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In honor of Jeni!

Author Amanda M. Thrasher will visit the Scottish Rite Hospital, located 2222 Welborn Street, Dallas, TX, January 26th at 2pm. She will create magical fairy wings with the children, donate books via Barnes & Noble and Strategic and will donate beautiful bears from Build a Bear, in chariots just like Pearle, (wheel chairs). Pearle is a fairy character inspired by a girl she never knew, Jeni Hutton, in her fairy tale ‘A Fairy Match in the Mushroom Patch.’ Jeni had over 50 surgeries at the Scottish Rite Hospital. Beverly Hutton, Jeni’s mother, sent an email to Amanda and asked if she could create a character with a disability saying, “Jeni always asked, where are the fairy tales for me?” Amanda created Pearle in honor of Jeni. She will be accompanied by: Beverly Hutton and Ft. Worth, Barnes & Noble, Community Relations Manager Anne Dunigan. Bears donated via Tanya Chelette, Build a Bear, Ridgmar.

Have you ever heard of Augmented Reality?  If not, Augmented Reality is a computer based software that uses 3-D tracking.   To simplfy that even more, by using a sheet of paper with a desired icon, the camera can spot the icon, and replace it with a 3-D computer made icon.  Some people even animate the icon, so that when you move the paper to it’s side, the icon will respond with some sort of action.

You may still be confused about what Augmented Reality is, so I will continue to explain what it is through out this article.  Currently, there is a museum that uses Augmented Reality to show everything.  Augmented Reality is currently being geared towards kids, so throughout the tour, kids can put on the special glasses and see the books come to life.  How?  Just like the computer, the glasses spot the icon, and then replay what is in it’s memory.  Say for instance a child is reading a fairy tale, once they turn the page, that page’s story begins to play out before the child. 

If you do a search on the internet and type in ‘Augmented Reality’ you can find many downloads where you can try it out.  Many car dealerships have started using Augmented Reality as a marketing tool.  They definetly got me hooked.  If you are into 3-D modeling and animation, you can download the free trial of Augmented Reality to test it out. 

Over all, Augmented Reality will be part of your future.  This is not something you will want to miss out on.  Check it out today!

Have you ever heard of Augmented Reality?  If not, Augmented Reality is a computer based software that uses 3-D tracking.   To simplfy that even more, by using a sheet of paper with a desired icon, the camera can spot the icon, and replace it with a 3-D computer made icon.  Some people even animate the icon, so that when you move the paper to it’s side, the icon will respond with some sort of action.

You may still be confused about what Augmented Reality is, so I will continue to explain what it is through out this article.  Currently, there is a museum that uses Augmented Reality to show everything.  Augmented Reality is currently being geared towards kids, so throughout the tour, kids can put on the special glasses and see the books come to life.  How?  Just like the computer, the glasses spot the icon, and then replay what is in it’s memory.  Say for instance a child is reading a fairy tale, once they turn the page, that page’s story begins to play out before the child. 

If you do a search on the internet and type in ‘Augmented Reality’ you can find many downloads where you can try it out.  Many car dealerships have started using Augmented Reality as a marketing tool.  They definetly got me hooked.  If you are into 3-D modeling and animation, you can download the free trial of Augmented Reality to test it out. 

Over all, Augmented Reality will be part of your future.  This is not something you will want to miss out on.  Check it out today!

When I'm writing, one of things I try to remember is rhythm. Right now I'm reading Special Topics in Calamity Physics. Will I finish it? I have no idea. It's writing style is the opposite of Cormac McCarthy's The Road. Rather than being stripped down, it's stuffed full, talkative and hectic. Here's a snippet to give you an idea:

"Dad's romances could last anywhere between a platypus egg incubation (19-21 days) and a squirrel pregnancy (24-35 days). I admit I sometimes hated them, especially the ones teeming with Ladies' Tips, How-tos and Ways to Improve, the ones like Connie Madison Parker, who muscled her way into my bathroom and chastised me for hiding my merchandise (see “Molluscs,” Encyclopedia of Living Things, 4th ed.)."

But on to my point about rhythm. Here are the third and fourth paragraphs:

"It began with simple sleeplessness. It had been almost a year since I’d found Hannah dead, and I thought I’d managed to erase all traces of that night within myself, much in the way Henry Higgins with his relentless elocution exercises had scrubbed away Eliza’s Cockney accent.

I was wrong."

That single sentence really stands out among paragraphs that tend to ramble on and on.

Anyone read it? Is