A personalized gift is worth a thousand words. It shows the recipient that you put time and thought into the gift. These gifts can be given at any event: Weddings, Baby Showers, Bridal Showers, Birthdays, Anniversaries, Anniversaries, Corporate Events and more!

Bellacroft features a wide variety of Personalized products from top name brands such as: Weddingstar, Kate Aspen, Rockwell Industry and many more. These top of the line products will surly impress!

*Bellacroft Ideas*

Personalized Trinket Box (Shown in Photo) for Matron of Honor

Personalized Chess and Backgammon Set - For Man's Birthday

Heart Shaped Sand Ceremony Set - For Wedding Ceremony

Personalized Baby Stork Scrolling Pens - For Baby Shower

The possibilities are endless!

Bellacroft

Excursion Logging Train, Harbor Springs, photo from Detroit Publishing Co., c1906 (at the Library of Congress)

I noticed that the Newaygo Logging Festival (Eventful link w/ map) happens this weekend. Several recent conversations and excursions of my own have driven home how profoundly the logging industry has shaped Michigan. Like miners, the timber trade roamed from river mouth to natural harbor up and down our Great Lake shoreline, into connected lakes and with the coming of the railroad, across the entire Lower & Upper Peninsulas.

At every stop, when the trees were gone, the land was left cleared and ready for villages and farms. Many of those working in the timber trade turned to farming and town building, and the names of the founders of these towns (and the owners of the dry goods stores) were often the names of the principals of the lumber companies.

Over Labor Day Weekend, I think it would be neat if Michigan were to somehow remember and honor the role of logging and loggers played in creating our state.

...and when it's not such a lovely, last weekend of summer out there, be sure to check out some Michigan lumbering history and this really cool collection of Michigan logging photos from MichiganEpic.org.

Seriously, these logging photos are great!

Der Volksmund sagt "aller guten Dinge sind Drei", wenn dem so ist habe ich diese Anzahl erreicht. Nach dem Gesetz der Serie auf drei Personen bezogen würde ich sagen ja, Engel tragen meistens Bluejeans und T-Shirts/Hemden. Möglicherweise eine der Erkenntnisse die ich im Laufe der letzten Zeit gesammelt habe. Zum Einen gäbe es da einen Engel aus meiner Vergangenheit welchen ich schon recht lange kenne, in meiner Heimatstadt lebte und mittlerweile vor 3 - 4 Jahren nach Köln umgezogen ist, zum Anderen wäre da ein weiterer den ich seit letztem Jahr mehr oder weniger kenne und schon öfter hier im Blog erwähnte und in der Nachbarstadt der eben erwähnten Rheinmetropole, der Landeshauptstadt von NRW, wohnt und zu guter Letzt eine sehr angenehme Überraschung von diesem Jahr, auch schon einmal gelegentlich hier im Blog verewigt in der letzten Zeit. Ich weiß, der Mann ich spreche in Rätseln, Auflösung folgt zu gegebener Zeit.

Was mir ebenfalls noch auffiel in dieser Woche, daß wirklich symphatische und nette Männer, die in vielerlei Hinsicht einen positiven Eindruck hinterlassen (ausserdem sich wohltuend von der breiten Masse abheben) anscheinend oftmals von ihren Mitmenschen und Bekannten, oder sogenannten Freunden bitterlich enttäuscht werden und das obwohl gerade sie das am allerwenigsten verdient hätten. So etwas finde ich sch****, manchmal bedarf es einer klaren und einfachen Ausdrucksweise, denn "Meine Sprache ist allzeit simpel und plan, wenn man einem Ochsen etwas sagen will schlägt man ihm am besten platt vor den Kopf." (Urheber des Zitates fällt mir gerade nicht ein.)

So ihr Lieben, jetzt geht es auf zum CSD-Strassenfest nach Dortmund bei strahlendem Sonnenschein und anschließend in den 41. Stock hoch über Köln, ich werde berichten.

Das Eventprogramm von diesem Wochenende gibt´s hier.

Energie - es grüßt Captain Jean-Luc Picard

Tags: Party, CSD, Event, Gay, schwul, lesbisch, Lesbian, Dortmund, Köln, Cologne, Düsseldorf

So, yay, I got a job!  And, no, I'm not a hooker.

Naturally, it's not the film-business-entry-level-perfection I'd hoped for, but it's turning out to be way more relevant than I forsaw.  I'm bartending at an Irish-owned bar/pub in North London, in a trendy district known for its bohemian community.

As such, the owner of the bar has given me reign to organize and execute film-related events, like mini-festivals and group screenings at the bar.  I get to keep all the cover money, and I get a cut of bar intake, plus my hourly wage, which isn't bad, not bad at all.  

So, somehow, getting hired as a barmaid has put me in a position to learn about my chosen industry.  Crazy.

All that aside, which looks great on paper, my boss is a bit of a loony, very rural Irish, loves her booze, over-shares her personal life, and one time, offered me cocaine.  It's going to be a trial to separate myself from the personal connotations to working in such a close knit environment, but I've only been there for three days, so I'm sure I'll get the hang of it.

We close late, especially by London standards, and generally aren't finished clearing up behind the bar until around 2:30am.  Then, it's expected to stick around and drink with Molly, my lady guv, her friend Christian, also Irish, who owns the pub next door, and a small assortment of regulars and hangers on whom Molly has deemed worthy of staying after doors close.

On Thursday night, my second night on the job, I decided to stick around for only an hour or two, since I hadn't gotten home until after 6am my first night, and was sipping coke that was I was pretending was vodka and coke with Molly, Christian, and two local boho activists who run a localized serial publication.  One was a young Irish poet, with pretension out his ears, and the other this quiet, English publisher who was actually pretty hot in a Viggo Mortensen kinda way.

Anyway, soon after we'd settled in with our respective drinks, Christian's barman, whose name I think was Sam(?), showed up with some food, which is really why I was still there, so I stuck around to eat, and argue with the pretentious Irish poet guy, who was obviously trying to impress me by attempting to intellectually outdo me, about how the film industry has become "artifice over art."  What a tool.  

Sam(?), Christian's barman, was also clearly attracted to me, but was much more tactical and English about it.  He's tall, and has long, blonde, curly hair, and very angular features.  He's not unattractive; he's just not my type at all.  Not someone I'd ever go for or dream of fondly during solo-activities.  But, I kind of flirted back just because regardless of physically not being my type in the least, and honestly only minimally impressing me personality-wise, he was somehow sort of sexy.  I don't know what it was.  I still don't know.

My phone alarm went off at 4am, and they wanted to know what that was all about.  I told them I was expecting to be home, and it was to wake me up so I could watch Obama speak at the convention.  Suddenly, here came this tirade of angry judgement about how Obama has no policies, how he's a patsy being set up to be assassinated for martyrdom, because he's black, etc. etc. etc.

Really some of the most absurd shit I've ever heard.

Most of it was my drunken manager and the "poet," yelling things they don't really understand at me, attempting to educate me, because, being an American of course doesn't give me any perspective on the American political system, and what they've heard on TV is much more accurate.  I attempted to participate in the conversation, but it was clearly an attack in which my input was both unwelcome and futile, so I decided to excuse myself.

Christian and Sam(?), both of whom had been defending me and trying to get us off the topic also took their leave at this point in time.  The publisher, heretofore no longer attractive, said, softly, to me, "You don't know what you're talking about."

"Yes, I do," I said, and continued out.

"You don't," he insisted, and Christian told him to let it go, which then almost resulted in a brawl.  Disgusted, I continued toward the door with Molly apologizing to me, saying it wasn't a personal attack, etc. 

Once I got outside, Christian and Sam(?) invited me back to their pub for some wind-down time and a free pint.  Considering I was on the verge of tears, I thought it might be a good idea to take them up on it.  We sat and listened to Christian do Monty Python impersonations for half an hour or so, to cheer me up, and then Christian offered to get me a cab.

I declined, ever missing my car and the ability to just leave.  There's a night bus that takes me very close to home, so I wanted to just go catch my bus and not be a trouble to anyone.  Finally, Christian relented on the condition that Sam(?) walk me to my bus stop and stick around until I got on.  I was more than happy to agree to this, since waiting for a night bus is pretty unpleasant if you're alone.

Sam(?) and I walked to a bus stop a bit farther away than the one I usually go to, and sat to talk.  An hour went by, and I learned that Sam(?)'s Girlfriend (The girlfriend revelation was made by Christian, and clearly wasn't something Sam(?) was planning to reveal) is 30, and he's 24.  He once worked in a gay bar, and also spent a year teaching drama at a boarding school.

The bus still hadn't shown up, which was very odd.  Both of us were losing steam quickly, having been on our feet all night, then drinking, then in a political argument.  He suggested maybe just crashing at his place for a few hours and catching a regular bus once they were back on the rota again.  He said he'd take the couch; it wasn't a big deal.

I declined about eight times, and we'd almost hit the hour and a half mark when I realized that maybe it was the best option for me.  

We jumped the fence at a nearby park to cut through, and continued talking as the sun rose, we jumped another fence, and then ended up at his flat.  

Sensing my discomfort, he offered to put on a season of Extras for me to watch if I just wanted to wait until around 6 to catch a morning bus.  He put it in and, curled into a ball on the corner of his bed, I fell asleep fairly quickly.  He fell asleep similarly, curled into the opposite corner.

Several hours later, I have vague memory of being nudged into normal sleeping position, under the covers, then him taking off his shirt.  Spooning commenced a few hours later, and was pretty inappropriate, all things considered.  Maybe it was just waking up next to a male body in a bed, but I wasn't really thinking logistics, and instead was just cuddled up with the topless form of a man I'm not even really attracted to, whose name I don't actually know, and who had his arm possessively thrown over my waist.

I could tell he wanted to kiss me, but that wasn't going to happen, just because I was awake enough to remember the girlfriend, the fact that he's not my type, and that I'd probably have to see him lots in the future, considering the working relationship and proximity of our two bosses.

The inappropriate cuddling and topless nature of his garb maintained through two more episodes of Extras and a cup of tea.  I got calls from Tim (I've never been so happy to hear Tim's voice.  He's seriously the only English man I've met so far that I trust completely, and would believe capable of monogamy), and Jane (who really doesn't approve of this tale at all).

Reaching my usual level of lucidity, I strapped on my shoes and made my exit, after the awkward comment he made that was something like, "We're doing a lot of hugging for people who only met yesterday."  

"Yeah, I need to go."

He gave me a hug at the entrance to the park I ended up cutting back through, but I didn't even give him a second glance.  How effing awkward, really.  I would be completely okay never seeing Sam(?) again, though there are no extreme feelings about the situation either way.

Just the hint of the bizarre when I remember the thing as it was, and the sincere hope that it never gets back to anyone who knows both of us, or that he ever expects anything similar to happen again.

I guess in the end, as long as it's a good story, it was a worthwhile experience.

So I went to the site, and played around with some synths others have made. One of the most amazing one was of the Grand Canal. Sure it's cool, but it's not going to work very well if it takes a few PhD's to make. So I decided to give it a try.

Today was Sydney Uni Live, and I happen to be helping out at the School of Electrical and Information Engineering stand answering questions for high school students. This was the perfect place to get started. Heeding to the advice of the Photosynth guide, I took a lot of photos around the place, making sure that I have enough overlap between each of my photos.

I took 163 photos in total (filled up my 1GB memory card) with my trusty Ricoh Caplio GX digital camera. Surprisingly, all that I needed to do to create my synth was select the photos that I took, and gave it a name. The software then took care of everything else for me.

Be warned that the process of stitching the photos together takes quite a while, so sit tight while the computer thinks for you. Despite the poor lighting conditions indoors, and the nasty colour noise from shooting at ISO400 on this entry level camera, Photosynth did it magic and synthed it amazingly well (100% synthy)!

Make sure that you take a look at the results!

(I'd really like to embed the photosynth here, but it's not letting me put the iframe... is it because of wordpress?)

Hint: To really see the magic that happens with Photosynth, press "p" after playing around with the synth a bit. This will hide the photos, leaving you with just the 3D dot representation of the virtual world. All this just from a bunch of photos? Totally amazing.

More possibilities after the break!

I thought, this is a really good way to store photos! Imagine not needing to organise your holiday photos in any way other than just dumping them together, and let everything be done for you. It'll also mean that your photos are more likely to be looked at than if they were just sitting on your computer as files, or worse, in an old-fashioned photo album.

Using this technology, the process of putting your holiday photos together would be a matter of:

1. Dumping everything onto Photosynth
2. In the future photosynth, imagine if it can use the 3D data from synthing all other photos on the internet to work out where your one or two photos should be located.
3. Let it figure out different 3D Groups for the different places that you visit
4. And then figure out the place names based on what others have given to the same area
5. Then you'll have your virtual world consisting only of the photos you take.

Simple. (Not really for the developer + researchers though)