"Mister Lipwig, the world lives between those who say it cannot be done and those who say that it can. And in my experience, those who say that it can be done are usually telling the truth. It's just a matter of thinking creatively. Some people say 'Think the unthinkable,' but that's nonsense--although in your case, sir, I think you have the nerves for it. Now, don't let me detain you."

Terry Pratchett, Raising Steam

Isometric dot grid stencil tool DIY

Do know when you are getting sad because you want to draw nice shapes on a blank piece of paper - but there is no helpful grid - and you have difficulties drawing straight lines - the isometric dot grid stencil tool is there to help!

Today I created an isometric dot grid stencil tool with scrap metal. And I want to write a bit about how easy it is to make. (Beware: You still need a lot of patience to punch all these damn holes into a thin slice of metal.)

[The distance between the dots is 0.5cm btw. [yes, I'm a metric system supporter. ])

Tools I used to create that tool:

- needles (one thinner and sharp needle, and one thicker needle (to dilate the holes afterwards wlth a rotating motion)

- hammer (for making the thinner needle go thru the scrap metal like a knife thru butter (but with more force... ))

- wooden/bamboo/whatever tray with a not too large hole [~ 1-2cm will suffice] (so the needle does not go into the wood, which is annoying and makes the needle unsharp very fast) - For the wooden tray I used a simple cutting board normally used for food preparation - it has a very helpful handle (just a hole with 1.5cm diameter)

- a printed piece of isometric dot paper and sticky tape (to form a tube with the sticky tape, so you can use it as double-sided tape. Add the printed paper to the sticky tube-thingy. Then attach it on the scrap metal. [It will be removed afterwards. (Removing the sticky tape afterwards is still very annoying. Thats why I left a rest on my tool. I put a looot of thought (slight exaggeration) into considering to remove it, but in the end I was too lazy to remove that part of aesthetical annoyance - It has no effect on the practical aspect. I might remove it anytime in the future when it annoys me too much and when I have more nerve to do so. )]

- a lot of patience to make whatever number of holes you want to have in that stencil. [I find this routine work calming actually.]

For the one depicted above I made approximately ~200 holes [I am too lazy to calculate and/or count the holes rn. This approximation might suffice.]

- garden scissors (to cut the scrap metal)

- pliers (to rounden the sharp edges of the cut scrap metal) [last step]

- - -- --- -----

What could you do with the stencil tool, you migt ask:

One can use it to draw an isometric dot grid on paper (for furtherly drawing shapes in the dot grid.)

One can also draw circles with it.

And one can also attach a piece of paper or other material and make holes into it with a needle or safety pin.

In the photo depicted above I made a cube pattern (with a mistake). I could continue to sew these holes together, so the cube illustration becomes more visible - and if I use a large enough thread so one could feel the lines - it could also be a card/art a blind person could "see" - alias feel.

Also: It is calming to punch holes in paper with that stencil tool.

Maybe I might also consider doing the stitching activity afterwards... Hmmm.

Unlocking Creative Solutions: Harnessing the Subconscious Mind

Discover the power of harnessing the subconscious mind, following Thomas Edison's approach, for creative problem-solving and innovative ideas.

Have you ever wondered how great minds like Thomas Edison came up with groundbreaking ideas? The key lies in harnessing the subconscious mind. This blog explores Edison’s unique approach to problem-solving and how you can apply it in your life. The Power of the Subconscious Edison believed in engaging his subconscious before sleep to solve problems. This method taps into the subconscious mind’s…

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Breaking Down Binary Thinking: Embracing a World of Complexity

Introduction to Binary Thinking Conceptualization of Binary Thinking Binary thinking, often understood as a cognitive distortion of absolutes, permeates various aspects of human cognition. This mode of thought, characterized by stark dichotomies such as good versus bad or right versus wrong, simplifies complex phenomena into two distinct categories. While this mental framework can aid in quick…

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How to Use Creative Problem Solving Strategies

Creative problem-solving is the process of using your imagination to come up with new and innovative solutions to problems. It is an essential skill for anyone who wants to be successful in business, technology, or any other field that requires innovation.

There are many different creative problem-solving strategies, but some of the most common include:

Brainstorming: This is a technique for generating as many ideas as possible, no matter how wild or impractical they may seem. The goal is to get as many ideas out there as possible, without judging them. Once you have a list of ideas, you can then start to evaluate them and choose the ones that are most promising.

Mind mapping: This is a visual technique that can help you to organize your thoughts and ideas. To create a mind map, start by writing the problem you are trying to solve in the center of a piece of paper. Then, branch out from the center to write down all of the different ideas that you have for solving the problem. You can also use mind maps to visualize relationships between different ideas.

SCAMPER: This is an acronym for Substitute, Combine, Adapt, Modify, Put to another use, Eliminate, and Reverse. It is a useful tool for brainstorming new ideas by thinking about the problem in different ways.

Lateral thinking: This is a way of thinking that involves approaching problems from a different angle. It can be helpful to break out of your normal thinking patterns and come up with new solutions.

Six Thinking Hats: This is a technique developed by Edward de Bono. It involves wearing six different hats, each of which represents a different way of thinking. The six hats are: white (objective), red (emotional), yellow (positive), black (negative), green (creative), and blue (process). By thinking about the problem from different perspectives, you can come up with new and innovative solutions.

Here are some additional tips for using creative problem solving strategies:

Set aside some time to focus on the problem - Don't try to solve problems when you are rushed or distracted.

Be open to new ideas - Don't dismiss an idea just because it is different or unfamiliar.

Don't be afraid to fail - Failure is a natural part of the creative process.

Learn from your mistakes - If you don't succeed the first time, try again with a different approach.

Be persistent - Don't give up if you don't come up with a solution right away.

Get help from others - Brainstorming with others can help you to come up with new ideas.

Creative problem solving is a valuable skill that can help you to solve problems in all areas of your life. By following these tips, you can learn to use creative problem solving strategies to come up with innovative solutions to any challenge you face.

Measurements without a tape measure

Get creative.

Measure your wingspan at home. Memorize it. During deployment, measure a length of your rope against your it. For a shorter measurement, fold the rope in half, fourths, etc. For longer, double, triple, etc.

For much smaller measurements, learn those of different body parts (ie fingers) or other things you carry with you.

Several years ago, I marked the back of my swiss army knife out to 2 inches, with hatchmarks every quarter inch. I used it for finding distances on maps. Later, I switched to a marked length of string. Not all lines I wanted to measure were straight.

For deployments, I carry a multi-tool with a fish scaler that also has measurements.

I don't recommend using your shoe or other clothing sizes. Clothing sizes are frustratingly inconsistent, even within the same brand.

Stop

If you don’t stop, life will stop you. Hello and welcome to TaoCraft Tarot blog and podcast. I’m glad you are here. This is one of those days when Tarot proves it is just a tool, an amplifier, a sort of google translate for our natural inner intuition. Swords are the element of air, intellect, mind and our relationship with authority and our relationship with culture and society at…

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I love my husband. He hangs out the laundry. He’s a creative problem solver. Maybe spatial organization isn’t his top skill…

Source: Debra Lermitte

knowing there's an alternate universe where marinette was given the cat miraculous and adrien, the ladybug.. altered my brain chemistry. like what in their lives and their world could be different enough that fu would look at adrien and think ah, this one is clearly meant for the miraculous of creation. like??

Do you have a spreadsheet that helps you keep track of the charms? I am highly impressed by how skilled you are in handling it. You must have a very good memory. Great job and good luck on continuing!

I've tried a bunch of things, spreadsheets included, but the system I've settled on is copypasting the whole ask of a charm (so I can search the exact wording on the blog to find the post) into one of several word docs:

One doc for charms sitting in drafts (because I need to find something to offer in exchange, and write/link the answer)

One doc for charms that are answered and in the queue (can be browsed for trades and the giving-away written out, but can't link to them until they're published)

One doc for for charms that are currently available: posted and not given away yet

One doc for all the charms given away (currently 91 pages long, single spaced!)

All docs except the last are divided into sections like Pen Drawer, Jewelry, Weapons, Feathers, Lights, Misc, etc. with links to each section at the top of the document. To items easier to skim I'll bold the relevant words, eg. 'dear archivist, here's a pen i'm afraid of, it eats fingers, please take it off my diminished hands'.

And lastly all of the word docs have a date at the top marking the last time I went through it. Before I answer any charm asks, I go through the blog back to that date and update the docs, moving posted charms from queue to available, linking any charms in drafts that were waiting on the charm to be published, and moving those charms to queue.

definitely top 3 favorite type of villain is “guy who would be normal if he just had access to community theater”

So my dad is making a deck, as is his destiny as a dad.

He realized today that he neglected to buy spacers for placing the boards.

It's an hour each way to the hardware store.

My mom came up with a solution.

Brilliant, really. Plus it looks goofy as hell so win/win

this is an insanely dumb kind of thing to ask but um. Andrea (shaggy tormented girl) gets very upset at her friend’s specific kind of distortion of the truth. the (perceived) retroactive change of intention to absolve herself of being mean. or whatever. yeah um. is that a thing? is that a thing that people get? what is that associated with? cause i rarely get like that but i hate when i do because it will always be perceived as an overreaction (and a lot of the time it will be).

Being upset with someone for essentially being mean and then being dishonest about being mean, if that is what you are asking. It could be a misunderstanding sometimes, or it could be calculated. It's just one of those things I guess. If calculated, it is really upsetting to have someone... basically try to trick you out of confronting them with a problem. I don't think that being sensitive to it is necessarily "associated with" anything in particular because there are a lot of reasons why you could be sensitive. It depends on you.

Everyone on earth struggles with balancing self-respect and grace and honoring their perceptions and also leaving room 4 the ambiguity and complexity of other people's intentions and style of interacting with others. Emotional reactions like getting upset is sort of like... Ur fire alarm goes off. So U know there is a problem, but that indicator can't tell you how to diagnose the problem (burning food on stove? massive conflagration in living room? low battery?) or the process of responding 2 it, you have to use your creative mind to make a plan and your rational mind to evaluate and adjust. If U let the sound of the fire alarm make U crazy then U just end up smashing fire alarm and throwing it outside and then U lose ur security deposit and maybe dying in a fire... So I guess what I'm saying is this is a natural faculty of your mind but if it causes you problems it just requires some creative thought. Conflicts with people are opportunity to deepen the connection with the person and conflicts with ourselves are opportunities to learn self mastery and become more powerful in the world so the obstacle is very much the path. Gewd luck

Does anyone else remember the episode of 87 called “The fifth turtle” where Venus de Milo was introduced for the very first time? And how she went on to permanently join the main cast after that? Gotta be one of my favourite parts of the original cartoon for sure!

reading recent stories of Magic: The Gathering's lore has reminded me of the importance of avoiding the Idiot Ball when writing. the latest two chapters of Phyrexia: All Will Be One's story have been a sequential and rapid passing of the Idiot Ball from Kaya to Kaito to Elspeth and it lead very quickly to the villain getting what they wanted through no action of their own. we did a whole thing about going to the past, getting in contact with the person who originally beat Phyrexia, getting an extra copy of the ultra-bomb he used to destroy them, and bringing it all the way to New Phyrexia's portal-opening magic god-tree before Kaya went "hey what if this explosion hurts someone innocent". somehow that one freaking sentence was enough for Kaito to go "hey yeah wait this is a bad idea we shouldn't do this", and Jace - poor friggin' Jace - was just flabberghasted and left holding the bag going "buh - w, wait, hold on, we're already here, we HAVE the bomb, we're good to go!" but, nah, Kaya and Kaito made their moral decision in a split second and by god they're going to defend it come hell or glistening oil. and then, as if that's not bad enough, Elspeth catches up with them after Jace manages to finally activate the Sylex - doing the thing they were trying to do at the start of this entire extremely-lethal excursion - and SOMEHOW knew there was some kind of moral debate happening and that she disagreed with Jace. so he gets freaking stabbed, and she disappears with the bomb to blow it up somewhere else - somewhere where a lot more innocents are likely to get caught in the crossfire. or, since she took it to the Blind Eternities, possibly WAY WORSE - the entire argument was about not knowing if the Sylex's blast-radius could cross the Blind Eternities, so I guess we're gonna fuck around and find out? nice work fellas, we blew up innocent people and didn't even graze the robo-zombies we wanted to blow up in the first place. the same robo-zombies who are about to spread all over the Multiverse and kill everyone anyway.

I don't mind the villain winning, but the state of things in MtG's lore is such that Elesh Norn conquering the Multiverse is really more a testament to the absolute idiocy of the heroes than the ruthless efficacy of Phyrexia. it reads less like a masterstroke of villainous planning, or even just one crucial mistake at the worst moment, more like a D&D party who just couldn't get their shit together for so long that the DM just called it off with Rocks Fall Everyone Dies. this was a series of colossal fuckups and leaps of unfollowable logic, and somehow in pre-written story, someone managed to metagame information they shouldn't have had.

seriously, this? "Somehow, in that moment, she understood everything—what Jace had resolved to do, what was about to happen not just to Mirrodin but to the Multiverse itself. Elspeth saw, with perfect clarity, what needed to be done." this is garbage. yeah, SOMEHOW, Elspeth knew all this very specific stuff that everyone else only had just guessed at two seconds ago, and only decided upon one second ago. what do we need Jace for anyway, Elspeth is clearly some kind of mind-reading precognitive psychic on the level of someone reading a script a page ahead.

jesus christ. if you're going to have doubt and infighting among your protagonists, at least have it make sense. these idiots had an entire plot arc to think about the consequences of the Sylex's use, and only decided to question it at the very-literal last second with the worst conclusions possible. it not only cost the heroes a victory, but it cost the integrity of the story as a whole. this sucks.