Nikon D5300 Crash Course
The Nikon D5300 Crash Course Training Tutorial is now available for download. Click HERE
to purchase. 
view 1 comments
Archive: December 2014
| view all recent posts
Dedication: A Selfie Every Day For 3 Years to Lip Sync With the Band Queen
When Matt Puren started this project he was only 15 years old. It has taken him three years to complete the project. His idea was to take a selfie every day in order to lip sync perfectly with the band Queen’s song “Don’t Stop Me Now”. While it’s not the most impressive video I’ve ever seen what is impressive is this kids dedication to his project. The video has since gone viral and I think dedication like this does deserve a little acknowledgement.
The Best Question to Ask Someone Who is Smarter than you…
Been very busy in Arizona, taking care of lots of business, and loose ends but managing to have a great time. I’ve had a couple meetings here and something finally clicked. Something I am becoming very aware of is that the quality of our lives are a culmination of our thought processes, and it is the thought processes and patterns themselves that determine everything, from successes, to happiness, attitudes, etc. Very hard to duplicate someones thought processes if they were to try to explain it to you, yet they could reproduce it when presented a situation. Maybe this is why reading good books has become so important to me recently, the more awesome books you read (gleaning information from those who have studied and summarized), it seems the higher your thought processes evolve in that matter.
For a long time I have been a firm believer of not taking advice from those who are doing worse than you are in a particular subject. (I mean, if you are doing better already…why would you need their advice?)
But what about those times, you meet someone whose thought processes have let them to a life where they are clearly gifted, more creative, better connected, more experienced, more knowledgeable, smarter or more successful than you are in a particular area? What is the easiest, one single question you could ask them to pick their brain? This is it:
What would you do (in this situation) if you were me?
If they are open and honest, they will apply their thought processes to your dilemma, and in those cases, if they are trustworthy, listen to and do exactly as they say and you can expect improved success. Been very busy in Arizona, taking care of lots of business, and loose ends but managing to have a great time. I’ve had a couple meetings here and something finally clicked. Something I am becoming very aware of is that the quality of our lives are a culmination of our thought processes, and it is the thought processes and patterns themselves that determine everything, from successes, to happiness, attitudes, etc. Very hard to duplicate someones thought processes if they were to try to explain it to you, yet they could reproduce it when presented a situation. Maybe this is why reading good books has become so important to me recently, the more awesome books you read (gleaning information from those who have studied and summarized), it seems the higher your thought processes evolve in that matter.
For a long time I have been a firm believer of not taking advice from those who are doing worse than you are in a particular subject. (I mean, if you are doing better already…why would you need their advice?)
But what about those times, you meet someone whose thought processes have let them to a life where they are clearly gifted, more creative, better connected, more experienced, more knowledgeable, smarter or more successful than you are in a particular area? What is the easiest, one single question you could ask them to pick their brain? This is it:
What would you do (in this situation) if you were me?
If they are open and honest, they will apply their thought processes to your dilemma, and in those cases, if they are trustworthy, listen to and do exactly as they say and you can expect improved success.
Lone Survivor
Ive noticed when I am not really interested in a movie, I will either start playing chess or check my email on my iPhone (during the movie). If the movie is particularly bad, I will start writing emails and doing other tasks (also during the movie). The less interesting a movie is, the more “checks” or time I spend on my phone, and it almost always happens at least 2-3 times no matter how good the movie is.
While watching Lone Survivor last night, I made zero phone checks, simply because I was so committed to the story and characters and I forgot about everything else. It is riveting and engaging. Despite all the death, blood and gore, I would recommend it everyone over the age of 16, because it was a small glimpse into the price our soldiers pay for freedom.
There is SO much trash out there, like the Wolf Of Wall Street, a film that glories the most obscene and despicable morals as something worthy of any attention.
I really hope that Lone Survivor is a huge success and Hollywood figures out that not only are soldiers stories worth telling, they are also very profitable. Our theater was sold out, and I have a feeling it will do well all over the country.
Michael’s Notes – Spoilers
I have also read the book (several years ago), so I am familiar with the original account. I think anyone who watches the film would have to ask themselves what they would do in that type of “compromised” situation. Hind sight is always 20-20, but I think the right move would have been to either:
1. Leave them tied up and abort the mission. Someone would have realized they were missing and would have sent someone to look, I don’t think leaving them their was the same as killing them.
2. Split the team into 2 groups, one half to watch the prisoners, the other to get to a place where communications could be safely made with base and have support (preferably Apaches and C-130 Specters) enroute before cutting them loose. I still didn’t understand why the goat herders had to have been released immediately.
3. I do not believe killing them was an option at all.
The second tactical error they made was resting after retreating a little, if I knew the enemy had knowledge of our general position, we would have absolutely not stopped.
There is also a lot of controversy over how many enemy combatants there were, different accounts range from 8-10 (as reported by a forensic investigation) to 80, to as many as 200. Luttrell himself says there were between 30-40 combatants in his report after he was rescued. I believe Luttrell’s original version because he was there and fought them and the memory was fresh. I also have a very hard time believing that 8-10 Taliban fighters could give any kind of fight to 4 Navy Seals (all of which were Expert Marksmen), they had to have been vastly outnumbered.
Just my thoughts, in any event go see Lone Survivor in theaters if you can!
Real Whales; The Photography Video Game
Yuji Naka created one of gaming’s most beloved characters; Sonic the Hedgehog. Since leaving Sega in 2006 he’s ventured off on his own creating independent games. His most recent is called Real Whales. If you’ve ever dreamed of an adventurous whale scouting expedition to Alaska (or anywhere else in the world) but can’t afford it, you can download this game for free on iOS. It’s $4.99 on Android.
You scout the globe for the best whale and dolphin watching opportunities and attempt to snap the perfect image as they jump out of the water. You can also get images of other sea life and facts and information on them. You can save all of your favorites pictures into albums.
According to the original article there’s a pretty good market for photography game in Japan. The game seems pretty simple but maybe it’d work as a relaxing way to pass time during a boring commute or while traveling. You can check out the promo video below.
