Hello, my name is Mervi and this is my blog about everything and nothing.
I hope you enjoy my journey. Please, join me!

Hot Font #7: Six Caps

0

Hot Font #7: Six Caps (sample)

The lucky seventh Hot Font was a lucky find as well. My friend Anthony was recently searching for neat new fonts. When I asked him what he's found, he pointed me to this gem called Six Caps.

Six Caps is clean and narrow all caps font. It's great for posters as well as headers. Created by Vernon Adams the font is free and licensed under SIL Open Font License (OFL).

Six Caps on Font Squirrel and Google Web Fonts.

up
3 users have voted.
25 May, 2012 - 23:50 |

There's no shame in not affording it

0

cccp

Last year I started to do something a little bit evil. I begun to make certain people uncomfortable by talking about money and especially about how I can't afford everything. I've found their reaction entertaining.

I'd started to notice how they get really twitchy and scared when someone says they can't afford something. Or that something was way too expensive. Like it would be somehow embarrassing not being dirty rich.

Actually all of us have something we cannot afford. Even wealthy people and countries cannot buy everything. And that's good. If someone could go and purchase all and anything, soon the rest of us would be in a deep trouble. Makes sense, doesn't it?

It's funny how deeply sensitive thing money seems to be. As if it was something personal. It's not. It's just currency.

To be honest I sometimes use it as an excuse. I mean yeah, I'm not lying if I say something's too expensive for me. However I might feel free if I'm able to say I can't buy something or attend some event.

I'm not saying one can live without money. At least not in this sort of society I'm living in. And I'm not saying I could, since I'm used to be able to buy the food and use a shower. I need it as much as anyone else.

What I'm saying is most people I know, most around me, are way too concentrated on making money and pretending they can afford every single thing on earth. And they take money they have (and other's don't) way too personally.

There's really no shame in saying: "I can't afford it."

Suomeksi (In Finnish): 

Monet tuntemani ihmiset ovat liian herkkiä rahan suhteen. He ottavat sen ihan liian henkilökohtaisesti. Sanominen ääneen, ettei johonkin ole varaa tai jokin maksaa ihan liikaa koetaan epämukavaksi, pelottavaksi ja jopa häpeälliseksi. Siinä ei oikeasti ole mitään hävettävää. Kukaan tai mikään ei ole niin rikas, että pystyisi ostamaan kaiken maailmassa. Ja hyvä niin.

up
3 users have voted.
24 May, 2012 - 17:42 |

Twitter Tuesday: The size (or at least length) matters

0

Long Exposure - Shanklin

Last week a friend tweeted an idea for Twitter: To charge users for being able to write extra long Tweets. Ouch!

There's a point in keeping Tweets 140 characters long in maximum. The point is it makes it necessary to think what you want to say and to form it so that it's short and precise.

I have a tendency to ramble. My emails are horrible and my blog posts go from here to there. But on Twitter I must keep it short and in focus.

This has made me to learn (slowly) to be more economical with my words count. Anyone who has been bombarded by my lengthy and messy emails can say that's a good thing.

If Tweets could be more than 140 characters (say for a small payment), I'd personally hate it. Why? Because it would clutter my Twitter feed. Especially reading Tweets from a small screen (with a smartphone) would get messy.

If you want to say something more than 140 characters, get yourself a blog or use one of those longer Tweet services. That way the rest of us can decide whether we want to read your whole rant or just skip it all together.

Photo by Richard Heaven under Creative Commons license.

Suomeksi (In Finnish): 

Twitter viestien lyhyt mitta on pidetty lyhyenä ihan tarkoituksella. Ideana on, että esität asiasi lyhyesti ja ytimekkäästi. Pidennetyt (esim. maksua vastaan) viestit sotkisivat koko idean ja tekisivät Twitterin käyttämisen esimerkiksi puhelimella hankalaksi. Pidempää viestintää varten ovat sitten blogit ja twiittien "pidennyspalvelut". Niitä käyttäen annat meille muille luvan valita haluammeko lukea pitkiä jaarituksiasi.

up
3 users have voted.
22 May, 2012 - 13:20 |

Of happiness and Weekly Wrapup

2

Leaves of lilies of the valley on Webbygram

Last week Instacanv.as opened my gallery. In the gallery I've chosen a bunch of my Instagram photos available as canvases. If you buy one, I'll be payed 20% of the sale.

So what does this have to do with happiness? Nothing and something. One of the Finnish words for happiness is onni, which also means (good) luck. Does luck have to do with happiness?

I'm not the happiest person ever. Not even close. I'm grumpy and stressed out and I feel the weight of the world on my skinny shoulders. Now I've decided there's time to change that.

I know it'll be a bumpy road. Life tends to send obstacles in the way. Economical obstacles, obstacles in the form of things happening as well as in the shape of other people. Anyways, to start with it, I'm not going to do as everyone expects me to. I'm going to do what I want and in the way I want.

What you perhaps missed last week (the Weekly Wrapup that is)

Suomeksi (In Finnish): 

Viime viikolla Instacanv.as avasi galleriani. Sen kautta voit ostaa joitakin Instgram kuviani, joita olen valinnut myytäväksi. Jos ostat niitä, saan 20% myyntituloista. Ja mitäs tekemistä tällä on onnellisuuden kanssa? No eipä mitään ja vähän jotakin. Suomen kielen sana onnihan tarkoittaa myös (hyvää) tuuria. Onko onnekkuudella tekemistä onnellisuuden kanssa? En ole maailman onnellisin enkä iloisin ihminen. Nyt pyrin muuttamaan tilannetta. Tiedän, että siitä tulee haastavaa, elämällä kun on tapana heittää kapuloita rattaisiin. Elämällä ja muilla ihmisillä. Eräs asia mitä aion tehdä on tehdä just niinkuin itse haluan sen sijaan, että tekisin sitä mitä minulta odotetaan. Yllä myös listattuna viime viikon bloggaukseni, ne jotka saatoit missata omissa kiireissäsi.

up
5 users have voted.
21 May, 2012 - 16:06 |

Why is support more important than "constructive" criticism?

1

supportive

Here's a thing about constructive criticism: Most of the time it's not constructive at all. Giving criticism without sounding arrogant all-knowing-asshole takes skill and most of us don't have it.

When most think they are being constructive they end up being nothing but destructive. Being all "honest" and pointing out the mistakes or things that need improvement results in tearing apart, instead of building on. It's not honest, it's just rude.

See, constructive means building on, not tearing down. To be truly constructive the criticism should be able to enhance the good qualities, instead of plain and simple highlighting what's wrong.

Fixating on what's wrong instead of what's right leads to different sort of backlashes. A common reaction is giving up instead of making it better. Or the subject (or the creator of the subject) will just ignore the criticism and the person giving it all together. Nevertheless there's no learning and there's no building on anything.

Actually we humans are prone to criticize ourselves and our own work in a pretty harsh matter. Therefore most of us don't even need other's to point the mistakes out. We know them already and are bummed by them.

Giving support and finding something good to say is challenging as well. Often it's even harder than being all negative. And by something good I mean more than "nice job" or "good work".

Focusing on what's good is way more effective than focusing on what's not good. You know, catching more flies with honey than vinegar. It gives reason to go on and make the good things better.

Here's a little exercise for all of us: Take something you really dislike or just think it's bad (a photo, a book, a website or anything) and find something plain good about. Think about why it's a good thing and how it's a good thing. Now think how the good thing could be emphasized or improved. Remember to be positive and discard all the negative thoughts. Leave sarcasm and irony out of it as well. How did it feel for you?

Suomeksi (In Finnish): 

Rakentavan kritiikin tulisi olla rakentavaa, ei tuhoavaa. Ja se vaatii taitoa. Hyvien puolien esiin tuominen on tuottavampaa kuin huonojen puolien osoittaminen. Huonojen puolien korostaminen johtaa vain erilaisiin vastareaktioihin, kuten luovuttamiseen tai kritiikin huomioimatta jättämiseen. Joka tapauksessa oppimista ja rakentamista ei tapahdu. Kannustaminen ja hyvien puolien löytäminen on myös haastavaa. Se on kuitenkin paljon tehokkaampaa. Nappaat enemmän kärpäsiä hunajalla kuin etikalla. Pieni harjoitus: Etsi käsiisi jotakin josta et tykkää tai joka on mielestäsi huono juttu. Etsi siitä jotakin kerrassaan hyvää. Miksi se on hyvää ja miten se hyvää? Nyt mieti miten sitä hyvää voisi korostaa tai parantaa vielä paremmaksi. Muista olla positiivinen ja heitä mielestäsi kaikki huonot puolet. Jätä myös sarkasmi ja ironia tämän ajatusleikin ulkopuolelle. Miltä se tuntui?

up
10 users have voted.
18 May, 2012 - 15:48 |