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My grandmother, Sara Belle Fischer Kupperman
Mayer, was a professional ballerina. It was her dream
that one of her granddaughters follow in her toe
shoes (so to speak). My sister, Marissa, and I took
ballet and performed from the age of 3 into our
teens. I quit at 15 when it became painfully obvious
that I did not have a dancer's build...I was too short
and even at 105 pounds I was, well, "blessed" with a
nice figure. My sister, Marissa, had a dancer's build,
but no talent...so she quit at the same time.
Even when my toes were bloody and my blisters had blisters and I was wrapping my feet with gauze in order to dance, it never occurred to me that I was doing myself any permanent harm. After all, my grandmother had never had any problems with her feet or legs...at 80, she could still do the splits and lift one leg over her head. I saw the blisters and bandages as a sign that I was a serious dancer - a plus, not a minus. Fast forward thirty years....I am developing cysts in my right foot...30 cm and more in size they are pressing on a nerve and make wearing shoes painful. They aren't cancer...instead two of the joints in my foot have sprung a leak, oozing cartilage and soft tissue to form the cysts. Choices are to remove the joints or repair them. I opt to repair them as removal would mean that I wouldn't be able to move my foot as well, not to mention painful. Following the surgery last week, my surgeon (a friend who I have known socially for over ten years) tells me that the joint with the worst damage was the same joint she had operated on a week before on a different patient - an exotic pole dancer. "I guess dancing in 4-inch heels isn't that much different than ballet shoes," she comments, dryly. On the other hand, she is pleased because, thanks to last week's surgery, she considers herself in better form to perform my surgery. "I'm glad I was able to practice on her before I got to you," she tells me with a wink. My recovery has been pretty quick and I am hobbling about the house, doing a pretty good impersonation of Igor, Frankenstein's assistant. Looking back on it, I would still dance ballet. I loved doing it and it made me feel wonderful. Since the surgery, I have heard from other people, whose daughters did gynastics and required similar surgery. They tell me, if they had known, they wouldn't have encouraged their daughters to take up the sport. I disagree. Every sport requires some sort of payment. My husband, who was semi-pro in martial arts, has broken every toe on both feet (not at the same time!) and has no regrets. What you carry with you from the sport- a positive self-image, the ability to work with a team, a respect for your body, an understanding of how to play by the rules...these build character and that awareness and ability will help you in all sorts of challenges as you navigate life. So, while I won't be en pointe anytime soon, I do plan to take my husband dancing...I'll be the one wearing high heels. |
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Kathi Shurow writes:
"I'm going through the Custom Titleblock information and having some difficulties finding the Define Attribute Tool. I type it in the old way...Attdef...to get a dialog box that has the same information as show in step 16 but organized differently. I am using ADT 2005. Is it possible your example is not shown in ADT and that the dialog boxes may be different?" ADT 2005 is a bit annoying as when you load it using the default settings, it does not give you all the menus and tools you might want. There are a few ways to adjust ADT to make it work better for you. First off, you can type MENULOAD on the command line. Then browse for the 'acad.mnu' file and load it. This will provide you with all the standard AutoCAD toolbars and menus. You can right click on any toolbar to activate the desired toolbar. Go to the Windows menu, then Pulldowns. This will activate some of your ADT menus. This will be helpful if you aren't comfortable yet with the Tool Palettes. To add the Attribute Define tool to your Draw toolbar (or any toolbar for that matter), do the following:
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Skyler Mills, of Rhode Island, writes:
"A(nother) engineer friend of mine is in the building business, and wants to know about a software package that not only models the outside of the building in 2D, but does the full-boat design. Such as, 3D HVAC and plumbing in addition to structural and architechtural design. I'm a regular civil/site guy, so am not sure. Can you point me in the right direction?" The guy doesn't want much, does he? Autodesk Building Systems does HVAC and Plumbing. However, last time I used it, I thought it has a long way to go before I would consider it to be worth the money. It seemed to me to be more beta than release software. I recommend Rhino for boat hull design simply because of the surfacing requirements. I currently use Inventor for HVAC and plumbing. That may sound counter-intuitive, but, unlike Building Systems, in Inventor I can constrain my ductwork and plumbing systems together and once I build up my library of parts, it is actually faster and easier than Building Systems. Plus, I can create some wonderful renderings in Inventor faster and easier than in Building Systems. I may take another look at Building Systems when the next release comes out to see if it has advanced any. In the meantime, if you are using anything for this type of design and want to share, drop me an email. |
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You can use the Properties dialog to filter selections
quickly on the fly. If you accidentally selected more
than one object, use the drop-down list to only apply
changes to the desired objects.
This is a quick and easy way to reset objects to a different layer, linetype, etc. |
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