1.The later you are, the more excited your dogs are to see you.

2. Dogs don’t notice if you call them by another dog’s name.

3. Dogs like it if you leave a lot of things on the floor.

4. A dog’s parents never visit.

5. Dogs agree that you have to raise your voice to get your point across.

6. You never have to wait for a dog; they’re ready to go 24 hours a day.

7. Dogs find you amusing when you’re drunk.

8. Dogs like to go hunting and fishing.

9. A dog will not wake you up at night to ask, “If I died, would you get another dog?”

10. If a dog has babies, you can put an ad in the paper and give them away.

11. A dog will let you put a studded collar on it without calling you a pervert.

12. If a dog smells another dog on you, they don’t get mad. They just think it’s interesting.

13. Dogs like to ride in the back of a pickup truck.

And last, but not least:

14. If a dog leaves, it won’t take half of your stuff.

If you really want to know who loves you more, put your wife & your dog in the trunk of the car for ½ an hour and see who’s happy to see you when you let ‘em out!

via

Nation to be Renamed ‘Panda Garden’

In a landmark deal that could provide much-needed cash to America’s anemic economy, China agreed today to acquire the naming rights to the U.S. for a reported $1.4 trillion.

The deal, which is expected to be signed by President George W. Bush and Chinese President Hu Jintao sometime before Inauguration Day on January 20, was hailed today by Mr. Bush as a “win-win” for both countries.

“We get 1.4 trillion dollars, and all we have to do is change our name to ‘Panda Garden,’” Mr. Bush told reporters at the White House.

The president said he decided to make the extraordinary deal after being shocked to learn that the U.S. was in a recession, when it was reported yesterday in Duh magazine.

According to President Hu, the Chinese had originally inquired about purchasing the rights to two American sports facilities named after troubled companies, Ford Field in Detroit and Citi Field in New York, but then decided it might be more cost-efficient to buy the rights “to the whole shebang.”

In addition to the $1.4 trillion, the Chinese government said that it would provide $10 million to commission a new national anthem that would somehow incorporate the words “Panda Garden” in the lyrics, and to redesign the nation’s flag, which will henceforth be known as “the stars, stripes, and adorable bear.”

This was a photomanipulation challenge over at innographx.com
click image for larger view.

This was a photomanipulation challenge from Retouchpro.com. Here is the original image.

This was a challenge over at DPreview.com. Here is the original image. Using Photoshop I started with the Art history brush then duplicated that layer and reduce the opacity down to 50% then I used the smudge tool.

The first thing I did besides opening the image is to create a duplicate layer of the background layer.
I then applied on this new layer the Fractalius filter trying to get the most natural outline of the bird including the feathers. I deleted any unnecessary lines.
I desatdurated this layer and set the blending mode to multiply and the opacity set at 80%. I named this layer sketch.
I added a new layer just below the sketch layer and filled it with a color from the original image in this case it was lime green. I named this layer canvas.
Created one more new layer and name this paint and set the opacity at 80%.
So from bottom to top we should have layers in the following order
1.  Background layer: This is your original image.
2.  Canvas layer: Filled with a color from your original image.
3.  Paint layer: This is the layer that you want to apply your paint using the Art history brush.
4.  Sketch layer: This is the layer that you applied the Fractalius filter to.
Now you apply the Art history brush to the layer named paint.

After applying the Art history brush I used the smudge tool with opacity at 74% and smoothed the rough edges.
I merged all layers into one then duplicated this new layer and set the opacity at 50%.
Then I use the smudge tool one last time smoothing everything out.
I merged the two layers. If you want you could add some texture like canvas or Art paper.
That’s pretty much all I did other than some creative work on the background and applied a little unsharp mask.