Each week, over a million people use Google SketchUp to create 3D designs of homes, buildings, landscaping, and other creations. On 1 September 2010, Google announced the release of SketchUp version 8.

In conjunction with Building Maker and the Google Earth Plug-in, you can zoom in on a building and have a 3D model created from the satellite images of that building. Or, use existing designs from the 3D Model Warehouse.

Combining Google SketchUp with Google Earth makes it possible to add your new 3D design to the precise location on the earth where it will be so you can visualize it in context and also share with others. Volunteers in many cities are creating online 3D models of communities areas using as described in the video below.

The standard version of Google SketchUp 8 is free. Google SketchUp Pro is $495 and includes many additional advanced design features and capabilities that professionals will want. Sales of the pro version help make it possible for the standard version to be available to everyone for free.

Some of the features in Google SketchUp 8 are explained in the video below.

Dear Friend,

I know that time is precious for everyone these days, so I’ll try to keep this update short. The approximate reading time for this message is about 5 minutes. Feel free to reduce your reading time even more by skipping over topics that don’t interest you.

Personal Update. My Personal Update for August is now available. Photos and a video from my recent India trip are now available in a special report and also on my photo galleries page.

Heart Songs. The Heart Song selections for August are now available on iTunes. This month there are only three songs representing an eclectic mix of genres. The songs are in alphabetical order by title. The first song is Our God by Chris Tomlin from the Passion: Awakening (Deluxe Edition) album. This is a very nice live performance version of this popular worship song. It has amazingly remained at about position 130 (currently 129) on the aggregate iTunes charts for all music in all categories sold through the store, performing better right now than popular songs by Miley Cyrus, Eminem, Enrique Iglesias, Lady GaGa, Reba McEntire, Hanna Montana, Brad Paisley, George Strait, Taylor Swift, and Usher. It’s remarkable for an inspirational praise song to reach so high in the charts when competing with pop musicians on multi-million dollar labels. The second song for this month is Pee Loon Hoto Ki Sargam by Pritam & Mohit Chauhan from the soundtrack to the movie Once Upon a Time In Mumbaai. I heard the song while in India at a clothing store, and it really stuck with me. The third song for this month is Poker Face by Lady GaGa from the album The Fame. It’s a catchy tune that I heard briefly during the movie trailer for Easy A. The song Everytime performed by Jackie Evancho from her album Prelude to a Dream is no longer available through the iTunes store. I’d downloaded the song to be a fourth song for this month, but at the time of this writing, all of her music has been pulled from the iTunes store. I’m not sure why. Her performance of the song is much better than the version popularized by Britney Spears. Although the Hi-Bias Radio Remix version of Britney’s performance is quite good as found on her My Prerogative album.

Calendars Available. This coming year we have two calendars to choose from. Our standard ResourcesForLife.com calendar for 2011 begins with December 2010 and features motivational photos and quotes. We only have 200 of these, so if you want one, let me know soon. Jewish Art Calendars for the year 5771 are available free while supplies last. Just let me know if you’d like one. Remember that the year 5771 of the Jewish calendar begins with September 2010 of this year, so you won’t need to wait 3,761 years to use these Jewish calendars. All of these calendars are free. Donations toward shipping are appreciated, but not required.

Grubbe Graphics – Graphic Design and Comic Creations. This past week I enjoyed launching a new website. Visit GrubbeGraphics.com and let me know what you think.

What’s New. This month a variety of articles and content were added. Remember you can always find out the latest news by visiting the What’s New Page and the Documents Page. Here are a few highlights of recent documents (most recent at top):

• Using Apple iMac as External Notebook Computer Video Display
• Google Offers Inexpensive Web-based VoIP Telephone Service Similar to Skype for Making Phone Calls
• Give Thanks and You Shall Have Something to Give Thanks For
• GrubbeGraphics.com – Graphic Design and Comic Creations
• WordPress.com – Simple and Inexpensive Website Hosting
• 1984 by George Orwell – View Online Streaming Video of the Movie
• Work from Home and Save the Planet
• Apple Magic Trackpad Brings Touch Interface to Desktop Computing
• Apple Rechargeable AA Batteries Offer Long Life With Eco Green Energy Smart Battery Charger
• Nainital India Photo Galleries and Video Tour of Lake Naini

Thanks. I want to thank the global team of volunteers, contributors, and workers “behind the scenes” who help make all this possible. I’m very grateful to the many people who continue to uphold and advance the mission of Resources for Life. Thanks again for your support. Please let me know if there is any way that Resources for Life can serve you better.

Regards,
Gregory

Gregory Johnson, Director
Resources for Life.com
“Resources for Better Living”
Internet: http://www.resourcesforlife.com/g
E-Mail: g @ resourcesforlife.com (without spaces)
Postal: PO Box 2717, Iowa City, IA 52244-2717 USA
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Summary. This is the monthly personal update for Gregory Johnson. Life categories listed alphabetically rather than in order of increasing interdependence described on the map page. This month, areas of life remain mostly unchanged.

* * *

Dear Friends,

Here’s my personal update for August. This month’s life categories remain mostly unchanged. Photos and a video from my recent India trip are now available in a special report and also on my photo galleries page.

• Activism. With regard to activism, I believe that the answer is to live the answer. As such, I believe that lifestyle activism and becoming the media are the most powerful methods for impacting the world. For this reason, sharing my photography, producing videos, and writing content for the ResourcesForLife.com website continue to be my primary means of activism and outreach. The site has had over a million visitors in the past few years. There is now a ResourcesForLife.com @ Ning network as well. My book, Put Your Life on a Diet, continues to do well, and I’ve expanded the book’s web page and also added an online community area for discussions about it.
• Career. I’m thankful that my work at the University of Iowa is going well and my consulting business continues to be busy. My current clients continue to be wonderful to work with, and I’m also gaining some new ones. I’m very grateful.
• Effective Living. I’m trying to stick with the Schedule for Life and the Holistic Living System which help provide maximum effectiveness and efficiency. I’ve not updated these systems for over a year, so an update is probably due later this year.
• Finance. I continue to look for ways to decrease my regular expenses and increase my income. I enjoy investing in Kiva, an organization that loans money to the working poor of the world.
• Health. I’ve gained about 30 pounds since moving to downtown Iowa City in August 2009, and I’m now about 60 pounds over my ideal weight. So, I’m now looking for ways to take my weight management system to the next level. I currently track my fitness and meals on my LiveStrong.com holistic wellness tracking page, and I also maintain a nutritional supplements spreadsheet to monitor nutrient intake. For exercise, I’m using an elliptical system at home and I’m making an effort to use bicycling for transportation.
• Lifeways. My faith and religious practice is currently Adonaikido. Since the teachings, beliefs, and principles of Adonaikido are based upon various world religions, I’m expanding upon some of the Lifeways resource pages. Recently updated is the Christian Life Resource Group.
• Relationships. Makur and I are doing well. We’re now living in a 360 square foot apartment in downtown Iowa City. I continue to be grateful for the relationships I have with family, friends, colleagues, and clients.

Many thanks to all of you who are continuing to keep me in your thoughts, prayers, and meditation time. ~ Gregory

About the Personal Update

For about ten years, the first and most important communication I would send out each month would be a personal update covering seven areas of life described on the Map Page of the ResourcesForLive.com website. I reference this monthly practice in my Schedule for Life. Over the years, my personal updates went out each month to about 10 family members and friends who I consider to be my “advisory board” – a group of people with several hundred years of collective wisdom. As well as looking for feedback and guidance, I also saw these updates as a way of making a regular personal life assessment. As of September 2007, I began publishing these monthly updates here in my online Journal. The seven areas of my personal life have solidified in recent years, so there’s not much “news” to report, but as there is, I’ll report it here in these updates.

A large screen Apple 27″ LED Cinema Display can cost about $800. For about $400 more, the iMac all-in-one computer and display seems like a bargain. However, because it is an all-in-one computer, the display has no video input. There is only an output jack for an additional external digital video display.

Follow these steps to use the iMac as an external display for an alternate computer such as an Apple notebook or Apple Mini:

1. Start your alternate computer in target drive mode by turning on the computer while holding down the letter “T” on the keyboard.
2. Then, using a Firewire cable, connect the alternate computer to the iMac. You may need to find just the right cable. If your computers are new, it’s likely you’ll need a Firewire cable with Firewire 800 plugs on both ends.
3. Start the iMac holding down the Option key, and choose your externally connected computer.

Now you’ll be able to take advantage of the larger iMac screen and powerful processor, while at the same time retaining the benefit of using a single drive for your programs and data. While mobile or computing elsewhere, you can just use a regular display (for an Apple Mini) or the built-in Apple notebook display.

Summary. On 26 August 2010, Google announced the addition of free VoIP telephone service for outgoing phone calls to the US and Canada with very low rates to the rest of the world.

While most chat services offer text, voice, and video chat from computer to computer, the new Google service allows for calls from your computer to a regular mobile or landline telephone phone.

The Google Voice Blog article about the service explains more.

Google Voice lets you manage all your phone communications and seamlessly make and receive calls on any of your existing phones. But what if you don’t have your phone with you? Or what if you’re in a place with poor cell phone reception, or you’re travelling internationally and don’t want to incur expensive roaming charges? Wouldn’t it be great if you could use your computer to make or receive calls?

Starting today you can use Gmail to receive or place Google Voice calls.

To get started, check the box next to Google Chat in your list of forwarding phones and the next time someone calls your Google Voice number, Gmail will notify you of an incoming call. You can take the call or even listen in as the caller leaves a message, in a single step right from your computer.

Video. Below is an overview showing the features of Google Voice.

An interesting principle of life is that those who are thankful, those who acknowledge the good that comes into their life, those who recognize life’s miracles (even the small ones), these people get more of what they show gratitude for.

By looking for miracles, we find miracles. Perhaps this is simply because we notice them more. Yet, it seems that good things increase for those who show appreciation. The story below of the Baal Shem Tov illustrates this principle.

This story is reprinted here courtesy of Chabad Rabbis Avremel and Chaya Blesofsky who are based in Iowa City and offer a weekly newsletter.

In the shtetl communities of Eastern Europe, there were often sages who would seclude themselves in houses of study and spend the entire day in prayer and contemplation of the Talmud and its commentaries.
The Baal Shem Tov once entered a room where one of these self-styled saints was sitting. “How are you feeling?” the Baal Shem Tov asked. “Did you have a good breakfast today?”

The scholar looked at the Baal Shem Tov in confusion. What did he want from him? Didn’t he see that he was studying?

The Baal Shem Tov, however, persisted: Do you have warm clothes? Do you have a comfortable home?”

The scholar finally erupted in anger. “Why are you disturbing me?” he asked the Baal Shem Tov.

“You’re making a mistake,” the Baal Shem Tov replied. “Any simple Jew would respond to these questions by saying ‘Boruch Hashem’ or ‘Thank G-d.’ By not responding in this manner, you’re taking away G-d’s dwelling place. For the Psalms describe Him as ‘sitting on the praises of Israel.’ For G-d to rest within our world, we have to acknowledge Him through praise.”

The Baal Shem Tov could have asked the scholar whether his studies were proceeding well. It would have been far more likely that he would have answered him then. Instead, he asked him about physical things. For the intent is that G-d be praised – and thus caused to dwell – within the physical realm, that we bring the awareness of Him into our basic material activities. Hence the questions asked by the Baal Shem Tov.

Joel Grubbe has been working with graphic design and cartoons for over two decades. As with most artists, Joel draws from the existing contemporary forms for inspiration. However, his work is clearly unique and inspired.

His humorous and thought provoking cartoons and drawings look great in print as well as on the web. They are ideal for various products such as mugs, business cards, t-shirts, calendars, hats, mouse pads, or bumper stickers.

WordPress.org is the website for those seeking to choose their own website host and independently use the free WordPress software for website management. Using WordPress independently offers greater customization but costs more and it’s necessary to do your own updates to the software and take measures to secure your site. An impressive list of clients have chosen WordPress.org software to manage their independent websites such as Boston University, Herman Miller, Kobe Bryant, Old Spice, Staples (Canada), TED, The Economist (Chinese Edition), and Wheaton College.

Benefits of WordPress.com Hosting. When using WordPress.com the site hosting and management are taken care of automatically, and free. This is why over 250,000 websites are hosted by WordPress.com with varying degrees of customization.

Getting Started. Here are the steps required to get started using WordPress.com for your website.

1. If  you want to have a personalized website with your own domain name, register a domain name with WordPress.com (about $15 per year) or through a company like Network Solutions (about $35 per year). Otherwise, a free WordPress.com site has an address such as http://yourwebsite.wordpress.com (for example).
2. Create some basic pages such as home, articles, contact, and about.
3. Start writing some articles for your website.
4. From your WordPress website Dashboard, under Settings > Reading,  you can set the Home page to be the Front Page Display for your site. Otherwise, site visitors are presented with the latest articles you’ve written. Also, set the Articles page to display the running directory of yoru latest blog articles.

That’s all you need to do to setup a secure, professional, and inexpensive website.

WordPress.com – Websites made simple.

Summary. Below is the full version of the movie adaptation of the book 1984 by George Orwell.

Summary. One way to enhance the home office, is to build a garden retreat that can serve as both a refreshing workplace and a place to stimulate creativity.

Below is a guest submission from Dawn Kubicek of Decorated Shed, a company that specializes in customized, compact, creative, dwellings for work, home, recreation, and retreat (like the one pictured here).

Dawn provides some familiar suggestions about how to live and work more environmentally friendly, and focuses on what the home office worker can do.

Working from home, either permanently or just one or two days per week is an inherently green decision. The emissions reduction from travelling is the most immediate benefit, and is one of many that become apparent over time.

Decorated Shed garden offices are built to be energy efficient and deliver phenomenal insulation performance, meaning that you need minimal heating and cooling all year round.

However, being a green homeworker doesn’t end at simply working from home. There are several simple practices that can be incorporated into your working day that help to minimise your impact on the planet even further. The good news is that they’re all simple and easy to implement into your routine, and will bring tangible benefits to both your work and your pocket.

Here are some green office tips for homeworkers;

• Buy eco-friendly office products. Recycled paper is the commonly-known product here, but almost every other office item has a recycled version available. Pens, pencils, mousepads, calendars, almost every item of stationery imaginable… all available in eco-friendly variants.
• Recycle! Be a part of the process by recycling your recycled office products when you’re finished with them, and give them yet another chance to be used in a new life! It’s a sad fact that while 80% of the office products used in the UK are recyclable, a pitiful 8% ends up being recycled*.
• Buy FSC-certified or second-hand desks. If you’re buying new office desks try to make sure they’re from FSC-certified sources, which means they’ve come from responsible and sustainably managed forests. Alternatively, see what’s available locally second-hand. As many companies regularly re-fit their office spaces there are often some impeccable quality office furniture items available second-hand, and this removes the need to buy a newly produced item.
• Buy an energy-efficient computer and other electronics. Laptops usually use less energy than computer and monitor combinations, and the eco-friendly options for these are improving on an almost daily basis. The situation is similar for printers and fax machines, with many energy efficient options widely available.
• Go easy on the print outs. “Don’t print this out unless necessary” is a well-worn office mantra, but for good reason. Printing things out to read them is really unnecessary, especially considering they’re on the screen right in front of you, and the process wastes paper, ink, energy, time and ultimately money – quite a lot of valuable resources.
• Switch off. If you’re not in the office, it doesn’t need to be on. With the possible exception of the fax machine, every single energy-using item in your office should be switched off and shut down at the end of the day. Computer, printer, scanner, copier, lights – all off.