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Latest Updates from Dogfart (Page 33)
Miley May
Blacks On Blondes
13th October
- Miley May's return to our network has her going against the biggest cock in porn--Mandingo! The blonde fuck toy wants to get her name into the Interra
cial Hall of Fame by attempting to take every inch of Mandingo's third leg. Miley thought she reached her porn limits when she sucked and fucked a dozen big black cocks over at InterracialBlowbang.com. As amazing as that was there are only a select few that have had Mandingo unleash fury on their pussy. Miley's mouth sucks down her pussy juice in between the many positions Mandingo puts her in. The final bell rings only after Mandingo coats her face with that tree trunk he calls a dick.
...Read More
Candice Dare
Glory Hole
10th October
- Candice Dare is a good a liar as she is a cheater. Candice has her man at home while she's being a good little black cock slut. It's bad enough that s
he's cheating on him...but with a stranger's black dick in an adult bookstore? that's just shameful-but we can't turn away. The sexy blonde's phone keeps blowing up as she,well, keeps blowing that random big black cock via the gloryhole. Her man's paranoia has ground since she's currently taking a bareback black cock deep in the same pussy he TRIES to satisfy on a nightly basis. Candice's evening dinner will include actual food. However, her boyfriend's dinner will be the creampie that an random big black cock just shot up her pussy.
...Read More
Erika Devine
Blacks On Blondes
3rd October
- To say Erika Devine is "nervous" about her first interracial sex scene is putting it mildly. We find her and Isiah on their way to our office in the h
opes of making her the next big thing. The sexual chemistry between both of them leads to an all out fuck-a-thon in a public restroom--they did miss their appointment. Isiah's disregard for punctuality is forgiven since he's now got his big black cock in Erika's mouth. The shy blonde works over that big black cock while the risk of them getting caught increases by the second. Isiah's meaty sword finds deep housing in Erika's tight, white cunt. The janitor's plight of cleaning up after them will be easy--Isiah's load gets shot deep in that fertile womb.
...Read More
Katerina Kay
Cuckold Sessions
2nd October
- The white man's self-esteem continues to sink lower and lower with each passing generation. Katerina Kay's boyfriend is lacking the funds needed to sc
ore some "party favors" for a rave they're to attend. Charlie Mac is the man to go to in times when just the music will not do. The boyfriend is already in debt to Mr. Mac. However, the white guy barter's his girlfriend's mouth to buy more time with an extremely violent guy. Once inside Katerina's initial relucatance to "just blow" Charlie disappears once she discovers the power of black dick. The boyfriend's new status is that of "cuckold", as he watches the love of his life do some unsavory things. Charlie's big black dick stuffs Katerina Kay's mouth as her dude watches in amazement. If you thought this would end with just a blow job then you're wrong. Very wrong. Katerina rides the bull while shouting insults at the man she USED to let inside her. The dealer's willingness to work with the cuckold only shows that he has some mercy....but shows none to that tight,white fuck hole. Charlie's early payment comes when he unleashes his thick goodness all over Katerina. Guess who's on clean-up duty.
...Read More
Candi Coxx
Blacks On Blondes
26th September
- "I need to try out this west coast dick" is all Rico Strong and Charlie Mac needed to lay the pipe down on Candi Coxx's holes. We begin with Candi Cox
x going over her sexual resume-as far as non-black cock is concerned. Candi makes her way to the west side so that Rico and Charlie can slam their meat into every opening on Candi. The slut with ENORMOUS tits has her way with Charlie and Rico's black dicks. The veteran swordsmen poke and prod her ass and pussy at the same time. The moans and screams coming from Candi's lungs are on an entirely different level. Candi's west coast trip comes to an end when both guys unload their creamy goodness all over her face.
...Read More
Holly Heart
Glory Hole
26th September
- The wedding ring on Holly Heart's finger is as useless as the husband who bought it. Holly's need to take her sexual perversions to the next level has
brought her to a gloryhole. The blonde with amazing tits rubs one out while watching some filthy interracial porn. Holly's visit would have been adequate enough if it just ended there. No, a random black cock makes this tale much more interesting. The unfaithful wife gets on her knees to orally service the faceless black man's massive appendage. Her jaw nearly snaps in half while she makes the most of an awkward moment. Holly's white pussy is now up for the black man's taking. She rides the wall and feels the big difference between the black stranger and the dead fuck she goes to bed with nightly.
...Read More
Lexxi Lash
Blacks On Cougars
25th September
- Spoiler Alert: This is Lexxi Lash's first time ever with a black guy.
Brooklyn Chase
Blacks On Blondes
21st September
- Brooklyn Chase's days of living on the edge may have just caught up with her. The busty slut is in dire need of using the ladies room. However, it's l
ocked and the mens room is her only option. Once inside , Brooklyn's panties drop to the filthy floor. One thing leads to another and waves of black guys come and go. However, they're more interested in the black cock clut than the urinals they intended to use. When it's all said and done about a dozen black cocks have their way with the bathroom whore.
...Read More
Skylar Green
Watching My Daughter Go Black
20th September
- Warning: The following scene is not for the squeamish or those with a heart condition. We find Skylar Green hand-in-hand with Moe. They encounter her
dad, Mr. Green, as he's on his way to the office. The look back he makes is a clear signal that all isn't right in the Green household. Moe and Skylar get back to her place, where they lock lips....and more. Skylar sucks on Moe's monster as Mr.Green's snooping becomes much more evident with each passing minute. Skylar's old man finally walks in and, well, things take an interesting turn. Instead of heading to the safety of New York, Moe's given approval to continue fucking the snow bunny known as Skylar Green. Mr. Green's grin goes from ear to ear, and the apple of his eye is getting her fill of thug dick. The deviant old man plays coach to Skylar as she continues to get some good,black dickin'. Mr. Green's an eyewitness to the conception of Skylar's black baby. The result of all this is complete access to the endless funds of daddy.
...Read More
Kayla West
Cuckold Sessions
20th September
- The life of a cuckold and his thought process is best illustrated in a recent encounter between Kayla West, Charlie Mac and a white guy who's mind is
as low as his self esteem. We find the cuckold as he's watching an interracial couple out and about. His life's only meaning is watching big black cocks invade the tightest of white holes. Eventually we find the cuckold in his natural habitat: A bedroom where white girl's get their fill of black dick! The cuckold's fantasy comes to life as threats of violence are used against him when the black bull catches him looking at his big black dick. Kayla, however, gets her mouth treated to Charlie's huge donkey dick. The only physical pleasure the white cuckold gets is when he's given the green light to play with his own puny pecker. Kayla's screams are music to the cuckold's ears, and Charlie's non-stop assault on that pussy is an early Christmas present to the cuckold. As overheard earlier, the cuckold knows he can't compete with the sheer size of the black man's cock; however, he knows this and fills his belly with Charlie's seed that was just covering Kayla's amazing tits. Again, white people are a strange breed.
...Read More
Sandra Luberc
Blacks On Blondes
15th September
- Sandra Luberc arrived in the good ol' U.S.A without a clue as to how to get around the rough streets. We find Rico Strong and Charlie Mac complaining
about the lack of white pussy on this beautiful day; however, it seems as if Sandra Luberc's Russian ways are going to fill that void. Rico and Charlie offer the lost Russian some assistance, but they're more concerned with getting an oral lesson in the Russian language. Once inside, the two veteran swordsmen eventually show Sandra a paid of black cocks that have her wishing she got to America sooner. Sandra goes back and forth on both black cocks while using her mouth to give them some Russian hospitality. The whore from Eastern Europe sucks them both...and it's that sweet pussy that's next on the menu. Rico and Charlie take turns slithering their black anacondas deep inside her fuck hole, and her moans progressively get louder. Sandra's formal welcome to the jungle really takes an interesting turn when her ass and pussy get stuffed at the same time. Can you say "double penetration?" Can you say "Russian whore getting dicked down by some brothas?" No matter how you say it, Sandra's BlacksOnBlondes.com debut ends when her face gets bombarded with ghettolicious goo.
...Read More
Alana Evans
Watching My Mom Go Black
14th September
- Miss Dallas is the step-daughter of Alana Evans. Even though she's an adult,Miss Dallas still has to deal with Alana's constant nagging and complainin
g. Miss Dallas was supposed to be hitting the books hard in Comnmunity College. However, the blonde slut is now in bed with her first black guy. Things take an interesting turn when Alana walks in on her step-daughter with her mouth around a jock's big, black dick. Alana, at first, is startled and almost calls Miss Dallas' father to break the news. Miss Dallas and Isiah eventually wear Alana down to the point where curiosity gets the better of the MILF. Miss Dallas lures her step-mom to the darker side by sharing Isiah's big black cock--with the same woman who's banging her dad. We find both sluts at the power of big, black cock until they both take a test drive on Isiah's black meat. We are also front row to the infidelity of both women--Alana cheating on her husband, and Miss Dallas cheating on some pussy named Jake. The only thing of importance now is that both vaginal walls are getting nearly demolished by a massive black cock. Alana's initial refusal to take part in some taboo mayhem has disappeared faster than a black cock in her pussy. It looks as if the family that cheats together stays together.
...Read More
Candice Dare
Interracial Pickups
14th September
- Candice Dare is in dire need of being the next big thing in porn. We find Candice searching out super agent Isiah Maxwell in order to fulfill her drea
m of sucking and fucking on camera. Candice's appointment to discuss her future with Isiah doesn't end in a professional manner. No, Candice Dare will do ANYTHING to have the hung black man represent her in all things adult related. The stunning blonde gets on her knees in Isiah's office in the hopes of sucking every inch of his big, black dick. The future looks bright when Candice Dare goes dark.....really dark. The future superstar spreads those amazing legs for the taking. Isiah's desk sees Candice getting her pussy plowed, fucked and drilled by Isiah's monster-of-a-black-cock until it shoots its venom deep in that cunt. We have a strong feeling she's now on his roster of "sluts for hire."
...Read More
Rose Red Tyrell
Glory Hole
13th September
- Rose Red's boyfriend has no idea that his woman is as unfaithful as they come. Rose's relationship with white guys last nearly as long as this update
does. We find the fiery redhead in a public restroom, where random black cock sprout up like the plague. Rose's crimson lips wrap around a cock that finds housing in her throat. It's a safe bet that her boyfriend's at home, jerking his little cock as Rose gets her pussy fucked by a real man. The glory hole successfully satisfies another black cock slut. Rose's boyfriend? Well, we know know for sure that his size condom would never fit a black man's dick.
...Read More
Marica Hase
Blacks On Blondes
8th September
- Moe and Chanell are on a couple's vacation. What better way for two lovebirds to relax than by having a deep tissue massage by the talented hands of a
sexy Japanese woman? We can't think of anything better than that. Moe and Chanell discover that the language barrier with Marica is harder than the black cock Moe carries around 24/7. The timid Japanese masseuse eventually forgoes the massage in favor for some fun time with the black couple. Moe and Chanell have their way with Marica (an obvious violation of club rules), and we soon find both sluts sharing a big, black dick. Marica's mouth cleans off Chanell's pussy juice off Moe's monster. Marica's interracial ordeal comes in the form of her asshole getting stretched out to maximum circumference. Chanell's man keeps pounding that asian ass....and both the masseuse and Chanell dine on Moe's D.N.A
...Read More


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Performance has always been and still is the major concern of hybrid apps. Ionic however has already shown that it's possible to make high performance hybrid apps, but there are sometimes still some optimisations necessary to smooth out any stutter/lag.
This post will show you some performance improvements I have learned when building Ionic applications.
Native scroll
This implementation will probably give you the most performance gain.
Instead of using the default Javascript scrolling, Ionic provides an option to use native scrolling.
We can enable it per view by placing following attribute on an ion-content tag
Or we can enable it for all views
If you're already using collection-repeat, you might want to consider replacing it with a normal ng-repeat. I've experienced some stutter when using collection-repeat in combination with native scroll.
Crosswalk provides a bundled Chrome Webview with the app, resulting in better performance and predictability.
Ionic recommends using crosswalk for older versions of Android devices (4.0-4.3), but I've also noticed an enormous improvement in performance even on newer Android devices (4.3+).
This improvement was mostly noticeable on CSS animations.
We can add crosswalk to our project with this command
ionic browser add crosswalk
If the added size is of an issue, crosswalk lite might be worth considering. This is only half the size of the normal crosswalk project.
This however means that they had to remove some features:
- It's currently Android only
- It doesn't contain the more advanced features like WebRTC
Using the GPU hack
No worries, it's only a small hack to implement. When using CSS animations, we have two possibilities to use:
-webkit-transform: translateZ(0);
-webkit-transform: translate3d(0,0,0);
What this does is force the browser to create a new layer and send the rendering to the GPU instead of the CPU.
This might speed up your animations, but testing is key here.
Angular TemplateCache
By default there is already a caching mechanism present in Ionic. This mechanism however only caches the view when it is first entered.
By using Angular TemplateCache we can make sure all views are already cached at app startup. This means no more initial lag when entering views for the first time.
It's quite easy to enable templateCache, first we need to install the gulp-angular-templatecache plugin
npm install gulp-angular-templatecache –save-dev
Then we make sure that it's possible to generate the template cache
gulp.task('templates', function() {
return gulp.src(paths.templates)
We also need to load the templates file in the index.html
<script src="lib/templates.js"></script>
A new module for the templates should also be created
angular.module('templates', []);
The last step is making sure the templates are loaded by Angular, we can make sure of this by adding a dependency for it in the angular module.
angular.module('myIonicApp', ['ionic', 'templates']);
Using the Ionic lifecycle events
You might have experienced some lag or stutter when transitioning to another page. We can get rid of this lag by wrapping the data we want loaded in an Ionic lifecycle event.
Let's say we want to load some appointments, we can wrap this service call inside the beforeEnter event
$scope.$on('$ionicView.beforeEnter', function() {
This event will trigger when we're about to enter the view, resulting in almost no lag in the transition animation.
This article showed you some small tips to improve the performance of your Ionic app.
Hopefully this has helped you speed up your application.
Further reading
Great article on how to improve performance of AngularJS applications

subset: commoncrawl


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Over 10,000 High Earners Paid No US Taxes
A study from the Internal Revenue Service has found that one out of 189 high earners in the US paid no income tax in 2009. That is, 10,080 households who reported adjusted gross income of at least $200,000 annually — 0.26 percent of high earners — paid no income taxes in the US or to other countries. It is further reason to support President Obama's "Buffett rule," which would tax high-earners at a rate of 30 percent or higher.
The IRS also reports that the number of high earners who paid no taxes rose from 0.51 percent to 0.53 percent. Under US tax law, citizens must pay US taxes for income earned around the world; they do receive tax credits for payments they make to other governments.
The number of households whose income exceeded $200,000 feel from 2008 (4.4 million households or 3.1 percent of the population) to 2009 (3.9 million households or 2.8) percent.
High earners are able to avoid paying taxes — even the alternative minimum tax, established in 1969 after 155 people earning $200,000 were found to have paid no taxes — through a variety of legal means including deductible charitable contributions, the exclusion for state and local government interest ("tax-exempt interest"), medical and dental expenses and other items. Via the Buffett rule and other proposals, Obama has supported limits in precisely these areas, deductions and the tax exemption for municipal bond interest. As the IRS report notes,
"High-income returns are more often nontaxable as a result of a combination of reasons, none of which, by itself, would result in nontaxability." (p. 15)
A chart on p. 16 of the IRS report shows the primary reasons for no tax liability in 2009.
Overall the IRS found that there were 35,061 households, or 0.88 percent, that paid nothing.
Related Care2 Coverage
IMF Director Lagarde Doesn't Pay Taxes
Democratic Leadership Fails American Public On Buffett Rule
Tax Day Actions Demand 1%, Corporations Pay Their Fair Share
The White House Shares Their Tax Records — Will Romney?
Photo by 401K


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muje mobile unroot nahi karna hai lekin hindi supported stock rom dalni hai, mene asia ki stock rom check ki lekin usme hindi nahi hai
to muje hindi supported stock rom chahiye
he he bhai agar english kamzor na hoti to english me hi post karta
i want hindi supported stock rom for htc explorer,
my mobile is rooted,
i don't want to unroot my mobile
but i want only hindi supported stock rom also i had downloaded asia_india stock rom but there is no hindi language so i want hindi supported stock rom, not custom
4. Use the English language.
We understand that with all the different nationalities, not everyone speaks English well, but please try. If you're really unable to post in English, use an online translator. You're free to include your original message in your own language, below the English translation. (This rule covers your posts, profile entries and signature).
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The goal of the TI99'ers Hall of Fame is to recognize the important, established and lasting contributions made by members of the TI99'er community. This should help ensure that continuing members of the TI99'er community remember how these inductees have contributed to the continuing enjoyment of this memorable 'classic' home computer.
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WEST WINDSOR TWP., N.J. – The Philadelphia University women's rowing team competed in the opening day of action at the Knecht Cup on a cold, snowy Saturday on Mercer Lake.
The Rams' second varsity four team advanced to Sunday's petite final to highlight Philadelphia's Saturday.
The boat started the day with the fourth-place time of 8 minutes, 40.03 seconds. Even though the Rams—one of two non-Division I boats in the field—finished fourth, the time was one of the four fastest among the teams that didn't come in first or second and allowed the Rams to advance.
In its semifinal heat, Philadelphia recorded a sixth-place finish with a time of 10:12.80 and was sent to the petite final. The Rams will be in lane five for petite final that is set to go off at 11:57 a.m.
The varsity eight boat—one of three non-DIs—posted a time of 8:07.17 to take fifth in heat two.
In the Club Four DI/II event, Philadelphia was seventh in its heat with a time of 8:51.93.
In addition to the second varsity four, the Rams will compete in the Club Eight DI/II race at 9:44 on Sunday.


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Frank on Twitter
- RT @BorlandSoftware: Want to react faster to business change? Read our eGuide to learn how: bit.ly/1tkHi9I https://t.co/LNLmoEZnXM 1 year ago
- Headin' to the hills for a while for a well deserved break. Stay in touch via @microfocus and @BorlandSoftware Frank out ; - ] 1 year ago
- Hi there @eurielwolf you'll need to direct that question to @EmbarcaderoTech who picked that up - good luck - Frank ; - ] 1 year ago
- woah - many sites downed after "sophisticated" web attack zd.net/1XyZx6k via @ZDNet & @ #WEzackwhittaker #TSec #WebPerf ; - [ 1 year ago
- ahh the olde @BorlandSoftware EULA bit.ly/1TlmBlP ; - ]] https://t.co/h4P1N898eo 1 year ago
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Category Archives: Silk Mobile
Lightweight has arrived, and it's so much better than heavyweight
I've often said it's what you have under the hood that counts. Today's software has to move away from being restrictive and complex, and instead give you the functionality you want! The power can be there too, of course, but … Continue reading
Posted in Insights, Silk Mobile, Silk Portfolio Leave a comment
Jailbreaking – it's just like I said
No sooner do I mention how quick and frequent iOS releases are, than 6.1.3 arrives. It means jailbreak fixes are no longer the fixes you might imagine, and that jailbreaking is getting harder and harder to achieve. It's a … Continue reading
Posted in Silk Mobile Leave a comment
Get out of jailbreaking – go straight to Borland
iOS 6.1 has been released and it raises the thorny issue of jailbreaking again. The unofficial stats from Apple show that iOS 6 represents 80% of the Apple market. As Hackers have only just managed to jailbreak iOS 6 with … Continue reading
Posted in Insights, Silk Mobile 2 Comments


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|This Just In
|shoes, bags &
|cards & stationery
The Scenes
full size
Product Details
From its iconic three-stripe design to its called-out-in-a-million-rap-songs name, Adidas is a true OG in the sneaker hall of fame. The Superstar was first released in 1969 as a basketball shoe (iconic shell toe and all)—and this velvet lace-up version is 100 percent ready for the party. When you select your size, "H" equals a half size.
Free shipping and free returns exclusively for Madewell Insiders
(hi there, risk-free try-ons). *For complete details, see our Shipping Policy and Return Policy.
Adidas® Superstar™ Lace-Up Sneakers in Velvet
Adidas® Superstar™ Lace-Up Sneakers in Velvet is rated out of 5 by 1.
Rated 5 out of 5 by JB2JB from Great Classic...STILL If you have ever had the Adidas Superstar before...you know that they are amazing. The basic and original white with the black stripes worn by both male and female is still great...but NOW...this sneaker just turned the corner! It is so nice...blue velvet stripes! It certainly makes this sneaker look more feminine, but still classic. The size in the velvet stripe is womens sizing and does run true to size. I am a size 7 and took the 7 and can still wear a thicker sock with some room. Looks so great on...a Great Classic...Still MUST HAVE!
Date published: 2018-01-13


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Titles read: "SIDELIGHTS ON THE DESERT WAR".
Somewhere in the Middle East.
Various shots of a convoy of tanks making their way across the desert. General Grant tanks are prepared for battle by soldiers. Several shots of tanks moving across the desert.
Shots of burning German army vehicles and a plane that has been shot down. Explosions in the sand as shells go off nearby; British soldiers fall on the ground to take cover. A German tank explodes.
Long lines of Axis prisoners trudge across the desert. Some of the men try to drink from a pool of water, but are driven away by British soldiers. Commentator says "With a stomach-full of that germ-ridden water it's fatal - they've just got to hold on till fresh water is obtainable". The prisoners march on.
(Few seconds of blank spacing.)
At a desert aerodrome we see pilots of the Red Air Force getting out of a plane and meeting men of the RAF as part of a goodwill visit. They shake hands and chat. C/U of two airmen shaking hands.
Titles read: "SIDELIGHTS ON THE DESERT WAR".
- Archive
- British Pathé
- Issue Date:
- 30/06/1942
- Sound:
- Sound
- Media URN:
- 43977
- HD Format:
- Available on request
- Film ID:
- 1332.05
- Stock:
- Black & White
- Duration
- 00:01:57:00
- Time in/Out:
- 01:09:57:00 / 01:11:54:00
- Canister:
- 42/52
- Sort Number:
- 42/052
Appears in...
- Categories
- War & Revolution
- WorkSpaces
- guerra in africa


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Emre Can returns to Liverpool training ahead of schedule
Midfielder Emre Can's return to training this week has handed Liverpool a boost ahead of their crucial Europa League semi-final second leg.
The Germany international was expected to be sidelined for about four weeks after spraining ankle ligaments against Borussia Dortmund on April 14.
However, well ahead of schedule Press Association Sport understands Can rejoined first-team training on Monday - just 18 days after sustaining the injury which resulted in him having to wear a protective boot and use crutches for several days.
The 22-year-old trained with all the players who did not start the 3-1 defeat to Swansea on Sunday afternoon.
No decision has been made yet on whether he will be available for Thursday's crunch tie with Villarreal, who come to Anfield holding a 1-0 lead from the first leg.
Liverpool are light in central midfield as captain Jordan Henderson's knee ligament injury in April prematurely ended his domestic season and has put his chances of making Euro 2016 with England in extreme doubt.
Can's return to fitness is the second piece of good news in the last few days as striker Danny Ings, out since mid-October after anterior cruciate ligament surgery, returned to training towards the end of last week.
Press Association


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I've been into audio since I can remember, singing and playing air guitar to everything from a portable turntable, to a combination of transistor and clock radios placed strategically around my room. I love music and the power a song or symphonic composition can convey. So it may seem a little odd that I'm reviewing a speaker on this site. In fact, it's not odd at all, considering many of my DVD reviews include references to the movie soundtrack. Audio is an integral part of any movie, and retrieving that information is key to making a satisfying movie experience.
I recently purchased a pair of Vandersteen Model 2Ce Signature II speakers, and without a doubt, these are the finest sounding speakers I've heard in this price range (under $2000.00), or in almost any other. They're a steal at the price, and I wish more people who review audio, or rave about speakers that cost ten-to-twenty times more, would give Vandersteens a listen. The Vandersteens, in my opinion, will change the way I evaluate any CD, SA-CD, DVD or Blu-ray disc. I've fallen back in love with music, so long as the SA-CD or CD I have is well mastered. I am hearing audio in the compact discs that I've never heard before. I can just imagine what a Blu-ray disc, with uncompressed audio, would sound like on the Vandersteens.
Time Warp
Allow me to step back in time to show you how I came to Vandersteen speakers. This will give you some perspective of the mistakes I made along the way, and how I feel I've turned a corner on the way to audio bliss.
As much as I love good sound, whether it comes from music or from a DVD, I've often thought that I wasn't hearing the whole picture. Something was always missing, no matter how many components or speakers I bought to fix the sound. I was a dog chasing my tail. I had thought, against my inner "audiophile's" judgment, that speakers that came in small cubes, and music that came from compact discs, were the epitome of fine sound reproduction.
During the 1980s, when I invested heavily into CDs, I sneered at the "analog" camp that still championed LPs and shot down any notion that a digital recording sounded great. LPs and analog sound were antiquated, I naively thought. I was one of those goofs that purposely checked the CD label for "recorded digitally" or "DDD." I turned the other direction when I saw that label read "digitally mastered analog recording. I was wrong. Terribly wrong. I now look at my vast CD collection and wince. What was I thinking? Much of my CD collection sounds horrible.
Without the benefit of listening to good audio equipment, my judgment was clouded. I was content with hearing crap, and I knew better. I used to think that perhaps it was the original recording that sounded bad, not my CDs or sound system. Some CDs did sound good, but for the most part, they sounded bad. I kept investing in CDs. I upgraded my Sanyo rack system, bought from a department store, to those little sound cubes with a "subwoofer" module. In the store, they sounded great! The clarity coming from those small cubes was amazing. The bass was loud. I plucked down my money, even though they sounded poor in comparison to other speakers in the store. It was that name brand that rhymes with toes. There was an aura of being in an exclusive club of fellow owners that I was attracted to. If everyone said they sounded good, from the floor sales rep, to the guy in the polo shirt getting into his Mercedes, they must've been good. Once I got them home, they sounded different from the store demonstration. They sounded weak. Lots of treble, no midrange and no bass. Admittedly, I suffered for years and years with these speakers. Some CDs still sounded good, as did some LaserDiscs or DVDs, but overall, the sound was severely lacking.
Seeking Clarity
A few years ago when I freelanced for a home theater magazine, I came across a series of articles by Richard Hardesty. The magazine, like many today, emphasized big buck components and speakers with prices out of the range of mere poor mortals like me. Honestly, I didn't read much into these articles, because I thought the equipment was too complicated, too expensive and something I didn't think I could handle. Give me a good receiver and some of those cube speakers, I was okay. But I knew that I wasn't satisfied with the sound coming out of my system.
Hardesty wrote many articles and reviews for the magazine. Dissatisfied with my audio equipment, I revisited his writing and came away impressed. This guy knew what the hell he was talking about. One of the speakers he liked to focus on were from a company called Vandersteen. I had seen their ads in the magazine I wrote for, and they didn't seem like anything special. They weren't covered with piano black paint, so they didn't look rich. Looking plain, I honestly didn't give them much consideration. Plus their lower line of speakers, the Model 1, 2, and 3, didn't have atmospheric prices. They couldn't be that good, I thought. High sticker prices on speakers meant better performance. Right? That is until I took one of Hardesty's seminars on audio, and I was instantly hooked on what the Vandersteen speaker line meant in performance and price.
At the time of Hardesty's seminar, he had a pair of Model 3A Signatures, plus Vandersteen surrounds and subwoofers. He demonstrated a variety of material from CDs, SA-CDs, LPs, and DVDs in Dolby Digital or DTS sound. All of this was played through some very high-end, yet considerably priced equipment from Wadia, Sony (ES) and Theta, to name a few. The Vandersteens revealed the recordings with clear and realistic sound. One of the pleasures was listening to a Mel Torme live performance on LP ("Mel Torme and Friends Recorded at Marty's, New York City"). It sounded like Mel was right in the living room with us. I was reminded just how good LPs could sound and how a good pressing/recording could blow a CD out of the water.
Excited from what I heard at Hardesty's seminar, I bought an SA-CD player and I found a pair of used beige Vandersteen 3A speakers. I had the intention of upgrading them to the Signature version, but never got around to it. The speakers were hooked up to a Yamaha receiver and just didn't sound good. I knew it wasn't the speakers, but my system. Plus my wife was livid that I bought them in the first place. I sold them to a lucky guy on eBay for a very nice price. My loss and his gain.
In my despair, I bought a highly recommended pair of Paradigm Atoms. Wonderful speakers for the price. $200.00. Surprisingly rich in sound, these are quite respectable little speakers. Yet they still sounded just okay.
Berdan Saves The Day
Upon a visit to Brooks Berdan's shop in Monrovia, California, I was finally brought down to reality. Brooks is one of the most respected gentlemen in audio and is known as the king of analog. He runs the store with his son Brian, who is no less knowledgeable in audio. The first thing Brooks asked me was what was in my system. He pinpointed the culprit to my bad sound; the receiver.
Keep the speakers for now, replace the receiver with an integrated amplifier. Or run a couple of RCA lines from the receiver's pre amp hook-ups into an amplifier, and presto! Nice CD sound on its own audio line, and movie sound on its own audio line. I bought a nice little Rega Brio3 amplifier from him and couldn't be happier.
But I still wasn't totally satisfied.
Nearly a year later, I bought a pair of Vandersteen 2Ce Signature II speakers. I had gone between the Model 1C speakers and the higher priced speakers. My self imposed budget and my conscience said the Model 1C speakers were the speakers to buy. But my audio hungry side said opt for the Model 2. Brooks and Brian steered me to the 2Ce Signature IIs. Unlike many big box retailers which try to sell you on the most expensive equipment, rather than what's in your budget, the Berdan's take an honest assessment of your current needs. No snow job here. No used car salesman tactics. They don't pull an attitude of "audiophile" superiority on their customers. Even though some of the audio equipment they sell is very expensive, the Berdan's don't make you feel like you're a chump. They're great salesmen and honest, and totally patient.
I didn't want to spend a lot of money and be unhappy with the results once I got home. But the Berdans calmed my fears of audiophile mystique. They told me that I'd be much happier in the long run with the 2Ce Signature IIs. They offered a tweeter, midrange and woofer, whereas the budget Model 1C had a tweeter and woofer. A nice little speaker, but I'd get more of what I was looking for in the Model 2.
Setting Up The Vandersteens
I bought a pair in cherry. As luck would have it, they nearly match my furniture finish. They're not quite as heavy as the Model 3A speakers, but heavy enough to require two people or a dolly to transport them into your home. I brought them in with a furniture dolly and used an old blanket to slide their boxes across the floor, by myself.
Vandersteen does a commendable job in boxing their speakers. The boxes aren't fancy or have slick logos or lingo on them. The speakers are surrounded by plenty of fitted cardboard for shipment or storage, as well as a thick plastic bag.
I carefully placed them on the floor, tipped them up and pulled the boxes off. Berdan installed the recommend speaker stands, so I didn't have install them. If you buy the speakers and stands, they're easy to install. I filled in the bottom of the stands with playground sand and replaced the end cap. Easy.
The Vandersteen 2Ce Signature II comes with an extensive manual. I'll admit I'm scared of anything to do with math and graphs. The Vandersteen manual has them. Fear not! I took my time and read the manual right away. Also, Brooks had already told me how to set them up. "Toe" them in about 1/4 to 1/2-inch, set them plenty of feet from the wall, and I was almost good to go. I used Brooks "Kenobi" Berdan and the manual as my guides. Doing a little bit of rough math and division, I figured that about three feet away from my wall was good. It had been a good distance for my previous Vandersteens and Paradigms. My listening room isn't huge, so I had to make some compromises, but they're very minor.
Using the manual's recommendation of speaker tilt, I calculated my listening height on my couch. I used the recommend "string" method as stated in the manual. After adjusting the spikes on all three sections of the stands, and using both my eyes and a level, it looks like I got the tilt and toe-in correct. I may still do some minor adjustments over time, but for now, everything sounds outstanding.
I hooked up some generic thick 10-gauge speaker wire, bi-wired, to the speakers and was ready to listen.
Looks Are Deceiving
The Vandersteen 2Ce Signature IIs aren't housed in fancy enclosures to make them seem rich. I've bought, and returned, speakers that looked great with "piano black" finish and fancy looking enclosures. Why? Because they didn't sound all that wonderful. My little cube speakers and the "bass" module looked very hip and sleek at the time, but good looks on a speaker don't mean squat if they don't put out great sound. The Vandersteens put out excellent sound, despite not looking like a Steinway.
After having them set in my listening room, I've gotten used to the minimalist design of the speakers. They are handsomely crafted in cherry wood and look substantial. They're not wimpy in appearance by any means. As I've looked at them, they are good looking speakers. They may not be the kind of speakers you'd immediately say look fabulous. But their design is in tune with sound, not being a runway model. And because of their newness, they smell pretty darned good like good furniture would. (These are not pieces of furniture, but that's the closest comparison I could think of).
I won't go into the technical details of the Vandersteen 2Ce Signature IIs too much. As much as I've learned over the years about sound, a lot of the technical jargon is over my head. What does make sense in Richard Vandersteen's approach to his speakers is that they're all time-and-phase aligned. As I understand it, all of the drivers are working in unison to get the sound to your ears at the same time. A lot of speakers, and I'm guilty of falling for this trick for many years, get the tweeter's sound to your ears first, for example. This creates a false sense of liveliness to a recording, or that "wow factor." Listen to that tweeter! In the Vandersteens, the sound you hear is correct and fires on all cylinders. You won't get bass, then midrange, then treble, or any other odd combination from them. Instead, you get music as it should be played back, and movie soundtracks with more clarity than what you're probably used to. Nothing is exaggerated by the Vandersteen speakers. Put in a bass-heavy performance, you get out a bass-heavy performance. Put in a bad recording, you get out a bad recording.
If you're looking for constant bass that isn't present in a recording, then buy speakers that over emphasize bass. I found out that some of my recordings that I thought had lots of bass in them really don't. The recordings that do have good bass, like Garbage's self-titled album (Alco Records, 1995), come out clean and free of bloated bass. The Vandersteens don't struggle with bass at all.
Remember that pair of speakers I told you about? You know, the ones I returned. Those speakers emphasized way too much bass almost all of the time. It was jarring and annoying after only a short amount of time. The Vandersteens won't annoy you. The bass is pleasant and got my toes tapping. One of these days, I will upgrade to Vandersteen's 2W subwoofers. For now, the bass is great.
One of the true tests of a time-and-phase aligned speaker is through the step response. This is something I credit both Richard Vandersteen (via his website) and Richard Hardesty for turning me on to. Out of all the graphs I've seen on various speakers, the step response graph makes the most sense to me. (Check out speaker reviews on Stereophile magazine's website. They list a lot of these tests on most speakers they've reviewed. The test shows how accurately the speaker puts out the waveform from an amplifier.)
I took a look at the step response between my Paradigm Atoms and the Vandersteen 2Ce Signature IIs for fun. I couldn't compare, for the heck of it, my cube speakers because Stereophile hasn't reviewed speakers from that brand since 1975.
As I understand it, to a degree, if the waveform takes a few (or a lot) of dips, dives and high peaks, the speaker isn't time-and-phase accurate. Period. Vandersteen and Thiel are currently the only manufacturers who make these types of speakers today (Dunleavy and Meadowlark used to, but are now unfortunately out-of-business). Now look at the 2Ce Signature II and its step response graph. Nice and smooth. The waveform shoots straight up, then gradually makes a descent. The Paradigms and other speakers on the Stereophile site tend to go in different directions, up and down. This isn't to say that you won't or can't enjoy speakers like those. I had many hours of satisfactory listening from the Atoms. But in my experience, they won't give you the satisfaction the Vandersteens will.
You might say I can't compare a $200-250 speaker to a speaker costing nearly $2000.00, but if you've read reviews of the Paradigm Atoms, you'll find them favorably compared to high-end speakers. They sound excellent for a two way speaker. If you're on a budget, by all means, buy them. But compared to the Vandersteens, they're in an entirely different league of their own.
If you compare the Vandersteen 2Ce Signature IIs to speakers either on the same price level, or with some of the same specifications, the Vandersteens are the most accurate. I've heard countless raves from reviewers and consumers about speakers that cost in the thousands. They rave about how a $20,000 to a $45,000 speaker sounds so good. If they think that spending a fortune on speakers is necessary for audio happiness, then I wish them the best. If they like how a tremendously priced speaker sounds, good for them. Me, I don't have that kind of money to spend, nor would I want to spend that much on speakers. After spending time with the reasonably priced Vandersteens, I'm content that I got not only a great buy, but have great sound to prove that spending tons of cash doesn't guarantee audio happiness.
Impressions of the Vandersteen 2Ce Signature II
Brooks recommended that the speakers break in for at least 100 hours. This part of my review is based on my impression of the speakers after about 60 hours of play. This may sound premature to compliment the speakers, but later, I will describe the differences after full break-in. Let me just say that out-of-the-box, the Vandersteens sound better than any speaker I've heard. This includes Polk, Boston Acoustics, Definitive Technology, PSB, and those little cubes from Bose.
My initial impressions of the Vandersteens are so positive, I cannot help but to praise them. Imagine sitting in a nice new car. The engine isn't fully broken in and not up to its full potential, but you know the car is right for you. You know that it's going to perform better down the line. Already, you're happy with your purchase and there are no regrets.
It's very rare for me to rave about something so new, but it's hard not to. The Vandersteens simply sound wonderful. They present the music as effortlessly and as pure as the CD or SA-CD will present them. To go back to Hardesty's system of Model 3A Signatures, these Model 2s sound very close, in my opinion. And they should, as they share the same tweeter and midrange as their more expensive siblings. They remind me very much of the Model 3A Signatures, and I feel for the money, I've hit the jackpot. I feel like I've got a pair of "mini Model 3A Signatures" for a lot less money. I don't have the budget to buy the very nice audio components that Hardesty has, nor do I get high-priced freebie loaner speakers to review. These speakers were bought with my own money. For my minimal budget, the Vandersteen Model 2ce Signature IIs hit the mark.
Since most of my music collection is on CD and SA-CD, that's what most of the audio portion of this review will center on. CDs now sound different on the Vandersteens. It sounds like I'm hearing them like new. Many of my really poor sounding CDs, especially those from the 1980s and some from the 1990s, sound horrible on the Vandersteens. There's no getting around that. The analog purists were right, because those early CDs do sound bad. The Vandersteens are very revealing, as you may have heard in other reviews. I find this to be a positive, not a negative. Instruments sound like instruments. Voices sound like voices. Carol King's recording of "Tapestry" always sounded bad to me with the distortion on her voice. The Vandersteens reveal her microphone's distortion. And here I always thought it was just a bad recording. It's not. The instruments and backing vocals sound great.
I use a Sony C222ES CD player. It doesn't sound bad, in my opinion, but I'm sure there are much better players out there. I just haven't had an opportunity to audition them.
The Oppo DV 970-HD is very good, but I haven't heard it through the Vandersteens to judge. It's a little combo DVD player that has received raves from the press, and I convinced my dad to purchase one. Even on his speaker system, CDs sound clear and decent. Thus my reaction to CDs through the Vandersteen speakers is based on the Sony. My impression is very positive, because my CDs never sounded this good. I'm speaking mainly of CDs pressed in the last decade, or those from companies like Rhino Records and Verve. My test discs have traditionally been Diana Krall's "Love Letters" and The Eagles "Hell Freezes Over."
In the case of Krall's disc, her voice no longer sounds congested and nasally. I've always enjoyed her version of jazz and the classics, though I wouldn't quite say she's a diva like Billie Holiday or Dawn Upshaw. One of the things about Krall's music that attracts me is that the recordings are so well done. The Vandersteens showcase the meticulous care that goes into her music and the mix. And her voice? It sounds pleasant through the Vandersteens.
The Eagles live album from 1994 is an example of excellent recording. On my previous speakers, the album has always sounded great, but often overpowering because of the high quality recording. This CD usually trounced most of my CDs in loudness and clarity. Frankly, I don't think my previous speakers could handle it. Here, the band's vocals come across cleanly.
What really shine on the audio side
are SA-CDs, and the Sony player does a great job. One of the
first CDs I bought was the Rolling Stones compilation, "Hot
Rocks," in the 1980s. It's been re-issued on SA-CD. I always
felt that the recordings weren't too great. They still aren't
the best, but now Jagger's performance sounds different, more
passionate. The SA-CD of "Hot Rocks" trumps any version of
"Jumpin' Jack Flash" or "Sympathy For The Devil" I've heard. I
jumped when Keith Richards' guitar screams in the beginning of
"Jumpin' Jack Flash." These songs have been played over and over
since their inception back in the '60s. I've gotten tired of
hearing them on classic rock stations. But with these 2002
restorations, you can hear the detail of the band's performance.
No strident cymbal crashes or tinny sounding guitar. No bass
heavy bloat that shouldn't be there in the first place. Just
sweet music comes out of the 2Ce Signature IIs.
Another knockout SA-CD collection comes from the 2004 Elton John remasters. Long before Elton sank into the pop radio doldrums with "Sad Songs (Say So Much)," his early '70s albums were superb. One of my favorite tracks of his is "Bennie and the Jets." Whether it was on an AM radio or on CD, the track almost always had "great sound." What a revelation it was to hear this album as properly as my current equipment allows. Forget 5.1 sound on this mix. I ran everything via two-channel. This is an incredibly enveloping track in two-channel, without the need for throwing the sound of the audience behind me, or drums over my shoulder. I could concentrate on the performance and pinpoint where Elton was "seated" in the recording. Very nicely done on the re-master, and very nicely done played through the Vandersteens.
The Vandersteens create a lush, realistic soundstage. Before I attended that audio seminar, I had a feeling that good stereo created a soundstage. I don't know why. I'm not clairvoyant. But like a good hunch, I felt I was missing a lot of what was possible in stereo. These speakers do an exceptional job of staging. On some recordings, some audio emanates beyond the sides of the speakers. And get this. Some recordings I thought were in stereo on the Bose were actually mono recordings. One of the earliest CDs I bought was "Buddy Holly: From The Original Master Tapes" (MCA). The Bose speakers created a false sense of stereo sound. It was difficult to pinpoint where the music was coming from, and the image wasn't centered between the speakers. This occurred on all of my recordings through those speakers. The Vandersteens, much to my delight, presented all but two of the Holly recordings in mono. Everything on the mono recordings was presented right between the speakers. This is the way this is supposed to be. The original recordings in mono sound pretty good. The stereo recordings are excellent, and they actually sound pretty good coming from a circa 1985 CD.
It's cliché to use for testing speakers and system capabilities, but Pink Floyd's "Dark Side of the Moon" on SA-CD is tremendous. It sounded great on my Paradigms. Once I put in the two-channel mix into my player, I was stunned at what I had missed without the Vandersteens. The alarm clock that goes off in "Time" made up jump out of my skin, and I didn't even have my amplifier turned up that much! Some of the parts of this track are completely surreal, as intended. Hearing drums pan across the Vandersteen pair made me think of why I didn't get these speakers a long time ago. I've never heard this album this clearly before. And honestly, it's not even my favorite album.
Crummy recordings on CDs will sound bad on the Vandersteens. I have an '80s CD of Fleetwood Mac's "Rumors." My wife, who surprisingly likes how the speakers sound, asked me to pop in the disc. I warned her, "It's going to sound bad on these." Man, was I right, and then some. She remarked, "It kind of sounds flat." You got it, sister. Time to upgrade to either a really good re-master, vinyl or DVD-A version of this often overplayed, yet great album. The Vandersteens show no mercy, and rightly so. My previous speakers could make this particular CD sound okay, but the Vandersteens pull off the veil and reveal the digital monster this pressing contains.
Recordings that were mixed brightly and remastered to CD that way will sound crushing. That said, some CDs that used to sound strident in the highs are now much smoother to listen to. I'm hearing details in the performances that I've never heard before. I don't get fatigued by listening to music on the Vandersteens, whereas my other speakers caused me to either turn down the volume or turn off the equipment.
Movie Sound On The 2Ce Signature II
Why would I spend so much time talking about these speakers and raving about music recordings played through them? If music is going to sound outstanding on these speakers, then movie soundtracks can sound very good, too. But that depends on the DVD you're playing.
With most of today's DVDs, sound is either presented in Dolby Digital or DTS. There are variations to these formats, especially with the addition of more channels. I won't get into those here. The sound you hear, for instance, on a Dolby Digital soundtrack is compressed. In other words, a lot of the information that supposedly the human ear can't hear is thrown out. This was the philosophy behind Sony's ATRAC Mini-Disc player technology, and the early Mini-Discs sounded pretty bad. MP3 audio, if you can call it audio, does essentially the same thing. The result is the ability to fit more audio in a smaller file. Your Apple iPod is a perfect example of MP3 power. (I've tried this experiment before, plugging MP3 audio into even a modest speaker system is disastrous. The audio just plain stinks. It sounds okay for portable listening, but on a good sound system, check please.)
Many DVDs I've reviewed in the past can sound very good. I've always been impressed by Disney's soundtracks. The sound is robust and natural. Dolby Digital can sound very good, despite the compression used. Some Dolby Digital soundtracks have struggled through my past sound systems, depending on the mix and the playback bit rate. Through the Vandersteens, there can still be a struggle, but the sound is much cleaner and tolerable than before. I recently reviewed "The Pixar Short Films Collection: Volume 1." Pixar has always done a great job on sound. To my surprise, sound designer Gary Rydstrom mixed many of the shorts on the disc. The Dolby Digital soundrack is very clear, full and has a soundstage I've never heard before, and it shows Rydstrom's excellent sound design.
I tested out the sixth season of "The Simpsons" for the heck of it. The show has, as far as I can remember, always been broadcast in stereo. The soundtracks aren't reference quality to begin with. But I thought I'd give a fairly standard sounding DVD a try. And you know what? The Vandersteens reveal a soundstage and sound I've never heard before! There is a lot of detail to the soundtracks on "The Simpsons."
The last test I made was from the 1985 "Live Aid" concert DVD. The set has three different soundtracks available: Dolby Stereo 2.0, Dolby Digital 5.1 and DTS. The first audio track I referenced was the DTS track. DTS can sound very good, but the compression level on this track (at 785kbps) leaves the sound low and uninvolving. The Dolby Digital soundtrack sounds good, but it too lacks in fidelity. To my delight, the Dolby 2.0 track sounds very good. In fact, this track is so clear through the Vandersteens that I had to turn it down quite a bit. It sounded like I was at the concert, and the sound reminded me of the classic analog tracks from my LaserDisc player with clear and full sound. Very nice. And staying with my '80s music roots, I popped in Stewart Copeland's "Everyone Stares: The Police Inside Out" DVD. This documentary, culled from Copeland's Super 8 home movies of The Police, is awesome if you're a fan of the group. Try the PCM soundtrack on this DVD and you'll love it.
Living With The Vandersteens
I've been playing music and movies through the Vandersteen Model 2Ce Signature IIs now for well over 100 hours total time. How do I describe the difference in sound from when I first hooked them into my audio system? All I can say is that they sound even better than before. The audio now seems more relaxed. Treble and midrange are smoother, and the bass can kick in nicely when it needs to. Out-of-the-box, the Vandersteens sound excellent. Broken in, they sound stunning.
Movies, especially if they're in a compressed sound format, will be revealed for their weaknesses in fidelity on the Vandersteens, especially once they're broken in. Some people are wowed in big box stores by displays of 5.1 (or some ugly variation, depending on the store) surround sound. It's loud! Listen to the thumpy bass and coarse treble! No, no. On the Vandersteens, people might ask where's the loudness factor. Vandersteens simply relay the information that's been given to them. So if a Dolby Digital or DTS soundtrack doesn't sound right on these, don't blame it on the speakers. Remember, most 5.1 compressed sound is really lower than MP3 quality sound. If your iPod plays music at 128kbps, imagine dividing up 448kbps (usually what Dolby Digital 5.1 runs at) into 5.1 channels. Imagine hearing some compressed tracks on the Vandersteens. It'll make you run for Blu-ray audio quickly. That said, well-mastered Dolby Digital and DTS soundtracks will still sound excellent on the Vandersteens.
As for music, my preferred format to play on the Vandersteens, everything I said before still stands. However, good and great recordings of CDs and SA-CD will sound addictive on these speakers, especially once they're broken in. In nearly 25 years since I had my first "real" stereo system, the Sanyo rack system I mentioned before, I haven't sat down to listen to music for hours on end. Providing my wife and daughter are out of the house, the dogs remain fairly quiet, and those dopes who blast their car's woofers aren't racing down the street, I've been in audio heaven. Now I enjoy the musical performances coming from my stereo system. With almost all of the speakers I've had before, I can't say that I sat down and really listened for more than 20-minutes. With the Vandersteens, I've been listening for hours.
eBay Or No eBay
After unpacking the speakers, I left the Vandersteen boxes in the entryway of our home for a couple of days. As my wife and I were walking out the door, she said I should keep the boxes in case I decided to sell them. I've been an eBay seller for a while now, and when I've become tired of digital cameras, computers, etc., I auction them off. Before she could finish her sentence, I interjected. "Oh no! I'm not selling these babies. These are keepers."
Bill Kallay
Special thanks to Brooks & Brian Berdan, Richard Hardesty for their help and words of wisdom, and to Richard Vandersteen for creating a tremendous speaker
Current audio reference system:
Vandersteen 2Ce Signature II speakers
Hsu STF-1 subwoofer (for movie soundtracks only)
ATI AT1202 amplifier
Onkyo PR-SC885
Sony Playstation 3 (DVD and Blu-ray)
Sony C222ES SA-CD/CD player
10 AWG copper wire (generic, bi-wired)
Paradigm Atoms (surround speakers)
Photos: © Bill Kallay. All rights reserved.
DSD is a trademark of Sony Corporation
The Rolling Stones "Hot Rocks" SA-CD cover © ABKCO Records. All rights reserved.
"Everyone Stares: The Police Inside Out" DVD cover © Crotale Inc. All rights reserved.


text:
17-02-12 3 Hits
TV Projection removed in a Old Home in Lake Travis in Austin, The Huge TV is Heavy and is not easy to carry from a Three Story Apartment Residential Estate.but JUNKGUY's Team Managed to Handle the removal as expected. and we only charged $ 45. The next time you have a removal and hauling problem on your junks, Let the Professional Handle it. Call us to Upfront free estimates.
austin, texas
Send Message Phone: 7134893688
Report this ad


text:
Pampered Schenectady colonial loaded with charm. This home boasts a living room w/traditional wood burning fireplace, hardwood floors, formal dining room w/unique built hutch, kitchen w/stainless steel appliances, full bath on the main floor. 3 nice sized bedrooms and full bath on the 2nd floor. Full basement w/bar area.4th bedroom w/separate kitchen and entrance on the main floor, perfect for in law or grandparent
Listing information
- Year Built: 1951
- Status: Sold on 10/30/2016
- Parking Type Description: Attached 1 car
- Lot Size: 7350
- Property ID: 103956842
- Beds: 4
- Total Rooms: 8
- New Construction: No
- County: Schenectady
- Style: Colonial
- Baths: 2 (Full: 2 3/4: 0 1/2: 0 Other: 0)
- Fireplaces: 1
- Total Square Footage: 1,656 ($84.48 per sq. foot)
- School District: Schenectady
Age Description Estimated
Amenities Crown Molding, Wood Floors
Appliances Some All Negotiable
Attic Full
Basement Full
Condition Excellent
Exterior Aluminum
Exterior Features Deck, Shed
Garage Description Attached
Heat Fuel Natural Gas
Heat System Baseboard, Hot Water
Interior Features Cable Hook Up, Garage Door Opener, High Speed Internet Acc, Security System, Sump Pump
Lot Description Corner
Other Lot - 7350, Possession - Tbd, Tax Id Section - 40, Tax Identification Block - 1, Tax Identification Lot - 4
Roof Asphalt Shingle
Sewer Public
Sign Yes
Total Taxes Description Estimated
Water Public
Bedroom Main Level
Dining Room Main Level
Kitchen Main Level
Kitchen Main Level
Living Room Main Level
Family Room Basement
Bedroom 2nd Level
Bedroom 2nd Level
Bedroom 2nd Level
Listed by Rosemarie Durant of Coldwell Banker Prime Properties 518-427-9000


text:
I found these photos on Apartment Therapy and had to share! I love painting outside of the box… it makes the room unique and you can be as creative as your heart desires. Have you painted your space unconventionally?
I found these photos on Apartment Therapy and had to share! I love painting outside of the box… it makes the room unique and you can be as creative as your heart desires. Have you painted your space unconventionally?
Something great happened this weekend, if you cannot tell by the photos 😉 – I got engaged to my love, Cody Klein. Goodness, I might cry writing this.
During the weekend, Cody and I had friends in town so we both took some vacation to spend the weekend with them. On Saturday evening, we went home to change and get ready for our "dinner reservation" in Del Mar. Before dinner, Cody wanted to take all of us to the Plaza rooftop to get a glass of wine and enjoy the scenery. Little did I know, he was pretty much waiting till it was time to walk over to his "spot". FInally, we are walking to Poseidon (the dinner location), but Cody was walking the opposite way along a trail to "take photos" and "show his friends the view". At the time, I was annoyed because Cody wouldn't stop to take a photo with me. Haha poor guy! Ahead, he sits down on a bench and looks at his phone. I asked him, "why are you reading emails right now, look at this view". He told me to "just sit down" and look at this email he just received. In the email was a story of our relationship along with photos starting with us on our first date. He called it a "blog post". In my head, I am entirely confused and asking weird questions. Like, "who made this?" and "are we going to print this, I love it". What in the world was going on in my head… I have no clue. By the time I finished reading the lovely story, I get to the last photo. A picture of him in this exact spot on one knee. "WHAT???" – me. I had no time to even figure out what was going on before I look up and he is on one knee in front of me. I immediately feel a rush of tears and as he is attempting to ask me to marry him through his choked up voice, I forget how this all goes and almost grab the ring! But really, who does that?! He drops it and we both start to laugh and hug. Our friend Dillion was hiding in the bushes the whole time and has a video and photos of the entire thing so he jumped out and started taking more pictures. Finally, I said YES! Cody then grabbed my hand and walked me over to the edge of this cliff overlooking the ocean and below were all of my best friends in San Diego and my best friend from LA holding up signs that spelled out CONGRATS C & J! (pictured above). It was the most perfect moment. I have never felt so incredibly special.
From there we ended up not even having reservations at the restaurant, Cody made reservations at a different restaurant where all of my friends could join!
It was truly the best weekend of my life and I am so excited to celebrate with my friends from home in October! Thank you to everyone for all of the congratulations and support during the weekend. We are SO happy!
The end. 🙂
*The first photo was taken by Dillion Diers Photography. He will be providing many more soon! 🙂
Last week I had the pleasure of attending Coffee & Tea Collective's Grand Opening Party with some fantastic friends in San Diego. As mentioned in a post a few days ago, Chelsea and Philip Hansen of Typewriter Boneyard created the lighting for the space (look at photo 2 above) and let me just say, it is incredible! These two have a serious talent. The night was full of good people, incredible food from Miho Gastrotruck, Amigo Booth photo sessions, and obviously great coffee + beer from Hess Brewing.
So, not only can Coffee & Tea Collective throw one heck of a party… they have exceptional coffee too! Definitely on the top of my favorite coffee list in San Diego.
Pictured above: Vanessa of Hello Vanny, Katie of Kate's Paper Goods, Philip and Chelsea of Typewriter Boneyard and my fiance 😉
Click here to visit the C&T Collective website.
View the rest of the Amigo Booth photos here.
// The first two photos of the space I borrowed from Chelsea of The Dainty Woods, you can view her post on this event here. //
Cody and I have good friends coming to visit us this weekend. It's going to be nice to take a few vacation days and explore San Diego with their company. Our house is also extremely clean and organized, which is a huge plus of having friends in town. 🙂
Are you all doing anything fun this weekend?
West Elm in San Diego teamed up with Ana Spick, the owner of the creative shop We Love Citrus, for our Independence Day Event. We Love Citrus is an online shop full of fresh packaging and craft supplies, a go-to for all of your crafting needs. 🙂 Ana and I showed the guests how to create various simple decor ideas (created by Ana) for the 4th – along with a fun DIY at the store.
We couldn't have done it without the lovely Lauren Pryor, the Event Coordinator for West Elm in San Diego. It was a huge success thanks to all of her preparation!
Also, a huge thank-you to Ana for providing some great tips and giving everyone the opportunity to make fun 4th of July decorations! You are incredibly talented my friend.
Check out more of We Love Citrus here.
Photos By: Cody Klein


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The End Is Near…
October 25th, 2011
…The end of the growing season, that is.
We're already at the point where, in an average year, we'd have had a killing frost already. But since this has been anything but an average year, who knows what's in store for the year's final two months?
You really should have your houseplants back inside by now. If not, go do it now. Hose them off or spray them with insecticidal soap before bringing them in so bugs don't hitch a ride into the living room.
For the last few weeks, I've been taking steps to sustain tender plants I want to keep for another season.
The most basic way is to dig up and pot some of those tender specimens and turn them into winter houseplants. I've got plenty of them now scattered around three rooms of my house.
There's a 'Diamond Frost' euphorbia , a 'Purple Flash' ornamental hot pepper, a 'Vancouver' geranium, a couple of moses-in-the-boat and 'Black Taffeta,' 'Bonita Shea' and 'Gryphon' begonias.
The second thing I always do is take cuttings from some of my favorite annuals and tropicals that are easy to propagate this way.
The recommended method is to snip 6-inch pieces off the tips of the mother plants, pinch off all but the top set or two of leaves, dip the bottoms in a rooting hormone and stick the cuttings in a light-weight potting mix that's kept consistently damp.
I get almost 100 percent success without even using rooting hormone on plants such as Persian shield, coleus, perilla, iresine and Swedish ivy.
This fall my lovely wife, Sue, even managed to root a tip cutting from a beautiful shade-annual twining vine called the Rex begonia vine (Cissus discolor). This one's hard to find in garden centers for some reason. It's got soft, wide, lance-shaped leaves of silver, dark green and burgundy and twines up a good 6 to 8 feet in one season.
All of these were started a few weeks ago and have already rooted and started pushing out baby new leaves – a sign that the deed has been accomplished.
Now it's just a matter of not over- or under-watering enough over winter to kill anything off.
Most of these are growing next to windows at room temperature. That's a recipe for legginess, but that's OK.
The goal here is to keep these plants alive, not looking their densest, in-season best. I take new cuttings from these mother plants anyway in late winter so I end up with a nice selection of transplantable-size new plants come May.
Only a few of the above get the "royal treatment" under a high-intensity grow-light system I've got rigged up in the basement.
I use an Autopot system from Futuregarden that consists of two self-watering trays that each hold two 10-inch pots. Each tray has a regulator in the bottom and hoses that connect to a tub of water. As the pots suck up the water, the regulators automatically draw more water from the tub. Once a week or so, I just dump water in the tub with a little fertilizer.
The trays are below a TEK light from Sun Systems that's hooked up to a timer to make that automatic, too.
If you want to take a crack at it, here's Futuregarden's web site page that shows Autopots: http://futuregarden.com/hydroponics/systems_autopots.html.
Lots of online vendors carry TEK lights, and local garden centers typically carry at least one kind of grow-light system. I'd imagine all get the job done just fine. For seedlings, I use ordinary fluorescent tube fixtures.
The third plant-saving technique is collecting seeds. Keep in mind that anything that's a hybrid isn't likely to come back true to form, but it's interesting to see what you DO get.
I usually save seeds of some ornamental peppers, a few heirloom tomato varieties and purple hyacinth beans. All of those usually work great and look and perform pretty close to the parent.
For more on salvaging plants from year to year, click here for a garden column I wrote a couple of years ago.
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2 comments
I am from Trinidad & Tobago. I really admire your Rex Begonia. I lost mine but was able to get a piece of the vine that went to the roof, unfortunately, it's all green. Is there anything I can do to get it back to its multi-color? Thanks!


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St. Margaret's Church, Tilbury-juxta-Clare
(Temporary) Mr John Gardiner, Ten Acres, North End, Little Yeldham HALSTEAD. CO9 4LG Tel 01787 237245
Mrs Christine Le Versha. The Old Telephone Exchange, High Street,
Great Yeldham, HALSTEAD. CO9 4EX 07752 173317 firstname.lastname@example.com
Mrs Maxine Leah, 'Arkwrights', Tilbury Hill, Tilbury-juxta-Clare, HALSTEAD. CO9 4JP
01787 237956 email@example.com
Historical overview of St. Margaret's Church Tilbury-juxta-Clare taken, with kind permission, from A Select Guide to Essex Churches And Chapels by members of the Friends of Essex Churches. Edited by John Fitch.
"Exceedingly picturesque in its rustic setting in the fields, away from the tiny village, but near Tilbury Hall, this remote church is best seen just before harvest.
Its sylvan churchyard is faithfully delineated in Francesca Greenoak and Clare Roberts' delightful God's Acre: the Flowers and Animals of the Parish Churchyard (Orbis, 1985). Its diapered Tudor brick tower was the gift of Elizabeth, countess of Oxford (of Castle Hedingham) in 1519.
The church itself, nave, chancel and south porch, is earlier than seems to be suggested by its Perpendicular windows. Not only is there a strange plaster dragon (?) above the west window in the tower, and an Elizabethan pulpit, but there are also several faded wall paintings in the nave, the most interesting of which, on the north wall, shows 'a Tudor man with white horse in front of a house with contemporary brick nogging' (Scarfe). The stencilling round the chancel arch is Victorian as are the bits of carved stone stuck into the outside chancel walls."


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An excerpt from www.HouseOfNames.com archives copyright © 2000 - 2018
patronymic name that comes from the personal names Geoffrey and Godfrey. These names appear in Old English as Geffrey and in Old French as Jefroi or Jeufroi. The surname Jeffus makes use of the patronymic suffix -son, which had superseded all other such suffixes in popularity by the 14th century, and was most common in the north of Britain. This suffix was sometimes abbreviated to -s.
Jeffus Early Origins
Herefordshire, where they held a family seat from very ancient times, some say well before the Norman Conquest and the arrival of Duke William at Hastings in 1060 A.D.
Jeffus Early History
Jeffus Early History
This web page shows only a small excerpt of our Jeffus research. Another 235 words (17 lines of text) covering the years 1821, 1720, 1691, 1720 and 1797 are included under the topic Early Jeffus History in all our PDF Extended History products and printed products wherever possible.
Jeffus Spelling Variations
Jeffus Spelling Variations
The Welsh have an extremely large amount of spelling variations of their native surnames to their credit. It was up to the priest or the scribe taking the official records to determine how the spoken name was to be made literal. As time progressed, the old Brythonic names of Wales were recorded in English, which was especially problematic since the English language had extreme difficulty recording the highly inflected sounds of Cymraeg. Spelling variations were, however, also carried out according to an individual's design: a branch loyalty within the family, a religious adherence, or even patriotic affiliations could be indicated by spelling variations of one's name. The spelling variations of the name Jeffus have included Jeffers, Jefferson, Jeffson, Jephson and others.
Jeffus Early Notables (pre 1700)
Jeffus Early Notables (pre 1700)
More information is included under the topic Early Jeffus Notables in all our PDF Extended History products and printed products wherever possible.
Jeffus In Ireland
Jeffus In Ireland
Some of the Jeffus family moved to Ireland, but this topic is not covered in this excerpt. Another 95 words (7 lines of text) about their life in Ireland is included in all our PDF Extended History products and printed products wherever possible.
The Great Migration
The Great Migration
During the latter half of the 19th and the beginning of the 20th century, the people of Wales journeyed to North America to find a new life. They made major contributions to the arts, industry and commerce of both Canada and the United States, and added a rich cultural heritage to their newly adopted societies. A look at the immigration and passenger lists has shown a number of people bearing the name Jeffus: John Jefferson settled in Virginia in 1620; Mary Jefferson settled in Virginia in 1653; Edmund Jefferson settled in Pennsylvania in 1682; Robert Jefferson settled in Nova Scotia in 1774.
Contemporary Notables of the name Jeffus (post 1700)
Contemporary Notables of the name Jeffus (post 1700)
The motto was originally a war cry or slogan. Mottoes first began to be shown with arms in the 14th and 15th centuries, but were not in general use until the 17th century. Thus the oldest coats of arms generally do not include a motto. Mottoes seldom form part of the grant of arms: Under most heraldic authorities, a motto is an optional component of the coat of arms, and can be added to or changed at will; many families have chosen not to display a motto.
Motto: A cruce salus
Motto Translation: Salvation from the cross.
Jeffus Family Crest Products
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The Wakeful Way (Online Book)
The Infinite
The wakeful way is simply the way of wakefulness. Peace and the light of wakefulness is ever-here, ever-present.
"All things, trees, flowers, birds, the human form, the stars, and all the galaxies, all exist in and as one interconnected and boundless whole."
There are many different aspects of our posture or form to be mindful of in any given moment. The nature of all form is that it is ever-changing, with some forms coming and going more quickly than others. All forms are interconnected on various levels... whether it be our mental, emotional, energetic, physical, individual, collective, or universal posture / form. Each functioning according to its own particular nature and attributes, and each with its own unique expression and part to play in the greater whole. Through gaining a greater awareness of all of the various parts and their attributes one can then also gain a greater understanding of the whole. It is worthwhile to strive for attaining and maintaining some relative health and well-being on these different levels of form, though ideally also with the recognition and wakefulness to see that all forms, from the most gross to the most subtle, are all forms and expressions of the Infinite... which is by nature formless and yet also the source and substance of all form and expression.
Often times we limit our self identification with merely the form of this physical body, and/or with the different thought forms that come and go. It is true that the human form and expression is one aspect of the Self to be valued and appreciated, though when seen from a more broad and open vantage point, it is seen as a part of a greater wholeness... a temporary and ever-changing wave in the Infinite Ocean of Consciousness that is ever-present, and ever-whole. This 'wave' could perhaps also be called a temporary temple, instrument, and/or expression of Spirit.
When limited identifications and storylines are seen for what they are and left alone, the truth of our Being, our inherent wholeness, will begin to naturally reveal Itself. Consciousness, like a light, penetrates through all darkness, all ignorance, all delusion, until all that is left is the purity, wholeness, and light of Consciousness Itself. In this open and clear light of Consciousness, things are seen with great clarity. Things are seen simply as they are, beyond the distorted filter of the mind and the limiting concepts of self. In this clarity, one's posture is seen to not only include the physical body, or the thoughts, though also the mountains, the passing clouds, the dancing butterflies, the meandering streams, the stars in the sky, and all that is.
"When the breath is calm, the mind is calm."
The breath is one of the most powerful tools in helping to get out of the head, and back into the Heart. Breath is the natural mantra, continually offering an anchor into this moment.
With each breath smooth and even, the breath is felt moving through the body, relaxing the body, quieting the mind, and soothing the nerves. The breath is continually arising from and returning to a place of deep stillness. This stillness is in the pauses at the top and bottom of each breath, and also found pervading the entire breath, as its source and support.
By smooth and mindful breathing, the thoughts quiet down and the attention is brought more deeply into the moment. Through noticing the movement of the breath through the body, there is also a deeper noticing of any tension present in the body, and an opportunity for a deeper letting go and relaxation into the moment.
The continued observation and regulation of the breath provides a stable energetic environment, more clearly revealing the Light of Consciousness in its eternal splendor.
With both dedication and grace, the mind will eventually become quiet and there will be a greater relaxation into one's Being. This Being is without the need of a support of any kind, as It is Self-supporting and Inherently Whole.
"The clear recognition of wholeness and fulfillment arises when there is no clinging to, or pushing away of, ideas or forms of any sort... one remains clear and open like the boundless sky. This is the essence of surrender."
Everything is already here, total, and fulfilled. When there is true emptiness, there is also true fullness, or true fulfillment. It is the ideas of lack and separation that are given attention and belief, which delude us and bring us the experience of pain and isolation. Peace and happiness are always found here, in and as one's own Heart.
The mind sometimes has various ideas, beliefs, assumptions, likes, dislikes, and so on. It is natural for each mind to have its own natural preferences, though one could say that it is the unwavering identification with these ideas which prevents the direct recognition of true happiness, contentment, and fulfillment. When certain conditions are not met, the mind becomes unhappy, and instead of saying "the mind is unhappy," there arises the statement "I am unhappy," when in truth the real "I" is simply the peace and stillness observing the thoughts. We allow ourselves to be a slave to the thoughts, without even knowing it. When all ideas and thoughts are seen clearly for what they are, without getting entangled in them, an ever-present stillness and peace is revealed. Motivations and inspirations then arise from a place of clarity, wisdom, and peace, rather than from a distracted, and discontented mind.
"Acceptance is to stay centered in the stillness of one's Being, observing things as they come and go, allowing for their natural flow."
Acceptance could be called the natural flow or the dance of life. From surrender, acceptance follows quite naturally. Surrender being the release of the sense of doership, and acceptance being the natural and spontaneous flow of life that arises out of that release. If there is still a strong preoccupation with thought and desire, and the sense of doership, then acceptance will come with more difficultly.
The art of acceptance is allowing thought and action to arise naturally from a place of stillness and Presence, rather than from the sense of doership which naturally gives rise to the feelings of lack and separation, and of needing to control one's environment. When all thought, form, and experience is seen to spontaneously arise of it's own accord in stillness and not-knowingness, a new freedom, creativity, and spontaneity will begin to flower naturally in the life expression. Instead of the old ego-mindedness of "I know best", there is an opening to grace and a deeper gratitude for the present moment at hand. When the mind becomes more quiet, space is made for a deeper intuitive guidance to arise. With a quiet mind there is also a fuller acceptance of all that arises and all that passes away, appreciating life as it unfolds in each moment.
"Essentially, meditation is not something we can do, or practice, for it is not a matter of doing, it is simply a matter of Being."
With that said, spending at least 15 minutes each day for seated meditation can offer a valuable foundation for staying more firmly seated in/as Presence... which is indeed ever-Here. Gradually as sitting becomes more comfortable and there is a greater resonance with Being, one may be drawn to sit longer. As attention stays with Presence, it also begins to merge and dissolve with and in this effortless Being / Presence. At the same time, the Heart of Being and Awareness seems to simultaneously blossom and unfold from within. Ultimately all distinction of inside and outside falls away. The sense of doership will also continue to fall away, as it is more clearly seen temporarily arising and passing away in this effortless Silence and Presence, naturally revealing the wholeness that Is.
Here are some basic guidelines for seated meditation:
To set up the posture, sit the hips on a firm blanket or cushion to help elevate them to at least knee level. If it feels right, one can also light a candle and some incense, and also find a physical space somewhere that is more quiet and free of distractions. One can sit the body in a comfortable cross-legged, or kneeling position, or if sitting on the ground is not comfortable, one can also sit in a chair with the feet flat on the floor. Hands can be folded in the lap, or they can rest on the knees, with the palms facing up or down. With the body sitting tall, feel all of the points of the body touching the ground relax and naturally sink and root downward. Feel the back of the head extend toward the sky, feeling the alignment of energy from the base of the spine up to the crown of the head. Let the body relax, while intuitively feeling space and alignment.
The eyes can be closed, or with the eyes open the physical gaze can rest steadily on a candle flame, or at a point or object somewhere in front of the body. If the eyes are open, while the physical gaze is forward attention should at the same time be turned inward, with the inner Being. This holds true for any other focal point, be it a chakra, a mantra, or the breath... it simply holds a calm, steady space for the natural revealing of effortless Being and Awareness. Then it is just a matter of keeping the attention with That, until there is just That. For instance, when observing the natural movement of the breath coming in and out through the nose, one can notice the stillness in the pauses at the top and bottom of each breath, also noticing that same stillness pervading the entire breath as it's source and support. One can then begin to intuitively stay with/as the effortless Silence & Presence that the breath, and waves of any kind are spontaneously arising and settling within.
Whatever arises (breath, thought, form, or sensation) it is all seen in the steady light of Presence and Awareness. Gradually the number of thoughts and their intensity will lessen and the non-dual Being / Awareness that is ever-Here will shine clear.
The Infinite
"To truly open up to the Infinite is to see your Self in all, and all in your Self."
It is the attachment to waves of various kinds which prevents the full recognition of one's true nature. Whether the wave be sound, thought, emotion, energy, or form, they all arise within the expansiveness of our Being. All waves are subject to birth and death, having their rise, and their eventual fall. The Infinite Self is like a boundless Ocean... All waves arise within this Ocean and are a part of it, though even as the waves arise, the Ocean remains the Ocean, always One, always Whole.
When all waves are seen clearly, appreciated for what they are, and simply allowed to take their natural course, they will blossom to fruition and then eventually dissipate and dissolve on their own. All the while, the Eternal Light of Consciousness and Love shines ever-present and pure.
There is nothing to gain or attain. All that is needed is to simply see things clearly as they are, beyond the distorted filter of the mind."
Infinite Eye Publishing


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Ridge House B&B in the Cotswolds Gloucestershire England
Windy Ridge House B&B Longborough Cotswolds Gloucestershire England Bed and Breakfast Lodgings Accommodations
Hosts: Nick & Jennifer
Guestrooms: 4
Address: Nick Williams, Windy Ridge Estate Office, Longborough, Moreton-in-Marsh, Gloucestershire, GL56 0QY England, UK
Telephone: +44 (0)1451 830465
Activities/Attractions: Longborough is a small village in the Cotswold Hills with around 250 houses, a school, a 12th century Church, a village shop and two pubs. Though near a host of popular Cotswolds tourist destinations and transportation routes, Longborough has remained blessedly peaceful and undisturbed.
The village is spread out on the slopes of a hill above the broad valley of the Evenlode only a few miles northwest of Stow on the Wold and just off the A429 Fosse Way.
The most notable building in the village is the parish church of St James. This is a 12th century building with Norman underpinnings, featuring a 13th century tower with striking 15th century pinnacles. Inside, there is a beautifully carved Jacobean memorial to William and Elizabeth Leigh, and an effigy of a 14th century knight in armour. A mechanical clock (17th century) is on display in the Sezincote Chapel, which is in the north transept.
"After a lovely welcome that you both gave us at Windy Ridge, Neil and I wanted to thank you personally for making our weekend such a wonderful, relaxing time. We knew the area was lovely but your house was such an amazing surprise; your father must have been a man of incredible ideas. For all its size and beauty though it feels like a home and you made us feel at home there. Thank you both once again. We hope that we will be able to come again sometime, although I don't think we will be as lucky with the weather."
"Thanks for a warm welcome and a lovely stay."
"A beautiful house with wonderful hospitality."
"Relaxing stay, fantastic gardens - love the dogs."
"We had a great time here at Windy Ridge, Nick & Jenny are great hosts but mad as a box of frogs!"
"Fantastic, loved it."
General Information: Welcome to Windy Ridge House B&B in Gloucestershire, England ... traditional Cotswold hospitality set in an area of outstanding natural beauty - conveniently located in the heart of the Cotswolds, near to Moreton-in-Marsh, Stow-on-the-Wold, Bourton-on-the-Water, Broadway, Cheltenham and Cirencester.
Windy Ridge is a small country estate, situated high in the Cotswold hills, overlooking the Evenlode Valley. This beautiful family home displays some wonderful features, mullioned windows, gables and Norfolk reed thatched roofs. Visitors here are offered generously furnished bedrooms and a large pine-panelled sitting room.
Payment Accepted: Sterling Cheques, Travellers Cheques and Cash.
Rates: (Prices quoted in GBP Pounds).
All prices are fully inclusive, including breakfast and use of all facilities.
Click here for currency conversion.
"The perfect escape. A wonderful relaxing weekend. Excellent service. Would recommend to anyone. A beautiful Arboretum. Would come back again."
"A really lovely place to stay with great people to look after us."
"Thank you for a very relaxing stay. Particularly enjoyed our alfresco breakfasts!"
"Beautiful house and gardens, fantastic breakfast, thank you Mary."


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Feral cats can be fixed at the Sacramento SPCA on Sundays for FREE. To make an appointment, you may email firstname.lastname@example.com or leave a message at (916) 504-2818. For more info on this program, go to www.sspca.org/feralcats.
If you own a cat that you wish to surrender, please contact the Sacramento SPCA at (916) 504-2851. An appointment is required, and there is a fee for surrendering your cat.
For more info, go to www.sspca.org/post/surrendering-your-pet.
Coalition for Community Cats – www.coalition4cats.org
Sacramento Feral Resources – www.sacferals.com
Alley Cat Allies – www.alleycat.org
How to Live With Cats in Your Neighborhood
Feral Cat Deterrents
Keeping Cats Out of Your Yard
Managing Community Cats
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Pentagon Contracts Aimed At Bolstering Cyberwarfare Defense
The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency seeks to build "real-time" cyberdefenses and attacks. DARPA's broad agency announcement, released Wednesday, follows a two-month delay, announced in September, when DARPA said it was overwhelmed by an unexpected level of interest...
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What is a Monster Drawing Rally?
It's is a live drawing event and party that allows spectators to spy on the creative process, build relationships with local artists, and grow their art collections.
And we WANT you to be a part of it. All artists are encouraged to apply.
Over the course of the night, artists like you take shifts drawing and making artwork for 50 minutes. Sketches turn into finished pieces made from collage, watercolor, acrylic, graphite, and other media. Finished drawings are immediately available for purchase for $50 each.
Building on a model developed by Southern Exposure, a nonprofit arts organization in San Francisco, the first ever Park City Monster Drawing Rally is planned for June 1, 2017 from 6:00 p.m. – 9:30 p.m. at the Kimball Art Center.
It's a new partnership program between PCSC Arts and the Kimball Art Center to make local artists and their artwork more visible and accessible to the community.
Live music, food and drinks will be part of the experience.
- The event is Thursday, June 1st from 6:00 p.m. – 9:30 p.m.
- Artists will be assigned one or more of the three 50-minute work sessions over the course of the evening.
- Artists will be expected to create at least one artwork during their work session. More pieces are welcome.
- Basic supplies will be provided (crayons, markers, colored pencils)
- Artists may bring additional supplies.
- Artists may bring work that is partially started but it must be completed onsite.
- All artwork must be a max size of 11×17.
- All artwork must be two dimensional (no sculpture) and able to be put into a sleeve and hung on the wall.
- Artists must be willing to donate all work created to PCSC Arts and the Kimball Art Center.
- We will promote participating artists through the event web page, promotional materials (press release, social posts, PR), and onsite through print collateral and in public remarks. Building relationships between new and established collectors and local artists is a goal of this effort.
- Event proceeds will support the production costs of the event and other similar events in the future.


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Separate names with a comma.
Discussion in 'Rugby League Forum' started by Kevinward777, Aug 23, 2012.
Article in the SMH claiming Choc, Ballin and King all in doubt.
There is no doubt we can still win this game even if those 3 dont play
Hell yeah we are playing at the Fortress! We need to keep the pressure on the Ponies halves, that's their big weakness at the moment.
Choc got done by one of those prowler tackles. Have a look at the last tackle before halftime. Choc runs up slowly as the siren has sounded but then some Knights player shoots in at his legs. Millions time worse than the tackle the Roosters Masoe got penalised & put on report for against Sharks.
choc is injured every week, he will play the man is a machine!
I hope theyre all out, given every chance to be fot for the finals.
yeah - fully fot bro
Choc is alot like kiwi steve. needs to be on life support before he misses a game.


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The coincidences hit me earlier this afternoon, so I thought I'd write about it. Then… It was December 3rd, 2010 and we were at my mom's house for dinner. We were eating Lou Malnati's deep dish pizza (sausage) and Cindy wasn't due for another week. She had finished her last day of work before maternity […]Continue Reading →
Our Summer Door County Road Trip – 2014 Instagram Edition
Another Door County trip has come and gone. And as usual, way too fast, as well. For this trip, as I did two years ago, I decided to capture our happenings on Instagram. Below, you'll find those photos as they tell the story of our more recent visit to what seems like our home away […]Continue Reading →
Fun at the Door [Photos]
Boy, after hearing "I wanna go to Door County" out of Christian's adorable little mouth for the last two months, it's great to finally be back here for another long weekend. And while we still have another day and a half to go, we already took some great photos on Friday, that hopefully will be […]Continue Reading →
Easter 2014 [Photos]
After the winter that seems like it would never end, Easter has now already come and gone this year, and with it another measuring stick of how Christian has grown from year to year. As has been the family tradition from even before he was born, we headed to the Public Landing in Lockport for […]Continue Reading →