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20 years ago yesterday, I launched peterme.com
May 2, 1998 proved to be a momentous day for me. I launched https://peterme.com/, with a post about my experiences at CHI 98. That very original page doesn't exist anymore (I overwrote it to update the navigation on the left-hand side), but the content is there in its full glory.
Don't click around too much — linkrot quickly devolves the experience.
Apart from meeting my wife, having kids, and starting Adaptive Path, there is probably no experience more impactful in my life than that fateful day I created my personal home page. (And Adaptive Path would not have existed if it weren't for the community that I took part in thanks to this site.)
Here's to another 20 years.
Rebranding Snag, Part 4: Reflections and Lessons Learned
The last three posts (Part 1: Brand Strategy; Part 2: Brand Identity; Part 3: The Logo) detailed the steps it took to launch our new brand (and though I wrote much, I probably covered a third of all that it took). Here are a few reflections on the whole experience.
- It takes time
- Don't settle for least resistance; do the challenging thing that excites you
- The Design team can lead it
It takes time
The brand work began in earnest the day I joined Snagajob, January 2, 2017, and launched to the public April 4, 2018. Throughout the entire process, we felt pressure to move quicker–we're a startup, we shouldn't overthink things, we need to be scrappy, we don't have the resources for a big engagement, we've been living under brand confusion too long already.
Looking back, with all the knowledge I have of our process, I cannot find a single point where I think we should have moved faster. The brand strategy work took 5 months, and every day of that was necessary – bringing people along on something as sensitive and fraught as brand cannot be treated lightly, and needs rigor and rationale to address any concerns. Brand strategy is the part of the iceberg underneath the water – unseen, underappreciated, but a massive effort necessary to ensure that which is seen is as strong as it can be. The work took 5 months because it needed sufficient discovery (interviews with customers, employers, and Snaggers); workshop planning, execution, and analysis; development and refinement of brand positioning for all of our audiences; analysis and refinement of our brand architecture; naming exploration and choosing; brand story and brand personality development; and probably things I'm forgetting.
Heck, if anything, I think we could have taken some more time, particularly around naming.
As the prior 2 posts explained, developing a world-class visual identity doesn't happen quickly either. We got a lot out of our 3 months with Fuzzco, and even then, we spent another 3 months (engaging roughly a dozen designers) to evolve and refine the brand identity work they delivered. And every week we spent made it stronger, and better.
To be candid, even when we publicly launched the new brand, we weren't done. In order to meet our launch date, we took an expedient path with imagery, settling on a photographic style that sufficed. I expected we wouldn't actually feel like our brand identity was truly complete for another 3-6 months after launch.
Don't settle for least resistance; do the challenging thing that excites you
The biggest reason I left design consulting to move in-house was that instead of handing off a design and hoping for the best, I wanted to be "in the room" where the umpteen big and little decisions happen that ultimately affect the quality of the final product.
On a hairy project like this, it's tempting to opt for the easy decision that keep things moving. And people will laud you for the speed of your progress. But that is a trap that leads to crappier outcomes, and the people who lauded your expediting will then express dissatisfaction at what is produced.
There were three key points where sticking to our guns served us well. The first was with the original brand strategy project plan – no executive wants to hear about a 4-5 month project. But cutting any corners would have limited the ultimate impact of the work. Sticking to the plan proved the right idea – not only did we have immense buy-in from across the Snag for our brand strategy, we then worked with Great Monday again on re-developing our corporate values.
The second was with the name. The easiest choice would have been to call everything "Snagajob." And even though the name had generally positive associations, we knew it wasn't right. So we added 4 weeks (which could have easily been 6 or even 8) to get us to our best name. And while "Snag" may seem like an obvious step in retrospect, in our process we weren't sure, and we needed the time to explore all options and develop confidence with that choice.
The third was the hand in the logo. (Which I often found myself calling "that fucking hand.") The hand was a high-risk/high-reward proposition. As I wrote in the prior post, we nearly gave up on it a number of times – the wordmark was strong and could have stood on its own. But, because of its potential, I became stubborn, and insisted we get it right, and threw myself into a design process in a way I hadn't in a very long time. And it ultimately paid off with an identity that resonates, speaks to the company's ideals, and sets itself apart from the competition (I mean, come on).
The Design team can lead it
This initiative was atypical in that it was lead by design, not marketing. Marketing was involved in the core team throughout, but I, the VP of Design, was the ranking executive. And my experience suggests it makes more sense for the Design org to be the leaders of a rebrand. Key to making it work is that all design functions are represented in this one organization – this would not have worked nearly as well if there was a marketing design team in marketing, and a product design team in product. This makes design organizationally agnostic, which I think leads to a better outcome. If marketing leads brand, it will adopt a solution that inclines towards the needs of marketing, which may be quite different than the needs of product. Design doesn't have an agenda the way that marketing, product, or sales does, and that allows design to be even-handed in making decisions that affect the entire organization. Also, naturally, the design team will be responsible for the expression of the brand identity (visual and verbal).
Rebranding Snag, Part 3: The Logo [[MOVED]]
(For reasons of intellectual property, I have been asked to password protect this post, which I've moved here. If you want to see it, you'll have to ask me for the password.)
Rebranding Snag, Part 2: Brand Identity
In Part 1, I explained key aspects of developing Snag's new brand strategy. Elements like our brand personality characteristics (Optimistic, Energetic, Determined, Sincere) and brand positioning (that we lean towards human, not technology, or towards the worker, not the employer), proved foundational for creating a new brand identity.
Choosing a partner
As we did with Great Monday for our brand strategy, I knew we would want an external partner to develop our visual brand identity. Early in my career, I worked at Studio Archetype, and realized that designing brand identities isn't just a subset of communication or graphic design, but a black art whose top practitioners seem to be wired differently, and so great identity design is much more reliant on talent than it is on process.
To narrow our field of consideration to a manageable set, we focused on boutique firms located in the same cities as our offices (Richmond, VA, Washington, DC, Charleston, SC, and Oakland, CA.) And with this filter, we met with a few firms, including Fuzzco, based in Charleston, lead by the delightful partnership of Josh Nissenboim and Helen Rice.
Looking over their site, you'll see a range of beautiful work, from graphic design for Charleston restaurants to identities for tech firm Puppet Labs, and a remarkable collection of all kinds of stuff for Mailchimp.
We used our brand personality to help us make a decision, and chose Fuzzco because we felt they embodied the energy, optimism, and sincerity that we were striving for.
We worked with Fuzzco for about 8 weeks. I won't rehash the entire process–in the big picture, it was a typical approach of starting very broad, and then week-by-week getting more specific and more polished until we were done. I will highlight key decision points along the way that drove us to the final result.
We Fall in Love with A Concept
One thing Fuzzco does a little differently than many firms is that instead of having an initial round of 3 or 4 moderately polished concepts to choose from, they bring the client into the pencil-sketching part of the process, presenting literally dozens of concepts, and from there, a single concept is chosen to develop.
Here is a selection of 5-10% of the concepts they shared:
While we were intrigued by using the "g" to snag something, we found ourselves captivated by the hand grabbing the period. It wasn't because of the obviousness of the hand 'snagging.' As my boss, Jocelyn, stated, the hand connected us to our workers, their work, and our company's humanism.
So, we knew we wanted the hand. But we also know getting it right was going to be a lot of work. There's a reason there aren't many logos with hands in them (Allstate is the only one that usually comes to people's minds). Hands are tricky. They're complex and busy. They "say" a lot depending on their orientation, placement of fingers, implied movement. They risk being in the "uncanny valley"–if they're not rendered exactly right, they can feel distressingly unnatural and weird.
I have much more to say about the hand, so much in fact, that it warrants it's own post. (So stay tuned for part 3!)
Meanwhile, we considered logo typography
Early in our work with them, Fuzzco showed the following screen, and it became the jumping off point for our typography exploration.
Designers can obsess about type all day long. And we did. With only four letters in the name, each letter takes on remarkable importance. Much of the team leaned towards Avant Garde and its cousins – Brown, Walsheim, Value Sans. The reason was obvious — they were most similar to the existing Snagajob logo.
I got very worked up about the letter g. As the last letter, and one with a descender, I knew it was going to do a lot of work for us. And I found myself leaning towards the "double-story" or "looptail" g, particularly in Dala Floda. It's just so expressive, and with such great energy and flow.
I wasn't as excited about the Avant Garde crew – their geometric precision felt contrary to the humanism we were striving for. Perusing the other choices, apart from Dala Floda, I was drawn to Duplicate Sans – it had a funky squashed aspect reminiscent of Cooper Black, but didn't feel nostalgic or outdated. We showed these typefaces to our CEO, and, to my happy surprise, he also gravitated toward Duplicate. And, as it turned out, Fuzzco were big on Duplicate for us, and that pretty much settled it. In the next round, they shared a bunch of variants, oh, and made official a particular element.
They explored not only type variants, but double-story "a" and "g" versus single. We all stared long and hard at this, and though we dug the slab serifs, the Duplicate Soft Black (lower right hand corner) felt more approachable and on-brand, and within there, we appreciated the tension of the double-story "a" and the single story "g."
The period looked so natural, that it was never up for debate. It also helped reinforce snag-as-a-verb.
The emotions around color
Early in our brand strategy process, we polled employees about our brand's characteristics, and along with the expected responses around "passionate," "friendly," "fun," a top response was "orange."
Orange had been the key brand color from the beginning. And even though the current logo's orange was only in the ball above the "j", people held it dear.
As part of any visual identity project, a color palette is developed. Very quickly, Fuzzco settled on a deep navy blue for our base color (it just felt right, and we agreed), and paired it with orange as our primary palette, and then provided a host of bright fluorescent colors as an energetic secondary palette.
The core team found we were gravitating more towards the secondary palette than the primary one. We just liked its energy.
Also, members of my product design team raised accessibility concerns about the colors chosen. This is where I'm grateful for the brilliant people I worked with, because it would have never occurred to me to raise such issues. Contrast is a significant factor in readability for the sight-impaired, and the colors we had didn't have high enough contrast (Learn more about such matters here.). Our feedback to Fuzzco was to heighten the contrast, lose all those blue variants, and not to worry about "primary" and "secondary"–just give us a palette that worked. After some tinkering, they delivered:
Orange still has a prominent place, and you'll see an iteration of the energetic colors, the "Fluo"s.
Fuzzco's work was done at the end of 2017, and starting at the beginning of this year, we took on an internal program of applying this color palette to all of our interfaces, and some marketing material, to see how it worked. I can't show those explorations (as I don't have access to that any more), but what quickly became clear is: orange is a bitch to work with. It simply didn't play nice with our other colors, except occasionally when there was a single call-to-action, or a subtle highlight. So, even though it had been so core to our visual identity for so long, orange was demoted to the most secondary of colors in the final palette we arrived at, replaced by what became our favorite new color:
Our designers absolutely fell for periwinkle. It had just the right context for our deep navy (now renamed Blurple), and became the workhorse color for buttons, links, and other common actions.
Quick thoughts on typography
Along with the typography in the logo, Fuzzco gave us styles for type throughout our marketing and product experience. There's not much to say, except that though we really liked the initial typography they suggested for us (Duplicate Slab as a display face, Graphik Regular for body), we quickly realized that the web licensing fees for these fonts were prohibitively expensive (an issue I've had at every company I've worked). We asked them to explore Google fonts as an alternate, and they hit upon Nunito, which isn't all that common (unlike Open Sans), has a remarkable variety of weights, and echoes the friendly roundness of Duplicate Soft in our logo.
Hey, what about the logo? And imagery, photography, illustrations, etc.
Getting the logo right is an epic in and of itself, and I realize it warrants its own post, as this one has already gotten too long. So, stay tuned for Part 3!
And there's more to a visual brand identity than just a logo, type, and colors. We also worked with Fuzzco on developing illustration and photography styles. What I learned in this process is that we needed waaaaay more time and budget than we could afford in our relationship with Fuzzco to get imagery right. In fact, while you'll see a distinct photo style on Snag's homepage and Employer Landing Page (we quickly grew to love that pink-to-purple gradient overlay), at the time of our public brand launch on April 4th, we still had a lot of work to do to define our imagery style. I look forward to seeing what the team creates in the coming months!
Rebranding Snag – Part 1, Brand Strategy
The Backstory
Among the strangest aspects of my sudden departure from Snag is that, just a week before, we launched one of the greatest endeavors of my professional life–a top-to-bottom rebrand of the company.
Even before joining Snagajob in January 2017, the possibility of a rebrand was discussed with me. The company had acquired PeopleMatter, an enterprise software company, and had launched a pilot on-demand service, HUSL, and all these brands lead to confusion both in the market and internally. The name "Snagajob" was much too specific to the company's job board past, had no relevance to employers, and, frankly, was a bit sophomoric and could be hard to take seriously.
So, from the day I started, January 2, 2017, I was the lead executive on rectifying this brand challenge, partnered with Bridget Walsh, our director of communication design. There is some irony to me leading brand, as I'm not really a brand guy. I'm a research-strategy-information architecture-interaction design guy. I am skeptical, even dismissive, of much of the discussion around brand1Never forget, branding is the application of a red hot iron to the hide of livestock..
That said, my first design industry job (1996-1998) was at Studio Archetype, a design firm that grew out of a specialization in identity and communication design to become a pioneer in CD-ROM and web design. And so while skeptical, I appreciate the wizardry of truly gifted brand professionals.
Thankfully, I inherited a big-enough budget to bring on external help to guide us through this. An early realization was that there were two projects here–clarify our brand strategy, and then, based on that, develop a new visual identity.
Choosing a strategy partner
We interviewed a few potential partners for the strategy work, and quickly settled on Great Monday, whose principle, Josh Levine, is an old friend of mine. We chose them because they were clearly smart and capable, pleasingly small (I think there's only 3 full time staff), located in Oakland (as am I), and, importantly, Josh understood what we needed from him – not just a clever brand strategist, but a charismatic presence who could rally a room of people from across the company, who could speak with authority to our CEO and other executive team members, and who would do all the little things that it takes to see something through that is as fraught and anxiety-inducing as a total reconsideration of company's brand.
Given that potential for anxiety, and given Snagajob's size (mid-400s), age (17 years at this point), geographies (4 cities), and company philosophy (heavily mission-driven), Great Monday proposed a measured, thoughtful approach, designed to hand-hold us through every stage and maintain our confidence that we were on the right path. It also meant that it would take 4-5 months. Our executives wanted it sooner and pleaded with me to move faster, but I felt that in order for this to succeed, we needed to do it right – a rebrand isn't something you get to iterate on in the market.
I won't delve into every project detail. Suffice to say it included discovery, stakeholder and customer interviews, internal questionnaires, workshops, positioning and story development, brand architecture, and brand personality.
Oh and naming. That I do want to talk about. Before I do, it helps to set up a couple of things.
Brand Workshop Reveals Key Strategic Foundations
About a month and a half into the work, Great Monday hosted a workshop with 20 people pulled from all departments, and from all levels of seniority (though it was admittedly top-heavy).
They lead us through a series of activities, two of which proved crucial in defining our brand. In their discussions with internal stakeholders, the identified a few areas of tension. They placed opposing concepts on a simple single-line spectrum, and had us dot-vote where we thought we currently were, and where we should be. Two of these dominated our discussion:
- Were we a 'tech' company or a 'people' company?
- Do we lean more towards the worker or the employer?
The placement of the dots wasn't nearly as important as the discussion it catalyzed. For the first, the passionate discussion made it clear that we were, and wanted to be perceived as, a 'people' company. In fact, we considered it ironic that in a jobs/work space that is so much about people, pretty much no competitor authentically embraced their humanism. The discussion around the second grew quite heated, as employers pay our bills, and many were adamant our brand should preference them. However, Great Monday had spoken to many employers, who expressed general apathy about our brand, saying that our value to them was our ability to appeal to workers. So we decided our brand would be 'worker first.'
Brand Architecture Forces Focus
After the workshop, the next key decision we made was to settle on a brand architecture. At the time, Snagajob was a somewhat clumsy "house of brands." The company was named Snagajob, and that name was used in our services that faced our jobseekers and workers. They had acquired PeopleMatter, an applicant-tracking SaaS offering, and kept that name as the brand facing employers. And then there was an innovation team that was developing an on-demand offering, which they branded as HUSL.
We had an opportunity to approach this thoughtfully. Should we keep this individual architecture where you have different brands under a corporate brand (think GM and Buick, Chevrolet, Cadillac); a monolithic architecture where there's one brand to rule them all, with sub brands underneath (FedEx, and FedEx Ground, FedEx Express, FedEx Office), or a hybrid architecture that features a strong corporate brand, but gives room for subbrands that stand on their own (Marriott with Courtyard by Marriott, Residence Inn, J.W. Marriott, etc.). At our size (450 employees), and in our market (job marketplace, similar to Indeed and LinkedIn), it became quickly clear that monolithic was the way to go. No one else in our space had different names for the worker and employer facing services, and pretty much no marketplace business does. The strength of a marketplace is signaled by having one brand that hosts everybody.
If we're going to have one name…
With the decision to be a monolithic brand, we then had to come to terms with the matter of the name. The easiest solution would be to call everything Snagajob. It's how we'd been known for 17 years. The problem was that the name is distinctly worker-facing. Employers might not care, but it felt inappropriate to actively exclude them. But also, the company had evolved beyond jobs, with the most exciting opportunity being in on-demand, helping employers and workers make it easier to offer and pickup shifts. And while "Snagajob" may have felt dot-com appropriate when coined in 2000, by 2017 it came across as clunky and unprofessional.
I found out that, even before I joined the company, the idea of renaming it "Snag" had been floated. It mimicked Snapchat renaming themselves "Snap," was brief and catchy, and maintained some brand equity while allowing for offerings beyond jobs. However, the word "snag" has primarily negative connotations (hitting a snag, a snag in sweater). Unsure quite how to proceed, we engaged in a naming exercise with Great Monday.
Naming is a bit of a black art. We fed them a bunch of brand names we liked and didn't like, and the reasons why. We also had our brand positioning and personality characteristics (more on those later). After many days of what I assume was playing with morphemes, paging through dictionaries and thesauruses, and long soaks in the bathtub, they presented us about 20 names to consider, and another 100-plus that had also come up. We went through a few rounds of throwing things away, coming up with new stuff, and eventually had a selection of 3 names that we liked.
(No, I'm not going to share them with you. Maybe over beers.)
The problem is, we couldn't agree on them. Of the 5 or 6 people on the 'core team' for the brand, there was no consensus. And our executive sponsors also didn't align. Our CEO pointed out that what we think doesn't matter nearly as much as what our jobseekers and workers thought, so why don't we ask them? So we set up one of the quickest bits of research I've overseen in my career, talking individually to 12 jobseekers (NO FOCUS GROUPS. EVER.) across the United States about the three names we were considering. Oh, and we threw "Snag" in there as well to see how it compared. We asked them their impressions of the different names, and then we had them rate the names against each of our brand personality traits, as we wanted to make sure that the name spoke to how we wanted to be perceived.
Coming out of the research, jobseekers exhibited a variety of preferences, with no one clear "winner." But, to our surprise, the name that scored strongest was…Snag. After all that work, it turned out the right name was there the whole time. There were no regrets about the process – we needed to go through that rigamarole to have confidence that Snag could, in fact, work for us.
If you were a tree, what kind of tree would you be?
Going all the way back to the brand workshop, there was another activity that proved key to our brand strategy. And that was having each of us propose a spokesperson for the brand, someone, out in the world, who represents what we felt our brand stood for. People came up with all kinds of answers. I don't remember them all, but some were America Ferrara, Zendaya, Barack Obama.
For each spokesperson we listed 3 to 4 personality traits that explained why they were a good representative. Across the 20 or so spokespeople, we had 70-some adjectives emerge. After some sorting and categorizing, we arrived at the following groups:
We knew this was too many. And some, like "Human" and "Genuine" have become cliches; even if they are true for you, they're no longer interesting as brand characteristics, as too many companies claim them. Key to successful brand traits is that they're a) authentic and b) ownable. To be ownable, it means that no other competitor could claim them. (You also want to avoid traits that are really just table stakes for being in business, like "trustworthy.") With that mindset, we got it down to:
However, we felt 5 was more than could be readily remembered, so we got out our scalpel, and trimmed it to:
I love these traits. They strongly resonate with Snag's internal culture. They're humanistic. They're candid — "determined" recognizes the toil it takes to succeed. They're unexpected – "sincere" is surprisingly sentimental for a company (we almost went with "heartfelt" but thought that was a bit too much.)
With the brand strategy, architecture, new name, and new characteristics, we had a strong definition of our new brand. The next step was to figure out how to express that personality, which I will describe when I get around to writing part 2.
(For the sake of verbal expedience, I'm probably not spending enough time highlighting the individuals at Snag who made this all go. Along with Bridget, our core team featured Dane Schwartz, and then in the next concentric circle out was Jason Conrad and Megan Overton. None of this would have happened without the support of my boss, Jocelyn Mangan, or the encouragement of our CEO, Peter Harrison.)
Leaving Snag, figuring out my professional next
My previous post, from the beginning of last year, announced me joining Snagajob as the VP of Design. This post announces my departure, as Snag (as the rebranded company is now known, more on that in a moment) has closed their Oakland office to apply sharper focus on their teams in Richmond, VA, Washington, D.C., and Charleston, SC.
There are quite a few stories to tell, particularly around the rebrand, which launched to the public last week. Those will be coming soon!
After having written Org Design for Design Orgs, many folks asked if I could consult, advise, or teach them about design organization development, design leadership, DesignOps (as it's now called), and other related matters. With my full-time job, I couldn't, but now I can, and would love to help design teams be the best and most effective that they can be. (Email me at peterme AT this site's domain name).
I'm also in the market for a great design and product management executive role. One thing in particular that was gratifying was being able to use the book as playbook for my time at Snag, and seeing how well it worked. I'd love to apply it to larger scale organizations (over 50, over 100, even over 200!).
My time at Snag was too brief, but will always be special to me. Not only did I get to lead a company-wide rebrand (with a new name and everything), I got to work with talented people in an environment with less drama than any other I've encountered. I'm proud of what we achieved, and I look forward to cheering them on from the sidelines.
I've got a new job: VP of Design at Snagajob (and we're hiring in Oakland, CA and Richmond, VA)
The new year brings some career news from me: I'm joined Snagajob, the leading marketplace for lightly skilled hourly work (think restaurant, retail, hotels), as their VP of Design.
This role strongly appealed to me for many reasons:
Orchestrating product and marketing into a single service experience. Most companies see marketing and product as distinct areas, which is a retrograde perspective beholden to a 20th century mindset. 21st century connected services should orient by customer journey, and that approach renders "marketing" and "product" as simply aspects of the broader service experience. My boss, Jocelyn Mangan, oversees both marketing and product, and my team delivers across both.
Building a marketplace. I love marketplace dynamics. Our marketplace has employers looking to hire and workers looking for work, and we're looking at how we can do more to support their interactions.
The worker comes first. Talking to leadership at Snagajob before I joined, I found it reaffirming how clearly they stated that the company is "worker first." Given our marketplace, it makes business sense: we need the job seekers to fill the roles that our employers pay us to staff. But I also believe it makes ethical sense, particularly in an economy where these lightly skilled workers are increasingly subject to inequality.
Building a presence in Oakland. I live in Oakland, and have wondered for years why more companies were establishing a presence here, instead opting to compete for the outrageous real estate prices and other costs of San Francisco. That is changing (thanks to companies like Pandora, VSCO, and 99 Designs), and I'm eager to help build a professional community in Oakland that reflects the residential community as well.
Speaking of building a presence, we are hiring in Oakland, two roles in particular – Senior/Lead Product Designer (for mobile) and Lead UX Researcher (this role could also be based in Richmond, VA). Reach out to me at Peter DOT Merholz AT Snagajob if you're interested.
Holy shit! I co-wrote a book. You can read it right now!
Org Design for Design Orgs, the book I co-wrote with Kristin Skinner, is now available as an ebook. You can order it from Amazon or O'Reilly.
We've also launched a website which we hope will over time become a growing source of ideas and materials for people building in-house design teams.
Now that there is a dedicated website, I'm going to be placing my org design thinking over there (and believe me, I have a lot of it!).
I'm so excited, and eager to hear what people think of the book!
You probably don't have enough designers
On Twitter, Sally Carson asked me the question, "…how to best 'resource' design & plan projects when you have designers embedded on cross-functional teams?"
I gave a 140-character answer, "The simple answer is: hire more designers. Or, only do so many projects where you can deliver quality. This means saying no to some." As I frequently am asked some variation of this question, it warrants a deeper response.
First, I'll start with a glib statement: You probably don't have enough designers. When I talk to folks who are feeling some sort of pain around their design team, more often than not the problem is that they are trying to do too many things with too few people. Design teams are typically understaffed, because it's not understood just how many people it takes to deliver on quality, and it's more prudent to under-hire (and save money!) than over-hire.
So, what happens when there aren't really enough designers to go around? Relevant to this discussion are a capable of paragraphs from my forthcoming Org Design for Design Orgs book:
Designers often express a couple of traits that can get them into trouble. One is a desire to please. Designers want to make others (clients, colleagues, users) happy. And so, when asked to do a thing, the default is often, "Yes." The other is a revulsion at seeing work go out without designer involvement. So, even when not asked to do a thing, if they see that something might be shipped that wasn't intentionally designed, they'll try to find a way to contribute, so that what is released isn't terrible.
While these intentions are good, the results are self-defeating. Teams get spread too thin, delivering across too many programs, work overlong hours, and ultimately deliver subpar work. A design organization is only as good as what it delivers, and if it is producing crap because it's trying to do too many things, than the rest of the organization will associate design with crap. Design leaders need to wield the power of "No." Design work should only be done when adequately prioritized and staffed, and when there is time to develop quality solutions. This doesn't have to mean excessively long schedules for endless rumination and exploration. Any good design leader knows that there is a point where a design team realizes diminishing returns. What it does mean is empowering the design organization to uphold what it takes to deliver quality, and decline work that doesn't fit.
Companies are always trying to do more than they have people to deliver on. And many are terrible at prioritization. A key means for prioritization is contained in Sally's initial question: the ability to appropriately staff a cross-functional team should be a forcing function for just what gets done. You shouldn't have to 'resource' embedded designers — by nature of their embedded-ness, they are automatically resourced. If you have to 'resource' designers,' that is a symptom of too few designers trying to do too many things. If a cross-functional team cannot be created without resourcing, and sustained for the long haul (i.e., not dissolved and reformed to do a totally different thing), then that's a bright sign that you shouldn't try to do that thing.
Now, it's hard for design leaders, especially those trying to earn credibility, to say, "No" to their colleagues. But it's imperative. Stick to your guns. Show just how good the work is when the team is appropriately staffed. When people see that, they will clamor to get more folks on the design team.
That leads to a whole other problem–recruiting and hiring. But it's a good problem to have!


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Wellness in a Castle
Achieve complete relaxation at the 400-year-old castle domain of Thermae Boetfort
Thermae Boetfort is a wellness centre with a unique character. You can relax in the shadow of the 400-year-old castle in either swimwear or nude. There are two completely separated sections with no less than nine different saunas in total, swimming pools, jacuzzis, wellness baths and a great deal of other wellness facilities. But Thermae Boetfort offers much more than that: pamper yourself with a relaxing massage or facial treatment, grab a bite to eat in the restaurant or during summer on the terrace, get warmed up during one of our many, daily Aufguss sessions and end the day with an overnight stay in our Thermae Boetfort hotel.
* With the exception of Holidays and during school vacations, the evening tariff is valid on Mondays, Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays from 18h00.

subset: commoncrawl


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Crisis of Meaning Article by Mohit Tater It was on my 35th birthday that a question struck my mind which initiated a radical change in my life. The question was "Are you going to live the same … [Read more...]
The Top 25 Savvy Mom Blogs to Check Out and Follow in 2016
Savvy Mom Blog? What is that?Savvy: shrewd and knowledgeable in the realities of life. These 25 Blogs have demonstrated a savviness to them, a knowledge in the realities of life, be it in raising a … [Read more...]
Top 25 Language Learning Blogs to Follow in 2016
Once you get your finances right, you can travel the whole world. You can enjoy a totally different culture and environment. At the same time it is a huge opportunity to learn, know people, make … [Read more...]
What are The Different Types Of Stock Options?
Companies oftentimes give different types of stock options incentive to their employees by offering an option to buy company stocks at a discount. This normally forms part of the employee's … [Read more...]
10 Best Gold Stocks That You Need To Watch
In this article we will cover current gold stocks that are hot with details about each company's background, its economic growth potential, advice from the experts, and recommendations as to which … [Read more...]
Top Career Bloggers You Need To Follow In 2016
Have you been in your current job for what seems like an eternity or just feel like every day is the same with no hope for a promotion any time soon? Did you once love your job, but have recently lost … [Read more...]
Top 25 Personal Finance Bloggers in 2016 (Plus 2 Bonus Ones)
Are you ready to reel in your spending and regain control of your personal finances? Look no further! Lucky for you, these personal finance bloggers dish out information along side personal success … [Read more...]
25 Interesting SEO Bloggers of 2016
Ever wonder where to get started in SEO? There is so much information online that it can be hard to determine what is relevant to your business at its current stage. So many people claim to be SEO … [Read more...]
The Top Entrepreneurship Blogs You Must Follow
The Top Entrepreneurship Blogs You Need To Start Following Today You've decided that you want to start your own path to freedom, and become an entrepreneur, which sounds great! However, the road to … [Read more...]
Top 25 Inspirational Career Advice Bloggers
Investing in assests is often cited as being a wise financial decision, but what is the most valuable asset you can invest in, that you have complete control over? That's right, YOU. If you are stuck … [Read more...]


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VIDEO: Appealing To Women, Social Fitness App PumpUp Raises $2.4M Led By General Catalyst
You would think that combining a health and fitness app with social networking features had kinda been done for a while. PumpUp, a social fitness app (on iOS/Android) says it has found a sweet spot in this area by appealing in particular to women via allowing them to post photos of their progress, thus creating a highly focused, supportive social community. The company is now closed a $2.4 million seed round led by General Catalyst Partners.
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Astrophysics > Solar and Stellar Astrophysics
Title: Constraining cosmic scatter in the Galactic halo through a differential analysis of metal-poor stars
(Submitted on 12 Sep 2017)
Abstract: We present the abundances of Li, Na, Mg, Al, Si, Ca, Sc, Ti, V, Cr, Mn, Co, Ni, Zn, Sr, Y, Zr, and Ba in a wide metallicity range ($-2.8 \le$ [Fe/H] $\le -1.5$). Using the differential technique allowed us to obtain an unprecedented low level of scatter in our analysis, with standard deviations as low as 0.05 dex, and mean errors as low as 0.05 dex for [X/Fe]. By expanding our metallicity range with precise abundances from other works, we were able to precisely constrain Galactic chemical evolution models in a wide metallicity range ($-3.6 \le$ [Fe/H] $\le -0.4$). The agreements and discrepancies found are key for further improvement of both models and observations. We also show that the LTE analysis of Cr II is a much more reliable source of abundance for chromium, as Cr I has important NLTE effects. These effects can be clearly seen when we compare the observed abundances of Cr I and Cr II with GCE models. While Cr I has a clear disagreement between model and observations, Cr II is very well modeled. We confirm tight increasing trends of Co and Zn toward lower metallicities, and a tight flat evolution of Ni relative to Fe. Our results strongly suggest inhomogeneous enrichment from hypernovae. Our precise stellar parameters results in a low star-to-star scatter ($0.04$ dex) in the Li abundances of our sample, with a mean value about $0.4$ dex lower than the prediction from standard Big Bang Nucleosynthesis; we also study the relation between lithium depletion and stellar mass, but it is difficult to assess a correlation due to the limited mass range. We find two blue straggler stars, based on their very depleted Li abundances. One of them shows intriguing abundance anomalies, including a possible zinc enhancement, suggesting that zinc may have been also produced by a former AGB companion.
Submission historyFrom: Henrique Reggiani [view email]
[v1] Tue, 12 Sep 2017 09:11:36 GMT (338kb,D)


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I really miss him a lot but I'm trying not to come off as pushy and I really trust and value your opinion xoxo Hope to hear from soon.
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Price on Application - For Sale|3 Bedrooms, 121 sqm approx
We are currently sold out of all the 3 bedroom homes at Camden, Royal Canal Park. Please register your interest for the next release later in the year at www.camden.royalcanalpark.com
"Camden" Royal Canal Park will comprise of 71 high quality 3 and 4 bedroom family homes.
Only one style of 3-bedroom home approx. 114.7 sq. m. / 1,234 sq. ft. coming to the marketin. One of the key design features is an additional study / living area just off the kitchen which can accommodate a unique multi-media wall.


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Finally got the sleeves of Big Sack sewed up. Still holding off on finished pics of her until the horrid ends are done in. But here's Buttonhole Bag all done and drying as we speak:
This is the bag before felting..
and here it is hanging to dry:
Dumb me didn't think to put the KA packet back for reference but I can tell you this: Of course, the creme color didn't felt as quickly as the other two. I'm guessing if I left it in the machine long enough for all the colors to felt uniformly the bag would have shrunk considerably more. It didnt' actually shrink as much as I thought it would, but rather it's more compacted.
And oh it's FUZZY!! I'm definitely going to have to invest in a lint shaver now. Especially since I have a bunch more of the Lamb's Pride yarn to work with. But after that.. I might have to go with doubling Cascade or something if I want a bulky knit.
I almost had a lapse today. Went surfing and came across some grab bags I almost couldn't resist. then Shetha talked some sense into me and I didn't buy any yarn. I'd like that pattern I was going to buy it for, though. It's a Modular Felted Backpack and it rocks! Well, it LOOKS like it rocks, I haven't knit it yet. I just hope I have enough in my stash to do it with so I won't have to buy any yarns. And then…finding the notions to put it together with should be a cinch!
My friend MC crochets and is really interested in felting a crocheted bag. If anyone can help her out with a pattern it'd be greatly appreciated! She also going to try Kool Aid dyeing for the first time and has inspired me to get back into that. It's going to be fun for the summer! I even saw some websites with info on dyeing yarns with spices!! Shetha's site is one such place.
So, there's a way to wind hanks into pull skeins, using a yarn swift and ball winder. But there's GOTTA be a better way to wind balls into hanks for dyeing besides winding stuff around chairs and crap. I wish this could come to me in a dream 'cause it sure ain't happening while I'm among the conscious. I've tried enlisting the arms of hubby, and children but they always start to whine and sulk and fuss if required to stand still for more than 20 seconds so that's out. I guess I'll have to go back to winding them around a big piece of cardboard. I'm talkin BIG like taller than your average 2 year old. At least then I'll get some upper arm strength!


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Is this Hitler's signature is original or fake ?
Is this Hitler's signature is original or fake ?
I'm no signature expert, but I think this may be a stamp. I actually own the same post card.
The 2nd photo looks almost like it was done in Ballpoint. Not a good sign....
"Much that once was, is lost. For none now live who remember it."
My bad, I thought my Postcard was the same but it's not. The border is what I remembered.
Last edited by Dean; 08-10-2013 at 12:23 AM.
Welcome to the forum charondas,
Initial thoughts are not good. Can you post a clear front on view taken in natural light?
Experienced guide and published author leading detailed study trips to the former KZ sites of Nazi Germany. Contact for further details.
"maka akaŋl oyate maŋi pi ki le, tuweŋi wíyópeya oki hi sni"
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Present: Sandy Birch, Kathleen Clotfelter, Heidi Estrin, Inez Feingold, Jackie Fine, Etta Gold, Adele Katz, Fran Levine, Annette Rindner, Walter Spielman, Lee Wixman, Helene Yentis.
I) Heidi welcomed everyone at 12:30pm and thanks Inez Feingold for hosting our meeting.
II) We discussed the AJL national convention, which will take place June 18-21 in Cambridge, MA. We discussed the fact that there are airline discounts available through the work of Lee Wixman, and that AJL offers travel stipends. High school librarians can get Avi Chai grants for attending convention. There was also a suggestion that grants might be available through the Humanities Council or other outside organizations.
III) Heidi passed out the new 2006 Sydney Taylor Book Award bookmarks, which list the gold and silver medalists for this year.
IV) Guest speaker Helene Yentis spoke and showed slides on medieval Hebrew illuminated manuscripts. She also provided an extensive bibliography on manuscripts and Jewish art. For information, contact her at email@example.com.
V) We talked about next year's plans for SFAJL. At the last meeting it was suggested that next year we focus on outreach to educate the wider community about Jewish books. The attendees at the April meeting agreed that this was a worthy goal. We also discussed trying some alternate meeting times next year: perhaps some evenings or weekends. Next year we will try to have a joint meeting with the Florida West Coast chapter in Naples, perhaps scheduled around an interesting weekend event there. It was suggested that we should make book-sharing a more regular part of our meetings.
VI) Heidi spoke about her podcast, The Book of Life, available at www.jewishbooks.blogspot.com. She showed the books and CD's whose creators were interviewed on the April episode: Miriam and Her Brother Moses by Jean Marzollo, Shlemiel Crooks by Anna Olswanger, the Shirlala Pesach CD by Shira Kline, and the Pharoah Pharoah CD single by Steve Brodsky and Mah Tovu. She also recommended a new Jewish children's novel she had just finished: Julia's Kitchen by Brenda Ferber.
VII) Lee Wixman reported that we have new AJL members in Puerto Rico and St. Thomas, recruited while he was on a Carribean cruise.
VIII) We toured the exhibit at the JCC: Magda Watts' amazing Israeli dolls.
IX) The meeting adjourned at 2:15pm.


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1.Yellow bumps on your eyelids- It could be a sign that your cholesterol is too high, when you've got too much fat in your system, it can cause tiny yellow spots on your upper eyelids. The fix: Get tested to see if your cholesterol's in the danger zones. Basically, an overall cholesterol above 239, or "bad" cholesterol over 159. Make sure you eat more fruits, veggies and whole grains, and exercise 30 minutes a day. The yellow eyelid bumps may shrink as your cholesterol drops, but if not, a dermatologist can easily remove them.
2. Super-dry lips- It could mean you're slightly dehydrated, and just need to drink more water, but you could also be getting too much vitamin A. In healthy amounts, vitamin A boosts skin-cell replacement. However, too-high levels can cause severe dehydration, toxicity, and birth defects. The fix: If you take supplements, make sure you're not taking more than 5,000 IU a day. Make sure you count natural sources for vitamin A, like eggs and fortified milk.
3. Fingernails that turn white when you press on them- All nails turn white when you apply pressure, but if they stay white for up to a minute, you may be low in iron, or even anemic. The fix: Switch to iron-rich foods like salmon and spinach, but don't take an iron supplement without talking to your doctor first.
4. Swollen fingers- You may simply be eating too much salt, but it could also mean a sluggish thyroid, which can lead to heart disease, kidney problems, and glaucoma if it's left untreated. The fix: Ask your doctor about getting a blood test to check your thyroid.
An article I read from Self Magazine.
"Just when the caterpillar thought the world was over it became a butterfly". Join me as I walk through this wonderful journey of my so called life.
Tuesday, April 28, 2009
Never Ignore this Symptoms
2 comments:
- Cecile said...
nice post, very helpful, thanks for sharing it wit us :-)
- April 28, 2009 at 4:40 PM
- texaswithlove1982 said...
You're welcome!
- April 28, 2009 at 5:18 PM
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Fast Forward and December is almost Here!
It feels so good to be back on my blog. I haven't really had the time to update my blogs since January because I have been quite busy. T...
I received this picture from my Uncle during my cousin's birthday last week. I find the picture to be super gorgeous and look extremely...
It feels so good to be back on my blog. I haven't really had the time to update my blogs since January because I have been quite busy. T...
I have been wearing make-up for over six years now and I love every moment of it. I did not wear make-up until I left home and got ...


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Thursday, April 16, 2009
Le Cheneau on the French Riviera
The French Riviera region is located in South of France and includes the stretch of coastline from Toulon to the Italian border. This exclusive resort area has always been a popular tourist destination offering visitors spectacular coastline, sunshine, and upscale twons and village. Area cities worth a look include the glamorous towns of Antibes, Juan-Les-Pines, Saint Tropez, Nice and Monaco. While here enjoy beach combing, world class dining and shopping, museums and other historical sites, and more.
Valbonne is a historic old village in the French Riviera containing luxury villas, and estates offering visitors a central square, cafes, little shops, restaurants, night life and more. Area attractions include the 12th-century Eglise Saint Blaise and the Moulin des Moines.
Le Cheneau is a large Provence style house on a shaded private quiet park, near the old village of Valbonne, on the outskirts of Cannes and Antibes and the beach. the accommodation is located just a few minutes drive from cultural sites like numerous museums and gardens, restaurants, casinos and passionate events like Cannes Film festival, jazz festivals, and Monoco F1 Grand Prix. Le Cheneau offers elegant accommodations with a nice warm welcome and represents ideal starting point to stroll along the shore and backcountry.
Posted by Yvonne Tornatta at 6:25 AM
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Monday, May 3, 2010
Remeber that Rapper from that Gorillaz Song?
I think I first heard this man rap way back when the Gorillaz first came out with their "Clint Eastwood" music video. Hell, I remember even being able spout out the lyrics to that song on command. His voice, flow, and style was so laid back, but all I knew him as was a ghost in the music video.
Fast forward to about 7 or so years later, and I find myself going back to hip-hop with a feeling that I missed out on something. I started listening to old, less popular stuff, and then I came across Del the Funky Homosapian's album, "I Wish My Brother George Was Here."
Here is a link to get it:
Anyways, his music is fun, his lyrics are interesting, and he is very relaxing and chill to listen too. Get this album, sit around on your front porch with a beer, and just chill out.
Labels: backpacker, not starbucks approved
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Your Alice Mandatory Technical Rehearsals
Monday May 30th at 2:00 – 3:15 IN FAIRFAX
The following rehearsals will be at the Marin Center Theater:
Tuesday May 31st 4:40pm -6:00pm (Garden)
Friday June 3rd 3:30pm – 6:00pm Alice dress rehearsal, Dancers must return to the Theater at 7:00pm.
* Please note that all performers must be at these rehearsals in order to be in the show.
The May 7th rehearsal which was previously listed, has been removed. A new date of May 15th has been added. The Workshop Dates below are now accurate as of today.
You are performing in the ALICE show on June 3rd at 8:00pm and on June 4th at 7:00pm.
Your Performance Workshop Dates
Saturday March 26th 12:30pm-2:30pm
Saturday April 2nd 2:30pm-4:30pm
Saturday April 23rd 12:30pm-2:30pm
Saturday May 14th 12:30pm-2:30pm
Sunday May 15th 1:30pm-3:30pm
Tuesday May 17th 3:30pm – 4:30pm NEWLY ADDED DATE
Thursday May 19th 3:30pm – 4:30pm NEWLY ADDED DATE
Tuesday May 24th 3:30pm – 4:30pm NEWLY ADDED DATE
Thursday May 26th 3:30pm – 4:30pm NEWLY ADDED DATE
Costume Information
Please provide a Black Camisole Leotard and bring it to the May 30th rehearsal. Roco will provide the rest.


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Professor Christine Coughlin (JD '90) takes on North Carolina court-packing rumors on Huffington Post blog
Research | Comments Off
The Huffington Post Blog
November 22, 2016
Professor Christine Coughlin (JD '90) originally published the following post, "Court-Packing Rumors In North Carolina And The Need For Judicial Independence," on The Huffington Post Blog on Nov. 22, 2016.
Editor's Note: The views and opinions of our faculty members that are invited to write in national media outlets are their own, and not reflective of Wake Forest Law as an institution. Our policy is to re-publish all faculty member articles that are published in national media.
While the Constitutions of the United States and North Carolina provide the blueprint for our government's structure and the rights we all enjoy, this blueprint, and our associated rights, are meaningless without independent courts to protect us. The principle of judicial independence—that is, our courts should not be subject to partisan influence from other governmental branches—is one of the most revered principles in our country. Indeed, in North Carolina, while candidates disclose political affiliation, Supreme Court judicial elections are supposed to be nonpartisan and subject to the will of the people.
Recent events threaten to change this. On November 8, Judge Michael R. Morgan, defeated incumbent Justice Robert H. Edmunds in the general election for the North Carolina Supreme Court by a margin of 54.06% to 45.94% shifting the balance of the Court toward justices with Democratic affiliations. Various news outlets now report that Governor McCrory and the General Assembly may call an emergency legislative session purportedly to provide additional relief for victims of Hurricane Matthew. During this emergency session, so the rumor goes, the General Assembly may pass legislation creating two new Supreme Court seats, to be filled by McCrory appointments, to shift the balance of the Court back to a Republican affiliated majority.
Court-packing legislation is inconsistent with North Carolina law, violates North Carolina practice, and contradicts the philosophy of citizen-based government. While there are historical examples of both Democrats and Republicans attempting to take partisan advantage of the judiciary, never before has court packing been attempted with our state's highest court. The time has come for both parties to rise above politics and to embrace the principle of judicial independence.
Since the North Carolina Constitution was adopted in 1868, and revised in 1971, we have never had more than seven Supreme Court Justices (one Chief Justice and six Associate Justices). While Section 6 of Article IV permits the General Assembly to increase the number of Associate Justices to "not more than eight," it has never seen a need to do so.
Historically, the Administrative Office of the Courts (AOC) requests additional judicial seats when the workload of the court justifies the need. This is, in part, because of the significant long-term expenses incurred with a new judicial seat. Here, expenses would include, but not be limited to, building and maintaining two new judicial chambers, overhead, salaries, expenses and benefits for two new Associate Justice, law clerks, staff and administrative assistants. To my knowledge, there have been no studies or evidence supporting a need to increase the size of our Supreme Court based on workload. In fact, while North Carolina Court of Appeals' judges average more than 100 opinions per year per judge, Supreme Court justices average approximately five opinions each per year. Given this, if the General Assembly wishes to create additional seats, it should work with the AOC to study the Court's workload needs before incurring these expenses. Absent demonstrated need, such expenses (that will be passed on to the taxpayers) should not be taken lightly in these economic times.
There are also possible questions about how these positions could be filled under a textual analysis of Article IV, Sections 6, 16 and 19. While some argue that Governor McCrory could appoint judges under Article IV, Section 19 of the North Carolina Constitution, that argument appears inconsistent with Section 16 that requires Supreme Court Justices to be "elected by the qualified voters of the state." Basic canons of interpretation require us to read sections of the North Carolina Constitution consistently, and not in a manner that may render one section meaningless. Case law that supports the Section 19 appointment interpretation is distinguishable.
Recent election litigation has affirmed the importance of competitive judicial elections under our Constitution. In 2015, Governor McCrory signed into law a bill that required sitting Supreme Court Justices to undergo a "yes" or "no" retention election instead of a competitive election. The North Carolina Supreme Court, in a 3 to 3 split, upheld the lower court's decision that the retention law was unconstitutional because it was not an "'election' for the office of supreme court justice as required by the constitution."
Real questions exist whether the rumored court-packing plan could survive legal challenge. However, legal challenges aside, any lame duck restructuring of our entire Supreme Court—after the loss of an election — is inconsistent with principles of citizen-based government. Earlier this year, eight months before the 2016 election, U.S. Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia passed away. After his death, President Obama nominated Judge Merrick Garland, the Chief Judge of the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals to fill the seat. Republicans in the U.S. Senate refused to act on the nomination before the presidential election because it violated the fundamental principle of citizen-based government.
Here, the court-packing rumors turn the principle of citizen-based government on its head. The framework of our highest court would be altered after the election to allow an outgoing Governor to appoint two new justices to skew the political balance of our Supreme Court. Whether you are a Democrat or Republican, this move is a slap in the face to the electorate, violates the principles of judicial independence and citizen-based government and delegitimizes our Supreme Court. Is this the path North Carolina really wants to go down, or is it time for politics to get out of our judiciary?
Category: Research | Tag: Christine Nero Coughlin, North Carolina Supreme Court, The Huffington Post


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This song has the worst mixing of any track this month full stop. But luckily there is a degree of character that kind of makes up for it… But not really. Now I've heard of TLSP but I've never actually heard one of their songs. Only today I found out that they were a supergroup; I'm a bit behind the trend I know and I apologise… But other than what I stated, what did I think of this track…?
I mean it's okay, but it's horrifically mixed. I enjoyed certain parts, but it's a downright lazy song that is excused because it's 'indie' and or 'alternate'. When it comes to Arctic Monkeys, I loved the pre-2013 stuff. As soon as they sold out making these really bland, yet commercialised pieces of rock and roll crap, I fell out of love. This group seems to be just an extension of that. It's just bland and lazy, I can't highlight that many positives other than the fact that at least they tried something without incorporating steel pans… I'm looking at you Mura Masa.
Production wise this song is horrific and I had to double take to see if it was real. The guitars are panned miles apart from each other, the bass in crazily quiet and the drums sound like they were recorded with a snowball microphone rather than mic-ing every single drum. It sounds so bad. The vocals are rough as heck as well and not in the cool grungy way, in the 'I just can't be bothered to mix vocals' way. I mean it honestly sounds atrocious and you all might tell me 'yeah but it was done on purpose' and sure I know it was, but why? It just makes the song you already have, sound a hundred times worse.
Musicality wise the song is just an up tempo French-blues rock track and a bad one at that. The lyrics once translated are terrible and meaningless, and nothing happens at all. It's just rinse and repeat. I saw a comment on the video saying that the guitar solo is 'killer'… Have we forgotten what a guitar solo is? Because this one was rough as heck and wasn't even a solo anyway… It was just a load of frenetically strummed power chords. Now the song isn't all bad. The transitions are inventive, the organ is very catchy and there is a nostalgic feel… But I just can't help feeling that if more effort was put into post production, then this track would be so much better. The vocal performance is okay but it didn't float my boat and I don't particularly like being shouted at when listening to alternate track.
All in all then I don't recommend this track unless you're a fan. I don't know whether all this groups music is like this, but this has hardly made me want to go out and listen to more.
4/10 – Terrible production cut short the broad potential.


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MOSCOW, December 30. /ITAR-TASS/. Seven people, who were injured during the terrorist act at a railway in Volgograd on Sunday, December 29, have good chances for recovery, head of the Burns Center of the Vishnevsky Institute Andrei Alexeyev said on Monday.
A plane of the Emergency Situations Ministry will leave for Volgograd shortly to evacuate people, who have been injured when an explosion hit a trolleybus in the southern Russian city of Volgograd, Emergencies Minister Vladimir Puchkov said.
The Il-76 plane is equipped with five medical modules and carries doctors of the Central Airmobile Rescue Detachment (Tsentrospas) and the Zashchita All Russian Center of Emergency Medicine.
The emergencies minister asked to organize "an air bridge" between Volgograd and Moscow to transport relatives of injured and dead people by special route.
"The trolleybus was ripped to shreds; only the nose was left relatively intact. Conditionally speaking, the roof became the cupola of the blast," Volgograd mayor's spokesperson Mikhail Serenko said.
15 people were killed and 28 wounded in the attack. The death toll raised from 10 to 15 persons, as five of the injured died in hospitals.
According to preliminary data, the attack in Volgograd's trolleybus was carried out by a suicide bomber, as a source in region's law enforcement bodies told Itar-Tass.
"This is indicated by the character of the explosion and the typical bodily fragments found on the spot," he said.
The most probable version of the trolleybus blast in Volgograd is triggering an explosive device laid in the passenger compartment. The criminal case is filed under "Terrorist attack" article, the information center of the National Counter-terrorist Committee said.


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Say Goodbye To Cellulite By Using These Tips
Ask any woman what she thinks about cellulite, and not one will have anything positive to say. It is common, but it doesn't make it any easier to deal with. If this is something you want to lose, then the following tips are for you.
Drink more water. Water helps prevent it instead of cure it. Water helps hydrate your skin. Water works to help the body shed cellulite-causing toxins. Six glasses of water each day is the minimum recommended level of hydration.
Use moisturizing lotion on your skin regularly. Keeping the skin moisturized is good to do for a number of reasons. It can do great things to help battle cellulite. When you apply a moisturizer to your skin, make sure that you gently massage any issue areas. Massage helps break down fat deposits located under the skin.
If you think you're always battling with cellulite, you have to drink more water. Staying hydrated may not cure cellulite, but it can stop it from occurring or reoccurring. Maintaining proper skin hydration is very essential. This also helps get rid of toxins from your system. Try drinking no fewer than six glasses daily.
Green Tea
If you drink tea, switch to the green variety to fight cellulite. Green tea contains some amazing ingredients that help your body break down fatty pockets. This, of course, means you'll have to deal with less cellulite. If you like, it is possible to purchase green tea supplement pills.
Many people use plastic surgery to eliminate cellulite, but try not to do so if you don't have to. It can be dangerous, though. Surgery should only be an option if nothing else works.
Moisturize your skin regularly. There are numerous reasons why it is a good idea to moisturize your skin. One of them is that it can really help with fighting cellulite. Gently massage your trouble spots as you are applying the moisturizer. Massaging the moisturizer helps you break up fat deposits, which will help cut down cellulite.
A proper diet is a very effective way to deal with cellulite. Foods that contain a lot of lecithin are awesome at ridding your body of cellulite. Spinach, eggs, apples, lettuce and peanuts can add the lecithin you need to keep your skin smooth. Avoid fatty junk foods.
Smoking is not good for your body or your cellulite. Smoking can increase your cellulite problems. The toxins it puts into your body make your skin less elastic and flexible. That can worsen cellulite. One result of this is wrinkles. If you can't quit alone, ask for help.
Make an effort to reduce the stress in your life. Stress can be a cause of cellulite forming. Stress produces a hormone called cortisol which can make your body store energy and fat. Try doing yoga or meditating. Go for walks that are relaxing. Use a method that you can stick with, and try to get a restful sleep every night.
If you wish to rid yourself of cellulite, what you eat may be your answer. Eat a lot of vegetables and fruits. Doing this creates an alkaline ash which can reduce the appearance of cellulite, among other things. Juicing is a fast and effective way to get your daily dose of fruits and veggies, and help combat cellulite.
Less Obvious
Tanning can help to make cellulite less obvious. The tanning just helps it to seem less obvious, it doesn't get rid of the cellulite. Try to avoid a great deal of sun exposure. Stick with artificial options. Make sure that you research the brand you buy and how you should apply it to your skin.
A body brush can be helpful. This assists you in ridding your skin of dead cells. It also stimulates your circulation and will improve lymphatic flow. This process will promote cells of the skin to drain, thus reducing cellulite. Long strokes twice daily will give you the best results.
If you drink tea, try drinking green tea in the mornings to fight cellulite. Green tea includes some helpful ingredients that assist your body in breaking down fat. The result is, happily, the reduction of cellulite. For a more potent product, you can purchase capsules of green tea as well.
It is not necessary for you to feel lazy or unhealthy if you are dealing with cellulite. Many women have cellulite, so you shouldn't feel alone! These article tips can help you achieve that smooth skin that you want.


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Just doing some exercises thanks to a lovely tutorial I found from Pelleron Art. It's kind of an intermediate tutorial, it goes over tips for cutting out images but mostly assumes basic knowledge of Photoshop. I'm pretty happy with the result but oh so lazy to go over details lol
Serene Fantasy Manipulation
Chevelle Y Monday, August 18, 2014 Leave a Comment
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It has been a good day so far. My friend Martha stopped by. I have known Martha from the Bloggy World for years now. I met her In Real Life a while back, and went to her house. Today, she came here. It was a very pleasant visit, just ask Jonny, who is a People Person, and thought that Martha came just to see him:) I had put pumpkin muffins in the oven to warm it a bit in here, and dang it, I forgot to offer one to Martha....she will just have to come over again.
We are heading to the library. It is essential for home school, to stock up on those books. During our school days, when they finish their work, if they're looking for something to do, my first response is Go Read A Book. Cam usually answers that she has already read all of hers. The older girls do a lot of their work from library borrowed text books. And I just plain love getting a new stack of books for myself.
A stop at the store is in order too, we are out of butter, need a gallon of milk, and perhaps some fresh produce. I love apple season, we have an abundance of those, and a pile of squashes too. Oh, for dinner last night, I finally tried spaghetti squash. I made a big pot of meat sauce with peppers and onions, and a pan of pasta (spaghetti) for the kids, plus some green beans...anyway, I loved the squash! It was SO easy to make. I just quartered it, took out the guts, and microwaved it. Paul and I each ate a quarter, it came out of the rind like spaghetti, like magic, and it tasted so good with the sauce.
Too bad I had to go and eat two pumpkin muffins for breakfast. Blah. Oh well, I can behave for the rest of the day. I can't help it I am such a good baker.
It is cold and overcast, and I wish I had a fireplace in my living room. I think we will get a space heater in here for our homeschooling days, so it is at least warm and cuddly.
The dogs are snoring on the couch, the girls are cleaning their rooms, Jon is hooking something up in his room, the older girls are doing some work. They came out of their room to make bacon and eggs...
The fact of the matter is that I could just go crawl into my comfy bed and take a nap today. I stayed up too late last night, and didn't sleep well. I just kept waking up. When it was time to get up this morning, I would close my eyes again and be dreaming again, it was so hard to get up. When it's dark and chilly, a nap sounds so nice. I don't really take naps anymore, but I do remember them fondly. They were my main goal in life back when I had baby after baby, and sleep was a rarity.
Ah well, time to get moving again...
Monday, October 20, 2014
lazy sort of day....
Posted by 16 blessings'mom at 12:15 PM
1 comment:
- Martha said...
I thoroughly enjoyed my visit with you and Jon, and didn't really need a pumpkin muffin since I'd eaten peanut butter toast drank my coffee on my ride. But I will have to come again. :0)
I came home, checked my computer, and found that my eyes did not want to stay awake, so I curled up under one of my mom's cozy afghans and went to sleep on the couch. It felt so good.
- October 20, 2014 at 9:00 PM
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Chad Pearson
University of Colorado, Denver
Martin Simon
Saarland University, Germany
Naomi Stover
Bradley University
American University
4400 Massachusetts Avenue, NW
Washington, DC 20016
American University is located within a few miles of some of Washington, DC's most historic sites. Art, history, culture, and outdoor entertainment are all easily available.
Deadline for receipt of reservations is July 11, 2018.
Double Occupancy: $625
Single Occupancy: $716
The housing fee is per person and includes 5 nights of accommodations and meals beginning with dinner on Tuesday, July 17 through breakfast on Sunday, July 22. The housing fee does not include the meeting registration fee. There will be no refunds for missed meals and/or late arrivals or early departures. Single and double accommodations are available. Attendees will indicate their housing preference when they register for the meeting. If requesting a particular roommate be sure that each of you request the other as a roommate on the reservation form. Roommates will only be housed together if both people involved request each other.
If you must cancel your housing, please contact email@example.com. Due to housing guarantees, individuals who cancel after May 30 will not be entitled to a refund unless a substitution can be made.
To check in to your room, go to the front desk in Federal Hall on East Campus. The desk will be staffed 24 hours a day, seven days a week. At check-in you will receive a Summer Guest Card which acts as your room key and meal card. The front desk can provide information about campus, dining options on and off campus, transportation and area attractions.
Fees will be available in November 2017.


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Sunrise of Fort Worth
6151 Bryan Irvin Road , Fort Worth, TX 76132
(855) 840-7257
See Pricing
Reviews of Sunrise of Fort Worth
Jul 31, 2015 | Reviewed by Local Professional
I Visited This Community
This facility has so much to offer their residents with a wide variety of activities and events as well as day trips. The exterior looks like a lodge and is well manicured and kept. The meals are made from scratch with fresh ingredients to make a well balanced meal. You feel as if you are in a fine dining establishment. The staff is very friendly and welcoming to individuals, a very caring staff. There are different room floor plans depending on the individuals needs, but each room is comfortable and well lit.
1 person found this helpful. Was this helpful?
Jul 6, 2015 | Reviewed by Local Professional
I Visited This Community
Sunrise of Fort Worth is located just minutes from Kindred Hospital. The building is lovely inside and out. It feels a bit like a resort when it come to the design and layout. The common areas are clean and organized. The rooms are open and modern. The courtyard has a large gazebo and walking path. The care plans are individualized to maintain a well balanced lifestyle. The staff is great and caring. They are very passionate and informative when it comes to their memory care program. Meals are served resturant-style in the dining room. There is a small bistro-like area for snack and beverages throughout the day. The activities are very stimulating and fun. The Activities Coordinator encourages the residents to participate with new hobbies and to stay active through exercising and thinking games.
Was this helpful?
May 29, 2015 | Reviewed by Local Professional
I Visited This Community
Sunrise of Fort Worth is an attractive community with a nice courtyard with walking paths. The community has a focus on memory care and assisted living. The community has a variety of activities listed on the community calendar however the residents aren't encouraged to participate. The apartments are clean and cozy with basic upgrades. The building is well maintained and free from odor. The staff are not very friendly and could improve on customer service. The care team has a few challenges with patient response.
8 people found this helpful. Was this helpful?
Nov 14, 2013 | Reviewed by Local Professional
I Am A Friend Or Relative Of A Current/Past Resident
This is a review I hesitate to write but perhaps will help bring some needed improvments..I actually had a former client move into the memory care unit. I was extremely disappointed in the level of care. This resident and many others were poorly attended to. On one visit the RN was extremely rude and rough in attempting to examine the resident. The family removed my former client after just a brief stay and did not seemed to be concerned in the least. This was the most unfortunatel experience I have encountered with any facility that I have had direct experience with.
14 people found this helpful. Was this helpful?
10 Reviews
Costs for Sunrise of Fort Worth
Learn About Financing Options
Talk to a Family Advisor about how you can pay for care.
(855) 840-7257
Amenities at Sunrise of Fort Worth
Property Info
Licensed Capacity: 105
Emergency Services: Less than 1 Mile
Shopping: Less than 1 Mile
Full-Time Activity Director
Regular Outings and Trips
Parties and Socials
Outside Patio/Gardens
Pet Policy: Small pets allowed
Private Dining Room
Medication Management
Help with Activities of Daily Living
Transportation to Appointments
Tour Sunrise of Fort Worth
The best way to get to know a community is by scheduling a tour. See the facilities, meet the staff and residents, and get a feel first hand what it's like to live at Sunrise of Fort Worth.
Description of Sunrise of Fort Worth
Ideally situated in the "City of Cowboys and Culture" between I-20 and the Benbrook Lake, Sunrise at Fort Worth is a beautiful community designed for seniors who value their independence, yet desire assistance with the activities of life. As an assisted living community, we provide an intimate setting that features short-term stays, personal services and even Alzheimer's care for area seniors.
Sunrise at Fort Worth is managed by Sunrise Senior Living. Championing the quality of life for all seniors has been our mission since 1981, and it's what makes Sunrise one of the premier providers of senior living services.
Featured Amenities
Our traditionally decorated living spaces provide an elegant, yet comfortable setting to our lovely community. The personal living quarters at Sunrise at Fort Worth feature a variety of floor plans to choose from, complete with full bath, kitchenettes and emergency call systems.
We understand how dogs and cats nurture the spirit and provide friendly companionship, and residents are invited to bring their cherished pets with them to our community.
Residents freely enjoy the many comfortable common areas, relaxing in the courtyard, watching a favorite show with friends in the media room or lingering over coffee in our bistro. Our chefs have carefully prepared a delectable menu of dining options, served table-side in our dining room. We offer private dining areas for special occasions as well.
Available Services
We provide a unique selection of engaging social, educational and recreational programs that include scheduled transportation to off-site events. Our capable staff are available 24 hours a day to assist with day-to-day tasks, including bathing, personal hygiene and medication reminders.
Our memory care programs are based on creating "pleasant days," where residents are engaged in personalized life skills such as meal preparation, gardening and folding laundry, as well as other familiar and meaningful routines.
Our outstanding staff and premium care make Sunrise at Fort Worth a caring place to live.
Have Questions? Enter your email address below to get more information about Sunrise of Fort Worth


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BlackBerry will sell 'majority' of property in Canada (Video)
BlackBerry Ltd. is planning to sell more than 3 million square feet of real estate holdings in Canada and the Wall Street Journal says the move raised the question of whether the smartphone maker intends to remain based in Canada.
The Canadian property is the "majority" of the space BlackBerry has, and the Journal said it woulld sell the property holdings, "through a combination of sale-leaseback and vacant asset sales." It will use the real-estate firm CBRE Ltd. for the sales, the Journal said.
Most of the company's real estate holdings are in Waterloo, the home of its headquarters, but it also has offices in Toronto and parts of Ontario.
BlackBerry (Nasdaq: BBRY) already has put its U.S. headquarters campus in Irving up sale, but the company has said that Irving remains an important part of its operations. The company has laid off several hundred workers in Irving in the past year.
BlackBerry is trying to right the ship, after reporting a fiscal third-quarter loss of $4.4 billion.
New CEO John Chen is based in the Silicon Valley in California and commutes to Waterloo, along with several other other company executives, the Journal said.
BlackBerry's fortunes were bolstered this week with the announcement by the U.S. Department of Defense that it would use 80,000 BlackBerry devices as part of a new defense network, causing BlackBerry stock to rise.