Three Steps To Chill Out and Be Present

There are so many things we have to… and need to do… and want to do… that it is easy to jam pack our to-do list, our schedule and our life with busy-work. BUT it is necessary to do so? You may be saying “Yes, of course it is. How else am I going to get things done?” Well, that depends on what you have to get done.

If you are a do-er and an action-taker-and dare I say ‘perfectionist’-it is very easy to get caught up in the doing of it all. But where does living your life like you want it fit in? It really doesn’t because you are so busy being in the future about what you have to get done and feel you should be doing that you forget to live in the here and now.

My dad had a saying, well he actually had two that are relevant to share with you: “One day at a time” and “One thing at a time“. He was good at saying “I’ll be with you in a moment, right now I’m finishing this.” Meanwhile my mother and I are racing around doing (and not finishing) ten things to his finished one. I know for sure, by my own experience and those of my friends and clients, that when your attention is not in one place, neither are you. You simply cannot give whatever you are doing justice if you are not fully present.

Have you ever spilled a beverage, dropped something, banged into the corner of your desk, or stubbed your toe while you were trying to do something else? That’s being in the future (or the past). And oh yes, the spilled beverage on your carpet, the shattered screen on your dropped smart phone or the stubbed toe absolutely brings you into the present in a very fast way! It’s a rude reminder that you need to slow down, take a breath and maybe take a break.

I had a client who woke up one morning, got out her cereal bowl and her juice glass, and before she realized what she was doing the bowl was full of cider. She was upset and beating herself up over this. It actually threw off her entire day and when I asked her what was going on the moment before she poured the cider, she said she was thinking about her day and all that she had to do and what she wasn’t going to finish. And so there you have it: when we are not present, we can’t fully be mindful of what we are doing.

Would you like to experience fewer mishaps and mistakes throughout your day? Do you want to accomplish things and have them done right the first time? Be with yourself and not 10 steps ahead.

Here are three quick and easy ways for you to check in with how you feel and be more mindful and present in the moment:

  • Take a breath. Do you feel frazzled? Simply stop moving. Sit or stand still and breathe in to the count of 5 (slowly), then hold for a count of 2 and let your breath out for a count of 5, pausing for another count of 2. Try it right now – don’t you feel better?
  • Look around you. Are you jumpy and anxious? Look at where you are and what’s near you. Name what comes into your vision and give it a moment’s thought. The dog, “Oh, he’s actually snoring in his sleep”; the knickknack you picked up on vacation and what a fun time you had; the clouds in the sky and the shape they appear to you. Small distractions will settle your thoughts.
  • Change your view. Do you need to get out of your office? Do you need to go outside? Sometimes stopping what you are doing and taking a break is essential to help you be more mindful. Whatever it is, do it. Just five minutes can do wonders for your focus.

Follow the above tips and you’ll be mindful and in the present moment in no time (without stubbing your toe). You’ll be happier, more productive and relaxed too

Record Presentations From Macintosh or Linux Machines

The Institute for Software Research (ISR) in the Carnegie Mellon School of Computer Science (SCS) is a center for education and research in software engineering and computation. The Insititute’s research areas in software engineering include software analysis, software architecture specification, and aspects of cybersecurity.

The team responsible for videography at the Institute for Software Research in Carnegie Mellon School of Computer Science usually records presentations, small meetings, and lectures with the help of Panopto CourseCast. This software is broadly used for capturing multiple video data and its automatical streaming over the web. The remote audience can access the content as it becomes available in popular and easy-to-consume formats. CourseCast recorder installed on PC saves the lectures and other materials uploading them on the website. The target audience can watch the previously recorded content using NetID and password.

The Institute’s team that used this software to capture video stream from PC suddenly came across the following issue. Thomas Pope of the institute says, “Most of the time we were able to use the recorder itself on a presenter’s computer, on conditions that it was a Windows machine. However we deal with different tasks. Sometimes the educational content that is created must include some videos and images from computers running under Linux or Mac. That is why we were looking for a way to capture screens from these machines just like from a PC.”

The Panopto experts helped Pope to solve this problem. The Institute team was recommended to use the VGA2USB LR frame grabber. “Frame grabber has been used successfully with Panopto software.” Pope recalls. “We decided to take advantage of this product since Panopto software was compatible with frame grabbers. Now we are able to capture and broadcast lectures, presentations, and other instructional content using video streams either from PC, Mac or Linux machines. VGA2USB LR’s capability to be incorporated into the existing environment empowers us to capture data from multiple video sources while preparing diverse education materials”.

VGA to USB is an external video capture device allowing a user to capture video with resolution up to 1280×1024. Since it transfers video in original quality with high resolution from any equipment with VGA connectors, educational centers and other organizations can use it for capturing data. Recording meetings and other events, delivering presentations over the web, creating online educational programs – you can benefit from a high-performance frame-grabber in multiple ways.

Urban Architecture Past and Present

Urban architecture has included high rise buildings as far back as the Tower of Babel in the Bible’s book of Genesis. “Its top in the sky” is the phrase used to describe the tower and was an idiom for impressive height. Another account mentions that the Tower reached a height of 695 feet, which was taller than any structure built in history until the Eiffel Tower in 1889, which is 1,063 feet in height.

In classical architecture, the landmark was an object set apart by its height, mass and silhouette. High rise buildings often served as accents to highlight the city center or to serve as dominant urban structures. They created a new visual identity and shaped the skylines of the city.

Modern High Rise Condos

Modern high rise condos try to incorporate the topographic features into the buildings and to have a unique expression inherent to the particular cities in which they are located. When a contractor or developer creates tall buildings in cities with century’s worth of history, it may be a challenge, but the past, present, and future should be able to live alongside each other in harmony. Architecture can successfully blend into a location when it is sensitive to the surroundings and the background of the property.

The imperative is to consider the impact on the surrounding city, improved space utilization, environmental strategies, and other factors that serve to increase the value of the building while providing the preferred living characteristics sought by potential tenants.

New high rise construction makes use of the latest technological advances. The advances are also a part of the renewal of unattractive industrial areas for updated purposes. Old industrial areas whose purpose has become lost become a potential place to develop high rise construction.

Urban Living Becomes More Attractive

After approximately 60 years of a single family house in the suburbs being the preferred living arrangement, numerous factors have made those arrangements not as livable. The high maintenance, taxes, insurance, gasoline costs for commuting, as well as other expenses, can make homeowners think longingly of the benefits of urban living.

People are thinking long and hard about living in the smaller and yet efficient atmosphere of a condo in a beautiful high rise building, owning property that needs no landscaping maintenance; an area that is pedestrian friendly and offers mass transit instead of having to bear the high costs of a motor vehicle.

Added to the above are the social assets of having areas and activities in the buildings that bring residents together to easily make new friends and to enjoy a variety of events and hobbies that make for happier living. Additionally, many upscale high rise buildings include fitness centers, a pool, outdoor recreational areas and other desirable amenities.

Some studies predict that by 2050 the population will have reached nine billion and that six to seven billion will be living in cities. There will be a need to continue increasing urban density, and well-built and well-designed high rise buildings are central to achieving that.