First, the Stop Online Piracy idiocy:

As a libertarian, I think this is just insane, immoral, impractical, and unconstitutional. What ever happened to the the copyright/patent laws that were signed into law back in the 1880s? Look, I'm all for property rights, but the DMCA and similar legislation are just beyond the pale. Is it any surprise that a) there are so many conspiracy theorists about (which I don't support at all) and b) why I support the Libertarian Party and the Cato Institute. Sure, it may hurt the unimaginative little peckers, but it also hurts the following:
Starogre and his friend Spillkaidah
Nick Dobkin (RPGsROK)
Catoblepas
David Firth
Dave Lovelace
Dean Packis (Apocalypse Cartoons)
Eyelids Pie
Mister Scoops
Sunny GOES
Jake Hollander (Lazy Mode Comics)
Celx Requin
That's just a small yet sizable list of examples of original flash/music guys on here. However, they are also vulnerable to this as well. Finally, here's something from the Cato Institute that I think everyone on here should read: http://www.cato-at-liberty.org/how-wou ld-sopa-be-used/
Serious shit like this is why a drastic reduction in government is sorely needed.

Second, Photoshop alternatives:

If you want really good alternatives to Photoshop, but hardly have any disposable income? Here's a few programs I found from the Pixelation forums:
Project Dogwaffle's software
Gimp
Ultimate Paint
Paint.net-Warning! This requires a fast computer in order to get this to run properly.
Eclipse GraFX 2
XPaint-Here's something for Mac users.
mtPaint
However, many of them need to be bought, but luckily no higher than 150 USD.

Finally, here's some nice tutorials from that same Pixelation thread:
Android Blues' Visual Perception
Android Arts' drawing/painting guide
His step-by-step digital painting tutorial.

That's it, I'm done here. Edit: Here's Rick's Adventure Legends 371 for anybody interested:

It's great that he finally got to finish that part, but was it really necessary to include boring overused Stan Bush music?