How-to: Start Geocaching

As warmer weather approaches, it’s a great time to get back into the Geocaching mood. For the not-so-many of you out there who don’t know what Geocaching is, it’s sort of an internet treasure hunt in which coordinates are posted online that will lead you to a physical box, often loaded with some trinkets.

To start geocaching, all you need is a GPS. (As a side note, you may not even need one, though it will be harder. See this video.) Once you have your GPS, make an account with Geocaching.com. It’s free, but you can get a premium membership for some extra features. Once all that is figured out, you’ll need to locate a cache near your home. If you are using the internet from your house right now, it’s unlikely there won’t be cache within 1 km of where you are. (For example, there are 101 caches within a 5 km radius of our home, which is in a small town not far from a big city.)

Choosing a cache for your first find is important. There are difficulty and terrain ratings for every cache, and anything above a 2 for either may be too difficult for a newbie. It’s totally up to you, but you can also click the box labeled ‘Highlight beginner caches’ and the site will suggest caches it thinks is easy for beginners. Once you have chosen a cache, you should print out the cache description. A map with the geocache and its surroundings could also be helpful, especially if you are not using a GPS. If you are, simply type the coordinates onto your GPS, and head off!

Finding the actual cache can be tricky, as the cache owner will often put them in devilishly cunning places. Also, most GPS’s are only going to be accurate to about ten feet or so, so you’ll have to rely on intuition to get you the last few yards. This is all part of the game, and Muggles (non-Geocaching folk) could never imagine the excitement and happiness of finding a cache, especially if it took many tries and visits to the cache location, or if it was in a hard-to-reach location.

We hope you find this intro to Geocaching helpful and inspiring, but if you need more info, head over to Geocaching.com, where you will find guides and videos on how to find your first Geocache, the rules of the game, and much more!!!

How-To: Make Cheese Curds

Although making cheese at home may sound like an extremely difficult task, making basic cheese curds is actually incredibly easy. You don’t need to use exact measurements nor do you need to any obscure instruments to make it.

You will need:

• Milk
• Vinegar
• Salt (optional)
• Stove
• Pot
• Colander
• Clean cloth
• Bowl (optional)

Instructions:

1.  Pour milk into the pot and bring to a boil, stirring constantly
2. Gradually add vinegar until the milk separates into cheese curds and liquid whey
3. Separate the cheese curds and whey by placing a cloth over a colander and filtering the contents of the pot through the cloth and colander and into a bowl (or the sink)
4. Remove the cheese from on top of the cloth and add salt if desired.

Note: If you would like to use the whey you collected in your bowl (as it is quite nutritious) consider visiting this forum.

Task: Learn Shorthand

Today, with the advent of computers and pocket recorders, shorthand has largely fallen out of popularity. But there are still some people, like me, who are just interested to find out what this lost art was like to use and have some fun along the way.

If you’re interested in speed, you should probably try writing Pitman. The speed record for Pitman Shorthand is 322 words per minute, though it is probably the most difficult to learn on this list. It requires that some strokes be thicker and thinner, as it was meant to be used with a fountain pen, but the same could be achieved with more difficulty with a pencil. If you are interested here’s a website with all the basic principles, along with loads of links to other courses and websites: Long Live Pitman’s Shorthand!.

The most popular of all shorthand systems is the Gregg system (the picture above is in Gregg). It does not require thick and thin strokes, nor does it distinguish between strokes on the line or above, so it can be written on blank sheets of paper. It is only slightly slower than Pitman, with a record of 282 wpm. There are many versions of Gregg, the hardest and fastest being Pre-Anniversary (1916), and the slowest and easiest being Series 90 (1978). It is recommended that Simplified (1949) be for non-business use, and Anniversary (1929) for court reporters and such, though you can visit this website for in depth descriptions of all the systems and a complete manual on the Anniversary edition.

Although there are many more systems, the last one I want to talk about here is Teeline. It is much slower than the other systems, but it is much easier to learn. It is very popular with people in the UK, and is used a lot by journalists there. Although it is rarely used above 140 wpm, most people find it adequate for everyday use. I myself have been learning it for about two weeks, and I can do about 30 wpm. Courses can be easily found in the UK, but it is difficult to find a course that teaches it for free online. There is an awesome pdf that covers pretty much all the basics, though it will not help much with speed building (I am more than halfway through and still only 30 wpm).

To practise speed with your shorthand, you’d probably have to try getting some dictation recordings, where people speak at a certain speed so you can write things down. Although there are not many available for download that are below 50 wpm, there is a YouTube channel that has a couple under 50, along with speeds up to 180 wpm.

Are you going to try learning shorthand. Or, if you already know shorthand, which method do you prefer? Tell us in the comments!

How to: Quit All Applications and Log Out Application

With Mac OS X Lion, having to click the check box every time you want to quit all applications when you log out can be a real pain. This set of instructions will show you how to make a Mac application using Automator to quit all your open applications and log out in a simple double-click.

You will need:

• Automator (Version 2.2.1)

Instructions:

1. Open Automator
2. Select “Application” and click “Choose”
3. Find “Quit All Applications” in the Library and drag it into the workflow
4. Find “Run Applescript” in the Library and drag it into the workflow after “Quit All Applications”
5. Clear the default text and copy and paste the following into the text area:

   tell application "System Events"
   log out
   end tell

6. Click “Options” and select “Ignore this action’s input” for both actions
7. Click “File” and “Save…” and save to application to your desktop (or other desired location)

If you would like to assign the same icon shown on the logout window to your new application follow the following instructions:

1. Find “GenericHome.png” (Macintosh HD/System/Library/CoreServices/SecurityAgentPlugins/HomeDirMechanism.bundle/Contents/Resources)
2. Download and install Pixadex version 2.0.2 by Panic / Iconfactory (Click Here to Download)
3. Open Pixadex and drag “GenericHome.png” into “My Icons”
4. Right-click the icon, mouse over “Export” and click “Icon…”
5. Save to desired location
6. Right-click your new application and click “Get Info”
7. Drag the “GenericHome” icon into the thumbnail icon in the top left corner of the Info window

Did you find this article helpful? Leave us a comment.

Website: Make a Font from Your Handwriting

MyScriptFont.com is a free online font generator by t-reinhardt. All you have to do is download and print the template, fill in the boxes, scan it to your computer, and upload the file to the website. Unlike YourFonts (FontCapture), Fontifier, and FontGrinder, it is 100% free and works perfectly fine. The handwriting font creator creates vector fonts in True Type Font (TTF), Open Type Font (OTF), and SVG Font formats.

Interested? Try it out and tell us what you think in the comments!

Visit the Website

How to: Make a Balloon Shrinkie

A balloon shrinkie is a deflated balloon with textured writing and pictures.

Materials:

• Balloon
• Permanent marker
• Something to seal the balloon temporarily (eg. a binder clip, a stitch marker, etc.)

Instructions:

1. Inflate the balloon
2. Seal the balloon
3. Write or draw on the inflated balloon with the permanent marker
4. Deflate the balloon
5. Enjoy!