Leather Work Tips
September 25, 2007
For leather work, consider the basics: an awl and spare point, a retractable X-acto knife and spare blades, a retractable knife with a break-off blade and a rotary punch. In addition, you’ll need needles, a lump of beeswax and some waxed linen thread.
As well, a pair of pliers to pull the needle through the leather is a must, and scissors you can use for cutting the leather. Then there are edge slickers and bevellers that are used to finish the edges, drive punches for bigger holes and thong cutters for making laces. A T-square, compass and yardstick are essential to ensure that your leather work is measured accurately.
If you’re just starting out with leather work, you might not want to spend a lot of money on tools. Once you’ve worked with the basic set and completed a few projects, you’ll have a better idea of what tools work best and what you use most. At that point, a little research and some comparative shopping can lead you to acquiring some better quality tools that will enhance your leather work.
The Writing Club
September 25, 2007
Typically when falling asleep in bed at night great thoughts enter the mind, long stringed and meaningful sentences trip over each other to receive attention at the front of the brain alongside all the brilliant findings, results, meanings that speak volumes and hard hitting phrases that are just the ticket to open the door to success. The last thought in the brain before sleep overrides this brilliant future work is, "must use that tomorrow".
The next day as you stumble out of bed to clean the teeth with little enthusiasm and to sit staring inanely at a pot of hot water (the coffee machine that you had forgotten to put the coffee in yet again) these thoughts are still asleep. They are heaped and well obscured in other jumbled and nonsensical reasoning’s and justifications ?Double Dutch without subtitles or translation.
In fact, as you opt for a cup-of tea (seeing as how the coffee machine makes the water) and you stub you toe on the stool that was in the way, absolutely no prose, ideas or means to move forward spring into the mind. It can even be said that after switching on the computer and after having shot down twenty spacecraft and been eaten up by a green alien sort of thingy, that not even a title or starting sentence seems worthy of being tapped into the keyboard.
Tips for Buying Digital Pianos and Keyboards
September 25, 2007
Buying a digital piano could be a very delicate attempt, especially if you have no idea about pianos in the first place. This article is written to help you out how to choose the best digital piano.
For starters, digital piano is different from an "acoustic" piano in many ways. A digital piano is a copy of what the "acoustic or original piano is. However, instead of strings and hammers, it uses "digitally sampled" sounds, amplifiers and speakers. It was made to imitate the real sound of that of the original piano. Many people now prefer digital pianos. It is because of its portability, low-to-almost non-maintenance, volume adjuster and various voices.
How to Grow Bamboo
September 25, 2007
Bamboo is a mysterious and elusive plant that baffles taxonomists who try to contain it within a botanical class and gardeners who try to contain it within a limited garden space as they learn how to grow bamboo. For many years, bamboo was thought to be a primitive grass but recent DNA testing has shown it to be one of the most highly evolved forest grasses. There are over 1200 forms of bamboo that grow in a broad spectrum of color including the familiar green and gold as well as burgundy, blue and even black grasses. Some varieties of bamboo can grow up to a foot a day and ultimately reach 130 feet tall while the smallest bamboo cultivar attains only six inches of growth.
The first step in learning how to grow bamboo is picking a cultivar and beginning to unravel its many mysteries. While most of us picture tall stands of green and golden canes growing in tropical bamboo forests, bamboo cultivars range from the temperate to the tropical. As well as diversity in cultivar, bamboo has over 1500 documented uses that range from use in construction to the making of acupuncture needles and from agricultural fodder to the making of musical instruments. Until they are cut, bamboos stems are properly called culms and not canes. In India bamboo plants are commonly called the “Wood of the poor” and in China the" friend of the people”. To add to the confusion, a cultivar commonly sold as "lucky bamboo" isn’t bamboo at all but a type of lily from the Dracaena family!
Mind Over Matter
September 24, 2007
Understanding where horses come from has been a long road for most equestrians. Using that new understanding can dramatically change how one handles, cares for, and trains or rides their horse.
"We treat horses the way others tell us to, as well as the way we were treated as children," says Gwenyth Browning Jones Santagate, of Douglas Massachusetts. "That usually borders on abuse, even for experienced equestrians. My dad taught me that if I REALLY wanted to know about an animal, then I needed to look at things from its own point of view. I later tried the ‘formal,’ ‘traditional’ methods ? and HATED it. When my daughter’s ‘babysitter’ mare was severely abused in our absence, traditional methods of discipline simply didn’t work, so I went back to my ‘feel’ methods to reclaim the mare’s mind."
Because of this horrific incident, Gwen vowed never to forget "that horses are people, too … just in different bodies. They are kindred spirits with more generous hearts than any human can ever realize."
Learn About Love From Poet Rumi
September 24, 2007
In this modern age of technology, busy lifestyles, and obsession with consumerism have taken a lot of the romance and love out of our lives. The Internet has become a medium to connect with people as everyone is finding it a lot harder to meet one another in the ‘real’ world. It has undeniably also become a place of voyeuristic fantasy in the realms of sexuality on pornographic sites. What ever happened to true love? Are our priorities so messed up that romance has been forgotten, only to be experienced vicariously through television and movies? The answer is no. Romance will never die; we just have to feed it with our energy.
Around 800 years ago a famous Arabic poet, philosopher and sage named Rumi wrote beautiful love poetry beyond all comparison. I don’t know if there have been many other people in Earth’s history that have thought about love as much as this master. His poems have not been forgotten, and one place you can simply find and read them is on the Internet. E.g. www.khamush.com/love_poems.html
Writing from Home: It Can Be Great and Not-So-Great for Mothers
September 24, 2007
I went to school to be a teacher. In fact, I have a B.S. in Education, not journalism.
Due to the hours and holidays, teaching is traditionally thought to be the best work for a mother who wants to keep one foot in the mommy-door and one foot in the career-door. This thought, paired with my love for children and learning, led me to life inside the schoolhouse doors.
Soon though, writing, not teaching, became my real “full time job,” and it’s been years since I set foot behind a teacher’s podium.
There are times I miss teaching and regret I haven’t used my diploma more, but who am I kidding? — freelance writing has to be the best situation for a stay-at-home mother: I get paid, I do something I love, and I don’t leave the kids. What’s more? I can stay in my pajamas all morning!
Sometimes people ask if the lack of structure and absence of a physical “office” bother me and make it hard to concentrate. Sure, I get sidetracked watching a great episode of Rolie Polie Olie with my son every now and then, and I take long, leisurely breaks to chat on the phone or go to lunch, but this isn’t because I “work at home,” it’s because I’m an artist.
Radisson Cruises- A Six Star Luxury Experience / Radisson Cruises- Best Cruise Value
September 24, 2007
Radisson cruises come under the flagship of six star luxury cruises offering an opportunity to explore and discover three hundred ports on 6 continents, including Antarctica. All the luxury liners share the same style of accommodation, service, dining and amenities. Radisson Cruise has been twice chosen as the World’s best small Cruise line.
The passenger guests aboard the Radisson Cruise experience high standards of excellence in cruising and exciting discovery experiences across the globe. You are able to get some improvements, benefits or special events on a complimentary basis or at a minimal charges and some ‘extras’ with the cruise fares such as gratuities, non-alcoholic beverage all along your trip, wines at lunch and dinner, a wide liquor selection in the suite bar or a welcome wine or champagne upon embarkation. World Cruise and Cruise Liner Society has awarded the ‘Best Cruise Value’ Radisson Cruise for eleven consecutive years.
You can visit online to get information on the various destinations offered by the Radisson Cruise. During the summers, it is extremely popular to cruise to Alaska to enjoy its majesty and its wilderness. With Radisson, you experience a difference in cruising with its Seven Seas Mariner and all-suite all-balcony vessel sailing through Alaska. If you are interested to explore quaint fishing villages, colorful markets and ancient cultures - where you go fishing for marlin in Mazatlan, play snorkel in Cabo San Lucas or visit the Puerto Vallarta beaches, the Radisson Mexican Cruises provide excellent service.
How To Set Up A Quarantine Tank For Tropical Fish
September 23, 2007
Do I Need A Quarantine Tank?
Ah, yes, the often dismissed but very necessary part of the tropical fish hobby, the infamous quarantine tank. Do you really need one to be successful in this hobby?
For freshwater fish you may be able to get by without having one. Freshwater fish are generally more suited to captivity because they are usually tank raised and don’t seem to break out in disease as readily as their saltwater counterparts. However, if newly acquired fish do come down with something, you will surely wish that you had one ready to go. One newly bought fish that is introduced to your main tank can easily wipe out the entire tank population. Better safe than sorry, right?
For saltwater aquarium keepers, I would say that you definitely need a quarantine tank. Marine specimens are mostly wild caught and not used to being kept in captivity. Their journey to a dealers tank is usually much longer and much more stressful for them. Stressed out fish will usually come down with some kind of disease if they don’t simply die from the whole ordeal. Saltwater fish keepers will usually have other things in the main display tank such as invertebrates and live rock, that they don’t want to expose to the harsh medicines necessary to treat one or two fish. Some medicines can wipe out all of the invertebrates in a tank, so be sure to research any medicine before using it in your tank.
Why You Should Race RC Cars, and Not Just Bash
September 23, 2007
For those of you who have been racing your RC cars for years, and have a friend or two who you have been trying to get out to the RC tracks, this article is for you. Feel free to forward it to them.
For those of you who are fanatical bashers, and have avoided racing your rc cars at the local track, hear me out, because I have 5 great reasons you should take a run at it.
1) Hanging out with other RC car enthusiasts- You will absorb new ideas on how to keep your RC cars running at peak performance, just by hangin’ out in the pits. Not all of them will be good, some could even do more harm than good. but if you are careful who you listen to, you can learn some terrific stuff that will make your ride handle better, run faster, and be more durable.
2) The game within the game- Its not just about racing, and being first in the heats (altho, that is a huge thrill) but its also about pushing the limits of your RC cars, and fighting agianst the track itself in a measureable way. When your bashing, you don’t really get a precise way of knowing how fast your vehicle is. When you race, you will actually know to the millisecond what your vehicle, limited by your driving skills, can do.
