reclamation

All my mental associations of the word 'gimp' are derived from the movie Pulp Fiction. And they're not good. So I set about reclaiming the word for my own peace of mind, and found these alternate meanings:

"...a special type of black lace used to trim certain gowns at Oxford University."

"...ornamental braid used to cover tack heads that hold fabric's edge against exposed wood."

"...a small punk band that originated from East Brunswick, New Jersey...fronted by Tomas Kalnoky who later went on to write, sing and play guitar for famed third-wave ska bands Catch-22 and Streetlight Manifesto."

So there, QTarantino.

But my real reason for this post is to celebrate my recent discovery of a fantabulous free open-source image editor. It's called GNU Image Manipulation Program (or, surprise surprise, GIMP), and so far I love it.

So do the guys and gals at CNET, who made it their featured download earlier this month: "Extremely powerful and easy to work with, GIMP is ideal for both amateur and pro photographers, Web designers, or anyone who wants to create and edit professional-quality digital images on a budget."

On their FAQ page, the people at GIMP respond to the comment that GIMP is a stupid name: "GIMP is comfortable with its name and thinks that you should apologise for your rudeness."