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Traditional Tuesday - Block 10
|Snowball Variation
This block looks like a poppy to me. I think a whole quilt made of this block would be lovely and it would make me happy.
|Okay, maybe not. Nice, but a little too boring for my sensibilities.
|But look at this - every other block is different. Much better. (Imagine your favorite colors if you don't like orange.)
|And this is the best one yet. Adding in a fourth color really richens it up.
- From the red, cut 4 - 2 1/2" squares AND 2 - 2 7/8" squares. (I cut mine 3" and trimmed after making the hst's.)
- From the blue, cut 2 - 2 7/8" squares. (Again, I cut mine 3" and trimmed after making the hst's.)
- From the black, cut 1 - 2 1/2" square.
|First, make 4 hst's. Draw a line diagonally from corner to corner of the 2 blue squares. Match them up with the 2 large red squares and sew 1/4" on each side of the line. (Go to this link for more details.)
|Cut in half on the line and press to the red. Trim, if necessary to 2 1/2".
|Lay out the elements as shown.
|Sew into rows and join the rows, pressing to one side - like a 9-patch block. The block will finish to 6 1/2".


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This is part two of an x-part series summarizing the design of one of the greatest games of all time, SOTC. Part 1 can be found here.
Welcome back to Design Theatre! Today, we'll take a look at how Shadow of the Colossus (SOTC) was designed in its first major sections of gameplay.
There are sixteen bosses in Shadow of the Colossus, each with a unique twist on the "stab its vitals" formula. The first boss, a giant wandering colossus with a club, is by far the easiest, only requiring the player to climb up its leg and stab its head to defeat it. However, at this early point in the game, the player doesn't yet know they have to do this, and since the player has likely never faced something this large in a game before, they panic. The battle serves as a tutorial, teaching the player the fundamentals of how to defeat a colossus, without giving them all the answers. For example, it is hard to imagine that the latter bosses of the game require the player to utilize their environment in creative ways to defeat them, yet the goal – climb the colossus and stab it with your sword – remains the same. From this section we learn:
#5. In the beginning of a game, introduce a short-term goal that shouldn't change for the duration of the game.
Most games need a clearly-labeled short-term goal for the player to understand where they need to proceed. A lot of the problem with early point-and-click and text adventure games is that a short-term goal doesn't exist. The player may even have to discover the long-term goal in these games, which usually answers the question: "Why am I here, playing this game? Why should I care?" In Super Meat Boy, the short and long-term goals are simple: reach bandage girl to beat a level, and beat the game to save bandage girl from Dr. Fetus. Clear, and effective. But not all games are like this. The Dishwasher: Dead Samurai was a game with great gameplay, but varying long and short-term goals, making it unclear what the player should do and what the end result of their toil would be. In Portal 2, the expanses during the middle section of the game – where the player isn't sure where they have to go to proceed – disobeyed the short-term goal rule for too long a time, making the game needlessly frustrating and less enjoyable. Left 4 Dead also has great gameplay and a clear short-term goal, but lack of a narrative thread to tie each chapter together really ruined the game for me; unlike Portal, which started out with great puzzles and clear short-term goals but gave the player "story nuggets" that tied the game together. The effectiveness of long-term goals in single-payer games warrants our sixth lesson:
#6. Have a long-term goal established.
Very few people, if any, want to play a single-player game without end-game rewards. This should be pretty obvious, but that opening cutscene at the beginning of Metroid seems to escape many new designer's minds, choosing instead to jump right into gameplay, as if their gameplay spoke for itself. This, however, is simple not true — everyone enjoys a little story. Most of all, it prolongs the fan-base of the game, which as Half-Life and Mother 3 have shown us can survive long past the normal production time of game sequels.
In SOTC, the player controls a boy named Wander. Unlike most game characters, who appear strong and have great dexterity, Wander is pale, fragile; he stumbles and struggles his way up colossi. My friend got frustrated at Wander, yelling "Why won't you do what I tell you to do?!" during the final boss fight of the game. While this lack of control could be attributed to the inaccuracy of PS2-era adventure games, Wander's animations are definitely not arbitrary. In addition, Agro, your horse, is very hard to control – while the developers could definitely have made Agro go exactly where you want him to, in SOTC your horse is not a transportation device, but a main character, with its own freedom of movement. Because of Agro, SOTC's horseback-riding seems the most realistic of any game, frustrating at times and glorious at others. Here we move to the seventh lesson from SOTC, perhaps the most controversial:
#7. Games do not always have to be fun.
Oh god, here we go. Many critics place extraordinary weight on how the game controls, how fun it feels. However, because of Shadow of the Colossus, I realize that sloppy controls can be a design choice just like any other, provided they fit the context of the game. Wander is supposed to look weak; his skin grows paler and more bruised as the game goes on. Agro is supposed to be hard to control; horse-riding is not a simple endeavor, even though many games make it seem so. The sloppy controls diminish the fun of the game, but really, is SOTC supposed to be fun? Is tacking down 16 colossi by oneself without much food or water while one's soul is destroyed fun? Not really. So what sense does it make for the controls to feel unrealistically responsive, all for the sake of fun, when fun doesn't fit the role Wander plays?
I remember Cactus' talk at GDC, where he brings up this point. It is overlooked in an industry devoted to entertainment, but has it roots in more established mediums. Take a look at the IMDb Top 250 for a second. The Shawshank Redemption? Not what I'd call 'fun.' Schindler's List? The Godfather? You can see where I'm going with this. Most of the greatest films ever, like most of the greatest books, are not 'fun.' We need to move out of the rut of making games fun for the sake of doing so. Ask yourself: should parts of my game be fun? Does the gameplay fit the context the player's avatar is in?
After the player defeats the first colossus, he/she goes up against a colossus that cannot be simply climbed. To climb this colossus, the player must use their bow and arrow in a real situation for the first time. Introducing a boss that requires the player to use a bow and arrow this early is a smart move: if the game did not welcome the player to shoot arrows, they might not realize the bow and arrow is necessary at all.
#8. If the player can do something, show them why they should early on.
If a weapon or object is necessary for gameplay, introduce it early on. Suppose you are developing an RPG-adventure game, and the player can pick up loose items lying around to store in their inventory. Now the player can collect keys, but keys aren't needed for the first half of the game. Then the player reaches a locked door – do they realize that they can go to their inventory and double-click on a key to open it? Okay, so maybe that's a little far-fetched, but you get the point: if the player can double-click on items in their inventory to impact the environment, then show them that they can do so early in the game.
Well, that's all for Part 2! See you next time! ^_^

subset: commoncrawl


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Wednesday, January 21, 2009
mairzey dotes {going out of business sale}
I hate to even have to write this but due to the new CPSIA law Mairzey Dotes is closing their doors on February 9th. (read more about the law here...)
As sad as it is to hear they are closing doors, they are offering all the product they currently have at 40% off, so make sure to buy some of these amazing blankets, bibs and burps at such a great price. The fabrics are amazing...
For 40% discount simply enter code "thanks" at checkout.
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Cello-IQ GPS Tracker integration of Pointer - Cellocator brand, ideal for Fleet Management solutions. Cellocator Cello-IQ focused to Green driving and Driving control and can send telematic reports in real-time to a Tracking Management Platform..
Cellocator Cello IQ GPS tracker for Fleet Management tracking or vehicle location. Cello IQ is focused on Driving control, Eco driving or Green driving solutions;


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I don't know about you, but I always find it helpful to hear real life accounts from real life parents about their experiences keeping their children cybersafe. Below is the parent of a 12 year old, in response to the dangers of Kik Messenger. At least he has retained his sense of humour in the end! Please feel free to comment and add your own experiences.
'I just found out that some grown man has been communicating with my 12 year old daughter. It hasn't been going on long, but it's clear that he was trying to build a progressive relationship. First it's pretending to be concerned, calling her "baby" asking her to take pictures of her art or legs or "whatever else you want to". I also saw some things about self cutting. Needless to say, I'll be more involved in what/how she communicates in the future (that is if she ever gets the iPhone back.).'


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Weakening of the Judiciary in Equatorial Guinea
Weakening of the Judiciary in Equatorial GuineaEG Justice May 26, 2015
Teodoro Obiang declared the total dissolution of the judiciary.
As it can only be seen as another step to weaken the rule of law and to take total control of the State institutions ahead of the general elections, President of Equatorial Guinea, Teodoro Obiang declared the dissolution of the judiciary, from the magistrates of the Supreme Court to the judges of first instance.
The dissolution of the judiciary by a Presidential decree blatantly violates the principle of independence of the judiciary guaranteed by the Constitution and the national legislation. Yet another tactic to control all State institutions, this measure exposes President Obiang's will to go beyond the powers granted by the Constitution to ensure his preservation in power.
The Constitution clearly establishes that "all civil servants and career judges can only be appointed and removed according to the procedures established by law" (Article 98.2 of the Constitution). The Judiciary's Regulatory Framework further guarantees the principle of immobility of judges and magistrates, and narrowly defines the causes to remove a judge. The Presidential Decree 036/2015 of May 20, 2015 cites the prerogative of the President to "appoint and remove all civil and military high level officials;" this prerogative does not include the judiciary given its status as an independent power and the procedures of removal are clearly defined by the national law. Furthermore, the decree does not cite any cause to proceed to the dissolution, failing to meet the requirements of the regulatory framework.
Since May 20 there has been no appointments and as a result there are no judges in the country. "This is the first time the judiciary is dissolved since our independence," said Ponciano Mbomio, a prominent lawyer in Equatorial Guinea. The international community has expressed in numerous occasions its concerns for the lack of independence of the judiciary but nothing has been done to address the problem despite the numerous commitments made by the Government of Equatorial Guinea.
The dissolution of the judiciary is illegal and does not respect the procedures established by the national law. Equatorial Guinea must respect the independence of the judiciary and immediately appoint judges following the procedures established by the national law.
The judiciary in Equatorial Guinea has a long list of problems that need to be addressed to ensure its independence and effectivity, including: capacity building and training of judges; an effective civil service; ensuring the appointment system is followed; and providing adequate resources to operate. Equatorial Guinea must take immediate steps to strengthen the judiciary and provide adequate resources to prove its commitment to achieve the Millennium Development Goals and National Horizon 2020 Plan. Without a functioning judiciary Equatorial Guinea is on the verge of becoming a failed State.


text: Developing a new technology requires decision-makers to understand the technology's implications on an organization's objectives, which depend on user needs targeted by the technology. If these needs are common between two organizations, collaboration could result in more efficient technology development. For hybrid truck design, both commercial manufacturers and the military have similar performance needs. As the new technology penetrates the truck market, the commercial enterprise must quantify how the hybrid's superior fuel efficiency will impact consumer purchasing and, thus, future enterprise profits. The Army is also interested in hybrid technology as it continues its transformation to a more fuel-efficient force. Despite having different objectives, maximizing profit and battlefield performance, respectively, the commercial enterprise and Army can take advantage of their mutual needs. Developing the new technology in a dual-use context allows the Army to leverage the design and production capabilities of the commercial enterprise, while the enterprise increases its hybrid production volume with military trucks during the low demand phase of hybrid market penetration. This article describes the valuation of hybrid technology from both the enterprise and military perspectives using a previously developed enterprise decision model, which utilizes comprehensive vehicle simulation to drive decision-making. The enterprise is represented in a mathematical formulation that simultaneously optimizes initial vehicle design, product pricing, operating costs associated with capacity investment and design decisions, and the value created by the new products. The application of hybrid technology in the medium truck market illustrates the impact of dual-use decision-making on the commercial enterprise and satisfaction of military performance targets.


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Pan American Goldfields Ltd (OTCMKTS:MXOM) has been steadily rising since the end of February. The stock ended the day with 100% in gains and has advanced over 200% since February. In addition, volume has been steadily climbing which is bullish if it can maintain these gains. MXOM has advanced on heavy volume with over 1.17 million shares trading hands today which is almost 10 times its average daily volume of 0.096 million shares.
In recent developments, Pan American Goldfields Ltd (OTCMKTS:MXOM) has not made any announcement regarding developments or released any financial statements or filings to the SEC since 2013. Management has been extraordinarily quiet since a court ruling mid-July 2014. The Court ruling to enforce MRT's obligations is a positive development for MXOM and all its stakeholders, including employees, shareholders and service providers who have supported the company throughout this period. Pan American Goldfields is a precious metals mining and exploration company. Its focus is the production of gold and silver and the development and expansion of its La Cieneguita mine in Mexico's prolific Sierra Madre gold-silver belt.
From a technical perspective, MXOM appears to be in the early stages of breaking out and the large increase in volume has confirmed this breakout. The stock has surged above its 10 and 30 weekly moving average which is a bullish development. In addition, both moving averages slopes are increasing and positive. Why is this bullish? Because the 30 weekly moving averages has not slopped positive and the stock has not traded above its 30 weekly moving averages since August 2013. We are about to see a bullish momentum cross when the 10 WMA crosses above the 30 WMA. Investors have reason to be excited from a technical perspective, but fundamentally the stock seems to be lacking still.
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MXOM is currently trading at a $1 million market valuation. This company is showing signs of breaking out from a technical perspective and huge surge in volume. However, fundamentally there is no story or announcements to excite the shareholder base or investors. Time will tell to see if this company can create a story that captivates. Stay tuned for more information and updates.
We will be updating on MXOM when more details emerge so make sure you are subscribed to Microcapspot so you know what's going on with MXOM.
Disclosure: we hold no position in MXOM either long or short at the publication of this article and we have not been compensated for this article.
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The Camden County Pet Food Pantry, created by the five animal welfare organizations in the Animal Alliance of Camden County, intends to keep pets with their families by offering food assistance. Owners surrender pets to local shelters regularly, and financial hardship is a common reason for doing so. The Alliance seeks to help Camden County residents keep pets in their homes by providing nutritional assistance to those in need. The only requirement is a need for assistance in providing food for a pet.
Camden County Pet Food Pantry locations will be open to the public from 11:00 am – 1:00 pm for food pick-up on the second Saturday of every third month.
2018 Dates
Saturday, March 10th, 11:00 am – 1:00 pm
Saturday, June 9th, 11:00 am – 1:00 pm
Saturday, September 8th, 11:00 am – 1:00 pm
Saturday, December 8th, 11:00 am – 1:00 pm
Pet Food Pantry Locations:
- Animal Adoption Center
501 Berlin Rd N
Lindenwold, NJ 08021
- Animal Welfare Association
509 Centennial Blvd
Voorhees Township, NJ 08043
- Homeward Bound Pet Adoption Center
125 County House Road
Blackwood NJ 08012
- Voorhees Animal Orphanage
421 Cooper Rd
Voorhees Township, NJ 08043


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Tuesday, October 7, 2014
Introducing "The Gaffe Cave": Where Property Tax Bills Go To Die
You've likely seen "The Gaffe Signal" up in the sky, you've spotted the broken-down clunker that is "The Gaffemobile", you've even seen the costume of earmuffs and a sash that the Gaffeman wears, and you've heard about Mike Frerichs - candidate for Illinois Treasurer - AKA The Gaffeman.
But, now we're excited to release to the public - for the first time - The Gaffe Cave.
This isn't a place that is home to various gadgets and technology.
The Gaffe Cave is the place that property tax bills go to die.
You remember how Mike Frerichs - The Gaffeman - refused to pay his property tax bills for seven years? Yeah...it was on this place: The Gaffe Cave.
Learn more about the adventures of The Gaffeman at http://www.gaffeman.com/.


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Mar 10, 2017 | By admin
The How and The Why of Emergence and Intention – FQXi 2017
The 2017 FQXi essay contest is underway, with nearly 200 entries on the topic "Wandering Towards a Goal: How can mindless mathematical laws give rise to aims and intention?" George Gantz has submitted an essay, titled "The How and The Why of Intention," that explores the questions of emergence, causation and intention. How one answers these questions depends on a metaphysical premise — is creation random or purposeful? Mr. Gantz argues that this question is logically undecidable and beyond empirical determination, but that there is strong evidence of a cosmic intentionality flowing through the universe. He concludes that this flow is love. The universe loves us, and we should love it back, with humility and gratitude for its many gifts, including the gift of our imperfect and necessarily limited empirical understanding. Mr. Gantz's previous FQXi essays include The Tip of the Spear (which won 4th place) and The Hole at the Center of Creation.
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A new study revealed results that many researchers were suspecting. CPAP, or Continuous Positive Airway Pressure, which is used to treat moderate to severe sleep apnea, can also help patients who suffer from high blood pressure and stiff arteries.
Sleep apnea is already known to be damaging to the health of your whole body, but especially your heart and circulatory system. Using a CPAP machine can help prevent these issues caused by sleep apnea. But what if you already have severe circulatory issues?
The study showed that after just 3 months of using a CPAP machine every night while sleeping, patients with high blood pressure saw a dramatic drop back down to near normal levels in both their systolic and diastolic blood pressures.
It was also apparent that the patients would need to use a CPAP device continuously, because, after a week of not using it, their blood pressure went back up to harmful levels. The study involved 47 adults, with the average age of 41 who had been previously diagnosed with sleep apnea.
Obstructive sleep apnea is when the throat muscles aren't strong enough to stay open during sleep, and collapse, causing the patient to stop breathing momentarily. This happens off and on throughout the night, causing a significant drop in oxygen flow. Less oxygen to the heart means the heart has to work harder, causing damage to the heart and circulatory system, as well as damage to the brain and other organs.
Dr. Claudia Korcarz, a senior scientist at the University of Wisconsin Atherosclerosis Imaging Research Program in Madison, said sleep apnea's effect on blood pressure is "reversible if treated early."
Many of the people who participated in the study didn't want to use the CPAP machines because they were hard to get used to. CPAP masks can feel too obstructive and uncomfortable, especially at first. Some were only able to tolerate it for 4 hours every night, with an average rest time of 6 hours per night during the study.


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Place the oats in the food processor and grind them down to a fine flour texture.
Add the dates, cacao, coconut oil and salt to the food processor and whizz everything together. Add a splash of BRITA filtered water to help the ingredients combine fully.
Spread the orange zest and dessicated ccoconut out onto a plate. Remove the sticky mixture from the processor and shape into small balls using your hands. Roll the balls in the zest and coconut to give them a delicious coating. Place in the fridge to harden.
Images: Holly Clark Photography


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All about Kitchen Backsplash Pictures
Kitchen backsplash pictures are something that you need when you want to keep your kitchen clean all the time. This thing is something that you will use to cover the wall from all the stain and the dirt that will happen when you do cooking activity. So, this kind of thing help you to keep the kitchen has clean look.
How to get kitchen backsplash pictures that will suitable for your kitchen?
If you want to get the right kitchen backsplash then you need to go to the right store. If you find the right store the first thing that you need to consider is the price of the backsplash. Then the next thing that you need to consider is the design of the backsplash. After the design you also need to consider about the material of the backsplash that you choose.
20 Picture Gallery: All about Kitchen Backsplash Pictures
Why we need to buy kitchen backsplash?
Kitchen become like a war place when it comes to cook something. So, it's no wonder that there are will be many stains and dirt that will spread all over the kitchen including the wall. The wall is an area that hard to be cleaned, that's why we need to have kitchen backsplash if we want to have clean kitchen.
This post topic: Kitchen Ideas


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To enhance the lives of people with autism by connecting the NW Arkansas community through greater awareness and resources.
Did you know that AIM is a local non profit who supports families impacted by autism in Benton and Washington counties? All funds raised through donations and events remain in NWA.
To create an inclusive and accepting environment for those we serve in our community with improved awareness, advocacy, and the best local resources available.
Sign up to receive our newsletter and stay in the know about events, fundraiser, and all things AIM!
Autism Involves Me is an IRS 501 (c) 3 non profit. Tax ID: 02-0721419
All Rights Reserved.
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Many times when you are creating a Proclaim presentation you will want to use the same text style on many different slides. You can easily accomplish this by applying custom styles to your presentation which can be reused for multiple slides.
To begin creating your custom style, create a service item and add some text. Once you've found a size, color, and font that you like, select the Styles dropdown menu to save it.
Did you know? You can upload your own fonts to Proclaim. Click here to find out how.
Now that this style is saved it will be quick and easy to select it for any future (or current) slides for which you would like to adopt it. Simply open the same Styles dropdown menu and select your custom style to apply it to your current item.
Tip: custom styles are especially useful when they apply to a certain color of background. You can search for backgrounds by color in the media browser.


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Your Price:
We offer standard, 3 day express, 2 day express, and overnight express shipping options for your convenience. If you place your order Monday - Friday by 2:00 PM EST using one of our express shipping options, your order will be processed and shipped the same day it is placed!
Powerful anodized carbon steel full-tang bladeCustom guard with midnight emperor silhouetteEmbellished cord wrapped handleIncludes coordinating wooden scabbardMeasures 43 3/8" overall
Product Description
You will feel like an ancient emperor when you wield this mighty Midnight Emperor katana! The black-coated, carbon steel blade will slice through the night as you maneuver this massive katana. At 43 3/8" overall, it has a lot of presence. Details include a custom guard with midnight emperor silhouette, and a nylon cord-wrapped handle with a gold tone emblem accent medallion.
You will feel like an ancient emperor when you wield this mighty Midnight Emperor katana! The black-coated, carbon steel blade will slice through the night as you maneuver this massive katana. At 43 3/8" overall, it has a lot of presence. Details include a custom guard with midnight emperor silhouette, and a nylon cord-wrapped handle with a gold tone emblem accent medallion.
Honshu Spartan Sword And Sheath - 7Cr13 Stainless Steel Blade, Grippy TPR Handle, Stainless Steel Guard - Length 23"
Shinwa Purple Majesty Samurai Sword
Shikoto Damascus Katana with FREE Shikoto Wakizashi
Sokojikara Shadow Grove Handmade Katana / Samurai Sword - 1065 High Carbon Steel, Hand Forged, Clay Tempered - Genuine Ray Skin; Brass Tsuba - Functional, Full Tang, Battle Ready
United Cutlery Combat Commander Full-Tang Gladiator Sword With Nylon Belt Sheath - Gladius, Machete - 1065 High Carbon Steel, Piercing Point - 24" Length
Musashi Midnight Warrior Katana Clay Tempered Folded Carbon Steel
Customers who bought this item also bought:
We won't be able to ship this item until we receive more stock. But don't worry, we've found a similar item that's ready to ship now.
Write A Review
Customer Reviews
i read all the reviews before i bought this. I love the fact that it is a solid piece of steel. The gold emblem were stuck on rather well and it took quite a bit of work for me to get them off. The emblems were not placed directly across from each other. The quality of the blade is not bad and if you take those weird gold emblems off it is beautiful. t came duller than the back of a butter knife and has taken me about 10 hours to get it to the point in which it cuts. The guard is solidly attached which is more than i can say for some of other budk katanas but it is a good sword. I have not tried using it in any real combat but the weight is nice and it is a good one to get for practice.
the sword is looks good but my sword is crooked a bit.it also came dull which is kinda lame. It is also very hard to actually get the sword out of the scabbard.
I got my sword and it was made dull
It said it full tang I just got it and it's not if it's going to say stuff like that then it needs to be what it said it is
Response: Thank you for this information. We will investigate this and update our website accordingly.
I bought this sword a few months ago and was a little disappointed. It looks nice and felt good at first (The small gold decorations are actually metal) It says carbon steel and I was like no way, for that price! But I can see now. The sword is very very delicate, like don't use it, DISPLAY ONLY. I made the mistake of trying to cut a weed and barely tapped the ground, I looked and the blade was bent quite a bit, I did eventually get it kinda straight again, but still if you buy this sword, hang it on your wall or cut some fruit or bottles and that's it. BudK? You should really say how much carbon is in the swords. Over all a good wall hanger but other than that its junk.
Alright I left a review a long time ago about this thing and totally forgot to leave an update! If you look further below you'll see my first review. I kept working on the blade, just bending it slightly for a fairly long period of time and got it to go perfectly straight! After that, I started sharpening it, and like a samurai working diligently on his own blade, spent a good chunk of time ~12 to 20 hours with sharpening equipment. I used a stone and then gave up and started using the accusharp sharpener I had bought anyway (it seriously saved me time, I could have had it done in less than 6 hours probably if I had just used that from the start). After all that, the blade has now gone from its dull state to one intense edge. It actually has rivaled my friend's extremely expensive katana in just about every way. The only weakness it has is the softness of the blade, which can be good and bad of course. It's too soft to be able to cut through heavier things, but it still can hack away. It's been a lot of fun cutting through boxes and water jugs with it. Overall, after fixing it up, it took some time but 20 dollars vs. 100's of dollars for nearly the same performance is amazing.
first of its a nice wall hanger but it comes to dull for much use i did cut some pumpkins with it but i found out that its 2 pieces off metal stamped together no happy bout that but a good training sword so 2/5
It is a nice sword but it is not sharp at all it was dull dull dull. it took 3 days file and sharpen it Could you make them a little sharper? it is worth the 20 dollars I paid for it
My friend recently bought a really REALLY expensive katana and I got into the hype but wasn't interested in the prices so I looked around and finally found the midnight emperor! I'm not interested in DISPLAY pieces so much and wanted to get something that looks cool BUT could be used for fun too. 20 dollars is a pretty amazingly good deal of a price, I could not pass it up. The sword arrived in pretty decent time (~ 1 week or so). Looking it over, it looked really nice. It IS one piece of metal, the grip is just nylon wrapped and has a pretty neat looking (albeit cheap plastic) golden inlay on it. The grip isn't extremely comfortable, but that's a small price for getting the full tang of this sword. The blade has some issues though that bother me. First off, the image is misleading, I thought the light gray was a mimic of clay temper lines, it's NOT! The gray area is just where the blade is beveled and starts going to the point. The blade itself is solid black (which is still cool). Like David below me says, the blade is soft as well. This was a particular concern of mine because, looking down the blade, I noticed it was bent to the left at quite a bad angle. I am not sure if this is a problem or not, but it does bother me somewhat. I tried bending it slightly straighter but, even though it was really flexible, of course that didn't do anything. The blade does arrive really dull, and I was planning on using an Accusharp sharpener to spruce it up until I found that apparently that will destroy the katana and you must use a stone. So I have to wait until I get a stone to see just how sharp I can get this thing, but based on other reviews, that outlook is good! So overall, 20 bucks will NORMALLY get you very little when it comes to full swords, but I have to say this piece, even with it's slight issues, is a good deal. It looks cool and hopefully will cut when sharpened for some good fun!
At such a low price, this is a decent sword. The blade, tsuba, hilt, and scabbard all look great. The blade arrived dull, but it took a shaving sharp edge with my belt sander. I bought this because it is carbon steel, not stainless. However, the metal is still soft and not for full combat. A very hard swing at a hard wood pallet caused the blade to bend severely, thus ruining the sword. I should have chosen a softer target, but I expected more out of a carbon steel blade. But for the price, I still recommend it for anyone who likes owning weapons.
This sword is a solid piece of carbon steel! I bought this to use around the store property for some fun landscaping, I have a pair of the more expensive Damascus Dark Dragon Katana and Black Shinwa Odachi which I cherish and keep safe. Handle on this is wrapped very tight, Gold emblem on handled is well secured. My only problem is that it came very dull, I mean I ran my hand up and down the blade and couldn't cut myself if I wanted to. BudK didn't say it was Sharp so that's why I didn't take away a star. Worked a little Blade magic and now it cuts like a scalpel! You need to buy this, for the Price and Quality you can't go wrong. Keep your show pieces Sharp and Safe, and have some fun and Beat this up instead! Thanks BudK!! Joe
Indestructable sword! A solid bar of lethal iron, this sword is no toy, or replica trash, but rather a tool for combat! While it doesn't come razor sharp from th factory, it has enough of an edge to render it highly effective, and once you put your own edge to the weapon, it holds it well. I am neither dissapointed nor sorry I invested in this sword...it has the potential to become my favorite! Try one for yourself, the price certainly can't be beat, and I guarantee you won't find a sturdier buy out there. Thanks BudK!
good sturdy sword but not sharpened


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Using the Rails 5 Attributes API Today, in Rails 4.2
In 2014, I gave a talk at RailsConf that touched on some problems I've come to experience with the opinions that Rails employs to achieve its "convenient" APIs. One part of the talk described something I really wanted to see, which was a sane attribute API. Well, Sean Griffin started working on one not long after that talk. It'll be "official" in Rails 5, but it's in Rails 4.2 and is already being used under the hood by your apps today—it's just missing documentation.
If you've ever tried doing something as simple as overriding attribute accessors and found yourself chasing down and plugging endless edge cases, this post is for you.
The Problem
Let's say we have a domain object in our app that doesn't descend from
ActiveRecord::Base (the horror!), and we'd like an attribute on an ActiveRecord model to map to an object of this type. Our first thought might be to abuse
serialize for these objects as they come out of the DB (often in JSON format) and override the setter to handle the cases in which attributes are being assigned by the app itself. That would look something like this:
class MyModel < ActiveRecord::Base
serialize :my_attribute, MySerializer # responds to load and dump methods
def my_attribute=(value)
value = MyAttribute.new(value)
This seems to work at first, but then we realize that attributes can be set via
write_attribute (you know this as its less verbose alias,
[]=) as well, so we need to add:
class MyModel < ActiveRecord::Base
# ...
def write_attribute(name, value)
if name == :my_attribute
value = MyAttribute.new(value)
We think we've fixed it, but then we find ourselves needing to deal with the way that serialized columns are always treated as dirty (and therefore sent to the database), the cases in which our DB adapter sends us an already-deserialized JSON object instead of a string, and various other internals that we never ever wanted to know about just to define a simple attribute.
This is where the ActiveRecord Attributes API comes in.
Let's Get Specific
For the rest of this post, let's define our use case as follows:
- We have an ActiveRecord model that has an an attribute representing a list of links. Each link has a title and a URL.
- We don't need to maintain these links in their own table. They don't need to be referenced by multiple instances of the parent ActiveRecord model. They are just a bit of extra data we attach to our model.
- We'd like the extra data on this attribute to be consistently represented by a domain object in our app.
- We're using a PostgreSQL
jsonbcolumn to store our data. This could also work with MySQL, but you want to be using PostgreSQL, don't you?
For our domain objects, we'll have a
Link class and a
LinkList class. A minimal example
Link class might look like this:
# app/models/link.rb
class Link
attr_reader :title, :url
def initialize(layout: post
categories: blog
title:, url:)
@title, @url = title.strip, url.strip
def empty?
title.empty? || url.empty?
def Link(attrs_or_link)
case attrs_or_link
when Link
attrs = attrs_or_link
layout: post
categories: blog
title: attrs.fetch(:title) { attrs.fetch('title') },
url: attrs.fetch(:url) { attrs.fetch('url') }
I very much like to follow the pattern of methods like
Array() and
String() for casting to my domain objects, which is why you see the method definition outside the class body, above.
Now, let's look at the
LinkList class:
# app/models/link_list.rb
class LinkList
extend Forwardable
attr_reader :links
def_delegators :links, :empty?, :as_json, :[], :each, :size
def initialize(array_or_hash = [])
links = case array_or_hash
when Hash
Array(array_or_hash).map { |link| Link(link) }
@links = links.reject(&:empty?)
def to_a
alias :to_ary :to_a
def LinkList(value)
LinkList === value ? value : LinkList.new(value)
For this simple case, we'll throw out any links that don't have both required attributes set in our list.
With the domain objects created, it's time to tell ActiveRecord about our attribute:
class Post < ActiveRecord::Base
attribute :links, LinkList::Type.new
That one line is all that ActiveRecord needs to do the right thing with our attribute. The only problem is that there's no such thing as a
LinkList::Type yet. We'll need to create one.
Thankfully, ActiveRecord's PostgreSQL adapter comes with a type for
json attributes that is very close to what we need. You can view its source here.
We're going to use this code with only minor updates.
- For simplicity's sake, we aren't going to treat
LinkListas a mutable type.
- We will define the
:jsonbto match the column type in the database.
- We will add casting to
LinkListafter we have handled the JSON deserialization and add LinkList as a type we will serialize.
Here's what it looks like:
class LinkList
# ...
class Type < ActiveRecord::Type::Value
def type
def type_cast_from_user(value)
def type_cast_from_database(value)
if String === value
decoded = ::ActiveSupport::JSON.decode(value) rescue nil
def type_cast_for_database(value)
case value
when Array, Hash, LinkList
A few quick notes about this code:
- I normally dislike inner classes. This is one of the few cases in which I think they make a lot of sense.
type_cast_from_useris what is called when your app sets the attribute. In Rails 5, this method will be renamed to simply
type_cast_from_databasereceives the serialized data from the database and returns a live object. This one will be aptly named
deserializein Rails 5.
type_cast_for_databaseserializes the data for the database. You may have already guessed, but it'll be called
serializein Rails 5.
- If we'd implemented a mutable domain object, we'd also need to implement
changed_in_place?and proper equality tests for our objects, so that we could decide whether we need to write the attribute to the database or not.
Tying It All Together
At this point, you might be wondering how we'll actually set this attribute in our app. If you're posting JSON to the controller, it couldn't be easier. Assuming the model is
Post as above, we'll just POST (or PATCH) a body like the following:
"_comment": "Pretend there are other attributes here as applicable.",
"post": {
"links": [
{ "title": "nVisium Homepage", "url": "https://nvisium.com" },
{ "title": "nVisium Blog", "url": "https://blog.nvisium.com" }
If you want to create a form, it'll be a little more involved, but not too bad:
<%= form_for @post do |f| %>
<!-- Let's pretend there are other fields here, shall we? -->
<% @post.links.each do |link| %>
<%= f.fields_for 'links[]', link, index: nil do |l| %>
<%= l.text_field :title %>
<%= l.text_field :url %>
<% end %>
<% end %>
<!-- A placeholder for adding a new link. Bring your own JavaScript. ;) -->
<%= f.fields_for 'links[]', Link.new(layout: post
categories: blog
title: '', url: ''), index: nil do |l| %> <%= l.text_field :title %>
<%= l.text_field :url %>
<% end %>
<% end %>
And that's it! I hope that armed with this knowledge, you'll use domain objects more freely in your Rails apps instead of treating your ActiveRecord models as big bags of data.
I'd like to thank Sean Griffin for taking the time to write this feature and get it pushed into Rails. It's one thing to talk about a better API, but another thing entirely to put the effort into writing it. Thanks, Sean!


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Meister's Landscape Nursery is located at 117 Beckman Rd in Skandia and has been in the business of Landscape Planning Services since 1978.


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Content tagged kraków
9th European Lisp Symposium in Kraków
posted on 2016-05-11 10:37 by Daniel "jackdaniel" Kochmański
The 9th European Lisp Symposium in Kraków has ended. It was my second ELS (first time I've attended it just a year before in London). It is really cool to spend some time and talk with so knowledgeable people. The European Lisp Symposium is a unique event because it gathers people from all around the world who are passionate about what they're doing. The mixture was astonishing – the university professors, professional programmers, individual hackers, visionaries, students.
I'm glad that I have met in person many people with whom I had only the contact over the internet. I've heard about various exciting projects and ideas either during the sessions and the breaks. I have even an autograph from miss Kathleen Callaway on my Lisp in Small Pieces book. I'm also very excited that this year there was a Clojure talk, which is a modern incarnation of the Lisp idea.
During the event I had a chance to stand in front of this "angry crowd" (actually crowd of a very nice people – I still was very stressed though) during my lightning talk. I was talking about my opinions on how the contributing to the Common Lisp ecosystem should look like, how people can get involved in a productive and efficient way.
Yesterday we were on a banquet which officially closed the symposium. The food was delicious and the company was great. The only thing is that it could last a little longer. In fact many of the attendees moved to some other place to continue the meeting. I've heard they've ended late in the night (or early in the morning). I was too sleepy, so I've left to my kind host's flat.
I want to thank all the organizers and speakers for the effort they've put to make the symposium happen. Michał Psota did a tremendous job as a local chair – he managed all the local stuff and it was all perfect, Irène Durand and Didier Verna were managing things very well – everything went very smooth and only a few people got shot during the lightning talks by Didier for exceeding the time frame. I hope that I'll be able to attend the next ELS which will probably take place in Brussels.
Kraklisp and hackerspace in Kraków
posted on 2016-05-03 by Daniel "jackdaniel" Kochmański
During the last weekend I've been in Kraków to visit some friends. Since I know that there is a lisp group kraklisp on the Jagiellonian University and I know a few people in there (mainly from IRC channel #lisp-pl @ freenode), I've arrived in Kraków a bit earlier than I have originally planned to give a talk about the reader macros in Common Lisp. You may find it here (it's in polish):
Michał "phoe" Herda has met us on the bus station near the university buildings and lead us to the destination. Jagiellonian University has very beautiful buildings reminding these on Morasko in Poznań. When we've arrived at the destination we have entered KSI students association room, waited a few moments and started the workshops.
I was surprised that so many people arrived. Eleven people is a lot given that Common Lisp is considered a niche language. kraklisp brings together not only students but also lisp enthusiasts who work with Scala, Java, NetBSD and many other technologies outside the university. That's great to know, that we have an active group of lisp hackers here in Poland!
My talk took about an hour and from the feedback I infer it was just fine but the pace was a little too fast. People were actively listening and asking questions. That was fun. After me Jacek "TeMPOraL" Złydach lead a workshop about the web scrapping in Common Lisp. He has shown very nicely how to build programs interactively in the bottom-up manner. The video is available here (also in polish):
After the meeting the group has split and we have headed to the Hackerspace Kraków headquarters. Amazing place – group of people who tinker with the hardware and software in their free time. A lot of electronic devices, soldering irons, computers and boxes with an unknown content. We've chatted a little and we've learned about some nice projects they have developed – like a device mounted on your chest to locate objects in front of you. It has been created to help blind people to get around the room. Theirs location was in a little bustle, because they are currently moving to the new location. Hackerspace in Kraków is definitely worth seeing, and if feasible – cooperating with.
Finally we've moved to our stay due to the late hour (hackerspace is open 24h!). Kraków seems to be a great place to engage in a CS hobbies like programming and electronics or just to hang around with a smart people in general. I'm glad I'll arrive there again soon to attend the European Lisp Symposium.
This blog covers 5am, GUI, McCLIM, clim, els, examples, fiveam, foss, hackerspace, hacking, journey, kraków, lisp, ncurses, personal, programming, projects, tests, tutorial


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Doha is really on the make. The sound of construction 6 days a week rings over the city. Towers and apartment blocks are changing the face of the city on a monthly basis. The ding of metal on metal, the whirl of cranes and the drills can be heard as a constant over the other constant, traffic.
These towers are completely unlike what Qatar experienced before. Across the city the highest 'old' landmarks are a mere 4 storeys high. Below the towers are the wide roads, the odd shopping centre and yet more construction. Cafes exist next to the water (about 200m from my place) but the little have generally made room for the big boys.
Unlike Dubai, construction here is primarily financed by foreign investors and Qatar itself. It doesn't have the same cowboy casino attitude to property and investment. It has more money than it can deal with but with some common sense, the money is being invested in infra-structure, education and health. The World Cup infrastructure programme is a sign of Qatari forward-thinking. The train network linking the stadiums is being built by a German company. Smartly Qatar bought a 25% stake in the company before awarding the contract. They are essentially paying themselves to do the construction.
Infrastructure is a major success story. The condition of the roads and the basic lack of them tells you much about how Qatar looked 30 years ago. The prevalence of Toyota Land Cruisers is not just as signal of wealth or the wish to escape to the desert but would have been a practical necessity. Qatari guys like their wheels too. In lieu of actually playing sport (more about that later) and drinking (cough, cough), Qatari men spend their time racing around, cruising out to the desert and having barbecues or going fishing. Qatari women can drive but generally get 'the Indian' to do it (more about them later too).
All of these impressive facilities provides great opportunities for Qataris but it is a case of putting the cart before the horse. They appear slightly unready to really push themselves. The idea is for Qataris to take up 50% of position within the economy but that's fantasy land. They are not ready or willing. The drag from previous times creates great inertia but equally most jobs are labour-intensive or skill-intensive so why bother? Basic computing and arithmetic skills are lacking. For example, I've lost count of the number of times I've created email addresses for locals.
Qataris are almost bribed to get into education or take work. Salaries for them are far above the more experienced foreign workers who are mostly from the Asian sub-continent (but not the white engineers) and soon they will lose their position if not their role. It will take another generation before the Qataris are truly ready educationally and psychologically to take over the responsibilities, if ever.
Predictably it is often women who are keener to get educated and broaden their role in society. Qatar is fairly progressive when it comes to women. They do appear occasionally without a headscarf, they do drive and play a major role in education and health policy. The second wife of the Emir, Shieka Moza is a prominent figure in the country, pushing women's opportunities and roles in society mostly in education as well as making speeches at various international conferences. She is older Grace Kelly of the region! (More about society later)
Anyway, it's a sunny day as near always. I'm going out for a bit of sun.


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Last week we had a wonderful prom for our year 9 students to celebrate the three delightful years we have enjoyed with them here at the International English School in Gävle.
The students showed up at Två Kockar (Two Chefs) in amazingly beautiful dresses, gowns and tuxedos. We started things off with some time for our students to mingle and take photos with one another, before we had a three course dinner. The dinner program begun with an emotionally moving piano performance by Deniz Hamidi. As a surprise, the staff had made movies depicting some of the most endearing characteristics of each of our fantastic year 9 classes. We hope that you have a chance to see them. A big thanks to IES Gävle alum, Eric Norberg for the countless hours of editing and production of the videos.
All students had a great time and were extremely well behaved. Two students who surely had an exciting evening were our Prom Royalty. This year, Olivia Grönlund Karlsson and Fabian Pernesten were announced as this year's royalty after dinner. Dinner was followed up with a waltz and then the disco started with the help of DJ Papi. Both staff and students finished off the night on the dancefloor.
The staff is so pleased with our beautiful year nine students and we will surely miss them now when they are heading for new adventures. We wish them a bright and prosperous future.


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Last Thursday, the Toronto Blue Jays completed a sweep of the Oakland A's when Steve Pearce hit a grand slam in the bottom of the 10th for an 8-4 win. It was a great moment for Pearce!
The great moment was topped yesterday, when Pearce hit another walkoff grand slam, this one completing a six-run comeback in the ninth. He hit it off a good friend of his from his time with the Orioles, Bud Norris. (Amazingly, this was the second walkoff grand slam Norris had given up in a week.)
But I know what you really want to see. Both grand slams at the same time in a split screen! Don't worry—I have you covered.
Per ESPN Stats & Info, Pearce is the third player to hit two walkoff grand slams in the same season. He joins Cy Williams of the 1926 Phillies (who can forget that?) and Jim Presley of the 1986 Mariners.


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Letters to Editor -Senator Evelyn Lynn
Update Tuesday January29 2007 10:30 pm
I heard from Mrs Summers and the situation is now back on track , thank you very much to everyone concerned including Senator Evelyn Lynn, all your efforts,prayers and letters were a monument to your concern and a great hope that we can all work together in the future to make the world a safer place for our elders.
Mrs Summer writes:
"Dear Ray: The situation with my brother has improved immensely.........I got some satisfactory answers.
I wish to thank you for your concern.Thanks you also for caring for the elderly – in this crazy place we call "modern world". Best wishes to you all."
Patria M. Summers
Dear Mrs. Summers:
Thank you for contacting our office regarding the nursing home situation with your brother and his wife.
It is our custom and a courtesy to allow each legislator who represents a particular district the opportunity to be of service to his or her constituents. Since you are a constituent of Senator Arthenia Joyner, I have taken the liberty of forwarding your letter to her office for her direct response.
I am sure you will be hearing from her in the very near future. Is you would like to contact her office directly she can be reached at the following address:
508 W. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Boulevard
Suite C
Tampa, FL 33603-3415
Senator Evelyn Lynn


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It is an indisputable incontrovertible fact that the electronic upheaval of this particular online digital movement has allowed to remain a major effects on the book creating business/printed out books. It is usually true that e-textbooks have last but not least looked at an upsurge of their global recognition and perhaps they are surely here to remain 1. Continue reading


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Your Cart
Your Cart
Scroll Saw Patterns
Pattern Search
(Last updated October 2018)
I have found that people are often asking the same questions regarding the Excalibur (now King Canada Excelsior) and thought it would be best to try and get all the info in one place for everyone's convenience. For now, I will mainly cover the front-to-back motion issue. I will, however continue to add more info to this page in the near future and try to make this as comprehensive as possible. While much of what is on this page is about the Excalibur specifically, some of the info will be useful for other saws as well. This saw, once properly adjusted, has certainly brought my scrolling ability to a new level and I never want to go back... I recently used a Dewalt DW788 for a small project and the difference in the intricate detail work was even greater than I rememebered.
Please note that any adjustments to your saw you do at your own risk. While I believe that the methods I use are safe, and the chances of something bad happening are slim to none, I will not be held responsible for anything that could go wrong. This same technique should work with Jet (72300 & 72200 models) and Seyco ST-21. There are also other saws out there that are made by the same Taiwanese factory and should also work the same way but the new Excalibur now sold by General International is not the exact same saw (It is now made in China) and may not work the same way.
A note on vibration: It has been my experience that this saw does vibrate at certain RPM's if you use it on a bench top. This can be greatly reduced by using the supplied stand, making sure the stand is assembled securely, and having it on a level and solid floor. Since a scroll saw essentially has a vibrating blade, it is in it's nature to vibrate. This is true of all scroll saws. Oftentimes, people think that it means something is wrong with the saw, which I don't believe is usually the case. The only thing that can be done to reduce the vibration is to add solid mass to it. The stand, on a solid floor, does make a pretty big difference. All this being said, I personally own a stand but am unable to use it due to space constraints. I have the saw on a small cabinet that is none too sturdy and I still find the vibration to not be detrimental to my scrolling in even the most delicate work.
The "tension" knob: Referring to this as a tension knob can be misleading. Turning this knob raises and lowers the angle of the upper arm. If you make this adjustment after you have a blade attached at both ends, it will increase or decrease the tension by moving the upper arm. As soon as you undo the blade from one of the holders, your tension adjustment is lost. This is a moot point however, since the flip lever provides the right amount of tension for almost any situation and is all most people should ever need with regards to tensioning.
Another thing people often use this knob for is to lower the upper arm and expose an unused section of the blade after it begins to get dull. While this does technically work, there are reasons not to do this and we will get more into this subject below. Also note, The knob will often turn a tiny bit when you lift the arm and can move when your table vibrates if there is no tension on the saw.
Upper arm position (set with tension knob): I have been informed by Ray (of seyco.com) that the saw performs optimally with the upper arm set parallel to the table. The vibration should be slightly better in this position and, when it comes to tuning the blade motion, upper arm position is critical. When you change the upper arm angle, you change the motion of the blade as well. Whatever postion you have the upper arm in when you do the blade motion adjustment (explained below) is the only position that it will be optimized for. Therefore, it is obviously best if you do this with the upper arm parallel to the table.
To get your arm parallel to the table, you just have to measure the height at the back of the table and at the end of the arm. Adjust the "tension" knob until your upper arm rests at parallel. Take note of which direction the white mark on the knob is pointing. Later on, if your knob gets turned, you can eyeball the upper arm until it is near parallel, and then turn the knob until it is in that correct position. This is important to remember because the knob will often turn a tiny bit on it's own when you lift the arm and can move when your table vibrates if there is no tension on the saw and you wouldn't want to have to keep repeatedly measuring the upper arm to get it parallel. Check the knob's postion every once in awhle to be sure it's close to where you want it.
Optimizing front-to-back blade motion: Please read the "Upper arm position" section before doing these adjustments; The position of your upper arm affects the motion of the blade and the following adjustment will only help if your upper arm is at the same position as when the adjustment was done. To adjust the front-to-back motion, we will be rotating the motor.
A side note on blade motion - before you make this adjustment: If you genereally don't cut very much intricate work, the improvement you notice from this adjustment may be small. One thing to note, is that the less front-to-back blade motion you have, the slower your saw will cut. This can be a bad thing if you routinely cut thick wood with no intricate detail. Having recently experimented with 1/2" plywood, I found that the saw would cut in the neignborhood of 20% slower with the minimized front-to-back motion. Don't let this stop you from making this adjustment because the downside can very easily be remedied: If you want your front-to-back motion to increase for a thicker but easier project, you simply have to lower your upper arm out-of-parallel and your blade will have a nice arc in it again for faster (but less precise!) cutting. I found that about 1 to 1.5 turns of the tension knob will make the blade arc enough to cut noticeably faster. Just remember to put the upper arm back into parallel before doing any intricate work.
Step 1: Set upper arm to parallel as shown above.
Step 2: Put a blade on the saw and flip the tension lever. Get a piece of wood to put behind the blade, this may help you to better see how much front-to-back motion you are getting.
Step 3: Loosen the screws that hold the motor in place. As you can see, the motor has slots which allow you to rotate it. You shouldn't have to loosen the screws very much to be able to turn the motor. If, while doing the adjustment, you feel that you might be able to get it better by turning further than the slots allow, you can move the screws to the next set of holes. You can see the next holes in this picture.
Step 4: You can use a screwdriver to rotate the shaft of the motor (pictured below) and watch the blade motion. Use a piece of wood behind the blade to help you see how much movement you are getting. Then you can turn the motor's mounting position slightly and check the blade's motion again. By doing this, you will find a very small "sweet spot" where the front to back motion of the blade is significantly better than anywhere else. The motion won't be perfectly up and down, but the difference when you cut small, intricate fretwork will be huge if your saw was not optimal before.
You can choose to run the saw on the slowest setting to watch the blade motion rather than using a screwdriver to rotate the shaft. You should be able to rotate the motor mount while it runs... just be sure that the screws holding the motor are only loosened just enough for you to be able to turn it!!!. I use both methods myself to be sure I have it set as good as it can get.
Step 5: Once you are satisfied that your front-to-back motion is minimized, tighten up your motor mounting screws and watch your scrolling go up another level!*


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Note: Please refer to the footnote section below which cite false and/or misleading statements.
From Facebook, how not to write a concession: "I may have lost the election* [the Anarchist Ryan Hartman conceded], but I consider the experience a huge win. I raised under $6000† and didn't use a penny of it to smear my opponent. Mr. Maxwell raised almost 60,000‡, (not counting the tens of thousands spent by PACS§) and used it to spread lies and hate about me being violent, celebrating police deaths, encouraging people to kill the police‖, and wanting to destroy this beautiful city. The media began the campaign by refusing to refer to me as anything but an Anarchist and Earth First!er, denying I had any substance and ignoring the fact that my opponent spends time with white supremacists§ (even though he admitted it to the PB Post§). By the end of the campaign, they refused to even call me for interviews (in fact, Kevin Thompson lied in two of his articles about trying to contact me§). Two days before the election, the majority of my 'team' dropped me like a bad habit to focus on another challenger¶, and my friends in the radical community stepped it up big time, passing out over 4000 letters and waving signs at every polling place. Despite this uphill battle, almost 1,900 people were able to think for themselves and cast a vote for me. To all of you and to the volunteers who stuck with me: I am stronger now than ever before and I'm not going anywhere. Let's get shit** done!!!"
Footnote section:
*Not "may". Hartman lost to Vice Mayor Scott Maxwell.
†False: Hartman raised $8,229 (per G3 treasurer report dated 3/14).
‡False: Maxwell raised $52,145 (per G3 treasurer report dated 3/14).
‖All the aforementioned claims by the Maxwell campaign were true; in fact, Hartman publicly apologized for hateful comments.
**Definition of the word "s**t"—1: usually vulgar: feces. 2: an act of defecation.
|Hartman prior to becoming a candidate. He "got to talk about Anarchism to a jury!" And later. . .
|Even some, like The Obtuse Blogger (TOB), couldn't contain their excitement. Until the election results came in.


text: We've all heard it before, as Marilyn Monroe so enchantingly sang, diamonds are a girl's best friend! To be realistic, not every girl has a jewelry box like Marilyn's or the wallet to fashion one. To add a touch of sparkle to your wardrobe without breaking the bank, check out Three Sisters Jewelry Design. Diamond shavings are used to piece together pendants, rings, and earrings for a unique and shimmering look. Additionally, Three Sisters has a lovely collection of stacking rings and layering necklaces. Here are a few of our favorites from the beautiful diamond collection. Treat yourself for spring!


text: richg101 1,097 Posted January 10, 2015 I have no intention of hindering the ergonomics of the a7s with a shogun just to get 4k. It's 1080p internal is flawless IMO. if it shot 4k in camera with the same dynamic range as 1080p internal then the playing field would be more level. to be able to attach a z finder and shoot 4k without any hdmi crap is what makes the 1dc interesting to me. However at the moment the e-mount is something i couldnt leave due to it's adaptability. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites


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I'm HQT in History and got stuck with teaching two sections of English, 1 section of Business, 1 section of AK History, and 1 Sec. of US History. If the principal tells you to be "creative" that means they have no books or supplies and everything is based on collaborative learning and projects. If you don't like having a life it will be great. You get to spend your evenings and weekends planning for all the courses you have no experience in, you must participate in every community event, and you are expected to volunteer.
With my experience at my school has literally destroyed what self-confidence I had as a teacher when the principal comes in with her 15 page evaluation. Then she might say, " I don't thing you're a good fit for this school". In fact, she might say it twice. She might even tell the rest of the faculty that you're from Mars during a faculty meeting. I've got my paper clips hanging up. I CAN'T WAIT TO GET AWAY FROM THIS TOXIC WOMAN and her school.
Moderator's note: This post was posted out of context in a threaded question about Southeast Island School District. The user here is NOT talking about SISD, and therefore we created a new topic thread for it. Please remember not to name specific schools or communities if you are venting on this Board. Thanks.


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What lies beyond severe? 7 trends that go with extreme symptom levels
Categories: DiagnosisMaking Myndplan
Formats: Articles
How useful is it to know a client is high risk for bad outcomes?
The Myndplan prototype project is well underway. So far we have the Scans working seamlessly and are preparing to launch our innovative symptom monitoring component of the app. In addition to this systematic roll-out of features, we've been busy responding to requests from clients and clinicians using the app. Some of this feedback has concerned the usual bugs and fixes that new software always requires. But in other cases the questions and suggestions we get revolve around new features that we may already be working on, but haven't launched. Recently we have completed preliminary work on an example of this sort of challenge, which relates to profiles with a pattern that includes an unusually high number of elevated scale scores.
The Symptom Checklist & the "Ceiling Profile"
To understand the feature I'm about to describe, it will help to review some of the history of our scan development process. For many years as part of clinicians' usual assessment and intake process, we provided clients with a well-known measure of acute distress, the Symptom Checklist-90-Revised 1, along with the Myndplan scans. Because the scans were under development, we needed additional tools like the SCL-90-R to help ensure that everything was working as intended. This meant that each time a clinician looked at scan scores for a client, they also had a Symptom Checklist profile for comparison. This kind of validity check is pretty common when questionnaires are being built, and was a critical part of the scan development.
Over the years, clinicians began to notice one particular pattern with the SCL-90-R that we knew was important, but could not decipher much further. It involved exceptionally high scores on all but a few of the scales making up the score profile, which for the SCL-90-R was charted on a single piece of paper in the form of a line graph connecting the various scale scores across the page. The shape of a typical SCL-90-R profile was of a jagged line, with a variety of peaks and troughs representing high and low scores. However, in some cases, scores would line up to form a distinctively flat line across the upper margin of the page – the ceiling of the profile form. At this level of distress no single score can be distinguished from another.
What did the SCL-90-R manual say about this "ceiling profile"? Only that the presence of extreme scores on several scales indicated a client's overall level of psychological distress, or the extent to which they were "augmenting" their scores. The SCL-90-R manual describes the latter as either "dramatizing" or "faking bad".
Many clinicians using the SCL-90-R had noticed that there seemed to be more than this going on with profiles that displayed a distinct "ceiling". Furthermore, they were not seeing such a clear pattern on the profile of Myndplan scan scores. While it was true that the clients with these ceiling profiles on the SCL-90-R were frequently in some sort of crisis, there were often other features that suggested the solution was more complex, such as vague but disabling somatic complaints, overuse of opioid medications, and issues with employment.
Beyond the Ceiling
Recently, I brought this problem to Dr. Rod Martin, Myndplan's research director and a crucial advisor on the prototype project. Dr. Martin has a career of academic teaching and research in clinical psychology under his belt, and along with all the accolades, articles, and books, he has accumulated a treasure trove of knowledge when it comes to data analysis. He was intrigued, and suggested that we have a closer look. First, he developed a small program to extract all the ceiling profiles we could find in our database. We then identified the strongest examples, and created a simple rule set that defined them.
In the next step, we performed some analytics using the Myndplan results for the clients who had classic versions of the SCL-90-R ceiling profile. It took a while to follow this process to its conclusion, but in the end we were able to confirm a solution using the Scans that predicts the "ceiling" effect with surprising accuracy. This means that we can use the scans to predict which clients will obtain a ceiling profile, without them having to actually complete the SCL-90-R. More importantly, the solution tells us a lot more about this group of people than the SCL-90-R ever did.
Into the Abyss
This is where our discussion gets to the crux of what a psychologist like myself – or any therapist for that matter – desires most from a good assessment tool: accurate predictions that help identify more clearly not just who the client is, but what some of their major issues might be, and how they will influence the therapeutic relationship and its goals over the course of therapy. In the case of the present investigation, we have discovered that some very important characteristics are associated with many ceiling effect clients:
- Co-morbid Problems
In terms of the scales making up the various scans, several are involved, including suspicion, intrusive thoughts, drug use, depression, and what we call Factor I. Factor I is a combination of scales that describe people who are preoccupied with their health, struggling with their sleep, and extremely fatigued. It is frequently associated with chronic pain disorders and depression. We have tentatively labelled it "Somatic", given that it contains symptoms that people with a lot of medical problems often complain about.
- No Work
A close look at the problems that "ceiling profile" clients experience helps to fill out the picture. Most have symptoms that interfere with their ability to function – so much so that their job is at stake, if they are even able to work. The rest don't have any work, and are desperate to secure some means of keeping food on the table and a roof over their head.
- Addictions are Common
Two thirds have a history of drug problems, or current issues with drug use, most notably prescription opioids, but also benzodiazepines and alcohol.
- Soma, Soma, Soma
Sixty percent would meet the criteria for somatic symptom disorder or illness anxiety disorder in the new DSM5, or the older somatization disorder that continues to exist in ICD10. This is a group of people with a long history of medical complaints, many of which have proven frustrating to treat. The distress caused by these problems has often been severe in comparison to other clients with the same symptoms and has resulted in frequent admissions to the local emergency department and visits to the doctor.
- Secondary Gain
Close to 25% are probably malingering, though it is not difficult to understand why. For example, most do not have jobs and rely on very meagre disability benefit payments of one sort or another to survive. This segment of the group are desperately in need of money to survive and deathly fearful that their benefits will be cut off or reduced if they don't take some sort of action.
- Lots of Legal Problems
Another 20% are in trouble with the law, usually around domestic violence that erupted amongst all the stress.
- Elevated Suicide Risk
Suicide is a prominent risk for more than 10% of this group, and the odds of someone actually dying are 150x greater than would be expected with non-clients. In other words, whether the distress is real or imagined, the consequences for people caught under circumstances that promote this pattern of responding can be dire, if not deadly. Essentially, this is a pattern that seems to signal a personality type that gets into frequent difficulties that have very real, negative consequences.
As a clinician, this is not a hard group to recognize. To say that it is made up of people who are struggling and in crisis is an understatement of epic proportions. For the most part, they present with an exceptionally difficult set of problems to work with. They experience frequent setbacks and their prognosis for recovery is exceptionally poor. For a sizeable minority, poverty is a significant barrier to progress in treatment. So is drug abuse. Unless these problems are addressed their symptoms will not improve. Personal crises and somatic complaints often dominate sessions and derail efforts to apply more helpful and effective treatment methods.
These are all things that a clinician wants to know before starting counselling. They suggest many issues that need to be explored early in therapy as the treatment relationship is established. They confirm that the client is feeling desperate, and as with all of us, desperate times often call for desperate measures. This is a problem set that genuinely puts a person at risk of harm, and may put others at risk too. After all, when someone is in crisis they are more likely to make bad decisions, and bad decisions often affect everyone.
In the end, we've identified some important characteristics that often go with a common pattern in extreme scores that may be helpful for both clinicians and clients to know. This provides a tool that flags a very specific set of problems indicating that a client may be stuck "between a rock and a hard place". This often involves the kind of challenges that blur the line between psychology and sociology, or more precisely psychiatric illness and the desperation that goes with disadvantage and crisis. It turns out this is not so much a ceiling of distress as it is a sign of how circumstances have taken a person to "rock bottom", and reflects a facet of some people's desperate circumstances that cannot be labeled or fit neatly into a single diagnosis. Just the sort of situation any clinician wants to know before they embark on a course of therapy with a client, as it can have a huge impact on the options for change.


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And just to warn you: I'm risking being patronising and making assumptions, based on two years living in this country. I'm going to summarise opinions I've heard, make conclusions coloured with my own experiences and paraphrase conversations I've heard.
But from much of what I've read in the press here, from my middle-class Wasp perspective, all of this qualifies me perfectly to be contributing to the debate about the youth of South Africa, and is much safer all round. Because when the youth are heard speaking for themselves, as with First National Bank's recent advertising campaign, everyone gets a little flustered.
As a piece of marketing, the FNB campaign is fantastic at grabbing your attention, and maybe plucking the odd heartstring, but ultimately sends you off on a wild goose chase (while making the more cynically minded cringe a little along the way). It tells you "you can help!" but, having raised your hackles with the stirring words of the children, it then doesn't actually give you much of an opportunity to follow up and actually, well, "help". You're led to a website with more videos, along with a concise report on youth opinions that, for me, doesn't tell us anything we didn't already know or suspect (although I may be biased, since my company published a similar piece of research 18 months ago).
What it did show, and for this FNB should be praised, is that brands potentially have more power and clout than most to help empower young people. If only through their marketing and advertising budgets, their influence arguably outstrips what the government is willing to support, or the NGO sector is capable of providing.
So why do I care? I came to South Africa to create a social enterprise, Livity Africa, that publishes youth culture magazine Live SA, which is entirely created by young people to entertain and educate other young people. Beyond our initial funding, persuading big nasty brands to give us money to do this is central to our plans for world (or at least SA) domination. If we succeed, we hope the result will eventually help thousands of young people into work, and through the content our young team produces give millions more access to the kind of youth opinion, culture, insight, advice and inspiration that the FNB adverts tried to capture.
In a short space of time (and believe me, we've had plenty of doors slammed in our eager little faces) we've managed to persuade a healthy handful of South African brands that not only is partnering with us good for the young people in this country, and therefore good for mankind in general, but it's also great for business, and a massive win for them. The idea is to create a perfect circle where they can positively and genuinely influence the youth audience and in return gain credibility, advertising eyeballs and PR brownie points. Page through Live SA and you'll see this slightly Faustian pact played out in print advertising and advertorial. It might not please the anarchists out there, but our theory is based around taking brand money and doing awesome things with it.
And why shouldn't brands take advantage of this if it genuinely works for (young) people, planet and profit? For those of us with an interest in promoting the youth agenda, using advertising or marketing budgets may be as good a way as any, especially if the routes into mainstream media channels are few and far between.
This challenge isn't necessarily specific to South Africa. In the UK the mainstream media aren't too hot at representing the diversity of voices they might claim to. Even liberal newspapers like the Guardian talk a good game, but you rarely see a teenager, say, trusted to write a regular column. Why? I've rarely seen a publication move beyond token representations, meaning adult readers must judge the "yoof" by either their own offspring or the headlines written by middle-aged sub-editors. Fortunately for young people in the UK, they have more access and wherewithal to exploit open media channels for their own ends. And one thing I've noticed working with many 18-25 year-olds in this country (and here comes one of those big assumptions) is that they very often don't feel inherently empowered or entitled to speak out in public, whether in person, in print or online.
Our magazine is notable mainly for the fact that the content is 100% produced by the young people themselves. We concentrate on trying to recruit and cultivate raw talent, supporting them to produce excellent content in print and online through the careful but "hands-off" oversight of professional media mentors. Across five (soon to be six) issues of the magazine, our rolling cohort of aspiring writers, designers and photographers have produced an avalanche of content tackling pretty much everything you ever wanted to know about youth, but were afraid to ask the young people themselves. There's plenty of sex, drugs and kwaito, but also an almost irrepressible dedication to tackling real-life social issues head on, however uncomfortable they might be. And this needs no facilitation from professionals.
The team, all aged 18-25, and from a range of backgrounds (or "LSMs", as our friends in the advertising world would have us label them), decide what's going into the magazine, and then 52,000 copies of the magazine are distributed in schools, colleges, shops, malls, and at events and busy high traffic areas around South Africa, every three months.
Some of the most edifying and exciting content comes from writers who are still finding their feet, especially those who haven't had their voices over-cleansed by the ravages of tertiary education.
If you're not 18-25 you probably haven't seen Live Magazine. That's because it's not aimed at you. But I guarantee if you read it you would learn a thing or two, even if you have children of your own.
Of course we're not alone in doing what we do: NGOs like the Children's Radio Foundation, to take one example, help kids to produce their own radio shows which are broadcast around South Africa (and the rest of Africa) on a weekly basis. They even produce a show that's on SAFM every Saturday. Meanwhile, occasionally some media companies here have made efforts to include the youth into their output.
Plus there are those go-getting young writers and broadcasters who make the national grade at an early age, but I would assume (once again) that the majority of these do so through a privileged education, nepotism or lucky break. This may be the way the world works, but shouldn't there also be ways to proactively ensure more mainstream and marginalised voices find a way through the noise?
With an estimated 19 million young people between the ages of 15-35 (about 37.5%, if the latest census is to be believed) the mainstream youth audience should and could wield a significant influence in this country, even if they don't yet have the spending power to be seen as commercially important. If they were all politically engaged enough to vote, for example, they could make the next elections a very interesting race.
In the meantime, what if every editor in the country made it their business to make sure young voices from every walk of life were amply and regularly represented in the mainstream media every day? What if brands got behind the idea of investing heavily in a mutually beneficial relationship with this audience who are their emerging and future customer base? And what if government, as a result, got used to a healthy culture of youth debate, and therefore didn't freak out on the rare occasion those voices (whether mediated or not) hit the headlines?
Maybe then we wouldn't have to read articles like this, or start wringing our hands when a bank reminds us all that the young people of South Africa do actually give a damn. Because they really do give a damn: this I will continue to argue, however old, grey, white, bald or unfashionable I become. And given half a chance, I'm sure they would dearly love to have the opportunity to tell you why themselves. DM
Read more:
www.livemag.co.za / www.livityafrica.com
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A medium popcorn & soft drink combo is the nutritional equivalent of three quarter-pounders and 12 pieces of butter.


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Tuesday, 1 November 2011
6 comments:
- bats mullholland1 November 2011 at 06:28
marcus fae better backwards on the leftReplyDelete
- Anonymous1 November 2011 at 10:30
The gig in the tent in Dudhope was two days of varied stuff with me compering.ReplyDelete
Highlight was probably Dundee's Elvis gyrating until he knackered himself, wonderful unintended entertainment by the master of such, Wattie Reid.
The Beavers did a set with as many people as we could get into the performance space.
Conditions underfoot were soft.
Jock F
- Anonymous1 November 2011 at 16:09
Did waiter waiter not play at this?ReplyDelete
- Anonymous2 November 2011 at 01:40
Wee Jeng was in it too.ReplyDelete
- Iwrite3 November 2011 at 08:05
adam 812 also played and BBWsReplyDelete
- Anonymous5 February 2012 at 10:25
this is ronnie jack, i was in witchs blood two in 1988, i was standing on the stage at the time the pic was taken, allan had heard the commotion from his house and came over to see what was going on and ended up staying there for a wee while. i put out this appeal here. there was an unofficial video made of witchs blood 2 1988 which was deemed unsuitable for selling to the public, it was done by a guy, gordon i think his name was who worked in the no longer. d r i. i and others got a copyy of it, but my copy was chewed up eventually by the vhs player i had at the time, . i have tried in vain to get a copy of it, newspapers, etc, but still draw a blank, i only want to borrow so i can put it on dvd for my own personal use. not for selling of anything like that. so if anyone has it and can lend me it, please contact me on 07403225575 thanks. ronnie.ReplyDelete


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Monday, 31 March 2014
Not a lot of Socio/Political comment of late. If words are our weapon then some times my ammunition either runs out or keeps on firing at the same targets. Unfortunately that's how it is. So whats been going on...Probably a lot more than they are telling us, they only tell us what they want us to know, and when they want us to know it.
Russian leader Puttin has stopped posturing like King Kong with a hard on, and is now negotiating, with the rest of the world over the Crimea. Russian oligarchs have had their assets frozen, which should stop 'em buying any more English football teams for the moment.
In a case of life imitating art, or at best a long running drawn out TV drama; Lost. A plane went missing over three weeks ago, in a high tech world it disappeared when persons unknown (terrorists or a suicidal pilot) turned off the radar signal. Relatives grief and demand the truth when conspiracy theories have been the only answers, which have caused more questions. The truth is out there....two miles down at the bottom of the Indian Ocean, but we will probably never know why!
UKIP gain popularity after the EU debate on the Radio last week. If there was no UKIP where would the bigots and racists turn? Here's a thought UKIP's stance on immigration could potentially stop far right extremists from Europe coming to Britain to stir things up? Fighting fascism with fascism. Unfortunately UKIP are a necessary political evil in a democracy, they are both a pressure cooker and blender for Right Wing Anti-Immigration views. Both the Labour and Conservative parties have to address public opinion to stop it boiling over, they will use diluted policies based on UKIP's stance, in order to win next years election. The frightening thing is that a growing percentage of the British public belief all the bullshit propaganda that UKIP are peddling, even more than the bullshit broadcast by the Labour, Conservative and Liberal parties.
I heard another early shot in their battle for the hearts and minds of the electorate on the radio this morning, there are plans a foot to charge people for using the NHS. Free at the point of contact, but should someone be admitted to Hospital then there are proposals to charge people for their stay, Like it's a fucking hotel. There's also talk of raising prescription charges, how about the NHS buys the drugs from the pharmaceutical companies at a cheaper price, negotiate the deals, isn't that what a free market is all about? But no we'll make the people pay for the corporate share holders profits. How about making those that can afford to pay for their health care....pay! For example all those politicians that insist on using the NHS to show the belief they have in it and that they are the same as the people they represent....charge them, because it's those most in need that will suffer (the elderly and the poor) who no doubt will also be judged on the lifestyle choices they have made, if they had a choice!
The state can't afford the expense of the NHS, because successive governments both Left and Right have spent billions on wars and national security, all done in our name. God and Allah forbid there is another terrorist attack in the UK, but I fear that something will happen again, my faith in organised religion is the same as it is with politicians. They aint gonna save us, they're gonna kill us. So then....if there was another 7/7 bombing, would the injured be charged for their stay in one of the new Hospital Hotels?
As I type this I can hear the 10.00 clock news reporting that climate change is going to be a big problem in the future; food shortages and more extreme weather. The far right are on the rise in France, and licensing laws will change during the World Cup so England fans can drink later while they watch England play. "Here we go, Here we go, Here we go again!"
Take aim....Fire!
1 comment:
you took the time to write, i take the time to read, sums up the uk and world of late
- 7 April 2014 at 22:47
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by ems
Category: Photography
Measuring the Sustainability of Public Space in Buenos Aires
he was looking at the people from above as they had a coffee and a cake in Castle St. George, in Lisbon.
close your eyes. open your mind!
soft invasion of jelly fish
and they started falling, glowing,
swimming, towards up and down,
slowly moving their tentacles
as they would swim in water
jellyfish rain
we did not know whether they were flying to the sky or down from the sky.
Tja, the winter has came earlier as expected … snow comes always by surprise!! This is the first thing we learn about winter in Bucharest :).
The Castle
It happens from time to time, still not so often, to be in the right place on the right time, and you can have the luck to step in to the world that you silently are looking for.


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What I soon come to realize is that this chair has become my albatross, my Everest, my reason for that glass of wine at 10 AM. The paint came off pretty easily, but the finish underneath that is a different story. I don't use shellac or lacquer etc. so I am not so versed in the differences between them. All I know is this is the most loyal clear finish I have ever encountered. It just wouldn't leave this chair! Oh and what I neglected to notice at the start was those beautiful lines meant there wasn't one flat surface on the entire chair. 60 grit sandpaper on a palm sander would have ruined everything.
So I sanded. By hand. Multiple grits. For days. Did I mention that it's oak? You could sand the same spot for an hour and have nothing to show for it.
He also wanted it stained. The more I realize I'm not getting the finish off the more I realize that putting stain on will make an unholy mess. And, to fix it, I would have to sand it back off. Since I was running out of wine to numb my arm muscles I rebeled and said he was getting no stain and just poly. His only choice was satin or gloss.
Luckily he went along with it. I used Safecoat Poly Seal in gloss. Here is the Sort of Before. I forgot to take a pic before I stripped the paint off the seat. Notice the paints on the top and bottom sections are two different colors.
You will also notice that the arms have lovely detail. I have a set of dental tools that make this much easier to deal with. You can find them for not more than $15 or so on Amazon.
And here is the long, long awaited After. I really never thought I would see it.