Photoshop Tutorials - Psdtuts+ 400 Writing Topics - Prompts and Suggestions for Paragraphs, Essays, and Speeches - Essay Topics If getting started is the hardest part of the writing process, close behind it (and closely related to it) may be the challenge of finding a good topic to write about. Sometimes, of course, an instructor will solve that problem for you by assigning a topic. But at other times you'll have the opportunity to choose a topic on your own. And you really should think of it as an opportunity--a chance to write about something you care about and know well. So relax. To help get you thinking, we've prepared some writing suggestions--more than 400 of them, in fact. We've organized the suggested topics into 11 broad categories, loosely based on some of the common ways of developing paragraphs and essays. Now follow the links to our 400 topic suggestions and see where they take you. Describing People, Places, and Things: 40 Writing TopicsDescriptive writing calls for close attention to details--details of sight and sound, sometimes even of smell, touch, and taste.
Welcome to Aviary Journal Writing Ideas - Journal Prompts - Photoshop Tutorials As it is nearly Halloween again, I think it’s time for a horror Photoshop tutorial. The thing is, there are tons of Zombies, Vampires and other assorted ghoulie tutorials out there, but as yet very few werewolf ones. So here goes, get ready to grow some hair and bark at the moon. By the way, if you are looking for a quick, 5 minute tutorial, keep looking! Step 1 I’ve chosen this good looking, young, blue eyed guy for this tutorial. Read the rest of this entry »
Creative Writing Prompts, Creative Writing Ideas, Creative Writing Exercises, … — Helping Writers and Poets Get Some Writing Done 400+ Time Saving Photoshop Actions This post is a roundup of latest free web design resources released during the month of March. This collection includes patterns, icons, themes, and… Continue Reading → These days many artists are collaborating with big brands in order to reach a mass market. Continue Reading → This post is a roundup of latest free web design resources released during the month of February. Continue Reading → Inspirational blogging – what to write about? “What should I write about on my blog?” and “How do I find great blog post ideas?” are two things every blogger struggles with at some point or another after making a blog. You cannot afford to sit and wait for inspiration to strike. Keep a blog post ideas doc The worst thing that can happen to an idea is to let it slip through your fingers like sand. Be well-organized and keep an ideas document. Keep the document synced between your devices to look it up or use it for on-the-spot note-taking when something new comes to your mind. Google Docs and Simplenote are two of my favorite tools for keeping an ideas doc. Is it time for you to create a new piece of content? Starting from scratch without a reserve supply of ideas, you will get stuck and create a rushed, inadequate job. When it’s time to work on a new post, you simply open your ideas document as a reference. Blog post ideas generator Try something different. Success/failure stories. Identify ideas that work for competitors Just write.
50 web design resources Basics & Principles 9 Essential Design Principles - PSDtuts, known for its Photoshop tutorials, gives us a nice list of basic design principles that can be applied to many different media types, but are often lost in amateur web design. The Importance of White space - One of the oldest principals of design is white space, and knowing how to use it properly could mean wonders for your design. Popular site A List Apart tackles the subject. 8 Design Tactics to Help You When You're Stuck -Every designer goes through hard times of "designer's block"; Matt Inman (also known as "Oatmeal") gives us 8 tactics to help you get back to work. 10 Great Website Redesigns of 2007 - How better to enhance your design abilities then to learn from the mistakes of those in the past? Top 100 Online Generators for Web 2.0 - From mirrored logos to rounded corners, the web 2.0 look has been often imitated, and much can be attributed to posts like this from Ajaxflakes. Color Graphics & Icons Photos Fonts & Text Layouts
50 Ways to Find Inspiration: Create, Explore, Expand “If we look at the world with a love of life, the world will reveal its beauty to us.” ~Daisaku Ikeda I have always loved that scene in American Beauty when Ricky Fitts shows his video of a plastic bag blowing in the wind. He’s the complete opposite of his neighbor Lester Burnham, who seems to have decided long ago to live life in a comatose state of submission, completely disconnected from authentic joy. Ricky seems inspired by everything that most people simply overlook. “It was one of those days when it’s a minute away from snowing and there’s this electricity in the air, you can almost hear it. “And that’s the day I knew there was this entire life behind things, and… this incredibly benevolent force, that wanted me to know there was no reason to be afraid, ever. Though it can look different for all of us, I suspect this is the feeling we wait for in life: a sense that there’s boundless beauty out there, and we have the capacity to feel, channel, explore, and express it. 1. 2. 3. 4. 5.
Design Vitality > Web Design Blog and Graphic Design Blog Web 2.0 is a term coined in recent years that describes the changing trends in the use of World Wide Web technology and web design that aim to enhance creativity, information sharing, collaboration and functionality of the web. Web 2.0 concepts have led to the development and evolution of web-based communities and hosted services, such as social networking sites, video sharing sites, wikis, blogs, and social indexes. Web 2.0 websites are typically known for the use of CSS, Folksonomies (social tagging, classification, and indexing), Microformats, REST/XML/JSON-based APIs, rich internet applications such as Ajax, Flex, or Flash, semantically valid XHTML and HTML, RSS/Atom syndication and aggregation, weblog-publishing tools, wiki or forum software, and the extended use of internet privacy and content management. Below is a list of the top 15 websites that have been influential in establishing these methods of functionality on the web. 2. 3. Read the rest of this post »
Breaking habits of perception-a skill that changes everything « Metta Refuge Here is another great teaching from Thanissaro Bhikkhu. While looking for some buddhadharma about dealing with guilt about the past, I came across this paragraph, from the end of his article, “Habits of Perception.” It was so helpful, I stopped my search to read the whole article, which I share below. May it be an aid to developing the skillful perceptions that lead to freedom! A frequent image in meditation instructions is that all you have to do is turn on a light and the darkness goes away. Thanissaro Bhikkhu What have you got here in the present moment? Some of the baggage you’re bringing into the present moment consists of issues you’ve picked up in the course of the day: things this person said, that person did, things you yourself said or did. But the issues also go deeper than that. So the Buddha sets out maps, he sets out instructions, for how to cut through those feedback loops and to understand how your perceptions shape things in a way that brings suffering. Like this: