Merlins Tower

Winter Blahs

Posted on February 16th, 2007 by Merlin.
Categories: Announcement, Anything Else, Life, Shopping.

Right now I am just going to write a small brief post as I just wanted to get this off of my chest. 

Officially - I Hate Winter

Easy enough - It is too cold here Right now it is 12 Degrees and it went up to a high of 21 degrees. (Party in the Tropics)

I had no problem cleaning off my vehicle - The hard part was being blocked in with all the snow the snow plow man (Sorry - Person) pushed up against the side of the vehicle. Plus then we had freezing rain and the "Snow" became a mound of Ice Encrusted Snow. Too many hours trying to dig the vehicle out of the snow.

I just want a Calgon Moment or even better look online at the travel sites and order a nice hotel room where the temp starts with a 8 and it is not a single digit.

Boy right now I could use a nice hot tub, with a ocean view, as I listen to the ocean's surf crashing on the  beach. Ahhh

Or even something like this Beach View.

Hmm - Where did I put that number to the travel agent - I need to book a hotel room soon and thaw out.

Technorati Tags: Winter,, Vacation,, Hotel,, Reservation,, Snow,, Ice,, Freezing

1 comment.

DIY: Auto To-Go Tissue Holder and Picture Frame

Posted on February 14th, 2007 by Merlin.
Categories: Anything Else, Art, Craft, DIY, Health, Office, Weird Stuff.

I just finished making of these tissue holders. No more needing to purchase the small boxes or the really rough tissue that rips your nose a new hole. I really wanted an easy way to have tissues in the car that I didn't have to toss on the back seat or just was just some lousy quality nose tissues (Ahh I love Puffs and Kleenex Brand with Lotion). Sorry I like comfort when I have to blow my nose. 

First, This project didn't take that long to do and it was not that expensive and can easily be refilled. And don't forget these are pretty cool looking. You can even decorate the cup if you are really feeling creative. I didn't but I know a few people that would take their kids image and print it out on their printer and glue it to the cup to have another photo of their kid to talk about. :-)  Well actually you can put what ever you want on the cup and make it happy as if you need a tissue you probably are not feeling too well.

For Complete directions Check out:
Curbly: How to Make a Coffee Cup Tissue Holder

Images for decorating the cup Just a few Samples From Google Images:

A photo of some Germs or a photo of a nice Vacation Spot - Hmm - I could use a nice Cruise Ship or a nice sunny spot on a beach in Florida - Hey I have some friends in Fort Meyers - Hmmm I wonder if they have some room for me and my cat until Pennsylvania Thaws. Did I ever mention I hate  -ok- Despise Winter and the Freezing Rain - Snow - and all the salt all over the car. Yet alone getting sick. YUCK.

Technorati Tags: Coffee, Cup, Tissue, Holder, DIY, Craft, germ, warfare, vacation, cup, cheap, inexpensive, easy, fun, decoration, office, auto, car, van

0 comments.

Merlins Take on the Super Bowl Ads

Posted on February 5th, 2007 by Merlin.
Categories: Anything Else, Communication, NFL, Pittsburgh, Super Bowl, Video, Web Service.

So this will sorta be off topic today - But I watched the Super Bow last evening - I usually enjoy watching for the advertisements more then the game its self (Except last year when the Steelers were in it) I have to say I really was disappointed this year. There really was no one advertisement that just really stood out.

I have to admit I did like the Snickers Commercial Called The Kiss, and I liked the FedEx Commercial and the First Office on the moon.

The Taco Bell Commercial with the two lions (I felt was pretty lame - But at least it was original) 

The Coke Commercial are all ones I have seen in the past and so don't get a vote for me as I thought the super bowl commercials were to be new and exciting. 

I did like the the commercial for e-trade and what you can do with one finger. That was creative.

The Bud Commercial for the Beer stealing crabs - was just a 3.0 out of 5.0 Creative but why?

The Career Builder Commercials - Those were much better then the monkey commercials from last year. Not even sure it was for the same company but still better.

And that sales Genie commercial - just plain dumb.

But have to give too thumbs up to Sierra Mist for the Beard Comb Over. Original and Creative.

I also have to give two thumbs up for Nation Wide and the Life Comes at you Fast and K-Fed.

For a list of all of the super bowl Ads Check out IFilms.com. 

Technorati Tags: super, bowl, super+bowl, ads, Super+, bowl+Ads, Commercials, funny, 2007, colts, bears

3 comments.

Guide to Writing in Elvish - Free Online Tutorial

Posted on January 29th, 2007 by Merlin.
Categories: Anything Else, Art, Communication, Drawing, Freeware, Hack, Journaling, Movies, Sketching, Tutorial, Weird Stuff.

Had a long hard week and for some fun I learned a new language - well only learned how to write in Elvish. Ever see those fancy scrolls in Lord of the Rings or any of the other movies / books / games that have Elvish Language written on them? Well This web page has a quick and easy guide on how to convert any english writing in very artistic and fancy elvish writing. Well To the left is my first time trying to write Merlins Tower in Elvish. It really is pretty easy to follow along and accomplish. I can see doing this with a nice broad nibbed fountain pen or a wide italic cut nib. I didn't have any of my wide nibs with me so I had to make due with what I had at hand. This was accomplished with my art book using a find sharpie marker to get the nice broad strokes. (I filled in the lines I drew) I really want to try this out with some of my calligraphy pens when I have a free moment. This guide can be printed out for ease of use. This would be pretty good for making your own scrolls and Mystical Books. Or if you just want to hide what you are writing.

Well thats all for today - Enjoy - Stay Warm and enjoy some nice tobacco in your pipe - You know I am. 8 :-?  <– Merlin Smoking a Pipe  

Technorati Tags: calligraphy, handwriting, fountain, pen, fountain+pen, ink, art, elvish, lord, of, the, rings, scroll, writing

4 comments.

Sim Aquarium - Free Simulation Game

Posted on January 24th, 2007 by Merlin.
Categories: Anything Else, Art, Email, Gadgets, Opera.

For some strange reason I enjoy relaxing while looking at some fish swim by and when I was using my Opera Browser the other day I got to play with SimAquarium.

I usually switch up between Firefox or Opera depending on what I am doing. (Yes, I rarely use IE much anymore - And I suggest the same to you - Check out BrowseHappy.com and See why IE is NOT SAFE)

The Opera Browser has what they call Opera Widgets that you can use to enhance the Opera Browser. One of the new and popular widgets is the SimAquarium - This aquarium gives you $100 to start out with - where you have to purchase some fish - and hope they breed. After you have a few baby fish you can sell them back to the store to allow you to upgrade your lights, backgrounds, filters, and buy other types of fish.

Bonus - Build up your Money and get to purchase a Dolphin for your Aquarium.

Screenshot 1 - ScreenShot 2 - ScreeShot 3

Technorati Tags: simaquarium, aquarium, free, fish, opera, browser, browse+happy, Hate, IE, Security, Risk

1 comment.

Free Sample of Various Handwriting Font Styles Print and Italic

Posted on January 16th, 2007 by Merlin.
Categories: Anything Else, Art, Communication, Craft, Firefox, Freeware, Hack, Journaling, Notetaking, Office.

Did you ever wonder what we are talking about when you see the different styles of handwriting. Here is a link for homeschoolers and / or anyone interested in seeing the visual style of the various handwriting that is taught all over the world.

Draw Your World has sample sheets in the form of smaller images showing all the letters for all the forms of writing. From Getty-Dubay, D'Nealian Style, Palmer Handwriting Italic and Cursive,  Handwriting Without Tears, Zaner-Bloser Style. I am sure if anyone wants a small reference card these can be easily printed out. (I have not tried but looks like they should be large enough for reference) - These samples were printed out from the Starwrite Handwriting Software - Which if you want to try it out lets you try it unhindered for one time only. (So, make sure you get the most use from the first time you run it. Even Print it out to a PDF) From what I saw if you were homeschooling I would recommend trying this out and purchase if you like how it works, By the Way the program is only $39 at Starwrite Handwriting or $35 at Draw Your World.

But if you are just looking for a few FREE graphics to print out check out Studio Arts Guide to Italic Handwriting. (Click on the image on the left column to display it on the right - At that point if you are using Firefox (Highly Recommended) or IE you can right click on the image and hit the save as to save the images to your hard drive and print out later on) They have a nice chart, font families, guide, practice sheets and more for your use.

You can also check out dnealian.com for some addtional samples and primer on the D'Nealian Style of handwriting - Very Similar to the Getty-Dubay Style. 

Technorati Tags: Italic, handwriting, font, art, calligraphic, word, free, palmer, zaner, bloser, cursive, getty, dubay, dnealian, getty-dubay, homeschool, practice, adult,

1 comment.

Pen and Ink - Online Fountain Pen

Posted on January 13th, 2007 by Merlin.
Categories: Anything Else, Communication, Craft, Journaling, Web Service.

Thought I had to share a site that I came across today. It is a site that you can use your mouse to write with a broad italic style nib for a calligraphy writing. It was just fun playing around with. I did the drawing below on a laptop with only a travel mouse. You can do much better if you have a pen tablet to really get that fountain pen feel. Funny thing is that the Fountain Pen looks like a stick. You do get two choices of ink colors a nice Black and a bright red. You do get to draw and write on a nice piece of parchment paper on the screen. There is no easy way to save what you draw - The only way I saw you can do it is to screen capture the whole screen and paste it into a graphic editor and crop down to what you want to save.

Sorry for not posting the link to Pen and Ink 

Technorati Tags: Fountain, Pen, Fountain+Pen, Online, Service, Art, Ink

2 comments.

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