Tuesday, February 26, 2013

STUPID PIXELS

Hey everybody. Nothing is still happening here. So much nothing, I couldn't even take a picture of it. Frank went home today. Dutch's farts stink. My human still doesn't sleep. Yesterday she (and Kim) broke the world record for deskmill walking. 11 hours and 35 minutes in one day!

What a freak.

In case anyone's wondering how my human can sleep so little and still not have the other 999's galleries full, I think I know why. It's kinda boring, so I'll let my friend Gracie in Texas help explain it. Me and her brother Arnie go way back, but he's a dude and Gracie isn't.

Does anyone know why pugs named Gracie are all so freaking cute? I mean, seriously.

Anyway. Here's one of Gracie's pictures. Cute, right?

600 x 400 pixels of Gracie
Ok. Now here's Gracie's nose. This is how big it is when it comes out of Nikon. Like, actual size or whatever. It's wet, funk-free and still pretty cute. For a ginormous nose.

430 x 345 pixels of Gracie
So. I guess when you take one of Nikon's giant pictures and shrink it down to internet size, there are like a gazillion pixel things that have to go somewhere. Some get thrown away. Others get smushed. Whatever's left ends up kinda mangled.**

Mangled pixels = pictures that look like poo.

My human says if you're really nice to the pixels, you can make the shrunken pictures look less poo-ey. This means a whole bunch of extra steps and it's what she's been doing like non-stop for weeks. It's also why it's still taking forever to get everyone in their internet galleries even though the printable pictures are all done. Apparently she's not used to making pictures that don't end up on walls.

If you're not a camera person, you probably don't care about stupid pixels. I know I don't. But nobody wants to look like poo. If you are a camera person and want to know how to be nice to pixels, my human can explain it waaaay better than I can. Ask her.

OK. Now that you know all that, here's some of my friends' cuteness:

Cletus shared his sweet potato fries with me in Atlanta.

Bogie is an extrasupermodel.

I don't think Gracie wanted to share Nikon with her brother.

Kingston's dude is the best. His blonde lady is pretty awesome too.

Suki's mom is better at making Suki look cute as she really is.

Maggie likes Nikon about as much as Dutch likes Nikon.

Fergie stole BACON off a plate for me.

My human has a pug crush on Pinguina.

I knew Bouncer back when he had all his toes.

Chaos is... uhm... what his name says.
 
This is not me.

I stayed with Trunks in Florida. I might have humped him too.

Alright. I guess my human's brain is all warmed up now. Time to give back the thumbs.

 * * *

 **If you're a camera person and not afraid of numbers, here's the technical junk:

Why does working in steps produce better results? Resizing reduces some number of pixels into one. It considers three pixels horizontally and three pixles vertically to compute one output pixel. The input pixels nearest the one out are weighted the most. To get from 2400 x 3600 to 320 x 460, a block of very roughly 8 x 8 pixels, 64 in total, around each output pixel might be considered  for contributions to the computed output.

If the reduction is done in a single step, only six of the 64 pixels in the large block will be used to compute the one output.  However, if we go in steps the 8 x 8 will first be reduced to 4 x 4 with all of the original block contributing to that reduction. Then all of the pixels in the 4 x 4 will be used, and so forth.  The final result is better, because 64 rather than 6 pixels in the original contributed to each pixel in the reduced image.

27 comments:

Jen said...

My human understand pixels..she's a photography person herself. She tried to explain it to me but I just tilted my head. Cuddling is better anyway. She did squeal over all the cute puggie pictures and says your human is very talented!!

Bruno and Diesel said...

Holy bacon, that process would make our heads explode! How on earth is your human doing all that on no sleep? She must be super-human! Please take good care of her so she doesn't break.

Sorry there's so much nothing happening. It's happening here too, mostly because winter won't go away. Hope we both get to have some fun soon!
Love always, Bruno (and Diesel)♥♥♥

TriHardChris said...

Bouncer 277 and chaos 276 said,

Shut the front door! We got a shout out from the #1 pug himself!

Our human LOVED our pictures and totally gushed at all the other pug cuteness all over the country.

Thank you for letting us all be part of this project!

Southern Fried Pugs said...

Dude, our mom is getting her PhD, and she could not follow the technical stuff. Honestly, we're like you. We don't understand or care about the pixel part. All we know is that our mom spends A LOT of time looking at the galleries. She laughs, she cries, she makes lots of comments. She stands in awe of your mom's AMAZING gift!
Our pix are in the second to last bunch so we have a long time to wait for ours. And we don't care. Looking at all the other photos makes her happy beyond words. And she's wordy, so that's quite a feat.
Miss Amanda, your love for your art and for pugs and for letting their personalities shine is evident in these photos. Unbelievably awesome. Take as much time as you need to let these photos and these stupendously ADORABLE pugs mosey into the galleries. If they all showed up at once, our heads would explode! And get some sleep!

Elgor82 said...

We don't under pixels or anything like that so we are patiently waiting for those Milwaukee pictures to load ...

Love Zoe #414, Peyton #415, Webster #416 and Liberty #417

Gus and Molly said...

Dear Puglet,
This is our first try at fan mail so go easy on us! So...we think you're kinda cute and we really feel sorry for you that things have been boring lately. Well, we are both sorry you are bored, but Molly is the one who thinks you're so dreamy. We sympathize with the whole boredom thing because the weather here has been icky and rainy and cold, the dog park got washed away in a flood a month ago, and one of our humans has been sick with something called norovirus and has spent 4 whole days in bed. And in the bathroom. You wouldn't believe it but she goes potty inside the house! Gross, right? But anyhow, cheer up. An end to the other 999 pugs stuff can't be far away. We have loved looking at our extended family in Dallas and Miami, and we are excited to see our pictures from Atlanta! Your human is sooooo awesome that we can't find words to describe how thunderingly fantastic she is. Hang in there, Puglet!

We really want to send you and Dutch something to alleviate your boredom, but we don't know if you already have it or where to send it! Any chance of us getting in touch with Thumbs when (if!) she has time? Our human doesn't want to post her email here, so she isn't quite sure what to do! Perhaps if your Thumbs could send an email to the human of #22 and #185?

Gotta run, buddy. Mom says it is nasty outside and will get nastier so we had better go outside, like civilized beings, to attend to our business. Wags and licks, Puglet.

Hugo the Portland Pug said...

We couldn't even read the explanation for photographers. It sounds to much like math and math makes my humans head explode into lots of pixels. The pictures are sooo great! We are so excited! <3

Meredith LeBlanc said...

That pug cuteness has us so drunk that our vision is too blurry to read about the pixel stuff. We love the pictures!!! We're shaking with excitement for Boston to be up!!!!

xoxoxo
Meredith & Scarlet

Christa said...

Hey y'all!! Cletus wanted me to tell you Pug that he would share his sweet potato fries with you any day. He is so excited he got a shout out and a picture on your blog. Keep being patient Pug it is getting closer to being less boring.
Love,
Christa and Cletus #176

Anonymous said...

I physically canNOT tolerate all the cuteness you just shared Puglet! :-) Love it, love it. We will be thrilled to buy a book when it's ready- and to know Miss Amanda is finally getting some rest. Pug hugs, Megan F & Lola the Pug

pinklemon said...

Good Luck Puglet mommy your doing great:) I am so excited to get my first pug on this thursday i have been a huge dailypuglet fan for almost a year now <3

Rae - Say It Aint So said...

thanks for the explanation. I'm pretty good in photoshop so I had some weird cheats to get my pictures to not look toooo bad when I post them online, but I'm going to try your human's way!
also, my girls were in Atlanta and I've been refreshing probably 30 times a day for days! Hahah, I would love to see how many hits those galleries are getting from silly pug parents. I'm so happy we can see the other 1000! I'll try to leave comments other than "how cute!" but it is hard!

Michele said...

I am with the others. I am obsessively checking for updates and adds to the 1000 pug collection:) However, at this point, tell your mom her health is also important. We know she is doing everything she can to get the rest of our babies posted. But losing sleep is apparently not creating an influx of additional pics. So, eat, sleep, post, breathe...definitely breathe. Remind her of those things. For those who aren't understanding, well, it goes deeper than what she can fix. And for those of us who are, we know in time our adorable babies will make their world-wide appearance. Until then, Peace from Eddie and (posthumously) Hajie the Pug.

Gracie the Agility Pug said...

OMP!!! I'm famous! I've had to listen to Arnie go on and on about having his picture on DP. Now I can say the same thing.

Thank you for those gorgeous photos.

And thanks for the pixel-talk. Mom's a graphic artist, so she's up to her eyeballs in pixels all the time.

Sammy and Neko said...

Oh, Gracie, she is so pretty. Love Suki's face too... ahhh, cuteness overload ! We are waiting our photo to be uploaded, it is kinda fun checking the site here and there, hope to see our pictures. Tell your human to get some rest, pictures can wait and we can wait. The book is gonna be super pawsome!!
xoxo

Sammy

Anonymous said...

Hey Pug,
Thanks for the awesome shout out! I really enjoyed having you stay with me while you let your human take pictures of all the other pugs. I didn't even mind when you jumped on the table and ate all the treats my human had in her bag when she left the house. And just an FYI.......you did not hump me!

Stay cool my friend,
Trunks from Sunny South Florida

Anonymous said...

What cuteness galore!! Thanks or sending us all these wonderful pics! This brightens my otherwise dreary day.. :))))

Holdin27 said...

Those pics look fabulous, great stuff.

butch and sundance said...

Our human can't figure out Milwaukee's password on 1000 pugs...she thinks it should be hotdog, can someone please help her out?

Michele said...

Butch & Sundance,

I did a quick search on famous food in Milwaukee. I was shocked to discover "brats." I gave it a try, as it fit the bun, and it worked!

Enjoy:)

Mercy's Mom said...

What else are midwesternerns (especially Wisc. people) crazy about besides hotdogs?? They like to soak 'em in beer before grilling them!

butch and sundance said...

Our human thanks you for the password to Milwaukee...she should have known that, sometimes she is kind of dense, but, we love her anyway.

Michele said...

@ Butch and Sundance, She isn't dense. She has pugs. She is probably just so busy loving her babies she didn't get outside the obvious (I tried hot dogs a hundred ways before I found brats.)

Minnie and Max Pugs said...

Minnie would probably eat a pixel if it fell on the floor.

Scarlett aka La Pinguina said...

Hi Puglet its me Pinguina! I'm so happy your mom has a crush on me but I was hoping You were the one with a crush on me?!! My human says she emailed yours about fixing my name on the picture! It says Pingunia! My human says that's almost a bad word in spanish! I don't even know why she calls me that stupid name. My name is Scarlett! But my human says I remind her of a Pinguina. I think that's a female Pinguin. I mean do I look like a pinguin to you? It also means a cute flirty girl now that Def sounds like me!! Anyways hope your human can fix my name soon my human is waiting so she can order my super model photos :) lots of licks!
Pinguina

Maggie the Pug in Dallas said...

WOW....look at me on the DP!! Thanks Pug! I loved hanging out with you, and sure gave your human AND Nikon a run for their money! I love my pics tho and had such a fun time with everyone that I don't care if my tongue was out in most of them! I now my cuteness!

Anonymous said...

www.pugtour.com is working now. Must of been a hicup.