Blended Living

• the twilight run in Central Park tested my focus which was not that sharp today
• like a dull ache longing for crisper times
• of a mental edge that cut through crap so well
• but I was mildly amazed at my ability to hold a serene thought and
• allow my body to work out its kinks and let
• the motor go on for a while longer than
• some days when my mind (or ego) can’t sustain the pace and it yells louder or just loud enough
• so that my legs slow down to a walk
• however tonight fueled by many runners and 64F weather and that
• fun run coming up in 36 hours was just enough to get me
• down by the lake in good time and just a couple pauses
• soon after my legs propelled me automatically and minutes later
• my left thigh seized like an engine that lost valve oil
• but just for a moment as a couple stretches and yoga like deep breathes
• flowed some necessary body ingredients to sore areas
• playing with my new toys
• I don’t doubt that neighbors are wondering if a dentist has moved in their midsts
• so I need to think about soundproofing a bit
• or relegate my craft activities to the locked bathroom until
• I do figure out something
• “easy glass etching” seems an oxymoron but it isn’t the first such title I’ve gotten out of the library
• I wonder if that cheap Ikea glass stuff is worth testing some etching on
• and I remind myself I need to order facemasks
• before I read about glass dust dangers and scare myself out of that side of the hobby
• but that light box/table I’m gonna make should ameliorate dust enough
• so that I won’t obsess about it
• still I need to read and educate myself some more and practice on cheaper and less toxic acrylic first
• the forex chart shows a nice trade I missed while showering
• and the LED I implanted into a yellow ping pong ball makes a nice light
• no glare, bright enough and it looks like a bulb albeit
• with two little thin wire legs coming out of it
• maybe I should take a marker and anthropomorphisize it somehow
• or maybe I’m just a bit lightheaded after running about 6-7 miles tonight
• my Cstream wanders into a neat short Kafka-esque story of an inventor with lots of LEDs and ping pong balls
• but perhaps with a happy ending
• and I wonder if there is such a thing as childrens pop up book with LEDs used in an imaginative way to “hi-lite” the story
• or in some other way educate and involve the reader enough
• to have them interact so that they finish the circuit
• in order to complete the multi-ending story
• that last idea has enough ‘oomph’ to think about more
• but alas we do live in such a virtual society already and would
• such a blended concept take hold?
• maybe there is some magic in taking the old and new and creating something just a little different
• that Euro is taking off into 1.47xx land
• as the daily chart looks like its about to climb K2
• with a short stint at base 1
• the 4 hour charts show hesitation at 1.4730 ish but
• as usual 6am greenwich time has some early Euro bull risers
• will it linger in the 1.48 area and come back down with the upcoming US stock market pullback?
• go with the trend, go with the trend
• I need to make that mantra into a song
• is there a word that means “song-ify”?
• the active voice is so much more well active
• me thinks I have drained that last bit of caffeinated adrenaline out of me
• but a quick glance at the etching book before ping pong out.

• it bugs me that I haven’t been adding photos here as much as I imagined
• but I am pleased about the pace of many other hobbies
• and the confluence of some
• excited about a light box I’m designed in my head
• and should really capture more ideas onto paper or in the computer
• before some ideas fall off the ends of my mind
• white plexiglass #2447 is what is used for lightboxes or X-Ray viewers
• or light installations which is funny how I found out
• as I wondered about what the best way to search that was
• as I ‘gestured’ by accidnet on my laptop’s touch panel and it jumped to the bottom of an Ebay listing and there it was
• a few clicks later ordering a piece of #2447 sized to the plywood I picked up earlier last week
• and hoping that a 16 x 19 inch lightbox is sufficient for my needs and that
• 1/8th inch plexiglass will be thick enough
• and calculating whether I’ll need to glue it down
• or allow it to float there
• and how many bright white LEDs and what spacing will be best to illuminate the box
• yet not have hot and cold spots
• and trying to figure out how to attach some kind of netting or plastic to keep dust from flying out when etching, or other dremel like activities
• and sizing shop vacs
• and thinking about angles for other lights but not introduce glare onto clear arylic
• then the Cstream thinks about other projects made do-able by the perfect lightbox with
• a debris vacuum, and under and over lighting, and raised edges, and some kind of plastic netting to keep dust down.

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.

IMSLP

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.

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:

• It minimally requires some paper and pencils
• start with some scenes that you find tranquil-trees, cottage in the woods, geometric shapes, animals, anything
• practice makes better – doodle during gaps at work,  play, or on line at the grocer’s.
• the library has plenty of drawing books to teach, inspire, imitate.
• Drawspace is a great online resource.
• after some time with drawing you notice that you see things differently
• start simple, in small increments you may be amazed at what you can accomplish
• Mark Kistler’s Draw Squad is a great introduction to drawing

Enjoy!

Gmail recently added a tasklist in their labs section.  Its a rudimentary attempt and is pretty good for a first try.  Its nice to have this every time you open your email.  With some time maybe they will integrate it better with the other tools available, like calendar, etc.

Remember the Milk, or RTM for short, is another free website to load all your tasklists.  It has a strong following, and if you use firefox there is a nice plugin to better integrate it with Gmail and Gcal. They also have a Pro version for $25 a year with a sync program for iPhones, Blackberries and Windows Mobile phones.

I’m fairly new to using an online tasklist consistently, as I have been using a combination of paper and PDA for this function, but realizing recently that I’m about 95% of the time within arms length of WiFi, I thought I’d try an upgrade. I like what I see with the combination/integration of RTM, Gmail and Gcal.  There are numerous keyboard shortcuts and some nifty features.  I’ll see how I feel after a month or so.  It should be easy to GTD-ify also.

I almost pulled the trigger on that Radio Shack deal for the Acer Aspire One netbook and ATT mobile broadband, but the $60 a month for 5GB data is just too limiting.  This however might be a sign of the future, subsidized tiny laptops, or netbooks with data plans.  Give me a more realistic data plan and I’ll be there to buy it.

Seeing that the news is replete with horrible economic news I thought to add some ideas for frugal fun.  Low or no cost activities to keep your mind sharp and off all of those layoffs and news of recessions.

I learned to play chess at around 5 and its been a game I return to now and then.  One day I’d like to get past my all time level (which is probably around the 16-1700 rating) and one exercise is to do chess problems.  There are thousands to choose from and they are categorized from Novice  through to Difficult and even Fiendish.

Chess problems

If you are new to the game here is a site that takes you from the very beginning: How to setup the board, what the pieces are, to how they move, to basic strategies and openings.

Have fun!