Merlins Tower

Please Vote for Mystic Kitty

Posted on May 26th, 2009 by Merlin.
Categories: Announcement, Art, Communication, Photography, Weird Stuff.

Mystic Kitty Sitting Pretty

To the left is the Photo that Got Listed at Purina.com on their PetCharts

My Photo of My Cat (Mystic)  is one of  the Top 10 Photos of the day & Top 20 Photos of  the Week at Purina.com On Their Pet Charts Website.

( http://bit.ly/Mystic )

Woudl You Please Vote For “Mystic Kitty - Sitting Pretty”

And Please Forward  this Link/Post on to anyone you might like to share this with to vote for My Mystic. (Or  Even any of the Other Photos at Purina too)

Much Thanks…

Merlin  &  Mystic Too
*^v^*^v^*^v^*^v^*

Technorati Tags: Cat, Top, Ten, Photo, Phtography, Kitten, Contest, , Mystic, Merlin, Purina, , Canon, D500, T1i, Eos, Rebel

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Using Cornell Note System in Business

Posted on April 11th, 2009 by Merlin.
Categories: Communication, DIY, Freeware, GTD, HPDA, Hack, Human, Indexcards, Life, Notetaking, Office, Pen.

Yes, I use the Cornell Note System in my daily life. I find it a great way to organize my notes and ideas from Meetings, Conference Calls, and What I did or need to do each day. I also use it when reading a new book that I want to take some notes on. I even draw the dividing lines in my notebooks now to help me organize my thoughts there as well. 

I made a modified version of Note Paper from Cornell-Notes.com to include a time clock to help me track my time and what I need to do and what I have completed and what I have coming up. 

I posted it on Scribd.com for all to use.

To use the clock in the upper left  to shade in the time (Begining to end) and mark a Letter or symbol near it and Use the Letter / symbol to Highlite the notes from that time slice.  I also use this with the Cue Column to track my upcoming meetings and schedule for the day.

How many times have you wondered what you did and have not clue where your day went - Keeping this with me allows me to make notes and annotate what I complete and see why I had to push other things off of my plate for the day. In the notes area I am able to write the tips and note things that I didn’t know and this allows me to update documentation and let others know the little fixes I used. I keeps these daily and use the summaries to help me find info I need from past notes / days.

And I have scheduled time weekly  later in the day Friday (while the week is still fresh in my mind) and look over the past week and see what info was good - I sometimes will highlight portions or copy off data and store it in other notebooks for future reference material. But I also scan the more important pages and put it into my evernote  system as well as that come with me on my iphone and it is easily accessable via their web page.

I also want to note every day I  look over the previous day and get my new notepage prepared for the day. Writing down what I need to do - checking my online calendar and seeing what I have scheduled for myself.  This way I have that info at hand even if I am not at my desk. This is also when I summarize my previous days notes making the weekly summary on Friday’s even easier. This only take me about 10 to 20 mins each morning but it saves alot more time through out the day then what I put into it.

Technorati Tags: Cornell, Notes, Note, paper, Organization, Sytem, business, calendar, schedule, free, organizer

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Virtual Sound - Auditory Illusions and Phase 4 Stereo

Posted on April 11th, 2009 by Merlin.
Categories: Art, Communication, Human, Life, MP3, Music, USB.

I really love my music - I carry it pretty much everywhere I go - I have a Archos 605 Media Player (It is one of the best around) Besides having an iPhone as well.

Recently I added the SRS Audio Sandbox on to my PC to add depth to all the sound and music I play on the computer - I will be writing a more detailed review in the future about this. But in the mean time - If you don’t have it and want your music to really pop - I fully recommend purchasing it for your PC.

This gets me to todays information - Virtual Sounds or Auditory Illusions - I recently came across this Page @ One Mans Blog - about getting a Virtual Haircut - This is amazing recording - They are recorded using what is called Holophonics - I recommend using headphones or the SRS Labs Audio Sandbox - Or even better the SRS Labs Audio Sandbox with Headphones with its headphone 360 mode  - All I can say is WOW - These are really cool and fun to listen to.  

This got me to thinking about some recording my dad used to have and play on the record player - They are the Phase 4 Stereo Recordings from London. I found out you can purchase some of  them at Amazonand I am currently listening to Mantovani by Mantovoni as I write this entry. Amazon list quite a few - and many are only available on LP - To listen and record these you will need a Record player - I recommend using the either of the following two units from Amazon - ( Audio Technica AT-LP2DUSB LP-to-Digital Recording System with USB ) or ( Ion TTUSB Turntable with USB Record ) I  use the Audio Technica one - I don’t own it but I get to borrow it from my brother. Plus don’t forget to check out your local library for some of these records - some are able to be loaned out for your listening pleasure.

Technorati Tags: auditory, illusions, auditory+illusions, Phase+4, Phase+IV, Holophonic, Sound, 3d, SRS, Stereo, Music, LP, Records, Record+Player, 45, 33

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iPhone to Relax

Posted on August 28th, 2008 by Merlin.
Categories: Anything Else, Communication, Gadgets, MP3, Music, iPhone.

Just playing around with the iPhone - and downloaded a great relaxing iPhone App - called Ambiance - This gives you about 20ish environment enhancers. (Rain, Rain on Tin Roof, White Noise, Pink Noise, Ocean, Stream, and Many More) It has to be the best 99 Cents I have spend for the iPhone. I used it several times today - This morning on the bus I started the white noise plugged in the earphones and was able to enjoy the rest of the ride into work in total peace. Now the software alone is not good enough to block out all the noise that is why I would not trade my shure earphones for anything else.
I also got to use it at work this afternoon when I was doing a bunch of work on a group of computers and I popped in the earphone and was able to block out all the office noise and concentrate on all the work at hand.
Technorati Tags: iphone, ambiance, environment, white, noise, rain, thunder, sounds, efx, effects, tin

1 comment.

Sumo Bean Bag Omni :I Want One!

Posted on April 3rd, 2008 by Merlin.
Categories: Anything Else, Communication, Craft, Drawing, Health, Human, Journaling, Movies, TV, Video, XBOX.

Well - everyone here knows I like the simple things in life and I happened to see a photo of one of these Sumo Bean Bags -  Omni the Urban Lounge - To Quote the Sumo Website:

This super-sized pillow by Sumo is the ultimate solution for all your relaxing needs. We’ve come up with 10 ways to use it, but some people say we lack imagination!

It’s a crash mat, lounge chair, loveseat or floor pillow to name a few, but the possibilities really do go on.

Sumo Beanbags are made from space age rip-proof nylon and come filled with top quality Sumo Beads. Omni is 4.5′ x 5.5′ and it only weighs 18 lbs!

This looks like something I want to try out and use. I can see using this sitting in front of the TV and watching my favorite TV Shows (CSI, Big Bang Theory or Monk) or Playing the xbox! But really I can see this as a comfortable place to Lounge listening to some good music (like the New NIN - Ghost Album)  and Pulling out the good old jounral and putting the pen to paper and writing my thoughts away. possibly drawing some Zentangles. Someday If I ever get one of these ingenious bean bags I will have to write a review of it. In the mean time - Check out their site and decide for your self.

Merlin

Technorati Tags: Bean, Bag, Bean+Bags, Chair, Lounge, loveseat, floor+pillow, floor, Xbox, xbox+360, wii, Sumo, Omni, Urban, Urban+lounger, Urban, Lounge, Bead+Bag, Beads, Chair, Kids, Furniture, NIN, Ghost, Journaling

1 comment.

What is Twitter?

Posted on March 9th, 2008 by Merlin.
Categories: Cell Phone, Communication, Freeware, Gadgets, Human, Video, Web Service, YouTube.

What is Twitter you ask - I mentioned it in a earlier blog and got a question to explain it - Well, instead of re-inventing the wheel I will post the video from CommonCraft - Who did the earlier video about what is a blog.

So, now start following your friends 140 Characters at a time.

Technorati Tags: twitter, tweet, twittering, mini, blog, personal, people, comunication, common, craft, video, youtube

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Things that Are not there Anymore!!!

Posted on March 9th, 2008 by Merlin.
Categories: Communication, Gadgets, Hack, Human, Pittsburgh.

I was playing around on Twitter today and found this great tool for twitter called TerraMinds - It allows you to search for a topic you want to see if anyone wrote about. I did a search on there for Pittsburgh and found some interesting articles. But I was lead to LyriqueTragedy and her web blog - DawnPapuga.com - And she wrote about Things that were not there anymore and specifically to Pittsburgh - But there are the general topics as well - Such as the handwritten note - to quote her on this:

There’s something magical about handwritten letters. To receive a handwritten letter from someone is a gift.

Boy isn’t that so true - I think this leads me to why I love to use my fountain pens and write things down instead of using a computer for everything.

Yes, Email is much faster. But, receiving a letter from a friend that was written down is way more personal.

They actually took the time to sit down at a desk, pull out a piece of paper, select a pen, and put their words in ink on paper. This truly is Magical.

Something that used to be taken for granted has been over taken by email, voicemail, faxing, (All things Digital) - Trust me - I love digital devices more then the next person but… There has to be a time and a place to sit down and write your friend a letter just because…. I know I would really enjoy getting a letter in the mail from a friend - Much more then I would like reading that same letter in email form. Yes, even the same words seem more powerful when put in ink on paper and not just represented on the screen in ones and zeros.

Well this is just my little push to go out and write a letter to someone that cares. And see what happens. You really don’t need to have a fancy pen, fancy paper or anything fancy at all. Just pull out a sheet of white paper from your printer and grab that bic pen that you have been chewing one and just write it down. Nice to write your thoughts down - when you have to think about them first and not have the backspace key at your beck and call. Now you don’t have to pre-think the whole letter but just think about the current sentence you are writing and just write what comes from your heart. I am pretty sure whom ever you are writing will be surprised and will love what ever you write no matter what.

Well now you need to send it to them - I know I don’t have any blank envelopes on hand so here you can make your own. - DIY - Fold Your Own Envelope.

But now that you have it folded what about a stamp - Two things - There are many post offices that are open 24 hours and you can put your pocket change in and get a stamp feed out to you - or go to and purchase a few booklets of the Forever Stamp from the post office - Cost the same as a first class stamp does now $.41 but it doesn’t have a price on it and can be used anytime in the future for no additional postage due. Very Cool - Nows the time to buy in bulk and use them in 20 years. :-)

Merlin

Technorati Tags: Handwriting, letterwriting, writing, ink, paper, envelope, stamps, stamp, make, your, own, envelope, Hack, DIY, Free, love, fountain, pen, analog

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