text:
(For more resources related to this topic, see here.)
For constructing visualizations, technology matters
The importance of being able to rationalize options has been a central theme of this book. As we reach the final stage of this journey and we are faced with the challenge of building our visualization solution, the keyword is, once again, choice.
The intention of this book has been to focus on offering a handy strategy to help you work through the many design issues and decisions you're faced with.
Up to now discussions about issues relating to technology and technical capability have been kept to a minimum in order to elevate the importance of the preparatory and conceptual stages. You have to work through these challenges regardless of what tools or skills you have.
However, it is fair to say that to truly master data visualization design, it is inevitable that you will need to achieve technical literacy across a number of different applications and environments.
All advanced designers need to be able to rely on a symphony of different tools and capabilities for gathering data, handling, and analyzing it before presenting, and launching the visual design. While we may have great concepts and impressively creative ideas, without the means to convert these into built solutions they will ultimately remain unrealized. The following example, tracking 61 years of tornado activity in the US, demonstrates a project that would have involved a great amount of different analytical and design-based technical skills and would not have been possible without these:
Image from "Tornado tracks"(http://uxblog.idvsolutions.com/2012/05/tornado-tracks.html), created by John Nelson/IDV Solutions.
In contrast to most of the steps that we have covered this far, the choices we make when it comes to producing the final data visualization design are more heavily influenced by capability and access to resources than necessarily the suitability of a given tool. This is something we covered earlier when identifying the key factors that shape what may or may not be possible to achieve.
To many, the technology side of data visualization can be quite an overwhelming prospect—trying to harness and master the many different options available, knowing each one's relative strengths and weaknesses, identifying specific function and purpose, keeping on top of the latest developments and trends, and so on.
Acquiring a broad technical skillset is clearly not easily accomplished. In order to accommodate the absence of technical skills, in particular, you may need to find a way to collaborate with others or possibly scale down the level of your ambition.
Visualization software, applications, and programs
The scope of this book does not lend itself to provide a detailed dissection and evaluation of the many different possible tools and resources available for data visualization design. There are so many to choose from and it is a constantly evolving landscape—it feels like each new month sees an additional resource entering the fray. To help, you can find an up-to-date, curated list of the many technology options in this field by visiting http://www.visualisingdata.com/ index.php/resources/.
Unlike other design disciplines, there is no single killer tool that does everything. To accommodate the agility of different technical solutions required in this field we have to be prepared to develop a portfolio of capabilities.
What follows is a selection of just some of the most common, most useful, and most accessible options for you to consider utilizing and developing experience with. The tools presented have been classified to help you understand their primary purpose or function.
Charting and statistical analysis tools
This category covers some of the main charting productivity tools and the more effective visual analytics or Business Intelligence (BI) applications that offer powerful visualization capabilities.
Microsoft Excel (http://office.microsoft.com/en-gb/excel/) is ubiquitous and has been a staple diet for many of us number crunchers for most of our working lives. Within the data visualization world, Excel's charting capabilities are somewhat derided largely down to the terrible default settings and the range of bad-practice charting functions it enables. (3D cone charts, anyone? No, thank you.)
However, Excel does allow you to do much more than you would expect and, when fully exploited, it can prove to be quite a valuable ally. With experience and know-how, you can control and refine many chart properties and you will find that most of your basic charting requirements are met, certainly those that you might associate more with a pragmatic or analytical tone.
Sample screenshot of Excel's charting capabilities
Excel can also be used to serve up chart images for exporting to other applications (such as Illustrator, see later). Search online for the work of Jorge Camoes ( http://www.excelcharts.com/blog/), Jon Peltier (http://peltiertech.com/), and Chandoo (http://chandoo.org/) and you'll find some excellent visualization examples produced in Excel.
Tableau (http://www.tableausoftware.com/) is a very powerful and rapid visual analytics application that allows you to potentially connect up millions of records from a range of origins and formats. From there you can quickly construct good practice charts and dashboards to visually explore and present your data. It is available as a licensed desktop or server version as well as a free-to-use public version.
Tableau is particularly valuable when it comes to the important stage of data familiarization. When you want to quickly discover the properties, the shapes and quality of your data, Tableau is a great solution. It also enables you to create embeddable interactive visualizations and, like Excel, lets you export charts as images for use in other applications.
Sample screenshot of Tableau's charting capabilities
There are many excellent Tableau practitioners out there whose work you should check out, such as Craig Bloodworth (http://www.theinformationlab.co.uk/ blog/), Jérôme Cukier (http://www.jeromecukier.net/), and Ben Jones (http://dataremixed.com/), among many others.
While the overall landscape of BI is patchy in terms of its visualization quality, you will find some good additional solutions such as QlikView (http://www.qlikview.com/uk), TIBCO Spotfire (http://spotfire.tibco.com/), Grapheur (http://grapheur.com/), and Panopticon (http://www.panopticon.com/).
You will also find that there are many chart production tools available online. Google has created a number of different ways to create visualizations through its Chart Tools (https://developers.google.com/chart/) and Visualization API (https://developers.google.com/chart/interactive/docs/reference) environments. While you can exploit these tools without the need for programming skills, the API platforms do enable developers to enhance the functional and design options themselves.
Additionally, Google Fusion Tables (http://www.google.com/drive/start/ apps.html) offers a convenient method for publishing simple choropleth maps, timelines, and a variety of reasonably interactive charts.
Sample screenshot of Google Fusion Table's charting capabilities
Other notable browser-based tools for analyzing data and creating embeddable or exportable data visualizations include DataWrapper (http://datawrapper.de/) and Polychart (http://polychart.com/).
One of the first online offerings was Many Eyes, created by the IBM Visual Communications Lab in 2007, though ongoing support and development has lapsed. Many Eyes introduced many to Wordle (http://www.wordle.net/) a popular tool for visualizing the frequency of words used in text via "word clouds". Note, however, the novelty of this type of display has long since worn off for many people (especially please stop using it as your final PowerPoint slide in presentations!).
Programming environments
The ultimate capability in visualization design is to have complete control over the characteristics and behavior of every mark, property, and user-driven event on a chart or graph. The only way to fundamentally achieve this level of creative control is through the command of one or a range of programming languages.
Until recent times one of the most important and popular options was Adobe Flash (http://www.adobe.com/uk/products/flash.html), a powerful and creative environment for animated and multimedia designs. Flash was behind many prominent interactive visualization designs in the field. However, Apple's decision to not support Flash on its mobile platforms effectively signaled the beginning of the end. Subsequently, most contemporary visualization programmers are focusing their developments on a range of powerful JavaScript environments and libraries.
D3.js (http://d3js.org/) is the newest and coolest kid in town. Launched in 2011 from the Stanford Visualization Group that previously brought us Protovis (no longer in active development) this is a JavaScript library that has rapidly evolved into to the major player in interactive visualization terms.
D3 enables you to take full creative control over your entire visualization design (all data representation and presentation features) to create incredibly smooth, expressive, and immersive interactive visualizations. Mike Bostock, the key creative force behind D3 and who now works at the New York Times, has an incredible portfolio of examples (http://bost.ocks.org/mike/) and you should also take a look at the work and tutorials provided by another D3 "hero", Scott Murray (http://alignedleft.com/).
Sample screenshot of D3.js development environment
D3 and Flash are particularly popular (or have been popular, in the latter's case) because they are suitable for creating interactive projects to work in the browser.
Over the past decade, Processing (http://processing.org/) has reigned as one of the most important solutions for creating powerful, generative, and animated visualizations that sit outside the browser, either as video, a separate application, or an installation. As an open source language it has built a huge following of creative programmers, designers, and artists look to optimize the potential of data representation and expression. There is a large and dynamic community of experts, authors, and tutorial writers that provide wonderful resources for anyone interested in picking up capabilities in this environment.
There are countless additional JavaScript libraries and plugins that offer specialist capability, such as Paper.js (http://paperjs.org/) and Raphaël (http:// raphaeljs.com/), to really maximize your programming opportunities.
Moving briefly away from interactive programming environments we turn to R (http://www.r-project.org/), a highly extensible, open source language for statistical analysis and graphical techniques. R has developed into a powerful and versatile method for creating static charts and graphics that transcend the creative limitations of software packages such as Excel. There is a large active online community, which can really help with the challenge of going through the learning process. To demonstrate R's worth, the New York Times use this extensively in their data sketching and static graphic workflows. Check out Mondrian (http://rosuda.org/mondrian/) and Wolfram Mathematica (http://www.wolfram.com/ mathematica/) for other powerful, statistical graphing capabilities.
Quadrigram (http://www.quadrigram.com/) is an innovative visual programming environment designed to enable anyone working with data to create powerful, flexible, and custom visualizations. It is intended to be accessible for people with limited technical and programming experience.
In support of open interactive journalism, the Miso project (http://misoproject.com/) developed by the Guardian and Bocoup, is a fairly recent arrival. It provides open source tools for developers and non-developers alike to facilitate the quick creation of impressive, extensible interactive data visualizations. There also exists an option for developers to get under the hood and extend and expand the computational methods.
Other notable programming tools to mention include Nodebox (http://nodebox.net/), which is a Python-based tool for creating generative, static, animated, or interactive visualizations, and KendoUI (http://www.kendoui.com/) for building interactive HTML5-based data visualizations for both web and mobile applications.
Finally, in recent times, we have witnessed the rise of WebGL (http://www. chromeexperiments.com/webgl/), a new web technology for rendering interactive two-and three-dimensional graphics. The utilization of this standard has so far seen more experimentation than particularly solid visualization work, but it certainly offers new capabilities for pushing the creative boundaries of data representation.
Tools for mapping
The great opportunity that exists these days for plotting geo-spatial data onto maps is matched by the range of tools available to accomplish it.
Powerful options come in different shapes and forms through Arc GIS (http://www.esri.com/software/arcgis), Indiemapper (http://indiemapper.com/), Instant Atlas (http://communities.instantatlas.com/), Geocommons (http://geocommons.com/), and CartoDB (http://cartodb.com/). Across these options you will find the ability to create, rich interactive visualizations of geo-spatial data and full-on mapping applications, typically offering flexible licensing and pricing plans from free/trial through to premium levels depending on your needs.
Sample screenshot of Instant Atlas mapping capabilities
For those designers with developer skills wishing to have greater creative control and freedom over their mapping solutions, there are a number of open source mapping frameworks and libraries such as Polymaps (http://polymaps.org/), Kartograph (http://kartograph.org/), Leaflet (http://leafletjs.com/), and OpenStreetMap (http://www.openstreetmap.org/).
Additionally, TileMill (http://mapbox.com/tilemill/) offers an extremely versatile and accessible application for making elegant data-driven maps whether you are a beginner designer or more-established cartographer.
Other specialist tools
Not all visualizations are interactive, of course, and some of the finest visualization works we see are static pieces. Infographics in particular are typically manually crafted designs, comprising a blend of different visual design elements (such as charts, illustrations, and diagrams). As we have already mentioned, often the chart elements we use for our static work originate from tools such as Excel, Tableau, or R with images imported to help construct a final work.
The vast majority of statics are produced using Adobe Illustrator ( http:// www.adobe.com/uk/products/illustrator.html ), the long-established and all-powerful creative package that has been the graphic and illustration tool for many years. There is now an open source alternative called Inkscape ( http://inkscape.org/) ,which offers an impressive array of features that offer a viable alternative for many peoples' needs.
For many people (perhaps those with limited access to varied resources) PowerPoint (http://office.microsoft.com/en-gb/powerpoint/) or Keynote (http://www.apple.com/uk/iwork/keynote/) provide a perfectly adequate platform for their data presentation needs. Another Adobe package, InDesign (http://www.adobe.com/uk/products/indesign.html) provides a further means for creating and publishing final static works.
Elsewhere, for network visualizations, exploratory graphs, and analysis of complex systems check out KeyLines (http://key-lines.com/) and Gephi (https:// gephi.org/).
If you're looking to create advanced motion graphics, modeling, simulation, and visual effects then Maya 3D (http://usa.autodesk.com/maya/) and Adobe After Effects (http://www.adobe.com/uk/products/aftereffects.html) are incredibly powerful, industry standard production platforms.
Finally, to showcase your static work, once you've created your final designs and want to publish and share image files, sites such as closr.it (http://www.closr.it/) or zoom.it (http://zoom.it/) enable navigable, zoom-able windows to host large, detailed images.
The construction process
So, you've selected the tools you'll need to build your design and you are now well in to the execution stage. We're not far from the finishing line but it's not yet time for you to lower your guard, lose your focus, or cease your momentum.
You see, this is the part of the design process where stresses and strains emerge—the ill-timed bugs, dataset problems, functional failures, unwanted interference. During this stage it is important that you keep your cool and see your tasks through as efficiently as possible.
As you work through the construction process, it is important to focus on getting the functional elements of your solution working first before spending too much time achieving your desired aesthetic or incorporating technical flair. It is always very tempting to spend too much time, too soon on things that shouldn't really be given such priority. Just remind yourself that there is no point running out of time trying to make something look good when it doesn't yet function. Remember, it will be easier to make something that is functional, beautiful, than it is to make something beautiful, functional.
As we mentioned earlier in the book, you will rarely create a worthy project without the need for iteration. While we have to present the sequences of the methodology in this book in linear fashion, there is always going to be movement forward and backwards between stages. This is something that should be accepted but also embraced—it is part and parcel of any creative process. While a methodological approach to this challenge gives you structure and a neat framework of concerns to work through, iteration gives you the creative breathing room to allow different ideas to blossom and influences to take hold. It is something that you should be prepared to do and plan for.
You clearly want to avoid long iterative cycles but smaller ones can really help you explore, clarify, and refine your potential solutions. It may be that you end up following two or three parallel options to quite an advanced stage and then see which emerges as the strongest. Indeed, some clients will state a need for evidence of alternatives before committing themselves. For these client-based projects, you need to maintain open dialog throughout to avoid any inconsistency in interpretation from either party. Do your absolute best to eradicate the possibility of last minute surprises about a solution not matching requirements or expectations. That is a sting in the tail nobody wants!
As you work through your construction stages, in particular, there will be points when you recognize a need to make certain sacrifices. There may be things you intend to include but can't justify them. Trade-offs are a constant necessity caused by time or resource constraints.
Some of the things we find hardest to drop are the most irrational. We often find ourselves in a sense of denial. This may come from a desire to include features that you have slaved over or become overly precious about.
We saw an example of this in the discussion about color in article 4, Conceiving and Reasoning Visualization Design Options. Here we saw an initially conceived title format for an Olympics project that was formed out of thumbnail images of all the historical event posters; this image is shown here:
When it came to incorporating this title into the final piece, it was clear that it drew too much attention away from the rest of the visualization. Despite this being obvious, because of the time and energy spent on making this title image, it was hard to relinquish. Thankfully, a sensible voice determined that we should drop it and find a simpler solution. Simple advice? Take the hit and just get over it!
Image from "Pursuit of Faster" (http://www.visualisingdata.com/index.php/2012/07/newvisualization- design-project-the-pursuit-of-faster/), by Andy Kirk and Andrew Witherley
As we approach the maturing stages of our development work, this idea of getting input from others becomes more important. It can be quite a tough moment to convince yourself that something is ready to be judged (in a prelaunch setting) but it is invaluable to test out people's responses to what you are creating.
You want people who are informed about the context of the work and also about the challenges involved in creating a visualization. You also need to trust them to give you constructive and reasonable feedback, otherwise it may prove a wasted effort.
You should be seeking feedback on a number of dimensions of your design in order to determine if the intention of your solution is consistent with the audience experience:
What is their instinctive reaction? Positive, negative, intrigue, confusion, or just a plain "so what?"
Can they understand how to read the graphic or use the tool? Does it have clear explanations and intuitive design in terms of visual hierarchy and structural arrangement?
Can they derive insight from it? Maybe throw them some test questions to assess the visualization's ability to effectively inform.
Does it work functionally? Can they find any errors, mistakes, programmatic errors, or any other design flaw that undermines the clarity, accuracy, or performance of the solution?
There are plenty of evaluation methodologies and techniques, probably much more sophisticated than this, but these are just some of the most useful prompts for you to gather feedback against before finalizing your work.
Approaching the finishing line
Here is a quote from Antoine de Saint-Exupery:
"You know you've achieved perfection in design, not when you have nothing more to add, but when you have nothing more to take away."
The finishing line is now getting ever closer. However, apart from those projects where there is a clear finite deadline to work to, the judgment of when a design is actually finished is not necessarily always obviously recognizable. A deadline provides this finality, but open-ended projects need their own completion point to be determined. It is natural to keep tweaking, refining, and enhancing your piece but eventually you need to call out something as being completed.
A useful signpost to note your progress was proposed by designer Martin Wattenberg (co-developer on the "Wind Map" project that we saw earlier). Martin describes the subtle but telling change in your role as you shift from debugging a design (programmatically or figuratively) to finding yourself becoming an enthusiastic user, engaging with your own work to unearth insights.
As the quote at the start of this section expresses, another viewpoint is to step back and away from your design and challenge everything that you have included. Justify to yourself (and/or to others) the reason why features or design choices need to stay, but also determine what elements you can eliminate, those that don't add any communicative or functional value. It's not necessarily about striving for minimalism; rather the most elegant and clear form.
As well as challenging all our design choices we also need to switch mindsets more towards the Project Manager or Administrator's perspective and undertake some important checks. Sometimes, when you're close to finishing you would prefer to stick your head in the oven than seek issues that need addressing, but you've got to continue to strive for optimal accuracy and intercept any potential mistakes.
Simple errors can completely undermine quality—an extra zero in a value, the mislabeling of a country, an emboldened font when it wasn't wanted, and so on. It might be the smallest and most innocent of mistakes, but that can be enough to tarnish the rest of your work with doubt in the eyes of your audience.
Try to see this as the final push. Paying attention to the finer details of your work will safeguard the project's integrity (and by extension your own, as the designer). Hopefully, much of the user-testing and evaluation work outlined just before will help in the identification of any problems in accuracy. People with a freshness of perspective can often provide great value on this front.
Whether it is them or you looking for these characteristics, here are a few things you need to watch out for:
Data and statistical accuracy: Scan through a good-sized sample of all your visualized data values to ensure there aren't any erroneous items or incorrect outliers. Check the rigor of all your statistics and calculations.
Visualization accuracy: Make sure that the way you have represented your data is functioning effectively and does not mislead the user or reader. Do all your representation choices accurately portray the data values they're associated with?
Functional accuracy: More concerned with interactive pieces—do all the functions and features on your design perform as you intended?
Visual inference: As we stated before, visual inference should equal data inference. If it looks like data, it should be data. If something looks significant, maybe through its positioning or color choice, then it should be significant. If there is any decorative element or other artifact that appears to be implying something it is not meant to, remove it.
Formatting accuracy: Check the consistency of your typography, in terms of type, style, and size. Make sure your color usage is consistent down to the RGB or CMYK code level.
Annotation accuracy: Read through all your titles, labels, introductory text, credits, captions, and check any units that you have included. It's not just about spelling or grammatical errors but checking to see if things make sense and are succinctly expressed.
Post-launch evaluation
The exciting and also probably anxious moment has arrived and your visualization has now been launched in to the wild!
How, where, and what this launch actually looks like clearly covers a very broad range of possibilities—it might be a chart in a report, a presentation to a board meeting, an infographic in a newspaper, or an interactive web-based project.
Regardless of how this piece exists, in an ideal world you would now seek to assess the visualization's effectiveness and impact in a post-launch setting. I say in an ideal world because sometimes you simply don't have sufficient capacity or resources to allocate to the post-launch evaluation.
However, you should still care to seek an assessment of how well your project has served its purpose. Has the reaction and consequence of the work been consistent with its intent and reason for being created, as we determined earlier in the process? It is important to recall the following terms of reference because they frame the type of feedback we seek:
Was there a positive reaction to the piece we created?
Did it deliver the appropriate tone of voice?
Did it reach the intended audience type and volume?
Were users able to effectively consume or discover insights?
Where we had a set idea of the intended consequences of this work, were they experienced?
What problems did people experience, if any?
To obtain feedback of this type and breadth we must consider multiple channels. Each of the following options provides an incremental level of evaluative value but consequently also requires a proportionate increase in the amount of time, effort, and probably cost to obtain:
Metrics and benchmarks: For web-based visualizations there are a number of easily obtainable measures to indicate the reach and popularity of your project. The traditional analytic measures for page views, visits, and visitors can now be easily supplemented with social media metrics such as Tweet counts, Facebook likes, Google+ shares, and so on. These are very simple, cheap, and accessible indicators to help you form a basic understanding of your design's utilization. What you need to think about is: what does success look like? What are the relative benchmarks of performance against these measures that will inform your overall satisfaction?
Client or customer feedback: Of course, the most tangible form of feedback for many projects will come from those who have asked or commissioned you (and hopefully paid you) to create the solution. You'll learn in no uncertain terms whether or not what you created fell short, matched, or exceeded their expectations. Sometimes, you have to judge yourself against the requirements outlined to you and not the resulting performance. After all, you can only respond to the brief you were given.
Peer review: Sometimes the most important and constructive evaluation can come from peers, perhaps expert practitioners or thought leaders. In the visualization field, there are many examples of bloggers who will conduct a review and critique of new work. Getting visitor hits is one thing but receiving a positive review and mention from a peer is worth its weight in gold.
Unstructured feedback: This type of evidence might come via online comments forms, reaction on social media, or through anecdotal channels (e-mails, in-person conversations, perhaps overheard comments) to add a layer of qualitative reaction and evidence of success or failure.
Invite user assessment: Rather than placing value on anecdotal or reactionary and opportune feedback, you could be more proactive by offering simple mechanisms for users to provide more structured qualitative responses, perhaps through small-scale questionnaires.
Formal case studies: Taking things to a more advanced level of evaluation (almost academic in its nature), case studies can take many forms using techniques such as interviews, observations, and controlled experiments, where you might set tasks, manipulate conditions, and record responses. These will often be undertaken by an independent observer to offer that degree of integrity.
No matter through which of these methods you obtain your evaluation feedback, you should be prepared for and accept criticism. Of course, in this digital age everyone is a critic—and too often anonymous—but you should always welcome constructive feedback and use this to fuel your development.
Finally, from your personal point of view, how effective did you think it went? Your own satisfaction is very important because this is what also drives your future decisions and development. Often we'll know best whether something could be considered to be an effective outcome and a satisfying process. Even if the results are very positive, there may be many things you thought could have gone better:
Did you accomplish the outcomes you wanted?
Did you create something you were satisfied with?
Were you satisfied with how you rationalized the choices?
Maybe you hated the project, the client, or the subject matter
Perhaps you spent far too long on the work and you haven't been paid or rewarded sufficiently for the time you invested
Maybe you regret consuming so much caffeine late at night
Try not to weigh yourself down with too many thoughts of regret around "wish I'd not done this" or "wish I'd managed to include that". Instead, put all reflection to best use as a learning experience to inform your development and preparedness for future opportunities.
Developing your capabilities
The project is over. You can take a deep breath and relax. Well, at least for an hour until your next project is lined up!
For you the bigger picture now is to consider your ongoing development in this discipline, learning from each experience, and building up your expertise.
The single most important message that I want to put across in this book is the value of practice, experience, and ongoing self-improvement. Data visualization is such a multidimensioned and rapidly evolving craft that cannot be mastered overnight.
Earlier we looked at the framework of the "eight hats". Through assessing yourself against this collection of capabilities, skills, and attitudes you can self-determine where your strengths and weaknesses may be and then look to address them. There are several strategies to help ensure your development continues.
Practice, practice, practice!
When it comes to developing your practical design skills the major piece of advice is simple—practice, practice, and more practice. There are so many different variables and subtle challenges involved in every project that you can't fail to learn from each project that you undertake.
We've just reinforced that data visualization is a craft. You need to continue to exercise your creative and analytical muscle to stay in good shape.
If time permits, try forcing yourself to stick to a practice agenda: maybe, do small personal projects every week then a bigger project every month. You might never launch the work in public but just testing yourself against the challenges of gathering data, analyzing, and presenting it will help maintain your development.
An especially ideal opportunity for practice exists through the frequent data visualization contests that are held these days, often with added incentive of prizes for the best-judged work. These typically involve a basic design brief, a published dataset, and a timeframe to create a compelling solution. A great value of these contests comes from seeing all the other solutions that are submitted. This lets you learn how others have tackled the same problem but maybe in different ways as compared to your own approach.
I have already stressed the importance of maintaining a written record of how you have tackled your design projects. It is worth repeating because it will really help you identify areas for improvement both in terms of effectiveness and efficiency. It will also be a useful reference guide should you ever need to take on a similar problem or comparable dataset.
Also, keep all your trash! Whether it is sketches on paper or little developments on the computer that you deemed redundant, where possible, keep them because you never know when they might come in useful.
Earlier in this article, we profiled the importance of technology and the potential limitations of your own capabilities. It is up to you to decide how far and the direction you may wish to take your technical skills. You may not always have the time or opportunity but if you are really serious about advancing your visualization design skills, you should try to push yourself beyond your comfort zone. Rather than relying on the same old tools, pushing them to do things that they're not really designed to do; try out new software, applications, and programming environments. Accept that there will be relatively steep learning curves involved but that the rewards could be great.
Evaluating the work of others
One of the most effective ways of sharpening your visualization design "eye" is by evaluating other designers' work. Not necessarily through providing formal feedback, but just testing your reaction and analysis of the designs you see.
Try to take on the dual mindset of a user and of a designer, in order to undertake a forensic assessment of what has been produced and how well it works using the following prompts:
What one word describes what is your immediate, instinctive reaction? Is it positive or negative sentiment?
If it is not necessarily an "instant" piece, does it have the qualities of a "slowburner", seemingly becoming more appealing after a certain duration?
What purpose do you think the designer had in mind? Does the style and function of the end product match the likely intention?
We rarely create these pieces in perfect project conditions, so consider what type of inherent factors might have surrounded and influenced this project? Does a sense of sympathy with the possible influencing factors of the design process effect your impression?
Work through the five design layers and ask yourself how well each has been executed and what improvements could have been made?
Also think about the general design considerations we outlined about creating accessibility through intuitive design, as well as the idea of reward versus effort, and see how these qualities are achieved.
Eventually, with enough practice, you will develop your critical eye and will become much faster, more informed, and fairer in your judgments of other peoples' work. This will be a great way to educate your own design techniques and refine your own style.
Publishing and sharing your output
One of the contemporary ways of developing your capabilities is to publish yourself. A platform such as a blog will create an ideal means of sharing your work and your ideas.
Posting your design work and building up a public portfolio of your projects creates a virtual shop window. You can take advantage of this format and share narratives about your design process, explaining to people how and why you arrived at the various solutions.
Writing articles, publishing critiques of work, and facilitating discussions are also great ways of promoting yourself. It helps you to learn about the subject. As you write about a topic, you are forced into developing a conviction, to structure arguments, and learn about different perspectives. It really does sharpen your views remarkably, even if (initially, at least) the only visitors to your site are your devoted parents, out of duty.
Eventually, through hard work and dedication, you will create an interested audience and this opens up wonderful opportunities for developing connections with other practitioners, creating rich networks around the world, across demographics, and beyond your subject field.
If you don't have the energy, time, or enthusiasm for a commitment such as a blog, then there are plenty of online galleries and communities through which you can share and publicize your work.
Immerse yourself into learning about the field
Over the past few years we have seen a relative explosion in the amount of online content covering the subject of data visualization, infographics, and data-driven journalism. Websites, blogs, designer sites, and online galleries are now bursting at the seams with interesting articles, new tools, latest projects, and endless amount of inspiration. Social media too is a wonderful platform to learn about key opinions and contemporary developments. The visualization field is particularly active on Twitter where you will find a very spirited and positive community.
Immersing yourself in the array of online resources will keep you up-to-date with contemporary developments. The following is a list of just a small selection of some of the best websites that you should visit and keep a track of. They have been loosely organized by their general remit, though many offer a wide variety of value:
Latest projects, trends, articles, announcements, and developments:
Visualising Data (http://www.visualisingdata.com/)
Information Aesthetics (http://infosthetics.com/)
Flowing Data (http://flowingdata.com/)
DataVisualization.ch (http://datavisualization.ch/)
Visual.ly (http://blog.visual.ly/)
Discourse around data visualization:
Perceptual Edge (http://www.perceptualedge.com/blog/)
The Functional Art (http://www.thefunctionalart.com/)
Eager Eyes (http://eagereyes.org/)
Fell In Love With Data (http://fellinlovewithdata.com/)
Michael Babwahsingh (http://michaelbabwahsingh.com/)
Design narratives, process, and project critique:
Charts 'n Things (http://chartsnthings.tumblr.com/)
The Why Axis (http://thewhyaxis.info/)
Junk Charts (http://junkcharts.typepad.com/)
Graphic Sociology (http://thesocietypages.org/graphicsociology/)
National Geographic (http://juanvelascoblog.com/)
Design or technical tutorials, advice, and much more!:
Scott Murray(http://alignedleft.com/)
Jérôme Cukier (http://www.jeromecukier.net/)
Jim Vallandingham (http://vallandingham.me/)
Gregor Aisch (http://vis4.net/blog/)
Naomi Robbins, Forbes (http://blogs.forbes.com/naomirobbins/)
Visualization communities, designers, design agencies and general inspiration:
Visualizing.org (http://visualizing.org/)
Information is Beautiful Awards (http://www.informationisbeautifulawards.com/)
Any New York Times design (http://www.nytimes.com/)
Guardian datablog (http://www.guardian.co.uk/news/datablog)
Stamen (http://content.stamen.com/)
Pitch Interactive (http://www.pitchinteractive.com/beta/index.php)
Periscopic (http://www.periscopic.com/)
Moritz Stefaner (http://well-formed-data.net/)
Santiago Ortiz (http://moebio.com/)
Tulp Interactive (http://tulpinteractive.com/)
It should go without saying that an intimate appreciation of the many books about and around the subject is vital for learning this craft. Of course, you have already shown great wisdom in choosing this book but there are so many fascinating and invaluable titles to choose from. You can find a list of the most influential titles by visiting http://www.visualisingdata.com/index.php/resources/.
It is also important to expose yourself to influences from outside the specific boundaries of this field. You can pick up a great deal of inspiration from reading about graphic design, architecture, product design, typography, move-making, video game design, and journalism—all areas from which we can translate, transport ideas, and learn.
Another critical layer of learning comes from the world of academia and the value of keeping abreast of latest research and studies, from which many tools and best practices naturally emerge. The open access movement is gathering pace and making academic literature much more accessible to those not directly affiliated with academic institutions.
Conferences are also naturally a great way to keep in touch with the very latest developments, hearing from great speakers, and seeing inspirational presentations of case studies and examples. You also get to interact with other similarly passionate practitioners, something that can prove very rewarding.
Beyond these options, clearly a further avenue is through formal training and these days this comes in all shapes and sizes—from online tutorials, video tutorials, and webinars, through to in-person training courses and undergraduate or postgraduate programs. Scour the Internet to find the right solution for you.
Whichever way you go about developing your skills and knowledge, you can be sure there will be plenty of support from across the field. Data visualization is blessed with a wonderful positive and supportive community of incredibly talented and humble people, so you will always be met with a warm welcome.
We have now come to the end of this design journey. Hopefully, you got to your destination smoothly and you didn't experience many frights along the way!
In this article, we have focused on the execution stage of the visualization design process, bringing form to all your preparatory efforts, and transforming your concept into a produced work. We have introduced some of the most useful technologies to give you a flavor of the variety of tools being used for the different stages or types of visualization design.
We have looked at some of the important final steps to take before launching your design, the importance of running final checks across all elements, and conducting testing to get an evaluation of your solution before launch.
Once launched, it is then your prerogative to seek evidence of the impact of your work and we outlined a number of different tactics for undertaking this.
Finally, we suggested some strategies for you to consider pursuing to continue to develop your data visualization skills, knowledge, and experience. This will give you the best chance of taking your capabilities forward and achieving success in this thoroughly exciting field.
Good luck to all of you with the visualization challenges you take on in the future and thank you so much for taking the time to read this article. I hope it helps in any way possible!
Resources for Article :
Further resources on this subject:
- Designing Site Layouts in Inkscape [Article]
- Displaying SQL Server Data using a Linq Data Source [Article]
- New features in Domino Designer 8.5 [Article]


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Free theater: See a free production of "A Christmas Carol" at 7 p.m. Friday in Arlington. The Taproot Theatre Company will perform an abbreviated version of the beloved Christmas tale. Get more info in our story here.
Meet The Oatmeal: Or, more precisely, meet the man behind the wildly popular comics. Matthew Inman will sign copies of his newest book at Wit's End Bookstore, 1530 Grove St., Marysville, from noon to 4 p.m. Sunday. For information call 360-386-8997.
"The Nutcracker": See the ballet Friday, Saturday or Sunday in Edmonds. The Olympic Ballet Theatre has freshened up its performance with an exciting scene for children. Read more in our story here.
Play for free: Imagine Children's Museum in Everett is free from 5:30 to 9 p.m. Friday. Get more info here.
Bright: The Lights of Christmas at Warm Beach continues through Dec. 29. It's open Thursdays through Sundays. Get more info in our story here.
Skate: The Mukilteo YMCA will celebrate the opening of its new indoor skate park starting at noon Saturday. There will be snacks, a skating demonstration and open skate time. Get more info here.
Solstice: Cama Beach State Park is offering a winter solstice program Saturday. Watch "Forest for the Trees," a photo presentation celebrating forests, accompanied by poetry and violin music. If visitors are interested, a short hike will follow the presentation. Call 360-913-0253 for more information.
Gifts of art: Looking for a different gift this year? Visit the annual holiday exhibit at Schack Art Center on Friday, Saturday or Sunday. Work by the members of the Northwest Pastel Society, potters and glass artists is on view. The show continues through Dec. 28. It's free to just look, but the Schack is offering 10 percent discounts in the shop Saturday and Sunday. The Schack is at 2921 Hoyt Ave., Everett. Get more info here.
Reindeer: Santa's reindeer have been spotted at Bothell's Country Village Shopping Center. From 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday, visitors can pet them, have a word or two with Santa, make craft ornaments, meet Frosty the Snowman and his buddy, Hippity Hop, and take pony and train rides. Events are free except the rides. Get more info here.
Nighttime walk: The Kruckerberg Botanic Garden offers a solstice stroll at Friday and Saturday at the garden in Shoreline. The garden will be decorated with lights and there will be warm drinks and cookies. There will also be glow sticks for kids. Get more info in our story here.
Another nighttime walk: The Snohomish Winter Solstice Candlelight Walk is from 4 to 7 p.m. on Saturday. Get more info here.
Vodka: Stop in for the release party of a black peppercorn vodka at Skip Rock Distillers in Snohomish on Saturday. You can taste any of Skip Rocks spirits and enjoy treats. Get more info here.
Talk a walk: Guided walks are offered Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays through Jan. 26 at Rockport State Park off of Highway 20. The interpretive hikes travel through thick forest to the river, where you may see eagles. There's also a visitor center nearby that offers family friendly activities. Get more info here.
County birds: The Audubon's Christmas Bird Count is Saturday in the Edmonds area. Less experienced birders can be paired with those with more experience. If you'd like to participate, get more info here.
Winged Migration: Learn about birds around the world in the beautiful documentary "Winged Migration." The film is being shown at the Northwest Stream Center at 7 p.m. Friday. It's free, but you need to call 425-316-8592 to register. Get more info here.
Wine: Van Camp Cellars is having a Christmas gathering from 3 to 7 p.m. Saturday. There will be wine tasting, appetizers and drawings for bottles of wine. The event is at 1311 Bonneville Ave. in Snohomish.
Piano: David Lanz will perform at 2 and 7:30 p.m. Saturday at Tim Noah Thumbnail Theatre in Snohomish. He will play traditional holiday music and selections from his latest recording. Get more info here.
Tune in: Singer and songwriter Nancy Stewart conducts a free family singalong from 2 to 3 p.m. Saturday in the Everett Public Library auditorium. Don't worry if you've forgotten the words, she'll help you along. The library is at 2702 Hoyt Ave. Get more info here.
It's shocking: The Pacific Science Center presents a Winter Science Extravaganza for school-age children and adults at 11 a.m. Saturday at the Arlington Library. The Volts and Jolts program allows participants to explore the workings of the Van de Graaf generator and Tesla Coil. The library is at 135 N. Washington Ave., Arlington. Call 360-435-3033 for more information. Go to the website, sno-isle.org, for more library events.
That's just the start of library fun. A ton of fun events are scheduled this weekend. Here's a taste. Find even more here.
- Candy construction: Make a house of graham crackers and candy at the Sultan Library. Drop in between 1 and 3 p.m. Get more info here.
- Game time: A teen game time with snacks is at the Granite Falls Library from 2 to 3 p.m. Friday. Get more info here.
- Gingerbread stories: Hear stories and create your own gingerbread design at the Mukilteo Library from 2 to 3:15 p.m. Friday. For ages 5-11. Get more info here. This event is also at the Brier Library at 2 p.m. Saturday.
- Sweet science: Experiment with candy at the Monroe Library from 3 to 4 p.m. Friday. Get more info here.
- Lego: Use stop-motion animation to create a Lego movie from 2 to 4 p.m. Friday at the Stanwood Library. For kids in grades 4-6. Get more info here.
- Cool! See what happens when objects meet liquid nitrogen. The vent is from 2 to 3:15 p.m. at the Mukilteo Library. Get more info here.
Healthy: The Mountlake Terrace Library is offering a free health fair from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. Saturday. Folks from WithinReach will answer questions about the state's Healthplanfinder and insurance exchange. They will also sign people up for one-on-one appointments to enroll in the programs. The event also includes free flu shots, blood pressure tests and activities for kids. The library is at 23300 58th Ave. W., Mountlake Terrace. Call 425-776-8722 for more information.

subset: commoncrawl


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Your Sinuses, Cigarettes & Secondhand Smoke
Written By: Tamara
August 1, 2011
The Connection Between Sinusitis & Smoke
If you or your loved one smoke cigarettes or other substances, it may be difficult to have healthy sinuses. Â Although cigarette smoke has the worst impact on your sinuses, cigars, pipes, campfire smoke, marijuana and cocaine are also harmful to our mucous membranes.
If you wonder what smoke does to your sinuses, take a look at the end of a used cigarette filter. That brown or black gunk gives you a good idea of what happens to your sinuses and lungs by breathing in smoke of any kind.
Cigarette smoke causes irritation to the mucous membrane. The nicotine in cigarettes, for example, harms the nasal cilia so that they can't move. Healthy cilia are the filters that help keep bacteria at bay and remove particles to keep us breathing easy. The weaker your sinuses are (relating to previous sinus conditions, genetic make-up and overall health), the greater the impact it will have on you. Your sinuses become congested due to your mucous membranes becoming inflamed, and this increases the mucous. Ultimately the cilia stop moving, which creates the risk of infection.
In addition, exposure to secondhand smoke appears to significantly increase the risk of chronic sinusitis. Findings reported in the April issue of Archives of Otolaryngology–Head & Neck Surgery, are not surprising, said Dr. Jordan S. Josephson, a sinus specialist at Lenox Hill Hospital in New York City and director of the New York Nasal and Sinus Center, who wrote Sinus Relief Now.
"Secondhand cigarette smoke definitely impacts those who are exposed," Josephson said. "Clinically, I see that secondhand cigarette smoke affects patients' lungs and their sinuses the same way that primary smoke affects these vital organs."
"The take-home message is that smoking cigarettes is not just bad for your health but bad for those people around you, including your loved ones."
Using a neti pot while you are trying to quit smoking can be very beneficial. Since the neti pot opens the sinuses, you are automatically led to breathe through your nose. This then triggers the brain to start breathing through the nose rather than through the mouth. Rinsing will help clear the sinuses, making a smoker more aware of the pollution inhaled through the sinuses. Often times when someone quits smoking, more mucous will accumulate, causing congestion within the sinuses and chest. Nasal rinsing will encourage the inhibited cilia to start to move again. It will also help to improve a dulled sense of smell and taste, which might motivate a smoker to quit as the taste of the nicotine becomes more unpleasant.
Since smoking and secondhand smoke are still daily realities in many places in the United States and around the world, we would like to offer some suggestions:
- If at all possible do not place yourself around secondhand smoke situations.
- If you are a smoker, for all of the obvious reasons, please quit, your chances of getting cancer, heart disease and emphysema will decrease.
- Support legislation that limits places people can smoke in your town.
- Educate yourself and others about the harmful affects of smoking and secondhand smoke.
- When you have been around secondhand smoke remember to use your Sinus Rejuvenation Oil regularly to help support your body's healthy sinus function.
Check out the Baraka education section for more hints on using your neti pot, infused salt, and sinus oil to help maintain your sinus health. Share with us on Facebook about what has helped you quit smoking or what has worked for you in protecting yourself from secondhand smoke.


text:
I HATE IT! Community reestablishedRU in first place spammer list!! with over 4500 hits just from the ip range 46.161.9.*CZ into 2nd and CN a dismal 3rd now!!Email firstname.lastname@example.com to lift any ban
I hate it that people use the word love so loosely today.
Page created in 0.065 seconds with 16 queries.


text:
User friendly software, Trusted services, Continuous development etc.,
Easylib - Entire Automation System for Libraries, an advanced and state of the art library automation system reaches over 450+ installations now.
The first installation of Easylib was in March 2001. In the last fourteen years, strength of Easylib in terms of functionality, services and number of customers has been consistently growing.
At this moment, we would like to convey our thanks to customers who have been using Easylib and helped us grow to 450+ installations. Without your support, this would not have been possible.more ...


text:
For spaces where there's enough room for a light to suspend, but only a little, use a semi-flush mount. A compromise between the utility of a flush mount and the design elegance of a pendant, semi-flush mounts are a win-win. Consider the height of the people using the room and the room itself; semi-flush mounts tend to hang 4-8 inches down. They're the answer to the point where aesthetic and pragmatic concerns intersect.
Number of Lamps:
Min Hang Height:
Fixture Height:
Max Hang Height:


text:
Cheap Smoothie Blender. Cheap Blenders that Actually Work.
Last week I was looking for a cheap blender to start a smoothie detox. I did a bunch of research but was in such a rush to drink a smoothie, I said screw it and ran to Walmart. Call me lazy or impatient, but Im really loving this blender – for the right price… cheap! at $29.99 in the store this little Black and Decker was absolutely going home with me.
There is one little quirk when making green smoothies and Im not sure if its this machine or every machine. On the first try, I threw the greens in first. The blades didnt really touch it for a while. My heart sank thinking this wouldnt cut it, but finally it grabbed the greens and blended them right up. Now I add water with the greens and around they go.
Im so happy with this blender and green smoothies in general. Even my 18 year old drinks them with me every day.
There is one other blender that looked pretty good. The Hamilton Beach Power Elite. I only mention it because its a 700 watt machine and got better reviews.
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3 Responses to "Cheap Smoothie Blender. Cheap Blenders that Actually Work."
[…] while back, my craving for a green smoothie prompted a trip to walmart to buy the first cheap smoothie blender I saw. Luckily, the blender worked out just fine, however… my first smoothies did […]
There's a lot to know about this, but you have made good points.
It has been used to fight off the common cold,
the flu and even the devastating Plague in Europe during the 1300s.
No one has to live with the discomfort of nasal congestion. For this
reason, HCG dieters report a feeling and appearance of great health and marvel at the
loss of negative health risks they had as an overweight individual.
my blog post … acai berry diet


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What is a GRE tunnel and how does it differ from an IPsec tunnel?
Learn the difference between a GRE tunnel and IPsec tunnel in this Ask the Expert response.
In this Q&A, our expert explains the difference between Generic Routing Encapsulation (GRE) and IP Security (IPsec),...
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pointing out that while both encapsulate packets, an IPsec tunnel offers significant security benefits and should be used where data privacy is required.
QUESTION: What is the difference between a GRE tunnel and IPsec tunnel?
Generic Routing Encapsulation (GRE), defined by RFC 2784, is a simple IP packet encapsulation protocol. A GRE tunnel is used when IP packets need to be sent from one network to another, without being parsed or treated like IP packets by any intervening routers.
For example, in Mobile IP, a mobile node registers with a Home Agent. When the mobile node roams to a new network, it registers with a Foreign Agent there. Whenever IP packets addressed to the mobile node are received by the Home Agent, they can be relayed over a GRE tunnel to the Foreign Agent for delivery. It does not matter how the Home Agent and Foreign Agent communicate with each other -- hops in between just pass along the GRE packet. Only the GRE tunnel endpoints -- the two Agents -- actually route the encapsulated IP packet.
The IP Security (IPsec) Encapsulating Security Payload (ESP), defined by RFC 2406, also encapsulates IP packets. However, it does so for a different reason: to secure the encapsulated payload using encryption. IPsec ESP is used when IP packets need to be exchanged between two systems while being protected against eavesdropping or modification along the way.
For example, in a site-to-site VPN, a source host in network "A" transmits an IP packet. When that packet reaches the edge of network "A," it hits a VPN gateway. VPN gateway "A" encrypts the private IP packet and relays it over an ESP tunnel to a peer VPN gateway at the edge of network "B." VPN gateway "B" then decrypts the packet and delivers it to the destination host. Like GRE, it doesn't really matter how the two VPN gateways communicate with each other -- hops in between just pass along the ESP packet. But unlike GRE, someone at those hops could not possibly look at or change the encapsulated IP packet, even if they wanted to. That's because cryptographic algorithms have been applied to scramble the IP packet and detect any modification or replay.
In summary, use a GRE tunnel where IP tunneling without privacy is required -- it's simpler and thus faster. But use IPsec ESP where IP tunneling and data privacy are required -- it provides security features that are not even attempted by GRE.
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Understanding the functions of a wireless access point vs. wireless router will help you deploy the right device for the right circumstance.continue reading
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Learn the difference between a site-to-site VPN and a remote-access VPN, as well as the protocols used for each one.continue reading
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text:
This week we're talking about the controversy between capturing memories with our minds or with our cameras…
The Panelists
You can use this audio player to listen to the show:
If you want, you can also right click this link to save the show to your computer manually.
Big Picture Classes Click here to see special offers from Big Picture Classes!
The Paperclipping Romantic Scrapbooking Course Click here to learn about the Paperclipping Romantic Scrapbooking Course!
Picks of the Week
- Strawberry Edition Core Kit – Project Life
- Oh Darling Clothes Pins from Crate Paper
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Subscribe in iTunes (it's free!) and you'll automatically download the newest installment when it's released. Click on this link:
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text:
Last time this family was featured on the blog was only days after Evan came into this world! To honor his second birthday, we gathered at one of my favorite parks in Princeton, Marquand Park, the weekend before I moved back to Oklahoma. What you can't see in *most* of these photos (+ what mom/dad would attest as well) is how much of a pill Evan was being. That's the beauty of photos, you cannot "see" the wild + crazy of a session, unless I post a photo. 🙂 Mom + dad trusted that I would be able to capture moments, without stressing about their 100% cranky 2 year old!
Kim Schmidt is an on-location child + family photographer in the Oklahoma City metro area. I am currently booking fall + holiday photos. Let's connect to plan your family photo session today!


text: AGIA Insurance Services supports employee success with improved talent management strategy Halogen Software's TalentSpace™ suite provides AGIA Insurance Services with a "one-stop shop" to support employee performance and learning management. In just over a year, AGIA has made ongoing performance management an integral component of its business, leveraging Halogen's Feedback Central™ feature to support a feedback-rich culture. And by collaborating with Halogen's Continuous Advancement™ services, AGIA is on the fast track to achieving positive outcomes for its employees and its business.


text:
Website seeks to streamline gay men's social plans
by Matt Baume
It was during one of his many trips between work in Germany and his boyfriend in New York that Jason Goldberg envisioned a better way to go out for dancing, dinner, or a drink.
The entrepreneur with dot-com successes like Jobster and Socialmedian under his belt sensed an opportunity to answer the most pressing questions of our time. As he put it: "Where to go? What to do? Who to meet?"
He christened the new venture "Fabulis," and quickly assembled a team to build a brand new online social planner for gay men.
When Goldberg and his boyfriend Christian Schoenherr traveled, Fabulis creative director Bradford Shellhammer explained, "they realized there was a problem. We've all experienced it. 'What do I do tonight, what restaurant should I go to, where can I meet cool locals?'"
Existing sites didn't help, since they were all limited to either families or hookups.
"People told us that they've gone on Manhunt to find out where they should eat when they were in Rome," said Shellhammer.
The Fabulis mission is simple: help gay men discover new events and meet new friends. To that end, the site scans Facebook events, analyzes attendance, and showcases trends – something Goldberg calls "the velocity of fabulousness."
About $625,000 has been raised for the project so far.
"It was the easiest fundraising I've ever done in my career," said Goldberg. "It took 72 hours to raise the finances for Fabulis."
Among the investors: the Washington Post , along with Allen Morgan, Lars Hinrichs, and Don Baer – all investors in Goldberg's prior company, Socialmedian.
There's also an advisory board of heavy-hitters: British Queer Eye host Julian Bennett, co-producer of The Office Halsted Sullivan, former GLAAD president Neil Giuliano, Grey Gardens producer/director Michael Sucsy, and former Clinton LGBT adviser Richard Socarides, whom Goldberg met while working as a White House aide in the 1990s.
Socarides, in fact, is the first person Goldberg ever came out to – "over the White House e-mail system," he laughed.
During a limited sneak-peak in April, the site came under fire for a feature that numerically ranked users by perceived popularity. That won't last, said Goldberg.
"We're going to move very quickly away from the focus of the site being a kind of a popularity contest. ... the homepage is no longer a ranking of members. It's plans."
Concerns about the site's cliquishness may be reignited by a messaging system. Contacting certain users will require "bits," credits that users earn by recruiting new users, interacting with the site, or laying down cash.
"People will have to spend some bits in order to message people they're not following," said Goldberg. "And you're able to set the price in order to message you."
Although the site only recently introduced its event-tracking features, the site boasted 14,000 registered users at launch. At a Fabulis-sponsored party this spring at Blackbird in the Castro, the site's brand new users were enthusiastic.
"The Internet has totally taken the place of sending out a flier," said event planner J. Aleczander. "It's very green!"
Jack Shamama, editor of the Gay Porn Blog, was a fan of the social ranking feature. "It's fun and silly," he said, "but it makes you feel cute."
"I have no idea what it is," said Adrian Albino, "but it's definitely going to be something."
With so many initial users, advertising and sales opportunities abound.
"We believe that we can have a decent percent of our users paying us," said Goldberg, "in addition to having a premium sponsorships with advertisers and promoters who want to reach this audience."
The Fabulis team is in it for the long haul, and doesn't rule out an initial public offering.
"Our plan is to build a hundred million dollar-plus business, targeting the gay market," said Goldberg, "And if we do that, we can definitely be a public company in the future."
Goldberg and Shellhammer have been pleased so far with interaction on the site and its Facebook fan page.
"People are asking questions, interacting with one another, posting photos," said Shellhammer. "It proves this theory that there are gay men all over the world who are hungry for interaction with other gay men. In a different way."


text:
What American Values Are Also Universal Values?
In an interview with The Atlantic published this week, Hillary Rodham Clinton advocated the promotion of "American values that also happen to be universal values."
What values is she talking about? What American values also are universal values?
In order for any such values to genuinely both American and universal, they must be:
1. Core to the American identity
2. Core to all cultures everywhere.
What are they?


text:
After Viewing This Item People ultimately bought
10.4 inch Roof Mount Video and Audio Entertainment System. Fit to: All Cars
- SD/MS/MMC 3-in-1 Card Reader
- USB port
- Compatible with DVD/CD/CDG/MP4/MP3/WMA/JPEG/RMVB(MP5)
- FM transmitter function. which can be connected with the audio device in car
- IR infrared transmitter function. Support 2 channels wireless infrared earphone
- OSD Display.
- Audio/Video input & output
- Multilingual menu
- Remote Control
- Built-in dual speakers with power magnifier. which support surround sound
- Have its body and PCB heat radiation function
- Support the newest 32 Bit + 8 Bit games. with wireless game controller. 2300 games on one disc. You can download games through the Internet into Memory Cards also
- 10.4-inch TFT LCD screen, digital LCD panel
- Aspect ratio: 4:3
- Pixel: 800 x 480
- SONY Lens
- Power consumption: ≤10W
- Operated power: DC 12V
- Operation temperature: -40°C to +65°C
- Color system: PAL/NTSC (auto search system)
- Demension: 310*295*38mm (L*W*H)
- Available Color: Beige, Black, Gery
Technical parameters:


text:
Blood II: The Chosen (Windows)
Published by
Developed by
ESRB Rating
Critic Score
100 point score based on reviews from various critics.
User Score
5 point score based on user ratings.
7 out of 11 people found this review helpfulwrite a review of this game
read more reviews by Ashley Pomeroy
read more reviews for this game
SummaryQuintessentially mediocre
The GoodThe original 'Blood' was one of the more interesting late-period Build Engine games; the Lovecraftian setting, dark humour and indeed dark darkness helped it stand out from the many other, lesser titles which were around at the time ('Redneck Rampage', for example). Granted, a lot of this fond remembrance is attributable to pleasant surprise at Blood's competence rather than genuine affection for its brilliance, but it was entertaining enough. The sequel is, however, strikingly mediocre, almost to the extent of being a dictionary definition of that word; never offensively bad, it merely exists, and vanished without a trace at the time, having the terrible misfortune to come out at the same time as 'Half-Life', indeed it was reviewed in the same magazines.
In its favour, the 'Lithtech' engine - fresh from the much more impressive 'Shogo: Mobile Armoured Division' - was as attractive as that of 'Unreal'. Unlike 'Sin', which had a lot of promise but was also overshadowed by 'Half-Life', it didn't require an enormous patch to get it working properly.
The BadAh. The first Blood got by on its atmosphere, the references to H P Lovecraft and the Cthulhu mythos, the dark jokes ("Mimes. I hate mimes.") and so forth. Blood 2 has nothing of this; the setting has nods to George Romero's 'Day of the Dead', and there are face-hugger-esque creatures - but it's mostly a lot of bland sci-fi corridors and concrete downtown areas, totally generic. The storyline begs you to skip past it, and the game adds nothing new or novel to the FPS genre. As mentioned earlier, it was devoured by 'Half-Life', which made it look silly in almost every possible way, from the latter's sense of genuine menace and danger, to its grown-up writing, sympathetic characters, and killer little touches.


text:
November 6, 2012
Why Microsoft May (or May Not) Build a Phone
Jared Newman, Time
AP Photo
The tech world always needs a good rumor to obsess over, and lately it's been the idea of a Windows Phone made by Microsoft. A report from the Wall Street Journal claims that Microsoft is testing its own smartphone right now, in conjunction with component suppliers in Asia.
TAGGED: Windows Phone, Smartphones, Microsoft


text: On Wed, 24 Jan 96 email@example.com (Brett Lymn) wrote: >According to James Graham - Systems Mangler: >>See above. Putting the example in the man page for find(1) might >>be useful; putting the example in the man page for grep(1) seems >>almost silly. >No sillier than putting how to copy directory trees in the tar man >page or how to copy filesystems using dump. If people are going to, >logically, look in grep(1) for a way to do recursive greps then >putting the example there is the "right" place. The man pages are >there to help people use the tools - showing people how to use the >tools efficiently would make the man page, IMHO, even better. I know >I always appreciated the little examples in the tar(1) and dump(1) man >pages. I don't know if I agree with that. The man pages are *reference* documents, not tutorials. Maybe we need a separate set of "tut" pages. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Michael L. VanLoon email@example.com --< Free your mind and your machine -- NetBSD free un*x >-- NetBSD working ports: 386+PC, Mac 68k, Amiga, HP300, Sun3, Sun4, DEC PMAX (MIPS), DEC Alpha, PC532 NetBSD ports in progress: VAX, Atari 68k, others... -----------------------------------------------------------------------------


text:
Win everything on 'backyard hole' if you guess why I'm quitting (in
February 6 2005 9:44 PM EST
I haven't played for long, since July to be more specific, but I have to quit. Whoever gets closest to why I am quitting wins everything in 'backyard hole's inventory (nothin much though, just a bunch of crap)... Ends tomorrow noon server time.
February 6 2005 9:46 PM EST
Your in trouble with an "Authority". :-)
February 6 2005 9:53 PM EST
your internet is being shut down for some reason?
February 6 2005 10:00 PM EST
You now have a life? ;D
February 6 2005 10:04 PM EST
You've become extremely busy in real life due to something (new job, new pasttime, new romantic relationship, lots of homework, whatever it might be in your particular situation), and have decided that CB is not a priority and you are now freeing up some more time by not playing anymore.
February 6 2005 10:07 PM EST
God hates you.
February 6 2005 10:08 PM EST
you got bored?
February 6 2005 10:10 PM EST
Because you've decided that Marsha was not the right one for you. She was to obstinate and needy. You've now moved on to a more free-spirited relationship with a hippy-woman who's name is Treebreeze.
February 6 2005 10:12 PM EST
Devil Burrito
February 6 2005 10:30 PM EST
Your finaly tired of CB and your upset with Cb2 .... that... or Your getting married :-D
February 6 2005 10:39 PM EST
You're having a kid?
February 6 2005 10:41 PM EST
You've stopped listening to the internet-obsessed pizza-and-coke-loving voice in your head and started listening to the conspiracy-theorist camp-in-washington-with-protesters one?
February 6 2005 11:16 PM EST
you realized that you wasted too much time playing games. and have better things to do with your life now. or you found another game because you got bored of this one
Mistress Reyna
February 6 2005 11:16 PM EST
i think military
February 7 2005 12:08 AM EST
You're going to Iraq?
February 7 2005 12:10 AM EST
your dog dug a ginormous hole to china in your backyard and now you have to spend all your spare time filling it back up or face life imprisonment at Guantanamo bay...=p
February 7 2005 12:18 AM EST
Aliens implanted a chip inside your head that makes all moniters always appear off. Blank screens, nothing but blank screens. In fact, someone wrote this post while you dictated.
smallpau1 - Go Blues
[Lower My Fees]
February 7 2005 12:19 AM EST
a job...=)
February 7 2005 12:28 AM EST
You can't stand Todd not being at the top of CB2 and your dog died.
February 7 2005 12:34 AM EST
promised someone that you would not play games anymore and waste time in front of the computer
February 7 2005 12:40 AM EST
You were in an accident and now you have to concentrate on your recovery.
If I win, send to Mitt
Flames Fame
February 7 2005 12:55 AM EST
The game is fun, but you don't have a lot of time to play. You hate the bot checks, and that confounded Dwarf.... lol they are kicking you out since you haven't logged in, in such a long time... idk.
February 7 2005 12:55 AM EST
you recently had a vision from god and now you must devote your life to saveing children from Micheal Jackson...or you benefited from G.Bushs tax cuts and now you must spend time counting all that loot...or you found your colombian roots and must spend time ploting revenge on the man responsible for your pathetic life today and take back the cocain farm you where destined to have....or you must flee the country due to you knowing to much about "THEM"....or youve been nominated to become the next canidate to be president of the United States and you must prepare your life for this upcomeing change....or the FBI found your stash of Weapons of Mass destruction and now you must go live in a cave with Bin Laden....you are a FBI in deep undercover infiltration and you've gone to far to turn back in so you must disappear with your new found mafia family and help them escape to the bahamas...that or you just want to go find yourself, what your going to do with your life and have no more spare time to play games, you want to find your calling, what you've been put here to do.
February 7 2005 12:56 AM EST
You've come out of the closet and need time to explore some new parts of town
February 7 2005 1:13 AM EST
You discovered that swinging swords mindlessly around and injuring people is much more amusing in real life.
[Mythic Punks]
February 7 2005 1:20 AM EST
dont like the community rules, PG, chat rules, etc
Mistress Reyna
February 7 2005 1:21 AM EST
um, i do that chuckles.. the sword swinging,... In SCA
February 7 2005 1:45 AM EST
You're quitting because the economy is glutted, certain aspects of the game give ridiculous advantages and strategies are all but moot. At least, that's why I'd contemplate quitting.
February 7 2005 3:19 AM EST
You're moving on to play other games, World of Warcraft or preparing yourself for Guild Wars.
[Hidden Agenda]
February 7 2005 3:51 AM EST
Mushu and/or Trillian has spurned your advances for the last time. You just can't take it anymore!
February 7 2005 6:17 AM EST
CB2 is lame?
February 7 2005 6:46 AM EST
your quitting because you found a new game like WoW or you like cb1 better
February 7 2005 7:40 AM EST
changing my guess your having a kid
February 7 2005 8:55 AM EST
great guesses... i suppose i'll through this one out too.. i'm quitting cb1 also.. sale will start today for everything on my char (usd only of course)(if anyone cares/plays cb1)
February 7 2005 8:56 AM EST
remember.. its the closest to the reason.. guesses like job or school probably won't make the cut since they are so general
Xiaz on Hiatus
February 7 2005 8:58 AM EST
The reason is you're now addicted to WoW, and don't have time or the interest to play CB (both one and two) any longer :)
February 7 2005 9:00 AM EST
i would say half these guesses are contributing reasons. But there is one main reason, and someone is closest right now.
February 7 2005 9:02 AM EST
oh and just cause this is fun reading the reasons.. i'm extending this to tomorrow noon server time... and adding the cash I have on 'backyard hole' (CB2 backyard hole, not cb1 backyard hole :-) also (minus xfer fees of course)
February 7 2005 10:06 AM EST
one of my guesses was close huh?
February 7 2005 10:09 AM EST
Come on you know it's the voices in his head. My voices told me.
I'll be waiting for my loot.
Majestik Moose
February 7 2005 10:11 AM EST
you looked
February 7 2005 10:28 AM EST
i have more guess! You where biten by a radioactive bee and now you have superhuman powers you can sting people with your enormous BEEhind and you want to devote your life to crime.....or you found a new love interest and you must spend time stalker her/him.....or your a finalist in American Idol and you must spend time perfecting lip singing....or you found a great scam to get people to give you money for something they dont need or already have....or you must return to your home planet now....or you found Tupac and you guys are buddies now so you dont wanna look like a loser with computer games....or you recieved a letter from TV show Biggest Loser and you must go on to lose those knankles (knankles are when your knee and ankles become one, dont know where knees end and ankles start).....or you dream of performing on broadway has come true and you have no time for cb anymore....or your going to be incarcerated for a long time
February 7 2005 10:33 AM EST
You are moving so you have to find a new job, but you need a full time one thus cb2 would no longer be competetive.
February 7 2005 10:40 AM EST
you need more "me time" or time with the family.
February 7 2005 10:43 AM EST
You are actually Mr. Warren Buffet, the Wizard of Omaha, and you need to spend more time looking after your precious Berkshire Hathaway shares.
Send the goods to Cougars, Mr. Buffet.
February 7 2005 11:36 AM EST
hah, if i was Mr. Buffett i would own you, and this little game too...
[Revenge of the Forgers]
February 7 2005 12:08 PM EST
No, Chet, I am. And it's _Oracle_ of Omaha, if you don't mind.
public schools these days...can't even teach alliteration...grumble, grumble... :)
February 7 2005 1:05 PM EST
You are getting married.
February 7 2005 1:23 PM EST
1. You got a new job and you're moving abroad
2. You lost your job and don't want to distract yourself with CB (you lost your job BECAUSE of CB)
3. You're tired of Stovakor's/Jibberish's unwanted advances
4. You're just plain tired of CB
[Mythic Punks]
February 7 2005 1:40 PM EST
expounding on my original guess:
You dont like (some or all of the following)
Bot checks
Chat mods
Spell check
forum bannings
Disclaimer: I dont have anything against the above :)
February 7 2005 2:24 PM EST
maybe Jon will use some of these to improve the game. Right.
February 7 2005 2:30 PM EST
You have to travel?
[Serenity In Chaos]
February 7 2005 2:44 PM EST
You are quitting because you hate feeling like you spent all that time playing CB1 and lost it all, everything on CB seems so fragmented and not as stable as it once was. The community is less malleable since the change, whether that is good or bad. The new CB isn't as fun as the old CB, the crazy rates of conversion between the two games have made the CB dollar and the CB2 dollar both very worthless?
February 7 2005 7:34 PM EST
I would have to guess something along the lines of marriage or a child, or even a nagging girl friend. not much can keep a true cb addict away from the game...unless its life changing like the first 2..
February 7 2005 7:48 PM EST
Id say you broke from BF & he plays cb/cb2
February 7 2005 8:26 PM EST
You've joined the Peace Core, and are being shipped somewhere there IS NO Internet.
February 7 2005 8:27 PM EST
I'll throw another guess into the ring.
Considering my first answer was the result my embittered whining, my second guess is this:
You've had to endure a month of reading Mythology's posts, and you are now a donkey-on-the-edge. You never saw this on CB1, so now, it's driving you around the bend to be in an environment where Myth is allowed to freely post.
Sent the stuff to: Falcon.
February 7 2005 10:20 PM EST
okay ummm
Your girlfriend (boyfriend? i am sure your a buy but just incase..) is getting mad at you for not being with her and chatting with us nerds (=P) in CB and if you don't quit she's dumping you.
February 7 2005 10:28 PM EST
after chatting with bast im gonna rephrase that:
Your boyfriend is getting mad at you for not spending time with him and chatting with us nerds on CB and if you don't quit he'll dump you.
[Hidden Agenda]
February 7 2005 10:34 PM EST
For the record, I was only pointing out to TresDots that he probably meant to say you were a "boy" or "guy" and not a "buy", which looks like a whole different implication altogether and just really (really) spelled wrong. :)
February 8 2005 12:23 AM EST
Buffet is a women? some of my guesses dont work then....
February 8 2005 8:18 AM EST
i think on CB you can assume guy unless told otherwise..
February 8 2005 11:11 AM EST
because you dont like tattoos!they just destroy tactics
as a second response----
you have a cancer at the last stadium
[Clan of One]
February 8 2005 11:58 AM EST
It's just not the same with out Spid at the top beating the living daylights out of you. You just can't take the fact that you might actually be better then Todd, when he doesn't an unfair advantage.
Send to Adamantium Golem
[DTC of Bubo]
February 8 2005 12:17 PM EST
You just can't live in a SNK3R-less game. It pains your heart to not see or hear him anywhere.
February 8 2005 1:03 PM EST
6. Bolfen - "3. You're tired of Stovakor's/Jibberish's unwanted advances 4. You're just plain tired of CB" (And Stov offering up my fiance, what a fiend)
5. smallpaul - "a job...=)" (My job suffers incredibly because of this freakin game, i actually get work done now)
4. Todd - "CB2 is lame?" (eh 'nuff said)
3. deifeln - "You can't stand Todd not being at the top of CB2 and your dog died. " (Todd at the top was like climbimg a mountain, what if there was no Everest and all you had to do is climb the Smokey Mountains and my dog didn't die)
2. Verifex - "You are quitting because you hate feeling like you spent all that time playing CB1 and lost it all, everything on CB seems so fragmented and not as stable as it once was. The community is less malleable since the change, whether that is good or bad. The new CB isn't as fun as the old CB, the crazy rates of conversion between the two games have made the CB dollar and the CB2 dollar both very worthless?" (Pretty much says it all, and for those who care i spent almost 1k USD on that stupid game(CB1))
And the #1 reason is......
1. [LousyCamper]3dotsOnFire - "Your girlfriend (boyfriend? i am sure your a buy but just incase..) is getting mad at you for not being with her and chatting with us nerds (=P) in CB and if you don't quit she's dumping you. "
Fiance to be more precise.
I could probably suck up all the rest of the reasons and continue to play, but my fiance is sick of me waking up early to play CB, coming home and getting on the computer to play CB, play CB during dinner, waking up at 3am to play CB (she would rather me watch TV with her (doesn't make sense to me))(can you tell i'm a programmer with all these ')') so we were on the virge of calling off the wedding last sunday, when I came to the conclusion that it was,in fact, my addiction to this game that was causing me to disconnect from her, as sad as that sounds.
So i told her i would quit this game for her. And since i havent been playing since last sunday (as much(i might sneak some here or there)) our relationship has gone back to where it was before CB. Where i actually listened to her, made dinner, blablabla. I didn't think this game was that big of a factor in my life but it was surprisingly enough. Maybe it was a subconcious thing where i needed a break from her or something, but i actually feel rejuvinated now that i don't play(just a little sad that i actually spent 1k USD).
So thats it. I'm quitting for love. I didn't think i could fall to an addiction (except for marijuana and cigerettes, of course) I stopped those cold turkey so I figure i could do the same with CB. Enjoy your time here. And I'll check in a year to see how CB3 is, if there is anyone around by then.
Oh and btw, I'm going to be selling my CB1 stuff also (for USD only).. thats the final part of my departure. Thanks to my clan members, Bolfen, Stov, Hellbender, IHit and GameOver (where ever they went). It was fun.
ps. GlowAngel and Tailz get noticeable mention since they were close too. (and they helped pump my tattoo at one point or another :-))
February 8 2005 1:59 PM EST
"me time" can't even get a noticable mention? =)
February 8 2005 5:17 PM EST
thank you. Send to Squirrel Squad.
Good luck in your relationship
[Serenity In Chaos]
February 8 2005 5:25 PM EST
I didn't get a runner up prize, so I doubt anyone else is getting anything. ;)
February 9 2005 2:07 AM EST
"I would have to guess something along the lines of marriage or a child, or even a nagging girl friend. not much can keep a true cb addict away from the game...unless its life changing like the first 2.. "
nagging girlfriend didn't count =( hehe
well best of luck - had an onlin friend pretty much lose everything he had due to this game...glad she got to you before the game did....
February 9 2005 3:15 AM EST
So none of my guesses where even close....after reading your post kinda makes me sad, makes me wanna quit too........
February 9 2005 4:21 AM EST
you're quitting because:
1) this game brings you school/work problems.
2) your family lost all its money and can't pay the internet
3) someone from your family is sick and you have to spend more time with she/he
4) you'll change jobs and you won't have access to the internet anymore
5) you found a better game that fills your free time
6) you don't have free time anymore
7) you realized this game is addictive and you don't wanna depend on it
8) you are loosing and you don't like it
9) you aren't decided if to quit or not but you want us to give you reasons for that
10) you just got bored/tired of this game
February 11 2005 4:40 AM EST
wasn't any of my answers even close? or did someone else already won the contest?
February 11 2005 4:45 AM EST
Nickless, you have read the whole thread, haven't you?
This thread is closed to new posts. However, you are welcome to reference it from a new thread; link this with the html Win everything on 'backyard hole' if you guess why I'm quitting


text:
Releasing their Settings EP earlier this year to widespread critical acclaim, Brooklynites Jesse Cohen and Eric Emm have been forming bands for as long as they can remember, but at last in Tanlines, seem to have really found a direction that hits. Their tropical guitar, percussion and synth-pop has influences in dance music and genres much further afield, certainly not restricted to the, albeit experiemental, urban New York streets.
Now prepping compilation album Volume On, before a debut studio album will hit some time next year, the 2-CD package features a host of EPs, compilation tracks, long deleted singles, remixes and never before heard songs. Touring the UK in early December, you can listen to more Tanlines here.


text:
Perfect for social media campaigns and blogs. Web photos (up to .5 MP). 1 Seat.
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Build a high res library or promote your brand. Up to Large (2.5-4.5 MP). 5 Seats.
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no people, vertical, outdoors, day, three animals, animal themes, domestic animals, chicken, tree, togetherness, field, domestic fowl, gallinaceous bird, bird, animal
Hens in Forest


text:
Piano Stairs
Art & Design
Volkswagon has an initiative called 'fun theory' which commissions installations in the public realm. The idea behind 'fun theory' is that designers can encourage people to change their behavior in positive ways by rewarding them with a fun experience. This is classical behavioral psychology, but positive reinforcement turns out to be very effective tool for designers.
Case in point: The Piano Stairs.
The problem: how to encourage people to take the stairs, which has obvious health benefits, rather than the escalator.
The solution: a staircase that plays music like a piano, by turning each step into a key. Commuters who take the stairs become performers. The piano stairs doesn't merely react- but acts more like an interactive musical instrument, except that it engages the entire body. The project surprises unsuspecting pedestrians with an experience that they will carry with them through out the day. This is the power of art.


text:
Follow the Yellow Brick Road in 2018!
Stephen Schwartz's beloved, Tony Award-winning musical Wicked is live on Broadway and on stages across the continent in 2018, and if you hurry, there's still time to score amazing tickets for any upcoming performance! Whether you've seen the acclaimed smash hit a dozen times or this will be your first time finding out "the untold story of the witches of Oz," you're sure to find a lot to love about this modern-day classic. So check out the schedule below to learn about about upcoming productions, score your Wicked 2018 Tickets, and "Defy Gravity" with the most magical show on Broadway!
Find Wicked Tickets:
|Wicked in Albuquerque
Popejoy Hall
Albuquerque, NM (New Mexico)
|October 2018
|Wicked in Detroit
Detroit Opera House
Detroit, MI (Michigan)
|August 2018
to September 2018
|Wicked in Edinburgh
Edinburgh Playhouse
Edinburgh, United Kingdom (Edinburgh)
|May 2018
to June 2018
|Wicked in Fort Lauderdale
Au-Rene Theater - Broward Ctr For The Perf Arts
Fort Lauderdale, FL (Florida)
|February 2018
to March 2018
|Wicked in Indianapolis
Murat Theatre at Old National Centre
Indianapolis, IN (Indiana)
|April 2018
to May 2018
|Wicked in Leeds
Leeds Grand Theatre
Leeds, United Kingdom (Leeds)
|June 2018
|Wicked in Manchester
Palace Theatre - Manchester
Manchester, United Kingdom (Manchester)
|December 2018
to January 2019
|Wicked in Memphis
Orpheum Theatre - Memphis
Memphis, TN (Tennessee)
|March 2018
|Wicked in Nashville
Tennessee Performing Arts Center - Andrew Jackson Hall
Nashville, TN (Tennessee)
|March 2018
to April 2018
|Wicked in New York (Broadway)
Gershwin Theatre
New York, NY (New York)
|February 2018
to September 2018
|Wicked in Omaha
Orpheum Theatre - Omaha
Omaha, NE (Nebraska)
|May 2018
to June 2018
|Wicked in San Antonio
Majestic Theatre - San Antonio
San Antonio, TX (Texas)
|September 2018
to October 2018
|Wicked in Seattle
Paramount Theatre - Seattle
Seattle, WA (Washington)
|June 2019
to July 2019
|Wicked in Southampton
Mayflower Theatre
Southampton, United Kingdom (Southampton)
|October 2018
|Wicked in Toledo
Stranahan Theater
Toledo, OH (Ohio)
|June 2018
|Wicked in Toronto
Ed Mirvish Theatre
Toronto, Canada (Ontario)
|June 2018
to August 2018


text:
QOTD 12/24 **Christmas Eve Stuff**
Happy Christmas Eve!
Because I'm super curious, do you celebrate on Christmas Eve or Christmas or do something else?
My family (before I left home) used to have our big dinner on Christmas Eve which consisted of turkey, ham and all the sides BUT also included Tamales and Pozole (YUM!!). Then we'd stay up until midnight, open presents and just hang out all night and sleep all of Christmas. Always was a blast :)
That sounds really cool :) What great traditions!
Quoting Anniea90:
We do a finger foods like party at my aunts on christmas eve. This way we have time to spend with my aunts and uncles. We exchange gifts between them then. Then everyone gets to stay home on Christmas and relax with their small bunch. So no one is rushing around christmas day really. Its nice. On christmas we will do presents when we wake up and a breakfast casserole, then we will have dinner whenever it gets done. :)
Good luck with the packed schedules! :) I hope you guys have tons of fun and eat lots of yummy food <3
Quoting jryberg:
We celebrate on Christmas Day with just the three of us in the morning if my sister is in town. If she is not in town we spend the night at my parents and wake up there, with them.
This year Christmas Eve is the only day my sister's family and my brother's kids can all be at my parents so we are doing our family Christmas today. It will be a fun afternoon, gifts with my brothers kids, and lots of laughing! Tomorrow we will wake up at home, do gifts with just the three of us, and then go back to my parents and do gifts with them and my sister's family.
It's going to be a packed two days!
Yum! I hope everything turns out great :) I like hearing about different traditions and celebrations!
Quoting Rust.n.Gears:
We celebrate the 12 days of Yule which started on the Solstice with the burning of the Yule log. Yesterday was my daughters birthday who was born during the holiday and we always do a big family thing here for her. Today is about baking and cooking. It's part of the tradition. I have to make fudge, breads, and cookies. Thankfully I have a bread maker to help me out. Later tonight we feed the Tomten the bowl of poridge with butter and he will keep our home safe all year round. We keep going until Jan 31st. Each day is different and fun. I love it.
What are you doing at home if you don't mind sharing? Any traditions or routines you do? :)
Quoting mrsniebo:
Years that we celebrate with my family, we celebrate with my mom's side of the family on Christmas Eve with dinner and presents and Christmas day with my dad's side of the family on Christmas day. Previous years that we've been with DH's family have been celebrated with MIL's family on Christmas Eve, but this year we're staying home.
That sounds nice :)
Quoting mama_girl07:
If we are in las Vegas with family we do a party on the 23rd with the family. Christmas Eve we have a nice dinner(tonight is roast, green beans and roasted potatoes) then we will open a present and watch a Christmas movie then to bed :)
That's a good way to appease all the family and it doesn't make one day super jammed packed! :)
Quoting rhiannonaisling:
both...we celebrate with my inlaws (and sometimes my nieces and nephews by my brother) christmas eve and christmas day with my family.
This sounds super fun!
Quoting Moyzila:
Just started this year, The girls have a bath and came down to open their Christmas Eve Gifts which were new PJ's and then they git done watching a Nice Family Christmas Movie.. A Nightmare Before Christmas and their now watchin an 2nd episode of My Little Pony and then we will help them hang their stockings before heading up to bed.
Someone who understands the staying up until midnight thing ;) LOL I saw pics of the playset on fb, WOW! :)
Quoting MrsSexyCurtains: Growing up we were allowed to open just one gift after dinner and then the rest at midnight. That was the best! Now we let Kenzie open just one one Xmas eve and the rest Xmas morning. She just opened the gift my sister have her and is quietly playing in her room lol. She got the monster high school play set.
We're having a pretty low-key Christmas. The kids opened stockings in matching Christmas jammies, had breakfast, and opened some presents. We're watching A Christmas Story and I'll be spending some time in the kitchen later.
Quoting melliburger:
What are you doing at home if you don't mind sharing? Any traditions or routines you do? :)Quoting mrsniebo:
Years that we celebrate with my family, we celebrate with my mom's side of the family on Christmas Eve with dinner and presents and Christmas day with my dad's side of the family on Christmas day. Previous years that we've been with DH's family have been celebrated with MIL's family on Christmas Eve, but this year we're staying home.