Friday, August 22, 2014

[New Favorite Things Friday] Precision


This week I noticed myself drawn to things that helped me be precise. If you know me, you may know that I vacillate between precision and a chaotic sort of gut-feel driven decision-making.  This was a week of precision.

What The Font?

I discovered What The Font? a little less than half an hour ago (said in Inigo Montoya voice--holla if you follow*).  Honestly, I can't believe I didn't go looking for it before. When I am working with any sort of technology, I often think it should be doing more for me than it does. Typically, I Google the thing I want it to do and find that either yes, it can be done or I am a wee bit lofty in my expectations. In the case of What The Font? I was trying to identify a font as I do on a daily basis. I was mirroring a graphic from a website (not copying, honest) and wanted the exact font. I held a brief conversation with myself:

Me: Self, shouldn't the internets be able to figure this out?
Self: You are being too lofty again, dear. There is no way the internet can recognize random fonts.
Me: But don't you think it should?
Self: Well of course dear, check if you must*

I typed "font reader” in the search bar and viola!--the first hit was from a site called ilovetpyography.com.  It was post from 2007! I was not being lofty!  What The Font? can identify fonts for you!  Huzzah! 

ColorZilla

Just after my font success I wanted to know an exact color from the same website (still not copying, honest). I searched "color picker", found a Google Chrome Extension, started to download it, and had another conversation with myself:

Me: I am absolutely sure I would have done this before now
Self: Yes dear, considering your strong feelings about color.
Me: I wonder why I didn't?
Self: Perhaps you did do, dear. Go ahead and check.

And there it was in my Chrome Extensions bar... ColorZilla. It does everything you might hope for and more. I was immediately gifted with the RGB numbers and full code for the color I wanted.

Washi Tape Planning Boards

When the to-do lists get long, I need to manage them in some way. This week a shiny new magnetic white board was installed on my office wall. Granted, I had planned a lovely book shelf quilt wall-hanging for that wall, but considering the size of the to do list, that has fallen to the wayside. I tried listing the to-dos by color, but was not feeling the result. I used washi tape to divide up the board and categorize the to-dos. I also made some quick color-coded magnets by using pre-stickified magnets and pre-colorfied flat-bottom marbles. Could I have marked something off the to-do list in the time it took me to do that? Most certainly. Would it have felt nearly as good?  Not even a little bit.
 



Thread-Wrapping

 I like to wear my wrist-band fit tracker, but it looks and feels clunky after a few days of constant wear. I've seen a lot of thread-wrapped bangles around and about lately, and thought I might be able to fancy it up a bit. I wanted it to stay smooth and unobtrusive, so I had to wrap it very carefully to keep it lined up. I wonder how long it will last and not become pill-y?

Verilux

I read a blog post about Verilux light bulbs and think I might need to try one. Imagine the precision color-picking to be found with light bulbs like this! 





*In case you wondered


**My self is kind of like Mrs. Doubtfire in these situations.

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