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Family Looks to Secure Van for Son
ST. MARYS — A family with ties to St. Marys needs community support to win a handicap van that would make life safer for their son, who has already overcome numerous challenges after a life-threatening encounter with bacterial meningitis.
When Chad and Melissa Weaver's 2-month-old son Owen had a fever, they thought it was the fever sometimes associated with vaccination.
Instead, doctors discovered he had a life-threatening bacterial meningitis infection. He was hospitalized for 15 days, the first week of which doctors were unsure whether or not he would live.
"It broke my heart to have him that sick," Melissa said.
An MRI showed that even if Owen did survive, he had suffered brain damage.
"We knew we wouldn't be bringing home the same kid," Chad said.
When the family brought Owen home, they were left with a lot of questions about the extent of the damage. Doctors told them that the brain sometimes is able to compensate for damage by becoming stronger in other areas. Doctors couldn't tell if disabilities would progress.
Bringing him home, however, was just the beginning of his battle.
After a few months, the family discovered their baby's eyes weren't focusing on objects, and didn't seem to respond visually. The family took him to a specialist, and discovered he was blind. At age two he started having seizures, sometimes having as many as 300 seizures per day.
"He slept and had seizures, that was it," Melissa said.
Just before his fourth birthday, doctors had to give Owen a large dose of steroids that essentially restarted the brain and stopped the seizures.
Any developmental progress Owen had made, however, had to restart. He had essentially lost a year and a half of his life to the problem.
Since then, Owen's family has tried to give him as normal a life as possible.
He takes 11 medications per day, has therapy twice a week, and appointments with five to six specialists throughout year.
Owen goes to a school for developmentally disabled children. Once he gets home from school he receives more medication, and chest therapies for respiratory problems. This year he had six bouts of pneumonia.
While he doesn't walk, crawl or stand, Chad said his son is an extremely happy and playful child.
"Everybody that ever meets that child will love him," Melissa said.
While he does not yet talk, Melissa said he babbles.
"He melts everybody's heart," she said.
The family doesn't know the extent of Owen's abilities, yet. They don't know if he will ever crawl or walk or talk on his own, so each accomplishment is a surprise. The most recent was pushing himself up from the floor.
"It brought tears to my eyes," Melissa said.
His father agreed.
"We want to see him develop communication, develop mobility," Chad said. "We don't know at what point that will happen or if it will ever happen. They're in the distant future."
Melissa said they held out cautious hope.
"We've never had anyone say he can't do those things," Melissa said. "He's just got so much brain damage. But no one can say what he can't do, what he'll be able to learn. They can't say that. We just have to be an advocate for him."
What Owen can do is go as many places as possible with his family. He goes to sporting events, movies, and on family outings. But providing those opportunities is sometimes a challenge for the family.
Chad Weaver is a firefighter working 24-hour shifts leaving Melissa often alone with their four children. Besides Owen, their children are 7, 3 and 8-months-old.
Before they had Owen, Melissa said she never knew the challenges facing people who depend on wheelchairs.
"If you've never known anyone with a wheelchair, you don't realize how un-handicap friendly things are," Melissa said.
When she goes anywhere with her four children, everything takes extreme planning.
"We try to think about everything ahead of time," she said. "At movies, we have to get there early because we need to get the handicap space. Sometimes I hesitate to even want to go places because it's a lot of work. I'm not very tall, and I feel like I put him at risk when I put him in the van." Because of the hormone injections he takes, Owen is more than 50 pounds and 4 feet tall. Melissa worries about dropping him.
Not only that, but when they go places she has to load and unload his 72 pound wheelchair.
What would be safer, she said, would be a handicap van. A specially-equipped handicap van would keep her from having to lift her son by allowing his whole wheelchair to roll in smoothly.
The family is working now to get the word out about a handicapped van that they could win through National Mobility Awareness Month that would help them move quickly and safely when they travel.
The Weavers are from St. Marys, though they now live in Bluffton. Both Memorial alumni, with family in the area, they've already garnered a lot of community support. Chad lived in St. Marys until he was 21, and served as a firefighter, and his father is the fire chief, so many firefighters have been getting the word out about the van.
Melissa's dad, Larry Badgett, works at Minster Bank, and has tried to promote the contest as well. Anyone who wants to help the Weavers can vote by going to MobilityAwarenessMonth.com/entrant/owen-weaver-bluffton-oh/. They can vote once a day through the website until May 10.


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A DIRE shortage of eating disorder beds in public hospitals means severely unwell men and women in NSW are being told they must lose more weight before they can be admitted for treatment.
Advocates say there are only two adult beds available where patients from around the state can receive specialised treatment for eating disorders.
The head of the eating disorder charity The Butterfly Foundation says the situation is "Dickensian" and is putting lives at risk.
One young woman has started a social media campaign begging for more to be done after she was told that despite being critically unwell she would have to wait until next year for a hospital bed.
Ella Graham, 23, has had an eating disorder since she was 12. She relapsed in March after a man who had attacked her was released from prison.
She has been too unwell to work since then and has been in and out of emergency.
"They say, 'look, you're not in heart failure yet so we are not going to admit you'," she said.
The chief executive of The Butterfly Foundation, Christine Morgan, said the situation was "beyond terrible" .
"To have conditions like this in 2012, it is Dickensian. It is beyond bad."
She said nearly one in 10 Australians have an eating disorder, with rates higher among women.
"Not all of them will require hospital care but it is beyond belief that there are only two public beds for all of NSW," she said.
The foundation's help hotline had recently experienced a dramatic growth in contact, she said.
In 2011, there was an average of 108 calls or emails each month, while so far this year there has been an average of nearly 250.
A clinical psychologist, Olivia Patrick, said the lack of beds was putting patients' lives at risk.
"People can die and they do die; the mortality rate is 20 per cent."
Ms Graham said her website, Fed Up NSW Health, received nearly 4000 hits, and she had received support through Facebook and Twitter. Others have also come forward with their problems getting treatment.
Tara Peak recently regained a healthy body weight but this significant victory will also mean that she is no longer eligible for public outpatient treatment.
At her sickest, Ms Peak sought hospital treatment - after repeated fainting, irregular heart beat and seizures - and was told her weight was not yet low enough for urgent admission.
On one occasion, after being taken unconscious to hospital, an ambulance officer made her wave her hands above her head so that her heart rate would go above 40 beats per minute and she could be sent home without seeing a doctor. "It's basically not until you get to the point that you are about to die … that someone says 'all right, we are going to do something about it'," she said. "Someone shouldn't be about to die to get treatment."
The Minister for Mental Health, Kevin Humphries, said eating disorders were less common than other mental illnesses and needed highly specialised care.
He said the government was funding specialists through the Centre for Eating and Dieting Disorders to improve treatment and support, train clinicians, and provide outreach support to other sites, as well as funding the development of online training.
The Butterfly Foundation support service: 1800 334 673

subset: commoncrawl


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Emmy voters got serious about spreading the funny-lady love this year, as no fewer than half of the nominees are competing in this race for the first time.
Laura Linney might be known more as a movie star, but she has three Emmys statuettes at home and could get a fourth here for her turn as staid suburbanite Cathy Jamison who, faced with death, decides to live it up in Showtime's dark comedy "The Big C."
The two other actresses making their debut appearances were also recognized for the freshman seasons of their respective series: Martha Plimpton, who's managed to bring both snark and heart to her portrayal of young working-class grandma Virginia Chance on "Raising Hope," and Melissa McCarthy, whose turn as a bubbly schoolteacher embarking on a new romance helped make "Mike & Molly" a Monday night hit for CBS.
Still, the newbies will face formidable competition from the veterans in this category. Despite last year's acceptance-speech protestation that she's not funny, defending champ Edie Falco netted another nom for artfully depicting the highs (and lows) of addiction as Showtime's "Nurse Jackie," while Tina Fey, who won in 2008, only burnished her rep as an TV Acad darling with her fifth consecutive acting nod for "30 Rock."
Fey's fellow former "Saturday Night Live" co-star Amy Poehler, who earned a second successive nom for her dryly funny work as ambitious city official Leslie Knope on "Parks and Recreation," has yet to pick up a trophy. Considering her buzzy show's momentum — "Parks and Rec" is also competing for the first time in the comedy series race — this could prove to be her moment.
Tina Fey
"30 Rock" (NBC)
Best scene: Trapped for hours on a grounded plane, Liz finally confronts the pilot, who's also her boyfriend Carol (Matt Damon), and, in the process, faces a humorously harsh truth: She's dating the male version of herself — and it's unbearable.
Why she might win: The Emmys like Fey. They really, really like her. The actress-writer-producer has earned 19 noms and seven trophies (though only one in this category) for her work on "30 Rock" and "Saturday Night Live."
Maybe not: "30 Rock" isn't the hot new kid on the block anymore, and newer entrants have more buzz.
Edie Falco
"Nurse Jackie" (Showtime)
Best scene: After a rat that snacked on her illicit pills suddenly drops dead in a co-worker's lunch, Jackie flushes the offending rodent down a hospital toilet, pausing only to offer this annoyed eulogy: "You messed with my stash."
Why she might win: With last year's "Jackie" triumph, the former "Sopranos" thesp became the first actress to win lead actress Emmys for both comedy and drama. Her spot in the history books only reinforces what the industry already knows: The iconic Falco can do it all.
Maybe not: No winner in this category has pulled off a repeat victory in more than a decade.
Laura Linney
"The Big C" (Showtime)
Best scene: While keeping her melanoma diagnosis to herself, Cathy comes down hard on her rebellious teen, whom she's determined to mold into a respectable man while she still can. "From now on," she shouts, "I'm going to raise you so hard, your head's going to spin!"
Why she might win: Linney pulled off a seemingly impossible feat with her pitch-perfect, Golden Globe-winning perf: She let viewers know it was OK to not only feel for, but also laugh at, a woman battling cancer. Plus, the Oscar-nominated thesp is apparently irresistible to the TV Acad: Previously honored for a "Frasier" guest spot and twice in the lead actress in a miniseries or movie category, she's never lost an Emmy race.
Maybe not: There's a first time for everything.
Melissa McCarthy
"Mike & Molly" (CBS)
Best scene: Fighting off a cold before her first date with Mike (Billy Gardell), Molly guzzles codeine-laced cough syrup, then takes a diet pill to counteract it, which turns the usually shy, sensible teacher into an aggressive extrovert.
Why she might win: A veteran supporting player, McCarthy finally got a leading-lady opportunity and ran with it. The fact that she also dominated "Bridesmaids," one of the year's biggest comedic films, certainly doesn't hurt.
Maybe not: Voters might consider the actress' first Emmy nom reward enough for her breakout year, especially when the show itself has garnered mixed reviews.
Martha Plimpton
"Raising Hope" (Fox)
Best scene: In an alternately funny and poignant flashback, a poodle skirt- and pigtail-sporting Virginia sits in the back of her husband's pick-up truck and reveals the insecurities that drive her obsession with taking the perfect family portrait.
Why she might win: Her tart-tongued, 39-year-old grandma is just the type of showy role Emmy often favors. And the respected film and stage actress has waited a long time for this shot: Her only other Emmy nom was for a 2002 guest spot on "Law & Order: SVU."
Maybe not: Acad members inclined to honor Fox's freshman series might opt to mark the ballot instead for guest-actress nominee Cloris Leachman — the Emmys' most decorated actress.
Amy Poehler
"Parks and Recreation" (NBC)
Best scene: After fleeing the hospital for an important business presentation, a flu-addled Leslie becomes completely disoriented, as evidenced by her belief that a cab meter is displaying Egyptian hieroglyphics: "Do you know the exchange rate?"
Why she might win: "Parks and Rec" is coming off a critically acclaimed season, and Poehler's Leslie — who embarked on a sweet romance with a co-worker this season — has become a character you can't help but root for.
Maybe not: In recent years, voters have shown a tendency to reward actresses in more darkly comic roles (see Falco and 2009 champ Toni Collette of "United States of Tara").
Bigscreen actresses adjust to TV fame
Drama | Comedy | Movie & Miniseries


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Activities mark traditional new year abroad
The ambassador said that 2009 will be a busy year of exchange and cooperation activities between the two countries, including Japanese Prince Naruhito's visit to Vietnam next month and a Japan visit by Party General Secretary Nong Duc Manh.
Iwao Matsuda, Vice President of the Japan-Vietnam Friendship Parliamentary Federation, said that the two countries will jointly hold a Japanese festival in central Quang Nam province's Hoi An ancient town in August this year.
According to Vietnam News Agency correspondents in Brussels , the Hoa Sen Association, an organisation of overseas Vietnamese patriots in Belgium , also hosted a new year meeting which drew the participation of numerous Vietnamese people who are living and working in Belgium , France and Luxembourg .
Addressing the event, Vietnamese Ambassador to Belgium Nguyen Manh Dung affirmed that the overseas Vietnamese community is always an inseparable part of the Vietnamese nation.
The Tet atmosphere also pervaded the whole of the Vietnam House in Ottawa , Canada , as nearly 300 overseas Vietnamese who are living and studying in Canada gathered to welcome the Year of the Ox on January 17.
Vietnamese Ambassador to Canada Nguyen Duc Hung said that the annual meeting offered a chance for all overseas Vietnamese people in Canada to meet and share their achievements over the past year.
He said he was pleased with the development of the overseas Vietnamese community in Canada , making remarkable contributions to the solidarity, friendship and cooperation between Vietnam and Canada .
Joining the Tet atmosphere, around 700 overseas Vietnamese in San Francisco were present at the War Memorial Hall, where the UN Charter was officially signed 55 years ago to share joys over the new year.
On behalf of local authorities, senator Leeland Yee spoke highly of the Vietnamese community's contributions to the development of the state and expressed wish to boost multi-faceted cooperation between California State and Vietnam .
He said he hoped that the Vietnamese community will serve as a bridge between Vietnam and California .
The participants had a chance to enjoy delicious Vietnamese dishes and special art performances by Vietnamese artists from home and abroad.
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On Tuesday, voters across DuPage, Cook and Will counties will be making some important decisions. Election Day brings about change, including the potential for new faces on local school boards and municipalities, as well as referenda related to property purchases and electric aggregation.
The following is a list of links to our coverage leading up to the election, broken down by town. Check back with mysuburbanlife.com on Tuesday night for race results after the polls close at 7 p.m.
Mayor race: Rich Veenstra, deputy mayor of Addison for the past eight years, is ready to take over for retiring Mayor Larry Hartwig. Veenstra is running unopposed for the top seat.
City Council race: In Berwyn, residents will largely see familiar names on the ballot. Mayor Robert Lovero is running uncontested, as are candidates for the City Council. The Berwyn Township race also is uncontested.
District 98 race: In Berwyn's School District 98 race, six candidates are running for four open seats on the board.
District 100 race: In Berwyn's School District 100 race, three incumbents and two challengers vie for three open seats on the board.
District 201 race: In Berwyn's School District 201 race, 11 candidates are running for four open seats on the board.
District 365U race: While longtime Bolingbrook Mayor Roger Claar is uncontested for his eighth term – which he said is likely his last – the race for four seats on the Valley View Board of Education will give Bolingbrook voters plenty of options with eight candidates, including three incumbents.
Village Board race: Residents in Brookfield will have a number of decisions to make, including picking among three candidates in the race for village president and six candidates who seek three open trustee seats.
Village president race: Longtime Burr Ridge residents Robert Sodikoff, Michael "Mickey" Straub and John Bittner will compete for the village's top seat on Tuesday. Sodikoff, currently acting village president, wants to fill vacancies in the Village Center while Bittner wants to run the village more like a business. Straub, meanwhile, says increasing transparency and communication with residents is key.
District 99 race: In Cicero's School District 99 Board of Education race, seven candidates are seeking four open seats.
City Council race: In Countryside, races for alderman in the 1st Ward and 2nd Ward are contested.
District 99 race: The race for three seats on the Community Unit School District 99 Board of Education found some late controversy in the weeks leading up to the election. After candidates Martin Gorski and Henry Jakobsze withdrew from the race, it was thought to be uncontested for four seats. However, the two withdrew from the race after ballots had been printed, giving voters the possibility to elect candidates unwilling to serve on the board.
Village Council race: The Downers Grove Village Council will see at least one new face, as incumbents Bob Barnett and Marilyn Schnell square off against challengers Greg Hosé, Don Jankowski, David Olsen and Sue Walaszek for three seats. One of the newcomers will fill the seat vacated by Commissioner Bill Waldack, who didn't seek re-election for a third term.
Mayor race: Three city aldermen are vying for the seat of mayor in Elmhurst on Tuesday. We profiled each: Diane Gutenkauf, Steve Morley and Mark Mulliner.
College of DuPage race: Incumbents David Carlin and Joseph Wozniak seek re-election against challengers Edward Agustin, Frank Flores Jr., Katherine Hamilton and Mike Lanners for two open seats on the College of DuPage Board of Trustees. The challengers have raised issues such as being more transparent and accountable to the public.
District 87 race: Incumbents Robert Friend, Richard Heim and F. Thomas Voltaggio face challengers Jennifer Jendras, Anthony Schullo and Judith Weinstock for four seats on the Glenbard Township High School District 87 Board of Education. The incumbents have touted the district's financial success while the challengers have said the district needs new voices on the board.
District 86 race: Two slates have divided sides in the race for Hinsdale Township High School District 86 school board, but all candidates are looking to push past recent controversy. Eight candidates are vying for four open seats, including Dennis Brennan, Victor Casini, Ed Corcoran, Kay Gallo, DeeDee Gorgol, Roger Kempa, Claudia Manley and Roseanne Rosenthal.
District 181 race: Five candidates will compete for three spots on the District 181 school board on Tuesday. Looking to move the elementary district forward through the new Advanced Learning Plan are Richard Fitzgerald, Sarah Lewensohn, Jill Vorobiev, Gary Clarin and Mridu Garg.
Village Board race: Candidates running for La Grange trustee positions debated the issues during a forum moderated by the Citizen's Council of La Grange. In La Grange, six candidates are running for three open positions on the Village Board, divided into two slates.
Village president race: Former La Grange Trustee Tom Livingston, who is running unopposed for village president, says he's prepared to hit the ground running after election day.
Village president race: In the race for village president, challenger James J. Miller seeks the seat currently held by James L. Discipio.
Village president race: Three candidates seek the position of village president in Lombard after the death of longtime Village President Bill Mueller. Keith Giagnorio, Moon Khan and John Novak recently answered questions that focused on the current business climate and plans for Lombard's future during the Lombard Area Chamber of Commerce and Industry's monthly luncheon on March 20.
Mayor race: Lyons Mayor Christopher Getty speaks with residents and supporters at the annual State of the Village event to list his administration's accomplishments over the last four years. A response is provided by Trustee Patti Wisneski, who is running against Getty for the seat.
Sports Core referenda: Oak Brook village trustee candidates recently took part in a round table discussion to give opinions and field audience questions in regards to building a new school in Oak Brook on the Sports Core property. Butler District 53 school officials said there were several options the school board looked at before arriving at its decision to ask voters for a new school, but cost and available property were not adding up.
Electric aggregation referendum: Villa Park will get a second chance to approve electric aggregation and the possibility for lower electricity rates. Many surrounding towns, including Elmhurst, Lombard and Addison, have already approved electricity aggregation, but in Villa Park, the referendum failed in the spring 2012 election.
Village president race: The race for village president in Villa Park became heated last month when it was revealed that candidate John Heidelmeier, formerly the town's police chief, had a partially nude photo of himself posted on an Internet sex site. Heidelmeier will face off against Trustee Deborah Bullwinkel on Tuesday.
Village Board race: While Ron Gunter is unopposed for Westmont's next village president, three new trustees will be elected to the Westmont Village Board after Lee Fleming, Pat Klebenow and Ellen Emery chose not to seek re-election. Voters will select from six newcomers – James Addington, Bruce Barker, Harold Barry III, Bob Plowman, Justin Scheid and Michael Uhlir.
District 200 race: Incumbents Joann Coghill, Barbara Intihar and Ken Knickers are facing challengers Bruce Fogerty, James Mathieson, Harold Lonks, Kyle Nenninger, Brad Paulsen and Janet Shaw for four open seats on the Community Unit School District 200 Board of Education. One of the major issues is whether the district should issue more than $17 million in bonds to construct a new Jefferson Early Childhood Center.
Jefferson Early Childhood Center referendum: Officials with Community Unit School District 200 would like to build a new facility to house the Jefferson Early Childhood Center. They have said the current building is no longer sufficient to serve the needs of the center's special-needs students. The referendum will ask if voters should approve a bond issue in the amount ot $17.6 million.
Mayor race: For the first time in more than 30 years, a new mayor will be named in Woodridge. Greg Abbott, Gina Cunningham-Picek, Mike Krucek and Ferenc Vandor are vying to replace Bill Murphy — one of the longest serving mayors in the Chicago area — who plans to retire. He has held the seat since 1981.


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More Than 10 Million IT Professionals Can Be Found in Entelo's Candidate Database
Company's Extensive Database and Cutting-Edge Search Engine Help Employers Recruit the Best IT Talent Worldwide
By: Marketwired .
Dec. 5, 2012 12:15 PM
SAN FRANCISCO, CA -- (Marketwire) -- 12/05/12 -- Entelo today announced that its extensive database of active and passive job seekers now includes more than 10 million IT professionals from all over the world. By providing access to such a large number of qualified candidates in one place, and offering technology that allows recruiters to pinpoint their searches to the most qualified candidates, Entelo greatly enhances the way employers identify and hire talent.
There are estimated to be about 15 million IT professionals in the world, and more than two-thirds of them are now included in Entelo's database. Rather than having to sort through this large talent pool themselves, Entelo's powerful filtering technology enables recruiters to narrow down the field to candidates who best meet their hiring needs through proprietary skill ranking, Boolean queries and unique search filters. Additionally, with its patent-pending algorithm that measures 70 variables indicative of career change, the company can identify those candidates most likely to consider a new opportunity.
"Today's recruiters face a number of difficulties in finding talent, from identifying top candidates before the competition does, to ensuring their candidates are a good fit for the job and the company culture," said Entelo co-founder Jon Bischke. "Entelo helps overcome these difficulties by giving access to millions of qualified IT candidates, while providing the tools to focus their search on those who can bring the most value to their organizations."
Overall, the Entelo database includes candidates from 154 different countries and territories, with the highest concentration of candidates found in the U.S., Canada, Australia and Europe. The company also reports that the most common skills found in its database are JavaScript, Java, Ruby on Rails, C# and Objective-C, and that the fastest-growing skill is CoffeeScript.
Following its success in connecting recruiters with the best IT professionals available, Entelo has recently started expanding into other verticals. Employers in the fields of mechanical engineering, academia and design, among others, will now benefit from Entelo's easy-to-use and collaborative social tools that will help them find the best talent for their organizations.
"We believe that we have the largest database of technical candidates in the world," said Bischke. "As we continue to add more candidates from a range of industries, we look forward to providing a greater number of employers with the tools and data that will enhance their recruiting processes and help them make better informed hiring decisions."
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I have read many, many craft books. I usually order new ones from the library when they come out and most of the time I am disappointed by how repetitive they are. They always seem to include the same ideas and I've even seen the same photos!
So, it was with a HUGE amount of excitement that I came across Garden Crafts for Childrenby Dawn Issac.
The ideas in this book are original and exciting, the photos are excellent and the instructions are clear and easy to follow. The book contains 35 different projects and the chapters include simple crafts, growing projects and container gardening. I love that the crafts are all garden themed so that children can be encouraged to enjoy the outdoors and develop a love of nature. I can honestly say that this is the best craft book that I've come across. If you enjoy creating things with your children then you should definitely have this on your book shelf!
We've been trying out many of the projects in this book. I loved the idea of growing seeds in clear containers so that you can see how the root system develops. The instructions for this are really clear and we loved how it turned out! I did have a bit of a problem with condensation when I took the photo but hopefully you get the general idea!
Another idea that I really loved was planting up the children's wellies! We always seem to have a few pairs that no longer fit and sometimes they are just too cute not to keep! The children loved being able to fill their wellies with soil!
Other projects that we have tried include the Dinosaur Garden and the Cress Cards. Next on our list is the gorgeous 'Cress Caterpillar' made from empty egg cartons. I think this book is going to keep us busy for a long time! You can purchase Garden Crafts for Childrenon Amazon for £10.49.


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Have a customer with a 25 ton water cooled chiller that wants the high and low pressure switches tested on his refrigeration equipment. The switches are the encapsulated type. I need to confirm the switches work, not just remove wires from the switch. Customer does'nt want me running the discharge pressure up and having the suction pressure drop artificially to trip the switches. Has anyone removed all the refrigerant or added tubing or small valves to isolate the switches to make this test with nitrogen?
I need to do the test every year.


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Influential union chief Miller dies at age 95
Led organization of players as they gained rights to arbitration, free agency and more
By Marty Noble /11/27/12 10:51 AM ET
One of baseball's foremost difference-makers, one who didn't pitch, hit or field, has passed on. Marvin Miller, who helped bring balance to the financial playing field of Major League Baseball as the executive director of the players union, died Tuesday. Miller, who was ill with cancer, was 95.
Taking over the reins of the Major League Baseball Players Association in 1966, Miller served as the MLBPA head for 17 years and remained closely associated with the union until his death. The success of the baseball players association fueled collective bargaining advances by unions in the other major team sports.
"Marvin Miller was a highly accomplished executive and a very influential figure in baseball history," Commissioner Bud Selig said. "He made a distinct impact on this sport, which is reflected in the state of the game today, and surely the Major League players of the last half-century have greatly benefited from his contributions. On behalf of Major League Baseball and the 30 clubs, I extend my deepest condolences to Marvin's family, friends and colleagues."
Through his efforts and those of union attorney Richard Moss -- they were a different set of M&M boys -- baseball players gained and retained the freedom to sell their services in a virtually unrestricted market. Donald Fehr, the second of Miller's three successors, and zealous counsel Gene Orza moved the union forward. Beginning in the fall of 1976, the open market and the willingness of clubs to bid for precious, specialized talent increased the earning power of shortstops and sluggers, Cy Young Award winners and utility infielders well beyond levels unfathomed by players of earlier generations.
"All players -- past, present and future -- owe a debt of gratitude to Marvin, and his influence transcends baseball," MLBPA executive director Michael Weiner said. "Marvin, without question, is largely responsible for ushering in the modern era of sports, which has resulted in tremendous benefits to players, owners and fans of all sports."
The sea change began with the men who saw a need for players' independence and sought out Miller, a native of the Bronx who grew up in Brooklyn -- he was a Dodgers fan -- and worked first as an economist for the National War Labor Relations Board and later for the International Association of Machinists, the United Automobile Workers, and most notably, the United Steelworkers of America before moving to baseball. His appointment as executive director was the result of strong support from two future Hall of Fame pitchers, Jim Bunning and the late Robin Roberts.
The changes that occurred because of Miller's wisdom, foresight and strategies prompted Red Barber, the candid, astute and esteemed baseball announcer, to group Miller with Babe Ruth and Jackie Robinson as one of the three most influential people in the game's history. A number of people in and around the game supported that assessment, some begrudgingly.
"Marvin was the most extraordinary man I ever met," said broadcaster Tim McCarver, a Major Leaguer from 1959-80. "You know, the players knew nothing before Marvin took over. The minimum salary had been the same for 22 years. Riding trains was considered first-class travel, and West Coast teams were involved by then. That the standard player's contract was unchanged for so long is mind-boggling. We knew so little that he had to teach us before we could move on anything. And he taught us and we did move on."
Though the introduction of free agency is the most widely recognized component of Miller's legacy, the players' ability to have disputes settled by arbitration cleared the path to free agency. And salary arbitration allowed the wages of select players to reverberate throughout the workforce and do as much to increase player compensation as free agency. Miller considered arbitration the cornerstone of what he and his colleagues built.
Indeed, it was a 1975 ruling by an arbitrator that struck down the reserve clause that contractually bound a player to a team for life and led to the creation of modern-day free agency.
Free agency, though not initially favored by the clubs, nonetheless afforded them a new means of fortifying their rosters. The clubs' prolonged, annual pursuits of talent and eventual investments in players such as Reggie Jackson, Barry Bonds, Greg Maddux and Alex Rodriguez changed the sport into a year-round event, fueled increased public intrigue about the industry, and had profound impact on some pennant races; witness Jackson with the Yankees in 1977, Maddux and the Braves in the '90s and CC Sabathia and the Yankees in 2009.
"Marvin possessed a combination of integrity, intelligence, eloquence, courage and grace that is simply unmatched in my experience," said Fehr, executive director of the MLBPA from 1983-2009 who was general counsel from 1977-82. "Without question, Marvin had more positive influence on Major League Baseball than any other person in the last half of the 20th century. It was a rare privilege for me to be able to work for him and with him. All of us who knew him will miss him enormously."
Labor acrimony that existed from the 1970s through the '90s has been replaced by a more tranquil coexistence that both sides recognized as a means for bolstering the game's economy and stabilizing the industry. Baseball has gone without a work stoppage since the players' strike that cut short the 1994 season and delayed the 1995 schedule, the longest period of uninterrupted play since the inception of the MLBPA.
"I am saddened to hear of Marvin Miller's passing," Texas Rangers CEO and president Nolan Ryan, a Hall of Fame pitcher, said. "Marvin had a tremendous impact on the game and always had its best interests at heart. He helped create a true partnership between ownership and the players."
Educating his membership and then reflecting its views, Miller was at the forefront of the brief stoppages in 1972 and 1980 and the strike that interrupted the 1981 season for seven weeks (a work stoppage in 1976 was a lockout). His image as a villain grew primarily out of the '81 strike, as well as his fierce, unyielding nature.
Miller wasn't initially in favor of a strike in the late stages of Spring Training in 1972 and was surprised by the players' preference for such action. Similarly, he was moved by the players' action in 1981 because the issues then did not affect active players so much as those who would follow.
Miller's appearance -- some pointed to his pencil-thin mustache and characterized his "look" as sinister -- added to the image. His skill at the bargaining table and in the public forums that followed the almost daily collective bargaining sessions in '81 kept his coast-to coast membership well-informed and steadfast and swayed public opinion in some cases. The union's solidarity gratified him.
After he was replaced by Ken Moffitt and then Fehr in the early '80s, he remained quite aware of union activities and often was consulted by his former colleagues and quoted by the media at times of collective bargaining distress. Miller didn't always agree with the directions in which the union moved, particularly in recent years when drug testing became a hot-button issue. Fully aware of the pressure applied by Congress, Miller scolded the union for its less rigid stance.
Although he is not enshrined in the Baseball Hall of Fame, Miller achieved a profile higher than most of the men he represented, improving their general working conditions as well as their financial well-being.
Commissioner Bud Selig: "Marvin Miller belongs in the Hall of Fame, if the criteria is what impact you had on the sport, whatever way one wants to value that impact. Yes, Marvin Miller should be in the Hall."
Tom Seaver: "Marvin's exclusion from the Hall of Fame is a national disgrace."
Bob Costas: "He's a transformative figure of the game. ... There is no non-player more deserving of the Hall of Fame."
Jim Bouton: "Instead of pointing to the sky, today's players should be pointing to Marvin Miller."
Tom Glavine: "He had more influence on what became of players, generally, than anyone. He took up the fight for players so they weren't just pieces of meat that were discarded at someone else's whim. And he carried on after he retired. That's when I got to know him a little. Very intelligent. To say he knew his stuff is an understatement. I'd thought the Hall of Fame was a no-brainer with Marvin."
Bill James, a writer, historian and statistician who is currently a senior advisor on baseball operations for the Red Sox, suggested that Ruth, Robinson, Miller and Branch Rickey would constitute baseball's Mount Rushmore.
Even Raymond Grebey, the clubs' lead negotiator during the strike in 1981, publicly endorsed Miller's Hall of Fame candidacy, a startling development given their adversarial roles and the stated, mutual mistrust that evolved between them.
But even when the electorate for Hall of Fame induction included only former players already enshrined, Miller fell short. More recently, with other committees responsible for the vote -- former club and industry executives were included -- he didn't receive the required support, prompting him and others to believe that some of the voters were on a mission to rebuff his candidacy. The resolve of some voters evidently was stronger than the reserve clause Miller's initiatives had eliminated in 1975.
Four years ago, Miller wrote a letter requesting that he no longer be considered.
"I'm kind of amused by it," he wrote. "I asked not be included on any ballots and gave them notice in writing. And they got their backs up and said, 'Nobody can tell us what to do.' It was a reasonable request in light of the circumstances. Why would they keep putting me on a list and, at the same time, rigging the election so I can't be elected?"
Those who knew Miller well said election once appealed to him. As a genuine fan of the game, he fully grasped the significance of the recognition. But in time, possible election lost its appeal.
"That this man still isn't recognized as one of the great leaders and still is looked upon with scorn by some people in the game is one the great injustices in my lifetime," McCarver said.
Miller's legacy is recognized elsewhere. The union named its Man of the Year Award after its first leader. And a grass-roots demonstration of the players' sense of Miller's contributions and accomplishments exists, one that Miller found quite gratifying -- a website named ThanksMarvin.com, launched by former players.
A portion of the preface on the site reads: "As the director of the Major League Baseball Players Association, Marvin led us from a history of no rights to parity with the owners. Most of us were very respectful of our opportunity to play a sport for a living, and certainly didn't want to offend our employers. But Marvin pointed out how grossly unjust the situation was. With grace and dignity, he slowly but surely led us into a position of equality."
Said Weiner: "It was an honor and a privilege to have known Marvin. The industry has never witnessed a more honorable man, and his passion for helping others and his principled resolve serve as the foundation of the MLBPA to this day. On behalf of all Major Leaguers and MLBPA staff, I extend my heartfelt sympathies to Marvin's daughter, Susan, son, Peter, their families and Marvin's many friends and admirers. Marvin was a champion among champions, and his legacy will live on forever."


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As he looked across from his hospital bed to see 23 year-old Michael McEwen lying in a coma, Greg Griffin started questioning what was happening in Sydney.
Himself allegedly a victim of a "coward's punch" that has left him with the possibility of brain damage, Mr Griffin is struggling to come to terms with the level of anger and violence.
"We live in a country where anything is possible," he said. "There is a way to get a job, there is a way to get help, there is a way to get through life without having to be like that. There's no excuse for all this violence."
Mr Griffin finally returned to his Darlinghurst home on Tuesday after three weeks in St Vincent's Hospital. He is awaiting treatment at Ryde Hospital to see if he has lasting brain damage from a single punch to the head on December 19.
The 38-year-old hairdressing salon owner had ducked into Hungry Jacks on Oxford Street, Darlinghurst about 10pm, on his way home from a 12-hour shift, when he was verbally abused by a stranger, police allege.
As Mr Griffin was walking out of the fast food store, Patrick Gardner, 27, allegedly punched him once in the side of the head, causing him to collapse on the pavement unconscious.
He spent most of his time in hospital in the same room as Mr McEwen, who was king-hit in Bondi five days earlier and was in a coma for a week.
"After looking at Michael and seeing how much more he was suffering, it disturbed me thinking about why people have to drink so much and why they're so angry," Mr Griffin said. "How could someone be so angry that they want to knock me out for five days? That's the question that still bugs me. There are so many positive places in the city to get help night or day, why are people still acting like this?"
His Christmas holiday plans were ruined but Mr Griffin has been in high spirits, thanks to constant visits by colleagues from John Azzi salon in Manly and the realisation things could be worse.
He has constant throbbing pain and numbness in his head and is still disoriented and unsettled.
He has no memory of the assault, the lead-up or the next week he spent in intensive care.
"I'm just a victim of someone else's problems," he said. "But there's enough negative things in life and I'm trying not to focus on another one."
Rachel Olding is a Reporter for The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age based in the United States.
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In-Memory Computing
Like analytics, in-memory computing is expected to become much more sophisticated over the next two years, Gartner predicts.
Vendors will start coming forward with new in-memory solutions that, for example, will be able to concurrently run transactional or analytical applications against the same dataset, leading to "unexplored possibilities for business transformation."
Gartner notes that in-memory computing, thus far, has allowed for the execution of hours-long batch processes to be "squeezed into" just minutes or seconds, arming businesses with real-time or near-real time services. Soon, these processes will become even faster and more advanced.


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David Pietz Prosecutors Point to Failed Lie-Detector Test
(NEW YORK) -- Prosecutors in the nearly four-week trial of David Pietz are pointing to a lie-detector test he failed at the time of the alleged murder of his wife, as well as the second one he declined to take six years later when he was arrested in connection to the slaying.
Pietz, 34, is accused of killing his wife, 32-year-old Nicole Pietz, who vanished from her home in 2006 and was found strangled in a wooded area. Detectives with the King County Sheriff's Office Major Crimes Unit arrested Pietz in March 2012 and charged him with second-degree murder.
The trial began Sept. 12.
That Pietz refused to take a second polygraph test won't be heard by the jury. But defense attorneys are now worried about testimony from a co-worker of Pietz, who said Pietz claimed that he called detectives every year to check in on the hunt for his wife's killer. Police deny the claim, saying they did not hear from him yearly.
Pietz has maintained his innocence, and his attorneys will begin arguing their side of the case later this week.
Monday was among the most difficult days in court for Nicole Pietz' family, when pictures of her battered body were shown to the jury.
Prosecutors tried to prove the injuries to her body show that she wasn't just strangled by a stranger on the street, as has been suggested by a witness, but by someone lying on top of her, as they believe her husband David was.
"That scenario could be consistent with the type of bruising that we're seeing," Medical Examiner Dr. Brian Mazrian told the court.
Prosecutors say David Pietz had been telling co-workers that he thought something must have happened to Nicole, who had previously battled addiction problems, while she was on the prowl for drugs. Nicole's co-worker Ashley Sauter said she agreed with that explanation.
"She was supposed to be going to an AA meeting, but that is what probably happened, a drug deal gone bad," Sauter told the court.
Toxicology results show Nicole had only small amounts of prescription drugs in her body and no signs of recent abuse, according to testimony.
Copyright 2013 ABC News Radio


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Commodore 64 turns 30 218
It's more probably because there are now eight thousand layers of software between you and the machine.
If you want to programme games there are. If you want to write machine code, just about every appliance has a computer in them, and they're all hardware limited. Depressingly, the best place to look for hardware limited code to write now commercially is with dishwashers and ovens and other simple appliances.
^^^ Amen.
Amount of time it took a 6th grader to figure out that POKE 53281,0 turns the screen black: about 5 minutes.
Amount of time it took me as an adult ~20 years later, with ~7 years of postgraduate professional development experience, to figure out how to create a JFrame, open a JPanel on it, and fill it with black: about 3 hours, and that was with a few years of Java experience already under my belt. I shudder to think what would be involved trying to do it in C++ under Windows with MFC.
30 years ago, the essence of programming a Commodore 64 could be boiled down into a book with 500 pages, and made comfortably accessible with the addition of 2 or 3 more good books. Now, the fucking EULA pdf ALONE rambles on for close to 80, and a fairly complete set of books documenting nothing but J2SE 7 (with comprehensive treatment of Swing) would fill a bookcase, and a comprehensive set of books with everything you need to know about Windows to do anything from write miniport drivers to create
Plus, expectations of artistry were much lower. You could write a program that created an 8x8 smiley face in 2 colors. You weren't expected to master DirectX or OpenGL and learn about 47 different shadowing modes, or read a book the size of War & Peace on T&L theory. You didn't even have to be much of an artist. It helped if you were, but when you're dealing with the world one 8x8 custom character at a time, artistic finesse really didn't add much to the equation.
Ditto, for music. You could get a piece of sheet music, and your main programming task was figuring out how to efficiently represent frequency+duration with a finite number of DATA statements. Today, you practically need to have the background knowledge of a professional recording engineer. Even in the Amiga era, the hardest part about dealing with SoundTracker was the fact that it crashed like a third-world discount airline. Learning to use SoundTracker itself took maybe an hour, and learning how to play it back with assembly was almost a no-brainer.
I really feel sorry for kids learning to program for the first time today. Our videogames might have sucked compared to Half Life (or even Angry Birds), but at least we had computers that a single mortal could grasp, understand, and individually do cool & worthwhile things with after just a few days of practice and experimentation.
>Amount of time it took a 6th grader to figure out that POKE 53281,0 turns the screen black: about 5 minutes.
This only affects the center of screen. You need POKE 53280,0 for the frames.
I still remembered that after 25 years.
I really feel sorry for kids learning to program for the first time today. Our videogames might have sucked compared to Half Life (or even Angry Birds), but at least we had computers that a single mortal could grasp, understand, and individually do cool & worthwhile things with after just a few days of practice and experimentation.
You know, I don't think we need to feel sorry for them, they probably feel sorry for us, the way we used to feel sorry for our senior colleagues for having had to cut punch cards when they were our age.
We have an intern, about the age I was when I was learning to turn a screen black by writing a number to a memory address, or trying to eliminate a clock cycle from a line drawing routine. That was fun stuff, don't take me wrong, but it wasn't useful, and only cool and impressive to a very tiny subset of the human population. This intern is making a mobile app that interfaces with our server application via web services, paid work immediately useful to our customers. God knows what a 20 yr old geek will be doing when he's in his late 30s, probably not fucking web services, heh.
I shudder to think what would be involved trying to do it in C++ under Windows with MFC.
That's 'cos you chose the wrong colour.
On Windows, blue is the new black.
If you want to create games of the same sort of complexity now, then you don't use DirectX or OpenGL, you use Flash. Or possibly HTML 5 canvas and JavaScript. And drawing with these is even easier: you can actually draw your sprites in a drawing tool and then you only need to write code for animating them. The underlying system handles compositing, so all that you need to do to move a sprite is set its coordinates. With HTML5, making a smiley face bounce across the screen is about a dozen lines of HTML
It has nothing to do with "peak" age of anything. It's all about having tons of time free, and very few interests that are focused such that you'll spend 12 hours a day doing something that you'd not have the time or patience to do nowadays.
It has nothing to do with "peak" age of anything. It's all about having tons of time free, and very few interests that are focused such that you'll spend 12 hours a day doing something that you'd not have the time or patience to do nowadays.
12 Hours a day doing something interesting. Wow, those were good days. Now I'm exceptionally lucky if I get 12 minutes to spend on the same task without interuption.
And to prove my point the phone rang while I was writting the above sentence.
>>>You're probably middle-aged now, you're lucky if you're able to remember what you had for breakfast.
Turkey and potatoes.
With peas.
Yesterday was leftover pizza. The day before was popcorn (needed to eat at my desk because of a pressing deadline). The day before that was nothing, because I slept through breakfast.
I had nothing for breakfast. I had to get to work early to talk to electrical contractors.
Come to think of it I only have breakfast at weekends or when I can't sleep.
Seriously, this shouldn't be moderated Funny. It should be moderated Insightful.
I'm sure I'm supposed to tell you something about my lawn now, too!
It's the name on a modern computer, not a modern version of the C64.
Are you keeping up with the Commodore? Because the Commodore is keeping up with you!
or sometimes LOAD "$",8,1
iirc LOAD "$", 8 would work better for you. Just
http://www.c64-wiki.com/index.php/LOAD [c64-wiki.com] probably has more information than you care for.
The added
LOAD "*",8,1 meant to load the first thing on the disk (or reload the most recently loaded thing)
LOAD "$",8 meant to load a directory list from the disk. From there you could decide what you wanted to load. As you mention, if you added the
Ah, this is reminding me of the smell of the C64. Who knows what toxins I was inhaling.
What's weird is when I was between the ages of 4 and 5 it took me next to no time to memorize the command to play the games. I entered it hundreds of times without fail. But, man, put me in front of a command line these days and big question marks appear over my head even after I've used the command thousands of times over my lifetime.
I miss having my five year old sponge brain.
You really wanted to LOAD "0:*",8,1, though, because if you left off the "0:" you'd trigger a bug in the 1541 ROMs that would eventually cause you to corrupt a program if you used save-and-replace. (The 0: indicated drive 0 of a dual drive; IIRC those were only produced for earlier PET/CBM computers with an IEEE-488 bus, and not for Commodores - though we did eventually see Lt. Kernal hard drives with partitions 0-9.)
No, no, you don't have to enter 0: when you're just loading a program. I never used the 0: designator. What's the easiet way to avoid the save-with-replace bug? Don't use it! Ever. Save the file first under a different name and then erase the original. (I can't believe I remember that.) (I also can't believe I remember learning it in RUN magazine.)
10 For x=1 to 30
20 Print "Hello World"
30 Next x
Best Slashdot thread ever. Period.
Holy Crap. It took me about 15 seconds to recall what those memory addresses pointed to.
That is somewhat startling to realize what information is still burned into the back of my mind.
Well played sir.
$FFD2 is burned into my brain forever. Someday, I'm going to be old, senile, and drooling on myself... but deep down inside, I'll still remember that loading a PETSCII value into the accumulator & calling $FFD2 will print it to the screen.
Oh boy I'm rusty at this but I'll give it a go. The fond memories I have of writing stuff for the C64. I remember writing an application as a kid called Organizer where you could create user-defined lists of stuff and save it to disk. I found out much later that I had created a primitive database. Fun times!
That'll make things realllllly colorful
Don't forget sound, turn the SID chip up! 19 POKE 54296, 15
>>>I remember writing an application as a kid called Organizer where you could create user-defined lists of stuff and save it to disk.
(yawn). Bill Gates is that you? I created a video demo!
- Steve Jobs
No you didn't. *I* created the video and you just took the credit for it!
--- Jay Miner
Yeah but I got all the money. Muahahahahaha.
----- Ray Kassar (of Yar's Revenge)
"it did not become the market leader until the late 1980s."
According to ars technica's article on computer sales, the C64 was the #1 seller almost immediately (1983, 84, 85, 86). In the late 80s the IBM PC and clones became the #1 seller. I don't know..... maybe things were different in the UK.
I recall the same trend in Australia.
From 1982 to 1984 seems to be C64 glory years and likewise for the Apple IIe.
Seemed like from late 1984/early 1985 (around the time of MS-DOS 3 and CPUs jumping from 4.77MHz to 8 MHz) the clones started to take over
Certainly by 1987-88, the C64 may as well have been an Atari 2600 as the attitude of the time went.
According to my faltering memory, I stood in line at K-Mart ( USA ) to buy mine when I was 22 years old. If my subraction is still solid that would be 1983. And it was a long line. Pre order.
There should be something about lawns here!
And did I mention my faltering spelling? Sorry!
Something about lawns here! Something. What was that?
I believe I asked you to remove yourself from my lawn so I could fly my model airplane. (Hey kid want a mohawk? Vroooooom.)
As I recall, the move that secured the C64's place in market history was the price drop. It originally sold for $595, but in 1984 a combination price drop (to $299) and a $100 trade-in rebate for your videogame console meant you could buy it for $200 at Toys-R-Us. That was the magic number.
Yeah in the UK the C64 was up against the sinclair spectrum (which was probably more popular at least at the time most of my mates had these) - as well as the Amstrad machines and BBC micro machines - so it had some tough competition.
I had the C64 - in fact I still have mine - sat behind me right now in pieces - as it needs a keyboard repair - (need to get a replacement h key from somewhere).
I recently picked up my C64 from my mothers attic - even today I think it could well be the best way to get my son in
Things were very different in the UK. It was competing against the BBC Model B (later the Master) at the high end and against the Sinclair Spectrum and ZX81 (which completely owned the market prior to the C64's launch), the Amstrad CPC (a bit later), and possibly an Acorn Atom or Electron at the low end. Schools all bought BBCs because there was government funding that paid 50% of the cost of any computer that met a fairly strict set of requirements (e.g. a dialect of BASIC with full support for structur
You know I once tried to figure out what it might take to emulate a 80x24 VT100 on an unexpanded VIC-20. Couldn't be done.
Yeah I learned at the tender young age of 5 how to program first on a vic-20. My old man thought it would be a learning experience if I could write my own stuff, or copy stuff out of compute, and then play around with it.
80x24 even on a C64 was painful; the best one I saw was VIPTerm from SoftLaw, but there's only so much you can do with a 4x8 pixel grid.
Atari 800 was the # 1 selling computer of 1980, 81, 82. So you have reason to brag. (Sadly Atari sales fell-off after the C64 arrived at only half the price.)
The Commodore-64 Came Out 30 Years Ago
Yup, with that Rainbow Logo [computercloset.org] the Commodore-64 was Out And Proud from day one.
Fun fact, as there was no gap between the stripes to help keep the colors from overlapping, it made the logo difficult and costly to print. Apple's president, Mike Scott, called it "the most expensive bloody logo ever designed".
It's especially funny, as the stripes were only there to keep the logo from looking "like a cherry tomato", according to the designer.
I don't know that they were the first computer company with a rainbow logo. The colorful fruit was designed late in 1976, though I can't find any ap
Okay, let's chat about the fun games of the day.
I'll open with Rags to Riches, Ultimate Wizard, and a Pacman clone PacLips.
My work computer right now is named "Archon", as is my cell phone. =P It's one of the names I rotate through machines. I loved that game.
DRIVE-IN. Where the goal is to feel-up your date's sweater puppies w/o getting slapped. And ultimately: Reach 4th base. I think I got my sex education from that game..... of course porn on the C64 sucked. It was much much better after I upgraded to the near-photo-realistic Amiga.
Other games: Silent Service (love subs), Red Storm Rising (low subs and World war 3), Pirates, Elite, and of course arcade classics like Pitfall/Missile Command though most of them were not on my C64 but the old Atari console.
Raid on Bungeling Bay... ahh what fun!
How many of the secret cities did you ever find in Seven Cities of Gold?
I could only ever locate one of them, even though I took the time to walk every single square in South America...
Jumpman, Pogo Joe, Toy Bizarre, Impossible Mission, Telengard, Suspended.
and of course, the app that made the C64 usable in the first place: Epyx FastLoad.
Oh, and my Alien Group Voicebox. Somewhere... SOMEWHERE at my parents' house, it's in a box. Must. Find. It. And the floppy that animated the funky alien face singing cheesy songs that I could never (at the time) figure out how to program myself.
Actually, I really do have to find my Alien Group voicebox. I blew my childhood's life savings on that thing, a
I think my favourite was Sid Meier's Pirates!, played that game all night on several occasions.
Someone else in this thread mentioned Archon. That was one original creative board game. I also liked the sequel Archon 2: Adept, though it lost a bit of the simplicity that made the original brilliant.
Jumpman I felt was overrated, but I really liked a similar platformer called Ultimate Wizard, which included a level editor and some neat tricks.
... My next door neighbor had a C64. I used to go over to his house and play so many games on it. It was SO fun during our childhood days. It was awesome to use my old Atari 2600 on it for two players games! It was way better than my Apple
The c64 silicon really is amazing compared to contemporary systems. While the overall system arch is a bit of a hack, the silicon could only have come from a unique environment like Commodore.
I had made a deal with my dad that if I scored well in my middle school exam he'd buy me a C64, I studied really hard and did better than he expected, I was so happy when he went to the store but when he came back he had a Sharp MZ-700 instead (apparently the salesperson told him that was a much better computer, cough cough)
As much as I had fond memories of learning how to program on the MZ-700 and trying to get the built-in plotter to plot 3d math functions, still I remember the afternoons spent at my frie
>>>if I scored well in my middle school exam he'd buy me a C64..... but when he came back he had a Sharp MZ-700 instead
So basically your dad broke a verbal contract!
You should sue the dummy.
Whats so special about the age of 30? 21 I can understand (its the drinking age and age of maturity in some countries) 25 I can understand (silver anniversary) but whats so special about thirty?
Will there be another article in a years time : C=64 turns 31
BTW I didn't buy a C=64 until 1983 - 1982 was "the year I didn't buy a computer' I was content to expand my Apple ][
Will there be another article in a years time : C=64 turns 31
Hopefully. It'll be introduced as the 30th anniversary of the price dropping from $595 to $195, but yeah, it'll happen, because that's how old people roll (most of us not in our wheelchairs yet, though).
Some day, you'll be old. We'll be dead but you'll be old and it will be hilarious,
It eliminated central heating from your electric bill in the winter, so it evened out...
thanks for posting that, it is interesting..
I love old video about computers, even that "Manetti's get a MAC" one, which isn't bad either in a "Wonder years meets Apple commercial sort of way"
The most amazing thing to me is that coders are still trying to push the video chip to new heights. It is now possible to display all 16 colors any way you want in 320 x 200, and with enough external memory you can play back video...
Comment there says:
Actually most of the work is done by the RAM expansion unit which comes with it's own DMA controller used to copy the video framesï much faster than the 6510 CPU ever could do.
So, yeah, it's being played through a C=64, but not by the C=64.
Nondeterminism means never having to say you are wrong.


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trade him to arizona for a 5th if it isnt to high, hes better then the crap they have and theres some weapons there
Would it be worth trying to trade Sanchez for any QB at all, even one that wouldn't have a realistic chance of doing much for us? I don't think any other team would take his existing contract, but maybe if Sanchez had a chance to go to another team he might be willing to restructure. Otherwise he has to know that his career will be over after sitting on the bench here for a year and a half before getting cut. Would he give up some guaranteed money to get one last shot at being an NFL QB?
trade him to arizona for a 5th if it isnt to high, hes better then the crap they have and theres some weapons there
No player ever gives away money. It just doesn't happen.
The Jets have to either stick with him through next year or take that huge cap hit next year. No other solution.
Of course, that will never happen and we'll be stuck with Mark for another year but it's nice to dream....
Sanchez is not trade-able. Why?
1. He sucks
2. He has an awful contract.
He is not a "change of scenery" player either.
Im sure many franchises are looking at the tape and saying, "Wow! We have to get Mark Sanchez!"
Don't think it can happen......all the really good H.S QB's have already committed.


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Doc says around 100 beats/min. - over that, stop.
Wudda thot being sporty since 6, 'bout 40 years' budo (judo, karate, kung fu, iai, kendo), 4 full marathons (granted, not fast), a 20-year lacto-ovo vegetarian diet (granted, peanut butter & cheese every day but also tofu, soy beans), no smoking etc., 'never expected what happened late Nov. last year when I went to my Tokyo dojo. An overseas, non-Japanese visitor was coming and was suggested I may lend a hand (translating or whatever).
7AM Kendo keiko, not in bogu: did one proper kirikaishi set + 6~7 men-uchis - BUT after a 7 mth layoff due to work & lingering ACL probs. Surprised to be unusually out-of-breath as had been bicycling daily and fast dog-walking twice/day=45 min. total of brisk exercise, walking everywhere else totaling about 60 min., and karate (cross-training) weekly.
11AM got results of annual med checkup - all "A's" Including EKG, but "C" for cholesterol & weight. That very-experienced Dr. just said "watch both," that's all. Rode my bicycle home and had lunch, got walked by the dogs. Had the afternoon off but by
9PM, couldn't keep awake; after 2AM, pain started FROM Wrists, going up to elbows.
4AM, walked myself to the nearby hosp., ambulanced me to another.
5:30-7:30AM stent operation (happily hooked up to morphine mix, it seems, with a view of a huge clock). Only thing that Doc ever said was "hearto attacku". Go figure.
Thanks for input, guys.
P.S. Goal is 6-dan test, possibly 1st try in Nov. (Tokyo). Ha Ha and LOL
There is very little chance of you keeping it under 100 bpm. That is a very low rate for any cardio exercise. To put it into perspective, that would be considered the very bottom of the range for aerobic exercise for a typical 65 year old. If your doc wants it under 100 he is advising quite a lot of caution. I would listen to him and also seek a second opinion.
I generally concur with Neil. Everyone's basal heart rate and amount of increase is different based on age, genetics and level of fitness, but 100 bpm is quite low, based on what I know of my heart rate during kendo. I am 36, and generally during gigeiko my heart rate is at a fairly constant 170-180 bpm if I'm feeling comfortable, if I'm pressed (particularly by a kodansha, or during kakarigeiko), it has been up to 195 or so. During waza keiko, even with instruction, at 5 wazas per turn and brief commentary after each rotation, it cycles through a peak of 145-150 to valleys about 100-110. Generally for me, the only thing that is around 100 bpm is kata, which is the equivalent of a brisk walk around my neighborhood.
Other thing to think about is that putting on the bogu tends to elevate your heart rate already by about 5-10 bpm (at least for me).
This has been relatively consistent over almost all of my practices for a year or so, to the point where I can generally look at a graph of my heart rate during kendo and tell you what we were doing during that practice, and when....
Thank you for those serious comments. The doctor who did the operation and oversaw my progress after that in the hospital where he's in charge, had said I can do Kendo a month after discharge (Jan. 1~). The "around 100" Doc is the second opinion. Though likely controlled by the meds, my resting rate is around 65 bpm (checked at that Doc's after walking 15 min, sitting in a train for 5, then 5 more min' on foot to his clinic). Guess had better change my avatar to snails and start praying? TS
To be honest I would get a heart rate monitor and go ahead and measure different kinds of activities with it so you can get a better idea of what "100" bpm actually feels like for you across a range of different activities. As well, it would be good to find out of the "100 bpm" mark is time limited (i.e. a month of recovery? or forever?). Also, probably with an abundance of caution I'd find out what your normal standing heart rate is (your heart rate while standing, not sitting or lying down) and then find out what your standing heart rate is with your bogu on.
Also, I've personally been trying to develop my anaerobic stamina and increase my intensity during kendo practices, so I am deliberately trying to push myself during practice. Intentionally not trying to push myself does yield lower BPMs, but for my own training goals that hasn't been part of the picture so far, so I don't know how "low" you can go during a kendo practice.
I should add, and not as a direct critique of your prior exercise plan, that I also do quite a bit of walking now as part of my fitness program, and at least in terms of heart rate, a brisk walk doesn't even come close to elevating my heart rate as a "normal" kendo practice does. When I first looked at my heart rate in kendo compared to things like walking, working out in the gym, and stationary bicycling, it was somewhat shocking. The kendo practice hadn't felt particularly "hard" but what the objective measurements were telling me was that consistently I was in the upper edges of "anaerobic" and what my measuring program calls "red-line" for 10-15 minutes at a time during regular gigeiko sessions (fight 3-4 people of similar grade for 10 minutes, each for 2-3 minutes, with rotations but no breaks, giving it a good effort and not being lazy). I was concerned if this was "normal" or not so I read one or two published scientific sources that I could find and they essentially reported that during gigeiko heart rate goes very high. Granted, you're not supposed to really make an informed decision on one or two scientific sources, but I figured that I hadn't died over the years that I have done kendo, and that I'd just keep measuring.
Over the past year that I've been measuring myself, gigeiko, kakarigeiko, hayasuburi (choyaku suburi), and kirikaeshi consistently elevate my heart rate to anaerobic levels. Footwork exercises (ashi-sabaki) alone doesn't seem to do so as much. I have some suspicion that in addition to the actual activity, fight or flight responses start occurring during kakarigeiko and gigeiko, but I'm not sure if there is an easy way to measure that with my smart phone.
It has made me cautious about more elderly beginners with per-exisiting health conditions starting kendo, it is a very intense activity compared to other things....
Enkorat, thanks for the continued input. Today I bought and tried the heart monitor, which has 2 parts, one inside above the ribs and against the skin, the monitor about heart area. The watch part has an alarm that goes off when you reach the limit you enter (high and low hb) for yourself. I tried a few kote, two going past the imagined opponent after striking; others were men strikes using hidari jodan but not going past aite. My pulse rose from about 73 to 78~79 bpm.
I also, btw, ordered small-lens glasses that will fit inside the "men." (There's anti-fog stuff here, too, as mentioned in above post.)
But at the bogu shop, the fellow commented that the impact of tai-atari or getting munet-tsukied would break the heart monitor, besides possibly same with the watch part with a kote strike. Nevertheless, we investigated switching to lighter-weight bogu, since it was mentioned the extra weight can increase heartrate.
I see there are several challenges but still want to try: perhaps do high-Sensei or old-man Kendo, meaning no patterns to
develop speed and stamina, just gi-keiko and trying to control mind and spirit=breathing. If it were not for the fact that a well-known 8-Dan Sensei, who is aware of my illness, has agreed to take me on as one of his students, I might leave it all and do soft stuff like Kyudo, Tai Chi and ink-drawing painting.
I met him 18 years ago and hadn't the courage or is it foolishness to ask him to teach me, though seeing him several times since I moved here in '95 like at my Tokyo dojo or at shinsa; and exchanging New Year's cards. It is because of him and also that the older guys who first taught me have passed on, the remaining one having terminal cancer, that I want to keep trying.
You can't just do a couple of kote and evaluate it from that. Your heart rate foes not respond that quickly. Furthermore the longer you exercise the higher it will go for the same effort. If I go fir an easy run I observe a 20+ bpm difference between the start and the end at the exact same running pace. As far as wearing the strap under bogu I have done it and it is fine. If you are going to taiatari hard enough to break it I guarantee you will be practising too hard for your HR goals. I simply buckled the watch part on the tare himo at the back as I was only interested in checking the data post-keiko.
Gendzwill Sensei, on second thought, after reading your comments, maybe the bogu shop man keikos with many younger or lower dans, having them slam into him as part of their training. Tare himo sounds good but up-front to easily look at...maybe between the o- and ko-tare flaps?, if on the wrist would likely break. This morning 'will give the monitor and me a longer check, using uchikomi-dai.


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