Free Handwriting Practice Paper


Posted on January 16th, 2007 by Merlin.
Categories: Craft, Freeware, Hack, Journaling, Notetaking, Tutorial, Web Service.

Handwriting Practice Worksheets - Free DownloadGreetings Everyone – a loyal reader Dave was kind enough to send this tip for  to me to share with the rest of the readers. It is where to get a PDF of handwriting practice paper. It is designed for children but can be quite useful when you want to practice your new found love of cursive or italic handwriting. Note if your printer can do it print it 2 per sheet to allow you a smaller line for more adult sized writing ** Great Tip Dave  – THANKS**

The Paper is available here – just save out the PDF file to your computer and you will be good to go. (Sounds like a Taco Bell Commercial)

Now I didn't print this our for myself by upon inspection this paper is similar to that is included in the back of the write now book. I can see using this when I get a new fountain pen and just want to play with how the nib works and writes without scribbling in my journal.

Technorati Tags: Fountain+Pen, Fountain, pen, Ink, writing, free, worksheet, pdf, print, practice, help, guide, cursive, handwriting, writing


1 comment.

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Price Protection – Via Price Protectr


Posted on January 10th, 2007 by Merlin.
Categories: Communication, Hack, Money, Search Engine, Shopping, Web Service.

Price Proctectr - Hands you money back - SortaHow many times have you seen the guarantee that you will get the lowest price around even if the price drops in the next 30 days you will get the money back. Well how often do you actually keep looking at the prices once you purchase the item. Well that is where Price Protectr Comes in handy. This is a free service that allows you to watch prices for the following companies:

Amazon, Backcountry.com, Best Buy, Circuit City, Costco, Future Shop, Jenson USA, Office Max, Sears, or Target. 

I know I use quite a few of these to purchase items. I think I have only once checked the price afterwards to make sure the price didn't drop and that was by accident seeing it in a weekend sales catalog. I can see this being a very useful service and time saver. To use this service it only takes a few minutes to setup the alert then all you have to do afterwards is to check your email as you normally do. (Well I hope you check it regularly Cool) 

Thats it a quick and easy way to verify that you got the best price and make sure you take advantage of the best price for the upcoming month or so.

 

Thanks Price Protectr

Technorati Tags: price, protectr, amazon, best+buy, target, office+max, costco, circuit+city, sears, money, back, free, service, guarantee


0 comments.

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Free Crossword Help!


Posted on January 9th, 2007 by Merlin.
Categories: Freeware, Game, Hack, Web Service.

Crossword Puzzle - Hint Search Guide - One Across WebsiteI enjoy working on crossword puzzles – But honestly I am not always that good But I still don't resort to the answer key and would like to have some suggestions or hints. I just stumbled upon was "One Across – Search for Crossword Puzzle Answers"

Very Useful when you have a clue but honestly have no clue.

In their search engine you type in the clue given and then type in how many letters it is if the word is blank  or you can type in  ???ed?? for a 7 letter word with ED in the 4th and 5th locations.

Example: Clue is "Round"  and Pattern is "O????"  and the first letter starts with O

The Answer it gives back is

ORBIT similar to known clue (round)
OVATE similar to known clue (round)
OXEYE similar to known clue (round)

 

Technorati Tags: Crossword, Puzzle, Crossword+Puzzle, Search, Engine, Search+Engine, Help, Hints, Clue, Guide


2 comments.

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Happy New Year! From Merlin’s Tower!!!


Posted on December 31st, 2006 by Merlin.
Categories: Announcement, Art, Communication, Email, GTD, Hack.


0 comments.

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Fountain Pen Care and Feeding: Handwriting Improvement


Posted on December 26th, 2006 by Merlin.
Categories: Communication, Craft, Hack, Journaling, Notetaking.

Fountain Pen HandwritingSo, you received a fountain pen from Santa for Christmas and now you realize the reason you mostly use email for all of your communications as even you can not read your own handwriting even 5 mins after you wrote it down? Well in the continuation of the Fountain Pen Care and Feeding Series – Todays topic is how to use your fountain pen for the greater good or how to improve your handwriting. Bad Handwriting can be extremely bad for all (Check out this Article on how much damage bad handwriting does to the medical industry – Via CNN Or This article)

 I personally have used and like what I have learned from The Write-Now Course on Handwriting – Here is one of the many reviews on Amazon about this handwriting course:

It's Never Too Late to Change Your Handwriting,  Reviewer: A reader
Like so many others, I learned the standard "ball and stick" print style of handwriting and progressed to the "looped" cursive style when I was in grade school–and I got very high marks in penmanship. By high school I could write fastest in cursive, but I was taking notes so fast it became illegible. Somehow I made it through graduate school taking notes fast and figuring out what I wrote later. Ever since then, I've chosen the computer over handwriting as much as possible. (Not to mention the "looped" cursive isn't very masculine.)

Enter "Write Now". What a great book! "Write Now" teaches a style of handwriting called Italic (meaning "from Italy"). My first thought was that this was some "new" style and couldn't be as good as the "basics" I was taught. Turns out, what I was taught is the "new" style (19th century) and Italic is the more traditional (16th century). It is the style that was used by Leonardo Da Vinci and Michaelangelo.

Italic focuses on efficiency, ergonomics, legibility, and speed. It easily transitions from print to cursive to calligraphy with little change in the way you write the characters. "Write Now" is broken into three sections: 1) Basic Italic (print) 2) Cursive Italic and 3) Edged Pen Italic (calligraphy). With good explanations and illustrations, it is a pleasure to learn a new style of handwriting.

"Write Now" is geared towards adults (or teens) and presents a "cartoon's guide" to the history of handwriting throughout–a good reference even if you don't want to improve your handwriting. The author's are veteran educators and have produced an entire series of books on Italic handwriting to take kids from kindergarten through grade school. They are also in very high demand for in-house hospital seminars to those who most desparately need handwriting help–doctors. :-)

I recommend this book highly. My handwriting has already improved. I actually look for reasons throughout the day to use my new skills. If you're like me, don't pass this one up.

 But if you are not looking to purchase a book on how to improve your handwriting you can get some tips from the following websites such as the article "Handwriting Tips" on PaperPenalia.
Most of the other sites I found on Handwriting are usually geared towards youth such as "Draw Your World" Page on Handwriting. But still you can get some good information from it as well. 

Calligraphy ExampleBut perhaps you thought a fountain pen was going to "Make you write Fancy" well that fancy handwriting has a name – Calligraphy - and actually requires a special nib or ink pen for Calligraphy Writing called an italic nib and comes in various styles. Yes, you can still use a regular pen or fountain pen and follow the instructions for italic handwriting (I again like the directions in the Write Now Book) But if you would like some additional instructions on Calligraphic Writing check out the PDF located at the bottom of Handwriting for Kids Page Or you can check out the Italic Handwriting Page from Studio Arts Page. But to learn more about Calligraphy and explore more web pages with Calligraphy (Which BTW Means Beautiful Handwriting) would be the 42 Explore Page.

 Merlin

TAGS: Handwriting Italic Penmanship calligraphy fountain pen fountain+pen writing free course info


3 comments.

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Merry Christmas From MT – FREE Modern Christmas Carol


Posted on December 24th, 2006 by Merlin.
Categories: Anything Else, Art, Freeware, Hack, Pipe, Tobacco, Web Service.

A PodCast Christmas CarolWant to sit down to a nice cup of eggnog - Have a few puffs on your pipe with your favorite winter pipe tobacco – and then read the story A Christmas Carol to your family. BUT Wait – Podcast Pickle and Group have produced "A Podcast Christmas Carol" It is a modernization of the traditional Christmas Carol Story. I heard it last evening on my XM as I was listening to the David Lawrence Show. (BTW Great Show to Listen To) David Lawrence is the main actor in this story as Scrooge. There is quite a cast too boot. Too Many to mention here – But I listened to this and really enjoyed the story. But for a few moments of Christmas Joy Check out The Santa Dance – A Hamster Dance Type of page featuring the True Meaning of Christmas – (Hover Your Cursor over each Dancing Santa To Read it) – This page has been around for over 8 years now and still going pretty strong. Spread the word and share the true meaning of Christmas.

Wikipedia – A Christmas Carol 

 

Merry Christmas – Happy Holidays From Merlins Tower! 

 Happy Holidays

TAGS: Christmas A+Christmas+Carol Carol Happy Holidays Happy+Holidays Podcast Scrooge Free Tradition Eggnog Pipe Santa Clause Dance Santa+Dance


1 comment.

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How I Use, Sort, and Store My Index cards


Posted on December 21st, 2006 by Merlin.
Categories: Communication, GTD, Hack, Journaling, Search Engine, Tutorial.

Today I was viewing my favorite blogs and I wrote the following as a comment on Searching4Arcadia: He was talking about using 3×5 cards as a capture tool and how to organize and store them. This got me writing down How I do my system. I wanted to share this with my readers as well. 

So Here is what I wrote in that comment: ( a few things added as I could not do linking in the comments)

Greeting – Great article By the way – as usual good information. I too use 3×5 quite a bit in my daily activities. I have the leather version of the shirt pocket briefcase from Levengers but I always have on hand is the International Shirt Pocket Briefcase.

I like this version better in some instances because it has a pocket to fit my daily use fountain pen inside and protect it and a place for my drivers license and money (When I have any).

I also bought the Levenger Index Cards – I find them better quality then he dime store variety But they work just as well also.

I too had a hard time organizing them. I use a old wooden cigar box for my "Current" cards and have a longer storage box from Office Depot/Max that I use for Long Term Storage.

When I am placing my cards away I will mark the card with a Topic and Number. I then store them alphabetically in the trays by the Topic & Number. Any really important facts or info I know I might need to remember  I write it down on the index card index cards :-) that I have stored in the front of the tray – Thus I can quickly (Well sorta) find a past topic. Plus this gives me a way to place the card back into it correct spot when the time comes. I will usually do this once every week or so as not to get too many cards out of place but they are fairly easy to put back into order no matter what.

My local Big Lots store has the plastic dividers I use in the boxes for about $1.50 I like these better then the ones from Office Depot as the are all the same color and the letter is easier to read. Actually I bought sever sets – I put my own TAGS or labels on them (I have one for each of my clients or major projects that I am working on) That way when I mark the card I can put it in that Tagged section and make it the next number. For cards that don't have a "Divider" I put them into the alphabet dividers by letter. So notes I took about a particular pipe tobacco would be under P and the number would be then next number in the P section ex. P112. And If I thought this was something important as mentioned above I would put:

Pipe Tobacco (Haddo's Delight)   – P112

This is just an example inde Taken from some objects I have in sight when I was writing this topic. Ok I was enjoying my pipe at the time.

On the index card index. I use one card for each letter in index. This helps keep my index cards in order Right now I have Several cards for each letter. Plus if I happen to have multiple topics on a card I can still find this information as well. These are easier to go thru then going though each and every card all the time. But I have to admit there are times like you mentioned that I just flip and scan though all the cards just to get some inspiration.

Depending on what I am writing and/or note taking – I will either use the index cards or my notebook. The notebook for me is more for info that I want to store long term (I use my notebook more as a common book) and want to have easy access to as when I leave to go to a job or client I have that with me in my backpack / work kit. And I alway in the front of my notebook carry a few extra index cards. That way if the info in not as important I write it on the cards. I also keep a couple with my Name and Email/phone number printed on to give notes to a client. I find this quite effective as it keeps my info with them.

One additional note not in the comment I posted was that I have a nice Card Holder that I bought from Ikea several years back that keeps my current projects close at hand.

Thanks A11en for sparking the writing bug today.

Merlin

 

TAGS: Index Card Storage Index+Card Notetaking GTD how to


4 comments.

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