dave

Wow. You are one amazingly capable reader.

Here's what I said. I'll highlight some of the important words which I use to modify the meaning of other words.

"you can do <b>this kind of stuff</b> with iPhoto in about 20 seconds."

I didn't indicate that one could make an exact replica of his hard work with iPhoto in 20 seconds.

I went on to say the following:

"I don't mean to say that his work isn't good or deserving of attention, because it is. But you can do this too! <b>Or damn close to it.</b>"

Now, I have been doing graphics work on and off for approximately eight years. I have spent time tweaking at the pixel level to get stuff just right. All told, I have spent at least a good five minutes doing graphics, and based upon that experience, I'm going to take you to task.

Doing that work in Photoshop is astoundingly tedious, though not particularly difficult in any technical sense. The hard part is having the patience to do it well. Of course, having a strong knowledge of facial composition (or that of whatever you may be working on) is invaluable. But that's Photoshop. Drawing a mountain surrounded by water in Photoshop is no easy task either, and yet I can crank out a sharp looking mountain in the middle of a lake in about four seconds plus render time (probably about 1-2 minutes in 1024x768 on my dual 1.42GHz Power Mac). Photoshop, it's a tough job. Bryce 3D, it's no sweat. Apples and oranges.

Which is how we get to where we are. I very specifically placed a condition on my assertion by stating "with iPhoto". iPhoto 2 was released in January 2003 and with it came a tool aptly titled "Retouch Tool". Its algorithm and inner workings are, of course, Apple Proprietary, but the effect is that I can do that same kind of stuff in a much shorter time frame. Your contention is that I am ignorant of his work and, perhaps, digital manipulation of images. My contention, of course, is that you have no fucking clue whether or not I know what I'm talking about and, like a fucking asshole, didn't bother to ask.

Now here's my favorite part, because you are implying my ignorance without having the faintest idea of whether or not I qualify. I may be an asshole, and I may have an ego, but when it comes to what I do, I know my shit. <b>You</b> remind me of someone who just learned how to copy and paste and now think you're some sort of überhacker that knows everything. You deal with people not as smart as you on a regular basis, so you assume everyone isn't as smart as you. Guess what? I've forgotten more than you'll ever know when it comes to Word and Powerpoint and Illustrator. Wanna know how I know? Because people that <b>are</b> that knowledgeable don't act the way you do. How long ago did you start on a computer? How much time a day do you spend on them? What's your job? Are you currently supporting a multimillion dollar contract with a government customer that relies on your computer expertise in a number of separate but related fields? If you want to talk down to me, how about you pick something I know nothing about, like gardening. You can feel good about yourself all fucking day knowing that you know how to plant turnips and I have no fucking idea how its done. But the moment you open your fucking mouth in the manner you did earlier, you're demonstrating that a) you <b>don't</b> know your shit (because it's such a lame fucking example, and if you had any idea whatsoever, you would have used a better one) and b) you need to be schooled.

So we arrive at our final paragraph, which is this, Ms. Omniscient. Demonstrate that it is <b>impossible</b> to do his work in 20 minutes (or something damn close in 20 seconds), or acknowledge that maybe some people have more experience in certain areas that you do and <b>shut the fuck up</b>.