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Repeat something often enough and it becomes, if not true, at least a solid bit of conventional wisdom. Consider Ron Lieber's column in Saturday's New York Times, which neatly recycles an editorial the Wall Street Journal ran back in March. The issue: the pensions that guarantee public employees a middle-class standard of living in retirement have become more difficult for cities and states to afford. This, according to Lieber and the chorus of conservatives singing the same tune, means a "class war" pitting sanitation workers who deferred compensation so that they could retire with dignity against "have-not" taxpayers who would like some retirement security of their own. Lieber even knows the outcome: public workers should to get ready for many more states and municipalities to engage in "rare acts of courage" and break their promises to pensioners.
Jonathan Cohn at the New Republic asks the obvious question "to what extent is the problem that retirement benefits for everybody else have become too stingy?"
It's a point I've been making as well:
One out of three working Americans has no retirement savings to rely on beyond Social Security, many others have saved very little, especially now that the value of their homes has been destroyed. When it's public pensions that are falling short, it's very visible. When it's the private savings of millions of individual households, it's easy to overlook. But when we start to hear that it has become "too expensive" to provide teachers and police officers with a decent retirement, we know no one else has a chance at retirement security either.
Former Colorado Governor Richard Lamm, quoted in Lieber's article, takes the point to its logical conclusion, arguing that "the New Deal is demographically obsolete." Translation: we'd all better get used to the new normal of low pay, few benefits, and no retirement, sooner rather than later. After all, demographics are inexorable. Resistance is futile.
As Paul Krugman points out in today's Times, the same air of inevitability hangs over the provision of critical state and city services. Cities and states are broke, the argument goes, there's nothing we can do. We can neither keep streetlights on nor let teachers retire. Except that in both cases the argument is false:
We're told that we have no choice, that basic government functions — essential services that have been provided for generations — are no longer affordable. And it's true that state and local governments, hit hard by the recession, are cash-strapped. But they wouldn't be quite as cash-strapped if their politicians were willing to consider at least some tax increases.
Krugman's point about how we got here is equally true of the debate around public employees and their pensions:
It's the logical consequence of three decades of antigovernment rhetoric, rhetoric that has convinced many voters that a dollar collected in taxes is always a dollar wasted, that the public sector can't do anything right.
Unfortunately, Lieber's column effectively adds to that rhetoric.
About the Author: Amy Traub is the Director of Research at the Drum Major Institute. A native of the Cleveland area, Amy is a Phi Beta Kappa graduate of the University of Chicago. Before coming to the Drum Major Institute, Amy headed the research department of a major New York City labor union, where her efforts contributed to the resolution of strikes and successful union organizing campaigns by hundreds of working New Yorkers.


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Share calendar accounts on Mac
Share your calendar account with people who use the same CalDAV or Exchange calendar service (for example, with fellow employees at your company). You can choose whether others can edit the calendar account or only view it.
Give another person access to your calendar account
In the Calendar app on your Mac, choose Calendar > Settings, then click Accounts.
Select the calendar account.
Click Delegation, click Edit, then click the Add button .
Enter the name of the person you want to give access to, then choose his or her name from the list that appears.
If you're giving access to a CalDAV account, select the Allow Write checkbox to let the person edit your calendars.
If you're giving access to an Exchange account, select the person's level of access from the Calendars column.
See calendar accounts you have access to
In the Calendar app on your Mac, choose Calendar > Settings, then click Accounts.
Select the calendar account, then click Delegation.
A CalDAV account appears in the "Accounts I can access" list.
For an Exchange account, click Add button , then enter the user name of the person who gave you access.
To see a delegated account's calendars in the main Calendar window, select Show.
To see a delegated account's calendars in a new window, choose Window > [account name].
Make events private
If you have a shared calendar account, you can make private events that can't be viewed by others.
In the Calendar app on your Mac, double-click or force click an event, then click the event's date.
Select the Private checkbox.
If there is no Private checkbox, the event either has invitees or isn't administered through a CalDAV or Exchange server.
Instead of sharing your entire account, you can share individual calendars.

subset: commoncrawl


text:
Friday, March 27, 2009
Guest Blogger Marie-Claude Bourque
Cyber-Networking: Work Your Book Trailer.
It is no secret that a big part of my networking for the American Title V contest has been done using social networks. They say to use your best skills when networking and it happens that computers is what I am good at. And I like socializing online. Which bring me to one aspect of cyber-networking: the book trailer.
Now I am not an expert, but my book trailer has helped me a lot. When I get readers of non-romance saying after viewing the trailer "wow, I want to vote for that, is it out yet, I want to read it" then I know that I have done a good job. At almost 1,500 hits on YouTube for an unpublished author with a non-existent book, I think, not bad. So here is what I learned on the American Title trenches.
What Is a Good Trailer?
First you need a good trailer. I made mine myself and I won't claim it's wonderful. I won't teach you here how to make a trailer but there are some things I noticed by looking at lots of trailers, good and bad:
Try not to make it cheesy looking. I have seen trailers from very famous authors with B-actors and to me they just look cheesy.
If you have lower quality images or images that don't fit well together, make your trailer simple and uniform. I have done all sepia tones and all black and white for mine. You could use an all green tint or anything in that vein. You want the images to fit together. Be careful of the colored pictures, it always looks best in a more subdued tone. And true "amateur black and white - teenagers in the basement" feel is kind of cool and fresh. Better than somewhere in the middle where you try too hard but don't have the resources of a pro and it starts to look like a B movies from the 70s.
Keep it short. No longer than 1min 15 sec. max.
Don't tell the whole story. To me, the trailer is not a blurb set to music and images. It's a feeling. You want to get in with the music, with some images that create emotions and with just a few words. You want to create that feeling of "I want it!" Most people who view my trailer tell me they have no clues what it's about, but they want to read the book!
Use the beats of the music! I have seen too many trailers with lovely music and images but the images and writing don't fit at all with the music and you fail to get into it fully. The trailer is a different media to engage the reader. It uses different senses than just the brain. You have hearing and sight from the music and images, you have to engage and coordinate these senses well.
As an illustration, you must watch what I call the "Perfect Trailer" for Duma Key by Stephen King.
All the elements are there. Of course King has a lot of money, but did you notice? No cheesy actors, nice big music perfectly coordinated with the images, short clip (32 sec), very few words. And I have no idea what the book is about but I WANT it. Case in point, I don't read horror but I shelled $10 for it, and I feel soooo cool, just because of that trailer!
Where Do you Post It?
So you have your perfect trailer. What do you do with it? If you're Stephen King, you do nothing and magically gazillion people will watch it. But, and I think specifically for debut and e-press authors, the trailer can become your calling card.
So go online of course, on your email, website, blogs, YouTube, MySpace and Facebook (these are the ones I am most familiar with)
How Do You Work It?
Let's go through each cyber media that I know best:
YouTube: First you load it on YouTube so that you can have an easy-to-manage link and embedded code that enable you to put your trailer everywhere. But pay attention to the tags! Because if you have good tags, say similar to a really big author that writes in your genre, your trailer will pop out when people view their favorite author. Fill that description well, don't forget your workable link to your website or where you can download/buy your book in the description (why do you think I have a link to the Romantic Times American Title voting pages on my trailer description. You just click and you are there!)
If you have enough views, you can start looking at the viewing stats on YouTube. I found out I have a lot of views from Germany. Who would have known?
Website: Put it on your home page and not the link only, you want the whole square box with the big triangle in the middle. Paste that embedded code (don't look at my website, because I only have a link now and it really bothers me. My web software won't let me put the embedded code). Some people are bored and surf the web. It's much easier to click on a trailer then read a blurb. It might make you a sale.
Blogs: Post your trailer on your blog. I have seen great blogs with small embedded trailers on the side bar. I love those. Click and you are there. When you guest blog, post your trailer. If your host is kind enough and depending on the blog network she uses, you may be able to get the embedded code posted. But at least get that YouTube clickable link there.
Email: Clickable link in your sig line. I always have this:
Trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N1Vq7lpWo4s
at the end of my email. It works in plain text email, most of the time. I do get clicks from my email messages, I checked.
MySpace: On MySpace, you can work your trailer two ways. First by loading the original file into your video. When you load it, all your friends see it, instant publicity. Then you can add the tags and people may stumble upon it while doing searches: Vampire, Fairy, Magic, all good tags in paranormal. I still have to figure all these new features out.
But, and I have got great feedback on MySpace, you can embed a YouTube trailer on your profile and more importantly into your messages and bulletins by copying the HTML embedded code. When I ask my friends for help in the American Title, I always embed the code at the end. It's my calling card. If you have fans, you can easily reply to them and put that trailer at the end of the message.
And bulletins are wonderful. Many people will see it. So every time you have an announcement, add a trailer at the end! Make a bulletin just to announce your trailer. Post that bulletin often during the day (make sure you delete the old one, because people will hate you for flooding). For fans with lots of friends, your one bulletin will not cut it. Post often.
I do not know about the events feature in MySpace, because when you hit over 3000 friend, events are not longer workable.
Facebook: Sadly, now that they changed Facebook again, I have to learn all over how to work it. But here are a few tips that works. Load the original video, everyone will get to see it as a Newsfeed. Post the YouTube Link and everyone will see it as well in their Newsfeed. Don't do this back to back, spread it a little so that it's 2 news at different times, more people will see it. I also have my Facebook set-up so that every time I load up a trailer on YouTube, it shows as a Newsfeed on Facebook.
Make sure you have your video posted on the left column of your profile, just under your friends list!
What now. You can post your trailer on all the readers groups, but no one goes there once they join the group. So in my opinion, it is now a little useless, especially with the brand new Facebook.
With the old Facebook from last month, it was great. Every time you loaded your trailer on a group , it would show up as a Newsfeed. So people would see it every time! Old Facebook might come back but in the meantime, you could tie your trailer with your status. Because when you post a link now, it now looks like a status, if you have a book related news, you can load up the YouTube link, then write your add like a status. For example, I can load up my trailer You Tube link, then at the top, I can write "Marie-Claude says vote for ANCIENT WHISPERS at http://www.romantictimes.com/news_amtitle3.php" This link and status will show up in the Newsfeed for everyone to see. (I do that a lot and I am sure many have deleted me from their friends by now!)
Facebook events: You can create an event and invite all your friends. That works great in Facebook because you can message a lot of people at once. Include the trailer YouTube link on the event page. Add the You Tube link when you message your event guests. I like events because it prevents me from annoying people who don't want to hear about me. They get one invite, can click "no" and that's it. They never hear from me again.
Facebook might change again to something new, so keep trying to update your skill with the idea that what you want is people to see your trailer in the Newsfeed, without overdoing it of course because then they will just delete you as their friend.
I don't have a fan page because I am not published, but now that the fan page works more like a profile, you can probably use the same status tips above with your page. I get status updates from Anne Rice's fan page all the time now, very cool!
So good luck playing with your trailer.
In parting, I leave you with the trailer for ANCIENT WHISPERS that people have liked so much.
And I ask one question! What do you think of Stephen King Book trailer! Let me know and you can win a 15$ Amazon Gift Card (and you can probably get Duma Key with that!)
Marie-Claude Bourque is an American Title V finalist with her entry ANCIENT WHISPERS, a dark paranormal romance filled with tortured sorcerers, dark sensuality and gothic rituals. You can find her at www.mcbourque.com and www.myspace.com/marieclaudebourque .
And you can also vote for your favorite love scene in the American Title V contest at:http://www.romantictimes.com/news_amtitle3.php
Thanks for all the great info, Marie-Claude! Ok, everybody, be sure to leave a comment or question in order to be entered in M-C's drawing for a $15 Amazon gift card!
35 comments:
- Blodeuedd said...
That was a nice trailer :)
I honestly don't watch a lot of trailers, i guess I haven't really learnt about the phenomenon before now :D - March 27, 2009 at 5:56 AM
- Rachel E. Moniz said...
Hi Emily and Marie-Claude
This was very informative! Thank you for writing this for us. I do like trailers and find my interest increases after seeing one. YouTube and the social sites are a great resource for building momentum.
Rachel - March 27, 2009 at 7:26 AM
- EmilyBryan said...
Betty--Thanks so much for taking the time to let us know you were here!
Blodeuedd--Ok, I'm not sure how to pronounce that, but I guess it doesn't matter. Bet it means something interesting.
I never know if trailers "work" in the sense of "do they sell books?" but I think they increase an author's name recognition.
Hey Rachel!--Thanks for popping in and sharing your reaction to trailers. Has spring reached Rhode Island yet? - March 27, 2009 at 7:56 AM
- Kate George/Bodacious Betty said...
Marie-Claude, I actually enjoyed your trailer more than Stephen King's. Too much blood in King's although it is skillfully done. It was interesting to me that both your trailer and his used images instead of actors.
So in lue of superimposing your view of your characters on your audience you leave them to imagine their characteristics instead. You do use images of people - I like them I might add - but there is no dialog and we aren't really sure who they are at this point. Good.
Thanks for the information. When I gethome this afternoon I'm going to start my own trailer!
Kate - March 27, 2009 at 9:32 AM
- robynl said...
King's trailer definitely caught my attention and the music went very well with the pictures.
- March 27, 2009 at 9:41 AM
- Rachel E. Moniz said...
Hi Emily!
It is surely TRYING to reach Rhode Island. It will be about 50 today and rain is on the way.
You must be looking forward to NEC this weekend. Do tell Annette I said hello when you see her. :-D - March 27, 2009 at 9:55 AM
- Marcella Burnard said...
I notice that King's trailer is super short and punchy - the edits are crisp and fast. The images come at you so quickly your aren't certain you see them, but you're very clear it's a horror novel. It was a perfect illustration about going for a 'feel' in a trailer. One question, however. I know about using images and photos that are in the public domain or at least being certain you've got appropriate permission to use them. I assume the same is true for music? Where does one go to search for that sort of thing? For example, Marie-Claude, where did you go to find the music for your trailer?
- March 27, 2009 at 10:15 AM
- The Brunette Librarian said...
I liked the trailer...I normally don't even watch them but I liked it! Short, got to the point, and still left a bit of mystery. :)
- March 27, 2009 at 10:36 AM
- LuAnn said...
Some great advice! I look forward to reading your book.
- March 27, 2009 at 11:10 AM
- soche said...
I don't usually watch trailers but I did watch yours.
- March 27, 2009 at 11:47 AM
WOW! Your trailer is fantastic, Marie-Claude! :-) It makes me want to read and review a copy of your book, right now. I see what you mean about the colours or lack there of, in the book trailer. You have a lot of wonderful tips for anyone looking to make a book trailer. I just can't get over how beautiful your trailer is! :-) I like yours much better then Steven Kings, though I'm sure his book trailer will be great for his reading audience.
A big HELLO to Emily! :-) Thanks for hosting Marie-Claude today!
I hope you both have a wonderful weekend.
bookreviewsbybobbie(AT)gmail(DOT)com - March 27, 2009 at 11:53 AM
- Marie-Claude Bourque said...
Hi everyone for all your comments :) It's nice to see everyone's take on trailer.
Rachel, did you know Ancient Whispers is set in RI? I just moved from there and wrote it while in RI. It's set in Providence and in a make believe town like Wickford. I have the SO County beach in there!!!! - March 27, 2009 at 12:01 PM
- Marie-Claude Bourque said...
Very good point about copyrighted images.
I have royalty-free music from someone called Kivin Mcload. For a donation of $5 and include his name, you can download songs.
Now for images, you can go to Istock photos and places like that. Some will charge you a flat fee for downloads. - March 27, 2009 at 12:03 PM
- Marie-Claude Bourque said...
Thanks for your compliment Robbie :)
If I win the contest and the book gets published, I'll send it over for a review :) - March 27, 2009 at 12:04 PM
You're welcome!
Sounds good, Marie-Claude :-)
-Bobbie - March 27, 2009 at 12:13 PM
- Rachel E. Moniz said...
I live over in Tiverton but I was just in Wickford this morning! I did not know that you used our little state in the book. How neat!
Rachel - March 27, 2009 at 12:45 PM
- Nicole North said...
Fantastic blog, Marie-Claude!! I love your take on the most effective book videos. Kudos!! I always learn a lot from your posts. I had fun making my first video. I'm going to try and make each one better than the last.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L5Lz5dNoI0g - March 27, 2009 at 12:47 PM
- Marie-Claude Bourque said...
Yes Rachel! I lived in Narragansett for 8 years until last year. I have scenes on the beach in the winter, you know how cold and windy it gets.
And I just finished a shifter novella that is set in Newport and Jerusalem. I include a bit of that Gilded Age mansion stuff in there. I would love to see a historical done with that era! Sooo romantic :) - March 27, 2009 at 12:53 PM
- Marie-Claude Bourque said...
Thank you Nicole :)
I think I am blogged out for a while. This was my offical "last" blog for a while LOL.
I love your trailer!
For a strange reason my trailer 2 and 3 are not as good LOL! I was lucky with the first one! - March 27, 2009 at 12:55 PM
- ScorpJen1121 said...
it was interesting, not my kind of story though.
- March 27, 2009 at 3:51 PM
- ScorpJen1121 said...
btw Marie-Claude, nice to see you out blogging :) hehe
- March 27, 2009 at 3:51 PM
- Marie-Claude Bourque said...
My stories (and King's )are quite different than Emily LOL. There is no doubts.
It's funny because I write dark paranormal, but I read historicals LOL Not too dark!
Glad to be here blogging to :) - March 27, 2009 at 4:22 PM
The Stephen King was really effective though I don't like horror, but if I did, it would hook me.
Your trailer I thought was excellent!
Carol Jo - March 27, 2009 at 5:24 PM
- Jane said...
Hi Marie-Claude,
Congrats on being a finalist in the American Title V contest. I liked your trailer as well as Stephen's. I really liked the sepia color of your trailer. I do usually check out the trailers on an author's website. - March 27, 2009 at 5:30 PM
- Mariee said...
Both of the trailers look good. I really like yours, great choice of music!
- March 27, 2009 at 8:02 PM
- EmilyBryan said...
Hi everybody!
Sorry I've been AWOL today. I was over in Framingham for the start of the NECRWA Let your Imagination Take Flight. Had a great time visiting with Leah Hultenschmidt, my editor! Think we nailed down what my next project will be. Heading back at oh-dark:30 tomorrow morning for an agent pitch and to give my JOY OF WRITING SEX workshop! Should be a hoot!
Thanks so much for making Marie-Claude welcome in my absence. I think her trailer is spectacular and her story premise very compelling. If you agree, please remember to vote!
Have a wonderful weekend! - March 27, 2009 at 9:43 PM
- Michelle Libby said...
I'm so sad that I'm missing the NEC conference this year. Maybe I'll work on a book trailer after this wonderful advice.
Thanks. I enjoyed seeing the two different trailers. I have a friend writer who creates trailers, but I'm willing to try it on my own. - March 28, 2009 at 8:42 AM
Marie-Claude--Wonderful trailer! I liked yours even better than Stephen King's. Thank you for the extremely helpful info on trailers. Hmmmm...it will be a challenge to think of what images I can use to take the viewer to the year 1405... --Margaret Mallory, Knight of Desire, July '09
- March 28, 2009 at 1:35 PM
- @GeekWillow said...
The Stephen King trailer was well-made. Would it make me run out and buy the book? Probably not, but I've never been able to really get in to his books before. If some other author had that trailer for a book, I'd definitely want to read it.
- March 28, 2009 at 1:50 PM
- Julie Robinson said...
Hey M-C and Emily!
I agree that music really sets the mood as far as enticing me to buy a book or not. However, that music must be accompanied by a little action. Nothing is more boring than to have a still landscape shot with not words or people pictures---unless you have an old castle in the background!
I got goose bumps just watching the Stephen King video. It was like a movie trailer! Wow! I think I've told you before that I love the pulsating beat of your book trailer, M-C. It's like a heartbeat.
Thanks for a great 'how-to.' I have always wondered about this aspect of promotion, but have never seen a post on it. And I'm sure I'm not the only one. You both know I like to be social, so you'd think I've have come across this before. Ingenious!
Julie - March 28, 2009 at 8:18 PM
- Julie Robinson said...
Oh, and Emily, I still love your video. The music is airy, flowing up and down like the wind with the arpeggios running one after the other. It suits your book.
Julie - March 28, 2009 at 8:26 PM
- EmilyBryan said...
Thanks, Julie! I'm glad you enjoyed the trailer. I had fun picking out the pics!
- March 28, 2009 at 10:03 PM
- Marie-Claude Bourque said...
Thank you everybody.
It is interesting to see what appeal to whom.
I do like action movies so the King trailer is perfect for me.
But I also like historical and I can see that a trailer made with hauting scottish pipes or soft chamber music would be as effective as well for those specific historical genre. I think it's in recognizing your audience that you will find the perfect trailer for your book :) - March 29, 2009 at 12:20 PM
- Autumn Jordon said...
Marie-Claude, Thank you for all the information. Keeping up with all the promotions is a full time job in itself. You've helped. I'm hoping you'll love my trailer once I post it.
Good luck on the American V contest. I know we'll see you in print soon.
2009 Golden Heart© Finalist
www.autumnjordon.com - March 29, 2009 at 4:11 PM
- Marie-Claude Bourque said...
Hi Autumn,
Make sure I see your trailer on FB!
Mega congrats on the GH. That is awesome :) - March 29, 2009 at 7:36 PM


text:
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This online course is available in 4, 8, 10, 12, 15, 16, 20, 24, 32 and (Court Ordered) 36 Hour court-ordered programs. Please contact your attorney or the court for approval prior to enrolling if you are required to take this course for a criminal charge. Not all courts or states allow online distance learning courses. Many courts may need 8 Hour or 12 Hour programs for first-time offenses and longer courses for repeat offenses. You may begin the course upon registering and continue at your own pace and schedule.
After you complete the course online you will be mailed a certificate of completion. You may also download and print your Certificate upon completion.


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So, let's start at the top. Across the top of the screen, I use ChocolateBar to display all my broker addons. Since FuBar is no longer the bar of choice as most plugins are using the broker display, it only made sense to switch. From left to right, we have:
- BuffEnough - explained later
- Cork - explained later
- Decursive - to be explained later
- Omen - explained later
- Broker_BlizzEquipmentSet - an easy way to switch between my 3 defined equipment sets - PvP, PvE, and Naked
- Broker_CPU Memory - your standard performance monitor
- Broker_repair - a standard repair status
- Broker_GemGuild - an easy way to see who is on in your guild
- Broker_GemFriends - the easy way to see which friends are on
- Broker_AltGuild - shows you who is on in a second guild of your choosing
- Broker_Money - how much money you and your alts have
- Broker_Portals - a one click stop for all portals, teleports, and other means of transportation (e.g. Dalaran ring, Argent Tourney Tabard, Hearthstone)
- Broker_Wintergrasper - shows you who holds Wintergrasp, how long until the next battle, and best of all, can be configured to announce to yourself, or more (I have it announcing to the guild) when Wintergrasp starts (I announce at 15 and 5 minutes until the next battle)
- HeadCount - I used to use this to track loot during our Gold Team 25 man runs, but I am no longer the loot master, but I still use it to track raids - a great tool
- Prat - your standard chat modifier - I have found that it also handles alt names as well which has been awesome
- Bartender4 - standard bar manager
- Ora2 - raid manager (tanks, cooldowns, ready checks)
- Grid - more on this later
- GatherMate - tracks gathering nodes on your map
- Chocolate Bar - your bar config
So now we can look at the left side of the screen. I keep it generally uncluttered. The less clutter on the screen, the better. Since our guild hasn't made the move to Ora3 yet, I'm still using Ora2 and it serves me well. I have my main tank frames and below that I can track cooldowns such as battle resses and other class-specific cooldowns. To the right of the cooldowns I have my Deadly Boss Mods timers. Towards the middle of the screen, you can see where they go when they are close to occurring, but we'll get to that later.
Over here on the right, we have a couple of important mods. First up is one I've been using for ages - Elkano's BuffBars. These buff bars are amazing and keep everything in an easy to see spot. I absolutely love them and have found nothing comparable. Next, there's this little box that shows my spellpower, cirt, haste and hit rating at that exact moment. This box is courtesy Mage Nuggets. Mage Nuggets has - as the name implies - many nuggets that are useful to a mage. I use this nugget and one other and have turned the rest off. It's pretty cool to be able to just glance over at any given point and see that my current SP, with all buffs from all raid members is 4,228. What's even more fun is watching my haste move up and down. Fully raid buffed, I'm sitting at about 41% haste. With Icy Veins, Pushing the Limit (2 piece T10 bonus), and Wrath of Air Totem, I'm at 99.98% - with Heroism, it's even better (I have another screenshot with heroism, but no Icy Veins which has me at 116.65% haste). And finally, we have Omen - it's THE threat meter to use. However, it seems like I only really need to use it in random heroics these days as the tanks in my guild rock.Now, to the guts of the UI - the middle of my screen where all relevant information pops up and which commands my focus 99% of the raid time. At the very top, middle is me. I have everything spread out around me - it makes it easy to keep my situational awareness up since my eyes never have to stray far from the middle of the screen. Around me, I use Power Auras to give me information that I need the exact moment I need it. The ( 10 ) that you see shows how long I have left on my Icy Veins. Below it, in yellow will pop up a similar counter that shows how much time I have left on my Heroism. These two numbers are extremely important because if you are having mana issues and need an Evocate, if you trigger it with 1 second to go on either Icy Veins or Heroism, it benefits from the haste buff for the full duration of the channel. This obviously reduces your cast time and generates mana in the fastest way possible. The skull-like looking thing directly under my feet is my Missile Barrage alert. It tells me that I have Missile Barrage, and I need to use it ASAP. With 2 piece T10 giving that awesome haste bonus when a Missile Barrage is used, the current theorycrafting advises you use your Arcane Missiles with 2, 3, or 4 stacks of Arcane Blast - in essence, just use it as soon as you can to activate the hast bonus which will haste your missiles and two arcane blasts after the missiles.
Continuing down, we have Scorchio 2 to track my Arcane Blast stacks and other good information. It's always helpful to know exactly when your mirror images will fall off so you can start casting an Invisibility if you are above the tank's threat for some reason. Off to the left, I have my Grid setup so I can at a glance quickly determine who is still alive in the raid or who really needs some healing. It's always fun on a decimate to see everyone drop to no HP and then watch as some die while others are healed up. It's not necessary to really use this, but I just like to monitor the raid when I have time. And, if I can see 90% of the raid is dead, I can pop Invis and maybe stay alive rather than wipe. Directly to the right of that is a little green box. It seems to blend into Decursive, but it's not that...it's BuffEnough. It turns green when you have all the buffs you need. Missing a well fed buff? It'll be red. No flask? Red. No Kings? Red. It's great and helps me if I've forgotten something during the buffing. So next to that, I've got Decursive. Just a quick click here and there to decurse when needed or to sheep that mind controlled target and I'm set. It's a great addon and one a mage might not think to have, but it just makes decursing so easy, there's no reason not to have it.
And now that green bar with all the cooldowns in the middle of it - what this is is a couple of things layered on top of each other. Underneath the green bar, we have a simple Bartender4 bar. This has all my most frequently used items. From left to right, we have: Evocation, Mana Gem, Escape Artist, Talisman of Resurgence, Icy Veins, Presence of Mind + Arcane Blast, Mirror Images, Arcane Power, and then the all-in-one button. The far right button is my macro that activates everything but POM+AB (since you can't use it at the same time as Arcane Power). So with just one click I can activate them all, or if two are off cooldown, I can activate those with one click. It allows me selective use of my cooldown abilities or use of them all at the same time. It's great. Overlaid on top of that is my Quartz cast bar. So as I'm casting, the cast bar shows up there, and I can easily see right under my cast bar which abilities are ready to be used. Why spread these items out when you can stack them and save room? The Quartz cast bar is amazing since it allows me to get a good idea of how my latency is affecting my cast timing which allows me to queue casts in a timely manner.
Lastly, at the bottom, we have your standard Pitbull unit frames. I have mine, the target's target, and my target as the ones that are shown all the time. Using my sheep focus macro, I'll have the focus target show up to the left of my target with my focus' target above the focus bar. To the right, my pet (if I'm controlling a pet or machine) shows up with my pet/machine's target above that. It all works out quite nicely.
Along the bottom, it's pretty standard - from left to right I have - my chat windows (all nicely formatted by Prat), my map (the awesome SexyMap), more Bartender buttons, a large blank space (which actually has more buttons that only show up on hover), and finally, Recount damage meters. Just used for my own personal tracking - because I hate nothing more than someone showing off because they just AOE'd the best on a trash pull - read here for a wonderful article on Why I Hate DPS Meters.
So that's pretty much it - however, there's some things missing. Right above my chat box, if I have to buff someone, Cork will alert me to that. It tells me to give Dalaran Intellect to someone (maybe just one person died on the fight), reminds me if my Molten Armor, and (though it doesn't work perfectly), reminds me to put Focus Magic on another mage.. It's a great little addon. I also use the Mage Nugget that pops up only when the target has a spell I can steal. It's lead to some great discoveries - like in Halls of Stone, a nice buff you can steal called Arcane Haste. I use it mostly for the Deathwhisper encounter, but it's fun to see what other spells are out there to steal. Other addons I use but which don't show up on the screen:
- _NPCScan - alerts me when a rare mob is found
- Ackis Recipe List - helps the compulsive collector side of me figure out which recipes I still need to obtain
- Align - helps me get my screen all lined up perfectly
- Auctioneer - if you don't know what it is, I can't help you...
- Mapster - a great replacement for Cartographer which stopped working
- Gather Mate - used with Mapster to track gathered nodes
- Map Notes - as it sounds - notes for the map to be used with Mapster (or any other map addon)
- Gymnast Tooltips - allows me to move the tooltip to the exact position I want it (lower-right just above Recount)
- MonkeyQuest - the best way to track your quests (hidden in the upper-left corner while raiding)
- OneBag and OneBank - all your bags and bank slots in one frame
- Overachiever - THE way to easily browse achievements
- Sunn Viewport Art - gives me the cool artwork around my top and bottom viewports
- XLoot - the best way to track loot when used with XLootGroup, XLootMaster, and XLootMonitor. I love it.


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For the best construction project management consultancy company, call EK Consultants.
Despite being the first room that most homeowners see when they enter their houses, the garage is probably the most ignored and least talked-about room when it comes to home improvement.
Opening The Door To A Beautiful Garage
To find the best construction project management consultancy company, click here for EK Consultants.
Despite being the first room that most homeowners see when they enter their houses, the garage is probably the most ignored and least talked-about room when it comes to home improvement.
The typical bland and stained concrete garage floor suffers from years of heavy foot and car traffic. Fortunately, there are ways to make even the most beat-up garages look great-and homeowners can do it themselves. Professional concrete epoxy coatings can revitalize a garage floor, make garage cleanup easier and help prevent the need for future costly floor repairs. Here's how to restore your floor.
Tools Of The Trade
To restore your garage floor, homeowners will need Quikrete Epoxy Garage Floor Coating Kit (including instructional DVD). This all-in-one, easy-to-use kit beautifies and protects concrete garage floors from hot tires, gasoline, oil, scuffs and wear and tear with a coating twice as strong as concrete. You'll also need a flat, stiff bristle brush, plastic watering can, garden hose, push broom, a 3/8-inch roller with extension handle, roller tray and a 2-inch, solvent-resistant brush.
What To Do
• Careful preparation of the garage floor is essential for positive end results. Using a push broom, sweep entire area to remove all dust and debris.
• Wet concrete surface, add Bond-Lok concentrate to 3 quarts of water in watering can to degrease, clean and etch in one step.
• Working in sections, sweep watering can back and forth while pouring to ensure proper coverage. Use bristle brush to thoroughly scrub stains and spread cleaner.
• Once each section is cleaned, rinse away dirt with a garden hose. Repeat process until entire surface has been cleaned, following with a final hose down of the garage.
• Wait until concrete is completely dry (at least 4 hours) before epoxy application.
• Combine Part A of product with Part B and allow epoxy to sit for 30 minutes before use.
• Starting at the back of the garage, spread epoxy coating in smooth, even strokes across a 2-by-6-foot area.
• If using color flakes, they must be applied to wet paint. After covering each 2-by-6-foot section with the epoxy coating, lightly sprinkle flakes onto concrete.
• Continue process, working in sections, until entire garage surface is covered.
• Allow epoxy to harden for 12 to 24 hours before light foot traffic and 72 hours for automobile traffic.


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By Christine Padoch
Programme Director, Forests and Livelihoods Programme
With global demand for commodities like palm oil, soy and beef rapidly increasing, and the supply of usable lands dwindling, can forests survive? Can the planet's growing billions be better fed, clothed and housed without destroying tropical forests? A new article by scientists from several US and Brazilian institutions suggests that promoting more efficient agricultural land use while also enforcing anti-deforestation measures may have achieved just that in what was once the tropics' most notorious area of forest loss: the infamous "Arc of Deforestation" at the southern edges of Brazil's Amazonia.
Focusing their study on recent trends in soy production and changes in forest cover in the state of Mato Grosso, Marcia Macedo and her collaborators show that the seemingly inevitable link between agricultural growth and forest loss can be broken, and the goals of forest conservation and more food, fibre, and fuel can be simultaneously realised.
The authors focused their research on Mato Grosso during 2006–2010, when the frontier state saw its notoriously high rate of deforestation fall to only 30% of what it had been over the previous decade. In the same five-year period, agricultural production in Mato Grosso reached unprecedented highs.
Macedo and her collaborators used a combination of remotely sensed data and statistical information on changes in land cover and agricultural production gathered by the Brazilian government. They found that while 78% of increases in soybean production in 2006–2010 were due to agricultural expansion into new areas (Mato Grosso leads all Brazilian states in soy production), a full 91% of that expansion occurred on lands that had been previously cleared, often for cattle pastures. The expansion did not require the cutting of forests. Another 22% of the increase in soybean production was due to higher yield per area.
The authors do point out that the decline in forest clearing "coincided with a collapse of commodity markets", but that same period also saw policies implemented to reduce deforestation. This last change suggests that it was not only the financial crisis that spurred a downturn in deforestation. Indeed, profitability in Mato Grosso's soybean sector later came back to pre-2006 levels, but deforestation continued to decline, indicating that "anti-deforestation measures may have influenced the agricultural sector". These data are very promising indeed, but they also lead to several important questions that the authors attempt to address.
One such concern is "leakage", or the possibility that the deforestation avoided in Mato Grosso may merely have moved elsewhere. Macedo et al. found little evidence of "direct leakage of soy expansion" into nearby highly threatened cerrado regions of Mato Grosso, and during that time deforestation rates in several neighbouring forest-rich states in the Brazilian Amazon also fell. But the authors do caution that it is not possible to discount the possibility that there was undetected "indirect land-use changes and leakage to more distant regions".
The other question is, of course, can expansion of agriculture with no added deforestation last in Mato Grosso and beyond? According to the authors, some recent changes suggest that it may. The Brazilian government has invested heavily in monitoring and enforcing anti-deforestation measures, and both the government and some industry groups have "created powerful disincentives for expansion into forest lands". But maintaining reductions in deforestation amid Brazil's booming agricultural economy, the authors warn, will continue to require new policy incentives that promote efficient use of degraded lands, especially as infrastructure development makes the region's remaining forested lands more accessible and new technologies make their potential use more profitable.
The authors' cautions are timely. More recent reports from the region indicate that an upswing in deforestation rates may already be underway, and the effects of a proposed controversial forest code in Brazil remain uncertain. It is difficult to predict what new pressures the next major economic upsurge and boom in commodity prices may bring to bear on the remaining forestlands of the tropics.
It is clear, however, that societies and governments will need to carefully consider appropriate, context-specific, and multi-faceted strategies and policy incentives if they hope to balance economic pressures with the need to preserve forests and their multiple services. In this article Macedo et al. succeed in showing that, in at least one place, the balance can be achieved (at least for a while).
We want you to share Forests News content, which is licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0). This means you are free to redistribute our material for non-commercial purposes. All we ask is that you give Forests News appropriate credit and link to the original Forests News content, indicate if changes were made, and distribute your contributions under the same Creative Commons license. You must notify Forests News if you repost, reprint or reuse our materials by contacting firstname.lastname@example.com.
Further reading
Macedo, M.N., DeFries, R.S., Morton, D.C., Stickler, C.M., Galford, G.L. and Shimabukuro, Y.E. 2012 Decoupling of deforestation and soy production in the southern Amazon during the late 2000s. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), doi: 10.1073/pnas.1111374109


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How Can We Teach Our Children To Worship?
The only way children learn to worship God rightly is by observing right worship.
Could it be that worship is such a mess today because previous generations did not expect their children to worship with their parents?
I plan to consider this topic more in the coming days.
About Scott Aniol
Scott Aniol is the founder and Executive Director of Religious Affections Ministries. He is director of doctoral worship studies at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, where he teaches courses in ministry, worship, hymnology, aesthetics, culture, and philosophy. He is the author of Worship in Song: A Biblical Approach to Music and Worship, Sound Worship: A Guide to Making Musical Choices in a Noisy World, and By the Waters of Babylon: Worship in a Post-Christian Culture, and speaks around the country in churches and conferences. He is an elder in his church in Fort Worth, TX where he resides with his wife and four children. Views posted here are his own and not necessarily those of his employer.


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Horse in Bandana Earrings
Horse in Bandana Earrings
Regular price
Regular price
Sale price
Unit price
Hand-painted, laser-cut horse in bandana wooden stud earrings.
Approximate Earring Length: 1.5 Inches
These earrings are beautiful, lightweight, and make perfect gifts. They are the perfect accent to any outfit for any occasion. Made from laser cut natural wood and the findings are nickel and lead free, perfect for sensitive ears.
There may be slight variations between patterns, colors, and sets from what is pictured.
This product is handmade in South Dakota.
Jewelry should be removed when playing sports, sleeping, showering, swimming, etc. Not intended for children under the age of 6 years old.
Please contact me with any questions you have!


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Departing boss still demands 100% from players, despite uphill battle against Borussia Dortmund.
Jose Mourinho has called on his side to be more ruthless when they face Borussia Dortmund in the second-leg of their Champions League semi-final on Tuesday night.
Madrid need an incredible comeback after four goals from Robert Lewandowski helped the Germans romp to a 4-1 victory in the first-leg last week and Mourinho believes his side have to perform with the type of aggression they did in the 2-1 win over Atletico Madrid on Saturday.
"The team was naive. We played against a player that scored four goals and wasn't fouled in the whole game, whilst Cristiano (Ronaldo) was fouled five times and the game had barely begun. It was like we were playing a friendly.
"Mentally and physically we need to be stronger. At the Calderon on Saturday I saw a team that knew how to suffer and defend. A team that was compact, united, aggressive and worked towards an objective."
However, Mourinho insisted that the outcome of the second-leg would not have an effect on his future at the club.
"My future won't depend on that. At practically all clubs, not just Madrid, the success is thanks to the players and the failure is that of the manager.
"We have 90 minutes to play and we are 4-1 down. What I am concerned with is analysing what happened in Dortmund and what we have to do tomorrow (Tuesday).
"The game in Dortmund was so bad that I am not concerned about them, I am concerned about what we have to do better. No player is hiding, we are all in the same boat and all of them want to play, which gives me confidence and hope for the game. In football everything is possible."
Mourinho confirmed that Ronaldo trained on Monday morning and will play despite continuing to feel the aftereffects of a thigh injury picked up in the first-leg last Wednesday.
Alvaro Arbeloa and Marcelo remain Real's only two absentees through injury, but the return of Michael Essien means that he could line up at right-back with Sergio Ramos moving into central defence after the torrid time Lewandowski gave Pepe last week.
And Ramos said he will play in whatever position is best for the side, although he feels more comfortable at centre-back.
"In the past few years I have played as a centre-back, it gives me more control of the game. Due to the circumstances I had to play at full-back and it wasn't a problem.
"I have won the European Championships and the World Cup playing there. The manager will look at what is best for the team to decide where I should play."
Ramos had criticised Madrid's attitude in the wake of the match last week and he echoed Mourinho's sentiments that they need to be more aggressive on home soil.
"The other day when I spoke of attitude I meant our intensity, aggression and rhythm of our game wasn't as it should have been. If we have greater intensity and rhythm it will be less of a problem but it is still a very negative result to overturn and will be very difficult.
"We can't take away the credit from Dortmund, they played a great game and deserved to win but the other day we didn't win personal duels that we normally do."


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PowerISO 6.5 Retail
PowerISO 6.5 Retail Multilingual (x86/x64) + Portable
Create, edit, extract, convert, compress, encrypt, mount CD image file!!! PowerISO is a powerful image processing and file compression tool, which allows you to create, extract, compress, edit and convert ISO/BIN image files, and mount these files with internal virtual drive. And most of all, the compressed files can be used directly without decompressing.
• Support ISO, BIN, NRG, IMG, DAA, …
• Open, Create, Edit, Extract ISO File…
• Compress, Encrypt, Split ISO File…
• Integrated with internal Virtual Drive…
Main Features:
• Support almost all CD/DVD-ROM image file formats (ISO, BIN, NRG, IMG, DAA and so on).
Note: DAA (Direct-Access-Archive) is an advanced format for image file, which supports some advanced features, such as compression, password protection, and splitting to multiple volumes. It can be handled directly just like other formats, such as ISO, BIN, …
• Supports on-the-fly burning.
• Supports UDF image file.
• Create image file from hard disk files or CD/DVD-ROM.
• Edit an existing image file.
• Can edit and burn Audio CD image file.
• Extract files and folders from image file.
• Convert image files between ISO/BIN and other formats.
• Make bootable image file, get boot information from bootable image file.
• Make floppy disk image file.
• Optimize files to save disk space while saving image files.
• Mount image file with internal virtual drive. Even if the image file is saved as DAA format, the virtual drive can handle that format directly.
• Support shell integration, such as context menu, Drag and Drop, clipboard…
• Supports command-line parameters.
• Can open XBOX image file.
• Supports multiple languages
Supported operating systems:
• 32-bit Windows: Windows 98, Windows Me, Windows 2000, Windows XP, Windows 2003, Windows Vista, Windows 2008, Windows 7
• 64-bit Windows: Windows XP, Windows 2003, Windows Vista, Windows 2008, Windows 7
Supported languages: English, Arabic, Bulgarian, Chinese Simplified, Chinese Traditional, Croatian, Czech, Danish, Dutch, Farsi, French, German, Greek, Hungarian, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Lithuanian, Norsk, Polish, Portuguese, Russian, Slovenian, Spanish, Swedish, Thai, Turkish, Ukrainian
What's new ?
PowerISO 6.5 (Feb 17, 2016)
+) Support rock-ridge extension.
+) Can create bootable USB drive for linux.
+) Can read CDDB information from freedb.org.
*) Improve dmg and wim file support.
*) Some minor bug fixes and enhancements.


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It's the first Sunday of 2015–no better time to announce my news for this blog!
New Project
I have been working on a novel for the last five years, and I have less than 25% of the plot left to write. Thus, I want it to be ideally finished, edited, and published by the end of 2015. But in order to focus on my novel, I need to limit how many writing-related tasks I have otherwise.
Currently, Crooked Glasses has over 1,000 posts, so I'm comfortable in saying that it has enough content for now. I may putter around and fix up a few articles here and there as I have time, but there won't be daily updates for a while.
New Horizons
Crooked Glasses WILL be receiving a much-needed visual facelift in the coming year, since I have finally learned Bootstrap and can make this site much more mobile- and search-friendly. I'll also adjust some WordPress settings, add a page for all my article series (because there are quite a few!), and research ways to make my general archives MUCH easier to search. (HALLELUJAH, right??? LOL!)
Will I Ever Come Back to Daily Blogging?
Though I am not writing any more blog content for now, I hope to come back to this someday, either to simply revise and tidy up, or to add all-new content. For now, though, I'm focusing my efforts on my creative writing and my webdesign/web development, so that I can continue to improve in those areas.
Check Back for the New Site Look!
I'm excited about the new site look and setup, and I hope it will showcase my written works much better. Keep an eye on this space and see what I come up with next!