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I think that this is a tiny orbweaver of some sort because of the beautiful, but tiny web that it made in the azalea branches. This spiders actual size is about the size of a pen head and it's web about 4 inches by 4 inches, pretty amazing if you ask me, but I am a nerd, that goes without saying LOL :)
Think twice before you speak, because your words and influence will plant the seed of either success or failure in the mind of another.
Napoleon Hill
The formidable Kia Soul was born and bred on the rhythms and energy of music, so of course you can say it’s a Soul Rebel as Bob Marley poignantly chanted about. When it first hit the streets in 2009, the small, boxy ride was full of positive vibrations that made owners alike feel good about their ride while spawning joyful emotions during commutes. For 2019 the third generation derivative is showy as ever with enough flavor to satisfy a crowd full of urban hipsters.
Although I would like to think that I have become a better photographer over time, I am confident that I have become better at processing my digital pictures. Part of this is thanks to new and more sophisticated software, and part of this is refined technique and practice.
As opposed to the Old Days of slides, negatives and prints, modern digital files don’t “go bad” just sitting around, and they are (or should be) easy to locate and easy to re-process. One of my New Year’s jobs is to do some file management, insure that my backups are up-to-date and start a new storage “catalog” for the new calendar year. In preparation for this year’s turn-over, I am going back through some old digital photo catalogs and reprocessing some interesting ones.
This is something that I took in 2004, about a month after I bought my first digital SLR; a Canon 10D with a consumer-grade 28-135mm zoom lens. The company that I worked for at the time was French, and we “had” to take business trips to France from time-to-time. Of course, we always took an extra few days off after the meetings to wander around Paris (or wherever).
This is a portion of the Notre Dame cathedral. I got this surrealistic effect by converting the original image to B&W in NIK Silver Efex Pro-2, and then I brought both the B&W version and the original color version into Photoshop as layers and blended them together. Something similar could probably be achieved with a polarizing filter, but I didn’t have one at the time.
Canon 10D; EF28-135mm; ISO-100; 50mm; f10; 1/250-sec; 0ev
Doodle on pull and push. i think i have a preference towards pull but push is certainly effective in local situations. maybe pull is better for large systems but push is inevitable in smaller systems?
as noah at edlab pointed out, the higher pressure air is always pushing into the void, so even a pull can look like a push from another angle...
The great comedian Sid Caesar does not endorse the following method of improving at foreign languages.
I teach English in Japan, lately with I like to think increasing success, and I speak & write Japanese. My trick for learning foreign languages is....
The Sid Caesar method: If you learn to impersonate languages, no matter how badly, you will also learn how to speak them. Please give this time, and try the experiment.
Gradually it seemed to me that the biggest difficulty with learning a foreign language is not making meaning but the fear of the lack of it.
What do I mean?! The story goes like this.
When I learnt to speak Japanese after studying it for about 4 years I also found myself able to speak and read French. I had never been good at French at school, but something in my head, my psychological attitude to language had changed. I am not saying I am good at French but suddenly I had no problem with blabbing in my bad French. For a long time I did not work out what had changed.
Then two things happened:
1) I came across some research by Steven Heine, extending "terror management theory" arguing that there is not thing more scary than the absence of meaning. You can download his paper here Page on Psych
2) I came across some comedians that "impersonate languages" such as the late great Sid Caesar, and I thought "That's it. That is what changed."
Here is Sid Caesar impersonating French and other languages.
When I was young I had a black friend who (though he is as English as I am) when treated with prejudice in a public place used to reply in his impersonation of an African language. At the time even the thought of impersonating a language filled me with dread. But now I hardly break into a sweat. I am not as good as Sid Caesar in the above video but speaking in gobbledygook no longer hurts. I will append my video at the end.
Many people (especially in Japan) think that foreign languages are very difficult, and that you need to know a lot of grammar and vocabulary. At the same time, many native speakers (especially children) use a small vocabulary and the grammar they use could be written on a postcard. In other words the intellectual, structural, and factual information required of being able to speak like a child in a foreign language is the sort of thing you can learn in a couple of days.
This fact has been known in the language teaching community for some time, and leads to an emphasis upon "acquisition" of language through practice, rather than learning of language (e.g. rote memorisation of grammar and vocab).
But even using Krashen or other acquisition / communication centred techniques, progress is slow. What is the reason for this? One reason is that practice is required, just as it is required in another other skill, such as tennis. You don't become a good tennis player just by learning tennis theory.
But there is another aspect that is peculiar to language. To an extent we live in language, we narrative our selves in it, and when the language lacks meaning it results in a loss of self that is almost as scary as death (see Heine's research above). When we go to speak a foreign language, and let roll with a sentence that may well be all wrong, and may meet with a complete lack of comprehension, we enter that world of unmeaning and experience something akin to death. And this is terrifying.
However, of course, we do not die and we gradually learn not to be scared.
There is quicker route. If you practice impersonating languages, such as by watching a YouTube video of an Italian interview and then practice speaking in fake Italian mimicry (like Sid Caesar above) then you can, gradually, overcome this fear of flying into unmeaning. I am not saying that you will suddenly become a polyglot, but it will make foreign languages easier.
At the least you will become aware of one of the biggest, I would say the biggest, obstacles to foreign language proficiency.
The experiment.
1) Time yourself for a minute. Try and say as much as you can in the foreign language of you are trying to learn.
2) Then watch a video on YouTube of a language that you know nothing about and try impersonating that language for one minute. Do not worry about the quality of your impersonation, just try and make various word like sounds. (You can find some Chinese by searching for "發明" or some Italian, I think, by searching for "intervista")
In which case did you make more sound? I am guessing that you made more sounds in case (1) even though you had to use correct grammar, correct vocabulary. In case (2) you could have made any old noise.
In other words, it is not the words, the meaning, the grammar that is difficult, but the un-meaning that is the biggest, terrifying obstacle to foreign language acquisition.
If you can already "do a Sid Caesar" then I predict you will be quick at learning foreign languages or already can speak one.
Here is me impersonating Chinese. It is not good and makes me cringe a bit still but in times past the mere thought was quite beyond the pale (i.e. s*** scary). Here is a link to my video of me Impersonating Three Languages.
Image of Sid Caesar in 1959 above adapted from this image which is apparently in the public domain
Addendum (Big Mistake)
"My head" is inside my narrative and field of view, not the other way around! This is a very important point and the danger of the scientific worldview. The scientific world is a product of our narration as even some scientists a vow (Wheeler, Mach). Our head is also something we see in our field of view in mirrors, or our nose and brow directly. Our perceptions (including of our whispers) are not inside "me" or my body. To think so would be double death.
1 October 2010: Think - Desiring God Annual Conference held in Minneapolis, MN. ©2010 Andres R. Alonso. All Rights reserved
MySpace, where kids can't seem to figure out that their digital camera has a built-in timer function...
Rough edit and bad proportions, but its just an experiment :)
SB-80DX through umbrella, left on full image, right on the 'mirrored image'
SB-900 as rim light, left on 'mirrored image'
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The frigid air in Michigan is making it tough right now ... but I sure as heck WANT to think SPRING!
Taken last weekend at the Foellinger-Freimann Botanical Conservatory in Fort Wayne, IN with my Tamron 18-270 VC "all in one" lens.
Mighty McSnoo is a deaf cat that joined my sister's family early this year. He only drinks running water and eats with his hands, scooping food out of his bowl and rubs his paws together like a raccoon. We think he may have been brought up by raccoons....
A poster design announcing a competition targeting social entrepreneurs / SMEs.
The goal is to come up with a program addressing poverty alleviation through an entrepreneurial endeavour.
More info at: www.breakthroughinnovationgrant.com/