The Good Life (a Vox.com remnant)

Chocolate Margarita recipe, part 2

I found another one!

clipped from www.chatterblogging.com a Chocolate Margarita Take an ounce and a half of tequila, an ounce of Godiva white chocolate liquer, ¾ ounce of cream (or half-and-half), a tablespoon of Hershey’s chocolate syrup, and 2 ounces of orange juice, and ice to shake it with. Do not use a blender for this particular recipe. combine the ingredients in your shaker (and don’t forget to put the lid on, you lush) and give it a few shakes to blend and chill the ingredients. You’re dealing with different ingredients than your other margarita recipes, so don’t go crazy shaking it up, or the Godiva liqueur will stage a protest and curdle in the shaker. instead of salting your glass – ewww – pour your delicious chocolatey margarita into a glass rimmed with crushed Oreo cookies. Drink up, and fall down!

Chocolate Margarita recipe

I was searching Google for a "Chocolate Margarita" recipe. One, because I wondered if there was such a thing. And two, because there are days that earn you both chocolate, and tequila!

clipped from board.margaritatexas.com Frozen Chocolate Margarita Ingredients: 3 tbsp Hershey's chocolate syrup 1 tsp Triple Sec 1 1/2 oz light Tequila 8 to 10 ice cubes 1/8 tsp This Ain't Opie's Hot Sauce Directions: Add all ingredients in blender and process untill smooth. Pour into margarita glasses. Serves 2 Chocolate Margarita Recipe 1 1/2 oz.Tequila 1 oz. Godiva liquor, 3/4 oz. cream or half & half, 1 tlbs Hershey's syrup 2 oz. orange juice, ice oreos Throw the ingredients into your shaker for a few quick shakes and pour into margarita glass with crushed oreos lining the rim.

Control the volume of your PC with the mouse

This could come in handy, a tool that lets you control your system's sound (volume) with a scroll wheel.

clipped from www.nirsoft.net Volumouse v1.31 Volumouse provides you a quick and easy way to control the sound volume on your system - simply by rolling the wheel of your wheel mouse. It allows you to define a set of rules for determining when the wheel will be used for changing the sound volume. For example: You can configure Volumouse to use your mouse wheel for volume control when the Alt key is hold down, when the left mouse button is down, when the mouse cursor is over the taskbar, and so on... When the conditions that you define are not satisfied, your mouse wheel will be used for the regular scrolling tasks, exactly as before.

Fadeaway Screensaver

I have not tried this, but I like the idea of a nice fade in when you interrupt a screensaver. Sure, no one needs screensavers, but they are fun, and this is a nice tweak.

clipped from vidmar.net Windows Fader Screensaver v1.0 I liked the idea of fadeaway screen screensaver so much, I took my shot at it. It works exactly as Power Dimmer except two details: when screen saver is interupted, there is nice little fade in, the screen doesn't just reapper, settings are saved in personal folder, so there are no issues with Windows Vista Download Windows Fader Screensaver (14 kB) Price and licence: free,

Mash-up: Every Car You Chase

Ever hear a remix or mashup and find yourself disap pointed when you hear the original? Such is the case with Party Ben's excellent mash-up called "Every Car You Chase."

This is a seamless mashup of  Snow Patrol's "Chasing Cars" and "Every Breath You Take" by the Police. Thing is, I heard this mash-up first, now I expect to hear Sting whenever "Chasing Cars" is played.

Listen or watch the video below, and grab the track from Party Ben's website.

The Police Vs. Snow Patrol - "Every Car You Chase"

Snow Patrol vs The Police (Snow Police) - Every Car You Chase

Party Ben

Artsy: Vector Art Tutorials

I am just now broadening my skills set by digging into Illustrator CS2. I've used Illustrator before, but juuuuuust enough to do what I needed to do, then I'd get out.

So, really, once LOST and HEROES are finished for the season, I am gonna get back into my art. No, really....

Now, I am really wanting to do some learning. So, I will be posting Illustrator tutorials and resources I think will teach me a few things (and you too, maybe).

Go MediaZine - I don't know how I managed to never run across this site, but it is simply amazing. They really want you to learn how to do things (not only in software, but like sketch on paper). I can see myself losing hours just reading this site without even opening Illustrator. Here are a few pages I like:

Beautiful Vector Illustration

From Sketch to Vector Illustration

Gigposter Design

Kuler Color Harmonies - Actually it doesn't seem to have a name, but it does give you color harmonies, and it is on a site called Kuler. So, whatever it is, it is very handy!

Illustrator How-To: Drawing with Naturalistic Pen, Ink & Wash - This is inspiring, hey maybe I really CAN do this!

Creating Line Drawings in Adobe Illustrator - Dani Draws (as mentioned before) is a great place to point your browser when you need a "you can do it" fix. Why? Because she shows you every step, and shares her settings. She really leave you with no excuse for not getting started (yet I still find them).

Veerle's Blog - Like Dani, Veerle is very generous in sharing her knowledge of Illustrator. There are so many things I'd like to link to on her site, but will limit it to a few.

Illustrator Art Brushes

Illustration, from sketch to finish - Part One

Anton's Artcasts - I have not had time to watch these, but I am looking forward to it - in #8 he draws colors Claire Bennett from HEROES. Again, not Illustrator, but learning to be had here!

Drawing a Cow in Illustrator Tutorial - Just what it says.

Digital Breadcrumbs - Not sure if this is mostly Illustrator, but I need to come back to the site. The author is showing us their progress as they build their skills.

Parable Forums - Check out the "Gaining More" forum where artists are posting their work for critique.

Thanks to Knowhow's bookmarks for helping me find a few of these links.

Enter A Contest - Get Discounted Software (college students only)

For the 3rd year in a row, Academic software retailer Studica is sponsoring a slew of contests, which get you discounted software. The deal is, you have to be a college student, but if you are you can get great programs like Sketchbook Pro 2 for a mere $84. Have a student ID? Then take a look and see if you have the skills needed to win.

clipped from www.studica.com Studica Skills - Season 3 - Check out the brand spankin' new Season 3 Studica Skills Competitions - Remember, the earlier you submit your entry. the longer you have to get votes! - All Competitions are Free to Enter (no purchase required either!) - All Competitions are Online - Open exclusively to Students in the U.S. and Canada - Real Time Voting - Get World Wide Recognition - Tens of Thousands of Dollars in Cash and Prizes Up for Grabs! - Be Rewarded for your Talent & Creativity - Enter as many Competitions as you wish - Submit up to three Entries per Competition

The "COLLEGE" T-Shirt - Ah, now I get it!

For the past year, I've been seeing college students wearing a T-Shirt that simply says "COLLEGE." I didn't get it. I mean, I don't get "American Eagle" and "Hollister" either, but with those shirts at least I know what they represent. The "COLLEGE" shirts had me stumped. John Belushi wore a similar design on a dark shirt in "Animal House." Now it makes sense. But I wonder, have any of these college students seen "Animal House" or are they just wearing the "COLLEGE" shirt because everyone else is wearing them?

Further listening:
NPR story on Threadless

clipped from www.allposters.com Animal House - College

Five Online Video Editing Tools Reviewed

DezinerFolio has a fast run-down of 5 web-based video editors/remixers. It is a quick read and very useful information.

clipped from www.dezinerfolio.com If you’re already working with video on the web, an online editor is fast, easy and free. In theory, these services could bring video editing to people who would otherwise never engage in it. People already engaging in video editing can benefit from automatic software updates and the sharing made possible by online communities. Here’s a look at each of the services, followed by a more in depth chart comparing features. Cuts Cuts is the new kid on the block and is all about remixing viral video. Gotuit Gotuit Scenemaker is for slicing out scenes from videos on other networks Eyespot Eyespot is a solid editor that lets you mix together your own Motionbox content JumpCut Jumpcut is the most developed of the editors, allowing you to add a long list of effects, transitions, and captions to the videos. Photobucket Photobucket just released a new video editing product that leverages the most recent Adobe Flash tools. Motionbox an editor that is ideal for trimming your Motionbox content

DJ Amanda, where are you?

Back in the 90s, when music was free, there was an awesome SF DJ who went by the name of DJ Amanda. This person regularly uploaded amazing remixes and megamixes to the web, and was very prolific. Then one day, poof, gone.

The DJ Amanda website domain went up for grabs (and went to a junky ad site) and I have no idea what really happened. A shame too, because DJ Amanda was doing some might fine Mash-ups before that genre took off. I can only imagine what sort of mash-up we'd get today!

Now, there are a lot of DJ Amandas out there, but the DJ Amanda I am focusing on is this one, in my opinion, the "original." This cached page has a little bit more about DJ Amanda.

To show you a bit of the talent DJ Amanda has (had?), here is a great Disco Megamix. (I had to downsample it from 128k to 115 due to file size). This is a 30-minute mix of Disco classics, and there is not one dud in the bunch.

Enjoy!

Dj Amanda Disco Flashback Mix

Mixes

I'll add more as I browse through my 90s era MP3 data CDs.