handwriting tips You’ve decided you want to improve your handwriting and you’re probably hoping a fountain pen will do the trick -- maybe a friend told you it would. Maybe you’re just adventurous and you want to try your hand at calligraphy (or you might, once your handwriting improves). Good for you! A fountain pen may make your writing look a bit better, but if your writing looks as if frenzied chickens got loose on the page, chances are this won’t be enough. Most likely, you’ll need to retrain your arm and hand. After coaching handwriting and teaching calligraphy over the years, I’ve learned to see the characteristics of those who’ll be able to pick up the necessary motions quickly from those who’ll have to work a bit harder. Crampy, uneven letters are often the result of drawing the letters with the fingers rather than using the whole arm to write. People who inevitably have trouble with handwriting and calligraphy write with their fingers. It will take time to re-train muscles and learn new habits.
18 ways to educate yourself every day (because nerds are sexy) « ♥ Malavika ♥ “Anyone who stops learning is old, whether at 20 or 80. Anyone who keeps learning stays young. The greatest thing in life is to keep your mind young.” Henry Ford At the start of this year I made a decision that I want to commit to myself to a pursuit of intellect. Wow, I did not just say that. 1. “Riveting talks by remarkable people, free to the world.” 2. They are quick, easy, informative, and give you a glimpse of a subject that you may decide to do more research on later! A lovely reader recommended the podcasts “Stuff you should know” and “Stuff mom never told you” which can be found on the website. 3. This is such a monumental suggestion. 4. Focus more at work. 5. Well, it should already be fun that you are taking the time to invest in yourself and learning more about your world – but you know how you could make it more fun? 6. This could be jigsaw puzzles, riddles, math puzzles etc. 7. 8. Work on your vocabulary whilst simultaneously feeding the hungry! 9. 10. 11. 12. 13. 14. 15.
Cinnamon Roll Pancakes | RecipeGirl.com Updated 9/22/11 to Add: If you’re coming here to sample these delicious Cinnamon Roll Pancakes, you just might like the latest recipe that I’ve posted for Pumpkin Cinnamon Roll Pancakes too. And Gingerbread- Cinnamon Roll Pancakes too. Enjoy! Here’s a short video sharing how to make these delicious pancakes: If you’ve ever thought you needed a reason to eat pancakes, today is the day: National Pancake Day! How do you like your pancakes? But recently I started dreaming about mixing cinnamon rolls and pancakes together… and this is what I came up with- my new favorite pancake: Cinnamon Roll Pancakes. I have a wonderfully fluffy pancake batter that I like to use (recipe below) so I swirled a bit of cinnamon roll filling into the pancake. And they cooked up just like a pancake- fluffy, but with craters of crusty, sugary cinnamon swirled within. You might find three of these stacked in a fancy breakfast restaurant, but I’m gonna tell you that one pancake is all you need. Oh yeah. Ingredients:
25 Spectacular Movies You (Probably) Haven't Seen Midnight in Paris Woody Allen’s latest places starving writer Owen Wilson in Paris with his fiancée, Rachel McAdams. Searching for inspiration for his incomplete novel, Owen begins taking strolls around the city at night where he discovers an unexpected group of people. Let the Right One In The best vampire movie ever made in my opinion. Watch Let the Right One In for FREE on Amazon Instant Video The Man From Earth Holy &#%@ this film’s plot is fascinating! Garden State This is my absolute favorite film. Waking Life It’s impossible for you to grasp Waking Life without actually watching it, but I’ll do my best to explain it. Watch Waking Life for FREE on Amazon Instant Video Closer This film is a rather dark, yet comedic story about the twisted relationships between Natalie Portman, Jude Law, Clive Owen and Julia Roberts. The Diving Bell and the Butterfly (Le Scaphendre et le Papillon) Sin Nombre Snatch Watch Snatch for FREE on Amazon Instant Video Spirited Away The Descent Once Punch Drunk Love Rubber
12 great free online courses Much ado has been made in recent years over the quickly rising cost of healthcare in the United States. But the cost of college tuition and fees has skyrocketed at nearly twice that rate. Going to college today will cost a student 559% more than it did in 1985, on average. In an exciting talk given at TEDGlobal 2012, Stanford professor Daphne Koller explains why she was inspired — alongside fellow professor Andrew Ng — to create Coursera, which brings great classes from top universities online for free. When she spoke at TED Global, Coursera offered classes from four top colleges — Princeton University, the University of Michigan, Stanford University and the University of Pennsylvania — but in July, Coursera announced that they had increased to 16 participating colleges, including five of the schools considered the top 10 in the country by the U.S. Inspired by Young, below, find 12 courses you could take for a completely free TED degree in Big Ideas. Photo: ShutterStock
Achieving a Vintage Look Through Color Tones in Photoshop CS by Guest Contributor Anna Gay Photographers are often striving for a “vintage” look in their photos, and even though there are endless ways of achieving a vintage look, there are a couple of characteristics to keep in mind. First of all, the color tones in a vintage photo often lean towards either a blue or a red hue, or a cross-processed look. This photo is the result of adjusting the color curves, adding two vignettes, and a color fill, which we will walk through step-by-step. First, open your photo in Photoshop and make sure your foreground color is set to white in your side tool bar. You will see the above dialogue box. Now, switch your foreground color to black, and repeat the same steps as above by creating a new fill layer, but this time, check the box that says Reverse, and leave the Scale at 100 and adjust the Angle to 150 degrees. As you can see here, there should be three layers – your Background image, then your two gradient layers. Now, let’s adjust the color curves.
Camping Knots for Wilderness Survival By Filip Tkaczyk Knowing how to tie good camping knots is an invaluable skill in wilderness survival situations. Its also a great asset when having fun in the outdoors. There are a wealth of different knots out there that you can learn to tie. With so many different knots, you might find it hard to choose which to learn first. Here are 3 of the most useful knots for camping and wilderness survival. Square Knot Also called a reef knot, this knot is useful for tying bandages, packages and joining shorter pieces of rope together. To begin, lay the ends of the ropes parallel and then pick up a rope in each hand. Now tie an overhand knot as you would for tying your shoe laces by putting the right end under and over the left rope end. Then tie another overhand knot, this time putting the left end under and over the right rope. Completed Square Knot Clove Hitch Like all hitches, this camping knot ties a rope to an object. To begin, bring the rope end over and under the post. Bowline Related Courses:
Homemade Hair Treatments - At Home DIY Hair Treatments - Womans Day Eggs, yogurt and honey are, at first glance, all components of a tasty breakfast—but they also happen to be hair treatment ingredients, and affordable, all-natural ones at that. And they're not the only ones. Did you know, for instance, that the oils in avocados more closely resemble our own skin's oils than any product in the beauty aisle does? Or that the mild acidity in lemon is an effective—and gentler—alternative to chemical-laden products? For All Hair Types "The [raw] egg is really the best of all worlds," says Janice Cox, author of Natural Beauty at Home. To Use: For normal hair, use the entire egg to condition hair; use egg whites only to treat oily hair; use egg yolks only to moisturize dry, brittle hair, Cox says. Photo by Shutterstock. For Dull Hair Styling products (as well as air pollution) can leave a film that both saps moisture and dulls shine—but dairy products like sour cream and plain yogurt can help reverse this damage. For Itchy Scalp For Limp or Fine Hair
10 Great Workouts to Spice Up Your Running Program Too many beginning runners have but one speed: medium. And as someone who’s run a marathon, a few half marathons and a bunch of shorter races, I know that such a one-speed workout program can be not only boring, but it also doesn’t maximize your workouts. Throw some variety into your running program to make things interesting and become a better runner. I’m not saying you have to start a marathon training program, or some kind of sprint workout program. Why? They make things interesting. I should note that if you’re just starting out as a runner, I wouldn’t do the harder workouts below for at least a couple months. I should also note, as always, that I’m just an intermediate runner myself, and not a coach or trainer or doctor or anything. So, let’s take a look at just a few different types of workouts you can do to add spice to your running program and improve your performance: The long run. Have a favorite workout of your own? Also see:
history HISTORY: AMERICAN ADVERTISING IN THE TWENTIETH CENTURY Between the Civil War and World War I, advertising grew tremendously as a field, though no one thought of it as a science. The United States experienced a boom in newspaper and magazine publishing funded largely by advertisers. Every major city had inexpensive competing dailies and a national magazine industry grew. Advertisements at this time were text-driven with perhaps an illustration of the product. Extensive information, the kind one might find on a patent application, was included, as well as information on price. ADVERTISING AS MASS PSYCHOLOGY Advancements in photographic technology and the emergence of radio definitely encouraged the move away from text-driven advertising. As psychology called into question the Enlightenment vision of humans driven by reason, advertisers began to attach emotional values like friendship and status to products. So social scientists from academia followed Watson and migrated to sales.