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Going through photographs, I came across the following specimens which I figured I’d post here. Over ten years ago I was privileged with a trip to the Philippines, and one of our hosts (a wonderful, kind-hearted man) drove us to some beautiful scenery. One of our stops was the Taal Volcano, and the following pics were snapped there.
The view was fantastic, except for the black splotches in the lake. When asked what they were, the reply was holding pens. This, and other such locations, are where our ‘farm-raised’ fish come from.
The point-n-shoot camera didn’t capture the full effect, as the waste trails were visible down-current of many more pens.
Hopefully, better practices have been implemented since then.
Well, I haven’t had the time to post every day like I hoped (maybe in the future I’ll be able to), but I did come across an interesting item or two I wanted to get down. One of those is a note about our current technological ability.
During my SolidWorks studies, I found the following link: https://forum.solidworks.com/message/122353. On it, M. G. Martinez-Saez gives a powerful example of what we are now capable of—an entire power plant cooling package can be designed by ‘a couple of engineers’ in ‘four weeks.’ (Search for either of those phrases to go right to the post which is almost halfway down the page.) Included is a picture of a four-story, ten tower structure, approximately 700′ long by 60′ wide. (A typical apartment bedroom is about 10′ x 12′, to give you an idea of the scale.) He indicates our current computer programs allowed us to shave two engineers and five months from the design of that building. Absolutely amazing!
I will leave you to ponder what type of a world we want to create with this ability. We make more with less, so fewer people are involved, yet our population continues to expand. How do we get the technology to benefit everyone? It can be done, and I look forward to seeing our creativity applied to the challenge!
Three days ago I hinted that SolidWorks and AutoDesk Inventor weren’t equivalent, drafting-wise. At the time, I believed a following post would say things were easier to do in Inventor. First impressions are deceiving, though.
Part of the reason for my statement was AutoCAD’s powerful drafting tools make drawing 2-D sketches quick and relatively painless. But Inventor isn’t based very much upon AutoCAD—instead, it is more of a complete rewrite, and approaches things from about the same perspective as SolidWorks.
After having played and increased my knowledge, I am finding the approach SolidWorks takes to be a little easier to grasp up-front than Inventor, but both of them have frustrating aspects, with Inventor leading the race for most frustrating at this point. For instance, if you create a cylinder, and sketch a bigger rectangle on one end, an extrusion of the new design defaults to having a hole through it unless you do some additional clicking.
In short, first impressions are often deceiving. More study, practice, and mastery are required to overcome mistaken ideas, and this rule applies to situations well beyond the drafting world. For instance, religious beliefs also fall into this category, but we’ll get to that later…
Until then, here’s wishing you the best in your own learning endeavors!
Today’s post is simply more messing around with the previous photo. After looking at it, the greens seemed too green, so I thought I’d continue playing for a bit. Comparing yesterday’s and today’s versions, though, I find the initial effort more appealing. Potential lessons: 1) good results are difficult to come by with point and shoot cameras, 2) you can process and reprocess images and still feel the urge to try again, 3) I’m too picky. But that’s all for now—Solidworks calls!
With the majority of my astronomical lessons out of the way, and the completion of the website background work (I just made myself laugh!), I’m finally in a position to post more often. For fun, I’m going to try writing something every day for a while, no matter how miniscule. For today, a before and after picture:
This comes from one of many projects slowly brewing on the back burner: digitizing my old photos.
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In the previous post I said several items could be improved in the software I use daily. Some of them will be listed here—feel free to respond with others you deal with.
To start out, let’s concentrate on Windows 7. Unsurprisingly, Microsoft’s offering isn’t as good as the glossy ads claim. Here’s ‘My Idea:’ fix the following:
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I’m trying to post here more often, but the busi-ness of life keeps interfering. Not much is going on in my astronomical learnings, although a week ago I had the pleasure of talking to a Doctor of Religious studies at Southern Methodist University. He was kind enough to point out some items to address in a future edition of LATD. That must wait, though, because I need to get further into the world, and concentrate on making a few bucks to pay bills—you know how it goes!
In order to accomplish my goal, I’m brushing up on computer solid modeling to become better-rounded, skill-wise.
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Several months ago a friend told me about Jennifer Fulwiler’s blog, Conversion Diary. Fulwiler is an atheist-turned-Christian, and is rational, intelligent, and a talented author. She says she studied her way into Christianity, and out of atheism. Her statement made me curious how she would respond to my past, as I studied myself out of Christianity1 and into something—what’s the right way to say it—more inclusive?
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(Another freebie! This is the introduction and first chapter of my book, Laughing at the Devil: A Cult Survivor’s Religious Discoveries. Enjoy!)
Introduction
When I was six my mother took my sisters and me to a Catholic cult. We were kept there for three months and brainwashed.
The years were filled with many painful events after that experience in 1974. My parents divorced because of the cult’s programming, and I was torn between my mother, my father, my maternal grandmother, and the cult. In those times I heard things said in the name of religion that, quite frankly, should never have been said. The church, my mom, and my grandmother told me that my father was the son of satan (I won’t capitalize that word anymore, because I don’t respect it enough to give it that type of power—needless to say, they meant Big “S”). And being merely seven, I believed them, because I trusted and relied on Mom, and she said it.
But Dad was stubborn and intelligent, …
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My take on spirituality may not be what you expect. It is that every aspect of our lives is spiritual, whether we think about those parts or not. Everyone and everything around us is a reflection of spirituality, as are all of our pains, trials, and tribulations. Spirituality can become kinda mundane, and that’s the magic of it all—existence continues unimpeded, even though we hardly pay any conscious attention.
I no longer believe in the old religions, as they are too limiting, and have caused more than enough bloodshed. True spirituality is recognizing the miracle of life in each of us, and realizing we are all in this together. When we can find something in common with everyone around us, no matter how weird their path may be, or how many mistakes they’ve made, we are starting to come into our own true spirituality. If we go farther, and remind people of their own nature with a simple smile, we are helping our war-torn world heal, and making it a little nicer for all of us.
From this, don’t conclude you should always grin. Sometimes a good old scowl is a thousand times better—that lets people know what you really think, and can lead to positive changes much faster than superficial pretensions.
I wish you the best in your own spiritual quest. Now I’m going to rejoin the mundane, spiritual world. Maybe I’ll be smiling!
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 All content © 2005-2010, David O'Neil
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