Hack -- Merlins Tower

Backup your thoughts to Floppy Disk and Pencil???

Posted on February 23rd, 2007 by Merlin.
Categories: Art, Communication, Computing, Hack, Journaling, Notetaking, Office.

Floppy Diskette Notepad Yes, you read the title right. Now you can keep your notes save and secure between two floppies. The people at ThinkGeek.com have done it again and created a pretty cool item. They are calling it a Floppy Disk Journal. What they have done is to take two floppy diskettes and a small stack of paper cut to diskette size and put it all together with a plastic comb binder spine.

So, now you can use the power of the floppy again. They come in three different sizes (Floppy 3 1/2", 5 1/4" & 8") show this to some new computer users and they will not even know what this even is. It really has been a long time since I have used one of these diskettes. Almost everything I have is on cd, dvd, or a external hard drive.

The 3 1/2" was available in DD (Double Density) or a whopping 720k and in HD (High Density not High Def) which would hold about 1.44mb. In case you are interested Wikipedia has the history of Floppy Diskettes. Boy Times sure have changed. Now you can easily get 1GB, 2GB, or Higher in the form of a USB Flash Drive for under $50 and the smaller sizes under $20. I remember in the Late 80's going to a computer club and 3M stopping by to talk to us about their new 5 1/4 inch diskette and gave everyone at the meeting one floppy diskette in a really nice marketing folder. We where in awe as those diskettes cost about $25 to $30 a piece and not everyone even had a floppy drive back then. Many of the users were only using tape drives. Ah, those were the days. The day of black and white screens with colored plexiglass to make the screen easier to read and only 16k of memory in the computer. When you called up a BBS (Bulletin Board System) and waited sometimes hours to get a free line to connect. Just to see the latest ASCII Art and animation.

Technorati Tags: Floppy+Disk, Diskette, Disk, Floppy, HD, DD, DS, Flash, Drive, ASCII, ART, BBS, History, Journal

0 comments.

DIY: How to make your own Parchment Paper

Posted on February 18th, 2007 by Merlin.
Categories: Art, Coffee, Craft, DIY, Hack, Journaling, Leather, Tutorial.

Today I decided to write about a project I did some time ago it was make a new sheet of paper look old. Or how to make some good olde fashioned parchment paper. To the left is an example of what it could look like

First - I wrote in my best calligraphy handwriting on the page - (I used a heavier high cotton blend for the fiber look and feel).

I had to use Noodlers black ink as this ink will not run when adding the paper coloring. I let this dry while I gathered up the rest of the items needed.

1 cup of strong brewed coffee (I made two - one for me to drink while working on the Calligraphy and one to sit and wait till the right time to be put to use)
1 tablespoon of any instant coffee (This is to add the extra color on to the paper in a varied pattern)
1 baking pan - large enough for the paper to be put into.
1 sponge or several paper towels
an Oven or hair dryer - I prefer the oven method - but both work
if using the oven pre-heat it to 200-225 degrees
An Iron (Optional)
A zippo lighter (Optional)
Woolen Yarn or Leather Strip (Optional)

Now this is the hard part - after you finished the calligraphy work on the paper - You need to first tear the edges in varied patter to give it that old torn look (Do this if you want to) Doing this before adding the color helps the edges get better coloring in them. Next is the really hard part - you need to crinkle the paper up into a small / medium size ball. Then you need to unball it and flatten it down - almost flat but will some of the crinkles still showing to hold the coffee to help break up the solid pattern of color.

Place the flattened sheet into the pan and pour the coffee all over the page. Making sure to cover the whole page.

Now wait a few moments or about 1 min then sprinkle the instant coffee randomly across the page. Don't make it even as these will soon dissolve and give the page that extra color that will make it look more like beautiful old parchment paper.

Next you want to use the sponge to blog the coffee off the paper - I waited about 2 or 3 mins to let it soak in. Use different amounts of time depending on how much color you want.

Now empty any remaining coffee back into a cup if you intend to do another sheet or throw it away. (I heard coffee grounds were good for some plants - I wonder if you could use this for some of them plants)

Now put the paper on the tray into the oven for about 5 to 7 mins. (Make sure to watch and check often - you don't want the paper to burn after all this work)

The last step is optional - I used an iron on low setting to remove all the creases in the paper and make it flat again. Some people will like the the creases in the paper. It does look good both ways.

Now this last step is also optional - I only did this to one of my parchments and it looked really classy but I was afraid of redoing all my work. Get out the zippo lighter and light it up and get near the edges to "Burn" them slightly. This really will give it that old world look - just like this was an old pirate treasure map.

Now you can mouth this in a frame or if you want to use these for other uses you can roll this up and tie a woolen piece of yarn around it or a strip of leather to tie it with a bow.

You can use this for creating a beautiful love poem for your wife or girlfriend, or if you are having a party and want to have some cool invitation (Great for a kids Pirate Party) or You are running a scavenger hunt - these make cool looking location maps or scavenger hunt lists. The Ideas for what you can use this for is endless. I have seen a photo printed out on a laser printer in a grey scale pattern to make the photo look like an old sepia type print.

Good luck and Stay warm (Brr)

Technorati Tags: parchment, sepia, old, fashioned, olde, diy, paper, craft, hack, calligraphy, fountain, pen, ink, noodlers, black

6 comments.

Online Tool: Visuword - Online Visual Dictionary

Posted on February 1st, 2007 by Merlin.
Categories: Communication, Freeware, GTD, Hack, Journaling, Notetaking, Office, Search Engine, Web Service.

Visual Word - Visual Dictionary Like a Mind Map Previously I wrote about the Visual Thesaurus and now I found another cool online word tool - VisuWord - They call it the online visual dictionary. I have to agree - I like how it interlinks the words and visually shows you which words are related and which ones are the same and which ones are opposite. This can be a fairly useful tool - Not something I will use everyday but can be quite useful to have in your arsenal of word tools. Like using a mind map but of words and their inter-relationship.

Technorati Tags: visuword, visual, word, words, dictionary, thesaurus, online, tool, online+tool, mind, map, mind+map, gtd, hack

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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.

Google Apps Keyboard Shortcuts (Free Chart)

Posted on January 22nd, 2007 by Merlin.
Categories: Computing, Google, Hack, Web Service.

Google App Short Cuts Keys I love using the different Google Apps (Calendar, Gmail, Docs, Maps, Video, Reader) And I have found out that one of the things that makes working with all the different Google Apps that much easier is the use of the Keyboard Shortcuts. Well, Smallwire has a nicely formated chart of all the Keyboard Shortcuts.

Technorati Tags: Google, Apps, Doc, Writely, Gmail, Maps, Shortcut, Key, keys

0 comments.

Free Wallpaper: Make a Life

Posted on January 21st, 2007 by Merlin.
Categories: Communication, GTD, Hack, Health, Human, Life.

Had to share this wallpaper I found on Anabubula.com - A very simple message - Never get so busy making a living that your forget to make a LIFE! - A very simple message that everyone should remember.

Are you putting your real life on hold while you are at work trying to make a life that you forget you already have a life? Sometimes people put making money higher on their list of priorities then actually having a life. Do you remember your Friends, Family, etc while you are putting your career ahead of your life. What good does having money and that next bigger and better item if you are not there to share and use the rewards of your hard work. Remember there really is more to life then just making money. Questions to ask yourself? Does your son await you to come home from work to play with you but you work late and put your family second? Do you cancel time out with friends to stay at the office - You need to make time for yourself to live and enjoy life to the fullest. This reminds me of that quote of the old man on his death bed saying I wish I stayed at the office longer, I wish I skipped lunches out in the park, I wish I put off the hikes in the park to work more. Of course you will never hear that. So what are your priorities in life? Today is that day that you sit back - take a deep breath and see where you are going, what you are doing, and use all the tools you may have at your finger tips (GTD, Organization Tools, Franklin Covey System, Index Cards, Notecards, etc…) and set your priorities. Make sure you schedule some time for yourself and MAKE A LIFE.

Technorati Tags: GTD, Franklin, Covey, Index, Cards, notecards, 3×5, life, priorities, priority, family, hack, living, time, management

0 comments.

Mr Picasso Head - Make your own portrait

Posted on January 19th, 2007 by Merlin.
Categories: Art, Craft, Drawing, Game, Hack, Web Service.

Now with Mr Picasso Head Anyone (Yes ANYONE) can be an artist. With this very artistic webpage you can be your own artist. First you get to pick your head, eyes, nose, mouth, eyebrows, abstract shapes, and you get to rotate them, resize them, place them anyway you want on the digital canvas and don't forget to sign your masterpiece. Have a Fun Picasso Friday!

Here is My Portrait.