Washington sucks.

And THAT is why I hate it.

Introducing Paint.NET: Quality meets affordability

Many a time I have come across an app, and said to myself: “That sounds like a great app! If only it didn’t cost so much money.” Of course, that sends me out looking for free alternatives, which lack in quality.

That’s why I was so glad when I came across Paint.NET. It was free, so I was initially a bit skeptical about it. As with all things though, I gave it a try. My first reaction: Looks like Photoshop, with all its sub-windows and endless menus and miles upon miles of configuration controls. To be honest, it seemed complicated.

I was willing to give myself some time to monkey around with all the buttons. Paint.NET turned out to be a really fun image editor to use! Although there were so many buttons and functions, the controls are actually quite intuitive. Everything is neatly organized, and after a while, I was no longer overwhelmed by all the features.

Some of its best features, in my opinion, include:

• The History box which records every single one of your actions, allowing you greater control over undoing/redoing your edits
• The countless number of cool effects in the Effects menu, such as Gaussian Blur, Oil Sketch, and … well, I’ll leave it up to YOU to explore
• Layers
• The ability to add new effects with plugins

There’s so much functionality built in to Paint.NET, that I give it a solid recommendation for anyone looking for a Photoshop alternative. Try it yourself, you’ll love it!

Website: http://www.paint.net/

Price: $0

A few April Fool’s Internet pranks

Cows that don't produce milk? I wonder what they DO produce?

Google's name changes to Topeka (so photoshopped)

San Francisco, Day 2

Day 2 wasn’t such a big day. We didn’t go anywhere, except to a theatre. After that it was a gigantic pizza party and then I did some homework.

Since nothing much really happened, I’ll show you some of the businesses around our hotel in Silicon Valley.

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Not pictured: NASA, DataDomain, Apple, and Google

San Francisco, Day 1

After riding 17 hours in a bus, we finally arrived in San Francisco, tired and fatigued. The first day was sightseeing, so we were let off at famous Pier 39 and allowed to go wherever we want.

Here’s the places we went:

• Fisherman’s Wharf
• Cable Car Museum
• Chinatown (kind of)
• Academy of Sciences at California
• Golden Gate Park
• Up and down very steep streets
• Lombard Street
• Boudin’s

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A Simulated Explosion in Pictures

Red – Fire

White – C4 Plastic Explosive

Green – Nitroglycerine

Background – Air flow: Green = High pressure, Blue = Low pressure

The setup

First shock

Thrust upwards and killed

Air current disturbance

A new player enters

Flames of wind

Downdraft

Circulating currents

Corner shock

Calm

A Fire in Pictures

This is the third fire I’ve seen in a month’s time. It happened on the trail just outside my house. It was quite a big fire, considering that it engulfed a whole section of the trail. The fire was not easy for firefighters to reach, since their fire trucks couldn’t get through the narrow trail, so they brought in a smaller unit.

The fire may have been started by neighbors launching left-over fireworks, since I heard a few pops and bangs outside my house this morning.

My first sight of the fire

The fire spreads

A firefighter walks by, looking at the fire

A mobile fire truck pulls in to assist

Briefly engulfed in smoke

Starting to put out the fire

A fire truck waits outside