text:
During my two week workawaying in Italy, near Rome, I happened to explore the old city of Tivoli, and in Tivoli, perhaps the most surreal gardens I've seen in my life.
Villa d'Este, as I had imagined (after watching its glimpse in the Hollywood movie Lizzie McGuire) to be grand, majestic and awe-inspiring. But it turned out to be something more than that, something far magical and unrealistic.
The detailed Villa d'Este dates from the mid 16th century when Cardinal Ippolito d'Este decided to make changes to the convent he was given, upon his appointment as the governor of Tivoli, Italy.
A member of an influential family and a lover of the finest things in life, d'Este commissioned his architect to build a new, grand residence filled with everything that money could buy and from what he could take from the nearby abandoned Hadrian's Villa. What resulted was one of the most magnificent examples of Renaissance architecture and gardens ever built.
The interior of the Villa d'Este speaks high status of its owner. Priceless antique statues and the many surreal frescoes (all of which telling different stories) decorate its halls, with beautiful gardens surrounding the villa. Today, the gardens is the only thing that remained intact of its former magnificence. No, the villa itself is also standing, and you can stroll through its bright, but empty halls.
The gardens, however, are an entirely different matter – with much life and freshness still existing around them.
Walking around the garden with its 500 plus fountains, feels like being in a mythical place of the ancient past. With its statues, grottos, columns and reliefs, each alley or path reveals a new mossy fountain in a carefully landscaped vista. The entire premise of Villa d'Este gardens fits so harmoniously into the overall landscape that it seems not to have been created by humans, but by nature itself.
There is so much to see and admire that not only would you frolic through the gardens, that takes you to some fairy-tale like trance, with your mouth wide open for hours, as you slowly meander through its premises, but you'd also take in sweeping views of Lazio, and wonder what life could be like, living in one such place.
Some Factual Mumbo-Jumbo
- Tickets to Villa d'Este are €8 full price and €4 for a reduced ticket. You can purchase them ahead of time, but usually, the line isn't too bad.
- The first Sunday of every month, the villa is free for all visitors but will be more crowded. Some people told me it's free only for Italians, but I ended up accessing it for free. So I think as long as it's Sunday, and your appearance does not speak highly of your atypical non-Italian looks you should be fine to explore the Villa without having to pay any money.
- Tivoli is located at about an hour and a half drive from Rome and can be reached via public transport. If visiting only Villa d'Este, then a half-day trip from Rome should suffice, however, if you wish to see the other two villas located in Tivoli (there are a total of three historic villas in Tivoli), then you need a full day.
- I visited Villa d'Este and Villa Adriana, and would recommend Villa d'Este should you have a time limitation and need to choose just one among the two!
Any questions? Or know of another great escape to get away from the crowds in Rome?


text:
Protect Pipes from Freezing
Being New England residents, we know that our colder winter months can make the pipes outside of our homes susceptible to freezing. It's always good to be ahead of the game so that when the temperatures drop, you are prepared to prevent frozen pipes inside. Water expands as it freezes, and expanding water can cause […]Take a Tour
Old Leaking Cast Iron Pipe
Old cast iron plumbing pipe can erode and leak. Look at the mess that happened to this homeowner. Fortunately, Saviour Septic was able to replace the old piping with new sch 40 code complying PVC with a clean out access.Take a Tour

subset: commoncrawl


text:
We are a family owned and operated auto repair business that provides quality auto body repairs and fast and friendly service. We pride ourselves on pleasing our customers and strive to fix any vehicle problem that comes our way, no matter how big or small the job.
We specialize in car collision repair, auto body work, mechanical repairs, and animal collision repairs. We also operate a 24-hour towing service for Rockford and the surrounding areas, and can take care of all your oil change, detailing, and general car tune-up maintenance needs.
Whether you're in need of car collision repair services, auto repair services, a car tune up, a quick oil change, or auto body repairs in Rockford, IL, call us today at 815-964-9071.
Factory Trained Mechanics
Foreign Car Specialists
Computer Systems Experts
Automotive Service Excellence (ASE) Certified


text:
Lupita Nyong'o and Leonardo DiCaprio were among the Oscar-nominated stars to attend the 86th annual Academy Awards nominees luncheon in Los Angeles yesterday (February 10).
Kenyan actress Nyong'o, nominated for Best Supporting Actress for her role in 12 Years a Slave, looked effortlessly stylish in a pink cocktail dress with orange leaf detail by Christian Dior.
Amy Adams, nominated for her role in American Hustle, graced the red carpet in a scarlet pants suit, while Gravity's Sandra Bullock looked chic in a strapless Stella McCartney dress.
August: Osage County nominee Meryl Streep wore a pink and red floral print dress, while Cate Blanchett - nominated for Blue Jasmine - shimmered in a metallic Prada number.
Other guests being toasted at the event included Pharrell Williams, still donning his statement Vivienne Westwood buffalo hat, and American Hustle's Bradley Cooper and Christian Bale.
Pharrell's single 'Happy', taken from the soundtrack for animated hit Despicable Me 2, is up against U2's 'Ordinary Love' (Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom), 'The Moon Song' (Her) and Frozen's 'Let It Go' for the Best Original Song Oscar.
They were joined by Wolf of Wall Street actors DiCaprio and Jonah Hill, and Philomena star Steve Coogan.
Dallas Buyers Club nominees Jared Leto and Matthew McConaughey, Before Midnight actress Julie Delpy, and Captain Phillips newcomer Barkhad Abdi were also in attendance.
The 2014 awards ceremony will be held on March 2, hosted by Ellen DeGeneres live from the Dolby Theatre in Hollywood.


text:
Thank you for signing up for the ticket newsletter!
One more step: you will receive an email shortly. You must click on the link in that email to activate your subscription to the ticket
Congratulations on confirming your subscription to the ticket newsletter!
Enjoy the best sports stories of the day sent directly to your inbox.
You have been unsubscribed from the ticket newsletter.
Please check your email for one final email confirming your removal from the list.
Beltre leaves game early, Rangers defeat Mets |Rangers Live
Adrian Beltre, american league, austin bibens dirkx, Baseball, Fox, FOX Sports, fs1, hi-lite, hi-lites, highlight, highlights, Home Run, homerun, HR, Interview, Interviews, joey gallo, lead, major league, mets, MLB, mlb highlight, mlb highlights, national league, New York, New York Mets, news, Nomar Mazara, postgame, pregame, Rangers, rangers lead, rangers win, Sports, Texas, Texas Rangers
Tweets by ThePostGame


text:
Centre for Low-Carbon Research
A rapid transition towards a low-carbon economy is a global priority if we are to reduce climate change due to increasing consumption of energy and to create a more sustainable society.
This needs close-to-market research to reduce the carbon emissions of existing technologies, fundamental research into alternative energy sources and reduction of energy demand. Such research requires a multi-disciplinary approach, combining technological expertise with an understanding of societal factors including public policy that govern uptake. This is a major focus of research funding from the EU and UK governments and research councils.
Key research themes include:
- Intelligent buildings
- Supply chain logistics
These themes will also provide a focus for cross-University collaboration in research, knowledge exchange and technology transfer.
The Centre has access to a range of excellent research facilities, including a BioEnergy Lab for bench-scale testing, pilot-scale testing and an analytical suite.
For more information, please contact: firstname.lastname@example.com or firstname.lastname@example.com


text:
Assessment |
Biopsychology |
Comparative |
Cognitive |
Developmental |
Language |
Individual differences |
Personality |
Philosophy |
Social |
Methods | Statistics | Clinical | Educational | Industrial | Professional items | World psychology |
Cognitive Psychology: Attention · Decision making · Learning · Judgement · Memory · Motivation · Perception · Reasoning · Thinking - Cognitive processes Cognition - Outline Index
The motor theory of speech perception is the hypothesis that people perceive spoken words by identifying the vocal tract gestures with which they are pronounced rather than by identifying the sound patterns that speech generates.[1][2][3][4][5] It originally claimed that speech perception is done through a specialized module that is innate and human-specific. Though the idea of a module has been qualified in more recent versions of the theory,[5] the idea remains that the role of the speech motor system is not only to produce speech articulations but also to detect them.
The hypothesis has gained more interest outside the field of speech perception than inside. This has increased particularly since the discovery of mirror neurons that link the production and perception of motor movements, including those made by the vocal tract.[5] An alternative interpretation of research linking speech perception to speech production, however, is that it links to speech imitation rather than speech perception.[6]
The theory was initially proposed in the Haskins Laboratories in the 1950s by Alvin Liberman and Franklin S. Cooper, and developed further by Donald Shankweiler, Michael Studdert-Kennedy, Ignatius Mattingly, Carol Fowler and Douglas Whalen.
Origins and developmentEdit
The hypothesis has its origins in research using pattern playback to create reading machines for the blind that would substitute sounds for orthographic letters.[7] This led to a close examination of how spoken sounds correspond to the acoustic spectrogram of them as a sequence of auditory sounds. This found that successive consonants and vowels overlap in time with one another (a phenomenon known as coarticulation).[8][9][10] This suggested that speech is not heard like an acoustic "alphabet" or "cipher," but as a "code" of overlapping speech gestures.
Associationist approachEdit
Initially, the theory was associationist: infants mimic the speech they hear and that this leads to behavioristic associations between articulation and its sensory consequences. Later, this overt mimicry would be short-circuited and become speech perception.[9] This aspect of the theory was dropped, however, with the discovery that prelinguistic infants could already detect most of the phonetic contrasts used to separate different speech sounds.[1]
Cognitivist approachEdit
The behavioristic approach was replaced by a cognitivist one in which there was a speech module.[1] The module detected speech in terms of hidden distal objects rather than at the proximal or immediate level of their input. The evidence for this was the research finding that speech processing was special such as duplex perception.[11]
Changing distal objectsEdit
Initially, speech perception was assumed to link to speech objects that were both
- the invariant movements of speech articulators[9]
- the invariant motor commands sent to muscles to move the vocal tract articulators[12]
This was later revised to include the phonetic gestures rather than motor commands,[1] and then the gestures intended by the speaker at a prevocal, linguistic level, rather than actual movements.[13]
Modern revisionEdit
The "speech is special" claim has been dropped,[5] as it was found that speech perception could occur for nonspeech sounds (for example, slamming doors for duplex perception).[14]
Mirror neuronsEdit
The discovery of mirror neurons has led to renewed interest in the motor theory of speech perception, and the theory still has its advocates,[5] although there are also critics.[15]
Nonauditory gesture informationEdit
If speech is identified in terms of how it is physically made, then nonauditory information should be incorporated into speech percepts even if it is still subjectively heard as "sounds". This is, in fact, the case.
- The McGurk effect shows that seeing the production of a spoken syllable that differs from one an auditory one synchronized with it affects the perception of the auditory one. In other words, if someone hears "ba" but sees a video of someone pronouncing "ga", what they hear is different—some people believe they hear "da".
- People find it easier to hear speech in noise if they can see the speaker.[16]
- People can hear syllables better when their production can be felt haptically.[17]
Categorical perceptionEdit
Using a speech synthesizer, speech sounds can be varied in place of articulation along a continuum from /bɑ/ to /dɑ/ to /ɡɑ/, or in voice onset time on a continuum from /dɑ/ to /tɑ/ (for example). When listeners to discriminate between two different sounds, they perceive sounds as belonging to discrete categories, even though the sounds vary continuously. In other words, 10 sounds (with the sound on one extreme being /dɑ/ and the sound on the other extreme being /tɑ/, and the ones in the middle varying on a scale) may all be acoustically different from one another, but the listener will hear all of them as either /dɑ/ or /tɑ/. Likewise, the English consonant /d/ may vary in its acoustic details across different phonetic contexts (the /d/ in /du/ does not technically sound the same as the one in /di/, for example), but all /d/'s as perceived by a listener fall within one category (voiced alveolar stop) and that is because "linguistic representations are abstract, canonical, phonetic segments or the gestures that underlie these segments."[18] This suggests that humans identify speech using categorical perception, and thus that a specialized module, such as that proposed by the motor theory of speech perception, may be on the right track.[19]
Speech imitationEdit
If people can hear the gestures in speech, then the imitation of speech should be very fast, as in when words are repeated that are heard in headphones as in speech shadowing.[20] People can repeat heard syllables more quickly than they would be able to produce them normally.[21]
Speech production Edit
- Hearing speech actives vocal tract muscles,[22] and the motor cortex[23] and premotor cortex.[24] The integration of auditory and visual input in speech perception also involves such areas.[25]
- Disrupting the premotor cortex disrupts the perception of speech units such as stop consonants.[26]
- The activation of the motor areas occurs in terms of the phonemic features which link with the vocal track articulators that create speech gestures.[27]
- The perception of a speech sound is aided by pre-emptively stimulating the motor representation of the articulators responsible for its pronunciation .[28]
Perception-action meshingEdit
The evidence exits that perception and production are generally coupled in the motor system. This is supported by the existence of mirror neurons that are activated both by seeing (or hearing) an action and when that action is carried out.[29] Another source of evidence is that for common coding theory between the representations used for perception and action.[30]
The motor theory of speech perception has not had much success. As three of its advocates have noted, "it has few proponents within the field of speech perception, and many authors cite it primarily to offer critical commentary".[5]p. 361 Several critiques of it exist.[15][31]
Multiple sourcesEdit
Speech perception is affected by nonproduction sources of information, such as context. Individual words are hard to understand in isolation but easy when heard in sentence context. It therefore seems that speech perception uses multiple sources that are integrated together in an optimal way.[15]
Production Edit
The motor theory of speech perception would predict that speech motor abilities in infants predict their speech perception abilities, but in actuality it is the other way around.[32] It would also predict that defects in speech production would impair speech perception, but they do not.[33]
Speech moduleEdit
Several sources of evidence for a specialized speech module have failed to be supported.
- Duplex perception can be observed with door slams.[14]
- The McGurk effect can also be achieved with nonlinguistic stimuli, such as showing someone a video of a basketball bouncing but playing the sound of a ping-pong ball bouncing.[citation needed]
- As for categorical perception, listeners can be sensitive to acoustic differences within single phonetic categories.
As a result, this part of the theory has been dropped.[5]
Sublexical tasksEdit
The evidence provided for the motor theory of speech perception is limited to tasks such as syllable discrimination that use speech units not full spoken words or spoken sentences. As a result, "speech perception is sometimes interpreted as referring to the perception of speech at the sublexical level. However, the ultimate goal of these studies is presumably to understand the neural processes supporting the ability to process speech sounds under ecologically valid conditions, that is, situations in which successful speech sound processing ultimately leads to contact with the mental lexicon and auditory comprehension."[34] This however creates the problem of " a tenuous connection to their implicitt target of investigation, speech recognition".[34]
The motor theory of speech perception faces the problem that the research linking speech perception to speech production is also consistent with the brain processing speech to imitate spoken words. The brain must have a means to do this if language is to exist, since a child's vocabulary expansion requires a means to learn novel spoken words, as does an adult's picking up of new names.[6] Imitation has to be initiated for all vocalizations since a word's novelty cannot be known until after it is heard, and so after when the information needed to identify its articulation gestures and motor goals has gone. As result vocal imitation needs to be initiated by default into short term memory for every heard spoken vocalizations.[6] If speech perception uses multiple sources of information, this default imitation processing would provide as a secondary use an extra source for word perception. Since imitation will be most needed for vocalizations that are not proper words, this could explain why sublexical tasks that do not use proper words so strongly link to processing of motor gestures.[6]
It has been suggested that birds also hear each others' bird song in terms of vocal gestures.[35]
See alsoEdit
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 Liberman AM, Cooper FS, Shankweiler DP, Studdert-Kennedy M. (1967). Perception of the speech code. Psychol Rev.74(6):431-61. PMID 4170865
- ↑ Liberman AM, Mattingly IG. (1985). The motor theory of speech perception revised. Cognition. 21(1):1-36. PMID 4075760
- ↑ Liberman AM, Mattingly IG. (1989). A specialization for speech perception. Science. 243(4890):489-94. PMID 2643163
- ↑ Liberman AM, Whalen DH. (2000). On the relation of speech to language. Trends Cogn Sci. 4(5):187-196. PMID 10782105
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 5.3 5.4 5.5 5.6 Galantucci B, Fowler CA, Turvey MT. (2006). The motor theory of speech perception reviewed. Psychon Bull Rev. 13(3):361-77. PMID 17048719
- ↑ 6.0 6.1 6.2 6.3 Skoyles JR. (1998). Speech phones are a replication code. Med Hypotheses. 50(2):167-73. PMID 9572572
- ↑ Liberman, A. M. (1996). Speech: A special code. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press. ISBN 978-0262121927
- ↑ Liberman AM, Delattre P, Cooper FS. (1952). The role of selected stimulus-variables in the perception of the unvoiced stop consonants. Am J Psychol. 65(4):497-516. PMID 12996688
- ↑ 9.0 9.1 9.2 Liberman AM, Delattre PC, Cooper FS, Gerstman LJ. (1954). The role of consonant–vowel transitions in the perception of the stop and nasal consonants. Psychological Monographs: General & Applied, 68, 1-13.
- ↑ Fowler CA. Saltzman E. (1993). Coordination and coarticulation in speech. Language and Speech, 36, 171-195. PMID 8277807
- ↑ Liberman AM, Isenberg D, Rakerd B. (1981). Duplex perception of cues for stop consonants: evidence for a phonetic mode. Percept Psychophys. 30(2):133-43. PMID 7301513
- ↑ Liberman, A. M. (1970). The grammars of speech and language. Cognitive Psychology,1:301–323 DOI:10.1016/0010-0285(70)90018-6
- ↑ Liberman AM, Mattingly IG. (1985). The motor theory of speech perception revised. Cognition. Oct;21(1):1-36. PMID 4075760
- ↑ 14.0 14.1 Fowler CA, Rosenblum LD. (1990). Duplex perception: a comparison of monosyllables and slamming doors. J Exp Psychol Hum Percept Perform. 16(4):742-54. PMID 2148589
- ↑ 15.0 15.1 15.2 Massaro DW, Chen TH. (2008). The motor theory of speech perception revisited. Psychon Bull Rev. 15(2):453-7. PMID 18488668
- ↑ MacLeod A, Summerfield Q. (1987) Quantifying the contribution of vision to speech perception in noise. Br J Audiol. 21(2):131-41. PMID 3594015
- ↑ Fowler CA, Dekle DJ. (1991) Listening with eye and hand: cross-modal contributions to speech perception. J Exp Psychol Hum Percept Perform. 17(3):816-28. PMID 1834793
- ↑ Nygaard, L.C., Pisoni, D.B. (1995). "Speech Perception: New Directions in Research and Theory". Handbook of Perception and Cognition: Speech, Language, and Communication. Ed. J.L. Miller, P.D. Eimas. San Diego: Academic Press.
- ↑ Liberman, A.M., Harris, K.S., Hoffman, H.S., Griffith, B.C. (1957). The discrimination of speech sounds within and across phoneme boundaries. Journal of Experimental Psychology 54: 358–368.
- ↑ Marslen-Wilson W. (1973). Linguistic structure and speech shadowing at very short latencies. Nature, 244, 522-523. PMID 4621131
- ↑ Porter RJ. Lubker JF. (1980). Rapid reproduction of vowel-vowel sequences, Evidence for a fast and direct acoustic-motoric linkage in speech. Journal of Speech and Hearing Research, 23, 593-602. PMID 7421161
- ↑ Fadiga L, Craighero L, Buccino G, Rizzolatti G. (2002). Speech listening specifically modulates the excitability of tongue muscles: a TMS study. Eur J Neurosci. 15:399-402.PMID 11849307
- ↑ Watkins KE, Strafella AP, Paus T. (2003). Seeing and hearing speech excites the motor system involved in speech production. Neuropsychologia. 41:989-94. PMID 12667534
- ↑ Wilson SM, Saygin AP, Sereno MI, Iacoboni M. (2004). Listening to speech activates motor areas involved in speech production. Nat Neurosci. 7:701-2. PMID 15184903
- ↑ Skipper JI, van Wassenhove V, Nusbaum HC, Small SL. (2007). Hearing lips and seeing voices: how cortical areas supporting speech production mediate audiovisual speech perception. Cereb Cortex. 17:2387-99. PMID 17218482
- ↑ Meister IG, Wilson SM, Deblieck C, Wu AD, Iacoboni M. (2007). The essential role of premotor cortex in speech perception. Curr Biol. 17:1692-6.PMID 17900904
- ↑ Pulvermüller F, Huss M, Kherif F, Moscoso del Prado Martin F, Hauk O, Shtyrov Y. (2006). Motor cortex maps articulatory features of speech sounds. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 103:7865-70. PMID 16682637
- ↑ D'Ausilio A, Pulvermüller F, Salmas P, Bufalari I, Begliomini C, Fadiga L. (2009). The motor somatotopy of speech perception. Curr Biol. 19:381-5. PMID 19217297
- ↑ Rizzolatti G., Craighero L., The mirror-neuron system, Annual Review of Neuroscience. 2004;27:169-92 PMID 15217330
- ↑ Hommel B, Müsseler J, Aschersleben G, Prinz W. (2001). The Theory of Event Coding (TEC): a framework for perception and action planning. Behav Brain Sci. 24(5):849-78. PMID 12239891
- ↑ Lane H. (1965). The motor theory of speech perception: A critical review. Psychol Rev. 72:275-309. PMID 14348425
- ↑ Tsao FM, Liu HM, Kuhl PK. (2004). Speech perception in infancy predicts language development in the second year of life: a longitudinal study. Child Dev. 75(4):1067-84. PMID 15260865
- ↑ MacNeilage PF, Rootes TP, Chase RA. (1967). Speech production and perception in a patient with severe impairment of somesthetic perception and motor control. J Speech Hear Res. 10(3):449-67. PMID 6081929 abstract
- ↑ 34.0 34.1 Hickok G, Poeppel D. (2007). The cortical organization of speech processing. Nat Rev Neurosci. 8(5):393-402. PMID 17431404 page 394
- ↑ Williams H, Nottebohm F. (1985) Auditory responses in avian vocal motor neurons: a motor theory for song perception in birds. Science. 229(4710):279-82. PMID 4012321
External linksEdit
|This page uses Creative Commons Licensed content from Wikipedia (view authors).


text:
Here's How You Automate Your Direct Mail Campaigns
May 04, 2015 by Madison Jacobs
Direct mail marketing is not dead. In fact, it's still an integral part of the modern integrated marketing strategy that many of the top insurance companies use to generate more leads and acquire new customers.
Check out the graphic below to learn more about the technology solution that New York Life depends on to automate the manual entry of business reply cards and push actionable data directly into Salesforce quickly, securely and at accuracy rates of 99.9%+.
Captricity's 100 percent HIPAA compliant cloud-based platform delivers handwritten customer data from your business reply cards directly into Salesforce or any other CRM without any manual sorting or data entry. Now, a process that may have taken days, even weeks to complete, can be completed overnight with industry leading accuracy rates of 99.9%+.
To learn more about how to get fast access to the accurate customer data you need to reach your prospects faster, sign up for a demo today!


text:
Friday August 14th 2015 6:30-10:30pm
Serving up generous portions of Funky Jazz with a side of Blues and a Dollop of Soul.
DescriptionSuspects of Soul was created to fill a need for great music at a time when none was available. Brought together by a mutual understanding of how to successfully play a room, Suspects of Soul fearlessly gathered on stage for the first time without a rehearsal knowing there was no musical challenge that could not be met. On that night in September, 2011 Herman Wilson, Jason Stewart, Stacy Starkweather and Marc Carmi Smith became Suspects of Soul.


text:
Rima Yamagishi
Rima Yamagishi serves as an Internal Auditor of the Northern Mariana Islands Retirement Fund (NMIRF). In her capacity, Rima is responsible for performing internal audits, reviews, and evaluations of the programs and operations of the Fund. She participates in the preparation and serves a major role in the achievement of the Fund's annual internal audit plan. In addition, Rima conducts audits of retirees' records in order to ensure eligibility requirements are met and that members pensions are accurately computed. Within the first year of working with the NMIRF, Rima was able to conduct an audit of over 200 member files in the audit of the underpayment of contributions. As a result of this audit, the NMIRF was able to recoup significant amounts of monies due the Fund. As an Internal Auditor, Rima is also responsible for ensuring that external audit reports and findings are addressed and resolved by management as quickly and effectively as possible. Prior to moving to Hawaii to further her education, Rima worked for the Northern Marianas College Budget Office where she assisted with the budget process and was responsible for the tracking of each department's quarterly allotted budgets. Rima attended Chaminade University of Honolulu in Hawaii where she received her MBA with an emphasis in Accounting in December 2008. Shortly after graduation, Rima returned to the CNMI in the hopes to one day make positive changes as a leader in government.
Other Participants of ELDP Pacific 2013
View the Latest News Items on the Executive Leadership Development Program
Junior Paul Gives ELDP 2017 Class Speech
Marshall Islands participant Junior Paul represented the 2017 class of the Graduate School USA's Executive Leadership Development Program (ELDP). Twenty-two participants from throughout the U.S. affiliated insular areas represented the … [more]
Frankie Eliptico Gives ELDP Class Speech
CNMI participant Frankie Eliptico represented the 2015 class of the Graduate School USA's Executive Leadership Development Program (ELDP). Twenty-two (22) participants from throughout the U.S. affiliated insular areas represented the … [more]
ELDP 2013 Class Graduation
The Executive Leadership Development Program completed graduation ceremonies in Honolulu, Hawaii on Friday, June 14, 2013. Twenty participants completed the program, representing American Samoa, the Republic of the Marshall Islands, … [more]
20 Pacific Participants Graduate from Executive Leadership Development Program
Twenty (20) participants from throughout the insular areas represented the 2011 graduating class of the Executive Leadership Development Program (ELDP). ELDP graduation ceremonies were held on May 8, 2011, at the East-West … [more]
Calvert Birmingham Gives ELP Class Speech
Calvert Birmingham was selected to represent the graduating class of the Graduate School USA's Executive Leadership Program this past summer. Calvert currently works with the US Virgin Islands' Department of … [more]


text:
Guest Reviews | Key West Hotel Reviews
We absolutely loved our recent stay at the Lighthouse Court Hotel!!
We stayed in the beautiful C6 double bedroom which surpassed all our expectations and we found the whole experience was perfectly in keeping with the relaxed Key West culture and environment!
A very special thanks to your exceptionally warm, welcoming and helpful front office staff!
When we are passing through Key West again, we will definitely be heading straight for the Lighthouse Court Hotel again!
Thanks & regards
By: Colin YatesJuly 31, 2013
5 / 5 stars


text:
Veronica`s train "ride"
The train rumbled on, Veronica sat looking out of the window, bored.
On her way home from her London office job. Veronica had been one of the unlucky few selected to work between boxing day and new year`s day. Every one it seemed was on holiday except her. The office was empty,the city was empty and this homeward bound commuter train was empty too.
Except that in Veronica`s compartment, sitting almost opposite her, sat one solitary middle aged man pretending to read his paper. In reality he hadn`t been able to tear his gaze away from Veroica`s shapely legs for almost the entire time he had sat there.
Veronica was no thick bimbo, she was intelligent and street wise, she was also a good looking girl with a wicked streak.
Knowing full well that the guy had been looking at her, she decided to have some fun and tease him a little.
Veronica let her shoes drop from her feet as she laid her legs on the empty seat beside her. Folding her arms and leaning her head back she made like she was trying to sleep. Through slitted eyes Veronica could see the man getting bolder as he stared at her. After about five minutes feigning sleep, Veronica let her left foot"accidentally" slip from the seat to the floor. This as Veronica knew full well made her skirt ride up and expose a lot more of her upper thighs. With the rocking of the railway carriage Veronica let her left knee go with the rocking motion. Still pretending to be asleep she let her legs fall open a little more.
By now the man was staring hard at what he thought was a sleeping girl in front of him. He could now see right up her thighs to the gusset of her white panties. His feverish attempts to "adjust" his now erect penis by his hand in his pockets did not go unnoticed by Veronica. Fully aware that she was turning the man on gave Veronica a little sexual thrill of her own.
By now he had moved his half folded newspaper over his crotch to cover his hand as he gently stroked his stiff cock through the fabric of his trousers.
Veronica was becoming more and more turned on by the attempts of this frustrated man to masturbate himself over her little subterfuge.
In Veronica`s knickers her tight slit began to moisten, the lips of her labia began to swell and pout a little.
She was a girl who had an impeccable little pussy, with neat and closely trimmed pubic hair. Even so, when Veronica was feeling horny it started to lubricate as profusely as any other highly sexed young female, and a damp patch started to form on the gusset of her skimpy knickers.
Making as if to rouse herself from sleep, she sat up and looked straight at the man. He quickly stopped his furtive hand movements and made as if he hadn`t noticed Veronica at all by staring straight ahead.
Veronica noticed how flushed and red he looked, he even had small beads of sweat on his forehead. She didn`t need to be an expert to guess that by now this guy needed some sexual relief.
Veronica just sat and thought for the next couple of minutes.
What could she do now, she didn`t know this man and hadn`t even spoke to him. It would be a bit frustrating for her as well if she stopped her little game now.
Veronica had an idea.
"Excuse me"she said as she leant forward looking at the man, "yes" he said nervously.
"I need to use the toilet and i think the door catch is broken, would you mind standing at the door in case somebody comes along."
"N, no, not at all" he said, and they both rose from their seats.
Veronica went into the toilet cubicle, deliberately not attempting to fully fasten the door.Within a few seconds the rocking motion of the railway carriage started to open about a two inch gap through which the man could clearly see the side view of Veronica as she squatted on the toilet.
The man stood guard out side as Veronica sat with her panties down. The piss flew from her pussy in a noisy golden spray into the toilet bowl.
Veronca leant forward as she pissed, so her face was not visible to him, but from his view point in the corridor, he could easily see the side of Veronica`s pert beautifully rounded bottom, and the top of her shapely thighs.
With the sight of this lovely young womans body and the sound of her hissing vagina as she pissed, he couldn`t help him self.
He undid the zip on his trousers slipped his hand inside, and grasped his aching member.
Small moans of pleasure reached to Veronica`s ears, and she knew full well he was again masturbating over her.
Veronica finished her piss, then still sitting on the toilet, slipped the middle finger of her right hand down to her moist crease, she began to run it up and down the groove and slipping it into her wet hole.
He couldn`t believe what he was seeing and the squelchy sounds it was making were to much for him.
He slid back the toilet door and as he did so Veronica rose from the toiet seat and perched her bum on the small wash basin.
He moved towards her, groped her breasts and dropped his trousers. His painfully hard penis stuck out proudly before him. Veronica lifted her feet and wrapped her legs around his midriff, therby exposing to him her juicy cunt.
His hard penis slid easily into her wet vagina, straight up to the hilt where his overfull balls hung. With his tool completely embedded in Veronica`s pussy it was impossible to remain static. His need to thrust in and out of her was overwhelming, his natural male instincts took him over.
He quickly withdrew almost to the tip of his cock, then just as fast he plunged it back into her eager hole.
He began that age old reciprocating motion with the urgency of a man who`s need to come was getting stronger. In and out he thrust, relentlessly pounding her wet and slippery cunt hole.
His whole body stiffened for a moment, "oh god " he grunted, then he came.
His poker stiff penis started to ejaculate an almost endless stream of thick sperm into the girl.
The pulsing of his penis was fast and furious as it angrily spat out his hot seed.
After the complete draining of his balls by Veronica`s tight little pussy, the guy started to recover some of his composure. He suddenly drew back from Veronica with a look of shock and suprise on his face as though he couldn`t believe what he had just done. Quickly pulling up his trousers and straightening his clothes. He hurriedly left the toilet cubicle without saying a word.
Veronica on the other hand, took time to wipe herself, pull her knickers back on, and tidy her make up.
When she returned to her seat there was no sign of the man. He`d left the carriage using the interconnecting door.
So Veronica sat down and thought about what she`d just done.A small smile appeared on her lips as she went back to looking out of the train window.


text:
Recorded on an SD 702 with an SM81 and a cheap akg SDC can't remember which one just wanted variety. Not intended as a stereo recording just 2 mic options.
No EQ not low end roll off so it has a rich low end that you can tame to taste.
Great sound!
Very rich and nice characteristics. Gave it full 5 stars just to balance out earlier misleading ratings.
2 commentss
Please log in to comment


text:
Last Updated on
Pico de Gallo with Avocado is the perfect fresh dip, loaded with vegetables! Serve with tortilla chips, or use as a topping for tacos.
Pssssst…. I've teamed up with other bloggers to give away either a $300 Amazon gift card or PayPal cash! Scroll below the recipe to enter.
Give me the beach and warmer weather! I am so ready. It's been unseasonably warm here, and I'm already cooking lighter and using out of season veggies because they're just calling my name. Last night, I ate an entire zucchini sauteed in olive oil, which is very unusual behavior for me. Tonight, I made Pico de Gallo with Avocado and absolutely devoured it with chips. My body is just craving these veggies! Yes, I'm the same girl that made candied bacon and put it on baked brie in December. I can't make sense of it, either.
I love making Pico de Gallo, because it keeps SO well in the fridge (gotta love that lime juice!) and it can be used in so much. I mostly eat it as a dip with tortilla chips, but it's a great topping for tacos, salads, and you can even mix it with shredded meat to fill burritos or enchiladas! Make it once, eat for days! It also reminds me of very sunny, good times in Mexico where most of their salsa resembles this chopped texture ("salsa fresca"), not so much the blended salsa that we eat here in the States.
I have two secret ingredients that make my Pico de Gallo a heavily requested dip for parties! First, is the rice wine vinegar. You can find this in the asian aisle at your supermarket. This vinegar, combined with the lime juice, gives such a distinctive and zesty taste. Second, is the avocado of course. It's not traditional to add avocado, but the lime juice preserves it well and in my opinion, it adds a welcome creamy element!
I hope that you enjoy this zesty Pico de Gallo with Avocado dip. If you enjoy this recipe, I think you'll also love my Slow Cooker Pork Pozole.
Pico de Gallo with Avocado
Keep scrolling to enter the giveaway at the bottom of the post!
March Madness is the perfect time to get together with friends and watch a little basketball, preferably with yummy food like this Pico de Gallo recipe! We want you and your friends to party in style this year, so enter to win $300 cash (or an Amazon gift card) below! Good luck!
March Madness $300 CASH Giveaway
$300 Amazon GC OR PayPal Cash
Organized by My Dairy-Free Gluten-Free Life
This giveaway ends March 23, 2016 at 11:59 PM EST
A group of fabulous bloggers have come together to bring one lucky reader a $300 Amazon GC or PayPal Cash March Madness Giveaway! This is a blogger sponsored giveaway which means the bloggers have donated towards the cost of this giveaway! You will these bloggers as entries on the Rafflecopter.
This giveaway is open worldwide and ends March 23, 2016 at 11:59 PM EST. Please read our Terms and Conditions at the end of this post.
Enter on the Rafflecopter below and good luck:
Disclaimer: This blog and any participating blogs did not receive compensation for the published material in this post. No purchase required to enter this giveaway and there is a limit of one entrant per household. Void where prohibited. Odds of winning are determined by the number of valid entries received. Winner will be chosen by Random.org and will be emailed via the email address used to enter the contest. New winner(s) will be chosen if original winner(s) has not responded within 48 hours of email notification. My Dairy-Free Gluten-Free Life is responsible for shipment of prize(s). This giveaway is not administered, sponsored, endorsed by, or associated with Facebook, Twitter, Google, Pinterest or other social media outlet. Disclaimer is posted in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission 10 CFR, Part 255 Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.


text:
OK i may ramble here alot... First I'm pretty excited,,I have a new laptop here... well not new , but new to me... my mom bought herself a brand new laptop and gave me this one!! ( Thank u MOMMY!!) LOL well there is nothing wrong with this one, just a little crack in the shell, well that drove my mom nuts so she had to buy a new one lol. So this will be my first post using a laptop.. weeeeee lol, Second, I ended up having a unexpected week off from work .. ( no i didn't get in trouble lol) just a licence issue, so i decided to try some purging.. i have WAY to much stuff, craft supplies, vintage treasures ,ect..ect..Anyway i added a bunch of stuff to my shop www.etsy.com/shop/stefscottage72.I added these fun Christmas ornaments i made out prisms and some fabulous images i bought from my friend Cassies etsy shop cassiescreations@.etsy.com .
This Pretty ,creamy ,wreath, i added a Huge vintage,Velvet,Rose, and some other vintage trims.
Then For the vintage goodies, I Added 2 lots of vintage Jewels, a vintage pincushion, and a vintage lady head vase.
Well my big plan is to keep going though things and adding more fun things to my shop!!www.etsy.com/shop/stefscottage72


text:
"The threat of a new ice age must now stand alongside nuclear war as a likely source of wholesale death and misery for mankind." -- environmentalist Nigel Calder, at the first Earth Day celebration, 1969.
"If Democrats oppose drilling today because it will take 10 years for our new oil to hit the market, doesn't that mean their opposition to drilling 10 years ago was a mistake?" -- Michael Graham
"The poor have been voting democrat for 50 years and they're still poor" -- Charles Barkley
"If the account of him being caught in a hotel rendezvous with Rielle Hunter was false, Edwards wouldn't be changing the subject, he'd be suing." -- John Tabin
"Right-thinking people are not supposed to discuss any meteorological or geophysical event -- a hurricane, a wildfire, a heat wave, a drought, a flood, a blizzard, a tornado, a lightning strike, an unfamiliar breeze, a strange tingling on the neck -- without immediately invoking the climate crisis. It causes earthquakes, plagues and backyard gardening disappointments. Weird fungus on your tomato plants? Classic sign of global warming." -- Joel Achenbach
"You must understand printing lies about Republican candidates is OK. It's called "vetting." Printing the truth about liberals - that's called 'swift-boating'." -- Howie Carr
"Think about it. In 24 hours, we've learned more unflattering details about a guy who asked Obama a question and walked away unpersuaded than almost any of his campaign staff or associates." -- Jim Geraghty
"Most people who read 'The Communist Manifesto' probably have no idea that it was written by a couple of young men who had never worked a day in their lives, and who nevertheless spoke boldly in the name of 'the workers'." -- Thomas Sowell
"Socialism is an attack on the right to breathe freely. No socialist system can be established without a political police." -- Winston Churchill
"By my reckoning, I only need about 200 more takeout coffee cups to complete my bitterly ironic mosaic of Al Gore." -- Merlin Mann
…at least the Bush staffers will leave the "O" on the keyboards of the computers.
"The problem with socialism is that you eventually run out of other people's money." -- Margaret Thatcher
"Easy money, sudden fortunes, increasingly powerful political machines and blatant corruption transformed much of the nation; and the Senate, as befits a democratic legislative body, accurately represented the nation." -- J.F. Kennedy, "Profiles in Courage"
"America wasn't founded so that we could all be better. America was founded so we could all be anything we damn well please." -- P.J. O'Rourke
Wednesday, December 31, 2008
Morning Quotes
"The threat of a new ice age must now stand alongside nuclear war as a likely source of wholesale death and misery for mankind." -- environmentalist Nigel Calder, at the first Earth Day celebration, 1969.
The goal seems to be "rested and ready"
My spin is a bit less harsh than the Brits who state that BHO is golfing while Gaza burns.
He's not the President yet. He's got a few more weeks before the buck stops with him...unless its a problem "above his pay grade."
Tuesday, December 30, 2008
Monday, December 29, 2008
About the blog roll...
I'll be glad when blogrolling.com is back up and running. My blog roll really needs pruning.
When did the Bitch Girls blog become a food blog?
Monday's Book Pick
Rogue Warrior by Richard Marcinko
The autobiography of the founder of SEAL Team Six, the Navy's anti-terrorist unit.
Written in prison to pay off his legal fees. Considering one of his jobs in the Navy was to piss off Admirals, hardly surprising.
The Monday Book Pick Archive.
An American Carol is coming out on DVD
I saw An American Carol in the theater (along with WTTK's Michael Graham), a very funny movie.
Sunday, December 28, 2008
Cleaning up the audio
Darleen at Protein Wisdom points out the careful editing done to protect Princess Caroline.
Here is the actual transcript of Princess Caroline's statement:
"And so, I, I'm an unconventional choice, I, er, understand that. I haven't pursued the traditional path. But I think that, um, in our public life today, we, you know, are starting to see there are many ways into, to, public life and public service and it's, uh, not as, um, all our institutions are … less, um, hierarchal then they used to be, and so, you know, I think that, you know, I bring, you know, my life experience to this and, you know, that includes, you know, um, being a mother, um I understand sort of those choices that women make that includes, uh, being a lawyer …"
Here is what the AP compressed that down to:
"I am an unconventional choice. I understand that. I haven't pursued the traditional path. But I think that in our public life today, we're starting to see there are many ways into public life and public service,"
Darleen points out:
In the 2 minute 16 second snippet of the grilled-cheese sandwich interview AP released, I counted 26 "you knows".
However, the AP article gives long, coherent quotes to Caroline that are not supported by the audio segment. And certainly AP and others never "cleaned up" any of Governor Palin's off-the-cuff remarks.
I agree with Darleen, before expecting to be anointed to the US Senate, Princess Caroline should try running for some elected office first. Such as her local PTA board, and actually show up to the meetings.
Infrastrucure we should be building.
Our Dear Leader should listen to Dr. Pournelle on what kind of infrastructure the United States of America should be building.
I have to say it again: cheap energy will cause a boom. The only cheap energy I know of is nuclear. Three Hundred Billion bucks in nuclear power will do wonders for the economy. We build 100 1000 MegaWatt nuclear power plants — they will cost no more than 2 billion each and my guess is that the average cost will be closer to 1 billion each (that is the first one costs about 20 billion and the 100th costs about 800 million). The rest of the money goes to prizes and X projects to convert electricity into mobility.
Of course we won't do that.
Just think of all the plug in hybrid cars that could be on the road with all that cheap, carbon free, clean electricity.
Saturday, December 27, 2008
The top selling office product at Amazon...
The 2009 Sarah Palin Calendar. Her popularity with everyone to the right of Ted "Don't let him drive your daughter home" Kennedy is a mystery to the far left extremists who can't see past the op-ed page of the failing NY Times.
Governor Sarah Palin is just the most popular governor in the country who has an actual track record of accomplishment. The far left democrats would rather believe their own propaganda than the truth on the matter.
Friday, December 26, 2008
Friday's B-Movie Pick
From 1981, this retelling of the Authurian ledgend isn't afraid to show the dark side of Camelot.
Friday B-Move Pick Archive.
Thursday, December 25, 2008
Merry Christmas!
Peace on Earth and all that. Enjoy the day.
Wednesday, December 24, 2008
Obama supporters don't support the First Amendment
Clear proof is their actions to try and suppress this video.
More details here.
It's more of a cult than a political movement.
The 12 Days of Global Warming
Tuesday, December 23, 2008
Population shift may affect 2012 election
It looks like the 2010 Census will cause a reallocation of Congressional House seats, and a corresponding shift in Electoral College votes.
The big winner is Texas, which is likely to gain three new seats in the House of Representatives. Other states would gain single seats. Those being Arizona, Florida, Georgia, Nevada and Utah.
The losers are Iowa, Louisiana, Massachusetts, Michigan, New Jersey, New York, Ohio and Pennsylvania. All are on track to loose a single seat.
Except for Iowa, all of the states loosing a seat have majority democrat congressional delegations. In the case of Massachusetts, the entire delegation consists of far left extremist liberal democrats.
The states gaining seats all went Republican in 2000 and 2004.
This trend in population shift is continuing. It is possible for more House seats to shift by the time the 2010 Census is counted.
Update: Welcome Instapundit readers (and thanks for the grammar tip ;->)
Could this be why our Dear Leader wants to bring control of the upcoming 2010 Census directly into the White House and out of the non-partisan control of the Commerce department?
Samizdata.net blog asks a very good question.
Is a White House take over of the census constitutional?
Monday, December 22, 2008
Monday's Book Pick
Old Man's War by John Scalzi.
The Monday Book Pick Archive.
VP Cheney tells it like it is.
Balls as big as church bells. One of VP Cheney's strengths. Something lacking in the incoming administration. Except for Hillary Rodham Clinton of course.
In an interview on Fox News Sunday, Chris Wallace asked VP Cheney if he really told that weasel democrat senator Leahy to "Go fuck yourself."
Ok, Chris Wallace didn't call Leahy a weasel, but the sake of accurate reporting, I inserted the descriptive term.
Vice-President Cheney not only admitted to it, he smiled while doing so.
"I thought he merited it at the time".
Slide over to AoSHQ for some video.
Sunday, December 21, 2008
I've Been Saying This For Years
"The Democrat's platform is nearly the same as the 1933 NSDAP's platform."
What are your questions on this block of instruction?
(I also strongly suggest reading The Ominous Parallels.)
Friday, December 19, 2008
Friday B-Movie Pick
To celebrate Christmas, today's pick is Lethal Weapon. The first in the series from way back in 1987.
The movie does start off with "Jingle Bell Rock"...
The Friday B-Movie Archive
Climate Change
First off, Climate Change is a hard scientific fact. The Earth's climate has change drastically over time and odds are that it still will. Keep in mind that most of that extreme fluctuation has happened before Homo sapiens arrived on the planet and there has been recorded climate change before the Industrial Revolution.
So when "supposedly" smart people like soon to be VP Joe Bieden says that he thinks that climate change is 100% due to the effects of man, you have to wonder about just how long he's been on crack.
With actual real science, if the facts don't fit your theory, you change your theory. With the Cult of Algore "Global Warming" conspiracy types, there is a solid history of changing the facts to fit their so-called "theory".
One of the early and most blatant ones was the "Hockey Stick" graph used in the infamous Al Gore propaganda film. In order to get that "Hockey Stick" graph, which they needed to "prove" their so-called "theory", it was necessary to both edit out relevant data and hack the algorithms to edit out both the Little Ice Age and the Medieval Warm Period.
Continuing that policy of editing the facts to fit their so-called "theory", is Seth Borenstein's propaganda piece disguised as a "science" article. Note his very carefully selection of dates. Yup, there was a brief warm period during the Clinton years, but it has been cooling since then. A fact Borenstein is very careful not to note, except for the rather bizzare statement that a global cooling trend "actually illustrates how fast the world is warming." No facts or cites to back that up, just an unsupported "proof by assertion." The article also has the typical watermelon America bashing, leaving out the fact that the US has slowed it's rate of carbon emissions more than the Western European countries that signed the Kyoto Treaty. He also engages the typical "Bush Bashing" by leaving out the fact that it was President Bill Clinton who killed the Kyoto Treaty by not sending to the Senate for ratification. President Clinton could read the writing on the wall, and the unanimous Senate vote stating that they opposed the treaty. Yup, every single democrat present (98 Senators voted) voted against the Kyoto Accords before they were presented to the Senate.
How have actual Scientists responded to Borenstein's article? Noel Sheppard has compiled a short list:
In his latest screed, he screams: "global warming is accelerating"
How then does he explain the fact that the mean global temperature (as measured by satellite) is the same as it was in 1980?
How can global warming be "accelerating" when the last two years have seen dramatic cooling? Is this guy totally removed from all reality?????
He completely ignores any evidence contrary to his personal beliefs, and twists everything to meet his preconceived notions. -- David Deming, University of Oklahoma
Global warming is not "accelerating": global warming has stopped. There has been no statistically significant rise in (mean global temperature: MGT) since 1995 and MGT has fallen since 1998.
The Earth has been warming from the Little Ice Age (LIA) for 300 years so, of course, the warmest years happened recently. But that warming from the LIA peaked in the El Nino year of 1998. MGT has been near but below that peak for the last 10 years.
Arctic ice advances and recedes over decades. 2007 saw a minimum in Arctic ice cover in the short period that it has been monitored using satellites. But 2008 saw the most rapid growth in Arctic ice cover in that same period and Arctic ice cover is now back to the average it has had in the period. Also, 95% of polar ice is in the Antarctic and Antarctic ice is increasing.
Nobody can know if the recent halt to global warming is temporary, permanent or the start of a new warming or cooling phase. But it is certain that anybody who proclaims that "Global warming is accelerating" is a liar, a fool, or both. -- Richard S. Courtney, a UN IPCC expert reviewer and a UK-based climate and atmospheric science consultant.
There is a lot more. Go read it all.
There is more at Hot Air as well.
Cutting back on pollution is a "Good Thing." Promoting Junk Science to line Al Gore's pockets and support Socialists put out of a job by the fall of Communism is a "Bad Thing."
CNN Meteorologist Chad Myers chimes in with some actual rational thought on the subject.
Thursday, December 18, 2008
Congress shows that it is out of touch with Main Street America
While most of America is tightening its belts in a declining economy, Congress is voting itself a raise.
That's right, a $4,700 raise, on top of the $165,000 a year Senators already make. A tax payer funded salary they collect if they are doing their job or sending all their time campaigning for another tax payer funded job.
Kudos to first term democrat Rep. Harry Mitchell of Arizona. He sponsored legislation to not have the automatic pay raise take effect. The Bill never made it out of the committee controlled by his own party.
Note to Republicans, democrat Harry Mitchell is getting votes you used to get for a damn good reason.
HT to Fausta.
Don't they know she's a Kennedy!
Marcia Kramer is reporting on the less than glowing reception Caroline Kennedy, who wants to be appointed to Hillary Rodham Clinton's senate seat, is getting from upstate New York reporters.
Update: If Caroline Kennedy were to call for a special election and get the NY Gov. to approve it, she would probably win on name recognition alone. Her big name opponent would be Andrew Cuomo and Up Staters would probably vote for her in opposition to him.
Wednesday, December 17, 2008
A quick review of Digital picture frames.
One of the hot items this Christmas is digital picture frames. I've been looking at various models, bought several and returned a couple.
First, what not to buy. Omnitech digital picture frames. Omnitech is a Staples brand name. Don't let the low price suck you in like it did me. The quality is absolute dreck! Very low resolution pictures. Here is a tip, if the resolution of the screen isn't printed on the box somewhere, it's probably safe to assume that it sucks.
I found two models that I'm happy with. The first is an HP 10.4″ model. The resolution is 800×600, it has a remote, support for music files, movies, CF/SD cards…all the usual stuff. A bit pricy, Amazon has it for $165, but then you are paying for the brand name and the perceived level of quality. It will show your digital photographs off quite nicely though. It also has different colored mats that can be swapped out to match your room's color scheme.
The other model I like is the Smartparts OptiPix Pro 10.4″ digital picture frame, which Amazon has for $99.99. According to data on the box, the resolution is 640×480. I've got it set next to the 800×600 HP, loaded with same pictures, and I can't see $65 worth of difference between them.
Bottom line, if you want a decent digital picture frame, be prepared to spend at least $100, and while it's probably safe going with a well know brand name like HP, it may not be the best buy available.
Monday, December 15, 2008
Now that is just wrong.
The folks at National Lampoon, yup, that National Lampoon, instead of working on the next Van Wilder straight to video release, have gotten into a spot of trouble.
According to the AP:
Federal prosecutors in Philadelphia have filed charges against the CEO and other executives at National Lampoon Inc., accusing the executives of trying to artificially inflate the company's stock price.
Prosecutors on Monday filed three indictments and an information charging seven people with conspiracy and securities fraud.
This wouldn't have happened if P.J. O'Rourke was still there.
OK, it would have happened, but he would have made sure they weren't so sloppy.
This is post 6001 to this blog. That's a lot of ranting.
Another democrat "pay-for-play scandal" is brewing.
In addition to democrat Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich and his arrest by federal officers, another democrat governor is in a spot of trouble.
New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson (democrat), who has also been selected to be the Secretary of Commerce when our Dear Leader takes office, has federal agents investigating possible connections between Gov. Bill and a consultancy already linked to a pay-for-play scandal in Alabama.
It looks like its just business as usual for the democrat party.
HT to Jane Q. Republican.
Looking like arson
The ATF reports that "an accelerant was poured around the exterior of Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin's church, including by entrances at the 2 1/2-year-old building, which was partly gutted by a costly fire Friday night."
There were people inside, including several children. So in addition to arson, and a likely "Hate Crime", we can add attempted murder to the charges.
Monday Book Pick
The Probability Broach by L. Neil Smith.
This classic of Libertarian Science Fiction is also available as a graphic novel.
Monday Book Pick Archive.
Bad Barney!
Massachusetts democrat congresscritter Barney Frank is once again pointing out why he should be removed from public office.
One of the key players being the housing/credit meltdown is now planning on telling the car companies how to run their business.
Friday, December 12, 2008
Thursday, December 11, 2008
Coffee is Amazing!
Not only does it start your day, but it can fuel your car and heat your home!
Wednesday, December 10, 2008
It's a damn good example.
John C. Lovelace writes the following in a letter to the Las Vegas Sun:
Is this what you call chutzpah? Sen. Chris Dodd of Connecticut has demanded that the chief executive officer of General Motors resign because of the management of GM during his tenure.
Isn't this the same Sen. Dodd who along with his House counterpart Rep. Barney Frank continued over the years to tell the public that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac were fine upstanding organizations with no financial problems while they were in fact in the process of collapsing?
Additionally, wasn't Sen. Dodd the one who took sweetheart loan deals from Countrywide Financial? Why are there no demands for Sen. Dodd to resign from the U.S. Senate?
HT to Mr. Reynolds
Tuesday, December 09, 2008
Merry Christmas!
Jonah Goldberg sums it up well:
I mean, for Christ's sake, it's Christmas. Can't we call a thing by its name? Hannukah is a minor holiday of a minority religion. New Year's Day is merely a day on the calendar. It's a holiday season because it's Christmas. I love Christmas. I don't celebrate it, but I love it; I love the season, the lights, the chestnuts, the message of peace. I love the way our most Jewish city, New York, looks on Christmas. "Holiday" isn't a holiday. It's a way of avoiding offense. But who, exactly, is offended? This is what I don't understand.
Go read the whole thing.
HT to Cold Fury.
Welcome to Obamamerica
Our future Dear Leader, the President Elect, Barack Hussein Obama, is a product of the Chicago democrat Political Machine. Remember that once he became leader of the democrat party, he moved DNC headquarters to Chicago, where members of the Chicago democrat party machine could more easily assert power.
Given that, let's look into Chicago democrat politics in action. The AP reports:
CHICAGO – Federal authorities arrested Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich Tuesday on charges that he brazenly conspired to sell or trade the U.S. Senate seat left vacant by President-elect Barack Obama to the highest bidder.
Blagojevich also was charged with illegally threatening to withhold state assistance to Tribune Co., the owner of the Chicago Tribune, in the sale of Wrigley Field, according to a federal criminal complaint. In return for state assistance, Blagojevich allegedly wanted members of the paper's editorial board who had been critical of him fired.
Wait! It gets better!
The affidavit said Blagojevich also discussed getting a substantial salary for himself at a nonprofit foundation or an organization affiliated with labor unions.
It said Blagojevich also talked about getting his wife placed on corporate boards where she might get $150,000 a year in director's fees.
He also allegedly discussed getting campaign funds for himself or possibly a post in the president's cabinet or an ambassadorship once he left the governor's office. He noted becoming a U.S. senator might remake his image for a possible presidential run in 2016, according to the affidavit. And he allegedly said a Senate seat would also provide him with corporate contacts if he needed a job and present an opportunity for his wife to work as a lobbyist.
Keep in mind, this is not an isolated incident of democrat corruption in Chicago.
Political fundraiser Antoin "Tony" Rezko who raised money for the campaigns of both Blagojevich and Obama is awaiting sentencing after being convicted of fraud and other charges. Blagojevich's chief fundraiser, Christopher G. Kelly, is due to stand trial early next year on charges of obstructing the Internal Revenue Service.
HT to Living in the Surreal World.
A Blog for All points out that MSNBC has carefully left Blagojevich's political party (he's a democrat) out of their reporting.
It's not surprising that democrat Gov. Blagojevich is the most unpopular governor in America.
Rep. Rangel's ethics
It seems that democrat Rep. Charles Rangel not only has problems obeying the tax laws he helps write, but his ethics are a bit shaky too.
Between 2004 and 2007, Rep. Charles Rangel steered nearly $80,000 in campaign cash to an Internet company run by his son — paying lavishly for a pair of political websites so poorly designed an expert estimated one should have cost no more than $100 to create.
The payments are apparently legal under federal law, but their disclosure raises new questions about the Ways and Means Committee chairman as he faces House ethics committee probes into his failure to pay taxes on rental income and his alleged use of House stationery to solicit contributions for a public policy center that bears his name.
About that Global Warming Thing..
It looks like its going to get very cold in Southern California.
"We know we are due for a winter storm sometime this year. The type we may be dealing with will be ranked up there with the known years before 1950, which set record low daytime temperatures into the forecast region. With this, may come low elevation snow."
Normally, I'd blame Canada for this type of weather, but this time it looks like the Russians.
Monday, December 08, 2008
In the good news department...
The good people of Louisiana have done what Nancy Pelosi didn't have the guts to do.
They threw democrat William "Cold Cash" Jefferson out of office.
Republican Anh "Joseph" Cao defeated democrat Jefferson in a recent election.
Remember that the FBI found $90,000, in cash, in Jefferson's freezer. This is after a an informant told the FBI that he had given Jefferson $100,000, in cash, as a bribe.
Cao, who emigrated to the United States in 1975 from Saigon, is the first Vietnamese-American to win a seat in Congress.
Louisiana is becoming a hotbed of diversity. Their Governor, Republican Bobby Jindal, is the only American of Indian (not American Indian) decent to hold a governor's seat.
Monday's Book Pick
Caliphate by Tom Kratman
A good adventure story and a cautionary tale as well. The basis for this alterante future history story is current birth rate trend in Europe and the current political policies of many European countries.
The Monday Book Pick archive.
Sunday, December 07, 2008
On this day in 1941 the Imperial Japanese Navy did something that was really stupid.
The Imperial government apparently failed their premise check before embarking on a war with the United States.
Friday, December 05, 2008
Silly quiz results
There Are 0 Gaps in Your Knowledge
Where you have gaps in your knowledge:<
No Gaps!
Where you don't have gaps in your knowledge:
Ahhh..the results of a state college education and being well read.
More Campaign promises falling by the wayside
Or to use the phrase from the campaign, "being thrown under the bus."
Jeff Dufour and Patrick Gavin write in the DC Examiner about the latest.
A group of former White House communications aides agreed on Monday that when the Obama administration is ushered in next month, it can't possibly live up to the standards of transparency and openness that the president-elect and his advisers have promised.
The article also notes that there is a dark side to not being able to live up to what everyone expects of you.
Nessen also identified a potential flip side for the incoming administration of what's widely regarded as the press's light treatment of Obama during the campaign. "There's going to be some self-examination among reporters about why they went so easy on him, and some will come out of the box wanting to prove their manhood – or womanhood."
New posts over at UrbinTechnology.com, Slices of Life Photo Blog and No Moss Here.
Plus, new photos posted at Urbin Photography.
Plus a 2009 Yosemite Calendar.
Friday's B-Movie Pick
Predator, the 1987 classic that started the franchise.
My friend Doug Berry pointed out an interesting political link to this action/SciFi flick, there are two future state governors in staring roles.
Arnold Schwarzenegger, current governor of California and former US Navy SEAL (and professional wrestler) Jesse Ventura, a former governor of Minnesota.
Friday B-Movie Archives
Tuesday, December 02, 2008
AP Rewriting History
AP is spinning like a top, and predictably to the left.
Slublog at AoSHQ points out that the AP is trying to rewrite history to make the Mortgage meltdown solely the fault of President G.W. Bush.
Slublog writes:
The article doesn't mention Barney Frank, Chris Dodd, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, or the Community Reinvestment Act. It blames the crisis on lack of government regulation and too much trust in "market forces." As Investor's Business Daily points out, it wasn't the Bush administration who opposed such regulation.In 2003, Bush's Treasury secretary, John Snow, proposed what the New York Times called "the most significant regulatory overhaul in the housing finance industry since the savings and loan crisis a decade ago." Did Democrats in Congress welcome it? Hardly.
"I do not think we are facing any kind of a crisis," declared Rep. Barney Frank, D-Mass., in a response typical of those who viewed Fannie and Freddie as a party patronage machine that the GOP was trying to dismantle. "If it ain't broke, don't fix it," added Sen. Thomas Carper, D-Del.
It seems the media is not content to simply cover for the Democrats for their role in causing this crisis - they've got to find a way to completely blame George W. Bush even if that means rewriting history.
In honor of the upcoming reign of Our Dear Leader, AP is giving up completely on Reality.
Monday, December 01, 2008
It's official...
...the staff at MSNBC are not living in the shared reality of rational, thinking adults. Newbusters has the latest bit of proof.
File this one under "Deluded Expectations." During MSNBC's coverage of the terrorist attacks in Mumbai, India, on Thursday, daytime anchor Alex Witt seemed frustrated that the election of Barack Obama 23 days earlier — and the accompanying "global outpouring of affection, respect, hope" — had not caused an end to terrorist violence.
HT to Hot Air.
Welcome to Reality Obamabots.
Another case of name that party.
AP reports that the mayor of Birmingham, AL was arrested on federal criminal charges.
He was accused in a Securities and Exchange Commission lawsuit of taking more than $156,000 from a friend whose firm made millions on risky bond transactions with the county for a new sewer system.
The SEC accused Langford of taking the undisclosed payments and benefits from Montgomery investment banker Bill Blount, whose firm collected more than $6.7 million in fees on county bond transactions. The money was allegedly routed through Al LaPierre, a lobbyist who is a friend of Langford.
What AP will not report is Langford's political affiliation.
He is, of course, a democrat.
Monday's Book Pick
The Atrocity Archives by Charles Stross
It takes skill, talent and touch of madness to mix Lovecraftian horror, light comedy and the soul sucking job of IT support. Charles Stross must have all three, since he pulls it off.
Monday Book Pick Archive.


text:
Welcome to
the Framework Blog sharing news, updates and stories from our work
Recent Posts
Blog Topics
Tag Archives: Catherine Drea
International Women's Day
On March 8th, 1986, myself (Catherine Drea) and Glynis Currie organised the first celebration of International Women's Day in Waterford. My 8 week old baby, now 29, slept for most of it, but was there to be fed if necessary! Over 150 women … Continue reading
Posted in Community Building, Inspiration, Leadership Tagged Catherine Drea, Waterford, Women's Day Leave a comment
Best practice in the middle of a storm
Many of us in the voluntary sector have found ourselves in the middle of a storm for the last few years. For the first time since community projects began to develop and grow there has been a steady series of cutbacks and … Continue reading
Posted in Community Building, Inspiration, Leadership Tagged Best practice, Catherine Drea, community, Inspiration 2 Comments


text:
Social Anthropology
Social Anthropology is a constantly evolving, well-established discipline that asks the fundamental question of what it is to be human. It seeks to answer this by examining the diverse ways in which human beings establish and live social lives in the contemporary world.
Anthropology at St Andrews deals with a full variety of human contexts. It has particular strengths in the study of societies of East and West Africa, the Pacific, South America, the Caribbean, Europe and Central Asia. The Department combines interpretative, experiential, philosophical and historical research that is politically engaged, reflexive and critically aware.


text:
This weekend could be the most defining weekend of the season in Welsh Premier with two games in particular likely to have an impact on how the final league table will look at the end of April.
The Welsh Premier, being the Welsh Premier however, means that nothing is absolutely straightforward and the headline game of the weekend between second-placed Bala Town and leader's TNS is believed to be in doubt – so much so that Sgorio have already shifted their live television coverage 35 miles up the road to Broughton for Airbus' clash with Connah's Quay.
Bala Town vs. TNS is undoubtedly the game of the weekend, make no mistake – should the Maes Tegid pitch survive expected heavy rain and although Bala have never beaten the Saints in the WPL, a win for the Lakesiders would see them cut TNS's lead at the top of the table to just three points. A win for TNS however would put them nine points clear with seven games to go – and that would be good enough, in my view, for them to seal a fifth WPL title in a row.
Bala face quite a task if they are to force open the doors for a title race,q especially when considering how TNS disposed of Newtown last weekend.
Greg Draper is the man of the moment for Craig Harrison's side. So often biding his time on the bench whilst Michael Wilde leads the line, the New Zealander has grabbed his latest opportunity of a run in the side firmly, scoring five goals in their last two games! With Wilde also on the scoresheet in last Saturday's emphatic win, Craig Harrison will be pondering how to accommodate his two centre-forwards, but surely Draper must be given a start?
At the bottom of the table, all eyes will be on Rhyl and their newly appointed 24-year-old manager Niall McGuiness (and his dad!) who takes charge for the first time in a crucial match down in South Wales against Port Talbot.
Rhyl are in real trouble and the decision to replace Gareth Owen seems to be a last throw of the dice by the Belle Vue club as they face the side immediately above them in the table.
The appointment of McGuiness just seems a huge gamble and I just can't see how someone, despite his coaching credentials, has enough experience to pull a senior group of first-team players out of the mire in which they find themselves in.
That said, Port Talbot are far from best themselves as they linger nervously above the drop zone, five points ahead of Rhyl. A winning start for McGuiness would cut that gap to just two points and confirm that Port Talbot are indeed in relegation scrap.
Alternatively, a win for the Steelmen would help them breath considerably easier but they must improve from last week's miserable defeat to Carmarthen Town.
Against the Old Gold, Port Talbot really struggled to make any mark on the game and Andy Dyer was quite right to be disappointed with his side. The arrival of burly veteran centre-back Dave Artell was the only positive that I can think of that night. He'll bring leadership and organisation to a side which looked lost against Carmarthen and if Artell can drag the side through the next eight games, it'll be job well done.


text:
You've made the decision and are joining the ranks of people running their own businesses with dreams of leaving the 9-to-5 behind. You have a great idea, know you want to make money and need to start finding customers and selling them your stuff. So what do you do next?
For me, that was the hardest question to get my head around.
In my day job I have many years of experience and would class myself as an expert in what I do, however, as a new business owner I feel like I am very much at the other end of the learning curve. I love to learn and have made good use of some great tips and tricks I found in books, blogs and Facebook groups but am also conscious of the risk of "information overload" if I spend too much time on Google. There is so much information out there on every conceivable topic which could easily lead to me spending precious time learning about loads of things that I can't immediately apply (it may be a bit 'advanced' for where I am at the moment) and then spinning on the spot doing nothing with what I have learned. If this sounds like you too, then hopefully the following basic things that have worked for me so far will help you move forward – without the overwhelm!
Having been an employee for the last 18 years, there was loads of business knowledge locked up in my head already – the trick was working out what I could reuse for my own business and actually make a start rather than just continually planning (aka procrastinating!) and making no progress.
What was most useful for me at the very beginning of my journey was:
1) Getting myself a business email.
At work my email addresses have always been firstname.lastname@example.com so for minimal cost from Gmail/Gsuite I got myself a new email address just for my business. This keeps things separate from my personal stuff which stops me getting distracted when responding to my business emails, and looks professional which helps me build trust with clients. It also weirdly made having a business real for me – something tangible to prove it existed when I was getting off the ground.
2) Setting work hours.
A big selling point of working for yourself is that you can choose when you work right? Flexibility is great but you need to treat it as you would office flexitime – set yourself some core hours and make them non-negotiable. Even if you commit to just 1 hour a night and 2 on a Saturday & Sunday afternoon you will be surprised how much that will move your business forward. You can then choose to add more or less hours in each week depending on your schedule.
3) Turn up each day.
If you had a heavy night out and didn't turn up for work the next day there would be trouble. The same is true of not turning up for your own business. You may not think it matters as it is just you working on it so what harm can taking a few unplanned days of here and there actually do. Loads. Your employer wouldn't survive long if staff failed to turn up and put the work in and neither will your business. Employ yourself in your business, work it like a second job and hold yourself accountable to turn up and work.
4) Planning your work tasks.
In your day job I am guessing you don't arrive at your workplace each day and then sit there thinking up something to spend your time on? You have a list of things you need to do so you will have developed a routine to get them all done in the time available. Do the same thing for your business. Look at the work hours you have set and plan what each one is for – this could be a mixture of writing content, delivering your thing, making new contacts – whatever is right for your business. Make your plan of daily, weekly and monthly tasks and get them done.
5) Identify YOUR customers.
Your employer will operate in a niche market – doesn't matter if this niche is plumbing services in a particular town, B2B consulting, people going on holidays – it is still a niche. You need to find your niche rather than treating everyone with a pulse as a potential customer. Who does your particular business speak to? Who would be your ideal customer? What benefit would they get from buying your thing and working with you? Get clear on this and it makes things a whole lot easier. For example, writing a successful email pitch or blog article aimed at all people everywhere of all ages about getting in shape is a lot harder than writing for a 40 year old woman with 2 kids who wants to get fit for a beach holiday in 3 months.
6) Get you/your thing/something out there!
Are you that person who has already decided on their full palette of brand colours, had business cards made, has bought all the stationery and has a beautifully arranged home office but not actually done anything else with your business yet? Still waiting for the timing to be right or the stars to align or to fit in around other things you have going on (I will definitely start on Monday!), or for things to be perfect? Colour coordinated paperclips does not a business make.
Again taking a look at your day job, you will see that it revolves around selling goods or services to make money. The truth is that you also need to have something to sell to your niche market or you are just going to hone your skills in the art of getting ready. You need to make something! Create a course, a plan, a blog you can share and get it out there. Once you make a start it gets easier. Think of it like getting into a chilled pool on a hot day – you can inch your way deeper and dislike the cold water creeping over your skin or you can just plunge in and soon find the water is warmer than you thought.
Take some time to go through the above steps and also think about what you can reuse from your own past experience to help you in the next step of your journey.


text:
BZ70: UNAVAILABLE! 2.11 Acres Prime Property with a Warehouse and Work Shed, Faber's Road, Belize Cit
Call for Price
- Lot Size: 2.11 Ac.
2,147 total views, 1 views today
FeaturesElectricityPotable Water
Tweet this page Share on StumbleUpon Share on Reddit Share on Digg Share on Delicious Share in Facebook Get listings with RSS Print
Related Listings
Contact Us or Request a visit
Please call 501-621-4754 or you can fill out the form below and we'll get back to you shortly.[contact-form-7 id=23


text:
Trumpeter Salute Tabletop Games Convention (47TH Annual)
April 17-18-19, 2020
Trumpeter Salute 2018: Convention Photos
Canada's largest and oldest annual miniatures gaming convention & the second-largest in the Northwest. The Trumpeter Salute Tabletop Games Convention features:
• Historical, Science Fiction & Fantasy Miniatures Gaming
• Large All Quiet on the Martian Front Game (Demo Games: Saturday; Campaign Game: Sunday)
(Martian Front contact: email@example.com)
• Tournament: Flames of War
(Flames of War contact: email@example.com)
• Tournament: Warhammer 40K
(Warhammer 40k contact: email@example.com)
• Board Games
• Hobby Vendors & "Swap and Shop" tables
• Numerous Prize Draws
• Price: Attend ALL 3-Days: $30 / Friday: $10 / Saturday: $20 / Sunday: $10
• Visitors (a non-playing convention observer): $0 (see below)
Dates: APRIL 17-18-19th, 2020
Hours: Friday 7pm-11pm; Saturday (3 sessions) 9am-11pm; "Big Game" Sunday 10am-4pm
Where: Bonsor Recreation Complex, Bonsor Avenue, Burnaby BC (near the Metrotown SkyTrain Station on the 2nd floor)
Admission: $30 Full Weekend
$10 Friday
$20 Saturday
$10 Sunday
Tickets: Admission is sold at door and online (click Red Button). Trumpeter society members who purchased the "Full Meal Deal" package are pre-paid for Trumpeter Salute entry.
Trumpeter Salute 2020 Registration
For Game Hosting & General Admission
Remember: If you are planning to present games at Tumpeter Salute 2020, register early -- this will ensure that you will get the time slot and table size you need for your game(s).
TRumpeter Salute 2019: Games List (PEL)
Click above button to download PDF File
Special Events
TRumpeter Salute Floor Plans/Table Numbers
Trumpeter Salute Main Gaming Room Floor Plan: During Trumpeter Salute two gaming rooms: the Banquet Room and the Arts Room. Both are on the second floor across the main hall from each.
VISITORS/OBSERVERS at Trumpeter Salute
If you want to just observe Trumpeter Salute, not play in any of the games, you are called a VISITOR and the rate to attend Trumpeter Salute 2020 for a visitor is $0, Free. Visitors are given a pin-on-badge that says, VISITOR. You may not participate in games while wearing a visitor's badge nor may you participate in games without wearing a badge. Badges, other than the visitor's badge, are proof you have paid to attend our tabletop games convention.
Visitors are free to walk around and observe the games and ask questions.
Visitors are free to walk around and observe the games and ask questions.
Big Game Sunday at Trumpeter Salute
The 10am-4pm time slot on Sunday offers the longest gaming period at Trumpeter Salute. If you want to present a special, or a large game, take advantage of this 6-hour time slot.
PRIZE DRAWs!
Prize draws are conducted once during each time slot throughout the convention. Participants and game presenters are each given a raffle ticket, and in the case of game presenters, are given a participation ticket and a presenters raffle ticket. Raffle prizes comprise game items such as miniatures, game books and magazines, paints, dice, etc., to Gift Certificates for Imperial Hobbies.
Trumpeter Salute Vendors List 2019
Vendors attending Trumpeter Salute 2018
• Imperial Hobbies
• Pulp Figures
• Rain City Hobbies
• Alex Balmer
• Barry Kemp
Bring & Buy Info and Form Download
Parking and Early Game Setup
Trumpeter Society Food Services
Trumpeter Salute features a staffed canteen for the duration of the convention. Food services, during the convention, features hotdogs, smokie dogs, muffins, drinks, fruit, and snacks, at reasonable prices.
• Pizza: is $2.50 per slice, with dips, and is available at 5:00pm onward, while supplies last, on Saturday. This is a favourite Trumpeter Salute tradition.
• Samosas: Served hot, while supplies last, starting Saturday Noon.
• Smokie Hotdogs: These are a Salute favourite and are served throughout the convention.
• Muffins: Various types, while supplies last.
Canteen prices are based on current market prices and therefore can change. For information and prices at the Trumpeter Canteen during Trumpeter Salute: Click Here
For local food alternatives, go to: Local Food Services
Do you have suggestions for food you would like to see at the Trumpeter concession/cantina? Talk with concession/cantina staff (Archie or Bruce), or send a suggestion to: GamesMaster
Nearby Hotel Accommodation
Hilton Vancouver Metrotown (Burnaby)
Address: 6083 McKay Ave, Burnaby, BC V5H 2W7
Phone: (604) 438-1200
Holiday Inn Express Vancouver - Metrotown (Burnaby)
Address: 4405 Central Blvd, Burnaby, BC V5H 4M3
Phone: (604) 438-1881
Trumpeter Salute Convention
Trumpeter Salute has been hosted in the Vancouver area since 1973, and sees over 275 individual visitors, game hosts, and game players attending each year with over 100 tabletop games being presented. For more photos of Trumpeter Society events go to the Games Gallery
A ticket from Stratacon One Wargamer's Convention 1980 at Kerrisdale Community Centre. Imagine paying only $2.50 CND to attend a 3-Day convention today.
Stratacon is what the Trumpeters called their conventions from 1980 to around 1986. Then the name was changed to Salute, and then a few years later, it was renamed Trumpeter Salute.
The Trumpeter Society graphics department has also improved since 1980.
Website questions? Contact: Web Director
Trumpeter Society questions/suggestions? Contact: GamesMaster


text: "Best Aquarium" -Yankee Magazine. Discover 70 live species, over 100 interactive experiences, seasonal changing exhibits and events, and the Ecology, Culture, History, and Opportunity for steardship of the Lake Champlain Basin. The 2.2 acre Leahy Center environmental campus also features the Lake Champlain Basin Program Resource Room, Lake Champlain Navy... (Read more)


text:
Candy Eatmon
Vicksburg High Vicksburg, MS Class of 1993
Memories of Candy Eatmon
Are you Candy Eatmon?
This page means someone is someone is looking for you. Register for free to let other alumni contact you and more:
- Let others find you
- Contact old friends
- Share photos and memories with other registered alumni
Looking for Candy Eatmon?
This is a placeholder page for Candy Eatmon, which means this person is not currently on this site. We do suggest using the tools below to find Candy Eatmon.
About placeholder profiles
You are visiting the placeholder page for Candy Eatmon. This page is here because someone used our placeholder utility to look for Candy Eatmon. We created this page automatically in hopes Candy Eatmon would find it. If you are not Candy Eatmon, but are an alumni of Vicksburg High School Vicksburg, MS, register on this site for free now.


text:
Let me introduce you to Tim Hankins. A designer, born in Iowa, raised in Northern California and currently based in Los Angeles, Tim Hankins pursued design to explore his creative interests: art, music, film, games and technology. I got to know him through the magical world of social media and the exciting journey of a company named The Honest Company. One of the things that distinguishes Honest from other companies is the design of their products. During his time at The Honest Company he led the a talented team of designers in charge of all print, product packaging design, branding, web design, mobile design, marketing, retail and photography. He also art directed a number of photo and video shoots. Tim is a multidisciplinary designer of both physical and digital products. He believes in design that engages through emotion – can it make you smile, make you cry, make you cheer, make you think?
I was very eager to ask Tim some question about his passion and Tim was happy to answer some of my questions.
I am a maker of things – beautiful things.
Could you tell us a bit more about your career so far?
TH: My design career started in college while I was at Pepperdine University. I didn't attend art school. Everything I know as a designer I either learned on my own on the job or from my mentors. I learned how to code in school and built a few fan websites for musicians I was following at the time. One band happened to like what I created and asked me to design the website for their second album. From there I connected with their manager and he got me my first job out of college at ARTISTdirect as a web designer. After being laid off, I was fortunate enough to go on to create a successful freelance business where I worked with an eclectic clientele: musicians, photographers, consumer goods, models, startups and cultural institutions, among many others.
After the birth of my son, I decided to look for a in-house job somewhere so I didn't have to do the freelance hustle anymore. I came across the job posting at The Honest Company while I was working at an agency in Hollywood. There wasn't much information about the company at that time other than a short comment from Jessica Alba in a People.com article saying that she was starting a company.
I got to know you as the one in charge of The Honest Company designing team. Is there anything you can share about that experience?
TH: After learning more about what Honest was doing as business – creating environmentally-friendly products for your house and family – I was drawn to the role to have a chance to design for a mission-driven company. Having a little one at home definitely had an impact on the decision as well. I started working at Honest in October of 2011. The first thing I ever designed for the company was the skull pattern for the diapers. We had to figure out if we wanted it to be "edgy" or "cute" so I tried to find somewhere in the middle with the illustration. The funny thing about that pattern is that people either love or hate it – there's apparently no middle ground.
What does designing mean to you? How would you describe it?
TH: It might sound like a cliché, but designing and creating is like breathing for me. It's an extension of who I am as a person. I get antsy and uncomfortable if I haven't created anything over the course of a few days. I'm constantly writing little notes to myself about future ideas, and I try to get to them in between my day to day projects. Vacations can sometimes be tough because I don't have a computer with me so luckily I always have my camera to fill that creative void – ha.
What is your design philosophy?
TH: My design philosophy usually comes down to one thing – simplicity. Try to get the point across in the simplest way. Keep taking away elements from the design until only the core message remains. If your words or elements have no substance, they have no business being there to begin with.
I believe that the design on the inside of the box is just as important as what's on the outside of the box.
Favorite design so far?
TH: I always hesitate to pick a favorite a design. I like to say that I hope that I haven't created my favorite piece of work yet. I always find myself proud of the last thing I did, but I try to tell myself that I still haven't created the project I'll be "remembered" for. I want to continue to strive to get better and grow as a designer so if I haven't created my best project yet that means I still have time to go out and create it for the next one.
How has designing changed over the years? What are your hopes for the future?
TH: Design has definitely become more accessible since I started. The fact that there's now a version of Photoshop on a phone is crazy! If only I had that sort of access to tools earlier in my career, who knows what I could have done. I'll be curious to see what sort of impact technology has on the industry moving forward.
Besides designing you are also a photographer. How important is photography in your life? (Personal and work)
TH: Photography has become a constant in my life since learning how to properly use a DSLR a few years back. I like the way that a camera has forced me to look at things from a different perspective. It's always helpful to take a step back and really look at what it is you're working on – whether that's composing a photograph, designing a page layout or anything else creative. I always carry my FujiFilm camera with wherever I go to try to capture the little moments happening around me at the time.
Your mantra?
TH: "Keep trying. Without trying, there is no failure. Without failure, there is no learning."
I believe in finishing what I started.
I asked Tim one more question; 'What have you learned over the years?'. Because I liked his answer so much, I will be sharing that in a separate blog post tomorrow. So definitely check that one out tomorrow.
Do give Tim a follow on his social media channels – Twitter – Instagram – Facebook – Website. He started a cool personal project on Instagram this year. He asked himself 'how many different ways can I design a sun?' So he set out to create a new graphic treatment of a sun every weekend. He was inspired after discovering Tad Carpenter's beautiful project, but wanted to set a boundary for himself; He has to use the same color scheme for every design. It's great to see how the styles of the sun has progressed. Definitely amazing to see!
Thank you Tim for this interview! Looking forward to see more of your work!
Credit pictures: Tim Hankins!


text:
by kjamieson | Feb 21, 2018 | Uncategorized | 1 comment
1 Comment
Parvaneh Limbert on May 21, 2018 at 2:02 pm
In my work,I paint both landscapes and abstracts in Oil, Acrylic, and waterColor. My main source of inspiration is the rich traditions of Persian art. I have also drawn many themes from travels. Including visits to Italy, France, Turkey, and Croatia.Reply