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Archive for the 'Travel for Business' Category
Buy Comfortable Travel Clothes For Women Online
If you are planning a holiday vacation, whether in summer or winter, choosing the appropriate travel clothes for the trip can save you from headaches, frustration and money. Most of the times, we pack far more clothes than we wear or need, yet never seem to have the correct clothing. It doesn't matters whether it is a short or a long trip, everyone needs to be in their most comfortable attire and have a relaxed journey. There are few points that have to be considered before choosing on the travel clothes. It totally depends on the location and the prevailing weather condition where one is likely to visit.
If it is dry and hot, it has to be light clothing or if it is cold, then one would need to be ready with heavy woolen clothes. Normally, men do not face any problem in finding a comfortable travel clothes women do. To make your task easy, there are a lot of online web portals that offer very comfortable travel clothes for women.
Travel vest/jacket could be the best option for a comfortable and relaxed journey. Owing to it's, numerous pockets, comfortable fitting, and great looks, this range of vet is widely popular among the travelers. Also, it comes with a vented back, adjustable waist cinches, mesh lining, and high-security pockets on both the outside and the inside for safety of cash & cards. While traveling will definitely need one all-purpose outer garment and this is it. It can carry your tour guide books and maps, your passport, your documents, and your sunglasses. The pockets in the jacket are spacious enough for camera equipment and water bottles. All these above factors make this lightweight travel vest [http://www.bestvests.com/convertible-safari-jacket] the most useful clothe for both men and women. This beautiful vest is prepared using soft, stonewashed cotton, in grey-sage khaki color which gives you a proper look of traveler.
This range of jacket is available in various sizes and colors to choose from. Kids, adults and old ones, everybody can wear this jacket while traveling to keep their important things safe and handy. You can easily find this jacket online in different shades also. You just have to choose the best one for yourself that suits your requirements. One can also compare the prices and quality of the jacket on various different web portals to choose the best one. You can also order this jacket online by using your credit card or debit card and the consignment will be delivered to your door step in just a couple of days.
Businessmen's Full Essentials to Locating the Cheapest Deal With Budget Travel Packages
The Hannaford Suites Cincinnati is located in downtown Cincinnati right beside the Kenwood Mall and at the business district yet is often a charming combination of classic charisma and modern placing.
Businessmen who are staying for a long time prefer to stay within this luxury hotel. It boasts of seventy nine rooms including suites that can come complete with amenities similar to high speed internet, ironing features, a kitchen with icebox, microwave and dinnerware. Guests are able to enjoy complimentary breakfast that also includes waffles and made for you to order omelets. The hotel has a concierge to help you out including grocery shopping along with dining reservations. Hannaford Suites offers businessmen which has a fully equipped business centre, an executive board place with comfy chairs along with audio visual equipment, meeting rooms for possibly 50 guests and appreciation high speed internet. Fitness buffs can use the 24 hour fitness features too. The Hanford Suites is often a pleasing combination of hot ambiance and personalized assistance, two very important concerns for travelers.
Healing vacation deals from Cincinnati Spas
Vacationers want combining stressful tiring sightseeing plus the rejuvenation of their burdened mind, body and heart at healing spas. But aside from the rejuvenation, they want the healing that relaxing and also a healing spa can allow them to have. Spa lovers staying with the famous Cincinnati Hotels who are trying to find a serene spa don't need to look far as there are lots of hotels that have their unique in-house spas. Some hotels in Cincinnati which may have their own spa, whirlpool, Jacuzzi, indoor pool and sauna for the application of their guests are your Westin Cincinnati, Hyatt Regency Cincinnati, Garfield Bedrooms Hotel and Sheraton Cincinnati Upper, among the many. But there exists one hotel which is Mason, northern Cincinnati that may be famous for its re-energizing spa. The hotel carries a full service health spa which has a spa tub, massage along with treatment rooms. In the midst of all the so-called stress of traveling along with sightseeing, it would be a good treat to relax and rejuvenate with the Cincinnati hotel spas.
Cincinnati Hotels to the Budget Travelers
There are lots of choices for best hotel in cincinnati. For those with a budget, there are two star hotels including La Quinta Inn & Bedrooms Cincinnati Northeast, Howard Manley Inn Cincinnati North, Baymont Hotel & Suites Cincinnati, Convenience Inn Northeast, Red Ceiling Inn Cincinnati, and Quality Lodge & Suites Central along with Quality Inn Cincinnati In town. Holiday Inn Cincinnati Air port and Wingate by Wyndham – Cincinnati Blue Ash are two of those unfortunate three star hotels which may have bigger rooms and more amenities than two legend hotels. Surprisingly, there are four legend hotels that have rates just the two or about three star ones but which has a lavish dose of luxury much like the Westin Cincinnati. If anyone research and book first, you will not only be tied to the low cost hotels to avoid wasting, you can also maybe find better deals in hotels with better services.
Accommodations at the Embassy Bedrooms Cincinnati – Northeast (Blue Ash)
Cincinnati, your Queen City, attracts a lot of business and pleasure people alike. One of your city's preferred hotel, the Embassy Suites Cincinnati – Northeast is often a full service hotel in the Hilton group and is located in Blue Ash. There are several community sites that are quite near to the hotel like the Cincinnati Zoo along with Botanical Garden, Cincinnati Red's Wonderful American Ball Park, King's island Amusement park plus the Krohn Conservatory. The hotel has 233 guestrooms using each guest room developing a separate living room and also a private bedroom. Each room provides you with 2 cable televisions, icebox, microwave, coffeemaker, working kitchen table, two telephones with files port
and high speed access to the internet. The Embassy Suites present business guests with option of corporate headquarters of Bundle 500 corporations like Coca Soda-pop. Other amenities are a new 24-hour business center, 24-hour gymnasium, swimming pool and spa, conference rooms, ballroom along with exhibit space. Complimentary breakfast is served and you'll find other optional in-house eateries. You can never get it wrong when you choose a Hilton hotel much like the Embassy Suites Cincinnati – Northeast.
Business Travel Tips For The Avid Business Traveler
Companies everywhere are discovering they have to travel more if they would like to meet new clients and also to capture new causes of business; the web has ensured that even tiny companies may have a client base which is truly global! However, those who have spent a lot of their time traveling for his or her business will explain exactly how tiring it may be. There are certain things that you can do to lessen the quantity of stress and fatigue that develops plus some interesting business travel tips and knowledge which is supplied in this post.
Sometimes for example, baggage goes missing; which is an unfortunate fact of travel and whilst it really is distressing enough on the family holiday, on the business travel it may be disastrous. A simple remedy to this particular would be to pack whenever possible which you absolutely should have for you personally meeting, within your hand luggage.
Which means that even when your primary luggage is lost your vacation lacks to become wasted; your meeting can continue to occur despite any inconvenience which has been caused. So far as your primary luggage is involved, make sure you simply pack just enough for your trip which is among the most useful business travel tip to remember.
If you just take enough business clothes for your trip and after that all of that remains is a few casual wear for your evenings, just two pairs of trainers, one casual, and one pair ought to be enough. All of that remains once this is achieved would be to incorporate your toiletries as well as other business documentation which may be of usage.
A method to save space and perhaps have a smaller bag plus reduce any creases would be to roll clothing up that takes up less room along with a business travel tip really worth noting. To visit one step further, if you want to make sure that even when food or drink are spilled on your own clothes you won't need them laundered; use dark colors that are also handy because creases don't show just as much.
If you are delayed at all then knowing you are able to renew before the meeting without resorting to a shower could be a lifesaver, this is when those travel wipes are available in very helpful. If you only plan to be away for a few days, an ordinary charge for any mobile phone as well as other electronic equipment might be enough however, if the trip is longer you may have to take chargers along with you.
Many business travelers are now using the traveling time for you to do just as much work as is possible which in turn allows them some personal time for you to themselves after work which reduces stress. Just plan in advance for the business travel by using this guide and you will definitely maintain a job where whatever happens it does not affect your vacation and after you have carried this out often enough it can all become second nature for you.
Business travel lacks to become all work and using the business travel tips shown here, there must be time for rest and relaxation too.
Business Travel Insurance
In case you are considering company journey insurance remember to always look into one's options. There are many different varieties of journey cover so be sure you confer with your agent regarding of which. Probably the most typical types of journey insurance is going to have a good cancellation policy. If for some rationale your vacation is slowed down having an insurance coverage which has a prolong hide option will make sure you receive a reimbursement. Once searching for your travel protection settle with the policy that gives health and disaster protection. Essential ways to keep in mind when purchasing a coverage is to always have your lost or impacted items covered.
The beauty of company journey insurance may individual can purchase it or possibly a company can purchase it. Many businesses are choosing to obtain the coverage for many within their personnel that travel. This can be a pretty economical thanks to purchase the protection as many companies will perform bulk purchase discounts. This really is a very right action for businesses that in fact swarm a number of conferences, meetings, group constructing activities, training programs, product features, and the like. Many corporations provide corporate hospitality outings and the like, or even on the enjoyable escapes personnel ought to be sheltered and company journey insurance is a good method of getting that in fact safety.
Often annual company touring insurance is purchased as that may well be cost-efficient and use boss moment in time. Rather than covering each worker on just one trip foundation it is considerably more inexpensive to think about yearly business multi-trip coverage hide. By setting once a year company hide (multi-trip) available a company spares the time you need to negotiate the terms and stipulations while single trip insurance is prepared and likewise saves in overall premiums as the cost for your multi-trip coverage will result in a lower typical price per journey compared with a lot of unmarried journey insurance guidelines. Yearly multi-trip journey coverage offers for unreal travel in an extended period as long as each journey does not exceed a small amount of days.
Another reason to obtain the maximum protection for health situations is that you could have numerous health concerns and health problems inside your employees. Perhaps you have older individuals who definitely are at risk of heart attack, or if you already have you experience an asthmatic or medically dependant worker who likely will drop their own medication or experience severe health and wellbeing hassle whereas overseas. You would like to make sure that your company is conditioned for the bulk case scenario It is a well known fact that health care, hospitalisation and health evacuation in overseas nations might possibly be extremely expensive.
Never even consider to get a single second, becoming a member of the file of folks that thought it logical to assume that in fact business travel insurance ended up being just another method of saying travel coverage. Many seem to have been realized like this along with the reason why company travel coverage exists is really because it is the custom-made insurance that you might want in case you are using company business. That in fact go well with isn't making you infallible, right?
You bought that in fact? It really is simply as much likely that you will have a physical injury at the business journey when you can on any other structure of trip. A great deal of company journeys are transcontinental and also the Americans have got some true pricing issues when you are looking at medication. Try? 25, 000 for only a broken leg being fixed: and that's lacking the crutches! If you don't have business travel coverage then you might be footing the invoice for that broken beginning.
Budget travel with a cheap car hire in UK
Europe is extremely famous for its tourist destinations as well as its corporate locations. This sees a number of people from all across the globe pouring into various parts of Europe for travel. Most people prefer road travel and driving themselves, this makes the cheap car hire in UK a very popular option. Cheap car hire in UK can be found right from outside the airport as in the case of Ipswich airport or even inside towns and popular destinations.
Car hire can actually prove to be a good budget choice requires good planning and prudent choices. The first would be the car rental, there are big names that might be more expensive but are definitely safe and have a good range of choice. There are also the local operators who provide a cheap car hire in UK as they are much cheaper. The choice of cars is also an important decision to make, the variety of cars range from economy to luxury cars and even SUVs. Economy cars are a great way to save money, in fact you can also choose a car based on the fuel type, diesel is a more cost-effective option. In fact also try filling fuel on the city outskirts as this helps saves on costs.
While hiring a cheap car hire in UK ensure the daily rental includes all additional costs such as location fees and taxes. Ensure the car is good working condition and there is no physical damage to the car. Ensure the car comes with all necessary documents such as insurance also. Most cheap car hires in UK offer many deals, packages, special offers and discounts based on the season of travel, number of days for travel etc. This proves to be a great way to save money.
There are other ways to manage a cheap car hire in UK by ensuring that you do not drop off the car in another country as this increases expenses. Also stay out of trouble such as accidents. Choose a car hire with good service as this comes handy for repairs. Most of these cheap car hires charge on a day to day basis and require no prior deposit. Moreover there are no mileage restrictions as well. Booking these cheap car hires in UK means booking in advance, ensure you do your homework comparing services and rates to avail the best possible deal and book in advance to save money..
Journey Agent Boston
In the actual starting, revenue expertise might seem complex, but there are numerous of easy approaches as well as acronyms that may aid anyone produce their own selling power to an professional level.
Farrenheit. A. W.
1 approach that's typically utilized when advertising a vacation package may be the 'F. The. B. a approach, which means Capabilities, Points of interest, and Strengths. In journey agent professions, an broker will usually be advertising locations as well as experiences instead of any bodily item, which could make this method flawlessly customized to providing info regarding a region. Conveying the actual 'features' initial may well consist of the tiny concerning the country or even distinct region 'attractions' can adhere to, describing those activities or encounters available you, foremost the salesperson in to describing the actual 'benefits' from the complete package for their customers.
Utes. E. M. L.
1 means of product product sales which lots of travel broker jobs will take advantage of, and which attributes much more interaction using the client, may be the 'S. At the. L. M. ' method. The actions from the acronym involve 'showing features', which involves conveying the person attributes of the getaway bundle or schedule 'explaining the actual advantages' from the person abilities that may actually catch the actual client's concentrate adopted through 'leading in to benefits', involving explaining the rewards from the advantages. This may be the attribute from the holiday getaway alone, Travel Broker Massachusetts or perhaps a reward associated with booking it together with your company within specific. The shutting stage would be to 'let all of them talk'. This course of action allows the client to discuss the benefits, with the end result that when the earlier actions happen to be done successfully, the client will frequently talk by themselves into the actual sale.
M. A. We. R.
There might be objections whenever it occurs to advertising products, however the 'L. The. I. Ur. ' method is really a fast strategy for assisting sales people prevail during these objections as well as problems, and may be especially beneficial within travel broker careers. The acronym means Pay interest, Acknowledge, Find the objection, after which Reverse the actual objection. Employing this tactic can generally negate any kind of troubles that appear during another two procedures.
Offering knowledge are intrinsically vital that you protected trip agent work, but having a few varied methods, inexperience doesn't need to be a barrier to some candidate's outcomes.
For people trying to find journey broker careers, it may be useful to possess not just a general summary of the topic, but also an archive of particular expertise required to safe a location in this particular competitive marketplace. While there are many routes to turning out to be a expert journey broker, these types of as a good internship or by way of a university course, the capabilities required within the day-to-day operation from the task continue being the identical and tend to be relevant throughout a extensive variety of positions. The company is a large one specific: in 08, travel brokers held 105, three hundred employment, along with 76% associated with agents working for trip arrangements as well as reservation options, and sixty% carrying out work for trip agencies. We cannot blame them because of the fact they're just human, but it may be challenging upon our cease nonetheless.
2nd, is the web. Web booking is very common today because of the fact it is usually more quickly and less expensive than booking having a travel broker – absolutely no travel time for you to the trip agency's organization, and absolutely no further costs for support costs.
Journey Advice for novices
Traveling is this type of fun as well as enriching encounter. A well-known quote states, "Travel is the one thing you buy which makes you more potent. " As well as yes, certainly, it comes with a particular invaluable factor to a person's well-being, understanding, and knowledge of the globe. Exploring another location, culture, and lifestyle is a great way to enjoy existence. While individuals have various ideas on which entails a great travel encounter, one point stands exactly the same – everyone wants a great time as well as hoping to achieve great reminiscences.
Traveling throughout continents is actually exciting for most people. However, not every travel plans come out fun as well as enjoyable. Planning additionally takes work and proper knowledge of travel instructions, tips, and items to avoid. Money can also be another choice to consider whenever traveling. You'll need enough to pay for your lodging, food, as well as travel costs. One of why people tend to be hesitant to visit is time, effort, and money necessary to plan a visit. Even the easy finding associated with cheap plane tickets and searching a great hotel in order to book are thought a troublesome task with regard to others. Booking via travel agents can help ease the procedure at one more cost, obviously. Finding the best online journey sources as well as free reserving assistance is going to be beneficial for you as nicely. With a little bit of effort as well as time, everything is going to be well worthwhile once you are in an excellent and amazing place, having the very best on the planet.
Having the best travel things and accessories can make traveling simpler and much less troublesome. For instance, knowing the guidelines and guidelines from the airline as well as country you're visiting will slow up the problems in the airport on the way. Making sure you've everything resolved and prepped provides you with more time for you to enjoy as well as less time for you to worry. You can examine out Jetsettr.com.au for more info on the right travel bags and gears.
Would you like packaging and unpacking? Many people enjoy the duty while others think it is challenging. The reason why? Because you need to make sure you aren't going within the baggage restrict. Traveling light may be the really easiest way to journey. Finding the best luggage, totes, carry-on baggage, and possibly, some very helpful travel packages or organizers is going to be helpful. You'll have to secure your own belongings correctly and realize airline guidelines and guidelines every single child know those are allowed and never allowed to create with a person onboard. Knowing the best dimensions as well as weight of the carry-on back pack or luggage can help you minimize any issues with baggage. Check airline rules for research before packaging and looking at in in the airport.
Traveling isn't limited towards the process associated with departing and coming to your location. Going close to and going to places continues to be part of the travel which also involves certain duties. It may seem like a boring method to enjoy your own trip but ensuring you know about certain duties and training security measures can make the journey as sleek and problem-free as you possibly can. For instance, see into it that your own belongings tend to be secure. You should use travel coordinators or purses to safe your passport, visa, id, money, credit cards along with other important items when you are traveling close to. No time for you to be reckless when vacationing in not familiar place however it doesn't need to be such huge burden you don't get to savor a great time. Secure you security and safety first every single child reduce the danger and have a smooth-sailing encounter.
Items to comprehend regarding Travel Reward charge cards and precisely how this advantages you
Do you are a regular traveller? In that case, it is probably that you are currently registered over the recurrent flyer bundle with air carriers. In this particular case, you may be available to a method to earn air travel miles in a faster speed. Generally you will find methods that you can do.
In truth, you can get rewards points which may be become airmiles with regard to expenditures charged for your bank greeting card. Of program, the complete amount you will need to charge towards the travel rewards charge card will have to be substantial to make sure one to achieve adequate airmiles in order to redeem your individual cost-free airline travel. This implies that you will have to charge more towards the credit greeting card monthly. Every single child reap the entire rewards of the, it may be very best that you just pay the total amount of your individual outstanding bank card balances monthly in order not end up being caught having a mountain associated with debt along with higher rate of interest.
People that regularly journey for company or with regard to pleasurable commonly take advantage of cards while they're traveling. There tend to be many outstanding causes of this including the benefit they're not necessary to carry lots of money with all of them.
The point is you will discover such a lot of travel cards available that many people can simply grow to be confounded regarding choosing the right travel charge card to utilize. Truthfully there's no a particular travel charge card that's the best travel charge card for just about all. Just as individuals are different, to do their own specific individual preferences, and their own travel daily activities meaning what they need in credit cards will definitely differ too.
The credit cards offering air travel miles are the charge cards most people ordinarily find out about. For people who travel through air frequently annually, a few of these travel benefits cards usually offer excellent specials, specifically if you're able to find out the one that offers each low yearly percentage prices and journey rewards kilometers.
These kinds of miles in many cases are added upward and turned set for a free of charge getaway once you accumulate plenty of reward points which will make them a great deal for people traveling the lots. Nevertheless, in situation you really don't travel you will get travel charge cards out presently there which will save you cash.
Many resort and food organizations have their very own cards to individuals who regularly journey. Credit credit card providers normally present the individual things such as deals as well as perhaps absolutely free rooms in hotels with the develop of benefits points.
An excellent card is really going to possess rewards. Check out what spent every single month, to see if you're able to capitalize along with rewards. You might get rewarded for nearly anything. Whether or not you desire it to become fuel, clothing, groceries, or even whatever, it could save you more compared to 5%. It's really a win-win for a lot of us.
An excellent bank card will have absolutely no fees. When I explain fees generally, you will probably do not have access to annual costs, and additionally your interest rate ought to become fairly reduced. You don't wish to pay a good annual charge, only to keep a credit card.
It's this that I Make use of My Shape Pillow Journey For
With regards to traveling all around the globe, you should ensure that you do possess a sense associated with comfort existing. There are actually too numerous instances wherever people happen to be faced along with severe ergonomic desk problems whenever travelling. Consider using the Shape Pillow Journey, that is actually an superb option in relation to helping a person travel as a whole comfort to express the minimum. All points considered, you have to remember that there are so a great deal that should be considered with regards to travelling. The perfect factor that can be done would be to make certain that you acquire as numerous critiques as possible.
You may have heard sufficient plus much more occasions that in relation to sleeping, there is a superb need for that right position. All things thought to be, you should ensure which you realize what the very best position is with regards to getting an excellent night relaxation or for instance with relation to travelling too. There are actually too several instances exactly where individuals have were left with spine difficulties thanks for the erroneous method of sleeping. Consider the utilization with the actual Contour Cushion Travel should you may need correct rest.
If you aren't too certain by what to expect in relation to purchasing the Contour Cushion Travel, it's greatest that you simply think associated with obtaining your hands on as numerous critiques as you can. As you might be aware, this is really some point that's sure that will help you figure away what's essential when it comes to understanding the different benefits and drawbacks of the Contour Cushion Travel. There are numerous blogs, forums as well as sites that could offer a person ample information on which kind of a Shape Pillow Travel is fantastic for you.
Remember that at the conclusion of your day what's important is the truth that you acquire the proper Contour Cushion Travel that's well suited for you. Obviously, there is really much associated with info existing online that you simply would perform nicely in finding. This might seriously allow you to make the correct decision according to the Contour Cushion Travel. Just about all issues regarded as, make sure that you simply are proper within your study so you know for any reality that it's this that is necessary every single child get hold using the right info.
Make it a place to see set up Contour Cushion Travel you're buying is actually original as well as be it something which has a warranty to express the minimum. These are just a couple instances that you simply do need to get hold of according to the purchase from the Contour Cushion Travel.
Is really a Work from home Travel Business Befitting You
I suppose the very first trait you'd have to posses to achieve success and feel in your own home running your personal travel company, would be considered a passion with regard to travel by itself.
Benefits Of the At House Travel Company
Now, imagine you need to do actually like travel. After that, add the truth that the journey industry by itself does trillions associated with dollars really worth of business each year.
Know what which means for a person?
1. Lots of opportunity that you should turn your own passion right into a rewarding, lucrative business…
two. A company that's virtually recession-proof…
As you know, there are many types of companies which have crumbled underneath the pressure of the uncertain economic climate.
So, it's uncommon enough€"right now€"to have the ability to kick back again and really feel secure in regards to a career option, let on it's own one that you're passionate regarding.
Again, if you value to travel as well as just assist others find a very good locations as well as deals, running an in your own home travel business is going to be full of many advantages for a person.
€What Tend to be My Options Being an €At Home' Travel Business proprietor? €
As I've discussed earlier in my personal post regarding turning your own passion with regard to travel right into a successful work from home travel company, there tend to be two kinds of opportunities with regard to someone attempting to work from home:
Referral Broker Position: Since the name suggests, you're essentially someone which refers individuals to a particular travel company, in exchange for any €referral fee' in the company.
In some instances, you could also get a portion of exactly what the company receives through its providers.
As the referral broker, you can get your compensation to become around $500 for each referral – and perhaps, more.
Promoting Agent Placement: As the €selling agent', you'll be a travel agent by having an existing organization. Still, that you can do everything needed, right in your own home.
€What's The largest Difference In between A Recommendation Agent As well as Selling Broker? €
When determining which option you need to take to work from home, there is actually one main difference you should look at:
If you are working by yourself as the referral broker, you'll have to acquire particular licenses, insurance policies and, possibly, merchant accounts to operate your recommendation business.
Nevertheless, selling brokers (sometimes referred to as booking brokers) usually do not have to worry about this stuff, because the organization they function under will curently have them in position.
What You will need to Get Were only available in Your In your own home Travel Company
Aside through any needed licenses as well as insurances, here are some other things you need to start to get and/or investigation:
1. Produce a business intend to give your self focus as well as direction…
two. Compile a summary of different €at house travel company's opportunities…
3. Go back again and investigation each chance to find which ones suit you the very best…
Final Ideas on Running An In your own home Travel Company
One additional thing you might like to consider, is actually joining the travel regular membership club. These clubs provide you with access in order to various discounts you are able to provide for your clients.
Just like everything else associated with setting upward an in your own home travel company, the key would be to research your options and discover safe, reputable businesses to work with.
As long while you do so and therefore are passionate concerning the services a person provide, you'll end up being well on the way to enjoying the advantages of an in your own home travel company!


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Issur would know.
Oy Vey.
issur bailed on slog. too much ridicule, i guess. but we all miss him. can the stranger put out a general call on the internets to invite him back?
Issur is do doubt going to his Momma's house for for a super-duper extra-kosher seder (rounds 1 & 2).
Come you lame-ass Seattle yids! Put down the bongs, step up, be a mensch (or menschette), and invite the Girl from Oz to your seder. Geez, how 'bout a little community, eh! Don't make me fly out there!
Admittedly, I'd kind of like to know as well. None of my friends are Jewish and I miss seders now that I can't go home for spring break.
Jewish-Australian? That's hot.
Hillel UW has a community Seder that I used to attend that is open to people outside of the university. Try planitjewish.com for some more ideas...
Ah the Seattle Chill. As a fellow newcomer, I also know it well.
Chag Sameach for Pesach?
I voted for Chag Sameach in the last Pesachential Election so don't look at me. I hate Bush.
... the daughter probably thought that she could escape her pushy mother by moving to the other side of the planet. the internet wins again.
if she's hot, she can totally come to my seder :)
Ahhh. what a cute email! I love Jewish mothers! :)
Local Unitarian Universalist churches may also be running seders -- every one of them I've ever attended has had one.
Here you go:
Ah, the poor kid is finding out that 10,000 miles of separation is only a minor detail to a Jewish mother. Even going to the moon wouldn't slow her down, sweetheart, sorry.
This and the thread where everyone tries to translate the Hebrew t-shirt are among my favorites.
Unitarians are weird.
Any Jewish princesses in Chicago who need a place to seder can contact me directly.
If she'd like a fun seder, UW Hillel will have one. They'll also hook her up with families for the second night. If she'd like a fucking long seder, tell her to call Chabad.
@ 11: IF she's hot? Like 6 says, how can an austrailian jew broad not be hot?
Eli, you gotta track down this chick and verify hotness.
I think it should be celebrated with a nice pork roast or some beef strogganoff! Yummy!! And make the strogganoff with veal so you really are dining on a young calf cooked in it's mothers milk!!! DELICIOUS!!!
There's a fairly large Jewish community in the Ravenna area. Might be some options for meeting people there. What a sweet mother!
Jewish Voice for Peace is doing a community seder. It should be smallish and nice.
Of course, if she hasn't met any Jewish people in Seattle, it might be that she isn't looking too hard, Mom.
@24, you're probably on to something. As a former Jewish communal professional, I used to receive these sorts of calls and letters from parents all the time. I actually had one father buy tickets to Fiddler on the Roof and he wanted me to ask his son if he wanted to go with me. That's where I drew the line. If I followed through to see what their kid was up to, sometimes the kid was actually happy to hear from me; other times, not so much.
I'd invite Australian girl to my sedarim, but they are of the 'frum' variety, i.e., long and draining. She'd probably convert the next day.
I hope she finds something, if that's what she wants to be doing.
Being in IT you'd think she knows how to work the Google. She just not that into it.
Exactly. Being in IT, in Seattle for a year, and 33 years old, she's either 1) not looking; or 2) not telling Mom, if she is.
And if it's 2), I can certainly see why...
I'd check out the Jewish Agnositic circle, they're pretty nice.
My family's half Methodist-Agnostic, and half Southern Baptist-Agnostic.
The tension during the holidays is palpable.
Uh, Mike (#20), Eli is probably not the guy you want to declare if a woman's hot or not. If she had a brother, however ...
Great story on your blog, Eli. Thanks for including the link.
Another vote for UW Hillel. I went a few times (this was quite a few years ago). It truly was fun, and the food was terrific, which you wouldn't have expected given the sheer numbers of people involved.
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subset: commoncrawl


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Conditions Records Austin, Texas
Conditions Records was started as a project to release music in a physical format for close friends. It began in in August 2011 in the Mission District of San Francisco and now lives on in Austin, Texas. It's a one man, bedroom/garage-run operation.
Streaming and Download help


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PLAYER BIOS continued...
O'Neal was the first player in NBA history to be named Player of the Week in his first week in the league. He was named to the All-NBA First Team in 1997-1998, to the All-NBA Second Team in 1994-1995, and to the All-NBA Third Team in 1993-1994, 1995-1996, and 1996-1997. He has been the NBA Player of the Month six times in his career.
Clement is the Lady Vols floor leader and emotional captain. Clement is averaging 5.6 points and a team-high 3.5 assists. She is from the Philadelphia suburb of Broomall, Pa.
Cleaves is a senior point guard and leader for the Spartans. He scored 18 points and had 4 assists in the final and had an incredible tournament. All of his shots came before the injury.
According to the American College of Foot and Ankle Surgeons, ankle sprains are the most common athletic injury. The bones joined in the ankle are connected by ligaments as they form a socket in which the ankle joint moves. When an ankle is sprained, a ligament is either stretched, partially torn, or completely torn. Nearly 85% of ankle sprains occur laterally, or on the outside of ankle joints. Sprains on the inside ligaments are less common.
An ankle sprain involves the stretching or tearing of a ligament around the ankle. The injury occurs when the ankle is twisted or forced to bend in directions where the tendons and muscles offer no support. There are three grades of ankle sprains, and it is expected that O'Neal has a Grade 1 sprain, while both college players have Grade 2 sprains. A Grade 1 sprain (mild) involves a stretching of the ligament without a tear. A Grade 2 (moderate) sprain usually involves a partial tear or a complete tear with moderate symptoms. A Grade 3 sprain involves a complete tear with severe swelling, tenderness, and bleeding.
The injury is diagnosed through clinical exam. Physicians can test the ankle for pain and flexibility, and because the injury has symptoms very similar to those of a fracture, X-rays are always taken as a precautionary measure. The degree of injury can be found by clinical exam, patient feedback, and, ultimately, an MRI.


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Hot answers tagged kegs
After sanitizing everything, you could connect the CO2 line from the tank to the keg, only connect to the downspout side rather than the normal gas inlet side. With the lid removed, slowly fill the keg with CO2 - it will fill from the bottom, pushing the air out. You can use a lighter to test to see when it's full of CO2. (Lower a long fireplace lighter ...
Something like this setup would be the minimum for 5 gallons of beer: http://www.midwestsupplies.com/cornelius-keg-system-with-5-lb-co2-tank-comes-empty.html A 5 gallon keg, CO2 tank, regulator, and tap.
They are slightly differently sized. In particular, the grey gas fitting will fit over the "out" post, but the black liquid fitting will not fit over the "in" post without significant pain. But, yes you should treat them as the separate things they are.
Well, do make sure the beer is cold before doing your pressurize and shake. The colder the liquid, the more CO2 it can absorb. Otherwise, you can't go much faster than you mention as far as I know.
Freezing and thawing tends to force CO2 out of solution, but relax - the beer is probably fine. You should be able to remix the ice and beer after everything is thawed, and readjust your carbonation with no trouble. The beer should taste the same after your carbonation issue is fixed. RDWHAHB! And yes, the foam is likely a result of heating. For a given ...
A keg weighs just over 30lbs, so keep in mind it can have a good chunk of value simply as stainless scrap (at $1.5/lb it's worth $50). This will set a floor price. Making friends at a friendly neighbourhood microbrewery, if you are fortunate enough to have one, and buying one of their no-longer-serviceable kegs is one good way to go.
That's about the fastest method I know of. But, I've stopped doing it. It might just be me, but I've found I prefer a slightly slower approach. I'll turn up the pressure for 2-3 days and let it sit in the fridge until at the right pressure. It might not make much of a difference, but the carbonation feels different in my mouth.
If you plan to consume all of the contents of the keg within a couple of days to a week, this may be a possibility. Using oxygen to tap a keg of beer causes the beer to stale exponentially quicker than regular CO2, even more so in cold temperatures. I would advise against doing this unless you plan to have it all drank in one sitting at a party. Depending ...
I'm guessing you are thinking of getting a small bar fridge, then turing it over so the opening points to the ceiling? Honestly I am not sure that would work at all. You would need to chill the keg for at least three hours in a completely sealed fridge and with the door open it might take much longer or maybe not even work at all. I see two options which ...
Counter pressure and beer gun aside. I think you might want to up the pressure. ALso you can get a stopper to run through and squeese it to let a little pressure to let the beer in but keep it pressurized.
Use a BMBF! Get a racking cane and a stopper and you're all set. I bottle regularly from kegs using this method and it works great.
Why not build a hose that goes from the Sanke fitting to the liquid side of your Corny? I'd use CO2 at the lowest pressure that you can to get the liquid to move. Otherwise, use a growler filler with a tube that is long enough to reach the bottom of your corny keg and treat the corny as a growler. When you get home, connect as usual.
Have you tried soaking the tubes etc. in bleach/beer line cleaner? You should be careful about soaking metals, but plastic should be OK. However -- I'd be surprised if the aroma would transfer to beer given the time the liquid stays in the pipe. If the worst case scenario is to have some slightly gingery ale, you may as well just use those lines again. ...
My batches often dont reach 5 gallons. All I do is hook up the co2 to the normal line, then pull on the release valve. Since the co2 sinks to the bottom, the stuff that gets pushed out first is the normal air. I do this a few times since it takes a moment for the co2 to settle out.
I believe the $30-40 figure is when a brewery owns their own kegs, and wants to dispose of non-functional (by serving standards) kegs at near scrap cost. Ask your local breweries about their keg supply. If the kegs are owned by a 3rd party, try them. For instance, it seems like Microstar owns most of the kegs around here, so I called them; they send them ...
I imagine the safest bet is to unscrew one of the posts and get the same kind of poppet as the one you've already got. It's hard to tell just looking at the top of the keg, so don't take this as certainty, but those keg posts look like firestone posts. I have pepsi kegs, with firestone posts, and use poppet nr. 1 from CHI. You can also narrow it down by ...
It's hard for me to imagine that you can build up sufficient pressure in a plastic keg to carbonate with just static pressure - it's going to take a while to get the CO2 to be absorbed by the beer. I don't suppose there's any way to get a pressure gauge in line with this rig? If you go by this chart, you'll see that at 5-10 degrees C (41-50 degrees F), you'...
It's not a problem. Runs the risk of oxygen exposure to finished beer if not filled properly, but It can be done at the cost of co2, which is very minimal. Personally, I purge starsan from the keg using co2 and fill the corney from the outlet port, so there is no air exposure regaurdless of how much beer im putting in. You will force carb more quickly. If ...
It is absolutely fine, bit of extra head space isn't going to cause any harm, or give any magical benefits. Just means you'll have less beer.
I think you will have problems trying to keep the keg cold, and this will be terribly inefficient: The temperature of the beer in the keg will tend to equalize, and so the exposed keg will constantly be warming the beer as the refrigerator tries to cool it. Have you considered a jockey box? For short periods of time, they are very effective at chilling beer ...
Liquid nails or rubber cement would work nicely. Make sure that you remove the 'boot' and remove all of the old residue that may be stuck on. I would probably run some coarse grit sandpaper over that afterwards just to create a rough surface for the cement to bind to. That isn't necessary but make sure you clean the area at least.
I've heard liquid nails does a nice job.
I've heard of people using the adhesive for car mouldings to do this. They said its available at most autoparts stores.
This may not work for every keg, but I've had great success with "universal fit" poppets on my Cornelius and Firestone kegs. They take the guessing game out of finding an OEM part by picture on a website or catalog. Here's an example, this is one that I've used. http://www.ontariobeerkegs.com/product_p/unipoppet.htm
Not all of them are gone, but the chances of finding them are decreasing. The ones that are still there are more expensive than in the past.
You can get new ones for $90 (new sanke keg link), or you can buy pre-converted stuff at brew magic for more money, of course. Recent Craig's List prices in NC for kegs with questionable heritage has been $30 to $50. The story behind these kegs was that the brewery rep was repeatedly called to pick-up the kegs, and the bar was out of space, so they went to ...
Its still keg to keg filtering. You'll need to use different fittings from keg to tubing but operationally, its the same thing.
My guess is that those CO2 bulbs are designed to fill the vacuum formed by pouring beer, just like the CO2 you hook to a keg you're tapping. All it does is prevent your beer from being introduced to oxygen. Take a look at this site for some pretty good instructions on carbing your beer.
I doubt you'll be able to carbonate the beer without significant quantities of those. However, once the beer is carbonated, the bulbs may be enough to maintain pressure while dispensing -- which I think is closer to the intended purpose of this setup. My advice? Add 1 cup of dissolved priming sugar, wait a week, and give it another try.
Your method looks correct. You may want to overcarbonate the beer by 2-5 PSI, and raise the keg pressure to around 5 PSI when bottling. Slightly overcarbonating will help ensure that there's still a good amount of CO2 in suspension after you lose some from the bottling process. You may need to play with the keg pressure a little to balance bottling ...
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Re: Need Christmas Credit Card
no need to get personal now. it has showed you cant manage money and like a previous poster said that is one reason honest people cant get no credit because of the few bad apples out the racking huge amouts of debt and then filing BK to get rid of it. sorry man but you just ganna have to break down and tell your family santa was broke this christmas. sorry you going through all this but a good advice dont post to much personal information people that rack up huge amounts of debt dont need any more.
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OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) - Oklahoma City University is making plans to
move its law school to the historic former Ford Model T plant west of downtown.
Businessman Fred Jones Hall, whose family owns the plant, detailed the plans Tuesday in a letter of intent. The planned move is contingent on county voters passing the proposed MAPS 3 sales tax on Dec. 8.
The 189,000-square-foot building at 900 W. Main was built in 1916 by Henry Ford and sold to Hall's grandfather in the late 1940s. The estimated cost of converting the building is between $30 million and $50 million.
OCU President Tom McDaniel says the old car plant is an ideal location for the law school if voters approve MAPS 3, which calls for a downtown streetcar system.


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The Dinner Detective Murder Mystery Show On Valentine's Day - Del Mar
- When Friday, February 14, 2014 at 7:15 p.m.
- Where Hilton Del Mar 15575 Jimmy Durante Blvd, Del Mar, CA 92014 Map
- Age limit Not available
- Categories Comedy, Holidays, Valentine's Day, Theater
- Cost $56.95 - $59.95
Above: Photo of a previous Dinner Detective Murder Mystery Show. Courtesy of The Dinner Detective.
The Dinner Detective® is America's largest murder mystery comedy dinner show! You'll solve a hilarious murder case while you enjoy a fantastic four-course plated dinner.
A tantalizing prize package awaits our top sleuth of the evening. But be careful! In this show, everyone is a suspect, even you, and the killer might be at your table!
Date: Friday, February 14th, 2014 - Valentine's Day Show (7:15pm) 65 Seats Available!
Tickets are selling out quickly, so reserve your seats today! Visit www.thedinnerdetective.com/sites/del-mar for more information.
Location: Hilton Del Mar 15575 Jimmy Durante Blvd, Del Mar, CA 92014 Google Maps


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Traffic jams typically produce little more than frustration, profanity, and CO2. Four years ago, though, they happened to give Christian Brüggeman an idea.
He was sitting in a London Starbucks with a friend and fellow computer science student. As they chatted, they noticed that one street outside was choked with cars while another was practically empty.
They wondered why drivers weren't taking advantage of every possible route. If cars could be directed along less-congested roads, wouldn't that prevent back-ups before they began?
That idea ultimately became nunav, navigation software that aims to stop congestion and get its users from Point A to Point B as fast as possible. While existing services like Bing Maps can show commuters real-time traffic jams and offer alternate routes, nunav can prevent jams from happening in the first place by predicting where cars are headed, Brüggeman said.
Here's how it works: nunav tracks the location and destination of every user in its network, currently through a Windows Phone app. Meanwhile, its routing algorithms also crunch data about surrounding streets, such as the number of lanes and speed limits, to calculate the maximum number of cars they can carry before traffic bottlenecks. nunav then "reserves" spots for drivers along their routes, making sure each road never reaches maximum capacity.
Voila – no more traffic jams, no more lost productivity, and no more needless CO2 emissions.
In computer simulations involving 50,000 cars, nunav users get to their destinations twice as fast and use significantly less fuel, Brüggeman said. Now he wants to transition nunav from simulations and trials to a market-ready product. The former university students who created nunav have launched their own company, Graphmasters, to try and sell nunav's routing algorithms to manufacturers of navigation systems.
nunav drew notice from industry, press and venture capitalists earlier this year after winning the Environmental Sustainability Award, sponsored by Coca Cola, at the 2012 Imagine Cup Worldwide Finals. The young company can expect more attention.
Today at the Social Innovation Summit, Microsoft announced Team Graphmasters, formerly Team Greenway, was among the five winners of the second annual Imagine Cup Grants program.
"Through Microsoft YouthSpark, we're aiming to create opportunities for 300 million young people around the world over the next three years. We want to give youth greater opportunities for education, employment and entrepreneurship and the Imagine Cup grants, a three-year, US$3 million competitive program that enables Imagine Cup participants to take their projects to market as the next step in their business development, is a great example of the innovative ways we're creating these opportunities for young people," said Akhtar Badshah, senior director, Citizenship & Public Affairs, Microsoft.
Badshah said Team Graphmasters represented the growing number of Imagine Cup teams that keep working after the competition to bring their solutions to market.
"One reason we were so excited to expand the Imagine Cup is because of Microsoft's commitment to invest and provide opportunities for youth so they can imagine and realize their future," he said. "The Imagine Cup Grants are this interesting way to help these teams that are imagining what the future can look like and then trying to go out and realize it."
Brüggeman said the $100,000 grant will go toward expanding his company and hiring developers, marketers and sales staff to help bring nunav to users worldwide.
He added that the Imagine Cup helped his team make the leap from interesting research idea to actual business. "We are computer scientists," Brüggeman said. "We can program and write software, but we had never thought about starting a company before."
The competition's focus on social issues resonated with them as well. Sitting in Starbucks, the students' coursework had taken them deep into graph theory – a complex branch of computer science that powers nunav's routing algorithms. The Imagine Cup inspired them to turn that initial spark at Starbucks into a project that could help the planet.
"We're happy we found an application for our research that saves the environment, saves your wallet, and that's good for everyone," Brüggeman said.


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Definition of contrasty in English:
(Of a photograph, film, or television picture) showing a high degree of contrast: the picture is sharp and contrasty, not a muted grey
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- Beautiful fine-grain film easily gets too contrasty.
- The dark tones have all the opposite properties, being coarse, grainy, cold and contrasty.
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This question already has an answer here:
- How does the Schengen 90/180 rule work? 4 answers
I'm from Canada. In most countries I can stay for up to three months without needing a visa. I was reading information about the Schengen agreement and how it essentially eliminates borders between all participating countries.
Is it at each country's discretion?


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Um, is there anyone who's genuinely excited by 'Don Brash: Orewa IV' (full text here). Anyone care to comment on last night's premiere?
Orewa I has been forgotten -- remember the idea of queing up at the Post Office to get your dole cheque? -- but Orewa II and III set the agenda for each respective political year and changed NZ's political landscape. It's bloody difficult to maintain that momentum, especially in a non-election year (as only blind optimism on Brash's part would suggest otherwise), but it seems like an awfully wasted opportunity to me. Even the usual suspects have so far failed to come out and try and talk it up. But do make sure you read it before you get the spin.


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Ghana Lacks Key Safeguards for Regulating Oil, Gas, Group Says
Ghana has failed to implement key contracting and environmental safeguards for the country's fledgling oil and gas industry, a coalition of transparency groups said in a report.
The West African nation hasn't publicly disclosed contracts with companies including U.K.-based Tullow Oil Plc, operator of the country's offshore Jubilee field, and continues to negotiate exploration contracts in private rather than through open tenders, according to the Civil Society Platform on Oil and Gas in Ghana, which is sponsored by Oxfam America, the World Bank and the Revenue Watch Institute.
"Ghana must follow the examples of Liberia, Peru and Ecuador who disclose their contracts regularly on government websites," the report said. "With closed-door negotiations and wide latitude for government negotiators, there is a risk of corruption."
Ghana began production from Jubilee last year and output is expected to reach 120,000 barrels per day this year. Companies including Switzerland-based Vitol Group, Houston-based Vanco Energy Co. and Rome-based Eni SpA are among those with exploration permits in the area around Jubilee.
Ghana's environmental agencies aren't able to properly monitor the industry, as was demonstrated by their response to the spill of oil-based drilling mud by Kosmos Energy Ltd. in 2009 and 2010, the report said.
Inadequate Equipment
A government committee recommended Kosmos pay a 40 million cedi ($26 million) fine for the discharge, even as it said Ghana's environmental agency didn't have "adequate equipment or capacity" to probe spills.
Ghana and Kosmos, which is a partner in the Jubilee field and is backed by private equity firms Blackstone Group LP and Warburg Pincus LLP, settled the matter along with a number of other disputes in December. President John Atta Mills declined to provide details of the settlement at a press conference in January, or say whether Kosmos had paid a fine.
The group praised the passage of an oil revenue management bill by Ghana's Parliament last month. That bill requires the publication of oil earnings in newspapers and establishes a savings fund to cushion the country against price shocks and establishes a public oversight committee.


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Kim Kardashian: Klashing with Kourtney Kardashian Over Kare of North West?
We may still be waiting on Kim Kardashian baby photos, but at least a new report is giving us some interesting Kim Kardashian baby drama to ponder.
According to Star, Kim and her sister are at odds over the way the former has been raising little North West. There appears to be a major clash of child rearing styles taking place..


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I read an interesting article in the Saturday Paper by Sam Cooney (March 14-20, 2015) about a training session by CounterAct on NVDA (Nonviolent Direct Action), which is described as a way to learn about 'methods of protest, resistance and intervention without physical violence. Participants practice scenarios of their arrest, such as the 'ability to become a total dead weight', so that it's 'much more difficult for police officers to drag me away'. Another scenario he describes is to chain someone to the front desk of a hypothetical drone manufacturing HQ, while filming the scene of any altercations with the police. It all sounds hands-on, pragmatic and somewhat polished. It is a strange rehearsal in nonviolent protest, I assume, so that the protesting can be done well, with professionalism and confidence. The author shares how the NVDA training was 'super affirmative … too much about storytelling and sharing and famous proverbs repeated with gravitas', and notices that 'any discussion of politics was shunted aside.'
Apparently, involvement in activist action is increasing and public interest in it, in mainstream media and social media, is also growing. It reminded me of the 'Occupy unmasked' documentary that was aired on SBS a while back. The documentary revealed that, despite Occupy's appearance as a mass movement of US public frustration with the government, financial crisis and corporate greed, the individuals who were participating had little political reason why they were protesting, or were misled to come to a gathering (eg. false rumours of Radiohead's appearance). The Brooklyn Bridge mass gathering, which was catalytic to starting the Occupy movement, is alleged to have been orchestrated by the hands of a few journalists pulling strings. One person interviewed in the documentary says '…they got one thing that Occupy needs to get media … they don't get media unless there is arrest or violence', and such stunts achieved the publicity they wanted. This is reminiscent of the NVDA training. Protesters at Occupy are interviewed why they are there. Some are unemployed and are paid to attend. Others talk about the wealthy not being taxed enough, and look sheepish when they corrected on their facts. The documentary also show how many of the active and vocal protesters have a college trust fund (so not poor, under-trodden, or marginalised). It's a carnival, vapid on a major scale.
Occupy Melbourne (and I think there was a camp also at RMIT University campus) just sounds like a mass youth tantrum, and I'm still not quite sure what they were protesting about. Their blog seems largely about their conflict with the police, and not much on what they actually achieved. Though the consequences for the City of Melbourne has been phenomenal – clean up, damages to public spaces, police and emergency personnel, and legal bills etc. – costing the tax payers $1 mil. You'd think that it would've been better spent on much needed services like education, healthcare, public transport – such a waste.
Protest as a forceful expression and participation in political issue, seems so fake, when viewed this way. Its bizarre phenomena when you know what it was like in the 'old days', when it was still considered genuine. I used to work for human rights organisation whose tactics was their only way to get their voices heard, for example, at Rio Tinto's AGM to speak out on their abuse of land and human rights for indigenous peoples. These protests, vigils and boycots got the attention of the press and raised concerns for shareholders, so they can in turn, demand change in the company's conduct. If protest is now viewed so cynically, what avenues are left for change?
Public figures in Japan continue to shock and entertain me… here are two highlights of 2014!
Hyogo Councillor, Ryutaro Nonomura cries hysterically and shouts incoherent excuses at a press conference in July 2014. He is one of many public servants suspected of mis-using funds. Since then, several other prominent ministers, including Yuko Obuchi (Trade and Industry) has resigned over alleged misuse of public funds in the Ministry of Trade.
While Ayaka Shiomura MP took the floor to report recent findings in Tokyo on the increasing trend of infertility, women delaying childbirth and lack of maternal support, she was rudely heckled by Akihiro Suzuki MP who shouted 'Hurry up and have a baby yourself!' 「早く子供を産め」. He then denied all knowledge of this incident, to later admit and publicly apologise for his behaviour. Oh my goodness… only in Japan?
On the Japanese public broadcast network – NHK (Nippon Ho-sou Kyoku) today, there was a brilliant social innovation story between university students and the residents living in a large high-rise estate. Rent have been subsidised by a partnership between local Universities, resident groups (自治体) and councils, to let them out cheaply to students with the plan to re-invigorate an ageing community. Other modifications are being made to the larger apartments to enable multi-generation families to live, or help exchange students to house-share. Students are then invited to community meetings to proactively contribute to the community.
Ageing and de-population are affecting regional towns like Kasukabe, where my parents live. What was once a popular high-rise apartments now have more empty rooms. Seeing this, social innovation initiatives like 'Neighbourhood festival' 「隣人祭り」are bringing in new residents and fresh ideas to stimulate engagement and exchange. Partnering universities (eg. 日本工業大学と埼玉県立大学) are incorporating such community engagement initiatives as assignments to support a 'real-world' classroom.
One student living in a high-rise estate in Takesato (武里団地), Kasukabe, initiated a food event, noting how many people were eating alone. Heart warming scenes were observed where senior residents taught the younger ones how to wrap dumplings and cook traditional food.
One of my Honours student talked about Field Experiment in our class. He is Indonesian, studying communication design in Australia. His Honours research explores how communication design creates contemporary understandings of Jakarta's culture, and how its citizen can participate in its making. To summarise, the Field Experiment is led by designers (from the West) who take a 'sabbatical' from their usual work to fly to Bali, Indonesia, and undertake arts + craft based projects using local products and craft technique. The root of its interest / popularity is because it was led by Stefan Sagmeister (aka the David Carson of the 00's naughties) and I was quite surprised to know that Sagmeister needed a sabbatical away from 'client work'. The general perception by design community has of his practice is a feeling of envy of the amazing projects his studio undertakes, so the client-driven-nose-to-the-grind-stone is not an image that comes to mind…
As the class looked at the Field Experiment website and the associated interviews, blogs and general PR, we couldn't help but feel that, here is yet another 'cool' project for designers and the design community – a self-indulgent, object-obsessed, white-middle-class entertainment, exploiting 'local culture's exoticism for their own gain. Just last week, we discussed and similarly, critiqued Jimmy Nelson's TEDxAmsterdam talk, 'Before they pass away', where he photographed and documented the last of the remaining indigenous tribes during his travels around the world. There were lots of resonance between Nelson's photography that we saw in Field Experiments too. While the Indonesian Honours student who showed Field Experiment was excited by what Sagmeister and the other designers had done in re-appropriating the traditional arts and crafts of his culture as something interesting and novel, there were more troubling questions afoot. In class, we discussed its equivalent in Australia – designers / artists going to Arnhem land to 'collaborate' with Indigenous communities to design products for market. Dot Dot and bark paintings on scarfs and flip flops. Commercially viable, yes, but what does that do to their culture, their voice, their representation, their future…?
Similarly, who benefits from these design 'experiments'? Clearly, its been a big 'hit', with an exhibition coming up in May 2014. But what about the local villagers and craftsmen and women who generously shared their skills? What do they learn or gain from this experience? How does the local community benefit, other than the small amounts of tourism dollars dropped into their businesses (and the $ goes a long long way in Indonesia). Is there any meaningful and mutual cultural exchange for them? What about the local environment? Are the things made sustainable to produce where it is, or does it rely on foreign manufactured and imported items? Can the craftsperson who weaves a basket, can they now make an additional living out of turning the basket into a lamp, and sell it through exclusive shops in the West? And if so, what does that mean for their business – would they need to learn how to be web-savvy and earn more to afford that extra technology…? Strangely, these systemic implications were not evident in the Field Experiment documentation, indicating that perhaps, the considerations weren't there for the designers either. Field Experiments' blog and Tumblr pictures are beautiful – products photographed in a white studio or carefully curated against local nature. They overwhelmingly demonstrate the designer's obsession with craft, novelty of the created item and also of themselves (self-portraits). The interview with one of the designers, Paul Fuog, who accompanied Sagmeister is also illuminating in that regard. Much of what he speaks about is the familiar desire beind 'Designer Authorship' – to be creative, expressive, experiment, risk-take, playful etc – and little awareness of the impact of their interventions in a small, Asian village. It looks like colonialism all over again.
(from the CASS Foundation travel report – apologies for the rather 'formal' tone!)
The Service Design and Innovation (ServDes) conference is the premier research platform for bringing researchers and practitioners together to exchange knowledge and evolve the emerging domain of designing services. It is one of the most highly regarded conferences in this area and hosted at one of the foremost service design research centres, Imagination Lancaster, UK. Having presented a paper in their 2009 conference in Oslo, I have been impressed by the quality of papers, choice of key-note speakers and the general organisation of the conference. With the CASS Travel Grant, I had the opportunity to travel and present a paper again in 2014.
My paper's presentation drew on my principal research focus since PhD completion. Forecasts of increasingly destructive natural disasters, such as bushfires, droughts, earthquakes and floods mean that more research is needed to ensure communities, services and systems become more resilient. This is a global concern and design can play a key role in this arena, funded by the Bushfire Co-operative Research Centre (CRC). As a Chief Investigator I explored a variety of community-based methods for engagement and preparedness, enabling adaptive capacities to plan collectively. My paper, 'Passing on, handing over, letting go – the passage of embodied methods for disaster preparedness' explores the complexities of how design can catalyse transformation for communities in a political, emotive and challenging terrain. It aims to contribute knowledge to this nascent field, highlighting the lived realities of practice that are often over-looked in theoretical or overtly methodological / instrumental discussions in service design.
Service design research, being a field of inquiry that is shifting its focus from designing 'products' (tangible, technological and artefact-oriented) to systems of interactions (intangible, relational and experience-oriented), I noticed how many papers were tackling this paradigm shift. It raised interesting questions regarding the problem of setting artificial boundaries around 'service implementation' and where a project begin and ends, literal distinctions between 'goods' and 'services' and the lack of awareness by designers who are stepping into change (and to change whom and what?). There were excellent discussions that reminded us all that the process of designing systems is far more complex, entangled and plural, only achieved through gradual change and enacted by people. Pelle Ehn's (Malmö University) wonderful keynote elaborated, humbly and warmly, his research that spaned over fifty years in participatory design, an area that service design must learn more from. He called attention to the danger of creating artificial boundaries around projects, time, and future, describing key ideas like 'thinging' and 'infrastructuring' that sees design as an assembly of people to coalesce concerns in an on-going, evolving manner in manifesting multiple future-making. Other presentations that were also memorable include Alison Prendiville's (London College of Communication, University of the Arts London) discussion on the danger of commensurating qualities into quantities – a trend that we see often when justifying public service support. In her case study of working with ageing people in the UK, she discussed how place-making, as an active, embodied gathering supported the elderly community to build their social relations and contribute to their well-being. Place-making in service design is often poorly acknolwedged, and all too considered as 'space' instead – a blank, static, neutral backdrop for design. Furthermore, Janette Blomberg (IBM Research) pointed out the current limitations of the service design discourse, echoing Pelle's point, and the need to recognise the complexity often concealed in the service provider and recipient relationship, and the instrumentality of design in intervening in change. She asked us to consider the ethical and political concern when we perform in this arena.
Given my presentation attempted to highlight similar concerns about lived realities of transformation, embodied entanglements and dynamic complexities of designing with people, I thoroughly enjoyed my conversations with Pelle, Alison, Janette and many others during lunch, drinks and dinner. I have to admit that there were several who didn't like or 'get' the argument I was putting forward – I think the concerns I raise are actually difficult to grapple with. I was also introduced to several researchers who I am delighted to acquaint with in Korea and Japan, and we discussed the possibility of co-convening an Asia-Pacific symposium on service design in 2015/16 to further build stronger relationships in this area.
In the event last night, Andy talked about the classic art-school exercise where students in their first week had to draw the 'negative' spaces to switch their perception from looking at objects. Its similar to how I to learnt typography or composition in my first-year undergraduate, drummed into seeing the white space in-between the letterforms to understand kerning, leading and layout.
Andy's talk highlighted our conditioning, as industrialised cultures, that makes us focus on objects, and that it is problematic because it doesn't make us aware of the in-between connections that are there that is almost as important, if not more. This in-betweenness is where we find things like relationships, engagement, movement, experience… Andy used, as an example, an organisational chart of a management structure in an organisation, and talked about the 'arrows in-inbetween' that often become neglected, or perhaps, treated as 'objects' in an effort to control it.
In parallel, there's a conversation that I've been having recently with my colleagues in Japan, based on i.club that works with a community in Kesennuma, devastated by the 3.11 Great Eastern Earthquake, in an attempt to catalyse empowerment and transformation through participatory social innovation. And in this conversation, we touched on the 'bento-box' activity as it was one of the things that the high-school kids designed by re-discovering their traditional food cultures and to share and celebrate that within the community and beyond, and potentially re-generate local businesses again. And whilst we were talking, it was a delightful surprise when we stumbled on the 'bento-box' as a metaphor for the i.club project. The culture of bento-box in Japan is creative and playful, often incorporating regional ingredients and flavours that allow its diversity. Its limitless possibilities, combination and variety are its charm. In contrast to western notions of a 'box' that gives it a restrictive, bounded, 'boxed-in' feeling, a 'box' (hako) in the Japanese context is almost its opposite. Here, a 'box / hako' is, in fact, a receptacle that has the capacity to be filled with anything. It is openness.
Relating this back to Andy's talk about the 'in-between spaces', to the notion of a 'bento-box' as a open and limitless possibility, I was suddenly struck by its similarity. The 'bento-box' as a metaphor for a receptacle, suggests that the thing that is being designed is the scaffolding itself, borrowing a pedagogic terminology. So if we designed the 'bento-box', the in-between space inside it can become anything, supporting the 'liquid network' of people's relationships, movements, experiences…
And there must be something in the universe… serendipitously, Kenya Hara is coming to Melbourne, because Muji is just about to launch its flagship store next year, and I've been asked to host and introduce his lecture next week at RMIT Design Hub. And his talk will be on 'emptiness', a classic Japanese, zen-buddhism philosophy that underlies the concept of what he does. Hara-san's philosophy, emptiness, is empty space to attune our sensibilities towards how we 'notice' it but can't 'grab' it, how we attempt to create it by clearing it, and by clearing it, help something enter. But its not the 'less is more' modernist philosophy: "The roots of expressions like … 'less is more' are subtly different than those that underlie emptiness. Emptiness does not merely imply simplicity of form, logical sophistication and the like. Rather, emptiness provides a space within which our imaginations can run free, vastly enriching our powers of perception and our mutual comprehension. Emptiness is this potential." (Hara 2010). This is all tied with ancient ideas that were developed through Japanese tea-ceremony, the aesthetics of simplicity and nature, and further still, to Shinto, where gods are invited to reside – in the shrine, in the landscape, in ourselves. He talks about the Shimenawa as the lines that invoke such spaces – made of rice-stalks twisted as a rope – marking the lines where people and spirits crossed over and entered hallowed spaces. Thomas Kasulis, in his book Shinto, interestingly talks about these as 'bookmarks'.
Returning back to Andy's talk again, he referenced some ideas to his life in Germany and German language, and how adjectives were harder to learn because they are culturally contextualised. The example he gave was Shadenfreude, a term borrowed from Germany because there is no English equivalent. After the talk, we briefly discussed how interesting it is that such words exists in different cultures. I related it to my own culture, where there are many words in Japanese (but not in English) that refer to people's relationships. Japan is a small, mountainous, island country leaving little choice but to live closely with one another – so its no wonder it had to create words to consider and be more aware of the in-between spaces among people. Nonaka's contribution to the knowledge management discourse, through Ba, is one such example, and because this word exists, in a Wittgenshtinian way, we can actively create its relevance to and meaning in our lives. Similar to how the notion of a 'box' connotes restrictiveness in the Western context, but in total contrast, means openness in the Japanese context, and that there is the idea+word existing in the first place can help us talk about it and consciously 'design' it too. Its a bookmark!
Perhaps the tangent with Hara-san's emptiness has taken me too far away from Andy's talk on the 'arrows in-between', but I reckon there's something here worth thinking about more…!
Jeremy had lent me this book the other day. Its one of those 'pop' books that Ellen Lupton is really good at churning out these days – she's done a suite of these among things like 'DIY' creativity books. Out of curiosity, I sat down and read it cover to cover (easy reading on the train) and its actually very good examples of framing problems, idea generation and creating form visually. It is solidly wedded to the 'graphic' form of designing as a medium and a tool. In fact, 'design thinking' here is done through form-making – sketching, compiling lists, diagramming relationships, mapping web of associations. Let me list what it contains in the Contents that relate to it:
• Mind Mapping - or 'radiant thinking' a 'mental research', starting with a central term or idea the designer quickly plots out associated images and concepts.
• Visual Research - a study of brand space of a client/product/ service by looking at logos, names, promotional language, colour and other aspects of a brand
• Brand Matrix – uses x-y axis to cross two values eg. rational /emotional and elite / popular to plot the brand and where it would like to be
• Brand Books – 'a way to visualize the personality and life story of a product, company, organisation. The designer uses a selection of colors, shapes, textures, photographs, words, and photos to set a mood… as a narrative' (p. 46)
• Visual Brain Dump - sounds like another form of mind-mapping but the process is not to stop drawing
• Forced connections – eg. visual puns like crossing iconic products with unpleasant forms
• Action verbs – visually explore applications of different verbs, eg. magnify, rearrange, alter, adapt and forces a fresh view of the idea
• Everything from everywhere – looking beyond the familiar
• Rhetorical figures - using structure of language / words as forms of inspiration
• Semiotics – this rich area of linguistics has been boiled down to the visual exploration of logo design
• Visual Diary - emphasis of this is on 'unguided creativity'
• Concept presentations - the example they showed here was interaction and service design mock-ups and storyboards
Graphic designers seems to have cornered the market with this many repetoire of visual thinking, and the examples Lupton shows are pretty diverse. Though, given its meant to be 'beyond brainstorming', this book doesn't go past the initial stages of ideation, which is a shame. I only found a couple of pages (11 pages in total) on research that aims to generate well-rounded understanding of audiences / problem context (as opposed to other forms of research they discuss that only looks at something one-dimensionally), which may give a rather poor impression for the profession.
There's also a section on 'collaboration', which I thought was very odd (its a bit like 'breathing' or 'eating' – don't we all collaborate as part of our job?). 'Sometimes, designers let their individuality get in the way of teamwork. Effective collaboration yields something new, not a Frankensteinian mash up of parts' (p. 92) was very reveling. Are graphic designers poor collaborators? Are they too ego-centred, and are these individuals celebrated too often in the profession?
Interestingly, there's a section on co-design that references Liz Sander's work. Given my lament on the lack of any kinds of research being demonstrated here, this shows promising signs of designers actually involving people in the design process. 'Designers today have learned that users are experts in their own domains. Many designers now view themselves as not controlling an end result but as putting a process into play that actively involves an audience' (p. 96). Despite this grand gesture of equal footing, the 'how to co-design' is a rather disappointing account of gleaning insights from the users through visual / tactile mediums. It actually sounds more like user-centred design rather than co-design, as the designer is still designing the final outcome on behalf of the users.
The case studies that showed signs of extending beyond the visual thinking stages of a project was the PieLab – a 48hr public event that morphed into a pop-up shop called PieLab in Greensboro, Alabama that then became a permanent storefront. This is more than baking, it brings people in the local community together to talk and share. Bielenberg says 'Conversations leads to ideas, ideas to projects, and projects to positive change'.
I was met at 5.30am by Anthony, a six-foot four man from Natjul Indigenous Performing Arts, and despite only speaking briefly on the phone to arrange this lift, he gave me a bear-hug greeting. I knew then that we were off on a great 4hour car journey to Cherbourg.
Anthony has a very rich life experience which he shared through his amazing stories. He has immense wisdom in looking at the entrenched problems for indigenous peoples, from the prison system that encouraged juveniles to offend again, to the bureaucracy of government systems and the inter-generational trauma that keep spinning the negative cycle. Peppered among this was snippets of hilarious stories of his artistic life as a performer. 'Having a Yarn' was something he excelled at and enjoyed, allowing hours to fly by for the passengers – Martin the cameraman and myself.
Upon entering Cherbourg, we were chased by a pack of dogs that threatened to go under the wheel, which really freaked me out, and then we were greeted by loud music on outdoor speakers and a group of children in bright clothes at the Church. Its Sunday morning at 9am and a crisp, blue sky.
I was invited to Cherbourg to run a workshop on disaster preparedness. I had met Jennie Schoof, the project co-ordinator of ATSI Natural Disaster Resilience Project, at a past AEMI workshop and she thought the visual, participatory and capacity building approach could contribute to this community. She had been working for many months with the Cherbourg Aboriginal Council, SES Queensland and local Aboriginal leaders and volunteers, culminating in this weekend. This hard work has been central in building the fundamentals of trusting and respectful relationship for all, especially for this community that has experienced relentless tragedy and atrocity since its days as an Aboriginal settlement. The entrance to the town (top image) says it all. More recently, they've had a succession of devastating floods that had resulted in one death and widespread infrastructure damage, in January 2011 and February 2013. The state government funding came with a Disaster Management Plan handed to the Council, a very thick document that had no connection or meaning to the community. Its a familiar story but more wretched when its carried out in this town, echoing the same treatment of people as vulnerable, disempowered and unable to make their own decisions.
So instead, the Council used the funding to establish Get Ready Cherbourg. They then engaged in several months of dialogue with the community and people had put their hands up to volunteer and assist in the process of capacity building and preparedness. Jennie was the touchstone of this project, and due to prior familiarity with the methodology, she was able to inject richness, experience and knowledge into the exercise and really bring it to life. Together, we facilitated two groups of Aboriginal volunteers who were all keen to participate and develop a community action for preparedness. Jennie was fantastic, and I was really impressed with how she had made this method her own. For example, in the neighbourhood visualisation exercise on identifying those who they thought were vulnerable, she pushed what that really meant and helped people think about the difference between pension week when they had money or not having any. Seeing what she was doing enabled me to learn and realise that the real work was in how well you can connect the story of awareness and preparedness to people's own lives and contexts. The knowledge a facilitator had of the community was central to this methodology, and her ability to listen and incorporate their personal lives enabled this exercise to be 'real' for them. The social network mapping exercise was an eye-opener, for me and for the participants, revealing how inter-connected and enmeshed their networks really were. The challenges they face are significant – low-socio economic background, illiteracy, alcoholism, domestic violence and absentee parents – but the bonds between people are strong here. This was voiced time and time again, especially in the 'what if' scenario responses where looking out for one another was common practice for this community. Having seen or spoken with other people in other towns about disconnect in their community networks, this was an invaluable asset that made them resilient against all adversity.
As the workshop progressed, Jennie facilitated the last session where they had to come up with two things that each person had to take responsibility of in their street, as many of them lived in different parts of town. This made sure that it wasn't too complex or onerous, setting them up to fail, and instead, made it achievable. They recognised that you didn't have be the person doing everything and other people were going to undertake other tasks and roles. This collective approach to co-creating preparedness ensures that it is decided on their own terms, in their own words and they take ownership of what happens. This will then be adopted by the Council and passed on to Emergency Management Queensland as a Cherbourg Disaster Ready Strategy. A ground-up approach that makes more sense.
Jennie gave me a lift back to Brisbane, and we talked endlessly in the car, reflecting on the day, the method, the outcome and everything in between. Though I was only in Cherbourg for a short amount of time, I felt privileged to have met such amazing people and could help in their path to preparedness. It was a gift they gave me, perhaps unknowingly, in enriching my experience, intellectually and spiritually and enabled me to weave another thread into my tapestry of stories on the strength of the human spirit.
Having done a research trip through several cities in the US (which was all awesome), I've landed in Japan and travelled up to one of the towns, Kesennuma, along the northeast coast that was hit by the earthquake and tsunami last March. I went to take part in an amazing project born out of Tokyo University's i-school initiative (Maru NPO), funded partly by SCF Japan (horrah!) and private companies.
I arrived at dusk and saw the massive vessel, eerily marooned in the middle of a highway, quite a distance from the harbour. When we re-visited it the next day, I realised that its surroundings was once peoples houses, shops, schools and businesses – though nothing remains but concrete foundations and wrangled debris. Underneath the hull were several crushed cars. Next to it, a temporary shrine of paper cranes, flowers and toys was erected to remember the family and friends who had died that day. Kesennuma had lost 1038 (+ 259 still missing) people. We then visited several homes to understand how they were getting by – some better than others. I was heartened by how welcoming and positive they all were, demonstrating their strength and resilience. Though their stories weren't all encouraging. I felt a fresh surge of anger in discovering that the government were slow and inadequate in assisting the community on all fronts – infrastructure, services, industry and basic housing – many were going into another bitter winter in temporary fibro shacks. I was there on the last day of the national election and understood, first-hand, the apathy and lack of confidence (60% voter turn out – shocking but inevitable) – electing the least worst of all parties.
The role of non-profits and university-led projects are salient in this context. i-school's initiative is using design and social innovation as a way to re-build Kesennuma's devastated local seafood industry. It involves local high-school kids and their input to re-discover their native food resources and generate many ideas that could lead to new businesses. This project, 'i-club kesennuma', focusses on dry foods – products that doesn't require refrigeration so it could be made and distributed easily as well as be a nutritious provision in an emergency. Its focus is to shift the attention from raw food like sushi and sashimi (used to be its main industry) which is costly to keep and limited in what can be eaten, often resulting in a large amount of waste and high energy bills. The kids' vigour was generating another effect – pride and hope for their town – infecting the adults with a renewed optimism to face day-to-day difficulties.
The photo above shows a scene from a workshop I took part in – the young people conducted quasi-ethnographic research and talked to local residents, later sharing interesting insights about customs and products that they discovered. There was a lot of laughter and lightness. The next workshop is in January and February that involves them making the actual dry-food products in partnership with local businesses. I won't be able to take part but I hope to keep in touch with the researchers at i-school to see what happens. I felt that there was a huge value in this project than evaluating whether it succeeds in producing a viable product.
The trip to Kesennuma was mixed with many thoughts and it'll take me a while to digest all of these feelings. I still feel powerless and frustrated, living so far away from home but the connection with the kids and the community was a real, tangible feeling that I'll remember for a very very long time…