Saturday, January 12, 2008

Originally Posted November 22, 2007:


Again, I am so sorry I haven’t posted for about a month! School has taken up a lot of my time. I would rather be surfing the internet finding cool websites to post than do Algebra homework, but sadly schoolwork is higher on the need to do list than blogging.

That doesn’t matter now, though! I’ve found some new websites that I think will be to your liking!

Do you like products with personality? Do fast food erasers or hangers shaped like clouds? The website is fredflare, and it sells some of the oddest (and cutest) things I have ever seen. Bangles shaped like apples? Check. French fry coin purse? Check. Ear ring made from a mini cassette? Have that too. They’re priced pretty reasonably and even if you don’t have any money the stuff is a lot of fun to look at.

What comes to mind when you think Photoshop? Complicated? Useful? It can be both. Farlow Studios has got you covered with a few in depth tutorials. How to color flats, how to ink, and how to shade face and hair are all covered. In the side bar on the right there are a few other tutorials covering how to draw the female face and figure, how to prepare your lineart, and how to color a muscled arm. Pretty useful stuff right there.

How fast do you type? I myself type at about the norm. Don’t know your speed? Take this Speedtest and find out. It will only take you a minute. Go, do it now. It won’t take long.

Ahh. Who hasn’t used a box of Crayola crayons in their life? What other brand is there? Roseart? Bleh, too oily. Crayola? Just right. Now you can relive your childhood coloring experience with Crayola Digi-Color. Crayola has really updated their product line. This application only boasts nine of their many products. Crayons, Twistables, Super Tip, Washable Markers, Eraseable Markers, Colored Pencils, Slick Stix, Mini Stamper, and Paint are all included. Look ma, no mess!

Think of these words; amazing, angry, anger, answer, bad, dull, fat, good, interesting, move, say, and scared. What do they have in common? They all are common words that all have synonyms! This list of synonyms might just help you some in your writing. I know I’m tucking it away in my bookmarks for future use.

Some people learn by reading, some by hearing, and some visually. If you’re the kind of person that learns by looking at illustrations, Merriam Webster has something just for you. A visual dictionary! Now who doesn’t like looking at something than read a boring description that is hard to get in your head? Not too many people (and if you like reading boring descriptions, than you’re kinda weird). This is a wonderful resource for visualization.

If you are a writer, you know the common problems. How do I create a memorable character? Can talking be interesting? How do I name my story? Well I’ve got the resource for you! At Writing-World’s fiction page it seems that there are a million and one links for all sorts of topics. Check it out, I dare you.

Speaking of writing, it is important to have good spelling and grammar. Where can you find such a site to check if you’re writing right? The Research Tools at Economist.com, of course! Many things are covered there in an easy to read format. You can even buy a hard copy of the information if you want!

Okay, now that you’ve worked on your plot and storyline and made sure that you’re forming sentences correctly, where can you get published? Lulu.com! This is really a great site because not only are publishing prices reasonable, but you can also buy single copies of your book. Can you publish it yourself? If so, it will only put you back $50 USD! Publishing by Lulu itself is a little bit more expensive at $99.95 USD, but it is a far cry from the prices I’ve seen on some other companies (Oh, say about $1,000 USD). You can even get your own ISBN number. Pretty sweet, if I do say so myself.

This is Kaitlin signing off.

Another week means . . .

Originally Posted October 20, 2007:

. . .More links!

How’s everyone doing today? I hope you are all well and happy. Today I have four links for you. All of the sites I’ve just found today, but I can assure you that they’re worth checking out.

Our first link takes us to the land of manga and ramen. The site is entitled Kids Web Japan, but it is very educational even for adults. With everything from articles about the newest technology to a cook book this site is jam packed with information!

Next we have a site that shows you what someone can do with Photoshop and how some photos in magazines are retouched. This is actually a company page, but it gives a good before and after effect.

This week also features another Legend of Zelda link. This is a three part series of the most stunning Zelda fan art. Check out the rest of the website because he has other series too, including Mega Man and Metroid.

Our last link for today is another site like last week’s Seventh Sanctum . This week’s site is Serendipity. This site features more generators than you can shake a stick at! It has mostly fantasy generators, but includes things like name and palette generators.

Well, that’s all for this week!

Until next time,

Kaitlin

I'm Back - New Links!

Originally Posted October 13, 2007:

Wow, sorry for the lack of updates! I’ve been extremely busy with my first year of high school. I will start posting again, but I don’t know if there will be a post every day. I will post at least once a week, though!

Our first lovely link today is TV Tropes & Idioms. From the page: “This “Wiki” is a catalogue of the tricks of the trade for writing fiction. We dip into the cauldron of story and place it in front of you to read.” The site has some very informative pages, and quite a few were laugh out loud funny. They have a good number of TV shows and what Tropes they follow.

Our next link leads you to Seventh Sanctum which is a whole website built for generating characters, concepts, and more. It’s defiantly something you will want to check out for ideas for plotlines.

Third on the list is COLOURlovers. From the website: “COLOURlovers™ is a resource that monitors and influences color trends. COLOURlovers gives the people who use color - whether for ad campaigns, product design, or in architectural specification - a place to check out a world of color, compare color palettes, submit news and comments, and
read color related articles and interviews.” If that isn’t a description, I don’t know what is! It may not be the biggest site, but it has an extremely well designed layout.

Next is a site for all who love Legend of Zelda, or just enjoy some really well composed music. Yes, it’s The Hylia’s Soundtrack section. It has mp3s for almost all of the games in a nice flash player so you don’t even have to download them! My favorite is the Big Band Soundtrack. ♥

I’m sorry everyone, I like anime. And I have found the 46 Laws of Anime. Even if you have only seen anime one time in your entire life, you can enjoy this page because every single rule is true.

Here’s a link for all who are gamers and can play an instrument. It’s the Game Music Themes. With sheet music from games from the original NES to the Wii and everything in between chances are that they’ll have what you’re looking for. It’s not just limited to Nintendo either. They also have sheet music for the SEGA systems and the PlayStation.

Here, have another geek site. Remember Missing No. from the original Poke’mon games? Well, here’s more information than you need to know about it and his partner in crime ‘M. If you still like Poke’mon, then check out the rest of the site!

Our last site of the day is something that I don’t even know what language it is in. It’s a really fun drawing simulator, though and it’s very easy to navigate.

Mulitple

Originally Posted August 10, 2007:

Again, I am sorry for lack of posts. I’m getting ready to start my first year of high school and my personal life has been very hectic. So to make up for it, I’m compounding five links into one post. Sound good?

First up is Think Geek. This store has all of your geeky needs. From t-shirts to watches, books to geek toys chances are that they’ll have what you’re looking for. Come on, they even have a whole page for Caffeine related products!

Second is a little craft. Yes, this is a paint chip card holder. I guess you could also use it as a cell phone holder if you have a cell phone that small and get creative with a hot glue gun. Or you could hold your iPod Nano in it. I don’t know why this is so appealing to me, but it looks fun to make.

Third is BuzzDash. This is a poll site. If you like giving your opinion about anything and everything you’ll most likely find this site a good time waster.

Fourth is. . . Another geek site! Geekologie has some of the best new technology info. Plus, the writer has a sarcastic sense of humor. How much better can one get?

Okay, so you don’t like the way the new gaming consoles look? Well I’ve found a good site for you then! It’s Decal Girl . This site has some really nice stickers for almost anything.

‘Till next time,

Kaitlin.

Jay is Games

Originally Posted August 6, 2007:

Intrestingly enough, it took me quite a while to find the website that is known as Jay is Games. There are links for many online games that are worthwhile. The site updates almost everyday, and there are Link Dump Fridays and Download Saturdays. This is the best online game site that I’ve stumbled on.

Stumble Upon

Originally Posted August 4, 2007:

I swear to all of you people out there that I’ll try not to skip days in between posts.

Today, this is a website for all of you Firefox users. It is a down loadable tool bar called Stumble Upon . This tool bar allows you to simply click a button and browse pages from the internet that suit your interests. You can even vote on whether or not you like the page.

MangaHUT

Originally Posted July 31, 2007:

Okay, I said I was going to post everyday. Maybe I lied.

Nah, if anyone even reads this, I am very sorry for the lack of post yesterday.

Anyways, today’s link takes you to MangaHUT. MangaHUT has a lot of user translated mangas. From the popular like Naruto and Bleach, to more obscure mangas. You have to sign up to view some of the mangas, but I haven’t had any problems with spam and I can safely say that I’ve encountered no viruses.

Sorry to those of you that do not enjoy manga, I’ll try to get up some more links on differing topics!

Gaia Online

Origionally Posted July 29,2007:

Okay, today sees a new post!

Today’s website is Gaia Online !

Gaia Online started as an anime role playing site back in 2004. Today it still has some role playing features, but it is so much more. There is a very active forum, many guilds on any topic you can imagine, flash games, a movie theater with anime and older movies, a manga storyline, and a lot more. The whole website is based around an avatar system where you are able to dress up a little doll. Boys, don’t worry, there are plenty of manly items for your needs. It even has its own economy. The currency system is Gold. Gold can be earned by posting, playing games, voting on polls, and just browsing the site.

A overall good site, but I must warn you that there are many stupid users. Find a close knit guild as soon as you can, and you will be okay.

deviantART

Origionally posted July 28,2007:

To start off 1 Link a Day I am going to do posts of websites I go to often and that I think are pretty good.

First on the list is deviantART.

deviantART is an art community site. It caters to a more novice crowd than a professional one. It is a huge site with over 36 million art pieces. It is free to sign up and there is also a subscription service if you want things like 120 thumbnails per page or a customisable CSS journal.

One important note: deviantART is not Photobucket.

You must from scratch everything you post. People will report you if you don’t and if you keep posting things that you did not create you will be banned.