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As I've probably mentioned in the past,  I have an MFA degree in 3d Computer Animation.  A big part of 3d Computer Animation, is well, 3d.  The last few days I've been looking a lot at 3d TVs.  I suppose my opinions of the different 3d technologies, IE - active and passive 3d, belong in a different post.  But, just to be stated, I like neither better.  I think the only way to see 3d is with two polarized projectors, like you would see in a movie theater.  More on that later.

Ahhh yes,, hopefully this will the first post in a long line of honest, to myself at least, blog entries where I will share with you the fruitlessness of my labours for the past 10 years.  Fruitlessness in that I don't make much money.  In fact, I'm flat broke.  And, I'm not that happy, mostly because I'm tired of being broke. This is going to be an account of how I get out of my current reality an into a life that I will create for myself. If I have nothing else, I have optimism.  

Today I decided that I'd like to spend some time to share the bushels of knowledge that I've acquired over the years in Internet Programming and Computer Animation.  So, I started a profile on tutormatch.com as a tutor.  Below is some of the profile that I filled out. 

I figured since business is slow right now, I would put that old vinyl cutter, which mostly collects dust, to work for me.  In all actuality, I should have done this long ago.  I've had this vinyl plotter for years and never have I made an advertisement for myself.  I'm sure my wife would be more than happy to let it go because of all the room it takes up.  But, it works well, and I have a closet full of vinyl to cut up into pretty shapes, which I swear I'll get to,,, one of these days.  So, here are some of the designs I came up with: 

For updates,, go to the bottom of the thread.

I think this animation is pretty self-explanatory. As the wheel rotates, the mass of the magnets get repulsed and attracted in such a way that they shift to a gravitationally-favorable position to keep the wheel rotating. 

~~Added Sep 3 2010 ~~

Update: Since writing this article in 2008, I've done a bunch of research on the design and efficiency of these turbines.  They have their up-sides and down-sides.  The downsides being, they are far less efficient in transforming force from the wind to rotational force, when compared with the typical airplane prop type design.  This is probably why you don't see more planes with this kind of propeller.  They are however, less noisy, which may make them more suitable in an urban environment. 

Here is a huge list of animation studios for those of you that are looking for a job in, or related to, animation.