Broken Toe
Yesterday I had a piece of foil on my dinner. I like to recycle the used (clean) foil to use as armature for clay creatures, so I went upstairs to stick the foil in the attic where I keep it. And as I went into the attic, in the dark, and stubbed my toe hard on the cedar chest. I could tell pretty quick that something was wrong, so I went to the emergency room. X-rays easily confirmed that it was broken.
Ouch.
So I’m home from work now, with an appointment to see a doctor later. We’ll know more then, but the ER doctor said I’d need to wear an ugly cast-type-shoe-thing for about four weeks.
Tags: boring, broken bone, gross, pain
Work in Progress
I know a few of you people who read this are artist/crafters, and a few of you people like to see how artists/crafters do things. So I will show you a couple of status shots of a work-in-progress.
First, I found something weird that was on sale, and bought it. It turned out to be grungeboard (which is by Tim Holtz, available at fine scrapbooking stores everywhere). It comes cut up into shapes, or not - and covered with texture, or not.
Here is a random photo I pulled off of the web, because I was too lazy to go upstairs and take a photo of my actual package.
Anyway it turns out this stuff is fascinating and versatile, and smells like basement mold. Or, at least, the package I bought does. But anyway, you can paint it, you can bend it, you can cut it - it’s fun!
So I made up ten little tiles, using layers of paint, brads, gears, etc.
And they look like this:
But what am I going to do with ten tiles? I thought about putting magnets on the back, or pin backs on them, or make them into thumbtacks. Or something. But instead I have put rivets through them all (actually 9 of 10), and am going to make them into a necklace. It isn’t done, but here is the beginning of my idea:
- So far so good.
And if you want to see another wip, click here.
A Balance
- Wired
I have been busy, with graduation receptions, Father’s day, a wedding, some GARBC conferences - all sorts of good stuff. But I have also tried posting a few things to my ETSY store, like this little wired pendant.
Keep Looking Up - 2
Lorain County Fairgrounds Balloonfest 2009
Tags: balloonfest, ballooning, balloons, hot air balloons
Keep Looking Up.
Twitter (Part 2)
- Use the @ followed by someone’s name to aim a comment at someone specific.
- Direct Message - click on the “direct messages” to see the private personal messages people have sent to you, or send a private personal message to someone else. If your phone is enabled, you will get these on your phone.
- Use the # followed by a term, if you want to follow a “trend” other people are also talking about, such as #h1n1. This makes topics easy to follow.
- Enable your phone. This is one of the “truly useful” ways I have used Twitter. Send a text message to 40404 and it will appear in your Twitter stream. I have used this feature to meet up with people for dinner, and to get prayer requests. When I don’t know someone’s cel phone number, they can still contact me this way without a computer. Of course, getting someone’s cel phone number works even better, but this can be useful.
Some interesting folks/services on Twitter:
- CDCEmergency - Exactly what it sounds like, the Center for Disease Control.
- MarsPhoenix - No more data is coming back now, but this little lander was the toast of Twitter for awhile.
- Astro Mike - Perhaps you heard this was a “fake account” but it’s still NASA news goodness.
- BoingBoing - Interesting stuff from around the web
- Make - DIY projects, plans, and niftiness.
- Woot - a new deal every day (I have purchased some of these products, they’re great)
- Spymaster - a Twitter-based game where you can assassinate other players
- San Francisco - That’s right, the CITY of San Francisco is on Twitter. And it listens to complaints.
- Celebrities - I am not going to list them here because I would not catch them all. Also, they aren’t always the real thing! You think you are following the Dalai Lama? Think again!
Ok you have a few followers - now what? Well there are a lot of “fun” (or perhaps “silly”) things you can do to track your Twitter popularity and things like that. Here are the ones I like best.
- Twanalyst - this shows you your “Twitter personality” and gives suggestions on how to round it out.
- Grader - this compares your popularity with others
- Twinfluence - this compares your popularity, but using some different and interesting stats
- Twendz - This is especially great if you have a business, because it lets you track Tweets that contain your name or keyword, and makes a graph of the negative or positive sentiment in the tracked tweets.
And more services are popping up all the time, like:
- CheapTweet - this site keeps you informed of coupons/deals.
- Twellow and WeFollow are both “Twitter Yellow Page Directories”.
I’m sure that more has come out in the time it took me to write this article. Feel free to post your favorites in the Comments. I get a lot of my information on new features from TechCrunch. As a final note: if you want to use friendly (though comparatively little-used) “Twitter-like” service without the hype, try identi.ca. You won’t find Paris Hilton on it, but I wanted to point out there ARE many Twitter alternatives.
Tags: buzzword bingo, geekery, social media, twitter, web 2.0
Why Twitter?
Twitter is the insanely popular buzzword everywhere right now. But what is so great about Twitter?
It depends on what you want to get out of it.
Many people use Twitter to stalk celebrities. I’m sure that’s great, as far as it goes. I do follow some celebrities that I know won’t follow me back. (But not this one:)
O
Many more people use Twitter to advertise their business. I have seen a lot of successful (to me) podcast novels launched using Twitter in combination with a lot of other intensive advertising. I know many other people who use Twitter in combination with Etsy to sell their handmade goods. Both of these have worked very well, from what I’ve observed. (Wanna buy my Etsy stuff?)
I would say that the main reason I personally use Twitter is to chat. It isn’t an IM but it has evolved to be pretty close to one, with the @ commands and direct messages. I originally started following podcasters, to tell them I liked their shows. But many of them have become closer acquaintances now. I’ve met them! Still, it’s not the same thing - ”knowing someone via Twitter” does not make them a close personal friend, even if you do know their dog is sick and they got a latte for breakfast.
That being said, it is still a great way to form connections! (If you want to follow me, I’m Nycteris there.)
Far and away the most highly lauded app I have heard people speak of is Tweetdeck. I claimed I would research and talk about a bunch of applications people suggested, but it turns out I am too lazy. I will just say that this app turns your screen (though two monitors work even better) into columns of streaming Tweets that you can group by various topics/etc. Sounds useful to me!
I will also mention that the Twitter plugin I use with Firefox is called Twitbin. It sits in the bottom tray, and if you click it, it opens a slim column on the left of your browser, where you can watch/post/interact with your Twitter stream. And then close when you’re done. Very handy and simple.
But I have to go now - someone just Twittered that he was doing a live show on Ustream!
Tags: buzzword, geekery, jawbone radio, social networking, tweet, twitter, web 2.0
Interrupted by S’moreos.
I told everyone I was going to blog about Twitter apps, but I was interrupted by chocolate.
I don’t know if anyone else has done this and coined the phrase but I was bored, and had adorably star shaped marshmallows, and decided I would make S’mores. But since I had no graham crackers, I used an Oreo. It turned out to be made of awesome.
First, I had these little cute star shaped red, white & blue marshmallows. Through trial and error I found that a good “S’moreo” only needs one.
Are they not cute?
Second, I put a chunk of Hershey’s milk chocolate, with a star-marshmallow, into a properly opened Oreo chocolate sandwich cookie. By “properly opened” I mean you must twist it so that half the cream is on either side. I just like it that way best. I know countless millions have heaped shame on me for this.
Properly Loaded Oreo
Put the S’moreo into the microwave on High for about 10 seconds, or until the marshmallow FWOOMPs into a poof. (To use a technical term.)
FWOOMP!
Jam the top half of the cookie on, and eat it all in one bite so it doesn’t glop tasty ooze all over you.
Yum-o.
Repeat!
And I’ll post about the Twitter apps soon.
Uranium Failure
Saturday I went downtown to a local arts and crafts show, which was severely hampered by 40mph gusts of wind. I ended up buying a few little things: a uranium glass bottle, and two copper bowls.
Copper Bowls and a Bottle
The Test Subjects. Control on Left.
Making a Note Here: Huge Failure
As you can see, the control marble that is authentic glows wildly under blacklight. And the new bottle… does nothing. EPIC FAIL.
So there you go. Even a fake Sonic Screwdriver can be a useful tool!
Tags: antiquing, geekery, mad science, uranium glass