Branko’s Weblog

For shaving I have always used the same “system” since I started shaving over 20 years ago, the Gillette Contour. Recently there’s been a dearth in blades, especially the regular, cheaper Contour ones, so it was time to upgrade. After consulting the internets to see which system people liked, and asking the lady behind the counter which blades people actually buy I settled on the Gillette Mach 3.

When I got I home I decided to see if there was a difference between the two, so I shaved the left side of my face with the old system, and the right side with the new system. As you can see from the before and after photos, the results are pretty much the same. To the touch, the side shaved with the Contour blades is slightly smoother, but barely noticeable.

The difference while shaving was pronounced though. I usually use shaving foam, but decided to go without for the test. The Contour shave was considerably more painful than the Mach 3 shave. It’s what you’re used to of course. I had shaved without foam before, and having had nothing to compare it with, I never considered it horribly painful. It’s only when contrasted with the Mach 3 that the Contour stood out in the pain department.

Before, about three days worth of growth:

After:

(Right side, my left, was shaved with the Contour Plus. Left side, my right, was shaved with the Mach 3. Note that the Contour Plus comes with a lubricating strip—it’s what the plus stands for.)

Have a happy monkey and an inspirational 2009!

The rather expensive Christmas cards I bought this year came with an atrociously bad bunch of envelopes, some of them greasy on the inside (I kid you not), others refusing to stay closed. I decided to use a roll of gold sticky tape I have lying around for occasions like this, but could not find it. Rummaging through my shoebox of office supplies I did find these fellows though. And the odd thing is I cannot remember when I used any of them for the last time.

“Tell me once more,” she said, “how to make rounded corners. You’ve shown me before, but I forgot.”

So here goes.

Input is a picture (photograph, drawing), output is the same image but with rounded corners against a transparent background. The transparent background makes it easy to position the image against any backdrop. If you don’t need that, just skip the bits where I talk about transparency.

Where I say “image menu” I refer to the menu that since around GIMP 2.0 was shown by default at the top of the image windows. Since GIMP 2.6, this menu has become GIMP’s sole menu. (Before 2.0 you had a toolbox menu, and between 2.0 and 2.4 you had both.)

Step 1. Start The GIMP.

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