I don't have Photoshop on my computer at work, but I'm constantly needing to edit photos. Our IT guy installed a copy of Gimp, but I don't really like it at all, and it's never worked properly on my machine, so I've been looking for another option.

Luckily, I've found one I like a lot.

Picnik is a Flash-based online photo editor that has both free and paid plans. I've been using it for about a week and have been so impressed that even though I have Photoshop at home, I'm thinking about spending the $25 for a year's worth of premium access.

Why? The program is simple, seems stable and has a lot of features. I think I'll be using it a lot when I'm away from my home computer, and $25 seems like a small amount for the convenience of the extra features, which include connecting to multiple social sites like Flickr and Facebook, full screen editing, no ads and unlimited upload storage.

But the free access is more than enough for most folks. You can upload a photo, then do basic edits like resizing, cropping, rotating, red eye, etc. Plus, there are several filters you can apply and shape "stamps" if you feel like goofing off. You don't even have to register to use Picnik.

Also, there are several handy tools, like a bookmark applet, Firefox and Internet Explorer extensions and a Yahoo widget. The Firefox extension even lets you take a snapshot of your browser window and edit it in Picnik.

Really, if all you need to do with photos is some cropping and removing red-eye, you don't need to spend hundreds of dollars on Photoshop or even $100 on Photoshop Elements. Just use Picnik.

There were, however several things I liked about this year's award show. In no particular order, they are:

1. Ricky Gervais. The British actor won for his work in "Extras" last year and wasn't at the ceremony to accept his award, so presenters Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert "gave" it to Steve Carrell. This year, Gervais repeatedly appealed to Carrell to return the award, saying "I bet you haven't even seen 'Ghost Town.' I sat through 'Evan Almighty'; give me my Emmy." Will the Academy please hire Gervais to host next year?

2. Fashion of the over-40 crowd. Until I looked her up on IMDB, I had no idea Jean Smart, at 57, is only a year younger than my mom. She looked frakkin unbelievable in a long, sparkly black dress topped with a layer of sheer black fabric. Also looking gorgeous were Felicity Huffman (45), Mariska Hargitay (44), Laura Linney (44), Kyra Sedgwick (43) and Julia Louis Dreyfus (47).

3. Josh Groban. Yes, a lot of people think it was weird and a fail, but I was super impressed by his vocal impressions. Plus, he did the 'Fresh Prince' theme song -- only the best TV intro ever.

4. Bryan Cranston finally won. The "Breaking Bad" star never took home an Emmy for his amazing work on "Malcolm in the Middle," and I don't think anyone was more surprised than he was when his named was called for Best Actor in a Drama. I would have been thrilled had the Emmy gone to Hugh Laurie of "House," and wouldn't have been surprised had James Spader or Jon Hamm. But how nice was it to see Bryan Cranston finally get his time to shine?

And just for fun, here are some things I hated.

1. The painful, stilted, awkward, just plain un-funny banter between hosts Jeff Probst, Heidi Klum, Ryan Seacrest, Howie Mandel and Tom Bergeron made an already bland ceremony 10 times worse.

2. Neil Patrick Harris loses. I like Jeremy Piven. He's great in 'Entourage.' But again? Neil Patrick Harris is amazing as Barney Stinson on "How I Met Your Mother," and he did some of his best work this season. It's the role of his career, and I was really hoping he would be recognized by the academy.

3. David Boreanaz/Lauren Conrad. I love me some Agent Seely Booth (and I guess L.C. is okay) but who thought to put these two together? Both were stiff and uncomfortable-looking, and couldn't you just see the life go out of him when she chided him for taking her line?

I watched the movie "Across the Universe" last weekend, and it's weird. Really weird. But it actually doesn't suck, which really surprised me.

I love the Beatles - was raised listening to them (I'm a John Lennon gal). So I was afraid that a music based around their songs would just make me angry. While it wasn't perfect, it was pretty good and an interesting story to boot.

It's set in the Vietnam-era 1960's, and shows how the war changes the lives of a brother and sister and their English friend Jude. There's some bizarre cameos by Eddie Izzard, Bono and Salma Hayek.

The best part is of course the music. Believe it or not, I bought the soundtrack. I've heard the Beatles versions of most of the tunes so many times that it's nice to hear new takes on the music. Nothing can compare to George Harrison's original 'While My Guitar Gently Weeps' or 'All You Need is Love' but I really do enjoy these new versions.

Am listening to them while I write this, in fact.