That was great. It made me cry. I'm going to ask my 6yr old, she's usually good for a laugh!

Hi Eric - I've been extraordinarily busy, both professionally and personally lately, so I apologize for not getting back to you earlier. The problem with Quaker oats is that they are essentially "instant" oats that have been pre-processed. You want to go to a "Whole Foods" type of store and by steel rolled oats. These would normally take an hour to cook, which is why a. instant oats was developed, and b. they're perfect for a crock pot. Also, here's some info on Congee: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Congee This is also an incredible way to start your day! Here's a way to think about food and your day: Morning - you're trying to rekindle the embers in your "fire" or Qi so you don't want to eat cold things, animal fats or high proteins. Oats and grains and fruits and yogurt is good Mid-day - this is when you (if you've done the proper breakfast) will have your fire burning hot and you want to fuel this. So animal fats/proteins and a larger amount of food is fine. Add some variety in the actual meal so that it's not just one thing, but an assortment of things that will work long term and short term Evening - your fire is dwindling so you just want to stoke it a little but not too much. Here's where you want to eat your raw vegetables, leafy greens, beans, a little rice or tempe. You don't want to eat a lot. Like a fire that you want to go out by bed time, you wouldn't put a large log on the fire, instead some smaller sticks so that your body will be ready for bed and not working on something as you try to settle down. As far as breaking through plateaus, you must fool your body. When I train for endurance, I often put many sprint exercises randomly in my routine. The body is amazing at figuring out patterns and conserving, so you have to be random and explosive, then return to the normal pace. You'll find that your body will give it its "all" when called on, thinking that it's run away from saber tooth time, but then you ask for more as you go back to endurance mode. At this point your body will say, ok, I'll give you all the stored up energy I have. I hope these concepts help you. Cheers, CraigD

Hey Juan, that is neat, thanks. I got Real to download without any "extras" yesterday. Thanks for the music too. I would be interested in hearing some more of their schtuff's.

@unknownuser said: God sounds like military ordnance, did it hurt? haha poster-CADken

@daniel bouchard said: Edson, it may be a little bit colder in Quebec City than in Brazil hi daniel, of course we do not get the same cold temperatures here but the south of brasil has real winters. right now it is 9C and it does feel cold. because we wrongly think all brazilians live in a tropical country (but only part of us do) no homes have heating systems thus we feel the cold even more. the winter lasts about two months and we have to make do with heaters and fireplaces. best regards. edson

You missed George Thorogood & the Destroyers BrianB

I too was having this problem! Thanks Santiago for the advise. Mike

i don't know you, but Happy Birthday! May you have a healthy and happy one! poster-CADken

About four months ago I had a motherboard melt down on me. Since the whole system was getting a bit long in the tooth, I built a totally new system and reinstalled XP from the discs I had from the old system. I didn't have any trouble in any way. I had been upgrading the old system right along and had replaced everything but the motherboard at least once, I guess I finally upgraded it to death. The service packs and auto-updates came right from Big Bill the Bazillionaire. rollin'

I was recognized as an able artist at a very early age in public school. In grade 7 I had an art teacher take me under his wing and he taught me oil painting after school. I was also a very able student and mathematics, though boring, came very easily to me. I actually dropped math after grade 11 (when we had 13 grades in high school, not 12 as elsewhere) My mother wanted me to be an artist. My father wanted me to be a lawyer. I wanted to be a ballerina. I knew that I wasn't a huge talent as an artist, more a technician actually. I new graphic arts was an option but in my mind that meant doing lettering and product package design for the rest of your life and I would only be happy doing ART with a capital "A". Because we had no money, I started dance very late. I was 15. I was a dance major when I entered University thinking I could be a choreographer. After a year, I could see I would be lucky if I ended up being a secretary. I was taking correspondence courses in commercial art at the same time. I had frightened myself by being impractical and I was afraid that I would disappoint my parents so I decided to enter business school. I had to pick up calculus,stats and economics. In the end I got both an undergraduate degree in business and an MBA. I kept trying to mix it with art by taking Marketing/Advertising courses and Arts Administration courses. It was not to be and I worked at Proctor & Gamble, several large Insurance Companies, at my parent's business. I realized I actually loved things mathematical and when personal computers came out I fell in love with computers and programming. I worked briefly as a Cobal programmer. I was taking a course in classsical painting and drawing when I met an Architectural Illustrator. His work sounded very enticing and he made it seem as though he was earning a nice living. I chucked my job determined to marry math, computers, art and still make a decent living. The timing was wrong. Architetural Illustration as a career for a watercolorist was on the wane, I was no youngster and not prepared to get paid nothing and nothing is what people want to pay you in that profession. I didn't want to throw in the towel after the investment in time in learning Sketchup and Piranesi and whatever else I had taught myself. Many of my illustrations had been hybrid, usind SketchUp, Piranesi and hand painted entourage which had been scanned and digitally cut out. Brian Woodward of Informatix, suggested that I should package my entourage and sell it. I would be the only one on the market selling real NPR entourage. It has been a tough "gig", and I am again in a position where the administration of the business is so overwhelming that I don't get to paint. I have contract workers in third world countries painting to my directions. I have recently added SketchUp training to the roster, being an ATC for Canada and I plan to do some Piranesi & NPR rendering courses as well. I just really want to paint though. Play with SketchUp and paint.

Yeah, Happy birthday and don't drink too much!

pretty amazing stuff there Eric. I liked the Cheops house

Dell are now offering their new laptops with either XP or Vista due to consumer demand.

thank you for the response. I'll fiddle with the trial version of LT over the weekend.

Would you like to read the article? http://www.technologyreview.com/Infotech/18911/ Google Earth + Second Life == Metaverse! (I want my Snowcrash!) --Lewis poster-Lewis Wadsworth

well I'm open to anything as last night Dr Who started again on TV - my favourite TV show cheers john

Yes, that's a serious risk for inventors. There've been so many before you. The safest way to get a patent is: -put your name on the mailing list of all small silicon chip developing companies -order all their newest chipset samples and development kits -order the best PCB design and simulation software plus the latest prototyping machines -hire the best firmware writers you can get -design housing and packaging for your newly developed devices at home, late at night on the coffee table using Sketchup of course -launch your products worldwide using the services of the best advertising agencies, the best marketing bureaus and the best distributing networks price tag at least 10x the production cost. But take care to flood the market, deluge, tsunami, grab the moment. -last but not least, have a team of the best lawyers to sue anyone who hits the market with a similar product. poster-Maggy

Paul James is good if a little corny. There was a really good show a while back called the City Gardener and it starred a British LD named Matt James. He did some great stuff, but when the network dragged him to America and shot a season here the show took a dive. Getting back to one of the original thoughts in this thread, about interior designers and sexuality- I spent two years studying interior design. If you're single, male and straight, I HIGHLY recommend majoring in interior design. Just saying, is all. Dave

Hello Mike and all, Thank you for refering to my site and, of course, your positive words about my models. I hope there are some usefull models for all of you allthough they where not really ment to be imported into other models. The file size and nr of edges is to high in a couple of models to do that. Most of the models where not made with the idea of being importable. All of these models where ment to learn how to use the Sketchup program for me. What you see on my site is actually the process of learning the program. That's why not all models have the same quality and why there are so many different subjects for the models. Of course tips and comments are welcome if they can help improve my work. J-m@n Joost

john, I was raised to think that displaying good manners everywhere is a way to show respect for other people. it does not seem to be that popular anymore as we are all the time confronted with behaviour like you described, plus people speaking loudly on their cell phones (as if you had to take part in their private life), and stuff like that. not old fashioned, perhaps not in synch with the rough times we are going through. best wishes. edson