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Recollections, reviews, discoveries, and future plans.

Good Times at the Grand Canyon

Over the weekend Gage and I went on a spur of the moment road trip to the Grand Canyon, Sedona, and Jerome in Arizona.  We packed in a lot of activity over 2 days and even stayed in a haunted hotel, always a great time!

When You Start to Enjoy Being Alone, These 10 Things Will Happen

1. You’ll get to recharge.

Often times when we’re surrounded by other people, we’re expending a lot of energy. Trying to keep others happy, make them laugh, soothe their egos, read their emotions, and all of the other rigors that come along with regular interaction.

It can be mentally draining if you’re constantly connected to other people. A little alone time lets you recharge and take a break from the emotionally and mentally taxing job of constant interaction.

2. You’ll reflect more often.

Your life is always moving at a crazy fast pace. So fast in fact, that it’s probably rare when you have a moment alone to sit and reflect on your life.

Being alone gives you the perfect opportunity for a little self reflection. Since you aren’t spending so much time processing the thoughts and feelings of others, it’s the best time to turn your focus inwards.

Solitude provides the perfect environment for reflection.

3. You’ll get in touch with your own emotions.

Again, when you’re surrounded by other people all the time, you’re constantly trying to read, and cater to, the other persons’s emotions. So much so, that you could end up losing touch with your own.

When you start to enjoy being alone, you’ll gain a greater perspective for your own emotions. You’ll create a deeper understanding of what makes you happy, what upsets you, and what saddens you.

With that knowledge, it’s then easier to regulate your emotions. But it all starts with understanding how you feel, and that comes from a little bit of solitude.

4. You’ll start doing things you actually enjoy.

When you’re constantly in the company of other people, you’re always making compromises in order to find solutions that the entire group can enjoy. And unfortunately, the things you want most, may not always line up with what the group wants.

So it’s easy to enjoy being alone once you realize that doing so gives you more freedom to do the things you actually want to do.

5. You’ll become more productive.

Being in the company of other people can be fun and entertaining, but it can also seriously affect your productivity. There are times when the company of other people acts as nothing more than a distraction from getting your work done.

Time spent alone can be some of the most productive time in your life—mostly because there are less distractions, and you can just put your head down and get to work.

6. You’ll enjoy your relationships even more.

When you spend time alone on a regular basis, and eventually start to enjoy being alone, you’ll come to find that you also enjoy your relationships with other people even more.

And that’s because the time spent alone gives you a greater appreciation for yourself.

But it also let’s you appreciate all the great things that come from your relationships with other people, most of which you were oblivious to before.

7. You’ll feel more independent.

Once you enjoy being alone, you’ll feel more confident in your ability to actually be alone. And that naturally leads to you feeling more independent.

You’ll no longer feel that anxiety, or burning desire for company, once you learn to enjoy being alone. You won’t feel the need for constant interaction with other people, or the anxiety associated with looking around and seeing no one but yourself.

8. You’ll get a break from constantly trying to keep other people happy.

Life is filled with relationships, and most relationships only last when both people are kept happy. And that can turn into a draining job depending who that relationship is with. Now, this does’t only apply to personal relationships, but every kind of relationship.

Once you’re alone, the only person’s happiness you have to worry about in that moment, is your own. You can treat yourself to thing that makes you happy, but may have upset someone else.

9. You won’t have to apologize for anything.

When you start to enjoy being alone, you’ll quickly see that solitude means you don’t have to keep apologizing for what you’ve done. So often, we do things that end up upsetting other people, or hurting someone else’s feelings, and then have to quickly apologize for it.

But when you’re alone, you don’t have to apologize for anything. And that takes a lot of pressure out of most situations. You get to stop second guessing everything you say, or every move you make because you’re afraid someone is going to be offended, or saddened, and angered.

10. You’ll stop looking for validation.

So often we feel we the need to get the “OK” from our friends and family before we take action. We constantly look to other people for advice on what we should do next.

Of course, there are times where it’s not only perfectly acceptable to ask for advice, but downright necessary. But there are also times where we’re perfectly capable of acting on our own, be we instead of looking to others for an answer.

When you start to spend more time alone, you’ll learn to trust your instincts and make decisions without any third party validation.

Source: http://www.lifehack.org/articles/communica...

Uncanny Valley

Check out our newest short film "Uncanny Valley" which we (3dar) just released online this morning:

In the slums of the future, virtual reality junkies satisfy their violent impulses in online entertainment. An expert player discovers that the line between games and reality is starting to fade away. 3DAR’s latest short film explores the frightening potential of our next technological revolution. Behind the scenes coming soon! Stay connected, but not too much ;) Artwork and process in www.3dar.com CREDITS WRITTEN AND DIRECTED BY FEDERICO HELLER EXECUTIVE PRODUCERS GERMAN HELLER BRANDON MASEDA ANIMATION DIRECTOR FERNANDO MALDONADO VFX PRODUCTION DESIGNER JORGE TERESO LEAD VFX ARTIST FEDERICO CARLINI LEAD 3D ARTIST MARCO LOCOCO VISUAL EFFECTS SUPERVISOR FEDERICO HELLER DIGITAL ART DIRECTOR PABLO OLIVERA CGFX TD ALAN RINALDI PRODUCER FEDERICO HELLER VFX PRODUCTION COORDINATOR MARIA JOSE TABARES ASSISTANT DIRECTOR NAZARENO ALBA CELESTE LOIS DIRECTOR OF PHOTOGRAPHY NICOLAS TROVATO FERNANDO LORENZALE ART DIRECTOR LOLA SOSA ORIGINAL SCORE CYRILLE MARCHESSEAU MUSIC MIX RODOLPHE GERVAIS AUDIO POST BY IMPOSSIBLE ACOUSTIC BRENDAN J. HOGAN JAMIE HUNSDALE Representation: Scott Glassgold / Ground Control -- scott@groundcontrol-la.com.

Source: http://3dar.com

Playing an Instrument is Good for the Brain

View full lesson: http://ed.ted.com/lessons/how-playing-an-instrument-benefits-your-brain-anita-collins When you listen to music, multiple areas of your brain become engaged and active. But when you actually play an instrument, that activity becomes more like a full-body brain workout. What's going on? Anita Collins explains the fireworks that go off in musicians' brains when they play, and examines some of the long-term positive effects of this mental workout.

Urquhart Castle | Loch Ness, Scotland

This was taken about two weeks ago while I was traveling through the highlands of Scotland.  I stopped at Loch Ness for the night and took this photo just after the sun had fallen behind the hills to the southwest.  Urquhart Castle was built in the 1100s and changed hands many times through out its history.

Urquhart Castle on Loch Ness in Scotland

Lachesism: Longing for the Clarity of Disaster

LACHESISM
For a million years, we’ve watched the sky, and huddled in fear. But somehow you still find yourself quietly rooting for the storm. As if a part of you is tired of waiting, wondering when the world will fall apart—by lot, by fate, by the will of the gods—almost daring them to grant your wish.

ETYMOLOGY
Greek, from LACHESIS, "the disposer of lots." Lachesis is the name of the second of the three fates in Ancient Greek mythology. Clothed in white, Lachesis is the measurer of the thread woven by Clotho's spindle, the apportioner who decided how much time for life was to be allowed for each person or being. She measured the thread of life with her rod.

The Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows is a compendium of invented words written by John Koenig. Each original definition aims to fill a hole in the language-to give a name to emotions we all might experience but don't yet have a word for. 

WHAT IS THAT MUSIC?
"Unreal World" by Citokid

10 Hotel Secrets from Behind the Front Desk

1. HOTELS ARE RAKING IT IN.

The fact that a hotel could fail to be profitable astounds me. Why? The average cost to turn over a room, to keep it operational per day, is between $30 and $40. If you’re paying less than $30 dollars a night at a hotel/motel, I’d wager the cost to flip that room runs close to $5. Which makes me want to take a shower. At home. That $40 turnover cost includes cleaning supplies, electricity, and hourly wages for housekeepers, minibar attendants, front desk agents, and all other employees needed to operate a room as well as the cost of laundering the sheets. Everything. Compare that with an average room rate, and you can see why it’s a profitable business.

2. STAYING FOR JUST ONE NIGHT? YOU MIGHT GET “WALKED.”

The term “walking a guest” sends shivers down any manager’s spine. Since the average no-show rate is 10 percent daily, hotels will overbook whenever possible. The sales and reservations departments are encouraged to book the property to 110 percent capacity, in the hopes that with cancellations and no-shows they will fill every room. What happens when the numbers game doesn’t play in the hotel’s favor? Someone gets walked. The hotel will now pay for the entire night’s room and tax (plus one phone call—how cute is that?) at another comparable hotel in the area.

A guest is more likely to get walked if:
1. He booked using Expedia, hence he has a deeply discounted rate and is less important.
2. He never stayed here before and may never visit the city again.
3. He’s a one-nighter.
4. And this one is so much more important than all the others: He is acting like a jerk.

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To Scale: The Solar System

On a dry lakebed in Nevada, a group of friends build the first scale model of the solar system with complete planetary orbits: a true illustration of our place in the universe. A film by Wylie Overstreet and Alex Gorosh alexgorosh.com wylieoverstreet.com Copyright 2015