No one else I know wants to hear about what I do here. And it kills me. So let me ask...Does anyone besides me feel like a ten year old on crack when they are working on someone elses computer, because you are just dying to change their plain windows skins to windowblinds and iconpackagers and widgets and all so bad it makes you clench your teeth?

Po- dont feel bad about your wife disliking wb's etc. In the beginning I too thought it was purely rediculous to care what your computer was skinned with. Buzzh58 used to drag me here kicking and screaming. Probably because he taught me how to do a screen shot and saw what my desktop looked like. Not sure which made him drop dead - the non skinned look or the 100 + shortcuts of mismatched icons all haphazardly strewn across the screen in uneven rows. He talked me into the demo versions. I hated the whole idea. But I tried to show interest and apply a skin he showed me. As soon as he wasnt looking - unloaded wb's ...back to nothing. He caught on to me .....

But then he started giving me links to stuff that he thought I may like.....links to Starone's blinds...shiny gold stuff. Girl stuff. Then he'd find walls that he hated but thought I might like. Next thing I knew - I was coming here by myself.

Point is..dont give up on her. keep showing her your stuff. It can't hurt.

Its illegal to skin cats therefore I'll stick to skinning my computer.

I don't want to give the wrong impression. My wife 'supports' what I do. She critiques this and that and offers idea's. She just doesn't get my 'fascination' with it.

Must you people always try to twist and turn what people write just to have a negative opinion.

And my thoughts were twisted, negative, how? Apart from the negatives regarding my own feeble efforts, they were positive and appreciative towards those who can accomplish what I cannot....

And I too was addressing the author, the skinning community as a whole, to say, not in as many words, that I appreciate and enjoy the uploaded/shared skins, and therefore have no need to impose with over-the-top requests which would require skinners to dedicate too much of their lives, time and effort to my whims & fancies, which can come and go, and therefore are unimportant in the greater scheme of things..

Fair enough?

Fairyy~, I was going to stick up for ya and explain what you were saying but you did it before I could.  I understood what you were saying and I agree.  By the way, the only thing I've skinned is  cat fish.    But I know how much time it takes to do this stuff, believe me.  I don't care if people don't like the fact I use all this stuff,  I couldn't or wouldn't go back to the plain MS look.  

Hello again Fairry.

I hope you didn't take my initial comments as a personal attack on you. I certainly never intended them as such. Some of the remarks in your first post did not sit well with me and I thought I needed to add my two cents worth.

I think we are in total agreement as to the time, effort and talent needed to design some of the wonderful skins on Wincustomize. No need to be so modest either. Ive admired and downloaded some of your rainy's!

Now I was going to ask you about skinning a matching WB, IP and OD for your Labybug rainlender ... ONLY JOKING!!!

No hard feelings - Phil.

Everyone thanks for the response to this article.

It seems that I'm not the only one out there who has a spouse or friend who thinks skinning is a waste of time.
Last night I told my wife about this article and her first reply was. So you want to see if other people are in the same vote as you. I said yes.
Then 5 seconds later she said its not that I don't like what you are doing. Its that you are addicted to the computer.
I guess that I am addicted to the computer.

WOW sounds like a new article to me.

My husband is pretty good with my "obsession"! He will even ask me to make a wall for him sometimes of his fav teams or of a Harley or some such.He even gave me a little "input" for my Play Ball Logon.(That grass just looks dumb! OK thats better!) He knows my crafty nature so well, he will tell people that nothing that comes into the house rarely stays the same. I can't draw a thing in the traditional sense, but with Photoshop or Paintshop.....the sky's the limit! I too have friends that when I talk about windowblinds they think its for my real windows..they just don't know, Mostly because they are computer illiterate. They know how to turn it on and get their email...that's about all. I will agree with the comment to skin for yourself, good comments on your work are an additional perk that make you want to do more! I am always pleased that someone likes my stuff enough to download, even more when they leave a comment or a suggestion.

Starkers: Fair enough?

Of course...

WOM : Fairyy~, I was going to stick up for ya and explain what you were saying but you did it before I could. I understood what you were saying and I agree.

I thought I was clear - I was comparing the authors friends and relatives to people making unreasonable requests. I " think" those that request must imagine that a skinner just presses magic buttons and viola - new blind - 30 seconds.

I hope you didn't take my initial comments as a personal attack on you. I certainly never intended them as such. Some of the remarks in your first post did not sit well with me and I thought I needed to add my two cents worth.

I think we are just fine...a little miscommunication - happens in forums.
 PS : Im still looking for someone to make me a WB skinned with ladybugs...any takers

Most of my friends and family think its a waste of time but in the same breathe think it all looks cool and want it on thier machines. Go figure right. But, your going to get all these kinds of reactions from most art forms and customizing of things.

Does anyone besides me feel like a ten year old on crack when they are working on someone elses computer, because you are just dying to change their plain windows skins to windowblinds and iconpackagers and widgets and all so bad it makes you clench your teeth?

Yes, yes and YES Po!!!!!!!!!!!!! hehehe

The 'boss' tends to say "that's nice, dear"...in that cute, condescending tone we all love...as I dream of vengeful strangulation......

.....oh, well....

When I got my first computer, about three years ago now, my sister came to visit, looked at my screen, with its Desktop Architect theme, and in a critical manner said: "Whatcha wanna put all that crap on yer puter for, don't make it run any faster!".....

Well I was somewhat taken aback by her attitude and said something to the effect that maybe it didn't improve performance, but it looked good, cost me nowhere near what her scrapbooking paraphanalia cost her, and I probably derived much greater pleasure from my desktop than she would hers, with its default XP...to which I got a rather grumpy: "It's nothing but an effing waste of time and money!!!"

However, and here's the clincher, her hypocrisy was soon to be revealed when she saw the 'da Vinci' theme that came with my purchase of XP Plus....when I visited her about a week later, the 'da Vinci' theme was proudly being displayed on her desktop....to which I queried: "Thought you didn't like dressing up your puter cos it's a waste of time and money?" Her reply was just as astounding as the discovery of her customised desktop, as she "only got Plus because of the CD Label Maker" (which was NOT mentioned when she first saw my da Vinci theme) and that "I may as well use the themes if I paid for those as well." Seemed to me, the label maker was the bonus, rather than the other way around....

Then, a few days later, when asked to do a couple of odd jobs, I noticed she was making what looked like desktop icons with some program she downloaded....and even more incriminating, there appeared to be a StyleXP icon on her screen that was suspiciously similar to the one I had recently acquired with the program. Oh yeah, customising my desktop, purchasing XP Plus and StyleXP was a waste of time and money, that is until she was doing it also. A case of keeping up with the Jones', perhaps?

Guess what I'm trying to say, given this and other experiences, is that quite often people will criticise what you have and can do because they have not and can't do, that maybe they have an inward admiration and/or envy they cannot admit to, so judge, criticise and condemn to cover it up....oh how fickle human nature can be at times.

In either event, whether or not someone likes or dislikes your chosen past-time/hobby, if it harms no-one, then continue to follow it and be happy in what you do.

God Bless Skinners

God Bless Skinners

God Bless all Skinners and skinning community


Thanks again for all comments.

I know I feel better knowing that there are more like me out there.

Does anyone besides me feel like a ten year old on crack when they are working on someone elses computer, because you are just dying to change their plain windows skins to windowblinds and iconpackagers and widgets and all so bad it makes you clench your teeth?

Funny thing about freinds and there computers is as soon as they get a virus or there computer crashes they always come to me. So my teeth are clenched and are grinding.

"that a skinner just presses magic buttons and viola"

how I wish the skill of skinning was as much appreciated as the skill in playing a musical instrument

skinhit: Some of us are blessed, you've got some talent in your icons. Po, you break out with some wild stuff just to post in these threads...so whatever happened to that WB you were working on??

When I fell sick with the skinning bug, dark skins were what I wanted. Attempted it, failed miserably. Created another skin, lighter, more minimal. A little flash in the buttons. But I have many more I have not dared to share; incomplete or just not what I think others might want. Or I might find that someone takes special exception to my work, and I really can't take that much "constructive criticism". So I check out what others have done and try to mimic technique in the graphics.

I worked on getting a WB5 skin ported from the Litestep theme "Obsidian". I still have not completed it. Just can't seem to come to a final decision on some of the graphics I used. I started it about 6 months ago. The skin I currently use is my own, I call it "Visual Basic"; kinda like a Vista toolbar rip, but minimalistic. Not a lot of different colors, or blending. Mostly I have been playing with XP VisualStyle.dll, trying my hand. This skin has taken a total of 3 months to become a working skin, lacking only the Please wait and logoff panels.

My family thinks I am nuts. They ask where I've been all weekend, in my room...pixelizin this awesome 25x25 button image. They laugh, asking how big is 25x25 pixels? I show them my thumb and forefinger about a quarter inch apart...

Skinning is not stupid. But it isn't for everyone. Each to his own. Those of us who skin and can't esplain, take a look at NASCAR fans...or World Cup Soccer. What do they get out of it?

Happy skinning!