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The legendary QB Joe Montana chats about staying fit with arthritis and watching his sons follow in his footsteps.
Want to know what you and Joe Montana have in common? He doesn�t like getting older, either. ��At my age��I hate saying that!� he says, as he describes some modifications he�s made to his workout routine to help manage his arthritis. But aching joints haven�t kept the legendary quarterback from maintaining a still-tough fitness regimen�a relic, he says, from years of equating being healthy and fit with career success. Montana credits his ability to stay active in part to a supplement called Joint Juice, for which he�s been the spokesman for several years. Now Joint Juice is raising money for the Arthritis Foundation with a new mobile app called �Throw With Joe,� a game that lets fans indulge their fantasies of having Montana�s famous arm. RELATED: Exercising After Arthritis We talked to the Hall of Famer about working out with arthritis, what he wishes he�d done differently as a quarterback, and how he feels when he sees his sons on the football field. Spry: Tell us about your personal experience with arthritis. Joe Montana: When you�re playing they�re always telling you, �Well, you got a little arthritis here, or in your shoulder, or your elbow.� My knee was probably the biggest problem because I�d had a number of surgeries on my left knee to clean up cartilage. I finally went to see an orthopedic surgeon here in San Francisco, Dr. Kevin Stone, about something he was doing in the knee joints that was cutting edge at that point. He said, �Look, you�re really not ready for that yet, and I wouldn�t do it till you have to, but I�ve been working on this supplement that I think you should try.� So I tried Joint Juice, and my joints feel a lot better. But it does take some time to start working. Spry: So you had surgery during your career�do you think you�ll have to have it again eventually? JM: Not if I can help it! My left knee is pretty far along; I can�t straighten it all the way�it�s to the point where it�s pretty progressed. But I�m not going to have surgery again if I don�t have to. Spry: What kind of fitness routine are you able to maintain? JM: I�m still going as hard as I can go six or seven days a week. I try to get 45 minutes to an hour of cardio, a little bit of light lifting. I can�t run, so I�m stuck on the dang bike, or elliptical. I don�t feel like I get as much as I�d like from just walking. So, I decided I�m going to try something new pretty soon. Spry: Is it hard to stay motivated to work out now that it�s no longer your job? Do you get bored more easily without real competition to drive you? JM: Well, it is hard, that�s why I need to try something new. I do get bored, especially being inside. I try to run on occasion; I wish I could run a little more. I lift probably five days a week, but nothing heavy; just real light, to maintain muscle tone. It was especially hard getting motivated when I first retired. I was like, �OK, I�m done with this workout crap!� And then�I don�t know how many months after�I get a letter from Sports Illustrated about the Couples� Swimsuit Issue. I hid the letter, but my wife found it! And she stays in great shape. She�s had four kids and three months after she�s got a washboard stomach again�that�s not fair! I hate that. So I had to call a friend of mine to get me on a program to lose 19 pounds for the shoot! You know, I get lazy every now and then. I�m on the road a lot, and like everyone else who travels, it�s hard. You�re in an airplane, you go to meetings, and you get to the hotel and you�re just like �Oh, I just want to have dinner.� But you gotta find ways to stay motivated. Spry: I think one of the most persistent myths about arthritis is that you can�t work out�when in fact it�s the opposite. Did you ever have times when you thought you were in too much pain, or have you always been able to stay active? JM: I�ve always been able to keep active. Athletes learn early that there�s a little bit of pain and then there�s an injury. You have to play through it. We see the world a little differently than most. A lot of times most people are hurt and they�re OK with it. We get hurt and we don�t want to be out of work, and we try to get healthy as fast as possible, sometimes to our own dismay. But, I�ve never been to that point yet. When my knee swells up, what do I do? I wrap something around it and keep going, sooner than I should most likely at my age. Spry: It looks like your sons, Nate and Nick, may be following in your footsteps and pursuing football as a career. What kind of advice would you give to them, especially in terms of your experience with arthritis? JM: Well, they�ve had a lot of lessons and worked with quarterback coaches, and they meet a lot of professional players who can advise them, too, especially on what supplements to start taking for your joints right away. But nutrition is important, and keeping fit. Don�t lift too much, but you gotta lift enough�especially with the quarterback position, there�s a balance that you need. Some people can lift a lot and play that position, some people can�t. But you gotta do enough to keep up with the physical part of the game. Spry: Is there anything you wish you�d done differently, in terms of taking care of your body? JM: Well, I wish I was born about 20 years later so I could make some of the money these guys make! I wish I�d lifted weights a little more, but there�s a fine line. When I got to Kansas City, they made me lift five days a week. I went from weighing between 192 and 195 to 208 and I felt like a slug! I said, �I can�t lift five days a week. I can�t even get my pants on�this is ridiculous.� Then I pulled a hamstring because a guy caught me from behind and I said, �I told you if I was 195 I could�ve gotten away from him!� But I think it�s an individual thing where some guys don�t need to lift as much and some guys need to lift more�and it depends on your position, too. Spry: Were your kids naturally active growing up, or was that something you had to encourage them to do? JM: I think we made mistakes early�well, not mistakes. But when we had boys, everyone said, �You�re not going to try to push them into football are you?� So we kind of held back a little bit. And our older one kind of got behind, and he�s been playing catch-up. But overall, playing sports, to me, does two things: Physically it�s a great thing to do, and it teaches our kids lessons at an early age. Especially team sports, where you have to deal with a lot of individuals from different races and religions. It teaches you how to accomplish a goal. It teaches us how to be competitive in life. I think we lose sight sometimes with our kids, with sports that don�t keep score, or it�s always a tie at the end of the game. That�s a shame, because we�re taking something away from them that is taught naturally through sports. Spry: There�s been a lot of talk about injuries in football lately, and I know it makes a lot of parents nervous. Do you worry about your sons, or does having been there make you more confident about their safety? JM: It�s something you worry about every time they�re on the field. But I know from being there about the excitement of the game�the ups and the downs and the locker-room and the camaraderie, and everything that goes with it. There�s nothing that�s ever come close to that feeling of being on that field, whether you win or lose. I wish everyone could have the opportunity to just play the game once, on a Sunday afternoon. You would understand why these guys try to play forever. Brought to you by: Spry Living


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Look stylish, fashionable and express distinct individuality with the new spirit of 'Friday Dressing' from Allen Solly.
Product Details
Allen Solly brought about a completely new concept to menswear in India Friday Dressing. The new identity takes inspiration from the brands strong Nottingham heritage, which has been rendered in a very modern and contemporary manner. Nottingham is Allen Sollys birthplace and a city of stags.
- Color: Green
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Our median startup performance (as measured by SIMPLE_MEASURES_FIRST_PAINT) improved between 20%-25% at the end of Firefox 18 cycle (~Oct 26). Strangely most of the speedup seems to have come from a 50% speedup in library loading (measured by SIMPLE_MEASURES_MAIN).
Bas Schouten landed bug 805831 which should further speed up tab-strip drawing when 2d-acceleration is used. Neil Deakin fixed bug 792296 and bug 752376.
We spent a lot of time focusing on tab smoothness recently. We still have a long way to go, but I checked telemetry data and the improvements are staggering. In the picture below I'm comparing tab closing animation(FX_TAB_ANIM_CLOSE) between 17, 18, 19. In the picture below there should be 0 entries to the right of 154(that's our problematic performance tail). In 2.5 months, we went from having almost 20% of our tab animations taking > 400ms to complete to ~3%.
In addition to median perf improving, tab animations are now much less likely to vary in duration, etc. This required fixes in layout, gfx, frontend code. It's really great to see a cross-team effort producing tangible results. It's too bad that our analysis infrastructure makes it so hard to pinpoint specific changes that contributed most to an improvement like this.
Matt Woodrow improve performance of a periodic table demo in bug 806256. However, performance is still poor on some types of machines, so I filed bug 808838.
Dão Gottwald landed bug 756313 which is similarly to his work in last Snappy update postphones doing content work until Firefox chrome is painted.
Benoit Girard changed the profiler so it now updates the url as the treeview is being navigated. This makes it much easier to discuss what we are seeing in the profile.
Thanks for the feedback on blogging platform alternatives. I turned on a better captcha plugin to deflect spam. A lot less spam gets through now (but I think it's also preventing legitimate users from getting through). If you are having trouble commenting, use twitter for now.


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«The audience is hanging on to your every word and breaks its concentration only to laugh out loud. You are not only one of the most popular satirists of the 20th century, but also an outstanding director and philosopher...» Discover who is hidden behind this story and enjoy a stay in one of our award-winning Style Double Rooms.
Enjoy your stay in a Style Double Room (approx. 25 m2) with queen size bed and mostly views of Lucerne's traffic-free historic old town with its courtyards and parts of the Musegg rampart walls.
The views of the majestic mountain scenery and Lake Lucerne will make your stay in this newly renovated Style Double Room (approx. 25 m2) with queen size bed unique. A number of rooms have a balcony.


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Fight the dangers of too much stress
April has been designated Stress Awareness Month by the Health Resource Network (HRN), a non-profit health education organization.
Stress Awareness Month has been held every April, since 1992.
It is a nationwide effort to inform people about the dangers of stress, harmful misconceptions about stress that are prevalent in society and encourage successful coping strategies.
"Even though we've learned a lot about stress in the past 20 years," says Dr. Morton C. Orman, M.D., Founder and Director of HRN, "we've got a long way to go. New information is now available that could help millions of Americans eliminate their suffering."
Stress results when something causes the body to behave as if it were under attack.
Sources of stress can be physical, such as injury or illness.
Stress can also be mental, such as problems in marriage, job or family. Some sources of stress are never going to go away, no matter what you do.
Having diabetes is one of those.
For persons with diabetes, stress can affect blood sugar levels in two ways.
First, people under stress may not take good care of themselves. They may drink more alcohol or exercise less. They may forget or not have time to check their glucose levels or plan good meals.
Second, stress hormones alone may raise blood sugar levels.
Diabetes support groups can help reduce the stresses of living with diabetes.
Knowing other people in the same situation helps you feel less alone. You can also learn other people's hints for coping with problems. Making friends in a support group can lighten the burden of diabetes-related stresses.
Individuals who have diabetes can take control of their health.
Diabetes education is available locally.
To find a diabetes educator in the area, contact the Upper Peninsula Diabetes Outreach Network at 1-800-369-9522 or online at diabetesinmichigan.org.
Individuals may also be able to ease their stress levels by using their senses.
A pleasant sensory experience can help fight stress by encouraging relaxation and boosting morale, reports the American Counseling Association.
Experts at the American Counseling Association offer the following suggestions:
– Sight. Explore things that please your eyes and calm you. Look out the window at the trees, browse through a photo album, wear favorite clothes or accessories, read a passage of vivid imagery, improve your living space by cleaning or decorating, visualize a peaceful color.
– Sound. Find music that calms or energizes you, whether it be recordings of nature sounds, book readings, chanting, or your favorite band. Use a white noise machine to mask irritating noises. Sing, read aloud yourself, or play an instrument. Indulge in the peaceful experience of quiet.
– Smell. Refreshing, relaxing scents can help. Find and use your favorites. Lavender and cooked apple tend to calm, lemon and peppermint tend to energize. Explore aromatherapy. Seek lovely scents in cleaning, cooking, gardening, candles, and lotions. Olfactory memories can comfort (your grandmother's soap, a tree from childhood).
– Taste. Try a favorite comfort food. It may be oatmeal for one person and burritos for another. Savor slowly. Comfort food is not about quantity but quality.
– Touch. If you've ever had a massage, you know tactile experiences can relax you. Exchange hugs with loved ones, take a bath or shower, fiddle with beads or stones, stroke your pets, play with clay, walk in sand or soft grass, hug a pillow or stuffed animal, wear clothes of your favorite textures, feel the wind or rain on your skin, brush your hair, get or give a massage.
The American Counseling Association also recommends using the Four-Hs for long-term stress relief.
– Heart. Try things that make your heart feel happy. Connect with others and act with kindness. Think of it as investing rather than wasting time. Find people and communities for social support, playing and sharing. Slow down and do things mindfully rather than multi-tasking. Laugh at least three times a day, Smile often.
– Hands. Helping is a powerful spirit-lifter. Both people and Nature need your help. Pick up litter, volunteer, assist sick friends, fix something. Creativity also soothes. Try a craft (knitting, carving, origami), play with blocks, cook, write a poem, make up a song.
– Health. Address both wellness and problems, physical and mental. Find forms of exercise you enjoy and do them often. Nurture your sexuality. Get enough sleep and good nutrition. Reduce or eliminate intake of caffeine, tobacco, alcohol and recreational drugs.
– Holy. Explore the spiritual side of life according to your own inclinations. Some people find organized religion quite meaningful as a way to reduce stress. Others find great inspiration in spiritual practice, ethics, nature or social justice activities. Try music, readings, meditation, prayer or retreats that help you connect with what is holy to you.
One stress antidote may not help you at all, or may help one time but not the next.
Don't give up. Some remedies take more time to have an effect than others, some are harder to use, and some just won't suit you.


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In case of emergency, please call us immediately. If it is after hours, you can call VCA OCVS (Tustin) at 949-654-8950 VCA All Care (Fountain Valley) at 714-963-0909, located at 18440 Amistad St., Suite E, Foutain Valley, CA 92708 or Animal Urgent Care at 949-364-6228, located at 28085 Hillcrest, Mission Viejo, CA 92692.
As part of the VCA family, we have over 83 specialty hospitals across the US and Canada which provide referral specialty care, so there may be one near you. Enter ZIP to find VCA specialty care hospitals near you.


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How to play Woobies
Mouse = Aim Click = Shoot Match at least 3 Woobies of the same color so they can fly away. Black Woobie-Bombs free every Woobie they touch. (You'll get a bomb if you make 5 combos in a row and at 15,000 points.) Bombs that are already in the cluster will explode when hit by another Woobie. Every 100,000, you'll get an extra life.
These adorable little fur balls are trapped! Use your aim and skill to free them, and be the Woobies' hero!
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Salazar headed to Indians
The Columbus Dispatch - July 09, 2013 05:23 PM
Clippers pitcher Danny Salazar will make his major league debut with the Cleveland Indians on Thursday in Toronto.
His locker was empty today in Huntington Park and the Indians announced their starting rotation for the series with the Blue Jays with Salazar listed as the probable starter for the Thursday game.
Earlier in the day, the Tribe announced Salazar's selection as the organization's minor league player of the week for July 1-7
He went 2-0 without allowing an earned run in starts against Durham and Louisville. He gave up just three hits and struck out 10 in 10 innings.
Salazar has allowed just 3 earned runs over his last 4 starts (18.0 innings) dating back to June 21 vs. Lehigh Valley and his 1.50 ERA during that stretch is lowest in the International League.


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Overtime goal lifts Santa Margarita over San Clemente
Locked in a scoreless battle with San Clemente in double overtime, Santa Margarita junior Taylor Klawunder saw an opportunity to make a match-changing play and squared herself up for a shot in the middle of the field.
When her shot ultimately bounced across the goal line, the county's most historic run of sustained team success came to an end.
Klawunder's golden goal lifted the Eagles over the Tritons, 1-0, in the second round of the CIF-SS Division 1 playoffs Tuesday at San Clemente High.
"San Clemente is a really tough team, but we were able to pull through and get the win," Klawunder said.
The Eagles (10-5-4) will face top-seeded Capistrano Valley in the quarterfinals on Thursday.
"The girls played very hard, and though we bent, we didn't break against a really good team on their field," Eagles coach Chuck Morales said.
The loss ends San Clemente's (10-7-6) county record run of five consecutive seasons of advancing to the Division 1 title match.
"It's unfortunate that we ended our season earlier than we hoped to, but I'm so proud of my team," Tritons coach Stacey Finnerty said.
Santa Margarita opened the match on the attack and nearly took the lead in the first minute. Junior Heather Walleigh managed to get off a hard line drive on frame, but Tritons junior goalie Audrey Block made a diving save to prevent the score.
Three minutes later, Walleigh sent a cross through the middle to junior Kaitlin Klawunder. Klawunder's subsequent shot attempt was kicked away from the near corner of the goal by Tritons junior Ally Lynn.
The defenses of both teams were strong throughout the remainder of the first half. Tritons senior Sydney Fuertes and sophomore Amanda Gerrain each made key defensive plays to thwart Eagle possessions in the attacking third. Santa Margarita senior backline of Kailey Hackett, Jennifer Rupey, and Jennifer Donegan helped to limit San Clemente to just one first half shot attempt.
Block, who had five saves for San Clemente, opened the second half with a nice stop on a shot by Eagles senior Samantha Trenary.
San Clemente nearly took the lead in the 60th minute, as junior Nikki Faris outraced the Eagles defense to a ball deep in the attacking third. She managed to get off a shot that rolled just wide of the far post corner of the goal.
Farris and junior Hailey Laub combined on another deep run toward to goal in the 77th minute, but Eagles senior goalie Taylor Wulf managed to corral the ball before Laub could get off a shot attempt.
Santa Margarita had two shot attempts in the fourth minute of the first overtime period, but shots by senior Lauren Rodriguez and Walleigh were wide of the goal.
Then early in the second overtime period, Eagles junior McKenna Roth sent a pass over to Klawunder, who floated a high arching shot that appeared to graze the fingertips of Block before hitting the crossbar, and bouncing down over the goal line to end the match and set off a raucous celebration by Santa Margarita.
"I checked into the space and McKenna passed me the ball," Klawunder said. "I turned, saw the goal, and took the shot. I had been practicing those shots in practice and I'm so glad that it went in."
Morales stated the Klawunder continued to work hard throughout the match though she didn't have many other opportunities to score.
"Taylor was getting looks, but wasn't getting the ball," Morales said. "The middle opened up and she had no pressure on her and was able to hit it."
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Tom Mix dies
John Wayne may have been the greatest Western star of them all, however Tom Mix – who died on this day in 1940 – was the man who paved the way for that success. Mix was the pioneering cowboy movie hero and one of the silver screen's first big stars, a prolific actor who appeared in an astonishing 336 films between 1910 and 1935. When Mix rose to prominence as a silent movie star, and he qualified as a great screen cowboy not as a well-versed stage actor but as a real-life man of action: Mix had grown up in Pennsylvania riding horses and working on a farm, had enlisted (though never fought) in the U.S. Army during the Spanish-American War, and then became a highly skilled rancher, winning 1909 national Riding and Rodeo Championship (which tested shooting skills and horsemanship). In 1910, he appeared in his first Western for the Selig Polyscope Company, and quickly became a star. During the 1910s and 1920s, Mix seemed to have a charmed existence: he became a beloved matinee idol, earned a reported $7,500 a week (an unthinkably large amount) while under contract at Fox, and married his on-screen regular love interest, Victoria Forde. (With Forde, his third wife, he had a daughter, Thomasina, born in 1922.) Bigger than fellow Western actors William S. Hart and Hoot Gibson, Mix was so famous that even his trusty steed, Tony the Horse, became a star. Mix was multi-talented – he was a skilled comedian, did his own stunts, and directed and wrote many of his films – however he could not survive the advent of sound. In the 1930s, he appeared in only a handful of films, instead putting his energies into making circus appearances, eventually founding the Tom Mix Circus. Though he had disappeared from screens already when he died in an auto accident in 1940, his star still shone brightly for years to come as a character on radio and in comic books. Eagle-eyed music fans will notice that Mix is one of the faces on the crowded cover of the Beatles' Sgt Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band album.


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Unfortunately, getting a great vocal isn't quite as simple as plugging in a mic, standing your singer in front of it and hitting record. Don't worry, though – we've got 13 tips (some technical, some not), that will help you on your way…
1. Always keep notes on the session! Write down what equipment you used to record, including full signal paths through any outboard gear. Take down the names of all singers involved and note the tempo, key, session date, name of song, name of the client (should you be lucky enough to have one), producer, arranger, etc. Write down everything! Keep these notes in the song's project folder and file a hard copy.
2. Take care to avoid cutting off breath noises, as they can make a vocal sound more natural. Taking them out will result in a very artificial sounding mix. Obviously, any other noises made by the singer in between lines (mumbling, coughing, throat-clearing, etc) will need removing, though.
3. Make sure the singer has herbal tea and honey available. Herbal tea and honey is the perfect combination for lubricating a singer's throat when recording. Cough sweets are also good things to have on hand, for soothing any sore or dry throats.
4. It's a good idea have fresh water available in the studio as well, at both room temperature and cold.
5. Always have notepads and pencils to hand for the singer, the engineer and the producer/client.
6. Everybody present should have a lyric sheet. Whether you're recording rap, dance, pop, country, rock or jazz, this is a necessity, from the initial vocal recording through to comping and mixing.
7. Render out several different final mixes, each with the vocals at different levels. Name them 'Lead vocal loud', 'Lead vocal lower', and so on. A vocal level that sounds great after four hours of mixing might not be so good the next day, when your ears have recovered.
8. If you're having trouble getting the presence you want on your vocal, try an enhancement plug-in, such as BBE's Sonic Maximizer. Although not as commonly used these days as they once were, they're sometimes exactly what's required to make a vocal stand out.
9. For a really cool effect that never goes out of style, send the vocal out to a guitar amp and re-record it through a microphone onto another track.
10. Don't be afraid to use a vocoder plug-in on spoken sections. Yes, we know it's been done to death but it still works when deployed tastefully.
11. Similarly, try the extreme Auto-Tune effect from Cher's Believe. Turn the Sensitivity on the Auto-Tune plug-in all the way up, and set the Speed to very, very fast. Every note will quickly leap to the correct pitch. Then send that to a vocoder. Total cliché though it may be, it's an effect we still hear in new releases occasionally – it's up to you to find an innovative new way to use it.
12. Distortion is a vital tool in vocal production. Whether it's Justin Timberlake's SexyBack delivery, The White Stripes' characteristic vocal sound, or the darker, more sinister tones of metal, it's always an effect that gets people's attention. It's especially effective when only used on certain sections, rather than all the way through the song (the zillion-selling, relentlessly distorted SexyBack being a notable exception!).
13. Finally, as with all aspects of music production, always remember that there are no rules that can't be broken. If it sounds great, then it is great!
For a comprehensive guide to recording, editing and mixing vocals, check out issue 123 of Computer Music magazine.


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With Major League Baseball fully entrenched in its offseason, free agency and player moves will dominate the news until Spring Training begins. With rosters changing every day, it's never too early to begin preparing for your 2011 fantasy baseball draft.
Fantasy Baseball Sportal will continue to provide you with news and information on all things baseball in order for you to take control of your fantasy league in 2011.
Troy Tulowitski, SS, Colorado Rockies
After winning the National League Silver Slugger and Golden Glove awards, the Colorado Rockies signed Tulo to a six-year, $119 million contract extension. (more…)


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Chirpy Chick Cupcakes RecipeRead Reviews Be the first to add a review
These adorable cupcakes are so much fun to make and share. They're perfect for an Easter dinner or a kid's farm-themed birthday party.—Sara Martin, Brookfield, Wisconsin
Featured In: 17 Recipes for Easter Cupcakes
- 1 to 2 cans vanilla frosting (16 ounces each)
- Cupcakes of your choice
- Miniature semisweet chocolate chips
- Orange spice drop or Candy corn
- Set aside 1/4 cup frosting for eyes. Tint remaining frosting yellow; transfer to a pastry bag. Insert #17 star tip; pipe stars to cover top of cupcake. Pipe a large ball for head. Place tip on each side of the head and pull out for each wing.
- Place white icing in a pastry bag; insert #2 round tip. Pipe eyes and decorate with mini chocolate chips. For beak, flatten an orange gum drop and cut into 2 triangles or add candy corn. Yield: varies.
Originally published as Chirpy Chick Cupcakes in Cupcakes for Every Season 2011 2011, p11
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Over the course of this month, we're hosting a series of public events that encourages civil conversations about the most difficult of topics — abortion and gay marriage included. We're asking ourselves how can we model better, kinder ways of communicating and disagreeing with each other. This morning, Jennifer Livingston, a television anchor at WKBT in La Crosse, Wisconsin, demonstrated this civility in spades.
A viewer emailed Ms. Livingston a note chastising her for her weight. She never named the author, but she did use it as an opportunity to talk about bullying and treating people more kindly. Here's what she said during this morning's broadcast:
I want to take a moment to address a situation that has become a talking point in this community over the past weekend — especially on Facebook — that centers around me. On Friday, I recieved the following e-mail from a La Crosse man with the subject line "Community responsibility." It reads as follows:
Hi Jennifer,
It's unusual that I see your morning show, but I did so for a very short time today. I was surprised indeed to witness that your physical condition hasn't improved for many years. Surely you don't consider yourself a suitable example for this community's young people, girls in particular. Obesity is one of the worst choices a person can make and one of the most dangerous habits to maintain. I leave you this note hoping that you'll reconsider your responsibility as a local public personality to present and promote a healthy lifestyle.
Now those of us in the media get a healthy dose of critiques from our viewers throughout the year — and we realize it comes with having a job in the public eye. But this email was more than that. While I tried my best to laugh off the very hurtful attack on my appearance, my colleagues could not do the same. Especially my husband, our 6 and 10 anchor Mike Thompson.
Mike posted this email on his WKBT Facebook page — and what happened next has been truly inspiring. Hundreds and hundreds of people have taken the time out of their day to not only lift my spirits, but take a stand that attacks like this are not okay. More on that in a second.
But first, the truth is I am overweight. You could call me fat. And yes, even obese on a doctor's chart. But to the person who wrote me that letter, do you think I don't know that? That your cruel words are pointing out something I don't see? You don't know me. You are not a friend of mine. You are not a part of my family and you have admitted you don't watch this show. So you know nothing about me but what you see on the outside. I am so much more than a number on a scale.
And here's where I want us all to learn something from this. If you didn't already know, October is National Anti-Bullying month. And this is a problem that is growing everyday in our schools and on the Internet. It is a major issue in the lives of young people today, and, as the mother of three young girls, it scares me to death. Now I am a grown woman.
And lucky for me, I have a very thick skin — literally as that email pointed out — and otherwise. And that man's words mean nothing to me. But what really angers me about this? There are children who don't know better, who get emails as critical as the one I received or, in many cases, even worse — each and every day.
The Internet has become a weapon. Our schools a battleground. And this behavior is learned; it is passed down from people like the man who wrote me that email. If you are at home talking about the fat news lady, guess what? Your children are probably going to go to school and call someone fat. We need to teach our kids how to be kind — not critical — and we need to do that by example.
So many of you have come to my defense over the past four days. I am literally overwhelmed by your words.
To my colleagues and friends from today and from years ago, my family, my amazing husband, and so many of you out there that I will probably never have the opportunity to meet: I will never be able to thank you enough for you words of support. And for taking a stand against this bully. We are better than that email. We are better than the bullies that would try to take us down.
And I leave you with this. To all the children out there who feel lost, who are struggling with weight, the color of your skin, your sexual preference, your disability — even the acne on your face — listen to me right now. Do not let your self worth be defined by bullies. Learn from my experience that the the cruel words of one are nothing compared to the shouts of many.


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With the Help of Sugar Enterprise, Bell ID has increased productivity, attracted more customers and become approximately 60% more transparent.
- Implement Sugar as a uniform system for the administration of customer data.
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About Implementation Partner:
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Automate your color correction with a Perl script
Card Trick
If you have grown tired of manually correcting color-casted images (as described in last month's Perl column), you might appreciate a script that automates this procedure.
Last month, I wrote about using reference cards to correct the white balance in digital photos by taking a test snapshot (see Figure 1) [2]. The black, white, and gray plastic cards, which are available from any good photography equipment dealer, should not generate any color values in a digital image. This provides three calibration points for low, medium, and high light intensity, which the GIMP photo editing tool can then reference to correct your snapshots.
Perl Magic
How can a simple Perl script find out which pixel values the three cards create, even though their position in the image is not known, without using artificial intelligence?
If the photographer manages to spread the cards in the center of the image as shown in Figure 1, the script can follow an imaginary horizontal line and identify the cards on the basis of pixel values along the x axis.
The light intensity measured along this line remains constant for a fairly substantial distance, as long as the line lies within one reference card.
Once the line touches the background, the pixel values will start to fluctuate significantly.
Listing 1, graphdraw, uses the CPAN Imager module to create the graphs shown in Figure 2.
The graphs represent the red, green, and blue components of the color values along the horizontal line drawn in Figure 1 on a coordinate system in which the x axis matches the x coordinates in the image and the y value represents the color component value with a range of 0 through 255.
The CPAN Imager module's read() (line 12) is a multi-talented beast that can identify, read, and convert any popular image format to its own internal Imager format for editing.
Listing 1
01 #!/usr/local/bin/perl -w 02 use strict; 03 use Imager; 04 use Imager::Plot; 05 use Log::Log4perl; 06 07 my ($file) = @ARGV; 08 die "No file given" 09 unless defined $file; 10 11 my $img = Imager->new(); 12 $img->read( file => $file ) 13 or die $img->errstr(); 14 15 $img->filter( 16 type => "gaussian", 17 stddev => 10 18 ) or die $img->errstr; 19 20 my $y = int( 21 $img->getheight() / 2 ); 22 my $width = $img->getwidth(); 23 24 my $data = {}; 25 26 for my $x ( 0 .. $width - 1 ) 27 { 28 push @{ $data->{x} }, $x; 29 30 my $color = $img->getpixel( 31 x => $x, 32 y => $y 33 ); 34 my @components = 35 $color->rgba(); 36 for my $color_name ( 37 qw(red green blue)) 38 { 39 push @{ $data 40 ->{$color_name} }, 41 shift @components; 42 } 43 } 44 45 my $plot = Imager::Plot->new( 46 Width => 550, 47 Height => 350, 48 GlobalFont => 49 ,/usr/share/fonts/truetype/msttcorefonts/Verdana.ttf' 50 ); 51 52 for my $color_name ( 53 qw(red green blue)) 54 { 55 $plot->AddDataSet( 56 X => $data->{x}, 57 Y => 58 $data->{$color_name}, 59 style => { 60 marker => { 61 size => 2, 62 symbol => ,circle', 63 color => 64 Imager::Color->new( 65 $color_name), 66 } 67 } 68 ); 69 } 70 71 my $graph = Imager->new( 72 xsize => 600, 73 ysize => 400 74 ); 75 76 $graph->box( 77 filled => 1, 78 color => ,white' 79 ); 80 81 # Add text 82 $plot->{,Ylabel'} = 83 ,RGB Values'; 84 $plot->{,Xlabel'} = 85 ,X-Pixel'; 86 $plot->{,Title'} = 87 ,RGB-Distribution'; 88 89 $plot->Render( 90 Image => $graph, 91 Xoff => 40, 92 Yoff => 370 93 ); 94 95 $graph->write( 96 file => "graph.png" ) 97 or die $graph->errstr();
If something goes wrong, the Imager methods return false values. For more details about an error, cautious programmers tend to call the errstr() method to return a cleartext description of the issue. The getpixel() method (line 30) examines the RGB values of a pixel in the image at a location defined by its x and y coordinates and returns an Imager::Color object, which contains the pixel's RGB values.
A call to rgba() (line 35) returns these values along with the value for the alpha channel. Here, you are just interested in the first three RGB values.
The script calls shift in line 41 to extract them one by one.
Image View
The Imager::Plot module represents boring numbers as graphs in an attractive coordinate system without too much hassle with respect to scaling, axis labeling, or graphical layout, and it returns image files in all popular formats, allowing the user to check them later with an image viewer or web browser. The new() constructor (line 45) accepts the dimensions for the resulting image and the path to an installed True Type font, which it then uses for axis labeling.
The script collects the required coordinates in a hash of hashes, to which $data points. It stores all the x coordinates in $data->{x} and all red values in $data->{red}; the green and blue values are stored in the same manner. The AddDataSet() method (line 55) then adds the data separately for each of the three graphs, each of which are drawn in a different color.
On completion, a new Imager object is created in line 71; later, it will create the resulting graphics file. Before this happens, the box() method colors the image background white, then Render() draws the coordinate system, the labels, and the three graphs in one fell swoop.
Finally, the write() method saves the output file on disk in PNG format.
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Red Hat Releases RHEL 6.9 Beta
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Teaching ballet in Burma Ex- Birmingham Royal Ballet dancer Robert Gravenor recently spent a couple of months travelling independently in Burma. The photographs you see here were taken while Gravenor taught ballet to the local children at Phaung Daw Oo School in Mandalay (central Burma). Gravenor says, "this school is run from foreign charity funds and has over […]
Tag Archives: Bethany Mitchell
Teaching ballet in Burma
August 16, 2012


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January 10, 2011 WIC Update
SUBJECT 1: Board Certified Lactation Consultants (IBCLC) Exam Preparation Course
SUBJECT 2: Extra Formula Listing now on Crystal
SUBJECT 3: Nutrition Education Topics in MOWINS
SUBJECT 4: WIC Approved Food Availability Survey –Action Required
SUBJECT 5: Logging into and Printing Crystal Reports – WIC
SUBJECT 6: EBT Meetings- Hold the Date
SUBJECT 7: Seminars and Conferences:
University of Kansas 13th Annual Obesity Conference
Empowering the Nutrition Gatekeepers
- Board Certified Lactation Consultants (IBCLC) Exam Preparation Course: The state WIC office is hosting an International Board Certified Lactation Consultants (IBCLC) Exam Preparation course on April 11-15, 2011 in Jefferson City. This course will meet the 45 hours of lactation specific education needed to be an exam candidate by the International Board Lactation Consultants Examiners (IBLCE). If you would like to attend this course, please complete the attached registration form and fax to 573-526-1470 or email to firstname.lastname@example.com. There is a lot of interest in this course and seating is limited. We are opening up registration to those outside of WIC, so if you are interested in attending this course, please register as soon as possible. If you have any questions, please contact Kathy Mertzlufft at 573-526-4792 or by email at the address above.
- Extra Formula Listing now on Crystal: The spreadsheet listing extra formula available at different LWPs and shipping instructions will now be posted in Crystal Reports. The listing will be updated as needed to include newly added or removed formulas. To help keep food costs down please check the listing in order to utilize formulas with the most recent expiration date prior to requesting to place an order. Also be sure to notify your district nutritionist or Michelle Nienhuis at firstname.lastname@example.com when you have unused formula available at your agency so it may be added to the spreadsheet. There are guidelines for having extra formula shipped from one LWP to another LWP, which allows the formula to be tracked and not get lost in the mail. Please adhere to these guidelines which are posted in Crystal. You will find the above documents in Crystal under WIC Reports-Local Agency>Extra Formula. Attached are instructions for logging into and printing Crystal Reports – WIC. If you have any questions, please contact Michelle Nienhuis at 573-751-6244 or 800-392-8209.
- Nutrition Education Topics in MOWINS: Additional changes have been made to the Nutrition Education topics in MOWINS in response to requests from the LWPs. Four new nutrition education topics are available under Individual Secondary Contact:
You may need to do the right click reset and right click update on the W while logged into MOWINS if you do not see these changes.
If you have questions, please contact Vicki Strickland at email@example.com or 573-526-7961 or 800-392-8209.
- WIC Approved Food Availability Survey –Action Required: The State office is conducting a survey to assess the availability of WIC approved foods. On January 11, 2011, WIC coordinators will receive an e-mail survey from Mark Wright. Each local WIC provider is asked to complete the survey. The feedback from local WIC providers is very important and valuable. Information obtained through the survey will be used in developing the new WIC Approved Food List (effective October 01, 2011 – September 30, 2013). Please complete the survey by January 31, 2011. If you have any questions, please feel free to contact Mark Wright at email@example.com.
- Logging into and Printing Crystal Reports - WIC: The State WIC Office has updated the instructions for logging into and printing Crystal Reports. Additional reports have been added to Crystal Reports specifically for exporting into Excel. The updated instructions include the exporting and printing of the Excel reports. If you have any questions, please contact Michelle Nienhuis at email@example.com or 573-751-6244 or 800-392-8209.
- EBT Meetings-Hold the Date: We will have meetings in locations around the state for local agency staff to attend to learn more about Electronic Benefits Transfer (EBT) and give their input on decisions we will need to make regarding EBT. Some of the things we will consider are: whether to go on-line (with magnetic stripe card) or off-line (with Smart card); changes that need to be made to policies; and the impact changing from checks to cards will have on participants. The EBT meeting will be in the morning. There may be meetings with state technical assistance (TA) staff in the afternoon. The registration and more details will be sent in the next couple of weeks. Here are the dates and locations:
March 21, 2011
March 28, 2011
March 31, 2011
Jefferson City
April 1, 2011
Poplar Bluff
April 5, 2011
St. Charles
April 7, 2011
April 8, 2011
These meetings are not mandatory but are encouraged. If you have questions, please contact Mark Davis at firstname.lastname@example.com or 573-526-5323 or 800-392-8209.
- Seminars and Conferences: At the request of some LWPs, the WIC Updates begins a new section titled: Seminars and Conferences. If your agency has information about a seminar or conference that you think would be of interest to WIC staff, please send it to Linda Rost at email@example.com. In your message include the following: title of the conference/seminar, location, date, contact person, fee.
University of Kansas 13th Annual Obesity Conference:
Sponsored by the University of Kansas Center for Physical Activity & Weight Management and University of Kansas Medical Center Continuing Education
When: Thursday - Sunday September 8-11, 2011
Where: Hotel not listed. Most likely in or near Kansas City, MO
Website: http://www.ebl.ku.edu/conference/
Empowering the Nutrition Gatekeepers:
Sponsored by Society of Nutrition Education
When: July 23 – 26, 2011
Where: Kansas City, MO
Logging into Crystal Enterprise
Registration Form-IBCLC Prep Course


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Here's a great shot of A Rocket To The Moon posted by American Songwriter when they premiered the song 'First Kiss' earlier this week. Click HERE to read what the band had to say about writing this song from That Old Feeling EP.
"This song was inspired by Nicholas Sparks, I guess you could say. Our love for chick flicks is rather obvious (or pathetic). The Notebook, A Walk to Remember… all the good ones!" - Nick Santino
Click HERE to download That Old Feeling EP on iTunes now!


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Skip to comments.American Idol 2013--Live Thread
Posted on 01/16/2013 5:55:19 AM PST by silent_jonny
From Wikipedia:
In a career spanning over two decades, Carey has sold more than 200 million records worldwide, making her one of the best-selling music artists of all time.
In 2012, Carey was ranked second on VH1's list of the "100 Greatest Women in Music". Aside from her commercial accomplishments, Carey has won five Grammy Awards, 17 World Music Awards, 11 American Music Awards, and 31 Billboard Music Awards. Referred to as the "songbird supreme" by the Guinness World Records, she is famed for her five-octave vocal range, power, melismatic style [the fluttering strings of notes that decorate songs like "Vision of Love"] and signature use of the whistle register. In November 2011, it was reported that Carey's net worth was valued at more than $500 million.
Even though Carey has only appeared on Idol once (that I know of), her name is constantly dropped on the show, either by Randy Jackson ("I recorded that track with the great Mariah Carey!") or from deluded contestants who believe they're the next Carey incarnation:
Sean Daly of St. Petersburg Times wrote, "Depending on how you feel about public humiliation, the best/worst parts of American Idol are the audition shows, which normally break down into three distinct parts:(1) The Talented Kids.(2) The Weird Kids.(3) The Mariahs."
Daly further commented, "The Mariahs are the hardest ones to watch, mainly because most of them think they're reeeaaally good. The poor, disillusioned hopefuls plant themselves in front of judges then proceed to stretch, break and mutilate every note of a song, often Mariah's Hero, a tune that has ruined more throats than smoker's cough."
Mariah Angela Carey was born in Huntington, New York, on March 27, 1970. Her father, Alfred Roy, was of African American and Venezuelan (mixed-race) descent, while her mother, Patricia (née Hickey), is of white Irish descent. The last name Carey was the product of a name-change by her Venezuelan grandfather after emigrating to New York. . .
After the pair's elopement, Patricia's family disowned her, due to marrying a man of color. Carey later explained that growing up, she felt a notion of neglect from her maternal family, a mark that affected her greatly: "So later I was like, 'Well, where does this leave me? Am I a bad person?' You know. It's still not that common to be a multi-racial person, but I'm happy with the combination of things that I am." When Carey was three years old, her parents divorced due to the increasingly strenuous nature of their marriage. As the years passed, Carey would grow apart from her father, and would later stop seeing him altogether.
Carey was married to record producer (and svengali) Tommy Mottola from 1993-1997. She met actor/comedian Nick Cannon in 2008. They married almost immediately.
On April 30, 2011, the couple's third wedding anniversary, Carey gave birth to fraternal twins via C-section.
In an interview, Carey stated that her pregnancy was very difficult, she suffered from high blood pressure, pre-eclampsia, and gestational diabetes before giving birth to the twins, she also said: "I was afraid I wasn't going to be able to walk properly again, It was a huge strain. I would sit and then someone would have to help me up. I couldn't go even to the loo by myself. It was just like, 'What are we doing? Are we going to the hospital?' No, I'm gonna stick it out, I'm gonna keep taking this medicine to keep these babies in... I made it to 35 weeks and then the doctor said it wasn't safe anymore".
Judging Experience:
None. However, she can throw a ball just like Obama.
American Idol Appearances:
She was guest mentor for the appropriately titled "Mariah Carey Week" in 2008. Carey also performed live on the results show.
From Wikipedia:
Keith Lionel Urban was born in Whangarei, New Zealand (October 26, 1967), but later moved and lived with his parents in Caboolture, Queensland, Australia.
By age six, Urban was already thinking about getting into the music business. He began learning the techniques at age seven and began winning young singing contests by age eight.
In 1992, he moved to Nashville, Tennessee, where he found work as a guitarist for Brooks & Dunn and can be seen backing Alan Jackson in his music video for "Mercury Blues". Later, Urban formed The Ranch, a three-piece group that released their self-named album in 1997 that included "Walk In The Country". Urban disbanded the group to pursue a solo career in 1998.
Since then, Urban has released seven studio albums (all multi-platinum), had fourteen #1 singles, earned four Grammy Awards, been named Male Vocalist of The Year three consectutive times by the CMA (2004-2006), and in 2012, after 20 years in Nashville, Urban was inducted into The Grand Ole Opry.
The Opry honor came in the form of a black duffle bag brought on stage [by co-host Vince Gill] at Keith's annual All for the Hall benefit show at Nashville's Bridgestone Arena .... Visibly confused, the "For You" singer unzipped the bag to find a WSM/Grand Ole Opry microphone stand.
"I'm shocked," Keith said, after Vince gave the official Opry invitation to his friend. "What a huge honor and how beautiful to have this happen tonight!
"I will always remember the first time I played the Opry," the singer-songwriter continued, "seeing this stand and standing in the circle was an extraordinarily surreal moment. So this right here is just a whole other stratosphere! Thank you from the bottom of my heart."
Urban met actress Nicole Kidman at a Hollywood event honoring Australians, in January 2005, but they reportedly didn't begin dating until 6 months later. Kidman and Urban were married on Sunday, 25 June 2006, at the Cardinal Cerretti Memorial Chapel on the grounds of St Patrick's Estate, Manly in Sydney.
[While struggling in Nashville through the 90s], Urban became a frequent user of cocaine. After reaching a personal nadir in 1998, he became determined to give up the habit and checked into Cumberland Heights, a treatment center in Nashville
On 19 October 2006, Urban checked himself into the Betty Ford Center in California. On 20 October, Urban issued a statement saying: "I deeply regret the hurt this has caused Nicole and the ones who love and support me. One can never let one's guard down on recovery, and I'm afraid that I have." On 18 January 2007, Urban announced his completion of rehab and his plans to go on tour to promote his new album...
In 2010 Urban did what apparently all celebrities are required to do: confess their sins to Oprah.
The country star admitted he was addicted to "everything" including alcohol, but mostly cocaine.
You cant [get clean] for somebody," Keith told Oprah Winfrey. "I couldnt do this just for her, but to see love in action, to that degree, in that time, in that way, Id never experienced anything like that."
Since entering rehab in October, Keith has stayed clean. He had been through rehab before, but this time he "surrendered" the outcome.
[There] was a huge hole in my life that was going to be filled by the right thing eventually or it was always going to be filled by the wrong thing, he said. Ultimately for me, [the right thing is] love. Nic has taught me so much and brought so much to my life and opened my eyes in so many ways.
On 7 January 2008, Nicole Kidman confirmed she and Urban were expecting their first child together. Kidman's publicist said "the couple are thrilled and cannot wait." Kidman gave birth to their first child, a daughter, Sunday Rose Kidman Urban, in 2008 in Nashville, Tennessee. She weighed 6 lbs, 7.5 oz. On his website, Urban stated,
"Earlier this morning Nic gave birth to our beautiful baby girl, Sunday Rose Kidman Urban. We want to thank everybody that has kept us in their thoughts and prayers. We feel very blessed and grateful that we can share this joy with all of you today."
In 2010, Urban and Kidman had a second daughter, Faith Margaret Kidman Urban, via surrogate at Nashville's Centennial Women's Hospital. The baby is biologically Urban and Kidman's.
Judging Experience:
Urban was a judge (or "coach"--same thing) on the Australian version of The Voice for one season. He jumped that ship to join Idol.
American Idol Appearances:
Urban performed with winner Kris Allen on the 2009 Idol finale.
Her Wikipedia bio is surprisingly long for someone who's career is only three years old. The gist of it is, Minaj has become as famous for her obnoxious behavior and multi-colored wigs as she has for her musical ability. Maybe more so.
From Wikipedia:
Onika Tanya Maraj was born December 8, 1982 in Saint James, a suburb of Trinidad and Tobago's capital city Port of Spain to parents Carol and Robert Maraj, an accounting clerk/gospel singer and an employee at American Express, respectively. Her parents are of mixed Indian and Afro-Trinidadian ancestry and she lived in Saint James with her grandmother ... Her mother would occasionally visit, and one day, when Minaj was five, her mother picked her up to move to the Queens borough of New York City. According to Minaj, her father drank heavily, took drugs, and once tried to kill her mother by setting the house on fire.
After high school Maraj pursued acting in NYC while working odd jobs.
[Onika] was fired from Red Lobster because of her discourteousness to customers. She stated she had been fired from "at least fifteen jobs" for similar antics
Imagine that.
Acting didn't work out, so she turned her attention to music, trying to find her way through the world of underground rap. Somewhere along the way, a producer changed her name to "Nicki Minaj" and she stuck with it.
In 2009, Minaj was featured on a compilation album We Are Young Money which became a Billboard Top 10 hit and led to more high profile collaborations, such as "Up Out My Face" with future Idol co-judge Mariah Carey.
[Her debut album] Pink Friday was released on November 19, 2010. Minaj became the first female artist to be included on MTV's Annual Hottest MC List and the first female artist to top the chart unaccompanied since 2002. In October 2010, Minaj became the first artist to have seven songs on the Billboard Hot 100 chart simultaneously ... The album gained Platinum certification in the United States a month after the release.
You can view Minaj's videos HERE, but most of them are marked "explicit" so click at your own risk.
The rest of her bio is strange and sordid (the feud with Carey, questions about her sexuality and her multiple personalities). Read that at your own risk too.
Judging Experience:
None. But as you might have guessed, that doesn't stop Minaj from offering her opinion on any and every subject. And, as is fashionable these days, she responds to any form of criticism with either violence (Mariah Carey claimed she threatened to shoot her (source)) or by screaming RACISM!
You'd think being a rock superstar would earn Steven Tyler a modicum of respect. Not quite.
Tyler recently critiqued current "American Idol" judge Nicki Minaj, saying the rap star would likely vote down a young Bob Dylan if he tried out for the show.
Current judge Nicki Minaj responded with a vulgar Twitter tirade:
"You assume that I wouldn't have liked Bob Dylan???" Minaj responded via Twitter. "Why? black? rapper? what? go **** yourself and worry about yourself babe."
"I understand you really wanted to keep your job [on Idol] but take that up with the producers," she continued. "I would have sent Bob Dylan to a cornfield??? Steven, you haven't seen me judge one single solitary contestant yet! That's a racist comment Lets make [Steven] a shirt that says 'No Coloreds Allowed' then escort him down 2 Barbara Walters so he can tell [her] how he was threatened w/guns."
Tyler went on to say his "American Idol" crew, which included black judge Randy Jackson and Latina Jennifer Lopez, would have given someone like Dylan the green light.
Is the pop culture world condemning Minaj for her cruel comments and incendiary accusation?
Is Tyler slinking away and apologizing for offending Minaj?
It's standard operating procedure in the Age of Obama. The race card can fit virtually any situation, and you don't need facts to back it up. Chris Matthews can call Mitt Romney supporters racist without proof and keep his gig. Documentary filmmaker Ken Burns can savage the Tea Party as racist without proof and retain his standing in film circles.
So when Minaj fired off her angry retort, she knew she would face no backlash. In fact, she could have predicted Tyler, a rock legend, would quickly apologize for doing nothing wrong.
American Idol Appearances:
I thought this was another kissy piece on Bronco Bama.
Who watches this stuff?
In addition to the three new judges, Idol will also be adding three new ways for would-be singers to audition. These will allow the show to hunt down the talent instead of being stuck with whoever shows up.
The producers are likely altering the way contestants can audition for several reasons. It could be an effort to crack down on all the talentless hopefuls who try and get on TV for laughs. Its also an effective way to canvas every corner of the country to try and unearth real talent, no matter how remote.
If someone is too shy or insecure to audition on their own, their friends and family can audition them secretly.
A video of the nominee singing solo or a cappella can submitted via an online registry. If they are chosen, a film crew will surprise the prospective candidates on location. Its a way for Idol watchers to nominate talent from their own backyard and have a hand in the process.
If you can't make it to the auditions, the auditions will come to you.
A total of 10 towns will be visited by the mobile audition bus next month: Idaho Falls, ID; Billings, MT; Casper, WY; Rock Rapids, IA; Iowa City, IA; Bowling Green, KY; Clarksdale, MS; Joplin, MO; Dodge City, KA; and Grand Junction, CO.
Provides a two week window to submit one video of yourself singing a pre-approved song from Idol. This allows a singer to choose what he or she believes is their best performance without worrying about choking in front of the judges.
A big problem with this country is that we are watching this crap.
Being a musician I love the show but not sure if I can tolerate Nicki.
Wife and I will be watching tonight, but can't say for how long. We are not very enthused about DISASTER MINAJ being a judge and also think going back to 4 judges is the second worst move (after hiring Minaj) that Idol has ever made.
We will probably give it a couple shows and if the antics are too stupid then Idol will be off our TV for good.
*waves* Hi Jonny!!
See you tonight!! XOXO
I don't think performers who rely on AutoTune, should be judging singers.
Thank the Lawd..Our long internet nightmare is almost over.. The FR AI thread is BAAAAAACK!!
Thanks for the ping silent_jonny.We are going to see if it is worth watching.((((Hugs))))
So glad you are back. It was a long year but here we are. I am hoping and praying that American Idol still has the mojo and can at least beat The Voice and every show on Wednesday night. We shall see!!!!
I didn't know what that was so I looked it up...very enlightening.
I guess real talent isn't necessary anymore.
Thanks for the ping.
Not happy with the judges, but will watch anyway.
Can't be worse than seeing The Bronco Bama Show that's been on for 4 years....
: /
Very well done setup for 2013 season - thanks! Hope it doesn't suck. ;-)
Thanks! Definitely need the annual AI thread diversion for a couple of months.
At the risk of being called a racist, I'm already disliking this Nicki person...
This one:
This one:
jonny!!!! Howdy!! (((hugs)))
Thanks for remembering me! Love ya!
What up, dawg?
I'm not sure if I'm looking forward to watching AI tonight but I am looking forward to this thread!
Thanks for hosting again.
Looking forward to the commentary on the new judges.
My initial contribution : Nicki Minaj. - proof that aliens are here.....
It's going to be interesting to see what the "new" Idol is like.
I didn't know if you were going to boycott on account of Nikki joining the team, thank God you didn't:)
Let the season begin.....and awesome work as usual on the graphics!
Sorry for the double ping. I only clicked post once.
I am now in the Central Time Zone permanently which means I can read, laugh and sometimes post in REAL TIME!
How apropos the opening song was "Welcome Home!"
>>on account of Nikki joining the team<<
We have NEVER had better snark-fodder! I have been looking forward to this thread just so say.....
Nikki who????
Although jonny will be about 100 posts behind everyone...
Back atcha
HI JONNY!!!!!!! Woo hoo, here we go AGAIN.
I think it will be better than we think. Or at least not as bad, lol
And aint Mariah's 5 octave range that keeps her in pop top-dom.
It is her 5 octave figure!
(play me a song, you're the ...)
Aw :) Hi, Shelayne!!
Welcome Back, Ken!
many higs from old friends abound!
Beer — check!
Popcorn — check!
Snark — check!
Good. To. Go!
A big HIG back at ya.
God, Nicki is a ho.
Hi, Fatima! Always look forward to your free hugs :)
After all these years I FINALLY figured out who Randy reminds me of!
It is Robin William's Impression of Sammy Davis Jr. Jr.
Hey Jonny! So good to "see" everyone again! Let the snarking begin!
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.


text:
Share Your Reflection

I am unaware of Brodsky so I don't if she or he is not
I am unaware of Brodsky so I don't if she or he is not quite correct. Human consciousness began when 'Eve' asked "Why am I?", the question which gave birth to humanity. There is no answer to this question and it is the existence of this void in our lives that creates the "tension". Rather than call 'Adam's' response a "lie" which implies an attempt to deceive, I prefer to consider it a myth, an attempt to explain the unknown. Whatever, it was the birth of our "religious/philosophical reaction to the void." It couldn't fill the void and as a consequence, 'Eve's' question has echoed through the millennia giving us our present collection of religious/philosophies and seven other ways we vainly try to fill the void, and "the idea reaction to the void", thus life.
To dispute the notion "there can be no poetry" with a "straight unequivocal immaculate version of things" I leave this http://www.thelastwhy.ca/poem/ The second is a short derivative I leave because it is about "Eden". http://www.thelastwhy.ca/poems... I greatly appreciate your indulgence.

I really appreciated that Ms. Zornberg talked about the
I really appreciated that Ms. Zornberg talked about the story of Eden as one of growing up. I've always seen the story as children growing up. It's not that they were "punished," but rather had to suffer the natural consequences of choosing to leave childhood behind. It's a traumatic time for parents and children. Children love to run around naked, but suddenly they hit a time where it's no longer acceptable. Children don't know the difference between right and wrong, but at some point we have to learn. Once we learn these adult things, we can't turn back the clock and life get's harder.
That's how I see the story. Eve chose to grow up.


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We had a very successful International Mountain Bicycling Association (IMBA) Trail Care Crew (TCC) visit this past weekend. The Santa Cruz mountain biking community knocked IMBA's socks off with our support of the event. They cited only 2 other visits in 2 years of travel that matched the number of volunteers, donations and swag Santa Cruz contributed.
On Thursday night, the TCC gave the Grassroots Advocacy: How to Get What You Want presentation to the club officers and key volunteers to MBoSC officers and key volunteers. MBoSC is the first group that this presentation was given to they correctly identified political engagement as our area of improvement as a club.
On Friday morning, the crew presented Better Living Through Trails: The power of mountain biking to improve your community to a diverse crowd: City employees, Parks and Rec, State Parks, Parks Commission members, bike community leaders, MBOSC member and officers.
On Saturday we had about 40 volunteers, State Parks and City of Santa Cruz staff attend an instructional workshop about building sustainable trails. Following a burrito lunch in the Wilder Ranch Barn the trail workers were shuttled to the top of Wilder Ranch and added drainage features to upper Zane Gray trail. The rains had eased up and we were fortunate to work in the sun. Volunteers were treated to free dinner, beer and schwag at Seabright Brewery after a great workday.
The local bike industry demonstrated their generosity in support of this event. All trail work volunteers got a nice Ibis beer glass and everyone got schwag. Bell/Blackburn donated full face and XC helmets, carbon and aluminum water bottle cages, Specialized donated a couple of S-works helmets and plenty of soft goods, Ibis donated hoodies, T-shirt and lots of beer glasses and John Caletti donated some nice T-shirts.
Some of the accomplishments from the visit include:
- We have a better sense of how to grow the political influence of the club.
- We informed a broad group of local stake holders on the economic and health benefits of a trail system
- We strengthened our partnerships with State Parks and the City of Santa Cruz
- We have 40 local mountain bikers trained in sustainable trail building – which should really help out on the Pogonip multi-use trail (MUT)
- We put in approximately 30+ sustainable drainage features along the upper Zane Gray trail in Wilder Ranch
Best quote from MBoSC member James Bradley: "We spent the morning with high quality classroom instruction followed by practicing it in field. Catered lunch, free dinner and beer and schwag. This is the kind of seminar that costs top dollar – and it was free? What a deal!"
We would like to thank Chris Pereira – Trails and Road Supervisor for this State Parks District – for working with Drew on finding a project that the crew can work on. Wilder Ranch Ranger Jamie Stamps for understanding the local mountain biking community's desires for more legal and sustainable trails, being an advocate on our behalf and for hanging out with us at Seabright Brewery on Saturday night. I would also like to thank Meta Rhodeos from the City Parks Department for attending many of the sessions and for her work on the Pogonip MUT.
We would like to thank the sponsors of this event: Don from Bell Bike Helmets/Blackburn, Tracy from Mick's Automotive, Shawn from Epicenter Cycling, Ian and Mallory from Specialized Bicycles, Marty from Digital Media Factory and Charlie and Jessica from Seabright Brewery.
Other thanks include:
* Seabright Brewery for donating a keg of their delicious Pelican Pale Ale and sodas.
* Digital Media Factory for providing a warm, dry space for the trail school classroom.
* ibis Cycles for the schwag and beer glasses for all volunteers.
* Karen Kefauver for plugging the weekend's events in her Spin City column.
* Dave Smith and Shuttle Smith Adventures for shuttling a good portion of the trail workers and tools to the work site & back.
* Norma Jeans and Peet's Coffee for coffee and pastries.
* Taqueria Vallarta for warm burritos on a cold, rainy trail work day.
Thank you to all trail volunteers for devoting a rainy Saturday to learn and practice building long-lasting sweet single track
Thanks to Drew Perkins, Mark Davidson, Eve Davidson, Chris Pereira, Jo Rathbun, John Fuchs, Michele Lamelin & Lindsay Overton for your work in organizing these events. A very special thanks to Shannon Armstrong for coordinating the entire event and having it run so smoothly.
Finally, we would like to thank Chris and Leslie Kehmeier for inspiring our community. They are incredible ambassadors of the sport. Every time a TCC crew visits Santa Cruz MBoSC grows in a very profound way.
What a great and productive visit! Full speed ahead on the Santa Cruz Mountain Bike Festival!
Write up and pictures from the Trail Care Crew.


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Skip to comments.HOUSE REPUBLICANS CIRCULATE PLAN TO OUST BOEHNER FROM SPEAKERSHIP
Posted on 12/21/2012 6:34:07 PM PST by HenryArmitage
Several conservative House Republican members are contemplating a plan to unseat Speaker John Boehner from his position on January 3, Breitbart News has exclusively learned. Staffers have compiled a detailed action plan that, if executed, could make this a reality. The Republicans, both conservatives and more establishment members alike, are emboldened after the failure of Boehners fiscal cliff Plan B on Thursday evening. Dissatisfaction with Boehner is growing in the House Republican conference, but until now there hasnt been a clear path forward.
(Excerpt) Read more at breitbart.com ...
Throw them all out. R's and D's
Any who voted for that gold-plated health care plan for themselves and Obama-care for us - throw them in prison.
That would be a good thing. The problem is the rest of the 233 are worthless idiots to. Is there a single good House member?
Its time to break some eggs. Go home Boehner. You've allowed 17 trillion dollars of debt. You've done enough damage.
Boehner needs 218 votes to be speaker or it gets vacated until someone does.
'bout time.
Do it please. He should step down voluntarily.
What...they don't have enough guts to stand up and vote against him? Seems pretty clear cut to me. Let the dice fly!
Someone with 'attachments' and no tear ducts please!
I suggest tar and feathers.
Yes, there's a few, Gohmert for one.
If they grew some balls and did this, I would consider supporting them in 2014.
Right now, I'm not going to, because there is no reason to.
Why is Lucy holding the football again??????????
I hope there is a shred of truth on this; Boehner has been a disaster for the last two FULL years.
Had he championed some of the Tea Party initiatives, Obama and the Dems might have suffered a massive defeat this fall.
Now watch, how his "friends" across the aisle and Obama completely abandon him,like the good little Marxists they all are, once Boehner's usefulness is over.
Sniff... sniff.. smells more like 1775 every day.
Make that 217 votes...
Rep. Jesse Jackson, Jr., has resigned his position, there will be 434 voting members on January 3. For someone to win the Speaker election, theyd need to secure 217 votes or a majority of everyone voting.
too late. I don't see how they get all these House Republicans to rally around a single replacement during the last 2 weeks in Dec. All this should have done all this long ago
The fact that many conservatives were willing to stand up against him
on this Tax Raising bill at least they no longer fear him, regardless of
Committee assignments or Chairmanships.
This could be a promising development. However all leadership
must be replaced including Cantor and McCarthy.
Tom McClintock is a piece of gold amongst the dreck.
Heck, they vote for everything she wants anyway!
But, seriously, Boehner just needs to listen to his Members. Though Cantor would win, and (appropriately chastened by Boehner's dethronment!) do better.
If this will be anything like the primaries where the conservatives couldn't agree on a candidate this should be lotsa fun.
Yes it is way past due, but if u read the plan, it is doable.
Good point. Perhaps formally they can't do much but I still wonder if there is a replacement lined up or not? Without someone to step up and herd the cats all this is meaningless
Of course 201 Dems can vote for Boener, leaving the rebellion out in the cold.
It's probably their smartest vote.
I don't think he cares. He might even be glad if it happens.. Glad to NOT have to look at the evil monster . And be glad to not meet with the monster in person at the White Hut. He's seen politicians come and go, so I'm sure he knows if it's his turn to leave the Speaker position, then so be it.
Looks like its time for your boys to break out the Water Boards.
Mutiny is in the air. You and some others here did not see the backlash
developing against Plan B, I doubt u are capable of seeing the growing
backlash against these three stooges (bonehead, Cantor and McCarthy)
GREAT NEWS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Go Conservatives!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
RINO Boehner NEVER understood that Democrats insist on two giant steps to the Left, then find some sucker like Boehner to vote with them in a Bipartiasan Cave-In, with the mumbled promise that the Democrats might consider, someday, maybe, to taking a slight shuffle to the Right.
Hence, the 'Creeping Socialism' from FDR to today, with the Democrats NEVER giving up ANY of their Socialist gains.
RINOs, such as Boehner are always proud to say "Well, we had to get something done. The American People expect us to get something done. We were sent here to get something done. Etc, etc, etc."
BTW Boehner, we, your "American People," are about as done as a flaming, charcoal-encrusted goose!
>>Since there are 233 Republicans heading into the next Congress, only 17 Republicans would be needed to unseat Boehner.
Another way to look at it is that Boehner only needs the support of 17 RINOs to keep his seat if the Dhimmi's back him. It depends on how badly the communists want to keep Weepy on the other side of the negotiating table.
Oh, Lord, please make it happen and make all of our Christmase bright.
Long past time for the Weeper of the House to be gone. Spineless RINOs have done far too much damage.
Thanks for posting this article. Great read and doable plan.
I hope this doable plan gets put into action.
K-Street Money Changers and Trent Lott are pissing on themselves.
Louie Gohmert, for one.
Divide and conquer.
Makes you wonder what Pelosi could do as Speaker with the majority voting against her every time.
IF they would vote against her every time.
Oh and BTW, even though he was defeated in his last campaign...
The Constitution does not require that the Speaker be an elected Member of Congress, but no non-member has ever been elected to the office according to Article I, Section 2 of the U.S. Constitution states, "The House of Representatives shall chuse (sic) their Speaker and other Officers."
You are absolutely right! Col. West would be perfect.
Boner is well past his "best by" date.
Nancy can give him some votes if he needs them.
Well said!
Boehner had his chance. He's great at some things. But being a conservative leader is not one of them.
Maybe we should start emailing our congress critters? One of the many reasons I love this idea, aside from Congressman COL Ret. West is if he is the speaker and is unelected, he has no reason to worry about his next election.
Just random thoughts on a Friday evening after a few glasses of a very nice red while sitting by the fire with my sleeping pups close by.....
God is good!
Uh, the GOPe is already toast, they just don't know it yet.
What about a rail to ride on?
I can just see him sniveling now... the pantywaist politician wannabe.
I'd go for Tom Cotton.
That's a stratergery problem........
That's a strategery problem........
Trey Gowdy
Louie Gohmert
Allen West
Do it, GOP.
"Of course 201 Dems can vote for Boener,"
Thought about that one too, the Dummycraps will vote for Boner just for spite. Anything that is for the GOP, they will obviously vote against.
No republicans voted for the ObamaCare. It passed in 2009/2010 with only democrats. The House was controlled by the democrats then. Many of the republicans have forgotten that the republicans were rewarded by the tea party with newly-elected House control in 2010. They say elephants have a very good memory, which makes me realize that the top brass of the party are NOT republicans, but truly rhinos! when Saxby Chambliss, one of my two senators, publicly stated he would support tax hikes, I wrote and told him I would work very hard to make sure he lost in his next primary race.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.


text:
0 Members and 1 Guest are viewing this topic.
Wife and kids were thrilled at the results of my first attempt at a PH Pan Pizza. I liked it too. I think the crust was better than PH but the cheese i used (Kraft shredded part skim mozzarella) still lacks behind PH. Anyway, I could only find "NIDO" dry milk powder at my supermarket. What does this ingredient do to the dough as far as taste/texture/processing ?


text:
Hi to all!
I'm pleased to announce an outstanding new book on Paul's solo career. Made in the same format of Mark Lewishon's THE COMPLETE BEATLES RECORDING SESSIONS, the book is an amazing journey through Paul's solo songs, listed in chronological order of recording.
Each song contains information on recording dates, location, musicians (WHO PLAYED WHAT), with memories and anecdotes taken from exclusive interviews with many musicians, producers, arrangers that worked with McCartney in the studio. A glimpse at Paul's recording tecniques and his inspiration behind the songs. The most extensive work done on Paul's sessions, from MCCARTNEY to these days.
The first version, out in January, it's in italian with english version coming soon after.
Please visit
(English translation of website and samples from Dec, 5th)
and book your copy at special promotional price (28 euros, shipping costs not included)!


text:
Amy's News
News articles related to our company and products.
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RECOMMENDED: Amy's Kitchen 3 Cheese Pizza
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WHY: Lunchables Ham + American has 750 miligrams of sodium - that's about 33 percent of the maximum amount a 3-year-old like Abby should have daily. Amy's Kids Meals Baked Ziti comes in at about half that.
Print Page


text:
Life on the Boat Moksha Suite Room
Size200 ft²
Floor No.
- Family/child friendly
- Kitchen
- Air conditioning
- Breakfast
- Suitable for events
- Internet/WiFi
Accommodation summary
|Shum Wan Rd, Wong Chuk Hang, 0000 Hong Kong, Hong Kong
|Property type
|Private room
|Property ID
The Information about Moksha:
Hong Kong is a great city but with very limited space, it makes it difficult to live if you come from open places. Having a 6 feet by 2 feet balcony in Hong-Kong means throwing millions more and a sea view is something only thousands of dollar/night can buy you.
The host (Saral) lives with his Chinese girlfriend (Sweety) and the helper (Siti) on the boat. Besides the master bedroom and the helper room, there are 2 extra bedrooms on the boat available for guest short-term stay.
Only for those, who would like to make their holiday special and experience "the life on a boat", we are offering 2 rooms to rent. Our boat is called Moksha and was built in 1993. The boat has been restored and converted into comfortable houseboat in Oct 2010, with classic Chinese wooden decoration. It's moored in Aberdeen on Hong Kong Island. It's just 2 minutes to famous Jumbo Restaurant; 5 minutes to Ocean Park, 15 minutes by bus to Jockey Club (Horse races-every Wednesday), Wan-Chai, Causeway-Bay and Deep-Water-Bay beach. 25 minutes by bus (with regular traffic) to Central and Stanley Beach. We are parked in Hong-Kong Island and next to Bus terminal and taxi station so transportation is very easy.
The Room Conditions:
On this page, you can see the bedroom pictures. This is a 200 square feet suite room at top of the boat at the independent floor with full set bathroom and sea view balcony, full size wardrobe and drawers, desk, reading light, clean pillows and quilt. The bed linens are changed once in 3 days but will provide fresh on your arrival. Our helper will daily clean and make your bedroom, washroom/bathroom. Any additional services such as laundry and ironing can be arranged with her directly. There will be HKD50 per day if you require the laundry service.
This suit room can accommodate for 2 persons (a couple) with a kid, we can provide the mattress for the kid in the same room. After that for extra 1 persons can stay in the TV room. TV room has a small double bed, which can accommodate 1 adult or 2 kids. The TV room is open but with a curtain to close on the bedside, please refers to pictures for details if you are 3 or 4 persons in your trip. For a trip with 4 -5 persons, we will help you reserve 2 rooms with the TV room. (For the kid under 10 years old we do not charge extra.)
We Offer:
Basic breakfast such as cereals, bread-toast, tea, coffee will also be provided. We usually cook Chinese, Indian, Indonesian food or BBQ on the boat and will also invite you too join but please do not consider this mandatory or included in your room rent.
For food, there are few nice restaurants around our place; there is a great and cheap Thai food near by (only 10 walk), authentic fish market (where you can choose fresh sea food and take to kitchen for cooking). The details we will tell you on your arrival. And guests are also welcome to bring their food and cook in the kitchen.
Transportation to the Boat:
From the airport to our place, it takes around 40 minutes by Taxi & costs around HKD350. If you want a local/cheaper option, then first take the airport express train (HK$100 per person) from the airport to Hong Kong Station (Central- last stop) then take a bus (HKD4.7 per person) from outside the train station (Exchange Square bus terminal) to the last stop (Shum Wan road bus terminal) near our home. Or you can take a taxi (HKD80) after you arrive Central. The pier is next to the bus terminal, you can take the water taxi to the boat. It is only 5 minutes away from the pier to the boat. The water taxi runs 24 hours and cost HKD7 per person in the day time, HKD10 per person in the night time and HKD20 per person after mid-night.
The direction with full details & reference pictures will be sent to you by email a week before your check in date.
We have 2 British Short Hair breed cats on the boat, the grey one call Shiva and the white one called Apple. Shiva is a boy, he understand what you are talking about but he never care. He hate people hug and touch him but if you do it, he will not against it. Apple is a girl she always likes to follow people and want people touch her, but do not try to hug her, as she will fight back. The cats are not allowed into the guest room. If the cats try to go into your room and you are not happy about it, just tell them go out and they will run out straight away.
The Last Thing:
I will recommend you also check out our house rules from the website and we look forward to see you on Moksha.
Tips for booking:
1. You can direct make the reservation from Wimdu, select the right check in and check out date, the number of persons, then settle the payment. After you have done it, a confirmation email will be sent to you and the booking record will be updated to our calendar automatically. The owner has no right to change your booking date after the booking has been confirmed, if you found out the booking date is not the one you expect from the booking confirmation, please contact Wimdu immediately to help you change the date.
2. After you make the reservation, the host will send the full direction to your Wimdu registry email address.
3. If you have any special requirement, please let us know and we will try our best to arrange. In case any extra cost for any special arrangement, we'll advise you in advance.
House rulesSecurity Deposit of US$400 due upon check-in. Fully refundable if there is no damage inside the apartment
- As concerned about the health of the cats, Please do-not feed the cat without host permission.
- Check out time Before 1pm however in some circumstances such as late flight, we accept late check-out considering that no other guests are arriving the same day, in which case you are welcomed to hang-around on the boat but clear the room before 1pm.
- Check in time: After 1:00 pm however in some circumstances such as early flight arrival, we accept early check-in considering that no other guests are checking out the same day, in which case you are welcomed to hang-around on the boat until the room is cleared and cleaned.
IMPORTANT NOTE: If Check-in after 9pm, is consider as late and requires you to inform the host in advance as we have to make special arrangements. If the guest didn't inform the host of the late check-in, we will consider the booking is cancelled automatically without refund.
- We have electric toilets on-board which gets jammed/damaged if you throw anything else in the toilet except toilet paper (eg cotton buds, plastic, diapers, pads etc) . In case the pump is broken due to your carelessness we'll charge the repair fees of USD200 as penalty.
- Smoking is only allowed in outdoor area. It's not allowed to smoke indoors including living room, guest room and washroom.
- All rules are flexible, but the guests have to discuss with the host in advance if they have any special situation.
- The boat is only allowed the person who make the reservation stay on the boat, if you have friends in Hong Kong and you want to invite them to the boat, please ask the host permission in advance. If the guest bring other persons on the boat without notice, we will cancel the your stay permit immediately without any refund.
|Weekly rate for up to 2 guests
|£ 681
|Monthly rate for up to 2 guests
|£ 2368
|Price for > 2 guests
|£ 42 per guest/night extra
|Check-in After
|Check-in before
|On arrangement
|Check-out Before
|Cancellation Policy
Reviews of this property
Despite all the romantic stories I have read about the stay on the boat, and despite the fact that Saral seems to be a nice guy (as he is very precise in the description and material about how to get/to find his boat) - I unfortunately can not recommend to stay on Moksha! The reason lies in the fact that the Cats on the Boat will most likely spoil your belongings (in our case they peed in my daughters suitcase!!!) or if you happen to be lucky that this will not be the fact, than you will most likely bring cockroaches from the boat to your home or wherever you go next. We had them in our suitcase - which to our surprise apparently surprised the stuff on the boat!?!?
All in all the four nights were tough also because we were unlucky that there were power supply-problems unluckily just at the days we were there so that cooling and light (cockroaches!) fell out...
Reviews for this host's other properties
Very unusual waterfront living by Singapore's limited marina standards. We missed out narrowly on the new annex room above. The cats are awesome and we actually look forward to the daily boat rides to the bus interchange to town.
Quit an experience! The boat lays in the Aberdeen harbour, closeby the 'floating restaurants'...
Cosy(quite old wooden) boat with great night view.
The helper Siti is very kind.
Free breakfast is another good point.
Bad point is the bed - is too hard and pillow was to low for me(worse than hostel bed in Mongkok). I had serious waist pain next day.
And they are on renovation currently. very noisy in the morning from 8am. There was no prior notice on it.
excellent experience staying on the boat! very very comfy and cozy. thank you very much sweetie, saral and citi!
a very different and unique stay. I actually witness another side of Hong Kong. No more the the busy city but just the calm sea.
The host is very warm, friendly and helpful too.
Very nice host! I didnt show up because of the bad weather but he give me a chance to drop by in 6 months.
- Quality assured accommodation
- Every host is verified by telephone
- Secure payment via SSL encryption


text:
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Check this link to The Fresh Loaf, it describes w pics Sullivan Street Potato Pizza from Maggie Glezer's "Artisan Baking". Pretty interesting very wet dough.http://www.thefreshloaf.com/node/5285/sullivan-street-potato-pizzaI haven't had a chance to try it yet but saw Mark Decarlo visit them on "Taste of America", looked really good.