A day to play in the snow...

HBoO came over today, surprising me with the DVD of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, a movie that holds a very special place in my heart. A long time ago (1991), in a galaxy far far away (Blue Anchor, New Jersey), I dreamed of only two professions, a trash man and/or ninja turtle. Ultimately, both of these dreams would be replaced with other, more practical goals (a Pokemon master, a Dragon Ball Z fighter etc.), but I'll always hold a special place in my heart for Halloween 1992 where I dressed up as Leonardo, the blue-bandanna wearing, sword-wielding mutant turtle, destined to lead my team of teenage turtles to thwart the evil Shredder and destroy all traces of evil...

It is only now, in the year 2008, that I realize that my childhood dreams were crushed at 12:50 AM on April 11th 2007 when I turned 20. That short gap of time where I could have become a teenage mutant ninja turtle is over. Now, I can only look toward the future where I may or may not become a twenty-something ninja turtle. Only time will tell...

In other news, it snowed today! HBoO and I ran around outside taking pictures for a while, so here are a couple that I thought were decently photoshopped:















Here is a picture of some mulch that was recently powdered with snowflakes. I darkened it a bit because I accidentally used flash, upped the contrast, and made everything a little more red...















For this picture, I used a new technique that I think worked pretty well. I dampened all of the colors to make the snow in the background more prominent, then saturated the picture with red to focus on HBoO, who can be seen here employing her "I want some delorcious snowflakes for breakfast" face...

Unfortunately, none of the other pictures turned out as well as I'd hoped. For example:


I think this picture speaks for itself, so that'll be all for today..:-)

-Matt