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Michael Ray was selected to be the first John G. McCoy-Banc One Corporation Professor of Creativity and Innovation and of Marketing (Emeritus) at Stanford University's Graduate School of Business. He is a specialist in new paradigm business, creativity, innovation, and marketing communications. He has produced more than 100 publications including ten books such as Creativity in Business with Rochelle Myers, The Path of the Everyday Hero with Lorna Catford-Tarcher, The Creative Spirit with Daniel Goleman and Paul Kaufman (the companion book to the PBS series of the same name, inspired by his Stanford course "Personal Creativity in Business"), and most recently, The Highest Goal.
I conducted this interview in 2008 for KL@TG magazine, published by Dallas-based Thomas Group. If anything, Ray's responses are more relevant and more valuable today than they were then.
Morris: When did you begin teaching the "Personal Creativity in Business" course at Stanford and to what extent have your perspectives on creativity since changed over the years?
Ray: I began teaching the course with Rochelle Myers in the 1979-80 academic year. But I really started my work in creativity with research during my undergraduate and Ph.D. in social psychology work at Northwestern and in teaching courses there in Advertising, Advertising Management and Advertising and Communication Research. My concepts of creativity changed dramatically from the Northwestern times and my early years at Stanford to our starting to teach the creativity course at the business school. The main change was from seeing creativity as a predecessor of innovation and an issue of getting ideas and solving problems to seeing creativity as personal development and bringing out one's inner resources. I've become convinced that this kind of personal creativity is the key to dealing with a new world that is constantly emerging in business and all walks of life. In fact, I am convinced that we are talking about a paradigm of creativity.
Morris: Many people insist, "I'm not creative." Your response?
Ray: We assume in our work that everyone is creative, but we are using a different definition of creativity than is implied when people say they are not creative. We believe that people are being creative if they are bringing out their highest inner resources to improve their lives and those around them. Those who are living from their core, and doing what they are destined to do, are being creative, no matter how mundane their work or profession might seem.
Often when claiming that they are not creative, they mean that they are not artists, musicians, writers, athletes, or any other media types demonstrating creativity. Or they know someone who always seems to have a lot of ideas and know that they can't match that.
We all have a tendency to idolize those who create what we see in the media. I think it's better to use these people as models rather than idols, especially when these people have aspects of their lives that are similar to us. Then we can take their inspiration as we go on to be creative in our own way in our own lives and companies.
Morris: Although creativity in business is highly desirable, is it not at least as important to think creatively in one's personal life?
Ray: The more I do this creative work the more I realize that business is about people in groups being creative in their own way. If business creativity does not allow individual development, then it isn't sustainable. But if business creativity means people bringing out their best and developing that, then amazing things can happen—not only for the business but also more importantly for the individual and the surrounding community.
We encourage people to bring their creativity to bear on six personal challenges—discovering purpose and career, dealing with time and stress issues, developing and maintaining good relationships, achieving personal/professional balance or synergy in life, finding true prosperity, and bringing one's own creativity into the business and life. Unless people are continually dealing with these challenges, they are not bringing out their best and are not of much use to anyone, particularly themselves and their organizations.
Morris: In your opinion, what must be done to create a workplace environment in which creative thinking is not only encouraged but also indeed nourished and supported?
Ray: When I'm asked that question, one of the first things that comes to mind is that old line about breakfast: "The chicken is involved but the pig is committed." I believe that you have to have long-term commitment to create creativity in an organization. In all the organizations I know that developed a culture of creativity, someone, often a small group of people, made a commitment to people development in the context of enriching their business. And just like the pig and the bacon, this can be a difficult process at times, that's why the commitment is necessary.
At the same time, you must set up measurement of results and celebrate small victories as you go along. I have observed that any creativity initiative gets about an eighteen-month grace period. If there aren't any tangible results in a year and a half, despite the strongest commitment, someone in the organization is going to start questioning the whole program. But that's not all. In one of my articles in which I define "creativity in business" as individual enlightenment within organizational transformation, I mention six heuristics for developing a creative culture:
1. Work with leaders within the organization.
2. Develop creativity within a vital initiative.
3. Make creativity a long-term commitment with short-term payouts.
4. Develop individual creativity within a relevant working group.
5. Deal with deep personal challenges.
6. Keep an eye on the prize of overall organizational objectives and world effect.
Morris: How does creative thinking differ from innovative thinking?
Ray: Someone once said that innovation is a done idea. I agree. I believe that creativity is the individual development and conceptualization and that innovation in an organizational sense is implementing ideas and intentions that come from that creativity. So in a sense, creativity is more a leadership function and innovation is more a managerial function.
I believe that if one can understand one's false personality or ego, then they can develop self-awareness and the manifesting of that self-awareness is leadership. Such a leader sets up the mechanisms within which creativity can flourish, and managers turn this into innovations in the marketplace and society.
But you should take all this with a grain of salt, since in real life creativity and innovation are intertwined and so are leaders and managers. It's never as clear-cut as I'm making it sound. It's, as you know, much more dynamic, chaotic and fascinating in the way it plays out. That's why people have to operate more from their inner essence; it's the other constant that copes with the legendary constant of change.
Morris: In Creativity in Business co-authored with Rochelle Myers, you and she suggest that in order to understand the essence of business as art, it is necessary to "get to know your inner resource." How?
Ray: That's a wonderful question, because it inspires rich answers, enough for a book or two. Rochelle Myers and I developed our course to answer that question and wrote that book. There are a few steps to take that will not only help you to know your inner resource but also to bring it out into the world.
The most important thing you can do individually and organizationally is to pay attention to your own creativity. Sports psychologists call this muscle memory or paying attention to your perfect performance. In your own life you can notice when you do something that works right for you and celebrate it. The more you do this, the greater the probability that you will act creatively in future situations.
You can pay attention to your own creativity by doing what we call "live-withs" in our work. A live-with is a heuristic or generalization for learning and discovery such as "Have No Expectations," "Pay Attention," "Ask Dumb Questions," "See with Your Heart," or "Be Ordinary." As you can tell, these live-withs can be challenging. But if you live with each of them for any period of time, such as a week, and then reflect upon them in writing or verbally with another person and get feedback, you will notice shifts in your behavior toward a more creative life.
We tie each live-with with each of four tools of creativity (i.e. having faith in your creativity, developing an absence of negative internal judgment, precise observation, and penetrating questions) and six life challenges (i.e. finding your purpose, dealing with time and stress, developing generative relationships, creating synergy and balance in your life, finding true prosperity, and bringing your individual creativity into the world).
Both individually and organizationally, the live-with "Ask Dumb Questions" can propel people into penetrating questions, which in turn can change the way you do business for the better. And "See with Your Heart" can transform difficult relationships into productive ones.
You can discover and manifest your creativity by being conscious of your own creativity through the technique of live-withs, particularly when applied to the four tools and six challenges. Also remember to share this with others and get feedback so that creativity is in the air, especially within your organization.
Morris: What are the most common barriers to creativity and how can they be overcome?
Ray: What is a barrier to one person is a springboard for another. And the thing that makes the difference from one person or another is how they deal with and are affected by their inner voice of blame and criticism, which we call the VOJ or Voice of Judgment.
Yes I can list all sorts of organizational forms and cultural issues that can get in the way of our accessing our inner creativity and bringing it out in our world. And we can use all kinds of approaches that can transform the organization. But unless we have developed a sense of our Self (who we are at core, at our highest) and our Work (the purpose of our existence, the gift that we have to give to the world) and use that to deal with the inner obstacle, we can't sustain creativity in the face of the chaos of the world.
Do this by using the approaches that are mentioned in my last answer and in our books to develop a sense of your own creativity and how you can manifest it in the world. Then deal with the VOJ by observing how this inner voice can ruin every part of your life by telling you that you are not good enough, that people and organizational obstacles are impossible, that your ideas are worthless or wrong, and that you are constantly making or in danger of making mistakes. You can then overcome and turn into breakthroughs the obstacles that are bound to come.
Once you get a sense of what this inner VOJ is saying, you can get angry at it and shout at it (inwardly for most of the time), "Get the hell out of my life!" You'll notice that as you continue to do this, the VOJ will begin to retreat. And when you do hear it, you might try to see how ridiculous it is. You can ridicule it, realizing that it is not your voice speaking but voices mostly from your childhood that are inappropriate now.
And of course you can really overcome the obstacles to creativity and the VOJ by leaping over them to listen to the voices of your own objective intelligence, your inner creative essence, your Self and your Work. Then you will be living from reality and possibility and you will find that your VOJ disappears and the obstacles are just stops on the way to the larger things you can achieve in your life.
You can deal with fears, the extreme form of VOJ, also by paying attention to them and moving toward them and seeing what is really there.
Morris: From your perspective, what does it mean to be "in the world but not of it"?
Ray: I think that that phrase from the Bible is one of the best definitions of "creative." When you are creative, you are in the world in the sense that you see what it is and know its problems and possibilities. But you are not of the world in the sense that you are not caught up in external things and are coming from your inner resources to create approaches that are yours alone and have potential to change the world.
When you are living with the exhortation or live-with "Be in the World But Not of It," you experience your connection with all and the possibility of co-creativity and collaboration with those around you. You see an oneness in the world as opposed to warfare, even with those who are your enemies. You are not of the world of conflict, even though you have the strength to deal with it and turn it around. You have compassion in the sense of seeing the highest in yourself and then seeing that in others.
Living with this exhortation stimulates the best of your analytical skills, deepens your intuition, eliminates destructive competition, develops your skills and creativity serially and painlessly, and develops concentration, efficiency, accuracy, and humor.
And that's what a creative life is all about: making it a work of art.
Morris: Now please respond to some questions about your most recently published book, The Highest Goal. What prompted you to write it?
Ray: Two reasons. First I hadn't written much about our creative work for about ten years and we learned so much during that time, especially with our work outside of the universities with business and other organizations. I wanted to give this learning to the world. Second, I began to realize that our students were getting something beyond just creativity; even in the expanded way we were offering it. Specifically they realized their lives were about making a connection to some higher power, moving toward enlightenment, getting into flow with the Tao—however they stated it, it was about being in the state of creativity all the time. I saw that once they realized that this somewhat spiritual goal was what their life was all about; they could draw on this when they faced obstacles and challenges and celebrate their breakthroughs in terms of what it meant for their highest goal.
Morris: To what extent does this book reflect what you have learned from your students at Stanford over the years
Ray: I learned about this secret for living that is the highest goal from my students and from participants in our organizational work. They also forced me to see new ways of presenting the material and for enriching my own life in the process. When I first wrote what became The Highest Goal, I wrote a much larger book that my publisher said, "That's not a book. It's a course." I still have that larger book and my teachers (people who are my former students who teach the creativity material and are still my teachers in so many ways) use it in their teaching of creativity in business. I may publish it someday in that form or just offer it as part of all our teaching in the world.
Morris: In your opinion, throughout history, who are the best examples of those who have achieved "the highest goal"?
Ray: The beauty of the highest goal is that you never really achieve it in the lasting sense. You get only glimpses of it when you have breakthroughs or are in flow. And then you begin to string them together. So I know what you are looking for, but I think you should take my suggestions with a big grain of salt. I feel more confident in talking about people I know personally than I do about historical figures.
But I have done a lot of reading about several historical figures that makes me think that they achieved the highest goal in the sense of being motivated by attaining it and being guided by it throughout their life.
I come from Illinois and I've been exposed to the best and the worst of Abraham Lincoln since I was a child. I think he would be one example. Doris Kearns Goodwin's book Team of Rivals shows how he saw the highest in his worst enemies and kept going in the face of tremendous obstacles, for instance. Harold Holzer's book Lincoln As I Knew Him with statements from Lincoln's friends and enemies also gives a thorough picture that supports that selection.
In the same way but for different reasons I think that Marcus Aurelius, Leonardo Da Vinci, Gandhi, and Mother Teresa would all be candidates. I could mention some in recent times too. I think the football coach Bill Walsh was such a person. After he died, the statements by his friends and especially by his opponents convinced me that he went beyond success and competition and went out of his way to help people become themselves in the largest sense, even if it meant doing things that seemed negative or difficult.
I also give a number of examples in The Highest Goal of living friends, students and speakers who I think are on the path of the highest goal. But as I so often say, "What do I really know?
Morris: Ernest Becker once observed that there is one form of death that can be denied: That which occurs when we become with preoccupied with fulfilling others' expectations of us. Do you agree? Can this concern prevent us from achieving our "highest goal"?
Ray: Yes, I agree. Concern with outer expectations pulls one away from one's highest and deepest resources and the highest goal. Notice that we use and suggest the live-withs "Have No Expectations" and "Be Ordinary;" the latter because if you live from yourself as opposed to outer expectations you can be ordinary and become extraordinary.
At the same time, when we live from compassion we can also respect and see the highest in others and learn from them. This is another dimension of the highest goal: To have the discrimination to go beyond the surface negativity of people and see the goodness and wisdom they have to offer.
Morris: Here's my favorite passage from Lao-Tzu's Tao Te Ching:
Learn from the people
Plan with the people
Begin with what they have
Build on what they know
Of the best leaders
When the task is accomplished
The people will remark
We have done it ourselves.
Please discuss the relevance of this excerpt to a business leader's efforts of pursuing to achieve her or his "highest goal."
Ray: I love that verse from Lao Tzu. One way you can look at the highest goal is this ancient Chinese quest to live in the Tao or with the flow of the universe. This is being ordinary again and being in communion with your inner power as well as resonating with the grace that is in each situation.
I recall Jim Collins finding in his research that what he calls fifth level leaders could turn good companies into great ones. These leaders had two defining characteristics. First, they were humble and stayed in the background. Second, they were fiercely dedicated to the task at hand. Sound a bit like Taoism and the quote from Lao Tzu?
In addition, notice the live-with, "Become a Generative Leader." That is the title of the last chapter of The Highest Goal. A generative leader creates creativity. He or she is generative in the sense that nature is generative: never depletes its endowment, lives on its waste products, destroys in order to create, and is endlessly creative. Again, it is going with the flow, the Tao or more appropriately creatively surfing the waves of change. All of the people I mentioned or implied in the previous answer about historical and current people who I think have achieved or are living with the highest goal were or are, in my opinion, generative leaders. And their beneficial impact on others is immeasurable but admirable.


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Hardie Board Siding, which was first designed and created by James Hardie, is a popular option for innovative siding for homes and businesses of all sizes. Commonly called cement board siding, this product has been around for decades. During this time, it has always had a strong following over the years, with cyclic peaks in popularity among residential and commercial owners. Its popularity lies in the fact that it is low-maintenance, long-lasting, and attractive. Many business owners and homeowners alike ask us about Hardie Board Siding, so we wanted to address the questions our customers are asking about this product. Here are the pros, cons, and costs associated with this popular siding option:
The Pros
The reason Hardie Board Siding has always remained a popular choice for siding, especially in this modern age, is the impressive list of pros associated with it:
- Longevity: Hardie Board Siding usually comes with an impressive warranty of at least 10-15 years. It is also resistant to rust, rot, mold, decay, and insect damage. This is something that sets it apart from most of the other siding options out there.
- Appearance: Many people love this siding because it can easily be fashioned to resemble other siding materials, including wood and tile. Color options are limitless and just about any color palette can be easily matched with this siding material.
- Fire Resistance: Hardie Board Siding offers something no other siding option has been able to up to this point- it is extremely fire resistant. This siding is more than 90 percent sand and cement and has impressive fire retardation properties homeowners love.
- Storm Resistance: Another reason people love this product is that it is extremely durable and resisted wear and tear. Whether it is normal sun and rain, or the effects of massive storms, hail, and wind, Hardie Board Siding holds up better than anything else available.
The Cons
Like all things in life, there are some downsides to using Hardie Board Siding on your home or business, and it is important to know these before choosing this siding option.
- High Installation Cost: Because it is a highly-specialized type of siding, a lot more goes into making, preparing, and installing Hardie Board Siding than more traditional siding. More tools are required, more planning is needed, and more preparation work is necessary to get the location ready for the siding. This, in turn, can result in higher installation costs by the end of the project.
- Labor Costs: There also needs to be a larger labor force involved with even a seemingly simple installation project. This is largely due to the fact that this siding type is very heavy and cumbersome. 100 square feet of Hardie Board Siding can weight as much as 300 pounds compared to 60-70 pounds for the same amount of traditional vinyl siding. This means more work, more hands involved, and a longer timeline for completion.
- Maintenance: Hardie Board Siding is often thought to be relatively maintenance free, and while it is true it is resistant to things like decay, rot, and insect damage, it does still need some maintenance. The siding needs to be re-painted every 10-15 years to keep it looking fresh and vibrant. Most installations have a warranty that covers the paint-job but it will still need to be re-painted several times during the lifespan of the building.
The Cost
The biggest question we get about Hardie Board Siding is its costs. Like many things involved with home improvement and construction, there is no clear-cut answer. Hardie Board Siding can cost anywhere from $0.70 to $5.25 per square foot on average. This means the average sized home could cost from $4,700 to $13,300 for siding. The wide range in cost is due to many factors that are determined by the specific project at hand- size of the building, the area being covered, environmental factors, man-hours, style and type of Hardie Board Siding being used, and other factors that can influence the final cost. For many of our customers though, the benefits far outweigh any costs involved with getting the siding installed. Most of our customers are very satisfied with their siding choice when they decide to go with Hardie Board Siding for their home or business.
Local Considerations
The costs and benefits of Hardie Board Siding can vary from one region to another, so be sure to look at all the pros and cons as you make a decision about whether it is the right choice for your needs. If you have questions or concerns or need more information, the team here at Stay Dry Roofing is ready to help you with all your siding needs. We have years of experience working with Hardie Board Siding and other siding materials, so give us a call and let us help you find the siding options that are right for you!

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It is an amazing study. Over 99,000 women were followed for over eight years. The study examined the association of muscle-strengthening activities with the risk of Type 2 Diabetes in women. The results are astounding.
It is well established that aerobic physical activity can lower the risk of type 2 diabetes (T2D), but whether muscle-strengthening activities are beneficial for the prevention of T2D is unclear. The study from Lund University Diabetes Centre, Sweden, followed 99,316 middle-aged (36-55 years) and older women (53-81 years) for 8 years, who were free of diabetes, cancer, and cardiovascular diseases at baseline. Participants reported weekly time spent on resistance exercise, lower intensity muscular conditioning exercises (yoga, stretching, toning), and aerobic moderate and vigorous physical activity.
The findings are, in my opinion, very revealing. Although, it is well-established that regular aerobic exercise—physical activity in which the breathing and heart rate increase noticeably such as jogging, brisk walking, and swimming—lowers the risk of type 2 diabetes. The World Health Organization and Health Canada recommends that adults should do at least 150 min/week of moderate-to-vigorous aerobic physical activity to reduce the risk of diabetes and other non-communicable diseases.
Some recommend that adults should undertake muscle-strengthening and conditioning activities such as weight training and yoga on two or more days a week. However, it was unclear whether this form of exercise prevents diabetes. As expected, the study found that women who did more than 150 min/week of aerobic exercises had 40% lower risk of developing diabetes as women who did not exercise at all. But women who engaged in at least 150 min/week of aerobic exercise and at least 60 min/week of muscle-strengthening exercise such as yoga were a third as likely to develop diabetes as inactive women. In other words, doing both aerobic exercise and yoga were mutually beneficial.
The surprise is that engagement in muscle-strengthening and conditioning activities, like yoga, lowered the risk of type 2 diabetes independent of aerobic exercise. That is, yoga provided protection against diabetes in women who did no aerobic exercise. In fact, the benefit of yoga was more noticeable in women with high BMIs. The best outcome was from doing both aerobic exercise and muscle-strengthening exercises. An earlier study found the same conclusion for men as well.
To quote the scientists, "Our study suggests that engagement in muscle-strengthening and conditioning activities (resistance exercise, yoga, stretching, toning) is associated with a lower risk of T2D. Engagement in both aerobic MVPA and muscle-strengthening type activity is associated with a substantial reduction in the risk of T2D in middle-aged and older women." To me this adds credence to the yoga I promote which adds weights to the practice to build muscle-strength along with stretching and toning.


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Maine Lobster Pot Pie on WCSH-6 NBC TV's "207"March 4, 2013 • By Shanna Horner-O'Hea Maine Lobster Pot Pie
Maine Lobster Pot Pie and Chef/Owner Brian O'Hea recently appeared on "207," Maine's most popular local news magazine show on Channel 6, WCSH NBC TV, Portland Maine. "207" Anchor Kathleen Shannon interviewed Chef O'Hea as he prepared our famous Maine Lobster Pot Pie.
Brian O'Hea and his wife Shanna Horner O'Hea are the chefs and owners of Academeat The Kennebunk Inn and MaineLobsterPotPie.com. Their Maine Lobster Pot Pie has been featured on the Food Network's "Best Thing I Ever Ate," the Travel Channel's "Food Paradise," and in Oprah Winfrey's "O" Magazine.
The video is just over 6 minutes plays after a short commercial from WCSH-6.
Want the deliciousness of our
Maine Lobster Pot Pie
without the hours of prep work?
Order Online!
Want to try our famous Lobster Pot Pie in person? Stop by our Kennebunk restaurant, Academe at The Kennebunk Inn.


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It looks like Verizon will be releasing a new color of the Motorola DROID Mini. According to @evleaks' latest reveal, the new shade of the device is coming soon. So if you're dreaming of a white Christmas, this might be the phone for you!
Of course these leaks should always be taken with a grain of salt, but @evleaks has a solid track record. The Twitter feed has consistently been a source of early mobile hardware reveals.
The black DROID Mini is currently going for $49.99 (with contract) from Verizon, so it's safe to assume the white version will be the same. Verizon had released the Mini on August 21st. The DROID Mini sports a 4.3 inch HD display, 1.7GHz dual-core CPU, 16GB storage, 2GB RAM, 10 megapixel camera, Kevlar casing, and wireless charging support.
The Droid Mini also recently got an Android 4.4 KitKat update along with 6 other Motorola Droid models on Verizon. So it'll be rocking the latest version of Android in white!
If you're looking for a low-priced smartphone that doesn't take up too much pocket space, and you like your gadgets in white this might be the phone for you! It's also a great holiday gift idea.
[Via: @evleaks]


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- Rings
- >
- Glass, Resin & Other Rings
- >
- Teardrop Evil Eye Ring
Teardrop Evil Eye Ring
per item
This cute ring features a glass evil eye cabochon set into a teardrop-shaped, antique bronze bezel on top of an adjustable bronze band.
The cabochon measures approximately 18mm (3/4") in width by 25mm (1") in length.
▻ Size: Adjustable
▻ Lead and nickel-free
▻ Handmade in Santa Cruz, CA
To preserve the metal finish, please do not wear your earrings while showering or swimming.
Please visit BlueButtonBoho's Shop Policies prior to checkout.
1 available


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FSR's Symphony Table Boxes
Appears in:
FSR's Symphony table boxes allow for large cable to bulkhead AV connections. Configurations include AC outlets, USB charging ports and low-voltage openings. It is available as a clamp-on, mounted in the table with frame and cover, or mounted under a table, shelf or chair.


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Victuals Market
Right in the Old Town, food stalls and restaurants presenting the best of local cuisine
Daily Bavarian food fest
Out in front of St. Peter's Church and the Stadtmuseum, the Viktualienmarkt has stood on this spot since 1807, and its 140 market stalls are great for foodies who want to immerse themselves in local food products, ingredients, and cuisine. It's more than merely food stalls, but also a variety of restaurants, which in summertime put out sidewalk tables, as well as regular food-related festivals and events, such as Beermakers' Day and the Herring Festival. Delish!
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10 tips to keep your hand baggage
Find out what type of packs are considered hand baggage and how to can change them so that they can go in the cabin with you during the flight.Free download


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In metaphysics, impenetrability is the name given to that quality of matter whereby two bodies cannot occupy the same space at the same time.The philosopher John Toland argued that impenetrability and extension were sufficient to define matter, a contention strongly disputed by Gottfried Wilhelm von Leibniz.
Locke considered impenetrability to be "more a consequence of solidity, than solidity itself." [1]
See also[edit]
- Locke's views on extension
- Interpenetration (disambiguation)
- ^ Locke, John. IV An Essay Concerning Human Understanding Check
|url=value (help). Oregon State University.
General References[edit]
- This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Wood, James, ed. (1907). "article name needed". The Nuttall Encyclopædia. London and New York: Frederick Warne.
- Heinemann, F. H. "Toland and Leibniz." The Philosophical Review, Vol. 54, No. 5. (Sep., 1945), pp. 437-457.
|This article about metaphysics is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it.


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In the cosmic world of online advertising, there are times when it seems your ad might just get lost in the "sea" of all other ads. This is very likely in part due to the fact that your ad, like many, may lack creativity and might even look more or less the same as the others. Larry Kim called this phenomena ad fatigue, and he actually coined the phrase "AdWords jackpot". Luckily, in September 2014, Google released an update call "ad customizer", which will give wings to you or your Google certified SEM manager to exercise more marketing creativity, and create Google pay-per-click ads that have dynamic content, stronger call to actions, and ultimately help you sell more of your "fish" online.
How do Ad Customizers Work?
It works like this: Ad customizers mean that you can now add dynamic content to the previously static, less appealing text ads. Take for instance how useful this feature is for online retailers that are trying to optimize their sales for a particular time-dependent offer. They want to create a sense of urgency with their target audience, so as the clock counts down, the number of hours remaining and displaying on the ad updates (diminishes) accordingly, thereby encouraging buyers to click and make a purchase. For example: "Only 9 hours remaining to get winter's warmest boots at 40% off". The dynamic element–the time frame- in this ad makes the call to action much more powerful. Wouldn't you agree that having ad copy that changes according to amount of time left in the offer is certainly more effective than something like "Get winter's warmest boots at 40% off"?
Personalized Ads Are Simply More Effective
There is a significant amount of personalization that can be achieved with this Google AdWords customization feature, and the more precise the information, the more positive the results. Ad customizers will communicate information to potential clients that static ads will not. Aside from deadlines, it's also possible to use dynamic elements such as starting prices for services, i.e. "Home cleaning starting at $125". This new Google AdWords feature also allows for more tailored ads where keywords can be utilized, and even recurring events can be posted. In the case of a company that has monthly recurring events, information can be entered into the ad customizer and can automatically renew itself at the set date. Using the Google Ad Customizers feature is one strategy you can use to help create more effective ads that will differentiate your product or service, help keep your Google pay-per-click ads out of the AdWords jackpot, and ultimately sell more of your products/services. If you'd prefer to focus on what you're great at, and leave the digital advertising to the experts, then SEO TWIST's team of Google AdWords certified experts can get you up in running within 24 hours!


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The latest New York Times/CBS News poll had bad news for Congress, whose support is down to single digits. But it had even worse news for the Republic. Americans' distrust of government, the pollsters found, is "at its highest level ever."
A lot of this ire is focused on Congress, which an overwhelming majority believe is incapable of acting on behalf of the nation as a whole, but it has come to take in all of Washington. The poll's findings can be summed up in the words of one respondent, a small-businesswoman from Arizona. "Probably the government in Washington could be trusted at one time," she told the Times, "but now it seems like it's all a game of who wins rather than what's best for the people."
When so many Americans believe that their representatives in Washington do not have their best interests in mind, something is desperately off-kilter. It means that Americans feel betrayed by how the political class operates.
So the question becomes what can be done to restore the people's trust in government. May I suggest it involves more than changing policies. It means paying attention to the values that people would like to see embodied in government.
It is a fact of life that American voters respond to likability — a sense of connection — in their candidates. But that's not how they judge politicians once they're in office. Instead, they really do care about how elected officials govern.
To start, they want fairness from Washington. Whatever you think of the Tea Party or Occupy Wall Street, both have touched a nerve, a sense that our political leaders have not just grown distant from the concerns of ordinary Americans, but actively discriminate against them in one way or another. I've always been impressed by the importance Americans place on fairness; they strive to be fair to those around them, and they expect government to do the same.
They also want government to be open. This is not a blanket pronouncement — where national security and defense are concerned, or where congressional negotiators need space to find common ground without being forced to posture for the cameras, there is a place for secrecy. But transparency ought to be the rule. Secrecy feeds suspicion and distrust of government. Politicians must be sensitive to this.
Speaking to audiences around the country, I've also been struck by the deep thirst for accountability in Washington. It is very hard to determine who's responsible for any given situation in the federal government — so many people have their hands on promoting or blocking a given initiative, it can seem that the entire political system is designed to shrug off responsibility.
When the economy is floundering, Americans are desperate for work, and Washington seems incapable of coming to grips with the nation's needs, this is a huge problem. It is hard to respect institutions whose leaders refuse a forthright accounting of, or deny responsibility for, their failures.
Americans do not expect miracles or understate the difficulties of governing. They do not expect a single person to right the ship of state. Quite the contrary. They want a collective effort, a sense that people in government, regardless of party, are rolling up their sleeves and working together to resolve their differences.
Americans have some tolerance for disagreement, but not to the point of gridlock — in the end, they prefer cooperation, not confrontation. And they abhor the sort of brinksmanship that has become a Washington specialty, with its last-minute negotiations and short-term fixes. We have serious long-term problems, and Americans want to see their elected officials working on them. They want remedies, not filibusters and scorched-earth politicking.
Finally, they want honesty. Americans really do want to know the scope of the problems they confront and to make up their own minds about them. They resent politicians who paper over the difficulties of the problems or toss off inadequate solutions to really tough problems. There is, in the country at large, a thirst for basic facts, not spin. The people can handle the truth, and they deserve no less.
Rebuilding trust in American government will require more than changes in rules or policy. It will rest on the manner in which our elected officials conduct the business of government, and their willingness to embrace fairness, openness, accountability, cooperation, competence and honesty.
Lack of trust in government is a far more serious problem than most politicians believe, one that cannot be resolved easily. The solution can only come from a patient, long-term effort to return to our fundamental values and instincts.
Lee Hamilton is director of the Center on Congress at Indiana University. He was a member of the U.S. House of Representatives for 34 years.


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This is a message by Polo Field:
Lights! Camera! Action!
Hey, are you ready to perform at the Muppets World Tour?
Drums, dancing, running with the bulls, pie throwing.... From March 20-April 1, everyone can perform at international areas across the island — and there's tons of other stuff to check out, too! (Maybe even a jewel thief?) What kinds of acts are you and your friends planning and practicing? Tell us in the comments! Waddle on!
… I'm planning to spend as little time as possible in Club Penguin during this Advertise Party! Disney! STOP destroying Club Penguin!


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Ceil Erickson
Women and girls empowerment
Nonprofit capacity building
Ceil has over 25 years of experience in the nonprofit sector, where she has worked with a broad range of organizations and community initiatives and developed a wealth of community knowledge. Prior to joining SeaFdn, Ceil worked in fundraising and marketing for Planned Parenthood and Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center. Ceil has been active in philanthropy at the national level, serving on a number of committees for the Council on Foundations and ProNet (an affinity group of the Council of Foundations). She has dedicated her professional life to identifying and responding to the most challenging issues facing the Greater Seattle region. Ceil is a graduate of Leadership Tomorrow. She earned a Bachelor of Science in business administration from Mary Washington College.
Ceil has been working at Seattle Foundation since 1996.


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Last Updated on March 5, 2020 by Dean Anderson
Searching for the perfect tent means you need to take many factors into account. You must consider how many of you will be camping, what sort of trip this is, your budget, and more.
Maybe you're going car camping, backpacking, or attending a festival. Whatever your needs, a 6 man tent can make a roomy addition to your travels if you're sleeping a few people and want to bring lots of stuff with you. You don't need to look any further for the best 6 person tent.
Read on to find the right one for your needs.
1. Sundome 6 Person Tent – A No Nonsense Tent That's Good Value For Money
This tent is one of the easiest tents to set up. Many can't believe what they've got for the money. With an electric access port and great ventilation, this is a good tent for beginners. Let's take a look at the pros and cons:
- Very little hassle to set up
- Very little hassle to take down
- Good value for money
- Will last well when you look after it
- Has a hook so you can hang a light
- Well ventilated
- Perfect for car camping
- Only fits 4 comfortably if you're taking things with you
- May need to take extra stakes as the tent may not hold up against strong winds
- Too heavy for backpacking
Product Verdict
This 6 man tent only fits 4, but nobody expects a 6 man to actually fit 6 comfortably. You can expect to put this tent up very quickly even in bad weather. It's perfect for 2 people and lots of stuff, can still be comfortable with 3, but you may start getting claustrophobic at 4, 6 small kids may be doable.
This tent also has high quality zippers, and the tent is actually waterproof unlike others.
It's a very impressive tent for the money, it may not be as high quality as some of the better known names out there, but definitely better than one bought from a generic camping store.
The Sundome 6 person tent is a great tent for those who want value for money when car camping and don't need to sleep too many people.
2. Coleman Evanston Screened Tent – A Roomy Tent For Two But Not Big Enough For 6
This tent makes a roomy tent for two, with a fully screened front porch to keep bugs at bay.
With 4 large windows you get maximum ventilation, and it's designed to keep you dry in rain.
The tent is pretty good with temperature control, but it may be a little chilly in the morning depending on the temperature and where you are. Let's take a look at the pros and cons:
- Holds well in bad weather
- Stays dry in rain
- Easy to set up with two people
- Won't fit 4 people if you have lots of stuff
- Must fit the tent properly or you may expose the back window and be subject to rain
- Screened tent portion will turn into a wet muddy mess in a storm
Product Verdict
This tent is perfect for 2, and potentially still comfortable for 4 depending on how much stuff you have. You can fit a queen and twin air mattress, but it will be a tight fit for two queens.
Bear in mind that the front portion of the tent is not suited for thunderstorms as it doesn't zip up.
Overall the Coleman Evanston is an OK tent, possibly a little more expensive than it should be. Suitable for a few people who plan on going camping in decent weather. Not one of the best tents, but OK overall.
3. NTK Indy GT XL Camping Tent Sleeps Up To 6 Persons – See the stars under this quality tent
This tent is not too bad to set up, but much easier with some help. Dealing with the sleeves of the tent can be a little tricky. You can probably set it up alone in about 20 minutes if you've done it before. This tent is best for cooler weather. Let's take a look at the pros and cons:
- Huge vestibule
- Great for camping in colder weather
- Doesn't come with great setup instructions for beginners
- Ventilation isn't great
- No good for camping during warmer weather
Product Verdict
You can have a little fun with this tent if you don't put the rainfly on; you'll be able to see the stars as you sleep. However, this tent is no good at all for camping in warm sunny weather, as it gets far too hot. If you plan on camping during the colder months and rain, then this is a good tent to consider.
It's probably best to do a trial set up of the NTK Indy GT before you actually go camping with it to make sure you can set it up by yourself. This tent is best suited for couples and maybe small families who want to go winter camping.
Other than the few small gripes it's a fairly good quality tent. It's what you would expect for the price.
4. Kelty Trail Ridge 6 Tent – The Most Expensive Yet Best Performing Tent
This is a very popular tent for families, although it can seem out of the price range of some.
That being said, you will find more expensive tents that just aren't as good as this one, with the same features and everything.
You can fit up to 4 adults comfortably, or 2 adults and possibly 3 small children. Let's take a look at the pros and cons:
- Totally painless setup
- Offers exceptional performance
- Great family tent
- Feels roomier than other 6 man tents
- Will let absolutely no moisture inside
- Brilliant ventilation for warmer weather camping
- Doesn't come with a footprint
- Expensive
- The wire stakes aren't the best
Product Verdict
The great thing about this tent is that somebody who has no experience with tents will be able to set this up in just a few short minutes. It's that easy!
There's plenty of head space inside and a sturdy structure to top it off. If you need more ventilation you can simply roll up the doors and the opaque covers will maintain your privacy. No need to worry about people peeking inside.
There are storage options inside for campers, including little pockets and a mesh attic cover.
This is a perfect, well organized set up for a family or even a couple who want quality and plenty of space. It's expensive, but it's so worth it.
Conclusion – Which is the best 6 person tent here
It's easy to see from these reviews that the Kelty Trail Ridge 6 Tent is the winner. This tent has everything you could possibly want in a tent, from amazing ventilation to a spacious interior. If you're looking for the perfect family tent, this is the tent you should invest in if you have the budget! More tent reviews from the Kelty brand can be found here.
However, many will not have the budget required for such a high quality tent. In this case, the runner up is the Sundome 6 Person Tent. This tent is really good value of money for what you get, and a good choice for beginner campers too.
If you don't think these six man tents are still quite big enough for your family then perhaps take a step up in size with these larger tent options.


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At 90, Sam Singleton keeps Downes Elementary ship-shape
Almost every day for almost 25 years, Sam Singleton has shown up for work.
That's not extraordinary for school custodians across Delaware who quietly maintain places that are clean and safe for kids.
But there is something special about Singleton's near-quarter-century working at Downes Elementary School in Newark. He started the job at an age when most people are retiring.
This Sunday, he will turn 90. And school staff say he's as reliable as ever.
It took a little coaxing to lure Singleton out of his work for a moment to visit the school library on Tuesday afternoon. But when he opened the door, work-gloves in hand, he was greeted by cheering teachers, a birthday cake, and a giant gift bag full of letters from students.
There are some signs of Singleton's age. His voice, for example, is hoarse from from a previous life as a coal miner.
But even though his hands are weathered by almost a century of labor, he's still got a granite handshake. He can still bend to pick things off the floor – or to bend a wrinkled, smiling face to a 6-year-old – just fine. And he still knows the bones of the school better than anybody.
"Every day I'm going to him to ask where something is or how the best way to do something is. He knows every inch of this place up and down," said chief custodian Tim Norris. "And I'm telling you, he can work harder and longer than most 16-year-olds I know."
Charles Haywood is the former principal at Downes and was Singleton's boss for 16 years. He remembers watching a man well past retirement age drill holes through concrete and strip paint.
In all that time, Haywood can remember only one time when Singleton had to take a break.
"He was out early in the dark shoveling snow when he fell and broke his hip," Haywood said. "But if you thought that was going to keep him down for long, well, you just don't know Sam. He's got just an incredible work ethic. He works circles around people half his age."
That, Singleton says, is the key to his longevity. After retiring from jobs like mining and building, he wanted to keep doing something with his hands, something that would keep him moving, keep him sweating.
"You see people who are retiring while they're only in their 60's or their 70's, and they just stop being active," Singleton said. "I don't think I could do that."
And, for now, the beloved custodian doesn't see that changing.
"I don't know why I would stop," he said. "I just like doing it."
Contact Matthew Albright at email@example.com or at 324-2428. Follow him on Twitter @TNJ_malbright.


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Interstitial Laser Therapy Overview
Interstitial laser therapy is a procedure that is used to treat benign prostatic hyperplasia (a noncancerous enlargement of the prostate gland). The BPH treatment uses a cystoscope through a fiberoptic probe that is inserted into the prostate where it heats and destroys overgrown prostate tissue. Heat energy is usually conducted for about three minutes and the process can be repeated to treat another area in the same region of the prostate. The treatment requires local anesthesia and is typically performed as an outpatient procedure by a urologist. Once the procedure is complete, most patients will need to wear and manage a catheter while recuperating at home until bladder functions return to normal.


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We now have so many diversion signs across Bangor that I am afraid of following them and being stuck in a loop.
I find it incredible that these road closures have all been organised at the same time, causing significant inconvenience for people living and working in Bangor with long traffic tail-backs across the Town. This lack of co-ordination is a disgrace. The impact of the road works is currently categorised by the Roads Service as "Moderate". If long tail-backs stretching out of Bangor towards Ballyrobert are "Moderate", what then is "Severe"?
Could it be that some of the road works are taking place, not when the volume of traffic is at its lowest, but rather to ensure money is spent before the end of the Financial Year?
I understand the work taking place on the Rathgael Road is being undertaken by the Roads Service, while work on the Bryansburn Road, which has necessitated a road closure, is the responsibility of NI Water.
Surely the Roads Service, which has overall control, could have organised some co-ordination between both public bodies to ensure the road works didn't take place at the same time?
Regardless as to why the situation has occurred, an apology is due from the Roads Service and a commitment that a similar situation will never be allowed to happen again.
23 March 2010


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Tag: final fantasy XIV
Shadowbringers Story Summary Part 5 now LIVE!
The fifth part of the Story Summary for Final Fantasy XIV Shadowbringers is now live. The fifth part covers the main story quests of patches 5.1 and 5.2. You can find the Story Summary Here!
Shadowbringers Story Summary Part 1 Now LIVE!
On Monday night, I put a poll on my Twitter asking people whether they would prefer the Shadowbringers Story Summary to be released all at once at a later date or for it to be released piece by piece as they were ready. The latter was overwhelmingly the choice with 75% of the vote. So with that decision in mind, I'm happy to announce that the First Part of the Shadowbringers Story Summary is now available to enjoy.
This story summary appears to be taking longer than I had originally hoped and planned because of the sheer size of it. The Shadowbringers story is immense. For example: this first part comprises the start of the Main Scenario to the first dungeon – roughly levels 70 to 71 – and is already larger than half of the base 4.0 Stormblood Story Summary. For that reason, I don't have an exact time table for these releases. I am actively replaying the story on my alt (pictured) to try and double check I didn't miss anything with my notes (Turns out I did. A lot.)
That said I will keep everyone apprised of the updates via blog posts like this one. In the mean time, if you are hungry for more Final Fantasy content, I could recommend the Land of Odd's very own Final Fantasy Retrospective. I just finished Final Fantasy II on the stream archive and the edited videos release every #FinalFantasyFriday over on the main YouTube channel with the second game in the series looking to wrap up at the end of September. Final Fantasy III will be starting soon over on my Twitch channel. Hope you can come and enjoy!
Heavensward Patch Story Summary Complete
For those who have been wondering about the "Coming Soon" story summaries for Heavensward's patches (3.1 – 3.5), your wait is now over! All of the story summaries for the Main Scenario Questline in Heavensward are now finished and posted on the Heavensward Story Summary page.
Unlike Heavensward where the decision to write the summaries came after finishing the 3.0 MSQ, I will be doing my best to keep notes on the plotlines of Stormblood as I play through it. Hopefully to decrease the downtime before I am able to get the next batch of story summary for the newest expansion out since as it has come to my attention, some people have been using my summaries as a way of not just catching up on the narrative but also skipping the non-voiced cutscenes and reading what happens here. Hey, if that's how you want to play – go for it. Not my fifteen bucks. But I figured I should TRY to not wait until the end of the expansion before posting the Stormblood summary.
Announcing FFXIV: A Realm Reborn Story Summary
While I continue to work on my SWTOR class reviews proper, the summaries for all of the various class stories are pretty much done. I decided to tackle yet another project. With the launch of Final Fantasy XIV: Heavensward, I realized how many people were probably coming back to the game and that with as much space as there is between patches, some folks may not recall exactly what happened in the story leading up the expansion. Especially since Final Fantasy XIV significantly expanded the main scenario storyline with each patch. So I thought, how about a summary for that too?
Announcing the Realm Reborn Story Summary!
Unlike the SWTOR story summaries, this one is chock full of SPOILERS, so be warned before reading down the page. After all, the SWTOR page was mostly designed as a spoiler free way of seeing if the storyline would interest you before sinking 50 levels into the narrative but Final Fantasy it's more of a catch up/reminder tool. It's heavily summarized so don't expect too much in the way of a point-by-point quest-by-quest breakdown. It also assumes you have some familiarity with names and places in the world of Final Fantasy XIV. Though some reoccuring elements such as Hydaelyn and the Primals are explained somewhat.
Anyway, I hope you Final Fantasy XIV fans get a kick out of it. It's broken down by patch, so you can go and read just the parts you want. I plan to expand it into including stuff like the story for the raid content that is now kind of outdated with the expansion, so I don't know if as many people will get a chance to see the AWESOME tribute raid to Final Fantasy III: The Crystal Tower or the lore filled bits of the Coils content.
Vry's! In! SPAAAAAAACE!
Long time readers know that I regularly flip back and forth between 2+ different MMOs for the sake of preventing burn out. Lately it's been going back and forth between Final Fantasy XIV and Star Wars: The Old Republic. Two games that – while not perfect – are damn good at satisfying different cravings I have in games.
Final Fantasy put me in a tight spot recently. I really REALLY wanted to see the conclusion of the Main Scenario before the 12x Experience boost went live in SWTOR, and finally climb over that damn Story Wall of Ishgard, but I ran into a block with what has clearly become the guardian of the story wall: The Steps of Faith.
'Oh, Vry! The Steps of Faith isn't hard if you know what to do!' I hear the internet shout as a collective hive mind that I have somehow tapped into but retained my sentience from. Well, yes. It is a bit different, and all you really need is to know what to do, and guess what? I DO know what to do. I know exactly what to do. But apparently 5-6 other people in the Duty every time do not, and their struggle wears on other's patience and it ends up with us standing in front of the dragon, unable to pull, because we are constantly in the queue trying to pull new members out of the magic hat. I REALLY want to finish that place, because I REALLY, REALLY, REALLY want to see what happens to the Sultana!
So after a week of failed attempts, I just said screw it. I need some epic heroic time to cleanse the pallet of dying to this dragon over and over and came back to a galaxy far, far away. Mostly because I do have a job to finish there, and the 12x XP boost makes that job so much easier. I am kind of curious what the deal with Ziost is, as I have somehow managed to remain completely spoiler free on the plot there. To which I must say, kudos SWTOR community for actually keeping a lid on things. Others could learn from your example.
Although the first thing I did when I got back was grab up a few cartel packs, including the Grand Nightlife Pack which gave me a Dathomir Rancor. Not having any desire to ride piggy back on a monster, I flipped on the GTN (Auction House for those who aren't familiar with SWTOR) for a cool cold 15 million credits, and officially netting me the most cash I've EVER had in the game. Combine that with Amazon's sale for 14,500 cartel coins for $80 and I could get started the grand process of unlocking and decorating my strongholds. Because if I'm going to be building a bigger legacy, I need a place for them to crash. I hope to share some photos of them here soon, I think folks'll be impressed.
So what should you expect here on the Summer of the 12x XP? Well, hopefully to finish up all my class story summaries and reviews. That'd be my big goal. I'm looking forward to seeing some alternate character choices too. Especially the Imperial Agent. Finally, with my resurgence of interest in writing fan fiction in my spare time, I wouldn't be surprised to see some short or flash fiction bits about some of my characters appear now and then. I do have an idea for the three brothers (Vrykerion the Bounty Hunter, Vrykarion the Jedi Knight, and Vrykerius the Sith Warrior) have a family get together over some cards to catch up. That might be fun. Regardless, there will be more reviews coming soon.
Card Games on Chocobos? Triple Triad Arrives!
Greetings gentleman and ladies! The time has come, and the doors are open to Final Fantasy XIV's very old Gold Saucer. A fantastic homage to the mini-game capital of RPGs. Honestly, its probably the most excited and most fearful for a patch I've been in quite a while. The entire 'personal housing is just guild housing without needing a guild and that's all' thing from a few patches ago had me fuming due to the poor implementation and outlandishly high barriers of entry (Level 50, highest rank with your grand company, and anything from 4-20 million gil depending on limited lot availability). Not to mention the whole real estate war for limited numbers of spaces. I'm still saving up. Wait… wasn't I talking about the Gold Saucer?
Yes, the Manderville Gold Saucer. Owned and controlled by Godbert Manderville himself. A statuesque man that you may know if you've done any of the Hildebrad quest chain at level 50 or from a disturbing series of quests at Camp Bronze Lake where you help attend to Godbert at the spa (*shivers*). The Gold Saucer boasts several mini games, events called GATEs, tons of prizes to earn, chocobo racing and what I looked forward to the most: Triple Triad.
Ah yes, the original card game in the Final Fantasy legacy. Triple Triad involves placing cards on a 3×3 grid and capturing your opponents cards by placing adjacent cards with higher values. The game originally appeared in Final Fantasy VIII and was one of the MANY heavily divisive features of the game. VIII even more than Final Fantasy VII was very much a 'love it or hate it' experience. There's a LOT of hate for it out there, as noted by Noah 'Spoony' Antwiler's scathing series of video reviews but there is also a ton of love for it too. I particularly enjoyed a good deal of the story and how much of the truth of the events being implied rather than directly stated. For instance, Squall & Rinoa's romance ultimately being the culmination of the lost chance at love between Laguna – heavily implied to be Squall's father – and Julia – Rinoa's mother. Uh… I suppose spoilers for the 16 year old game? Wait. SIXTEEN? Yea. 1999. That's right. FF8 is old enough to drive. Mind blown.
Triple Triad was however is where it got frustrating. At the beginning of the game, Triple Triad is a fun side activity to collect cards and have fun playing. However, as the game goes on more and more rules are added to Triple Triad turning it from fun side activity into a nightmarish mess that will more than likely cost you every card in your deck. Oh yes, did I forget to mention that winner takes one or more cards from the loser? Meaning a bad streak of luck can leave you without your most powerful cards with only a chance that you can maybe someday win them back from whomever you lost them to, cause hey, there's only one of some of these cards IN THE WORLD.
So where am I going with all of this? Well, with the talk of losing cards to opponents, poor implementation of other promised features, and a heaping mess of confusing rules… can you blame me for being nervous about Triple Triad at the Gold Saucer? I mean, am I going to lose every card to some random person who has already grinded out the best cards in the game? Thankfully, I can say: NO. In fact, Triple Triad's implementation is actually one of the most casual friendly, easy to get into, and enjoyably minimal risk side games I've seen in something bearing the Final Fantasy name.
First of all, you can't lose your cards. At all. Once you've unlocked a card, it is yours. So how do you get more cards? Well, there are lots of ways. The first way you'll encounter is to defeat NPCs at Triple Triad. Each NPC that you can challenge at the Gold Saucer will have 1 or 2 cards you can win off of them. There's also a ton of NPCs out and about in the world that have cards you can win off of. The cards aren't a 100% drop and really it's all RNG. My first card took about 10 wins, the second came 2 wins after. There's also a chance for cards to drop from dungeons and trials and this is where I was really happy with how this was done. The cards are personal loot. That means there is no rolling on cards, no ninja-ing cards, no arguing about cards – just a chance that when the boss dies you and anyone who participated have a chance to get a card placed in your inventory. Oh geeze, thank you. I mean, yea. It's not a guaranteed drop that everyone rolls on and I've seen some people complain about that, but this is so much less stressful.
But Vry, I hear you ask, I heard you can only have 1 of each card unlocked. Wouldn't that mean people would eventually not need to roll so everyone would get a card? No! I shout and bop you on the head. Because the final way to get new cards is to "sell" your duplicates at the Gold Saucer for points (Points being the universal currency of the Gold Saucer) so you can buy other cards you don't have or trade in dupes to save up for that snazzy Setzer outfit (Btw, thank you FFXIV developers for all the awesome shout out love you give FFVI in this game. 6 is still my all time favorite and I eat up stuff like Ultros & Chupon appearing.) So yea, you pretty much ALWAYS have an excuse to want to roll on cards. Hence why personal loot is less problematic in my opinion.
What about the confusing rules? Yea. Some of those squeaked in. Things like 'Same' where if 2 or more sides of a card match the numbers on the adjacent cards' sides, all of them are flipped and captured. That's actually one of the more simple variations. Still, the game at least will tell you what the rules are and a brief explanation beyond the name when you challenge someone. The worst rules from FFVIII were the ones that dictated which cards the winner got. Like you keep all the cards you flipped so even if you win, you still might lose a rare card or you just win your opponents entire hand of cards. But since you can't take an opponents card, these rules don't exist. The others, while annoying, are just about trial and error until you get the hang of them and learn to keep an eye out for your opponent trying to lure you into a trap.
So without winning cards, what do you win? Well, you win gold saucer points. Also a chance for a card to drop. You also win half as many points if you draw, and a paltry sum even if you lose. This seems to be some consolidation for the fact that you have to pay points to play. There's an 'ante' of sorts. If you lose you'll get a portion of that ante back, but not the whole thing. My limited observation is about 75-80% of the ante is what you get on a loss.
There's also a nice system in place so you can't just screw newcomers with overpowered decks. You are limited to how many high level cards you can place in your deck based on the total number of cards you have unlocked. Like at less than 30, you can only use one card of two-star rank or higher, and the rest must be 1-star rank cards. Between 30 and 59, you can use as many one or two-star rank cards, but only one of three-star rank and finally if you have over 60 of the total 80 cards unlocked, you can have as many 1,2 or 3 star cards as you want but only one card of 4 or 5 star rank. So you can't just make an ultimate I-Win deck out of all 5 star cards.
So is Triple Triad a success? Well, time will tell. The first tournament doesn't begin until next week, and it's only been around for a day but thus far I love it. I love that I don't have to live in fear of losing my rare cards, so all I have to do is play and have fun with it. I played several dozen matches last night while watching YouTube videos (Shameless plug: Yes my YouTube channel is still up and running with more still coming in the render queue! Subscribe now!) and it was completely and unabashedly enjoyable. I highly recommend trying it out as a downtime activity while your chilling on your computer or waiting for the DPS queue to pop.
Finally, there's already an awesome site up and running called A Realm Reborn: Triple Triad that has all the cards listed and where you can find them as well as a breakdown of the rules with a quick tutorial on how to play. You can find that site here.
FF14: Wrecking the Relic
So, Vrykerion (the character, not me. I'm the Vrykerion that controls that Vrykerion. Got it?) has finally gotten his first relic weapon in Final Fantasy XIV. The Gae Bolg and ultimately the Gae Bolg Zenith is now in my possession and I finally have a spear that goes with my wicked looking dragoon drachen mail outfit. I'd like to say that it was quite the accomplishment if it wasn't for the fact that every step along the path was full of face faults, walking into doors, and the occasional "OH GOD NO!"
For those who don't play Final Fantasy XIV, at level 50 each class can begin a quest chain to unlock an upgradable weapon unique to your job. Dragoons for instance get Gae Bolg which matches their outfits general aesthetic. The quest chain is a mix of random tasks totaling up to some twelve (okay it's actually 10) labors that you must perform to resurrect a long lost weapon back to its true power. Some of these tasks involve attacking beast men strongholds to find items or kill a certain number of various monsters. The first big stumbling block is really creating a base weapon for the relic and then attaching two specific materia to it. Materia are kind of like enchantments that occupy slots in weapons. They are really complicated and I haven't the slightest clue how their various limits work (Like if you have two +10 crit materia in it, but it has a hidden limit of 12 crit or something, your second materia will only give you +2 instead of the full +10… I think?) But that means finding a crafter with max level to craft and meld the materia, or level it yourself, or just do what I did and shell out several hundred thousand gil for one with the materia already attached.
The real thing that was just a slog for me to do was the trials and dungeons. To complete your weapon, you need to do one max level dungeon, and five trials (trials being essentially one room, one boss mini-dungeons) including three hard mode versions of the earlier primal fights and two fights that are unique to the quest chain – the Chimera and the Hydra. This is my personal hell. I don't know how many of my readers have done max level content in Final Fantasy XIV but it was very much a pan to the face, no joking around, do the dance or die kind of experience. Lag will kill you. Not knowing exactly where to stand can kill you. Standing in bad will naturally kill you but sometimes the 'bad' is 90% of the area and you only have seconds to GTFO. Oh, I died. I died A LOT. And I studied the mechanics. Not one fight did I go into blind. But damn is it another thing to actually see these fights up close versus reading a strat. I am so glad I'm doing this at the end of 2.0's lifespan and just before an expansion dropped. If it weren't the copious amounts of people overgeared for this stuff I don't think I'd ever finish.
Again, it's not that I'm bad. Far from it. There's just a lot of crap going on everywhere, and if you aren't quick or have a bit of lag, it can kill you quick. But I was usually dead from either insta-kills or because we were strained from a healer death and took too much unavoidable area damage. I did the dance, and still would die. Granted, sometimes I was dumb. I got smacked by the Primal Titan and went flying off the platform and spent the last third of the fight at the bottom of a hole (still not bad compared to the bard to ended up there in the first minute every single attempt to make many of us wonder if it were intentional).
The whole thing was kind of an eye opener for how the end game of FF14 works. As far as I know there is some 'easier' content, namely the Crystal Tower raids. But damn if I am not in a rush to try Titan (Extreme) or even Leviathan (Hard) for a bit. I got my Gae Bolg. I'm happy with that. With the expansion dropping in only a few months, I think the rest of my time will be more so spent working on quests. The main scenario, the Hildebrad and Moogle Delivery quests – fun stuff. Also leveling all my other classes and jobs up. Then there's triple triad coming… oooooo…
I guess really I should say that while it was a good crash course in the difficulty to expect (WoW Raid expectations: know the fights roughly, try hard, do the dance. Also that people are really nice in this game and as long as you are trying to darnedest and not just blatantly dying on purpose, they seem willing to work with ya.) but I'm also grateful that I'm sitting at end game with a wide spread of alternate stuff to do. Maybe not necessarily progression based, but fun nonetheless. Now if you excuse me, Gae Bolg and I have to get us a cactuar mini-pet! *runs off to adventure!*
State of the Land: The Force Falls Asleep
Oof. If you ever needed a reason to feel burnt out on a game, it's trying to burn through all the class stories during a small window of 12x experience. Holy cow. I just finished up the bounty hunter storyline again, and don't worry faithful readers the reviews are currently in the draft pile on that one. But between just playing the game, and then trying to write some NINE THOUSAAAAAAAAAND words or so trying to summarize each class story, I suppose burn out was inevitable. Just like… /whew am I right? So where does that leave us?
Well, it means I clearly need to clear my head for a bit. Cleanse the pallet of TOR a bit before the new expansion drops and I dive head long back in. Oh trust me, true readers. I am far from The Old Republic. The reviews will be done in good time. But the Class Story Summaries ARE done, and I always considered that the more important of the two projects since they offer people an idea of what the class will be like chapter by chapter without spoiling it. I am proud of that and it is pretty much the most visited thing on the website right now, trailed only by the occasional visit from the once HUGELY popular couple of World of Warcraft Achievement guides I did way back in another life as a blood elf. /awkwardcough.
So what is there to look forward to? Well, I have finally gotten set up to start delivering semi-regular Let's Play videos. The BioShock ones have proven to be quite popular so far. I mean I'm not Markiplier or Pewdie Pie or anything. But I'm not trying to be. I'm trying to be me and my usual silly self while playing games I love. I've got a massive steam library of stuff to play and a bunch of console games as well. So I plan to keep those up as long as they're fun. I've taken feed back from quite a few people and made them much shorter, usually 10-15 minutes in length. So folks put off by my original 45 minute video of Shadowrun Returns back in the day need not worry. You can always check out my videos by using the YouTube link at the top of the page and hey feel free to show your support and subscribe!
In the online front, I've hopped over to my favorite palette cleanser of choice: Final Fantasy XIV. If you also dabble in there you might bump into me on either the Gilgamesh or Jenova worlds under the trademark name of "Vrykerion" (Shocker) or the lesser known "Puff Tanix" (My default gnome name and also the name of my chinchilla.) There is just something wholly appealing and being at the opposite end of the spectrum of The Old Republic as a game where you can level every single class with a single character and never need to switch alts for crafting or other play experiences. So you can probably expect some rambling from that end soon.
Also there's one other thing in the works, but it is a sloooow burn on that one so I don't want to say too much about it. But the design work on it has been going on for nearly a year and it's finally getting to a workable point, so there may some news on Vry's Super Secret Project as well.
So worry not faithful readers and viewers, between all that and my usual yakking about offline games and movies (Speaking of which, Book of Life. Go see it. The Hat demands it.) There will be more then enough content to sink your teeth into during this minor vacation from the galaxy far far away.


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Warren Buffett's Berkshire gets into the biker gear business
Warren Buffett has reportedly acquired a German biker gear maker for around $450 million — a deal could open the door for more acquisitions in Europe.
Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway (BRKA), a conglomerate that owns insurance, railroad, retailers and other businesses, is paying a little over 400 million euro ($453 million) to acquire Devlet Louis Motorradvertriebs, according to the Financial Times. Louis has 71 stores in Germany and Austria and grosses a little over $300 million annually, the FT reported. The size of Louis will thus make the German company a fairly tiny player within the Berkshire Hathaway portfolio. The company generated $51.2 billion in revenue in the first nine months of 2014.
More deals could occur in Europe, the FT reported, with Buffett calling the acquisition a "door opener."
"I like the fact that we have cracked the code in Germany," Buffett told the publication.
The acquisition of Louis is the first Buffett has announced since December, when Berkshire Hathaway bought petroleum and chemical logistics provider Charter Brokerage. Buffett also signed a deal late last year to buy the Duracell batter business from Procter & Gamble (PG), and he recently made a significant investment in the auto dealership business.
Representatives at Berkshire and Louis weren't immediately available to provide comment on the FT report.
[fortune-brightcove videoid=3890097385001]


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Another fabulous lithograph by the French artist George Lucine Guyot - this time a resting bear. It is signed "Guyot" in the bottom left. We have had it framed with a German gold slip, a cream mount and a black lacquer frame. Although not numbered I believe that this is one of the lithographs that were produced by LeMatte et Boinot in 1937 in a limited edition of 200.
Approximate dimensions:
18.5ins x 21.57ins - 47cms x 54.8cms
Georges Lucien Guyot
French painter of animals, landscapes, pastel drawer, engraver, sculptor and illustrator.
Guyot began work at 13 as a sculptor on wood for a furniture maker attending night school at the School of Fine Art in Rouen, Normandy.
In 1918, he moved to Paris, settling in Picasso's Atelier at 'Bateau-Lavoir', after Picasso left Montmarte. He worked and spent his life in this atelier until 'Bateau-Lavoir' burnt in 1970.
He exhibited paintings and sculptures at the Salon des Artistes Français, Salon des Indépendants, Salon d'Automne, Salon des Tuileries, Salon des Peintres Témoins de leur Temps.
He was fascinated by wild life and animals and spent many hours studying them before translating them into sculptures, paintings, engravings, illustrations, wild animals, monkeys and bears.
One of his sculptures of a bear is exhibited at the Vincennes zoo.
In 1931, he joined with François Pompon, Charles Artus and Paul Jouve, to form 'The Group of Twelwe' which was active until the Second World War.
He created also animal for the National Manufacture of Sèvres & for Haviland in Limoges.
He painted landscapes of places in Rouen, views of Paris & its environs & of Montmartre where he lived.
He illustrated 'De Goupil à Margot' by Louis Pergaud and 'Le Livre des Bêtes' by André Demaison.
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Export growth in the European market discussed by Filip and the EU Trade Commissioner
Prime Minister Pavel Filip and European Trade Commissioner, Cecilia Malmström, had today, March 31, 2017, a meeting on the sidelines of the third meeting of the EU-Moldova Association.
According to a release, the talks between the two officials focused on the situation on trade between Moldova and the European Union regarding the implementation of the Association Agreement. During the meeting, Pavel Filip thanked for continued support for the development and implementation of the Free Trade Area, including the implementation and monitoring mechanisms associated with it, noting the importance of intensifying trade between Moldova and the European Union.
"We count further on the support of European partners to encourage recovery opportunities offered by free trade area. We managed to extend these benefits to businesses across the country, including the Transnistrian region. In addition to strictly commercial advantages, it is important the impact of implementing the Free Trade Area for the daily life of citizens," said Pavel Filip.
In turn, the European Commissioner for Trade appreciated the increase of Moldovan exports to the European market, encouraging the authorities to continue reforms for Moldova to fully benefit from the opportunities of Free Trade Zone. In the context of using the quotas on export of certain strategic EU market, Moldovan Prime Minister Filip and Commissioner Malmström discussed the prospect of their growth.
At the end of the meeting, Prime Minister Pavel Filip invited Cecilia Malmström to participate in the event "Business Week" which will take place in Chisinau.
The European Union is the main trading partner of our country, with a share of around 65% for export and 50% for import. Last year the number of companies involved in trade with the EU has increased and the volume of goods exported to the EU market increased by over 9%.


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Telecom Italia announces the formalization yesterday of an agreement to increase its stake in Sofora Telecomunicaciones S.A. – the holding company which controls Telecom Argentina – from 50% to 58% of the company's capital.
Antitrust and TLC Regulatory authorities, on the basis of provisions stipulated in an agreement reached on the 5th of August 2010 between Telecom Italia and its Argentine partner, Werthein - described in a press release distributed on that date – have approved the transaction that will allow Telecom Italia to acquire a majority stake in Sofora and, consequently, control of Telecom Argentina.
The increase in the Sofora stake does not call for any cash disbursement by Telecom Italia and will allow the Group to consolidate "line by line" the economic results of Sofora/Telecom Argentina starting from the Fourth Quarter 2010.
In accordance with IAS/IFRS (IFRS 3 revised) accounting principles, the agreement will have a positive one-off effect on the bottom line of the Telecom Italia's Fourth Quarter 2010 Consolidated Profit and Loss Statement of around 250 million euro arising from the recalculation at Fair Market Value, as of the date of acquiring control, of the Sofora stake previously held. The transaction will not have an impact on the accounts of Telecom Italia S.p.A.
The Telecom Argentina Group reported in the first six months of 2010, revenues for around 1.3 billion euro with an EBITDA of approximately 400 million euro (unaudited data, reclassified according to IAS/IFRS, exchange rate is ARS/EUR 5.13).
The net financial position of the Argentine companies at 30 June was approximately 120 million euro.
Approval by national authorities comes after a lengthy and thorough examination of the regulatory background and of effects on the competitive environment, as well as commitments undertaken by both parties guaranteeing the complete separation of Telefonica and Telecom Italia as regards their activities in Argentina. Measures have been agreed upon to ensure there will be no influence or participation on the part of Telefonica in any Telecom Italia decision-making process concerning its Argentinean subsidiaries. Further, restrictions have been introduced regarding commercial and operational relations between the two Groups within the Argentinean market.
Among the most important measures, the prohibition that Telefonica and its representatives not participate in or exercise the vote in corporate board meetings of Telco, Telecom Italia and its subsidiaries when subjects related to TLC activities in the Argentinean market are addressed. In addition, Telefonica cannot participate in the designation of administrators or directors of Telecom Italia subsidiaries in Argentina.
Finally, the agreement gives Telecom Italia full control over the management of Telecom Argentina through the appointment of the President and the Chief Executive Officer. W Group will assume responsibility for verifying full respect of the accords regarding Telecom Argentina through an independent Regulatory Compliance Committee constituted for this purpose.
As a consequence of yesterday's transaction, Telecom Italia will relinquish its call options relating to the purchase of Sofora shares.
The Telecom Argentina Group is one of the largest telecommunications operators in Argentina and provides fixed-link public, local, national and international long distance services, cellular, Internet and data transmission services.
The Telecom Argentina Group carries out its main activities through Telecom Argentina S.A. (fixed telephony, data transmission and internet) or its subsidiaries: Telecom Personal S.A. (cellular), Nucleo S.A. (cellular in Paraguay).
Telecom Argentina S.A. is listed on the Buenos Aires (Bloomberg ticker: TECO2) and New York (Bloomberg ticker: TEO) stock exchange.
As of June 30, 2010 the Group had approximately 15.3 million mobile customers, an increase of over 13% compared to June 2009, and approximately 4.1 million wireline customers. Broadband clients at the date were approximately 1.3 million, up 15% compared to the same period of the previous year.
Rome, 14 October 2010


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Abstract: The Currency Commission was originally constructed in approximately 1811. The original architect was Francis Johnston. The building was remodelled by G. & T. Crampton in 1928-1930. The principal architect of these works was Architect T.J. Byrne, the assistant was C.W. Pemberton. The building is now the National Wax Museum.
The Currency Commission, Foster Place, Dublin is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
Copyright of the original resource: Unknown
To use for commercial purposes, please contact the UCD Digital Library See: http://digital.ucd.ie/terms/


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SwimEye United Kingdom partner, Poolview Limited, recently exhibited at Elevate, London. This is the United Kingdom's premier health and leisure exhibition, which includes swimming and pool safety products. On display was Poolview's drowning detection system product – Poolview Plus+, which is powered by the SwimEye object recognition software.
For the second time in a row, Poolview Plus+ product was awarded the prestigious "Best Facility Innovation" prize at the fair. This is an excellent achievement for Poolview and SwimEye, as the competition included one direct competitor product and several, fitness centre management systems.
"We have a great focus on innovation and an award like this means that our unique technology is being noticed and appreciated outside of our sector," said Tor Petter Johansen – SwimEye, CEO. "Safety in swimming pool facilities is becoming more important and there is no doubt that lifeguards can take advantage of technology".
This award shows that the industry sees great potential in digital solutions for the safety and security of aquatic facilities.
Is there an exhibition in your region at any time soon? Contact SwimEye to discuss participation and demonstration of the drowning prevention technology –https://swimeye.com/contact/


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We've already shared with you how to improve your feedback campaigns and the best ways to display your reviews on your website, but what do you do with all that valuable customer data once you've got it?
The Feefo Hub is packed full of great reports to help you fully understand your customers and how they feel about your business. It's in these reports where you'll truly learn what makes you special and where your weakest areas lie.
Unsure where to get started or just want to dive deeper into your feedback? Here are our best practice tips.
There's a couple of things we should probably explain before you read ahead, especially if you're new to the Feefo Hub.
Your customer feedback should be used across your entire business, from sales to customer service, but you may not want everyone to be able to access everything. Fortunately, we've made it easy for admin users to choose which content and features each user has access to, including reports. You can find out more about this feature here.
Before you start reporting, make sure you're looking at the right data. If you have multiple accounts or use any sales tags (more on that later) you'll need to use our global filters feature. To access this, click on the blue filter icon at the top of the Hub. From here, you can switch between account and specify which data you want to look at. For example, you may only want to report on a particular product.
Once you're in a report, make sure you check the date range too. In the top right you'll see a tab showing two different calendar dates. Before running any report, make sure you click on this tab and choose the correct date range.
Sales tags are a great way to filter your reports even further, allowing you to make your reports as specific as you need them to be. There are lots of different things you can track this way, such as salesperson, product, category, etc. Simply include your chosen sales tags in your sales data when you upload it to the Hub! You can find out more on our Knowledge Base.
Once you've set up your feedback campaign(s), you can't just sit back and hope for the best. Just like any other email campaign, you need to keep an eye on their performance, so you can tweak any wording and improve your response rates.
Our Response Performance report makes that easy. You can see your overall response rate, as well as a breakdown of email opens, forms open, feedback received, average rating and much more. This means you can see which points in the email journey your customers aren't clicking. For example, if they're opening the form but not leaving feedback, your review form may be too long, or you might need to make the questions clearer by making some quick changes of the wording.
One of the most important reports for your customer service team is the Feedback Breakdown report. It gives you an instant snapshot of how much feedback you've received (over the time period you set in the date range), how many monitored reviews are waiting for a reply and which members of your team have received the most positive or negative feedback (if you use sales tags or Insight Tags).
By default, 1- and 2-star reviews are monitored by Feefo, but this can be changed under Settings > Feedback Preferences. Monitored reviews are useful if you want to prioritise responding to certain feedback first, as the Hub will show you how many of them have been replied to by your customer service team.
Sending your feedback request emails at the right time can make all the difference to your response rates. That's why we have two reports within the Feefo Hub that can help you.
The Feedback Volumes report tracks your feedback trends over time, allowing you to identify any seasonable peaks and troughs. You can see when your average rating takes a dip and when you're most likely to receive 4- and 5-star reviews vs 1- and 2-star reviews.
The Response Time Trends report shows the time of day you're most likely to get feedback (both positive and negative), so you can work out what times to send out your feedback requests. This is extremely helpful when you're trying to improve your response rates!
Powered by AI, our Performance Profiling tool automatically analyses your feedback to detect reoccurring themes, such as 'customer service' or 'quality' and measures how positive or negative these mentions are.
All of these topics are placed into the 'Topic Insights' graph, which can be viewed in the Service Performance and Product Performance reports. This graph shows your marketing teams what your strengths are, so they can use them in upcoming marketing campaigns and content. It also shows your customer service team which areas of your business are mentioned most negatively in feedback, so they know where they need to focus their efforts when assisting customers.
All of your Feefo review data belongs to you, which means you can download it at any time and use it to populate other software you might use, such as Power BI or Tableau. This is really handy if you want to create customised reports that can be shared across the entire business or with key stakeholders that may not have access to Feefo. Simply head to 'Download Feedback' in the reports section of the Hub.
It's easy keep defaulting back to the same reports again and again, but hopefully we've shown you some of the different things you can learn by making use of everything the Feefo Hub has to offer! If you'd like to learn even more about our reports, check out our guide here.
Net Promoter® and NPS® are registered trademarks of Bain & Company, Inc., Satmetrix Systems, Inc., and Fred Reichheld.
NPS, Net Promoter & Net Promoter Score are registered trademarks of Satmetrix Systems, Inc., Bain & Company and Fred Reichheld.


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Britax Römer offers a wide range of pushchairs suitable for your family. Our Strollers, Prams, Travel Systems or Double Pushchairs provide maximum comfort and safety for your child.
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We are happy to help you!Our guide shows you what to look out for when buying and how to make the right choice for you and your child.
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