Gone 'til Movember

With my home subscription to Adobe Creative Cloud, one would think I would spend most of my five-day vacation from ABC Adult School doing more Photoshop projects.  Actually, I did, starting two projects; however, I ended up completing only one.

That is the project you see below, which supports awareness of cancers that mostly affect men.  Some years ago, someone conceived of Movember, in which men are asked to grow facial hair.  The three subjects here are Buddy Wayne, Bobby Ray, and their friend Rhett Jeffers.  I have never before introduced Jeffers; he would be a pro wrestling announcer for the Ultimate Wrestling Federation promotion I mentioned in chapter 3 and I have "called" NASCAR races for personal use by way of impersonating his voice (as well as those of the brothers).   It would be a deep voice typical of sports and news personalities, with influences like Vin Scully and Mike Joy.

As for the other, I planned to bring you a picture of Bryson and B.W. in the family pond.  The plan was for Bryson to "float" with the use of a life preserver I would create by taking an ordinary rectangle and turning it into a 3D object, while B.W. stayed close to shore.  Brady Poirier taught me this a few weeks ago.  But when I tried it myself, the 3D command I wanted to use was not activated.  All I can do at this point is seek support to find out why it was not turned on.  If I get that done, I'll complete the montage and show it to you later.

(Source of the title: the song "Gone 'til November," which was a hit for Wyclef Jean circa 2005.)

BMN Superfan - episode 8, season 2

With only five contestants left, the competition is getting intense.  "This may have started out as fun, but that fun has been taken out of it," summarizes Adam.  "We are all trying to win it now.  I especially want this because of my love for hunting and fishing, and that essentially is what happens at Camp Paradise."

For the next challenge, they return to the North Carolina State Fairgrounds for something essential to super-fandom: an autograph session.  The contestants pose as stars from the "movies" they made in the last challenge and try to gain the attention of potential fans in whatever way they can.  Adam picks up a guitar and sings about UFOs, Bobbington ditches the comedy-writer gimmick and goes all-out detective, ButtaFly rocks the look with dark sunglasses and a trenchcoat, Tim surrounds his booth with fake trees and butterflies while wearing a medieval knight's outfit, and Deb dresses as a bride - in the same wedding dress she wore when she married some 30 years earlier.  The judging criteria include total number of autographs, quality of displays, and fan comments.

Using their related characters, ButtaFly and Bobbington form an alliance to try to "steal" autographs from their opponents, calling themselves the "Soul Patrol."  "Yeah, like that's original," Adam complains.  Meanwhile, Adam wonders why UFOs aren't spotted anymore: "Maybe aliens think we're such a lost cause they don't want to help us."

The results are somewhat surprising: Despite the presence of the alliance, Adam actually picks up the most autographs and is safe, moving on to the semifinal episode.  ButtaFly and Bobbington then battle in the deliberation room, blaming each other for letting someone else win the challenge.  Meanwhile, Tim also gets a grilling, due to what judge Brandon McLamb calls "a design any third-grader could do.  But this is not third grade, it's a competition show."  Brandon adds, "We can easily go a lot of ways with [the elimination]."

Eventually, the decision is made to send home Bobbington Brandt.  "Not only did your clothes turn off a lot of the fans, all you did was argue against your opponents instead of defending your own place in the game," McLamb explains.  In confessional, the former linebacker admits that "looking back, this was not a good idea."

On a dismal day, Hambone and a letter cheer me up

To paraphrase a famous line from the classic movie Casablanca, of all the days to leave my USB drive inserted in a school computer as I leave school, it would be today.  After this, ABC Adult School (and for that matter, the entire school district) is closed until Dec. 2 because of Thanksgiving.  That's longest than most, if not all, other districts in my area.

When I realized what I did, I asked if at least the office would be open on Monday so I could retrieve the drive.  The answer, unfortunately, was no.  Nor could the district send it back to me by mail, which was my next idea.  I was even willing to give out my home address in front of a lot of mall shoppers, where I was at the time.  Oy!

As a result, I can't share any of my schoolwork from the week.  However, I uncovered something I did at home last week in the middle of the night, and it's the latest (and hopefully last) in the series starring my favorite double-entendre phrase, "blow me."  It all started with a single from Pink in 2012, "Blow Me (One Last Kiss)," a title that got me intrigued, even though it frankly shouldn't have.  It led to this, and this, and somewhere along the line, Hambone wearing a dress with the same image that was from my first link.

And now this: Hambone herself, while in a pink-colored see-through halter top, says the two-word phrase.  Although it seems to be an invitation to oral sex, those who read the small print carefully know that her intentions are far more innocent.  (For those who can't read it, it says "a big, wet kiss.")  It's certainly more cheerful that Pink's song was, which was about a bitter breakup.

Speaking of cheer, just minutes after I realized the USB was still at ABC, I came across a "mailbox" at the aforementioned mall, Lakewood Center.  That box is accepting letters addressed to active and retired military personnel.  For mine, I chose Bud Moore, a member of the NASCAR Hall of Fame as a team owner and engine builder.  Moore was part of the invasion force at Normandy on "D-Day," June 6, 1944.  By writing to Moore, I not only thanked him for his service, but also did something good to get my mind off my little crisis.  And believe me, it's tiny compared to what happened at Normandy and all the other battles Americans have fought at war, before and since.

BMN Superfan - episode 7, season 2

The show begins with a stunning development: there are seven contestants, not six, and Brandon McLamb comes out to address the contestants.  McLamb explains that, overnight, the judges reconsidered their decision to eliminate Deb.  "Deb should not be blamed for having Pam turn Deb's original idea into her own personal playground for her own destruction.  Therefore, we are letting her back in the game."  Deb walks back in and the reaction is surprise from all and happiness from most; as Meredith explains, "[Deb] is a burst of sunshine and this game is better with her in it."

But this leads to a dilemma: Since the main challenge is designed to be played by only six contestants, one has to be eliminated first.  How this happens is this: As the show was being taped, viewers went online and on Twitter to determine their favorite contestants, based on their bios and audition tapes.  Of the seven contestants left, it's announced that Deb has won the fan vote and that Meredith had the fewest.  Despite her protests, as backed by some of the other contestants, Meredith leaves the competition immediately.

The six who are left go to the main challenge, and the first individual contest of the season.  In the spirit of the Western-movie poster that graces Bryson's wall in the treehouse, they have to create a movie treatment based on their own lives.  What's more, they had to fit in one of six genres.  Deb was first and picked romance.  The rest picked in this random order:

• ButtaFly: Mystery ("so Bobbington wouldn't have it")
• Bobbington: Comedy
• Tim: Fantasy
• Adam: Science fiction
• Casey: Musical

Following selection, each contestant had 30 minutes to consult with Brandon and the guest judge, character actress Marianne Muellerleile, to refine their treatments.

The next day, a pitch meeting is held at the conference center.  Each contestant had only five minutes to explain why their concept should be selected.  It is then announced that the winning idea will be displayed on a poster similar to what Bryson has in his room, and which is also sold at the Barefoot family's retail stores.  Of course, the losing ideas will be up for elimination.

Deb and ButtaFly emerge as the leaders, showing poise and grace under the obvious pressures of the competition.  On the other hand, Bobbington seems flustered as he struggles with the consequences of ButtaFly's strategic decision.  Also in the bottom three are Adam, who asks to leave the room for a "timeout" which is granted, and Casey, who can't carry a tune as he tries to sing "Friends in Low Places."

At panel, Brandon acknowledges that the competition was close, but hands the victory of Deb: "Your combination of passion for the subject matter and ability to return to competitive mode at such a high level impressed all of us."  Deb's "movie" to be placed on the poster is ironically called "Butterfly Kisses," after the song by one-hit wonder Bob Carlisle.

Meanwhile, on the bottom, Adam was spared for his "nice recovery" (according to Muellerleile) after the brief pause, leaving Bobbington and Casey as the bottom two.  During panel, Brandon points out huge holes in each:

• Bobbington's cop-by-day, comedy-writer-at-night routine was "uninspired and sounded stupid"; he adds, "I know this is not the challenge you wanted, but you still should have owned it."  
• Casey's out-of-tune rendition of one of the greatest country music songs of all time was noted as supreme irony: "You're from Nashville and that's the best you can come up with?"  Casey joked, "Not everyone in Nashville can sing, so take it easy on me!"  "It doesn't matter.  It says musical, meaning you should have sang well this time!"  Brandon shoots back.

By the time panel is over, the decision is clear: Former NASCAR driver Casey Atwood is the latest to be sent home, leaving only five contestants.

Renewal of family photo and new video

It has been a year since I began working on the family's official photograph upon my return to ABC Adult School.  Although I am as proud of this achievement as anything else in my life, I was still dissatisfied with some parts of the montage.  So this week, at the start of the second quarter of classes, I did some work to improve the picture even more.  Some details:

• The left side of Hambone's face is very dark, due to the reflection in the right side of the face in the real-life picture of her avatar, Alyssa.  To compensate, I made a selection of the left side, added brightness on an adjustment layer, and used the spot healing brush tool to patch up the crack across the face that resulted.
• Bobby Ray's head was too big for his body, so I made selections of both the head and body separately, changed their proportions to make them more realistic, then went back to the layer of the original picture (laid over a new background of the house) and erased it.
• I relocated the seams and buttons on Brandy and B.W.'s shirts closer to the center.  They had been moved due to warping of the shirts during the original transformations to fit them as part of their bodies.
• The "glow" around Bryson's arms was taken care of with the clone stamp tool.  As I mentioned before, this was actually a high-contrast picture based on what I captured from a TV broadcast.
• Finally, although Bunky's arm around Brandy made for a charming - and human - touch, it just looked out of place in an official photograph.  Therefore, I erased his original left arm from the picture layer, duplicated the right arm side onto the other side, and straightened Brandy's head and neck.

The results are below:

For a look at the "before" picture, see this post.

In addition, I created a slide show of the family for the other class I take, Premiere Pro.  This is an afternoon class with teacher Nabawia "Nabby" el-Soudani Olivera.  (She's of Egyptian heritage, married to a Mexican.  That's America for you.:))  The music is to the Phillip Phillips hit song, "Home."

See it below:

BMN Superfan - episode 6, season 2

A unique challenge begins this episode: The eight remaining cast members are divided evenly and play four-handed games of bunco, a dice game preferred by many older members of the Barefoot household.  The winners of each game will have an advantage in the next team challenge.  Deb defeats Casey, Pam, and Bobbington in the first match, while Tim bests ButtaFly, Adam, and Meredith in the second.  The opponents then become teammates for the main challenge, with the bunco winners becoming team captains.

The task for them is to make a pitch for a TV show that would fit on the BMN schedule.  Deb's idea is "Fast Times," about a race-car driver who uses the DNA of various stars of the past to gain an advantage.  Casey is the driver, Pam his wife, Deb the driver's publicist, and Bobbington a security guard.  Tim has a show concept called "Hayride Rescue," in which struggling farms and ranches are turned around based on historic themes.  Tim is the mastermind, Adam and Meredith the curators, and ButtaFly the publicist.  The winning team gets a five-minute program on the BMN website and a one-hour special on the main network.

The pitches are heard not only by regular judges Brandon McLamb and Brian Warner, but also by BMN advisor Steve Beverly.  Both pitches are looked at with a very critical eye.  Deb's team was praised for having a "cool retro idea that somehow, in a strange way, fits well with this network" (McLamb) but Warner and McLamb debated about whether the show would use too much modern technology.  "It may be too much of a shock to the system for some viewers," Warner argues.  As for "Hayride Rescue," McLamb and Beverly love the idea of celebrating rural culture through renovation, but Warner is opposed, saying there are simply too many shows on TV like that one.  Beverly has the last word: "Once you have a winning idea, you want to spread it to as many places as possible."

Beverly must have been very persuasive, as "Hayride Rescue" wins.  Then Shandi Finnessey announces a surprise: the second double-elimination of the season, which will leave only six competitors.  When Pam is told that she is the biggest target in the house, she replies that "only you can vote me out, and I have faith that you won't because I have played a great game so far."  McLamb responds that "I just don't have that faith anymore, not after the big risk you took.  Looking back, 'Fast Times' is not what BMN wants; it's just too modern.  We always look to the future by reviving our past.  Maybe the past is there on this show, but it's pretty hard to see.  Pam is the first contestant sent home; seconds later, Deb is eliminated for endorsing the concept and "letting Pam walk all over her."

At the end of the show, celebrations go on inside the room, and a cloth doll representing Pam is buried in one of the garbage carts.

Here's what the family plot looks like!

UPDATE 10/25/2014: Changed function of picnic ground and open space.


This is one of the most important posts I have ever made, as this represents the "official" depiction of the rural family farm in which the Barefoot family lives.

It is based on an actual satellite image of 2118 Barefoot Road in Newton Grove, NC.  In real life, this is where a person named Ayden Barefoot lived in 1993, according to the Benson phone directory published by BellSouth (now AT&T) that year.  (The real, late Alfred "Buddy" Barefoot on which my main character's name is based is in the same directory.)  From that image, I "remodeled" it to make it truly their own.

Here is the Photoshop image that was the final result.  Each part is numbered and explained below:

1. Picnic ground and open space - Its main purpose is for relaxation and outdoor parties.  It was the site of the "Pink Party" for a few years before it moved to what is now the Barefoot Cemetery site.
2. Outhouse - It's the family's bathroom and home of the infamously-named butt.  As explained earlier, a "butt" in this context actually means a water barrel.
3. Barnyard - The Barefoots' animals are tended to here, and are prepared for food, clothing, and farmwork.
4. Residence - All 13 of them live here, of course.
5. Workshop - Here is where Harvey makes the handcrafted items.
6. Domestic room - It includes a kitchen, bath, and washroom.
7. Flower meadow - Annie designed it to beautify the road to the front entrance.  In reality it is on the corner of Barefoot and Calvary Roads.
8. Loblolly pine forest - This is a place of relaxation, especially in the summer when clan members need to escape the heat.
9. Farm plot - Domestic fruits and vegetables are grown here in rotation.
10. Orchard - Apples, plums, peaches, and other fresh fruits are picked here.
11. Mud pit - There are two very different functions here: child-like recreation and beauty treatments.
12. Oliver's Creek - This source of the family's drinking and cooking water was created from an irrigation ditch that Oliver Barefoot (B.W.'s great-great-uncle) made after nearby Mill Creek flooded.
13. Briar patch - This open field is used for everything from growing wild grains to hunting game animals.
14. Pond - It's where the fish bite and people go to have fun every summer.

For more on some of the specific functions on each of these features, please see this page I put up in the fall of 2012.

In the next photo montage, I incorporate that "artist's rendition" into a "print advertisement" for the Barefoot Family Farm.  I imagine it open for public tours and educational field trips.  The three mini-pictures show, from left to right, B.W. farming with traditional animals, Bobby Ray and Hambone in the barn, and Bryson picking apples.  (Remember that the website and phone number don't work, at least not for the fictitious Barefoot family!)

BMN Superfan - episode 5, season 2

Before the challenge airs, Bobbington recalls his stories playing college football and a shootout with robbers that he barely survives, and Deb receives a tennis racquet as a gag gift from producers, due to her facial resemblance to Billie Jean King.

This week's challenge takes place at the North Carolina State Fairgrounds in Raleigh, and it's a relay sack race.  Teams of four (the same as last week, except for Pam, who is sitting out) split up and hop down a 200-meter course.  They compete two at a time, with each pair going 100 meters each.  The first team across is immune for the week and wins a catered lunch back at the hotel, prepared by Brenda.  The losing team has everyone up for elimination.

Last week's winning team falls behind as ButtaFly forgets to secure her sack before beginning her segment, forcing that team to go back to the start.  Deb (pictured) and Casey's clear lead at the turn, however, is squandered by Adam and Meredith because Meredith stretches her left leg too close, causing their feet to come together too tightly.  However, Tim and Wayne do even worse, heading way off course; by the time they return, Adam and Meredith cross the line first and win safety and the meal for the quartet.

At the dinner, Brenda comes sit with them, and Adam, Meredith, Tim and Wayne share a memorable night of barbeque, homemade ice cream, and stories.  Adam also starts plotting to have Pam eliminated.

The next day, the cast comes together to hear the judgment in which, as threatened, Adam tries to sabotage by giving a laundry list of grievances against Pam, some real, others apparently contrived.  In the end, he admits the goal is to get rid of her from the competition as the most serious threat.  Brian Warner isn't convinced: "Now you wait to do this?  Especially since Pam can't be blamed for the loss, because she sat out the challenge."  Brandon McLamb concurs: "Maybe we should add Adam to those up for elimination, even though we're not supposed to do it."  Brandon then puts up Wayne as the compromise pick; the reason is that Wayne bumbled his way through his part of the relay race, not only by going off course but also by seeming to give up on the challenge once it occurred.  Wayne, of course, denies the tanking charge, but Brenda, the guest judge, says "I can read you and it's not good."  In a dramatic elimination, Wayne is sent home, to the shock of the rest of the cast.

My week in school: Two Photoshop projects and a slide show

My work this week features a family member playing around and another celebrating a holiday just past.

If you have read Harvey's biography, you know that the handcrafter is the best all-around athlete among the 13 residents of the Barefoot house.  This photo covers his entire athletic history.  "Before" simulates a 1960s - or earlier - high school yearbook page in which Harvey is depicted playing on his high school football team (top left) and as a wrestler (bottom left).  The wrestling picture shows him in the ready stance prior to a match in the North Carolina state high-school tournament.  Harvey, who attended Meadow High School, would have made the quarterfinals before losing.  (Meadow closed in 1969 when that school and some others consolidated into South Johnston High School, but an elementary school is on the site today.)  I turned the saturation on the photos down to zero so the color pictures would be converted to black-and-white.  The yellow tinge inside them comes from a file used by my instructor, Brady Poirier.  The body in the wrestling photo is that of a high-schooler in Pennsylvania.  The color photo on the right side of the page is him in a softball jersey, relaxing with a Louisville Slugger Z300 bat.  This is prior to a game with the family's team, which plays against other such teams in the area.

This next picture is a Halloween greeting card with a specially-carved pumpkin, Brenda the clown, and Bryson the cowboy.  As with earlier projects, I combined their faces with costumes sold at Party City stores and at Party City's website.  The pumpkin, two bats, and backdrop were also placed on school computer files by Poirier and were originally part of a class project.

Also of note, but not shown here (since I don't know if I can even put it on a page like this) is a 52-second slide show I did for my Premiere Pro class in the afternoon.  It shows all 13 members in an introductory fashion to the music of Phillip Phillips' hit song "Home."