PWN Photoshop!

This site should give you some inspiration and hint at the infinite possibilities afforded by Photoshop. The creations range from beautiful to unsettling but all are seamlessly created in Photoshop. Enjoy!



Now get out there and make your own awesome photo creations! pwnt!

Harry Potter = Star Wars

You may have your reservations, but these two fantasy sagas have an awful lot in common. Both orphans with extraordinary power, both fighting a seemingly indominable force of evil with use of magical weapons and comic relief from their sidekicks. Obi Wan Kenobi and Dumbledore, the wise old sages that offer guidance to the young heroes, even from the grave, differ only in their clothing.

Even the two hero's promo ads are similar!



Anyone who loves either one will surely love the other. I encourage those Harry Potter fans who have held out against the Star Wars experience to give it a real try! Both are great! Star Wars, slightly more so.... :P A brief synopsis shows the similarities.

Laser Game.... pew pew pew!

Fun and challenging laser game tests your wits! The game is highly reminiscent of my age old favorite "The Incredible Machine".



You have to activate all the light bulbs by directing a laser through them. Believe you me, its harder than you'd think! How far can you get? I'm stuck on the 6th level :(. Password for that level is w2k. See if you can beat it... Then tell me how!

Check it out here

Frozen Waves

Michigan has had a mighty chilly winter... chilly enough to freeze waves in mid-air! Surf's up!



See more pics here

Paper Art

Awesome art by Peter Callesen. He specializes in paper creations and the detail that goes into his works is quite impressive.



He has a myriad of smaller works but his large scale works are the most impressive.



See more here.

Political Cartoons

Even though Bush's presidency is nearly over, it's still fun to look back and laugh at one of the worst presidency's in U.S. History. This site is filled with political cartoons from 2001 to the present covering topics like 9/11, Guantanamo, Bush vs. Saddam and everything in between.

More Cartoons

PWN 2v2 Arenas

WoW 2v2 arena's are great practice for your arena skills, but it can be difficult to post a consistent winning record. One mage comes out and nukes your partner down and it won't be a long fight.



Quick thinking is the key to victory. Anticipate your foes moves and counter them before they devastate your group.

Some people like to size each other up and discuss the strategy of who to attack first, who to cc, etc. DON'T BOTHER! Especially in 2v2. If you charge straight in and open up on the weakest enemy you will almost always prevail. Catching the other team off guard and unprepared, they will likely not have decided which one of you to kill first before you've already killed one of theirs. Surprise attack ftw!

Never remain stationary. Keep running circles around your enemy in an erratic pattern and make them face the wrong way as often as possible. Constant movement will prevent the enemy from casting huge spells, melee will be out of range or facing the wrong direction, and the greatest benefit is that your harder to target! This is paramount because truly good 2v2 teams will switch between targets to interrupt heals, cc, etc. If your running around like a chicken with its' head cut off, the other team will waste precious moments trying to target you. Since there's only two of you, they could always tab target, but if you drop some totems or have a pet or anything that they will have to cycle through, you will waste some of their time and maybe they will accidentally attack your pet.

There's 2 types of teams in 2v2: The burst team and the drain team. I use these terms loosely because there is a gray area, however the class make-ups generally fall into either category. Examples of a burst team would be any 2 dps team: rogue/rogue, mage/enhance shaman, hunter/warrior. And then those dps/healer combos with extreme burst dps, such as a healer with a mage or rogue. The drain team always has a healer and the dps is usually a warlock, warrior, ret pally or some other slow but powerful dps. Being able to distinguish between the two will assist you in prioritizing targets. Against a drain team always kill the healer first, and against a burst team kill the squishiest dps as fast as possible.

Also, you may be wondering: what's the best class for me to partner with? If you're a healer, generally its a better bet to go with a drain dps class (warlock,warrior,paladin). If you're burst dps you ALWAYS want to group with another burst dps. I speak from personal experience here playing with my enhance shaman. I've tried 2v2 with a resto druid before and didn't have near the success I've had with a mage or rogue partner. 2x burst dps means something is dead in a matter of seconds. Always have 1 ranged and 1 melee dps if possible. The variety will thwart hunters multi-shot and ensure your team is never kited.

Practice makes perfect! Play a ton of games to figure out what works best against what combos, each other's strengths and weaknesses and to get a feel for the hectic fast paced nature of arenas. Don't let losses discourage you and try not to worry too much about your rating, because the real points come from your 5v5 team. Use your 2v2 as practice for your 5v5 and, with any luck, you and your 2v2 partner can get on the same 5s team. Since you already are used to playing with each other, you will PWN FACE!

Apartment Life

Absolutely hilarious: Neuro

... If you like black humor, that is.

The Vastness of Space

Everyone has heard that there are as many stars in the sky as grains of sand on the beach. This cliche notion is often repeated but rarely comprehended. Imagining infinity is nearly impossible for the human mind, and so imagining the size of the universe is equally incomprehensible.

However, this site offers a glimpse of the immeasurable depth of space and really gives you a feeling of just how tiny we really are.

Recent estimates put the number of stars in the universe around 70 sixtillion!
That's 70,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 stars!

That is 10 times as many stars as there are grains of sand on all the world's beaches and deserts put together!

I've never felt so teeny....


Bob Thaves, http://frankandernest.com/

For more info on the enormity of space, check out this great site.
pwnt.

Online Kaleidoscope

Neat little web toy that lets you make your very own kaleidoscope!

Simply drag and drop the items into the circle and see your creation emerge.

Screen Magic!

Ever wanted to look out the window behind your screen but been frustrated by it's annoying opaqueness?? Well, now you can enjoy your computing and a view all at once!




It may seem that Mac's come with magical transparent desktop options, but no! These are digital trump l'oeil; images carefully aligned and color corrected to give a convincing illusion!



The effect is easiest to recreate using a laptop. Simply fold down your lid, snap a pic of what's behind your laptop, upload it to your computer and set it as your desktop! It may take a few shots to get everything lined up right, and you may have to correct the color and/or resize it, but keep working at it, you'll get it!

Now the mirror effect is another matter... Can you figure it out?

screen magic pwnt!

PWN POOM!

Interesting little web game. Keep the ball bouncing! Targets make it fly higher, hazard panels aren't bouncy at all and watch for the gaps!

POOM! pwnt.

Volcanoes + Lightning = PWNage

The epitome of the Sublime



Can you imagine seeing this? I'd be simultaneously paralyzed in awe and terrified beyond measure. Do you run or snap a pic? It's fast enough to engulf your feeble attempts to escape I'm sure so why not snap a few pics for posterity's sake...



Here's the blurb from those eloquent folks at AP:
“As clouds of toxic ash and dust tower into the sky, they ionise the air, generating an explosive electrical storm. Colossal forks of lightning spark around the noxious plume as it spews from the volcano’s crater, creating an image of raw, terrifying energy - as if the air itself were ablaze.” - Associated Press

This eruption occurred at the Chaiten Volcano in Southern Chile on May 7, 2008.


Pillar of ash leaves a coating 6 inches thick in some places

PWN Desktop Tower Defense

So there's a lot of fun and entertaining casual flash games out there, but only a few that offer a real compelling challenge.

My favorite is Desktop Tower Defense



Basically, your desktop is under invasion by waves of "creeps". You must strategically place tower defenses to prevent the creeps from getting through. There are infinite choices about what towers to place where, and the choices you make will dictate how far you make it. Some towers are good vs. air, some vs. ground, some can be heavily upgraded and others serve to slow down the enemy. All of these combinations must be strategically placed to maximize firepower and efficiency. If you haven't played, I highly recommend it.

Anyway, the tough part is trying to actually beat the game. On medium mode there are a total of 50 waves of creeps and even making it through that can prove near impossible if you don't have a good strategy.

Here's the set-up that seems to work the best:

pe = pellet tower
ba = bash tower
sq = squirt tower
fr = frost tower

Using this set up I got 9326 points on Hard, which is the best I've been able to do.

I also recommend placing less pellet towers in favor of bash and freeze towers in an alternating pattern to slow them down and maximize the time creeps can get bashed. A long line of these will stop ground forces in their tracks, especially if you arrange it so the creeps have to double back and come back by the gauntlet.

The key is that a few fully upgraded turrets will far outperform dozens of lvl1 towers. The squirt towers upgrade exponentially so a bank of those will pwn most everything that comes through, including the flyers. A few "typhoon towers" will see you through to the end. pwnt.