The Chinese New Year Big Pig BLT

Posted on Feb 4, 2019

“No, I do not want The Big Pig BLT! …This just isn’t my year…”

Oh but it is! Happy Chinese New Year! May this year squeal with joy.

The Big Pig BLT on Chinese New Year, the year of the pig, by Scott Monaco of QuietYell LLC, QuietYell.com

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Launch of The Kachada Series by Don Sedei

Posted on Feb 4, 2019

Today is the day! It is out! “DAY ONE: Birth is a Death Sentence” by Don Sedei, the first of the Kachada 3-book fiction thriller series.

Don is a dear friend with a great creative mind. Go buy a few thousand copies of his book.

www.DonSedei.com — ISBN-13: 9781642372816 — Available via Barnes & Noble, Amazon, GooglePlay, Kobo (More info below the image)

"Day One: Birth is a Death Sentence" by Don Sedei, the first of the Kachada 3-book fiction thriller series

Fiction Thriller:

DAY ONE: Birth is a death sentence, is the narrative of Kachada Toscano’s unimaginable journey where two parallel universes— the chilling ancestral traditions of the Comanche and the ruthless code of the Sicilian Mafia—mysteriously intersect.

The first of the three-part Kachada Series is available starting February 4 at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Google Play, Google Books, Kobo :

To learn more visit donsedei.com or donsedei.com/blog

About the Book

From the beginning, Kachada knew his life was destined to be anything but normal when his mother whispered in his ear at birth. “Kachada. Remember: Birth is a death sentence, so make every minute count.”

At an early age, Kachada is forced to live his future not by the years or months but by the minute. This unlikely tale, where two parallel universes–the chilling ancestral traditions of the Comanche Tribe and the ruthless code of the Sicilian Mafia–mysteriously intersect will make your palms sweat as your emotions ricochet between loving, crying, hating, praying, and cheering for Kachada as the riddles of his malevolent past help him to cope with his precarious future.

He courts death like a smitten lover chasing every new minute as a second chance at life taking us on an unimaginable journey vowing to mete out justice to those who deserve it most, promising to leave no enemy alive.

You might like to make your friends aware of this ruthless assassin named Kachada before he decides to drop in on them unexpectedly. The best way to do so is by reading, Day One: Birth is a death sentence, an intense fiction thriller and the first of a three-part series that will reside on the backside of your eyelids causing many a restless night.

To learn more about the Kachada Series, please visit donsedei.com

About the Author

When I graduated from La Roche College with a B.S. in Advertising Design, I set out to be the best designer in the world and spent my career immersed in the world of advertising and marketing, creating original ideas for some of the world’s largest clients to some of the world’s smallest clients fighting the disease of mediocrity. Chasing my dreams has been a lifelong passion that opened new doors, including the ones to my own ad agency, built on a simple mantra: “Every brand has a soul. But not every agency has the heart to find it. We do.” Likewise, I believe every story possesses a soul and in this case, the untold story of Day One: Birth is a death sentence is a chilling fiction thriller and the first of a three-part series where Kachada, the protagonist, has the heart and courage to expose his without any remorse. My background in advertising has exposed me to a collection of unique experiences that have informed Kachada’s chaotic and unpredictable life. To learn more about the Kachada Series, please visit my website at donsedei.com

Buy The Book

More About The Book Series & Author

See the pre-sale announcement post here (The post includes more about the book and author):
http://quietyell.com/2018/11/11/kachada-series-by-don-sedei/

More About Don Sedei

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The Path by Doug Sirois

Posted on Feb 4, 2019

Ordered & received a delightful children’s book, “The Path” by Douglas Sirois. What a wonderful book that I look forward to enjoying & being inspired by many times over with my son as he grows. Congrats to Schylling Inc. on having such a great creative person on your team.

Buy a gazillion copies at: DougSirois.com/thepath or at Amazon (More info below the image)

About the Book

Micah is upset because he can’t find his imagination.

With helpful suggestions along his journey down a wooded path from some forest friends, Micah learns a few key lessons to help find his imagination before returning home.

A sweet enduring picture book with a how-to-find creativity hook, detailed natural and fantastical illustration, THE PATH is sure to inspire and spark any child’s imagination.

About the Author

Douglas A. Sirois was born and raised in Massachusetts. He has since illustrated and designed everything from toys, children’s books, graphic novels to clothing and apparel. His children’s book, The Path, is Doug’s first book as author and illustrator. After living in sunny southern California for ten years and earning a MFA in illustration, Doug currently resides back in Massachusetts with his wife and two children and a dog named Ginger.

Paperback: 36 pages
Language: English
ISBN-10: 1727881354
ISBN-13: 978-1727881356
Product Dimensions: 8.5 x 0.1 x 8.5 inches

Buy The Book

More About Douglas Sirois

More About Schylling Inc.

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Power Up That Arcade!

Posted on Jan 28, 2019

Power up that arcade with these arcade styled buttons

Especially if you have the awesome Arcade1up Retro arcade machines from Tastemakers, LLC!

If you could teleport into any game world, which one would you choose?

Posted on Jan 24, 2019

Game Teleporter

If you could teleport into any game world, which one would you choose?
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Walls Keep Things In Too

Posted on Jan 11, 2019

“Mr. Tweeting Tiny-Wings ended up building walls around himself”


Mr. Tweeting Tiny-Wings ended up building walls around himself — Oh that wacky Trump and his wall at the Mexico and USA border

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Uh-Huh-Huh

Posted on Jan 3, 2019

Was playing with the Procreate QuickShape for much of this

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Movies Watched in 2018

Posted on Dec 31, 2018

Last year, I wanted to immerse myself more into visual storytelling in movies, so we started watching lots of movies (88 in 2017 and 50 in 2018 — Having a baby this year slowed us down 😜).

See 2017’s list here:
http://quietyell.com/2017/12/27/movies-watched-in-2017/

Below is the list of movies watched in 2018.

We will rent from GooglePlay & Amazon Prime Video, but we check out many of the movies from the local library. As mentioned last year, I’m not fond of watching movies at the movie theater, so I play catchup with movies from last year (as well as movies missed in years gone by) and there are some 2018 movies I’m anxiously waiting to be available digitally (like Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse). Soon enough =)

FAVORITES & NOTES:

These movies get repeated in their category below; however, I wanted to call out some of my favorites. Since I’m not certain as to which order I would put them in, I listed them in alphabetical order:

Blade Runner 2049 (2017)
IMDb | Rotten Tomatoes | Wikipedia | Amazon Video | DVD/Blu-Ray

The Breadwinner (2017)
IMDb | Rotten Tomatoes | Wikipedia | Amazon Video | DVD/Blu-Ray

Dunkirk (2017)
IMDb | Rotten Tomatoes | Wikipedia | Amazon Video | DVD/Blu-Ray

Won’t You Be My Neighbor (2018)
IMDb | Rotten Tomatoes | Wikipedia | Amazon Video | DVD/Blu-Ray

NOTES:

I did really like John Wick 1 and 2; looking forward to #3. I did find it ironic that I so much enjoyed so many people getting hurt and killed by Wick…

I liked the way IT was handled; though I wasn’t so fond of Pennywise’s voice. Definitely loved how he aggressively came towards his potential victims. I may have missed something but there didn’t seem to be enough explanation of the floating kids nor what happened to them once Pennywise/IT was “defeated”. (I can’t remember what happened in the book since I read it long ago)

Solo: A Star Wars Story and Star Wars: The Last Jedi were much better than I was anticipating given the negativity I saw on both. I liked them, but then again, I also like those little cheapy chocolate covered donuts that come 6 to a pack…

I also enjoyed the The Millennium Series (The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo, The Girl Who Played With Fire, and The Girl Who Kicked The Hornets’ Nest). A bit long to watch all in their extended form (9+ hours), but I enjoyed the ride.

While I liked Crazy Rich Asians, Lady Bird, Ready Player One, and The Shape of Water, I found them to be predictable and not live up to their hype. Similarly, I wasn’t all that impressed with Black Panther (if I remember correctly, it was mostly to do with everything surrounding the handling of the antagonist). It’s a shame, because there was a lot there that I did like.

The Greatest Showman was a disappointment to me…

Justice League… *sigh* I’ve tired of DC movies. In fact, I tired of them a few movies before Justice League and almost didn’t watch it but decided to go ahead and choke this one down (probably will skip Aquaman—not that interested anyway—and future DC movies, unless they get amazing reviews and the previews show a different look/approach). They’re too dark & angry. Also, they seem to try too hard with excessive glowing special effects with the heroes/villains merely using sheer force. Plus, the stories & characters seem to lack enough depth to care. Maybe if I was into MMA/UFC and that kind of stuff…

A Wrinkle in Time… What a horrible movie… I can’t believe I finished it. Loved the “diamond dust sparkles” in the end credits, though.

Man… Watchmen: The Ultimate Cut is one long movie! (3h 35m)

I wish I could say more about these; though, I’ve forgotten the specifics of what I liked and didn’t like about each (brain getting old…)

Like I said in 2017:
“I probably should spend more time writing down thoughts after watching movies, especially as I would love to be more thorough here on what I liked/disliked & why for all the movies. Maybe I’ll find some time to go back to ponder on all of these more, and maybe I’ll start writing down thoughts on movies going forward shortly after watching them…”

I didn’t do it yet again… Really need to listen to myself!

THE LIST:

Here’s the list of movies watched in alphabetical order according to category (Documentary, Children’s/Family, Drama, Fantasy/Sci-Fi) along with links to their pages on IMDb, Rotten Tomatoes, Wikipedia, Amazon Video and DVD/Blu-Ray:

DOCUMENTARY:

Won’t You Be My Neighbor (2018)
IMDb | Rotten Tomatoes | Wikipedia | Amazon Video | DVD/Blu-Ray

CHILDREN’S/FAMILY:

Boss Baby (2017)
IMDb | Rotten Tomatoes | Wikipedia | Amazon Video | DVD/Blu-Ray

The Breadwinner (2017)
IMDb | Rotten Tomatoes | Wikipedia | Amazon Video | DVD/Blu-Ray

Captain Underpants: The First Epic Movie (2017)
IMDb | Rotten Tomatoes | Wikipedia | Amazon Video | DVD/Blu-Ray

Coco (2017)
IMDb | Rotten Tomatoes | Wikipedia | Amazon Video | DVD/Blu-Ray

Early Man (2018)
IMDb | Rotten Tomatoes | Wikipedia | Amazon Video | DVD/Blu-Ray

Ferdinand (2017)
IMDb | Rotten Tomatoes | Wikipedia | Amazon Video | DVD/Blu-Ray

The Good Dinosaur (2015)
IMDb | Rotten Tomatoes | Wikipedia | Amazon Video | DVD/Blu-Ray

Isle of Dogs (2018)
IMDb | Rotten Tomatoes | Wikipedia | Amazon Video | DVD/Blu-Ray

Indian in the Cupboard (1995)
IMDb | Rotten Tomatoes | Wikipedia | Amazon Video | DVD/Blu-Ray

Inside Out (2015)
IMDb | Rotten Tomatoes | Wikipedia | Amazon Video | DVD/Blu-Ray

Jumanji : Welcome to the Jungle (2017)
IMDb | Rotten Tomatoes | Wikipedia | Amazon Video | DVD/Blu-Ray

Kubo and the Two Strings (2016)
IMDb | Rotten Tomatoes | Wikipedia | Amazon Video | DVD/Blu-Ray

Maleficent (2014)
IMDb | Rotten Tomatoes | Wikipedia | Amazon Video | DVD/Blu-Ray

Megamind (2010)
IMDb | Rotten Tomatoes | Wikipedia | Amazon Video | DVD/Blu-Ray

Pete’s Dragon (2016)
IMDb | Rotten Tomatoes | Wikipedia | Amazon Video | DVD/Blu-Ray

Teen Titans Go! To The Movies (2018)
IMDb | Rotten Tomatoes | Wikipedia | Amazon Video | DVD/Blu-Ray

Tomorrowland (2015)
IMDb | Rotten Tomatoes | Wikipedia | Amazon Video | DVD/Blu-Ray

A Wrinkle in Time (2018)
IMDb | Rotten Tomatoes | Wikipedia | Amazon Video | DVD/Blu-Ray

DRAMA:

Big Eyes (2014)
IMDb | Rotten Tomatoes | Wikipedia | Amazon Video | DVD/Blu-Ray

Crazy Rich Asians (2018)
IMDb | Rotten Tomatoes | Wikipedia | Amazon Video | DVD/Blu-Ray

Dunkirk (2017)
IMDb | Rotten Tomatoes | Wikipedia | Amazon Video | DVD/Blu-Ray

The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo (The Millennium Series, Parts 1 and 2)(2009)
IMDb | Rotten Tomatoes | Wikipedia | Amazon Video | DVD/Blu-Ray

The Girl Who Played With Fire (The Millennium Series, Parts 3 and 4)(2009)
IMDb | Rotten Tomatoes | Wikipedia | Amazon Video | DVD/Blu-Ray

The Girl Who Kicked The Hornet’s Nest (The Millennium Series, Parts 5 and 6)(2009)
IMDb | Rotten Tomatoes | Wikipedia | Amazon Video | DVD/Blu-Ray

The Greatest Showman (2017)
IMDb | Rotten Tomatoes | Wikipedia | Amazon Video | DVD/Blu-Ray

Lady Bird (2017)
IMDb | Rotten Tomatoes | Wikipedia | Amazon Video | DVD/Blu-Ray

Murder on the Orient Express (2017)
IMDb | Rotten Tomatoes | Wikipedia | Amazon Video | DVD/Blu-Ray

FANTASY/SCI-FI:

Arrival (2016)
IMDb | Rotten Tomatoes | Wikipedia | Amazon Video | DVD/Blu-Ray

Avengers: Infinity War (2018)
IMDb | Rotten Tomatoes | Wikipedia | Amazon Video | DVD/Blu-Ray

Black Panther (2018)
IMDb | Rotten Tomatoes | Wikipedia | Amazon Video | DVD/Blu-Ray

Blade Runner 2049 (2017)
IMDb | Rotten Tomatoes | Wikipedia | Amazon Video | DVD/Blu-Ray

Chappie (2015)
IMDb | Rotten Tomatoes | Wikipedia | Amazon Video | DVD/Blu-Ray

Deadpool 2 (2018)
IMDb | Rotten Tomatoes | Wikipedia | Amazon Video | DVD/Blu-Ray

IT (2017)
IMDb | Rotten Tomatoes | Wikipedia | Amazon Video | DVD/Blu-Ray

John Carter (2012)
IMDb | Rotten Tomatoes | Wikipedia | Amazon Video | DVD/Blu-Ray

John Wick 1 (2014)
IMDb | Rotten Tomatoes | Wikipedia | Amazon Video | DVD/Blu-Ray

John Wick : Chapter 2 (2017)
IMDb | Rotten Tomatoes | Wikipedia | Amazon Video | DVD/Blu-Ray

Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom (2018)
IMDb | Rotten Tomatoes | Wikipedia | Amazon Video | DVD/Blu-Ray

Justice League (2017)
IMDb | Rotten Tomatoes | Wikipedia | Amazon Video | DVD/Blu-Ray

The Martian (2015)
IMDb | Rotten Tomatoes | Wikipedia | Amazon Video | DVD/Blu-Ray

Pacific Rim : Uprising (2018)
IMDb | Rotten Tomatoes | Wikipedia | Amazon Video | DVD/Blu-Ray

Ready Player One (2018)
IMDb | Rotten Tomatoes | Wikipedia | Amazon Video | DVD/Blu-Ray

The Shape of Water (2017)
IMDb | Rotten Tomatoes | Wikipedia | Amazon Video | DVD/Blu-Ray

Solo: A Star Wars Story (2018)
IMDb | Rotten Tomatoes | Wikipedia | Amazon Video | DVD/Blu-Ray

Spiderman: Homecoming (2017)
IMDb | Rotten Tomatoes | Wikipedia | Amazon Video | DVD/Blu-Ray

Star Wars: Episode VIII The Last Jedi (2017)
IMDb | Rotten Tomatoes | Wikipedia | Amazon Video | DVD/Blu-Ray

Thor: Ragnarok (2017)
IMDb | Rotten Tomatoes | Wikipedia | Amazon Video | DVD/Blu-Ray

Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets (2017)
IMDb | Rotten Tomatoes | Wikipedia | Amazon Video | DVD/Blu-Ray

Watchmen: The Ultimate Cut (2009)
IMDb | Rotten Tomatoes | Wikipedia | Amazon Video | DVD/Blu-Ray

Look forward to see what movie watching 2019 brings! With a 1 year old, I’m sure there will be a lot more kids movies! Yay!

See more articles at QuietYell.com/Ramblings and see the work of Scott Monaco at QuietYell.com/Portfolio
 

My Son’s First Birthday

Posted on Dec 28, 2018

What a difference one year makes!

Super Mega Happy First Birthday to our precious son, our 💪👶 and little 🐯! ✨❤️🎉🎂✨

See his birth announcement from last year here:
http://quietyell.com/2018/01/16/our-son-has-come/

See more articles at QuietYell.com/Ramblings and see the work of Scott Monaco at QuietYell.com/Portfolio

Coolorus with Brushbox and Kyle’s Brushes = Awesome!

Posted on Dec 25, 2018

Over the past year or so, I’ve been using Coolorus as my color picker. Found out about it via Simona Ceccarelli in the SVSLearn Forums (SVSLearn.com)

I meant to post about it long ago but… well, here I am now 😁

Per their site: “Coolorus is a color wheel plugin for Adobe® Photoshop®, inspired by Corel® Painter® color picker.”

I’ve found it preferable to the standard Photoshop color picker and it seems to have sped up my workflow too.

I usually have it without the panels/sliders on (if I need sliders, I just use the standard Photoshop Color Panel that is always available in my closed tab list); however, below, I show a screengrab with them turned off and on so both options can be seen.

The screengrabs also show the Brushbox plugin that I’ve loved using for the past couple of years. I wrote a post about it back, roughly when it came out at the end of 2016:

BrushBox Plugin to Organize Photoshop Tools/Brushes

I show my favorites in one view, and my “everything” in another (There are far, far too many brushes to actually show everything)

Speaking of brushes, I have most of the Kyle’s Brushes, which are just wonderfully made — Kyle’s Brushes are now part of Adobe Creative Cloud:

We’re excited to announce that Adobe has acquired KyleBrush.com. As of today, all Creative Cloud customers will gain exclusive access to over 1,000 high-quality, digital brushes at no additional cost. Digital brushes offer illustrators, animators and designers a rich digital painting experience when working in Photoshop CC and Photoshop Sketch.

As part of the acquisition, Kyle T. Webster, an international award-winning illustrator and leader in the field of digital brush creation, also joins Adobe. He will work closely with Adobe product teams on the development of future brushes for Creative Cloud.

“For years, Kyle has created the world’s best-selling Photoshop brushes for professional illustrators, animators and designers,” said Maria Yap, Adobe Senior Director of Digital Imaging Product Management. “We’re thrilled to bring his award-winning brushes to all Creative Cloud members and at the same time gain Kyle’s expertise to enhance Adobe’s digital drawing experience for designers in the future.”

“I’m honored to join the Adobe team, and excited that all CC members now have access to my vast collection of digital brushes,” said Kyle. “I know the team well and have collaborated with Adobe in the past, including the recent Hidden Treasures of Creativity campaign, a fun project where we recreated the over 100-year old paint brushes of Edvard Munch.”

Coolorus:
Coolorus.com
Facebook.com/coolorus.color.picker/
Twitter.com/Coolorus

BrushBox:
Gumroad.com/l/brushbox
(Created By: DerrickB.net)

Kyle’s Brushes:
KyleBrush.com
(Created By: KyleTWebster.com)

Coolorus color picker plugin and BrushBox brush organizing plugin with Kyle's Brushes in Adobe Photoshop

See more articles at QuietYell.com/Ramblings and see the work of Scott Monaco at QuietYell.com/Portfolio