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Saturday, April 2, 2011

How to Make a Feed Bag

Today we introduce you to a wondrous concept, the feed bag. It's the perfect group snack to sneak into a movie theater, take on a backyard camping trip, or enjoy with a night of watching Titanic and playing PSO Episode 3. The feed bag is a little complicated, but this picture tutorial will guide you through its creation.

Step 1: Buy a bunch of candy.


Step 2: Grab a garbage bag.


Step 3: Put candy(see step 1) into garbage bag(see step 2).


Now that you've made your own feed bag, you might be wondering how you use it. Basically, without looking, you place your hand into the bag, say "Come on Twix," and pull out a random piece of candy. If you win, you get to enjoy the crunchy, caramel taste of that delicious Twix bar fate brought into your palm. If you lose, you have to eat whatever filler candy you grabbed before trying again. No cheating and feeling around for a candy that feels like Twix.

And remember, no re-picks!

Friday, March 11, 2011

Hobby 19: Image Editing - Selective Coloring

This week’s hobby is Image Editing.

Image editing encompasses the processes of altering images, whether they be digital photographs, traditional analog photographs, or illustrations. Traditional analog image editing is known as photo retouching, using tools such as an airbrush to modify photographs, or editing illustrations with any traditional art medium. Graphic software programs, which can be broadly grouped into vector graphics editors, raster graphics editors, and 3d modelers, are the primary tools with which a user may manipulate, enhance, and transform images. Many image editing programs are also used to render or create computer art from scratch.

Photo editing can be as simple or complex as you make it out to be. You do not have to go out and buy Adobe Photoshop or any other expensive photo editing software; you can download a program called gimp for free, or even use MS Paint.

This tutorial shows an easy way to manipulate a photo by gray scaling the background, while keeping the color in some portions. This is in order to bring out the color and put focus on an object. This process is called Selective Coloring (A.K.A Color Spotting)



Pros:
-Intellectually stabilizing
-Free (with gimp)
-Relaxing

Cons:
-Gimp has a large learning curve…but that is why we are here, showing you how easy it can be.

This is an excellent hobby and I highly suggest you pick it up if you have some spare time. Don’t be worried if you think you are not artistic or good with computers, as you practice you will eventually be able to see an improvement in speed and skill. I agree with this fact. It took me some time to finally download a program to record the screen during this tutorial. The first time I created the video with Adobe Captivate 5, it took me about 35-40 minutes to finish editing the picture. Unfortunately, this program did not export the video to a decent format, so I had to search for another. After two more programs and trials at creating the video, it only took 10-15 minutes total to finish editing the photo... As I keep blabbing, all I am really trying to say is that as you practice you become better and you should not shy away from things if you feel you are not good at it the first time.

Tuesday, February 1, 2011

Hobby 18: Roasted Pumpkin Seeds

After we carved our pumpkin, we decided to make use of the pumpkin seeds. These seeds have a good amount of protein and iron in them, as well as zinc, magnesium, and potassium.

Most importantly you make a good use out of one pumpkin by not only carving it, but baking the seeds as well. The seeds can be roasted into a very satisfying salty snack in just a few simple steps.



Materials:
-Pumpkin Seeds
-Butter
-Salt
-Pepper
-Garlic Powder

Pros:
-Make use of every part of the pumpkin

Cons:
-Disgusting

1. Make sure to preheat the oven at 275 ° while rinsing the seeds. It’s very important to clean the pumpkin seeds beforehand to get the bits of pumpkin off of them.
2. Put about a tablespoon of butter on a plate and microwave it until it fully melts. The butter adds flavor and helps the seasonings stick to the seeds.
3. Prepare the seasonings you prefer to be on your seeds. We chose garlic powder, salt, and pepper.
4. Mix the seeds with the melted butter. Once this has been thoroughly done, season the seeds to your liking.
5. Once seasoned, put the seeds on a cookie sheet, making sure the seeds are not sticking to each other or overlapping. Once the oven is preheated, put the seeds in the oven for about 10-20 minutes, or until golden brown. Be sure to check on them and mix the seeds occasionally.

Add more seasoning if necessary, and enjoy!

Friday, October 29, 2010

Hobby 17: Carving a Pumpkin

When we finally decided and picked on the perfect pumpkin, we thought to ourselves, what should we do with it? Carve it of course! This brings us to today's hobby, creating a jack-o'-lantern. A jack-o'-lantern is a carved pumpkin in which the top is cut off, and the inside flesh then scooped out; an image, usually a monstrous face, is carved onto the outside surface, and the lid replaced.

While stumbling the vast pumpkin patch and searching for the most bountiful pumpkin, we came across many disturbing images. Hundreds of pumpkins were stepped on and even thrown down on the floor, exposing their seeds and flesh. After we realized what had happened, Mike turned around and looked at the path we had created and said, "Ohhh God." It was a very unsettling sight but through all the horror, Patty pointed to the most beautiful sight, a snowpumpkin! We all sprinted towards it and dropped to our knees (possibly killing baby pumpkins), completely in shock and awe. Long story short, that snowpumpkin's head came home with us and we carved the most monstrous face ever!


"Loop Hobbies dumpster diving"

Materials:
-Pumpkin
-Newspapers
-Knife (Preferably a serrated knife)
-Bowl
-Spoon

Pros:
-Scare children
-Relaxing and fun activity for Halloween
-Creative with the design

Cons:
-Getting out all the internal flesh
-Only a seasonal project
-Messy

Basically, if you're not using a serrated knife, be very gentle when carving. We learned that the hard way. Just be creative and let your imagination run wild! Have fun with it and hope you guys enjoy this weeks hobby.
Also, have a happy and safe Halloween!

Monday, October 25, 2010

Hobby 16: Pumpkin Pickin'

Continuing our weekly hobby updates, we bring you the very seasonal hobby, Pumpkin Picking! Pumpkin is a gourd-like squash of the genus Cucurbita and the family Cucurbitaceae (which also includes gourds).



We really wanted to carve a pumpkin, make pumpkin seeds, and bake pumpkin pie, so we went to the nearest pumpkin patch. Turns out making a pumpkin pie requires the outer part, so we couldn't carve it and make a pie at the same time. Even though our plans were ruined, we still had fun.



A snowpumpkin. Or possibly, a pumpkinman.

Materials:
-Pumpkin Patch with pumpkins left

Pros:
-Plenty of uses for pumpkin

Cons:
-Most pumpkins have been stepped on

How to Pick Your Pumpkin



Step 1: Find pumpkin on ground. Check to see if it has been stepped on. Don't step on other pumpkins in the process.



Step 2: Pick up pumpkin.



Step 3 (Optional): Place pumpkin in wagon. Learn from our mistakes; make sure the wagon has all four wheels before you take it.



Step 4: Wash pumpkin in dirty water with filthy brush.

Some Things You Might Run Into



Baby pumpkins!



These green pumpkins may look exotic, but don't be fooled. They just aren't ripe yet.



Watch out for this strange green thing that may find its way into the pumpkin patch. It's not actually a pumpkin.

That should be it! I hope you've enjoyed this weeks hobby.

Friday, February 5, 2010

The Best of Garfield Minus Garfield