text:
By Robin "Red Hot" Kaye
I've spent a lot of time on my office. It's perfect.
I have a TreadDesk—yes, you read it right, a real treadmill desk, the desktop is on hydraulic legs to adjust to walking height with a press of a button so I can write while walking 1.4 miles per hour whenever I get the urge, and an exercise ball to sit on when I don't feel like walking.
I have inspiration in front of me—a life-size stand up of Mark Harmon as Leroy Jethro Gibbs from NCIS—my favorite show and one of Abby too because my kids gave them to me for my birthday.
I have bookshelves filled with hundreds of books on writing and three different yet beautiful dictionaries.
I have not one but two beloved Mac computers with two screens because one can never have a big enough desk top.
I have my Writer's Clock which tells me what time it is—closing in on a deadline, unfortunately.
I even have a sound machine so I can hear applause and laughter whenever I need it.
I have my sidekicks, Raja, my three-legged Bengal cat, and Jasmine, my Pointer mix always there to talk to or give me love.
I'm a lucky author!
The only fly in the ointment is that my DH—dear husband or damn husband depending on my mood—has decided, since we share everything else, my office has magically turned into our office.
Every evening and weekend, he's sitting directly in front of my desk and I can't work. Now my DH is as close to perfect as anyone possessing a Y chromosome can be. He built me my office, my desktop, and even bought me a second monitor while he's using one of those teeny tiny notebook computers on the desk in front of mine with a ten-inch screen. He does the cooking when I'm on deadline, all the laundry all the time, takes care of running the kids around, reads my contracts, and is the most supportive husband anyone can imagine. It's really hard to complain—and yet somehow I find a way. It's frustrating as hell because as perfect as he is, he's still a man. So how does an anything-but-perfect wife, mother, and author tell her near-perfect husband to get the hell out of her office because he's a walking, talking, breathing writer's block?
She doesn't.
She packs up her MacBook Air and goes to Starbucks. Yes, I know it doesn't make any sense. How can I write at Starbucks with a ton of people, screaming kids, beeping coffee timers, and insanely loud Frapuccino machines, and not be able to write with my husband typing quietly on his little notebook computer?
For two years I home schooled my daughter (who used the same desk my husband does now) and drove her ninety miles each way to Carlisle, PA to attend the Central Pennsylvania Youth Ballet and dance forty hours per week. I had no choice but to make the Carlisle Crossing Starbucks my office. It took me a few weeks, but I'd go to work, get my coffee, and write my books. I wrote four books while Twinkle Toes danced. Then she decided to move to Carlisle, live with a host family, and go to Carlisle middle and high school. I thought, yay! No more home schooling, no more driving three hours a day! I'll get so much work done. I sat in my lovely office and I couldn't write a damn thing. It took me about two months of twiddling my thumbs before I got any decent words written. But finally, after much practice and Twinkle Toes withdrawal, I was able to work. Things went swimmingly, I did run back and forth to Carlisle to see Twinkle Toes and my Starbucks family, but for the most part, I was happy working in my lovely office until you-know-who decided it was OURS!
Now I'm at the Mt. Airy Starbucks—if I squint my eyes, I imagine I'm in Carlisle so it's not so different. I do miss my favorite baristas—Laura, Lauren, Jess, Gina, Ben, Trudi, Christine, Shannon, Steph, the Manager, Nikki, the District Manager but I'm making new friends at the Mt. Airy Starbucks, and I'll be working there until I finish Call Me Wild.
Last night, the guys closed up shop, and I sat on the patio working away since it was nice out and still before DH's bedtime. My barista buddy Edward dropped off a box of coffee to hold me over until my MacBook Air's battery ran dry. I swear, if there were an outlet and a porta-potty, I'd have stayed all night!
I figure I'll eventually get used to sharing an office with DH, but I don't have the time to twiddle my thumbs right now. I have a book due in nine days. Yikes! If Starbucks was open twenty-four hours a day, I'd move in until I finished the book.
Tuesday, September 06, 2011
Welcome To My Office
By Robin "Red Hot" Kaye
Posted by Robin Kaye at 3:03 AM
Labels: A Writer's Life, Robin Kaye, Starbucks
20 comments:
- Gregory Payne/Alex Carreras said...
WOW! You are unbelievable....in a good way. Keep finding ways to write. I would hate not to read Robin Kaye.
- September 6, 2011 at 6:56 AM
- krisgils33 said...
that's hilarious! I'm super glad you figured out how to get those books done....so I have stuff to read! I share the home office with my hubby, but he is such a slob I hardly ever go in there. I usually work from the kitchen table. Still beats taking the Metro an hour into DC to my real office. :-)
- September 6, 2011 at 7:28 AM
- Donnell Ann Bell said...
Oh, Robin, what a terrific writer's cave! I wish I had some advice for you, but we're in the same er... boat. I find my husband in my office all the time and I take my work elsewhere. The bedroom, my patio, etc. Don't know what I'm going to do when he retires. But I gotta ask... will a jury convict us?
Thank goodness for Starbucks!
- September 6, 2011 at 8:51 AM
- Robin Covington said...
You gotta do what you gotta do! LOL!
My Main Man made the last 6 feet of my 19 foot long closet into my writing cave and he's stays out of it - thank goodness!
- September 6, 2011 at 8:54 AM
I can SO relate. To me it's like having a constant nuclear thrum in the room aimed at me. And the guilt on top of it because they do so much but still...
You'll make the deadline, I'm sure. At Starbucks most likely, lol. Good luck.
- September 6, 2011 at 8:56 AM
- Candis Terry said...
My office is way too close to the kitchen. And snacks. Love the treadesk! Thanks for giving me great ideas on how to keep going!
- September 6, 2011 at 9:09 AM
- Robin Kaye said...
@ Incidental Expenses - Thanks, IE I'll be back in my Starbucks office before the kids get home from school. It's so much easier to turn off my 'mommy ears' when I'm a 'Bux. No matter how old they are (14, 15, & 18) I'm still in Mommy Mode when they're around.
@Krisgils33 - My critique partners and I talk about renting office space together as soon as we can, I'd gladly go for that, but then I'd need to get a Starbucks Espresso Machine and a cute barista for the office because everyone knows coffee tastes much better when someone else makes it. Calling all Baristas--anyone interested?
@ Donnell - I just spilled coffee all over my shirt--I'm so used to drinking out of cups with tops, I forgot I had an actual coffee cup...duh! And no, I think once we explain how our DH's mere breathing is enough to kill all creativity, they'll sign up to protect our writing space!
@ Robin :)--Great name! LOL My walk-in-closet is where I go to talk on the phone, there are people everywhere else. My DH is in the office, the living room and family room are full of kids (most times, even the neighbor's kids and their extended family--I kid you not) and if I step foot into the kitchen, someone is asking me what there is to eat. I ran into my closet to chat with my mother and when I walked out, there was DH sitting on the bed, putting on his shoes. Sigh...I went to take a shower alone, locked the door to insure privacy and cried--of course I was interrupted a half-dozen times.
- September 6, 2011 at 9:37 AM
- Robin Kaye said...
@ Marley - Thanks sweetie! Definitely a nuclear thrum--no guilt involved on my DH's part, the man is a slave driver. He says since he can write code for 12 hours straight, I should be able to write fiction. I tried explaining the left brain/right brain thing to him...he didn't buy it. In his mind writing code is exactly the same as writing romance. See, it's that damn Y Chromosome!
@ Candis - My desk is 10 steps away from the refrigerator and thanks to my near-perfect DH, it usually has food in it. It's much easier for me to eat healthy at 'Bux, I'm nut much into sweets, and there's a Apple Cheese Tray I really like--there's also a burrito place right across the way, good healthy food.
- September 6, 2011 at 9:44 AM
- Lynn Kellan said...
You are the second author I've discovered who uses a treadmill on occasion when she writes. I'm envious!
My husband isn't my distraction...it's my 12 year old daughter who sits besides me and writes her stories while I write mine. Rather amazing that she pounded out 50,000 words in a month! Maybe I should stop writing and become her agent. :)
- September 6, 2011 at 9:53 AM
- Deborah V. said...
Hi Robin,
I think getting into the groove is the hardest part wherever I end up writing. For me it's anywhere I can stay focused. Starbucks hustle and bustle is white noise. People chitchatting, the musaz over the innercom, tables and chairs scraping doesn't bother me a bit. I'm able to focus on the screen and everything else fades away. Why then can't I do the same thing at home? It's personal. At Starbucks, I don't care what other people are doing. It's not my problem. I am off duty so-to-speak. At home, what my family is doing is very much my business. Even if I don't need to know, don't want to know, I have to know.
- September 6, 2011 at 9:56 AM
- Jean Willett said...
Okay, I want that treadmill desk...maybe. I'd have to try and type/write. I can ride a recumbent bike and read, but I can't walk and read without tipping off the treadmill :)It looks wonderful, though.
As for SB--YAY!! I finished a book at my local SB and I knew I was in trouble when I entered one day and really, really wanted to ask the person in the corner chair to GET OUT OF MY CHAIR! I had to slink over to a hard chair and that person had to suffer glaring glances.
I love my Starbucks and I have two backups just in case one is way too noisy. Great read, Robin.
- September 6, 2011 at 10:00 AM
- Robin Kaye said...
@ Lynn - Wow, your daughter sounds amazing! My Godson is 14 and just self-published his first book, he's been working on the series since he was 6 or 7. What cool kids!
@ Deborah - Exactly! Those Mommy Ears never fail to distract us and are impossible to turn off! Believe me, I've tried!
@ Jean - Yeah, I love my TreadDesk. It wobbles too much to surf the net when I'm walking but I can write at 1.4MPH and staying off the internet is a good thing! LOL - I have a table at each of my 'Bux and I don't do well sitting anywhere else. If I walk into Carlisle and someone's at my table, I'm sooo not happy. The Baristas have decided we should glue my book covers and acknowledgement pages on the table to mark it as mine. LOL - I always acknowledge them in all my books. They keep me caffeinated and relatively sane!
- September 6, 2011 at 10:35 AM
- Cynthia D'Alba said...
I so "get" the Starbucks and writing. Here at my house...I adore the DAMN husband, who is at the moment building me an outdoor kitchen. But also at any moment, he will yell for me to come help with something. Hard to write when I have to stop every 15 minutes to give him a hand.
And yes, I have an office. It's a disaster of books, papers, etc. My "inspiration" is plastered all over the wall. Tim McGraw...full sized towel, clock, picture in a boot frame (from my niece), pictures hanging from desk lamp, even a mobile of the book I'm working on. And yet...where am I sitting? In the living room. Sigh.
I get your life.
- September 6, 2011 at 10:51 AM
- Maggie Toussaint said...
I'm so in awe of your treadmill desk. I'm such a lump when it comes to exercise.
You seem so adaptable to all those writing situations and environments. I bet if you gave it enough time, you could block hubby as white noise.
But then again, maybe not. There's something pervasive about male frustration, some brooding intangible sense that they give off that is oftentimes impossible to ignore.
Thank your lucky stars you've got a spare office at Starbucks!
- September 6, 2011 at 11:28 AM
- Diana Cosby said...
Holy cow, Robin, your hubby is amazing . . . as are you. I know your kids appreciate having such a wonderful and supportive mom and dad. And your puppy, he looks just like mine! :) Woo woo time here. I'm a huge fan of Starbucks, yummy coffee and such nice baristas! I used to have a big writer's cave, but after 33 moves, it's dwindled down in the size of books. Thanks for sharing your crazy life as the the love of your life. Wishing you continued success!
- September 6, 2011 at 2:30 PM
robin...i feel your pain. my dh has a lovely office--better than anything ive ever had...and i write at panera LOL. ronna
- September 6, 2011 at 6:04 PM
- Sandy said...
LOL Hilarious. Poor hubby, he doesn't know what he's doing to you.
I love the posters of Jethro Leroy Gibbs and Abby.
- September 6, 2011 at 6:45 PM
- Robin Kaye said...
@ Cyndi - You always did get me. Maybe because we're so alike.
@ Maggie - Love the TreadDesk, don't use it as much as I should.
@ Diane - Thanks for coming by. It's always great to hear from you.
@ Ronna - LOL If I went to Panera, I'd weigh a ton.
@ Sandy - Jethro and Abby are stand-up cardboard figures. They sell them on line in the CBS store along with Bert the Farting Hippo (my daughter has that as well as Caf-Pow Cups, NCIS clothes and hats, the kids even got me a mouse pad with one of Gibbs rules on it. LOL We end up shopping there often.
- September 7, 2011 at 4:17 PM
- aarbaugh said...
Love your post. Your humor is great and heavy with real life. I really need to take some tips from you. My writing seems to be lagging of late. And don't even ask about my office. It's a disaster. Trust me.
- September 16, 2011 at 7:06 PM
- Blake said...
Your office is rockin'! I especially would want a writer's wallclock like yours, which made me recall something my friends and I shared. We dubbed midnight "vulnerable o'clock" since, as writers, it felt like the time just elicited some of the most dramatic writing we ever churned out. Seeing those hands ticking towards "deadline" stings though.
- Blake Mitchell
- January 20, 2012 at 12:21 PM


text:
A strong word used to describe a person who undergoes physical force or duress to have sexual intercourse.
It is a sensitive word, especially to the female population. Not to say that the opposite gender does not suffer as victims of this vicious act, but it definitely rings a bell to the rest of us women, simply due to the injustice that we have received on our end whenever such a tragedy happens. It is deeply unfortunate, infuriating and saddening for us.
So, why is it so bad for us to hate or dislike the word? Say whenever someone takes the word in vain and use it to define some other concept that has NO CONNECTION WHATSOEVER to what that person wishes to deliver. For example:
- insta-rape : used to describe whenever a person's Instagram is hijacked
- "Germany raped Brazil in last night's match!"

subset: commoncrawl


text:
Ching Yee Lee-Battleground Set
At Design Interviews
Interview with CHING YEE LEE : Frank Scott: What is the main principle, idea and inspiration behind your design?. CHING YEE LEE : Every time before doing my design, I will spend few days in understand the concept of the project. First impression is very important for me, if the design can't make surprise for me and it would not happen to audience too. .Frank Scott: What has been your main focus in designing this work? Especially what did you want to achieve?. CHING YEE LEE : Attract people surrounding to find out the things happening inside the cube and paying attention to ongoing show in Television. .Frank Scott: What are your future plans for this award winning design?. CHING YEE LEE : Guideline to achieve better result in future. .Frank Scott: How long did it take you to design this particular concept?. CHING YEE LEE : I have spent 1 week time in exploring the whole show concept/ idea and the achievement client wanted through audience. 1 week to survey the material and technical drawing. 1week to construct, and 1 day setup at venue. .Frank Scott: Why did you design this particular concept? Was this design commissioned or did you decide to pursuit an inspiration?. CHING YEE LEE : Inspiration through client/program requirement. .Frank Scott: Is your design being produced or used by another company, or do you plan to sell or lease the production rights or do you intent to produce your work yourself?. CHING YEE LEE : This design is specially for "Battleground" program that have broadcast in ASTRO, Malaysia. .Frank Scott: What made you design this particular type of work?. CHING YEE LEE : Base on the program/client needs. .Frank Scott: Where there any other designs and/or designers that helped the influence the design of your work?. CHING YEE LEE : Joke box that have influence me doing this design .Frank Scott: Who is the target customer for his design?. CHING YEE LEE : Audience from age 3-80 .Frank Scott: What sets this design apart from other similar or resembling concepts?. CHING YEE LEE : The material and the Function of the design .Frank Scott: How did you come up with the name for this design? What does it mean?. CHING YEE LEE : "Thinking out of the box" which bring the meaning of think differently unconventionally or from a new perspective .Frank Scott: Which design tools did you use when you were working on this project?. CHING YEE LEE : Sketchup and AutoDesk .Frank Scott: What is the most unique aspect of your design?. CHING YEE LEE : Built a giant metal cube at center of shopping malls. .Frank Scott: Who did you collaborate with for this design? Did you work with people with technical / specialized skills?. CHING YEE LEE : Set contractor/buidler. Yes from the construction part. .Frank Scott: What is the role of technology in this particular design?. CHING YEE LEE : attention for every audience. .Frank Scott: Is your design influenced by data or analytical research in any way? What kind of research did you conduct for making this design?. CHING YEE LEE : When doing this design i have to include wheatear survey(as Malaysia is a rain forest country). Materials have to be waterproof. Must be cold and bright enough for contestant who having competition inside. .Frank Scott: What are some of the challenges you faced during the design/realization of your concept?. CHING YEE LEE : i having some technical issued during the design, as the venue is small and limitation on the design weight. .Frank Scott: How did you decide to submit your design to an international design competition?. CHING YEE LEE : my supervisor have advised me to summit this design for competition. .Frank Scott: What did you learn or how did you improve yourself during the designing of this work?. CHING YEE LEE : i have more techincal knowledge in construction. And i know that nothing is impossible when you really wanted to make it happen. .
Ching Yee Lee-Battleground Set Images:
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Next weekend's Indietracks festival takes place in and around the Midland Railway train line from Butterley to Swanwick, in the heart of Derbyshire. The musical theme of the festival is unashamedly indie-pop, both past and present, and among those gracing the stages will be the likes of Los Campesinos!, The Wave Pictures, Comet Gain, Ballboy, The Lodger, St Christopher and Airport Girl.
Two of the most established and respected names on the bill are those of Darren Hayman, formerly of Hefner, and David Gedge, still going strong with the latest incarnation of The Wedding Present. DiS thought it would be a good idea to get these two legends to question one another, so off to a hotel in Brighton they went and here's what happened…
David Gedge
Darren Hayman
- - -
DG: Actually it was West Hollywood. It's surrounded by Los Angeles but it's a little town in itself. I'd lived in Leeds for years and years and I split up with my girlfriend and I felt like I wanted to get away because I didn't really know anyone there anymore. And then I met the person who became my girlfriend, who's from Seattle, so we lived in Seattle for a couple of years. And that's where we did the last album. When it came to writing this album I thought, "I like writing in a different location," and I guess it was a realisation that I could do my job anywhere. All you need is a guitar and a piece of paper and a pen. Our bass player has lived in LA for ten years and I've been doing more writing with her. I suppose I was attracted to the pop culture there.
DH: Is that a new thing, writing songs with someone else?
DG: It's always been the same really, which is I write the songs, but it depends. Sometimes people will come up with a riff or something, but it varies from song to song, but to a certain degree people have always pitched in with ideas.
Video: Hefner, 'The Sweetness Lies Within'
- - -
DH: How does that work with deciding how and who to credit a song to?
DG: In the old days, they were all credited to Gedge, and that's primarily because I was the only member of PRS (The Performing Right Society), so we had this sort of agreement where Gedge is a sort of pseudonym for The Wedding Present and the money would get shared but as the line-up changed, and new members were already members of PRS, we'd start having multiple credits. On this new album, I think Terry (De Castro, bass player for The Wedding Present) co-wrote half of them, and the other half are co-written by our new guitarist, Chris McConville. Our old guitarist Simon (Cleave), who you met, has left now.
DH: I met him once, quite apart from The Wedding Present. He lives in Cologne doesn't he?
DG: Oh I think he said he'd come to one of your gigs or something?
DH: No, I think he just cycled past as we were unloading, and we chatted for a bit then he went off home. I don't think he came to the gig.
DG: Oh right (laughs), and our drummer Graeme (Ramsay) is a multi-instrumentalist and he's written some of it too. I think Paul (Dorrington, previous guitarist) was a bit miffed because he was on The Hit Parade and in those days we were quite minimalist on the sleeves, so we didn't say who played what, and he said: "I've just realised I'm on this Guinness Book of Records record for most hit singles in a year, and my name's not credited anywhere." I felt a bit bad about that because his name wasn't on the writing credits or the musician credits, so after that we felt everyone should be credited and then we added musician credits and nowadays, for some reason, I've gone totally the other way, and I credit everybody.
DH: I think there's a different thing you want when you're buying music from when you're putting music out. I think when I'm doing my records I would like it to be more minimal. I do a few things outside the music too, like for instance I do the artwork and if I was to credit everything I did it would make me look like Prince or something you know: "Mixed, written, arranged, danced, produced by Dar'en" is a bit ridiculous! Isn't it obvious it's me…
DG: Did you do those cartoony sleeves?
DH: Yeah I did all the sleeves.
DG: Oh yeah, they're brilliant them, I've always been a big fan of comic books.
DH: Yeah it's quite strange. The sleeve is something that comes in my head at the same time as the title of the album and the first few songs, so for example the album I'm doing now, I've got a cover idea and I've only got two or three songs written.
DG: Right… (laughs)
DH: It kind of grows that way and I find myself rejecting songs because they don't fit in with the cover. It's all funny with my parents because that was my degree, in illustration, so my mum likes to show off my CDs and say, "Darren did the cover," and I have to point out that I wrote all the songs on it too!
DG: So have you done art outside of this in general?
DH: I've done a couple of sleeves for other people…
DG: No I mean exhibitions, or comic books.
DH: Well, the missed opportunity with the Hefner sleeves is that they were designed on a computer so there's no original artwork as such, so it misses out on the chance to sell or show it. I guess you could do limited prints or something, but now the sleeves are hand drawn and painted so I have been thinking about an exhibition.
Video: The Wedding Present, 'Kennedy'
- - -
DH: How well do you get on with the ex-Wedding Present members then?
DG: I don't really see them to be honest. I get on with them, but I don't really have the chance to get on with them really because I don't see them. The only time I contact them is when we get a bit of money that needs to be shared out. The last time that happened was when Sanctuary released a box set of John Peel sessions.
DH:Yeah, I bought that.
DG: It's brilliant isn't it? Well its not for me to say it's brilliant, but it's one of my favourite Wedding Present releases.
DH: Antony (Harding), the former Hefner drummer, got me into The Wedding Present. When we were at college it was around the time of Bizarro, so I had to work back to George Best and Tommy retrospectively and I remember that Peel Session with the songs that would go on to be on Seamonsters, with 'Dalliance'.
DG: Oh yeah, John Peel session of the year that one!
DH: I remember Antony taped it and I went round his house and it seemed like a really exciting time for the band, a real shift, so I was really excited about having that on CD, that session. I remember the songs changed quite a bit when they came out.
DG: Well I guess doing Peel Sessions is like doing works in progress. John Peel quite liked bands coming in with half-formed ideas and then trying them out and making demos, which is great because you usually have to pay to make demos but they paid you. When we did that I had to write to everybody who is on it and say, "Look, Sanctuary have given me all this money, here's your share." I think I'm a little bit obsessed with what I do; I don't really have friends outside the band. That's all I seem to have time for, the musicians or the people working with us, and obviously through the years people have come and gone. Even Simon (Pearson, previous drummer), who's just gone, he was one of my best friends really, and I don't talk to him now, because I hate to say it, I've got no need to.
DH: It's exactly the same for me. John (Morrison), the bass player in Hefner, was… not my best man, but my witness when I got married to my wife Helen, and then… well, it's just similar for me because it's such a little gang…
DG: Yeah exactly.
DH: When you're on tour and you're stuck in hotel rooms, and you know all the things that can go wrong on tour, and you have to stick together, so when it ends it's tinged with some sadness. Recently I've tried to be a little better at it, and better with the Hefner guys too. I've sent a few more e-mails to them and also Jack (Hayter) has joined my band now, so that helps, because I think he's really great, and although there's a lot of reasons why I wouldn't want to reform Hefner there's no reason why I shouldn't want to do music with those guys.
DG: Of course not no. It's the same with Simon and Cinerama. He was in The Wedding Present and then in Cinerama. It's weird when people leave that little group. I've had it more over the years, and they break way, or you have to ask them to leave, but then you get someone else in and you get that new enthusiasm and people want to prove that they're as good as the people who went before them and it kind of rebirths the band again.
DH: Does a new Wedding Present guitarist or drummer have to have a certain loyalty to a guitar part that a previous guitar played on a certain song, or are they able to play, say 'Kennedy', with a slightly altered guitar part?
DG: It's funny you should say that. I mean, there are no rules. Simon had his own interpretation of lot of the stuff and I didn't really realise at the time until Chris joined the band and we did the George Best tour last year and he went back, and it's exactly the same, every note. Whether that's good or bad I don't know because it's nostalgic for me, but sometimes I guess we have to improve things. Sometimes, like twenty years later, you can think to yourself, "We can make this song better".
DH: Also, I don't know about you, but I don't really listen to Hefner records all that much. I found that with a bass player I had recently he did the same thing, he'd learn them, and I'd be like, "Oh right, that is how it goes". But why would I know how a Hefner song goes? That's the last thing I'd play at home.
DG: Exactly.
DG: So what's the name of your band now?
DH: Darren Hayman and the Secondary Modern. People can book me on my own or with a band so it started to become cumbersome to say Darren acoustic or Darren with band, so it was just easier to have a band name. I quite like it. I decided to give up music and thought I'd become a teacher, so I did a teacher training course, but I realised being a musician is a walk in the park compared to teaching! Quite a few of the songs are about schools and education so the name Secondary Modern fitted!
DG: Concept!
DH: Pretty much. I very rarely write a song on its own. I tend to write groups of songs that have a theme.
DG: I'm completely the opposite. I just take each song individually, so when people ask, "Is this the LA album?", it's not at all really. There's a few little references obviously that I find quite amusing, though…
DH: Pretty much everything from the second Hefner album onwards really. Sometimes it's a concept that's just there for me, and isn't put on the sleeve or press releases, but sometimes it is. Sometimes it's something I want people to know about the record.
DG: The only time we did it was on the mini-LP called Mini, and it was all car themed. I thought it was quite funny. I think it was one of my favourite Wedding Present records. It should have been an LP because they were really good songs, but only six of them.
DH: Was that the last Wedding Present album before Cinerama?
DG: Second to last yeah. There was Saturnalia after that. We'd done loads of gigs actually and decided to have a break in 1997, so that's when I started Cinerama.
Video: Hefner, 'I Took Her Love For Granted'
DG: I think with Cinerama, I didn't want it to be a band. I wanted it to be a solo project but my friend said people will hate that, that you should make it a band but then it became a band anyway because I didn't want it to be 'The David Gedge band'. How do you feel about that?
DH: Yeah I don't like that. It's weird having your name on the front of a record.
DG: I saw Cinerama and I thought, "That's a great name".
DH: Once again, you can't always decide these things for yourself. Hefner had ended and The French had ended and despite The French record still being the best record I've made it sold less records and I didn't think that reforming Hefner was an option for me. It seemed like the most sensible thing to do in terms of business was to call it Darren Hayman. To call it anything else would just split the fan base even further.
DG: We got so many letters even after five years of Cinerama from people saying, "I just realised you're in this band Cinerama".
DH: You can't take any of that for granted. I was doing a show in Grenada last week and I met this guy at the airport who was like, "I love Hefner. I've got all the albums. I saw you five times".
DG: Let me guess, he then asked: "What are you doing now?"
DH He was asking, "What's your band's name?" When I did The French I assumed people who liked Hefner would buy it, because I would!
DG: It's quite surprising isn't it? It's a smaller minority than that isn't it? It's like probably ten per cent of your fans buy everything you do.
DH: And also the fans that you meet are only the sort of fans that would come up and talk to you. I saw the Wedding Present six or seven times and never came over and spoke to you. I just saw the band and then wanted to go home. You have to remember the 80-90 per cent who don't come up and talk to you I guess.
DH: What is your least favourite album that you've made?
DG: George Best. But isn't that obvious really? I just feel I've got better, as a singer, as a songwriter and as an arranger. I think Bizarro was the album George Best should have been, its just better. George Best sounds really flawed. I was talking to Andrew Collins and I was saying it was a flawed album and he said: "That's why I like it". It's the sound of a band trying to do something and failing, but as an artist, you don't want to hear that, you want to hear I've tried and I've achieved…
DH: But once again, it's a different thing you want as a consumer to an artist. I also like those 'tried and failed' albums. I like Wings albums because it's much more interesting hearing McCartney screw it up rather than get it right on Beatles albums. But I don't necessarily want to make a screw up record myself, although I don't like going to rehearsal studios to practise.
DG: Why don't you like rehearsing? I'm interested.
DH: Just because you're repeating things, I guess.
DG: But that's how you learn isn't it? That's how you get it into your stupid brain.
DH: I'm getting the impression that because writing is a little more collaborative for you, that makes it a little more interesting and a certain amount of arranging happens in rehearsal, maybe?
DG: Oh yeah, a lot of it.
DH: That type of rehearsing I like, and Hefner rehearsals were more like that. Because we were touring so much we didn't really need to go back and do the album. I think when I have a band now there's part of it which is, "These are the new songs from the new record," but then we have to learn four or five Hefner songs and that's less interesting.
DG: I know what you mean, but its part of the job isn't it.
DH: Oh well, you know I do it and I put up with it. I don't cry and refuse to go in.
Video: The Wedding Present: 'Brassneck'
DH: How often do you write a song?
DG: It's become kind of compartmentalised now, so we record, then do the shows and then get back to writing again. When I'm writing it's all the time, but in between it can be a long time. The last album was written around 2004, 2005, so it's been quite a long time this time. What about you?
DH: An idea will occur to me once a week, maybe.
DG: Do you write it there and then, because I just write notes and come back to it later.
DH: People say I'm prolific. I had an album out in November and I have another ready now, so I write more songs than most people, but songs take a long time right. I have lots of songs being written at the same time, a lot of drafts. I rewrite a lot. My lyric book has pages and pages crossed out.
DG: Do you do the lyrics and music at the same time or do you do the music first and then do the lyrics later?
DH: I think a song idea starts with a lyric idea.
DG: Oh that's the complete opposite to me (laughs).
DH: A song starts when I think of something and think, "That would be a good idea for a song". It starts from there. I like mobile phones now, and the little recording facility they have for recording ideas and stuff.
DG: I'm completely the opposite. I used to write them more at the same time. We had a few songs where they didn't make the mega standards that The Wedding Present required, so we ditched them. I thought I wasted all that time writing those lyrics, thinking of all those good rhymes, and you can't just pluck them off and use them on another song - well I suppose you could do that.
DH: Well that is what I do. Some of my better songs have been Frankenstein creations of other songs.
DG: Does it not have to be scanned though, so they don't become slightly different versions of the other songs?
DH: Well scanning is important to me, particularly that the lines scan. I think one of my strengths is making lyrics fit the music. I'm good at internal rhyme patterns, using one long note, mixing up the rhythms. I'm very flattered when people say I'm a good lyricist, as I don't think I am. I just think I have a knack for making unusual words fit the music.
DG: It must be very hard to take a lyric that's already there and fit it to music.
DH: In some ways I think it would be easier for me if people hadn't been so generous in their comments to me about my lyrics.
DG: Ha, ha!
DH: The reason why I do this isn't really to do with the lyrics, it's because I like the sound of guitars and putting music together is really exciting. I didn't really have a desire to be a wordsmith but now I feel a bit of a duty to have a certain quality threshold. That reason makes me do rewrites all the time. I have a lot of songs unfinished and it's just about me finishing them and making them good.
The Wedding Present's new album El Rey is out on Vibrant Records. For more information on the band visit their MySpace page. Darren Hayman also has a new collection of songs entitled Hayman, Watkins, Trout and Lee available now on Fortuna Pop! Records (review). For more information on him and his numerous co-projects, visit his MySpace page.
For full details on the Indietracks line-up and how and where to obtain tickets go to the official festival website.


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Book Tickets
To book tickets for Fish 'O Mania and other Angling Trust-administered competitions, please visit our Online Ticket Booking System.
The Angling Trust is the representative body for game, coarse and sea anglers in England and Wales. Our members support the campaigns and legal action we carry out to protect fish stocks and our programmes to increase the number of anglers fishing for fun and in competitions. We're fighting for the future of YOUR fishing, but we need YOUR support to do more. If you want to protect your fish and fishing, for now and in future, join your representative body today.
Fish Legal (formerly the ACA) a unique, non-profit making organisation set up to use the law to fight pollution and other damage to the water environment - both freshwater and marine - and to protect the rights of anglers and angling. We act for fishing clubs, fishery owners, syndicates, commercial fisheries across the whole of the UK. In England only, we act for the Angling Trust as well as other members.
Joining the Angling Trust as an individual member includes great benefits. You get 10% off at fishing venues, free £5m public liability insurance worth £14.99, entry to Angling Trust member only competitions two copies of our magazine each year, discounts on tackle, books fishing mags and outdoor gear, membership of our Fish for Free Loyalty Points Scheme, e-updates and members only prize draws plus more - for all the details click on the picture above...
Those who participate in sporting activities must ensure that anything they do does not cause injury or loss to other people or damage their property. Angling activities are no exception and the Angling Trust has developed a Civil and Employers Liability facility for Affiliated Member Clubs and Organisations. For the full details and to purchase this insurance call our office on 0343 5077 006 (Option 1) - your call will only take a few minutes and costs less than 5p a minute from landlines.
We want to make sure our members and non-members get all the latest news on what the Angling Trust are doing to protect fish and fishing, get more people fishing more often, our legal battles and competition news.
All the latest coarse, sea and game news and results listed in one place - find it all in our competition news...
Coaching is key to the long-term development of every angler whether new to the sport or whether involved in performance squads competing across the world. Coaching courses offered by the Angling Trust will help set you on the right path to being able to provide the most appropriate coaching when the learner requires it.
Find a Fishing Event near you.
Get hooked on fishing or get back into angling with angling participation events to get the whole family fishing... Want to get into fishing for the first time, bring your friends or family fishing, get back into angling after a break from the sport or just learn new skills and develop your experience? We've got a whole range of FREE activities for anglers of all levels to attend.
The Angling Trust are the only organisation that campaigns for all anglers on issues affecting salt and freshwater and the fish and angling activities of each of these environments. We employ a Marine Campaigns Manager and Head of Freshwater Campaigns to oversee these projects - our members have direct access to these employees and their teams. Fish Legal, the legal arm of the Trust in England fighting legal issues for its sea, coarse and game angling members. We need YOU to join us so we can campaign at the highest level and protect your fish and fishing.
How the Angling Trust is helping to lead the fight against poaching, fish theft and illegal fishing
To every match angler the Fish 'O' Mania competition is one of the biggest in match fishing. With 22 qualifying rounds available. Competitors will try to add their name to the illustrious list of previous champions and scoop a cool £50,000 in the process.
All the latest fixtures and news from our National and International coarse competitions. Find out about the latest results, all the upcoming events and how to book your place in a competition...
Want to get into fishing or find out where to go fishing? Our website "Get Fishing" has all the angling information you and your family need. Find out about angling events, fisheries and venues so you can start fishing for the first time, get back into angling or go family fishing after school or in the holidays.
Not sure how to get into fishing or get back into angling? Your Angling Development Officer can help you find events or get info on angling opportunities at clubs, schools and fisheries near you.
Contact Danny (Northern England) and Dave (Southern England).
Home / Angling Trust / Competitions / Book Tickets
To book tickets for Fish 'O Mania and other Angling Trust-administered competitions, please visit our Online Ticket Booking System.
Contact: Angling Trust Eastwood House, 6 Rainbow Street, Leominster, Herefordshire HR6 8DQ
Tel: 0343 5077006 (For Membership enquiries select Option 1) |
Calls to our 0343 number are charged at the same rate as normal landline numbers.
Office hours are Mon - Thu 9.00-5.00 and Fri 4.30. Please leave a message if you call outside these hours or email us.
Email: firstname.lastname@example.com
Angling Trust Limited is a company limited by guarantee, company number 05320350


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"How much Calcium do you get Everyday?"
We all know that milk is great for growing kids as it contains plenty of protein, calcium, vitamin and minerals. And it is also great for adults as it is a rich source of calcium and vitamin D. These nutrients help build and maintain strong bones.
Our bones store calcium. When we do not get enough calcium from our daily meals, our body uses the calcium that is stored in our bones. Unfortunately, our bones start to lose calcium at a much greater rate when we reach our thirties. This causes our bones to weaken, thus increasing the risk of getting osteoporosis. By drinking milk regularly, we supply our body with the calcium it needs, therefore reducing the amount of calcium removed from our bones.
How much daily Calcium does your body need to maintain bone health?
|Calcium Level Requirement To Take
|Note :
|19 to 50 years old
|1,000mg a day (male and female)
|51 to 70 years old
|1,200mg a day (female) and 1,000mg a day (male)
|70 years above
|1,200mg a day ( male and female)
How much Calcium do you get every day? Is it enough?
To get 100 percent daily Calcium requirements :
|Fried chicken
|x 71 pieces
|x 690 pieces
|Minced beef
|x 28 cups
|White bread
|x 91 pieces
|x 11 slices
|Soy bean milk
|x 20 cups
|Soy bean curd
|x 6 pieces
|x 200 bowls
|Fresh goat milk
|x 4 glasses
We lose calcium everyday. But, because we can't see, or feel the damage being done to our bones, people often start taking preventive measures once it is already too late. Every day our bones are going through a natural process of breaking down and rebuilding. For that rebuilding we need Calcium.
In addition, our bodies are losing Calcium on a daily basis through our skin, nails, hair, sweat, urine and in other ways. As our bodies cannot produce Calcium, therefore it is vital to get adequate Calcium from the food we eat to protect our bone strength like milk, yogurt, cheese, certain green vegetables, bean curd,whole canned mackerel, canned sardines and salmon with soft edible bones. Fatty fish like mackerel, salmon, sardines and tuna are also good food sources of vitamin D.Buttermilk Dairy Milk Eggnog Flavored Milk Heavy Cream Light Cream Whipping Cream Sour Cream Whipped Toppings Yogurt Packaged Cheese Feta Mozzarella Parmesan Provolone Ricotta Vegetarian Blue Cheese Cheddar Cheese Blends Almond Milk Soy Milk Milk Substitutes Butter & Margarine Cheese Assortments & Samplers
portable keyboard


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Mickey Mouse is one step closer to getting super powers.
On Thursday, shareholders of the comics-titan Marvel Entertainment Inc. approved a deal that would make the company a wholly owned subsidiary of the Walt Disney Co.
Marvel -- famous for characters such Spider Man, Iron Man, the X-Men and the Fantastic Four -- would bring its army of more than 5,000 characters to the Disney balance sheets.
U.S. & World
Disney already owns Pixar, the Emeryville, Calif.-based studio well-known for its computer-animated films like Toy Story and Wall-E.
While Pixar movies appeal to young children and parents and Disney's traditional fare appeals to tweens and teenage girls, Marvel's characters are popular with teenage boys, filling out a weak spot in Disney's lineup.
Based on the closing price of Disney's common stock, the merger is valued at $4.3 billion, according to Marvel.
The deal was expected to be completed after the close of the market Thursday.


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Scotts Performance FCR "T-Handle" Fuel Mixture Screw (SMI-9600-0
Scotts Performance FCR 'T' Handle Mixture Screw is a great investment for the racer or trail rider. Making minute adjustments on your FCR carb can be a challenge as the original fuel screw is inaccessible without burning your hand and or removing the carb completely, especially on bikes with electric starters. This handy little T-handle fuel mixture screw allows you to make minor adjustments while sitting on your bike.
Since most carburetors are sensitive to altitude and temperature changes this will save you hours of time and frustration. It's even beneficial to make adjustments as your air filter starts to get dirty which affects the mixture of your bike. A simple correction and away you go.
Fits most FCR carburetors on most late model 4-strokes. Generally an easy installation.SPECIAL NOTES:
Be sure to grease the threads lightly before installation. Some bikes with excess motor vibration may cause the fuel screw to move or even unscrew, a tiny dab of silicone externally will dampen this movement.
Write a reviewYour Name:
Your Review: Note: HTML is not translated!
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Enter the code in the box below:


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You guys know this fellow, no?
After ID posted his amazingly awesome TAYbot mascots, I recall someone asking me a while back to render this...Beargod thing into a proper form. Maybe Geebs?
I dunno! The point is, seeing those mascots got me inspired to make a sort of spirit animal thing for TAY, to be used at your convenience...
So here it is guys, enjoy!
Took about an hour and a half of on and off work between some other projects I was working on. What do you think?
Use him wisely.
Stay cool, people of TAY. And don't forget about me! I know I haven't been posting much but I do drop in everyday to read your guys' content and support your work when TAY gets it's blip in the morning.
P.S. The finale to the art tutorial has been cancelled. Sorry about that! Hope you found the first and main post informative! SupremeEvan, I still owe you a look over and will do so soon on the originating post!
Love and peace!!!!


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Pennsylvania Superior Court Visit
Apr 01, 2014
Apr 02, 2014
Where: Apfelbaum Courtroom of the Lewis Katz Building
The public is welcome to observe as a three-judge panel of the Pennsylvania Superior Court sits in a special argument session at Penn State University's Dickinson School of Law. Judge Cheryl Lynn Allen, a Penn State alumna, helped initiate the special session. "The court often conducts sessions in counties throughout Pennsylvania. The courtroom at the Law School gives us an opportunity to welcome Penn State students as well as the county's high school students and members of the public and the local legal community," she said. During the two-day event, the Superior Court panel will hear oral argument in more than thirty cases involving matters of civil, criminal, and family law. Lawyers from both sides will present arguments on behalf of their clients and answer questions from the judges.
"The session is a wonderful opportunity for the public to see this appellate court in action," said The Hon. Thomas K. Kistler '82, president judge of the Centre County Court of Common Pleas, who is helping to organize the events, which include educational sessions for law students and local members of the bar. The Superior Court is one of two statewide intermediate appellate courts and ordinarily sits in Philadelphia, Harrisburg, and Pittsburgh. Superior Court judges are elected to ten-year terms.
About the Judges
Three members of the Superior Court will hear arguments in more than thirty cases over the two-day argument period. (Case summaries will be posted online shortly before the event.)
The Hon. Cheryl Lynn Allen graduated from Penn State's College of Education in 1969 and spent three years teaching in Pittsburgh Public Schools. In October she was named an Alumni Fellow, the highest award given by the Penn State Alumni Association. She began her legal career as a staff attorney at Neighborhood Legal Services and the Pennsylvania Human Relations Commission and spent most of her legal career as an assistant county solicitor and in private practice before her appointment to the Allegheny County Court of Common Pleas in 1990. She was elected to a full term in 1991 and in 2002 she was appointed to the Pennsylvania Supreme Court's Juvenile Court Judges Commission. She was elected to the Pennsylvania Superior Court in 2007. She is the first and only African American woman elected to the Court.
The Hon. Christine L. Donohue is a graduate of East Stroudsburg University and holds a J.D. from Duquesne University School of Law. From 1980 to 2007 she worked in private legal practice. She is a former chair of the Pennsylvania Board of Law Examiners, a former judge on the Court of Judicial Discipline, and a former member of the Disciplinary Board of the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania. She was elected to the Superior Court in 2007.
The Hon. Sallie Updyke Mundy is a graduate of Washington and Jefferson College and the University of Pittsburgh School of Law. She worked in private practice from 1988 to 2009, including several years at McQuaide, Blasko in State College, PA. She served as a member of the Disciplinary Hearing Committee from 1995 to 2001 and was a member of the Interest on Lawyers Trust Accounts (IOLTA) board from 1997 to 2003. She was elected to the Superior Court in 2009.
Arguments will begin at approximately 10:00 a.m. and conclude at 4:00 p.m. on both days. This event will also be simulcast to Law School facilities in Carlisle, PA. A full schedule is available online.
Additional events for lawyers and future lawyers
Two additional events are planned for people who are interested in legal careers:
- "Meet the Clerks," a chance for law students and aspiring law students to learn more about clerkships, is set for 4:00 p.m. on Tuesday. This event is free but an RSVP is requested
- "Effective Advocacy before the Superior Court," an event for lawyers, law students, and Penn State students, will feature members of the court discussing courtroom techniques. The event is set for Wednesday at 4 p.m. CLE credits will be available for attorneys. This event is free for anyone not seeking CLE credit.


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Coast Guard Lt. Pedro Vazquez talks with students from
Banning High School in Wilmington, Calif., while underway
on the tall ship Exy Johnson in May in the Port of Los
Angeles. The U.S. Maritime Administration has unveiled a
new maritime high school curriculum it hopes will spark
interest in, and prepare students for, maritime careers.
"With the development of this curriculum, the
Maritime Administration has created a firm cornerstone
on which individual maritime schools can build," U.S.
Rep. Elijah E. Cummings, D-Md., chairman of the House
Transportation and Infrastructure Coast Guard and
Maritime Transportation subcommittee, said in a Nov. 24
press release. "The maritime industry offers endless
opportunities for our young people, and I am extremely
pleased to see this giant step forward in attracting and
training the next generation of U.S. mariners."
Under the new curriculum, students during their freshman year will gain a general understanding of the maritime industry, its history and the role the maritime sector
plays in the everyday lives of Americans, McKeever said.
During their sophomore year, they will be introduced to the various jobs and the requirements necessary to work in the industry.
In their junior and senior years, the students can
choose a career path — between the Merchant Marine,
shipbuilding and repair, and port operations — so that
they can receive training tailored to that path.
The ninth grade lesson plans for the curriculum,
which has been in development for about a year, are
almost complete, McKeever said. However, a great deal
of work remains to develop a working curriculum for
the 10th through 12th grades, she said.
Maritime educators said it was about time for something like the MARAD curriculum.
"We didn't have a whole lot of models," said Murray
Fisher, the founder and program director at New York
Harbor School, which opened in 2002 with the mission of "creating a corps of water-related professionals," including water resource managers, users, scientists and conservationists. "The MARAD curriculum
will save schools that are thinking about incorporating
a maritime curriculum a lot of time," he said.
Fisher added that the Harbor School will start to
incorporate elements of the MARAD curriculum, saying he thinks it will "produce students that are job
ready and college ready."
The New York Harbor School, in the Bushwick area
of Brooklyn, has seen tremendous success from its own
program in a short amount of time. The school was
formed when Bushwick High School was divided into
three smaller schools, one of them the Harbor School.
Compared to Bushwick High School, which had a 23
percent graduation rate, the Harbor School boasted a
65 percent rate for its first class, said Fisher. He expects
that to increase.
"A course of study with specific emphasis on the
maritime industry, such as maritime history, marine literature and marine science, can complement existing
course requirements by enhancing students' development of basic skills, such as reading, writing and determining mathematical calculations," said McKeever.
Those schools that are able to incorporate the entire
curriculum for one or more of the career paths will
ensure that their students have the knowledge and
skills for success in the maritime industry, she said.
From there, graduates can choose to go directly to
work for a shipyard or maritime company/union, or
continue their education by attending a maritime academy, college or trade school, she added.
For those who have been touting the need for more
qualified mariners, the new curriculum is welcome.
"We applaud efforts to attract people to an industry
that is nothing short of vital to America's national and
economic security," said George Tricker, Seafarers
International Union vice president of contracts. "Our
union is engaged in similar efforts through our affiliated training center, in terms of both recruiting individuals and providing a solid foundation that launches
successful maritime careers. There are excellent career
opportunities in this industry, and they're only going
to grow in the years ahead." ■


text: I wouldn't—well, I would just once, like to see what it's like to dive with The Hives singing along while I fin down to a reef —because I like to live out my Darth Vader fantasies, but this MP3 player could just persuade me otherwise. What is remarkable about this iRiver iFP-380T, with its waterproof case and headset, is that you can go down to 200 feet with it clipped onto your mask. The device runs on one 9-volt battery and one AA and it costs $199. [Frontgate via UberReview]


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Nature, Parks & Gardens
Yorkshire Wildlife Trust's Living Seas Centre at Flamborough is a great family gateway to learning about what lives above and below the waves. Get top tips for rock-pooling and seashore exploring nearby, and find out the latest information on sightings of dolphins, porpoises and whales all along the coast.
There are beautiful gardens around the town, too, including those at Sewerby Hall and Burton Agnes Hall.
Search for Parks and Gardens in Bridlington
Glen Gardens, Filey
Glen Gardens, West Avenue, Filey, North Yorkshire, YO14 9JL (9 miles, 15 km)
Glen Gardens were built around the 1830's and were part of the private estate of Ravine Hall. Although the hall no longer exists, a café stands in its place making it nice place to visit in the summer.
Flamborough Cliffs Nature Reserve
North Marine Road, Flamborough, BRIDLINGTON, Yorkshire, YO15 1BJ (5 miles, 8 km)
Flamborough Head has one of the most important seabird colonies in Europe. In summer the cliffs are packed with tens of thousands of breeding auks, gannets and gulls creating a memorable experience.
Sewerby Hall and Gardens
Church Lane, Sewerby, Bridlington, YO15 1EA (2 miles, 3 km)
Sewerby Hall and Gardens is the place to visit all year round. Uniquely situated in a dramatic clifftop position with spectacular views over Bridlington and set in 50 acres of early 19th Century parkland.
RSPB Bempton Cliffs
Cliff Lane, Bempton, Bridlington, YO15 1JF (5 miles, 7 km)
Home to nearly half a million seabirds, including puffins and the UK's largest seabird, the gannet. Seabird Centre housing information on the wildlife on the cliffs, gift shop, food and drink counter. Events and activities all year round.
Crescent Gardens, Filey
The Crescent, Filey, North Yorkshire, YO14 9HZ (10 miles, 15 km)
Filey prides itself on award winning Parks and Gardens. Stroll through the Crescent Gardens as you take in the stunning views across the bay, while listening to the summer brass band concerts in the newly built bandstand.
Flamborough South Landing
Flamborough South Landing, Flamborough, BRIDLINGTON, Yorkshire, YO15 1AG (3 miles, 4 km)
South Landing beach lies on the south side of Flamborough Head, just over 3 miles north-east of Bridlington, within an area which has been designated a Local Nature Reserve.
Memorial Gardens - Filey
Murray Street, Filey, North Yorkshire, YO14 9DA (10 miles, 16 km)
Living Seas Centre
Southsea Road, Flamborough, BRIDLINGTON, Yorkshire, YO15 1AE (3 miles, 5 km)
Begin your family's adventure and exploration of Yorkshire's own stretch of the North Sea at the free-to-enter Yorkshire Wildlife Trust Living Seas Centre at South Landing.
Filey Dams Nature Reserve
Wharfedale, FILEY, North Yorkshire, YO14 0DG (10 miles, 16 km)
The last remaining freshwater marsh of any size in the area, Filey Dams is a magnet for migratory birds but is also a haven for plants, small mammals and amphibians.
Bridlington Birds of Prey & Animal Park
Carnaby Covert Lane, Carnaby, BRIDLINGTON, Yorkshire, YO15 3QF (3 miles, 4 km)
Bridlington Birds of Prey & Animal Park is an Award Winning, family owned business that has lots to offer for a fun-filled family day out.
Flamborough Outer Headland
Flamborough, BRIDLINGTON, Yorkshire, YO15 1AR (5 miles, 8 km)
Marked by a stretch of rugged white cliffs surrounding a small village, Flamborough Head is an outdoor lover's paradise.
Filey Bandstand - Crescent Gardens
The Crescent, Filey, North Yorkshire, YO14 9HZ (10 miles, 15 km)
Filey prides itself on award winning Parks and Gardens. Stroll through the Crescent Gardens as you take in the stunning views across the bay, while listening to the summer brass band concerts in the reatively new bandstand.


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Making something portable usually means stripping away the excess plastic and coming up with a streamlined beauty. Not in the world's first portable Sega Saturn's case though, which comes to us via the BenHeck.com forums.
The Saturn's been dead and gone for 11 years now, so modder Evil Nod certainly earns our kudos for turning it portableand making me remember those brilliantly hilarious Saturn adverts from the mid-90s. If you haven't seen the delights of the Segata Sanshiro adverts on YouTube, definitely check them out.
Going back to the portable creation, it's just the full-sized console slimmed down and stuck in an ugly box, with a 7-inch LCD screen for playing NiGHTS Into Dreams and Virtua Cop. In the words of Segata Sanshiro, "you must play the Sega Saturn!"


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A few months ago we announced libmodel to the masses, the shiny data model API for GObject, one of our pet projects from Codethink Labs.
Last week we decided to spend some time doing R&D at the company and I asked Ryan how hard would it be to come up with a generic GtkTreeModel implementation, in two days he put together libmodel-gtk!
This solves a quite important problem, GtkTreeModel, and abstract Model APIs are meant to be implemented pretty much for every use case unless you are doing extremely simple stuff, so that you can add smart filtering and sorting from the data source. However, the GtkTreeModel has an API quite hard to implement so everyone end up using List and TreeStore.
Now that we have a libmodel implementation, doing TheRightThing(TM) and wrap the API around the real data store becomes trivial. I quickly put together this twitter client using libsoup-2.4 and json-glib, and it is the first time that I have fun writting an data driven (let alone online) app for GTK+ in quite some time 🙂
Grab the source here, it's only 230 lines of Vala, most of it picture retreival/treemodel code actually, to compile it you'll need a fairly recent vala release. Copile using this command line:
~$ valac -g --thread --pkg gtk+-2.0 --pkg json-glib-1.0 --pkg libsoup-2.4 --pkg model-gtk model-twittfeed.vala
We are already planning having some standard set of providers, there's already a filesystem implementation in the model-examples repository, we are cooking a Tracker one and I should be adding a JSON one soon, other implementations are welcome! I would be quite excited to see SQLite, XML, CouchDB ones as well.
This is the kind of things that makes me really proud of working at Codethink, there's an exceptional bunch of smart guys willing to kick the complexity out of the way with elegance and simplicity!
Kudos to Ryan for this one, we should be putting together another release soon.


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Music Waste 2014
June 5-8 | Various locations
Tickets and info: musicwaste.ca
It started as a lark, as many snot-nosed indie fests do, but 20 years later it would be difficult to imagine life in East Vancouver without it.
Music Waste turns 20 this year, an event that was designed as a middle-finger reaction to industry showcase New Music West, its corporate sponsorships and entry fees in the early '90s.
Music Waste's celebration of music on the margins hasn't changed much since the festival's early days. On the menu are still the same kind of music-first, community-first kinds of bands with little to no hope of ever making it big. Not that they care.
No, the point of Music Waste is to hopscotch from one underground venue to the next for a whole weekend, seeing an eight-band bill in one place, catching your friend's group playing another at one in the morning, downing the last few cans of cheap beer in the place, hitting a pal's pal's after-party into the wee hours of the morning, riding your bike into the sunrise, crashing and getting back up by early afternoon to do it all over again.
Names you may recognize at Music Waste this year include Mint Records-approved indie rockers Tough Age, alt-rockers War Baby (winners of CiTR's Shindig), and hard-working punk rockers B-Lines, but many of the 80 bands on the bill will be long forgotten by next.
But some will stick. Some have in the past and are now Vancouver indie royalty: Noise rock duo Japandroids, punk band White Lung, and oddball slacker rocker Mac DeMarco, for example, have all found their way onto venerable independent labels and have become viable touring acts.
They are the few of the Wasties that have "made it."
Yet for festival director Dustin Bromley, the real charm of Music Waste, as opposed to conventional music biz showcases or larger indie festivals (read: Toronto's Canadian Music Week or Calgary's Sled Island) isn't in trying to find who will "break out," but rather who won't.
"The goal of Music Waste is to support local musicians who are doing something a little different," Bromley said in a phone interview. "They may be playing genres you've heard 500 times before, but they're pushing the boundaries and interesting us. They're not just trying to get on the radio, they're doing something creative, working on their craft and trying to bring something new to the Vancouver music scene."
Bromley, who also plays in a band called The Greater Wall, knows that the 80 bands on Music Waste's 2014 bill are bands that have essentially never been heard of. You have basement punks, new wave weirdos, electronic tinkerers and psychedelic folk experimentalists. It's a colourful palette of talent that even Bromley feels has managed to surprise him.
"Every year there's a huge influx of bands that we've just never heard of or people we've never heard of. Every year there are a couple of bands that pop out that are completely new and everyone gets so excited about them."
Tough Age main man Jarrett K. Samson has been a Music Waste regular for six straight years, performing in a number of bands including Role Mach, Collapsing Opposites, Korean Gut and defunct indie faves Apollo Ghosts, whose offshoot Cool is performing this year.
"Music Waste is always my favourite," said Samson, who at one point was also involved in helping organize the event. "It's a good affordable way to see local bands. All the people doing it are doing it because they want to support local music.
"You'll see bands years before anyone even cares about them," he added, praising the festival's focus on newer acts and for giving young bands some of their very first shows.
Participating venues include The Cobalt, Astoria, the Anza Club, China Cloud, Guilt & Co., and Red Gate, among others.
This year also sees the return of Comedy Waste, featuring a variety of Vancouver funny people, and Art Waste, a group show of works by underground artists at Gallery Gachet in Gastown. There is also Go Your Own Waste, an opportunity to book and host your own show.
Available via Neptoon, Zulu, Audiopile and Red Cat, festival passes are still priced at just $15 — they have remained so for close to 10 years, Bromley said — and if they end up selling out in advance, tickets for single shows are a mere $5 at the door.
And if you've been a longtime Waste festivalgoer, you may want to dust off your old passes for the Sunday event at the Anza Club, where passes from previous years will be accepted for entry and the oldest pass will get a door prize.
"It's always been DIY (do-it-yourself). We don't bring in outside money, we don't accept sponsorships. By doing that, we can essentially guarantee that we'll never grow," Bromley said with a laugh. "We're never going to be a Pop Montreal or a Sled Island.
"It's tough, but I think it's a good thing," he added. "It keeps the focus on the bands and on local music. I think all the bands that play the fest see the amount of work that goes into it. And it keeps a jokey vibe about the festival. We're all just here to hear good music and have a good time."
Bromley admitted the festival had to be scaled back somewhat this year in order to stay afloat. Previous incarnations featured upwards of 100 bands on the bill compared to the 80 acts featured this year.
"I don't think it's going to continue scaling back, but things cost more," Bromley said.
In celebrating the temporary, the fleeting, Music Waste provides something that few festivals can: The feeling that it could all be gone tomorrow, so you might as well get "wasted" today.
Five bands to see at Music Waste 2014
We asked festival director Dustin Bromley to pick five unknown bands to check out at this year's Music Waste. Here are his selections.
Get Real
"They have a total '90s alt-rock vibe." (June 5 @ The Cobalt)
Black Magique
"They have a cassette out that seems to be quite popular in Europe, as any kind of goth thing can be." (June 6 @ Rainbow Connection)
Candela Farm
"It's a project by a guy named Andrew Candela and I've know about his music for a while. It's his first time playing the fest." (June 6 @ Astoria)
Bad Channels
"They're doing a little reunion show, so that's pretty cool." (June 7 @ Pat's Pub)
Stress Eating
"Last Music Waste I saw them and thought, 'Yeah, Ok, these guys are good.' But I saw them again recently and they just blew me away. Solid punk band." (June 7 @ Neptoon Records)


text:
- About Linde Engineering
- Executive Leadership Team
- Executive Leadership Team
- Linde Engineering Dresden
- Linde Engineering Schalchen Plant
- Selas-Linde GmbH
- Linde Kryotechnik AG
- Cryo AB
- Cryostar SAS
- Linde CryoPlants Ltd.
- Moscow Representative Office
- Linde Engineering Rus, OOO
- Linde Engineering North America Inc. - Tulsa, Oklahoma
- Selas Linde North America
- Hydro-Chem
- Linde Engineering North America Inc. - Houston Office
- Linde Engineering India Pvt. Ltd.
- Linde Engineering (Hangzhou) Co., Ltd.
- Linde Engineering (Dalian) Co., Ltd.
- Linde Arabian Contracting Co. Ltd.
- Linde Engineering Middle East LLC
- Linde Engineering Korea Ltd.
- Linde Engineering South Africa (Pty) Ltd.
- Success Stories
Linde Arabian Contracting Co. Ltd. was established in 1984 in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and became a majority-owned subsidiary of The Linde Group in 2006. The Linde Arabian Contracting offices are strategically located in the city of Al Khobar in close proximity to our key customers including Saudi Aramco, SABIC and Tasnee.
In the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, we now have over 50 references covering the following core competencies:
Air separation plants
Gas processing plants
We also have many references for fabricated plant components such as:


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Rev. Franklin Graham Praises Putin for Stance Against Homosexuality.
By Todd Beamon
The Rev. Franklin Graham has praised Russian President Vladimir Putin for his stance against homosexuality and slammed President Barack Obama's "shameful" embrace of gay rights.
"To be clear, I am not endorsing President Putin," Graham, the son of renowned evangelist Billy Graham, said in the March issue of Decision magazine.
The magazine in published by the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association, based in Charlotte, N.C. Franklin Graham is the association's president and CEO.
"To survive in the KGB and rise to power in Russia, you have to be tough," Graham said of Putin. "His enemies say he is ruthless. To some, he is a modern version of a czar. His personal life has its own controversies.
"Isn't it sad, though, that America's own morality has fallen so far that on this issue — protecting children from any homosexual agenda or propaganda — Russia's standard is higher than our own?
"Putin is right on these issues," Graham continued. "Obviously, he may be wrong about many things, but he has taken a stand to protect his nation's children from the damaging effects of any gay and lesbian agenda."
Last year, Putin banned the "propaganda of nontraditional sexual relations to minors," Graham said. The restriction was highlighted by the Russian president's critics leading up to the Winter Games in Sochi last month.
"American media and liberal activists were outraged that the Olympics would be allowed in such an 'intolerant' culture," Graham said. "Even though Putin said that gays and lesbians would be allowed at the Olympics, the fact that he took a stand — simply to protect children — ignited a worldwide cultural firestorm.
"He further explained the law by saying, 'We have a ban on the propaganda of homosexuality and pedophilia,' " Graham said.
The evangelist called the American response to Putin's crackdown "sadly predictable," noting that President Obama sent gay and lesbian athletes to Sochi. He also mentioned Attorney General Eric Holder's announcement last month that his office would push forrecognition of same-sex marriage in all 50 states — "even in the 33 states that outlaw those marriages."
Graham then charged Obama and Holder with having "turned their backs on God and his standards, and many in the Congress are following the administration's lead. This is shameful.
"The world used to look to America for moral leadership," Graham said. "But those days are long gone."
He said that the United States has "abdicated our moral leadership" — at home and abroad.
"We defeated Communism, only to relax and see secularism and progressives take over our country," Graham said. "Secularism is as godless as communism. Secularists and progressives have taken over our schools, media, and local and federal government. And it has all happened in the twinkling of an eye."
He ended by quoting portions of Matthew 25:34 from the New Testament.
"But the Bible makes it clear that one day, 'all nations will be gathered before [God]' for judgment, and that 'at the name of Jesus every knee should bow,'" Graham wrote.
Related Stories:
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| 18.1°C Belfast
Defender Robert Huth has signed a three-year contract extension to remain at Stoke until 2016.
Huth has become an integral figure at the heart of the Stoke defence since his then club-record £6million move from Middlesbrough in 2009, as Stoke have established themselves in the Barclays Premier League.
"I am delighted that it has all been sorted out before the start of the season," he said. "I've had a fantastic time here, the best three years of my career. It's been great to play a big part in the club's progress over that period, but also to gain some personal recognition with the Player-of-Year awards which I won at the end of the last two seasons."
He added: "I have ambitions in the game and I am relishing the chance to achieve them here at this football club, so I can't wait for the new season to come around."
Stoke boss Tony Pulis hailed the impact of Huth, who still had a year to run on his contract, after 130 appearances for the Britannia Stadium club.
"Huthy stands out as one of the best signings this club has made since we were promoted to the Premier League, so it's fantastic news that he is staying put for the long term," he said.
"It's a massive boost for us all and I know our supporters will be especially pleased because they have really taken to him since he joined us.
"They love the committed way he approaches the game and that is one of his many attributes."


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On a more exciting note {for me anyways....tee hee!}, I am the host for day 13 of our awesome CPS 5th Anniversary Event! My day is being sponsored by Clearsnap, who has to be one of the most generous sponsors ever! I would say I use some type of Clearsnap ink on about 95% of my projects, because I just love their ink quality. For the anniversary event, each designer picked a past CPS sketch favorite, and used it again. I chose CPS Sketch #121, and here is what I came up with:
Cardstock: Papertrey Ink (vintage cream)


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Someone has finally done it!
Chris Vowles from West Sussex, in the United Kingdom, has started a website to help Canadian fathers or a relative trace a child in the UK, or help a child or a relative trace a father or family in Canada.
There are approximately 22,000 Canadian War Children born between December, 1939 and the early part of 1946 - so he has a gigantic job ahead of him.
But, he already has people in his database, and he has two forms that you can download from the website to fill in the information that you are looking for either in the UK or in Canada.
He has also provided a bit of history on Canadians who were stationed in the UK during World War II, and of the Canadian Regiments in the UK.
So if you have any information that you might think is helpful, email Chris at <email@example.com> or check out his website at <www.canadianrootsuk.org>.


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Coachella 2014 Weekend Two – Day Two in Photos
The second day of Coachella 2014's second weekend (follow that?) pretty much featured the same lineup as the previous weekend: a few guest spots, some arena-sized rock 'n' roll and reunited legends. These are some of our favorite moments in photos.


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Freemasonry is a unique institution that has been a major part of community life in America for more than 250 years.
Masonry traces its ancestry to the operative craftsmen, primarily cathedral builders, of the Middle Ages. Because of their special knowledge and skills, these builders were permitted special travel privileges from country to country. As cathedral building came to an end during the 17th and 18th centuries, some Masonic Lodges began to accept men into membership who were not craftsmen.
In 1717, Freemasonry members created a formal organization in England when the first Grand Lodge was formed.
In a time when travel was by horseback and sailing ship, Masonry spread with amazing speed. By 1731, when Benjamin Franklin joined the fraternity, there were already several Lodges in the Colonies, and Freemasonry spread rapidly as America expanded west. In addition to Franklin, many of the Founding Fathers – men such as George Washington, Paul Revere, Joseph Warren, and John Hancock – were Masons. Freemasonry played an important part in the Revolutionary War and an even more important part in the Constitutional Convention and the debates surrounding the ratification of the Bill of Rights. Many of those debates were held in Masonic Lodges.
The French first brought Freemasonry to the Great Lakes at a time when it was Indian Territory. The earliest documented Lodge was in Detroit in 1764, by George Harison, Provincial Grand Master of the Provincial Grand Lodge of New York, with Lt. John Christie of the 2nd Battalion, 60th Royal American Foot Regiment (British) as Worshipful Master.
By 1772, there were at least three Lodges in Detroit: Lodge No. 1 and two Irish Military Lodges, Nos. 299 and 378, warranted to Masons of the 10th Regiment, then stationed at Detroit. Members of the visiting military also started the next three Michigan Lodges. These were Harmony Lodge in Detroit, St. Johns Lodge No. 15 on the island of Mackinac, and Zion Lodge No. 10 (now No. 1) in 1794 for work in Detroit.
1717 – While there is evidence that Masonic Lodges existed in Scotland in the late 16th century, the first official Lodge, the Grand Lodge of England, is founded on June 24.
1731 – Benjamin Franklin, a founding father of the United States of America, is initiated into a Pennsylvania Lodge and became a Grand Master in 1734.
1734 – The first Masonic book, Constitutions of the Free-Masons by James Anderson, is edited and published by Benjamin Franklin.
1764 – The first documented Michigan Lodge west of the Allegheny Mountains is warranted in Detroit on April 27 by George Harison, Provincial Grand Master of the Grand Lodge of New York.
1817 – Zion Lodge in Detroit provides much-needed support for the newly created University of Michigan. Two-thirds of the initial money to create the university comes from Zion Lodge.
1826 – The Grand Lodge of the Territory of Michigan is formed and Lewis Cass, Brigadier General in the War of 1812 and Territorial Governor of Michigan from 1813-1831, is the first Grand Master. Cass serves with distinction until 1829.
1863 – Henry Ford, a member of Zion Lodge #1, is born in Dearborn, Michigan.
1891 – The first Michigan Masonic senior living facility, the Home at Reed's Lake, is opened near Grand Rapids. (The current home, Masonic Pathways, is located in Alma, Michigan.)
1926 – The Temple in Detroit was dedicated. This is the largest Masonic Temple in the world with over 1400 rooms in 14 stories.
1959 – The membership peak of more than 200,000 members is reached in the state of Michigan.
1969 – Neil Armstrong, a Mason, and Buzz Aldrin successfully land the Apollo II spacecraft on the moon and spend 2.5 hours exploring the surface.
1973 – Gerald R. Ford, a member of the fraternity from Grand Rapids, becomes President of the United States.
1985 – Michigan Masonic Grant Programs for college scholarships and community charities begin being awarded.
1989 – Sponsorship of juvenile diabetes research and diagnosis begins.
1991 – The Masonic Model Student Assistance Program is founded in Michigan.
1996 – The Michigan Masonic Home Charitable Foundation is formed.
1998 – The Michigan Masonic Museum and Library is relocated to Grand Rapids, a director is hired, and the doors are opened to the public.
2000 – The Beacon Project, a school-based volunteer tutoring program, is launched.
2000 – The Michigan Grand Lodge creates a way to honor donors with the Lewis Cass Society.
2004 – The Conference of Grand Masters of Masons in North America met in Washington, D.C., and launched the Masonic Chip Support Committee (this effort lead to the Michigan Child ID Program).
2005 – The Michigan Child ID Program begins.
2005 – The Beacon volunteers top 200,000 volunteer hours in Michigan elementary schools.
2006 – Public relations programs launch across the state of Michigan to spread awareness and revitalize the organization.Source: http://www.michiganmasons.org


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Last week, Credit Suisse issued a report on industrial Reits. Excerpts from report's Executive Summary.
Not as defensive as perceived: We assume coverage of the Singapore industrial Reits sector with a slightly negative stance as we believe that the perception of its defensiveness (due to longer lease tenures) is misplaced.
… we have done thorough analyses on the factory, business parks and warehouses sub-segments, and conclude that we are most positive on the warehouse sector fundamentals.
… flat to low single-digit growth for factory rents driven by high occupancy, and business park rents to moderate due to the oncoming supply pressure (including new supply of decentralised office space).
Potential weak demand may slow rental growth: Singapore industrial rents have surpassed pre-sub-prime crisis peaks and are at 10-year highs.
… upside is limited from here on, given the moderating economic growth outlook, Singapore's high exposure to the US and European economies and the appreciating currency which will reduce Singapore's competitiveness as an industrial location of choice.
However … the few less labour-intensive, higher value-add fields, and sectors/ players with better pricing power, like biotechnology, water technology, environmental/energy sciences will likely be less impacted by cost inflation.
This should underpin rental growth for the class of industrial assets exposed to these sectors.
… expect rents in (logistics) warehouse – our preferred industrial sub-segment – to continue to remain strong on the back of fairly strong 90-91 per cent occupancies based on limited supply completion over the next three years. While supply for all factories over the next five years looks manageable, at 9-10 per cent of existing supply of 332 million sq ft NLA for factories and business parks … rents for older-specs factories could come under pressure especially given current economic uncertainties, which will likely impact SMEs and less cost-efficient companies (those at the lower end of the value chain).
… hi-tech and business park rents to moderate, due to the oncoming supply of business parks over the next four years amounting to 29 per cent of existing supply, coupled with existing high vacancies.
M&A increasingly challenging: Despite the supportive capital-raising environment, in our view, with cap rates continuing to compress on the back of rising competition for land (as industrial assets have the highest yields), … becoming increasingly challenging for a Reit to make an accretive acquisition, particularly in Singapore, where capital values today are at 10-year highs.
Based on our analyses of Ascendas Reit (A-Reit), Mapletree Logistics Trust (MLT) and Mapletree Industrial Trust (MINT), we conclude that (1) A-Reit has the most debt headroom with $1 billion available for future acquisitions; (2) A-Reit and MLT both have the strongest acquisition pipeline, with $1 billion each of injection pipeline from their sponsors; and (3) MINT and MLT have the highest risk of placement, depending on the size of transaction given their gearing levels of 39.3 per cent and 40.6 per cent, respectively.
Three investable names, at this stage: After screening for market cap of over $1 billion and liquidity of US$1.5 million/day, only three of the seven industrial S-Reits are deemed investable: A-Reit, MLT, MINT.


text: Enhancing Lives At Home Contact Us Name: Phone: Best time to call: Select Time Morning Afternoon Evening Anytime Select Day Weekdays Weekends Any day City: Country: State/Province: Email: Who referred you?: How can we help you enhance your life?: I would like to replace or supplement job income I would like to stay at home and raise my children myself I would like to supplement retirement income I would like to be my own boss I would like to get out of debt I would like more free time for myself and family What is your monthly income goal?: $100-$300 $300-$500 $500-$1000 $1000-$3000 $3000-$5000 $5000 + Comments: ©2012 Enhancing Lives At Home


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Certainly the idea of exposing government data for public use is appealing enough. But a lot of work goes into making even raw data presentable to the public.
When assembling the data feeds for Data.gov, the developmnent team contacted the chief data stewards for each agency, who in turn communicated with department and program managers for possible datasets.
CIO Council set up Data.gov in two months, and third parties are putting the data to use
Project at a glance
See the full list of agency winners
See the GCN Executives of the Year
The data had to meet three requirements:
The last one was the trickiest, since sensitive data can sometimes be assembled from multiple, and seemingly innocuous, data sources. The initial data sets chosen for Data.gov were, for the most part, datasets that were already published and had met the above criteria, said Sanjeev "Sonny" Bhagowalia, the chief information officer for The Interior Department, and co-lead of the Data.gov project.
About the Author
Joab Jackson is the senior technology editor for Government Computer News.
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Welcome to another edition of "An Awesometalk With". It's my pleasure to introduce you to Mr. Roger Norton, the creator and Webmaster of the Abraham Lincoln Research Site website. Mr. Norton contacted me in early December, 2008 in reference to an interview I did with Dr. Thomas Schwartz (see "An Awesometalk With" DR. THOMAS SCHWARTZ, Illinois State Historian). It turns out that Dr. Schwartz was a former student of Mr. Norton's. It's a small world.
I can tell you that I genuinely felt honored by his email as I am a fan of Mr. Norton's website. I believe it is one of the best sites on Abraham Lincoln online today.
As you will read, Mr. Norton considers his site ideal for students, teachers, families and the general public. It contains accurate and easy to understand information, and he genuinely enjoys sharing it with anyone interested in President Lincoln, his family and their times.
I hope you enjoy our chat.
NOTE: This interview was constructed from several written correspondence between Mr. Norton and myself over the course of several weeks.
December 30, 2008
BC: Welcome Mr. Norton. It's nice to be able to share your thoughts with my readers today. I'd like to begin by asking how your website got started.
RN: I taught American history at Herrick Middle School in Downers Grove, Illinois, from 1966 – 1994. When I retired from teaching, I looked for a way of staying in education without being in a classroom. In 1996 I created a website on the Lincoln assassination. Within a short period of time, the site was enlarged with stories about Lincoln's life. Then I added a site on Mary Todd Lincoln. The entire website was named the Abraham Lincoln Research Site, and I invited people to e-mail me with their questions concerning the 16th president, his assassination, and his family.
BC: It really is a wonderful research site. And being that it just celebrated its 12th birthday on December 29, 2008; I imagine that it is still going strong and is as popular as ever?
RN: After a few years, search engines began listing my Lincoln pages near the top, and the number of visitors rose dramatically. The site, which is currently composed of 87 different Lincoln-related topics, is averaging about 1.4 million visitors a year.
BC: Wow. I had no idea that you were generating those kinds of site visit numbers. That's awesome!
RN: It will celebrate its 12 millionth visitor (since 1996) early in 2009. February is always the busiest month. The web pages have a counter at the bottom which is a link to the site's statistics.
It's my estimation that I have replied to over 40,000 Lincoln-related e-mails since 1996. About half of these e-mails come from students, and about 10 percent come from overseas. Lincoln is especially popular in Europe and India.
BC: I understand that you had to change you web address earlier this fall. Did you lose readership because of this? And what caused the problem?
RN: Barry, right now my visitors are WAY down from a year ago because one of my web servers quit the business on October 31, and I had to switch about 2/3 of my site to my other server (and thus have new URL's). I have currently lost many of my good placements in Google, Yahoo, etc. Right now I am averaging about 1,564 visitors a day; a year ago in December it was about 3,100 a day. Over the next few weeks [the 2008 holiday season], the number will grow considerably lower because schools are not in session. Then it will pick up again in January.
BC: What a shame about your loss of search engine placement. I know that it takes a long time to build up that kind of placement and get into the upper listings with the major search engines.
RN: I am hoping that I will regain my Google placements within the next several months, but I know it may be a year or more before my number of visitors returns to the levels it used to be before the URL changes. All my stats are at http://www.sitemeter.com/?a=stats&s=mrsosa66.
BC: Mr. Norton, can you tell us a little bit about your personal history and how you first got interested in Lincoln?
RN: I was born September 19, 1943, in Oak Park, Illinois, and graduated from Oak Park and River Forest High School. I attended Denison University in Granville, Ohio, and received a Bachelor of Arts degree in History. I then attended Indiana University where I received a Master of Science in Education degree.
As a youngster growing up in Illinois my early interest in Abraham Lincoln came from the stories told by my grade school teachers. In the 1960's I became particularly interested in Lincoln's assassination with the publication of a book entitled "Twenty Days" by Dorothy Meserve Kunhardt and Philip B. Kunhardt, Jr.
My interest in the assassination led to my mock trial unit in the classroom.
BC: To clarify, as a teacher, you would have your own students perform the mock trial of the Lincoln conspirators as part of their curriculum?
RN: [Yes.] Each year in December I explained to my classes that we were going to reenact the trial following Lincoln's assassination. I picked prosecution and defense attorneys before the winter vacation. Each attorney was given a copy of "The Day Lincoln Was Shot" by Jim Bishop. Additionally, the lawyers were given a list of their witnesses and told to prepare testimony for them. The lawyers were advised that the local library had a copy of Benn Pitman's transcription of the original trial. The lawyers had the entire two-week vacation to prepare their case.
After vacation each class elected a judge, and I picked the witnesses and defendants through volunteers. The jury was thus composed of the shy students who preferred not to take part in the oral simulation. We tried only six defendants [rather than eight]; Michael O'Laughlen and Samuel Arnold were dropped as some eighth graders had problems getting a grasp on those characters. As my classes averaged about 33 students, many of the original witnesses were not used, and in some cases students were required to play more than one role.
After a few preparation days for the witnesses to learn the lines written by the attorneys, we started the trial. In contrast to the actual 1865 trial, the defendants were allowed to take the witness stand. I allowed the trial to go for around ten class periods. Then, after final statements, the jury was excused to vote on the six defendants. Oftentimes the verdicts were different from 1865, particularly in the cases of Mary Surratt and Samuel Mudd. However, the only times Lewis Powell was ever found innocent was when William Bell (William Seward's butler) did a poor job of testifying.
BC: That is a fascinating school project Mr. Norton. I can't imagine how beneficial it was for the students. Was this something that you developed yourself, and for how many years did you run this mock trial?
RN: No, when I started teaching another teacher on the staff was doing a mock trial unit, so the idea didn't originate with me. For several years I experimented with different trial simulations including the one that followed the Boston Massacre. Eventually I decided the Lincoln conspiracy trial was my favorite, and over the last 24 years of my teaching career that's the one that was done in my classroom.
BC: You also mentioned that some of the outcomes were different from the actual trial. I am particularly interested in knowing what the outcome was for Dr. Mudd. Would you elaborate on that for us?
RN: The majority of time Dr. Mudd was found innocent. But in those days books such as Dr. Edward Steers' "His Name is Still Mudd" had not been published. Most Mudd biographies were either neutral or sympathetic towards the doctor. When my student lawyers researched the case they had trouble finding reasons he might be guilty. Steers' book opened a lot of eyes with its persuasive arguments about the doctor's complicity with Booth. I would recommend both Steers' book and Michael Kauffman's "American Brutus." Kauffman takes a different view than Steers, and readers can decide for themselves what they think of Mudd's guilt or innocence. Both authors present convincing arguments. I exchange e-mails with both authors (both of whom have helped me with my website), so I will keep my personal opinion private.
BC: Returning to your current Abraham Lincoln Research Site, where do you produce and maintain it?
RN: I operate on a computer in our den which contains several bookcases holding about 350 books on Lincoln and family. In essence I am a "research librarian" who only deals with one topic. Questions from students are mainly related to research and help for homework. Questions from adults cover a myriad of topics ranging from clergymen seeking a Lincoln quote for a Sunday sermon to travelers wondering why there is a statue of Lincoln in Parliament Square.
BC: I like your site a lot, Mr. Norton, as I can see many people do. Is there a simple formula as to why that is?
RN: I believe the site's appeal is due to the fact that it is written mainly for students, teachers, families and the general public. Lincoln scholars would find little new by reading my research; my goal has been to bring Lincoln and his legacy to students and the average American.
BC: In case my readers are unfamiliar with your website, I wanted to let them know that all your information is free. This is not a pay-per-view site.
RN: The Abraham Lincoln Research Site is a not-for-profit website. I operate it simply because I enjoy the subject matter and the ego satisfaction of helping people. It has been a truly wonderful retirement experience.
BC: It certainly has been beneficial to untold numbers of students and other researchers. You must be proud?
RN: Lincoln's life story is an inspiration for all Americans as his accomplishments and perseverance to succeed in life were phenomenal. The purpose of my website is to share his experiences and character with as many people as possible. I think this is especially important nowadays in a country that is deeply in need of positive role models.
BC: I couldn't agree with you more Mr. Norton. I want to thank you for sharing your thoughts with my readers and look forward to speaking with you again in the future to see how you and your website are doing.
Thank you.
If you would like to visit Mr. Norton's website please click on either of these attached link.
Abraham Lincoln Research Site http://rogerjnorton.com/Lincoln2.html
Other posted interviews to date:
"An Awesometalk With" Harold Holzer, Lincoln Scholar
(posted on November 10, 2008)
"An Awesometalk With" Dr. Thomas Schwartz, Illinois State Historian
(posted on December 08, 2008)
"An Awesometalk With" Robert Krauss, 509th Composite Group Historian
(posted on December 16, 2008)