You saw the title. Self explanatory, right? Here we go.
IT'S MY BIRTHDAY TODAY! Expect a Fashion post real soon. =)
For now, here's another question.
For those of you not familiar with my The Book of Questions feature, I select a question from The Book of Questions by Gregory Stock, Ph.D., write it up, give my answer, and ask for your answer. I select the not-too-personal questions, and hopefully questions that wouldn't offend anyone.
Let's go!
THURSDAY
I only had one class today - Life Sciences 101 - that started at 11:30 AM and ended at 12:45 PM.
You know what that means? Sleeping in. YEEEESSSS! I set my alarm for 9:30 AM, so I would room for my morning routine and to get the continental breakfast at the cafeteria. Then I set it for 9:00...
My wonderful roommate has 8:00 classes every morning, so when her alarm went off, I was up for a few minutes...then went back to sleep.
Around 7:00, I woke up again. Waiting for my alarm to go off. I go back to sleep. I wake up again. I go back to sleep. And again...blah blah.
I finally just decide to get up at 8:00. I went to breakfast with a friend of mine, and this is what I wore today. My head is cut off. My bad.
Real quick. I am a freshman at Oakwood University as an English Professional Writing major, and I'll be giving you all daily posts regarding my first week of school. Let's start with today!
WEDNESDAY
I am an extremely precise when it comes to my schedule. During orientation and today, I got up at 5:45 AM. I would get up, take a shower, brush my teeth (and retainers -___-), get dressed, have worship, do my hair, and get to the cafeteria right at 7:00 AM, because I don't care for lines.
Today, I did the same thing. Except, I didn't wear what was in my outfit journal (that I plan in advance). I just put on some sweatpants - THREE CHEERS FOR SWEATPANTS - and a t-shirt, because my first class didn't start until 10:00 AM. Believe it or not, I am not a morning person.
So, I am at the cafeteria, getting my ID card swiped, and next thing you know, the lady says I'm not in the system.
Whaaaaat?! Not in the system? I've been eating at the cafeteria all week during orientation, and now all of a sudden, I'm not in the system?
I made some calls, but nothing was open at 7:00 AM, so I decided to make some oatmeal to hold me over.
This is what I wore today. I would just click on it, because Blogger is doing something weird to the quality.
I received an email sometime ago with a PowerPoint called "Your Vacation Planner" or something of the sort. Anyway, I wanted to show you the pictures. Sorry for the picture quality. Here it goes.
| Voodoo Town |
This weekend's review is up on the NewTimes Broward/West Palm Beach Music blog page. Check it out on the website here.
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| Photo by Tracy Block |
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| Photo by Tracy Block |
The collecting of anything, such as teddy bears, is really a very personal occupation. The hobby of collecting teddy's is usually influenced by what's available, how much money there is to spend on it, and even trends in the market. But, in general, most collectors are far more interested in the teddy bears' character and history over what they may be worth. Teddy's are chock full of character and provide a valuable link with childhood and simpler times. There is no denying what wonderful companions they make and every one of them has their own distinct personality. Some of the older bears, especially those dating back one hundred years or so, have 'old boy' type characters, having been developed that way based on the long life they have lived.
When a choice is made to buy stuffed animals like the teddy bear and a particular brand is chosen, that too is a very personal decision. While one collector may prefer Steiff bears (the original teddy circa 1902), another may lean towards Chiltern (a 1923 teddy called Hugmee bears which had distinctive nose embroidery). Ultimately, anyone that does collect teddy bears loves every one of them no matter their shape, size, pedigree, or age. The manufacturer, however, does play an important role when deciding on what a teddy bear will be worth. Steiff bears are still the ones that dominate the market and on a regular basis, receive the highest prices at auction. In October 2010, for example, the largest collection in the world of both Steiff teddy bears and soft toys was sold at Christie's Auction in London, England for just over 1.6 million dollars. One of the prized bears, a Steiff Harlequin teddy bear dating back to 1925, sold for $75,000 dollars. A 1953 Steiff black original teddy sold for $48,000 dollars. Other teddy bear manufacturers (from Germany) are also in high demand - Schuco, Jopi, and Bing. Amongst British-made bears, Farnell are the leaders but Merrythought, Chad Valley, Chiltern, and Dean's are all increasing in both demand and value.
When you buy stuffed animals (like the teddy bear), the ones most desirable for collectors are those which have all of their identifying labels, buttons, or swing tags, still intact. Finding teddy bears which are that complete, are rare however, as many of their trademarks have been removed or lost over time through wear and tear. Since 1904, all Steiff bears left the factory with a metal button in their left ear, but many parents went on to remove it thinking it was a choking hazard for small children. Even if a Steiff bear doesn't have its signature metal buttoned ear, they can still be clearly identified, but without the button, their value can easily be affected.
To find out how animals communicate, we must observe them carefully; we must carefully monitor the signals passed from one animal to another, as well as study their responses. Scientists and biologists have studied the ways in which animals communicate by observing animals in their natural environments, as well as in zoos, aquariums and laboratories. They have also had to travel to jungles or mountaintops to follow and document the movements and responses of the animals they observe. Other electronic instruments can turn these sounds into pictures on paper, called sound spectrograms, which can be more accurately examined and compared. Scientists also need to bring binoculars, cameras, recorders and other hardware to keep track of all the howls, cries, songs, grunts and barks of the animal world. As you can see, human hearing plays a very little part in the study of animal communication.
Observations and experiments have shown that all animals have a certain "language". It is not a language like ours, for animals do not communicate with words or sentences. But they do have many signals-- they employ body movement and a number of sounds to produce a response in another animal perceiving it. The signals play an important part in the social life of these animals. Most of these signals have to do with parent-young relationships, food hunting, avoiding enemies, meeting of the sexes and keeping in touch with other members of a group.
Vocal signals are constantly exchanged between many mother animals and their young. The hen calls for her chicks with different signals that can mean either food, sleep, or an emergency. Young chicks are also able to give distress calls that alert their mothers. This call is also important when the young birds leave the nest. It makes it possible for their parents to find them if they are accidentally hidden from sight and get lost. There is also a constant calling back and forth between baby and mother among deer, cows, sheep and goats.
Calls of alarm or distress, as well as a special kind of movement associated with it, are common in the animal kingdom. Many birds avoid enemies this way. Gulls are often pests on the landing strips of airfields, so playing fake alarm calls is a way of getting rid of them. Many kinds of deer have hisses or barks that warn the herd of danger. Alarm calls by baby monkeys and apes immediately bring their parents to their side. Warning calls by prairie dogs are signals for these animals to dash into their holes.
Animals also use their voices to produce food calls. The call brings many of the same species and from all directions, like what seagulls do when they spot a huge school of fish. Animal that hunt other animals have special hunting cries. The gray wolf calls the pack with a long smooth howl when it finds food. While the hunt is on, short rapid barks keep them together. When the prey is being pulled down, the wolves howl and snarl like a bunch of dogs.
All animals have ways of attracting members of the opposite sex with they are ready to mate. Sometimes males make thumping sounds and turn into different colors so they can provide a sound and a sight signal to the females. Some female snakes attract males by their movements and their odor. Odor is also a powerful signal used by voiceless mammals. Often there are special glands in their skin that give off powerful scents. These are then deposited on trees or rocks for prospective mates to follow.
Listed here are a number of the greatest anime motion pictures of all time.
Spirited Away (2001) is a Japanese anime written and directed by Hayao Miyazaki. Among the best anime motion pictures of all time, Spirited Away holds the distinction of changing into the first anime movie to win the Academy Awards. The film follows the adventures skilled by Chihiro, a ten yr previous Japanese woman, when her household decides to move to a brand new city in the countryside. On their strategy to the brand new place, her father tries to take a short cut, which unknowingly takes them to another world. In this totally new world, Chihiro comes throughout spirits and monsters, loses her identification and realizes that her mother and father have became pigs. The rest of the movie stresses on the ladies tryst to avoid wasting her dad and mom and regain her identity. Spirited Away earned super crucial recognition and went on to turn into the best grossing movie in Japanese history.
Princess Mononoke (1997) directed by Hayao Miyazaki, is a Japanese anime set within the late Muromachi interval of Japan. Among the best anime films of all time, Princess Mononoke options the struggle between the supernatural guardians of the forest and the humans who rely on the sources derived from the forest. In order to discover the cure for a curse, which would ultimately kill him, Ashitaka sets out a journey to the mountains of the west. On this forest, he is witness to an intense battle for the forest resources between the humans and the wolf clan protecting the forest. Here he falls in love with Princess Mononoke - San. When he tries to place issues collectively, he finds himself entangled in this wild tussle. On its launch, Princess Mononoke turned the best grossing movie in Japan.
Ghost within the Shell (1995). An adaptation of the manga sequence by the same title, Ghost within the Shell follows Main Motoko Kusanagi and Bateau of Section 9 unit of the Japanese police, in their pursuit of a hacker often called the Puppet Master. Within the virtual world connected with huge network of computers, Puppet Grasp implants false recollections in folks to get his unethical work done. Sooner or later, Kusanagi and Bateau realize that the main culprit behind all the nuisance is Project 2501 - an AI program, which has develop into a sentinel. The events that observe keep you gripped to your seat. One of the best animation movies of all instances, Ghost within the Shell acquired large critical acclamation on its release in 1995.
Akira (1988) this film acquired a score from a lot of the critics and can also be considered probably the greatest anime films of all time. In 2009, the movie was enlisted as one of the prime 50 animated movies on the earth by IMDB. Akira is an anime movie, based mostly on manga sequence by the identical identify, which was directed by Katsuhiro Otomo. The plot of the film is set within the year 2019, in a city often known as Neo-Tokyo, which is built on the ruins of the outdated Tokyo city that was destroyed in a war. The darkish world of Neo-Tokyo is characterised by gang violence, political tussle and a wave of anti-authorities revolution. In one of many gang wars, Tetsuo gets injured and has to be hospitalized. Here the doctors notice that Tetsuo has some psychic talents resembling to Akira - a small boy, with god-like skills whose destruction had invariably destroyed Tokyo some years ago. This makes him the goal of the federal government group, which is hell bent on stopping
The movie opens with Ashitaka, the last Emishi prince, saving his village by killing the devil type of Nago, the boar god. Through the battle, Ashitaka receives a devil mark on his arm, and is cursed by the Boar God's hatred and hurt. A ball of iron is found in Nago's corpse, and is related to Nago's curse. Since Ashitaka is destined for demise because of the curse, he leaves his village and goes out searching for a cure for his curse. As he leaves the village with his elk named Yakul, a girl named Kaya provides Ashitaka her crystal dagger so he won't neglect her.
During his travels, Ashitaka arrives in a forest with animal gods akin to Moro, the wolf god. The Forest Spirit also lives there, he takes the form of a deer by day, and an evening-walker at nighttime. A human decision referred to as Irontown is nearby, the people within the settlement clear the forest to get extra iron ore. The actions of Irontown anger the animals, and cause battles between the animals and the human decision. It was during considered one of these battles that Woman Eboshi, the top of Irontown, shot Nago.
Ashitaka travels between the forest and Irontown to try and make peace. Throughout his first go to, Irontown is attacked by San, a human lady who has been adopted by wolves. Ashitaka intervenes to stop the fighting and takes San back into the forest, nonetheless, he's injured while doing this. With San's help, the forest spirit heals Ashitaka's wounds but not his curse. Girl Eboshi, meanwhile, decides to hunt the top of the forest spirit. Ashitaka tries to intervene to save the forest spirit, but are his efforts for naught?
Princess Mononoke tells a compelling story. Not solely is it a narrative about the atmosphere, it is also a story about how no one is necessarily both, good or evil. I admire how Miyazaki was in a position to tell this tale without falling into the trap of, the forest animals and the animal spirits are the good guys, whereas Woman Eboshi and the residents of Irontown are the unhealthy guys. The cartoon in Princess Mononoke is wonderful and completely conveys the sentiments and emotions Miyazaki needs the viewer to experience whereas watching the film.
I arrived at the Graywolf after a long research journey through DIY screens. Before the low priced Graywolf crossed my browser, I was ready to buy a four by eight sheet of plastic corrugated sheeting for a screen, masked in a border of velvet and cropped by an elaborate draping system for different aspect ratios. All this DIY work became unattractive when I couldn't figure out the sales at the local fabric store and how to strap the plastic to the roof of my SUV without a major accident. The Graywolf's sub $200 price beat the DIY project's time and effort.
The Optoma Graywolf is a retro-reflective retractable screen. A brighter image is reflected off the screen the closer your head is to the projector (within a sub 20 degree angle). It is said to work best with projector mounted in low height cabinets and on coffee tables. AVS forum members warn against the use of this screen with ceiling mounted projectors. My Sanyo PLV-Z3 LCD projector is ceiling mounted.
When seated (below the proper viewing angle from my projector and this screen) I lose brightness. Not so much that the projected image disappoints. In fact when I stand up into the proper viewing angle the screen can seem too bright and over-saturated (I've calibrated from my seated sweet spot after all). When you move too far to one side of the screen--out of the proper viewing cone--you lose brightness, blacks wash out and colors shift and fade.
The Graywolf shipped with a clear plastic sheet rolled up into the top half of the screen. When you remove the plastic you will notice a difference of the reflectivity of the image area crystals under the plastic versus those outside it. This leaves a faint band across the top third of the screen that you will only notice during scenes with large areas of flat, light color (like an overcast sky or an endless white room). The band has not faded away for me in the last nine months of ownership.
Like all screens that are not on a rigid frame the Graywolf has some ripples. The ripples are as noticeable as the top band from the plastic, with little to no impact on the majority or your viewing. You'll only see them in some slow panning scenes and across flat, bright colors. I still get a perfectly rectangular image from the projector onto the screen.
The return retraction of the screen is a little sticky and violent when you do get it to retract. Luckily, Wife_o_Geek has not requested the screen to hide up in its valance when not in use. It just hangs around all day, waiting for another night of movie watching.
I hung the Graywolf from my ceiling with large ceiling hooks. After careful measurements, I was able to level the screen in three dimensions.
The Graywolf's 16×9 image area is a dark gray behind its layer of retro-reflective crystals. The gray surface enhances perception of black level, increasing the screen's contrast. I assume my blacks are better than on an equivalent white screen. The enhanced blacks when mixed with a high contrast image (like Naomi Watts against the Skull Island sunset in Peter Jackson's King Kong (finally watched it over two nights, spectacular looking DVD)) give the image a deep 3D picture that pushes back into the screen beyond its 2D surface.
The Graywolf is my first front projection screen and I'm very impressed. For the price, you can't beat this screen's value to complement entry level front projectors (like my Sanyo PLV-Z3). You get high contrast, deeper blacks than a movie theater, and great screen geometry despite some ripples.
Build a valance with fancy crown moulding to impress the wife (or just for her to allow the screen and its elementary school retractable box in the room) like I did (well, like my wife requested our carpenter build, I painted it matte black though) and you'll be on your way to an affordable, high performance home theater.
Stuffed Animals Collection - Why to Start It
If you still need more convincing, consider these reasons for why stuffed animals should be your collectible of choice:
Stuffed Animals Collection - How to Start It
Now that you understand how satisfying this kind of collection can be, I'll give you some tips for starting out on a collection of your own.
When first beginning, have a theme. This way your collection will be organized and unified. Plus, it gives you a place to start. For example, you could have a jungle theme. For this theme you could get stuffed lions, stuffed leopards, or any other tropical rainforest animal. Or maybe you want a forest theme. In that case you could find something like a plush wolf or a stuffed owl. Or maybe you could get a broader topic in mind, like a fantasy theme. Your could forget the narrower idea and just go with all kinds: plush dogs, teddy bears, stuffed leopards and anything else you can think of. Just find some that you enjoy and you'll find that collecting is easy.
Another great tip is to keep one eye open for good stuffed toys whenever you're traveling or on vacation. There are lots of places that have plush toys decorated with the emblem or flag of whatever country you're traveling too. Obviously you can find these toys in stores, but also at airports, museums, or other places where traveler's congregate. These make a great souvenir, and insure that you'll always remember your trip. You can also find stuffed animals that are holiday themed or representing a particular season, and often they are very unique and decorated beautifully. This is a fantastic way to add stuffed animals that represent the wonderful times in your life.
So as you can see, there are many reasons to start a stuffed animal collection of your very own. It's not at all hard to get started once you have a theme, and it can be a lot of fun to watch assortment of plush toys grow!
The collecting of anything, such as teddy bears, is really a very personal occupation. The hobby of collecting teddy's is usually influenced by what's available, how much money there is to spend on it, and even trends in the market. But, in general, most collectors are far more interested in the teddy bears' character and history over what they may be worth. Teddy's are chock full of character and provide a valuable link with childhood and simpler times. There is no denying what wonderful companions they make and every one of them has their own distinct personality. Some of the older bears, especially those dating back one hundred years or so, have 'old boy' type characters, having been developed that way based on the long life they have lived.
When a choice is made to buy stuffed animals like the teddy bear and a particular brand is chosen, that too is a very personal decision. While one collector may prefer Steiff bears (the original teddy circa 1902), another may lean towards Chiltern (a 1923 teddy called Hugmee bears which had distinctive nose embroidery). Ultimately, anyone that does collect teddy bears loves every one of them no matter their shape, size, pedigree, or age. The manufacturer, however, does play an important role when deciding on what a teddy bear will be worth. Steiff bears are still the ones that dominate the market and on a regular basis, receive the highest prices at auction. In October 2010, for example, the largest collection in the world of both Steiff teddy bears and soft toys was sold at Christie's Auction in London, England for just over 1.6 million dollars. One of the prized bears, a Steiff Harlequin teddy bear dating back to 1925, sold for $75,000 dollars. A 1953 Steiff black original teddy sold for $48,000 dollars. Other teddy bear manufacturers (from Germany) are also in high demand - Schuco, Jopi, and Bing. Amongst British-made bears, Farnell are the leaders but Merrythought, Chad Valley, Chiltern, and Dean's are all increasing in both demand and value.
When you buy stuffed animals (like the teddy bear), the ones most desirable for collectors are those which have all of their identifying labels, buttons, or swing tags, still intact. Finding teddy bears which are that complete, are rare however, as many of their trademarks have been removed or lost over time through wear and tear. Since 1904, all Steiff bears left the factory with a metal button in their left ear, but many parents went on to remove it thinking it was a choking hazard for small children. Even if a Steiff bear doesn't have its signature metal buttoned ear, they can still be clearly identified, but without the button, their value can easily be affected.
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