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| The Traditional Quinceanera Dresses |
| 09.30.08 (10:58 pm) [edit] |
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If you are turning 15, you need to find the best Quinceanera dress. But keep in mind that dress styles and colors differ, depending on where your family is from. And parties and customs change accordingly as well. If you are from the Dominican Republic, this is the time you will be introduced to society. Your dress should be formal, and most girls choose 2009 prom dresses or homecoming dresses. If you are from El Salvador, your Quinceanera will require two dresses. Talk about a shopping opportunity! Your birthday party will be a big bash with a ton of family and friends, and you will need a rose colored dress for the first part of the evening. The, toward the end of the evening, you will be finally welcomed into womanhood. You will need a red dress for this part of the evening. If you are from Mexico or the United States and you are celebrating your Quinceanera, you will need to have a ball gown. Usually quinceanera gowns are pink or white, and this is considered the day you transition into womanhood. Your parents will be so proud of you, for this is a really big day for them too. The whole point is to be the center of attention at your Quinceanera. Whether this occasion is a big party or a religious celebration, you need to have the best dress possible. No one should look better than you on your special party. Paige Mastingten |
| Cable Types |
| 09.29.08 (1:59 am) [edit] |
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Did you know that analog and digital signals are fundamentally different? Component video signals are analog, based on completely different principles from digital signals. Analog signals in a wire can be thought of as waves, and the height of each wave indicates the voltage of the signal. There are an infinite number of values between zero and the maximum, theoretically anyway. In HDMI or DVI cables, digital signals are used. As you may know, digital signaling like in DVI cables is comprised of ones and zeros, conveyed in pulses at the same height in a pattern in which the symbols are either present or missing. The equipment at the receiving end takes the pulses and translates them into the original signal. When these ones and zeros are assembled in four-bit binary coding, there can be up to sixteen different values, as there are sixteen separate combinations. If the equipment at the receiving end of the cable is expecting to interpret analog sine waves, digital pulses of ones or zeros would be interpreted as gibberish. You should keep in mind, however, that it will not always improve the quality of your picture or signal to convert from component video cables to HDMI cables or DVI cables, despite claims to the contrary. Many sources claim that HDMI cables or other digital carriers increase the quality of the signal and therefore the picture, but Component connections can actually be superior because many imperfect conversions between various resolutions and formats can degrade digital signals. If you absolutely need to convert from a Component to an HDMI cable , you can find converter boxes; however, these are expensive (usually over $200). If you are trying to convert in the opposite direction, it is possible that with these boxes you may run into High Definition Content Protection restrictions, which can keep you from viewing HDCP protected sources. With HDMI or Component cables, your connections should become easier to make. If these suggestions don’t work, at least you’ll have a great reason to purchase some new equipment. Vic Metten |
| History and Annals of Wedding Rings |
| 09.26.08 (4:41 am) [edit] |
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The annals of history report that the tradition of engagement rings has been around for over 5,000 years. According to historians, it was the Egyptians who first discovered a correlation between the circle (with no starting or ending point) and love. Back then young man would pledge to a young lady his intention to marry her by offering her a ring. By accepting this ring, the maid was entering into a legal contract; by wearing it, she showed that she was promised in marriage and no longer available to any other man who might have been interested in her. During those ancient ages, rings were commonly forged from iron, since it was widely available. From these ancient roots and traditions, the modern age engagement rings were developed. So why is this important? It’s important to remember our roots, especially today when designer engagement rings and other bridal jewelry is so flashy and so expensive. There are a lot of different styles of diamond engagement rings available today. And, while many people find simple and basic the elegant and desirable choice, the fact is that most bands and rings are embellished with jewels or engravings. Gold set with diamonds is the most popular choice. Normally the band has only one diamond, a solitaire. When the ring has multiple diamonds, then they are often arranged with the largest stone in the middle or with each of the diamonds arranged in a row and set into a groove. Nowadays, a lot of couples are choosing platinum from the Los Angeles jewelry district. Platinum diamond rings cost much more than the more traditional silver and gold, putting platinum outside of many couple's price range. But the thing we need to remember is our past. For many women, the most important thing about engagement rings is not how expensive they are but the sentiment behind the ring and proposal. With the right ingredients in the relationship, the cost of the ring will have very little bearing on the success of the marriage. Tiffany L’orfevre |
| Airplane License |
| 09.24.08 (11:05 pm) [edit] |
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I’m a former aviation instructor, so I like talking shop a lot. I’ll ramble on about all sorts of things from airspeed indicators to avionics suppliers. Getting your pilot’s license can seem like a daunting task, especially when you consider how many things you must get done before you can actually fly. But it’s really a matter of steps. 1. Find a quality flight school. A good idea is to ask some of your pilot friends where they went to flight school. Often times, they will be able to either recommend their own school or lead you to a better school. If you don’t have pilot friends, you can easily make some. Pilots are some of the nicest people in the whole, and they look at the aircraft community as a sort of club or family. If you go to a small airport and start asking questions, more than likely you will find some VERY helpful pilots to talk to. 2. Make sure that you don’t just jump into a flight school without checking them out first. You need to research how long they have been instructing pilots, what kinds of planes they use for training, how old their planes are, and how often they do maintenance checks on their aircraft and avionics. A good flight school will check the aircraft and the aircraft instruments more often than every 100 hours, which is required by the flight board. You might also want to choose a flight school that uses Hobbs Meters as their engine hour meters. 3. Pass ground school. Just like Driver’s Ed, you will need to learn several things about flying and the aircraft before you ever get “behind the stick.” And while some flight schools allow you to complete ground school and your flight hours simultaneously, most don’t. Ground training includes learning about aerodynamics, airport protocol, dos and don’ts of flying, how to inspect the plane, how to read sectionals (maps, radio frequencies, avionics, aviation GPS, altimeter, etc), and what flying actually looks like. Most of the written exam is based upon ground training. 4. Pass your physical. Before you will be allowed to fly, you will need to pass a physical exam. This exam will cover basic physical health, blood tests for drugs and other anomalies, and the all-important eye exam. Yes, you can have glasses and still fly. But a doctor must decide that your vision will not impair your ability to fly the plane safely. 5. Spend every spare moment in a plane. Your first several flight hours will be with an instructor and will be very educational. You will learn many lessons including how to take off, how to stall, and how to land. Learning how to stall is very important, as it will teach you how to come out of a stall as well. During flight hours, you will also learn many maneuvers like ground reference maneuvers, which involve finding an object and circling it 360 degrees while maintaining starting altitude and equidistance. Flight hours will also be a time to learn how to fly with aircraft flight instruments only, how to fly without instruments, and how to read your navigation panels. After your training is done, you will still need to fly. During this time, you will be left on your own in order to fulfill your required number of solo flight hours. 6. Take your testing seriously. Once all of your fight hours have been collected in your flight log and your ground training is complete, you will get to start the testing process. Do your best, especially if you want to become a commercial airline pilot. Commercial pilots are not allowed to fail any of the tests, even though policy allows you to retake a test if you fail it. There will be a written test first, usually done at a facility recommended by your instructor. This test will include all you learned in ground school as well as many things you learned while in the air. If you pass the written test, you will be allowed to take the final test: a flight with a certified examiner. 7. During this flight, don’t choke. The examiner will ask you questions, especially focusing on anything you missed on your written test. They might also ask you about aircraft repair, aircraft navigational instruments, and other basic aircraft avionics. You will be asked to inspect the plane before the flight, take the instructor up, go through any maneuvers asked of you, and land several times. If all goes well, the examiner will then sign off on your flying abilities and you will receive your license! James Bunter |