Thanks to Nic McPhee for permission to use this Photo.
I find maintaining and repairing plumbing systems the most interesting and challenging work in the plumbing industry. If you enjoy figuring out and solving problems, then plumbing service work will likely be a good field for you. Even as a seasoned professional, I openly admit that there are simply some problems will be difficult to figure out, diagnose, or repair. Here are some key points I have learned through many years of doing plumbing service work:
Keep your mind open and stay loose on your feet. When you first get to a job, try not to get locked into one course of action.
Before you jump into a course of action, remind yourself that the customer has probably been living with the problem for days, months, or even years. You have only been on the job for a few minutes. Give yourself time to choose the best course of action.
Listen to what the customer has to say. Try to understand the facts. It is appropriate to write down what the customer says.
Now, try to put what the customer has said aside. Look and test for the problems yourself.
Compare your independent observations with the customer’s comments. Do they match? Look and test some more.
Be aware that there may be several causes for a plumbing problem, or several independent problems that need repairing.
Before beginning work, list the various repair options along with an estimate of the cost and discuss this with the customer. Offer what you believe is the best course of action, but let the customer decide how to proceed.
Following these seven points is very important. If you just jump right into a situation without analyzing the entire job site, you are likely to see only a part of the problem, and therefore won’t be able to fix the problem correctly.
Here is an actual problem that I was recently involved with. The customer had smelled gas near the hot-water heater. (more…)
As a web designer with the ability to create dynamic online business platforms, you are truly in a unique position to turn your entrepreneurial dreams into reality. This video tells the inspiring story of Theresa Rodriguez, a young entrepreneur who founded BostonNighlifeTV, an online site that keeps Bostonians in touch with everything “cool” going on in the city’s nightlife scene. Do you have a great business plan that you’ve been sitting on? What are you waiting for? Think about it. You’re a web designer. You don’t have to wait on anyone to get your idea off the ground in the online marketplace. It’s not unrealistic to think that you could be the next Theresa Rodriguez. If you have an idea that you’d like some feedback on or would like to share your own success story, feel free to email me at:
Many designers help solidify their careers by becoming experts in a specialized area. Typically, these men and women possess a broad understanding and competence in many areas of design. Their career focus revolves around being at the top of the field in one specific area of design. Even for you as a new designer, computer programs like Photoshop and Illustrator are potential areas of expertise. I can tell you from experience that almost every successful designer is generally competent in Photoshop and Illustrator, but a program expert achieves results that few others can provide. The usual response to the work of an expert is, “Wow! How did you do that?” The advanced skills displayed by a program expert are often self-taught and involve a unique way of using these programs. Illustrator presents a great opportunity for you to become such an expert. If no one else can create beautiful graphics quite like you, your resume will set off “Must hire!” bells in the minds of potential employers, and you’ll become an irreplaceable expert and invaluable asset to someone’s company.
There is no secret formula to design success. You will never find in any textbook or manual the qualities that will make your graphics special and distinctly recognizable. That quality is hidden deep inside you, waiting for you to discover and develop it. Consider a designer like Josh Davis. He uses Illustrator-like vector drawing programs in an innovative, bizarre, and brilliant manner. You can spot a Josh Davis design almost instantly, because no one’s work quite is like his.
As a designer, you must seek out a way to differentiate your skill-set or your work. Find something that you can do—and love to do—then do it to the best of your always-increasing ability. You can accomplish this without compromising your other marketable design skills. For instance, a graphic designer who knows more about the packaging materials manufacturing process than any other designer will never be out of a job. Why? It’s because this designer offers a value-added aspect to his or her position. A packaging firm will hire someone like this, knowing that he or she brings two valuable assets to the job: knowledge of plausible, real-world manufacturing and an expertise solving difficult problems in this area.
In my career, I have always benefited from my broad knowledge base. At my current job, I have become particularly useful because of my (1) exhibit fabrication knowledge, (2) ability to create digital interactive in Flash, and (3) expertise at implementing audio-visual hardware in exhibits. And here’s the key message for you in all this: No where in my formal design education was I specifically taught any of these skills! No graphic design school will teach you “Wood Shop 101.” So, I took the initiative and went out and learned these skills on my own. This is what you’ll have to do find your niche in the design world.
The fundamental point I want you to remember is that learning Photoshop, Illustrator, and InDesign is an excellent starting point for your design education. However, don’t any particular design software limit the scope of your creative growth. As I’ve said before, these are great design software tools, but don’t let them “own” you, meaning don’t let them limit the horizons of your artistic creativity.
I hope I’ve convinced you that, as you progress in design, you need to look for a niche where you can stand out as one-of-a-kind, while simultaneously building additional knowledge areas that will make you a solid design employee.
Michael R. Nelson Graphic Design Instructor
Ashworth University
I sure am glad that I enrolled in Ashworth University’s Web Site Design program. First of all, I wanted to put my home based scrapbooking business on the Web. I got involved doing the site with sitecreatorplus and created a Web site for my business. It was awesome, but I wanted more…so I signed up for Web site design here and I love it. I have been put a little behind because of my business, but I am catching up now. If you want to view my website, you can check it out at
We decided it was time to perform some spring cleaning on our Myspace page, and with that we spent an afternoon on our Apple iBook G4, mashing up some HTML and CSS to make create our new sophisticated Myspace theme.
We first created this page in iWeb (available only on Mac OS), because iWeb allowed us to apply the reflection effect to our images quickly and easily. We then imported our site into Adobe (formely Macromedia) Dreamweaver. In Dreamweaver, we were able to incorporate our friends list, and comment box. Once completed, we uploaded our files to a webserver.
It’s tricky coding CSS. We had to first start off by creating an overlay to cover up the default myspace theme. Then we applied our HTML and CSS to our container DIV. There were a few quirks we had to workaround, but in the end we were able to create a nice theme for our Myspace presence. It’s a shame that it is only best viewed in Firefox.
When we get a chance, we’ll upload the steps as a PDF download for those who would like to create their own Apple-esque Theme for Myspace.
Feng shui (“wind and water”) is a well known ancient Chinese art of placement. According to this art, the way in which energy flows through a garden or a home has a negative or positive effect on the owner of the place. Nowadays, according to modern feng shui theory: marital bliss, business success and even fame can be a part of one’s life if the furniture is placed properly in the house and there is a balanced Feng Shui
Garden landscape design.
Deborah Gee, an expert in the art of using feng shui has made a video to aid people tie together and use chi, the “life force” properly. The concept of chi is central to the principles of Feng Shui. To correctly handle and apply chi in a garden requires handling of three basic elements:
Water – it is represented by ponds, streams or fountain in feng shui, (feng shui fountains) or also a river of stones; and symbolizes wealth and prosperity.
Mountains – it can be symbolically signified by planting beds that are raised, shrubbery and tall trees and symbolizes energy.
Greenery – this can be represented by the green grass and anything which is green around.
One of the key factors that need to be considered with feng shui is balance. The three basic elements of water, mountains and greenery should be placed close to each other. Sharp items should be placed near pathways. They direct sharp chi at people who pass by and disrupts the internal flow of energy, in turn causing a lot of stress and tension. Circular or meandering pathways in the garden are much better; straight ones and the latter create a wave of fast moving chi that may be the cause of feeling uncomfortable. Making the garden flat is a common mistake that most garden designers make. A flat garden does not encourage chi flow. Different levels and layers make chi flow smoothly in the garden. Additionally, curves in the garden help in improving the chi flow. (more…)
Thanks to Paul Peracchia for permission to use this Photo.
When it comes to how to lay wood flooring, it does not depend on the version one intends to install. Wood flooring is a type of flooring that is made from timber obtained from hardwoods, spruce, or hard pine. It is valued for its beauty, durability, and is a good substitute for carpeting. The unfinished version of wood flooring is first installed and then sanded, i.e. it is finished on site. The other newer version is the pre-finished flooring, that which is finished in a factory and then installed at the required place. Before carrying out wood flooring installation, it is important to allow the wood strips to get acclimatized to the moisture in the house as wood may expand or contract with change in humidity level. This needs a time period of about 3 to 5 days.
There are four techniques that can be employed for wood flooring installation :
Free float is meant for the individuals who have little or no experience with wood flooring installation.
Glue down makes use of a wood flooring adhesive or a wood flooring glue, and is recommended for those who have some experience. If the subfloor is flat and calls for minimum preparation, then this method is suggested.
Staple down method makes use of powerful wood flooring tools and thus needs good amount of experience.
A special kind of stapler called the flooring nail gun or flooring nailer is needed. The nail down method also needs specific wood flooring tools.
One may also give some thought to laminate floorings. Laminate vs. wood flooring comes under consideration when one wants the beauty of wood flooring but is also asking for a low maintenance material. Laminate flooring is made out of synthetic material but looks like wood flooring. These are usually less expensive and more durable than the regular wood flooring. They also prove out to be a reasonable solution when the question of easy installation pops up. (more…)
Are you in the mood for some Action? I’m talking Photoshop Actions
They are the perfect solution to handle tasks with one click. An Action is a recording of several Photoshop operations and commands. Once the Action is created, one click is all it takes and the task will be executed. It’s very powerful, can save you heaps of time and it’s actually not that hard to create. Oh and before someone asks, this tutorial is written for version CS3. Certain things might be different in previous Photoshop versions.
In my previous article I talked about how you can apply a vintage look on a photo. Someone pointed out, “Wonderful technique. I stumbled across something sort of similar a while ago but it’s too time consuming to keep on applying” Yes, good point of course. I have to confess, I have this effect recorded in an Action, but my tutorial was all about the process on how to create this effect. The surprise that people didn’t know about Actions gave me the idea for today’s tutorial: how to create an Action for this effect, or better how to record an Action. We’ll also look at a few options you can do or add to your Action and how to save it.
Creating an Action
Step 1 : Create New Action
Open a photo where you want to apply the vintage effect on. First make sure the image is on a separate layer on top of the background layer. You could use command/control + j to duplicate it in a new layer. Open up the Actions palette. If it’s not visible on your screen, go to Window > Actions. First click the folder icon Create New Set at the bottom of the palette to create your own set of Actions. Name the Set My Actions or any other name you think is better. Now click the Create New Action icon at the bottom of the palette. Name the Action Vintage Effect and hit Record.
Step 2 : Record the Action
Notice that the red record button in the Action palette is pushed or being active. Every Photoshop handling is now recorded into the Action. Now execute all handlings explained in the Phototshop Vintage Effect article. While doing this, take your time, there is no need to rush. Photoshop only records your actions and commands. The speed in how you perform this doesn’t matter. When you’re done click the Stop button in the Action palette. The Action is now stored in the palette in the ‘My Actions’ Set.
Adding a Pause to an Action
What if there is one command in the action that you’ve recorded that is different for each individual image? For instance you need to make a selection and for each image this selection is different. This is something you can add after the Action is recorded. For example if I want to add a pause for applying the Curves, then I need to toggle the dialogue function on next to the Curves ‘Make adjustement layer’ action (see picture below).
Thanks to liz_com1981 for permission to use this Photo.
Chain making is an exciting endeavor. There are so many variations of links that can be made from ordinary wire that you probably could think of a new pattern every day. No introduction to chain making would be complete without mentioning the basic component of all chains, the link.
Links come in a variety of shapes and sizes, but the most common is a plain circular ring known as a jump ring. As a jeweler, you will make and use jump rings for a variety of repairs as well as custom design work. Let’s take a moment and discuss how jump rings can be made efficiently.
To truly be efficient in the shop, wire, plate, and findings such as jump rings should be made in quantity so that a large supply of a wide assortment is always available. Sometimes a jump ring of a special size is needed, in which case you can simply make one in the following manner.
Start with a piece of round wire of the desired gauge. Use round-nose pliers to bend the wire until the wire overlaps, forming a ring. Cut the wire with end-cutters at the point of overlap. You now have a jump ring. Notice that the area that has been cut is slightly jagged. This should be filed flat with a barrette file or a sanding disk on a flexible shaft machine. If the jump ring is left with a rough edge, it will not butt up evenly and will be very difficult to solder closed cleanly. In addition to making soldering difficult, rough edges on jump rings can pull apart and snag clothing.
You can eliminate filing by cutting the jump ring with a saw. You will find this method fairly time consuming for just one jump ring, but when making several of them at once, it is much more efficient to eliminate filing by using the saw. In order to make multiple jump rings, you will need a rod of some sort as a mold. In the shop, there are many such small steel tools you can use. (more…)
Thanks to friendlyuser for permission to use this Photo.
Book design and layout is one of the least-appreciated niches of graphic design. This niche also presents some of the biggest challenges to a professional designer. Aesthetic demands can sometimes conflict with what the client has asked for. When this happens, a designer must exercise what I call “assertive tact” by offering a clear presentation of why his or her book design concept is best for the project at hand.
One company that consistently produces beautiful books is Phaidon Press. They specialize in books about art, design, and other creative fields. Their volumes are always eye catching and uniquely different from the average book layout. If you go to the art section of almost any large chain bookstore, you will find an array of Phaidon Press books. What makes their books so successful from a design standpoint is that you– and all of us in the field– want to own the books and study them. They are beautiful, edgy, and always very appropriate for the author’s content. I encourage you to seek out some Phaidon books at your nearest large bookstore chain. Or, you can visit their website to get glimpses of their layout mastery.
Michael R. Nelson Graphic Design Instructor
Ashworth University
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