Sometimes, you can find gems on Facebook. Not often, I’ll admit, but I saw a photo shared to the group “Crothersville History in Pictures” that I grabbed. It’s of Alice Rider (Jeff Rider’s mom — Jeff graduated with my favorite brother) and she graduated in 1943.
It’s a picture of a picture. 🙂
Jeff went on to say that his Grandfather Rogers (waaaaay before my time) drove the school bus for years. Of course, I wonder if that’s the only bus that Crothersville had. I also think about how cold it would’ve been in the winter, and that it wouldn’t hold many students. No flashing lights either that I can see.
Because I have some history with school buses and Photoshop…
I couldn’t help myself from “fixing” the above photo. Straightening it up and even colorizing it.
Now you know: In ancient Greece, men had to go to the gym completely naked. These spaces were exclusively for men, and exercising in the nude was meant to promote the appreciation of the male physique as a tribute to the gods.
As I was huddled in the bathroom with two big dogs on Tuesday to avoid potential bodily harm from a tornado, I received a robocall from what appeared to be our local CVS. It totally ticked me off!
Upon a closer look, I found their phone number is being spoofed… used by a scammer to masquerade as a trusted entity.
This doesn’t make sense to me…
We have apps that can replicate human intelligence and problem-solving abilities, but not one that can stop call spoofing? We have apps that can manipulate a photo to move a creek to a spot where there isn’t one… but not an app that can stop call spoofing?
What doesn’t work.
You can use a spam blocker on your phone but that doesn’t stop calls coming from spoofed numbers. You can block the number — but what if it’s a number of a company you use? (Like me with CVS.) You can sign up for the government’s ‘do not call’ list — but that doesn’t do a thing to prevent spoofing.
They’re working on it… at least that’s what they say.
While phone companies and regulatory bodies are working on implementing solutions for call authentication and verification systems, such as STIR/SHAKEN, it remains a cat-and-mouse game as malicious actors continue to find new ways to spoof caller ID.
In the meantime, don’t be mad at CVS — and don’t call-back people you don’t know.
Now you know: The temperature on the moon at the Apollo 11 landing site was 200ºF (93ºC).
Over the past couple days I’ve been working on updating websites — personal and business. Primarily this consists of checking and sometimes updating the copyright year, and making certain everything is current. I updated a few photos on the main page of shelleyerwin.com and that was the reason I fell into the Photoshop rabbit hole.
Over the years, I’ve accumulated a bajillion photos.
It’s always fun to scroll through the many photos from years past, isn’t it? What’s even more fun is opening up a photo and simply playing around with it. For example… when Perry brought in the most awesome ham ever, I wanted a photo. At the second I clicked, Mom stuck her head down to smell the smoked creation.
This is what was captured…
I snickered when I saw it on my computer’s photo stash. I figured it might be fun to change the background scene.
Show us what ya’ got AI!
I selected the subjects, and then did a reverse selection so the background was open to be generated by whatever text I typed in. I tried ‘Oregon Trail’ and ‘Santa’ and even ‘New Year.’ I gave it up for something simple… ‘Central Park.’
This is the AI generated photo:
Next I laughed and laughed and sent it to those pesky neighbors by text. The reply?
“Looks like someone dropped their false teeth in bushes.” 🤣
Now you know: Sarah Knauss, who was the oldest American to ever live (born 1880), saw three centuries in her lifetime. She died on December 30th, 1999, at the age of 119.
My Mom used to work at Hillenburg’s grocery store. It was before I was born so it’s been a looooong time ago. A few weeks back, Ralph Hillenburg shared of photo on Facebook someone took of my Momma while she was working there. I snatched it up.
The color was awful – an old-time pink fade.
This morning, I opened it up in Photoshop and did a one-step color correction…
I’m not sure how Photoshop knew to make that Crothersville sweater red, but it did. I did nothing manually.
Here’s how to do it:
Under “Filter” (top menu bar) click “Neutral Filters”
Click the option “Colorize”
It’s a Photoshop miracle!
I’m thrilled the micro bangs are only a memory (sorry, Mom), and I’m wondering what the heck a salad carnival was. Whatever it was, it was so special it rated two signs over her head. Also note the supply of Prince Albert in a can and the (Marlboro?) man riding a horse to sell cigs.
TIL (Today I Learned): In 2017 the U.S. Navy began using Xbox 360 video game controllers to operate periscopes on some of its newer, most advanced submarines.
Today’s photography victim subject is poor Perry. I snapped a couple quick photos as an example of how a simple ‘preset’ or ‘action’ can change the look and feel of any image.
Over the years I’ve purchased several packs of presets and actions and to be honest, I typically go back to the original photo every single time. If the color didn’t turn out just the way I wanted it to, I might go black & white with a contrast boost, but I’m not a fan of 70’s filters, film grains and washed out colors. Some are… I’m not.
I feel like I’m doing one of those DirectTV commercials. (You know — here’s Rob Lowe and here’s Crazy Hairy Rob Lowe.) Above is Perry. Below is highlight fixed, pink and yellow, obsessive black and white, Perry that has a slight position change.
If you’re interested in presets and actions, I would recommend you check out Totally Rad. They have collections that are a great place to start.
