stop slicing

If you have big ideas about caricature carving, start with the Little Guys! Author Keith Randich takes you cut-by-cut through the process of transforming a small block of wood into an expressive little person. By learning to carve a Little Guy, you’ll master essential techniques to get you started in an enjoyable and rewarding new hobby.

This skill-building guidebook reveals the secrets of capturing humor and expression in caricature carving. Discover what really gives these guys their character, as you use your knife to craft cleverly exaggerated features like noses, boots, bellies and shoes. And Carving the Little Guys covers all of the basics you’ll need to know about tools, sharpening, cutting, safety, finishing, repairs and more.

Once you know how to carve one Little Guy, you are on your way to creating a variety of different occupation and personality types. With a simple turn of the knife point here or there you can completely change your Little Guy into a Soldier, Hunter, Fireman, Doctor, Fisherman… or even a Little Gal!

Learn caricature carving the easy way with:

Skill-building practice exercise

Step-by-step color photographs

Tips & techniques for beginning carvers

Adding faces, ears, hats, hands and feet

Finishing & painting your Little Guy

Basics of wood, knives, honing & safety

This book offers Python programmers one place to look when they need help remembering or deciphering the syntax of this open source language and its many powerful but scantily documented modules. This comprehensive reference guide makes it easy to look up the most frequently needed information--not just about the Python language itself, but also the most frequently used parts of the standard library and the most important third-party extensions.

Ask any Python aficionado and you'll hear that Python programmers have it all: an elegant object-oriented language with readable and maintainable syntax, that allows for easy integration with components in C, C++, Java, or C#, and an enormous collection of precoded standard library and third-party extension modules. Moreover, Python is easy to learn, yet powerful enough to take on the most ambitious programming challenges. But what Python programmers used to lack is a concise and clear reference resource, with the appropriate measure of guidance in how best to use Python's great power. Python in a Nutshell fills this need.

Python in a Nutshell, Second Edition covers more than the language itself; it also deals with the most frequently used parts of the standard library, and the most popular and important third party extensions. Revised and expanded for Python 2.5, this book now contains the gory details of Python's new subprocess module and breaking news about Microsoft's new IronPython project. Our "Nutshell" format fits Python perfectly by presenting the highlights of the most important modules and functions in its standard library, which cover over 90% of your practical programming needs. This book includes:

• A fast-paced tutorial on the syntax of the Python language
• An explanation of object-oriented programming in Python
• Coverage of iterators, generators, exceptions, modules, packages, strings, and regular expressions
• A quick reference for Python's built-in types and functions and key modules
• Reference material on important third-party extensions, such as Numeric and Tkinter
• Information about extending and embedding Python

Python in a Nutshell provides a solid, no-nonsense quick reference to information that programmers rely on the most. This book will immediately earn its place in any Python programmer's library.

Praise for the First Edition:

"In a nutshell, Python in a Nutshell serves one primary goal: to act as an immediately accessible goal for the Python language. True, you can get most of the same core information that is presented within the covers of this volume online, but this will invariably be broken into multiple files, and in all likelihood lacking the examples or the exact syntax description necessary to truly understand a command."
--Richard Cobbett, Linux Format

"O'Reilly has several good books, of which Python in a Nutshell by Alex Martelli is probably the best for giving you some idea of what Python is about and how to do useful things with it."
--Jerry Pournelle, Byte Magazine

With her unmatched eye for color, color mixing and layering, well-known artist and fan favorite Julie Picarello helps beginners and advanced polymer artisans design, texture and finish gorgeous art beads using relatively simple techniques. In-depth introduction sections cover basics, color inspiration and recipes, and needed tools and materials. The book includes 7 mini projects and 10 finished jewelry projects, while callouts at the beginning of each project let the readers know exactly what specialized techniques will be learned. It’s the color that makes polymer clay truly exciting, and this book uses color like you’ve never seen it before.

Do you know how to tie your shoe? Or do you just think you do but you’ve actually been screwing it up for decades like most people have?

This witty, light book takes a fresh spin on all the mistakes we make everyday that end up costing us big in our wallets, our health, our homes, and beyond. Topics covered are Yourself (appearance, skills, all things you), Your Home, Your Cooking, Your Money, Your Relationships & Family, and Your Health. This perfect combination of humor and wisdom entertains readers as they learn how to make their lives better by avoiding and remedying common screw-ups.

Things we all mess up:

• Using chopsticks as spears because you just can't figure them out (Yourself)
• Throwing Frisbees behind you, sucking at horseshoes, and other game/sporting fouls (Yourself)
• Living with streaky paint or air bubbles under the wallpaper you screwed up (Your Home)
• Killing all the houseplants you’ve ever bought (Your Home)
• Burning the edges and undercooking the middle (Your Cooking)
• Breaking the yolk every time you flip an egg (Your Cooking
• Your taxes. Argh. (Your Money)
• Overdrawing your account and paying a fee even though you have overdraft protection (Your Money)
• Cracking someone's ribs in the Heimlich maneuver (Your Health)
• Inability to make a Band-Aid stick or get a Band-Aid off without tearing out your hair (Your Health)
• Forgetting your loved ones birthdays year after year (Your Relationships & Family)
• Ruining Christmas with the untimely truth about Santa (Your Relationships & Family)
• Embarrassing yourself on a date because you don't understand the French menu or the 90-page wine list (Your Relationships & Family)

The ways in which we flub and flounder are infinite, and this book taps into that boundless fountain of foul ups in a way that will entertain and enlighten readers of all kinds.