Don’t be afraid of change and movement. The river will flow around the rocks. This is something my mother recently said to me in response to the fact that I have been moving, changing and making things happen much more than I ever have before.

My best friend also told me that I needed to “switch gears” in my life because although I am not afraid of change, this does not mean everyone around me can, or even wants to follow at the same pace.

And so, I made some decisions. I will no longer wait for a hero to make things happen for me, plan fantastic vacations, buy me a new house, build me a fabulous office, give me a dream cottage, find me great freelance contracts or plan an unforgettable road trip, and so on.

I am a river in movement. Perhaps my current has been slow at times, and maybe this was because I was waiting for people to move along with me.

But now I understand. I do not need to wait for anyone. I must believe in my dreams, in myself and keep making things happen, even if I have to do the work on my own. True friends and partners will be happy to come along for the ride.

Just like in my Virtual Assistant business, I will keep moving forward. I will go around the rocks.

I am not afraid of change.

***

N’ayez pas peur de bouger et de changer. La rivière contournera les roches. Voilà ce que ma mère m’a dit en réaction au fait que je m’étais mise à bouger, changer et à organiser toutes sortes d’événements et ce, bien plus qu’avant.

Mon meilleur ami m’a aussi dit que je devais «changer de vitesse» dans ma vie car bien que je n’aie pas peur du changement, ceci ne garantit pas que mes proches soient en mesure de suivre mon rythme ou veuillent le faire.

J’ai donc pris des décisions. Désormais, je n’attendrai plus un héros qui fera tout pour moi, qui planifiera de fabuleux voyages, qui me construira une nouvelle maison, un nouveau bureau, un chalet de rêves, qui m’obtiendra d’extraordinaires contrats de pige ou qui organisera un périple inoubliable vers une destination surprise, etc.

Je suis une rivière en mouvement. Mon cours a sans doute été lent par moments, peut être parce que j’espérais et j’attendais ceux qui bougeraient au même rythme que moi.

Mais j’ai compris que je n’ai à attendre personne. Je dois croire en mes rêves, croire en moi et continuer à bouger, même si je dois le faire seule par moments. Les véritables ami(e)s et partenaires seront heureux de faire partie de l’aventure.

Tout comme pour mon entreprise d’assistance virtuelle, je vais continuer à avancer et à bouger, et je contournerai les roches moi aussi.

Car je n’ai pas peur du changement.

And so it begins again. This is my new blog. It’s a new start !

I will try to be better at blogging. More interesting things.

For example today Jóna and I went out to the post office to finally get my birthday present from my dad. It’s a cd and a USB key with music, a whole bunch of music he’s taken from the vinyls – a few of them I recognized, I used to sit by our turn table and listen to a few tracks over and over again, especially Sunday Bloody Sunday by U2 (way before they started sucking).

Tonight we had the most amazing poutine, which we called Bepoutine. We bought some pepper seasoned oven fries, a lot of Béarnaise sauce and Kotasæla (Icelandic cottage cheese). It was all put together into something closer to a soup than a poutine. But it as greasy, thick, saucy, heavy and fat as it may sound, it was absolutely delicious. Heavy like a brick, but delicious.

But it’s okay, we’ve been eating very good food. Loads of coriander (which I used to dislike).

Also !

Yesterday I had my job interview at Mímir. It went very well. This is the story: Jón Simon, who I know through Kael, is a Brit who teaches Icelandic at this institute (where Erla used to work and where her mother teachers, too). However, for the month of February he’ll be in Luxembourg, so they need a replacement. He told them about me and asked me to go and talk with Sólborg, the woman who could hire me. We did, went there (it’s in Skeifan), and I spoke with Sólborg, had some christmas cookies (here there is christmas milk, christmas malt, christmas beer, even christmas chocolate milk).

So it looks like I will be TEACHING Icelandic to foreigners for all of February, and will get quite well payed for it (roughly it should double my money for the month, get about 120.000kr extra, which is all going into my now quite sizeable savings for the new Canon 7d. I should get it in March ! AND I CAN’T WAIT !! ).

It’s not only a very exciting opportunity but it would be an amazing achievement for me, to be able to say that after just over a year in Iceland, I started teaching Icelandic to foreigners – plus I would be teaching level 3 (of 5). I was just about to take off my clothes and start a bonfire of happiness in the office. Sólborg seemed very pleased and she even hinted at the fact that we probably wouldn’t need me to apply for a (complicated) work permit, because it’s so little.

Also !

I have been working on mastering the Leipzig glossing rules, and so for fun I’ve been glossing a couple of phrases in Alopian, just to give an idea of what the inner workings of the language are. Here is an example:

teikis takevamami suvi

t-eųi-ki-s ta-keva-ma-mi-Ø suv-i

3sg.unag.ina-carry.away/past-transloc-punc 3sg.unag.ina-float-1pl.unag-actnom.unag.trans-dat flow-nom.ina

it carried away [it floats us] current

‘Our boat was carried away by the current’

This phrase shows off what is called “action nominals”, or in simple terms a noun which has all the characteristics of a verb, yet acts as a noun. In the case of the example above, the action nominal is takevamami, which literally means ‘it floats us’, but it is used as a noun (means “our boat”).

So this is it for now. A new blog !

Listen to this song !

We often do not create any Pipe Networks to represent the existing utility mains in a project.  There is usually limited information on the correct depth of the utilities, even with a utility spot.  The best we can hope for is to draw the main in the plan view based on paint markings, and draw the crossings in our profile manually based on an approximate depth after a phone call to the respective agency.

On a recent design, not knowing the depth of the existing utility mains was a problem.  We have Force Main and Water Main running along and under a dirt road that will be paved.  Everyone is concerned that vibratory packing will cause a problem.  So they potholed the lines.

Now I have 3D point locations along 2 mains.  A pipe network would be best, so that it is easy to bring into my profile, and can be managed by styles. This presents a nuisance since the locations are on top of the pipes, and there are a lot of locations; that’s a lot of pipe edits.

Here is what I came up with.  Again, not rocket science, but I hope that it will help someone else. 

• Style the points so that it is easy to discern them from others. 
• Make the style respond to the elevations. 
• Create a 3D polyline from point to point
• move the polyline down the HALF (see below) the respective inner diameter plus one wall thickness.  I used he move command.
• Make sure the Pipe style prepared as desired, and the correct pipe size is in the Parts List.  Don’t forget the wall thickness
• Create Pipe Network from Object
• Add the network to your profile

Half the diameter

The reason for this is that the Create Pipe Network from Object will use the elevation of the 3D polyline for the CENTERLINE of the pipe.  If you move the polyline down a full diameter, then the pipe will be created too low.  I mean to tell you that is a lot of edits. 

If you did do this wrong, you can fix the pipe network easily.  Just expand the pipe network in the prospector, select the individual pipes (I highlight and pick ‘Select’ from the right click menu), and use the AutoCAD Move Command again.  Move it up HALF the pipe diameter.  Double check your values.

The wall thickness is somewhat negligible for structures like ductile iron, but I like consistency, so I add it.  If you are simulating RCP, then that thickness will be substantial.

That’s it.  Again, not rocket science, but the 3D poly really speeds things up.

Did you notice the wrong pipe linetype in the plan view?  10 seconds later it’s FM instead.  Another benefit of pipe networks in this case – 1 style can direct both Plan view and Profile view independently.

Can you tell the difference between these two ads?

Look closely:

Well the one on the bottom just made the founders of Teracent, very, very rich!

OK, that’s not quite the same example that Google just gave over at the official blog, but it did announce that it plans to acquire Teracent.

What does Teracent do?

Teracent’s technology can pick and choose from literally thousands of creative elements of a display ad in real-time — tweaking images, products, messages or colors. These elements can be optimized depending on factors like geographic location, language, the content of the website, the time of day or the past performance of different ads.

This technology can help advertisers get better results from their display ad campaigns. In turn, this enables publishers to make more money from their ad space and delivers web users better ads and more ad-funded web content.

Think of it as multi-variate testing for your banner ads.

No news yet on the price paid and the deal is subject to final closing conditions.

Social Media Monitoring in Just 60-Seconds. Guaranteed!

Completely remodeled units ready to move in. All units have stainless steel appliances, ceramic tile floors, new countertops, paint, bathroom vanities.

These apartments are available for Immediate  Move Ins and Pre-lease!

1. Efficiencies 325 SF $550/month immediate, $575/month pre-lease
2. 1/1’s 615 SF $725/month immediate, $825/month pre-lease
3. 2/2’s 792 SF $1050/month immediate, $1195/month pre-lease

Contact:  Antonio Fuentez III

Office: 512-476-1976

Mobile: 832-439-3640

• To move forward in life.
• To feel fresh, especially if you are not a morning person, do this Mudra.
• If you are stuck up in a traffic.
• After 8th month of pregnancy is over, do this Mudra. Movement of the child will be smooth. Natural movement of foetus will happen and there will be an easy delivery.

Index and middle fingers touches the thumb.

Beat the Traffic – a Case History

Tom is not a morning person. He works for a software company. Timings are flexible. So he can afford to go late to office.

Due to some work pressure, though suddenly he had to go early to office. This he found it very difficult to do, even after setting up an alarm.

So after waking up, and until he got up from bed, he started doing Movement Mudra or otherwise called as a Kubera Mudra. After a couple of weeks, he was able to get up early without an alarm.

Unfortunately, the morning hour’s traffic was too much for him to handle. He started doing this Mudra, whenever he had to wait for the signal or when the traffic stops. Surprisingly he found that he could beat the traffic somehow.

Within a couple of months, he was asked to vacate his house. He found a house, which was closer to his office. He thinks there is a connection between this change and the movement Mudra, as he started reaching his office early without any effort whatsoever.

Kevin Nolan’s eighth league goal of the season sends Newcastle back to the top of the Championship…. From BBC News. Full story

This site may contain information about: soccer skills. The blog is also related to: soccer score.

Through a series of funny interpersonal coincidences, my friend/collaborator Ryan Dunn and myself were asked to propose an identity for a conference being held by the New York chapter of the AIGA. The conference was called Move, and was a celebration of film, new media, and the collision of motion and design. This being one of our first significant freelance projects, we went all-out trying to make something crazy for the project, starting with drawing a new logotype and extending it into a custom typeface.

Our concept was to make something that felt very precise, built off a tight grid, but whose constituent parts were imprecise and hand-made. Inspired by extruded type I found in a book (from the famous Parco building in Japan) we got it in our heads to build a modular typeface, heavily geometric and able to be broken down into a basic 1×1 element. We drew the face and then cut it out of wood so we could photograph it against various backgrounds.

We ended up jettisoning the multi-level type approach and painted the wood white to remove the associations that raw wood entails. Still unsure of how we wanted to use the type, we tried it against a number of other background colors and at different levels of dispersement.

We finished drawing out the rest of the character set, to at least have something (barely) functional for the rest of the identity. We thought it was funny to be doing the identity for an official AIGA event and using a totally untested, first-try typeface, especially never having drawn one before. It looks okay here in a pleasant arrangement, but in anything besides all-caps the system shows its glaring faults. Or its charms, rather, or what Ryan and I came to understand as a very important principle of our approach, what we call ‘wonk’. Wonk is the inherent imperfections that exist in any amateur pursuit, when a less-than-masterful practitioner of a craft undertakes that which is just out of reach. Over time, however, we found wonk to be inescapable, realizing that it was more of a personal affectation, that the weirdness and off-balance nature of the work was something we enjoyed, rather than something to be fixed.

The final poster, made up of the various photo sessions and flowed into an isometric grid, adding an extra dimension of optical wonkiness. Of course, informational text was still set in our old favourite, Akzidenz Grotesk. We also used the extensive photo sessions to make a stop-motion video open for the conference, set to custom audio done in Garageband.

We knocked ourselves out trying to outdo ourselves, and ultimately came up with something not too visually wild, but playful and a inventive to a degree. To see the videos and rest of the identity please visit our page at Labour.

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc262089.aspx#section4

The office move was scarily smooth.  I was settled into my cubicle by noon that Thursday.  Thank you to all our wonderful support people!

Now it’s Monday and we are officially open for business in our new office.  I like it!  It’s quiet, we have a nice view of a pretty park, and I have my very own cubicle to decorate. We just have a little wrinkles here and there to smooth out, but that is to be expected with any transition.

I had a really interesting dream last night.  It was one that was so vivid that I remember just about every detail, which hardly ever happens.

I was living in a hotel room with my cousin for a while because I was getting ready to move.  I woke up in my dream on the last day that I was supposed to be in the hotel.  I started packing up the essentials and then looked down at my watch, which strangely had a countdown timer on it.  The countdown (as weird as this sounds) was a self destruct timer that would blow up the room if I wasn’t out in time.  I had a while at first so I just started packing clothes and such.  Then a little while later I looked down and had only 8 minutes.  For a second, I was a little panicked but then realized that 8 minutes was quite some time so I slowed back down.  After those 8 minutes, I had all my clothes packed and was just packing little things.  Then the alarm on the watch started going off to signal that it was going to blow up so me and my cousin started scrambling to get as much as we could.  I couldn’t find my keys so we were throwing stuff all over the place trying to find them.  We found them with about a second left and got out of the room with my stuff just as it blew up.  All the while, we were not really that stressed about the magnitude of the explosion itself.  It was almost like it was a normal thing.  We got my stuff in the car when I realized that I forgot my DVDs and a few other things (I have a very substantial collection of DVDs).  I left my cousin downstairs in the parking lot to get them but I wasn’t sure if they would actually be there after the bomb.  I got back to the room and it hadn’t done a ton of damage which was good.  My DVDs were all there and intact.  I started to pack them up and take  them to the car.  When I got back down, my parents were there so we left.  A few minutes after we left, I realized that I had forgotten my cell phone in my room but my mom didn’t want to go back and get it.  Somehow later my stepdad took me back to get it but I was worried that they had already cleaned out the room for the next person.  I got back to the hotel and as I was walking back to the front desk, I woke up from my dream.

It was really weird.  I think that dreams are thoughts and desires in picture form and most of the time  (not always) they mean something.  I feel like this dream was a lot about regret and the things I will leave behind if/when I move.  I remember that feeling we all get when we think we are forgetting something and for me to come back so much was almost like I didn’t really want to go at all because of the things I would leave behind and couldn’t take with me.  The bomb is the weird element in the dream.  It’s almost as if I have to get out and that was the thing pushing me out.

Strange stuff…

Well, the move of this journal to a new location is now complete. I apologize for any confusion or difficulty that anyone had to deal with.

The move was made to protect myself and my readers from a hateful individual that was in my life. Apparently, despite years of being open about it, I was “ambushed” by an uncle of mine over my religious beliefs. I think I can sum up how low the conversation went just by telling you that he repeatedly told me that if he ever sees me he will “stone” me for my “ridiculous beliefs.” He feels that my beliefs, which I’ve held since I was a child, are “just a cry for attention.” Several of my family members and friends are very angry over this… to the point that many of us have severed all ties. It is unfortunate that it came to that point, but I know that I personally have enough drama in my life without his contribution. I don’t need to associate with a man who hates me simply because I do not hold identical views to his when it comes to religion.

The Megnificent Made Etsy store will be closed for a few days (11/22 – 11/24) while I move from Sydney to New York. The move will be for a few months while I work out the mess of visas and residency. Behind I will be leaving Graham and our piggies but will have the opportunity to spend time with my family and friends in New York through the holidays and then some. Bitter sweet as always!

I intend to sell and post from New York so bare with me while I get my feet on the ground again!

A bunny clutching a teddy bear? In front of a house smaller than the bunny’s head?

Only in Japan would middle-aged men working for a tract home builder wear super-childish manga splashed uniforms. Do you think the worker feels professional, confident, and ready to move some pre-fab homes?

I’m trying to do a lot of “site business” today, posting drafts that have been languishing on my dashboard, and even switching the banner on the site to a grungier jpg that should require no introduction.

But this makes me realize that I’ve been lax in explaining the significance of the original banner.  For the uninitiated, it was this:

Here’s the story: I’ve lived in The City all my life, and it wasn’t until I went to college that I actually “got out” for an extended period of time.  Straight after that, I moved back home, and I’ve pretty much stayed there until this summer, barring the odd wedding.

So when Bob and I first started coming up to Lonesome Valley for vacations, I didn’t have much to compare this place to.  The local towns and villages were faintly Lovecraftian, sure, but the land out here looked like nothing I’d ever seen.

And yet there was something that drew me to it, something familiar that reminded me of being much younger–an elusive happy memory that I couldn’t quite put my finger on.  It was only a few months before we actually made the move out that I realized what it was: The horizons out here were Activision horizons.

For those of you who don’t know the score, Activision is a video game company that started designing back in the day, for the Atari 2600.  This was a system whose graphics were decidedly pixely, and in order to convey basic visual concepts like “man” and “spaceship” and “giant spider”, they depended on blending cubism and impressionism–specifically, by making impressionist images out of cubes.  Everything looked like it had been stacked together from Lego blocks.

For most companies designing for the 2600, this limited palette was a liability, and their games tended to look like crude stick-figure versions of what you’d see in the arcades.  But Activision, whose designers had a penchant for taking their games a step further, took a step further with their graphics, too.  Rather than making their human characters look like gingerbread men, they kept them in recognizable proportion, and put little nooks in the chins to give them the faintest hint of detail–your eye filled in the rest.  Their spiders and beasties were reminiscent of hieroglyphs.  And when it came to the top of the screen, they used those little bars and blocks of color that were holding back the other designers, and fashioned them into worlds.

With no vanishing point to speak of in the crush of The City, Activision video games were where I saw my first truly beautiful horizons.  The shifting sky over the car race in Larry Miller’s “Enduro”.  The cotton-candy clouds over the titular squid-besieged mammal in Matthew Hubbard’s “Dolphin”.  The mountain range behind the endless mechanized war of Alan Miller’s “Robot Tank”.

The banner posted above is my favorite of all the horizons, and it belonged to Steve Cartwright’s “Barnstorming”.  It was used on this site as an appreciation of the fact that, with a pocketful of pixels, the Activision designers not only pushed the genre they were working in to the limit, but gave this particular nerd some faint idea of what it was like to admire natural beauty, back in a time when it was in short supply.  The way modern tots having “Baby Einstein” CDs foisted upon them in the nursery will (theoretically) develop a warm and fuzzy association with classical music, so I’ve developed one for mountains and skies, thanks directly to these designers.

But of course, this isn’t to say that I moved to the middle of nowhere just because the place reminds me of Atari games.  Let’s not get carried away here: Lonesome Valley also reminds me of Playstation’s “Silent Hill”.

The new owner of Waterford Wedgwood china firm moves one of its finance offices to north Staffordshire…. From BBC News. Full story

This site may contain information about: china area. The blog is also related to: china travel.

Pack your bags = with 24 gallons water on the moons surface maybe you should make the biggest move in your life! Don’t forget to tell your friends!

Vikings to consider L.A. move? WTF LOL

My two closest friends are both gone- one is fighting a war in Iraq and one is teaching English in Seoul, South Korea. I am without anyone here whom I closely trust enough to share my deepest thoughts and my heart with. So I feel that God may be bringing me to a test upon this lesson. I don’t trust easily and I don’t waste time letting in those that I know are not on the same spiritual plane. I don’t mean religion when I say spiritual, I mean actually that, spiritual, spirits.

So, this is a BIG reason for my desire to uproot. I am confident in where I am as a person and I know whatever I attempt in this life, I will succeed.

Earlier this week, I was told “quite honestly, you have no direction,” to which I responded with a stern “standing up” for myself. In one light, no, I do not have proper direction, in another, how off is that, I have a wicked direction that has never left me alone, that has never abonded me.

I know not why I seek moving, uprooting, but I do. I know not yet why I am being called to this particular location, but I know the one leading me, will not lead me wrong. I know if I help myself, I will be helped by He, who is greater.

With two besties gone, I feel that following their lead, is what I need as well. So fighting in Iraq is an inspiration and teaching English in Seoul is an inspiration as well. I will conquer my world as well. I am thankful for the one(s) leading me in my UPROOT.