Skinning is stupid!

Just point out their silly habbits. Everyone got somehting that seems meaningless to others.

You're not alone. Evidently there is a smaller percentage of us who care about what our computer environnment looks like. But those of us who do, are very passionate about it. It is an art form, and most artist are destoned to display their creations. Look around, some people knit sweaters, others make flower arangements, some customize their cars. We all have a nitch to fulfill.

Sorry about the text size, my browser went bonkers!

my friends don't think it is stupid, theyhave all downloaded the demo of WB

Why do spouses and or friends think skinning is a waste of time?

Well , probably for the same reasons you see people write in forum " requesting " an entire suite custom made to their specifications. ( with matching rainy, sysmetrix, icons and widgets and media player - of course ) 

They are clueless. They don't get the concept of it all.

They cant appreciate " skinning "  because they have no idea the amount of work that goes into the making of a skin. A female skinner friend can spend a day just making the buttons for a blind.

So the only advice I can give you is to seek out people that share your interest. You can't always convert others that are content looking at ( God forbid )  default unskinned windows and task bars.

Hi Fairyy. I have to take exception to some of your comments.
I also have friends who do not get "skinning" and wonder why I spend so much time on the look of my desktop. However I am not yet a competent "skinner", I'm just starting out (getting 'Corel Draw' for my birthday if my wife has heard my rather obvious hints). Because I love to download full themes and use other peoples wonderful work at this stage does not lump me in with those who don't appreciate skinning!

If this were the case it would preclude people who are not-artists from buying artworks for their homes, it would preclude non-architects from asking an architect to design their home in a particular style etc. Many people do not have the time (a huge problem) or more importantly the talent (we will just have to see in my case) to do their own skinning. This does not mean they are clueless or don't get the concept!!!

At my beginner stage I love nothing more than downloading complete packages from Wincustomize and admiring the talent and time taken to produce them. Yes I do prefer suites that have all their components ready made at the moment. However I look foward to the day when I can skin a matching item for a theme I like and have the original skinner compliment my work. (This is only a dream at this stage!)

My wife. I have to drag her to the computer to get her to look at my latest creations and stuff. The icons are about all she likes. She hates....hates windowblinds so much, she wouldn't even let me install my Windows XP Plus CD on her laptop so she could have a few more options. She hates the cursors. She loves the crappy generic wallpapers that Microsoft offers. When I had her try out my first DX Theme, she looked at me and asked "Why would anyone want to do this to their computer?" When she saw the lockdown screen, she looked at me and said "You're twisted."

She tells people "He likes to add all kinds of goofy stuff to his computer. He can't just leave it alone."

When she gets in one of her moods and wakes me at 2AM to ask if I love her
"Yes, dear. I love you"
and then says "But we have nothing in common."
I think about all the 'goofy stuff' I put on my computer, and her plain, blue, microsoft skin (that makes my skin crawl anymore to look at it) and I think "yeah, not too much in common."

But then, and if she reads this I am dead, I think of her in the bathroom in her robe, doing her make-up or hair and singing 'As Long As He Needs Me' from 'Oliver' at the top of her lungs along with the TV in the bedroom and I realize...it's not what we have in common or not that has to do with why I love her. It's because I love to surround myself with a lot of goofy stuff.

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?

I am actually quite fortunate, my wife supports all of this! She pays attention to my stats ( which i make her look at each day), she looks at my creations, gives me input, hell she even knows alot of your names! so i do consider myself blessed b/c i spend alot of time @ the computer w/o being hasseled. either way, if it is something you love 2 do and it keeps your ass off the streets and out of trouble....do it! enjoy yourself, it's a celebration!!!!!

I think I too am married to Po's wife.

I need DX Enterprise so I can make a standalone desktop that I can run off a flashdrive with all my apps embedded to fix other people's PCs.

Plug it it . . . access my enviroment . . . unplug . . . all is as it was.

You've got it bad Smedles! (I mean the skinning bug.)


I'm so glad my wife is understanding too Skinhit. It might just be that because she is a mad "scrapper" she understands the time and effort needed to make something look "just right". My wife is happy for me to set up her desktop with matching themes and has some input into the items I use. She has also been very supportive about me getting into the whole "skinning" thing - roll on my birthday.

Tell ya what, WeatherBound....when I read the title "Skinning is stupid", I was gonna come in here breathing fire and rip strips off ya. So glad to see you're not anti-skinning....otherwise we'd have come ta verbal blows.

Thing is, WeatherBound, it doesn't really matter if others think it's stupid or not, so long as you're happy, content in what you're doing and harming no-one. Besides, if you upload your skins to WC and other sites, someone somewhere is going to like them and appreciate what you've done....but first and foremost, skin for yourself, and all the rest, the "great" "wonderful" comments, is a bonus.

They are clueless. They don't get the concept of it all. They cant appreciate " skinning " because they have no idea the amount of work that goes into the making of a skin.

Ah, but not all non-skinners are oblivious to the time, effort and talent that's required to make a skin....even a 'not so good' one. I put a great deal of time and effort into attempts that weren't fit for uploading to WC's trashcan, let alone the galleries, so I do not consider myself to be a skinner, but I'm surely aware of what's required to create a skin of any note. Guess that's why I've never put in a personal request for icons/cursors even, much less a full blown suite with the works, which would require months out of someone's life....just don't think it's right to impose on people like that.

Po' ...love your sense of humour.

But then, and if she reads this I am dead, I think of her in the bathroom in her robe, doing her make-up or hair and singing 'As Long As He Needs Me' from 'Oliver' at the top of her lungs along with the TV in the bedroom and I realize...it's not what we have in common or not that has to do with why I love her. It's because I love to surround myself with a lot of goofy stuff.

Actually, my wife and I have quite alot in common, and she doesn't mind me customising the desktop, but still, you've given me food for thought...if I can get up the cahoneys to comment on her more eccentric ways, as payback for the many times I got criticised for surrounding myself with all manner of goofy stuff...thinking it, even.

Oh, and no need to worry about reading the divorce notice...our love for eachother is unconditional and all embracing, never to be torn asunder. We take snipes at eachother all the time (in fun, that is).

Now back to 'skinning is stupid'.....skinning animals purely for their furs, now that's stupid, totally unnecessary. Skinning desktops? Well that's 100% necessary (cos the 'Fisher Price look' of XP is abominable after 5 seconds) and there should be more of it....more and more power to our skinners.

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

hmmm. My neighbor is outside mowing and caring for his lawn... this will be a weekend long project for him. I get it in the sense of...to each his own but you'll never see me caring for weeds my entire life. Heck Bark mulch my whole front lawn for all I care but force me to use Microsofts UI....naah, I'll spend a year trying to find out how to change the start button.   

Starkers : I do not consider myself a skinner at all - but I do know what is involved. Again , I was answering the AUTHOR.

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

Commander Phil Hi Fairyy. I have to take exception to some of your comments.

Well Commander Phil , you can take " Exception " cause its free of charge. But if you read what I wrote I was answering the authors question about his friends and family. No where did I say that ALL people that cant skin can't appreciate skins. I'd say that most that come here are not skinners thats why they come here. Perhaps if you had seen some of the " requested " Can I have a Skin made " then you might understand. One can only think they are clueless - or else totally selfish to think they can request a months work from someone for free.

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....