lifestyle
Issue 2 of Strange & Charmed Magazine
Issue 1 of Strange & Charmed Magazine
Welcome to the Official Strange & Charmed Magazine Blog!
We at Strange & Charmed Magazine are expanding {YAY} and in order to give our readers a more complete S&C experience, we have decided to launch a blog! For now, its a work in progress, but we will be posting the latest issues here, as well as extra content! Stay tuned for more and be sure to follow the blog if you are a fan of the magazine!
NaNoWriMo 2012 Resources
It’s that time of year again! November has come and it’s the National Novel Writing Month in case you haven’t heard! Whether you are a NaNoWriMo vet or a newbie, there are many resources out there to help you get to 50k success at the end of the month. I have rounded up as many of these resources as I could find for you, so hopefully something or other down below will make the month a little easier for you. Happy Noveling!
For Mac Users
Macworld has a number of staff members who partake in nano, here is their article series for success!
Not to be outdone by Macworld, MacLife also has a mini guide to nano-ing that includes some iOS apps as well.
Here’s a Mac app that turns off the internet for a set amount of time, for those of you who are easily distracted by the Internet. Aptly named SelfControl.
For those of you who have an iPad and want to use that to assist you with your noveling efforts, here is a link to a site with some great app suggestions for iOS.
For Linux Users
For those of you out there running Linux, this is a link of 5 Essential Linux Applications for Nanowrimo.
For PC Users
Here is a link to writer’s software and resources for PC users, not nanowrimo branded, but still useful for wrimo’s.
Popular Applications
Here is the link for the Nanowrimo trial version of Scrivener. In case you don’t know, Scrivener is a great application for writers of all types. They are also a sponsor of NaNoWriMo and if you win you can get half off the software!
Here is the link for WriteRoom, one of the distraction free writing applications that full screens your manuscript so you can focus on nothing but writing.
Here is a link to Write or Die, one of the full screen apps that prompts you to write with settings that can prevent you from backspacing, and can even start deleting your work if you procrastinate too long. This also has an iOS app in case you are interested.
Other Misc Resources and Motivation
This link is for timeline-mapping software that may help you keep track of events in your novel.
If you are having trouble naming characters, this website is very useful.
Here is Written? Kitten! Which appears to be a web app where you get a new picture of a cat/kitten once you have hit the interval word goal of your choosing. Helpful for those of you who require a dose of cuteness as positive reinforcement.
Found this series of articles from the Guardian on how to write a novel in 30 days.
Posted with BlogsyThe Next Big Thing is the iPad Mini
A few weeks ago, Apple held a press event. No, not that event, the one about the iPhone, but one a few weeks later that completely escaped my notice. I came home one day from work to find that Apple had done it, they announced the release of a gadget that many had guessed at and I completely dismissed as a figment of our collective imagination. The iPad mini, however, is real and I almost immediately knew I would have to own one. So, I preordered two at 3 o’clock I the morning on October 26th; one black, one white, both 16gb Wifi Only. My fiancé and I had decided that he would sell his first gen iPad and unused 2nd gen iPod Touch to make way for a black model for him, and I would just go all in and get myself the white one. No, I didn’t sell my now outdated 3rd gen iPad that was preordered and delivered in March, only a few short months ago. In fact, I am writing this article on my max-iPad as I have come to call it, and after a weekend with my new iPad mini I know I want to keep this big guy around!
The iPad mini really is a very advanced and very amazing device. Size wise, it is perfect, as even I can hold the device in one hand with my freakishly small hands! It is so well built and sturdy compared not only to other tablets on the market but also the larger iPad, as I feel no compulsion to wrap the iPad mini in a protective case. It really feels sturdy and so well built that it clearly is a high end device worthy of the price tag. The screen is so large on this little guy too! It really doesn’t feel much smaller than the full sized iPad screen, but I attribute that to the thinner edges that give the screen more real estate on the device. One thing that is surprisingly smaller, however, is the home button. It appears to be about two thirds of the size of a home button on an iPad or iPhone. Why is the home button so different? Well, it appears to be proportional with the lower bezel of the device which is thinner than a iPad, but appears to be the same size as an iPhone 4S. Since I don’t seem to have any logical answer for this mini home button, I am going to leave it as one of the mysteries of the world and to the proportion of the display which is really something to be in awe of. After all, the iPad line is all about the display, so lets get to the heart of how the mini stacks up against its bigger brother.
The display is surprisingly bright and vivid. I guess one would expect no less from Apple, but it surprised me mostly because in-hand the device felt like a kindle or e-reader with its thin body and ultralight frame, and to see this beautiful, bright screen was a bit of a surprise. The resolution on the display isn’t bad, either. It certainly isn’t retina quality as going from a retina iPad or iPhone to the mini shows a drastic difference, but in its own right the resolution is not unacceptable. The major flaw of the screen however is very evident when using iPhone applications on the mini. I do use a few iPhone only apps on my iPad, for example Instagram, and on my retina iPad the app isn’t too bad scaled up because of the high quality display, but on the mini the app looks terrible. It’s not completely unusable but the pixels are so obvious that using the app is not the same as on my phone or iPad. Now, this of course could be cured if Instagram had an iPad app, and I am still hoping that they create one to fix this issue and to give iPad and mini users a better experience when using the app on larger screened devices, but the issue remains that iPhone only apps just look bad on the mini.
When running iPad apps, however, the mini does an excellent job and looks great. I have enjoyed using some of my usual iPad apps on the mini, specifically games because I get the best of both worlds when it comes to the screen quality and size of the device itself. I can play action games with more ease because of the size and weight of the mini. Even non gaming apps are easier to use because you can hold the device in one hand and use the other to select or scroll. That was always a little difficult on the iPad because I needed two hands just to hold it sometimes.
As to the size of the device and weight, I think Apple hit a home run. Although there are many similarly sized tablets and e-readers on the market, none quite have the iPad mini’s perfect proportion. Yesterday, I was incredibly excited when I put my mini down for a rest on top of my agenda to find that the device was a perfect match to its dimensions. I know this may seem like an odd thing to be excited about, but when you think of it, these large sized agendas and notebooks have become a standard size for a reason, they fit in well on a desk or in a bag, and in the hand! I think it was great that Apple went with this proportion that fits well in everyday life. It helps that the side bezel is much thinner in portrait mode, because it gives the mini the illusion if a wider screen than it would if the bezel was proportional like the full sized iPad. Personally, I have not had a problem with the thinner side bezel of the mini causing my fingers to make accidental selections. I know Apple improved the finger rejection aspect of the software and it seems to be working as I make far more accidental taps with my iPad than I have so far with the mini.
Overall, the performance of the mini is on point with what we have come to expect from an iPad. Apps run great, web pages load in good speeds, and despite the fact that the home button is inexplicably tiny, it fits in well with Apple’s portable device line up. I did, however, mention that I would not be trading in my retina iPad anytime soon, and that speaks to the biggest flaw of the mini, the resolution. It really seems like a step back from the products apple has been putting out lately and I feel as though Apple made a mistake failing to give this little guy a retina display that all of the current devices use. I am certain that next year the iPad mini will come with a retina display standard, but this first generation has been slightly crippled by this oversight. It is a high end device, however, and it really feels like this was the device the iPad was meant to be all along, sturdy, lightweight, and ultra portable, definitely worth the price and an Apple product none the less!
A MAJOR MISTAKE
Okay, so I just accidentally deleted my Picasa Web Album that had many pictures from this blog stored in it. Flipping through the posts you will see many of the images are now missing. I have searched google for a solution but the answer seems to be that I will never recover the lost images. I am absolutely devastated, but so much is lost that I will not be able to simply go back through my blog and re-upload the missing images. The only thing I can do is just move forward and make sure I never make this mistake again!
The Analog Life
I have a confession to make. I love the smell of paper. The other day I bought a few colorful notebooks with lovely quotes on them and I have just been sitting around smelling them. Well, let’s back up a bit, I don’t want you to get the wrong impression. From time to time, I have been picking up the notebooks and with one thumb flipping through the pages to create that sort of fanning affect you get from a book when little gusts of wind are created by the flipping of the pages in this way. And holding the edges of the paper up to my face I have been enjoying the scent of the recycled paper and the soy based inks just lingering between the pages. It’s a good smell. The notebooks have a good feel too, different than the feel of metal and glass from my iPad. I feel the soft smoothness of the covers, and can almost interpret with my fingertips the little tiny ridges of the paper that have been so tightly sewn together in that way paper fibers are formed to make a single sheet. It’s not cold like glass and metal, and yet not warm. The whole experience is very visceral. With the iPad, or any computer for that matter, the experience is all visual. The bright screen, the icons, interacting with the apps through a non tactile tap of the finger. These notebooks are different, they are all touch, and feel and smell. I love the smell of paper.
What’s in Your Little Black Bag?
A few weeks ago, I heard of an online monthly subscription service called Little Black Bag that really caught my attention. I’m already a fan of Shoedazzle, which I love because it has great accessories and an ever expanding line of new items, but ultimately its not as unique as one would expect. Little Black Bag is a completely new social buying website. Based loosely on the Japanese craze “Lucky Bag Sale” where a price is set for a bag whose contents are promised to be valued greater than the purchase price, LBB combines designer accessories with online swapping. Let me just quickly run through how it works. First, like many online personalized accessory websites, you take a style quiz to determine your personal style profile. Next, you are taken to an online gallery of 100-200 items of various value that have been chosen to fit your style profile. You then are asked to choose any one item you see to add to your bag, but at this point you can also “love items” to keep track of others you may also be interested in. With that one item in your bag which is guaranteed to be yours, one to three other items are added to your bag automatically based on your personal style so that the value of the overall bag is $100-$125. At this point you cannot see what the items are, but it does tell you how many items have been added and what category they fall under (make-up, jewelry, etc). So, you head to check out to pay. LBB offers two options, either a monthly subscription price of $49.95 or a one-time buy price of $59.95. Monthly subscribers have the option to opt out on a month if they do not want to participate, and there is no contract, you can cancel your subscription at any time. Once you have paid for your bag, you can now see the other items added to your bag. If you like everything you see and are completely satisfied, you can then hit “Ship to me” and you will receive your LBB in a matter of days. If you are not satisfied with the contents of your bag, well, that’s where the social aspect of this site begins. You can then start swapping items in your bag for up to seven days until you are ready to have the items ship. It’s important to note, if you choose the swapping option, you do not have to wait an additional seven days for your bag to ship, you can spend a few hours or a few days swapping items until you’re satisfied and ship your bag at any point, but after seven days, what you have in your bag will be shipped to you, so you need to make your time count.
What does swapping entail? Well, swapping works two ways. Immediately upon check out if you choose to delay shipping your items so you have time to swap, you will probably immediately receive offers from other users who want to offer you something of theirs for something in your bag. It’s up to you if you want to take their offers, but you get these notifications immediately because when you or someone else has an item they are looking to acquire and an item (or items) they are willing to swap, the notification goes out to everyone who has the item desired. Now, you may have noticed I said items above, because you do not have to make a one for one swap. You can offer more than one item in your bag to swap for another item and the value of your item does not matter. You can offer a swap between items of differing costs, although if you really want something good you should be prepared to make a good offer or expect to be rejected. You can get a leg up on swapping by watching the news feed on the site to see what is in people’s bags, what they are swapping and the hot items of the day.
Now, the system is not perfect, and if you have items in your bag that you do not like, it is not guaranteed that you will be able to swap for items you like, which is why it is important to choose that first item carefully and make sure it is something you feel is worth the full price of the bag because you may not get anything else you like. Before I tried out the site, I read through some reviews where people did not like what they ended up with, but I also found some others where people were able to trade and get what they wanted. Personally, I think there is definitely some strategy behind the social swapping aspect of this site and I could totally imagine that there are some people out there who are so good at watching the feed and seeing what is in people’s bags that they end up with exactly the items they want each and every time. It really makes me think of that story about the guy who traded a paper clip for a house using Craigslist. Now, perhaps that is an extreme example, especially since you have only seven days to swap, but I think if you’re smart about this site you could end up with a bag full of wonderful items, but you definitely need to play the game if you want to win!
I made a video unboxing and haul detailing my experience on Little Black Bag for the first time, so please check it out if you want to see what was in my bag, what I swapped and what I ended up with!
The Wait Continues…
Still no iPad yet. I am camped out in front of the open window, overlooking the road just waiting and listening. We keep hearing trucks drive by, getting our hopes up, but alas nothing yet. It hopefully should be here soon, and when it does we will work fast to get out a few posts and an unboxing video. Check back soon!