UFO Tour Business, New Book, Cacti, Design a Room, Katie, 3D, Video Joiners, Moran Atias
UFO Tour Guide Business
My co-author, Noe Torres came up with the idea of doing walking tours of the former Air Base to show many of the key locations directly involved with the '47 crash. We had such a great time doing the tours during festival, that I now conduct the tours on the weekends. Our main tour is a 90-minute walking tour of nine locations, covering 2.2 miles / 3.5km.
I recently did a group including a couple from Italy and then in the next group, we had someone from Australia. It's fun to have a bit of an international flavor. It means word has got around about what happened in Roswell.
This picture (above right) is with the Italian couple. I invited my friend A.J. to join us on the tour, because he's interested in UFOs, he's from Italy and speaks the language. I felt they would enjoy that.
Hangar 84 is where they took the bodies and the wreckage July 9, 1947. They started the autopsy at the base hospital about 1.5 miles / 2.4km north of the hangar, but the medical personnel were overcome by the smell, so they had to complete it at the hangar.
This is my only picture of A.J. , because he took most of the pictures.
Recently, I went on a website called VistaPrint.com and designed my business cards for the tour business. These folks can do it WAY cheaper than I can get locally and WAY, WAY cheaper and better than I can make myself.
It was only nine dollars for the cards, including putting the 2011 calendar on the back. My idea there was maybe someone will keep a card if it is useful AND if there is printing on the back, they can't just use it to write a note on, and then throw away when they are done with the note.
VistaPrint occasionally has obscenely good deals for existing customers. For example, I need a car magnet for the tour business. I was considering getting them to make me one, and Yo and Behold, they send me an offer for a free one! With S&H and custom upload of my own design, the free magnet ran just under $10. It appears that, no matter what you order from these people, it's going to cost you nine bucks.
Here's are the business cards and Car Magnet, which I designed and I'm very proud.
How do you like my slogan? "Walk where they walked." Kinda catchy, idnit? Next week, I'll be joining the Chamber of Commerce. It will help people understand that I'm not just a one-shot, fly-by-night deal. It adds legitimacy and also should bring in more business.
Our New UFO Tour Book
Noe and I are in the beginning stages of another book we are really excited about. We'll expand on the tour book idea, and include a chapter on the Corona debris field. I got permission from the land-owner to go on the site and get pictures, and I'll be co-author on this project as well.
This is exciting stuff, because it is hard to get permission to go. As luck would have it, the ranch owners and I know the same people here in town, because we all go to church together. Small planet, huh?
Cactus Garden
This is the cactus garden I put in about two years ago. The Agave in the foreground has spawned a youngster in front of her, and you can hopefully make out the three Prickly Pear in the back, having sprouted their purple knobs.
It is possible to eat the Prickly Pear cactus. You have to blowtorch the spines off, then peel them and pickle them. So now you understand why we don't. We just enjoy looking at them. They are amazingly prolific. If left unchecked, ours would quadruple in size every season.
Toward the middle, low to the ground, is one that looks like a bowling ball with spines. It's called a Horse Crippler. That sucker weighed 40 lbs / 18kg and it took me and Annie with shovels to transplant it. It makes beautiful pink flowers in the spring, and then populates itself with what look exactly like cotton balls.
You can see our park bench to the right. We alway say adding the park bench makes it more than a yard. It's a park now.
Design A Room
I truly enjoyed Sims 3 under Windows XP. It is an architect wannaby's dream. I spent hours designing homes for various planets, including Earth.
When migrating to Windows 7, I was afraid Sims 3 might not work. Imagine my joy when the compatibility website said Sims 3 works under Windows 7. Then, imagine my chagrin when I discovered it doesn't. If Maxis would just release the build mode as an architectural package, they would win the Nobel prize, and be the first ones to deserve that in over a decade.
In need of an architectural fix, I discovered there are websites that allow you to design rooms, and most of them are easy to use and work well. They aren't 3-D pretty like Sims 3, (Thus I await something Win7-Compatible from Maxis), but,you can at least make floor plans, and, since it is free, you can't beat the price.
This one is my choice because you don't have to download anything and it is so easy to use, you need no instructions.
Any piece of furniture or appliance that you need which they don't have, you can make. All you have to do is tell it the dimensions, color, and shape, and it makes the object for you, and even puts your own custom label on it. eg. "Wash/Dry". When you're done, you can capture the image with print screen, or email yourself the full-size version of the design.
The 15x15 House
Here are features of the house depicted above right.
Color codes: Orange for appliances, Green for furniture, Light Blue for plumbing, purple for storage.Trash compactor and dishwasher tops provide counter space.
15ft (4.6m) x 15ft = 225 Sq. Ft. = 20.9 Sq. mFridge, pantry, and trash compactor are near the door, for convenient loading/unloading.
Diagonal measure= 21.22 ft = 6.47mWindows provide natural illumination to pantry, closet, and living spaces.
All plumbing is located together.Table Folds into a couch.
Bathtub doubles as a Jacuzzi and a shower.Sink is available from kitchen and bathroom.
One dining chair doubles as the desk chair. The 40-inch monitor is also the TV.
The bed pedestal is also the dresser.
Katie and Bone (silent movie)
By the way she acts when she gets a treat, we're pretty sure Katie had competition in her previous home. She conceals the bone in her mouth and acts like she doesn't have anything. Then, she gets all anxious, looking for a place to bury it, which often is in the comforter of my bed. Too bad there's no sound, because she makes these squealing noises while thinking about where to hide the bone. This whole process is very entertaining, so I filmed it, and here it is.
Click to view
USC Invents Awesome Glassless 3-D Display
This 3-D technology is high-quality and requires no glasses. It can display stills or moving pictures in color or black and white. It is especially suited to video conferencing, which you can see at http://gl.ict.usc.edu/Research/3DTeleconferencing/ .
The system, as they show it here, is basically right out of the lab. So it's not yet slick and pretty, but it works great. Give them time on the packaging of it.
Recommended Video Joiners
Occasionally, you'll have need to combine two or more parts of a movie into one .avi file, for example. There are a handful of video joiners free for the downloading, and you will need at least three of them. Why? Because they don't always work. So here are the ones I recommend, in the order that you should use them. After using, you MUST check your joined file to make sure it: a) Has sound, b) has sync'd sound, c) is complete.
- Easy Video Joiner. This one is super-easy to use and often works just fine. It is the fastest of the three, so try this one first. You'll know when it doesn't work because it can combine the videos without sound OR pretend to combine the videos, but leave you with part 1 only.
- Free Video Joiner. Also easy to use, but slower and sometimes leaves the second half of the movie with the audio out of sync. Sometimes it works, though, so give it a shot if the one above doesn't work.
- Kate's Video Joiner. The slowest, but usually works. When it doesn't work, it crashes at the very beginning OR runs forever in a seemingly endless loop.
Moran Atias
Born 9 April, 1981. Another Israeli actress, model and TV show presenter. Moran appeared in lots of movies and in the Israeli version of the game show, Deal or No Deal. There are much better pictures out there for the googling, just not all of them are safe for work.
Look for her in the November, 2010 film, The Next Three Days, with Liam Neeson, Olivia Wilde, Russell Crowe, and Brian Dennehy.
Best Wishes,
