All posts by Robin

I'm a woman in my early thirties living in North Carolina, USA, and I have a lot of varied interests; I love creative writing, music composition, web design, surfing the Internet, thinking out loud, and gaming. And yes, my glasses are crooked. :)
Saturday with the Spark

Papercrafting Post #1: Greeting Cards

5 Comments

greetingcards
When we think of paper, we usually just think of writing something on it, or perhaps cutting shapes out of it. Maybe back in our childhood heydays of Elmer’s Glue and pipe cleaners, we did something more with paper, but as adults, we likely don’t give much thought to the material. It merely carries messages for us most of the time.

But there’s a whole section of crafting that just involves paper. It’s not just kid stuff, either–papercrafts can turn out some of the most astounding creations, and you’ll never believe it’s just made of paper. Today, I’ll cover one of the more accessible forms of papercraft–greeting cards.

Why Make Greeting Cards?

In these tough economic times, who wants to pay tons of money for greeting cards and gift tags that will more than likely just be thrown out with the gift wrap? Not to mention that it’s difficult to find just the right message amid the sea of overly obnoxious or generic cards.

So, instead of trying to buy the right card, we can make some ourselves–that way, they can be treasured items!

Robin’s Homemade Greeting Card Solution

You will need:

  • 1 sheet of card stock, color of your choice (available in large packs at most office supply stores)
  • (optional) Construction paper or printer paper in different colors
  • Markers, colored pencils, or crayons (whatever you have handy that has a color other than blue or black)
  • Regular ink pen and/or pencil
  • Scissors
  • Calligraphy markers and/or access to a printer
  • Glue stick or double-sided tape

4 Styles of Greeting Cards

Basically, a greeting card needs 3 things: originality, a fitting picture on the front, and a meaningful message inside. I personally like to draw simple, almost clipart-style images and write pretty poetry on the front of my card and then extend the poetry into the inside message, because I write better poetry than I draw.

You, on the other hand, may love to draw but hate to write, or you may feel that neither your drawing skills nor your writing skills can match up to the people at Hallmark. Don’t fret: there are solutions for every level of artist.

Folding/Sizing The Card Stock

  1. Fold the card stock either in half width-wise to form a larger card, or fold twice into quarters to make a smaller, thicker-feeling card.
  2. Alternatively, you can cut the card stock down to a specific size you want.

If You’re Creating Everything From Scratch

  1. Sketch the appropriate picture for the occasion, either on a separate sheet of paper or directly onto the front of the card. If you’re sketching on the card itself, use light pencil lines first so you can place your picture appropriately (you don’t want to end up with something lovely but off-center!)
  2. Once you’re satisfied with the drawing, go over its lines with an ink pen or marker (whichever thickness of line you prefer)
  3. Then, color it in using your favorite medium, or leave it colorless as desired.
  4. Write out your message on a scrap sheet of paper, checking wording and spelling.
  5. Letter your finished message directly onto the card, or print it in a cool font, cut it out, and attach with glue stick or double-sided tape.
  6. If your art was on a separate sheet of paper, cut it out and attach it to the front of the card.
  7. Sign the card inside, and you’re done!

If You’re Drawing but Not Writing

  1. Follow the first three steps of the “do-it-yourself” instructions above.
  2. Search the Internet for a meaningful poem or quote that would mean a lot to the person you’re giving the card to. Great resources for poetry and quotes: Bartleby.com, BrainyQuote.com.
  3. Letter your finished message directly onto the card, or print it in a cool font, cut it out, and attach with glue stick or double-sided tape.
  4. Sign the card inside, and you’re done!

If You’re Writing but Not Drawing

  1. Search the Internet for fitting (and free-usage) clipart, images, or photographs; alternatively, you can use your own photographs.
  2. Print your image(s) out on regular paper or glossy photo paper, cut them out, and attach to the front of the card using double-sided tape (glue stick won’t hold photo paper as strong).
  3. Write out your message on a scrap sheet of paper, checking wording and spelling.
  4. Letter your finished message directly onto the card, or print it in a cool font, cut it out, and attach with glue stick or double-sided tape.
  5. Sign the card inside, and you’re done!

Super-Quick-Style Greeting Card

  1. Search for a free-usage image or two on the internet, and a poem or quote that works well with the person and occasion, and print both of them out.
  2. Cut out the image and message, and attach to the card using glue stick or double-sided tape.
  3. Sign the card, and you’re finished in record time!

Optional Steps for Extra Care

  • If you want to, use the scissors to trim out a pretty border on the card (gentle curving waves look pretty, as do pinking-shear-style edges). You could trim out just the front three edges of the card, or all six edges (front and back cover).
  • You can layer a different color of printer or construction paper in the interior or exterior of the card, cut to either the exact same width and height of the card stock, or cut to leave a border of the card stock color around the edges. Attach with a few swipes of a glue stick or double-sided tape.
Friday around the Web

Think Like a Designer, StrandBeest, Business Cat, and Swap-A-Skill

2 Comments

thinklikeadesigner
How to Think Like an Interior Designer
Home design tips for even the most decor-challenged, such as yours truly.

StrandBeest
This guy makes plastic skeletons of fantastic creatures that move just with wind power. It is absolutely amazing.

Business Cat Collection
Business Cat wants you in his office on Caturday! (And other great captioned pictures of a cat in a tie. xD)

SwapASkill.com
Find people who need your skill, right now, and have them help you out too!

Thursday in the Zone

Kaboom!

1 Comment

kaboom_start
If you’re looking for a challenging game that is a little bit old-school and a little bit new-school, Kaboom! is for you. Get in the “Kaboom Zone” and you’ll be in the high levels before you know it!

Basic Gameplay

In the game, a spooky pair of eyes in the darkened upstairs window of a house is throwing bombs out the window to the ground below. You have no character onscreen–instead, your mouse cursor controls a well-patched trampoline. With this, you have to protect your ground from the assaulting bombs.


Catch the black bombs with the trampoline and help them bounce their way harmlessly off-screen to the right. If you let a black bomb touch the ground, it will explode and make you lose 1 of your 5 lives.

Sometimes the little guy in the house will toss out one bomb at a time, and sometimes he’ll throw out 3 or 4 in rapid succession. It’s all about how fast you can juggle those bombs with your mouse cursor–there are times when you have to slide your trampoline under the bombs like a baseball player stealing second base!

Now, if a red bomb appears, avoid catching it–the red bombs will hurt you and make you lose 1 of your lives!

Sometimes, the guy throws out colorful letters instead of bombs. Catch these and help them bounce off-screen if you can spare the time–you’ll get an extra life if you completely spell out the word “KABOOM.” If you just can’t catch the letters (as in, you’ve got enough bombs in the air already), don’t worry; the letters don’t make you lose a life if they hit the ground.

Strategies

  1. I find it easiest to place my cursor in the horizontal center of the game window, and move back and forth as needed.
  2. Don’t look at your “lives left” total, your score, or anything else except for the bombs falling out the window. Let your attention wander and you’ll be sunk!
  3. Sometimes, your trampoline just can’t catch every single bomb; don’t let one failure to catch a bomb distract you from the other bombs on-screen. (It’s a life lesson in handling failures! LOL)
  4. The moment you bounce a black bomb into the air, be ready for another one to fall. Especially when the screen is chock-full of bouncing bombs, you have to stay alert if you don’t want to lose all your lives in one round!
  5. Don’t always dive for the colorful letters. If you have a choice between bouncing a letter and bouncing a bomb, go for catching the bomb every time.
  6. Watch the way the bombs fall. Some will bounce fast once or twice across the screen, and some will bounce slooooowly, taking for-EV-er to cross the screen. Pay closer attention to the slower-bouncing bombs!

Play Kaboom: Kaboom! at FreeOnlineGames.com

Wednesday in the Word

In The Shadows, God Is Still There

1 Comment

intheshadowsgodisstillthere
Psalm 23:4
4 Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for you are with me; your rod and your staff, they comfort me.

Psalm 23, written by David, endures as one of the most comforting psalms in the Bible. David had certainly been through enough trials during his life, trials in which God had rescued him and preserved him, so he knew firsthand the supporting love of God. He had had to run from the first king of Israel who planned to kill him (Saul); he had had to lead the Israelite nation back to God amid much dissent. So David knew, both as a God-fearing king and as a human being, that God could reach through the shadows he felt around him and be with him.

This psalm depicts God as a shepherd, and us as His flock; the images of the rod and staff, symbolizing leadership and guidance, show God’s characteristics as a fair and just God, as well as a loving and forgiving God. We, as spiritual “sheep,” tend to scatter sometimes and find ourselves in unfamiliar and scary places; this verse reminds us that God is still very close by, even when we feel terribly afraid and alone.

There have been times when I have been lost (literally), unable to find my way home or find my way to the place I was heading to. In those moments, I felt that shadows loomed up around me, shadows of fear and of possibly never getting back to safety. And yet, in each situation, just the right people showed up at just the right time to point me towards the right road to take. Spiritually, this has happened to me several times as well–guidance shows up at the moment when I am feeling isolated and in pain. This is God’s doing; in each case, He knew my need and answered it, both to show that He exists and to remind me that I need to trust in Him.

All of us need a reminder sometimes that God is still with us, even in the shadows where we think He won’t come to us. Even when you are the creator of the shadows around you, even when you think God won’t even see fit to look at you, He will. He passes through the walls of misunderstandings and pain as if they are not there, because to Him, they aren’t. He sees the soul in us and offers help, if we but trust Him; after all, He is the One who created us and knew us before we were even born.

Tuesday on the Soapbox

Thanks For Taking My Space

1 Comment

thanksfortakingmyspace

thissigndoesnotmean

The fact that I even feel the need to write this post is evidence enough that people aren’t considerate of disabled people. I am a real handicapped person, with a parking placard and everything, and yet most of the time I can’t find a handicapped space in parking lots because non-handicapped people have taken them. Thus, I end up thinking the title of this post–“gee, thanks for taking my space!”

Why Is This an Issue?

Handicapped people have extreme difficulty with mobility, and often they have to have a good bit of room around their vehicle so that a wheelchair or other mobility device can be loaded and unloaded. Handicapped spaces are thus provided with extra room around the space, and the spaces are located very close to the doors of businesses. These spaces are meant for people who have a medically-issued, government-approved handicapped placard.

At least, that’s the intended purpose. But most of the time, non-handicapped people use handicapped spaces as convenience spaces for a “quick trip to the store” (which ends up being ALL DAY). Or, people park in the striped lines BESIDE the handicapped space and make it impossible for people with mobility devices to get out of their cars/vans at all.

Both of these actions are incredibly inconsiderate and infuriating to me, as a real-life disabled person, and I know other disabled people get frustrated about this too. In my case, any walking I do aggravates one of the major nerves in my ankles, causing sharp lightning pains up my legs with every step. When I can’t find a handicapped place, it literally hurts so much to walk into the building that sometimes I just have to turn around and go home rather than run my errand. (And if I took enough medicine to dull the pain, I’d be too doped up to even consider driving in the first place.) I can’t imagine what it’s like for people who need extra room for mobility devices!

Fixing This, One Driver at a Time

  • Leave the handicapped spots for handicapped people. If you do not have a handicapped placard, you should not be parking there–it’s ILLEGAL, and it will cost you quite a bit in fines if you’re caught.
  • Even if you’re not caught doing it, there are people who actually need those spaces, and you’re robbing them of the legal right they have to park there. Does your convenience trump their right to run errands as normally as possible?
  • Do not park in the striped space beside a handicapped spot. Be respectful (and save yourself the parking fines).
  • If you’re parking beside a handicapped spot, be sure to leave extra room on that side so that future visitors can get out easily, no matter what side the handicapped person is on.
  • If you see a car without a placard in a handicapped spot, report it to a parking supervisor. I hate to advise being a “tattletale,” but maybe a few fines will make people realize this is actually an issue!
Monday in the HTMLab

Get a Fix on Position: Fixed

1 Comment

getafixonpositionfixed
With the modern Web and its hyper-fluid, mobile-friendly designs, you might think there isn’t much use for a piece of CSS code that makes a page element stay in the same place, like “position: fixed”.

But never fear, there are still uses for fixed element styles in your CSS! Read on to discover 2 ways that fixed elements actually help the style AND function of your page!

Use #1: Fixed Sidebar

Some websites have a little sidebar on some of their pages that scrolls with you in the same place on the screen, no matter how far down the page you go. That behavior is all because of “position: fixed;”.

For instance: a typical sidebar’s CSS, below.


#sidebar {
float: left;
color: #FFFFFF;
background-color: #000000;
border: 1px solid #FF0000;
font-size: 11px;
font-family: “Verdana”, “Arial”, sans-serif;
width: 180px;
height: 200px;
}

This would be a cute, basic little sidebar, but when the user scrolls up or down, the sidebar would vanish with the rest of the scrolled content.

However, if you wanted that little sidebar to stay with the user, you could simply add a couple of lines to the the CSS:


#sidebar {
float: left;
color: #FFFFFF;
background-color: #000000;
border: 1px solid #FF0000;
font-size: 11px;
font-family: “Verdana”, “Arial”, sans-serif;
width: 180px;
height: 200px;
position: fixed;
margin-top: 30%;
margin-left: 10%;
}

This fixes the sidebar in place, 300px from the top of the page, and 100px from the left side of the page. Now, if the window size changes, this measurement system would be a bit off, but for most desktop users, that should hold it in place sufficiently close to the main content without overlapping.

This technique would be useful for navigation sidebars as well as social media sidebars–it keeps a list of handy links nearby for users to easily navigate the page.

Use #2: Background Images

Large background images are great–that is, until you scroll down and you realize it’s not repeating down the page, or it’s repeating but the tiling effect is not smooth at all. If you’ve ever been in this position (as I have, many times), it’s very frustrating! But a fixed styling on your background image can save you a lot of hassle.

Say you have the body styles section of your CSS done like so:


body {
color: #000000;
background-color: #FFFFFF;
background-image: url(‘YOUR_COOL_IMAGE.GIF’);
background-repeat: no-repeat;
background-position: top center;
}

This would just place your background image at the top of the page, centered, and it would not tile, but it also wouldn’t affect anything but the top part of the page. Once your user scrolls down, that background image disappears.

However, if you added just one line to your body styles CSS, you could change that, like so:


body {
color: #000000;
background-color: #FFFFFF;
background-image: url(‘YOUR_COOL_IMAGE.GIF’);
background-repeat: no-repeat;
background-position: top center;
background-attachment: fixed;
}

“background-attachment: fixed;”, in this case, works like “position: fixed;” with any other element. It forces the background to stay in the same place on the screen, meaning that your content and everything else scrolls on top of it.

This can be a beautiful look if you design for it properly; you just want to make sure that the text is still readable as your users scroll down the page. Fixed backgrounds are great for sites that don’t need a really detailed background, or that don’t use their background image as a header image.

Summary

Fixed elements still have a place in modern web designs–and these are just a couple of ideas. There are plenty more ways to use this design strategy!

Saturday with the Spark

Becoming Creative

1 Comment

becomingcreative
Because I’m naturally so creative, I often forget that for some, creativity is not the instinctual, natural process that it is for me. When I talk to others who don’t do a lot of creative stuff, they’re sometimes puzzled or amazed by how much time I devote to these activities, or how I come up with the ideas for poems, music, jewelry, web layouts, etc.

This disconnect got me thinking. Might there be a way to become creative? Is there a way to tap into creativity you never knew was there? I find it hard to believe that there are people who do not have any creativity whatsoever–when I taught in a city middle school, I was actually able to help some students find creative expression that they never knew they had, and they were energized by that.

Working off my teaching experience as well as my social experience, I think there are ways to tug out your creativity. The following two exercises might just tease out a few creative fibers in your spirit!

Exercise #1: The “Meh” Object

Have you got an object in your house that you’re kind of “meh” about? It’s okay, but it’s not exactly your style, not exactly your favorite color, etc. You may not even be sure why you don’t like it a whole lot, but it’s just kind of…there, and it doesn’t do much for you.

If you could change this object, how would you change it to make it fit your personality/style better?

For Instance…

In my freshman dorm room, I had the standard orangey-brown desk, dresser, wardrobe, and bed, and while the furniture was really basic, I had done pretty well with most of it. I had decorated my desk with some personal pictures, had dressed the bed with my favorite blue bedclothes, and had even hung cute little decorations on the front of the wardrobe, but the dresser was just…BLAH. It had to hold my TV and DVD player on the top, leaving no room for anything else that was purely decorative.

Finally, I found myself thinking one day, “If I could just put something on it that was navy blue, it would match everything else, at least.” Then my eyes drifted over to my desk chair, where I had a navy chenille throw with delicate fringe draped across the back of the chair. The throw always bunched into uncomfortable shapes against my back, and usually ended up in the floor anyway.

Inspiration struck, and struck hard. In a few minutes, I cleaned off and dusted the top of the dresser, and settled the narrow throw longways across the top of the dresser, letting the fringed edges dangle gracefully to either side. The previously-plain dresser was transformed, and I still had room for the TV and DVD player!

What Does This Have to Do With Creativity?

Creative people see the world around them and see how they could make it better. For example, they might dress up a plain, clear bud vase with a decorative bow affixed to the front of it; they might throw a bright, solid-colored tablecloth across a beat-up card table to make it fit for company. They might even take a bunch of wooden candlesticks of different heights and group them together, tying them together to create a fun, multileveled centerpiece for a table.

And it doesn’t have to be just decorating things, either. You can make your personal world better through arranging your desktop icons in fun shapes, fixing up your profile picture with some color or text, or rewriting your profile information to portray your sense of humor. Anything you see in your world that you wish was better, try something new to fix it up and make it better!

Exercise #2: The Room

Look around your personal space, and answer the following questions (mentally, ’cause this ain’t a test):

  1. How would you describe it?
  2. What is most special to you in this room?
  3. Where do you spend the most time in your room?
  4. What colors/lighting/fabrics are used?
  5. How do you feel when you’re in your personal space?
  6. What does this space mean to you?

Make a quick list of your answers to these questions. Now, how would you describe all of what your personal space is and what it means to someone who’s never been in your room? Would you use words, pictures, sound, gestures, etc.?

For Instance…

shaded dappled light filters
through old lacy curtains;
too lazy to try climbing down the wall,
it instead splays itself across the ceiling,
echoing my sprawl across the bed,
luxuriating in the fan breeze,
the cool crisp sheets under my body,
and the rare quiet of this afternoon room

This short poem I wrote describes my room as I experience it–quite simply, a haven. Each description in the poem (such as the lazy light, low breeze, crisp sheets, and rare quiet) creates an image of rest and ease, and oozes the enjoyment I have in just kicking back and relaxing in my room.

What Does This Have to Do With Creativity?

Creative people describe their world through their creations. Writing, art, music, drama–all those arts describe, celebrate, or seek to change the world they experience. My poem both describes and celebrates my room; if I was instead unhappy with my room, I would write about how all the junk on the floor and in the closet really depresses me every time I look at it. (Well, it kinda does, but that’s beside the point at the moment. LOL) I would then write about how I want to change it.

Many artists of all types make art about the things they see in the world that they want to change, or they make art celebrating the world they came from, viewing it with pride and encouraging others to take pride in it as well. Beginning with your room or your world, you can choose your favorite medium for art, and then use that art to talk about your experience. That’s definitely part of creative expression!

Summary

Being creative, and becoming creative, doesn’t just mean making a bunch of decorative “junk” or spending your days with your head in the clouds. Seeing your world for what it is–or what it could be–and describing it to others through all sorts of mediums is creative, too!

Friday around the Web

“Before I Die I Want To…”, Pikakitty, The Story of Firefox, and PasswordMeter

1 Comment

beforeidie
Before I Die I Want To…
Awesome story of how a local artist turned the side of an abandoned house into a thoughtful art project, asking the question: “What do you want to do before you die?” Chalkboard paint + chalk + a community = the answers to the question. COOL.

PikaKitty
This poor cat. That’s all I can say. LOL

The Story of Firefox
…An animated video history of how Firefox came about. AWESOME.

PasswordMeter
Test your password for ULTIMATE STRENGTH! 😀 (Also, try this resource for additional help!)

Thursday in the Zone

Why Do We Game?

1 Comment

whydowegame
Games in many forms have somewhat taken over our modern life. Oh, who am I kidding–they’ve taken over almost all of our lives these days. Even buying groceries is a game for extreme couponers; even Facebook is a game for social networkers. We love the competition, pleasantly pitting ourselves against friends and neighbors to see how many virtual crops we can grow in a week, how many items we can sell on eBay, etc.

But WHY do we game? Why is this such an important part of our world culture? I think there are five reasons why:

#1: Escape from Real Life

For most of us, life is either the drudgery of a 9-to-5, days full of hectic parenthood, or a combination of both. Games, by contrast, are things we don’t have to do, things we aren’t expected to succeed at (at least the first time), and are a way for our brains to wind down. During the time we’re gaming, we don’t have to think about our responsibilities outside the game.

#2: Mental Challenge

Games help us think in different ways, whether it’s fitting all the blocks together just so on Tetris or figuring out how not to get killed on Call of Duty. Some people unwind best when faced with a totally new type of challenge, one they would never see in their day-to-day work or family life. Plus, it can boost your real-life ego when you conquer a challenge in your virtual life.

#3: Social Competition

Admit it: It’s fun to see how your skills stack up against somebody else’s, even if we’re just growing some crops in Farmville. That’s why the Playstation Network and XBox Live exist–we as a human race like to compete against each other, both to test our own skills and to see how we compare to others. Virtual competition just takes some of the physicality out of the contest and makes it into a mental competition, leveling the playing field somewhat for people (like me) who aren’t as sports-oriented.

#4: Entertainment Experience

When a game is really fun, it’s a memorable experience, and we actively seek it out again and again. It’s like watching a favorite movie again–reliving it brings back some of the fond memories of the first experience, and we build on those memories as we replay. Games are not just challenges, but interactive entertainment, and it activates some of the same emotions, memories, and morals/values that other forms of entertainment do.

#5: Fantasy Experience

Some games are more based on social interactions than anything, and this brings in yet another element: fantasy. You might think this is interconnected with the “escape from real life” point, and it partially is; however, in a game with a heavy social interaction component, such as The Sims or even World of Warcraft, you can literally make yourself over in a fantasy world. You can feel more open to speak your mind, be funnier and wittier than you usually get a chance to be otherwise. You may even begin to judge people by what they say instead of their avatar’s looks!

Summary

I believe gaming has become very important to us today because it fulfills many of our needs. Yes, we have a real life to return to outside of our games, but games do help us to unwind, challenge ourselves, compete socially, be entertained, and experience a very different type of life.

Wednesday in the Word

When It Comes to Worship, Posers Need Not Apply

1 Comment

posersneednotapply
Ezra 4:1-3
1 When the enemies of Judah and Benjamin heard that the exiles were building a template for the Lord, the God of Israel, 2 they came to Zerubbabel and to the heads of the families and said, “Let is help you build, because, like, you, we seek your God and have been sacrificing to him since the time of Esarhaddon King of Assyria, who brought us here.” 3 But Zerubbabel, Jeshua and the rest of the heads of the families of Israel answered, “You have no part with us in building a temple to our God. We alone will build it for the Lord, the God of Israel, as King Cyrus, the king of Persia, commanded us.”

Here, we see the enemies of two of the tribes of Israel trying to get in on the temple-building action–they seem to want to ingratiate themselves with whoever has the most power in the region. Either that, or they are looking to sunder Israel from within, insinuating themselves (and thus their gods) into Israel’s worship.

Well, Israel had already had enough trouble with that (as the Book of Judges can attest, with all its alternating Baal and God worship). Zerubbabel, the popular leader at the time, is not willing to put up with any more waffling on the worship of God. He and the heads of all the tribes answer in unison, basically saying, “Get out of here, you’re not really interested in worshipping our God anyway.”

When the enemies hear that, they start trying to undermine the worship in other ways, intimidating the prophets, discouraging the builders, etc. They are actually opposed to the temple being built and God being worshipped, but that didn’t stop them from trying to pass themselves off as fellow believers.

Modern-Day Christian Posers

We may know people like the enemies of Judah and Benjamin in our lives even today. They might go to church every Sunday bright-eyed and bushy-tailed, might be able to quote a few more verses of Scripture than just John 3:16, and they might even try to pass themselves off as “more righteous” than we are. But inside, they don’t truly believe in or know God, and that falseness shows through in the way they conduct their lives–in the way they intimidate rather than encourage others, and the way they undermine others’ worship.

Though the word “poser” isn’t an ancient word, I think it perfectly describes false Christians–they are trying to “pose” long enough to fool God, but they forget Who God is. God can’t be fooled; He knows everything in our hearts, even the stuff we don’t want Him to see. If we are going to dishonor Him by false worship, we might as well not bother trying.