text:
The psychological gap between working in a cafe because it's fun and romantic and doing the exact same thing because you have to is enormous. Within weeks, Lily and I—previously ensconced in an enviably stress-free marriage—were at each other's throats. I hesitate to say which was worse: working the same shift or alternating. Each option presented its own small tortures. Two highly educated professionals with artistic aspirations have just put themselves—or, as we saw it, each other—on $8-per-hour jobs slinging coffee. After four more months, we grew suspicious of each other's motives, obsessively kept track of each other's contributions to the cause ("You worked three days last week!"), and generally waltzed on the edge of divorce. The marriage appears to have been saved by a well-timed bankruptcy.Many years ago, in the 1970s, when I was married, R and I seriously considered opening a small bookstore, which we envisioned in romantic terms. Nevertheless, I got a book from the library about starting a small business. It had a chapter "Would You Hire Yourself?" that doggedly pressured you to seriously consider whether you would hire yourself to run this business you've got in mind. My reaction to that chapter was very much like my reaction to the lecture I received, around the same time, from a young woman at the SPCA, where I'd gone to adopt a dog. Suffice it to say, I've never owned a bookstore or a dog. I'm capable of having romantic visions of myself engaged in some activity in the future, but I'm at least as good at picturing myself in the negative variation. I can see the nightmare that cancels the dream.
December 30, 2005
The romantic entrepreneur...
45 comments:
- Rick Lee said...
As a self-employed photographer for 20 years, I've heard from lots of friends over the years who long to quit their hum-drum jobs and start a small business of some sort. The problem with these people is that they usually don't have a clear idea of what they want to start. They just want to be their own boss and have some sort of business. And since they don't have any vision they are really, really un-creative in their ideas about what kind of business to start. The usual ideas are some form of retail store or some form of restaurant. Both of these are very labor intensive requiring the presence of the owner in the establishment for long hours and are unlikely to throw off enough money to make one truly independent. I tell people to imagine being chained down like that for years to come. "Sorry, I can't go to lunch with you today because my employee called in sick and I have to stay here". As a service-provider, I work when I have work to do and if I don't have anything on my schedule, I go to the cafe and have a scone and read my paper.
- knoxgirl said...
I have worked for a couple small businesses where the owner has "checked-out," and clearly no longer has the committment rick describes.
Unfortunately, these owners also tend to expect their employees to be 200% dedicated to the business and take it as a personal affront if you call in sick or the like. The business is like a child they're not that interested in, and you're the nanny. If that makes sense.
Say what you will about big corporations, there are drawbacks aplenty to working for "romantic entrepreneurs".
- Richard Lawrence Cohen said...
Ah yes, the bookstore plan. 1975, I believe, preceding my abortive grad school plan. We thought it would be a science fiction bookstore because it would be good to have a specialized niche. We took the train up to Boston one weekend to check out the bookstores there, because we thought that might be a good city to open one in. Turned out they already had enough bookstores. End of plan, thankfully, but it was nice to spend a weekend in Boston. I don't have the slightest business sense; you probably have a bit more than I.
- Mike Lief said...
One of the reasons I've resisted the urge to leave the D.A.'s office and hang out my own shingle is my utter mind-numbing, eye-rolling, uncontrollable yawning reaction to thought of the nuts and bolts of running an office: ordering paper clips, hiring a secretary, finding a temp when she quits, and on and on.
As far as the dog goes, I can't believe you let a nutball from an animal rights group talk you out of getting a hound.
Take a look at this face, or this one. I got this fella from the County shelter, and in addition to saving him from the soft-spoken-but-very-Grim Reaper, my wife and I gained a wonderful companion.
Anyhow, enjoy reading you every morning with a hot cuppa Joe. Best wishes for the New Year from Ventura, CA.
- Jake said...
One should never go into business with a spouse.
The first reason is that typical business decisions become emotionally charged. "If you loved me, you would buy a new copy machine." Thus logic flies out the window on many decisions.
The second reason is too much togetherness, Not many marriages can withstand spouses being together every waking hour of the day.
The third reason is a new business rarely makes money right away. You need one spouse working to support the family while the new business gets legs.
- Ann Althouse said...
Richard: "you probably have a bit more than I." I had enough to take that book out of the library, read it, and realistically look at myself and know that I was no shopkeeper.
Mike: She was not a nutball, just very stern and factual about all the unpretty things about a dog.
- Ann Althouse said...
"We took the train up to Boston..." That right there shows how unsuited we were for the enterprise. We knew nothing about that city and couldn't have learned anything relevant in a little trip. It wasn't seeing the number of bookstores there that affected us, it was how unrealistic everything about the idea was, including starting up in a new city that we didn't know.
- Kev said...
In college, I worked at a pizza place where the owners were husband-and-wife, and it was a disaster. They fought all the time, and sometimes, after a big argument, they'd both drive off in a huff, leaving us delivery drivers to cook and deliver the pizzas (with no extra compensation for doing so, of course). He also bought her an adorable puppy with the money that he should have used to fix the building's air conditioning in a scorching Texas summer. (How's that for tying the two halves of this post together?)
- PatCA said...
A number of my friends started a coffee place/restaurant years ago. They ignored my lawyer friend's advice to get a partnership agreement. 18 months later, the lawsuits were flying, the friendships ended. The new owners, also a romantic couple, lasted about a year. Thankfully, a professional bought them out and the restaurant stands today, pretty much as the original vision. But, oh, the blood and treasure that was sacrificed to get there!
Slight O/T, I'm glad the SPCA woman warned you. My neighborhood of large yards and small people is littered with howling, lonely dogs the owners tired of. We can't sleep or think or sell, unless some deaf people should happen by. This romantic vision destroyed the dogs' lives and ours as well.
- Mike Lief said...
Ann, I helped an ex-girlfriend adopt a Pug from a rescue organization, and the representative made the process unbelievably difficult, more so than adopting a human child -- and no, I'm not exaggerating.
As for "just very stern and factual about all the unpretty things about a dog," all I'm sayin' is it ain't rocket science. Food, water, play, pay attention (which is easy), and the boy gives endless laughs.
The hardest part is finding a dog that's tempermentally suited to you; I can't handle high-strung, nervous, yappy dogs. Bogie's got none of those characteristics.
On the other hand, going on Pooh Patrol in the backyard ain't exactly a good time, but you've raised a kid, so it's not unprecedented.
As to the original main point of your post, I've often wondered about people who want to open a little store and deal with the public all day.
There's a local store in town that sells zippers and buttons. Every time I drive by, I think, did the owner wake up one day and say, "I want to spend the rest of my life being the go-to Guy in my little corner of the world for anyone who need a clothing fastener!"
Yikes. I'm glad somebody wants to do it. I guess the bottom line for anyone thinking about opening a small storefront operation is to take the advice of Dirty Harry: "A man's got to know his limitations."
It works better if you squint and say it with quiet menace.
- Slac said...
- This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
- Slac said...
My business law professor consulted with a lot of partnerships in his heyday. "Something about it..." he said every day of the unit, in his long drowning voice, "I don't know... makes their failure rate higher than the divorce rate."
Does anyone think good prior consultation on the form the business will take (Partnership, LLP, LLC, etc.) can assuage the troubles of romantic entrepreneurship?
They didn't mention what form they took in the article, but it sounded like a partnership. They had trouble supervising each other because there was no clear boss.
Perhaps good legal consultation in general would help. There's no need to be policing each other. Just delineate the duties, having regular meetings to update, and let the law protect your interests, personal and common. That's what it's there for, right?
- reader_iam said...
Jake: Don't you think it depends on the business and the people?
I've also observed that many people who are self-employed successfully seem to have other family members who have likewise done so. I know it's true on both my and my husband's side of the family (and both sets of parents are still married, to the same person). Maybe it has something to do with growing up watching your parents relate to each other in different roles and manage the conflicts? It's "just what you know," perhaps.
It takes a certain knack and probably a different perspective on life to work for one's self AND with one's spouse. Definitely not for everyone.
The "Would You Hire Yourself" riff is dead on. And if you're going to work with a spouse, you have to realistically ask the same question about him/her.
As a sort of extension of the theme, both my husband and I work from home; he's now an employee-telecommuter and we both do work through our small prof. svcs. company. (The kid is the one who commutes. HA! What a skewed vision of the world we've given him.) When people who are considering doing the same ask my opinion, I tell them to envision their spouse as an annoying co-worker whom you are obligated to kiss at the end of the day. If they're not up to that, forget it.
- Der Hahn said...
I was the spouse during the attempt to open a small business.
Been there. Done that. Have the divorce papers to prove it.
- Diane said...
Ann, there is nothing like a dog.
- Jake said...
I am speaking from my experience as a CPA. Sure spouses can run a business together but the chances of it working are so small it is not worth the risk.
- reader_iam said...
Jake, in reading your response I had a funny thought.
Maybe our CPA hasn't been discouraging because he runs his business with ... his wife! Heh.
- StrangerInTheseParts said...
As is clear in a lot of posts here,
what I see is a lot of people who go entrepeneurial in order 'find themselves' or to 'start over', or to 'mix work with their lifestyle'. It's all motivated by wish-fulfillment and identity crises.
Independent businesses are a cauldron that will liberate you from you any fantasies and naivete you have. Except as a form of spiritual purging, I think there is little to recommend it.
- Ann Althouse said...
If married couples are so bad at running a business together, why are they good at running a household together?
- OddD said...
Who said they're good at running households together?
- Elizabeth said...
What an amazing topic, or brace of topics; so many posts here correspond to my own experiences:
knoxgirl, I've worked for those burnt-out romantics, too. They ran a deli, and as I learned 89 days into my employment, after being told to stay overtime to mop, fired each of their employees just shy of three months, when unemployment benefits would have kicked in.
PatCA--my neighborhood is one of small yards, but way too many dogs left to bark night and day, during cold weather and rain, or just from boredom.
I was turned down by a pet rescue agency recently, when I wanted to adopt a terrier, for not owning my home. I've rented in the same place for 13 years, have had the same veterinarian for even longer, but the woman in charge has the unfounded belief that renters don't love their pets.
I regret never being able to run my own kitchen, and I would not hestitate to hire myself to manage it and the employees, to do everything except keep the books. I am not very competent with my own personal finances, so I'd never want to have to account to investors.
- StrangerInTheseParts said...
"If married couples are so bad at running a business together, why are they good at running a household together?"
First Thought: Are they so good at it? High divorce rates equates to high bankrupcy rate.
Second Thought: Running a home pays you in love and joy. You spend money on a household with no thought of monetary profit. But no matter how much you love your business, you must have the skills necessary to make at least some cold hard money out of it. That's a whole other set of skills then getting the kids to school on time and enjoying dinner and movies together.
- James R Ament said...
I've always thought that owning a small bookstore, hardware store or an old diner would would be enjoyable IF you didn't have to earn a living off the enterprise. I don't know anyone in such a position... which is probably why I spent 37 years working for a corporation. That, and my father used to tell me that if you work for somebody else, you might lose your job; and if you have your own business, you could lose your job, your house, your wife, and all your savings. But then he was a cautious man of the Depression. Nonetheless, I listened.
- Carol Minjares said...
I used to dream of owning a nightclub, but now I see someone I know buy a restaurant or bar, I just chuckle.
And a couple! Who on earth pays the health insurance? One of them needs to have a real job for heaven's sake. In my town the only ones who can afford to keep a small boutique or coffee house open are the restless wives of doctors or lawyers. Then they get bored with it and go on to something else.
- Robin said...
mike lief said
"On the other hand, going on Pooh Patrol in the backyard ain't exactly a good time, but you've raised a kid, so it's not unprecedented."
Yes, but eventually kids are potty trained. Seven to ten years in with a dog and you're still picking up waste. It's good to think twice about whether you are up for that commitment.
- Frank Borger said...
Ann, it's a good thing you didn't start a business installing window shades, blinds & curtains.
- Freeman Hunt said...
Good lord, it isn't all that hard. I guess if you go into it "romantically" things probably won't work out well. What can I do or sell that people will pay for and how will I let them know about it? That's it. That's the whole ballgame.
Business is pretty easy if you go about it rationally instead of emotionally. (That's assuming that you are willing to work very very very hard.)
- Pogo said...
Question: Do coffee shop and bookstore owners harbor romantic dreams about becoming a faceless employee of a large corporation?
As for "Business is pretty easy if you go about it rationally instead of emotionally ...and you are willing to work very very very hard"
Well, that seems to me the precise opposite of the term "pretty easy", but maybe that's just me.
Word Verification: gndzlah: an aborted sneeze
- reader_iam said...
If married couples are so bad at running a business together, why are they good at running a household together?
Are they so good at it? High divorce rates equates to high bankrupcy rate.
Just goes to show, neither jointly running a business nor keeping a household/marriage together is for the faint-hearted (or overly romantic).
Still, a lot (though a minority) of people actually do manage to do those things, and even both.
- Meade said...
Freeman Hunt is right. It's like blogging - you make an investment and work hard to succeed... if you're good at it, you get return 'customers,' you make a profit, your blog stays up. It isn't romantic but you might love doing it.
- howzerdo said...
My father was self-employed and made a decent living at most of the businesses he owned. Restaurants and retail require a lot of sacrificed weekends and nights, but there are other enterprises that are 9 to 5 (or 7 to 6), such as construction.
However, all four of his kids chose not to go that route (and all of us are or have been public employees). And my parents did not both work for the businesses, at least most of the time. I think entrepreneurism has to do with risk tolerance, and other personality factors.
I work from home 3 days per week and love it - but my brother-in-law hated the irregular schedule and isolation of telecommuting.
Seven to ten years for a dog? How could that ever be enough time? I have had quite a few dogs for as much as 16 years. Most recently, my beloved dog died from cancer at age 10 in September - how I wish I still had to do poop patrol for him! And I'm sure his piercing howl could be heard throughout the neighborhood (but he was an inside dog). He never played loud music, asked to borrow the car or responded to me with a fresh mouth, though (OK, I confess, I am childfree).
I agree that some rescues can be absolutely ridiculous, but most shelters have very good reasons for careful screening.
- Felice Luftschein said...
My wife and I have been running a variety of tiny businesses since we first got together 19 years ago. She hired me when I was a flip-flop shod hippie down in Guatemala to help her schlep some clothing she was bringing back to the states to flog at Dead concerts, then we started making jewelry. We lived in a Ford van for 2-1/2 years while we travelled around selling our wares to stores. Since then we have settled down and still flog our jewelry, although I have a side business selling tools on the internet. We are the definition of co-dependence, we've only been apart about 2 months total in the 19 years.
So it is possible. The downside is we are poor, rarely take vacations, have to be stay/work at home parents (which is a good thing, for us), and did I mention we are poor?
We have seen scads of friends open small businesses only to fail. You really have to have no other option to succeed - in our case both of us have liberal arts degrees - and you have to be willing (if not actually) to sacrifice all notions of art, fun, romance, etc in favour of economic reality.
Reading back a bit in my comment, you will notice the 2-1/2 years living in a van. If you can't live in a van with your partner, then you won't be able to run a small business either. Call it the van test.
- sonicfrog said...
If you want companionship, you could always get a horse.
And note that this one's named "squirrel".
- John(classic) said...
My father's observation made late in life was that "people who had something they really wanted to do --open a business, live somewhere particular, become a cowboy, whatever--and never did it were always unhappy. Those who tried it and had it fail --went bankrupt, found it miserable-- were happy. Poorer maybe, but happy."
Of course he may have been prejudiced--as he also noted he pretty much did everything he wanted to.
- Freeman Hunt said...
Well, that seems to me the precise opposite of the term "pretty easy", but maybe that's just me.
What I mean is that it isn't rocket science. It's pretty straight-forward.
- Slac said...
What I mean is that it isn't rocket science. It's pretty straight-forward.
Actually, rocket science is pretty straightforward. We do, after all, have it down to a science.
The only trouble is having to go to school and do homework for a while. And finding good parts.
- Eli Blake said...
Talk about being able to find a cloud in any silver lining. You can't focus on the nightmare to the point that you let go of the dream. At best, be realistic about it, but keep on dreaming.
I guess I'm an incurable optimist. I really believe that no matter how bad things get, eventually they will get better.
As a Liberal, that helps me get up and smile at the world every day for the next 1,116. Every day that goes by without the Bush agenda moving forward is a small victory for America.
- michael a litscher said...
I'm an entrepreneur, and have been for a few decades.
Had trouble finding a permanent job back in the 80's, so I signed up with a contracting agency. Wrote all kinds of neat software for bunches of different businesses.
Of course, being a contractor, when the budget gets tight, you're the first to go. So it was feast or famine. I learned to stick every dollar I could into the bank and keep my spending so far within my means that I looked poor to anyone who wasn't privy to my bank accounts.
The end result? Two years of take-home pay in the bank, AFTER paying cash for a brand new truck in 1995.
At this point, I have the problem of being madly in love with a girl I just can't live with.
A friend, who I'd met consulting along the way, had gotten sick of his job and was out on the road struggling to get his business off the ground after getting sick of his employer. He starts bugging me to go into business with him writing software. I'd write it, he'd sell it. I keep politely telling him I'd think about it.
Well, things finally come to a nasty head with the girl, and I break it off. I'm haunted every night by the same three demons: Woulda, Coulda, and Shoulda.
Well, not getting any sleep gave me plenty of time to prototype out the software my friend was insisting we could go into business selling.
I'd write code all night, email him a copy, go to my day job consulting, and come home to read his emails on the feedback he was getting from potential customers.
On and on it went, until we actually had the skeleton of a real application that people were showing serious interest in buying.
And then one day it happened. A very large international company offered to buy 300 copies at $1000 per copy, if only we'd finish the software.
And so I quit my consulting gig.
Unfortunately, the deal fell through. I should have kept the consulting gig until the check cleared. As someone above pointed out, you do need to maintain an income stream while sales ramp up, and deals fall through, which for us took a few years.
It took a lot of work, a lot of faith, a lot of patience, a lot of compromises, a lot of discipline, and a lot of burned-up savings, but it's been fun. In the last nine years, save for a couple of years, we've had double-digit growth.
We're still small, but we're about to hire our third employee, not including my business partner and I.
I still wouldn't recommend it to the faint of heart, the undisciplined, the non-workaholics, or the risk-averse.
- Bruce Hayden said...
I think that a lot of the reason that it works better for those who had parents who were self-employed to be so themselves is that it is something that you have to get used to, or, better, raised with.
My girlfriend and my best friend both were raised by parents with their own businesses. Her second marriage was to someone who built one up from scratch to hiring a dozen or two employees. And the two of them are not the least bit romantic about it. On the other hand, both deal well with the insecurities and other demands of this type of existence.
For both of them, there has been boom and bust throughout their lives. Both mostly live as if the bust is right around the corner. Stretching to make mortgage payments is a fact of life for them. And they wouldn't have it any other way.
On the other hand, my parents were raised in extremely secure environments, though my father less so - his father had the itch, and occasionally scratched it, while my grandmother kept her job to tide things over.
So, my mother made my father give up his own law practice when I was imminent. And he didn't go back out on his own until we were all mostly raised, and then only by necessity. And even then, he had a stable set of clients from his long practice in a firm.
But she always was worried about security, and translated that to us. So, when we are forced to work for ourselves, it is most often not happily. I don't like not knowing where my next paycheck is coming from.
Worse, I think is my ex wife. Her father seemed to trade secucrity for income. We did ok when we consulted together, but we had a very rich client (i.e. the federal govt.) When that dried up, she went back to a real job, and I tried to get a law practice going. I think the stresses of that are why we ultimately divorced.
I think that I would need to marry someone who is used to that existence to survive in it, including, probably, in my present law practice. My girlfriend, and an almost girlfriend whom I speak to almost daily, would work. But certainly not someone like my ex-wife (and nothing negative intended against her, she just didn't like the environment at all and for that reason, didn't provide any real support).
- Bruce Hayden said...
As I think back, I realize that my upbringing was somewhat unique. Most of my friends to this day are self-employed or run their own companies. And I think that it is because that is what they were brought up with. Almost all of them had fathers similarly situated. And I think that it was because both myy high school and college were heavily populated by this sort.
But the downside is that they don't always work well for others. I have one friend who followed his father into a profession that is now in serious decline. He happily ran his own business for maybe 25 years. But economic forces put him out of business (twice). And now he is again unemployed, having apparently been fired for viewing porn on the Internet at work. All the reasons that he has been fired look stupid from the point of view of those of us who have spent most of our working lives working for others. But not to someone who has had the freedom of working for himself for so long.
I look at my other self-employed friends, and think that they would not fare that much better if they were faced with his situation. They are almost all a bit odd, and mostly have strong views on how to run their businesses - which works when it is your business, but much less well when it is someone else's.
- knoxgirl said...
chicken-littling about the "Bush Agenda" on a totally unrelated post is not a symptom of eternal optimism
- Meade said...
One might (romantically) think owning one's own pet sitting business would be swell but of course there's more to it than petting, playing, and picking up a fee.
- Rob said...
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- Rob said...
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- Rob said...
- This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.


text:
Journal Platinum Dragon's Journal: Back from exile
I've chosen to return from my self-imposed Slashdot exile of... *checks date of last post*... two months, nineteen days.
I don't have high hopes for an improvement in editorial quality, but I'm willing to give this site another chance.
The next step, if things prove to have stagnated or degenerated even more, will be a pointed e-mail to Taco's bosses and a much longer period of non-visitation.

subset: commoncrawl


text:
April 12, 2009
Marchiando-Friis Team Race Results
Admiral Alymers Trophy Results
Southern Series Four Results
Video footage of the Bulldogs (gray sails) against Roger Williams (yellow sails) in the finals (by sailgroove.org)
Video footage of the tie-breaker against St. Mary's (by sailgroove.org)
NEW HAVEN, Conn. - The No. 3 Bulldog coed sailing team again performed strongly in team racing by taking third at the highly competitive Marchiando-Friis Team Racehosted by MIT and Tufts on Saturday and Sunday. The Bulldogs, who won the event in 2007 and 2008, had the most wins during the qualifying round of Saturday's competition. The Bulldogs also competed at the Admiral Alymers Trophy hosted by Massachusetts Maritime and at the Southern Series Four event hosted by Rhode Island.
The Bulldogs started off competition at the Marchiando-Friis Team Race on Saturday in a qualifying round of competition hosted by No. 17 MIT. The qualifying round included eight teams, the top four of which earned the right to compete in the final round that was hosted on Sunday at MIT. Another group of teams competed at No. 11 Tufts on Saturday, with the top four teams from that qualifying round also making it to Sunday's finals at MIT. The MIT venue, which is on the Charles River, featured sailing in FJs with colored sails and sailing on the U course during some of the races, which includes a downwind start, a reach leg and a final upwind leg. Most collegiate team race exclusively take place on the Digital N course, which includes an upwind leg, a reach leg, a downwind leg and a final upwind leg.
On Saturday, the Bulldogs raced in moderate wind conditions in a continual rain. The team performed strongly, sitting in first place in the MIT bracket after the conclusion of the preliminary round of competition with a 11-3 record. The team only lost to No. 4 St. Mary's and No. 12 Brown.
In Sunday's competition for the final championship, the Bulldogs were joined by No. 1 Boston College, No. 5 College of Charleston, No. 6 Roger Williams, No. 7 Harvard, Brown, St. Mary's and Tufts. The results of the races from the previous day against teams that the schools already faced carried over to Sunday's round, so the Bulldogs entered with losses to St. Mary's and Brown and a win over Roger Williams. In the first round of the finals, the Bulldogs picked up wins against Charleston, Harvard and Tufts, but dropped a race to Boston College.
The team's strong performance qualified them for a final four round of competition in which each school would race against each other school in the final four one time. The Bulldogs were joined in the finals by Boston College, Roger Williams and St. Mary's. The teams faced very strong winds that gusted into the 20-knot range during Sunday's competition, but the wind was not even across the course it came off of the land.
In the finals, the Bulldogs picked up a win against St. Mary's, but dropped races to eventual champion Boston College and Roger Williams. Still, the win in the finals against St. Mary's was the defining race as it allowed the team to advance to a tie-breaking race against St. Mary's. The Bulldogs won that race, allowing them to clinch third.
Junior captain Thomas Barrows, who sailed along with seniors Grace Becton and Adriane Levin, juniors Michael Hession, John Kempton and Marla Menninger and freshmen Cameron Cullman and Joseph Morris, was pleased with the overall result, but felt that the team can do better in the future.
"I feel that the regatta went pretty well, even though we lost a number of very close races," Barrows said. "It was really tough conditions, which made the racing pretty difficult. The races that we lost were in pretty bizarre conditions, but we should still have been able to win them. We had some trouble during the regatta with pinning the opponents during the passbacks as well as knowing when and where we needed to balance the pairs. It was good practice for us and everyone sailed well at times during the weekend, but we still made some mistakes that we can correct."
The competition at the Admiral Alymers Trophy in 420s also featured strong wind. On Saturday, the wind started out at between 12 and 14 knots, before building to a steady 20 knots with higher gusts, at which time racing was postponed for the day. Saturday featured major shifts along with minor, short-lived shifts that confused the sailors about the true nature of the wind. On Sunday, the wind was a more moderate 10 to 15 knots, with some larger puffs, but also large lulls. The wind was again shifty, but making racing even more erratic was the pin end of the line being heavily favored, so getting a good start was critical to success. The Bulldogs took seventh overall at the event with 139 points, losing sixth by only one point. This was an improvement on the team's 10th-place finish from 2008. The team of freshmen Rob Struckett and Stephanie Schuyler sailed strongly to take third in B division while senior Caleb Dorfman and sophomore Alexa Chu struggled to an eighth-place finish in A division.
The Bulldogs also sent a team to compete at the Southern Series Four event at Rhode Island, which took place on Saturday. The Bulldogs took third in the seven-team fleet, which raced in combined divisions. Freshmen Genoa Warner and Jared Shenson took third overall with 25 points while junior John Vrolyk and freshman Alexandra Kerr took 11th with 67 points.
Warner had an enjoyable time during the racing, but wished that more than seven races were completed before the regatta ended due to high winds.
"Although we only did seven races, the sailing was really good," Warner said. "The courses were very short, with the races averaging around 10 minutes and it was puffy and rained on us the whole time, but it was still fun sailing. I felt that we did well in the racing. I was able to read the course and know where I wanted to go on it and since there were so few boats near the front of the pack, I was able to use that information to get to the area of the course I wanted to be. Overall, it was good racing, but I wished that we got more races in before the regatta was cancelled."
The Bulldogs are next in action at the New England Dinghy Championships, the Oberg Trophy and Southern Series Five.
Report filed by Caleb Dorfman '09, Yale Sports Publicity


text:
How to Start a Walking Fitness Program
I am a runner. However, after being plagued with injuries during the past few months, I'm rethinking walking.
Walkers are far less prone to injury than runners, and research shows that consistent, brisk walking can reduce the risk of heart disease by the same amount as more vigorous exercise such as running.
It's a great time of year to be outdoors, and it's always a great time to start a walking program. As with any exercise program, there are some factors to consider before getting started.
First, check with your doctor. You should do this before starting any exercise program. He or she may know something about your medications or conditions that may affect your ability to exercise.
Invest in a good pair of walking shoes. This is the only piece of equipment that you'll need to buy, so make sure that you make a good investment. Plan to replace your shoes every 300 to 500 miles or 3 to 6 months. Wearing the wrong shoes is one of the main contributors to joint and back pain and preventable injuries, so try on several pairs and walk in them around the store.
Start slowly. As with any exercise, you need to progress slowly to avoid injury. You may be very ambitious in the beginning, but if you set your standards too high, you may be setting yourself up for failure.
At first, only walk as far or as fast as you feel comfortable, then slowly add time and intensity. For example, you may try daily short walks of 5 to 10 minutes and slowly build up to 15 minutes. Then, over 2 or 3 months, you can work your way up to 30 to 60 minutes of walking most days.
Warm up. The first 5 to 10 minutes of your walk should be easy. The goal is to warm up your muscles and gradually increase your heart rate.
Watch your posture. Stand up straight with your shoulders back and your eyes ahead.
Stay hydrated. This is particularly important during the summer months when dehydration and heat stroke are more common. Thirst is one of the last signs of dehydration, so make sure to drink before you're thirsty.
Know your surroundings. Make sure that you're familiar with the area where you'll be walking, even if it is your own neighborhood. Pay attention to unleashed pets as well as dark and desolate areas.
Know the amount of time and intensity needed to fulfill your goals. For health benefits, you should aim for 30 minutes on most days at a pace comfortable for talking. For cardiovascular fitness, your goal should be 30 minutes 3 to 4 times a week at a fast pace. For weight loss, you'll need to walk for 45 to 60 minutes 5 times a week at a brisk pace.
Avoid hand and ankle weights. These increase the strain on ligaments and tendons, which may lead to injury.
If you develop an injury or have questions about beginning a walking fitness program, consult with a physical therapist or other health-care provider.


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Did you read today's front page stories & breaking news?
From the Wires
Is Income Basd Replacement (IBR) the best way to provide student loan debt relief?
The advantages and disadvantages of IBR
By: PR Newswire
Jan. 10, 2013 04:21 PM
LORTON, Va., Jan. 10, 2013 /PRNewswire-iReach/ -- Is IBR the best way to provide student loan debt relief?
The Income Based Replacement (IBR) Loan Program is a new program strongly supported by the Obama Administration designed to provide debt relief to overextended student borrowers. This post considers the advantages and disadvantages of the IBR program.
An assessment of the IBR program can be found at
The web site www.financememos.com covers personal finance issues. Topics covered at this blog include the Social Security claim decision, assessing life-cycle investment, and a discussion of different types of mortgages.
The publisher is soliciting guest posts. Submission should be sent in the body of the email to firstname.lastname@example.com
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California Department of Transportation
Headquarters - Sacramento
Matt Rocco
(916) 654-4020
December 10, 2009
Sacramento –Today, the California Transportation Commission (CTC) allocated $125 million to 36 transportation projects to improve the state's transportation infrastructure and bolster the economy. The allocations include $37 million from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (Recovery Act) and $31 million from Proposition 1B, the $19.9 billion transportation bond approved by voters in 2006. The remaining $57 million in allocations came from assorted transportation accounts funded by state and federal dollars.
"Today's announcement is another important step in our commitment to rebuild California's aging infrastructure," said Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger. "My administration is working hand-in-hand with President Obama's team to ensure Recovery Act dollars are pumped into California quickly and responsibly to stimulate the economy and invest in the future of the state's transportation system."
Among the projects that received funding allocations today were:
Plumas County - $28.2 million in Recovery Act funding to replace Spanish Creek Bridge, an aging structure on State Route 70.
Chico - $1.9 million from the Recovery Act to construct a 6.7-mile bikeway and pedestrian access alongside State Route 99.
Humboldt County - $1.3 million from the Recovery Act to construct sidewalks, pedestrian crossings, bicycle lanes and improve landscaping on State Route 255 in the city of Arcata.
Sacramento - $31.2 million in Proposition 1B funding for a wide range of rail improvements. One project ($25.2 million) at the downtown Sacramento train station will straighten and separate a passenger rail track and platform from freight tracks. A second project ($6 million) will construct a grade separation overcrossing at 6th Street above newly relocated mainline tracks and F Street.
Los Angeles - $2.4 million to perform maintenance work and repairs on a bridge on Interstate 5 at the junction with U.S. Highway 101.
Fresno - $3 million to construct a new median safety barrier on State Route 180 to reduce the potential for cross-median collisions and $2.1 million to upgrade three bridges on State Route 168.
"From one end of the state to the other, transportation projects are providing jobs and improving mobility for people and businesses in California," said Caltrans Director Randy Iwasaki. "Our focus has been and continues to be ensuring that California gets the maximum benefit from the stimulus funding."
Under Governor Schwarzenegger's leadership, California leads the nation with $2.1 billion in Recovery Act funding obligated to 718 highway and local street transportation projects statewide. Of these, 380 projects worth more than $2 billion have been awarded contracts to begin work, with an additional $449 million in federal stimulus funds expected to be awarded to 129 projects by February 2010. For more information on the Recovery Act visit: http://recovery.ca.gov/For a comprehensive list of all projects that received allocations today, please visit: http://www.dot.ca.gov/docs/ctcprojectallocationsdec2009.pdf


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PLYMOUTH, Mich. (AP) -- A 37-year-old man from the Detroit area has been charged with having sexual contact with a teenage girl.
Robert Louis Messer faces first- and third-degree criminal sexual conduct charges as well as a count of accosting a minor for immoral purposes.
The Northville resident was arraigned Thursday in Plymouth District Court. He was assigned a bond amount of $2 million. A preliminary examination is scheduled for Nov. 8.
Messer told the judge he was "not a threat to anyone." He appeared on a television screen in the courtroom via a video feed.
Authorities say Messer and the 15-year-old girl disappeared after they were seen together Sunday.
The two were found Tuesday in a Washtenaw County field.
Police have said they left notes expressing their love for each other.


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hinge pin bent a little?
hey i would like to know the height of your chassis? also with what tires are you using 2.2 or 2.8 or 1/8 buggy?
Superdew what motor and esc is that?
Wiring is not completed because of electronic issues... Maybe I need a new receiver
Last edited by Beholder_74; 12-07-2012 at 08:45 AM.
How do you like the RPM shock guards?
funny you should mention electronic issue, after installing my servo my steering was reversed....so, i opened the manual to reverse it back, also set my end points...well, i did my throttle end points too...but you also have to do it on the "wing" esc but the esc got no signal. so i took the receiver out, tested it on my vrc pro adapter and nothing for throttle. i guess i plugged my esc wiring in backwards once or twice and fried the receiver. i bought a new one yesterday as a gamble and it started working.
eagle, its a -"wing" esc (have to abbreviate here on the forums) and a tacon 4800kv 4pole. i still have to tune the setup a little because its overheating my nimh...hoping lipos are the answer to the problem. its a good setup and i like it a lot, i may end up stepping the kv rating down a bit as im told thats the cause for the heat in the batteries.
Ok got to work last night and got my truck all done. Just need to change the oils in the shocks and its ready to go. Oh need some chassis protector to keep the bottom of that 4mm bad boy scratch free.
Oh and the weight of my truck race ready. Just because I lied the first time since my non prototype is even lighter!!!!!!!!!!!! Be even another ounce lighter when I tried it with my lighter Losi body on it. At the end of the day it is less than 6 pounds.
Beholder 74 your VW Bug is just sick!!!!!!!!!!! Very awesome.
@super dew what amperage do u suggest for that motor
pull the hinge pin's and give them a good cleaning, I like to hit them with pldge furniture polish to pull the inbedded dirt out. I also clean the inside of the hinge pin hole's on the arm's with a drill bit the same size as the hinge pin. Never made the arm hole to big, no slop. Another thing are they touching the chassis on the hinge end?
*Proud Husband of United state's Air Force wife.*
wyd I noticed a weight change in mine too it is nice to be lighter then stock. I was afraid I would get scratches on the underside of mine but my shock setup does not bottom out on this chassis and so no scratches after a full day of racing on an outdoor semi prepared dirt track. Any suggestions on how to make my truck faster through the slower turns on a semi loose dirt track, I am running badlands with silver front and rear swaybars with losi shocks, medium springs and 3 mm preload on the front and 5mm on the rear.
Used some of my "U" gasket on the chassis for a little extra protection when the chassis bottoms out.
We shall see...once the rain stops.
bridic, can you elaborate on "u gasket"? how thick would you say, just a standard decal/sticker thickness?
Going to see if I can get some with adhesive to help keep it from sliding.
hey for those of you using stock shocks, what weight oil are you using and/or did you use when you had the stock shocks? i know to upgrade them and i will but right now im on the stockers. suggestions please you can express your opinion on shocks too but i need the oil weight info more right now.
I am starting my build this weekend and wanted to get opinions of what motor/esc combo I currently own would be the best set up for racing occasionally and bashing (maybe I shouldn't think of bashing? )
Here is what I currently own;
Tekin 13.5 sensered
Tekin 8.5 sensor
Velenion 3500
Cc 2650 (don't think it will fit)
Speed controls:
Tekin rs pro
Novak (can't remember model it's hooked up to my 8.5)
Mamba max pro.
I have a built slash 4x4 and a 1/10 rally. So my plan is to use the strc lcg as a racing set up and put the rest of my hop ups on my rally. My slash 4x4 is currently built with mmp 2650, d8 shocks, Robinson racing slipper, MIPS all the way around 1/8 wheels and all supporting hop ups.
So what I would like to come out with is a nice strc lcg set up and an upgraded rally bashing set up.
Which brings up one last question. Should I go with the 1/8 tires on the strc lcg 4x4 or rally? Any and all help appreciated.
Any input help would be greatly appreciated.
Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk HD
ty be will try that to start
WYD Im getting ready to pull the triggeer on the STRC LCG chassis and also getting the MMP SCT combo with 3800kv motor. I see you are running the same setup. Could you recommend what gearing setup I should start out with?
No Limit RC of Maryland
the more i see of this chassis the more i think about switching from my ssc.
STRC Slash 4x4
Hobby Hut Raceway, Audubon Pa.
my buddy has the ssc, ill take pics next to his for comparison on monday if he shows, i hope. honestly i was sold on price, but im glad i waited and didnt do the ssc and thats solely based on opinion of appearance, i just think it looks better...especially with the carbon fiber...i love it!
I just placed my order and according to the website there are still a few of the first run color options available! I ordered the orange anodized chassis and a set of C hubs and the HD steering bellcrank set both in gun metal! I also ordered a few more goodies for this build. You guys have some great looking builds and I cant wait to get mine started!!
No Limit RC of Maryland
what would be a good motor for the chassis. i have an rx8, but would a pro4 4000kv or 4600kv motor be best. im using 2s and only can use 540 motors
STRC Slash 4x4
Hobby Hut Raceway, Audubon Pa.
wyd, how come you get the nice clear stickers and we got ours with light blue background? what gives man, lol.
not a valid complaint, but i would rep more if the stickers had no background color...or were atleast white/black background.
also, i would like to point out that i see you solved the front sway bar "sway"/wobble problem with this setup but didnt share...thats just mean.
skitlerz, if i were you, id be halfway tempted to buy a few extra parts and simply build another slash, lol.
Last edited by supradrew; 12-09-2012 at 06:44 PM.
Hard case batteries fit great on the new chassis setup. I have room to spare even with my 2mm foam battery cushion I put on my truck. Not needed but I did it just because I had the room.
Someone posted about my decal. That is one of the old original ones I got from STRC when I bought parts for some of my other stuff I bought a year back. Steve tried some new decals and found that they are not so nice so is working on some new much better decals.
STRC has a limited amount of different color anodized setups available. He had a few extra left over so for a limited time til they run out Steve has some other color chassis setups available. So if you missed the initial order you might still be able to get a different color. He has whats available on the STRC site.
i just finished my build and wondering why i have 5-10 extra screws and a chrome screw with a hole in the middle and threads on wither side. any ideas on what they are for. thanks
Just put some 50wt oil in the shocks with losi green and blue springs.
I don't think this is going to be enough to keep the front end up.
I am thinking i need to up the oil wt and change to some stiffer springs.
What is everyone running for springs and oil wt?
Hi, im wondering if any of you guys would know when the new traxxas slash 4x4 LCG Chassis? Because im going to buy the traxxas slash 4x4 platium and I would love to get this new type of truck!
just what this thread needs, MORE PICS!
but as promised, heres my pics i took of mine and mikes ssc car tonight...thanks again man!
no major perks to note out of either setup that i can think of...i like the battery setup he has, but i like my adjustable motor mount better than his. the ssc "feels" heavier but we havnt weighed em out. i like the fact that with the strc, i got to keep the stock nerf bars and that my servo lays down lower...but these are minor perks and wont matter much to most people, just personal preference.
it was also nice to see another strc chassis repping out at the track tonight!
i could def use some more practice before i could personally compare the performance differences of the 2...the other strc vs ssc seemed to stick pretty close most of the time, i was too busy crashing/making stupid mistakes to pay much attention to them racing...hoping these guys will chime in eventually
overall, i havnt had this much fun driving (even with all the garbage driving i was doing) the truck is PLANTED now. much MUCH more control, rolls are a LOT better-i found many times where i would normally turtle-back it and this chassis kept the momentum up enough to make it roll back on all 4's again-i was surprised to see how many times it did this...that one fact alone makes it worth every penny to me.
im glad i invested in the chassis protector, i think id have a lot less green right now if i didnt, prob the best 8 bucks i ever spent.
as for shock tuning, im running the proline powerstroke's with red/red and 50w-both all the way around. i think i like the 50w better than the 35 i had but our track conditions are always changing...too wet/too dry/additional pits/divits, every week is a new learning curve. i have a rear end slide problem but im using the slipper, so i guess ill try and work with the center diff and just get used to it.
Last edited by supradrew; 12-11-2012 at 12:54 AM.


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Oct 12, 2010
by Tyler Peck, sports information graduate
>>>GC AOTW Archive
MARTINEZ, Ga.- Freshman Brittaney Borror (Evans, Ga.) of the Georgia College soccer team (7-3, 4-0 PBC) was named Peach Belt Conference (PBC) Player of the Week along with being named GC's Athlete of the Week for the week ending Oct. 10. Both awards mark the first such honors for Borror. The school award is the third for the Bobcats this season, while the PBC award is the second for Georgia College.
The freshman midfielder led the Bobcats with five points this past week as she recorded two goals and an assist. Borror put the Bobcats on the scoreboard first against No. 8 Armstrong Atlantic with a first-half goal. The win makes the Bobcats 2-0 against nationally-ranked programs this season. In the 4-1 victory over Clayton State University, Borror assisted Megan McAlpin (Newnan, Ga.) and later scored on an unassisted strike. Borror has now recorded goals in each of the last four games.
Bobcat soccer squares off with No. 25 North Georgia this evening on the road at 5 p.m.
The Georgia College Department of Athletics, back-to-back winners of the PBC Commissioner's Cup, sponsors 10 varsity athletic programs at the NCAA Division II level. As a Division II program, Bobcat Athletics prides itself on balancing the life of the student-athlete, evidenced by the teams' multiple appearances in post-season competition as well as documented academic success and community-service involvement. Sign up at www.twitter.com/GCSUBobcats and www.facebook.com/gcbobcats for up-to-the-minute reports, and visit www.GCBobcats.com for more information, and to nominate your favorite former Bobcats and Colonials to the GC Athletics Hall of Fame.


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Just watched the replay frame-by-frame. Seems to me the ball is in Wilson's hand 1 frame with the time at 0:01.
Even for those that might not agree, at the very least why not let the play run and then review it?
Not lined up properly? Fine then call a penalty. I didn't see anyone moving at the snap.
Not sure why the play doesn't get more attention than it has. It's a touchdown IMO.


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The Dolphins lost Jake Long this week, leaving them in need of a starting tackle for their offensive line.
Enter Eric Winston. Maybe.
Adam Schefter of ESPN reports that Winston will visit the Dolphins on Wednesday as he hunts for a new job after getting dispatched by the Chiefs earlier this month. Schefter writes that a deal "could happen" during the visit. If it does, the Dolphins would likely have Jonathan Martin take over Long's spot on the left side of the line while installing Winston at his familiar right tackle spot.
There's several other teams reportedly interested in Winston. Schefter names the Patriots, Cowboys, Chargers and Eagles, which could mean that the Dolphins will lose their shot at Winston if they aren't able to close the deal before the end of their visit. The presence of the Patriots on that list suggests that they're prepared to move on from Sebastian Vollmer if necessary. Vollmer would be a candidate for any team still looking for a tackle, whether or not they're interested in Winston's services.


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Teniecka Drake: Balancing HIV Advocacy, a Husband and Three Young Children
March 7, 2011
Teniecka Drake
Teniecka Drake has been busy lately! She was known as Teniecka Hannah back in 2007, when she was first interviewed on TheBody.com. At that time, she was between relationships, and focused on helping her peers by sharing her story of living with HIV with audiences at high schools and universities, and encouraging them to make HIV testing a part of their lives. Now, four years after that interview, Teniecka's approaching the 10-year anniversary of her HIV diagnosis. She's also gotten married (hence the "Drake") and given birth to two daughters and a son. I caught up with Teniecka recently, and she shared her experiences with pregnancy and birth; caring for her children while going to school and working in the HIV community; and maintaining a strong family unit without the support of extended family members.
Teniecka Drake, welcome back to TheBody.com! Your last interview with us was in April 2007. It seems that there have been a bunch of new developments in your life. Do you want to talk about some of that?
Yes. I'm recently married, in 2008; and I also have three children. One is 2 years old, and that's my oldest daughter. My son is 1 years old. And my newest little girl is going to be 5 months this month.
Thank you.
How did you meet your husband?
Well, the story I gave other people, like my family members -- it's all going to be coming out now -- was that I met him at Walmart, because he was a truck driver. But the real way we met was on a chat line where you can meet people and interact on the phone. From there, we figured out where we could meet in person. I dissed him really badly in the beginning. I didn't like his appearance, so I kind of shunned him.
I told him at the beginning that I wasn't interested in looks and appearance. But when I saw him -- he was going through a divorce -- he was so skinny and frail. It looked like I could break him, because I'm more of a thick type of female. His appearance looked so shallow and shabby to me! In my mind, I was like, "I just don't think you're the one for me." My girlfriend was with me and I said, "You need to get me out of this situation. It doesn't feel good for me. I don't like the way he looks." So we came up with a little plan to escape.
He called me the next morning and said, "Are you sure that's what you want to do?" Because we'd had plans to go out to dinner and the movies, and I'd just blown him off.
When he called, I was like, "What am I doing? I told you it wasn't based on appearance and that I had moved away from that, but I judged you on appearance. And I'm so sorry for that."
He was living in Aurora at the time. I had to drive up there to compensate for him coming down here and me blowing him off. The rest is history.
How did you disclose your HIV status to him? How did that come up? How did he react at first?
I went about it in a very unique way. When dealing with HIV, you don't just disclose to anybody, because of all the stigma and how people may view you. So what I did -- and I did it early on just to know what type of man I was dealing with -- is I asked him, "Do you know about the rapper Eazy-E?" He was like, "Yes. What about that rapper?" I was like, "And do you know the illness that he died of?" "Yeah, he died of AIDS." And I said, "Well, I have something similar to what that rapper was diagnosed with." He said, "AIDS?" I said, "No. The virus part. I have HIV. I'm HIV positive."
He didn't say anything. He took a little pause. Then he said, "OK." And I said, "Well, how does that make you feel? You're trying to get to know me. We're new. And I do have this illness. You're going to have to deal with it if you're going to be with me."
He just told me flat out, "I accept you for who you are. That does not change that I'm still going to be with you." And then he said, "We're going to be married, anyway." And that was very early on.
I almost started crying. I said, "Don't play games with me. Because telling me that you're going to marry me when I've got HIV, that just sounds like you're just trying to make yourself look good."
He said, "No. I accept you for who you are regardless of your HIV status. I still feel we have that connection. And you will be my wife. Watch what I say." Here, today, that came true.
Pregnancy and birth can be really intense experiences for moms in general; how were pregnancy and birth for you, with all three of your children?
They were all different. When I was pregnant with my first daughter, I didn't really think much of it. I got little cravings for pickles and ice cream -- not together! I would just need tons of pickles and everything, but I didn't have a problem with the cravings.
But then the pain part, which I'm pretty sure any woman who has been pregnant can understand: The pain of the contractions and things are not fun. But I still was just really elated that I was even pregnant. Because I never thought, from when I was diagnosed till when I actually was pregnant, that I would even have a child, let alone be pregnant and have a husband that was going to be the father of my child.
I had a C-section [Cesarean section] with her, but it was an emergency C-section. They put me totally under, so I do not remember her. I just remember the doctor saying, "Hey, you had a beautiful girl." I was like, "Yeah," because I was drugged up.
Why the emergency C-section? Were you ever given an option between a C-section and vaginal birth, or was a C-section the only option for having your babies because of your HIV status?
For my first child, my doctor wanted me to do a vaginal delivery. That was the plan, but my body and the baby changed that. My body started to go into labor the night before she was born. My daughter was born June 13 and her due date was July 2. In the hospital, I was given an AZT [Retrovir, zidovudine] drip. When my labor contractions started, my viral load also spiked. I was told it jumped to 1,500, so I had to have an emergency C-section.
My HIV status did not make my doctor perform a C-section. My thoughts on it are that the woman or couple should have the choice. If a vaginal delivery is what you want, do it. If a C-section is preferred, do that. For me, my body and the baby made my choice for me. At the end of the day, you want to do what is right to have a healthy baby and to be a healthy mother.
With my second child, my son, I was going into labor when he broke my water. And so that was another emergency C-section, because he wanted to come out. That was a different, unique experience, because I had Flight for Life [the emergency helicopter transport organization take me to the hospital]. Then, in the hospital, they couldn't find my veins -- these people that deal with emergencies had both of my hands, trying to find my veins. And here comes the anesthesiologist. Meanwhile, my mom's in the room talking about some weird movie, Blazing Saddles, that I didn't want to hear about. I was like, "Why are you guys all in this room?"
The doctor's not even prepared, because he got called out of his bed to come. He was like, "Every time I come back into the room, you're contracting even faster." Nobody had the operating room open because it was not planned.
When [things were finally ready,] I was really happy. Everything went smoothly after that. I remember him being born. He didn't even cry, because he was around a lot of ladies. I was like, "Is the baby OK?" And my husband said, "Yeah. He's over there taking a nice bath, and all these pretty women are around him, so he's not crying." And I was like, "Well, OK, that's good."
When my last daughter was born, it was a unique experience because it went kind of badly, a little bit, for me. The C-section was fine and she came out healthy. But the hospital was going off of some old viral load test results showing that my viral load had increased; they thought my viral load had spiked at that time. They thought, because of that old test, that I would be a danger to my own daughter if I coughed or something. They said they needed to monitor my daughter a little more thoroughly. They didn't have my most recent test result, which showed my virus was undetectable. They were going off an old one that said I had, like, 92 copies of the virus in my blood.
They told me I could not see my daughter or hold her. Plus, she had a little bit of a respiratory problem. They kept her away from me and they put her into intensive care for infants. When I did go to see her, they had me put on gloves and a robe to touch my own child, which really made me upset.
More From This Resource Center
Newly Diagnosed? Words of Encouragement from HIV-Positive Women
What Every HIV-Positive Woman Should Know About GYN Care and Prevention
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adding your comment, please read TheBody.com's Comment Policy.)


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Jump to music examples
Computers and toy pianos; analog mic preamps and software synthesizers; timpani, C++, and tuned wine glasses. From the pumping black heart of Silicon Valley to the perpetual daytime of a Swedish summer, Doug Wyatt's journey in recording an ambient electronica album has incorporated it all—and then some.
If the words Opcode Systems, Vision, Studio 5, Galaxy, and OMS—the legendary Open Music System software—bring a smile to your face, then you're already familiar with the programming half of Wyatt's persona. Since codesigning OMS in 1987 with Opcode cofounder Dave Oppenheim, he has remained deep in the inner workings of computer audio. Wyatt currently works as an audio and MIDI system software engineer.
As for the right side of Wyatt's brain—or is it the left?—many ambient music fans will recall his 1998 album Accidental Beauties. I asked Wyatt about his blending of previously distinct disciplines, his role in music software history, and his recent experiences recording his as-yet-untitled followup disc in Sweden. Working with the respected Swedish producer Christoffer Lundquist (Roxette, Ulf Lundell, Per Gessle, Gyllene Tider, Lio) in Lundquist's Aerosol Grey Machine studio, a small troupe of local musicians, and Justin Winokur (the album's creative director and coproducer) Wyatt described how the distances and opposites conspired to create a great creative experience.
Randy Alberts: How has recording in Sweden affected your music?
Doug Wyatt: Travel, especially to other countries, is always an eye-opening experience for me. It's a reminder to appreciate differences and find similarities. Music is about communication and collaboration when possible, so working closely with Christoffer is forcing me to adjust my perspective of the songs I've until now worked on alone. That isn't always easy for me, yet perhaps my favorite days in the studio here were when we brought in Jens Jansson on drums, Helena Josefsson for voice, and a string quartet. Working with them and reperforming my digital piano parts on real piano, as well, almost literally breathed life into a few of the tracks.
Alberts: Scrolling through Lundquist's gear list, I imagine his studio as an analog dreamland housing your digital tools. Sonically and creatively speaking, how does it feel in there?
Wyatt: I think there are places in music for both natural and synthesized sounds. I noticed myself simply admiring the sound of one of AGM's rooms, which reconnected me to the world of sound moving through air after working in an artificial environment where sounds are built out of numbers. Just playing one note on the piano, or cembalo [an ancient harpsichord-like instrument], or even a toy piano, or striking a cymbal or timpani, was an experience I can only call "grounding."
Alberts: During your 12 years with Opcode you were literally inventing the wheels that still revolve today. What was that like for you?
Wyatt: When I'm in the middle of creating something, whether it's software or music, I don't seem to have much of an idea of its long-term implications. That was definitely true during the Opcode years, especially at the beginning. We just tried to make the best musical tools we could. There was a great work environment at Opcode. Everybody loved their jobs, worked insanely hard, and probably would have worked for free. Most everyone had a musical background, so at times it felt not only like a family, but almost like a band.
Alberts: Was your invention of OMS based on a personal need to better integrate MIDI and computer, or to address an overall need of musicians and the musical instrument industry?
Wyatt: OMS solved some immediate problems for Opcode. Apple's MIDI Manager pointed to the type of solution we needed—something to mediate between MIDI applications and hardware—but it didn't scale well to the larger MIDI studios appearing at the time. So I originally conceived of OMS as a little piece of software that could be shared between all of Opcode's applications, Studio 5 [Opcode's monster 15-port MIDI interface] and other MIDI hardware. It was a bit forward-looking at the time, I thought, but only a little—I remember being surprised many times by how this thing we'd built to solve an Opcode problem became something much bigger.
Alberts: What's a typical development cycle for creating music software?
Wyatt: Writing music software isn't that different from writing any other piece of software. It really helps if the programmer is a musician with some insight into how the software is to be used. If they don't have that, it can lead to bugs that are time-consuming and expensive to fix. The whole process begins with a creative idea—"Hey, wouldn't it be cool if…"—and from there descends into a lot of mundane engineering tasks like designing internal structures, typing code, refining the internal structure, compiling, and debugging. As an early proof of concept, I try to work very quickly to translate that initial idea into a working prototype so it can quickly serve as a feedback mechanism.
Alberts: Which came first for you: programming or making music?
Wyatt: Music came first. I started banging on a piano as soon as I could reach the keys, and then programming computer games when I was 13. At 19 I was playing in bands and still dabbling in computers, but I really wanted more to be a musician. Todd Rundgren was asked in a 1981 TV interview to give advice to aspiring musicians, and he suggested they become computer programmers. That clicked.
Alberts: How does each endeavor mesh with the other for you creatively?
Wyatt: These days, the two worlds don't intersect quite as closely as they used to. But I'd also say that creating music and programming software aren't quite as different as nonprogrammers might think. We're told that programming is supposed to be an intensely logical, left-brained process, but in reality software systems are so complex now that it takes a certain amount of creativity and intuition to understand and work on them. There are also times working out odd meters and varying themes in composition when I find that an analytical, even mathematical, approach helps.
Alberts: Many audio engineers these days declare, "MIDI is dead," and one artist has said, "I'm so over MIDI" enough times to make it his mantra. What's your view of the state of MIDI today?
Wyatt: I've heard comments like that from a few people, but never with enough context to really understand what they mean when they say MIDI is dead. The perfect recall and accurate timing of soft synths certainly make old MIDI synths look a lot less appealing, but those soft synths are still being controlled with MIDI, just no longer through five-pin DIN cables. I'd say there is probably more MIDI being used today than ever before, especially with the advent of USB and FireWire MIDI devices. As a composer who works with notes and phrases, MIDI has always been central to how I put music together. I can't imagine working without it.
Alberts: Has blending live, acoustic, analog, and digital elements always been important to you?
Wyatt: I did my first album in 1980 by recording my parents' piano to a stereo cassette and bouncing that to a second cassette deck while using two Y-cables to mix in a monophonic synth part! Since then I've been largely immersed in the electronic world, but my music has taken a big turn back toward the acoustic world since I began working on what became this project. I found myself using a piano sound more and more, and bought a digital piano not long afterwards.
I think of piano and other acoustic instruments as being timbrally limited but extremely expressive, where tone, dynamics, phrasing, and articulation are everything. By contrast, synths have a huge timbral variety but limited expressiveness, so using both is a way for me to combine the best of both worlds.
Alberts: While you were still a teenager in the '70s, you built a synth from a PAiA kit. How did that spark your musical imagination?
Wyatt: Being impatient, 17, and not at all mechanically inclined, I ended up having to send some of the modules back to PAiA because I hadn't soldered them correctly. I used the PAiA fairly intensively for a couple of years but, since it was monophonic and not touch sensitive, I was ambivalent about it at the time. The PAiA sparked, but only barely began to satisfy my curiosity about the possibilities of synthesis until I bought a polyphonic, touch-sensitive Yamaha DX7 in 1984.
Alberts: Your music is sourced mainly from improvisations, yet sounds more organized than most ambient works. How do you approach it?
Wyatt: I've been composing this way since I first got a MIDI sequencer in 1985. I try to navigate between two extremes. A traditional approach to composition can sound "box-like," with abrupt transitions, lacking flow and continuity. Improvisation can flit from one idea to another without ever really "landing," or can feel less than 100 percent inspired. It seems that I'm constantly re-evaluating this balance between improvisation and flow versus traditional composition.
There is a lot more composition than layering of improvisation on my new album, so much so that often the improvised foundation became secondary, or even extraneous, and was removed. On these tracks, sometimes the process felt like a detective story, scrutinizing the improvs for clues to a hidden structure. I particularly got that sense on the piece "Artifacts and Fantasies," which started from over nine minutes of 16th notes in constantly shifting odd meters. A large amount of the work was to look for parts that would superimpose a stable rhythmic feel on it.
Alberts: What did you enjoy most about the unusual live instruments available to you at Aerosol Grey Machine?
Wyatt: That's an interesting question. I'd previously thought of most, if not all, the instruments I played there as being more "ordinary" than "unusual." I was wrong. The cembalo was a great surprise. I never would have composed with that sound. A cembalo patch on a synth just goes "plonk," but the actual instrument has a rich, resonating tone that fills the room. My parents had an antique pump organ, like the ones Christoffer has at AGM, so that sound also has a special connection for me.
Alberts: And how about the great old analog synths, keyboards, pedals, and other vintage gear at AGM?
Wyatt: I really liked the warm and gritty nature of the sound of Christoffer's old Hammond organ. It was much more subtle and interesting than I'd thought organs could be. Some of that came from how Christoffer manipulated the sound, often while I played. The Minimoog was the big synthesizer surprise for me. We used it largely for bass parts, and it had a power and presence that I'd never felt playing anything else.
Alberts: I understand you're also using Native Instruments Absynth. What do you like about it?
Wyatt: I haven't gotten nearly as deeply into Absynth as I'd like. Its oscillators seem unique and special—besides having a variety of preset waveforms, you can make your own by drawing waveforms or spectrograms, and you can import samples into it to be played directly or through granular resynthesis.
Alberts: How did it all come together in the computer?
Wyatt: I took all the tracks from initial conception to final demo in [Apple] Logic Pro. Some of its built-in effects got used in crucial ways; for instance, the Auto Filter on a tuned percussion track, and we kept the ES2 synth tracks that were the originally improvised foundations of four songs. I also did the piano and string scores in Logic.
[Native Instruments] Reaktor got used in a few key ways, too, my favorite being on the song "Talking Points," where I took a QuickTime movie of short clips of speeches from the Republican convention, imported the soundtrack into one of Reaktor's granular synths, and then played it while changing the grain start/end positions with a couple of sliders. I like that I can use Reaktor at both superficial and deep levels.
Alberts: You practice Zen meditation and enjoy hiking and nature. Getting back to the "Sweden" question, how important is setting to the composing process for you?
Wyatt: I guess it must be important to me, because I have ideas about the kinds of situations that are most conducive. Music's always spoken most powerfully to me at night, when the world tends to be otherwise silent and the mind tends to be a little closer to a dream-like state.
Though I had no idea at the time, the process of starting to compose for this album had a very definite beginning. In 2003, a friend had been nudging me into focusing more on music again and suggested I take a cheap portable keyboard with me to Europe, so I bought an M-Audio Radium 49 [keyboard controller] in Boston the day I left. I had a few days alone in Prague at the end of my trip, so one night I set up the faders in Logic's Environment to control the ES2 from the Radium's knobs and sliders. Then, in the space of half an hour, I recorded two improvs—"Cobblestone Mirrors" and "Don't Know I Know"—that later became two of the tracks from the album, possibly my two favorites.
Alberts: In reading some of the "Musings" blog entries on your site, I see that synchronicity—"personally meaningful coincidence"—plays a vital role in your life. How does it influence your music?
Wyatt: Everything is connected, and just knowing and trusting in this truth seems to be part of the essence of creativity. Improvising music is an act of faith in interconnectedness. Listening to an improv repeatedly, believing that with enough careful attention a hidden structure will appear, is a similar act. Paying attention to impulses, like combining two apparently unrelated themes or sounds, has a way of working out, too. What might appear as a random crazy thought could turn out to be a signal from the 90 percent of our brains we supposedly don't use enough.
You have to listen to "Talking Points" on Doug Wyatt's new album to fully appreciate this tip, which he used to turn a load of political rhetoric into a powerfully disturbing piece of music. Here's a brief excerpt:
"This piece was inspired by a QuickTime movie which featured a number of politicians repeating certain key phrases in their speeches," Wyatt reveals. Here's how he created the basic track, utilizing Apple QuickTime and Native Instruments Reaktor.
"With a long audio file like the one I used," adds Wyatt, "you can quickly move between very different sounds as you move the sliders. Long grain lengths result in recognizable bits of the sample being played, and very short grain lengths have a much different, unrecognizable sound with a buzzy quality. At one point in the track I played it in a synth solo style, though the sound has enough atonal qualities that it doesn't really sound like a melodic part."
Wyatt points out that many synthesizers include bright, ringing sounds reminiscent of the tone you get by running a wet finger around the rim of a wine glass. But as his new album proves, taking time to create the real thing produces a far more interesting sound.
"The attack has a chaotic element," he says. "I suggest using between four and ten glasses so that you can have a variety of pitches. I find that larger cognac glasses work best; smaller glasses are higher pitched and more difficult to tune."
To "play" a wine glass, Wyatt says to fill it perhaps a quarter of the way with water, dip your finger in the water, and run it lightly around the rim of the glass in circles. To steady the glass, hold it by the stem with your other hand.
"You'll find that it takes a bit of care to touch the glass in a way that makes it ring without dampening the vibrations," he notes, "but once you've done it, it's very easy to do it again. To tune the glasses, remember the 'longer is lower' rule about acoustic instruments—in the case of a wine glass, adding water lowers the pitch, and removing it raises the pitch. Depending on the effect you're after, you might want to use another instrument or an electronic tuner as you tune the glasses. Or, you might decide that it's OK for them not to be perfectly in tune."
Here are two excerpts from Wyatt's upcoming album, due in October 2005. Visit his site for release information. Clicking the links will open the MP3s in a new window.
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The lights are on
In the press and marketing for its military FPS Medal of Honor, Electronic Arts stressed that it was going for authenticity by consulting with active military personnel. Now, seven of the Navy SEALs that consulted with EA on the game are being disciplined by the military for revealing secrets.
CBS News is reporting that members of SEAL Team Six -- one of whom participated in the killing of notorious terrorist Osama Bin Laden -- will face disciplinary action for the revealing confidential information in during their time consulting on the game. The SEALs were paid for the work by Electronic Arts.
In addition, four members of SEAL Team Six who have moved to other parts of the military since working on Medal of Honor are under investigation. All the SEALs supposedly revealed classified information given to them by the Navy to EA.
According to the report, the seven who have been disciplined received "letters of reprimand" and had half of their pay docked for two months. Apparently, letters of reprimand have a cost to a military career, and have a negative impact on a SEAL's chances for further promotion within the Navy.
Source: CBS News via Kotaku
Good luck, EA.
aw. well, poor guys,
Gratitude to those SEALs for making this game freaking awesome!
Dang, maybe if it was at least a good game it would have been worth it. I hope EA paid them well. Doubt it though.


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Sick Of Waiting For An Install, 75-Year-Old Woman Smashes Up Comcast Office With Hammer
"Have I got your attention now?" asked Mona Shaw of the Comcast payment center employees as she smashed their keyboard, monitor and telephone.
The 75-year-old woman was outraged after multiple delays and broken promises surrounding her Comcast Triple Play installation. Her little scene got her arrested for disorderly conduct and an apology from Comcast and assurances that her installation would be taken care of promptly. But Shaw had enough, she's switching back to Verizon.
"It's totally not like me to do stuff like this," said Shaw. "But it is so irresponsible and so disrespectful. I can't think of any company reacting that way. It's like they got you in their clutches and they'll do what they damn well please."
"What the hell, I'm 75," she added.
Seeing as the resultant arrest translates to a low cost-to benefit ration, before you get out the hammer and march into your Comcast office, be sure to check out these posts with extra-special high-level Comcast employee contact information.
Taking a hammer to Comcast [PotomacNews] (Thanks to Robert!)
Want more consumer news? Visit our parent organization, Consumer Reports, for the latest on scams, recalls, and other consumer issues.


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Flamingo by Calder
Donna La Mattino Pagakis 11/4/2012 10:09:53 AMA dynamic image, great details! #1496393
Colette M. Metcalf 11/4/2012 3:51:17 PMWhat a great image!! #10404050
Leslie McLain 11/4/2012 4:16:48 PMFantastic capture and perspective, Lindley. #10404087
Ellen Hodges 11/4/2012 5:19:38 PMLove the pov you choose, Lindley!!! Looks terrific!!! #10404190
Terry Cervi 11/4/2012 5:31:45 PMYou ladies sure manage to have some fun, Lindley! What a beauty you've captured here! #10404217
Carol Flisak 11/4/2012 6:06:05 PMTerrific image, Lindley... love your composition and pov! Sorry we missed the outing :( #10404289
Ann Lyssenko 11/4/2012 6:48:30 PMSo colorfully enhanced by the flowers in the foreground! Great POV! Ann #10404403
American artist Alexander Calder created the 53 ft. tall Flamingo sculpture located in the Federal Plaza in Chicago. Leslie, Ellen, and I had a fun evening in the city last night.
Exif: F Number: 19.9, ExposureTime: 518735/100000 seconds, ISO: 100, FocalLength: 24.00 mm, Model: Canon EOS 40D
Uploaded on 11/4/2012 10:07:33 AM
Camera: Canon EOS 40D Digital SLR
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