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Posts Tagged ‘Slew’

The newest version of WordPress is out, with a slew of features. One of them was the merging of their MultiUser platform with the regular platform.

I upgraded one site pretty seamlessly. Though it wasn’t one with a lot of traffic or power to it. I’ll be doing a backup of my site and upgrading. Hopefully with no issues.

Has anyone faced any real issues with this upgrade? I’m a touch nervous when major revisions are released.

I like the word ‘reformulation’.  Answers.com says it means “The act of devising or planning out in an orderly fashion once again.” With this definition in mind that is exactly what I’m doing.

It’s time to take the stories I have planned and reformulate the structure. Originally I planned on writing a})chapter at a time (for the blogellas [blog+novella=blogella]) and post it. However, I think the wisest course of action will be to write a slew of chapters and once I get a good bit done (and the story solidified) I can start scheduling these to be posted. That way I have direction, focus and a nice padding of story to sit back on.

See, I think big and scheme. Sometimes I look too far ahead and others I’m short sighted. It’s time for me to organize my thoughts and focus more.

What does this mean? Well .. not much really. Just that once I get things set in place my projects will feel less poinless and have more aim and … productivity.

If you read this site regularly you’ll not be surprised by what I’m about to day: I’m a depressive person. I get really down really easily, depressed and ready to sleep the rest of my life away. No, never suicidal – but if I can sit under a desk and sleep until the day I die it would be fine.

I’ve been taking steps to try and push my way out of this cycle.

So here is a little blog dedicated to how I’m fighting my depression, ideas for you if you get depressed and hopefully I can help someone walk the same path!

Nutrition.

I know a large part of my depression is nutritional. I snack too much at work and don’t drink enough water. Heck, I like candy and chips and popcorn and coffee and soda. But I drink way too much of it. So, I’ve limited my coffee intake to mornings only (2 cup max) and I have a caffeine free soda at lunch and then water the rest of the day. I’ve cut my snacking considerably (helps that the office doesn’t provide a slew of food).

Believe it or not, this I think has helped.

Sleep.

I don’t get a lot of good sleep. I toss and turn. However, I’ve been trying to shoot for at least 5 hours of sleep a night and, while that’s not the medical recommended amount of necessary sleep, it has really helped. I’m not as cranky and I feel much better.

Exercise.

This one I fail in, but I know it helps. The brain needs oxygen and blood. The best way to do this is by doing something that makes your heart pump harder.

Biking, walking, running – these are excellent ways to get the blood moving to your brain which – believe it or not – is one of the best ways to beat depression! Especially during the winter!!

Now, I’ll talk about a few psychological changes I’ve made that really seem to help.

Complaining and Whining.

I have spent much of my life perfecting the art of mumbling under my breathe. Most people are great at this – ever since they’re a pre-teen they start talking ‘smack’ about their parents under their breathe. They complain to their friends about how unfair things are.

It never stops at adult hood either. I’ve learned that adults are the best complainers in the world! Somehow we have this warped idea that everything in the world needs to fit in our own little box. It is the common belief that if it’s our plan, it should happen.

While I hate this saying, I’ll use it. Life isn’t fair. There is much more at play here than what outfit we have available to wear or the price of gas. Yes, these are annoying and sure – the isn’t anything wrong with getting a bit frustrated with stuff. Even let off a short complaint about the greed of oil companies or the sneakiness of Sock Goblins. However, let it go there.

I’ve figured out that my whining and complaining affected me profoundly. I was unhappy about everything. I couldn’t let the simplest things go. I was offended by nearly any infraction or any inconvenience. And while they probably will never admit it – I believe it was causing a strain on some of my friendships.

I’ve made it my goal to stop complaining. Not all together, because as I said – it’s not BAD to let off some steam now and again. But it’s my goal to cut it down to a bare minimum. Not just to other people, but to myself, under my breathe and even in prayer. Just let things go.

And that, my friends, have help considerably!

Praise, awe and adoration.

This one I’ve just started this week and my mood has increased immensely. And yes, this is based on a religion – but you don’t have to believe in God – or a god – in order to do thing (though to me it does help).

Look around you and find wonder in the world. Don’t look at the homeless or the pollution pumping factories – but look at the birds. Watch them effortlessly fly through the sky and be amazed. Look in the mirror and think about the wonder of the human eye. Think about the amazement of a blade of grass and how it can process light and turn it to food. Heck, even consider the dirt and how it has life sustaining properties. DIRT!

As a Christian I can stand and be amazed at the brilliance of Creation! I can look at a bird and see it flying and realize that God made that possible – through design. Not an accident.

I can marvel at things like cars, planes, roadwork and architecture and marvel at how intelligent mankind is.

Be amazed.

Be awed.

Marvel.

This has helped me a lot. Just thinking about it, considering it, talking to God about it … I get excited. I realize that I’m just another wonder. Yes, I’m color blind. Yes, I have arthritis in my hands and knees (yes, I’m young). Sure my body isn’t the picture of perfect health – but holy crap … the heart beats without me telling it to! My food is digested, viruses are fought, hair is grown … all without my telling it to. THAT is amazing!

Be amazed!

MARVEL!

Yes, it really works.

These things I’m doing. I’m trying and pushing myself to do. Sure I’ll fall and be bitter about things here or there or mumble to myself about things. But if I keep it up it will help me stay on the happier path.

Maybe I’ll end up being one of those weird people who are happy and smiling all the time?

One can dream.

Ok … so I was going to try and use SmithMicro’s Poser Pro 7 for my rigging and posing of 3D characters in Deadland Chronicles. I was also hoping I could use it to easily model out side characters and background characters without breaking a sweat. Sadly, for whatever reason, the demo crashes without warning or error message.

So, I’m back to working with Open Source programs such as makeHuman and Blender.

The sad thing is – i can’t really find a really easy to follow tutorial on how to rig in Blender.

For those who are not aware what ‘rigging’ means, this is where you take a 3D character (such as the NeoTech soldier) and add armatures (or bones) to the model. Then, you can use the bones to move the body and pose him/her in various ways (walk, run, punch, jump, etc.). Poser has a slew of present poses so I was really hoping to use that program (despite the price) for posing.

So, if anyone out there can point me to good tutorials or show me how to rig/pose in Blender that would be amazing! I know there are a lot of Blender users out there .. so come now. Help a brotha out! Go to the contact page and drop me an email – I would forever be in your debt! Or at least really thankful!

Sidenote: I have figured out how to move characters and objects around a scene for rendering. Which is a huge deal for me. *crosses fingers* Hopefully Blender will end up the modeler of choice as well as the rigging and posing software. Would make life easier – and it works great with Silo (my modeler of choice).

It’s being blogged about, written about, Tweeted, etc all over the Internet – a new addon for Mozilla’s Firefox called Ubiquity.

This is a hard plugin to really explain – because it’s unique.

Ubiquity is an experimental Firefox extension that gives you a powerful new way to interact with the Web.

You’re used to telling Firefox where you want to go by typing Web addresses into the URL bar:

With Ubiquity installed, you’ll be able to tell Firefox what you want it to do by typing commands into a new Ubiquity input box.

Ubiquity commands can do nearly anything. Ubiquity comes with a set of commands that make common Web tasks faster and easier. In this tutorial we’ll teach you how to use some of them. By the end of this tutorial you’ll be able to perform quick Wikipedia, Google, definition, and Yelp searches; add maps to your email; and translate a snippet of a web page, highlight a word, and then email it to a friend.

The commands that come with Ubiquity are just the beginning: anyone can create new commands and share them.

I’ve been using it a bit and it really is a powerful tool! I’m really impressed with what it does.

You can do all sorts of stuff like

Post to Twitter without logging into their website:

Do a Google search:

Or even do some research on Wikipedia:

There are OBVIOUSLY more things you can do with this plug. You can send an email using GMail, add a calendar event (Google Calendar), search Amazon.com or eBay – check for restaurants. You can do a lot of features and they have a slew more.

I think it’s a pretty cool little addon – maybe not as groundbreaking as people have made it out to be – but definitely cool and useful.

Go check it out:

http://ubiquity.mozilla.com