kattitudes

I swear this is the silliest website known to man.

It is caption crack.

It is silly animal porn. It is humor heroin.

It is everything rolled into one.

It is utter silliness and an absolute timewaster.

And I love it.

Even more interesting, according to the Wordpress webstats, it has consistently been either the first or second fastest growing Wordpress blog of the day for as long as I have informally kept track (since August 07). This means beating out all types of blogs including the hot ones like political sites such as the CNN Political Ticker.

I suppose if I had the gumption to go find the official stats I could prove that this was indeed the fastest growing Wordpress blog around, but it is Friday night and I have to go finish baking a birthday cake for my nephew.

Anyway, the main point is that this crazy little blog is on fire!

It is I Can Has CheezBurger. And when I realized that I was visiting it two and three times a day just to see if new photos had been posted, I knew I was lost.

The entire premise is silly.

You know those photos that you take (come on, everyone does it) of your pets in those compromising positions. Or when they are just being so silly that you cannot stand it? And then later, when you download the photo and look at it and think “ok, what am I ever going to do with this?”

Well, my friend, you submit it to I Can Has Cheezburger, where complete strangers sit up way too late at night trying to think up the wittiest and off the cuff caption they can for photos of strange pets.

If you feel like captioning your own pet photo, you can do that. If you do not have a pet and you feel like captioning photos, there is an entire database of silly photos just sitting, waiting for a creative soul to come along and enter just the right caption.

I think all captions have to run by a censor so as not to offend sensibilities (good choice as far as I am concerned. There is enough anonymous porn online as it is already). But once approved, it gets submitted to the great captioned database in the sky. And the rest, as they say, is history.

The site already has a silly language and syntax that it uses as the inside joke on all the photos (thus the grammatical construction of the site name itself “I can has Cheezburger”) along with a number of long-term jokes that are easy to pick up quickly, like the poor walrus and his ongoing quest for his missing bucket (or bukkit in Cheezburger speak which is officially known as lolspeak).

It is such a silly site. But it is like some type of addictive humor porn. I find myself wandering over there surreptitiously to sneak a peek at the latest photos to see if they make me giggle or really actually laugh out loud.

Just silly, huh?

But you know, there is something to be said for some innocence these days. Everything is so hardcore now. So much death, destruction and mayhem that in all honesty, a little silliness is sometimes really nice. This fits the bill just perfectly for me.

via: I Can Has CheezBurger

There are times that a gift just is not right. I have experienced those times, and I think if everyone were to be honest, they do too. We all do. You want to get that perfect something more, and the person that you are searching for has absolutely everything in the world. Or conversely, even if they do not have everything, they do not want or need another material possession.

There are times that material things just are not right. Those are the times that you might consider the White Envelope Project.

The White Envelope Project, told first in 1982 by Women’s Day magazine of all people, is a feelgood project whereby in place of purchasing something for your gift recipient, you take action in their name.

In other words, you do something. You get up and you do something in their honor. You build something, help someone, donate something, take action, make a stand, do something do something DO SOMETHING. Then, when Christmas comes around, instead of handing them yet another automatic pot stirrer or singing bass fish (!!!), you give them the simple white envelope.

In the envelope is a letter, written by you, wherein you describe and detail exactly what you chose to do in their name. You tell them why you chose it and what it meant to you. You tell them whatever you want. Tell them how it moved you and why you thought of them. Tell them how it changed you and why it made you both richer for the experience. Tell them whatever you want.

There are a bazillion yarns told of the worst Christmas present received ever. Why waste money? I really get up on a soapbox about this. The whole point of Christmas giving to me is to show people how we feel about them. I really try not to gift at Christmas out of a reciprocal obligation. If we are giving a present out of obligation, really, why should we bother in the first place?

The wonderful thing about the White Envelope Project website is the all encompassing help it can give you. Yes, it gives you an entire catalog of charities from which to choose if you are at a loss for a place to donate or work. But far beyond that, the White Envelope Project helps you expand your charitable giving horizons. What do I mean?

First, they outline the three easy steps to giving:

• 1. Find the Right Gift

  When you decide to “give something different,” consider the recipient of your gift and the occasion. Find a gift that is relevant and meaningful to them. Everyone has a heart-string to tug on and something that they are really passionate about. Browse this catalog for ideas or find a project in your own community. If you’re still not sure what to get, purchase a Giving Certificate to allow the recipient to choose a charity on their own.

• 2. Carry Out Your Plan

  Next, determine how you will give and carry out your plan. Are you simply making a donation or does your project require more planning? Share your idea with family members and friends and challenge them to get involved as well. Always remember to ask for help when you need it. If you donate through The White Envelope Project, we can handle all of the details and follow-up for you.

• 3. Share Your Gift

  Once you have “given something different,” share your gift with the recipient. A simple letter or card telling what you have done in their honor will have tremendous impact. Let them know how much they mean to you and how you felt that giving to others in need was a wonderful way to honor them. Focus on the impact of your actions instead of the dollars involved or sacrifices you had to make. Don’t expect anything in return, and don’t make the letter about you instead of them.

Second, if you cannot think of a particular project, the website gives you a number of project ideas, both financial opportunities and volunteer opportunities.

Finally, if you get stuck on how to write your letter telling your recipients of what you did for their gift and why, the White Envelops Project website has a number of example letters, plus they have an option where they will write the letter for you!

I look around at my home and know that I have. so. many. material. things. More material things than any one person really needs in life. Sure, there are more things I would love to have because I am an imperfect human who falls slave to commercialism. But realistically, I know in my heart that I need nothing else in life. Everything at this point in my life from here on out is completely gravy. I have more food and shelter and transportation than I will probably ever be able to use. Of course, those things could change in a moment, with any natural disaster, but I recognize how lucky I am in this world.

How many of your gift recipients are in the same boat? Do they really need another material possession?

How many times during the Christmas season do we search and stress looking for that one last gift for cousin Susie or brother Bob? Would the White Envelope Project fit the bill instead this year?

As you probably know, you can download and add extensions to your browser to tweak and manipulate it into a piece of software that you and you alone love and adore. I have geeked my Firefox into something that Dr. Frankenstein himself would be proud to use. Honestly, I think this browser could get up and do the dishes at this point if I asked it.

However, recently I found a new extension that I fell in love with so deeply that I considered proposing marriage. My Mister was not so thrilled, but what can a geeky girl do?

Here is the situation. We live in a geek house. Between the two of us and three floors of house, we have approximately eleventy dozen computers. No lie. Mister is a geek extraordinaire and is employed as a super mega geek by an extremely famous website and you have seen my love for computer freakiness.

Well, with the eleventy dozen computers spread through on three floors, we have various towers and laptops in various states of repairs with various programs loaded onto each one. The problem I face is that I am a very (did I mention very) graphic intense user. I do a lot of graphic design work. I need my PhotoShop everywhere I go. But I do not have PhotoShop available on every machine we have.

Thus enters the dawn of Picnik.

Picnik is an online photo editor that has so many of the tasks that you can do in PhotoShop without the PhotoShop cost. Amazing. Just amazing.

From the Picnik website description is this laundry list:

Fix your photos in just one click
Use advanced controls to fine-tune your results
Crop, resize, and rotate in real-time
Tons of special effects, from artsy to fun
Astoundingly fast, right in your browser
Awesome fonts and top-quality type tool
Basketfulls of shapes from hand-picked designers
Works on Mac, Windows, and Linux
No download required, nothing to install

This is literally just a browser extension, so when you find a photo you want to work with, you can access it by a simple right click menu. That is to say, right click on the photo and in your right click menu, there is the choice to work on the photo in Picnik. Does it get any easier than that?

Now if you want some super duper effects that you can get regularly in PhotoShop, you do have to upgrade to the $25/year option, but you have to put in 4 years before you get to the price of the PhotoShop Effects. And I can guarantee you that the next great photo editing software will be out long before four years is up. So for now, Picnik has my vote. And I have installed it on all of our machines. How is that for vote enough?

via Picnik

OK, now we are talking. I am so not capable of aural processing, even still at my ripe old age. I visually process. Translation? Please trust me and do not waste your time trying to tell me, just show me please. It just works better. Oh so much better.

So what did someone do? This blessed wonder woman created an entire video library of embroidery stitches. I saved this one for last. Whilst I still think the other two reference sites I posted are going to be oh so helpful (and I still cannot wait for Primrose Design to get her Stitch School website online) … Hello. Video of the stitches. Now we are in my territory. The just-show-me territory.

So now we can start dealing with all those adorable pillows and Christmas stockings and such because we have a visual reference on how to make all those stitches.

This reference just rocks. Mary Corbet of NeedleNThread did these. Adore her for this. Just adore her.

OK, now the bad news. When you try to watch the videos through the NeedleNThread website, the player is overwhelmingly bogged down and the entire video would not load for me. I have a sneaking suspicion that there is just a little too much to wade through on their site, so I went directly to Google Video and looked up NeedleNThread there and went through their videos and they were presto: they were just as fast as the speed of light. So if you are having trouble with the videos on the NeedleNThread website itself, go to Google Video (video.google.com) and search for NeedleNThread. All the stitch videos will appear and you can watch them all at regular speed.

Or conversely, I can just give you the Google search here: Google videos of NeedleNThread video library of hand embroidery

via NeedleNThread video library of embroidery stitches

Although I find that the Stitch School at Primrose Design works better for me in terms of my learning curve, this dictionary of stitches also has a fantastic visual reference for the individual embroidery stitches.

If you are in need of a particular embroidery stitch or just want to figure out how to stitch, you can check out the dictionary of stitches for hand embroidery and needlework to see if it fills your need. I have to admit that the stitch dictionary is pretty full and it does has a nice list of the different cross stitches that are available.

via Dictionary of Stitches for Hand Embroidery and Needlework

OK, there are just not enough words in my effusive vocabulary for how much I heart this woman. I want to run away with her to embroidery land and live happily ever after while she teaches me everything she knows (and only then will I let her out of my clutches and she can come back and do other things).

Janet talked a lot about embroidery, so in order to help her blog readers, she started posting what she called “stitch school“. And for months on end, she would post, with extensive photos, how to do oh so many embroidery stitches. Incredible.

All those confusing instructions with two dimensional photos from other sites suddenly popped out and made sense because you could see which way things were supposed to go and which way to pull the thread and where to poke the needle.

She has multiple shops where she sells all her incredible work (if you have pocket change and can support her, by all means, do it).

This is where those transfer pens and papers and methods that we keep going over to the craft stores to investigate come in handy. We download embroidery patterns (or if you are like me, clip art patterns that you adore) on linens that we scored for super cheap and spend some time in front of the telly over the next few weeks relaxing and mutitasking getting some presents out of the way. Then we have absolutely gorgeous handmade and inexpensive items to give this Christmas.

Janet also made some incredible rumbles (you did not really have to read between the lines but she mentioned it quietly) that she reserved www.stitchschool.com, so you know what that means. Another out of this world resource. I am watching that space anxiously myself. Her photos are so incredibly helpful, and I just cannot wait to see how the school turns out.

If you are trying embroidery and finding it a bit of a challenge, or you want to explore some new stitches, I cannot recommend Primrose Design highly enough. Janet’s stitch school rocks. She just rocks.

via Primrose Design (see in particular the posts in the sidebar listed under Stitch School)

Have you found deviantART yet? This place is fantastic. Not only do I go here regularly to vent my own art but I find inspiration all the time.

deviantART is an online gallery for visual art. Not just the standard photography, but painting and computer art too. And it isn’t only amateur art. You’ll find professional artists and commercial product photo shoot results up there also.

There’s tradition art, digital art, photography, literature, artisan crafts, customization, flash, film, designs and interfaces, manga/anime, cartoons and comics, fan art, art making resources, and more community projects than you can shake a stick at.

deviantART has it all.

Animations, drawings, street art, body art, paintings, mixed media, typography, sculpture, printing, and collage. There’s photomanipulations, 3-D art, pixel, vector and fractal art. There is abstract, surreal, architecture, still life, macro, photojournalism, conceptual, people, plants, animal and nature photos. There is poetry and prose. You’ll find culinary arts, sculpture and glass, textiles, architectural design, knottings, weavings, dolls, jewelry, leatherwork, metal work, papercraft, and woodwork. Animations, movies, games, interfaces, utilities, comedies, documentaries, dramas, fantasies, horrors, science fictions, demo reels, tattoo designs, theatre design, fashion, cd cover design, tutorials, fonts, stock images, clip art, film, fractal and vector resources.

This site is just freaking huge. It is a treasury. I’ve been cruising around for ages and haven’t even had a chance to explore it fully yet. There are forums to talk art. There are so many tutorials available for how to make things that you could create for months and still not make everything. You can keep current on all the art news that you see fit.

This place is so interesting. You’ll find fascinating stuff there, and what’s more, it’s stuff that you can use. There are creative commons licenses in place and permissions granted for so many of the items there.

With Christmas coming up, you might need inspiration, or you might need materials. deviantART could very well be a resource for you to explore. If nothing else, it’s a great place to wander around and find inspiration.

via deviantART

Are you tired of getting bills in your mailbox? And spam in your inbox?

Remember when people sent each other mailed letter? And wrote things? On paper? I do. I loved it. I wrote letters. I write letters still.

Even now, we take shortcuts in our busy lives, buying cards at Hallmark to express our sentiments and signing our names before sending them in the mail. Still, it is the thrill of seeing that hand written address in the mail box that does the heart good.

Well, I recently discovered a wonderful way to expand the fun of regularly receiving handwritten letters from people the world over.

It’s a website called Postcrossing. The whole concept is simply sending and receiving postcards to and from people all over the world.

When you join the website, you write a brief introduction into the database telling just a wee bit about yourself. Obviously you don’t share more than you are comfortable with, but enough so that the person writing you might find a common ground with which to communicate.

You also share any additional languages that you might be able to communicate in, but for now, the common language used is English (it’s the limitation imposed by the creator of the website, but that’s not to say that other languages are not available there).

Then, once you are into the database, you enter a queue and start the process. You request an address which includes a special code to write somewhere on the card, and send your postcard. When your postcard is received, the recipient enters the code you included, and your address is released in the queue and given to someone as the next person to receive a postcard.

The details are more complex that than, but that’s the general idea.

The main point of the story here is that people are communicating all over the world, and only for the cost of a postcard. No great philosophical debates (unless someone strikes your fancy and you keep up a correspondence), just a simple hello from anywhere in the world.

It is a wonderful way to step out of the computer and back into the world.

And last night I requested and was emailed my first address.

My first postcard is to be sent to an eight year old girl in Finland. How precious is that? She said her mom helps her with the reading and she likes little animals.

It makes my grown up lady heart all warm and fuzzy. So I went out and found a very special Atlanta postcard and am going to decorate it in ways that I hope an eight year old girl from Finland would like and send it out as soon as I make it all glittery and special.

I can worry about chatting with people from other nations later. For my first postcard, I am worried about impressing an eight year old girl. The whole concept is making me grin, but I’m also very excited. I feel like *I* am eight again.

via Postcrossing

Come on, we all have her hidden in there. (Or hey, you could be a him. If you like to make your own gifts, or have an appreciation for the wry wit of someone who is basically just a two-bit pimp of handmade presents, then you could be cruising this place on a regular basis. I am not going to limit who gets to make stuff in this world based on their equipment for goodness sake). Anyway - back to the point at hand.

If you feel like writing in your spare time (yeah, right. What’s that?), November is NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month).

NaNoWriMo is, simply put, a contest. Just a contest where you compete against the clock (actually, the calendar) to write 50K words by the last second of November. You are racing against yourself here.

For all those frustrated armchair authors that always swear that they have a book in them somewhere, it gives the impetus to put up or shut up. It gives the structure to sit down and do the job. And yes Virginia, there have been people that have had their NaNoWriMo novels published.

The only requirement here is that what you write be fiction. And lest there be any disagreement as to the definition of fiction, the Powers that Be behind NaNoWriMo established long ago the following guideline: “In short: If you believe you’re writing a novel, we believe you’re writing a novel too.” Pretty simple, yes?

Now, I bring this up, because as a crafty chick, I have buckets and lists and pages of resources for how and where and when to publish yourself. And there was a time back in university days when I was capable of writing (and did indeed write) extensive stories as gifts for people.

So, if you think you might have a good story lurking within, this might be just the vehicle to get it out. If you find you like it, at the end of November, I can post a huge resource list of the ways, whys and wheres to self-publish so that you, too, could give the gift of a beautiful story this year.

Maybe you have the next great American novel hidden within. Or maybe, you just want to write a little story about a hare and a tortoise (as long as it is fifty thousand words, mind you). But either way, at the end of the month, not only will you be able to say that you did it, but you might well have the beginnings of a most incredible holiday gift ever.

If you are interested in participating in NaNoWriMo, just keep in mind that 50,000 words breaks down to about two pages a day (maybe two and one half). If you can blather on like I can blather on, then you are golden. Seriously. You are completing against you and the lamppost here. The prize is a certificate of completion. But you might just come out of it with a fantastically written fiction story that you can then decorate, illustrate or whatever you choose and gift it the world over.

The NaNoWriMo website gets really bogged down around the beginning of the month, and frankly, right now their system is a little overwhelmed with the popular response. If it is something in which you think you might be interested in taking part, its probably best to get over there earlier to read up on the whole contest and get a grasp of the hows and the whats. The NaNoWriMo website will give you all the information you need, but if you find that the demand has overwhelmed it, the Wikipedia entry on NaNoWriMo is also very comprehensive and does a great job of explaining the fun.

Other than that, NaNoWriMo is just the satisfaction of sitting down and spewing words on paper. Good bad or indifferent, you will have done it. And if you are a struggling writer, sometimes just having the motivation to get it done is all it takes.

via NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month) website

I have become addicted to this place. I’m a list maker by nature anyway.

Some days I make my lists just so I can admire how all the pretty words line up and organize themselves whilst I sit happily, admiring it from a distance until it implodes from the weight of its own non completion.

Other days, I am Queen Efficiency, making entries on my List of Important Things I Must Do Before the End Of the World and crossing them off just to show that I was able to cross them off.

What can I say. I was born a Gemini. Even my dear husband will look at me sometimes and tell me that I am such a Gemini.

Anyway, main point of the story is that this website - well, I think it is going places.

The whole idea is that you get on there, and along with everyone else there, you list goals that you want to achieve. Immediate goals, long term goals, pie in the sky goals, and pie in your eye goals. It doesn’t matter.

What does matter is that you also get cheers every day. And every day, you are encouraged to wander the site, and indiscriminately read other people’s goals and their entries about their goals and leave them a cheer or a comment, encouraging them on.

Basically, it’s a website cheering section.

It’s a website for people who see the glass half full.

I’m a glass half full kinda lady, and I like that. I spent a lot of time over my life and lately not only with the glass is half empty type of folks, but let’s- all- just- roll- our- eyes- over- the- fact- that- we- are- being- asked- to- acknowledge- that- there- is- even- a- glass- in- the- first- place- I- mean- come- on- as- if type people too. I’m tired of that. I like being positive. I like being a glass is half full type person.

If you aren’t, no problems. Don’t visit.

But if you are, this website is just wonderful. It becomes addictive. You find that when you list your goals, you *want* to set attainable goals. Then you find that you want to start making steps towards your goals just so you can write entries about making steps towards your goals. Then before you realize it, that stuff that you keep telling yourself for thirty and forty years that you are going to do? Well, you are doing it!

Case in point. Today, I started to juggle. I have wanted to learn to juggle for ages. It’s not an important skill. Not a lifesaving skill. Not even a socially viable skill. But just one of those silly things I wanted to be able to do. And I have been working towards it bit by bit finally with encouragement and cheers and I am almost there.

Same with my sign language. I have known for forty years I wanted to learn to sign. Forty years of procrastination behind me. A few weeks on this site and I have a local class lined up here in Atlanta at the only college in the area that has an accredited course for sign language interpreters. I start in January, along with my Mister and my sister (fingers crossed).

I have found that I am also putting a lot of the crafting goals that I had for Kattitudes on my list of 43 things I want to accomplish. For example, I know that I want to start talking about scrapbooking, crochet and knitting. Three things I haven’t touched on yet here on Kattitudes. So, all three are on my goal list. I want to really focus on improving my jewelry artistry and move from just bench jewelry to jewelry designer. Those goals are on there.

This website has really helped me focus what I want to get done and when I want to accomplish them.

Rather just read me blather on, the website itself has some better answers about what it does and why:

Write down your goals

People have known for years that making a list of goals is the best way to achieve them. Why is that? First, getting your goals in writing can help you clarify what you really want to do. You might find you have some important and some frivolous goals. That is OK. You’ve got space for 43 Things on your list. Not every one of them has to change the world (but save room for the ones that might).

Get Inspired

What do you want to do with your life? It is not an easy question to answer – and you shouldn’t have to answer alone. Browse 43 Things to find out what others want to do. You might find some goals you share. Click the “I want to do this” button to add a goal to your list. Got an idea for a new goal? Just type it in the text box on the homepage or at the bottom of any page on the site. Bam. Now, it’s your thing.

Share your progress

We all have stories about what we care about. Writing down your progress on a goal can help someone else learn about something you both want to do. When you see a goal you’ve achieved, click on the “I’ve done this” button and share a story about how you did it.

And one of my favorite parts of 43things is that it is not alone. There are sister sites included with links at the bottom of each page. Your profile to one site links you through ALL the sites, so if you find yourself intrigued, you could potentially organize your life into oblivion. The sister sites are:

• http://www.43places.com/
• http://www.43people.com/
• http://www.allconsuming.net/
• http://www.listsofbests.com/

I am really enjoying myself. My personal profile on 43things is, of course, Kattitudes, and you are welcome to join me as I work on my crafting (and personal) goals.

via 43things.com