE, a blog). I will try my best to use proper grammar and spelling in every post.
3. Photography! I love photography and Photoshop, and from time to time, I will be posting photos, tutorials, and tips. What's not to love about photos, tutorials, and tips?
4. Music. If a=b and b=c, and "a" is "music" and c is "amazing," then "music" clearly equals "amazing." From time to time, I will be reviewing bands, songs, and albums. I will also occasionally post guitar chords for songs, and general guitar tips.
5. Debate! I'm in a debate club, and I love it. Whether you care about campaign finance reform or not, I will be blogging about campaign finance reform from time to time.

There you go... 5 reasons to read and thoroughly enjoy my blog. I hope you agree!