Jacob1207

I have a small image that I want to fade out so it can be used behind text in a Word document without making the text difficult to read.

I have been trying to accomplish this w/ Gimp for the past hour and the closes I've come is a gray and darker gray checkerboard that bears no resemblance whatsoever to my image.

I could do this in two minutes with MS PhotoDraw (oh how I rue the day I switched to Ubuntu) and have discovered a half dozen explanations of different ways to do this with GIMP, none of which work at all. I just get checkerboards.

Can anyone explain to me how to get my image to be faded out? There are no layers, just one, single picture. And I want it to be a .gif, .jpg, or .png (I don't care which) of the original that's faded out and can be pasted into a word document. Can anyone explain, step-by-step how to do this, indicating exactly what I click on, et cetera?

I know that you people who know these things have better things to do with your time than help people who don't, but it'd sure be appreciated.

Latin scholars, can you tell me how to render the phrase "anew with every dawn" in Latin?

If there are multiple ways to do so, I would be interested in all of them, and the differences between them. Please also indicate your confidence level in your answer. Thanks. Ten points for best response.

Could someone proficient in Latin translate into that language the phrase "This, too, shall pass away"? The phrase has personal meaning and, as you know, uidquid latine dictum sit, altum videtur. If there are multiple ways to render the phrase in Latin that are equally correct, I would appreciate knowing what they are, along with any subtle differences in the meaning.

Many thanks in advance. Ten points to the best, most thorough answer plus thumbs up votes for any that are useful.

In chess, all the pieces except the rooks (a.k.a. "castles") have a clear cut gender. Kings and Queens are, by definition, male and female, respectively. And there were no women knights or bishops in the middle ages. Perhaps pawns have a modicum of ambiguity, but foot soldiers were also always male.

I'm just curious, do you tend to think of rooks as being masculine, feminine, or neuter? Also, is there any particular reason why you view them in that way?

Obviously, this won't improve my game, I'm just curious.

I saw a music video the other day and want to know the identity of the artist and/or name of the song. My own efforts to do so have been fruitless.

The song was in Russian (I think), and the vocalist was a young, long-haired blond woman. The video takes place in a hotel, and at the end the sprinkler system is activated. I think the singer's name may have started with a G and it might be the Russian form of Juliet.

Does this sound familiar to anyone? I would be appreciative if someone could tell me who the artist and/or song is.