My previous boss (RIP) would often say this. And I think about it whenever my thoughts spiral out of control.
The irony is that my old boss would start to complicate things, then we’re made to follow his madness. Everyone contradicts themselves.
The font is Laser, an 80’s style font.
Gosh it’s been a while since I made something just for fun. I only used 2 frames for this animation. I am using Adobe Photoshop 2024.
You can refer to my Photoshop Tutorial post called: How to Make DAT ASS Shake!?
I’m sure there are easier ways to create this but no matter what I’ll always be a Photoshop girl. Old habits never die.
June 2, 2023: I’m bumping this up because it’s still and will always be relevant to me. I know a lot of people still think astrology is fake…IDGAF.
June 27, 2021: I used to want to know/learn everything, I used to want to be everything. I literally would drive myself nuts.
In astrology, the four elements – Fire, Earth, Air and Water – can help you make sense of your personality and why you think and act the way you do. Each element represents a basic kind of energy and consciousness that operates within everyone and each person is consciously more attuned to some types of energy than others.
FIRE SIGNS : Aries, Leo & Sagittarius : expresses warm, positive energy. Keywords: enthusiasm, encouragement, passion, creativity and the drive to express self.
AIR SIGNS : Gemini, Libra & Aquarius : related to the thinking mind and its perception, expression, sensation. Mental pursuits and activities, abstract ideas.
WATER SIGNS : Cancer, Scorpio & Pisces : symbolize the cooling, healing principle of sensitivity, feeling response and empathy with others.
EARTH SIGNS : Taurus, Virgo & Capricorn : reveal an attunement with the world of physical forms and a practical ability to utilize and improve the material world.
One way of understanding these various energy patterns is to analyze them in terms of their modalities:
The Cardinal signs – Aries, Cancer, Libra & Capricorn – initiate and act
The Fixed signs – Taurus, Leo, Scorpio & Aquarius – represent concentrated, stable energy
The Mutable signs – Pisces, Gemini, Virgo & Sagittarius – are flexible and constantly changing
Source: Stephen Arroyo’s Chart Interpretation Handbook
I am mutable fire and cardinal/fixed air dominant which means I am powered mostly by creativity (fire) and thinking (air). It seems that I’m always moving to the next thing or I can’t stay still or make commitments. I also work fast (this is true when it comes to my work). I also like to think ahead and get things done as soon as possible.
The downside to this is that if I’m not aware of it I can become hasty or even reckless.
Why am I writing this?
I think it’s important to know these things if you want to understand people…especially yourself.
I had to really work on meditating, patience, compassion and being still with myself.
Still working on it.
Mostly based on my own behavior, I noticed that:
– People just aren’t paying attention as much. For me personally, my attention span dips in and out. The millions of people promoting or sharing something can be taxing and I have other things on my mind these days. Maybe it’s because I’m getting old? Idk. I was also one of those people promoting or sharing something for a hot minute…I got sick of myself.
– One of the things I learned about marketing your business is that if you want people to pay attention, then you have to post A LOT. This is how people will remember you, through repetition. It’s annoying as fuck tbh but it works. Posting a lot in my opinion though, eventually leads to burnout especially if it’s not producing some kind of return (a lead or a sale of your product). I definitely felt this with my crystal shop and that’s why I haven’t posted in some time now. Although I had a couple of loyal folks who always bought crystals from me (if you’re reading this – thank you, I love & appreciate you!), the majority of my crystal sales never came from posting on Instagram anyways.
– Posting a lot won’t necessarily bring the results you want. If anything, the majority of people just want to be entertained by what you post. They don’t always want to buy, which is why I think the shop section of IG is pointless. I’m definitely one of those people who also rejects a lot of ads (most of them are irrelevant anyway)…which is why it’s hard for me to do ads for my own business. Too critical for my own good.
– I haven’t been very successful with my own entrepreneurial endeavors; thanks to the neverending pandemic, I kinda gave up on it. I tried it, but wasn’t built for it. Did the universe spare me from struggling and putting myself in a situation I didn’t really want to be in? Probably. That or being programmed to be an employee for life has taken its toll.
– As usual, I’m bored with everything that I’m doing and I don’t know what’s next for me. A friend did a channeled card reading for me recently and also sensed my eternal state of boredom. Sigh. Anyways, here’s an excerpt from Mystic Medusa‘s Astral DNA Report aka her take on my natal chart that at least gives me some clues as to why I can’t just settle as a “personal brand”:
Neptune House X
Their public image can be mysterious: an alias, nom de plume or a brand conceals the true persona. Tenth House Neptune people are adrift in an ocean of treacherous career currents until they find or create their true vocation. Their c.v. is peppered with surreal episodes, a twilight zone of enigmatic gigs and of course, quite a few off-c.v. escapades. Whatever their official occupation, their title is really “magician” or “rainmaker.”
Enjoy this gif I made. Happy Scorpio season!
I didn’t realize how much digital stuff I’ve created over the years until I had to organize it this week.
This one’s super cute. I like creating cute things, remember? I made everything except for the baby chick. Unfortunately I don’t have all the time in the world to create everything from scratch so often times I gotta cheat.
Here’s one I did for work using the same concepts from
Photoshop Tutorial: How to Make DAT ASS Shake!?
Just literally two frames repeating over and over again.
I struggle with using the actual animation timeline in Photoshop so it seems easier to just animate things frame by frame. Also the file size needs to be small.
I’ve not been in a Halloween mood even though I’m glad it’s this time of the year and all. It’s been 2 years since Roxy left and I’m not feeling festive.
I realize that this blog of mine is sloppy as fuck. It’s a mess for sure but at the same time, I really don’t care. This is my personal art blog, this is where I get to truly express myself and say all that I want to say. I don’t get to do that on my other sites. Though I’ve put up artwork for sale on here, I’ve really not tried to monetize this.
Actually, I did try to use AdSense once but my site wasn’t good enough for Google. Oh well.
So if you’re visiting this site – yes, I’ve redirected SHERMGRAFIK.com to here. Sherm is long gone, it was an old graffiti identity.
What’s going on with me these days? I honestly don’t know. I’ve been in this neutral zone. I want to learn and do so many things that I tend to get pulled into different directions, thinking that I can do it all. Part of me wishes to know what my purpose is but I think I’m going to drive myself insane if I keep asking. It’s almost as if I’m not satisfied with the answers, as if my life purpose is supposed to be profound and exotic.
I think in some ways, I’m just supposed to be me.
To will, to dare, to dream, to want…
but don’t expect it to arrive exactly in the way you imagined.
Wanting without expecting it to be a certain way certainly feels like a balancing act; want it too much and you become obsessed, want it too little but then nothing happens. That’s why they call spirituality a practice – something you have to constantly work on. The non-attachment part can get tricky.
There’s lots of things I should be doing for Metaphysical Vibes to achieve certain results but haven’t quite gotten around to doing, like YouTube videos. I’m also supposed to be blogging a lot more too; actually I’m supposed to be creating LOTS of content on a consistent basis. Not sure if I can do it all though. Some days I feel like I should be posting more on Instagram or do an auction or a sale like everybody else yadda yadda…
But it all seems exhausting. Most of the time I just end up doing nothing and I’m totally fine with that.
But I guess I am doing something, I’m typing my thoughts here and practicing my writing. And I’ve been playing with the image above.
So I have resolved to not compete with anyone and just go at my own pace, that’s what I’m doing.
Reminding myself that I’m not everybody else so why do I feel the need to do what everyone else is doing?
Success is different for everybody, and I feel that I am already successful. Now I just have to step it up and see how far I can go with the resources I have.
I feel pretty grateful that I’ve gotten this far and I know it can only get better from here.
With everything you want to get better at, you just have to practice. As a matter of fact, I am practicing right now.
It’s better to write about something that actually interests you. I am interested in developing the Self.
We need to get over ourselves, we need to stop overthinking and wondering if people are going to like what we write and just go for it.
I was trying to get this GIF to loop seamlessly in After Effects. Haha, it’s a 10.4 MB file, original drawing on my Instagram.
I started off with a drawing that I did today, took a picture of it and sent it to my email. I then separated the stem from the flower in Photoshop into 2 parts so I can animate it in After Effects. I also had to fill in the gaps on the stem – so when I rotate & scaled the flower, the top of the stem doesn’t disappear.
Trippy Monday, life is good.
If you are feeling uninspired and aren’t finding the perfect image or background, use your own photos to create a flyer for your event or to promote your offerings & services. Everyday we are taking photos and posting it to our social media accounts; there’s lots of things to take photos of – the sky for example, you can take a picture of a flower, the grass, the road, a wall, a piece of wood and use that as background texture. Remember, inspiration and beauty is everywhere!
A perfect photo to use has a lot of space for text, so try not to use an overly busy photo. For this tutorial, I am using a photo that I took of the sunset when hiking at Runyon Canyon in Hollywood, CA around dusk.
I am using Adobe Photoshop CC on a Mac. Beginners can follow along.
Tip: always duplicate your photo, and use that duplicate for your project. You never want to overwrite or use the original – then you would’ve lost your awesome photo forever. Sadface.
This saves your photo as a Photoshop document also known as PSD. PSD is the raw version of your file where you can edit, create your text and layers, etc.
It’s always important to Save (Command S, Windows/Start Key on PC). People tend to overlook this most basic step, especially when you’re in the zone. So always remember to save often if you don’t want to redo all the work that you did.
Tip: if the photo you want to use is on your phone, email the photo to yourself from another email address. From there you can check your email from your computer and download the photo.
You want to resize your file if you’re going to use this for internet / social media use. You don’t want your final file to be too big. Go ahead and go to Image menu > Image Size…
Type 600 as your Width and hit OK.
Make sure you turn your Background layer in your Layers panel into a layer by double-clicking on it. Now you can add text.
The font I am using is OPTI Cashew Bold, it’s one of my favorite fonts to use.
You can stick with one font as long as it’s easy to read. If you need to add a lot of information, then it would probably be a good idea to change the font. Helvetica is always a good choice. In this tutorial, I am sticking to using one font.
So for the most part, we’re actually done here. If you’re satisfied go ahead and go to File menu > Save for Web > use JPEG, High, Quality: 60 for your settings. Make sure you have ‘Optimized’ checked on. You now have a flyer that you can post on Instagram, Facebook, etc.
Maybe the information isn’t standing out enough. Let’s add a shape behind the text ‘WHERE, WHEN & WHAT TO BRING?’…then make the text white.
Reversing the color of things always helps when all the text looks the same.
Click and hold the Custom Shape Tool (Star-looking icon on your toolbar) and click Custom Shape Tool. On your top bar where it says Shape (might be located on your far right), click and hold the little arrow; Photoshop comes with custom shapes that are ready to use for your project. Pick the one called Banner 4 (when you hover your mouse over the shapes, a label for the shape will pop up) and make your shape over the text ‘WHERE’.
Hit Command J to duplicate the shapes and place them over ‘WHEN’ and ‘WHAT TO BRING’. Resize the shape over ‘WHAT TO BRING’ since that one has longer text.
At this point, your shapes are on top of your text. In your Layers panel, move the shapes under your text and change the color of your text.
Don’t forget to hit Save.
I did more tweaks to mine, like change the colons to question marks. Added an exclamation mark to ‘City!’ This didn’t take long at all, probably less than 30 minutes…an hour for me because I was creating the flyer AND typing this tutorial up.
