www.ofhills.com

Learn Some Card Magic

A visitor, goes by the name of XeNoT saw fit to point out that I have boring colors here. Clearly, XeNoT was unmotivated to read my early post Designing Badly where I address this issue. In any case, I was tempted to respond that indeed while my site is boring to the eye (I consider "boring" a compliment, by the way, in the overall spectrum of comments that could be made), I happen to be a content man. Of course, then I realized two things, a) that was bullshit, and b) worse, my use of CON-tent could be mis-read as con-TENT, and then where would I be?

Anyway, real live work has kept me woefully distant from the computer recently, so I thought I would respond to my situation with some real live (you know, recorded live, like TV) video. This is a card trick, and it's very easy to learn, and it amazes people (mostly people who really want to be amazed). So I thought I would demonstrate it here, and teach it to you. Even if you don't know your way around a pack of cards, you can learn this. And, if you aren't inclined to be entertaining, the great thing about card tricks is that it is every bit as easy to be annoying, and that's always entertaining!

Well, that's it. Download the video and begin your career as a per-feshinul card magician. I suggest downloading the hi-res version if possible because the low-res sound and video are really no good. Hard to see and hear. In fact the whole things was a quick take in dim light. Hope you enjoy it anyway

Posted by Oscar on 07/09 at 06:44 PM

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Maggie
10 Jul, 2003
07:11 AM

I guess “Quick Time” is a Mac thing. Apparently I use something else. Probably as in Windows Media Player, so I wasn’t able to view the video . Doesn’t it amaze you when someone has the nerve to critique your site as well as leaving a link to theirs, so that you can follow it and just be dazzled by their “asshat” design?? Personally, I love the colors you’ve chosen Oscar. Very easy on the eyes. I’m entitled to my opinion as well right Oscar ??

Oscar
10 Jul, 2003
08:59 AM
member avatar

He he he ... thanks Maggie. And thanks for including my favorite word ... “design” ... er, no, maybe it was another word ...

BTW, QuickTime For Windows is a free download to play QuickTime movies!

k
15 Jul, 2003
04:34 PM

For some reason I can’t get it to work even though I’ve never had problems with Quicktime before. :( I wanted to learn a magic trick! Maybe I’ll try reinstalling my plugin when I have more time.

Oscar
16 Jul, 2003
11:30 AM
member avatar

Shit! Let me know if it won’t work at all, and I’ll re-post an MPEG-4 or something. I’m away from my broadband at the moment, and it’s a big file to post over the phone! But, it is very important to learn a few card tricks - to annoy one’s friends! I’ll work on it ...

Desiree
19 Jul, 2003
11:47 AM

A smug grin here as I could download it (it was a long download!- and I am on cable)… anyway, looks good but I didn’t leave it going long enough to actually learn the trick, so instead of annoying people and amusing them I guess I’ll have to do the mundane and clean up.

k
22 Jul, 2003
12:55 PM

I finally reinstalled Quicktime and it works fine now. I didn’t have time to watch the whole thing yet, and I figured I’d wait until I had a deck of cards with me (even though I do think it’s always a good idea to have a deck of cards that is available at any moment). I will make sure to try it out as soon as I learn it!

Oscar
25 Jul, 2003
10:21 AM
member avatar

Ahh, I’m happy to see that it works! And yes Desiree, watching a crazy card trick and learning how to do it is definitely not the activity of choice for many people! Cleaning up is far more productive - I need to take some lessons in that area, in fact.

Oscar
25 Jul, 2003
10:31 AM
member avatar

Glad you got it working k, and it IS worth learning if you’re so inclined, because it’s really so easy! And I agree wholeheartedly, one should ALWAYS have a deck of cards handy. Especially because a deck of cards is at once a totally legitimate possession AND a symbol of the dark side of human passions.

Hey, speaking of such, here’s an asshole little card maneuver ... you’re over at your friends’ place and they want you to do a card trick (how they KNOW they want this is up to you, of course), so you find THEIR deck of cards, pick it up, sort of weigh it in your hands, and say, “shit, I can’t use THESE! this deck is short one card, I can feel it.” Then you count out the 51 cards face down, yep, you were right. Then you spread them face up and in a split second, you announce “looks like it’s missing the four of diamonds!” (Or you can just riffle the deck and look at the cards whizzing by, and make the same statement” ... Well, that’s okay, you’ll try a trick anyway, and then you do the Threes trick.

Heh, of course, before all of this, you’ve just found their deck, taken the top card, memorized it, and then torn it up and flushed it down the toilet. Bwaughh ...