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Our Photographers
We were tired of the same-old in the wedding business and decided to launched Unexpected Photography to prove that high-quality, professional wedding photography can and should be affordable. As a group we have shot, edited and delivered more than 500 weddings... and we have no plans to stop there.
Find out what's so Unexpected by viewing our photographers' pages by clicking below.
Joe has been a photographer in the New England area for the better part of a decade. In addition to his role at Unexpected Photography as photographer and editor, he runs a successful portrait studio in Farmington, CT.
Tania has been a Connecticut wedding photographer for 10 years. She is known for her clean, and bright style. She is very active with the 501c3 corporation Big Fluffy Dog Rescue here in Conneticut.
Corey developed her style as a wedding photographer working with her husband Eric for nearly 150 weddings. She is not only a photographer at Unexpected Photography, but is also an editor and office manager.


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The launch of the Accounting Research Center (ARC) is a milestone in the 40 year history of the EAA. Today's academic knowledge creation and diffusion have become highly networked processes, where digital interaction has become increasingly important. Young scholars are now accustomed to living in and interacting with both the physical and digital worlds.
In addition to the annual meeting, talent workshop and the doctoral events (PhD forum and colloquium), the ARC expands the EAA's services to the accounting research community by providing a 24/7 digital research platform with resources, blogs, discussion fora, an events calendar and a PhD review service. We are convinced that the ARC will stimulate research productivity, expand the accounting research community, enhance the exchange of ideas and improve high quality collaboration. We hope you enjoy it.
The ARC Team

subset: commoncrawl


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As the old edict goes, "you can tell a lot about a person by their shoes," but we think you can tell even more about the person who makes them. We spent an afternoon with Aurora James, founder of the footwear line Brother Vellies, and covered a lot of ground, from sustainability to starting her own company to clothes as a second language.
The title "CEO" might not conjure images of a cheerful Brooklynite who takes work calls from a hammock in her backyard, has a closet full of handmade flats and thinks everything is cuter in miniature form (like her Yorkie, Cupid), but that's Aurora James for you: refreshingly unexpected and committed to just doing her thing. For the past three years, her thing has been Brother Vellies, a popular line of footwear handmade by the African artisans who inspire the designs. We stopped by Aurora's place in Bed-Stuy to talk about the merits of sustainability and how to dress when your work takes you around the world.
Aurora's appreciation for global style began right at home. In fact, it can be traced to one tiny room: her mother's closet. "As an architect, my mother traveled all over the world and brought back the most beautiful handmade clothes," says Aurora. Scouring her mom's racks, she ended up wearing everything from Dutch linen tops and Guatemalan blouses to African shoes. "The fabrics and details were clues about the places they came from, and I'd daydream about the lives of the women who made them." Twenty years later, those daydreams launched Brother Vellies, with one of her mother's wearable souvenirs—the traditional Namibian desert boot—at the heart of it.
Since her first interpretation of the desert boot, the line has grown to include backless mules and ankle-wrap sandals. "I started the company to create and sustain jobs that would support local production within Africa," says Aurora. She travels internationally three months out of the year, often to the countries where the styles originate, to meet with the artisans who handmake her designs. It was Kenya that inspired the Tyre sandal, which has recycled car tires for soles and straps covered in printed calf hair, a byproduct she sources to support local farmers. "When you buy a pair of Brother Vellies, you're giving someone a chance to work," she says. "There is so much value in traditional well-made clothes. They stay with you forever."
That hand-touched quality also runs through her nomadic wardrobe, along with a focus on comfort. At home, that means she's in oversized sweaters or silk button-downs and jeans. When she's traveling for work, she lives in neutral colors and conservative shapes, like linen bell-bottoms or midlength cotton dresses that allow her to move around comfortably. There is one common thread, though, no matter where she is: cropped hemlines, which aren't solely meant to show off the handmade details of her shoes but to get people talking about where they came from and how they're made.
You don't need to join her on a global sojourn to catch those infectious good-natured vibes or to give back. Wearing shoes that honor and empower faraway communities is a good place to start. As the sign outside her downtown New York store reads, "We're all in this together."
Shop our entire assortment of Brother Vellies here.
Photography by Thomas Neal.


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Photo: Illustration: Ellis Hamburger
Apple's invasion of television may not be the revolution everyone dreams of, but that doesn't mean it's not going to introduce some revolutionary new features.Jessica Vascellero and Sam Schechner at the Wall Street Journal have new details on Apple's vision for the television market.
Sadly for many people, Apple's still going to work with cable companies, which means consumers won't be free of $100+ cable bills. But for those $100+ bills, Apple is going to make the user experience entirely more delightful if it can get the cable companies, as well as content companies, on board with its plan.
Here's what Apple is pitching, according to Vascellero and Schechner:
- Apple wants to make what amounts to a souped-up version of Apple TV that can function as a cable set-top box.
- You would be able to start any show at any time using a DVR that stores TV shows on the Internet.
- The TV interface would look like an iPhone or iPad, with icons that users navigate. (Perhaps it looks like the current Apple TV interface with a few more icons?)
- The new interface is supposed to be better and easier to use than the current cable box interfaces. (A pretty low hurdle to clear.)
- There would be a way for people to share on Twitter or Facebook what they're watching on TV.
- Users would be able to get the entire season of a show on demand, as opposed to a few episodes the way cable companies offer now.
Photo: Hulu
It all sounds like a much better TV experience, but people shouldn't get their hopes up just yet. Apple not only has to get cable companies on board with the plan, but the content providers, as well.The cable companies only have rights to do so much with the content they broadcast. Apple would have to convince companies like Viacom, the NFL, MLB, Time Warner and others to sign up.
These companies are not dummies. They're not going to just walk into a negotiation with Apple and say, "Sure guys, take whatever you like." They are going to ask for some money. And that money will then be passed on to users.
So, the questions that remain are how much are they looking for, how much is Apple willing to pay, and how much will it cost users?
Until those questions are answer, the talk of Apple building a better way for people to watch TV is just talk.
But, boy, is it exciting talk.
Don't Miss: Everything Important Apple And Steve Jobs Ever Said About The TV Market
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Solar Hydronic heating
Much of Australia's climate is well suited to solar energy. It is one advantage of the often hotter weather.
Solar water heating is not new. Past generations have used it for hot showers and other household applications. But the hot summer weather that produced the solar energy was not the weather that required heating. Heating was only required in the colder months.
More modern technology has made solar power useful in winter and overcast weather. Tube based solar panels have replaced flat plate panels. These tube bases systems have a surface area that maximises absorption of solar radiation and vacuum insulation that minimizes heat loss. This means far more energy can be collected during cooler weather months.
Heat pump Hydronic
Solar Hydronic heating requires an intricate system of pipes and other apparatus. It is obviously no benefit if the hot water stays on the roof. A mixture of gravity and at least one pump is used to bring water down from the roof and circulate it under the floor.
Hydronic Buffer Tank
Hydronic buffer tanks are used in closed loop water heating systems, and often in other underfloor water heating systems. This buffer tank improves system efficiency, particularly when operating at anything less than full capacity; is also prevents short cycling of the boiler, which is where the boiler keeps rapidly turning on and off in order to keep the water temperature at the specified level. The buffer tank allows the boiler to heat the water adequately and then automatically switch off when no longer needed.
Hydronic Separator
Hydronic separators are open vessels with a water inflow and outflow. They create an area of no velocity and no pressure drop. A Hydronic separator are used to separate the boiler from the water piping system, and to section off different subsections of this water piping system. This means that the system or subsystems can have their own, often smaller, pump mechanism that is appropriate for the area being heated.
Using a hydronic separator mean we are not forced to work to the flow rate specification of the boiler. We can use the boiler for heating the water and use the pumps (after the hydronic separator) to set a suitable water flow rate.


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New Delhi : Using a fresh face as a brand ambassador gives the audience a new perspective and enables to widen the brand's reach. The government's selection of Amitabh Bachchan as its Tourism brand ambassador (the Incredible India campaign) personifies its unwillingness to take on a fresh face as its ambassador. Although there is no doubt of Mr. Bachchan's influencing persona, the government may have unknowingly pigeon-holed itself to a safe zone in terms of reaching out to a newer audience.
An ambassador embodies the true spirit of the brand, and is often selected for his or her unique personality with which the brand resonates. For instance, Tata Motors recently tied up with Argentinian star footballer Lionel Messi, an awe-inspiring man driven by self-belief and loved by football fans the world over, especially the youth. Similarly, Micromax signed on Hugh Jackman in 2013 in order to position itself as an international brand. These brand endorsers have helped their brands to expand their footprint across the globe in various international markets.
About TRA (formerly Trust Research Advisory):
TRA, a Comniscient Group company, is an actionable insights and brand intelligence company dedicated to understanding and analyzing stakeholder behaviour through two globally acclaimed, proprietary matrices of Brand Trust and Brand Attractiveness. TRA was conceived in 2008 to decipher, analyze and measure Brand Trust, to make it universally understood and easily applied. TRA conducts primary research with consumers and other stakeholders to assist business decisions and give brands insights on solutions to consumer behaviour. TRA provides Competitive Intelligence Reports mined from its 11 million data-points on brand intangibles of 20,000 brands, and also undertakes custom-made studies for brands. TRA is the publisher of The Brand Trust Report, India's Most Attractive Brands & India's Most Trusted Educational Institutes.


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Trucks, cars, highways, landscape, good writing. "You cannot travel on the path, before you have become the Path itself."
- autoliterate
- Brooklin, Maine, United States
- We own a 1975 GMC Sierra Grande 15 in Maine and a 1986 Chevrolet Custom Deluxe 10 in West Texas. Also a pair of 1997 Volvo 850 wagons. Average age in the fleet is 28 years--we're recycling. I've published 3 novels: THE LAW OF DREAMS (2006), THE O'BRIENS (2012), and CARRY ME (2016). Also 2 short story collections: NIGHT DRIVING(1987) and TRAVELLING LIGHT (2013). More of my literary life is at www.peterbehrens.org I was a Fellow at the Netherlands Institute for Advanced Study for 2012-13. I'm an adjunct professor at Colorado College and in the MFA program at Queens University of Charlotte. In 2015-16 I was a Fellow at Harvard University's Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study. The Autoliterate office is in Car Talk Plaza in Harvard Square, 2 floors above Dewey Cheatem & Howe. SUBSCRIBE TO THE AUTOLITERATE DAILY EMAIL by hitting the button to the right.
Saturday, June 10, 2017
International Harvester L-120. Medicine Hat, Alberta.
Alex Emond: "I was driving into Medicine Hat when I saw this pickup truck rolling along on the service road beside me. I got off the TCH and followed this guy like I was some kind of private eye until I had a few chances to take some pictures. It's a tight little ship - hard to see anything wrong with it. Nicest truck I've seen in quite a while. "-AE
Posted by autoliterate at 6:30 AM
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Marianne Ophardt
Garden Tips: Don't want worms in your cherries? Know when to spray your fruit trees.
It is the time of year that owners of apple, cherry and pear trees should be getting ready to apply regular cover sprays of insecticide to control insects that cause wormy fruit.
Fruit tree owners should make sure they have adequate quantities of the necessary insecticide products on-hand. Also, their sprayers should be checked to make sure they are calibrated and working correctly.
Right now it looks like the first sprays for controlling codling moth and cherry fruit flies will need to be applied sometime around Mother's Day, according to the WSU Decision Aid System (DAS).
The system uses weather data and models to predict insect emergence based on accumulated "heat units" as the weather warms in the spring.
It is a good tool, but it is hard to predict exactly when the first sprays should be applied because of the capriciousness of spring weather.
Our local Benton and Franklin Horticultural Pest and Disease Boards monitor the emergence of these insects using traps and advise home gardeners and fruit growers when it is time to spray.
Why is timing so important?
If sprays are applied too late, the pests enter and eat inside the fruit where they are protected from sprays. If applied too early, the spray will dissipate and be ineffective when the insects attack.
So if you have an apple, pear, or cherry tree, be ready to spray your trees within the next few weeks.
For more information on the control of these pests and what insecticide materials can be used for their control, contact the local WSU Extension office or go to: http://treefruit.wsu.edu/backyard-fruit-trees/
Growing in galvanized containers
Galvanized containers of all sorts are showing up for use in home decorating and gardening.
I remember a time many years ago when my brother attended a camp where a clean galvanized trash can was used for mixing a powdered fruit-flavored drink mix. A few hours later most of the campers were very sick.
Zinc poisoning was the result of a reaction between the drink mix and the galvanized metal's zinc coating. Thankfully, all the campers recovered.
Galvanized containers should never be used for preparing, cooking, storing, or serving food. Also, fumes released when heating galvanized metal are harmful.
So, is it safe to grow fruit or vegetables in galvanized containers? Will zinc leach into the soil?
The answer isn't clear from the available research.
Zinc from the galvanized metal will probably leach into the soil over time as it gradually corrodes, but most experts seem to feel that the amount leached doesn't pose a risk to humans eating produce grown in the containers.
At least one study indicated that as much as 90 per cent of zinc in soil is unavailable for absorption by plant roots.
At this time, it appears that most experts do not think it is a health threat.
However, if gardeners are concerned, they can use galvanized containers for growing ornamental plants or line the inside with plastic if they use them for growing food crops.
Experts say old, rusty galvanized containers are more likely to leach zinc into the soil than newer ones.
An don't forget, if you use galvanized containers for growing plants, be sure there are drainage holes in the bottom. If not, make some.
Marianne C. Ophardt is a retired horticulturist for Washington State University Benton County Extension.


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Richard Duckworth | Transportation Director | Charlotte County Public Schools
The two major factors, aside from competitive pricing, that brings Charlotte County Public Schools back to Blue Bird year after year are the outstanding customer service, from time of purchase throughout the life of the bus, and the positive reviews of the bus drivers. Of the three major bus manufacturers, our experience with Blue Bird has been the standard by which we measure the other two. The level of commitment and desire to ensure the best possible service has made Blue Bird, in this county, the best and only choice for bus purchases.
Charles Aquino | Supervisor of Fleet Services | Seminole County Public Schools
Rick McBride | Director of Transportation | Pinellas County Schools
Cheryl Pitts | Fleet Services Manager Lake Wales Charter Schools
Subject: Is Florida Transportation & Blue Bird doing a good job for you?
Hi Ross....Yes, you are very accessible. As is Doug, and Allan for that matter. I can always reach someone if I have a question or problem regardless of time or day. Occasionally, mobile service is challenge but I know how busy everyone is. I appreciate how Allan takes the time to explain repairs to me, Lucy (warranty) who always makes me laugh, Tom (parts) who makes sure he has my parts order right and Doug (service) who never makes me feel like I am 'a pain' although I probably am. Ross will always take the time to address any of our concerns and provide training when I ask. I appreciate the relationships I have developed with each of them. I am looking forward to our system purchasing propane buses in the future from FTS as we continue to grow and move forward while providing excellent transportation service to our students!
JOHN L. CROPLAND | Garage Foreman Vehicle Maintenance
Rick McBride | Director, Transportation Pinellas County Schools
The relationship between FTS and Pinellas is good. FTS and Ross are always responsive to our needs, requests and any concerns or questions we may have. The Bluebird bus has proven to be a very reliable bus and one that we have few problems. I feel that FTS has placed strong value in the relationship that has been established with us and will continue to do so.


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For the 150th anniversary of the first ascent of the Matterhorn, mountaineer and alpinist, Hervé Barmasse, decided to show his appreciation, dedication and passion for this iconic peak with a short film that illustrates that which makes the mountain so unique and his own relationship to it.
Matterhorn Obsession
As probably the man who knows the Matterhorn best, having made the most first ascents on it, he once said: "Like a fairy tale, the mountain belonged to me even before my birth." His father, Marco Barmasse, was leaving for a first winter ascent of the west face of the Matterhorn, when his mother was giving birth to him. Since then, the Matterhorn became Barmasse's playground. Not even his father's attempts to steer him away from dangers and risks posed by the mountains, could keep him off it.
Read our interview with Hervé, where he goes further into his thoughts about this iconic mountain and shares epic photos from one of his latest expeditions to the summit. The Interview.
July 2015


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Please contact the temple office or call 410-358-0105 with questions.
Is usually located between the
symbols on your check.
Typically comes before the
symbols. Its exact location and number of digits varies from bank to bank.
Temple Oheb Shalom is a nonprofit 501(c)(3) organization in Maryland, Federal Tax ID 520643033.
Please contact Temple Oheb Shalom if you have any questions or comments about the PAYQUIQ service or about payments or your statement.


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On a lighthouse off the northern California coast, a young woman discovers her husband's true nature—and her own—in Schwarz's latest thoughtful exploration of family ties (So Long at the Fair, 2008, etc.).
Trudy is no longer sure she wants the conventional future her parents have mapped out for her in Milwaukee circa 1897. What's the point of the education she's receiving at the Milwaukee College for Females if all she's going to do with it is make a perfect bourgeois home for Ernst, the family friend earmarked as her husband since childhood? When his cousin Oskar comes to visit, Trudy finds that this intellectual, iconoclastic dropout expresses her own restlessness and impatience. The next thing she knows, she's married and en route with Oskar to a post as assistant lighthouse keeper that he expects will give him time for his electrical experiments. Their only company at the isolated lighthouse is the head keeper, Mr. Crawley, his wife and four children, and Mrs. Crawley's brother Archie. These bluff, terse folks are not the sort Trudy is used to, though she does become fond of the children after she's enlisted to give them lessons, especially youngest daughter Jane. But Trudy soon realizes that Oskar's ambitions are unfocused and aimless, plus he proves to be arrogant and selfish as well. When his attention is drawn to a mysterious native woman the Crawleys call Helen, who lives in a nearby cave, Oskar sees her as his ticket to an academic career and ruthlessly plans to carry off Helen to a university. The fatal climax makes good use of the lighthouse's rugged natural setting, which is well-described throughout, as is Trudy's gradual maturation from a rebellious girl fooled by fancy words to a resourceful woman who thinks independently and can see value in people unlike herself.
Strong characters and plotting—including a nifty final twist involving Jane—maintain the interest in a rather slowly paced narrative.


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Anti-inflammatory drugs are the substance that suppresses or inhibits inflammatory responses of an allergic, bacterial, traumatic and anaphylactic origin or in other words can be described as agents that control or reduce inflammation. . An anti-inflammatory drug includes corticosteroids. Anti-inflammatory drugs are sometimes combined with anti-biotic drugs. Anti-inflammatory drug journals deals with the drugs that are used to reduce inflammation.
Related journals of Anti-inflammatory
Medicinal Chemistry, Anti-inflammatory effects, Anti-inflammatory Medicine, Neuroinflammation, Anti-Inflammatory Drugs.
All Published work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License
Copyright © 2019 All rights reserved. iMedPub LTD Last revised : September 17, 2019


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Your Custom Text Here
simply sweet cakery prides itself on making beautiful and delicious cakes for all occasions. weddings are no exception, which is why we offer an extensive menu of flavors to choose from, and work with you one on one to design your perfect cake.
simply sweet cakery is a boutique style bakery offering complimentary wedding cake tastings by appointment. we do a limited number of tastings each week, so we ask that you schedule your cake tasting as soon as possible to ensure your tasting is booked in plenty of time before your wedding date. we make fresh samples for you to enjoy at your tasting, so you will be asked to choose 5 flavors from our flavor menu ahead of time. you are welcome to bring pictures, color swatches, your invitation, or any other elements you may think will help us design your dream cake.
our cakes are iced with french butter cream and are priced at:
$6.00 per serving for round
$6.75 per serving for square or octagon
$1.00 more per serving for fondant
$75.00/hour for labor
delivery and set up starts at $65.00
*please note we only deliver in Orange County
simply sweet cakery takes pride in offering delicious cakes and beautiful designs to fit your special event perfectly. whether you know what you want, or need someone to design something for you, simply sweet cakery is the perfect choice. we take all factors of your event into consideration when designing your perfect cake, cupcakes, or dessert.
as a small boutique style bakery, we can only do a limited number of custom cakes per week. we ask that all custom cake orders be placed at least three weeks in advance so we have time to design and make your perfect cake. more time may be needed depending on the time of year.
custom cakes are priced based on size and design. we are not able to give quotes over the phone, so we ask that you please email us pictures, an invite, your guest count, and any other details you might have that can help us design your cake.
simply sweet cakery makes delicious cupcakes for any occasion. our cupcakes are perfect for any type of event. our full size cupcakes come with a filling and our mini cupcakes are perfect for dessert bars and kids!
all cupcake orders must be placed at least three weeks in advance. More time may be needed depending on the time of year.
full size filled cupcakes: $36.00 per dozen
mini cupcakes: $18.00 per dozen
please email us for a full cupcake menu
simply sweet cakery loves all things sweet, which is why we also make cookies, bars, confections, and many more delicious desserts. all of our desserts are made from scratch in small batches with the highest quality ingredients available. we only use butter, never margarine or shortening, so every bite tastes like mom used to make. you and your guests are sure to love our sweet treats!
please email us for a full dessert menu
simply sweet cakery thinks sweet treats are the best. desserts make great favors or take aways for any event. many of the things we make can be bagged, boxed, and bowed. contact us for ideas and suggestions for delicious sweet treats for your next event.
simply sweet cakery wants to make your planning process as easy as possible. one way we can do that is by offering traditional, vintage, and rustic pieces to display your cake or desserts. we have cake stands, cake pedestals, platters, and many other beautiful things you can rent directly from us. no need to use another rental company or ask grandma if you can use all of her cake plates. many of our items are on display in our tasting room so you can take a look and see what you like.
please note rentals are only available for our clients so we can provide them with a delicious dessert and a beautiful display.


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Welcome to William Angliss Institute on the start of your application journey, we look forward to meeting you. This page will guide you through to the correct application form and point of contact.
Australian (AQF) Full Qualifications
Student Pass Requirements
All our AQF courses are currently full time and International students wishing to study on any full time course in Singapore are required by the Singapore Immigration & Checkpoints Authority (ICA) to apply for and be granted a Student pass.
This pass will be applied for through William Angliss Institute and is directly linked to your AQF Qualification being studied with us. If you are already residing in Singapore and have a current visa/pass to live or work in Singapore you will still need to apply for a student pass as that is the ICA rule for all full time courses.
If you are currently not residing in Singapore, we have agents in your country who will work with you to asist you and provide all the information required in order for you to make an informed choice and prepare for your enrolment at William Angliss Intitute here in Singapore.
Application Form
For further assistance, please contact our enlisted agents in your country.
Attendance is required by the ICA to be 90% when studying on a student pass.
Application Form
Attendance required to be eligible to complete an AQF Qualification is a 75% minimum attendance.
As this AQF qualification is an International qualification and is not under the Singaporean WSQ framework there is no SSG funding available, but if you are either a Singaporean or a PR there may be options for funding part of this qualification.
Singapore (WSQ) Full Qualifications
International Student in Singapore on a valid pass or visa
As an International student currently on a valid visa or pass in Singapore you do not need to apply for a Student pass but please do check with us as certain passes do require both us and yourself to write to the ICA for a Letter of Consent. Your visa/pass must cover the entire period of the course duration.
Application Form
- Academic qualifications
- Resume
- 2 passport size photos
Attendance required to be eligible to complete a WSQ Qualification is a 75% minimum attendance.
Application Form
- Academic qualifications
- Resume
- 2 passport size photos
Attendance required to be eligible to complete a WSQ Qualification is a 75% minimum attendance.
We cover WSQ Qualification funding and other incentives in our funding section on this page for Singaporeans and PRs.
Funding for Singaporeans and PRs
The good news is that you can get up to 90% funding from SKILLSFutureSG (SSG). There are a range of initatives for both you as the student and for the employer. For more information, please log on to the SKILLSFutureSG website if you want to read more.
WSQ Qualifications are funded up to 90%
As a Continuing Education and Training (CET) centre, we have an agreement with SKILLSFutureSG (SSG) for a set funding percentage on our WSQ qualifications. We do not require to set up an individual training grant for most of the WSQ courses we run. This allows us to provide you with the maximum possible funding percentage from SSG.
The funding is as follows:
- WSQ Certificate and Advanced Certificate - 90% funding
- WSQ Diploma and Graduate Diploma - 70% funding
For further funding criteria, please contact our Student Services department.
Singapore Citizens - Get Paid to Get Qualified
The CET Qualification Award (CQA) is a cash incentive for Singaporean students. Upon successful completion of their first full WSQ Qualification, they will be eligible for the CET Qualification Award.
- WSQ Diploma $1000
- WSQ Advanced Certificate $ 200
- WSQ Certificate $ 200


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Your fifth and final clue is as follows:
download apps, games, videos, podcasts etc from here for free or for a fee.
Clue 5 is a two word answer.
Clue 4 is both two words or one, depending on how you want to write it.
The race is on! First three people to send me all 5 correct answers with proof of ID will each win a Nokia N97 smartphone. Please note that if you are entering via all blogs running this competition, you can only win once.
Send your answers to this address.
Good luck!


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The Scottish Federation of Organists
(Registered Scottish Charity Number SC023967)
welcomes you to our website where
you will find information about our
organisation which is a federation of
the following local societies:
Aberdeen & District Organists' Association
Borders Guild of Organists and Church Musicians
Edinburgh Society of Organists
Glasgow Society of Organists
Lanarkshire Society of Organists
Stirling and District Society of Organists
Tayside Organists' Society
Each local Society also maintains its own website; links are on the Local Societies page of this site.
Here you will also find the web information from the
The Scottish Churches Organist Training Scheme (SCOTS)
In addition, the SFO and all the local societies
are affiliated to the
Incorporated Association of Organists
This website does not use Third Party cookies. Although our Internet Service Provider records statistics including the number of visitors to pages within the site no personal data of any kind is retained. To view our Privacy Policy click


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(Light) face/it™ facial enhancer from FoM®.
(Light) face/it™ facial enhancer from FoM®.
Not makeup but much more than a moisturizer. We call it a facial enhancer!
And our Sex-Flex™ formulationmeans face/it™ is perfect for both girls wanting a fresh, clean style and guys who want an edge in looking their best.
- Evens skin tone and helps hide imperfections
- Auto-Adjusting Color goes on neutral, then blends to your natural skin tone
- Ultra-lightweight with replenishing moisture
- Absorbs excess oil
- Rich in natural anti-oxidants
- Contains natural mineral based sun screen
- Fragrance free
- Can also be used as a primer
Choose from LIGHT, MEDIUM, or DEEP.
Made in USA
We reject all forms of animal cruelty and testing.
Add to Cart


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Where Are You?
You have a choice of where you'd like to be. You can be out front, in the middle of the pack, or playing catch up.
Being out front is risky. You may not be right. Others may not follow. But you'll be first, be seen, and have a chance to make your mark.
The middle of the pack is safer. You'll be surrounded by others. You can see where folks are going and cast your lot with them, lessening your chances of being wrong.
Playing catch up means you won't be wrong because the concept is proven. But you may get exhausted, having to sprint and catch up with everyone else. And you'll never stand out by being original.
So - where do you find yourself? (Spoiler alert: there is no safe place.)


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Silent Ozu: Three Family Comedies Criterion Eclipse Series
Reviewed by Catherine Russell
The release of three of Ozu's silent films on English subtitled discs is a landmark moment in film history, even if it means that most of his thirty-four silents, along with those of most of his Japanese colleagues, remain unavailable. These three films offer a glimpse of Ozu's early career, and they also offer remarkable insight into the social milieu, the anxieties, and the challenges facing working- and middle-class families during a period of rapid modernization. All three titles in the Criterion Eclipse set placed highly in the annual Kinema Jumpo top-ten polls, indicating that they were very likely popular as well as critical successes in Japanese theaters. Tokyo Chorus placed third in 1931, while both I Was Born But... (1932) and Passing Fancy (1933) took top prizes in their production years, and were followed by another first prize in 1934 for A Story of Floating Weeds, which Criterion released on DVD a few years ago packaged together with Ozu's 1959 remake Floating Weeds.
Ozu continued to work in the silent medium well after the introduction of talkies in Japan in 1931, making him one of the last global silent directors. Inspired by American comic directors such as Charlie Chaplin and Harold Lloyd, his cutting style in this period is generally far more continuous and "invisible" than in the postwar films for which he tends to be better known. These films make it plain that he learned and mastered the "rules" of narrative cinema, even while he demonstrates a perpetual playfulness with all the conventions of space, time, framing, and montage. The fluidity of the silent films is quite unlike the pictorial rigour of the late films, and yet many keys to his auteurist signature are already readily apparent: the low camera angles, the inserts of objects and locations, the "piecemeal" style of constructing conversations, and the playful undermining of spatial expectations.
David Bordwell has of course meticulously detailed the formal and technical traits of these films.[1] He especially underlines the clever ways in which Ozu's silent films are frequently organized around gag structures that are developed into larger narrative patterns. Often these turn on repeated gestures, but they also turn on certain spaces and objects that gain layers of significance through repetition and return. Recurring thematic patterns also run through these films, which are organized around the family, the workplace and the suburban locations around Shochiku's Kamata studios where the films were shot. Behind the auteurist idiosyncrasies, these films were produced within a studio system that was consolidated precisely during the early 1930s.
In fact Ozu's silent film style was very central to the establishment of the genre system that underscored the Japanese industry through to the 1960s. It was at Kamata studio, under the supervision of producer Kido Shiro, that the basic contours of the shoshimin-eiga (a.k.a. shomin-geki) were laid out. Films about "ordinary people" or the emergent middle class were very central to the project of the construction of Japanese modernity. As this was also the target audience of the film industry, the success of the genre involved the translation of everyday life into the new "modern" medium of cinema, enabling Japanese audiences to visualize themselves as part of global modernity. In her new book on this period, Mitsuyo Wada-Marciano shows how Ozu and his colleagues in the industry during these crucial years developed a visual language for the representation of a new modern Japanese culture. Kamata studios became "the center of modern film production and the cultural hub of Japanese modernity itself."[2]
The three films in this collection are especially interesting for their depiction of fatherhood and the challenges faced by working men attempting to support their families in a depressed economy. The depression hit Japan along with competing discourses of nationalism and modernization, leaving a new class of white-collar workers somewhat stranded in their newly established nuclear families, quite removed from traditional familial support structures. These three films feature three very different male protagonists who are caught up within a vast network of social hierarchies and pecking-orders, economic crises, and family responsibilities. And yet, all three films could also be described as satirical comedies, as Ozu gently mocks the institutions in which his characters are so caught up.
In Tokyo Chorus, Shinji (Tokihiko Okada) is a father of three, working for an insurance company. On the day he and his wife expect a big bonus, he gets fired instead for trying to defend an elderly colleague who has been unjustly fired himself. Shinji's confrontation of the boss as a hilarious Chaplinesque scene and quite an unusual challenge of authority. The slapstick display of pushing and shoving is indicative of just how outrageous such insubordination would be in the Japanese workplace. Despite his college education, Shinji cannot find another job until he runs into his former teacher Omura (Tatsuo Saito) distributing flyers on the street. The teacher runs a small restaurant and convinces Shinji to swallow his pride and work with him promoting the restaurant with flyers and banners (like a "sandwichman" in Depression-era America). Shinji's wife, Sugako, is also persuaded to accept their new situation, and she helps to ladle out chicken curry. The plot resolves with a school reunion of Shinji's classmates all toasting their former teacher, and during the meal Omura receives a letter announcing a new job he has found for Shinji teaching English in Toshigi prefecture. Paternal authority is restored, as has the class status of the protagonist.
In I Was Born But... the father, Yoshi (Tatsuo Saito), far from confronting his boss, obsequiously sucks up to him. This is probably the most well known of Ozu's silents, and it is in many ways the most stylistically and thematically tight of the three in this set. Yoshi's two boys, new to the neighbourhood, play out their own scenarios of power and social maneuvering, but while they manage to supplant the local bully, they are ashamed at their father's subordination. The film's climactic scene, when the boys and the adults all watch home movies at the boss's house, is a fascinating moment of reflexive filmmaking, with its multiple levels of spectatorship and cinematic representation. I Was Born But... is a remarkable portrait of a salaryman who is made to feel inadequate by his own family. Order is restored in the end, as the boys come to understand the inevitability of social convention and they give their father "permission" to light the boss's cigarette. They retain their power over the boss's young son, however, with their fairy-tale rituals of "ninja" authority—signalling him to play dead on cue.
Passing Fancy features a single father played by Takeshi Sakamoto, who is not a salaried worker but a laborer in a brewery. Sakamoto's character Kihachi actually became a recurring figure in Ozu's cinema of the 1930s and is the prototype of Tora-san, Kiyoshi Atsumi's character in the long-running Tora-san film series that sustained Shochiku studio from 1969 to 1995. Takeshi's Kihachi, a widower with a young son, is a much more full-fledged comic character than the fathers in the other two films discussed here, although the narrative of Passing Fancy is less satirical. The film concerns the arrival of a homeless young woman into Kihachi's neighbourhood. He finds the woman, Harue, a home in a café run by his lady friend Otome (Choko Iida) and a kind of love triangle develops between Kihachi, Harue, and Kihachi's buddy Jiro—a younger man who also lives off Otome's cooking. Eventually, after a series of melodramatic misunderstandings, Harue and Jiro get together.
Passing Fancy is brought to life by the antics of Kihachi's son Tomio, played by Tomio Aoki, who also plays the younger son inI Was Born But... In the 1932 film, the two boys perform routines of doubleness and automatism, invoking the codes of the machine age into their very performance styles. In Passing Fancy, Tomio displays a similar repertoire of stylized poses and gestures, even while his character is one of studious responsibility. The child in this film also comes to realize that his father is not a great man, and accuses him of being an illiterate drunk. Father and son forgive each other, but the boy gorges himself on candy, almost dies, leaving his father with an impossible doctor's bill. His friends pitch in, and even forgive the debt; but Kihachi insists on travelling to Hokkaido to pay it off. The film ends with him spontaneously jumping ship to return to his son in Tokyo.
Tokyo Chorus features a similar incident of a child getting sick from sweets, followed by a huge bill for her father to pay. In that film, Shinji sells his wife's kimonos (without telling her), which are basically the signature of a class inheritance. The way that these films repeat such motifs is indicative of the way the generic formula of storytelling was implanted in the detail of everyday life. The so-called "middle class" was carved from a plethora of new and old social rituals. Children in these films are constantly coveting toys, and of course their parents can never provide enough and thus commodity capitalism is depicted as a kind eternally unfulfilled desire. Moreover, when Ozu enters the homes of the wealthy, decorated with Western furniture, his low-angle camera renders the furniture strangely monstrous. The overindulgence in sweets is symptomatic of the excesses of modern culture that are unevenly and unequally distributed; meanwhile the requisite hospital scenes underscore the science of modern medicine.
Ozu's silent films are versions of the Japanese home drama, although his female characters tend to be far less developed than the men. In both Tokyo Chorus andI Was Born But... the wives are passive, inexpressive women. Only Choko Iida's Otome, the café-owner in Passing Fancy, is a strong female character, and Iida continued to play supporting and lead roles in Ozu's films into the 1940s. The recurrence of actors in these films and through the entire Japanese industry links them into a larger über-text of mothers, fathers, widows, bosses, teachers, barkeepers, and bar patrons, and vast networks of family members that grew up on screen, playing different generations. Seven-year-old Takamine Hideko, who became a huge star in the 1950s, appears in her first screen role in Tokyo Chorus.
One of the recurring sights in these three films is the suburban landscape crossed by telephone poles. The families in both Tokyo Chorus andI Was Born But... live out in desolate new developments where the houses appear to be cramped yet widely scattered across the empty fields on the outskirts of Tokyo. The empty lots are the terrain where gangs of young boys roam and fathers trudge back and forth from train stations. Factory chimneys mark the horizon and commuter trains slice across the screen. Passing Fancy is set in a warren of back alleys, probably close to a suburban train station, and the children in that film also spill out into the empty telephone-pole-studded lots. This is in many ways an emblematic landscape of Japanese modernity, a landscape that seems to be waiting for something to happen. But all that happens in these films is that problems are overcome, forgotten or reconciled, and life goes on under sunny skies.
In Ozu's cinematic language, the homes and public spaces take on an aspect of familiarity through repetition, and through his pictorialist framing. Among the most distinctive features of his style in this period are lateral pans over people and objects. In the opening scene of Passing Fancy, the camera pans over an audience watching a show, fanning themselves in the heat. Later in the film, a scene opens with a pan over an array of household objects, which we learn Kihachi is hoping to pawn. Tokyo Chorus opens with rows of college students performing drills badly, and the clowning around is punctuated by a tracking shot over the line of men. Because Ozu rarely moves the camera, the occasional pans and tracking shots tend to stand out. Moving slowly over the empty desks in Shinji's office in a subsequent scene in Tokyo Chorus, the camera movement echoes the previous line of men; now they are lined up for their bonuses outside the boss's door.
The introduction to the insurance office in Tokyo Chorus moves over an array of objects—fans, typewriters, messy desks—and is then broken down into discrete close-ups of less businesslike objects: a soda with a straw, a pair of shoes on a desk. These collections of objects, featured in camera pans or in series of shots, exaggerate the everydayness of Ozu's cinema. They underline the way that the characters in these films are constructed through their mise-en-scène: the spaces and objects around them. In each film only one or two actors are more expressive than the décor. The others, including wives, children, and fellow workers, are little more than props. Ozu's world is by and large a friendly one, in which the detritus of material culture speaks plainly and openly. His father figures struggle within this world of things to sustain their sense of paternal authority, even while that authority is relentlessly given over to the systems of modernity that lie beyond their grasp.
The Criterion releases are all scored by Donald Sosin, and I Was Born But... features a particularly fun ragtime score that compliments the nansensu (nonsense) elements of Ozu's comedy. The print quality of Passing Fancy and I Was Born But... is fair, but Tokyo Chorus is somewhat damaged, although the patina of decay is not terribly obtrusive. Passing Fancy is the most burdened of the three films by a plethora of intertitles, almost as if it had been written as a talkie. Nevertheless, Ozu plays with these as well, often leaving the viewer in doubt as to who is speaking—starting with the opening stage performance. All three films open with lovely sequences of stylish flourishes which have tangential bearing on the subsequent stories. In these prologues—a moving truck in I Was Born But..., a naniwa-bushi variety show in Passing Fancy, and the phys-ed college scene in Tokyo Chorus—Ozu establishes a comic tone that is embedded in the idiosyncratic detail of everyday life. These prologues with minimal dialog are each also, in their own way, tributes to the language of silent film which Ozu undoubtedly recognized as a medium on the verge of disappearance.
- David Bordwell, Ozu and the Poetics of Cinema, (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1988).
- Mitsuyo Wada-Marciano, Nippon Modern: Japanese Cinema of the 1920s and 1930s (Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 2008), 5.
Copyright © 2008 by Cineaste Magazine
Cineaste, Vol. XXXIII, No. 4


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River Dart Country Park
This park is set in 90 acres, with lakes, parkland, woodland trails and a lovely waterside path along the River Dart. Other attractions in the park include the impressive Holne Park House with delightful grounds and the River Dart Adventures play area where children can clamber over space nets and swing through trees on jungle ropes! There is also an excellent cafe and restaurant for refreshments.
The park is located in the Dartmoor National Park, just north of Buckfastleigh and the adjacent Hembury Woods. Here you can enjoy some nice shady woodland trails and a climb to Hembury Castle Iron Age Hillfort. At the northern end of the woods you will also find River Dart Country Park where there's 90 acres, of lakes, parkland, woodland trails and a lovely waterside footpath along the River Dart.
Just to the south is Buckfast Abbey where there's a series of well laid paths through the lovely gardens surrounding the abbey.
The Dartmoor Way long distance trail also passes just to the west of the abbey. You can pick up the waymarked path in Buckfastleigh to explore the Dartmoor National Park. Following it west will take you to the pretty Venford Reservoir which has a nice trail around the water.


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Well, thanks to a conversation with @jcran and Scriptjunkie1 (among others), apparently March is now "Pass-the-Hash" awareness month. In that spirit, I'm going to present a guest blog post by Scriptjunkie1.
I'm in the final process of editing it and making sure it looks proper on the blog, so I'd expect it in the next day or so.


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by Mario Soustiel
Bicycles should be an integral part of our everyday lives, and I don't mean waking up, getting dressed-up, washed-up and ready and unlocking the bicycle from a remote area that you are not even sure you find it the next day! Bicycles should be in our homes. All our hero Designers and lead Architects of the 20th century have distanced the idea of cycling from our lives, promoting the car and its use. Car is the 'American Dream' and it needs unreasonably brave amounts of built area to accomodate. Cities have been deconstructed and reconstructed in the minds of our Architects and books have been published that explain this philosophy. I can admit that I have fallen into this mesmerising ideology because the city I come from has a huge traffic problem and non-existent car-parking space. Following the trend of a smooth vehicle circulation, great boulevards have literally sliced through great cities like Paris and have spread cities like Los Angeles so greatly that you can't conceive going to buy groceries without buckling your seat-belt. – Think of the 20th century evolution of the majority of the cities on the American Continent, followed by Australia and South Africa and now rapidly evolving China – We haven't changed a bit when functions of society are moving forward in the speed of light.
Bicycles are a part of our lives and they have been in fashion earlier than cars. 'Common Sense' is dictating that the bicycle is a transport vehicle and mayors around the globe are treating it as such. Bike-lanes, cycling rules, traffic lights and the worst, division of pedestrian/cyclist and cyclist/car-driver.
However, the bicycle is the tool that reunites these two worlds that were fiercely separated during the 50s – The mind of the car driver is a topic on its own right and I believe that anybody can understand what I mean (the hint is when the pedestrian actually shuts the driver's door and turns on the engine) – and I base this belief on bike-speed which is thankfully not life threatening and undoubtedly more convenient. Applying the same set of rules for our precious bicycles is like creating another world on our existing city fabric and the picture on the left proves that point quite elegantly (*). There are better solutions to this problem and there are timid attempts that should eventually be included in this world-wide scheme I am trying to initiate. Generally, I aspire to the full integration of public transport and cycling as a starter and for my main dish I would introduce a culture that has the bicycle as similar as brushing your teeth in the morning.
NOW that we are on the same page, having appreciated the full potential of our bicycles, I can push the conversation towards the main topic – Bicycles can be transformed into an artefact that can touch our hearts deeper than a mindless revving speed car.
excerpt from Bike Blog in the Guardian website
Making life easier for cyclists raises property prices, say estate agents
Would secure cycle parking sway your property rental or purchasing decisions?
…Where do you leave your bike overnight? I'm lucky enough these days to live somewhere with an adjoining lock-up garage, where my cycles spend their off-duty time, attached securely to a ground anchor set in the concrete floor.
But at earlier addresses the only bike storage has generally been corridors and stairways, whether my own or shared. In one flat I even stored two bikes in the kitchen, though to be fair it was an unusually spacious kitchen…
…the advice of the eponymous Stephen Ludlow would seem relevant to anyone thinking of letting a property in an urban area:
Cyclists are increasingly important if you intend to let or sell to the 20-35 year old post-university market. Cyclists prefer not to leave their bike chained up on the street.
When renting a flat in converted houses, cyclists often ask if they can leave their bicycle in the shared hallway. Most contracts explicitly prevent this because if often leads to damage and can upset the other tenants. By agreeing, a landlord might have the edge if a tenant is weighing up two options.
Landlords of ex-local authority and new build housing can often offer the best solution, as those properties frequently provide storage sheds which are perfect for bicycles. But landlords in other housing types can make their properties more attractive to cyclists by installing safe storage, such as a secure shed unit which will fit in even a small front garden. Landlords that are leaseholders – either in a converted house or in a more modern block – can be proactive and negotiate with other leaseholders and the freeholder to provide shared storage. There will often be a net benefit as the desirability of the property is improved.
What I mean is… waking up, getting dressed-up, washed-up and ready, picking up your bicycle from your living-room or kitchen or main hall, checking the essentials like tyre pressure, oiled cranks, steering potential and into the lift or in optimum conditions out the door – Imagine grabbing your bicycle from outside the building while you open the window to allow fresh air to ventilate your room – .
Undoubtedly, treating your bicycle as an exoteric component of your everyday life seems more appropriate and the culture is apparently evolving to this extend. House prices are going up because bikers need their bikes be kept into safety, roads are turned into bicycle highways and bicycles are being treated as private vehicles and public ones. ( CYCLE PARKING???)
Tell town planners where cycle parking is most needed
Convenient and secure cycle parking will encourage more people to commute on two wheels. Now you can help decide where it's needed
- Easy use – check –
- "bike switching" – check –
- Ecological Conscience – check –


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The proposed 11 storey expansion of St Vincent's Private Hospital will involve demolition and part-demolition of heritage buildings, as well as undermining existing heritage protections to excavate and build over properties of State significance on the Victorian Heritage Register. It will affect unique historical sites in Victoria Parade and Brunswick Street, Fitzroy.
Yarra Council determined to issue a Notice of Decision to Grant a Permit at its Internal Development Approvals Committee (IDAC) Meeting on 12 July 2017, subject to conditions. The permit applicant, St Vincent's Healthcare Limited, appealed the conditions.
Concerned residents supported the Council conditions and were parties to the VCAT proceedings to fight for protection of heritage sites that will be adversely affected by this proposed development.
These lengthy proceedings concluded on Friday, 20 April 2018. See update below.
What is at risk?
The birth site of St Mary of the Cross MacKillop is located in the grounds of 7 Brunswick Street Fitzroy. Mary McKillop, a prominent figure in Australian education, was canonised in 2010 and is Australia's first saint. This allotment is proposed to be built over.
Dodgshun House (formerly Edensor), 9 Brunswick Street, is of great historical and social significance. The house, with its fence and gatehouse, is one of the few large residences surviving in the area, and is on the Victorian Heritage Register. Parts of this property will have a totally inappropriate high-rise structure intruding into it.
The striking three storey edifice, Easthill House, 71-73 Victoria Parade, on the summit of the Eastern Hill, was the first block of flats to be built in Melbourne's first suburb, Fitzroy. Its 1930 Spanish Mission facade makes an important contribution to the heritage streetscape. Yarra Council is seeking the retention of the facade, including the shops at street level and at least the front rooms behind the façade at all levels.
The former Eastern Hill Hotel, 77 Victoria Parade, built in 1854 as the Belvidere Hotel, is a heritage building. A rare remaining Gold Rush era hotel, it was the headquarters of the Eight Hour Day Movement in 1856 where stone-masons and other building trades met to organise and then celebrate their successful campaign to gain this major landmark in Australia's history, the eight-hour working day. It is proposed to partly demolish this building.
Next to the former Eastern Hill Hotel, the premises at 5 Brunswick Street were built in 1859. The Victorian Aboriginal Child Care Agency (formerly Victorian Aboriginal Child Placement Agency) was established in 1976 at this location. It was the first Aboriginal child care agency in Australia. It is proposed to demolish the site.
VCAT found against the Council and the respondents. Its decision stated in part, "In summary, we find that reducing the hospital's floor space to the extent imposed by the council does not implement State planning policy for health services and is not required to protect local heritage assets.
"Separately, we find that many of the issues raised by the respondents are for Heritage Victoria to determine, rather than the Tribunal. This finding does not deny the quality of these submissions. It simply directs them to the proper forum." See news item
The VCAT decision is available online.
Two permit applications were made to Heritage Victoria to undertake development of the two heritage buildings and construction of the 11-storey St Vincent's Private Hospital building. These are the former Eastern Hill Hotel, 77 Victoria Parade (Permit No P27681) and Dodgshun House, 9 Brunswick Street, Fitzroy (Permit No P27682).
In April 2019 Heritage Victoria granted heritage permits for these two properties (see HV permit decisions and appeals)


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2015: Beach Clubs of Tulum
The Times They Are a-Changing
While lazily swinging in my hammock under a towering Tzalam tree at La Selva Mariposa, I contemplate why so many of our guests are at first drawn to the Riviera Maya to play in the turquoise waters and sink their toes into the silky white sand that borders the gleaming sea. After a few days in that paradise of sun and balmy breezes, they are ready to spend a few more days experiencing the mesmerizing Maya ruins only 20 km away, shop in the local thatched-roof shops along the Coba Road and then explore the three cenotes near the Coba ruins, before coming back to La Selva Mariposa to float in one of our three cenote-style pools, sip a frosty margarita in their hammock, or luxuriate in our new Jacuzzi on the roof top above the dining room with a sky full of twinkling stars overhead.
In the past, it seemed like a natural flow for a vacation in paradise to progress this way. In the last few years, we noticed a change in this pattern. More and more tourists want to stay in the jungle or Tulum pueblo for a longer visit, and alternate their days between the jungle, pueblo and the beach. They are eager to choose a different beach club along Tulums coast each day to investigate and sample the sun, sand, surf and cervezas. I decided that it was time to do some exploring myself to check out what was changing along the coast, so I made a plan to do just that the very next day.
If you want a rustic, no-frills spot, as in the early days of Tulum, this may be your choice for the day. Parking in the shade is plentiful after turning in off the beach road. The short drive down the entry road is a bit rough, so drive slowly. The man in charge will direct you to a parking spot under shaded palms and a friendly local with a printed guide book will greet you and lead you in the direction of the beach club. You will notice that bathrooms are located near the parking area. There is a very rustic restaurant offering the usual beach fare: fried fish, ceviche, fish tacos and even a hamburger, along with a variety of drinks, alcoholic and other choices. The plastic lounges without padding under umbrellas are just beyond. These are rented for the day for 75 pesos each, about $6. You can also book a snorkel tour out of this location. The best thing about this club is that it is adjacent to the Tulum ruins, so you can park here and walk over to tour the ruins when you are ready for a little culture.
The sign on the road leading to Zazil Kin, our next stop, is difficult to read as it is covered with photos. Drive to the end of the road and turn left and park under a palm tree if you want shade. This historical spot (once belonging to Don Armando) is composed of a mixture of stucco-covered wooden stick houses and communal bathrooms sparsely painted with bright Mexican colors topped with palapa roofs. Sandy paths meander through the cabañas and lead to a waterfront bar where a handful of low-slung chairs and lounges are shaded under umbrellas or palapas and a growing number of sheltering palms. There is currently a service charge of 50 pesos (less than $5) for a chair, and 100 pesos for a lounge for the day. There is no charge to just toss your towel out and enjoy the beach. The price of the chair includes a cold beverage, alcoholic or otherwise if you ask for 1 (2 drinks for the lounge). The young men are happy to place the lounges wherever you like. The atmosphere is a mix of calm and lively, with the activities of an assortment of locals playing beach soccer just beyond the tall palms and a small child or two selling rosary beads and friendship bracelets. Here you will find 20-peso beers, 15-peso soft drinks/water and freshly made cocktails for 25 pesos that are plentiful and cold. They also offer 2x1 cocktails later in the afternoon. (Prices are always subject to change in Mexico.) No food is prepared on the beach front except for the cups of fresh fruit sold by the boys who pedal their snacks along this strip. The waiters will offer you a menu if you request it for simple food like quesadillas and ceviche that is prepared in the restaurant near the parking area. The beach is wide and the sand is soft and cool. The surf tends to be calmer here than at the south beaches because of the existing reef a short distance off shore. You can park here and, after a day at the beach, walk to the Tulum ruins only 1/2 km away.
If you want to sample some local seafood, just walk along the beach a few hundred feet away to the Playa Pescadores Restaurant that is operated by the local fishermen's co-op and order the freshest seafood around, accompanied, of course, by a cold Mexican beer. Portions are huge and the tab is not cheap. There is often a lively band playing on the stage. Some lounges are now strung in front of the open-air restaurant if you want to catch some sun while sipping a cold beverage. Next door is a new, hip seafood restaurant called Adelita's.
A bit farther down the road is a rustic sign indicating you are at Playa Maya, the public beach where the local fishermen pull their boats onto the beach when they are not out at sea. Park along this sandy road that is guarded by a policeman and wander toward the turquoise water. This is a good place to come if you just want to stroll along the beach and perhaps stop for a swim. You can even bring a cooler, chairs and umbrella if you want to stay for the day. The Dorados (members of the fishermens co-op) operate 23 hour snorkeling/boat tours out to the reef for about $25 US per person. Dive gear and drinks are provided on the tour. If you are with a group of five or more, the rate is about $15 a person.
At km 2.9, just beyond Playa Maya public beach, I saw a large sign that said Paraiso. There is a well-marked parking area with an attendant and many taxis which are congregated just outside the entrance. They require that you bring your receipt from their beach restaurant to show the attendant to get your 50 pesos back for parking. I parked under the palms and stepped out of the car, sinking my toes into the cool sand, and walked toward the Caribbean Sea. When I reached the beach, I was aware that there were some choices to make if I wanted to spend my day on this beach. Do I want sun or shade? Do I want a wide mattress or a lounge? The lounges rent for about 50 pesos, and the beds with a table, chairs and umbrella rent for about 200 pesos. There are showers near the new bathroom located behind the concrete restaurant beyond the beach area. Beach food is served at the tables scattered around the beach or at your lounge area by friendly waiters. Music with a festive beat is often blaring from the gigantic speakers on the property, so if you come to the beach for peace and quiet, rethink this as your choice. If you need a bit of diversion from the sun, wander over to the table set up with handmade jewelry, or have a massage under the swaying palms. The sea is often calm here and the beach is heavenly. I observed hip young people, as well as families with young children stretching out on and around the mattresses with plenty of shade provided by the wide umbrellas. This is a good place to go with young children, rent the bed with table and umbrella and camp out for the day. If you want to avoid crowds, you may want to skip this one as busloads of people visit after touring the ruins for a short time each day.
Just south of this is a beach and camping spot in the palms called Playa Palmas that sports a few tables and chairs in the shade. There is a 50-peso charge for using the beach club and 25 pesos for parking in the shade with security. We saw mostly a bar crowd consisting of the campers that were staying on the property, but simple restaurant fare is available to the public.
Driving south down the beach road, I came to La Vita E Bella at km 2.3. I parked in the lot in front of the weathered palapa-covered buildings (they were actually repairing them the day I stopped in) and walked past the reception area and public bathrooms on the left and through the large sand-floor restaurant that serves breakfast, lunch and dinner to hotel guests and the public. Out on the gorgeous, white sand beach, lounges placed close together with palapa umbrellas stretched the distance of the hotel perimeter. Some of them were set aside for hotel guests and had a sign indicating this. Currently there is a 30-peso charge for the lounges and no minimum required in the restaurant.
There are many changes on the south side of the beach in Tulum. If you have not been to Tulum in a few years or even a few months you will be shocked at all the development including some changes that apply to the beach clubs as well. There are many interesting restaurants and shops emerging from the mangrove side of the road, but parking is very, very sparse. If you are interested in browsing in the shops, find a parking space at the beach club of your choosing and just cruise on foot and explore the hidden treasures. Parking is becoming a bigger and bigger issue for those not staying on the beach. Delivery trucks, construction vehicles, taxis and bicyclists flood the narrow road all day long and make driving very difficult and slow moving
La Luna is hidden away behind a wall with Moroccan accents. Park across the street and stroll in along the sandy paths lined with thick tropical foliage. The restaurant is on the right and serves light and delicious items from their menu. The bread is homemade and the grilled veggie sandwich is fabulous. As you approach the beach, you will notice that the beach club (public) lounges and umbrellas are on the right and the left side is set aside for registered guests of the hotel. I have always loved the colorful Adirondack chairs that are spaced between the lounges. There is no charge to enjoy the beach here, and they hope you will also spend some money in their restaurant and bar. There is service to the lounges, and secure WiFi. The manager, Edmunda, is especially friendly and accommodating. Let the front desk know you are from La Selva Mariposa and they will give you a 10% discount on purchases.
On a large stretch of beach is a rather hip-looking beach club and restaurant called Ziggy's Beach Club. There is parking for at least 15 cars and it is easy to get in and out if there are no buses. They have lots of lounges, some under swaying palms that grow on this amazing beach. The comfy beach beds do not have any sun protection, but can be moved under a palm if there is room. There is no charge for the lounges, but it is expected that you spend some money in the bar or restaurant. There are signs that indicate that the left side is for hotel guests and the right for beach club guests, but when it is not busy, I have never been asked to move. We had lunch on another day at their restaurant, and were very impressed with the food and presentation, and the prices were typical for the beach. Beautiful bathrooms lie across from the restaurant. This seems to be the happening place, and gets quite crowded, especially on the weekend.
Las Estrellas, is a beautiful little property that welcomes visitors to enjoy their restaurant, specializing in Italian cuisine, and relax on one of their lounges lined up facing the turquoise waters. There is no charge for the lounges as long as you are spending the normal amount in the restaurant and bar. There are parking spaces inside for about 10 cars and five more across the street.
The beach gets even more spectacular, but sometimes a bit congested on the road, as you drive farther south. At km 7.5, La Zebra is not officially a beach club, but if you are having lunch during the slower times of the year, you are able to snag a lounge or hammock to relax in and enjoy the view. They are going through a huge expansion and have added many more lounges and even a playground for the little ones. I parked on the right side of the road in their parking lot and followed the boardwalk that leads toward the beach and their newly expanded restaurant that boasts a state-of-the-art kitchen. They specialize in mojitos made with fresh sugar cane, and the newly revised menu offers very interesting and tasty fare.
Om is also a beach club/hotel/restaurant along this stretch of road as I traveled a little farther south (km 7.8 km). Om serves wood-fired pizza after 2 p.m. and a sparse menu before that. There are some lounges in front of the restaurant that give priority to the hotel guests. There is a parking lot on the jungle side of the road.
Why not stop in at the Mayan Clay Studio next door and sign up for one of these fabulous massages, or perhaps register for an appointment to enjoy their new Mineral Bath House in Macario Gomez.
Las Ranitas is an older hotel with a new facelift. The beach is heavenly and the staff very welcoming. Let the receptionists know you are here to enjoy the beach club (no charge)/rest


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Backstage at Cirque's Ovo/
I took a group of our City Tech students backstage at Cirque du Soleil's Ovo production out on Randall's Island on Thursday. Technical Operations Director David Millman graciously hosted our group:
The excellent crew spent a long time with us answering questions, and showing us around. I have met a huge number of Cirque people, and every single one I have met seems to be amazing, and happy in their position.
We got to watch the rehearsal of one of the backup numbers:
Cirque shows change so much due to injuries, vacations, and other issues that every night the run down is posted on a white board:
The crew has their own white board:
And apparently the clowns have special instructions in the bathroom:
It was a great tour, and thanks once again to Director of Show Support, Resident Shows Division Kim Scott, who has helped us arrange tours for our students not only at this show, but also the last three years at Wintuk, and last year Kooza.


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The Roadmap to a Successful Filmmaking Career
Here's a question for you. Do you follow any kind of process to ensure you'll be successful as a filmmaker? Or are you just winging it?
It's ok if you're winging it. That's what I did for many years. And if I'm being honest with you, it didn't turn out so well. In fact, it was kind of a disaster.
A few years out of film school, I got seriously burned out on filmmaking, depressed even. There came a point where I thought about just giving up filmmaking entirely and getting a regular old day job.
It was devastating, especially after having invested so many years into pursuing the filmmaking dream. Frankly I wouldn't wish that kind of emotional turmoil on anyone.
Anyhow, this post isn't about me. Instead, it's about a bigger, much more important question...
I mean, we all know it's easier to accomplish difficult things when we follow a set of guidelines that have been proven to work.
For instance, you follow a basic process for making films, right? You start with an idea, get a script written, pre-produce it, shoot it, edit it, grade it and give it some sound design, then send it off into the world.
Why not apply that same kind of systematic thinking to your life as a filmmaker? Wouldn't that make things significantly easier? I sure think so.
But what exactly would that process look like?
Well friend, that's the question I've been pondering over the past year.
In that time, I've talked to hundreds of filmmakers—some successful and some not—read close to 130 books (not even joking), and most importantly, applied a lot of this knowledge to my own life as a creative.
And what I've come up with is a set of best practices to help filmmakers move more quickly and intentionally towards their own definitions of success.
Don't worry. It's not some hyped up magic formula or anything like that. Instead it's a series of simple, common-sense ideas about how long-term success actually works, how to make a comfortable and stable living in an uncertain world, and how creative types like us can make work we're proud of.
When you string all of these ideas together, it creates a useful framework for how to approach your filmmaking career in a smart, methodical way. And if you follow that framework, it will slowly and surely lead you towards your goals instead of just spinning your wheels and getting nowhere.
So that's what I want to share with you today—my handy framework for living a successful life as a filmmaker.
So without any further ado, here's the bird's eye view of how it works. Just be warned—it's not easy, quick, or some kind of magical hack to solve all of your life's problems.
Like anything worthwhile, this is about playing the long game and putting in the work. If you're cool with that, then you'll get a lot of value out of applying this to your life.
Step 1 - Define filmmaking success for yourself.
I've touched on this topic many times, but it's worth stating again. When you define success for yourself—and you know that you'll enjoy the journey required to achieve that success—you set yourself up to live a good life.
On the flip side, when you operate on someone else's definition of success, you run the risk of wasting valuable time and energy on something you never wanted in the first place.
So be real with yourself. Figure out what you really want to achieve as a filmmaker, and more importantly, why you want to achieve it. Be as honest as you can be, because your definition of success is the foundation on which your life is built.
Step 2 - Ditch the idea of "overnight success" and invest in small daily actions.
Overnight success—especially in the world of filmmaking—is total bullshit.
Every time you hear about a filmmaker achieving sudden success, it's always the result of years and years of hard, unappreciated work. We just get to see the last triumphant 1% of their journey without the grueling 99% that came before it.
So instead of counting on overnight success, invest in making small, manageable bits of progress every single day, or at least every single week. Just as compound interest is the most powerful force in the financial world, compound actions are the most powerful driver of personal success.
Now, this is a huge topic that I'll cover more in the future, but for now, start thinking about this question.
It's a super difficult question, but answering it and then taking consistent action is the difference between succeeding and failing.
Step 3 - Find a money path that aligns with your definition of success.
Yes, money is an absolute necessity in this world, but that doesn't mean you have to sell your soul to get it. In fact, there are quite a few good ways to make a living, both in the world of film and outside of it.
If you want to make a living as a filmmaker, you can choose one of three broad categories: the film industry, freelancing and client work, and truly independent film. There are multiple paths you can take within each of those categories, and you can even mix and match them to suit your needs. The possibilities are endless.
You can also make your living outside of the world of film (because let's be honest, filmmaking is far from the easiest or most profitable way to make a living). If you choose this option, you give up a lot of time and energy that you could be devoting to film, but you also gain an incredible amount of freedom to choose what films you work on and who you work with. Maybe that's a worthwhile tradeoff for you. Maybe not.
What's most important here is choosing a path that's in line with your definition of success. If what you really want is to make a living with your own original films, but you never do anything other than shoot corporate videos, are you really working your way towards success? I think not.
Step 4 - Find one way (or several) to diversify your income.
Whatever you do, don't skip this step. It's really goddamn important. Whether you realize it or not, income instability comes with the territory of being a filmmaker, no matter which of the money paths you choose.
And when your income isn't stable, it becomes very difficult to live a good life. I'm speaking from experience on this one. It really sucks when your main source of income dries up and you don't have anything to fall back on.
Luckily, in 2017 and beyond, pretty much any filmmaker can start up a profitable side hustle, whether it's shooting stock footage or doing something completely unrelated to film.
Step 5 - Hone your craft and find your unique artistic voice.
This is pretty self-explanatory. You need to be good at the craft of making films in order to succeed, and you need to make films that are unique and noteworthy if you want to stand out from the crowd.
And the absolute best tool I know of for accomplishing both of these things at once is making a lot of micro films, or small projects in the range of 1-5 minutes.
Since they require very little money or time to produce, and since you're not counting on them to generate income, you can use them to hone your technical and storytelling skills, take bold creative risks, and work with lots of new people, which helps you grow your network.
Step 6 - Start building up a unique and purposeful body of work.
Your body of work tells a story about who your are and what you've done. And once you realize that, you can start controlling the story you send out into the world.
This is super important, because in the world of film, a high quality body of work is your calling card. It's what opens doors to the best opportunities. Frankly, nobody gives a damn about your resume or if you have a fancy degree. They care what you've done in the past, as it's the best indicator of what you'll be able to do in the future. (sidenote: they also care if you come highly recommended from other trusted filmmakers, so start building your network, too!)
So be intentional about your body of work. Start thinking of everything you include as a small part of your larger story.
For instance, you can work on reality shows and corporate videos to pay the bills, but if that content doesn't fit into the larger picture of your ideal body of work, don't include it. Use your body of work as a means to tell the world what you're all about.
Again, one of the best ways to grow your ideal body of work quickly is by making micro films. These little films are such a powerful tool, and it's crazy to me that more filmmakers aren't using them to further their careers.
Step 7 - Apply "success boosters" liberally.
Success boosters are things that aren't directly tied to filmmaking, but that will nonetheless skyrocket your chances of being successful. This includes practices like...
building and nurturing your personal and professional networks.
building a diverse range of non-filmmaking skills, including hard skills like persuasion and pitching, and soft skills like communication, leadership, and collaboration.
managing your time and energy better.
taking care of your physical and mental health.
As an added bonus, when you focus on success boosters, their effects carry over to every other part of your life.
Step 8 - Keep showing up, even when it feels like you're not making progress.
Woody Allen once said, "80 percent of success is just showing up."
He was right, and that's why this is the most important of the steps. Filmmaking success always takes time. Just doing a little bit of this stuff and then giving up won't get you the results you're after.
This is why it's so essential to be deeply connected with your definition of success. You have to know why you want it, because that "why" will fuel you and keep you motivated and engaged over the long haul, even when things get tough, which they inevitably will.
But when you keep showing up, putting in the work, and following the rest of these steps, your definition of success can be achieved. I promise.
Step 9 - Don't be afraid to reassess.
No matter what, your definition of success is never set in stone, nor is the path to achieving it.
We're all constantly growing and changing, so it makes sense to slow down every once in awhile, figure out if we're still on a track that we want to be on, and then make any necessary course corrections.
And that's pretty much it!
Now, this is really just a high-level overview of the whole system. You obviously can't go out and implement all of this stuff tomorrow and then call it good. I wish it worked like that, but it doesn't.
Instead, you need a way to translate this system into your everyday life. You need a set of small, practical actions you can start taking immediately. And that's precisely what I teach in my course, the Filmmaker's Guide to Success.
If you're ready to stop spinning your wheels and getting nowhere, I'd love for you to join me.


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Waiting for your flight at an airport? What better way to while away your time than to access an airport-provided iPad for free and play games, check email and Facebook and place food orders on it. This is precisely what travelers at Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport (MSP) are about to get.
The use of iPad tablets has tremendously increased in such ventures. From airlines to entire organizations, the tablet is not only preferred but is actively deployed since it is light, provides a decently high functionality and is easy to move around.
MSP Airports has plans of becoming a part of the list of iPad-using organizations soon. The plan is to deploy a total of 2,500 iPad tablets at the airport. These will be tethered iPad tablets and travelers present at the airport will be able to use them for free.
These travelers can then use the tablets to place orders for food to be delivered right at their seat on the terminal. They can accomplish a whole lot of other things on the tablet. For instance, they can play games, check their email, surf Facebook and even check a number of pre-loaded websites. With the help of these iPad tablets, user can also get information regarding flight status.
According to the CEO of OTG, the company under whose management this airport falls, "We believe this to be the largest deployment of consumer-facing iPad in the world, and for us, it's just the beginning. We have plans to roll out thousands of additional iPad at other airports around the United States and the world. Technology is an important complement to the customer service experience."
Source: Bizjournals
[ttjad keyword="ipad"]


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Strong Place Townhouses Construction Blog: Intro
For the next few months we'll be following Brennan Realty Services and their team as they construct three townhouses in Cobble Hill, at the corner of Kane and Strong Place. Site prep began recently. Now, Donald Brennan talks about getting the project on its feet and working with the community to do so…
Hi – Donald Brennan of Brennan Real Estate here. Over the coming months we will be building three townhouses from the ground up at the corner of Strong Place and Kane Street in Cobble Hill. Throughout the course of the project I will periodically share with you insights into our development process. While we haven't broken ground yet, plan is to do so in late spring/early summer, we have been busy gathering the entitlements from the Landmark Preservation Commission and Department of Buildings and marketing the properties for sale – another hat we wear on the project.
Off-market deal = serendipity + patience. Before I get into where we are with the LPC application here is some of the back-story on the opportunity. I became aware of this off-market deal when I was introduced to the previous owner at a holiday cocktail party in late 2010. While the path to acquiring the land was very circuitous – at a certain point in time someone else was lined up to be the new owner – I hung around the hoop long enough to be in a position to move forward with the purchase once the opportunity came to me a second time. The land I own…
… was once part of a larger parcel that bordered Kane Street and ran from Henry Street to Strong Place. I believe the property has shown up on this blog before. We closed on the purchase at the end of November 2011. Two townhouses fronting on Strong Place and a third building, mid-block on Kane Street, use to occupy the property but were torn down circa 1930. I had the venerable Montrose Morris look into the history of the site and she was unable to figure out why the buildings were demolished – quite the mystery.
Understand community expectations then do the right thing. Well before entering into a purchase agreement, I reached out to the local community leaders, with the assistance of Brendan Coburn (friend, Cobble Hill confidante and former childhood resident of Strong Place), so I could understand what their expectations were for the development of the property. The community desired an historic replication of what may have been designed and built during the 19th Century. Their desire matches well with what most buyers expect to find in Cobble Hill so our agendas are aligned. As a longtime owner of a home located in an historic district and an experienced redeveloper of landmarked properties I understand the need and value of working with members of the community. All too often developers underestimate the community's interest and cause themselves undue and costly delays by taking a position as foe instead of as ally. One community leader once explained the process of community review and involvement to me as an opportunity to make the project the best it can be. That certainly makes sense to me as the existing residents are the stakeholders and usually have a depth of knowledge an outside developer would not possess. I couldn't tell you how many times I have heard developers in neighborhood association meetings say – "I am all about the community, that is how we deal with all our projects. But just so you understand, I am going to do what I want." My advice – drop the last sentence.
The Landmark Entitlement Roadshow. In the past few weeks CWB Architects have presented the project to the Cobble Hill Association, the Historic Districts Council and Community Board 6. We have the full support of all these entities as we head into our public hearing at the Landmarks Preservation Commission later this month. We are well prepared but still have the fingers crossed.
On site work – what lies beneath? We recently took some borings (a cylindrical sample of earth strata) and dug some test pits on site so the engineer on the project can understand the subsurface conditions and design the structure accordingly. According to the geotechnical engineer on the site there is good sandy soil below a couple of feet of fill. This is good news as current building code requires us to manage all storm water runoff on site. Check out our video of some of the "boring" activity.
If there anything particular you are interested in learning about regarding our development process please let me know so we can try and incorporate it into future posts.
www.brennanrealtyservices.com is a Brownstoner advertiser


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Sightbox helps its members split up the cost of the exam, fitting fee, and lenses in monthly payments. The exam itself is a big part of the value of your membership and important for maintaining your health!
If you sign up for Sightbox and attend your exam, but then find that you need contacts that Sightbox cannot support, you will need to buy out of the membership by paying back the exam cost. Once you have reimbursed Sightbox for the cost of your exam your membership can be cancelled.
You will be able to keep your contact lens prescription and get it filled by your choice of providers.
Sightbox supports any major brand name of 1-day, 2-week, or 1-month lenses. We cannot support RGP, scleral, or quarterly lenses and we cannot fill prescriptions for Hubble lenses.
For a full list of contact lenses we support, please review our support article.


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Hi all,
Quick post today just to let you know that I have another card featured on the Chameleon Pens blog using the cut SU! set from the Occasions mini catalog and the Chameleon pens.
Head on to the Chameleon blog for complete list of supplies and instructions on how I put this card together.


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Surfing is one of the most efficient, effective, and enjoyable sports for getting fit and staying in shape. It is an all-round workout which will see you improve your balance, flexibility, strength, and endurance.
You don't have to do any specific training in order to start surfing and you'll find that over the course of your holiday you'll see notable improvements in each of these areas.
Having said that, surfing is a physically demanding sport and many people find that by their second or third day they are starting to feel it. So, like any sport, the fitter you are the easier it will be, and the better you get, the more fun it is.
Below we've outlined some activities you can do to prepare for your surf holiday. These will have you arriving in the best condition to start surfing and keep you going strong through your holiday.
You don't have to know how to swim to start surfing. As a beginner you'll start in the 'white water' - closer to the shore, where the waves have already broken. You'll be in water up to about your waist.
Many people who don't know how to swim, or who are not confident in the water, choose to continue to surf this way.
If you want to progress to the 'green waves' (waves which have not yet broken) and sitting on your board beyond the breaking section of the ocean then you will need to be able to paddle efficiently and have the fitness to swim back to shore in the event you get separated from your board.
Many people, when they start surfing, experience difficulties performing the pop-up manoeuvre due stiffness and inflexibility. That is, they find it hard to get their feet into the right position, to perform the manoeuvre in one springing/jumping type of action, and in particular, to get the front foot into the correct position between the hands.
Beginners often experience muscle stiffness and soreness a few days into their surf holiday from practicing 'pop-ups' both on the sand and in the water during surf classes.
In addition, the pop-up is an action unlike any other action performed in daily life, so it is going to feel 'clunky' and unusual in the beginning. The body simply hasn't had the opportunity to practice the action nor to form any type of 'muscle memory'.
While there is nothing better than practicing the pop-up itself (either on a board, on sand, or on your bedroom floor) improving your overall flexibility through yoga and regular stretching will greatly assist your body to adjust to the action and positioning required when performing the pop-up on a surf board.
In particular, the types of stretches or postures which are likely to assist you to condition your body to surfing include any type of rotational back and neck exercises. Other useful exercises include core strengthening and any stretches for the hamstring and quadricep muscles, as well as for the arms and shoulders.
Beginning surfers who already have experience on a skateboard (especially on a longboard) will notice similarities with the surfboard stance and the actions of turning and speed generation.
These days there are plenty of skateboards designed specifically with surfers in mind (check out Carver skateboards online) to assist them to replicate turning actions when outside the water. Try spending some time on a longboard in the weeks leading up to your surf holiday but do remember to wear protective gear and, be careful - we'd hate you to do a holiday-cancelling injury!
Want more?
Check out some YouTube videos from our friends at iSurfTribe for beginner tips on how to master the pop-up.
Or, if you're an advanced beginner wanting to progress to surfing a short board check out this tutorial on the duck dive. Preview this before your next surf vacation.


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Reading is a vital skill that builds the foundation of almost everything else your child will learn throughout their life. Learning how to read — and, more importantly, learning how to enjoy reading — is one of the key factors in your child's academic success.
How to Help Your Child Improve Comprehension
Posted by Guest Post on May 14, 2019.