Two Sets of Custom Made Tile Coasters

Here is the list of supplies that I bought, with prices:

1 package of 9 travertine tiles – $3.97 at Home Depot
1 package small medium duty felt pads – $2.97 at Home Depot
12 pack of ColorPlace foam brushes – $1.50 at Wal-Mart
Mod Podge in Matte, 16 oz – $7.47 at Wal-Mart
Krylon Acrylic Crystal Clear Spray Paint in Satin – $2.97 at Wal-Mart
Colorbok Alpha Punch-outs, 1,600 pieces, 10 colors – $5.00 at Wal-Mart
Colorbok Pattern Pack, 50 12″x12″ papers, 25 patterns – $5.00 at Wal-Mart
Home Decor Stencils by Plaid, 26 designs – $2.97 at Wal-Mart

Coaster Supplies

Here are a few other helpful items that you probably have around the house:

trash bag/plastic to cover your work area
a sponge for cleaning the tiles
newspaper for covering spray area outside

First, clear off a table or floor space and cover it with plastic or a trash bag. Next, open your package of tiles and examine them. One of mine was a dud, with really big holes in it, but 8 were fine. Clean the dust off of the tiles with a damp sponge and allow them to dry.

Next, select the paper you would like to use as the background on your tile, and cut a square for each tile. Cut the paper a little smaller than the tile, so you can see a border of tile around the paper. I got one just right and used it as a template for the other paper squares. Also, pick out and punch out the letters you would like to use on top of the background.

Next, lay out the tiles you are going to use on the plastic and using a foam brush, coat them with Mod Podge, just a nice even coating. Next, carefully center the paper on them and lightly press down. After the paper is in place, put another coating of Mod Podge on the paper and let dry.

If you notice any bubbles in the paper, take care of them when the Mod Podge is still very wet, or wait until it dries to get them out. If you touch the Mod Podge when it’s almost dry, your paper will rip and stick to your finger.

Set of Tile Coasters

Next, put another light coating of Mod Podge on and place your letters on top, after you’ve placed the letters, go ahead and coat them in Mod Podge too. Once this coat dries, put on one more for safe measure, being sure to get the sides of the tiles with this final coat.

After the final coat dries, you may have to peel off excess Mod Podge around the edges when you pick the tile up from the plastic.

Next, head out side with newspaper and find a good area to spray paint your tiles. Place the tiles on the paper and give them a coating of the acrylic sealer. You only have to wait 10 minutes between coats, so I put three coats on my tiles.

Felt Feet on Tile Coaster

Last, apply felt feet to the corners of the tiles, and now they are coasters! You can start using them immediately or you can wrap up sets of four to give to family and friends. (this means if you are in my family and friends, you might want to hold off on this project because you might be getting some for Christmas)

I created the second set of coasters using the stencils and a black Sharpie marker. The process is much the same, after washing the tile, you stencil on the tile with the Sharpie marker. After you’ve outlined and filled your shape with the marker, apply one or two coats of Mod Podge. When it dries, apply a  few coats of acrylic sealer and add the felt feet.

Set of Tile Coasters

Stay tuned!

I decided to try out Intense Debate, which is actually made by the people that make WordPress. Great! So I logged in with my wordpress account, which it practically forces one to do. Then I tried to add my blog. Denied! I had tried to us Intense Debate before, got frustrated with a feature that wasn’t working, and deleted my blog from my account there. Well, apparently I deleted it, but the system didn’t “forget” it and it was still marked as registered.

No problem, I’ll just e-mail support….the link has to be on the support page…no…contact us…no…humm – none of the support links provided anyway to contact them. I searched them up on twitter @intensedebate, but they had not tweeted in about a week. I sent a tweet asking what to do for support and got no response, I tweeted again the next day – no response.

Yesterday I sulked back to my plugins page, reactivated askimet, and through much email searching, found my key to activate it once again. I’m now back to regular ol’ WP comments.

9 to 5 – Dolly Parton

The theme song to a movie about thinking you’ve accidentally killed your boss with rat poison, I think that says a lot more than the song.  Also, I’m pretty sure this is the only song to use a typewriter as a musical instrument. My one gripe…apparently you got to work an hour less in the early 80s.

Bad Days – The Flaming Lips

You hate your boss at your job, but in your dreams you can blow his head off. I guess the “in your dreams” part works as a disclaimer. I remember the first time I heard this song, it was in Batman Forever and I instantly loved it. I was in middle school and had never even held a job.

Huey Lewis and the News – Workin’ for a Livin’

Leave it to Huey Lewis to make you feel happy listening to a song about working for crappy pay. Another infectious product of the 80s, excuse me while I go dig up a copy of Sports and watch Back to the Future.

Draggin’ the Line – Tommy James (cover in video by R.E.M.)

This brings back memories of the movie Don’t Tell Mom the Babysitter’s Dead, which featured a montage set to a terrible early 90s version of the song. Have you ever felt like huggin’ a tree when you get near it?

Takin’ Care of Business – Bachman Turner Overdrive

If you ever get annoyed look at me I’m self-employed, I love to work at nothing all day. A rather misleading “Damn the Man” song – seeing as when you’re self-employed you have to do everything. Work Out.

Do you have a favorite job hating anthem? Let me (and everyone else) know by leaving it in the comments!

I recently placed a few songs for sale on iTunes for a client, and the process was much different than what I imagined. I would like to share the process so it’s not as shrouded in mystery, it’s really not too complicated once you know a few details. People can be rocking out to your music through an iTunes download in about two days, and you can be seeing money in about 45 days.

First off, there are a few things you will need before starting:

• A song in digital format or on CD (preferably one that people will want to buy)
• A computer with iTunes or Windows Media Player (for ripping/converting your song)
• An internet connection (the faster the better, you’ll be uploading big files)
• Cover art (1600 x 1600 pixels at 300dpi is best)
• A credit/debit card and/or a PayPal account (aka money!)

STEP 1: Find a Distributor

Unfortunately, you can’t just log in to your iTunes account and start selling music – you have to go through a distributor. Most large record labels are distributors, but if you have no label you will want to find a distributor to use. A distributor is the middle man between you and iTunes/other online stores where you want to sell your music. You’ll want to pick a good one, one that doesn’t take a percentage of your sales, provides a UPC code (a barcode, like you would see on a CD case), lets you keep all of the rights to your music, and doesn’t charge exorbitant fees.

I used the most popular and recommended distributor, TuneCore.com. TuneCore doesn’t take any money from your sales, provides a UPC code, doesn’t take any of your rights and offers reasonable pricing. At the time of this posting, distribution for a single starts at $9.99 for distributing to one vendor, and distribution for an album starts at $47.99 for one vendor. (prices are set to go up to $12.99 and $59.99, respectively on August 27th, 2010). The renewal of distribution for an album annually drops to $19.98 after the initial year.

This post will focus on using TuneCore since it is the most widely used online distributor.

STEP 2: Create a TuneCore Account

TuneCore.com

Head over to TuneCore.com and create an account. The process is pretty simple, and there is even a tutorial video on the process. The interface has changed a little since the videos have been made, but you’ll get the idea. Now you can start adding your song and artist information into TuneCore, you will also need your cover art and optional liner notes. The cover art needs to be 1600 x 1600 pixels at 300 dpi to look it’s best. You can also choose which stores you would like to sell you songs. I only chose iTunes US, but you can sell on as many as you like for a small fee per store.

After you have all of this info in, it’s time to rip your songs and make sure they meet these specs:

• .wav file format
• 44.1 khz sample rate
• 16 bit sample size
• stereo

Again, there is a tutorial for the process on this here. You can easily use iTunes or Windows Media Player to accomplish this. After you have the songs in the correct format, you can upload them to TuneCore, this may take a while depending on your Internet connection.

Step 3: Get your Music Distributed

Now you will complete the final step, which means you need to pay TuneCore to distribute your music to the store(s) of your choosing. For example, I paid $29.97 to have three singles distributed to iTunes US. You can pay by credit/debit card or PayPal. After you pay TuneCore, your songs will be delivered to the store in around 30 minutes (though times can vary) after that, it’s up to the store to get your songs on the “shelf”. iTunes currently averages about 48 hours to get a song live on the iTunes store, various stores take different times. You will be able to tell your song is “live” by looking at your song listings on your discography.

Step 4: Get Paid

Stores send out your payments and sales results in one of two ways:

• Within 45 days after the end of each month
• Within 45 days after the end of every three months

iTunes uses the 45 days after the end of each month model. There is no way of knowing how many songs you have sold or how much money you have made until iTunes returns the payment and sales results. You can’t check your stats every day. When you do get a payment placed in your TuneCore account, you can leave it in your account to build, or you can transfer the money elsewhere via PayPal or by having TuneCore mail you a paper check. The fee for the paper check is $2.25 and it’s deducted from the amount withdrawn. A check cannot be mailed unless you have $100 or more in your TuneCore account. The fee to transfer to PayPal is free.

iTunes US gives you 70 cents per song. They get to decide the selling price of your music, but the standard price is usually 99 cents. For a complete list of a majority of questions answered, check out this FAQ.

You may only want to try this process out with one song and see how it goes, but there is a penalty for removing a song before it’s been “live” for six months. Also, auto renew is checked by default, so be sure it is unchecked when you are adding your payment info if you don’t want to be automatically billed annually for distribution of your materials.

Happy selling!

The Problem

My sites were effected by an attack targeting WordPress sites hosted on Rackspace and MediaTemple servers. The main symptom of the attack  was an in-browser warning that the site “contains links to sites known to host malware” when attempting access the domain. Here is a brief description of the attack on  sucuri.net.

The Fix

The attack inserted a link to sites supporting malware in every .html .php and .js file within WordPress, which in turn prompted the browser warnings. Since it effected so many files – I backed up my posts and uploads, and nuked my database and WordPress files. I created a new database and did a fresh install of  WordPress and replaced the uploads, and I was still having the same issue. After clubbing a baby seal, I then went through every published post searching for the injected code. I only found one instance and after deletion I had no problems. I then repeated this process (sans baby seal clubbing) on a few other sites and everything was back to normal.  (btw, I also noted all of my plugins and themes, and downloaded them from there original source before reinstalling them)

I was actually surprised with how easy it was to get all of my posts, pages and images back on a clean install.

The Fallout

Nothing too terrible happened as a result of my site(s) being hacked. Several people mentioned their browsers warning them upon trying to view my site, but I was unable to find the time to fix my sites for several days. In that time, I did happen to be a guest on The Cotton Club podcast, and my domain name was dropped while it was still hacked. I am sure the millions of  podcast listeners were annoyed when attempting to view my site. My apologies!

As you may be able to tell, I still have some widgeting and other things to attend to, but my site will be back to running at it’s usual 83% in no time.

Were your WordPress sites attacked as well?

7 evil exes? Yes, 7 evil exes. The movie is based on the Scott Pilgrim series of graphic novels by Canadian Bryan Lee O’Malley (is that just how they spell Bryan in Canada? Is anyone that reads this old enough to get that joke? It’s straight from the heart…)

The movie opens on August 13th.

Otterbox Defender for iPhone 3Gs

If you own a phone, especially an iPhone, and have ever entertained the thought of getting a case for it, you’ve probably heard of the Otterbox Defender.  Here are my thoughts on the case after using it for about a day. As I mentioned in a previous post, I ordered the Otterbox Defender cases for my iPhone 3Gs and Black Bear’s Blackberry Storm.

I think the iPhone case is slightly better made than the BB Storm case, the Storm case’s plastic front screen cover isn’t attached to the bezel on the sides, to allow a little slack for the buttons that are under the screen cover. I am pretty sure that it will allow dirt to creep under the plastic. The iPhone case screen cover is fully attached since the button is not under the plastic screen cover. The iPhone case’s outer rubber cover also attaches more smoothly to the hard inner case.

Overall I am happy with my iPhone case, it was easy to install (there is even a video on the Otterbox site) and the screen sensitivity was not decreased much (and I even have a protective film cover on the iPhone glass). It is a little hard to hit the keys on the edges of the keyboard because of the bezel around the recessed plastic screen cover.

The one thing really didn’t like was the “oil slick” and air bubbles that appeared between the iphone screen and the plastic screen cover. I quickly googled the problem and found a video by Otterbox on how to remedy it with baby powder. Here are the solutions for the problem as stated on otterbox.com:

1. One solution that has been tested by our Engineering team is to apply a very light dusting of baby powder to the inside of the built-in screen protector. View this video for easy to follow instructions on this solution.
2. A second solution, which is easier but requires an additional purchase, is to get an anti-glare screen protector and apply it to your phone. Make sure the screen protector you purchase is anti-glare and has a matte-finish.

Tips for getting the powder trick to work:

I used the first option, and as you can see in the video, you barely use any baby powder. It took me a few tries to get the right amount. Here are my tips:

• wipe any excess powder off of the lid
• give the powder bottle a good shake
• turn the bottle top to open and wipe the excess powder off again
• holding the bottle horizontal, give the bottle a very gentle test squeeze to make sure a very fine dust of powder comes out
• hold the front of the case about 2 feet away from bottle, gently squeeze

This should cover the inside in a fine dusting that you can’t see, if you can see any spots, wipe the inside of the case off and start again. When you think you have it right, insert the phone into the front part of the case and press on the back to simulate the pressure of the back of the case and test out your screen, you shouldn’t see any powder, and you shouldn’t get any air bubbles. My case has a very very faint oil spill look when the light hits it a certain way when the screen is black, but it’s not noticeable in any other conditions. I was happy with the result, as I was tired of the repeating the powder process. I am sure you can get it perfect if you wish. Good Luck!

The Acer 23″ full HD widescreen LCD Display (H233H) is made to amplify high-def multimedia enjoyment. The panoramic, 23″ full HD LCD has a 16:9 aspect ratio and 1920 x 1080 resolution, making it perfect for advanced 1080p full HD gaming and multimedia applications. Using a very high contrast ratio of 40000:1, it delivers the best picture quality for a superior viewing experience. Advanced digital HDMI connectivity delivers exceptional high-def viewing and gives the highest-quality video and audio. A DVI input maximizes the connection quality between LCD monitors and other digital sources, including PC graphics cards. High-bandwidth Digital Content Protection (HDCP) support ensures enjoyment of full-quality DRM-protected entertainment.

Acer H233H

I received my monitors yesterday afternoon and had them unboxed and set up yesterday evening.  The monitors were very nicely packaged with easy to carry handles built in. Included in the box were an instruction booklet, a CD with quick start guide, etc. a speaker cable (it has built in speakers), power cable, HDMI cable, DVI cable, VGA cable, monitor base, and monitor. As you can see in the photo, the monitor bezel and base are a glossy black, the base is actually metallic black. Unpacking and sitting the monitor on the base were very easy. I hooked the first monitor up through DVI in my aftermarket video card (NVIDIA 7300 LE) , and it said “no signal”. I then decided to glance at the instructions – I missed a very important note. I was supposed to turn the computer off, then hook up the monitor, then turn the monitor on, then the PC. After I used this method it worked the first try.

I then hooked the second monitor into the second input in my video card, which was a VGA input. The monitor started working on start up of my PC, I then noticed that my highest resolution was 1660×1050, and that the monitor was stretching it to fill the screen. I went to the NVIDIA site and downloaded the most current driver for my video card, installed it, and rebooted. After reboot 1920×1080 was available was my as my highest resolution, and I was a happy camper.

Now that I’ve used the monitors for a  few hours here are some of the pros and cons I’ve noticed:

Pros

• Easy to unpack/assemble
• Comes with a cable for every input
• very sleek looking and has touch buttons
• VERY bright
• Good contrast

Cons

• Stands are a bit short (there are mounts on the back for mounting to wall or different stand though)
• blacklight bleeding, on dark/black backgrounds, white bleeding around the edges can be seen

All in all I am pretty happy with the monitors, they were on sale for $190 with free shipping and I had been in need of new monitors for a while, but didn’t want to unload a lot of money. These fit the bill very well. If you are interested in these monitors, I recommend reading their review on cnet.com and also making sure that your video card can handle the native resolution of the monitors.

What kind of monitors do you have? If you have any questions about the Acer H233H, feel free to ask in the comments.

LCD Cleaning Wipes

I picked up these LCD wipes hanging next to the LCD TVs at the local Wal-Mart for $1.98. Being a little leery of using them on my TV without knowing what they would do, I tested them out first. I used a wipe on my LCD computer monitor, and while it removed most of the stray spots and smudges with little effort, it left behind a lot of streaks.

The streaks aren’t noticeable when the monitor is illuminated, but in it’s off state the streaking doesn’t look too great. I also tried them out on an LCD laptop screen, and the streaking was even worse.  The wipes did work fine on the keyboard and outside surfaces of the laptop (it was a hard plastic).

I read up online about LCD screen cleaning and apparently it’s pretty common for wipes to leave streaks no matter the price and the way to go is special LCD cleaning spray for no streaking. I have also heard that if you take a polishing cloth (for glasses/sunglasses) and wipe the moisture off from the wipes it will not leave streaks. I haven’t been brave enough to try this on the TV yet.

How do you clean your LCD TV screen?