four-towers.ca

I have some very good advice for you.

Think it over.

I’m serious, think it over. Think it over long and hard, weigh all the options, drawbacks, pros and cons, and then think it over again. This is not a ‘get rich quick’ scheme, nor is it easy to become successful. Freelance work offers a great deal of freedom, fulfillment and accomplishment; however, it does have a very real downside. Most freelancers, especially if you are brand new will not make the same salary as from a traditional career or job. In fact, some will say their salary has decreased by as much as 40%.

With websites like Elance, Guru and Odesk, you would think it would be rather easy to find good solid clients to work with. While each of these sites have many great buyers willing to pay for quality work, you will also find just as many wanting something for practically free. For a new freelancer, you need to build a reputation and gain experience in order to gain confidence in your potential clients. For some, this means lowering the price they would need to live on comfortably, to one that barely pays the bills.

If you wish to be successful and make a living as a freelancer, you must not under value yourself. If you get into the habit of offering a lot of work at rock bottom prices, you are going to find it extremely difficult to get higher paying jobs. Of course, most buyers do understand new freelancers need to gain experience and will learn to up their prices; just don’t do this on a continual basis.

After you have been awarded jobs and completed them successfully, you will feel more at ease with raising your prices.

Never do freelancing because you are forced into it because there are no jobs in your area. Freelance work is much harder to obtain, and to complete than a traditional job. In general, freelancers can work 12-16 hour days. This means really early mornings, and often late into the night. Freelance contracts have strict deadlines that you must adhere to, or you will damage your reputation and your ability to secure more work.

It is best to ask yourself some questions:

• Is working for yourself, building a business a passion for you?
• Is writing, website design, graphics or data entry something you love doing and are willing to put your all into?
• Are you prepared to work long hours, and to give your business a chance to succeed?
• Are you financially stable enough to leave a traditional career to start a freelance career?

Think about your answers to these questions carefully. Research what it takes to be successful in your chosen field, and find out about websites allowing buyers to look for providers.

Since the larger quake was centered away from a large population, there were no fatalities, but it has triggered several aftershocks since the main quake, some being much closer to Christchurch. While there is fault line activity in this region, there are very few recorded earthquakes in history.

The most recent earthquake in Christchurch occurred only 5 km or 3.10 miles underground, meaning it was shallow. It also happened at the busiest time of day, 12:50pm during a weekday, when most people were out during lunch hour. Having happened much closer to the town of Christchurch, the damage was much more severe than the larger quake. The shallowness plays an important role in the amount of damage done to buildings as well. A factor in building damage is the intense shaking causing the soil or sand underneath to “liquefy.”

According to Professor Andreas

Rietbrock, of the School of Environmental Sciences, University of Liverpool, the seismic activity is caused by the Pacific and Indo-Australian tectonic plates moving against each other in conflicting directions. Since the main quake in September, there have been 5 aftershocks measuring magnitude 5.0 or above. Scientists do not know if there are more strong aftershocks of 6.0 on the way, but said it is possible.

References

New Zealand Herald: Christchurch Earthquake Likely to be NZ Worst Natural Disaster?

Herald Sun: Christchurch Quake a ‘Big Aftershock’, Danny Rose

A tropical wave, or African easterly wave, tends to be the breeding ground for hurricane formation. These tropical waves, born over North Africa, are thought to be from instability in the easterly jets of air flowing over the continent. Scientists believe many factors cause these waves to form; lower troposphere, or air currents that travel from the ocean surface, to approximately 3 miles westward, seems to prove the most effective.

These waves travel westward in the Atlantic Ocean beginning in April or May and ending in about November. Waves have a lifespan of approximately 3-4 days and can travel a distance of 1,500 miles. While on average there are 60 waves formed each year, it doesn’t seem to have any direct affect on the amount of hurricanes formed. Interestingly, only 60% of hurricanes originate from tropical waves, but of those storms, tropical waves form 80% of the stronger ones.

A tropical depression is really a group of thunderstorms that have organized into a strong storm, with wind speeds at the center of the storm sitting at 23-39 mph. The right atmospheric conditions need to be in place, including a powerful low pressure system, water temperature that is warm enough, and time.

A tropical depression is categorized as such once scientists detect a lowering of air pressure, and circulation at the center of the thunderstorm cluster has formed. Scientists see this lowering of air pressure, due to watching a surface pressure chart and seeing at least one closed isobar. An isobar denotes wind speed around a low or high pressure system, if an isobar closes off, it shows a meteorologist that circulation is occurring and a potential eye may form. Once a depression is classified as such, it is given a designation number.

A tropical storm is the precursor to the hurricane, in other words, it’s a powerful storm without an eye. If a tropical depression has enough time, energy and the right atmospheric conditions, it will strengthen into a tropical storm. The main difference between a tropical depression and storm, is the sustained wind speeds. Tropical storms have sustained wind speeds of 39 mph and up. Once a storm is classified as a tropical storm, its given a name, and will from then on out be referred to by that name.

Hurricanes are the largest storms on Earth, in fact Hurricane Katrina was approximately the size of Texas. A tropical storm becomes a hurricane once the center of the storm is distinctly defined, or an eye has formed. A hurricane’s sustained wind speeds begin at 74 mph and can exceed 200 mph. The Atlantic hurricane season begins in June and runs all the way until the end of November; while the East Pacific storm season runs from May until November.

A cyclone is simply a hurricane born in the South Pacific and Indian Ocean, but does not differ in anyway from a hurricane. Of course, a cyclonic storm can also be categorized as a tornado, simply because it is also a rotating storm, much like the hurricane; only on a much smaller scale. A typhoon is a cyclonic storm born in the Western Pacific ocean.

Humidity is simply the amount of moisture within an air mass. One of the measurements of humidity is called relative humidity, which is the percentage of water vapor floating in the air. For example, when forecasters say there is 70% or 100% humidity, it means the approximate amount of water contained in that air mass. So, if it’s a hot day, 100% humidity would mean the maximum amount of moisture is present in the air. The hotter the air mass, the more moisture it can contain.

The region of the tropics are situated between the Tropic of Cancer and the Tropic of Capricorn, with the Equator being right in the middle. One of the reasons the weather patterns are humid here, is the Sun is directly overhead for most of the year, with only slight variances. Much of the weather in this region is controlled by what is known as convective storms; which means rapid evaporation of ocean water into forming cumulus and cumulonimbus clouds, eventually turning into an almost daily thunderstorm occurrence.

When people think of humid, tropical weather patterns, they may think of tropical storms and hurricanes. Born within the tropics, these severe storms form when convective thunderstorms strengthen along the trade winds. It takes a strong low, very warm ocean temperatures and the right atmospheric conditions for a tropical depression to develop enough to form a tropical storm. A tropical storm becomes a hurricane, once an eye appears and the wind speed exceeds 74 mph.

Is it Only Humid in the Tropics?The tropics isn’t the only area on Earth that receives humid weather patterns; areas like Australia, parts of the United States, areas of Canada and Europe, all receive humid weather patterns during the summer months. This is called the Humid Continental climate region of the mid-latitudes, in an area that is temperate. This means the regions’ seasons change and become colder during fall and winter. While the Southern United States keeps relatively warm during winter, the area does cool down in temperature. The area’s weather patterns is controlled by several factors including the influence year round of the polar front and tropical air masses colliding.

Evaporation occurs at varying speeds which is greatly determined by four main factors - water body size, heat energy, atmospheric pressure and air movement. The actual surface area of a lake, river or stream has a lot to do with how much evaporation occurs; in other words, the larger the lake, the more evaporation.

Heat energy, meaning the Sun’s influence on the water, causes the water molecules to vibrate and move about more quickly. The more the water vibrates, the higher the water temperature will be - as can be seen when water boils on the stove. The vibrating water molecules near the surface of the water eventually escape and become water vapor, and rising into the atmosphere. Water may also be heated by the introduction of warmer waters through ocean or lake currents.

Atmospheric pressure effect, is air particles pushing down on the water. When there is less pressure pressing down on the water, for example when low pressure systems dominate the area, it is much easier for the water to drift up into the atmosphere. With high pressure, there is more exertion on the water, making less water molecules able to escape.

Air movement, or wind skims the surface of water, lifting up tiny water molecules into the atmosphere. Strong storms like hurricanes are able to lift water droplets from the surface of the oceans physically, enabling them to evaporate much quicker. In fact, wind changes the maximum amount of vapor pressure in the atmosphere simply by moving around so quickly, the air expands allowing for more water vapor. This means, that even if the maximum amount of water vapor has been reached, evaporation will continue as long as the wind is blowing.

I have added new designs to Zazzle and Printfection. Soon I will be doing completely new designs including ones for Cafepress.

I also began doing some freelance work on Elance and oDesk, writing articles and web content. If you have any articles or writing work you would like done, please let me know and I will send you copies of work I have done in the past. or direct you to my profile on these sites. 

Since it’s Friday again, it’s time to update the designs I have added to Zazzle and Printfection. I haven’t had the chance to write any new articles this week, except those for my freelance work.

The new designs are both photographs. One is the CN Tower, I took the background out to give it a more 3D look to it; and it looks great on t-shirts.

The other design is the famous Blue Nose Schooner. It had visited Toronto last year in the summer and I was lucky enough to see it. I trimmed the edges of the photo to give it the look of a photograph in an album. I hope you enjoy them!

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I have added new designs on Zazzle and Printfection this week. One is called Baby; it’s a baby’s face with a surprised expression. The other design is called OMG. It’s a little cute face with a shocked expression, like he’s saying OMG. It’s on t-shirts, mugs and hats among other things. So check it out!

I have written a new article and was published about adoption. It’s an inspiring story about finding a birth parents and it turning out well. It’s a true story and I hope you will read it.

http://www.authspot.com/Biographies/How-Adoption-Touched-Our-Lives.756525

So it’s now Friday and I have decided I’m going to do weekly updates for the site. Adding whatever new designs I have posted and any articles I have written. I have started doing freelance work as well.

I have added 3 new designs to Zazzle and Printfection this week, all are on Cafepress too. I’m slowly adding them to these new stores.

I have also taken all beanie babies off my iOffer site, I’m not selling them anymore since I want to focus more on books and my graphic sites. I do still have collectables so check them out.

The 3 designs I have added are Baby Angel, We Are One and Canada, which has the Canadian Flag on the front and “True North Strong and Free” on the back.

The We Are One design is also in white background with black letters on dark shirts, if you prefer.

Hi everyone, since the weekend is coming I won’t be updating the site then, but please feel free to email if you have any questions. I will still answer them. I hope you enjoy the weekend.

I have added a couple of more designs to Zazzle and Printfection. They are the Irish Canadian and Acadian Canadian ones from Cafepress, so check them out. I also have an article I have posted recently that I hope you will take the time to read.