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Thursday, November 24, 2011
a winter fairy...Happy Thanksgiving to our American cousins
Mina xxx
44 comments:
- Vicky said...
Hi sweetie this is such a beautiful images I am loving these new ones......but then I love them all lol. Colouring is fanastic as always hun.
Lotsa hugs Vicky xxx
- 24 November 2011 at 07:13
- CRAZYCRAFTSHED said...
Gorgeous and beauitful card
love the image
Hugs Dianne xx :)
- 24 November 2011 at 07:21
- Ali said...
Gorgeous image and striking papers xx
- 24 November 2011 at 07:26
- June Nelson said...
Hi me darlink this is the second post due to blogger playing up again!!! this is fantastic your colours are beautiful, may I ask which card you use for colouring your distress inks as I was using watercolour paper and it was proving really expensive and I broke two printers with it getting stuck lol, have alovely day xxxx
- 24 November 2011 at 07:35
- Linda said...
Beautiful card as usual. I just love these graceful fairies. and that lace and seam binding combo is beautiful. Hugs, Linda
- 24 November 2011 at 07:48
- Chrissy said...
Stunning Mina...her wings look like glass, beautiful papers and details, just gorgeous.
Luv CHRISSYxx
- 24 November 2011 at 07:59
- Marie-Louise said...
Beautiful card. Such a delicate image.
- 24 November 2011 at 08:09
- tilly said...
this is how fairies are meant to lok!
I love all the tiny hearts on it as well, have a good day shopping
- 24 November 2011 at 08:27
- heidy said...
Gorgeous Mina,have a nice day!
XXX heidy
- 24 November 2011 at 08:30
- Squirrel x said...
What a stunning image hun, love how you have coloured her, and those papers are yummy. Spent too much this month already on play things but will note it down for a couple of weeks time! Enjoy the shopping, and hope dad is ok. Hugs Sxx
- 24 November 2011 at 08:36
- pinky said...
Well that saved you a journey lol, I would love to get all my Christmas pressies on the net:0 Love your gorgeous card today, she is a beautiful fairy and I am getting a wee bit addicted to these:)
- 24 November 2011 at 08:39
- Rose Petal said...
Hello Mina. What a beautiful and very classy card. Gorgeous image too. Happy crafting.
Love Sandra xx
- 24 November 2011 at 09:31
- Lil Daffodil said...
Hi Mina,
I love the design papers and the lace ribbon. The image is beautifully done. Gorgeous card.
Fiona x
- 24 November 2011 at 10:09
- Hanneke said...
Wow, that image is amazing and you colored her so beautifully Mina! That paper is gorgeous! Hugs, Hanneke
- 24 November 2011 at 10:11
- riliska said...
Mina, very nice Fairy! Love this stamp a lot!
You have a nice talent in cardmaking!
- 24 November 2011 at 10:23
- Stephanie said...
Another beautiful card Mina- those fairy images are stunning! Yes, it's cold....but I love being cosy inside the house with the heating on full blast lol x
- 24 November 2011 at 10:24
- D K Crafts said...
Hi Mina. Gorgeous card. The image is fab and love the colours. Enjoy your day with your dad. Donna
- 24 November 2011 at 11:08
- Lisa Jane said...
oh gorgeous colours .. and fabulous image .. so pretty
Lisa x
- 24 November 2011 at 12:36
- Mau xx said...
Wow! love this Mina, what a gorgeous Image and beautiful colouring. Love the matching Snowflakes too xx
Sorry been missing all week ..Bathroom hunting...:O
catch up a bit now xx Keep warm and enjoy Dad's company xxxxx
- 24 November 2011 at 12:50
- Sue said...
Hi Mina,love your card,the image is great.
Keep warm and enjoy your day with your Dad.
Hugs Sue xx
- 24 November 2011 at 12:58
- fairysparkle said...
oops put comment for this card somewhere else please forgive ,.Love love your card and i also glitter all wings because as you know im called fairysparkle and my wings are glittered too.Great work im having that fairy she is beautiful xx
- 24 November 2011 at 13:15
- Craftyanny said...
gorgeous as always Mina:)
Anne x
- 24 November 2011 at 13:40
- Keep It Sweet and Simple said...
Really beautiful card - love how you kept the coluring so soft on your fairy and her sparkly wings are gorgeous.
Thanks for joining us at CES this week.
Caroline xxx
- 24 November 2011 at 13:42
- Janette said...
It's beautiful Mina, gorgeous....
Hope you ahve a good day out with Phil tomorrow, bet you get some crafty stuff while your at it....can't wait for the pics of your Daughter too....have fun and stay warm, the temp has dropped abit here to..xxx
- 24 November 2011 at 15:41
- Christine L said...
Another ethereal stunner Mina... hope you had a nice day with your Dad
Christine x
- 24 November 2011 at 15:58
- Lusilla said...
Gorgeous image ,I love it!!!!
- 24 November 2011 at 16:19
- CraftyC said...
Gorgeous card MIna, a beautiful image
- 24 November 2011 at 16:33
- Nannieflash said...
Oh Mina that is one stunning card your colouring is just beautiful and those papers really look gorgeous to. hugs Shirleyx
- 24 November 2011 at 16:39
- Andrea C said...
I tried to comment but seriously this blogger has it in for me!! Loving your card it is beautiful to the max xx
- 24 November 2011 at 17:13
- Riet said...
So beautiful card Mina,I love the image and your papers.
Hugs Riet.xx
- 24 November 2011 at 17:19
- Jackie said...
Stunning card Mina, superb colouring, love the way you do the wings :o)
Jackie xx
- 24 November 2011 at 17:39
- arjette said...
oooohhhh what an awesome card!!!! Soooo beautiful!! That image is sooo beautiful and you colored it so gorgeous!!
gr. arjette.
- 24 November 2011 at 19:00
- Miss Emerald said...
Lovely Fairy and so wonderful card!
- 24 November 2011 at 19:21
- CraftyLoops said...
Mina this is beautiful, I love the image is stunning. Gorgeous card. Lee xx
- 24 November 2011 at 20:53
- coops said...
wow, this is fantastic mina.the image is so stunning and i love your colouring and lush paper :D
xx coops xx
- 24 November 2011 at 21:48
- Sarah said...
Beautiful soft colours on your gorgeous fairy - stunning.
- 24 November 2011 at 22:25
- Aunty Sue said...
fab card thanks for joining Crafty Catz
- 24 November 2011 at 23:03
- Monika/Buzsy said...
Lovely card Mina. That fairy image is so pretty, and the coloring is awesome. Love the touch of sparkle. The snowflake paper looks great! Thank you for playing along with us at The Sweet Stop this week. :o)
- 24 November 2011 at 23:36
- Cheryl said...
oh this is one gorgeous card hun that fair is just so beautiful and as for your coloring just first class as always hugs cheyrlxxxxx
- 25 November 2011 at 06:40
- Curlybear said...
Oh my word what an adorable creation the I love the design and layout and fabulous colour theme too...
Thank you so much for joining us at Crafty Catz Snowflakes Challenge I hope you can join us again next week
Have a lovely day,
Good Luck with the challenge,
Hugs Bridget Crafty Catz DT :-)x
- 25 November 2011 at 09:30
- Rebecca said...
The colours are gorgeous, and she is very beautiful! I'll have to add this stamp to my wish list!
Rebecca x
- 25 November 2011 at 12:10
- Donna said...
Fab, festive Christmas card and pretty snowflake design papers! Thanks for joining in with us at CES this week :) Donna x
- 25 November 2011 at 17:58
- Caroline said...
Wowww Mina, what a fabulous card!!! I love this new image from Sara Burrier. Big fan of hers. And you color them amazingly!!! Beautiful papers you used. Greetings, Caroline
- 28 November 2011 at 13:11
- Grenouille Greetings said...
OOOOOh! Classically elegant! Hugs, Lesley
- 11 December 2011 at 20:18


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text:
The national mood, January 2018
Sunday January 14 2018
The first two weeks of January 2018 have gotten off to a slow, quiet start.
I sense a certain general slowing down in Uganda.
There was a period from 1994 to about 2001 when something always seemed to be starting or being launched every month.
Businesses were filling in desperate needs.
We needed computers, office furniture, new supermarkets, specialist men's or ladies' boutiques, pharmacies, radio stations, Internet cafes, private schools, factories, fumigation services, restaurants and so on.
Today, it feels like that period of fastest growth is now well behind us.
Whatever new business opens seems to be just the latest of many of its kind.
So many floors in the new high-rise buildings are unoccupied. Restaurants and coffee shops in much of Kampala tend to sit empty for most of the time.
I don't know how it is with the telecom companies, but that too seems to be at a saturation point and what saves them is that more data than voice services are used and with social media the addiction it is, this new lease on life will take the telecoms for another few years.
Even music concerts by some of the leading singers in town have started to flop or see much lower attendance than just a few years ago.
That is the slowdown many of us feel around us. We have run out of new ideas and new things to do.
Most of 2017 was taken up by political and crime news. The suspicion, later confirmed, that there were moves to lift the presidential age limit took up the last one third of the year.
High profile crimes, like the murder of Assistant Inspector General of Police Andrew Felix Kaweesi and the mysterious letters being dropped in and threatening murder in Masaka, took up the first half of the year.
Without them, 2017 could have been a very quiet year.
The quiet of the first fortnight of 2018 also suggests that the Ugandan public has given up on its last hope of preventing a Museveni life presidency.
It feels like the despondency that came over Buganda after the May 1966 incident.
People just pull out psychologically from political life, go quiet, and the pain and frustration eats them quietly on the inside since there is nothing they can do about the situation.
We shall continue to see by-elections in different parts of the country, but this will be more a going through the motions than anything.
National politics since 2004 had been shaped around the question of the succession to Museveni. Now that this does not seem likely in the short or medium term, what is there to really debate politically? Not much.
As far as the country is concerned, we are now officially in a one-party state lead by a life presidency.
I'm struggling to see where we might get big public projects that will change the national mood.
Perhaps the Kampala-Entebbe Expressway will be opened to the public and travel between the two towns made much faster and less congested.
Maybe the expansion of Entebbe International Airport will bring about a new look to the area near the airport.
Shoprite will open up several outlets in Kampala and Entebbe to fill in the gap in the market left by the departure of Nakumatt.
The football World Cup mid-year will hold the attention of mostly male Ugandans for a month.
These events and developments will have a little psychological knock-on, but I don't know how on a broader scale they will change the overall national mood, which is that of a population left feeling pushed to the margins.
Facebook: Kampala Express


text: UFDC Home | Help | RSS Title: Bill may protect dam many want destroyed CITATION PAGE IMAGE Full Citation STANDARD VIEW MARC VIEW Permanent Link: http://ufdc.ufl.edu/UF00052142/00001 Material Information Title: Bill may protect dam many want destroyed Alternate Title: Newspaper article by Craig Pittman in St. Petersburg Times, "Bill may protect dam many want destroyed." Physical Description: 1p. Language: English Creator: Pittman, Craig ( Author ) Publication Date: Mar. 27, 2001 Subjects Spatial Coverage: North America -- United States of America -- Florida Notes General Note: Box 4, Folder 5 ( CROSS FLORIDA BARGE CANAL ), Item 3 Funding: Digitized by the Legal Technology Institute in the Levin College of Law at the University of Florida. Record Information Bibliographic ID: UF00052142 Volume ID: VID00001 Source Institution: University of Florida Holding Location: Levin College of Law, University of Florida Rights Management: All rights reserved by the source institution and holding location. Full Text Bill may protect dam many want destroyed SA House committee has budget. Bush had sought $800,000 to start abill t t w d the restoration work this year, to prepare approved a bill that would roads around the dam area and pump protect the Rodman Reservoir, nutrient-rich sediments from behind the halting the dam's destruction. dam into an adjacent borrow pit The money the governor requested is Bym C in the House version of the budget, but not By CRAIG PITTMAN ,- 7 0 the Senate version. Instead, the Senate rTmes staff Writer would spend $800,000 for a fish hatchery Every time the Legislature convenes, and $300,000 for the new park. there is a renewed battle over Rodman A legislative staff report estimates that Reservoir. Even though Gov. Jeb Bush has the dam needs up to $2.5-million in repairs joined the ranks of those who want to tear if it is to remain in place, and that operating down the dam and free the Ocklawaha it each year costs about $500,000. If the River, the fightgoes on this year as well. state were to keep the dam, it also would Over the objections of environmental have to pay people whose land was flooded groups, the House Natural Resources by it years ago. The estimated cost of those Committee approved a bill Monday to des- payments is at least $9.4-million. ignate the Central Florida reservoir a state A 1995 report on restoring the river recreation area and preserve it estimated that tearing down the,dam could "We got beat bad," said Eric Draper, cost between $5-million and $23.4-million. .conservation director of Audubon of Flori- The dam'and reservoir areFemnants of .da. ; Cross Florida Barge Ca.alwhich was The bill. would put the state at cross sup f ges slice straight across purposes with three federal agencies that the peninsula from the Atlantic Ocean to want the dam destroyed, according to a the Gulf of Mexico. The canal was halted letter federal officials sent the governor by President Richard Nixon because of this year. The dam and reservoir partly environmental concerns. occupy federal land that once was part of To build the reservoir, the Army Corps the Ocala National Forest. of Engineers flattened thousands of cy- "Accordingly, we have a deep concern press trees along the 80-mile river. When over any legislation that would establish by .the dam was completed in 1968 it backed law the continued existence of the Rodman the Ocklawaha up for 16 miles, flooding Reservor," regional directors for the U.S. 9,000 acres. Forest Service, Fish and Wildlife Service The Legislature repeatedly blocked ef- and Environmental Protection Agency forts by Bush's Democratic predecessor, wrote. Such legislation "would create a Gov. Lawton Chiles, to come up with mon- conflict between state law and the federal ey to tear down the 7,200-foot dam. Law- S.code of regulations." makers contended Rodman was too valu- Federal officials could not be reached able as a popular bass-fishing lake. for comment Monday on what they would For two years Bush refused to take a do should the Legislature approve the bill position on the dam, giving hope to its sponsored by Rep. Joe Pickens, R-Palatka. advocates that the Republican would take Pickens also could not be reached, their side. But last July he announced that The Rodman battle extends to the state he too wants to tear it down. Contact Us | Permissions | Preferences | Technical Aspects | Statistics | Internal | Privacy Policy © 2004 - 2010 University of Florida George A. Smathers Libraries.All rights reserved. Acceptable Use, Copyright, and Disclaimer Statement Last updated October 10, 2010 - - mvs


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You are probably like a million other women out there who have tons of questions about pregnancy. If I missed my periods, does that mean that I'm pregnant. Well, I wanted to share with you a few symptoms of ways that you can know if you are pregnant.
- Missed periods
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I was beaten up in the lobby of the building where I live by patrons coming out of the Palomar restaurant on 28 Apr 2012 about 7:30pm. I did not go to the hospital or file charges because the police told me, in the presence of the mayor, that I could not have my medicine (marijuana) there or at the hospital.
Across the country hate speech about marijuana and medical marijuana is not just fashionable, it is the law.
While prominent examples abound, perhaps the most glaring is the resurrection of Jim Crow in Los Angeles through regulations that essentially entrap every single dispensary in the city.
Pretty much all of my writing for the past several months has been on Examiner.com. Click on the title of my previous blog entry for a list of my most recent articles. WAMM has an annual fundraiser in the park for years now. Several years ago the city banned smoking in the park. Last year Continue reading →
Well, since the last post the City Council has gone forward with more ordinances, such as making it illegal to sit on a bench for more than an hour. At issue are seven proposed measures that would restrict panhandling around public art and directories; limit time on public benches to one hour; stop the sale Continue reading →


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Don't Sweat the Small Stuff
Can fixed-function capacitive sensing help embedded developers avoid getting mired in details while balancing energy efficiency and robustness?
Although capacitive sensing solutions have been on the market for decades, the barriers to successful design remain formidable. While balancing the often-conflicting priorities of touch robustness and current consumption, developers must also focus on sensor layout and stack-up and other system-level considerations to create an optimal solution. Below all of these system-level considerations comes the daunting task of creating firmware that filters interference, qualifies touches and produces reliable touch data. Fixed-function capacitive sensing can free developers from the low-level coding concerns of touch qualification and nuanced state maintenance. More development cycles become available to hone the product features and optimize other system-level concerns. Because fixed-function capacitive sensing devices are rarely pure 'drop-in' solutions due to the innate complexity of their function, developers must rely on tools and documentation provided by the fixed-function vendor to tune performance in a way that is intuitive, fast, and manageable inside a larger product development workflow.
These Challenges Can Fly Under the Radar
Developers add capacitive sensing interfaces to products when a product needs a sleek and attractively low profile interface surface, improved long term reliability compared to mechanical buttons, and a customized interface that ensures their product has a distinctive look and feel. While the benefits of capacitive sensing interface design might be obvious, some of the challenges in capacitive sensing are less evident, especially in early-stage development. Capacitive sensing-enabled code examples may run well in demo environments. However, developers attempting to drop code from those examples into product firmware may not realize the demo firmware lacks features that make the code product-ready. While development might go smoothly during a proof-of-concept stage, as a product heads into prototyping and deployment stages of development, issues can surface that slow progress and create panicked and expensive revisions, potentially incorporating sub-optimal fixes and hacks to get a product released on time.
All capacitive sensing solutions perform essentially the same task. These sensors combine integrated CMOS designs with external capacitive components to measure minute analog changes, and post-sample processing interprets those changes to characterize user touches. Any sensitive analog sub-system in a mixed signal design faces the challenge of performing optimally in systems where almost every factor—current draw constraints, timing limitations and other components—work in concert to degrade performance.
One rule of thumb that capacitive sensing developers come to learn is that a design never works better than it does when it's on the developer's desk. In many ways, a workstation can be an ideal environment for capacitive sensing because so many environmental variables are carefully controlled. Stress testing later in development might reveal susceptibility to interference. And undesirable behavior of the sensing interface, as the sensing component is integrated into a larger system, can occur. Interference immunity can be an insidious problem, hard to characterize and address if left to later-stage development.
Current and timing constraints are two other design factors whose effects sometimes go unnoticed in early stage development. In many cases, developers begin work on an isolated system such as a vendor evaluation board. There is a tendency to 'turn every knob' toward sensitivity and robustness in early firmware without noticing that in almost every case improving those metrics comes at the cost of increased current draw and sensing time. As with most analog measurement systems, capacitive sensing touch qualification benefits from sampling more data, more frequently. Unfortunately, sampling at higher frequencies tends to put capacitive sensors into states where current draw is relatively high. Additionally, turning robustness-related features to their maximum can cause touch qualification response time to decrease. The effects of this decreased responsiveness might not be fully apparent at first, because the system in these proof-of-concept stages might be responsible only for monitoring for touches. In later-stage development, if MCU cycles balance capacitive sensing with other responsibilities, this could exacerbate the decreased responsiveness.
Sensor design challenges can cause multiple prototype builds and schedule delays. The shape of a capacitive sensing electrode and its proximity not only to ground pour on a PCB, but also to other board components, can lead to interference and other issues. In many cases the developer first designs tests of a capacitive sensing solution on vendor evaluation boards—unencumbered by design constraints of a developer's final product. Thus, when the solution moves to a board with a different layout, sensing performance may degrade.
Camp Coding and Its Alternative
The numerous capacitive sensing solutions on the market today divide into two camps: those that require some firmware development; and those that do not require any coding.
An MCU-based solution can be useful in designs that benefit from giving a single microcontroller multiple responsibilities in addition to capacitive sensing. Space-constrained board designs lead many developers to use an MCU with capacitive sensing features, saving board space by reducing the number of chips on a board. In other cases, a developer might need to go the MCU-based route because system-level requirements are such that the sensing solution desired falls outside the capabilities of fixed-function solutions on the market. If requirements are such that the sensor must use a less-common serial or parallel interface to communicate to the larger system, developers might be unable to find a fixed-function solution that can communicate over that interface while also fulfilling other design requirements.
Integrating capacitive sensing into a central MCU creates additional challenges that can be daunting for developers. In the worst case where a developer has chosen an MCU from a vendor without comprehensive capacitive sensing firmware and software support, all sensing firmware must be developed in-house. Coding, debugging, and finally optimizing capacitive sensing firmware against all of the factors that can degrade performance in the field is a task that can easily demand entire teams of developers.
Ideally, developers will find a way to avoid this treacherous path and instead choose a vendor that provides some firmware to be used as a starting point. However, even in the case where an MCU is running thoroughly tested firmware, integration challenges remain. In an MCU that is responsible for multiple tasks in a system, capacitive sensing sample and processing time must be shared among all other responsibilities. Resource sharing requires careful examination of expected worst-case runtime scenarios so that a balance can be struck among components. Otherwise, the capacitive sensing component could become a 'starved thread' that isn't responsive or reliable enough to be product-ready. Current consumption is another aspect of resource sharing that must be taken into consideration. MCUs chosen to perform many tasks are often relatively power-hungry. Without careful tuning of capacitive sensing sample time, such an MCU could be forced into a higher power state for a percentage of time that blows through a product's current budget.
Putting a Lid on Firmware Development Costs
Fixed-function capacitive solutions eliminate the challenges presented by the integrated approach. Most obviously, all of the touch qualification and interference filtering techniques are baked into the fixed-function device, allowing developers to avoid costly firmware development. Instead of managing all the close-to-the-metal details of conversion and processing, the developer will be presented with an interface that is geared toward providing information as concisely and promptly as possible.
A fixed-function device requires that a host MCU be present in a system, monitoring the device for capacitive sensing events as well as managing other responsibilities. At first glance, this might seem to present a current draw issue compared to a solution using the integrated approach. However, because fixed-function devices have been optimized to perform a narrowly defined task, they have been highly optimized for that specific purpose while using minimal current draw. Simultaneously, these devices are usually designed to signal a host MCU in an event-driven manner, meaning that they don't require constant polling from a host. This use model enables a host MCU to remain in its lowest power state for a higher percentage of time while monitoring the fixed-function signaling pin as a wake-up source. In cases such as these, a two-chip solution—with the larger chip in a deep sleep while the smaller, more current-conscientious chip efficiently scans capacitive sensing inputs—can lower system current draw.
Real World Example: A Remote Control
Deciding whether to go with an integrated or a fixed-function approach demands careful examination of how the product, a remote, for example, will handle real world tasks. Remote control devices (Figure 1) are increasingly using capacitive sensing surfaces for user input. In its simplest form, a remote control might only have a few components: a user input system, IR transmitter circuit, and an MCU to control the system. An integrated approach might seem ideal in this type of device, because the product requirements are likely not so resource-intensive as to present resource-sharing challenges between the capacitive sensing component and the IR output component.
A closer examination of the use case, though, reveals how a fixed-function device may lead to a more highly optimized and energy-efficient system. Because all remote control behavior begins with user input —specifically a user pressing one of the buttons on the remote—the MCU controlling other components of the system, such as the IR output, could be placed in a deep sleep to minimize current draw and increase battery life. Also, because the MCU's system requirements are likely not stringent in this type of application, using an optimized fixed-function solution means that the controlling MCU needs fewer port pins to operate. The controlling MCU won't need to sense each input on its own. A lower pin count MCU is likely a lower-cost MCU, potentially enabling a developer to design in an MCU that is 'just good enough' rather than a chip that is more functionally dense and geared toward 'system on a chip'-style use.
Innovation Not Minutia
An end-to-end fixed-function capacitive sensing solution now on the market comes from Silicon Labs. Our CPT007 and CPT112S fixed-function devices provide reliable touch qualification, best-in-class current consumption and easy configuration through sophisticated software tools. Developers gain streamlined path toward adding button and slider capacitive inputs to a design.
In the case of the remote control design, many of the common issues and challenges faced by capacitive sensing developers are present. A developer must create a robust and responsive touch interface that consumes a small enough amount of current so that the system can be battery-powered. A remote control developer who has chosen to use one of the CPT devices can enter the proof-of-concept phase of development using the evaluation kits provided by Silicon Labs, which have sensors on board that can simulate buttons in the developer's final product. The CPT device interface can be wired to a host MCU, while the CPT device's configuration and data interface can interface with Simplicity Studio, Silicon Labs' integrated development environment. Using this setup, users can easily configure characteristics of each sensor through XPress Configurator (Figure 3) as well as examine real-time capacitive output using Capacitive Sense Profiler.
Once a prototype board is designed, Simplicity Studio can still be used to optimize and improve a CPT device in-system through a two-wire interface that can be routed to pads or vias on the prototype board. This feature helps developers overcome challenges that occur when first moving a system away from 'optimal' proof-of-concept designs using vendor evaluation boards. Developers can prototype a product's enclosure and different types of overlays without losing critical visibility into how each design choice affects capacitive sensing performance. Furthermore, supporting documentation guiding sensor design will ensure that a developer designs a board that performs optimally, even in a tightly integrated system.
The last thing that a developer wants to spend the majority of his or her design time on is the minutia of a product's capacitive sensing component. The more time poured into tweaking firmware or spinning new board revs to avoid crippling interference coupling, the less time a developer can devote to making products that are innovative and distinctive. The goal of capacitive sensing vendors is to streamline the development process so that their customers don't have to worry about low-level touch qualification issues. Fixed-function capacitive sensing devices take the idea of streamlining development to a logical end point, where all low-level concerns and touch sensing data are abstracted inside a single-purpose chip with configuration and event communication interfaces that have been crafted to be as simple to use as possible. Silicon Labs capacitive touch sensing devices show just how straightforward capacitive sensing development can be, by offering a combination of robust hardware and supporting software that can help a developer overcome the many pitfalls of capacitive sensing design, clearing a path for product design creativity and innovation.
Parker Dorris is a senior applications engineer supporting Silicon Labs' microcontroller product line. He joined Silicon Labs in 2003 when the company acquired Cygnal Integrated Products. Mr. Dorris specializes in the areas of human interface and USB embedded system design. He holds a BSEE from the University of Texas at Austin.
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FRONT LINE GOLF AND WITH SEA VIEWS CONTEMPORARY STYLE VILLAS IN MIJAS COSTA AVAILABLE AT EXCEPTIONNALY LOW PRICES! We have designed these modern style three bedroom villas with the intention of satisfying those clients who are looking to make the most of the sun, the sea, the golf and overall the whole exciting experience of living in such a great place such as Costa del Sol. Built on plots between 550 and 600 m2.The perfect size to enjoy large outdoor spaces without a high maintenance cost.Built over three floors the villas are front line golf and they are either facing south or south west depending on the plot. Therefore all of them are very bright and enjoy long hours of sunshine by the swimming pool. Ground floor with living room and kitchen. Open plan kitchen or closed kitchen will be at the clients request for those villas that are not finished. There is also a guest toilet on this floor.First floor with three bedrooms and two bathrooms, one of them en suite with two showers, one indoor and the special feature of an outdoor shower too.Basement with buggy garage. It is very large and bright, thanks to windows and the indoor patio. The basement will be provided with toilet and garage for a buggy with direct access tothe golf course. A nice touch for the very keen golfers. The rest is an open space that can be used as cinema room, gym, garage or else.
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Military – this one word brings in utmost respect. Be it the person who is working in the department of the military for the country or the family who is sacrificing every day and night so that their family member can serve the nation, they all deserve every bit of respect!
Every minute becomes precious for these people because they get very little time to meet each other, and the future is most uncertain for the military personnel. Keeping this in mind, Airline tickets for Military are a boon for the person and their family members. Once such website, that provides the best airline tickets for Military is Military Travel Exchange.
Services provided by Military Travel Exchange
This portal provides easy loans on travel for –
• Home visits
• Family travels to and fro
• Vacations – for Military families
• Last minute flight bookings
• Emergency airline tickets for Military
• Tickets for flying Military's friends
• Holidays with family
• Flying for special occasions – anniversaries
• Flying for relaxation
• Honeymoon travels for military
The portal partners with over 450+ airlines to get the Military the best airline tickets at the best prices. They understand the importance of time for a Military person and hence offer various plans too. One such plan includes Fly Now, Pay Later plans where in you can pay for your trip at a later stage while you choose to travel immediately.
You can choose to book your flights for a round trip, one way or to multiple cities. Cheap Flights for military are available in all these options through this website along with some super amazing Military offers and discounts.
How does the service work?
The website ensures to offer 100% travel financing for all Military bookings. While making a booking through Military Travel Exchange, you just need to follow the below steps –
• Let the team know about your travel plans. It may be well-planned loads of months before the actual travel date or it could have just come out all of a sudden, just let the team know the dates and destination along with your budget.
• The second step will be to complete the assistance form online. You will need to fill out the assistance form and submit it. The team will start working on your request based on your details and the assistance form submitted by you. If you are opting for a special plan or for pay later option, if all details are accurate, you can get it approved within minutes
• What more, while the website will book tickets on your behalf, all you need to do is, sit back and relax. Wait for their confirmation and begin packing your bags.
The team understands the importance of family for a Military person and hence has top quality of customer service. All details will be shared with you and the team will ensure that you get the best possible prices for your travel. Let the team make your bookings, while you call home and let them know that you are coming to meet them!


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Inexpensive Kitchen Designs
Not every kitchen transformation has to be a total, expensive gut job. The average mid-range redo now hovers near $62,000 nationally and a higher $123,000 for a luxe makeover, according to the latest "Cost vs. Value" Report from Remodeling Magazine; both higher costs than in the prior year.
But you can transform parts of this room for far less. In fact, by making any of these 13 changes you give your kitchen a fresh look, make it more workable, and even help resale when that time comes. Designer Laura Angelini of Angelini Designs out of Red Hook, N.Y., and Spring Lake, N.J., suggests the following transformations, used together or alone to fit your budget.
Paint can work wonders on everything, and kitchen cabinets are no exception. Go out of your comfort zone and go dark with paint. Navy kitchens are incredibly beautiful with copper hardware. Spend time on Pinterest looking at kitchen images. Ask a paint store for an oversized sample and look at colors all times of the day. Getting cabinets professionally sprayed is best. But if you do the work yourself, you can achieve a good result if you take your time and prep well. First remove all the hinges. Label each door with masking tape so you remember which goes where. Prep cabinets well so paint will stick. Scrub them down and use 100-grit sandpaper to make the surfaces very smooth. Then use a satin paint finish, which is best for cleaning. Another tip: Wash your brush every two hours so the paint flows nicely and evenly. Consider painting lower cabinets in one color and upper cabinets in a different hue.
- Paint can also be used in other ways to make affordable changes on walls. Even adding a splash of color on one wall can brighten it up. Change up color easily also by switching out backsplash tiles or accents with new small kitchen appliances in perky hues.
- Even just adding beautiful hardware can help transform everything. Schoolhouse Electric & Supply (schoolhouseelectric.com) offers some inexpensive nice choices, so does Rocky Mountain Hardware (www.rockymountainhardware), and, of course, there are well known national resources such as Home Depot (www.homedepot.com) and local resources in most communities like Williams Lumber (www.williamslumber) in Dutchess County, N.Y.
- If you want to change cabinets altogether, don't think you have to go with expensive custom boxes. Many good, sturdy examples are less costly—think IKEA—and then go all out on countertops and the backsplash. A beautiful stone slab can add a warm natural touch. Quartz and quartzite are the new granite—equally durable–and available in many palettes and patterns. Honed counters instead of polished offer a richer, more expensive look. It does add a bit more expense but can be well worth it. Go for as many drawers in base cabinets as you can. Angelini has been specifying drawers under the sink for easy access. The top drawer needs to be cut out to accommodate the pipe, but is a simple change. "Keeping things easy to access makes your life easy!" she says.
Forget the microwave, and maybe bring in a hip steam oven for healthy cooking. Angelini, for one, rarely uses her microwave anymore. "I think it disturbs the look of the room, or put one in a small adjacent pantry," she says. Doing a great stainless hood over the stove looks so much better than a big bulky microwave taking up center stage, she says.
- Change out a light fixture, which isn't that costly, and it can become an attractive focal point of the room, particularly if it is oversized or has a colorful shade. But avoid the three pendants above an island look, which is now such a design cliché. Schoolhouse Electric has some great inexpensive fixtures that will bring a lot of character to a space.
- Speaking of lighting, be sure the room includes the three essential layers for best results: recessed for overall lighting through some cans but not too many or too large—4 inch diameter is better than 6 inch; undercabinet to perform tasks; and a decorative fixture for aesthetics and mood. All should be on dimmers for control and all outfitted with LEDs for the greatest energy efficiency. Prices have come way down, and these bulbs last almost forever.
- Changing a dated appliance or two can make a huge difference in cooking and entertainment pleasure. Pick wisely. If you hate bending and freeze little, buy a refrigerator with freezer on the bottom; if you entertain often and have the space consider two dishwashers or dish drawers from Fisher & Paykel. Ranges with induction rather than gas or electric are the most energy efficient.
New floor tiles in a larger format size can help transform a room. Go with 16 inch by 22 or 24 inch ones in porcelain to add chicness and durability. Or consider a new wood floor in real engineered boards or faux ones that are a great copy. Both add a warm look many homeowners desire. A bigger budget may permit reclaimed wood boards that are sustainable or even stone, also a green choice if purchased locally.
- If space permits, you might want to add a nice eating choice such as a banquette for a retro twist on diner style or even a counter extension with seating for one, two or three depending on size.
- Islands require enough space to navigate around, and today many design pros recommend movable ones on casters that can even roll into a dining or family room for entertaining or become a bar. Be sure you have about 3 feet all around for good clearance.
- If you want to spend your dollars on one major change and your layout works with this, consider taking down a wall to open the room to a dining room or family room. The open-concept space is desirable for easy livability for family as well as for friends. Just be sure the wall coming down isn't load bearing.
- Natural light from new larger panes, doors with glazing or a skylight all will add a feeling of more space, and be good for bright, cheerful working conditions as well as to lift your spirits. Get double or triple-paned for good energy savings. You may even get an energy rebate in your community or state; check first for any requirements to satisfy.


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We moved to Seattle in February 2008 and shared blog posts and photos during our first few years in Seattle.
- Troy & Lesley H
Thursday, December 31, 2009
I got some DRY soda
Posted by Troy at 4:00 PM
Wednesday, December 30, 2009
Cowboys game not on local TV this weekend
Posted by Troy at 4:30 PM
Most of the country gets to see the Cowboys game, but not us. Map from the506.com
Last year we watched pretty much every Cowboys game that wasn't televised here at a local sports bar, which was inconvenient and kind of expensive. This year, we were able to find video feeds online to watch most of the Cowboys games. And, this year we were pretty fortunate, as 10 of the 16 Cowboys' games were broadcast on local TV.
The game this weekend is the last game of the regular season and is fairly important, as the winner of the game will win the division and gets a higher seed in the playoffs. Unfortunately, while much of the country will get to see this game, the game is not being televised locally. Fortunately, all playoff games are nationally televised, so we will at least get to see the Cowboys playoff game(s) on TV.
Friday, December 25, 2009
Merry Christmas!
Posted by Lesley at 10:44 AM
Once we got off the phone, Troy and I opened the rest of the gifts. I got a gift card to Old Navy from my Uncle Bob and Troy got a gift card to Whole Foods from my parents. My parents also gave us a bottle of Three Rivers Malbec-Merlot wine that we really liked when we had it at Red Fin with my cousin.
Finally Troy and I opened our presents from each other. I gave him the Simpsons Season 5 on DVD. He bought Season 6 on Amazon since his brother gave him an Amazon gift card. And I gave him Season 7 for his birthday, so now we have Seasons 5 through 8.
I opened mine and there was a note in it from Troy saying he had to go get it from under the bed. He pulled it out and it was our drawing of the hale we stayed in on our honeymoon in Hawaii framed in a nice black frame with beige matting. It looks really nice! I had been wanting the drawing framed ever since we got it, so I was surprised that Troy remembered and actually did it.
Soon we'll eat more of our ham for lunch and maybe go outside later. Merry Christmas!
Thursday, December 24, 2009
Christmas Eve
Posted by Lesley at 10:00 PM
We also talked to our parents on the phone. Mine called us back after they opened their presents and were very happy with them. I got them a few souvenirs from Australia, including a Sydney calendar, a Sydney magnet, and a small wooden painted kangaroo. We also got them some mint Frango and probably one of the best gifts I've ever given anyone: a personalized picture frame with a picture of our cat Sassy in it.
We also went to look at lights at Candy Cane Lane in the neighborhood of Ravenna. After that we went back home and watched a Charlie Brown Christmas and ate a few pieces of my apple pie. I'm looking forward to opening our presents tomorrow morning.
Wednesday, December 23, 2009
Still a lot of construction
Posted by Troy at 4:00 PM
When we moved here, I was kind of amazed by all the new building construction. We could see 12 cranes from our window at one time a year and a half ago. A lot of that construction has finished, which is nice, because now the sidewalks we use most are no longer blocked.
Still, despite the downturn in the economy, there are 8 cranes we can see from our window, and construction continues. There is a lot of underused land north of downtown in the Denny Triangle area as well as in our neighborhood. As Seattle continues to grow, these areas are prime targets for development.
Tuesday, December 22, 2009
Received our Olympic tickets!
Posted by Lesley at 4:00 PM
I'm getting really excited about going to Vancouver and being a part of the Winter Olympics. The city will probably be very busy and swarmed with tourists and spectators. It also happens to be Valentine's Day on the Sunday while we're there, so maybe we can eat at a nice romantic restaurant or something. I can't wait!
Monday, December 21, 2009
Made our own enchiladas
Posted by Lesley at 5:30 PM
We had to make the salsa verde mixture (onions, chicken broth, green chilies, and spices) and lightly fry the corn tortillas to soften them up. Then we dipped the tortillas in the salsa verde and then put chicken and cheese inside and rolled them up. We filled our 13 x 9 pan with 8 enchiladas and cooked them in the oven with green onions and cheese on top. We also made our own refried beans from a can of pinto beans and we made Mexican Rice-a-Roni. It was all really good and smelled and tasted like real Tex-Mex. Although, after making them ourselves, I realize how bad that kind of food really is for you. I was pretty full after eating almost two enchiladas and couldn't finish my plate. Now we have yummy leftovers.
Work Christmas Party
Posted by Lesley at 12:30 PM
Troy and I went to my work Christmas party this past Friday night. The weather was actually decent for mid-December, so we just walked to it. It was held at the Hotel Andra downtown again, which is only two blocks from my building. Just like last year, we had food catered by the famous Tom Douglas restaurant called Lola.
We started out with appetizers and drinks as everyone mingled around. There was also a small live band that played music. Then we sat down for dinner around 7, which consisted of a salad with beets, fish with brussels sprouts (which I'd never had before), and some kind of steak with a vegetable I can't remember. Then they brought us a dessert plate with a small chocolate cupcake, a small coconut cream pie bite, and a small dish of creme brulee. All the food was good and it was fun hanging out with Eric and my other co-workers.
Friday, December 18, 2009
Downtown Seattle during the Holidays
Posted by Troy at 4:00 PM
Downtown Seattle is a fun, exciting place any time of year, but it's especially festive right now.
We went downtown on the day after Thanksgiving for the traditional tree lighting like we did last year. Like last year, it was a huge attraction. Unlike last year, the sound system didn't fail and they were able to launch fireworks. The tree is lit each evening along with a large star on the Macy's building.
There is also a carousel across the street. And further down Pine, Nordstrom has a Santa, who is always awaited by a long line of people to see him.
A lot of the buildings have changed their lights to red and green and and the trees downtown are covered with lights. And Pike Place Market has a cool holiday light display near the main entrance.
All this makes going downtown especially fun this time of year. Now, if only Seattle homeowners were as festive in their holiday decorations...
Thursday, December 17, 2009
Dallas and Seattle: A contrast in architectural preservation
Posted by Troy at 10:37 AM
But now that I look back through the news at the recent history of preservation in Dallas, I remember how poorly the city and community treat historic buildings. A couple years ago, an 85-year-old East Dallas YWCA building was demolished. And last year, preservationists were shocked as a 1950s office building was demolished without warning.
Yeah, now I remember, this is how Dallas does things - it's in the name of progress.
One of the problems in Dallas is that the inner-city has been so neglected that anything seems better than abandoned buildings. But when you demolish a historic building, you destroy history, which is something that you can't get back, and one of the attractions that can help to revive and enliven the inner-city. That's not progress.
Old building in Seattle redeveloped into lofts
Historic Denny's - it wouldn't have been given a second thought if it were in Dallas
Heck, in Seattle, preservationists got landmark status for a former Denny's restaurant. The building was eventually demolished, but it came very close to preservation and was a top news story, showing the importance of preservation here.
Unfortunately, Dallas doesn't yet seem to know how to make progress while preserving history and in the process fails at both.
Wednesday, December 16, 2009
This is the worst time of year
Posted by Troy at 8:30 AM
Four days last week had record low temperatures and temperatures barely got above freezing each day. But, on the bright side, the sun was out last week. Even though the days were short, the skies were clear and we were treated to a rare stretch of sunlight in December.
Because we're so far north and nearing the winter solstice, the sun doesn't get more than 20° high in the sky anyway. And unfortunately, this week it's cloudy again, and as the afternoon sun nears the horizon, the clouds make it get darker much earlier than it did last week. In fact, with the clouds dimming the sunlight, for a significant part of the day it looks as if the sun has barely even risen.
Fortunately, the winter solstice is in less than a week at which point the days will begin to lengthen and the sun will get higher in the sky. While there will still be quite a few more cold, cloudy days this winter, more sunlight will be very welcome.
Monday, December 14, 2009
Happy Birthday Troy!
Posted by Lesley at 9:45 AM
Today is Troy's 26th birthday. This past Saturday we did several things to celebrate it. First we went to a restaurant we'd never been to before called Portage Bay for breakfast. It's only 3 blocks from us, so we walked there in the cold morning air. It was really busy, so we had to wait about 20 minutes. The food was good though and it was very filling. I got a ham, mushroom, and cheese scramble that came with toast and red potatoes. Troy got the breakfast sampler which came with eggs, toast, red potatoes, and his choice of bacon or ham. If we had gotten toast or pancakes, we could have used the fruit/topping bar which had several bowls of all kinds of fruits, butter, and whipping cream to put on your food. It all looked so good! We'll probably go back some time.
After breakfast, we walked to Lake Union and spend a few minutes there. Most of the park is blocked off because of construction and has been pretty much ever since we moved here. Hopefully it will be done soon. Then we went back home for a while before taking the bus to see a movie at the Varsity Theater in the U District. We saw Earth Days, a documentary about the history of the environmental movement. It was pretty informative and interesting because of all the archival footage from the past 50 years.
After the movie, we took a bus to the Space Needle to use our coupon for two free glasses of wine. It was dark by the time we got there around 5. We had turned our tree lights on before we left so we could try to see them from the Space Needle. Even with the telescopes, it was difficult to see our tree.
Then we rode the bus to Capitol Hill to try a Vietnamese place called Monsoon. Unfortunately we didn't have reservations and they were booked until 8, so we ditched that idea and went to Seastar near Whole Foods instead. Seastar is a really nice place and the food was excellent. I had a cup of crab and corn bisque and the penne with sea scallops. Troy had the mahi mahi with rice and vegetables and a glass of Riesling white wine. The bread was really good too. We had been planning to get cheesecake for dessert at the Cheesecake Factory downtown, but we were both too full, so we didn't get anything.
It was a pretty fun, full day. Troy has a few presents to open when I get home from work today. Happy Birthday Troy!
Friday, December 11, 2009
Wish I could get a kitten
Posted by Lesley at 7:00 AM
I love cats and wish I could get a kitten. I'd like having something to take care of and the company. It's been a while since I've consistently been around a pet, specifically a cat. I miss our old cat, Sassy, and think a new kitten would be so fun to watch grow up and play with.
Unfortunately I'm allergic to cats (allergies actually come from the cat's saliva and dandruff, not the hair) and don't really like all the hair they leave everywhere. I don't want to have an outdoor cat either because I couldn't stand the thought of it possibly being run over or getting in a fight with another animal. We can't have an outdoor cat right now anyway because we live in an apartment building.
I wish I could just get a shot or something so that I wasn't allergic to them and could get a cat some day.
Wednesday, December 9, 2009
Tim Tams now available in the US
Posted by Troy at 4:00 PM
Ironically, just a few weeks after we got back from Australia, Tim Tams are now available in stores in the States. They're made by Arnott, but are branded as Pepperidge Farm here. We found the original and caramel varieties at QFC and supposedly Target has a dark chocolate variety.
Anyway, they're really good. We already bought a couple more packages. If you go get some, you have to try the Tim Tam Explosion (also known as the Tim Tam Slam).
Monday, December 7, 2009
Cities farther South (and colder) than Seattle
Posted by Troy at 9:00 PM
Below is a list of cities that are farther south than Seattle, along with the average low temperature in the month of December.
- Boise, ID: 24 °F
- Fargo, ND: 4 °F
- Minneapolis, MN: 11 °F
- Duluth, MN: 9 °F
- Green Bay, WI: 13 °F
- Toronto, Ontario, Canada: 18 °F
- Buffalo, NY: 24 °F
- Ottawa, Ontario, Canada: 12 °F
- Bangor, ME: 16 °F
By comparison, the average low in temperature in the month of December in Seattle is at least 12 degrees warmer than all of those cities farther south - at 36 °F. Being close to the ocean, our weather is moderated by the moist ocean air that soaks the region every winter.
However, we've been under a zone of high pressure over the last several days, which has given us clear skies, as well as cold weather with lows around 22 °F until Thursday.
Want to visit more countries
Posted by Lesley at 7:00 AM
I'd never been to a foreign country before, not even Mexico or Canada. But spending two weeks in Australia makes me want to visit foreign countries more now than ever before. It was just so cool being in a different country and experiencing so many new things. I've already started a list of countries I want to visit some day. Hopefully Troy and I will be able to visit all these places.
- New Zealand - I've heard lots of good things about New Zealand. It has lots of natural beauty and is where Lord of the Rings was filmed. I'd love to spend a month there some day.
- United Kingdom (England & Scotland) - I've wanted to go to London for a while, probably since I first became a Beatles fan. I want to see Abbey Road some day. I also want to go to Liverpool to see where the Beatles started out and visit all the famous places, like the Cavern Club. Scotland would be cool too.
- Ireland - Seeing all the old castles and architecture would be cool. Going to Dublin would be the main thing to see. I don't know much about Ireland, but I think I'd like it.
- Italy - Florence, Rome, Venice, the list goes on. There's so much history in all of Europe, but I'd probably want to visit Italy the most, after England and Ireland.
- Spain - I'd like to see Madrid some day. I remember learning all about Spain in my Spanish class in high school and it seemed pretty cool.
- Mexico - Seeing the old Aztec ruins would be pretty neat, as well as spending several days in Mexico City. Maybe some day Sofia can show us around her home city. Cancun would also be nice and relaxing.
- Prague, Czech Republic - My cousin has been to Prague before and actually took her family there last month. She loves it and I think I would too because of all the cafes, shops, and cultural things to do.
Saturday, December 5, 2009
Trip to Australia: Summary
Posted by Troy at 11:00 AM
Sea stacks along Australia coastline, as seen off of the Great Ocean Road
Melbourne's Federation Square at night
Melbourne skyline at night along Yarra River
Bondi Beach
Colorful beach boxes in Melbourne
Sydney Opera House and Harbour Bridge
Sydney Harbour Bridge at night
Our first day there was a lot of fun and our first night hanging out with our friends was possibly the best night of the trip, as we all had a great time together.
One of the best things we did was our day tour along the Great Ocean Road. It was nice to be taken around to all the sights and it the scenery was amazingly beautiful. We were fortunate to have good weather and be able to appreciate such wonderful natural beauty of the ocean, shoreline, hills, trees, and - most impressively - the rock formations in the water.
We had a great time in Melbourne. The whole city was amazing - the CBD, the neighborhoods, all the shops and restaurants, the tram system, etc. However, one of our favorite places was Federation Square in the middle of the CBD. It was a great location to see Melbourne's architectural history and to experience the city.
Sydney was great too. The harbor was beautiful and the very curvy shoreline offered plenty of scenic vantage points to see the skyline, the opera house, and the bridge. I also really enjoyed relaxing in the sun and watching the waves come in at Bondi Beach. And, I had a great time exploring some of Sydney's suburbs, which were historic and lively with lots of places to eat and shop.
Overall, it was a great trip and it's been a lot of fun reliving it over these past several weeks.
- Introduction
- Long Plane Ride
- Day 1: Seeing Adam and Sofia
- Day 2: Melbourne CBD
- Day 3: Como House and Shrine of Remembrance
- Day 4: Aquarium and Park
- Day 5: The Great Ocean Road
- Day 6: Melbourne Zoo and Thai food
- Day 7: Lygon Street and soccer
- Day 8: Last full day in Melbourne
- Day 9: Flight to Sydney
- Day 10: Gardens and Scenery
- Day 11: Neighborhoods
- Day 12: Blue Mountains
- Day 13: Paddy's Market and a few last things
- Day 14: Goodybe Australia... until we see you again
- Public Transportation in Melbourne and Sydney
- Things in Australia that I'd like to see in the US
- Things we missed while in Australia
- Favorite Australian Restaurants
- A few things we learned
Thursday, December 3, 2009
Trip to Australia: A few things we learned
Posted by Troy at 7:00 AM
Our trip to Australia was our first international trip and there were a few things that we learned from it.
We were a little intimidated by traveling internationally, but it wasn't that big of a deal. The worst part was connecting in Los Angeles, so I'll try to avoid flying through there again, if at all possible. Otherwise, it was fine.
We exchanged some cash once we arrived in Australia, and it was very helpful that we were able to use our friends' bank and avoid exhorbitant fees. Without that luxury, I suppose we would've had to use one of the many expensive currency exchange services. We realized a few days into the trip that we could use our Capital One card without any foreign currency transaction fees that many credit card providers charge, so we could've spent less cash if we'd planned for that from the beginning.
We also traveled at one of the worst times for the exchange rate. The Australian dollar was reaching record highs while we were there, meaning that every dollar we spent in Australia cost us more American Dollars than it would have if the exchange rate were a little more beneficial.
I'm really glad we went when we did, though. Being able to visit a foreign country, or anywhere new for that matter, is so much better when you know someone there who can take you around. That's what made this trip so special - that we were able to spend most of it with some of our best friends. Not only did their guidance around the city help us to experience the best of Melbourne, but we just had a great time hanging out.
Wednesday, December 2, 2009
Favorite Australian Restaurants
Posted by Lesley at 7:00 AM
Bob's Kitchen - I don't know if I was just especially hungry or what, but the food at Bob's Kitchen was amazing. I talked about it the entire time we were in Australia. We all shared several kinds of dumplings, which are basically small pockets of dough that contain pork, crab meat, chicken, and other meats. We also shared a noodle dish with vegetables. I wish we'd had a chance to go back.
Max Brenner - This place was so good that we went there three times. Most, if not all, dishes have some form of chocolate with them. The chocolate soufflé was just incredible and probably really bad for you, but who cares! I especially liked the gigantic cinnamon roll with chocolate sauce for dipping. Why aren't chocolate cafes more popular in the US?
Peking Duck place - I don't know what this place was actually called, but it was a good introduction to the Peking Duck dish that originated from China. We tried this place in Chinatown and the food was really good. We ordered one and a half ducks, which came with tortilla-like pieces of bread and plum sauce. It was a lot of food for the four of us and we barely finished it.
Ying Thai 2 - I had some of the best Thai food I've ever had here. The ambiance was neat inside and the portions were huge. The coconut jasmine rice was really sweet tasting and almost could have been a dessert. I had the Pad Thai, which was excellent and wasn't too spicy at all.
Bread Top/Barby's - I really wish we had these places in the US. They sell pastries (sort of like dim sum) that taste so good and are pretty cheap. We ate breakfast at these places probably 4 times when we were in Australia. My favorite was probably the coconut bun or the blueberry twist. It's just so hard to find good, cheap pastries here besides donuts which are too sweet sometimes.
Tuesday, December 1, 2009
Things we missed while in Australia
Posted by Troy at 7:00 AM
Australia and the US are pretty similar, but in our two weeks in Australia, there were a few things that we were used to finding in the US that we missed.
- I mentioned how the pedestrian signals make sound in Australia, which is great, but they didn't count down. In Seattle, most pedestrian signals count down so you know how much time is left (though they often don't give you enough warning), but in Australia we didn't know how much time was left before the lights changed, which made it hard to judge if we still had time to cross or should wait.
- It's nice not having to tip at restaurants, but on the flip side of that, service was not as attentive. It wasn't negligent, but it was slower-paced. At times it would've been nice to have had more attentive service.
- Furthermore, when we went to restaurants, getting a big bottle of room-temperature water for the table to share was common practice. It was nice having water there, and I didn't mind not having ice. The only problem was that they hardly ever brought us more. As if four people are supposed to share a single 1.5 liter bottle of water throughout an entire meal after spending all afternoon out walking around the city.
- Furthermore, drinking fountains are uncommon in Australia. We often got thirsty and, well, there just wasn't anywhere to drink from or to refill our water bottles. How inconvenient.
- Credit cards were not accepted nearly as much. Some places didn't accept them at all and most places had a minimum charge of $15 or so. As someone who charges basically everything so that I don't have to deal with cash and can accrue points with my credit card, not getting to charge stuff like normal was an annoying adjustment.


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Creative Photography and Video Competition
《『葡』遊澳門》 is an entry piece for the first section of the creative photography and video competition held by Cyber CTM Macau. The aim of the video is to lead the audience on a summer trip showcasing different historical heritage sites and cultural attractions in Macau, allowing them to experience the place's unique fusion of both the Chinese and Western (Portuguese) Cultures.
Video created by Tina Ao and Me. ⓣ August 2015


text: I can't believe I have a 9 month old! Joseph and I went to Dallas for a week and what a week it was. We tried so many new things. He has really started getting around. I think his "crawling" is going to be an inch worm/leap frog type of crawl. He really crawled on my parent's pool table but hasn't really crawled on the ground. We started some real table food: pancakes, french toast, crackers, cheerios, fries, and mashed potatoes. (real healthy, huh?) It was just a great week. He is really turning into a boy and not acting so babyish anymore. He likes knocking things down, looking at trucks/tractors, and playing with balls. He is already becoming independent. He likes to be put down more than held, which is kind of sad...miss that baby stage already. However, he is really starting to know when I am not in the room and if other people are holding him, he really wants me. Makes me feel good. This age right now is by far my favorite!!


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Proverbs 3:5-6
Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make straight your paths.
I own 3 dairy goats and would suggest starting out with 2 goats. Why? Goats are a much smaller investment than cows. If it doesn't work, you are out less money! Goats are also hardier and less likely to have issues with things like mastitis. If you decide you like the milk but want to be able to do things like butter and cream, you can sell the goats and get a cow! Another way to help things out is to find someone with animals and offer to care for their animals while they are gone on vacation or overnight, etc. This will give you a taste of what it is like to care for an animal if you don't have experience with dairy livestock. :)ReplyDelete
I asked myself this same question, and we opted for 2 nigerian dwarf dairy goats... smaller size, big yield, take up less land. Good luck with your decision!
Found you through the Natural Living Linkup!


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Nous sommes Charlie
I woke this morning to the news of the appalling tragedy in Paris. I cried on the way to work as I listened to descriptions of the brutal deaths that the (presumed) terrorists inflicted on the cartoonists and journalists. So soon after the Sydney siege, I found it very difficult to see another city suffering a such a similar horror, albeit sadly of a far greater proportion than we saw in Sydney.
By the time I arrived at work, I had learned of the silent vigils being held across Europe last night and, particularly in Paris. The images of silent thousands holding aloft pens and pencils and signs bearing the words "Je suis Charlie" in solidarity with the slain and the democratic freedoms held so dear by France were unbearably poignant.
When I arrived home this evening, the "Je suis Charlie" signs had burned themselves into my memory and reminded me why we are so fortunate to live in democratic societies that value freedom of speech and freedom of the press so dearly. To be able to sit at my desk and write this blog post is a very sweet privilege this evening, and one which I do not take for granted. The solidarity and humanity demonstrated by the people of France (and Europe) and Sydney (and Australia) in the past 3 weeks in the face of terror and terrorism gives me such great hope for the future, even though we appear to be mired so deeply in conflict and fear in so many places across the globe and in our hearts.
Liberte, egalite, fraternite – indeed.


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Our team at Smiles Dental is dedicated to making it simple for you to afford the high-quality dental care your family deserves. We accept all major credit cards, cash, and checks.
Dr. Natanael Repta is pleased to offer the following discounts as well:
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- Smiles Dental is honoring our veterans with the gift of good health during the month of November. This year, we are offering a 15% discount on dental treatment to all Veterans and active military members, with valid military ID.
If you have any questions about our financial options, please feel free to call our dental office in Riddle, Oregon. Our dentist and team are happy to help!


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A Veritas Prep consultant since 2007, Michael is passionate about maximizing his client's chances of getting into the top MBA programs, and he has a track record of success at Stanford Graduate School of Business and Harvard Business School. His specialty is in actively assisting clients develop creative approaches to their applications and in crafting their unique stories to stand out from the competitive admissions pool.Michael has experience in finance in biotech and previously worked at Amgen and the Hewlett-Packard Company in Venezuela and in Mexico. Before business school, he was a Peace Corps volunteer for three years in the mountains of Ecuador. He started an annual scholarship fund for graduating students from his high school and continues to mentor these students. One of his mentees was just accepted to UCLA Medical School! For fun, Michael plays competitive tennis, studies French, and plays practical jokes on his colleagues.
Michael Trudeau's pricing is set by Veritas Prep.
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Product Description
Linitop Grain Filler (Bouche-Pores) is a clear, semi gloss wood grain filler formulated to fill small surface imperfections in wood prior to application of a suitable top varnish.
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With exceptional filling properties Linitop Grain Filler can be applied to new wood on top of Linitop Vernis or on old varnish in a good condition to fill imperfections. Linitop Grain Filler is perfect for achieving an ultra smooth finish on interior woodwork, reviving old varnish in good condition or renovating resinous woods, broadleaved woods and tropical hard woods.
Never apply Linitop Grain Filler directly to bare wood but only after a first coat of Linitop Vernis. Work in well ventilated rooms using rubber gloves, a mask and suitable glasses. Linitop Grain Filler can be used straight from the tin.
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Looking for dedicated indivduals with a passion for making change.
Ground Team
At Better Odds, we are always looking for great male role models for our young men. We expect our mentors to be leaders by example, not just with the organization but also in your personal lives. Mentors must also be willing to be dedicated to the youth and the community. We take all our mentors through a 2-part interview process to ensure that their core characteristics align with that of Better Odds. If you are interested, please feel out the Volunteer Questionnaire and under skills/services list mentor


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Starks Realty Group is a real estate firm specializing in the listing and sale of real property in family law cases.
Founded by Laurel Starks in 2005, author of Divorcing The House, the backbone of the business was built on serving the family law niche, and therefore has systems, training, knowledge and experience in handling the complexity of these transactions in divorce. All members of Starks Realty Group are licensed by the California Bureau of Real Estate and have over 100 combined years in real estate. Many have been trained in Divorce Mediation and Collaborative Divorce, and have been involved in over 1,000 cases collectively.
Starks Realty Group not only provides services for the sale of real property, but we also provide family law litigation support, including title search, property valuations, credit reports and buy-out / refinancing.
Laurel Starks is a recognized expert in family law real estate. In this capacity she has advised, consulted and testified in hundreds of divorce cases, and serves as a court-appointed expert in the disposition of real property. Attorneys, judges and other legal professionals have come to rely on Laurel's knowledge, judgment, integrity, as well as her ability to explain complex real estate matters to those affected by them.
She has also facilitated hundreds of home sales, putting her in the top 1 percent of agents worldwide. One of Southern California's top listing agents, Laurel has been a 3-time Platinum Medal winner for Keller Williams Realty.
This unique background has made Laurel an indispensable resource for consumers and professionals alike. She has parlayed her niche into a multifaceted endeavor that incorporates education and hands-on help for anyone facing the difficult, complex and bewildering realm of family law real estate.
Starks Realty Group at KW SoCal
Laurel Starks, Divorce Real Estate Expert
Address: 8250 White Oak Ave., #102, Rancho Cucamonga, CA 91730
Phone: (909) 945-0609
E-mail: firstname.lastname@example.com
Website: www.StarksRealtyGroup.com
Los Angeles County
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Laurel Starks completed her undergraduate studies at Stephens College in Columbia, Missouri and then at Whittier College in Whittier, California, majoring in sociology and political science.
Mediation/Collaborative Law Training
Laurel complemented 40-hour basic and 18-hour advanced Divorce Mediation training with Forrest "Woody" Mosten, Esq., and Collaborative Divorce Team Training (as the first practicing divorce real estate agent enrollee).
Honors and Awards
Multiple real estate production awards, including Platinum Medalist, top 1% worldwide salesperson, Agent of the Year – Victoria Gardens Escrow, and monthly, quarterly and annually "#1 Agent" awards since 2008.
Professional Activity
Laurel speaks at numerous events around the country each year, and is equally at home addressing ordinary homeowners or a room full of judges and attorneys. She founded the popular Family Law Live Lecture Series, which has become a must-attend event for family law professionals in Southern California. She is also a featured speaker at events sponsored by a wide range of organizations, including the San Bernardino County Bar Association, the Western San Bernardino County Bar Association, the Eastern Los Angeles County Bar Association, the East-West Family Law Council, Collaborative Divorce Solutions of Orange County, and White, Zuckerman, Luna, Zarkovsky & Hunt (Southern California's leading forensic accounting firm). She is a recognized provider of Mandatory Continuing Legal Education (MCLE) for attorneys, and a 730 evaluator for real estate matters in family law cases.Laurel's educational work also addresses the general public, through events such as the Divorce Options seminar and Ask a Lawyer Night, held at college campuses in Southern California. She was the founder of the Divorce Real Estate Clinic, held at the San Bernardino County Law Library; and Divorcing 101 at University of La Verne College of Law. Laurel is vice president of Collaborative Divorce Professionals of the Inland Empire, and an ad hoc committee member of their Divorce Options Program, held at Mt. San Antonio College. She has also been a guest speaker at Divorce Expo in Chicago.Laurel writes columns and articles for a variety of publications, including the Bar Bulletin of the San Bernardino County Bar Association, the Bar Bulletin of the Western San Bernardino County Bar Association, the Pasadena Star News, San Gabriel Valley Tribune, Whittier Daily News, Inland Valley Daily Bulletin, Redlands Daily Facts, and the San Bernardino Sun.As an innovator in the field, Laurel developed the Marital Property Evaluation, a comprehensive tool which is now used extensively in family law cases. A variety of media outlets rely on her as an expert source, including the Huffington Post, National Public Radio (NPR) and America Online (AOL). And she has served as co- host of "Real Estate Matters with John and Laurel" a weekly radio program in Southern California.


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Walden is frozen …. It is December 29 and I open an email to find the three words staring at me …. a sad face emoticon following them. One of the group of twenty odd 'Ponders' reporting his findings back to those who have not visited lately.
Actually, I am not surprised. Although two days earlier I had visited and had been. As I glanced across the pond from the ramp, carefully treading on the crunched up snow and ice so as not to slip, I saw her glazed-over stare at me. The divide between the movement of water and her dazed glassy stillness. It almost seemed like someone had drawn a line across her long axis, just the way I would divide her to swim from shore to shore only a few months back, turning half of her into winter and leaving half of her to contemplate becoming winter…
I did not return the following day, but that night time temperature plummeted into single digits, perhaps even scraped zero, so I knew the freeze would have taken her over further. And then Friday as I slowed my car when driving past, the line that zigged and zagged across her clearly delineated the two-phased-freeze… as if the line had been etched in ice with a knife.
When I did step onto the ice on Saturday, already a four inch thick layer had formed between the fine dusting of snow that covered it and the water beneath. Amazing that so quickly the pond had turned from a swimming hole (I know of a couple of my swimming friends had done Christmas day swims) to an ice skating rink! Little wonder no one was paying any attention to the lonely "unsafe ice" signs that stood upon the beach with the unopened emergency packs strapped to their poles. More of Walden's visitors were walking on the pond than around it on the snowy Saturday afternoon!
I stand on the ice remembering back to the time when I lay down and beat my fists on it, over ten years ago now. In those days I felt that somehow winter was my adversary and had robbed me of the thing I wanted most.. the swimming hole that pulled me through the tough times and gave me a sense of my strength and power. I still don't enjoy winter and now am even less able physically to manage its extremes….
In some ways 2017 has also been a difficult year navigating financial difficulties and a re-triggering of those wounds from divorcing ten plus years ago, but on Friday, as I drove past and glanced at the frozen pond, the first thought that came to me was that Walden's icy cover had not let me down by closing me out, but that her icing over was somehow protecting her…. I smiled to myself as I turned and looked back toward the road.
As the year comes to an end, I reflect on what a wonderful season of swimming I have had… perhaps the best swimming I remember… from those first icy dips over Easter weekend to the extended Fall when swimming was like skating across the pond.
I swam for more months than I have in years.
I hope the winter won't be as extended as Fall, nor do I hope it is as extreme as it is now, but I am grateful for what Walden has given me this past year.
And I know, that even though walking on her icy cover, or around her snowy shores, is neither as fulfilling or as easy on my spine as swimming is, it will pull me through the silence of winter as I quietly contemplate the Spring and Summer ahead.
I wish you all a happy healthy and peaceful new year … and may you find your place of quiet contemplation as I have mine … ❤ Liz


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Listening to: Mamma Mia, revived by A*Teens
Reading: Introduction to Calculus (topic: limits and continuity)
Mood: sleepy but my mind is spinning like crazy
Drinking: Silk Chocolate soymilk (random trivia: Silk is the brand of soymilk that Starbucks uses.)
Downloading: More Regina Spektor Songs
Surfing the Internet must be a form of indirect art. I spent almost the whole day today (no classes today, due to Faculty Day in school. I so love Ateneo.) scouring the Net for anything of interest to me. Link after link after link – in the world of Cyberspace, the stuff you learn, see, hear, and discover is limitless. And just today, I have discovered dozens of interesting sites and blogs – and consequently bookmarked on my del.icio.us page. I have more than 400 bookmarks now.
Here are some of the sites I found recently:
2. Blog of a creative innovator
3. givemesomethingtoread.com – self-explanatory
4. Time, Attention, and Creative Work
5. A Site dedicated to everything GOOD
6. Tons and tons and tons of articles from all the online news and book sources you can imagine, all in one site.
7. manilafoodistas.blogspot.com
9. A blog dedicated to hilarious fail moments.
10. Have some Morning Coffee every morning
I am so psyched for Celadon's Leadership Development Program tomorrow, even though my parents still are too paranoid to allow me to stay overnight with fellow Celadoneans inside the campus. I don't mind though, since I will still go back to the venue Sunday morning, in time for the next activities. Too bad I won't be able to bond and share stories with prospective new friends while lying on thin blankets late into the night and waking up with aching backs the next morning. I do hope I will get along well with the other participants, seeing as I do not know most of the people who joined the program! Thank goodness I know most of the Executive Board members – the reason I am not quite nervous about what will happen the next two days.
The first week of second semester is exhilarating – so much has happened in just four days, I cannot keep up! Well, keeping a record of everything, that is. As much as I want to write all the details of the past four days of insipid and interesting professors, new friends, lessons learned, funny moments, there is simply no time to write them all. I managed to type down the highlights on my iPod touch last night though, because I do not want to risk forgetting. Every moment of life is a life worth living, after all.


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M.A. Theses in Linguistics
at the University of North Dakota
Coyle, Dennis 2014
Placing Wardak among Pashto varieties
Wardak is one variety of the Pashto language. Most of its approximate one million speakers live in Wardak Province, which is just south of the capital city, Kabul, of Afghanistan. While all Wardaks think of themselves as Pashtun, the Wardak speech variety is considered different from other Pashto varieties. Is Wardak a dialect of Pashto, or is there evidence for it being a variety separate from Pashto? Pashto has been developed with an alphabet going back four hundred years and an extensive literature, which includes an education curriculum that is taught in the primary schools. Does the existing literature and education materials meet the needs of the Wardak speaker? Linguists historically have divided Afghan Pashto into three dialects: Southern-Kandahar, Eastern-Jalalabad, and Central-Ghilji. The first two are considered the prestige dialects of Pashto. Does Wardak fit into one of these three existing dialects, or is it part of another dialect of Pashto?
Three instruments were used to answer these questions. First, Word List assessments compared similarity between Wardak and the prestige Pashto varieties. Second, Recorded Text Testing assessments compared comprehension levels between speakers from Wardak and other Pashto varieties. Third, Sociolinguistic Questionnaire assessments compared language usage and attitudes between speakers from Wardak and other Pashto varieties.
Wardak is a dialect of Pashto. While the needs of many Wardaks are met by the existing education curriculum and literature, some Wardaks would benefit from a limited Wardak language development project. Beyond this, the identity needs of Wardaks would benefit from more books, poems, and songs being written in Wardak. Finally, Wardak may have a relationship to other Pashto varieties that are spoken primarily in Khost and Paktia provinces. This relationship exists because Wardak speakers share the same ancestor, that is, Karlan, with speakers of these Khost and Paktia Pashto varieties.
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40 Years Old, Temptations of a Married Woman
While recovering from a particularly boozy birthday, Mariska, very young for a woman in her 40s, receives an interesting sort of a package. Inside is a mobile phone and messages from a mysterious stranger who starts giving her orders. Mariska suspects that Ben, her husband, is behind this prank, but how can she be sure?... Out of curiosity and a taste for forbidden things, she plays along with the game. It's a dangerous game that pushes her beyond all the taboos she once had. Letting her husband have his way with her when he gets home from work, showing off in public while wearing nothing under her clothes, letting herself get fucked by a total stranger... This faceless master keeps turning up the heat with each command, until Mariska ends up with a couple of bad boys half her age or in the back rooms of some very exclusive libertine clubs. Mariska soon falls under the spell of these games...
What if her real life had only begun the day after she turned 40?
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- Studio: Marc Dorcel (English)


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A lanky, soft-spoken older man whose name matches his timidity, Douglas Whymper is living a variation on the actor's nightmare.
He arrives at the theater, ready to perform, but no one recognizes he's an actor. His director (Grant James Varjas), his co-star (Monique Vukovic), even the intern (Talia Lugacy) all take one look at him, believe he's the chauffeur and resist being told otherwise.
Such is the farcical setup of "The Shape of Something Squashed," directed and written by Tom Noonan, who also plays the central role, at the Paradise Factory Theater.
Billed as a comedy, the play means in part to gibe the ruthless self-absorption of successful artists, but this lopsided production manages that only intermittently. What it does achieve is something darker, and terribly moving: a portrait of an actor as an almost invisible man.
As played by Mr. Noonan, Douglas is several decades into a career whose highlight came in 1984: a reading of his one-man Nietzsche musical at Ensemble Studio Theater.
By all objective measures, he should have given up by now, yet he persists — optimistic, foolish and brave, a shrinking presence in a desperate dye job and a bad toupee.
"I see other actors who started out when I did, and even the bad ones have done things, they've gotten ahead, and you think, 'Well, they got their shot,' " he says. "You tell yourself you'll catch up somehow."
Mr. Noonan, who founded the Paradise Factory three decades ago, has made a solid screen career as a character actor, often cast — even when he's done the casting — to lend a certain creepiness.
There's none of that in his portrayal of Douglas, who with a deprecating wave of his long, elegant fingers can efface himself still further. The paradox of Mr. Noonan's utterly compassionate performance is how strongly it compels us to look: to see Douglas, to ache for him.
The production as a whole doesn't rise nearly to that level. Playing Sedge, the director, Mr. Varjas only occasionally connects with his character, and Ms. Vukovic seems miscast as his actress wife, lacking the vicious narcissism that's written into the role.
Ms. Lugacy brings a deep well of kindness to her portrayal of Mona, the intern, another disposable person in the orbit of the famous. But the energy among these three is off, and the timing is wrong. Funny lines fail to land.
The production isn't squashed, exactly, but it's a bit misshapen.