My favourite piece of software.

While it is not my intention to brag, I have been using software since directly after my birth.
The comfortable woollen or cotton fabrics in which the midwife wrapped me marked my first venture into the magical world of software, as I began weeping with tears of both joy and sheer terror due to the sudden presence of blinding light which penetrated deep into my soul. My fear of light has since vanished, but my software-related adventures continue to this day.

As a primary school student in Enschede I was known for my supreme skills in MS Paint. I could draw various Pokemon, and often exchanged my crude (but strangely transfixing) drawings for items such as primitive pea-shooters, pogs, and the occasional piece of an eraser.
As I approached Year 8 I began using Microsoft Word to write assignments, and never failed to save them on one of my many floppy disks.

I began experimenting in Adobe Photoshop around 5 years ago, in a feeble attempt to superimpose my head on Arnold Schwarzenegger's body. Since then I have grown more adept in this program, and use it whenever I have the opportunity.
In this blog alone you can find two examples of Photoshopped images.

Photoshop is extremely versatile, and can be used for a variety of purposes, including:
1) Making horrifyingly ugly people/buildings/objects appear beautiful.
2) Inserting literally hundreds of different effects to add to an image.
3) Creating animated GIFs.
4) Inserting text.
5) Perfecting, sharpening, and digitally retouching any image, no matter how blurry it is.
6) Combining images, often used in creating multi-layered designs for album covers, magazine covers, and similar media.
7) Doing pretty much anything else imaginable to an image.

Photoshop is my favourite piece of software, because it provides me with a limitless ability to edit any image. It can be used to design banners for websites, manipulate images for added content, or simply as a recreational tool. "The many faces of Mick Murray" to the right of this page [EDIT: Now obsolete - visit http://i62.photobucket.com/albums/h103/Wombats_Live_Forever/Layered.gif for reference purposes]were created in Photoshop, and lack any kind of practical use. That's not to say I didn't enjoy making them, and hopefully some of you enjoyed looking at various mutations of yours truly.
Spiderman's wise Uncle Ben once said that "With great power comes great responsibility."
Using Photoshop, one could superimpose my head on Uncle Ben's body.

To finish off this journal entry, I would like to share something very special with you.
When I was still in my Microsoft Paint stage I decided to draw my favourite Dutch football player - Marc Overmars. Hopefully you can gain some inspiration from it.


Image Copyright of Mick Murray, circa 1997.
Any attempt to reproduce this drawing will result in immediate legal action.