Many of you know that I’m a Photoshop user and I’ve been given a great opportunity to attend one of the biggest conferences concerning Photoshop.

It’s called Photoshopworld and it will be held in Las Vegas.

“Viva Las Vegas gonna set my soul, gone set my soul on fire!” – my homage to my buddy Lonnie.

I will be attending this year’s conference and let me tell you, I’m excited. I will be around so many people that love this application and other Adobe programs. Plus, I’ll be able to attend classes from leaders in the industry.

And no, I won’t be gambling. I’m not much of a gambler, I don’t like giving my money away. :-)

So, this will be my first Photoshopworld. I will be up close to some of the most talented people I watch from my computer screen, giving tutorials and tips on production and photoshop.

I’m gonna be a sponge.

This conference is held twice a year, the first was held in Orlando, FL and below is just a short teaser video of the event.

I know, I know. I’m a geek. But I love it.

Beto

PS…
They even have an app for the conference…giggle.

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I had a pleasant surprise this evening. I got a cool balloon toy.

My little neighbor/buddy, Martin, pronounced, “Mahr-Teen” came over tonight with his Dad. Seems they were at some function and “Marh-Teen” got a cool alien balloon made for him. On the way home his Dad asked if he wanted to keep it.

He said, “No. I’m gonna give it to Mr. Saldivar.”

They came over and gave it to me this evening.

Way cool.

Beto

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Well I finally got around to fixing my son’s desk. I’m sorry it took me so long Mijo. But, I must say, all those times tolling around in the garage building stuff, helped me in fixing your desk hutch.

See, we bought my son a desk a long time ago, one of my 1st posts to this blog even. But when I got my new iMac, I passed down my trusted 24″ iMac. Only problem was…it was too high for that desk. About 3″ too high. To get the iMac onto his desk, I had to remove the hutch and he lived with his desk that way all through summer. I kept thinking, “How the heck am I gonna be able to raise that hutch so his iMac will fit and have it stable?” For now, we just took it off and he just put the hutch items in a box but this Saturday, my wife Liz was in a cleaning frenzy and since the kids had already started school, I figured it was time for me to fix his hutch.

I remembered I had bought some channel aluminum a while back when I built one of my first camera stabilizers. I had bought extra and thoughts, “Hmmm…maybe that will fit?”

Sure did.

So this afternoon I took out the hack saw, cut some of that aluminum, and after a quick trip to Home Depot – I got it set up.

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I guess all those days tolling around in the garage paid off.

His desk is fine now. And I’m glad.

Beto

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Okay, so what does this image have to do with what happned to me last Friday night at my son’s Football Booster club kick off? Well, let me tell you…my imagination on overdrive again.

It was a busy Friday about a week ago because I had to get Joaquin to school at 8am for football pictures, my haircut at 9am then pick up the boy at 10:30am. Emmy in tow we successfully accomplished our mission.

After all the running around, we got home and I worked while they watched TV for the day. It was their last week of summer vacation and we had an early day on Saturday since the Antonian Apaches had a football scrimmage in Burnet TX so he had to be at school early the next morning.

At 4pm, Liz came home to take Emmy to the open house at Blessed Sacrament Catholic School. I took Joaquin to the Football Booster “kick off” ice cream social at Antonian High school. I’m not much for crowds but since he was a freshman, I should go.

We arrived at 6pm and the head coach proceeded with the whole “Rah-Rah-Rah!” thing. He even did a “football clinic” for parents (mostly Moms) that didn’t understand the game. He enlisted the help of Fathers and used them as examples of what each player would do on the field. I was picked to demonstrate how a running back would hold the football, run, then stiff-arm a defensive player.

I think I did pretty well but noticed my young freshman son Joaquin, shrink into the crowd (he hung out with the other freshman players — too cool to sit with Dad) fearing I would do something embarrassing.

Ahh, teenagers…so nervous we will embarrass them…not yet my son…not yet…

Then the Auction started. They had to auction off to “boost” the money coming into the football squad. Seemed kind of fun. They even had the cheerleaders there to do the “Price Is Right” model thing.

1st up was a football signed by all of the Freshman football players with a sliver sharpie.

“What do we have for a starting bid!?” Screamed the over enthiusiatic Dad they had recruited to be the Auctioneer. “Bids start at $20! – do I hear $30?”

It sold for $300. What a great way to start the Auction. I wonder what they’d get for the next items?

Ooooo…that stadium package looks cool. An Antonian staduim chair, umbrellla, baseball hat, blanket and rain cover. What more would you want?

“Starting bid for this football stadium package …how about $100!”

I immediately tapped out — no thanks. It sold for $300. Good decision on my part.

Then the JV football was up next, presented by one of the Apache Cheerleaders. Same ball, same silver sharpie signatures from all the JV players…“Let’s start this one off at $200! Do I hear $250?”

“We have $250! Do I hear $300! How about $500! Do I hear $500!”

I almost choked when heard, “I’ve got $800! Now $1,000!”

Did I just hear, $1,000 dollars?!

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As you might have known, my son is a freshman at Antonian College Preparatory Catholic High school this year. He did well during the summer by attending the strength and conditioning camp and we got his football schedule.

So that means I have to distribute it to the familia but I can’t just copy it and forward right?

I have to be creative.

So I present to you the 2010 Apache Football Freshman schedule for my son.

We had fun with this shoot. He kept saying, “I wanna look mean Dad, like my other one — so no smiling.” I obliged much to the chagrin of his mother. I used the flash to help eliminate the shadows on him since his back was to the sun…and we all know how much I hate shadows.

But I like the photo. We took it in our back yard, me sprawled on my back with him “looming” over me. You can click on it for a larger view.

The PDF that I’m sending out even has hyperlinks to each of the locations. You click on the field and it will launch your browser to Google Maps for the location.

It’s not Geeky…it’s INTERACTIVE! :-)

I’ll upload the PDF later.

Thank you for letting me share.

Beto.

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