Then, in 1957, the Russian satellite, Sputnik, was the first artificial satellite launched into space. This was a huge step in the field of aerial photography because, according to Wiki.org, Sputnik, “… helped to identify the density of high atmospheric layers through measurement of its orbital change and provided data on radio-signal distribution in the ionosphere.”
In 1972, NASA launched the first of the Landsat satellites. Thus began the selling of satellite imagery for commercial purposes.
And here we are today. Aerial photography is used by real estate developers, archaeologists, cartographers, and many other professionals. Like we stated in the beginning, aerial photography sure has come a long way!
Even when you compare all the sports cars on the market right now, there isn’t any that compares to the Nissan 350Z.
Okay, maybe I’m a little biased. After all, I grew up surrounded by Z cars. My dad bought a 240Z when they first came out, back when there was actually a waiting list because Nissan (called Datsun back then) underestimated the American market so badly in 1970. My dad’s was a 1971 240Z, and he didn’t even get to pick the color, because you had to wait so long that you just got what you got!
Then, when I was 6 years old, my dad got a used 1979 Nissan 280ZX. Although the earlier, sportier 240s are great, I actually like the touring-car-like 280s much better. In fact, that’s all I’ve ever owned! (Though I’m still holding out hope for having a 300ZX or a 350Z one day.)
One of the things that I love about the 350Z are the 350Z wheels. Even the factory ones look terrific, but there are lots of great aftermarket wheels to choose from too — just check someplace like Get Your Wheels for a wide selection. Although other companies make great wheels, such as BMW wheels, there just aren’t any that make me happy like the sight of a 350Z’s sporty profile and sleek custom wheels do.
When my daughter was six years old, I could already tell she was a tough kid. She never took any flack from the kids at school, she never cried when she skinned her knee or didn’t get what she wanted. She was everything I could ask for.
So I figured it was time to let her get a small tattoo that she could grow up with. It wasn’t going to be anything large or fancy, since who knows what kind of a girl she was going to become. Just a tiny tattoo that will be with her when she gets older.
I looked at the butterfly tattoos and the sun tattoos. Eventually I stuck with a butterfly, and we got it done on the side of her right shoulder. What a trooper, the girl didn’t even shed a tear when the needle pocked her. She just looked at me and smiled.
When it was all over we went home and showed her mother, who after a little frustration decided she thought it was beautiful. Before we even went inside the house, my daughter asked if for her seventh birthday we could go get a heart or diamond tattooed on her forehead.
I’m a big fan of Airsoft guns, but sometimes it can be tough to figure out what to use as a target. A little paper drawing with a red symbol is too cliché and does not exactly provide the rush I’m looking for when I take out the Classic army revolver and start messing around.
I played around with the idea of buying one of those expensive targeting systems but ultimately decided against it. Not because of the product itself – those things are sweet. No, because I wanted to try to mix things up a bit and take down targets that I could have a little bit of fun with.
In the end, I decided on tomatoes.
Why tomatoes? Several reasons:
1 - Tomatoes come in many different shapes, from cherry tomatoes to the larger variety, providing me with several different sizes to aim for.
2 - They are easy to replace.
3 - No matter what, you know when you’ve hit a tomato. It does not just bruise – the pellet either gets lodged in the tomato itself or the tomato flies away. Either way, there are no questions.
4 - They bleed a little.
Someday I plan on moving to the Airsoft Sniper rifles, and tomatoes will provide me with a lot of different sized targets to aim for. Tomatoes are the perfect target.
When I decided that small house plans were the way to go with my custom built house, I didn’t take into consideration that I am actually someone who likes a lot of space. It wasn’t long before the home felt too cramped which was sad because I did really like the design.
I decided that the thing to do was to look at garage plans that would let me get some added value from the home without impacting the house too much. I discovered that the garage can be used for tons of different things. Some of the garage plans I looked at featured purposes including:
Parking. Obviously this is the main purpose of any garage but I hadn’t considered that these plans were not just for cars but also for boats, motorcycles, and even bicycles.
Storage. There are a million different ways to use the garage for storage space. Create a storage loft at the top of the garage. Line the walls of the garage with bookshelves. Hang a board with hooks on one end to store tools. The possibilities are endless.
Work space. Many garage designs assume that you want space to work on the car or on other projects. Others figure in art studio space. The latter appealed to me and ended up being what I went with.
Once I had changed the garage to give me additional space for doing art, I didn’t feel so claustrophobic in my small home anymore.
