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Tag Archives: teen fiction
Ian Beck – Multi award winning illustrator to bestselling author
Jennifer: Hi Ian,
Thanks for agreeing to the interview!
I've had a ball tracking through the amazing adventures you've had with pen and ink! You have a wealth of
experience in other arty areas, from designing album covers (including the cover for "Yellow Brick Road"), to advertising, from cards and calendars to murals.
What do you feel this more commercially driven art brought to your work as a children's book illustrator?
'Marketing' is something that seems almost a dirty word to purists but it is an essential part of any saleable product in a competitive marketplace – does the 'selling' aspect play any part in your creative process? Should it?
IAN: I began my career as a 'commercial' illustrator, making drawings and paintings for anyone who asked, I just wanted to make a living from illustrating. That had been my goal since I was very young and I had noticed 'spot' drawings and the like in newspapers and magazines. My ambition had been to do something similar. I spent a very varied and happy twenty years or so in that illustration world. I learned a great deal technically through the trial and error of making drawings for difficult and or demanding clients. I learned patience, and the ability to redraft, remake, remodel, with a smile and good grace. This all helped when I was offered my first children's book to illustrate (Round and Round the Garden) in 1982. It helped me to be consistent in my coloring, to get the mood of the book as demanded by the editor and designer, a process I was by then very used to. The selling part is obviously important. No publisher wants to make a book that does not sell, nor does any author. I certainly built on my experience in commercial illustration to make my pictures 'appealing' if that is the right word. I tried to bring tenderness and charm to my depiction of babies or animal characters. That was how I worked anyway, my commercial work had been influenced by the world of children's illustration from the word go. I collected illustrated books from my time at Art School, and I still do.
Jennifer: With Heroes like Edward Ardizzone and Harold Jones and a teacher like Raymond Briggs one could say you were always going to end up illustrating children's books.
What were your favourite books as a child? What images stuck in your mind – were they from books, films or somewhere else? How have these influences shaped your approach to your art?
IAN: I grew up in a house with very few books. Ours was what you would call a 'blue collar' family. My father was a milkman, (as was Raymond Briggs' father) we had a patchy library of mostly old novels, I remember we had volume two of Gone With the Wind, no sign of volume one. The printed images I saw were either in comics, magazines or newspapers. I began my interest by trying to copy those images, often on to the endpapers and flyleaves of the old books that were lying around. Later I joined my local library and began my life long love affair with books and the pictures in them. I started with Hugh Lofting's Dr Dolittle books. I read all of those in sequence and often reread them too. Later I moved on to Richmal Crompton's Just William books, and I still read and laugh over those. I think however if there is a single illustration that I remember, that opened my eyes and mind, it was the one by Pauline Baynes, in The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe, it is of Mr Tumnus out in the snow with his parcels and the street lamp. It still gives me the shivers. I think my own illustration work has been made of so many influences it would be hard for am to untangle them all, but they are all there in some way even if the result is recognizably 'me'.
Jennifer: The ability to tell a story inside a story as with your book "Five Little Ducks" –How did you set about that now classic 'Beck' book?
Was the other story of the fox there from the outset or did it 'occur to you' in the way the speaking crow did in Tom Trueheart?
IAN: As so often happens, Five Little Ducks began as a quite different book. I was discussing with Judith Elliot, then the overall editor at and founder of Orchard Books, the possibility of a book about night time. I had made some roughs, written out some ideas, but it had stalled. Jill Slotover who was an editor there suggested the rhyme of the five little ducks. I saw it complete at once in my mind, the fox, the brave duckling etc etc. I drew some thumbnail sized color visuals in a sketch book, and that was it, go ahead, and I did. It seemed to flow very naturally and was a very positive experience.
Jennifer: This brings me to the 'right brain' process present in much of creativity.
In one interview, you spoke of 'trusting' an inner nudge that told you to go with the talking crow, even though never envisaged as part of your original idea for Tom's story.
How does this work in the illustrative process and is it different to that in the writing process?
How do the two creative processes compare?
IAN: In writing a longer story there is naturally a certain amount of planning but as you work on something the imagination creeps up behind you occasionally and goes, 'boo, weren't expecting that were you'? This is just what happened with the talking bird, it seems meant and obvious to me now that Jollity the crow should be there, but he was meant at first just to be a target for Tom to throw a snowball at. Once the notion popped into my head that the bird would speak the book opened up for me there and then. My drawings were always planned more rigorously, I was very much in control of them, I can't imagine the same leap occurring during the making of a drawing.
Jennifer: I've checked out http://www.tomtrueheart.com/ and encourage readers to
do ditto! The silhouettes perfectly suit the darker story, but are very different to your style say for example used in "The Teddy Robber" and again from "Puss in Boots".
How do you decide on your approach to each project?
IAN: The silhouettes were not in the planning of the book at all. I was working on some ideas for the cover of Tom Trueheart with the designer Molly Dallas at Oxford University Press. We had a lot of ideas scattered about on a table, when she remembered that the endpapers I had made for a previous book (The Oxford Nursery Story Book) had used silhouettes. I turned the image of Tom walking with his packstaff into a silhouette and it seemed to click into place at once. It was a short step from that to illustrating the whole book with silhouettes. It was quite a discipline to learn, but a very enjoyable one. So I suppose this approach was unplanned but seemed right. Most of the picture books would be planned with the designer and editor together. They have a valuable input as well after all, quite rightly. Sometimes an editor will say, 'it would be nice if this book were some thing like this', and refer to a past book or approach, that certainly happened with The Little Mermaid, I went for the sad and the romantic, the lavish and the wide screen in that book very different to much of my other more graphic output, I imagine for the first and last time.
Jennifer: Any career path is a journey and one might have predicted that having the story teller gift (as demonstrated in "Five Little Ducks") you would eventually arrive at the point where you wrote your own stories.
Did you always want to do this, or is this a new adventure?
Why now?
IAN: I was encouraged to write my own original story to illustrate by my first editor David Fickling. This became The Teddy Robber, a book still held in affection by readers twenty years later, as I am constantly reminded by teachers and children on
school visits.
The urge to write narrative though has been with me from the beginning. When I was a young commercial illustrator I went to creative writing classes. It was my intention to write adult fiction. I wrote a couple of short stories, began a novel, but it all ended in a drawer unresolved, unfinished. The urge was still there, the itch, the frustration if you like, but all necessarily suppressed under my busy drawing schedules, the need to earn a living, growing family life etc. Then the seed for Tom Trueheart was planted and grew a little in the potting shed inside my brain. He lay dormant for a while until, sadly, one of my best friends died. This was a big wake up call, as he was younger than me. 'Come on', I thought, 'finish that idea, grow that seedling, do what you really want to do, life is too short'. So then Tom actually got finished, with the encouragement of my agent Hilary Delamere. The publisher liked him and so did several other publishers. He is in ten languages now I think, so sometimes trusting your instinct is the way to go.
Jennifer: Tom's second book of adventures "Tom Trueheart and the Land of Dark Stories " is darker by your own admission. The same applied to the progression of J.K.Rowling's Harry Potter series.
What led to this?
What were the influences at work when you realized a second book needed to be written?
IAN: The second Tom Trueheart adventure came about by chance. I had not intended to write more than one book while I was busy writing the first, it seemed both
contained, and complete. The first draft ended with Tom confronting the villain Ormestone in a wood and Ormestone turning him into Tom Thumb, ie Tom finally had his own story to complete. My editor Liz Cross read it and said that she didn't think it was the end of book one, rather she felt it could be the beginning of book two. I was delighted to think that there would be a book two as I had enjoyed writing about Tom so much. Book two needed a new set of stories and characters, there was the unresolved business of Tom's missing father, maybe he would make an appearance and so on, it all just slotted into place. I used some of those darker fairy story elements, wolves, castles, bats spiders, skeletons, and so on, imagining that the villain would go to where he would be appreciated, and all this with Tom shrunk down to the size of Tom Thumb. It was great fun to do, and I have now nearly finished the third book, provisionally called Tom Trueheart and the Land of Myths and Legends. As you may know Suppertime Entertainment are developing animated films based on the books, so we wait to see what happens next.
Jennifer: How did you feel as an illustrator about someone else doing your illustrative work, as with the book covers for paperback edition in UK [Adam Stower] and the USA edition [Brandon Dorman]?
IAN: It is something of a luxury and a delight to see other artist's interpretations of my characters and stories. As an illustrator myself you might expect me to be hyper critical, but no, I am very relaxed about it and I very much like what both Brandon Dorman and Adam Stower have done in relation to Tom Trueheart. Just recently, I saw the jacket for Pastworld which is far better than anything I might have done, completely spot on, designed by John Fordham and with an illustration by Paul Young, full of texture and mystery. It was sent to me as a 'fait accompli', and I couldn't be happier with it.
Jennifer: What do we expect to see next?
What about film scripts [ I noted the trailer on your site.]?
What about your own totally Beck picturebooks?
IAN: I have a big novel (in terms of length and ambition) coming out in the summer of 2009. It is called Pastworld. It has taken me four years to develop and complete, Bloomsbury will be publishing. It is a much darker book, aimed at older readers, twelve years and up. A complex book, and hard to sum up in a few words, it is a dark adventure set in what appears to be Victorian London. I suppose you would perhaps categorize it as 'Steampunk', there are airships, and murders, and strange passions. It has grown out of my obsession with London, the city I have lived in for forty years, with the science fiction novels of H G Wells, and movies and all sorts of other things muddled together. It may surprise some of my readers, even shock them. It is intended as an older read, it is nothing like Tom Trueheart, and it is not at all cute.
After that I am writing a novel for Oxford provisionally called The Hidden Kingdom, in which the hero is thrust into a sudden drama and the reader discovers the truth as the story develops and at the same time that the hero does. It is set in a mythical place and time and will I hope explore love as one of the subjects.
As to films, I wrote a short story for adults called The Summer House. A young film maker read it and wanted me to adapt it as a screenplay for a short film. I did the adaptation and the film was shot in France two summers ago. Through the magic luck of casting the director Daisy Gili, got Talulah Riley, fresh from the film of Pride and Prejudice as the young female lead, and a boy called Robert Pattinson as the young male lead. Rob of course is playing Edward Cullen in the film of Twilight which just opened 'big'. So our little 13 minute film now has the added bonus of two rising stars. My son has a film making company and he kindly makes book trailers for me, we are looking forward to making the trailer for Pastworld plus a website where further mysteries can be developed.
As to Picture books, I very much enjoyed illustrating the book Winston The Book Wolf written by Marni
McGee, but whether I will ever make another one of my own I don't know, the longer form seems to have taken over.
Jennifer: You've had a lot of interviews that have covered a lot of ground.
Is there a question you wish you had been asked? Okay, now's your chance! Question and answer – over to you!
Q. What would you have done if you hadn't made books?
IAN: I would like to have been a 'café concert' cabaret entertainer in the mythical Paris of the 1900's, singing in a tux with a cane, and hanging out with Ravel and Erik Satie and perhaps even having a passionate affair with Colette!
Jennifer: Yep – I can see you doing a Maurice Chevalier complete with top hat!
Maybe that is more than just a dream??????
Now here's a tantalizing tease – Hidden Kingdom and Pastworld are coming up AND, with one shorter film under his belt already and two animated feature version of the Tom Trueheart books under way, can we expect Ian to be off to Hollywood next with a blockbuster in his sights? Stay tuned!!!!!


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Americans will be paying 2% less on their payroll taxes in 2011. Instead of wasting that cash, use one or more of these ideas to make the most of your "bonus."
This week President Obama is announcing several tax credits for the middle class in his State of the Union speech. Here are some of the details on what the proposals are, and how t
A couple months ago I wrote about the pros and cons of extending and expanding the popular first time homebuyer tax credit which was due to expire on November 30th, 2009. I wrote
As part of the Obama stimulus plan passed in January, first time home buyers in 2009 are entitled to a tax credit of up to $8000 that they do not have to repay. This tax credit was
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VY Canis Majoris
VY Canis Majoris (VY CMa) is an exceptionally large, luminous red hypergiant star located in the constellation Canis Major. With a radius about 1,420 times that of the Sun, corresponding to a diameter of 13.2 astronomical units, VY Canis Majoris is one of the largest known stars in the Milky Way. The star lies at … [Read more…]


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DETROIT – Industry and media preview week continued Thursday at the North American International Auto Show as crowds of people rushed through Detroit's Cobo Center to get a peak at the vehicles.
While some of the high-end automakers drew expected crowds, companies with a variety of vehicles seemed to steal the attention. Visitors to the auto show -- who were mostly taking the chance to shop around -- wanted to see what
affordable options are available. It was clear they wanted the variety companies, such as Chevrolet and Ford, have to offer.
"It's not really about getting a sneak peak, really, it's about all the different vehicles, for me at least. Having all the companies under one roof. You get an idea of what everyone has to offer, in one visit," said Dan Phillips, of Indiana.
Phillips was in town with colleagues from an auto supplier back home. He was wandering through the Chevrolet display as the 2014 Silverado caught his eye.
"The Chevy trucks are very cool. But I can turn around and head over to Ford and maybe change my mind about which I like better," he said, laughing.
Of course, most visitors here this week have some sort of investment in a certain automaker. That means there was a lot of spying going on. Engineers crouching to see what's under a vehicle's body or engine has been a common site.
They've been snapping photos and taking notes. The show is part of the job for many of the industry members.
"It's fun. You see people you've worked with before. People you've seen at other shows. It never gets old," said one visitor.
The North American International Auto Show officially opens to the public this weekend. If this week's preview is any indication of public attendance, Cobo Center should be packed come Saturday. It's the Motor City, after all.
"You can skip other shows, but you can't skip Detroit," said one visitor.


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Carolina Bucci
Looking Glass Sparkly Drop Earringsbuc-e674g
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With a decadent, glam-rock shimmer, these Carolina Bucci gold studs are a modern, playful alternative to traditional gold earrings. The pear cut shape of 18K white gold is covered in a textured, ultra-sparkly surface. Whether worn casually or with something more formal, they have an eye-catching shimmer and subtle sophistication.
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Will Smith has confirmed in a video that he's "about to make 3D look goooood," when Men In Black III launches in 2012—in 3D.
The film is slated to open May 25th, 2012, and will see Will Smith and Tommy Lee Jones return to their roles from 1997 and 2002. It'll be directed by the same director of the first two films, Barry Sonnenfeld, and released by Sony Pictures in 3D. As it'll be set in 1969 they'll have quite a task on their hands to deliver a convincing 3D film which is true to its retro period, though I doubt anyone actually interested in watching the movie will give two hoots about authenticity. [Sony Insider]


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Salamander (TurboGrafx-16) review
"Sadly, Salamander is a rarity a Gradius-style game that doesn't operate by these rules. Instead, you get the simple-n-generic sort of system where enemies drop power-ups represented by various icons and, by collecting them, you automatically get whatever goodie they represent. This takes some of the fun out of this title, as the ability to customize the way you power up your ship was quite a nice touch."
Staff review by Rob Hamilton (February 02, 2013)
Rob Hamilton is the official drunken master of review writing for Honestgamers.
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If you enjoyed this Salamander review, you're encouraged to discuss it with the author and with other members of the site's community. If you don't already have an HonestGamers account, you can sign up for one in a snap. Thank you for reading!
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Ohio man who brought gun, knives to Batman movie found competent to stand trial
CLEVELAND -- An Ohio man arrested with a loaded gun, ammunition and knives at a showing of the latest Batman movie has been found mentally competent to stand trial.
The defense and prosecution in the case against 37-year-old Scott A. Smith, of North Ridgeville, told the judge on Monday they accepted the findings of the court-ordered psychiatric exam.
The trial is scheduled for Dec. 10.
Smith faces two concealed weapon counts and one of having a weapon under disability, which prosecutors say is drug dependency. He was arrested at an Aug. 4 showing of "The Dark Knight Rises" in Westlake.
His attorney says Smith had the weapons for protection in case someone tried to copy the Colorado theater shooting that left 12 dead.


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Real Estate - Licensed Associates Only
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- Keller Williams Realty
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- Posted
- Nov 09, 2018
- Closes
- Nov 12, 2018
- Function
- Accountant, IT
- Industry
- Real Estate / Property Management
- Career Level
- Experienced (Non-Manager)
- Hours
- Full Time
Whether you are a newly licensed real estate agent or a seasoned professional with another company, you have to check out Keller Williams! Helping agents create a life by design is our only job. KW is growing faster than any other real estate company in the industry because we are built around you, the agent, not the company! What KW Provides You: A proven business model that gives you a blueprint for success. (No reinventing the wheel or having to be super creative, just follow the model.) The best real estate training for all associates, new or seasoned as ranked by Training Magazine. (online lead generation, business management, scripts/dialogues, prospecting techniques, etc.) The highest quality of support from our dedicated staff of managers, trainers and fellow agents. (If you need help, it is always available.) The culture of a company where every agent is treated as equal and like family! (Our philosophy is for our agents to put their priorities in order of God, family, then business.) Your Requirements: Be a licensed real estate agent or be willing to complete licensing courses. (Sorry, no financial assistance is available.) Be ready to dive in to an extensive training program that is designed for success. (Training is for licensed agents only.) Be ready to devote a full time effort to growing your real estate business at 100% commission. (We are not accepting part time agents.) Be a team player. We share everything that can help our fellow associates. (If you have knowledge that can help your fellow agents, share your ideas, secrets and strategies.) Be ready to work in an exciting and energetic atmosphere! (We are electric and love it!) Contact us today, we cannot wait to have you join the Keller Williams Family !


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Sophomore catcher Tessa Brown was named Northeast Conference Co-Player of the Week and freshman Laura Messina earned NEC Pitcher and Rookie of the Week Honors for her performance last week. The Blue Devils are 24-14 this season and 6-4 in NEC play.
Brown knocked in 10 runs to help the Blue Devils sweep a pair of NEC doubleheaders and finish the week with a 4-2 record. Brown finished the week with seven hits in 20 at bats, doubling two times and hitting two home runs. Her 15 total bases give her a .750 slugging percentage for the week to go along with a .350 batting average and .381 on base percentage.
Brown's first home run of the week was a three-run shot against Hofstra. She followed up this performance by getting two hits and driving in a run in game one against Sacred Heart, leading the Blue Devils to a 2-0 win. In game two against the Pioneers, Brown recorded a pair of hits and two more RBI. She capped off the week with a 2-for-3, four RBI game against Wagner as Central picked up a pair of victories. Brown's power at the plate helped the Blue Devils improve to 6-4 in NEC play, catapulting them from 10th place to fourth in the league standings.
Messina started all four conference games for the Blue Devils, earning four victories with a 0.72 ERA. She went the distance in three of the four games and allowed just two earned runs over 25.0 innings. On the week she allowed just 11 hits and five walks, while striking out 19 batters.
Messina's four victories set a new CCSU single-season record for wins with 19. The previous record of 14 was set in 1990.
In her first start Messina blanked Sacred Heart for seven innings for her sixth shutout of the season as she helped the Blue Devils to a 2-0 win. She carried a no-hitter for 6.2 innings and allowed just a single hit in the game. On the day, she struck out seven and walked only two batters as Central earned the sweep over the defending champion Pioneers.
Against Wagner, she pitched her second shutout in an 8-0 game one victory. In that game she allowed just two hits and a walk, while striking out six. In game two, Messina again went the distance pitching seven innings, allowing five hits, one run, two walks and striking out six as the Blue Devils earned a 2-1 victory and the sweep over the Seahawks.
The Blue Devils return to action later this week with an NEC doubleheader against LIU Brooklyn on Friday and a doubleheader against Monmouth on Sunday. Both doubleheaders will be played at the CCSU Softball Field.


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Showing 469–480 of 591 results
Movie afficionado's, collectors and experts Wim Jansen of MOVIE★INK. AMSTERDAM and Michael Helmerhorst of PICTURESEARCH have combined forces and will stake their claims together from February 2018 onwards.
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Wednesday, April 13, 2011
From Fortune Magazine:
From his wide-rimmed cowboy hat to his
roper boots, Mike Castleman fits moviedom's image of the lanky Texas rancher. On a recent March evening, Castleman is feeding
cattle biscuits to his two pet longhorn steers, Big Buddy and Little Buddy, on his 460-acre Bar Ten Creek Ranch in Dripping
Springs, a hamlet outside Austin in the Texas Hill Country. The spread is a medley of meandering streams, craggy cliffs,
and centuries-old oaks. But even in this pastoral setting, his mind keeps returning to a subject he knows as well as any
expert around: the housing market. "I'm a dirt-road economist who sees what's happening on the ground, and in 35 years
I've never seen a shortage of new construction like the one I'm seeing today," declares Castleman, 70, now offering
a biscuit to his miniature donkey Thumper. "The talking heads who are down on real estate will hate to hear this, but
America needs to build a lot more houses. And in most markets the price of new homes is fixin' to rise, not fall."
Castleman is in a unique position to know. As the founder and CEO of a company called Metrostudy,
he's spent more than three decades tracking real-time data on the country's inventory of new homes. Each quarter he dispatches
500 inspectors to literally drive through 45,000 subdivisions from Baltimore to Sacramento. The inspectors examine 5 million
finished lots, one at a time, and record whether they contain a house that's under construction, one that's finished and
for sale, or a home that's sold. Metrostudy covers 19 states, or around 65% of the U.S. housing market, including all the
ones hardest hit by the crash: Florida, California, Arizona, and Nevada. The company's client list includes virtually every
major homebuilder and bank -- from Pulte (PHM) and KB Home (KBH) to Bank of America (BAC) and Wells Fargo (WFC).
The key figures that Metrostudy collects, and that those clients prize, are the number of homes
that are vacant and for sale in each city, and the number of months it takes to sell all of them. Together those figures
measure inventory -- the key metric in determining whether a market has a surplus or a shortage of new housing.
Today Castleman is witnessing an extraordinary reversal of the new-home glut that helped sink prices just
a few years ago. In the 41 cities Metrostudy covers, a total of 78,000 houses are now either vacant and for sale, or under
construction. That's less than one-fourth of the 343,000 units in those two categories at the peak of the frenzy in mid-2006,
and well below the level of a decade ago. "If we had anything like normal levels of buying, those houses would sell
in 2½ months," says Castleman. "We'd see an incredible shortage. And that's where we're heading."
If all the noise you're hearing about housing has you totally confused, join the crowd. One day
you'll read that owning a home has never been more affordable. The next day you'll see news that housing starts have plunged
to nearly their lowest level in half a century, as headlines announced in March. After four years of falling prices and surging
foreclosures, it's hard to know what to think. Even Robert Shiller and Karl Case can't agree. The two economists, who together
created the widely followed S&P/Case-Shiller Home Price indices, are right now offering sharply contrasting views of
housing's future. Shiller recently warned that the chances were high for a further double-digit drop in U.S. home prices.
But in an interview with Fortune, Case took a far brighter view: "The lack of new home building is a huge
help that a lot of people are ignoring," says Case. "People think I'm crazy to be optimistic, but housing is looking
like the little engine that could."
To see where real estate is truly headed, it's
critical to keep your eye firmly on the fundamentals that, over time, always determine the course of prices and construction.
During the last decade's historic run-up in prices, Fortune repeatedly warned that things were moving too fast.
In a cover story titled "Is the Housing Boom Over?," this writer's analysis found that the basic forces that govern
the market -- the cost of owning vs. renting and the level of new construction -- were in bubble territory. Eventually reality
set in, and prices plummeted. Our current view focuses on those same fundamentals -- only now they're pointing in the opposite
So let's state it simply and forcibly: Housing is back.
Two basic factors are laying the foundation for dramatic recovery in residential real estate. The first is
the historic drop in new construction that so amazes Castleman. The second is a steep decline in prices, on the order of
30% nationwide since 2006, and as much as 55% in the hardest-hit markets. The story of this downturn has been an astonishing
flight from the traditional American approach of buying new houses to an embrace of renting. But the new affordability will
gradually lure Americans back to buying homes. And the return of the homeowner will start raising prices in many markets
this year.
Of course, home prices are low and home construction is weak for a reason:
incredibly low demand. For our scenario to play out, America will need a decent economy, with job creation and consumer confidence
continuing to claw their way back to normal.
One big fear is that today's tight credit
standards will chill the market. But we're really returning to the standards that prevailed before the craze, and those
requirements didn't stop prices and homebuilding from rising in a good economy. "The credit standards are now at about
historical levels, excluding the bubble period," says Mark Zandi, chief economist for Moody's Analytics. "We saw
prices rising with fundamentals in those periods, and it will happen again."
see why, let's examine the remarkable shift in home affordability. A new study by Deutsche Bank measures affordability in
two ways: first, the share of income Americans are paying to own a home. And second, the cost of owning vs. renting. On
the first metric, the analysis finds that homeowners now pay just 9.8% of their income in after-tax mortgage, tax, and insurance
payments. That's down from 17.2% at the bubble's peak in 2007, and by far the lowest number in the Deutsche Bank database,
going back to 1999. The second measure, the cost of owning compared with renting, should also inspire potential buyers. In
28 out of 54 major markets, it's now cheaper to pay a mortgage and other major costs than to rent the same house. What's
most compelling is that in all of the distressed markets, owning now wins by a wide margin -- a stunning reversal from four
years ago. It now costs 34% less than renting in Atlanta. In Miami the average rent is now $1,031 a month, vs. the $856
it costs to carry a ranch house or stucco cottage as an owner. (For more, see The top 10 cities for home buyers)
Not all markets will bounce back equally, of course. Housing resembles
the weather: The exact conditions are different in every city. But in general the big U.S. markets fall into two different
climate zones right now. We'll call them the "nondistressed markets" and the "foreclosure markets."
A more detailed look shows why the forecast for both is favorable.
markets: Ready for launch
No cities went untouched by the collapse in prices
over the past few years. But markets such as Northern Virginia, Indianapolis, Minneapolis, San Diego, the San Francisco
suburbs, and virtually all of Texas held up reasonably well. In those areas prices spiked far less than in bubble cities
-- the foreclosure markets we'll get to shortly -- chiefly because they didn't get nearly as many speculators who thought
they could flip the homes or rent them to snowbirds.
The nondistressed markets will be
able to get prices rising and construction growing far faster than the harder-hit areas for a simple reason: Although some
of these markets are still suffering from foreclosures, they don't need to work through the big overhang haunting a Las
Vegas or a Phoenix. The number of new homes for sale or in the pipeline is extraordinarily low in nondistressed markets.
San Diego is typical. It has just 921 freestanding homes for sale or under construction, compared with 4,425 in late 2005.
The challenge for these cities is to generate enough demand to reduce inventories of existing, or resale, homes. In the
entire country the resale supply stands at 3.5 million houses and condos. That's a fairly high number, since it would take
more than eight months to sell those properties; seven months or below is the threshold for a strong market.
But in the nondistressed cities, the existing home inventory is lower, closer to seven months on average.
So a modest increase in demand will translate into strong gains in both prices and new construction. That should happen
quickly, because most of those markets -- including Silicon Valley, Northern Virginia, and Texas -- are now showing good
job growth.
Zandi of Moody's Analytics expects that prices will rise three to four points
faster than inflation for the next few years in virtually all of the nondistressed markets. His view is that prices will
increase in line with rents, which are now growing briskly because apartments are in short supply. Those higher rents will encourage buyers to cross the street from an apartment
to a home of their own.
In Northern Virginia, Chris Bratz, an engineer, and his wife,
Amy DiElsi, a publicist, are planning to leave their rental apartment and become homeowners for the first time. The main
reason? Buying has simply become a far better deal than renting. "The market got completely inflated, then it crashed,
so prices are coming back to where they should be," says Chris. As the couple have watched prices fall, they have also
watched the rent on their apartment spiral upward, reaching $2,700 a month. They calculate that they should be able to purchase
a townhouse for between $400,000 and $500,000 and pay less per month for a mortgage.
nondistressed markets will also lead the way in construction. Zandi predicts that for the nation as a whole, single-family
housing "starts" -- measured when a builder pours a foundation for a new home -- will rise from 470,000 in 2010
to as much as 700,000 this year. A large portion of that activity will happen in nondistressed markets where a tightening
supply of resale houses will start making new homes look like a good deal. "Our main competition is from resales,"
says Jeff Mezger, CEO of KB Home. "The prices of those homes have stayed so low, because of low demand, that it's hampered
the ability of builders to sell new houses."
But many would-be buyers simply prefer
a brand-new house. Eventually they'll move from renters to buyers, and the trend will accelerate now that prices are no
longer dropping. In Minneapolis, Yuan Qu and her husband, Xiang Chen, a researcher at the University of Minnesota, just
moved from a two-bedroom rental to a new light-blue four-bedroom ranch with a chocolate-colored roof on a spacious corner
lot. They paid $400,000, a bargain price compared with a few years ago. The couple, both in their early thirties, moved
to Minnesota from China six years ago. "We wanted to buy a house, and we've been waiting and waiting and waiting,"
says Qu. "The prices went down for so long, we finally thought they couldn't keep falling." For Qu the only choice
was new construction. "We're not very handy people," she admits.
markets: The outlook is brightening
The true disaster areas for housing since
the bubble burst have been Sunbelt cities such as Las Vegas, Phoenix, and Miami -- places that boasted great job and population growth in the mid-2000s, only to suffer a housing crash that swamped them
with empty homes and condos and crushed their economies. But people always want to live in those sunny locales, and their
job markets are starting to recover, albeit slowly. In foreclosure markets the inventory problem is far greater because
it includes not just traditional resale homes but millions of distressed properties. Fortunately those houses are now such
a screaming deal that investors, including lots of mom-and-pop buyers, are purchasing them at a rapid pace. To be sure,
some foreclosure markets won't rebound for years because they're both vastly overbuilt and far from big job centers; a prime
example is California's Inland Empire, a real estate disaster zone 80 miles east of Los Angeles.
the outlook is brightening for Phoenix, Las Vegas, Miami, and parts of Northern California. A big positive is the tiny supply
of new homes entering the market. Phoenix, for example, has a total of just 8,100 new homes that are either for sale or
under construction, down from 53,000 in mid-2006. The big test in these cities is absorbing the steady stream of distressed
properties. The foreclosures put downward pressure on the market far out of proportion to their numbers because of markdown
pricing. "We had levels of inventory even higher than this in 1990 and 1991," says MIT economist William Wheaton.
"But they were traditional listings, not foreclosures, so they didn't create the big discounts you get with foreclosures."
Wheaton reckons that we'll see a flow of around 1 million foreclosures a year, at a fairly even
pace, from now through 2013. That figure is frequently cited as evidence that the market is doomed for years in most foreclosure
markets. Not so. The reason is that the vast bulk of those units, probably over 600,000, according to Gleb Nechayev, an
economist with real estate firm CB Richard Ellis (CBG), are being converted to rentals either by investors or their current
owners. Those properties are finding plenty of renters, since the rental market is still extremely strong across the country.
Remember, the millions who lost their homes to foreclosure still need somewhere to live.
typical investor is Alex Barbalat, a Russian immigrant who's purchased seven homes east of San Francisco in the towns of
Bay Point, Antioch, and Pittsburg. His average purchase price is around $100,000 for homes that once sold for between $300,000
and $500,000. But he has no trouble finding renters, since his tenants can commute to jobs in San Francisco on the BART
transit system. Barbalat is pocketing rental yields on the prices he paid of around 12%, and he's in no hurry to sell. "I'm
holding them until prices drastically rise," he says.
Investment funds are also entering
the game. Dotan Y. Melech looks for bargains in Las Vegas for UnitedAMS, a firm he co-founded that manages apartments and
other real estate investments. The firm has raised more than $20 million from outside investors to purchase distressed properties.
So far, Melech has bought around 300 houses and plans to purchase another 200 this year. He has no trouble renting the houses
he buys, since, he estimates, occupancy rates in Las Vegas are touching 95%. The "cap rate," or return on investment
after all expenses, is between 8% and 10% -- twice the rate on 10-year Treasuries. Melech rents to people who lost their
homes but are reliable renters. "A lot of people can't be buyers because their credit got hurt," he says.
Even with investors jumping in, buying activity in foreclosure markets hasn't yet increased enough
to bring inventories down. It will soon. Zandi thinks prices will fall a couple of percentage points lower in the distressed
markets in the short run. "But that will be overshooting," he says. "It's like an elastic band. If prices
do drop this year, they will need to bounce back because they'll be far too low compared with rents and replacement cost."
Renters will come off the sidelines to purchase homes in the years ahead, precisely the opposite trend of the past few years.
Consider the example of Michael Dynda, a retired Air Force avionics technician who now works for
a government contractor in Las Vegas. Dynda, 49, is a first-time buyer who put off purchasing for years, in part because
prices were falling so rapidly in Las Vegas, with no bottom in sight. But last year the combination of bargain prices and
low mortgage rates became too good to resist. He ended up purchasing a 2,300-square-foot stucco home for $240,000, or about
half what it would have fetched in 2007. Dynda got a 4.38% home loan, and pays the same amount on his mortgage as on the
rent on the house he left to become a homeowner. "The timing was about as good as it could get," says Dynda.
Back on the ranch, Mike Castleman is lounging in his creek-front mansion, built from "a hundred tons
of fine central Texas limestone." As he shows off his collection of custom-made guitars, including one crafted to resemble
the skin of a rattlesnake, the homespun housing guru once again returns to his favorite topic.
claims that this recovery will look like all the others: It will bring a severe shortage of housing. He invokes the livestock
business to explain. "It takes three years between the time a bull mates with a cow and when you get a calf ready for
market," he says. "That's how it is in housing too. We'll get a big surge in demand and the drywall companies
will take a long time to ramp up, and it will take years to get new lots approved. Buyers will show up looking for a house
in a subdivision, and all the houses will be sold. The builders will tell them it will take six months to deliver a house."
But those folks, says Castleman, will be set on buying a place. "And they'll want it so bad they'll bid the prices
up!" In other words: Beat the crowd.
Thursday, April 7, 2011
The Wall Street Journal reported yesterday that vacancy in apartment buildings fell to the lowest
rate in more than two years in the first quarter, setting the stage for fewer choices and higher rent for tenants.
With the economy adding jobs, and with more people choosing to rent instead of buy homes, the nation's
vacancy rate came in at 6.2%, down from 6.6% in the fourth quarter and 8% in the first quarter a year ago, according to
data released Wednesday by Reis Inc.
This increasing demand has allowed many landlords
to scale back on freebies and increase rent. The average effective rent, or the amount paid after discounting, rose to $991
in the first quarter from 2.5% a year earlier, according to Reis, which collected data from 82 major markets.
"You don't often see occupancy and rents increasing at the same time," says Rich Anderson, a REIT
analyst covering the multifamily sector for BMO Capital Markets. "It's a great fundamental picture today."
Thanks to the bullish outlook, apartment buildings are being bid up close to boom levels in some
of the hottest markets. Last month, UDR Inc., a Denver-based REIT, said it would pay $260.8 million for its first Manhattan
Also, many of the nation's apartment owners have ramped up construction. Home
Properties Inc. said Tuesday it started a 314-unit community in Fredericksburg, Va., that should be finished by 2012.
It also aims to break ground on a Maryland development later this year.
is the time to start development," said David Gardner, Home's chief financial officer. "We're expecting to see
some great returns."
The CoStar Group expects about 22,500 units to be added this
year, followed by 94,600 in 2012 and more than 109,000 in 2013. Of course, that might put downward pressure on rents and
occupancy levels.
"Supply will come in and rain on the parade as it always does,"
Mr. Anderson says. "It's just a matter of when it will happen."
The market improvement
also could stall or reverse if employers don't keep adding jobs. But, for now, few industry watchers are worried.
"Expect vacancies to continue declining, and rents rising through the rest of 2011 at an even
faster pace," Reis wrote in the report.
Rental activity during the winter season
is typically slow because consumers prefer to avoid apartment hunting and moving in chilly weather.
But landlords filled 44,000 more units than were vacant in the first quarter, the strongest first quarter
in a decade.


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3. Perform One Controlled Wall Squat
The Scorecard
Men's Health Fit: Full squat in control
Above Average: Halfway down
Ordinary: Less than halfway
Mobility is a quality great athletes hone but most regular guys ignore. That's a mistake: "The more mobile you are, the better you can move your joints through their full range of motion and the less likely you are to be injured," says kinesiologist and rehab expert Dean Somerset, C.S.C.S. This test, he says, "will expose limitations in your ankles, hips, neck, and upper back—places where most men are bound up." A lot of people fail this test because they have a rounded back or inflexible ankles.
The Test
Stand facing a wall with your feet shoulder-width apart and toes 2 inches from the baseboard and turned slightly out. Keeping your feet flat, chest up, and back naturally arched, see how far you can lower your body without touching the wall or falling backward.
Boost Your Mobility
Loosen your back with self-massage. Lie on your back with a foam roller placed perpendicular to your spine just below your shoulder blades. Bend your knees so your feet are flat on the floor. Support your head with your hands, and move your head, neck, and upper back forward and backward over the foam roller four to six times. To loosen tight ankles and calves, try the ankle mobility lunge. Stand in a split stance with your front foot about 6 inches from a wall. Now bend your front knee to touch the wall without letting your front heel leave the floor. Do this 8 to 10 times. Switch legs and repeat.
Looking for something more intense? Try the 100-Squat Fitness Challenge.
4. Score Level 12 on The Beep Test
The Scorecard
Men's Health Fit: Level 12
Above Average: Level 11
Ordinary: Level 9
Cardiovascular endurance isn't just a sign of your 10K potential; it's an indicator of how long you'll last in any athletic endeavor, from a 48-minute basketball game to an afternoon of backyard football. And people who play aerobic endurance sports have a higher life expectancy than those who do not, according to a recent German study review.
The Test
Download the Beep Test app for your iPhone (Beep Test Solo, $1) or Android device (Beep Test, $2.50). Place two cones 20 meters apart on a track or field, hit the start button on the app, and run from one cone to the other. When you hear the beep, run back. Continue until you can't reach the opposite cone before the next beep sounds. (The time between beeps will shorten as you progress through the test.) Then hit the "record score" button. "This is the best way to test aerobic endurance," says Alwyn Cosgrove, C.S.C.S., owner of Results Fitness in Santa Clarita, California. Its escalating intensity is a good measure of your body's ability to deliver oxygen to working muscles—your "peak aerobic capacity."
Improve Your Endurance
Repeat the beep test once a week. Just repeating the drill can help boost your peak aerobic capacity, says Cosgrove. On two other days each week, do sprint intervals. Sprint at 85 percent of your maximum effort for one minute and then rest for two minutes. Do that 5 to 8 times total. "Over and over, intervals have been shown to be the fastest way to improve your VO2 max, the maximum amount of oxygen your body can process at once, which is a powerful indicator of your aerobic fitness level," says Cosgrove.
Plus: Get fit at home with workouts tailored to your life goals in our Train for Life Challenges.
- 3
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Promotion, cont.
It does me good with this late spring to be out distributing catalogs in the hopes that promotion will make up for the lateness of the spring. Today I stopped at 57 places and got rid of 900-some catalogs. I was rebuffed only four times, which is really remarkable considering I am basically a door-to-door solicitor. Even so, I don't take rejection kindly and it was all I could to not to plan the demise of those who said sent me away by saying, no, nobody here is interested in your gardening catalog.
I arranged to be in Detroit Lakes for the noon hour, which allowed me my most guilty pleasure: A trip through the Kentucky Fried Chicken Buffet. A neighbor came and joined me for a good talk about crop prices, sub-soil moisture and the Twins.
In and out, in and out all day in a raw wind. Tonight, my neck is sore. Must be getting old. I feel drafts.
The highlight of the whole day was when I stopped at a nursing home to put a stack of catalogs in the staff lounge. Out in the hall keeping watch were three lively ladies who were full of vinegar. One clearly had Alzheimer's. She was telling me to behave! I said, yes I will behave! to which she added, emphatically, "You have great strength!"
I throughly enjoyed the originality of the thought. How many times does a complete stranger tell you that you have great strength?
Take what you can get.
In sad news, a local boy made good, Stephen Gabrielsen, passed away this week. Although my father and his siblings grew up here in the old neighborhood with "Gabe," I only met him once, at my Uncle Bob's funeral. Gabe and Bob were classmates. Gabe generously agreed to drive up from the Cities to Lake Park, MN to make the music at Uncle Bob's funeral really, really something. Chill inducing. In particular, he used the organ to create a version of "A Mighty Fortress" like none I ever hope to hear again this side of the grave. (Or, in my case, the flower bed where my ashes will be spread). Then Gabe moved over to the piano and led the congregation in a version of "Jesus Loves Me." Uncle Bob couldn't sing or play a lick, but he would have been proud as punch to know that his childhood buddy Gabe made the music at his funeral grand.


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Ross & Demelza, Strangers & Lovers
See the sweetest and the most romantic moments of Ross and Demelza's Season 4 journey.
Ross & Demelza, Strangers & Lovers
Keeping up with the Warleggans
Jack Farthing (George Warleggan) on what's in store for George, Elizabeth and Ross.
Keeping up with the Warleggans
Get your first look at Poldark Season 4!
First Look
The cast of Poldark in the rocky relationships at the center of the series.
Love is Complicated
Aidan and Eleanor on Hugh Armitage
Aidan Turner and Eleanor Tomlinson on the love triangle with Hugh Armitage.
Aidan and Eleanor on Hugh Armitage
Actor Max Bennett introduces the provocative Monk Adderley.
Meet the New Villain
Dwight and Caroline's Heartbreak
[Contains Spoilers] Luke Norris and Gabriella Wilde on their character's Season 4 story.
Dwight and Caroline's Heartbreak
Elizabeth Warleggan – Happy at Last?
Heida Reed (Elizabeth Warleggan) discusses Elizabeth's joys in Season 4.
Elizabeth Warleggan – Happy at Last?
Behind the Scenes of New Locations
Production Designer Jeff Tessler reveals the key filming locations for Season 4.
Behind the Scenes of New Locations
From Cornwall to London, Poldark stars discuss how locations set the mood for Season 4.


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Location: Victoria City Hall
Join us for Mayor's Community Drop-In.
Mayor Lisa Helps welcomes members of the public to have the opportunity to drop in to see her, meet others, engage in conversation, share thoughts, ideas and concerns, and to build community and a sense of belonging.
For more information on the format and a schedule of upcoming dates, click here.


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A collection of scholarly works about individual liberty and free markets. A project of Liberty Fund, Inc.
The Intellectual Portrait Series: A Conversation with Ljubo Sirc (Indianapois: Liberty Fund, 2003). https://oll.libertyfund.org/titles/1019,
|Available in the following formats:
|MP3 Audio for your computer or iPod.
|MP3 mono
|MP3 Audio in mono format for smaller file size.
|MP4A Audio for your computer or iPod.
Sirc draws upon his experiences of fighting in the Resistance and the Yugoslav Army, his political opposition and arrest under communism to discuss the economics of socialism and life under communism.
The copyright to both the video tape and the audio track of this recording is held by Liberty Fund, Inc.
This material is put online to further the educational goals of Liberty Fund, Inc. Unless otherwise stated in the Copyright Information section above, this material may be used freely for educational and academic purposes. It may not be used in any way for profit.


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Sony will hold their big Tokyo Game Show press conference for all things PlayStation at 1pm Wednesday, Tokyo time. That's midnight eastern... tonight!
Our top men in Tokyo will be at the event, liveblogging away. Follow the liveblog here. We'll have all the news for you, here on the site.
What are you putting money on? The rumored new model of the PS3? Gran Turismo 6? Some new apps for the Vita?
Sony's Gamescom press conference this past August was a tour de force of new game announcements. It will be hard for them to top it, so let's lower our expectations... oh, but it's so fun to get excited, right?


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UW Study Offers Insight Into Earlier Puberty For Girls
A University of Wisconsin-Madison study using primates could offer answers as to why girls are reaching puberty earlier, in some cases as young as age 7.
For years, researchers have been studying why young women are maturing faster than in the past. Doctors believe early puberty in women may lead to breast cancer and Type 2 diabetes later in life, and that it might stunt brain development in the final stages of the maturation process.
Over the past 150 years, the average age when girls first menstruate has dropped by about four years. Work done at the National Primate Research Center on the UW-Madison campus is now offering the first clue as to what could be leading some girls to go through puberty early.
By feeding a group of four pre-teen rhesus macaque monkeys a higher-sugar, higher-fat diet, researchers discovered they did not get fat but instead reached puberty between a year and 18 months faster than animals in the control group.
Their findings were published Tuesday in the journal Endocrinology, and they could help reshape the picture of health care for young people.
"The animals that did eat more had a dramatically advanced age of puberty onset," said researcher Joe Kurian. "They were getting bigger, though they weren't necessarily getting much fatter than other monkeys."
Just six months after beginning the regimen, the female macaques menstruated for the first time. Kurian said that didn't happen in the control group for another 12 to 18 months.
"It certainly gives us good evidence that diet is, in fact, responsible for advancing puberty onset," Kurian said.
Lead researcher Ei Terasawa said she worries that earlier puberty could stunt brain development, particularly in areas of the brain that deal with judgment.
"That part of the brain is much later, even in a human, 21 to 25 years old, to complete," Terasawa said.
Ongoing research could help doctors reset the developmental clock so it ticks at the right pace.
"We should have a certain developmental stage. We should have a proper process of puberty," Terasawa said.
Male monkeys were not part of the study, as it's simply harder to tell when they reach maturity.
"We do believe that what we are finding in these animals is very translatable to humans," Kurian said. "Certainly it's not in the best interest to try to advance maturation (in humans)."
Kurian said people have been concerned about obesity as it relates to calorie intake for so long that it might not be the only problem. He said the monkeys in the study didn't get fat because they were in the right developmental period in which the body was using the energy in other ways.
Terasawa said the research suggests it might not be good for young girls to have a low-calorie diet, but if they are eating the right amount or slightly more, exercise is very important. Terasawa said there is much more research that needs to be done on this issue, particularly on brain development.


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Posts Tagged 'Karatoula Ilias'
Here we have a view from Google Earth.
We can easily notice the archaeological area, the stadium, Kronion Hill and the Olympic Academy location as they were before 25th of August 2007. (Click on it to enlarge)
Here you can see a few photos after the fire, especially Kronion Hill.
Our school is located here
View My school in a larger map


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Mock Neck Asymmetrical Bodycon Dress
Browse all deals at Charlotte Russe
See more in Dresses
* This offer may contain time-sensitive information and offers. Please check with Charlotte Russe to confirm actual price & availability.
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I wanted to ask this on the Backtrack Linux forums but for some reason I couldn't register, reading it was disabled by the administrator. So I apologize if I'm in the wrong place (which I feel like I am, even though BT is based on Ubuntu).
A week ago my VPN connections were fine. I'm using network-manager on GNOME. My OpenVPN connections (done via terminal) also connected fine. Now, out of nowhere, the PPTP VPN setup in my network-manager keep reporting a failed connection, and when I try OpenVPN it reports a success, but I can't access the internet. If I enter in a site it just hangs forever :(
The same VPN with same config, same credentials, same everything works perfectly on Ubuntu 12.04 LTS and Windows 7 (I have a triple boot). I did not run any updates or upgrades since then. What can I do?


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Iowa jumped out to a 3-0 lead early on in this one before having to fight back with two in the seventh to beat New Orleans 5-4. Definitely not how you draw up a typical win as the Iowa Cubs defense made six (SIX!) errors in this one, I guess a win is a win, time to forget that defensive "effort" .. yikes.
At the Plate:
- Matt Szczur did a solid job from the lead-off spot, as he went 1-for-4 with a walk, a stolen base, and a run scored.
- Arismendy Alcantara has been swinging it well lately, and he was good again today. AA went 1-for-5 with a triple, an RBI, and a run scored.
- Chris Valaika is making a big push to get the call to the Majors, he was 2-for-3 with a double, a walk, an RBI, and a run scored. He is now hitting .361 on the season.
- Christian Villanueva had an encouraging day at the plate, the third baseman was 1-for-2 with two walks, a double, and a run scored.
- Logan Watkins made up for a rough day at the field with a solid day at the plate. Watkins went 2-for-2 with a walk, an RBI, and a run scored to go along with his two errors.
- Eli Whiteside also joined in the fun as he went 2-for-3 with a walk, and an RBI. The Cubs walked seven times in this one, good to see.
On the Mound:
- Eric Jokisch got the start today, and was pretty good, except for fielding the ball as he made two errors as well. Jokisch worked 5.2 innings, giving up three runs, all unearned, on three hits, while walking two, and striking out five.
- Alberto Cabrera was the first guy out of the pen for the Cubs, and earned his second win of the season. Cabrera worked 1.1 scoreless innings, he gave up one hit, while walking one, and striking out two.
- Neil Ramirez had a solid outing today, he worked a scoreless inning, while walking one, and striking out three.
- Brian Schlitter worked a bumpy ninth to pick up his second save of the season. Schlitter gave up one run on one hit, while walking one to close it out.
Rough go of it for the Smokies in game one, as they could only manage one hit as they were shut out by the Jackson Generals, 4-0. Command, or lack thereof, doomed the Smokies staff, but not much you can do when you get no runs of support.
At the Plate:
- Dustin Geiger had the lone hit for the Smokies, as he went 1-for-2 to raise his average to .289 on the season. The Smokies walked just twice in this one, while striking out eleven times.
On the Mound:
- Corey Black got the start tonight, and the loss, as he couldn't find the zone consistently enough. Black worked four innings, giving up three runs on two hits, while walking five (see?), and striking out three.
- Austin Kirk kept the Smokies in things as he worked two innings, giving up one run on one hit, while striking out one.
- Tony Zych mopped things up in this one, and also saw the plate dancing around on him as he worked one scoreless inning, giving up two hits, while walking two, and striking out one.
It was all Kane County, all the time in this one, as the Cougars had a 10-0 lead by the fourth inning en route to their seventh straight win, a 13-1 thrashing of the Dragons. The Cougars pounded out nineteen hits in the win, and only allowed two against, pure domination.
At the Plate:
- Jacob Hannemann got things off on the right foot from the lead-off spot all night, he went 2-for-6 with an RBI, a stolen base, and a run scored.
- Carlos Penalver was solid once again, as he went 2-for-5 with an RBI, his sixth stolen base of the season, and a run scored.
- Ben Carhart played a big role in the production tonight, he went 2-for-6 with two doubles, two RBI's, and two runs scored.
- Yasiel Balaguert has been the catalyst for catastrophe for this club, he went 2-for-5 with a walk, and an RBI, his twelfth of the season.
- Jacob Rogers also enjoys hitting doubles, he was 3-for-6 with two doubles, and two runs scored.
- Danny Lockhart was on base all night, and scored most of the time as well. Lockhart went 2-for-3 with two walks, and four runs scored.
- Will Remillard had a huge game from the bottom of the order, he went 4-for-5 with two doubles, and FIVE RBI's in the win.
On the Mound:
- Daury Torrez didn't want to give the hitters all the spotlight in this one as he was flat out brilliant in picking up his second win of the season. Torrez worked eight innings, giving up one run on just two hits, while walking one, and striking out four.
- Nathan Dorris worked the ninth and was able to hang onto that twelve run lead.
The Smokies were able to exact some revenge in game two as they fought back from an early 2-0 deficit to beat the Generals 3-2. The Smokies got a lot of help from the Generals defense as they committed two errors, and allowed two unearned runs to score, at that was the difference.
At the Plate:
- Kris Bryant has been showing some solid patience at the plate as of late, he was 0-for-1 in this one, but had two walks. He now has walked eight times this season, and struck out thirteen times.
- Charles Cutler was 1-for-2 with a double, his second of the season, and a run scored.
- Jeudy Valdez had one of the bigger hits of the night, as he went 1-for-3 with a double, an RBI, and a run scored.
- Taylor Davis was able to drive in the other Smokies run, he went 1-for-3 with said RBI.
On the Mound:
- Dae-Eun Rhee got the start in game two and held his own after some early struggles, he worked four innings, giving up two runs on six hits, while walking one, and striking out four.
- Hunter Cervenka picked up the win out of the bullpen, and was solid in doing so. Cervenka worked two scoreless innings, giving up three hits, while striking out three.
- Armando Rivero made things interesting in the seventh (Doubleheaders in AA are seven innings), but was able to pick up his third save of the season. Rivero gave up one hit, and walked one, while strking out the side to close it out.
It's been a season of discontent for Daytona, and that continued tonight as they fall to the Yankees 6-5 after erasing a four run deficit. The loss dropped Daytona to 2-12 on the season, just nothing going right.
At the Plate:
- Tim Saunders continued his hot start to 2014, as he went 2-for-4 with his first home run of the season, a walk, a stolen base, two RBI's, and a run scored.
- Nice to see Albert Almora back in the lineup, he went 1-for-5 with a run scored.
- Bijan Rademacher had a solid game, he went 1-for-4 with a walk, an RBI, and a run scored in the loss.
- Rock Shoulders seems to be getting hot, he went 3-for-4 with a walk, and an RBI in this one. The D-Cubs were 1-for-11 with runners in scoring position.
On the Mound:
- Rob Zastryzny got the start tonight, and was wild in the strike zone, as he worked four innings, giving up four runs on nine hits, while walking none, and striking out one.
- Zach Cates was really good out of the pen, as he worked four innings, giving up one run on two hits, while walking one, and striking out two.
- Arodys Vizcaino continues to impress in the early going, he worked one scoreless inning, giving up one hit, while walking one, and striking out three. Vizcaino topped out at 98 MPH tonight, a very good sign.
- Andrew McKirahan ended up taking the loss as he worked one inning, giving up one run on three hits, while striking out one.


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Do you really price match?
We will match any e-Commerce (Online store) Authorized USA Dealer's advertised price. Please call us toll free (877) 370-1972 and alert us to where you found the product cheaper. We will verify, and if the site is an Authorized US Dealer- we will match their price. However, if the price is below the manufacturer Minimum Advertised Price (MAP)- we will have to get authorization to match the price. We will not violate our signed agreements that we have with our vendors.
What about price matching from an auction site?
We do not price match any auction or "grey market" site.
Be advised, any purchases from an auction or unauthorized (grey market) websites can lead to future issues in regards to warranty or support. Most manufacturers will not honor any claims or warranty from these type of sales. Spend your money wisely by purchasing from an Authorized Dealer. In a lot of cases, saving a little bit of money can cost you more after the sale is completed.
We offer a 30 Day Return Policy should you choose to return a product for any reason.
Since 1972 Sound Approach has backed all items that we sell. If the product you have purchased is not right for you, let us know. We strive to find the right product for your unique situation. We will work with you to find a sound solution and recommend what product will resolve your issue. That being said, we will credit, refund, or exchange any product you purchase within 30 days of your purchase.
Certain products, may be returned, but are subject to a restocking fee of 20%. Please contact us to determine, before ordering, if the item will fall into this category. Usually it is for the high-end electronics & audiophile-grade speakers. We want to make sure that we match you with the correct product, so please call and speak to any of our technical experts prior to ordering.
Four Important Conditions:
1. We need to get the original box, manuals, and any materials that came with the product for you to receive a full refund- with no re-stocking charges. The item/product must still be in like-new condition.
2. If the item had Free Shipping and you are returning a non-defective product, the original shipping cost will be deducted from the total that will be refunded back.
3. Special Ordered items are not returnable (see below).
4. Once an RMA is issued- it is valid for 10 business days. After 10 days, the RMA is canceled and returns will not be accepted.
Shipping and handling charges cannot be reimbursed unless it is our mistake. Yes, we can make mistakes – not often, but it can happen.
MastersounD - Evolution 845 - Integrated Amplifier (Class A)
The Evolution 845 is the culmination of the collective knowledge and experience of all those who work with MasterSound. The total absence of feedback makes the Evolution 845 fast, with imaging that is truly amazing.
Our new, dual drive control system of the Evolution 845 preamp section grew from our careful research. Combined with our unique output transformer and powerful 845 triodes working in Parallel Single-Ended mode, the amplifier renders a genuinely engaging sound.
We use a semiautomatic biasing system, which once regulated, will give optimal life to the final tubes. Finally, we use 24 karat gold connections on the Evolution 845 circuit board. The capacitors are either manufactured by high-quality for MasterSound.
Our philosophy is simple:
We produce amplifiers that arouse emotion, in which every note of music should precisely reflect the emotions of the composer and the performer. In addition to the technical excellence, our amplifiers satisfy the ultimate search for the life-like performance. Therefore, not only a perfect soundstage, focus, and dynamics are involved, but also a "spirit" quite rare in many systems - blend into the total synergy of your system.
The listeners feel immersed in the music and carried away through enjoying the life-like details of the instruments, in the most natural means possible... with emotion.
Mastersound amplifiers, except the tubes, comes with a five-year limited warranty covering defects in material and craftsmanship. During the warranty period, repairs are provided free of charge. Transportation costs, to and from, has to be paid by the owner of the unit.
Mastersound is the finest Italian crafted audiophile product on the market. Each order is custom-built and is typically delivered within 4-6 weeks from Italy. Please call for availability and delivery estimates.
Special Notice:
Mastersound stands behind its products and their reputation is known widely to the audiophile world. Once your order is placed, there are no refunds or exchanges allowed.
Parallel Single Ended Dual Mono
Finals tubes
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Input impedance
Output transformer
Load impedance
Negative feedback


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Mike Tyson Says He Caught Brad Pitt Smashing His Wife "Robin Givens" Right Before Court! "You Should Had Saw His Face When He Saw Me"
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Exercise or religion? Yoga is for everyone: Column
- Most who practice yoga would be baffled at the notion that it has anything to do with religion.
- Parents in California have sued a school district because the P.E. program includes yoga.
- But many scholars of yoga and religion say it is a non-sectarian practice.
Millions of people of varying religious beliefs practice yoga and find that it enhances their spiritual life. Millions of others view it strictly as physical exercise and an aid to mindfulness.
Most of them would be baffled at the notion that yoga has anything to do with religion. "People come to our studios to get into shape and relieve stress," says Brandon Hartsell, chairman of Yoga Alliance and the owner of Sunstone Yoga, which has 12 locations in the Dallas area. "They are not looking for a religious experience."
Yet, in Encinitas, Calif., the parents of one child, backed by a Christian defense organization, have sued the Encinitas Union School District claiming a physical education program that includes bi-weekly yoga sessions constitutes religious indoctrination. The plaintiffs allege that the School District's decision to include yoga in its P.E. classes "unlawfully promotes religious beliefs, while disfavoring and discriminating against other religions," in violation of the California Constitution's religious freedom provisions. Because the suit portrays yoga as inherently religious in nature, it could deter yoga programs in schools across the U.S., with a potential impact extending far beyond southern California.
Like many scholars of yoga and religion, Christopher Chapple, professor of Indic and Comparative Theology at Loyola Marymount University, says that yoga is a non-sectarian practice. The Yoga Sutras, the most commonly cited classical text that forms the basis for both traditional and contemporary yoga philosophy, make no specific theological claims, according to Chapple. It is the non-sectarian nature of this text that has allowed it to resonate for more than 1,500 years, he says.
In fact, those like Chapple -- who have taken the time to study the texts of yoga, the context in which it was created and how it evolved into the modern practice it is today -- all say the same thing: Yoga is for everyone.
Although it doesn't always mean the same thing to everyone.
Philip Goldberg, an author and ordained Interfaith Minister who has studied the migration of yoga from India to the U.S., recently noted that diversity of style and meaning is one of the defining characteristics of modern yoga. "'Yoga' means different things to different people, has a broad spectrum of applications and can legitimately be presented in a variety of formats, contexts and rubrics," he wrote. "In fact, its adaptability is among its greatest strengths."
Mark Singleton, a yoga scholar who teaches at St. John's College in Santa Fe, notes that many of the influential pioneers of modern hatha yoga insisted on its non-sectarian, democratic and secular nature, and sometimes had an aversion to the association of yoga with religion. This, says Singleton, is in keeping with the anti-sectarian spirit of early Indian hatha yoga.
It is also consistent with the yoga being taught to students in Encinitas. "We're not teaching religion," said EUSD Superintendent Timothy Baird. "We teach a very mainstream physical fitness program that happens to incorporate yoga into it. It's part of our overall wellness program. The vast majority of students and parents support it."
And why wouldn't they support it? The physical and mental well-being of our children is just as important as their intellectual development, which is why contemporary education movements seek to shift the focus of education policy from academic achievement to nurturing the overall development of children.
Yoga fits in quite well with this vision. Research demonstrates that it has a positive impact on children's concentration, demeanor, physical health and attitude. It's hardly surprising, then, that yoga-in-school programs, like the Washington, D.C.-based YoKid.org, are widely praised by both teachers and parents.
The great majority of scholars of religion and yoga refute the plaintiffs' claim in the Encinitas case -- that yoga is "inherently and pervasively religious." Yoga can clearly be practiced in harmony with any religion, or with no religion, and is diverse and flexible enough to adapt to any setting. "There are a vast range of reasons why people do yoga," says Philip Goldberg, "from very secular, practical, body-oriented people, to the most spiritual people on the planet, and everything in between. And it serves all of those purposes because these are universal teachings."
Richard Karpel is the president and CEO of Yoga Alliance, the Arlington, Va.-based nonprofit organization that represents and credentials yoga teachers, schools and studios.
In addition to its own editorials, USA TODAY publishes diverse opinions from outside writers, including our Board of Contributors.


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Buy this item and earn 8 points valued at $0.38.
Pure patchouli plant oil is combined with a base of jojoba and fractionated coconut oil to create an all natural perfume oil. Perfect for those who experience sensitivity to synthetic fragrances. Packaged in an emerald glass roll on bottle, it's perfect to tuck in a pocket or purse and take with you anywhere. Ingredients: Essential Oil of Patchouli, Jojoba and Fractionated Coconut Oil. Net Wt. .33 oz.
Herbal Scent Creations © 2020


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happy st. patrick's day
having a guinness in the name of st patrick's day
only I am not in a bar
bought a guinness at the corner store
the guinness has a "rocket widget" bouncing around inside
Icon O Classt... this is your cue
jump in here... give the review of this product
give an explanation of pulling a draft
why a beer is better from a tap than from a bottle?
how were the draughts in scottland?
what does it mean to pull a draught?
were clydesdales draught horses?
watching the gates
I like documentary film
like books for people who like to drink
I blog and drink with the television in the background to honor st patrick's day
while icon o classt more than like spent some time in an irish pub early in the evening
an has settled in by a warm fire with a jameson and something obscure by james joyce
I had two of these rocket widget assisted guinness bottles before moving to the flying dog amber
no... not harp... flying dog
the first bottle I mistakenly poured into a pint glass
the visual was stunning as to be expected
but the beer fell flat quickly
the second guinness was drank from the bottle
as the bottle instructs
but I like the ascetic
enjoying the gates on hbo
I am loving it
fantastic film
fantastic vision of the artist
which one?
all of them


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Events Search and Views Navigation
Events for February 20, 2020
Day Navigation
10:00 am
Marsfield Minis Playgroup
Marsfield Minis Playgroup meets every Thursday morning during school term at Marsfield Community Church. We provide a safe, caring and stimulating place for babies and preschool-aged children in the local area to play, develop and socialise with other children. Our structured music and movement session is followed by a casual morning tea and an opportunity […]Find out more »


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Tuesday, June 11, 2013
This is the Sagrada Familia in him. A long-term project that has for four decades and is nearing completion. A house that develops the environment around a deep well of light. An incredible maze with no casual visitor can not assume the scale without a methodical tour provided by the master of the house, Xavier Corbero, 74, sculptor. The cave has attracted the filmmaker Woody Allen, who used it as a backdrop for several scenes of the film Vicky Cristina Barcelona, released in 2008. A perpetual construction Xavier Corbero thought this place to instinct, "a few lines on single sheets of graph paper. "Without an architect above all, lest he be weary of a proposal that would not itself given birth. In 1969, in Esplugues de Llobregat, near Barcelona, he bought a plot on which languished hovels of the seventeenth century. It retains some old parts and demolished the rest. Thus began his lifelong project. The plot is riddled with caves and underground (Esplugues in Catalan), once used by the Romans.
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A big welcome to this artist who is designing and creating a City Hare for Squarehost Ltd
All hares will be live on the trail 24th June to 8th Sept 2018. The trail is brought to you by Norfolk Childrens Charity Break. We look forward to seeing you there.
All City hares will be auctioned on 11th October at the Forum Norwich.
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The Bridge – strategic cooperation with IKEA The Bridge is a multidisciplinary research and education collaboration between Linnaeus University and IKEA. The programme concerns Life at Home and the…
Project: Housing and residential development for increased growth (Boost) The Boost project has its starting point in building and living with glass and wood construction. The aim is to develop and…


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$2,300 (each); $4,400 (pair)
Natasha Barnes is a South African artist, born in 1969. While she has been painting since the age of seven, she has little formal training. Her natural talent and pure passion for painting has led her to develop a profound style, exhibiting expressionism, color and movement. Natasha is one of the mostly published artists in South Africa. Her work is exhibited extensively and can be found in private and corporate collections worldwide.
Medium Acrylic on Canvas
Dimensions 33" x 33" (Framed)
Styles Contemporary/Abstract
Subjects Abstract