GIMP: A Visual Playground

Time: Freshman year of high school.
Place: CAC (Computing Across the Curriculum)
Mission: Learn how to copy, paste, blend, rotate, and color images in GIMP (GNU Image Manipulation System).
Emotion: Bored out of my mind.

Because, as interesting as CAC may or may not have been, 2 weeks are not in fact necessary for an average high school student to learn how to copy, paste, blend, rotate, and color images. So what are we supposed to do? I didn't even have a Facebook account to goof off on (these were the old days). With no better option presenting itself, I just started playing around in GIMP instead - copying, pasting, rotating, and coloring; the strange part of this story is that I kept playing around after the class ended, for the whole rest of the year. And the next year. And the year after that. And until now, at which point I have a bigger but still, really, quite modest tool set:

• Duplicate
• Flip
• Rotate
• Scale
  
• I-warp
• Gradient map
• Polar

And this is the set of steps I use to make pretty much everything I make with GIMP now, including the pictures on this post and on Facebook, which I do have now, of course. :) GIMPing is SO MUCH FUN, mostly because it is simply playing around with these steps that I listed to arrive at something recognizable or enjoyable. Practically no artistic talent required, although if I did, I'm sure I could make even more fantastic masterpieces. However, in the midst of a life where it seems crucial to try to become the best or a leader in whatever I do, be it school or anything else, it's nice to have something with no pressure or discontent at all. :)