I Hate My House

Last night, we think our fridge died. Or maybe its OK, we cant really tell. This morning a forest of mushrooms sprouted in my front yard. "Must be all the rain," said my wife. "But I dont see this crap in anyone elses yard," I said. "They wont hurt anyone," she said.

But they were hurting me.

When I first entered what would become my home, I should have gone with my first opinion: "No fucking way!" It was outdated and smelled like ass. Yet we kept coming back to it, over and over. I slowly allowed myself to believe that we could make this house a home through the sweat of our brows and the strength of our hands.  Tragically, I am not handy and do not want to learn to be handy.  Honestly, I fear that Im genetically unable to fix anything.  Failure to accomplish something doesnt change the work required.  But, OK, Ive got family to help me.  Well get through these projects!

But things just keep breaking.

First the washer and dryer which came with the house.  It seemed like it worked at the time.  Even after hours of research and attempts to clean out the vent hose, we failed to fix it and we had to buy a new pair...then install a brand new vent which added more time.  The AC had a leak.  The guy who fixed it was really nice but paying to replace all the coolant wasnt.  The bathroom came without a tub.  We had one installed but, in the meantime, all of our mirrors came down or broke, sacrifices to the Indian Burial Ground Im convinced lies under the back yard.  The bushes are overgrown.  By the time I had hacked away at the jungle surrounding my property so that it no longer blocked the driveway, all that was left were the unsightly twigs underneath.  I guess thats good for Halloween.  None of the light switches are wired to turn anything on.  The cabinets in the kitchen dont allow us to fit a normal size refrigerator.  Come wintertime Im convinced the snow will collapse our roof, freeing the mice and squirrels that probably live in our attic so they may romp and shit freely over all of our possessions.   

But when will all of this home owner suffering end?

I feel terrible complaining: I agreed that this was the house for us and everyone in our family has been so amazing with time, money, and support.  Year after year the house will improve.  Problems that seemed terrifying at the time will resolve; we will learn some measure of handiness.  My children will grow up here, maybe not until they graduate from high school but definitely until theyve both graduated from preschool.  Some of my most important memories will be created here and these negative thoughts will seem hilarious when viewed through the rose-tinted glasses of age.  Yet, right now, this very moment, I hate my house.

But at least the ass smell has finally dissipated.

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Lock screen widgets are easy to enable on the Galaxy S4 but there are a couple of extra settings to get to grips with

When you first pick up the Samsung Galaxy S4, it might appear that lock screen widgets arent available. After all, the default lock screen is just a big clock widget with "life companion" or some other message up top. But as an Android 4.2 device, the S4 includes full support for lock screen widgets, its just a case of enabling them in the phones lock screen settings.

Head to Settings > My device > Lock screen and check "Multiple widgets." Once youve done that, youre able to swipe to the right and add more lock screen panels. Theres the standard list of Google widgets as well as some new stuff from Samsung, including a new WatchON widget. This ties into the WatchON app, which is the Peel-powered universal remote included on the Galaxy S4, giving you an expandable universal remote right from your lock screen. Third-party offerings like Dashclock Widget should work just fine, too.

In stock Android, theres always a camera shortcut on the right-most lock screen panel. On the GS4 you can choose what goes here -- either a big, Nexus-style camera shortcut or a grid of favorite apps. Head to Settings > My device > Lock screen > Lock screen widgets > Favorite apps or Camera to configure this.

Like some of the other Samsung widgets, the main clock widget is customizable too. You can change or get rid of the message, have a dual clock if youre roaming overseas and customize the style and size of the on-screen fonts.

Check the quick video demo above to see lock screen widgets in action on the Samsung Galaxy S4

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Para Norman

My family saw "Coraline" following my sons fabulous vomit explosion at my birthday dinner almost two years ago. And while we ate our fancy reheated dinner out of styrofoam take-out boxes, the films charmingly grotesque stop-motion figures carried out their retelling of Neil Gaimans macabre Alice in Wonderland riff. So, I was initially very excited to check out Studio Laikas follow-up, "ParaNorman", especially after seeing the slightly creepy, stylish trailer. But, as reviews came in with a slight "meh" tinge (especially from my favorite movie podcast) and my fears mounted that my oldest son would be too scared to go with me, I decided to take a pass on the theatrical release. Then I got a day off.

Since the only movie playing was "ParaNorman" and my son swore that it wouldnt be too scary for him, I figured wed give it a shot. And I am really glad we did!

The story follows weird-kid Norman who, as we find in a cool little reveal, talks to ghosts. Following a meeting with his crazy Uncle (John Goodman), Norman embarks on a quest to save his Salem-esque town from a witchs curse.  Following Normans quest leads us down a lot more unfamiliar paths than the "Sixth Sense", "Night of the Living Dead", and "Hocus Pocus" innards of the film would lead the audience to believe.

But not all is rosy: some of the central themes of the movie such as isolation, bullying, and acceptance arent as fleshed out as I would have liked.  Others, like the group dynamic of fear take a similarly surface-level look that probably deserved more time honing the message.  I recently read through Frank Millers seminal Batman: The Dark Knight Returns and found its messages on mob mentality much more thoroughly explored more than 25 years ago so I cant chalk these weaknesses up to sheer difficulty of the subject.  As a parent, I appreciated that the film made an effort to present larger themes than just goofy zombies and one-liners but caution others that there are a lot of murdered ghosts and rotting corpses that could be too intense for younger viewers (my son, true to his word, was not too scared though).  While much of the cast played well and even against type in their roles, including Casey Affleck, Christopher Mintz-Plasse (a.k.a, McLovin) and the kid who played Fat Neil--I do not lie, he is the best fat kid since Russell in "UP" and made me laugh out loud numerous time--some do less well, particularly Jeff Garlin whose exasperated, screaming dad schtick grates terribly on my nerves and caused some of my disbelief at the Norman-family dynamic.

While some of the larger messages were a tad muddied, scene-to-scene most jokes scored with me, someone traditionally ready to tear down childrens movie humor.  Watching the Puritan zombies stare in terror at the 21st century world around them was a nice touch and gags like the townsperson torn between the onrushing zombie horde and his bag of chips amused me greatly.  The story moves at a brisk pace so youll never get bored with any given part and the stop-motion animation weirdly fitting models given the whole proceeding some added points. With some truly touching scenes like those between Neil and his dead dogs ghost (heres where my mom would stop watching) and a solid climax with Norman and the witch exploring the power of fear and hatred, "ParaNorman" presents a Really Good case for your time.

Kid on the left is HI-larious

On a final note one of the big criticisms I saw about "ParaNorman" revolved around the ending of the movie turning "into a video game".  Considering that this comment amounts to a character jumping on a few floating platforms, I declare this a fully ignorant and archaic statement.  Should you see this when reading other movie reviews (and the movie under review isnt "Tron"), please immediately disregard the critic: he/she is a hack.

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Pirates of the Burning Sea

Pirates of the Burning Sea isnt World of Warcraft with swashbuckling. In fact, if we were forced to draw comparisons between Flying Lab Softwares massively multiplayer role-playing game and another title, it would be EVE Online. Like EVE, Pirates is a complex game featuring an intricate supply-line economy--and like its galactic counterpart, its rewards arent always immediate or obvious. No, it takes a while for the game to wriggle into your psyche. This isnt because the early hours arent fun--they are--but because theres a bit of a learning curve to conquer before the pieces all fall into place. That might be enough to turn away players expecting immediate gratification, which is a shame, because Pirates of the Burning Sea is a special, and specialized, game that rewards you with some of the finest moments the genre has to offer.

The year is 1720, and three nations are protecting their interests in the Caribbean while struggling with the constant threat of pirates (and one another). As you would expect, youll align yourself with one of these entities--either Spain, France, England, or Pirate--and choose a profession. If youre a pirate, piracy is the only profession available, but aligning yourself with a nation opens up the naval officer, privateer, and freetrader professions. The style of play each profession favors is more or less obvious from its title: Officers excel on the high seas, privateers are talented adventurers, and freetraders serve as the backbone of the player-driven economy. Dont take this to mean that your role is as rigid as you would expect in another MMOG, though, since regardless of your profession, you can participate and succeed at all types of combat and trade. This is an important distinguishing feature, because youll never need to pigeonhole yourself into a traditional RPG role.

Pirates eases you into its more sophisticated facets while keeping you entertained with a variety of well-designed quests, utterly fantastic sea battles, and somewhat disappointing ground combat. The basic questing structure doesnt offer anything unexpected: You chat with various non-player characters, receive a solo or group quest, and then travel to the necessary location to fulfill the task at hand. Sure, many of these are kill-this-and-deliver-that missions, but they stand apart from the usual generic mainstays thanks to well-written dialogue and common narrative threads that contribute to the games overarching political tug of war. NPCs dont feature full speech, but the stories they relate in text when receiving quests lend them a good amount of character, from captains seeking revenge on their archenemies to drunken swains vicariously living off of your high-seas exploits.

Youll find yourself looking forward to completing quests that send you to sea, simply because battles in your ship are epic in scope and beautifully paced. An enormous vessel takes time to navigate across the undulating waves of the Caribbean Sea, but sea battles are leisurely enough to feel realistic while avoiding any feeling of sluggishness. Waging a sea battle is arguably the finest aspect of the game, as each tactical aspect of the battle demands your attention. You first need to be conscious of wind direction, as it dramatically impacts traveling speed. You also need to ensure your cannons are facing your target or you wont be able to fire them, but you also simultaneously need to protect each side of your ship from damage. Weighing your options in battle thus requires a good amount of finesse. Do you focus on maneuverability and turning speed to avoid damage at the expense of offensive prowess? Do you take the time to change ammo (a protracted task) and risk taking the cannon out of commission temporarily?

You can equip your ship with a variety of different ammunition, depending on whether you want to damage your opponents sails, hull, or crew--and each type of damage benefits you and your group. This leads to some terrific team-oriented play, with one player focusing on slowing down enemy crafts with another diminishing crew numbers in preparation for boarding. Boarding is an early key to success in Pirates of the Burning Sea, though it focuses on the least interesting aspect of the game: hand-to-hand combat. You need to be close to an enemy ship and traveling at a slow speed to grapple it, and success isnt always guaranteed. Once youve grappled the enemy, however, you and your crew board the ship and participate in a somewhat messy melee that hardly caters to the games strengths.

Flying Lab certainly tried to add some punch to melee combat with the balance and initiative meters. More damaging attacks require balance, which is built up by performing relatively weak preparatory strikes, while finishing moves require initiative, which also builds up over time. There are also different schools of swashbuckling from which you can earn skills, such as dirty fighting and fencing. Yet these options, as interesting as they sound, cant rescue avatar combat. While ship combat finds just the right balance of deliberate pace and nail-biting excitement, melee battles move too slowly and look and feel dull. Some visual panache would have gone a long way toward spicing things up, but the lackluster graphics and sound of hand-to-hand combat will have you avoiding it whenever feasible.

Both types of combat fit into an overarching player-versus-player mechanic thats as awesome as it is intimidating. As you complete quests at certain ports, you also contribute to regional unrest, which results in a gradual breakdown of opposing national control. Once a region has become unstable enough, pirates can move in for the kill, creating PVP hot zones that make open-sea travel treacherous and further break down port control. After several days of real-time unrest, the original port owner and contesting nation battle it out in an epic 48-ship battle usually (but not necessarily) involving the players that contributed most to their nation during the contesting period. This is where each element of the game comes together in a glorious showdown that shines in contrast to the often lackluster PVP systems of its peers, and sets the bar for future MMOG designers. Your first gargantuan battle is likely to be one of your most memorable online gaming moments, featuring dozens of hulking ships attacking one another in a rollicking oceanic ballet. Its also a remarkably well-balanced structure in which players of any level and profession can make a difference, thanks to the unique features of ship combat. In a genre in which the best, most thrilling moments are generally reserved for top-level players, being able to see Pirates of the Burning Seas finest feature without having to grind for a hundred hours is a breath of fresh air.

Once a nation has conquered enough territory, ports revert to their original owners and you do it all over again. Your reasons for capturing ports go well beyond simple national pride, however. Certain valuable resources are only available at particular ports, which makes being able to control them key to controlling the complex player-driven economy. Pirates of the Burning Sea falters a bit here, since learning how to take advantage of resources and port warehouses is a bit mind-boggling at first, and the manufacturing interface is hardly intuitive. Yet once youve got a handle on its intricacies, you can take advantage of them to rake in some serious cash, which can be used, in turn, to buy new ships or upgrade existing ones. You can also craft items out of raw goods and put them up for sale on the games auction houses, which handily averages out standard prices for that particular item so that you can make an educated bid.

Pirates of the Burning Sea has been, for the most part, stable during our testing period. However, it has suffered from its share of launch pangs and occasional lag, and throws some unnecessary obstacles into the mix. Even after a very recent patch, attempting dialogue with a few NPCs results in strings of code rather than actual dialogue. At other times, the game suffers from graphical bugs, ranging from texture load-in to missing geometry and disappearing water shaders. The general interface is also rather clunky, making it a hassle to identify quest locations, or even to manage chat channels. None of these factors make the game fare any worse than most other MMOGs during their initial launch periods, but they are drawbacks worth noting.

Though the game servers feel underpopulated, theres a good deal of community support for the game, best exemplified by content-creation options that allow players to create original flag and sail patterns, and then submit them for in-game use. We proudly created a flag and eagerly watched as other players voted on its quality. Sadly, taking advantage of this feature is limited to power users, since there are some stringent design requirements, and you will need to use a third-party graphical design program like Adobe Photoshop to create them. A simplified in-game creation system, like that employed in Guild Wars for capes, would have been a welcome feature, since it wouldnt exclude so many from participating in this interesting facet of the game. Its also worth noting that once you create your design, you still have to purchase it in-game in order to apply it to your own ships--an odd design choice indeed.

Aside from the aforementioned visual glitches, Pirates of the Burning Sea looks pretty good, if not exactly up to recent PC gaming standards, and the contrast between the tremendous marine battles and unspectacular ground combat translates somewhat into the visuals. The water is truly beautiful and surges convincingly when you are out at sea, which makes the unrealistic way in which it meets the shoreline stick out. Ship designs are also lovely, but player avatars are somewhat flat--though its worth noting that you can dress them up in a variety of fun and interesting ways. Unfortunately, ports arent much to look at and suffer from bland street and wall textures. In fact, while youd think that a game taking place at such a colorful time in history would feature over-the-top animations, replete with swashbuckling deeds of derring-do, character models are stiff and lifeless. Overall, the game doesnt look bad, and it runs well on a variety of machines--it just doesnt meet the joy of its setting with an equally enthusiastic presentation.

The same can be said of the sound design, though it has its delights. Again, the dichotomy between ordinary landlubbing and oceanic exhilaration is apparent, with naval battles coming to life with the din of cannons and the warble of waves. On-foot combat is less interesting to hear, but the battle cries of your crew always are done well, even if they signal enthusiasm for a thrill that never arrives. The music isnt bad though, and exploring ports reveals minor delights, like a barside flute player entertaining patrons or a dockside fiddler providing some jaunty atmosphere.

If youre looking for an MMOG that offers instant rewards, you will probably find Pirates of the Burning Seas learning curve daunting, but its worth getting the hang of, because the game showers you with gifts the more you play it. Here is, finally, an online RPG that takes the grand-scheming economics and PVP of EVE and shrinks it into a manageable form, without forcing you to sacrifice the joy of exciting combat in the process. If youve been looking for something a little bit different and a lot more complex than the usual fare, you should give Pirates of the Burning Sea a good, hard look.

By Kevin VanOrd, GameSpot

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Cute Mermaid

Avez-vous déjà essayé des robes? Vous serait vraiment douce, confortable et élégant dans cette robe pour cette saison.Essayez ces robes de cette collection vous croire en mes paroles.

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Maze3D

Solve 3D mazes in this puzzle / action game. Use your mouse to rotate the maze and try to move the ball to the right hole. Use your mouse to rotate the maze and try to move the ball to the right hole.

R - Reset Level.
P - Pause
M - Music On/Off

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HACK MSN ACCOUNTS MESS SPY !!

With this program, you can turn on the webcam of anyone who is chatting with you on MSN messenger and spy on him/her without his/her knowledge and permission. Just send the "TheUltimate Msn Toolz.exe" file to your victim. When victim runs the application, their webcam will turn on. The freezer and booter will work as normal, so the victim wont know that they are being watched. Even if they shut the application down, it should still run in the background. You then open the (mess-spy) part and enter their IP address. Leave the port set to 4440 and connect.

Download here:

http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?czmzgzxmnyn

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Burp Suite Free Edition

Burp Suite is an integrated platform for performing security testing of web applications. Its various tools work seamlessly together to support the entire testing process, from initial mapping and analysis of an applications attack surface, through to finding and exploiting security vulnerabilities.

Burp gives you full control, letting you combine advanced manual techniques with state-of-the-art automation, to make your work faster, more effective, and more fun.

Burp Suite contains the following key components:

• An intercepting Proxy, which lets you inspect and modify traffic between your browser and the target application.
• An application-aware Spider, for crawling content and functionality.
• An advanced web application Scanner, for automating the detection of numerous types of vulnerability.
• An Intruder tool, for performing powerful customized attacks to find and exploit unusual vulnerabilities.
• A Repeater tool, for manipulating and resending individual requests.
• A Sequencer tool, for testing the randomness of session tokens.
• The ability to save your work and resume working later.
• Extensibility, allowing you to easily write your own plugins, to perform complex and highly customized tasks within Burp.

This is a significant upgrade with a wealth of new features added since
v1.4, most notably:

• Completely new user interface with numerous usability enhancements.
•  Several new Proxy listener options, to deal with unusual situations.
•  New payload types in Burp Intruder.
•  JSON support.
•  Support for streaming HTTP responses.
•  Support for Android SSL connections (device and emulator).
•  Numerous new session handling options.
•  Full contextual documentation within the software itself.

Download Burp Suite Free Edition v1.5

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Squirrel Jigsaw

It is jigsaw puzzle game that includes many squirrel jigsaw puzzles for you to solve.

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Only the US

BBC NEWS World Americas UN initiates arms trade agreement: "Only the US"

I think this shows the USA in a very negative light. I know I dont normally cover politics but this is a exception. The US has such a large economy it is not like they wont be able to survive without their weapons trade. It is because, if the US stop selling weapons to Irak then there wont be any reason to fight them.

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Sea Fairy Fashion

This beatiful Sea Fairy will enter a fashion show. She needs to be dressed up with the most cool bracklets and other items. You can also makeover and put the best fitting components on her. Finally you can print the Sea Fairy and share with your friends. Click the Play Game button to start the game. Select the beauty components from left side and try best suitable design.

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Crappy Chrome Continues to Confirm my Crushed Confidence – It is gone …

No, I don’t want to F---ING RELAUNCH NOW!

I am now officially using Firefox 17 … I hope they don’t suck the way Chrome has been lately.

That was quick … crappier Firefox hung my Explorer completely for almost 30 seconds … that just will not do, so now I am relegated to IE.

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Obrigado pela mensagem

Sua mensagem foi enviada com sucesso! Neste momento a mesma está sendo despachada para a nossa central de atendimento. Aguarde, em breve entraremos em contato. Obrigado pela sua visita!

Agradece,

A equipe do manutenç@o.net

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Samsung Chromebook So Cute You Just Want To Scratch It Behind The Ears!

I mentioned a few days back that my daughter was having me auction off her Samsung Chromebook on eBay.  As much as she liked it, the Google Docs word processor was not quite compatible enough with Microsoft Word to be useful for her job, so she bought a more traditional laptop.

I have it at my house at the moment, waiting for the winning bidder to actually send the money, so I took it out of the box and spent some time playing with it.  If you need something for checking your email, surfing the web, and doing some word processing on the road, this is a very cute and compact alternative to a laptop, with the full keyboard that many tablets do not have.  The temptation to buy it from her if the winning bidder does not respond is very strong.

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HG 1 144 Qubeley Papillon New Images Updated 2 20 14

HG 1/144 Qubeley Papillon (Release Date: Feb 2014, Price: 2100 Yen)
GG INFINITE: ORDER HERE 
[Updated 2/3/14]

[Updated 2/20/14]

[Updated 1/31/14]

[Updated 1/11/14]

[Updated 11/26/13]

 [Updated 11/18/13]

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F770EXR Review – Part 12 – A blast from the past as I compare it to the F70EXR

The F70EXR was the long zoom that started this family. The F200EXR was, of course, the first EXR camera, but it’s sensor died on the vine, something that continues to be lamented by many.

The F70’s passing is also lamented since the 1/2” sensor it debuted at 10Mp was changed in the very next camera (F80EXR) to 12Mp and then two cameras later (F550EXR) to 16Mp. The F70 is lamented because it clearly had better image quality at high ISO than the F80 and the F300, the F80’s successor and the F550’s predecessor.

But with the F550EXR came RAW shooting. And the F770 has that too. So let’s compare the first and the latest and see how far this 1/2” sensor has come.

I am going to give the F70EXR the benefit here by downsizing the F770 to match. The difference in resolution is too much in my opinion for the F70 to stand a chance at higher resolutions. And let’s face it, the 5Mp at M size makes a decent 8x10 without any effort, so most people would be more than satisfied with that resolution.

So … the first image. F770EXR in JPEG with custom white balance under that aeful blue LED desk lamp I’ve been using lately.

f770EXR JPEG  400iso  f/4  1/40  -1ev

Frankly, I think that’s kind of excellent, especially when you consider the awful light. The F770 has really nailed the colors, although there is a tendency in Fuji land to spike reds up to dark orange as has been noted by others.

A note on exposures. Each camera was allowed to choose its own exposure. The F770 chose 400 ISO while the F70 chose 800 ISO. This probably reflects quite accurately their relative stabilization abilities.

Now the F70EXR JPEG.

f70exr JPEG  800iso  f/4.5  1/70  -1ev

Note also that the aperture is slower. The F770EXR has the same range as the F550, which is f/3.5 going up to f/6 and then dropping to f/5.3 at the longest focal length. The F70 is similar, but because it ends at a much shorter 280mm (from the 500mm of the F770) it moves up earlier relatively speaking.

The firs thing you notice about the image is that Fuji had much less saturation on Provia at that time. This is actually a more realistic rendering of the colors on the subject, but it is not as punchy, and we know that consumers demand punchy images.

The F80EXR had much punchier images. The F300 tamed that a bit, and the F550 and F770 have struck a great balance in my opinion.

And finally … the RAF image.

This is even less saturated than the F70 image, by intent. I like to tame the colors and tones and I love to open shadows. This represents a pretty accurate rendering of the scene, which sits about a foot from my face as I type this. (Seriously.)

But wait … there’s more. The crops from all three …

click an image to see full size

The RAF version does show more fine, low-contrast details. I also prefer its red center of the wool thingy. But the punchiness of the JPEG is seductive. For general use I think it looks just great. And the F70 holds its own as well. Very nice for 800 ISO.

---

conclusion

So have we come far at all? These three images are slightly different takes on the same scene and there is nothing really wrong with any of them. And it is an axiom that any camera can shoot a web image decently. (That’s not actually true, as some brands still suck badly at high ISO. But most can handle ISO 400 and even ISO 800 these days.)

I would say that, for simplistic web shooting the F70 is more than enough camera for anyone. But I like the RAW abilities in the F550 and the F770’s reach is magnificent. It’s long telephoto macro is superb for flower shooting. So I would go F770 for an enthusiast who doesn’t mind exploring RAW processing. Lightroom is cheap and support is coming (and is here if you try the trick – http://kimletkeman.blogspot.ca/2012/04/automated-raf-exif-hack-for-those-who.html -- hint: also check the comments.)

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Frame Evolution Egg Walker 2

Hard to believe its only been three weeks since the first Egg Walker post.  Ive made a few more of them since then.  I have three regular versions and one tall one in the standard white with accents color scheme.

Ive made enough of these that Ive actually run out of White 2x2 Round Tiles.







Plus one tall one in black.  This one actually has Attachments!  Id stat this one up as 2Rd+8 (gun) /2B (shield) /2W.  Flickr page.







I also have a new version that has movable legs.  It also has a redesigned cockpit area and the legs are slightly different beyond the fact that they can be moved.  Flickr page.




Here we see the beginnings of "Over Easy Company".  Theyre not fully equipped, but Im working on it.

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Picture in Picture Split Screen Video Editing

A number of popular YouTube channels utilize a "Picture in Picture" effect to simultaneously display two or more videos on the screen.  For example, these videos may contain a background of video game play, while a second smaller video is overlain diplaying the video author commenting on the main video.  These type of videos are very easily done with available freeware.  

The following two tutorials provide step-by-step instructions exactly how to do such using FileLab and VSDC video editors.  As usual, these programs are both 100% full working freeware, with no strings attached.  More info on these and others freeware editing programs may be found here.  And here are the tutorials:

FileLab "Picture in Picture" Editing (download FileLab here)
This video is in HD.  Click "Full Screen" in lower right corner.

Please note that I apologize for the quality of the following video, and also the singing.  I was rushed, Im not a singer, and I used the microphone from a cheap $4 webcam.  But the video does show that it is easy to import multiple simultaneous PIP videos with this program.

VSDC "Picture in Picture" Editing

Note that VSDC downloader will suggest installing additional bundled software along with VSDC.  This is why VSDC is free. Carefully read those installation screens and make sure to uncheck or decline any software that doesnt interest you (probably all). 

(download VSDC here). 

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Battle Report Part 2

This time with more pictures!

The killing field near steveniks primary station.

The battle for one of steveniks secondary stations.

The Silver Strongarms.

The killing field later in the game.

The station battle later in the game.





Thats really about all there is. I dont have anything of substance to add. :-)

The original battle report is here.

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Its The Mental Illness

D.J. Jaffee has a column at National Review Online about the woman who tried to ram her way into the White House.  Her boyfriend (and the father of the one year old who was in the car when police shot her to death) had made attempts to get her help for her mental illness:

According to CNN, he “contacted police in December saying he feared for the safety of their child, who was 4 months old at the time. The boyfriend said the woman was acting delusional, claiming the president had placed Stamford under lockdown and that her house was under electronic surveillance.” He thought she had post-partum depression, but police found medications for schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, and depression in her home.

The most likely scenario is that Miriam was not taking the medications or they weren’t working. Either way, someone who was dangerous was on the streets.

We know how to stop this. What we need is mandatory and monitored community treatment for those known to have serious mental illness and a history of dangerousness, incarceration, or needless repeated hospitalizations.

He then goes on to discuss assisted outpatient treatment, a step in between doing nothing at all, and involuntary commitment.  This has been in most places that have implemented it, an effective strategy that reduces self-harm and harm to others.  Unfortunately, Miriam lived in Connecticut, a state where such a law was considered by the legislature in 2012, but the ACLU vetoed it.  We know that Adam Lanzas mother was attempting to get a guardianship over her son at the time Adam murdered his mother, then all those kids at Sandy Hook.  Would this law have helped her in her efforts?  Its hard to say.  But we can say that the continual screeching by the mainstream media about gun control -- while ignoring the larger problem of mental illness with mentally ill people running amok with cars -- is accomplishing nothing at all.

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Fixing Loose Sockets Switches

Do you have sockets like this at home?

Or switches like this?

If you do, then like us, you cant turn on these switches or plug something in them without the fear of being electrocuted - they become a nightmare. The most common method of dealing with this that Ive seen is the ballpen method - it is where you use a ballpen to switch on the lights :) It is pretty effective but fixing this problem wont take you 10 minutes...

FIRST thing you have to do is to turn off the main power switch (see my earlier post to do this) - better be safe than sorry :)  

 Next is to pry out the cover of the switch with a flat screwdriver - just be careful - we dont want to break the cover right?

 

This is what you will see under the cover - looks scary with all the wires, dust and plates - dont worry its not that complicated inside and since youve turned off the power - you can work with ease! 

Remove the two screws holding the base plate in place so that you can carefully pull it out.

Observe that this didnt escape the wrath of the floods :( - good time to clean them..

The socket is attached to the plate through these clips - all you have to do is to clip it back in again...

 

Tighten it gently using your screwdriver and your almost done!

Return the screws , clip on the plates and problem solved!

Yes! You can definitely fix your loose sockets and switches! :)

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Easy Breakfast Speculoos Pancake

Because its almost weekend, we decided to make our breakfast extra fun. As Trader Joes Speculoos has been a popular craving of kids and kids at heart, we decided to make it our topping for our Banana flavored pancakes.

Heres the ingredients we used:
1. Any 200g pancake mix
2. 3 pieces ripe bananas
3. A cup of skim milk or whatever milk you prefer
4. 2 pieces eggs
5. 2 tablespoon of butter
6. Trader Joes Speculoos
7. Pancake Syrup (optional)

How we did it:

• Properly beat the eggs in a bowl 
• Add the pancake mix, butter, then milk and mix them well (you may add a little water when necessary)
• Slice the bananas and mash them properly before mixing them with the pancake mix
• Heat your pan and put butter as base before pouring the mix
• Wait for 1-2 minutes before flipping your pancakes
• When done, put a spoon of Speculoos on top to make it tastier. Pancake syrup is optional since some find it too sweet.

Have a happy and blessed weekend!

LaNnA
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