Money In The Bank Is Freedom On My Back

"Money in the bank is freedom on my back."

I'd like to know what your first impressions are in the comments below this post.

(Now, the rest of the story)

This is the advice that I was thinking about giving my friend. Two more ways of putting it are "Money in the bank is freedom of choice" and "Money in the bank is peace of mind".

Basically, the point I want to get across is that you don't have to spend all of your money as soon you get it. Every time you buy something it is either consumed right away, or it is just something that you will have to worry about.

Then again, this could just be my personal biases coming out. I prefer to be more minimalistic, thus, I tend to think that it is more right to own less things. (Sidenote: I also like to keep enough tools on hand to be prepared for just about everything.)

If I had more money to spend, then I would want to put it into things that will last. Food and candy doesn't last. Electronic goods are one of my favorite and "required" purchases. But, probably even better purchases are experiences. Being able to do something that you haven't done before. Those are the things that are going to last a lifetime.

And, since I'm just free-writing now, probably the other best use of money is to spend it on things where the rewards/benefits are greater than the cost. I guess that just provides a good generalization for how money should be spent. Unfortunately, some people's idea of benefit can be greatly biased when thinking about themselves. So, to change up the generalization a little bit and reduce the bias just a little bit (this works for people who know they have bias), I have arrived at the following: Probably the other best use of money is to spend it on things where the benefits to others exceed the costs to oneself.

This was not to anybody in particular. Just conversing with myself... =]
~ Simply Advanced ~

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How To Programmatically Batch Resize A Folder Of Images

(This post gives a walkthrough on how to automatically resize a bunch of pictures at once. I provide four different ways to do the resizing, in order of least optimal to most optimal IMO. There may be more ways for programmatically resizing, but I'll most likely be using the fourth method below all of the time.)

1. ImageMagick
2. IrfanView
    2.1. Benefits
    2.2. Limitations
    2.3. Walkthrough
3. Photoshop's Automate Batch
    3.1. Benefits
    3.2. Limitations
    3.3. Walkthrough
4. Photoshop's Scripts Image Processor
    4.1. Benefits
    4.2. Limitations
    4.3. Walkthrough

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1. ImageMagick: Allows you to run image processing in a Windows command windows. So, you must be comfortable creating BAT (batch) files. I did not use this method, but here's the documentation for batch resizing this way: http://www.imagemagick.org/Usage/windows/

FOR %a in (*.jpg) DO convert %a -resize 50% small_%a

ImageMagick Example

2. IrfanView: When I tried this method, I got the feeling this tool was very old, but it still seems to be regularly updated. Also, IrfanView has many image manipulation features available for it. Many of them seem useful, but this time I was only interested in the resize feature.
2.1. Benefits: Very lightweight program at 2MB.
2.2. Limitations: When I tried to batch resize, each of the images lost their alpha transparencies, and the backgrounds all turned black.
2.3. Walkthrough: Drag a selection of images into the screen, then in the menu bar, choose Image-->Resize/Resample

IrfanView: Program when opened

IrfanView: Menu bar --> Image --> Resize/Resample

3. Photoshop's Scripts Image Processor:
3.1. Benefits: Quick to being resizing without having to setup anything else.
3.2. Limitations: Only resizes to JPG, PSD, or TIFF files. There was no option to save as PNG, which is what I needed.
3.2. Walkthrough: Menu bar --> File --> Scripts --> Image Processor. Then the window that pops up allows you to choose the folder of images you want to manipulate and where to save them.

Photoshop's Scripts Image Processor

4. Photoshop's Automate Batch: Basically, with this method, you change one image whatever way you want to, then record those steps, then you are able to perform all of those steps for a folder of images.
4.1. Benefits: Very versatile! The recorded actions you create will always be available in the future, and easy to manipulate for future projects.
4.2. Limitations: Just requires a little more setup before starting the batch image process.
4.3. Walkthrough:
Step 1. Open Action Window.

Photoshop: Open Action Window

Step 2. Create New Action. Before you can record some actions, you must have an image open. It doesn't matter if it is just a new blank image, or one you would eventually edit anyways. One other useful feature is the ability to stop and record actions at any time.

Photoshop: Create New Action

Photoshop: Saved New Action. List of available actions.

Step 3. Open Batch Window.

Photoshop: Open Batch Window

Step 4. Setup and Start Batch Command. In the first section (Play), choose the action you would like to perform to all your images that you will choose in the second section (Source). In the third section (Destination), you can either replace all of the images or save the manipulated images in a new folder. After all that, choose the "OK" button located at the top right.

Photoshop: Setup Batch Command

Feel free to post any questions or comments about programmatically resizing many images.
~ Simply Advanced ~

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