My hand-made Valentine to you!
♡Melissa
♡Melissa
February 14, 2009
My Favorite Characters
Hand-Made Mac Tip No. 9
Not the same as Love Potion No. 9, but almost as much fun!
You thought I was going to write about Winnie the Pooh and Mickey Mouse? No, not those kinds of characters! These kinds of characters:
✭♡♥❦☮✍✌✓♫♪♺⌘⇧⌫⏏
Depending on which browser you're using to view this blog, you may not be able to properly view some or maybe even all of these characters. Assuming you're on a Mac and using the latest versions of Safari or Firefox, it shouldn't be an issue.
I thought with Valentine's Day here, you might enjoy a nice tip for getting to those cute little hearts and other fancy symbols quickly.
First you'll need to configure your International System Preference Pane and then you'll need to configure the Character Palette to show just your favorite or most-used characters. Once this is done, you'll be just 2 clicks away from accessing the characters you use on a regular basis.
I find this helpful for when I'm trying to communicate a set of instructions in which I can use the shortcut key symbols.
It's also fun to say things like:
I ♥ You. Let's book the next ✈ to New York and go hear some great ♬♪♫
Did you ✔ to see if the tickets are on sale?
Would you like for me to ☏ you at a special ⌚ ?
Did you remember to ♺ your paper?
Step 1. Configure your International Preference Pane available by selecting the System Preferences from the Apple Menu in the upper left hand corner of your screen.
Step 2. You will see a little flag icon in your Menu Bar. Click on it once to reveal a drop-down menu from which you can select Show Character Palette.
Step 3. Configure your Character Palette by selecting your Favorite characters. Look closely at this screen shot (click to enlarge) and pay attention to each of the areas where you'll need to click. Make your Character Palette look like this. Select a character you want to favorite by clicking on it once to highlight it. Next, click on the cog wheel at the bottom and choose 'Add to Favorites' from the drop-down menu.
Repeat this step of selecting a character and then 'Add to Favorites' for each of the characters you'll use on a regular basis. When you're finished selecting characters, move on to the next step. (Don't worry, you can always keep adding more favorites.)
Step 4. View your Favorites and now the Character Palette will always show just this section of Favorite characters by default each time. Whenever you need a character, just click once on the flag icon and then once to select 'Show Character Palette.' (two clicks! no waiting for a website to load them!)
I hope you find this tip useful!
Not the same as Love Potion No. 9, but almost as much fun!
You thought I was going to write about Winnie the Pooh and Mickey Mouse? No, not those kinds of characters! These kinds of characters:
✭♡♥❦☮✍✌✓♫♪♺⌘⇧⌫⏏
Depending on which browser you're using to view this blog, you may not be able to properly view some or maybe even all of these characters. Assuming you're on a Mac and using the latest versions of Safari or Firefox, it shouldn't be an issue.
I thought with Valentine's Day here, you might enjoy a nice tip for getting to those cute little hearts and other fancy symbols quickly.
First you'll need to configure your International System Preference Pane and then you'll need to configure the Character Palette to show just your favorite or most-used characters. Once this is done, you'll be just 2 clicks away from accessing the characters you use on a regular basis.
I find this helpful for when I'm trying to communicate a set of instructions in which I can use the shortcut key symbols.
It's also fun to say things like:
I ♥ You. Let's book the next ✈ to New York and go hear some great ♬♪♫
Did you ✔ to see if the tickets are on sale?
Would you like for me to ☏ you at a special ⌚ ?
Did you remember to ♺ your paper?
Step 1. Configure your International Preference Pane available by selecting the System Preferences from the Apple Menu in the upper left hand corner of your screen.
Step 2. You will see a little flag icon in your Menu Bar. Click on it once to reveal a drop-down menu from which you can select Show Character Palette.
Step 3. Configure your Character Palette by selecting your Favorite characters. Look closely at this screen shot (click to enlarge) and pay attention to each of the areas where you'll need to click. Make your Character Palette look like this. Select a character you want to favorite by clicking on it once to highlight it. Next, click on the cog wheel at the bottom and choose 'Add to Favorites' from the drop-down menu.
Repeat this step of selecting a character and then 'Add to Favorites' for each of the characters you'll use on a regular basis. When you're finished selecting characters, move on to the next step. (Don't worry, you can always keep adding more favorites.)
Step 4. View your Favorites and now the Character Palette will always show just this section of Favorite characters by default each time. Whenever you need a character, just click once on the flag icon and then once to select 'Show Character Palette.' (two clicks! no waiting for a website to load them!)
I hope you find this tip useful!
It's twhirl for This Girl
Hand-Made Mac Tip No. 8
Take twhirl for a whirl and manage your social networking in one place.
I love using an application called twhirl for keeping in touch with my friends on twitter, in seesmic and on FriendFeed. Whatever I tweet as a status update (different than replying to someone) also gets fed directly into my FaceBook as my status there.
I pretty much always have twhirl running and I use Leopard's Spaces to make viewing all of the information manageable. Space 2 is designated for twirl and I give it a full desktop area with the largest font so my eyes don't strain to read the information. I have assigned a key command to Space 2: command-right arrow so I can quickly press that combination and swipe the whole thing out of my way quickly when I'm just checking in. Spaces is awesome once you get used to it and train yourself to use it in your work flow.
Here are some screen shots of my Spaces Preferences along with a view of my desktop on Space 2 featuring twhirl. (I've blocked out a few of the private messages in order to respect communication preferences.) Click on the images for a larger view.
Sometimes I also use the Orange-Gray color scheme. It just depends on my mood.
Here is another screen shot so you can see the text better. The color scheme is 'Purple Rain.' For my twitter and FriendFeed panels, I'm using the font Myriad Pro, 16 points. For my seesmic panel, I'm using the font Myriad Pro Condensed, 14 points. I've tweaked the settings to make it the most comfortable for my eyes. This font is the smoothest to me. I wish the color were more purple than pink, but overall it's the most pleasing color set to my eyes.
I decided to position the seesmic panel in the center since it feels the most intimate there for interacting with video recording. When the video recording screen pops up, the proximity is closest to the webcam where I can establish better eye contact.
I've positioned the twitter panel closest to the clock area of my desktop on the far right side. I also keep my twhirl Dock icon positioned in the lower right corner of the screen so my muscle memory is accustomed to clicking there for updating – both reading and writing. The text entry box is also at the bottom since my cursor always lands there.
Overall, this is my favorite app for viewing these kinds of messages. There are still some things I would love to be able to tweak like customizable color schemes and the ability to make different accounts a different color scheme. You can select from many different pre-existing schemes, but so far you can not change the colors within those schemes. I like the 'Purple Rain' and 'Orange Gray' color schemes the best. I like that there are subtle hues for different kinds of messages and different input areas. The color feedback is very important to me.
You can download twhirl for free and it works on Macs and PCs.
http://www.twhirl.org/
Sign up for a free seesmic account and, if you have a webcam and mic, you can record video messages all from the same application.
http://seesmic.com/
If you want to help improve this application, the development team is extremely responsive to suggestions using http://feedback.twhirl.org/
I hope you've enjoyed this little review and find it useful!
Take twhirl for a whirl and manage your social networking in one place.
I love using an application called twhirl for keeping in touch with my friends on twitter, in seesmic and on FriendFeed. Whatever I tweet as a status update (different than replying to someone) also gets fed directly into my FaceBook as my status there.
I pretty much always have twhirl running and I use Leopard's Spaces to make viewing all of the information manageable. Space 2 is designated for twirl and I give it a full desktop area with the largest font so my eyes don't strain to read the information. I have assigned a key command to Space 2: command-right arrow so I can quickly press that combination and swipe the whole thing out of my way quickly when I'm just checking in. Spaces is awesome once you get used to it and train yourself to use it in your work flow.
Here are some screen shots of my Spaces Preferences along with a view of my desktop on Space 2 featuring twhirl. (I've blocked out a few of the private messages in order to respect communication preferences.) Click on the images for a larger view.
Sometimes I also use the Orange-Gray color scheme. It just depends on my mood.
Here is another screen shot so you can see the text better. The color scheme is 'Purple Rain.' For my twitter and FriendFeed panels, I'm using the font Myriad Pro, 16 points. For my seesmic panel, I'm using the font Myriad Pro Condensed, 14 points. I've tweaked the settings to make it the most comfortable for my eyes. This font is the smoothest to me. I wish the color were more purple than pink, but overall it's the most pleasing color set to my eyes.
I decided to position the seesmic panel in the center since it feels the most intimate there for interacting with video recording. When the video recording screen pops up, the proximity is closest to the webcam where I can establish better eye contact.
I've positioned the twitter panel closest to the clock area of my desktop on the far right side. I also keep my twhirl Dock icon positioned in the lower right corner of the screen so my muscle memory is accustomed to clicking there for updating – both reading and writing. The text entry box is also at the bottom since my cursor always lands there.
Overall, this is my favorite app for viewing these kinds of messages. There are still some things I would love to be able to tweak like customizable color schemes and the ability to make different accounts a different color scheme. You can select from many different pre-existing schemes, but so far you can not change the colors within those schemes. I like the 'Purple Rain' and 'Orange Gray' color schemes the best. I like that there are subtle hues for different kinds of messages and different input areas. The color feedback is very important to me.
You can download twhirl for free and it works on Macs and PCs.
http://www.twhirl.org/
Sign up for a free seesmic account and, if you have a webcam and mic, you can record video messages all from the same application.
http://seesmic.com/
If you want to help improve this application, the development team is extremely responsive to suggestions using http://feedback.twhirl.org/
I hope you've enjoyed this little review and find it useful!
February 7, 2009
Fun With iGlasses
Hand-Made Mac Tip No. 7
Give your webcam a different point of view!
I've been having some fun with a piece of software called iGlasses and a piece of hardware called a Huckleberry. Here is an example of a response in a video conversation using seesmic. If you watch Freida's post, (embedded below mine so you can see the post to which I was replying) she demonstrates many of the settings available in iGlasses for use with your webcam. (Alternatively, you can click on the arrow icon inside the video or view the other videos in the conversation underneath the video to see more of the dialog we had in seesmic.)
Give your webcam a different point of view!
I've been having some fun with a piece of software called iGlasses and a piece of hardware called a Huckleberry. Here is an example of a response in a video conversation using seesmic. If you watch Freida's post, (embedded below mine so you can see the post to which I was replying) she demonstrates many of the settings available in iGlasses for use with your webcam. (Alternatively, you can click on the arrow icon inside the video or view the other videos in the conversation underneath the video to see more of the dialog we had in seesmic.)(Sorry if my audio is a little blown out in some spots. Adjusting your volume before playback might be a good idea.)
January 24, 2009
Check Out Them Apples!
25 years. Wow. I can't believe it's been that long. The Macintosh was released in 1984 and I was in the fourth grade. Later on in high school, I attended a Vocational Technical school where I studied Commercial Art. I'll never forget getting Macs and all the fun (and naughty) things we designed with them. The technology was so new in our school that we were literally teaching our instructor how to use it!
Aldus Pagemaker was the design and layout application of choice. System 7 was the operating system and After Dark was loaded on the computers as the screen saver application. We used to love watching the flying toasters and the lawnmower man!In my senior year I took a screen printing course. The teacher had been on a waiting list for a single Mac and finally got one. By that time, I had some experience using a Mac, so I spent most all of my class time showing my teacher all the things you could do on it. By mid semester, I was designing the high school physics teacher's wedding invitations on it. (Interestingly, I married a physics teacher — it was a sign!)
As the course progressed, I fell behind on the projects I was supposed to have been working on and I was very worried I would fail the class and not be able to graduate. I pleaded with my teacher, asking if there was something I could do to bring my grades up. He looked at me over the top of his glasses and told me that he had considered failing me. My heart began to sink. Then he said the reason he'd like to fail me (but couldn't) was just so he could keep me around for another year to teach him how to use the Macintosh!
From that time on, I can't remember a time when the Macintosh was not a part of my life. I was nineteen years old working as a typesetter and production artist for a department store ad agency when I got the sweatshirt you see pictured above. It was a promo that came with one of the Macs our production department had recently purchased and my manager tossed it on a table so I grabbed it. I still have it and dug it out of my closet just for this post! (I think the Macs we used back then were Performa 6300s.)
It's just amazing thinking about how far Apple and the Macintosh has come in twenty five years. I'm happy to have been a Mac user for the majority of this time period and even happier to be using Macs for the years ahead. I really believe the best is yet to come.A couple of days ago I hung out with the guys from MyMac Magazine to reminisce about Macs for the 25th anniversary of the Macintosh. Check out the podcast and you can hear Tim read some of my comments from the chat room. It's always a good time geeking out with those guys! We talked about classic pranks and troubleshooting. Talking about extensions gave me a twitch and I vaguely miss making cheat sheets for Zaph Dingbats.
They're running a contest, so you might want to check it out soon!
I take Made on a Mac to heart. I met my husband on a Mac.
I'm raising my child on a Mac. I make a living using a Mac.
I manage my life on a Mac.
I'm raising my child on a Mac. I make a living using a Mac.
I manage my life on a Mac.
What do you do with your Mac?
January 21, 2009
Dancing for Hope
LDObamaDance from TheMacMommy on Vimeo.
The hope we had back on August 28th, during The Democratic National Convention, has paid off and we now have Barack Obama as our 44th President of the United States of America. Here is some home video footage from that time. We are overjoyed that Mr. Obama with his lovely wife and daughters are now our new Presidential family.
From our family living room to yours, here is our goofy son expressing his happiness at seeing Obama on TV at the DNC. That time seems so long ago and now the day has finally come to see the first of our hopes already being fulfilled.
Let's keep on giving our children a reason to dance and sing.
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