Hi BB Users,

Blackberry Onyx just launched in several country including Indonesia.  There respond of market is positive as we know there are improvements in technology at Blackberry Bold 9700/ Onyx. What is the new features at Blackberry Onyx ?

Available Features Blackberry Onyx 9700

• Trackpad navigation
• Bright, hi-resolution screen
• Full QWERTY keyboard
• 3G technology
• Wi-Fi® and Bluetooth® enabled
• 256MB flash memory
• 3.2 MP digital camera with
  video camera
• Multimedia player
• Wireless email
• Organizer
• Browser
• Phone
• SMS/MMS
• MicroSD card reader
• Learn more about the features available on BlackBerry® smartphones

Size and Weight

Height:
4.29 inches (109 mm)

Width:
2.36 inches (60 mm)

Depth:
0.56 inches (14.1 mm)

Weight:
4.30 ounces / 122 grams
(including battery)
3.17 ounces / 90 grams
(without battery)

Battery & Battery Life

• Battery: 1500 mAh removable/rechargeable cryptographic Lithium cell
• Talk Time: Up to 6 hours (GSM and UMTS)
• Standby Time: Up to 21 days/504 hours (GSM), Up to 17 days/408 hours (UMTS)
• Music Playback Time: Up to 38 hours

Display

• High resolution 480×360 pixel
  color display
• Transmissive TFT LCD
• Supports over 65,000 colors
• 2.44″ (diagonally measured)

Camera & Video Recording

• 3.2 MP Camera
• Auto Focus, Image Stabilization
• Flash
• 2X digital zoom
• Video camera recording:
  Normal Mode (480 x 352 pixel),
  MMS Mode (176 x 144 pixel)
• Learn more about camera and video recording

Maps & GPS

• Includes BlackBerry Maps
• Integrated GPS with A-GPS
• Learn more about BlackBerry Maps and GPS

Data Input & Navigation

• 35 key backlit QWERTY keyboard
• Dedicated Keys: Send, End, VAD (User Customizable), Camera (User Customizable), 2 x Volume/Zoom
• Trackpad – Located on front face of device, ESC Key to the right, Menu to the left
• Intuitive icons and menus

Voice Input & Output

• Integrated speaker and microphone
• Hands-free headset capable
• Bluetooth headset capable
• Integrated Hands-Free Speakerphone
• Rating for hearing aids (PDF): M3, T3 (in cellular bands only)

Media Player

• Video format support: XviD partially supported, H.263, H.264, WMV3, MPEG4, Sorenson Spark & On2 VP6 (Flash support)
• Audio format support: .3gp, MP3, WMA9 (.wma/.asf), WMA9 Pro / WMA 10, MIDI, AMR-NB, Professional AAC/AAC+/eAAC+
• Learn more about the BlackBerry smartphone media player
• Learn more about BlackBerry® Media Sync

Ringtones & Notifications

• Tone, vibrate, on-screen or LED indicator
• Notification options are user configurable
• 32 Polyphonic Ringtones – MIDI, SP-MDI, MP3, WAV
• Learn more about ringtones

Bluetooth

• Bluetooth® v2.1
• Mono/Stereo Headset
• Handsfree
• Serial Port Profile
• Bluetooth Stereo Audio (A2DP/AVCRP)
• Bluetooth SIM Access Profile supported
• Learn more about Bluetooth

Security

• Password protection
• Screen lock
• Sleep mode
• Optional support for S/MIME
• Learn more about BlackBerry security

Wi-Fi

• 802.11 b/g
• UMA support
• Wi-Fi Alliance Certifications: WPA, WPA2, WMM, WMM Power Save, Wi-Fi Protected Setup, Cisco CCX
• Learn more about Wi-Fi

Wireless Networks

• 3G (HSDPA) compatible
• UMTS: 2100/1900/850/800 MHz (Bands 1,2,5/6), 2100/1700/900 MHz (Bands 1,4,8)
• GSM: 1900/1800/900/850 MHz
• Quad-band support: GSM 850; GSM
• Learn more about wireless networks

Source : Blackberry website

Hi BB Users,

Here is the free Blackberry Onyx 9700 themes collection 1 for you.

If you are new user, please read related link how to install apps & games blackberry, please click http://freeappsblackberry.wordpress.com/2009/11/06/installing-3rd-party-applications-games-for-bb/

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Join Facebook group for Free Apps, Games Blackberry by click at blackberry community.

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Free L Shape Onyx 9700

Free L shape theme for Blackberry Bold 9700 with 9 customizable home screen icons. This simple theme with few modifications from the stock zen theme is created by Scoot05RedSS for Blackberry Bold 9700 users. Grab it from the download link after the jump.

Free themes Blackberry : OTA Download L Shape Theme For Blackberry Bold 9700 

Hero HTC Blackberry Themes Onyx 9700

• Free themes Blackberry Download OTA:
  • HTC Hero (Onyx)
  • HTC Hero (Storm

ONYXia v1.4, available for the BlackBerry Curve 8900, Tour 9630, Bold 9000 and 9700.

Features:

• simple, yet professional-looking design
• 12 main icons + 6 side icons for folders / option-related apps (look at the screenshot example to get an idea)
• theme studio 5.0 transitions
• hidden today
• dedicated weather icon (place weather app in the first column of row four in the app screen aka. 19th slot)
• launch quick launch with the space key, and launch SMS And MMS with the dollar sign key
• homescreen is wallpaper-friendly

While these theme may not be fully skinned it definitely offers some great features and will give your compatible BlackBerry a good look. Free themes blackberry OTA Download ONYXia v1.4:

• Bold 9700/Tour 9630/Curve 8900:
  • OS 5.0 OTA: Click here
  • OS 4.7 OTA: Click here
• Bold 9000:
  • OS 5.0 OTA: Click here
  • OS 4.6 OTA: Click here

Roger theme

Free themes blackberry OTA Download : Click here to download OTA>>

Beautiful Scenic of Autumn

Free themes blackberry PC Download

Marlboro

Free themes blackberry PC Download 

Green Design

Free themes blackberry PC Download 

Cute Cat

Free themes blackberry PC download

Hari ini, BlackBerry Bold 9700 a.k.a Onyx secara resmi diperkenalkan di Jakarta. Dalam sebuah perhelatan di Dragon Fly, Jakarta, smartphone itu dipamerkan ke hadapan para jurnalis nanti sore pukul 15.00 WIB.

Dijual dengan harga eceran Rp 6.450.000 (di luar pajak dan tanpa kartu), seri terbaru BlackBerry teranyar ini dijejali sistem operasi versi 5.0 untuk komunikasi high-end, wifi, dan koneksi GSM berbasis 3G — seperti yang sudah ada di Bold pendahulunya. Kabarnya, jaringan BlackBerry messenger di versi ini sudah tingkatkan sehingga jauh lebih nyaman dibanding pendahulunya.

Apa lagi yang baru? Seperti BlackBerry Gemini 8520, seri Bold 9700 Onyx juga telah mengganti Trackball dengan Trackpad yang lebih sensitif. Dengan alat navigasi tersebut, pengguna terhindar dari risiko tombol ngadat gara-gara debu yang menumpuk.

Mengenai spesifikasi lengkap BlackBerry Bold 9700, silakan baca-baca penjelasannya di sini. Soalnya, terus terang saya belum merasakan sendiri keasyikan memainkan perangkat baru ini.

Saya malah sudah lebih dulu menjajal BlackBerry Curve 8520 a.k.a Gemini. Ini BlackBerry tipe paling murah, dijual sekitar Rp 2,1 juta – Rp 2,4 juta (tanpa kartu dari operator). Di tengah eforia pasar Indonesia yang tengah tergila-gila pada semua produk buatan RIM Kanada ini, Gemini tampaknya cukup cepat terserap, terutama di kalangan first BlackBerry users.

Sosoknya mirip BlackBerry Curve 8900 (Javelin), lengkap dengan keyboard QWERTY. Curve 8520 atawa Gemini adalah produk pertama Research in Motion yang menggunakan trackpad optik sebagai perangkat navigasi menggantikan trackball yang juga terdapat pada seri Javelin dan Bold.

BlackBerry 8520 Gemini

Peranti anyar ini, bagi saya, lebih nyaman ketimbang trackball. Sebelumnya saya sempat memakai Curve 8310 dengan trackball. Dua kali saya harus membawanya ke tempat servis untuk dibersihkan dan satu kali membeli trackball baru. Navigator berbentuk bola ini cepat kotor dan membuat fungsinya terganggu. Trackpad nyaris bebas dari gangguan semacam itu.

Trackpad tampaknya merupakan jawaban RIM atas keluhan para pengguna terhadap trackball. Tak heran bila seri-seri BlackBerry berikutnya pun memakai sistem navigasi tarckpad sebagai pengganti trackball.

Curve 8520 juga dilengkapi media keys di bagian atas untuk mengakses musik dan video, seperti play, repeat, dan mute. Lalu ada BlackBerry Media Sync yang memudahkan sinkronisasi dengan iTunes atau Windows Media Player.

Untuk membantu orang-orang seperti saya, disediakan BlackBerry App World, bursa aplikasi khusus BlackBerry. Dengan fasilitas ini, saya bisa menjelajah situs BlackBerry untuk mengunduh, misalnya, theme, wallpaper, ringtone, dan sebagainya. Aplikasi itu ada yang gratis, ada pula yang berbayar.

Namun, ada sedikit pengurangan pada Curve 8520 seperti kamera hanya 2 megapiksel, sedangkan pada Javelin 3,2 megapiksel.

Layarnya 2,64 inci TFT LCD 320X240 piksel — lebih cerah dan tajam ketimbang 8310. Ketebalan bodinya hanya 39 sentimeter, panjang 10,9 cm, dan lebar 6 cm. Beratnya 106 gram. Fiturnya juga belum mendukung 3G, baru GSM/GPRS/EDGE. Tapi tersedia fasilitas WiFi dan Bluetooth.

Curve 8520 menggunakan prosesor 52 MHz, memori internal 256 MB, dan mendukung slot memori eksternal microSD/SDHC dari 16 GB yang kini tersedia hingga generasi berikutnya 32 GB.

Memori itu cukup memadai untuk mengakomodasi kegiatan saya sehari-hari, seperti browsing, membuka dan menulis email, berkicau di Twitter, Facebook, dan membaca blog. Jam pasir yang kerap keluar di BlackBerry 8310 saya dulu, sekarang tak nongol lagi di Gemini.

Bagaimana dengan daya tahan baterai?

Pada seri 8310, saya bisa menggenjot baterainya hingga sekitar 12 jam untuk pemakaian normal. Sedangkan daya tahan baterai 8520 sedikit lebih panjang, sekitar 18 jam dalam pemakaian normal. Mungkin karena lebih baru. Yang jelas, kalau saya pakai untuk membuka UberTwitter secara nonstop, daya tahan baterai, baik 8310 maupun 8520, menyusut drastis.

Last but not least, pilihan ada di tangan sampean. Setiap pilihan hendaknya didasari oleh kebutuhan, dan bukan sekadar gaya-gayaan atau mengikuti trend semata. Jadilah konsumen yang cerdas.

>> Selamat hari Rabu, Ki Sanak. Apakah sampean tertarik memiliki salah satu dari dua seri BlackBerry terbaru itu?

I finally got time to go shopping again!  I guess it’s technically almost winter, but the weather outside says otherwise, which is okay by me!  I found some really cute stuff, below are my faves:

The holidays are coming up, which means a lot of parties and functions.  Here are a few party dress options:

Love the colors in this Max & Cleo tube dress from Sonny B. $150

Metallics are also a fun option from black for the holidays.  This Ya tube dress from Sole Searching is so cute! $49

Another option is this Max & Cleo Silver dress from Sonny B. $150

If you’re looking for a dress thats a little less flashy, but still fun, this Max & Cleo Fringe dress is perfect! Also from Sonny B., $157.50

I’m also loving this Max & Cleo classy purple houndstooth print dress from Sonny B. $110 This one can be dressed up or down!

Another fab look for the holidays is a great pantsuit, with a fun shirt.  Check out this outfit.  Grab the BCBGeneration Tuxedo jacket from Lula Balou $128….

Layer it over this BB Dakota sequin tank from Sonny B. $66

And finally finish it off with these BB Dakota skinny black pants also from Sonny B. $84

Right now Sole Searching has some fabulous necklaces that can dress up any outfit.  Looking for something edgy, yet refined? you need this gold & onyx necklace. $169

For a classier look try this impressive freshwater pearl necklace, $120, which has matching pearl hoop earrings 

or either of these Lenora Dame Pearl Necklaces $115, $120

And every lady needs a good cocktail ring.  Choose from any of these plus more at Sole Searching, $29-$39

During this time of year, I am always on the lookout for cute long-sleeved dress.  The buttons on the sleeves really do it for this Vfish dress from Sole Searching, $115

Another option to winter-ize your skimpier dresses are to layer long-sleeved shirts underneath.  The sleeves on this Mystree black shirt make it more dramatic.  From Lula Balou, $48

Turtlenecks can feel very restricting, but the cut-out lace shoulders of this XCVI shirt makes it a little more refreshing and super-cute to wear under a tube dress.  From Sole Searching, $99

Both of these shirts also play well with the trend this fall to emphasize shoulders.  Another trend that is big right now is draping.  Whether its used in more of a sporty style, like this Gado Gado skirt from Sole Searching, $69

or whether its incorporated into an every-day piece, like this Aryn K. navy blouse from Sonny B., $89, this look is always flattering.

Textures are also very happening during this time of year.  How fun is this Ya vest from Sole Searching? $49

Differnt textures and patterns are also good for outerwear, since this is the part of your outfit that people see the most when it gets chilly.  This 3 Sisters paisley coat from Lula Balou is guaranteed to be a head-turner, $248

This D.E.P.T tweed jacket reminds me of Chanel, and I love everything Chanel! Also from Lula Balou, $140

This Fumblin’ Foe military style brocade jacket is also a nice choice, from Lula Balou, $130

Another way to dress up your outerwear, is with fabulous shoes!! Boots & booties are a must!  These Seychelles black booties from Sole Searching kick booty! $115

Buckles are hot right now, especially on these Not Rated grey boots from Lula Balou, $75

These Matiko suede booties are cuties! From Lula Balou, $140

Looking for something taller and funky?  These two Irregular Choice boots are for you.  First pair from Lula Balou, $248, second from Sole Searching, $269

As far as bags go this season, faux-skin is in.  Love the utility of this Shiraleah handbag from Sonny B. $89

This Melie Bianco bag is super soft! From Sole Searching, $89

The bucket style handbag is also back.  This Melie Bianco bag has the option of using a longer strap, and I love the woven texture.  Also from Sole Searching $110.

What are some other pieces that I need this season you ask?  Well, for one, a hot mini skirt!  This  BCBGeneration body con skirt from Lula Balou is very slimming, and versitile.  Wear it with a cute top for going out, or a t-shirt to dress it down, $88

Another piece that I wear almost every day is a cardigan.  Even though I don’t ride horses, I tend to love everything equestrian, like this Charlotte cardigan from Lula Balou, with it’s horse and bridle print.  $118

And don’t forget to add a little bit of color to your winter wardrobe.  Its easy to wear all black, but its more fun to wear a color!  Try this Trinity multi-colored tank for literally a splash of color.  From Sonny B., $62.50

Well hopefully you will all leave a little bit inspired   Have a Happy Thanksgiving, and safe travels!

The Agate Design Jewelry Holiday Show is just around the corner!

Mark you calendars for Sunday, December 13th, 2:00 to 5:00 p.m., 1029 Neilson Street, Albany, California.

Choose from our collection of simple, elegant handmade jewelry — including our new “Gold Collection” and many other pieces that have not yet been featured on the website!

Questions?  Just contact Teresa by e-mail on the Order/Contact Us page.

Look forward to seeing you!

Is an 80mm, richest field refractor really the Goldilocks scope?  Not too large, not too small – just right! If my four hours of observing last night is any indicator, the answer is “yes!”

I’ve owned two smaller scopes I thought were terrific – an Astro-tech 66 and a 60mm Televue. I really didn’t like parting with either, but priorities change and while I got some good milage out of them, I didn’t use them that often. Why? Certainly not for lack of portability because they are as portable as it gets. And the quality on both were stunning. And they always delivered more than I expected.  But, in the end for me using them was more a stunt – more an attempt to prove to myself how much I could do with how little. For someone else – especially someone who travels frequently – the portability may turn these two scopes into something much more practical than a stunt. But I rarely travel beyond my neighbor’s yard. My idea of portability is being able to move 10-feet to avoid a tree that’s blocking my view.   And I don’t really need  the quick-look capability of “grab and go” when the scope in my observatory can be operational in two minutes flat and the 15-inch in less than five minutes.

So when I say portable what I really mean is my aging muscles should be ab;e to easily pick up the scope and tripod and move them 30-feet without any heavy breathing. In fact, I should be able to carry the scope, tripod, eyepieces, and my folding observing seat all on one trip. With the 80mm on a Voyager mount that’s possible – though I admit, it was certainly easier with the 60mm sitting on its Bogen tripod. OK, maybe it would be more sensible to make two trips sometimes But what I’m buying on the used market may fill that bill – along with what I have on hand now and what I learned from using a similar-sized scope last night.

Let’s start with the new – to me -scope. It’s known as a SV80S Stellarvue. It’s apochromatic triplet object was made by Lomo, a Russian firm, and is legendary within the circle of small refractor fanatics. (I’m an apprentice member of that circle.)  Here are the highlights from Stellarvue’s Web site where they still offer a limited number of these for $1,795 new. (What I   ssume is the Chinese version – probably as good – sells for $600 less. I’m getting one that’s four years old and uses the Lomo objective and I’m paying $1,000 – far more than I ever thought I would dream of paying for an 80mm scope. Oh – those highlights are:

• 80mm f-6 480 mm apochromatic triplet
• Fully multicoated objective for both visual and ccd use
• Stellarvue’s exclusive easy one touch cnc clamshell mounting ring with Vixen rail
• Genuine Feather Touch 2″ dual speed focuser with compression ring 1.25″ adapter.
• Retracting dew shield
• Instrument White high temperature powder-coating
• C7 side reinforced airline carry on case included (shown with optional accessories)
• Each one is triple tested including a star test by Vic Maris

Oh – it’s about 16-inches long and 7-8 pounds with diagonal and finder – though I’m not at all sure I’ll use a finder on it. More on on that later.

Sounds great. And while mine will come with the original – smaller – case, I can purchase the cae pictured here for it and that is a key to portability because of the great selection of eyepieces and accessories you can include.  So I’ll invest another $70 and get this case just to nake  the whole observing set-up more portable.

But is it really necessary to go to this extreme quality? honestly, I have my doubts.   I mean I know color will not be an issue with this scope and the two-speed focuser is very helpful with any scope this fast where focus is more critical than with slow scopes.  But will this outperform a Short Tube 80, the uniquitous little Orion that can do wonders and can be bought used for one tenth the price? Yes – absolutely. But how about a higher grade scope like Celestron’s Onyx 80? I have one, was planning to sell it, and that’s what I was using last night. The Onyx is one slick little scope and its optical performance is very nice. I’m going to hold on to it long enough so I can do some side-by-side testing. I hope the Stellarvue will have the edge, but at more than three times the cost of the Onyx it should.  Yes, as you pay more the cost per unit of improvement goes up – I don’t expect to see anything but a slight improvement – but I hope I’ll see that. And there’s something more involved – the scope has a sprt of history/personality but around its Lomo lens. And there’s ac ertain satisfaction inknowing that you are using the best,therefore if you are failing to see something you expect to see, theproblem is either you or atmospheric conditions. You’ve pretty much eliminated your equipment as a potential source of problem.

I decided to use the Onyx last night because it was handy and because I wanted to see just how much I could expect from an 80mm scope, since I’ve been using either 60, 100, or 120mm lately. Here’s Celstron’s talking points on the slick little Onyx (no longer in production):

Onyx 80EDF – General Features

• Premium 80 mm refractor
• Celestron’s Starbright XLT high transmission coatings
• Celestron combines a Fluorite based, low dispersion glass with high density crown glass for virtually color-free images across the visible spectrum
• 2″ Crayford style focuser minimizes image shift
• Rotatable focuser for easy framing of objects for photography
• Extendable lens shade reduces glare and protects lens from moisture
• Built-in sighting scope to help accurately locate objects
• Integrated dovetail compatible with Celestron Computerized “GoTo”
• Aluminum case for convenient storage and protection

The one worth siglling out here is this one:

• Built-in sighting scope to help accurately locate objects

This is a big mistake. It;s not a “sighting scope” at all – just apeep hole and as far as I can tell it does no good at all.  However, it is removable (one screw) and I’ve put a Rigel finder on there in its place. I also mounted a laser there. But I didn’t have either of these on it last night. Instead I simply used a 24mm Panoptic. (A 24mm Hyperion or 32mm Plossl would give the same field.) The result is a true field of view of about 3.2 degrees which is typical of the field for large astronomy binoculars. In fact many give even smaller fields.  I found the combination of the large field, plus 80mm of light-gathering power in the objective , makes it very easy to find everything from planets and bright stars, to very faint, low-surface brightness deep sky objects like  M33. What’s more, once you find them it’s a simple matter to boost the power. (I had tried a bargain-priced, 30mm eyepiece with an 82 degree apparent field of view. Works fine and delivers almost  five degrees true field. But I find it a bother going from this eyepiece – which is a 2-inch- to higher-powered 1.25 inch eyepieces. Hmmm. . . if I were using all Hyperions that wouldn’t be an issue. Anyway – little stuff like that can put me off sometimes. I don’t like fumbling with small parts and set screws in the dark anymore than I have to. )

But this is “richest field” aspect is really one of the most impressive things about using an 80mm scope with a short focal ratio thus making the scope its own finder. I found deep sky objects in particular easier to track down with this scope than with  the typical finder, whether it be a Rigel, red dot,  or 8×50 optical finder. The key, of course, is the light grasp. Another key is being able to sit comfortably behind the scope, as opposed to using a Dob where you sit at the side. Sitting behind this scope I found I very quickly developed a pretty accurate sense of where it was pointing – a sort of shoot-from-the hip type of thing. I don’t know how to teach it or even explain it, but it just feels natural. Look at where your target is and while looking, point the scope. I think your eye-brain work to deliver a solution if you get out of the way!  If your off a little, start a systematic sweep and you should soon pick up your target – assuming, of course, you have some idea what your target should look like!

I reported on my eveniong targets earlier in this post. The most astonishing thing there for me was a very clean split of the triple, Iota Cassiopeia – not bad for an 80mm!  This morning my frist targets with the same set up included M42, M50, the Christmas Tree Cluster,  M1, plus M35.  With M35 I could also see NGC 2158, which looked a tad like M1, only smaller, though of course they are much different objects. NGC 2158 is really a star cluster much more distant than M35. Seen together the two open clusters provide a wonderful sense of depth of field.

Castor, an easy triple star, split at 72X and was much better at 100X. I also looked at Saturn, rising in the east below Leo, and was able to see Titan and one other moon.  The Leo Triplet of galaxies, M65, M66 and NGC3628, was so simple to sweep up! I just pointed the shope at Chertan, one of the stars in the triangle that marks Leo’s haunches, then slowly swept south and a tad east. Bingo – it took about 15 seconds I think. A more challenging pair were the galaxies M81 and M82. But I just remembered that, as I think Sue French once wrote, “the Great Bear has ear mites.” So I pointed the scope in the direction of his ears and prowled around. Took longer this time, but boy do these two pop in this little scope at that power. What’s more, crank up the pwoer a bit and you can easily see that M81 is a spiral and M82 is a “cigar” with dark diagonal cloud cutting through it.

So why am I seeing the short-focal length 80mm as the Godilocks of scopes? To summarize:

1. Portability.

2. At low power you don’t need a finder because the field is both wide and bright, a great combination.

3. While it should be obvious that larger scopes will reveal more, you can get the essential astronomy experience – the feel for a galaxy, nebula, or star cluster – with an 80mm – certainly exhaust the Messier catalog and much more, as well as split many of the best double stars and do casual viewing of planets and Moon.

And one last point on the portability front – it is short enough so that a reasonable size and weight tripod and mount, such as you have with the Astro Tech Voyager, will work.  Longer scopes on this mount can put you awfully close to the ground when you’re trying to look up. With the 80mm there are no acrobatics – and no acrobatics trying to orient your eye to a finder either, since you aren’t using one!

After my inspirational days at Pilchuck, I began a remodel of my studio space. Over the past 18 years, I have mostly worked outdoors under a roof but without walls. This is invaluable for the heavy removal of stone material which generates large amounts of dust. During the winter months, I would be tempered by the weather and this winter I wanted to work on glass and stone sculptures without the concerns of the weather conditions. This would require building walls, and plumbing the studio with hot water for the wet polishing that I do. Besides enclosing my studio, having warm water is one of the most important improvements I have made in my new studio space.

Well, I thought it would take a few weeks with some hired help to get the studio in shape. Well, three months later I finally called it quits, knowing that I could continue improving the workspace and building some new tools and work benches. Little did I know how important getting back to sculpting would be for me. When the sculptures I had in mind began to take shape, I became a nicer person. I felt like I had been carrying them inside and they needed to come out, and like the birthing process, I wasn’t the most pleasant person to be around. Yet once they took form, I was much more at peace, and even friendlier. Here is a photo album you can view the transformation of my outdoor studio:

http://picasaweb.google.com/blb4peace/StudioRemodel?feat=directlink

As I had a couple of exhibitions and some shows to apply for I needed to get back to sculpting. I have been carrying ideas from Pilchuck Glass School days inside of me, and waiting to get them started. As my shows approached, I needed to work quickly to get some sculptures completed and cast glass sculptures are not quick to make. Casting glass is the most indirect sculpting I do. Imagine making a sculpture in clay or wax, and then making a rubber mold with a plaster mother mold, then making a wax of the sculpture which needs to be worked to the look I want, then making an investment mold in preparation for the glass casting stage. Then the wax is steamed out of the mold and the mold is then dried. This stage is the most critical in prepping for the glass to melt into the mold. Now the part that’s really slow, bringing the mold and the glass up to melting temperature, soaking it to allow the bubbles to rise, then cooling it ever so slowly to relieve the stresses in the glass, when it reaches room temperature, it is best to leave it in the unopened kiln for an additional day. The the devesting of the mold is the exciting part, where the quality of the  casting is realized. If it is a good casting then the cold working and polishing of the glass sculpture begins. If the casting is not good, then you go back to the making of the wax and start the process over. This is why many people don’t cast glass, as it’s such a slow indirect method of sculpting.  So I worked on stone sculptures, as I only had 6 weeks before the exhibition.

So I let my imagination open to work with my signature stone, an Onyx that is a beautiful orange/yellow calcite. And a new series began to be birthed. Bringing sculptures of light into this world is a great joy. See posted photos of the new work.

Soon I will begin preparation for glass castings. I will post some photos soon to show you the direction I am taking with the same theme of bringing light into this world.

Wishing you readers the best for the upcoming holidays. I am thankful of all the support I have received this year and throughout my life. Your comments are welcomed. Brian

Dinh Van, Dinh Van, ce nom ne vous est pas inconnu et pour cause c’est la fameuse marque qui a lancé la mode du bracelet menottes sur fils de coton!

Depuis la marque a fait du chemin et nous propose pour cet hiver une collection riche en couleurs appelée “Sur-impression”. On retrouve de magnifiques pendentifs aux formes géométriques ou l’or blanc, l’or jaune et les diamants partagent la vedette avec le Lapis-lazuli, le Corail, la Turquoise et l’Onyx.

Pour ma part, j’ai un préférence pour les modèles en onyx et en turquoise

Pour les adeptes de la simplicité, la marque ne vous oublie pas. Un modèle tout or jaune/diamants et tout or blanc/diamants sont également disponibles.

Pense bête : Rajouter quelques petites bricoles sur ma liste au Père Noël…

Pendentif Dinh Van en or blanc, diamants et turquoise - Crédit Photo Dinh Van

Pendentif Dinh Van en or blanc, diamants et onyx - Crédit Photo Dinh Van

Pendentif Dinh Van tout or blanc et diamants - Crédit Photo Dinh Van

Source

As promised, here is a list of all the current cats we have:

1. Babybun

2. Kat

3. Onyx

4. Clairvoyant

5. Dusty

6. Slinky

7. M-U

8. Tasuki (Taz)

9. Patches

10. Citrus

11. A.C.E. (Attack Cat Extraordinaire)

12. Lisa

13. Twilight (named before the books, thank you)

14. Eclipse

15. Socks

16. Naughty

17. Nice

18. Lump of Coal

19. Sneakers

20. Amelia Pickford

21. Bagheera

22. Tiger

Our 18-year old baby Sylvia passed away the summer of ‘09. :’( At least she was happy and curled up in a blanket by out sunny window when she passed on. She is now in kitty heaven!

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And what good would a blog be without pictures? Yes, you may officially call me a crazy old cat lady now…

1. Babybun

Babybun is my baby! I have had him since I was 7. My Gma even wrote him an ode…I may put that at the end of the post. We got Bunny from my stepbrother. He was keeping some cats at his apartment illegally and when they found out, they were evicted (the cats at least), so we took him!

2. Kat

How we got Kat and Onyx is an interesting story. The day their mother had them, she was hit by a car. We literally raised them from birth! Kat was the runt and Mom wasn’t sure he would make it through the night, but he did and now he is one of our biggest kitties!

3. Onyx

Kat’s sister. This picture is when she was just a baby! It is also my favorite stone and a character in a book I have been working on since 8th grade.

4. Clairvoyant

Claire is my cat from college. One night it was storming and my roommate, Jenn, and I heard a meowing in the night. We opened up our sliding glass door and in ran Claire. He just made himself at home and has been part of the family ever since!

5. Dusty

Dusty is also 18, she is my Grandma’s cat who lives with us! She’s very picky about what she eats and throws a fit if Kat or Onyx get in the room. She protests by going under the bed and pooping. Lovely…

6. Slinky

We got Slinky from one of my best friends, Sadie. She didn’t look like she was going to make it, but she is a healthy, beautiful kitten now!

Here is one of my besties, Sadie, who gave Slinky to me!

7. M-U

We got M-U from one of my little brother’s friends, Dustin. He was moving away with his mom and no longer allowed to keep her. So, of course, we took her in. She and Slinky are best friends.

Here is a picture of Jacob, my little brother.

8. Tasuki (Taz)

I named Taz back when I was into this anime/manga series, Fushigi Yuugi. He was one of the main characters on the show.

Here is a picture of Tasuki the character and Tasuki the cat…

9. Patches

Patches is the brother of another one of kitties we lost to a car accident. His name was Boots. Patches had kittens with Eclipse (Twilight, Sneakers and Socks). Socks was named after Patches brother, Boots, as they look identical!

10. Citrus

Citrus is Patches’ arch nemesis for whatever reason. We found him by a dumpster at Rick’s C-Store here at the Lake. Another little kid was trying to coo him into the car, but he ran. When I tried, he came right to me and curled up in my lap!

11. A.C.E. (Attack Cat Extraordinaire)

ACE is my Mom’s baby, she likes to “hold him like a baby”, where she curls him on his back and cradles him like a small child. The crazy thing? He loves it!

12. Lisa

Lisa came from my old friend Shelby. She plead her case to my mother…they were moving and her Mom was either going to just leave them there or take them to the pound. We couldn’t let that happen…so lovely Lisa became our own!

13. Twilight (named before the books, thank you)

Twilight is a sweet, slinky (and fast!) kitty. He is one of Eclipse’s sons.

14. Eclipse

Eclipse is the big mama of Socks, Sneakers, Twilight, Lump of Coal, Naughty and Nice. Then we got her spaid.

15. Socks

Socks came to us from Eclipse and Patches. He was named after Patches brother, Boots, who looks just like him! Boots is on the left, Socks is on the right. Our little Bootsie passed away when he was hit by a car. They didn’t even stop. :’(

16. Naughty

Naughty is one of Eclipse’s sons, he and the next two are more ‘garage’ cats and they are hard to snap pictures of! He is tiger striped like Patches.

17. Nice

Nice is one of Eclipse’s daughters. She is also tiger striped.

18. Lump of Coal

Coal is black and white, he got his coat from his mama, Eclipse.

19. Sneakers

Sneakers is Socks’ brother. He looks more like his papa, Patches.

20. Amelia Pickford
Amelia is the second cat that goes to college with me. She was born on April 20, 2009. She is one of the cutest kittens I have ever seen and poses in the most un-cat like poses I’ve ever seen! She also likes to climb into anything she can fit!

21. Bagheera

Named after the black panther from Disney’s The Jungle Book (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J0xQ89pF5zo)

We recently got “Bags” from my friends Brady and Kaitlin.

22. Tiger

Tiger is another one of Eclipse’s. We haven’t been able to catch him yet, but he has the prettiest coat I have ever seen!

~*~

Well, this post was a few months in the making! Sorry gang, hope you weren’t hanging by a thread or anything.

Until next time,

-Christine

La période des fêtes s’installe tranquillement et les concours et rabais promotionnels risquent d’affluer bientôt. Et nous ne pouvons que vous recommander de suivre l’actualité sur Mac Aficionados et Mac Aficionados sur Twitter. Ce sera l’occasion pour bon nombre d’entre nous de faire de l’espace, que ce soit dans nos foyers pour installer les sapins de Noël, mais également sur nos ordinateurs, afin de les équiper des derniers cadeaux qu’on nous aura certainement faits (pourquoi pas les nouveaux MacBook?!!!)

Si les Mac Aficionados n’ont pas le temps de scruter à la loupe la multitude de fichiers épars qui encombrent leurs ordinateurs, une petite application gratuite pourrait vous faire sauver un temps précieux.

L’équipe d‘Omni Group propose en effet depuis quelques temps déjà l’application gratuite OmnidiskSweeper.

Cette application «balaye» l’ensemble des informations des dossiers sur votre disque dur, fichier par fichier, afin de vous présenter un aperçu du nombre d’octets utilisés par chaque fichier.

Vous vous rendrez ainsi (peut être compte) qu’à force de télécharger gratuitement des applications sur Mac Aficionados, vous avez dépassé les 500Mo (!) et qu’il est temps de gagner de l’espace de stockage pour davantage d’applications!

Simple d’utilisation, OmnidiskSweeper se veut être un compagnon de choix de l’utilitaire incontournable Onyx (ce dernier est également un freeware destiné à effectuer des tâches de maintenance sur vos ordinateurs, de manière non intrusive).

L’un des inconvénients de l’utilisation d’OmnidiskSweeper est sa lenteur relative, comparé à d’autres utilitaires de nettoyage tels Xslimmer, ou l’excellentissime DaisyDisk, qui sont tous deux, en revanche, payants.

Mais à ce prix, pourquoi s’en priverait-on?! Surtout lorsqu’on sait que l’application est d’ores et déjà compatible avec Snow Leopard.

Liens de téléchargement:

OmnidiskSweeper information

OmnidiskSweeper v.1.7.1 compatible Snow Leopard

Onyx

Xslimmer

DaisyDisk

I can’t wait to sit back and get stuck into the new books I got from Amazon.com this morning!  They came sooner than I expected and I know they are going to be full of juicy things!!

I don’t get much of a chance to make stuff at the moment.  Summer is becoming more demanding for attention each day and by the end of the day I am just too tired to start making things…even tho I so desperately want to.   But she comes first so I have to put my creativity to the side.

Anyway,  having said that,  here is a piece I am currently working on.  I am making this bezel for a black Onyx cabochon.  But I have jumped way ahead of myself..as I am not 100% clear on how to clean it up….so off to the forum to ask for advice.  I absolutely love the internet!!

Mantener a raya la basura de nuestros Mac es una cosa que a todos, en mayor o menor medida, nos preocupa; si alguno es tan obsesivo como yo, pues con más razón. Desde que migré a Snow Leopard no había hecho limpieza de permisos, porque me daba miedo instalar aplicaciones diseñadas para Leopard que se fueran a meter tan profundo en las entrañas de mi Mac sin corresponder a él. Pues resulta que el programa que usaba antes para estos menesteres fue actualizado a 10.6 Snow Leopard, así que recordémoslo un poco.

OnyX es una aplicación gratuita que se encarga de buscar en nuestro Mac toda la basura acumulada (cachés y permisos) y lo revisa entero (disco de arranque y estructura de archivos) para asegurarnos que todo anda como reloj suizo. Además tiene múltiples opciones de personalización para jugar (desbloquea esas benditas opciones ocultas de Mac OS X, entre otro montón de cosas). Fue actualizado hace pocos días a su versión 2.1.1, compatible con Snow Leopard, que pueden bajar desde acá. Si quieren recordar como usarlo, visiten este artículo de ChilenoMac para hacer memoria; nada ha cambiado en OnyX, así que todo el artículo les servirá.

Bueno, después del artículo ocupo unas pocas líneas para agradecer a ustedes estos nueve meses de vida de ChilenoMac. Ciertamente hemos crecido mucho como blog (obviamente esto no sería posible sin el equipo entero: @marioo0, @varodonaire y yo) y ya tenemos grandes ideas y proyectos para el futuro de este blog, que pretende convertirse en un referente maquero en Chile. Vamos de a poco, aprendiendo a ser mejores y con más ganas de serles útiles a todos.

Las gracias que queremos darles se reflejan en el nuevo récord que hemos batido: hace algunos días pasamos de las 60.000 visitas, y el promedio diario de lecturas ya pasa de las 300. Nos sentimos honrados y orgullosos, y esperamos que el trabajo que hacemos siga rindiendo cada vez más frutos. A raíz de esto, hemos creado para ustedes una página de FaceBook para que sigan las novedades de ChilenoMac al instante y se comuniquen con nosotros de forma más directa y rápida. Esperamos que se hagan fans, entonces… ¡gracias por todo!

Movie Trailer

“My man I was doing Clockers with called me, cuz he live in Staten Island, a couple of days later like ‘Yo, heard you and ODB had a little problem.  Them Wu n*ggas is tryna get at you.’”

Pride is something that can make and break a man.  While it allows a person to stand up for himself, it also is a means for a man to do something stupid strictly based off of having their pride or ego hurt.

While there have been many publicized battles and beef in Hip-Hop, there are still some chapters that have been left untold and the pages have not been looked into.

Providing another episode from his Tales of the Industry, rapper Fredro Starr spoke on an altercation between himself and the late ODB where the Staten Island rapper seemed to want to cause some type of raucous while Starr and Onyx were at the Palladium.

“We just chillin and sh*t, minding our own business, then here comes your man ODB.  He just comes up to Sticky and just starts looking the n*gga in the face, grillin the n*gga Sticky.  So him and Sticky are going face-to-face grilling each other and I’m like, ‘Yo, why the f*ck this n*gga ODB grillin my man like that?, that sh*t is kinda crazy, what the f*ck is going on?’”

Already in an off move, Starr wasn’t much for talk and felt that if something was going to happen, it needed to happen.   His pride as a man was tested by ODB once he set his sights on him.

“I’m in a no nonsense attitude, so I’m like, ‘Ya’ll n*ggas gonna sing it or ya’ll gonna bring it cuz I ain’t tryna hear none of that sh*t.’  So then your man ODB took his attention off Sticky and then he comes up to me and puts his finger in my cheek and just goes[pushes his face]  Why he do that?  Why he gonna put his hands on my face and try and mush a n*gga?  I did what any real n*gga would do and hooked off on a n*gga.”

The tussle wouldn’t last long as Dirty was taken from the club, but the residual effects of Starr’s actions were felt after some days passed by and he was informed that the Clan was on the lookout for him.

“Now it’s a beef between Onyx and Wu Tang, but nobody really knew about this sh*t, only them n*ggas knew about it and I knew about it and a couple of other n*ggas from the industry.  It wasn’t some big sh*t on the radio, Flex wasn’t talking about it, nobody was really talking about the sh*t.”

Months pass by and Starr is approached by ODB and his crew during a car show.  Thinking that something is about to pop off, Starr would find out Dirty was there to actually apologize and has actually mistaken Sticky for Kind Just.  After a handshake and a smoke break, the feud between those two was over.

Looking to end any potential beef with the rest of the members of each group, both ended up sitting down with one another and agreeing to go on tour and officially putting a close on future problems.

Peep the video below:

In episode 5, Fredro gives the low down about some past beef between Onyx and Wu-Tang, that fortunately never got out of hand and actually brought unity between the two legendary hip hop groups.

I am slightly disgruntled that this blog only sees the more geeky side of me, and all of the more normal posts get pushed to other services, blogs and the sort.  The reason behind this is because I feel like the vast landscape of the posts outside of this blog are should be veiled in some sort of anonymity.   Although there is nothing inherently wrong with the posts, I have many reasons to believe that the posts can cause more issues than their are worth being linked to my name and thus get pushed to other posts.   I assume from some quick sleuthing work one can determine some sort of correlation in my posting times, or some sort of inverse relation between posting here and other places.

That said,  bring on the video games.     This week has been pretty awesome.   New computer,  with a 9800gt video card.  so far every game that I have played I have just cranked it up to ultra and played.    Although my sleep schedule has been pretty aberrant, I have not been happier for a long time now.     It is a quad core i7 with 8 effective cores due to hyper threading.  Also 6GB of ram, and 750gb of hd.  in general it is very quiet, except for a nice fun gaming session, but even still this is blocked out by my sound system.

In addition to gaming I have begun to do virtualization of node03 and the sort so that I can start developing again.   I have been living with vista for a bit, since windows 7 is in the mail.   HP has a program giving away copies of 7 for people who bought hp machines.   The three main issues I have with the current machine have nothing to do with the hardware, but the software.

1.) Vista 64bit, still is fucking awful.   Some of the HP software is fighting with it, and I will run into random programs dieing from time to time.   Although you might say that this is the fault of the third parties, however vista will just crash from time to time, with nothing running.    I am hoping that windows fixes this somewhat.  but I guess that I more believe that the computing  industry is going though this growing pain of transitioning to 64bit, and that is causing a huge issue on many sides of computing.   on the linux box at work, IDL segfaults every time that I quit.  on Snow Leopard, Marc has many issues with all the normal things that work on my 10.5 box.  and so forth.  I had some though that  they would sandbox all of the 32 bit programs and only allow 64bit tested programs out of it, to save many of the issues with this conversion.    Honestly I do not know what is the root cause of all of these issues, but it seems like that is the majority of the problems.

2.)  Windows Update.   For years I have left windows update off, since it would sometimes cause issues with drivers and windows pushing instable security fixes.  I have left in on to find that it is god awful.  it will decides to take a full core or two to install an update, and lock up the disk.   (ok, I guess this would be an hardware issue, but a minor one if Windows was not a fucking hog)   And one would think that they are not pushing out that many updates, but that I have a new machines…  no.  over the last three days I have updated every day with some other inane update, all of which was after a full 4 hours of downloading and installing updates the day I received the machine.

3.)  Norton Internet Security.  Every time I go back to the main stream anti virus companies, I understand why people are scared of computers  in general.   NIS leaves lots of the understanding and just pushes crazy amounts of warnings to users.  Like it flagged a downloaded file, as being bad, but said nothing about where it was, or what the file name was without some extra clicking.  Besides it bubbly yellow interferences,  it kills the disk bandwidth by scanning all the time, slowing down this fast computer.  (honestly, I have not even come close to maxing out the system and although I have enough cores now not to notice as much, I do notices a huge disk usage drain.)   Earlier I was just browsing the web, and the disk was a frenzy doing  whatever Norton thought was best for the system.

But other than that,  Games have been amazing.  Dirt, Burnout Paradise and Torchlight have all blown me away how nice, and awesome the game play has been.

ps.  Since original onyx, is pretty much all but down for the count,  I have decided to replace onyx with this machine. [ AMD K6 processors with 96mb of ram, is not worth resurrecting  at the time being. ]     This might change when I go to seven, as that I have always been a fan of se7en.

Fredro Starr details the night of the infamous Club New York shooting
“New York City was cold as a motherf***er… I think it was on 45th street or 46th street, something like that“

Around 2:30 A.M. on December 27, 1999, gunfire exploded inside Club New York, a midtown Manhattan nightclub. As ambulances were dispatched to the club to treat wounded patrons, police surrounded a SUV that had raced away through red traffic lights. When a 9mm pistol was discovered in the car, the passengers were arrested. They included music executive Sean Combs and his retinue, including film and music star Jennifer Lopez, bodyguard Anthony “Wolf” Jones, and chauffeur Wardell Fenderson. Jamaal “Shyne” Barrow, an aspiring rap singer Combs was grooming for his Bad Boy Records label, was arrested at Club New York.
The incident was traced to an exchange between the arrested men and Matthew “Scar” Allen, who had thrown a wad of cash at Combs as an insult after Allen’s drink was spilled at the crowded bar. The case immediately drew headlines, not because of the three people wounded in the shooting, but because of the celebrity of those arrested. After hours of questioning, however, gun possession and assault charges were filed against Combs, Jones, and Barrow. Combs and Jones were further charged with trying to bribe Fenderson by offering him $50,000 to tell police that the pistol found in the vehicle was his.
Barrow, who faced attempted murder, assault, gun possession, and reckless endangerment charges, was clearly in the most serious trouble with the law.
Date of Trial: January 17-March 16, 2001
Verdict: Combs and Jones: acquitted; Barrow: acquitted of attempted murder and on one count of assault, guilty of all other charges
Sentence: Barrow: 10 years imprisonment
Jamaal “Shyne” Barrow Sean “Puff Daddy” Combs and Anthony Jones Trial: 2001 – Tainted Witnesses Or A Bad Case?, Lawyers Battle In Closing Arguments

On Monday, November 16th, from 3p – 9p, Jivamukti Yoga Center in NYC will host a trunk show exclusively for Abigail Handmade Jewelry! The one-day event will showcase my unique, organic — and completely vegan — earrings, bracelets and necklaces, made with metals, stones, wood, and rare and vintage treasures from all over the world. I’ll also be debuting a new design series entitled, Enlightened, created specially for this event!

Jivamukti Yoga is conveniently located right by Union Square. They have a popular vegan cafe, JivamukTea, where Russell Simmons is known to dine regularly. The boutique features lots of great gift items, from jewelry and clothing, to more yoga-inspired ideas. And the class schedule is great for busy people who work late since their last class starts at 9pm! You can eat, take a class and make a good dent in your holiday shopping list… all in one place!

Here’s a sneak peek at a one of the designs from my new series, Enlightened. I’ll show you some of the new earrings and bracelets next time!

Turquoise Ganesh is a lariat necklace made with Turquoise, onyx and rose quartz stones, and 14k gold and sterling silver chain. The brass pendant, which I found at a cool shop called Kruz in the French Quarter in New Orleans, shows the hindu deity, Ganesh, on one side, and the Om symbol on the back. This lariat is my favorite right now; I’m really into the chunky stones and mixed metals.

Thanks for stopping by Straight No Chaser.

Photos by: AkiAckee, www.akiackee.com