How To Use Golf Training Aids To Assist With Your Warm Up And Stretching

How many times has this happened to you?

You get to the course 15 minutes before your tee time. By the time you get all your stuff together, pay the greens fees, etc., and then get yourself to the putting green there is less than 10 minutes left before game time. You hit some putts, some chips, and then take a few swings to loosen up. Feeling pretty good, you stroll to the first tee, put your bag down, and look down the fairway.

It's a dogleg right with OB on the right and tree trouble on the left. It's not long but it's tight, with the potential for a round-ruining big number. That's when you start to realize the full extent of the tightness that's still in your muscles. You take some more swings, desperately trying to get the muscles in your legs, back, and shoulders to warm up, but to no avail. Your tee time is up and you still don't have any kind of rhythm or feel to your swing, and the OB on the right looms ominously.

You tee it up and make a tight, nervous swing, overcompensating due to your fear of the OB. Your ball jumps left off the clubface, a nasty pull-hook that burrows deep into the trees. You groan and shove your club back into your bag, then stomp off to try to salvage something resembling a decent score.

If this type of thing happens to you on an all-to-frequent basis, trust me you are not alone. Fortunately, there are plenty of golf training aids out there that can help you avoid it. Swinging a weighted or increased-resistance club, for example, is a good way to get warm before a round. However, if you really want to be loose and feel confident for the opening drive, you probably need to get to the course a littler earlier and add a stretching routine to your warm-up.

There is no way to get your muscles prepared for the intense effort involved with the golf swing without stretching. Also, stretching helps to relax the mind as well as the body, which really helps with the first tee jitters. So in addition to resistance training aids like weighted clubs, consider adding a stretch routine. There are lots of books available with stretch programs that are tailored specifically for golfers. Here are some tips for finding a good stretching program:

1. A book is just as much a training aid as any of those gadgets that are designed to help your swing, so approach it the same way. As you would try out a training aid before you shell out the money, make sure you check out the contents of the book before you buy. It should have pictures for all the stretches. Stretches without visual aids are dangerous because you can never be quite sure if you're doing them correctly.

2. Make sure you find a book with a variety of stretches for daily stretching as well as a pre-round warm-up. Training for flexibility daily can add yards to your drives and years to your golfing career.

3. Get to the course early! Rushing through your warm-up stretches doesn't work and can cause injury. If you are short on time, do a smaller number of stretches correctly rather than trying to do them all quickly.

Good luck, and remember the mind is just as important as the body in golf, if not more so. Books are training aids for the mind, so get a few good ones and go to it!

Mike Gelhaus, once racquetball professional and published author for Racquetball Magazine, has turned his attention back to the game of Golf. With the use of golf training aids, he achieved a handicap of 3 only weeks before back surgery. Check out his site at http://the-best-golf-training-aids.com

Laser Marking and Laser Etching on Glass for Industrial Applications

The marking of glass for industrial use has been done for hundreds of years. In the past the methods used have included ink stamp marking, sand blasting, air grit, acid etching, scribing etc.

Industrial applications of glass marking include:

1. Marking of safety information on safety glass used in commercial and residential construction. This includes glass areas around doors and/or entrance and exit locations. 2. Marking of glass for commercial and residential construction to identify the glass or door manufacturer [for product identification and marketing/sales activity] 3. Marking of headlamp or tail light lens in automotive applications for manufactures name, year of manufacture and/or part number. Also used in the manufacture of televisions for marking mirrors and lens. 4. Marking of serial number, product identification, or other manufacturing information for the prevention of theft and validation of warranty claims 5. Marking serial numbers, part numbers, text, or bar codes allowing for parts to be tracked though the production process until final assembly and shipment

The traditional methods of glass marking all involve contact with the surface of the glass product which exposes the product to stress and potential damage. Co2 lasers offer significant advantages for marking glass products. The RF excited sealed beam Co2 laser coupled with a galvo head and software offers the fastest, cleanest, most reliable method for marking and etching glass.

A Co2 laser can laser mark glass with bar codes, especially 2-D or data matrix bar codes, which can easily be coupled with vision systems for reading the data contained in the bar code. The use of bar codes on glass allows for the product to be tracked all the way through the production process until final assembly. This helps assure a continuous uninterrupted supply of product. The laser marked or laser etched bar code can also be used after the sale of the product for identification purposes and validation. This helps to eliminate warranty costs related to counterfeit or unauthorized products.

A Co2 laser marked or laser etched bar code can also be read by vision systems in the manufacturing process to determine the identity of the part. Examples include prescription strength of eye glass lens, or the type of front headlamp lens used in a Honda Civic. This ensures that the part is sorted and used properly throughout the manufacturing process and that the correct number of parts is produced based on anticipated sales for final assembled components.

The advances of Co2 laser marking of glass over traditional methods are extensive. These include:

* No contact with the part as in scribing methods thereby reducing the possibility of breakage to and damage of the part, as well as elimination of the maintenance required for the scribe unit * No solvents, thinning, or cleaning agents to purchase and keep in stock as in the case of ink marking or ink printing systems, thereby significantly reducing costs of operation and eliminating the need for continuous maintenance associated with these various ink printing technologies * No pads for ink printing to maintain as they can fall to an angle or become turned sideways causing the printed image on the glass to appear sideways or not square. * No need to stop the glass in place and make sure a secure fit with the rubber mask is formed as in the case of Airgrit marking * With Co2 laser marking for industrial glass applications the product can be marked on the fly [while moving]. If stopped or 'squared' for marking, five to eight lines of text plus logo's can be laser etched in less than 0.5 of a second. * With Co2 laser marking no supplies are necessary and no secondary process exists for cleaning or maintenance. * With Co2 laser marking changes to the mark [different text, different logo, difference shape, etc] can be accomplished with a simple click and drag command of the mouse.

Co2 laser marking for glass in industrial applications is the fastest, most effective, least costly method in which to mark the product

Jim Morin writes for Worldwide Laser Service Corporation a company that specializes in T.E.A. Co2 lasers. For more information visit http://www.wlsc.com

How to Draw Manga, Keen Style CG - Part 1: Sketching

Well this is the first part of my drawing series. This tutorial assumes that you already have some knowledge on drawing anime or manga. The beginners can still learn from this, but the drawing parts wont be in depth, just some tips and techniques on drawing to optimize the picture, that I use during the sketching process.

IMPORTANT NOTE: Since this is a drawing tutorial, images are vital for the teaching of some techniques. That is why I have so many. However, since this site doesn't allow the use of image tags in articles, so I have to make do with the limited links I can use. If you want to see the whole article which all the images, you can go to my website or the article, How to Draw Manga, Keen Style CG - Part 1: Sketching

Initial Sketch [Image] Firstly, before any CG (which stands for Computer Graphics by the way), I start with a nice sketch. Here is the end result. (Click on the picture for a larger size). In this tutorial I'll show the process of making this picture.

There's a whole lot of symbolical detail in this picture, but I'll elaborate on that later on in the tutorial =)

The program I use is called OpenCanvas, at this point in CGing, where you have to do sketching, it doesn't really matter. It is a basic sketch after all so you can use paint if you wanted (though the fact that it only has 3 undos' was really off-putting for me =D ).

This picture took 3 hours to draw. Yep 3 hours =D. Why did it take so long you say? Because it didn't turn out the way I like it =D. Sometimes I take 20 minutes to sketch something up, up to the massive 3 hour mark, especially if I'm drawing on the computer. Drawing on the computer has its benefits, as you can fix up errors that you see, while for drawing, sometimes you just can't be bothered to fix those errors you see =D. And the computer has the blessed undo-key. Ahh, what would we do without that? =)
Contest And Description I decided to enter a contest of a good friend of mine on DeviantArt, over at AkitoMaru.deviantart.com. This contest was in celebration of her 6,000th hit (yes I am well aware that that figure is more than double my current page views of my own deviantart account (http://keenfoong.deviantart.com/ ) at the time of this writing -_-). Well anyway, for this contest, I had to draw one of her three original characters. I chose Vampire Mello, you can see her picture and description here.

Now that I've chosen, I read her description of that character, Mello:

"This little vampire doesn't drain people of their blood, rather drains their souls in hopes to recover her other wing... o_o the bunny on her shoulder is BonBon and does most of her talking for her... her location are usually around graveyards or abandoned churches. "

Good, now that I've got this description, I have this great picture in mind. This is greatly important. Having a clear, sharp picture in mind is vital for a breath-taking picture, even if your skills aren't too great, this can still help make a nice picture (not that I'm claiming that mine are extremely good =P). Also, make sure you have a description of the character that you're drawing in mind, it adds to the feel of the character.

For this picture I had a couple things in mind:

• I wanted to emphasise the fact that she did only have one wing (as it was a surprise for me seeing only one wing when I first saw her picture).
• I also wanted to show her sadness for only having one wing (I'm not sure if this is true to that character or not, but I got this impression).
• The abandoned churches and around graveyards said to me that she would be lonely (also further emphasised by her lack of speech, BonBon (the little rabbit thingo), would do the talking).

Err... that's it I guess, =) I'm sure I had more in mind while I was drawing it, but I've forgotten it. =P Anyway, it's good to have the description in mind, so you can actually draw the features on to the picture, and thus adding to the overall feel to the art work.
Sketching With that out of the way, lets start drawing!

Sometimes I draw on paper, sometimes I draw on computer. This time I drew on the computer because I was lazy to draw on paper. So lets start with the basic sketching.

[Image] You might notice that this picture is pretty different to the end product. Yep, I didn't really have a clear enough image in mind, (even if I did have a clear-ish image in mind at the time). So make sure you image is very clear before you start.

By the way, don't be afraid of making mistakes. Just let your mind flow, since you've already had the clear image in mind, your mind should automatically go towards that image. Oh yeah, btw, the brush I used was Sharp Pencil, Radius 0.5 for OpenCanvas, not that it's necessary.

[Image] Added more detail (legs and other arm), twisted it a bit.
Perspective Change [Image] Sometimes I flip it over to change the perspective a bit. You know that tip where you ask peoples opinions of your picture? then you ask them they can immediately spot errors you didn't see before, right?

Wouldn't it be nice if you would always see the errors, without the pain of getting people (and sometimes the harsh crit), which might put you off drawing that pic altogether? Well flipping is the technique for you!! Well sorta =D.

Flipping the picture gets you to see the picture in a different perspective instead of your locked view, which disallowed to see even the most obvious of errors. This is the same as going away from you picture for a while (5 minutes to a few days), then coming back, and seeing all those nasty errors pop-up! Same thing, except for the huge time lag =).

By the way, I sometimes flip it vertically also (though not often) since you also get used to seeing the second, flipped view. When I first started drawing, I never used it. I learned this technique from some place and decided to try it out on my pictures that I drew. I flipped it, and voila! So many errors were there that I nearly kicked myself seeing all of them! That is because this is how other people see it, with your approximate skill level in drawing. I had a fun time fixing those errors.

Now, when I flip the image, the errors don't come out so much anymore. Might be because I was a little better when I first started (I'd better be, other wise I'd go ballistic because I've wasted a couple of years =)), or maybe I've gotten used to seeing the other view, and get locked with it too.

I try to avoid this locked view, by looking at this picture as a whole, taking in the whole picture, all four corners (sometimes by zooming out or taking a step back to have a look at the picture if you're drawing on paper).
Problem! [Image] (Added some additional details)

BAH! Problem Encountered!

At this point, I realized that the wing was going to be a problem. I wanted to show that she had a lack of wing, but with the wing on this side, the lack of wing is going to be on the other side. What's wrong with that you say? Take a look! =P

With the wing on this side, some viewers may assume that there is actually a wing on the other side, but he's actually blocking it. AAAH! Why didn't I think of that before! At this point I was torn to whether to leave it be, or get rid of all the arms (and those hard to do hands )= ), switching the wing to the other side, and having her hold her wingless side, since that was my original intention, (symbolical blah blahs).

In the end I decided to do it. That this, in itself says, how important it is to have a clear picture in mind! =)
Hands and Other Little Details

[Image] Added little BonBon, and her wing.

[Image] Just to say, I had a WHOLE lot of trouble doing this hand. I must of tried 5 different techniques, redrawing the hands many times more than I care to remember! In the end I just gave up and let my mind do what it felt like it by scribbling anything, not caring if the end result came up right or not.

It turned out alright =D Well better than some of the other hands I had, I just need to do some tweaking now.
Background [Image] Added a basic sketch of a window, and some cloth behind her, made to kinda look like her missing wing (more symbolical blah blahs).

In case you're wondering, the reason why are some areas of the pictures are bold is because those are the areas I drew over many times =P So I had a little trouble drawing those bits =D.

[Image] Added a bit of shading to set the mood.
Clothing [Image] Some tweaking, and added some clothes.

Oh yeah, I forgot to mention earlier. I tend to draw the naked body underneath first. =P Not because I'm perverted =), but because the clothing fits better around it, that way you can't have clothing looking like it is the body, like you see in some amateurish drawings =D.

Oh, and also, I didn't draw breasts for this girlie this time, I usually do, but from the looks of the original picture, she was kinda flat =P So I omitted it this time =)

Also, it helps for practicing anatomy.
Finish [Image] Then the end result. Did more tweaking and finished the wing. Still not entirely happy with the hand, and her left arm doesn't look relaxed enough.

But yeah, never mind. Sometimes you see errors after you've done too much. If this happens, make sure you make note of this, to make sure you don't make the same mistake ever again.

Conclusion Well there you have it! My 3 hours of sketching! =P Most of the time was spent just fixing the arms and the hands, and getting her body right. At the time of this writing, I still had trouble getting the arms and hands to0evoke the feeling I wanted. Getting the whole picture to evoke ghat you want to feel is pretty difficult, especially for learners like me. Making it not awkward, and making each part of the body (i.e body language), work fob the feeling of the picture is key.
Symbolical Stuff Well time for me to explain some of the symbolical stuff in here. People are welcome to skip this part, if you wish, but for those people who are just curious, I'll put it down here. Well firstly, lets get the description down here:

This little vampire doesn't drain people of their blood, rather drains their souls in hopes to recover her other wing... o_o the bunny on her shoulder is BonBon and does most of her talking for her... her location are usually around graveyards or abandoned churches.

Other than the obvious cuteness elements and possible sexy elements, the arms and hands, and legs, were put there for a purpose. Her left arm is holding her wingless shoulder/back. This represents her sadness for her lost wing.

The cloth behind her is there to represent her attempts in regaining this wing (though it does look kinda bad/comical, so I might remove it, but then again, I might not too =D). I wanted her right hand to grip her shirt, but it didn't really happen, but this was going to represent her pain and suffering, and loneliness. Her eyes would show that too, since in anime, this is the most easiest place to see their expression and feeling.

Her wing is opened out just to show her one and only wing. Legs, and the surrounding cloth on the floor, are there to show her chaos and suffering.

Woo, now that's done, you now can laugh at my description. Laugh at me if you will, but this little description helps me draw a whole lot better in my opinion, that way I can get a nice feel from the picture.

Now that you've read my article, you might want to visit my own website. There are more articles there if you wish to learn and read.

AniKC - a Place for Manga, Tutorials, Games and Articles and Other Useful Resources.

Engraving Your Wedding Bands

For many engaged couples, one of the most exciting experiences is the purchase of the wedding bands. The rings are a symbol of permanence and undying love, a sign of a groom's love for his bride and vice-versa. Some couples like to make the moment when the rings are exchanged even more personal by having the wedding bands engraved.

Why Engrave?

There are many good reasons to engrave your wedding bands. For example, it's a wonderful way to show your solidarity with your new spouse. For another, it can be a means of expressing special sentiments, such as words of affection that have been exchanged between you and your beloved. Finally, it can truly personalize your ring, making it a treasured keepsake for your family.

Popular Engraving Options

Of course, when it comes to engraving, there are a number of options that you can choose from. For instance, many couples prefer something simple, such as engraving their initials with a plus sign between them. Others like including their first names, while still others prefer a phrase that is particularly special to them. Or, to remember your destination wedding place and date.

History Behind the Tradition

You should be aware of the fact that there is a significant history behind the tradition of engraved rings. According to long-standing custom, the wedding ring is the last in a series of gifts, preceded by the engagement ring, which celebrates betrothal, and the promise ring, which symbolizes courting. The practice of engraving may have begun in Europe, where the name of one's spouse and the date of the impending wedding served as a symbol of family. Over the years, some couples have taken the tradition in a humorous direction, engraving their rings with funny phrases. Others strike a religious tone with their engravings.

A Lasting Memory

You'll Treasure In the end, an engraved wedding ring represents a lasting memory-a memory of the moment that two hearts joined together in a union of body, mind, and soul. It's the type of fashion accessory that never goes out of style-that is appropriate for every outfit, for every mood. For a lasting memory for your guests, leave them with personalized wedding favors to remember your special day by.

By Michelle O'Connor, Wedding Keepsake Albums