Oh don't worry, you'll be fine. The only true danger is to my mental health and well being. I'm sure you are relieved.

I've gone and done something that is guaranteed to drive me certifiably insane. It will overwhelm and consume me until I hate it with every fiber of my being and want nothing more than to walk away and never look back.

There in lies the rub.

I won't be able to walk away because as much as I hate it I will be obsessed with conquering it and won't be satisfied until it is my bitch.


The atrocious act which I've committed and has potentially changed my life in both positive and negatives ways is that I've downloaded GIMP. Da..da..da...dummmmm! If you aren't in the know, GIMP is a 'poor man's' Photoshop. It's free to download and is said to be approx. 90% as robust as Photoshop although the interface is supposed to be less intuitive.

I've been thinking of buying an image editing program so that I can do more with photos taken in both the real and virtual world which I inhabit, ranging from minor touch ups to major artistic manipulation. I've also been curious about making clothes and hair in SL and know that at the very least I'll need a program such as this to get into that hobby. I knew that I didn't want to pay almost a grand for a full blown copy of Photoshop and had considered the much more reasonable Elements but finally settled on giving GIMP a try first.

I was able to find excellent instructions on where to locate the download and how to install the program and I was able to accomplish both those tasks with no issues. So far, so good. Then I opened the program...

um...

WOW! So many buttons, brushes, tools and menu selections! I had a two hour class on Photoshop Elements a few months back so I had a rudimentary understanding of some of the functions so forged forward despite the sense of trepidation I was feeling at this point. I wanted to try to cut out an image from two different photos and put them side-by-side onto a white background in typical fashion blogger fashion. Long story short..i cut, I pasted and I layered and I cried. I like to think of myself as someone who has some skill with computers and technology in general but GIMP reduced me to a simp very quickly.

That was a few days ago. Since then I have learned how to crop, adjust brightness, color and contrast and have played around with the clone and burn tools. I'm still recovering from my first foray and want to take it slow for my own sake. Thank goodness there are lots of great online tutorials for GIMP. I think I can do this....I think I can...I think I can.