I came across this site a while back, but its gotten even better with them putting up more content in a creative commons license now. All the lessons are now viewable online and downloadable as PDFs. Enjoy!
Get 2 GBs free space to backup and sync your files. There are clients for Windows, Mac, and Linux. Referrals get you extra space, too.
You can designate shared folders and allow access to other users, facilitating collaboration.
With all the hype about credit scores, it can be intimidating to actually go to one of those sites and put in your personal information. Some sites tout free reports then they try to sell you something. Here’s a place to answer a few questions and get a free estimate. No personal info taken.
There are three companies that report FICO scores and they can have a range of 50 points difference between them. It took about 5 minutes for me to answer the multiple choice questions and the estimate was spot on for me.
The International Music Score Library Project or IMSLP for short, “attempts to create a virtual library containing all public domain musical scores”. They boast many thousands of scores, and I randomly printed out a couple pages. The printout looks better than it did on the screen.
You can search by composer or by period. There’s also a phpBB forum for announcements and score requests and general discussions. If expensive scoresheets have kept you away from playing that childhood instrument, point your browser over there, you might find something worthy of dusting off that old keyboard, viloin, or whatever.
Sometimes a handwritten note provides that personal touch necessary for that special communication, but if you don’t have the quickest or neatest handwriting it can get tedious. What if you could create a font for the computer that is your handwriting?
This site allows you to download a PDF template, you fill it out with your handwriting, scan it, send it back to them and they create a truetype font – for free.
I haven’t finished this yet, but will post more details as we get something done.
Add “Newspaper” to “Museum” and what do you get? Newseum
Actually, its not just newspapers but all aspects of news. There is a cool section online Today’s Front Pages. It contains the front pages of several hundred newspapers. Also available as readable PDFs. So if you’re feeling homesick for your old town newspaper, it might just be up there.
The physical structure is located in Washington, DC, and houses 14 galleries and 15 theatres. Topics cover areas from sports, to documentaries, a 9/11 gallery, the “world in pictures”, and there is a food court.
Its a simple concept, list out your goals, give yourself a checkmark every time you achieve it.
This site might seem too simple at first, and may strike you as lacking some whiz bang feature, but in the end its simplicity is a bonus. You get to spend more time on your new habits, than recording them.
There’s a simple logging feature to distinguish between, for instance, the type of exercise you did (weights, running, yoga, etc.) Or other notes you may want to track. Maybe, if you are running, you could log your times and PBs (personal bests).
Also you can track negative habits you want to get rid of. Smoking, over eating, etc.
Lastly there is a badge that you can activate and then paste into your blog, website, myspace, etc.
In efforts to boost the economy, the Fed has lowered overnight lending rates, which in turn have caused mortgage rates to fall. Although, I feel home prices have another 10-20% to go (depending on your locale) this is a good time to start getting a feel for what is out there (supply of homes) and what you can afford.
NY Times article about low rates. And a nice Rent VS Buy calculator.
Seasonally, homes sell more in the spring and early summer. Putting it all out on a limb, my guess is the sweet spot for a home purchase is in later half of 2010.
Economy got you down? Looking for some inexpensive things to do? Host a scrabble or boggle night. The games are likely owned by someone you know, or they are not that expensive to buy. Considering the hours of usage, the cost is lower than a night out at the movies. The travel version of Scrabble is easily packed in a bag and can go to any coffee shop or friendly location.
Online Boggle if you want a quick diversion. Random games are setup, you get 3 minutes to type in words, and then it scores it for you. The site has a wealth of other word related things yet to be discovered by me.
A quick boggle game is a nice little segue way between projects or tasks, or a little time shifting boundary between work and after work. Its becoming a ritual as I get ready to leave work, or go to lunch. Its a blended living practice- little habits or rituals that mark the boundaries between work and home time. ( Don’t take work home when you don’t have to. Get it done there.)
The other benefits are that you get to keep your mind sharp, and off the crummy economy or any other negative seed that you would rather not water. It exercises different parts of my brain and lets those other coding, computer problem solving parts get a quick rest. For you NLP types, it can become an anchor to transition smoothly from work to home or play and vice versa.
I have liked to doodle all my life and I remember fondly my first red Bic flair marker. I drew Johnny Storm from the Fantastic Four on every piece of paper I could get my hands on. He is the character that can turn into a human flame and fly around. I don’t know how good it was, but while that Bic lasted, I enjoyed drawing Johnny flying around everywhere.
Later on, my drawing stilted as it does for most people. Other tasks get priority and that drawing skill lies dormant and for most never reignites again. Luckily for me, I started it up again when I became a Dad. It took some work, and some childlike fascination to get past all the bad stick figures. Persistence got rewarded as something clicked and I started to like what I drew.
As the girls got older, drawing fell to the wayside again. However its a very good pastime to get yourself more mindful- and it can be hours of fun for the cheap. Here’s some tips:
Enjoy!
