text:
Light the Night Walk
(walk with us or donate)
October 22, 2011
Hard to believe it's August already. The summer really is flying by.
Anna's continued to make steady progress over the last few weeks. Around mid-July, they really started pushing her to gain some weight. She had dropped a couple pounds after leaving the hospital, and they really wanted to see her putting some weight back on. The biggest problem was her taste buds, in that everything tasted metallic and it just wasn't pleasant for her to eat. They wound up pushing her to use a Hydrogen Peroxide mix as a mouth wash, and that slowly got rid of the coating that had been lining her mouth and allowed her to start tasting food again. Over the past 2 weeks, she's put on about 9 pounds, and is eating much better. She still needs to add a few more pounds, but is definitely heading in the right direction.
She continues to have twice a week treatments, but it's all been on an outpatient basis, so we're all happy about that. Some days, its just blood work and then a checkup with the doctor... other days, they keep her for fluids or additional IV meds. Her legs are still pretty weak and she definitely needs help at times, but she's much stronger than she was when she left the hospital. I think she takes about 40 plus pills a day, plus a home IV, plus insulin... so she's got a ways to go, but some of the meds are beginning to taper off a little. The progress feels pretty slow day over day, but it's really right on schedule and it's just going to be quite a while before she's able to be around people and participate in normal activities. She's snuck in a couple little trips to the supermarket or Lowe's. It's nice to see her moving around a bit.
Everything else at home is good... we just sent in the first check for TJ's Pre-K4 nursery school classes. Another 5 weeks or so, and he'll be going to school. Time sure does fly.
Anna has been home almost two weeks at this point, and continues to be treated on an outpatient basis. For the first few days, she was provided with a home IV system and after a little practice, it became relatively easy to administer. She's still on a pile of pills... really, it's a pretty good quantity a few times a day. But, those also are starting to decrease, which is a good sign. The dosage for the steroids has already dropped a couple of times, and should continue to taper off over the coming weeks. That'll be a big one, as the steroids really do mess you up pretty good. She also continues to go to the clinic twice a week, to have her numbers checked and to receive some medical care. The one day that she is there, is pretty much a full day appointment, as they administer treatment via IV over a pretty long period of time. The second day is a pretty quick check in.
Her energy level fluctuates a bit, as does her strength, but this week was definitely better than last week. She's spending more time out of bed, and at the kitchen table, or sitting on the couch, or even some time in our home office. She spent some time this past week putting together some materials for the Light the Night Walk 2010, so be on the lookout for the letter. We participated last year and raised over $10k, so hopefully we can do the same again this year. It's a pretty cool event. They did a really nice job last year, and I'm looking forward to it again this year.
Everything at home is OK... she needs to be in the house, and can't have visitors at this stage, so we're pretty much homebound. I go to work and hit the supermarket/Costco, but that's about it. Anna's mom's been staying with us for a bit, along with Norma, so TJ's care and the cooking/cleaning are pretty well covered at this point.
Happy 4th!
On Tuesday, the doctor let her know that barring any setback, she'd be cleared to go home on Wednesday. After the roller coaster that we've been on the last few months, I was a bit nervous about it and did my best not to even think about it. On Wednesday, the doctor checked her out and issued her discharge papers. It's a bit of a process to get discharged in that she needs to be disconnected from everything, and then go through her home medicines. I went over to the hospital and was able to meet with the nurse who was handling all of her home meds. We have a very large shopping bag worth of pills. Everything imaginable... and different instructions for everything. It took about an hour to go through all the instructions and get all of the info about home care. In addition to just the pills, we also learned how to check her blood sugar (and then give insulin shots depending on levels), and were setup with a home IV system. The US/Algeria game was on in the background as she was explaining everything, and I almost jumped out of my seat when Donovan scored that goal.
We made it home Wednesday and started getting settled in. With the combination of everything, she's a bit shaky and really doesn't have too much strength. I'm not sure if her feet got caught up on something or what happened, but somehow she tripped and fell in the kitchen. I was upstairs with the kid, and Anna's mom was downstairs with her. She banged her knee up pretty good, but other than that, didn't do any major damage. Sure would have been nice just to have a quiet night with no excitement, but I guess that wasn't meant to be.
Thursday was a quiet day with no doctor's appointments. It was the first time in ages that she had a day with no doctor's checking her out.
Friday she had her check up appointment and it turned out to be an all day event. They had the first part of the check up in the morning, then wanted to administer some fluids and other things. I think she was over there from about 10am-5pm, which is a pretty long day for anyone, but especially her these days. The doctor was pleased with her progress and likes the way things are looking.
The weekend was pretty quiet in terms of medical care. Normal routine of having someones family members around to help out with care, cooking, etc... TJ's been thrilled to have mom home. It was really nice to see him react when she first got in. She's moving pretty slow, and still has both the picc and port hooked up to her, so he really can't play too much with her, but at least they can be in the same room and watch TV or read or something.
All in all, things are moving forward and she seems to be on the right track here. She's on quiet a bit of meds, more than I can remember her being on in the past, but at least she's well enough to be home. The steroids definitely have the biggest impact at this point. She's on quite a bit, and it has a pretty rough impact on everything from sleep behavior, to moods, to eating, and really make her pretty shaky. Hopefully, those will start to taper off in a few weeks and then she'll be able to relax a little more.
It was nice to be home for a few nights this week, and actually have dinner in my own house and not out of a plastic container. We've all had to adapt to this new world that we live in, and we've made it this far. We know there will be some bumps in the road ahead... but, hopefully, the road ahead will be kinder to us than the road behind....


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A pragmatic model driven approach for performance engineering of transaction processing systems
November, 2005
by Michael Kok
|About the Author
1 Introduction
The changed business supported by a newly built information system was supposed to yield $ 200,000 savings per month. The system was to be rolled out to 700 users within three months time. But the roll out stalled at 85 users. Response times were in the order of minutes where they should have been seconds. It took six months to sort out the problem and correct it. The damage mounted to a $ 1.2 million for lost benefits, an unknown amount of further losses and $ 300,000 for hired expertise to correct the situation. There are several ways this disaster could have been prevented. The cost of which would not have exceeded $ 50,000. -.
Problems with responsiveness, i.e. poor response times, can occur at various stages in the lifecycle of an information system. Such problems can inflict tremendous damage. When implementing a new information system there is much at stake. A large investment in business transformation can be wasted because of poor response times of the supporting information system. Reducing such risks by securing responsiveness is a beneficial challenge. The mBrace approach is a model driven approach particularly developed to secure responsiveness in the commissioning stage of an information system.
The name mBrace is an acronym that intends to loosely refer to model based control of responsiveness. It is an approach that defines activities, techniques and deliverables.
This paper describes a number of interesting elements of the approach in two parts. The first part, published this month, outlines the approach and describes the way the model is used for performance analysis in a proactive improvement effort.
The second part, published next month, will illustrate how to create the model and obtain the necessary data to be filled into the model. For each project conducted with the mBrace approach the model is tailored to the specific situation. The model is then used in that project but is not a commercially available product by itself.
First the benefit of the approach is outlined, then a brief overview is presented and it is positioned against various alternatives. Then, an example case shows how the model is applied for analysis and proactive improvement of system performance.
2 Positioning the mBrace approach
2.1 Performance analysis and stages in the life cycle of an information system
Being dedicated to deliver and manage information systems with good performance, it is worthwhile to look at the lifespan of a typical system. A system may be viewed as having four stages that are essential with respect to system performance engineering:
- Planning
- Development
- Commissioning
- Exploitation
Figure 1 depicts the life span of a typical information system from a system performance engineering perspective. Quality of response times, also termed as responsiveness, is mapped on the y-axis. The bold black line describes the way responsiveness develops along the life span of the information system.
At cut over, responsiveness should be at the norm, but notice that it is still far below. After quite some effort, quality rises until it meets the norm and then the system is operationally ready. Often this point is reached several months after cut over. Then in the beginning quality first meets the norm. At some point in time however responsiveness may drop below the norm again for some reason.
When trying to control responsiveness the approach and its effectiveness is not the same in each stage. Each of the stages of the life span sets its own requirements for a performance engineering approach. In the first stage, Planning, senior management must legitimise the investment and estimate the future running costs of the projected system in order to fit it in the business case. The cost estimates have a limited reliability and must be repeatedly reaffirmed throughout the development stage. The client who ordered the system usually prefers to choose between high and low quality/cost options before the start of the development. This includes making a choice between higher performance and consequently higher cost or lower performance with lower costs in order to balance business performance and running costs. It seems to be difficult, if not impossible, to provide such kind of insight. For this the supplier of the system must be knowledgeable of the performance - cost curve (figure 3) of the system to be developed. If not feasible in the first stage, then in which stage can answers to such questions be provided?
At stage 2, Development, developers lay the basis for the systems performance. The application developers can test each transaction for its single user performance in the test environment. If necessary, they can investigate the transaction performance further with the help of a profiler. The infrastructure architects influence future performance when balancing state of the art and proven technology in their choice for infrastructure components.
At stage 3, Commissioning, the system is prepared for cut over and after that it shows its real life performance while being rolled out to an increasing number of users. Figure 1 depicts a case that occurs too often. The detail in figure 2, stresses the core of the problem. Responsiveness is far below the target at cut over. Consequently the rollout stalls in an early stage. The company is in panic. All experts are mobilised and start trying to find the cause. The solution is typically searched for by trial and error. When it looks like the solution is found and implemented the rollout restarts again, but a couple of weeks later the problem may reoccur and the cycle repeats. This way, it commonly takes several months until the system reaches operational readiness. The man-hours of all experts spent correcting the problem may be an expensive affair. Additionally, lost business benefits may even cost many times more than that.
Figure 2. Responsiveness should but often does not meet the norm at cutover
At stage 4, Exploitation, the system performs at full load. Especially where various applications share a common infrastructure there is the risk that a minor change can cause too much load. At the Exploitation stage this is less difficult to prevent. Much of the data for securing performance can be made easily available. The transaction volumes are known, the transaction mix is clear and resource usage can be routinely measured.
Figure 3. The responsiveness - costs relationship curve
It is extremely beneficial to secure a systems performance in stage 3 Commissioning, before the system goes live. What insight can performance analysts provide in order to secure response times before it goes live? At this stage, there is less information available than in Stage 4, Exploitation. Expected transaction volumes, transaction mixes and resource usage are not known yet. There is no baseline yet. So stage 3 sets rather demanding requirements to the approach used and is the most challenging stage for the performance analyst.
The mBrace approach is applicable at stages 2 (Development), 3 (Commissioning) and 4 (Exploitation), but is especially created for meeting the challenges of stage 3. Moreover, the approach is well suited to gain control over the responsiveness - costs relationship curve.
2.2 The mBrace process
mBrace is an approach consisting of a process, techniques and deliverables. The sketch in figure 4 gives an impression of the process and deliverables of the mBrace approach.
Figure 4. The mBrace process
2.3 Alternative options
There are several ways to secure responsiveness of new information systems such as:
over sizing the infrastructure, performance testing and performance analysis.
Over sizing the infrastructure
Over sizing the infrastructure means buying much more capacity, hoping that this covers all potential performance problems. It does not provide any insight into the performance behaviour of the system. During the first phases of the rollout of the system, measurements may be done for analysis. If a problem occurs, there is little time left to solve it. This type of approach can be costly and it is questionable that the extra capacity will resolve the most likely bottlenecks.
Performance testing.
The purpose of a performance test is to reveal if the systems performance meets its target. If it meets the target: OK, if it does not: pity. This approach is popular.
An increasing transaction volume is offered to the information system using a stimulator or record and playback tool. At the same time, response times are measured. When the system collapses, the maximum transaction volume and expected response times are known. This is very important insight; however in many cases more insight is needed. If the maximum feasible transaction volume is not sufficient to meet expectation there is no additional information about the cause nor what to do about it. For example, when a system should perform for 2,000 users and it collapses at 1,200 the test results do not provide any answers to the question what to do next. In that case, trial and error changes with repeated performancetesting are performed. This is a procedure that can be time consuming and expensive.
Compared to the option of over-sizing or to the damage of poor response times, performance testing is cheap and quick. An important plus of performance testing is that it really tests the system. There is less room for surprises.
The test can be completed in a couple of days; however diagnosis and solving of performance problems can take several weeks to months.
Performance analysis
The purpose of a performance analysis is not only to reveal future performance, but also to identify the measures to improve it at the same time. Performance analysis involves collecting information and analysis in a structured way. First a model is made and from that a measurement plan is derived and implemented. The measurement data are parsed and fed into the model together with business statistics. As a result, detailed insight in the time behaviour and resource behaviour of the information system is gained. Comparing performance testing and performance analysis, the first thing to remark is that the latter requires scarcer skills. If a performance test proves at once that the system meets its performance requirements, then it is marginally cheaper than performance analysis. If, at a performance test, the system does not meet its requirements, then performance analysis works much cheaper because it shows what has to be done and what the effects are up front. Performance analysis though a more complicated affair is very effective and relatively cheap. The cause of any performance problem is revealed and the measures to be taken as well as their effects are completely clear in advance.
Combined performance test and analysis
Integrating performance test and performance analysis delivers the best results. The measurement data for a performance analysis are gathered in a performance test. The data gathered at high transaction volumes are used to validate the model.
The mBrace approach covers performance analysis either in combination or without performance testing.
3 The example case
The approach is outlined with a fictional example. The example is based on real life experience from a number of assignments in this field, in which the mBrace approach had a vital role. It concerns a system under development to be used in a sales support process for insurance products of average complexity.
3.1 IT infrastructure
In this paper the term information system is used to describe the combination of an IT infrastructure and an application. The application runs on the infrastructure depicted in figure 5. It consists of the following infrastructure components: PCs, Servers, a Storage System, LANs and a WAN. The components may have one or more resources; e.g. a server has at least the following resources: processors, (access to) a storage system or local disks and memory. If transactions spend enough time at a resource to be noticed by the users, that resource is considered critical.
There are on-line interfaces that provide connections to the General Ledger and Customers functions. Resources can be horizontally and/or vertically scaled. Access to disks can be scaled vertically by replacing them with faster ones and horizontally by increasing their number. Processors can be scaled vertically by replacing them with faster ones and horizontally by increasing their number (in the case of symmetric multiprocessing).
Resources are designated critical or not in an arbitrary way. Also software resources may be identified as critical, e.g. a lock or a fixed listening time.
Figure 5. The infrastructure
In the example, the LANs and the incoming side of the WAN do not contribute significantly to the response times, so they are considered non-critical resources.
3.2 Application
The sales support application is called the observed application. In the example, it is in the process of being developed. In total the application has 389 transaction types. However since only 111 are frequently used, we focus on these. This group of transactions is called the transaction focus. Apart from the sales support application, there are other applications that share the same infrastructure. These are named the environmental applications. Observed and environmental applications influence each others response times. Commonly the environmental applications are already fully operational. Measurement data of the environmental applications are restricted to operationally measured resource utilisations at peak times. Without the environmental applications, the response times of the observed application would be shorter.
There are transaction types and transactions. A transaction is an occurrence of a transaction type. However, in this paper the word transaction may be used even if we mean transaction type. Therefore be careful about the context in which these terms are used.
A transaction is fired by the user and is recognisable by the user. The user triggers a transaction by a mouse click, hitting the enter-key or a function-key. A transaction ends when the output on the display is complete.
One of the challenges is that application developers do not always bother to identify the transaction types. There are exceptions such as in the case of CICS where the use of a unique four-letter label is enforced for each transaction type. It is important to identify the transaction types in a way linked to the business and if there is no identification available they are labelled ad hoc.
3.3 Response time breakdowns
Transactions spend time using resources or waiting for resources before they can use them. In a response time breakdown the time a transaction spends on each resource is visualised. The mBrace approach graphically produces a response time breakdown for each transaction type in one chart. In the chart there is a multi coloured horizontal bar for each transaction type. Each coloured part shows the contribution to the response time by the corresponding resource. In general only resources that noticeably contribute to the response time are included in the chart.
The data collected on each transaction type of the transaction focus is kept in a transaction bookkeeping. The transaction bookkeeping is maintained in a spreadsheet together with the model and its dashboard (see next section: The user interface of the model), etc.
3.4 Business volumes and transaction volumes
The transaction volume is an important item. The value of a response time is only relevant at a given transaction volume. To be in control of response times it is necessary to be in control of response times at certain given transaction volumes.
To forecast transaction volumes is a complicated task for a number of reasons. It is much easier to forecast business volumes. In most cases the management of a company knows its business volume fairly well. In our example the target business volume is 60,000 sales orders per year. This is called the base volume. From this it is possible to derive the transaction volume in the peak hour. It is important to preserve the relationship between business volume and transaction volume. The base volume is the central parameter.
The sales process for handling one sale in this example can be divided into five use cases. For each use case it is determined which system transactions are done, e.g. for the first use case 12 transactions are executed. For each use case it is not too difficult to estimate how many times it is executed on average for each sales order. In our example each use case is executed once per sale. Each time the user works his way through the five use cases in order to process a sale he / she fires 295 transactions on average. This determines both the system transaction volume and transaction mix. In this example 17.7 million transactions are processed for the targeted 60,000 sales orders per year resulting in 12.6 transactions per second in a peak hour. The peak hour is taken on the highest day of the year. A peak day happens to see twice the average number of sales processed. A peak hour sees twice as many sales as the average. Consequently peak traffic in this example is four times as high as the average. In practice peak values are seldom that heavy. If possible the peak-average factor should be obtained from observing the business.
The concept of transaction may need further exploring. A transaction may be built up from sub-transactions. Examples can be found in most web applications. To fill a screen of a browser for one transaction a number of items are retrieved and filled into an HTML page. Analysing the performance of one transaction may require the analysis of more than 10 sub-transactions.
3.5 The norm for response times
The norm set for response times is:
100% of the system transactions processed should be below 2 seconds, however at full transaction volume only 95% need to be faster than 2 seconds.
4 The user interface of the model
The user interface of the model is described in here; the model itself is described next month in Part II. The user interface consists of the dashboard to control the model and to show the outcomes. It plays an important role. Figure 6 shows an overview of its structure.
The left side of the dashboard shows the parameters and detailed outcomes of the model. In the middle there are two graphical charts. The larger one shows the response time breakdowns of the transactions. In the dashboard only a selection of 25 transaction types with the higher response times are shown. The transaction types are sorted by decreasing response time. One must be aware that the scale of the chart may vary with the results.
The smaller chart down at the right shows the utilisations of the critical resources.
Figure 6. The dashboard is a crucial element of the model
4.1 The parameters and outcomes
The upper left part consists of a number of general parameters and outcomes including transaction volume, peak volume factors, average value of response time, its 95 percentile and maximum.
Further down there are sections with parameters and outcomes for terminal servers, the application server, the database server and the Wide Area Network. Within these sections there is a subsection headed by a colour-marked bar for each critical resource.
The outcomes
Mixed with the parameters there are outcomes such as average response time and ´required´ and ´realised´ resource utilisations. Later in this paper in the section "The resource utilisations" the terms required and realised utilisations are explained.
The servers
At a minimum, for each server there are sub-sections for CPU, Disk storage and dynamically used memory. Each section has some parameters that can be used to alter the capacities of the server to show the effects of horizontally or vertically scaling the resources. The outcomes presented include resource utilisations from the observed applications that we analyse in detail and utilisations from environmental applications. Environmental applications share the infrastructure with the observed application but are not analysed in detail. It is mainly the utilisations they cause that we need to know for our performance analysis. As to memory, only the dynamically used part of memory is of interest, i.e. the amount of memory available and temporarily used by the transactions.
The terminal servers have a special position. They are considered to be a section of a larger server farm. The number of allocated terminal servers can be easily altered according to the need. The model calculates the number of terminal servers required for a particular transaction volume and adjusts that number automatically.
The Wide Area Network
In the example, the Wide Area Network is modelled with an input and an output part. When this is of interest the model for the WAN can be detailed much further. The WAN can be both horizontally and vertically scaled by increasing the number of parallel channels or changing the speed per channel.
4.2 The response time breakdowns
The dashboard shows the breakdown of a selection of the 25 transactions with the longest response times in a chart sorted by decreasing response time. The legend in the upper part of the chart defines the colours. The following table explains the abbreviations used in that box:
The response times in the example are broken down into 18 parts that are related to 11 resources. The intermediate results determine which resources are involved in the response time breakdowns.
The chart in the dashboard shows a selection of 25 out of all 111 transactions of the transaction focus that have been investigated. Since the transactions with the largest response times are the most interesting, a selection of 25 transactions is adequate for the dashboard. When necessary the other transaction types can be viewed in other charts.
4.3 The resource utilisations
Figure 8 shows two examples of the charts with the utilisations of the critical resources. For each critical resource there is a vertical bar with four possible colours.
Figure 8a. The critical resources with normal utilisations
Figure 8b. Most of the critical resources are overloaded
The red part (Environment) shows the utilisation caused from environmental applications that share the same resource. The environmental applications are already in the Exploitation stage and are not investigated in detail now. The utilisations they cause on the resources are known from operational measurements. Yellow is the idle part of the resource. The dark blue part indicates the resource utilisation caused by the transaction types of the observed application (Application X). Light-blue, Not realised util, shows the utilisation of the observed application in excess of 100%. Of course this is physically impossible, but it indicates the utilisation of the resource if it had sufficient capacity. In the example DSCPU, the CPUs of the database server, show a total for realised and required utilisation together of 195%. This means that if the CPU capacity increases by a factor of 1.95 its utilisation becomes 100%. So in order to target operating at 60% the CPU capacity must increase by a factor 1.95 / 0.6 = 3.25. This concept of not realised utilisation is very useful, because it reveals exactly how the resource must be scaled.
To determine the resource utilisations exactly the detailed outcomes are found in the dashboard in the section of the corresponding infrastructure component.
5 Performance analysis and proactive improvement
In this section the use of the model for analysing and improving the information system is demonstrated. The model has been filled with real life data obtained from measurements and has been validated. The performance of the information system is shown with help of the model. The effects of measures for performance improvement are shown with the dashboard. In this way the effects of these measures can be tested with the model before they are implemented. So the best measures for improvement can be chosen.
5.1 Single user performance
With only one active user, the base volume of 484 sales orders processed per year results in a negligible 0.1 transactions per second. So there are no waiting times for resources and each transaction can be executed without concurrency of other transactions. As a consequence only the items 1.2 TSCPU, 1.4 TSSTG, 2.2 ASCPU, 2.4 ASSTG, 2.6 ASINT, etc., the items without a "Q" in their names, are visible. Looking at the response time breakdowns at single user load (figure 9) reveals much of the applications performance. Several things are worth noting.
Figure 9. The dashboard with single user load at the start.
The chart shows the response times in seconds. The dashboard shows that at least 25 transaction types exceed the norm of 2 seconds. There are three transactions that have excessive response times: UC005TX008 with 13.7 seconds, UC005TX006 with 12.9 seconds and UC005Tx011 with 9 seconds respectively. For UC005TX008, it is the CPU usage at the Database Server (3.2 DSCPU) with 7.5 seconds that dominates. For UC005TX006, it is the 9.5 seconds spent accessing the storage system by the Database Server (3.4 DSSTG) that is dominant. Further, this transaction has a CPU usage (3.2 DSCPU) on the Database Server of 2.2 seconds. CPU usage (2.2 ASCPU, 3.1 seconds) and access to storage at the Application Server (2.4 ASSTG, 3.5 seconds) dominate transaction UC005Tx011. A magenta component describes the contribution of the interfaces (2.6 ASINT) (Remember that the observed application interfaces to Customers and General Ledger applications. See figure 5.). Since this is outside the scope of the study, only the total time spent on the interfaces was determined. Their breakdowns were not analysed in detail. Thus only the overall time the interfaces take in the test environment is known. Consequently, there is also no further information that provides insight into how the times of the interfaces further develop at higher transaction volumes.
Average response time equals 1.8 seconds, which is acceptable, however a 95-percentile value of 4.9 and a maximum of 13.7 seconds are far above acceptable.
The Application Development group was invited to pay attention to these findings.
5.2 Application improved
After Application Development improved some transaction types, fixed a bug in the DBMS and solved a problem with the interfaces, new measurement data were collected again and fed into the model. As can be seen from figure 10, the transaction types UC005TX008, UC005Tx006 and UC005Tx011 were drastically improved and the interfaces had their contributions to the response times drastically reduced.
Figure 10. After improving the application the transaction types have been sorted by decreasing response times again.
The transaction types UC004Tx018 and UC005Tx020, with their large contributions for the CPU (blue-grey) of the Database Server (3.2 DSCPU) however have not changed yet and are now the transactions with the longer response times. Application Development plans to improve them at a later stage.
Average response time is now 0.9 seconds, 95-percentile value is estimated at 1.7 seconds and the largest response time equals 3.9 seconds.
Though not all transactions show response times that meet the norm yet there is a basis now for the roll out to the 124 users. So now we can study what will happen when production is raised to the target base volume of 60,000 sales orders per year.
5.3 Load from environmental applications introduced in the model
After introducing the utilisations of environmental applications, the response times are slightly longer but the changes are not spectacular.
Figure 11. The performance after introducing the utilisations of environmental applications
5.4 Transaction volume increased to target volume
In Figure 12, the number of users has increased to the target of 124 (in the model of course) and consequently the base volume increased over the target of 60,000 sales per year. Obviously there are a few challenges to be met before the system is ready for use. The model reports that the maximum value of the response time has changed from 4.0 seconds to over 150 seconds!
The analysis in the next steps focuses on the capacities of the infrastructure and is purely done with the model. No new measurements are collected.
All resources except those from the Terminal Servers are now overloaded. Their number was simply increased from 3 to 6. The utilisation of the dynamically used part of the memory of the Terminal Servers is even low with 25%.
The chart of the Utilisations of critical resources reveals all bottlenecks at once. It shows that the resources of the Application Server and the Database Server as well as the outgoing side of the Wide Area Network are overloaded. Some of their required utilisations even exceed 200%. The accurate values of the required utilisations can be found in the left part of the dashboard. The scale of the resource chart is clipped to 200%.
Figure 12. The system is not yet ready for use. Notice that the scale of the chart of the response time breakdowns has changed again.
The colour pattern has completely changed. This is an important feature of the dashboard. The dominant parts of the breakdowns take so much space that they tend to squeeze the other colours out of the figure. The response times now merely correspond with waiting times for the overloaded resources: 2.1 ASQCPU, 2.3 ASQSTG, 2.5 ASQMEM, 3.1 DSQCPU, 3.3 DSQSTG, 3.5 DSQMEM and 9.4QNETW OUT. They dominate the figure to such an extent that the times spent on the resources themselves are hardly visible anymore. This helps to focus on the important aspects.
The model reveals in a practical way all corrective measures to be taken in one stroke. The real system would not allow for much increase in transaction volume after the first resource becomes overloaded. For the model this is not a problem. It keeps providing fair estimates of waiting times and provides a useful picture even when all resources are overloaded. Now the parameters can be altered for scaling the overloaded resources one by one until acceptable response times are realised.
5.5 Application server and Database server upgraded
After increasing the capacities of the Application and Database Server a new state is reached. Increasing relative processor speed from 1 to 5 vertically scaled the CPUs. This large increase leads to under-utilisation of the CPUs again. Therefore the number of Application Server CPUs was safely reduced from 4 to 2. Together these measures bring the CPU utilisations down to a more moderate 50% and 39%. The chart shows that this eliminates most of the time spent by waiting for the CPUs (2.1 ASQCPU and 3.1 DSQCPU). Further, the time spent on the CPUs, is reduced by 80% by increasing the speed of the processors (this cant be seen in the chart).
Adding 5 disks at the Application Server and 40 at the Database Server increases the access capacity of storage. Of course the traffic and thus the data have to be spread over all the disks again. This reduces the utilisation of the storage to a more moderate 63% and 60% respectively and, as the model shows, eliminates most of the time spent on waiting for storage (2.3 ASQSTG and 3.3 DSQSTG).
Figure 13. Outcomes after increasing capacity of the Application Server
The utilisation of the dynamically used part of memory and the corresponding wait time have decreased considerably, but are still too high with a reported wait time (2.5 ASQMEM) of 12 seconds and a required utilisation of 476% at the Application Server. Since we still have delays at the Wide Area Network that influence memory demand, increasing memory can wait for the time being until the WAN is corrected.
Obviously all response times are still far above the norm of 2 seconds.
5.6 Capacity of Wide Area Network increased
Increasing the speed from 2 Mbits/sec to 6 Mbits/sec expands the outgoing part of the WAN. Utilisation is brought down from a required utilisation of 174% to an acceptable 58%.
Figure 14. The outgoing side of the WAN scaled from 2 Mbits / sec to 6 Mbits / sec.
As a result not only the utilisation of the WAN is back to normal but also the utilisation of the memory of the Application Server reduced to 67% without specific intervention. Waiting times for the WAN (9.3 QNETWOUT) and for the memory of the Application Server (2.5 ASQMEM) have consequently disappeared.
Because the CPUs of the Application Server, the Database Server and the Wide Area Network have been scaled vertically the response times even improved. The average response time at the target transaction volume is now 0.8 seconds, the 95-percentile value is estimated at 1.3 and the maximum equals 2.2 seconds. Only 2 transactions still exceed the 2-second norm. This is better than the norm of 95% below 2.0 seconds so there is a basis for a start of the roll out, but it is better to look for some extra reserve. Thus it is important to see what measures should be taken to further improve performance. The slowest four transactions of the application are still candidates for improvement.
For many transactions the terminal servers contribute noticeably to the response times. This means that the client side of the application could use some extra attention. Also the terminal servers themselves may be candidates for expansion.
The analysis demonstrated that improvement of the network also eliminated the over-utilisation of the application server (sections 5.5 and 5.6). This shows that memory of the application and database servers, which closely collaborate, are sensitive to changing response times. Any small increase of response time may cause an increase of memory utilisation at the servers that causes long queuing times, which increases response times again etc. This way an increasing spiral is started that ends up with a performance collapse of the two servers. So memory utilisation of the Application Server and the Database Server are at the high side with approximately 60%. Therefore the target utilisation for the dynamically used memory of the Application and Database Server is set at 30%.
5.7 Testing extendibility: further increase of volume
Finally the number of active users is increased from 124 to 200 In order to get some feeling about the extendibility of the system. The base volume increases accordingly from 60.000 to over 96.000 sales per year.
Figure 15. The performance when the number of active users is increased from 124 to 200
The previous procedure is followed again, which reveals that the following alterations would be needed:
- CPUs that are twice as fast to replace the Terminal Server CPUs.
- The number of disks of the application server increases from 10 to 17.
- The processors of the database server horizontally scale from 2 to 3 CPUs.
- The number of disks of the database server increases from 60 to 90.
- Dynamically used memory increases to 400 Mbyte at both the Application and the Database Server.
- The WAN vertically scales to 9 Mbits/second.
The resource utilisations are then reasonably balanced, utilisations of the terminal server and application server CPUs are a bit low.
The response times would be well acceptable with an average of 0.8 seconds and a 95-percentile value of 1.3 seconds. Thus supporting an increase in base volume from 60,000 to over 96,000 sales per year only needs scaling of a few resources.
6 Summary and conclusions
The mBrace approach covers the information system end-to-end in terms of both application and infrastructure. In order to predict response times it also covers forecasting the volume of the transactions.
In the example case the focus was first on the application. Transactions that needed improvement were identified. As a consequence, application development optimised some application transaction types and did troubleshooting at the interfacing. Next, after the application was sufficiently improved, the model assisted in scaling the infrastructure for the target base volume.
The response times were estimated at the target business volume in order to assess the viability of the roll out. The extra capacities for the resources of the infrastructure needed to secure these response times were determined.
The mBrace model driven approach shows the performance of every individual transaction type and allows for performance analysis in any test environment that is not particularly production like. The model enables accurate capacity planning.
The graphics of the dashboard appear to have strong visualisation ability. The dashboard provides:
- An immediate total overview about the performance of the entire information system.
- Clear visualisation of resource utilisations, response times and the causes of the response times.
- With the graphics a better sense of what is important and what is not.
- Overview about all bottlenecks with one keystroke.
The model helps effectively to gain overview over the measures that must be taken to secure performance:
- In practice it happens quite often that after one bottleneck is eliminated the next bottleneck is found the hard way a month or two later. This may even repeat several times. With the help of the model we can avoid this because it shows all bottlenecks and supports determining all necessary interventions at once.
- Normally it is not easy to determine what to do to secure response times for a release with some 400 transaction types. Which transaction types should receive attention and which are OK? A lot of work can be wasted with the wrong transactions. In the example shown, first the scope of work narrows from 389 to the transaction focus with 111 transaction types (a given fact in the example case, section 3.2). Subsequently less than 10, only a relatively small number of transaction types, were identified as candidates for corrective action.
Stalling of the rollout can be completely prevented with the mBrace approach and since all interventions are known, the necessary costs for improvement can be made clear in advance. The cost - performance curve (figure 3) showing the direct costs of better or poorer response times can be determined. However with adequate accuracy this is only achieved in stage 2 of the systems lifecycle, Commissioning. Controlling this matter in earlier stages still remains a challenge.
The mBrace approach supports both creating and using the model with the purpose of controlling response times and capacity. This first part of the paper outlines the usage of the model as it supports a performance analysis and proactive improvement effort. This comes down to the Process steps 6. Analyse application performance and 7. Analyse infrastructure capacity (see figure 4).
Part II of this paper, which will be published in the next edition of MeasureIT will cover measuring, creating and validating the model.
Last Updated

subset: commoncrawl


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"Him we proclaim, warning everyone and teaching everyone with all wisdom, that we may present everyone mature in Christ. For this I toil, struggling with all his energy that he powerfully works within me." Col 1:28-29
Saturday, December 29, 2007
HOI News' Top Story of 2007
Here's the story from HOI news. Sorry it took me so long to get it downloaded.
Again, two things strike us as funny: 1) That the whole story turned out to be about Whitney's blog and 2) that a comment I later corrected ("hundreds of hits") serves as the statistical justification for the story. Still, since the end of November through the end of December she is getting between one and two hundred hits a day during the week. And, just in case you were wondering, I don't think I've ever cracked one hundred.
7 comments:
- Grammy said...
Dear Grandson and Granddaughter and family,
What a really neat video! Didn't see Noah toss the football, though.
Thanks for posting it! So happy for all of you! Love to you all,
Grammy and Gramps
- December 29, 2007 at 5:43:00 AM CST
- Grammy said...
Woops, went back to watch it again, and saw the ball toss between you and Whitney!
- December 29, 2007 at 5:46:00 AM CST
- Cheryl said...
that football toss is awesome!!!
- December 29, 2007 at 8:43:00 PM CST
- mjdav said...
Would you like me to stay up late some night and make sure you receive at least a 100 hits?
- December 30, 2007 at 12:23:00 AM CST
We thought it was great! If people read the blog after watching, they will be blessed and drawn to the Lord. Whitney's comments have shown your trust in God's will for your lives and Ellie's life as well. All praise has been given to Him the entire time. It shows true godly character and testifies of our sovereign and wonderful God. I'm excited to think that people will read your testimony! Praying for you guys and sweet Ellie!
- January 2, 2008 at 7:13:00 PM CST
- Jackson said...
ha my blog count has been crazy today since Whitney linked to me in her post today!
- January 3, 2008 at 3:23:00 PM CST
- Jeff Pope said...
Hi Daniel,
I love your blog. It is great to see a cool "DAD'S BLOG". Great news about Ellie coming home soon. My wife and I are waiting on 2 from EN. I remember seeing Ellie and probably have some pictures/video of her. I look forward to hearing more. Thanks for sharing your experience, strength, and hope with others. Here is my/our site and blog to read about our journey. Take care...talk to you again soon.
- January 17, 2008 at 10:17:00 AM CST


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QA software construction
Budget £3000-5000 GBP
I will try to explain my idea, i have no idea, what skills are required, would like to get suggestions from you guys. Currently working as senior site engineer, and having worked in construction for about 10 years, last 5 doing Quality Assurance works, have an idea to use the modern technology to make it easier and quicker. I have all ideas, and requirements from construction point of view, but would require the help at making this handy. here we go
I need software to be designed for signing off Quality Assurance on construction site, would like to use a PDA, or tablet connected to website, and requiring multiple log in, with authorisation, so the person takes this to site, and use it for quality assurance. QA is what we are required to do on almost day to day basis, with every activity on site. Database required to save pictures, put a comments on site against a activity, be it for defect or proof that it is done as it should, and signs off electronically. All companies have their own forms for QA, and are adapted to suit on site, an example is different types of roofs, so the system should be very much adaptable without requiring [url removed, login to view] the system needs to be adaptable and the person (with administrative option) doesn't have to be whiz to make changes. whatever is signed off, to upload at the same instance on the website.
Require feature that, if the QA manager want's to issue a defect to subcontractor, he takes a picture, and record who is the subcontractor, the defect to be issued automatically to the subbie, at a set [url removed, login to view] system, should not use the memory of the unit, it is to be recorded on the server of the website. now, the forms, might be possible to be uploaded after scanning, or must be very much easier, but everybody shouldn't be allowed to amend the form, but system should record, logs and sign off with the person's id. There might be multiple people logged in at the same time, using the same form, only rarely but system should support that. the system should also allow multiple comments with initials (person logged in ).
There are some other things that could be done on PDA/Tablets like permits on sites like Safety audits, and a lot other H & S stuff.
There is something we call 'Snagging' it is mainly at the end of the job, before handover. there are hundreds and hundreds of sheets done for that, it is to sign off the building for all the defects to finishings to the clients satisfication. This is very difficult and long process as well. What we do is, go in a room with client's representative, he and us, mark the drawing, take pictures, when you come out of room, sometimes you may have 50 items on the list, so you go back at the end of day, print pictures, and then the task of what was wrong on that picture, and issue to sub-contractor. but if we could have drawing uploaded on the system, he goes in the room, mark where is picture being taken, take a picture, and comment at the time, and off you go. done at the same time. system should allow to print everything, in presentable way. If possible a system should allow to attach different files to the QA form like emails (confirmations) other than comments and photos. Let me give you an example, i have something on QA, which i need to get confirmation from structural engineer, and i have email confirmation, that it is fine, normally, in paper based system, we attach email copy to the QA form, so the need is to support multiple attachments.
would like system to issue alerts, to notify what is not signed off on a sheet, which is sometimes forgotten, but that system should be as option, which could be turned off.
I hope it will make some sense to you guys, need idea of softwares to be used, languages,time frame, cost, and support system, as can employ somebody here once the system is up and running, but would like support for one year, to sort out the bugs.


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|Weekly SEO news: 23 June 2009
to the latest issue of the Search Engine Facts newsletter.
This week, we're taking a look at the number of keywords for which you should optimize a single page of your site. It is possible to optimize a web page for a single keyword and get rankings for many keywords.
In the news: Some think that Bing offers better search trends than Google, Google adds Wikipedia as a news source and tests new ads and more.
Table of contents:
We hope that you enjoy this newsletter and that it helps you to get more out of your website. Please pass this newsletter on to your friends.
|1. For how many keywords should you optimize a web page?
Getting listed on Google's first result page is the goal of any search engine optimization campaign. If you have taken the time to find the best keywords for your website, you probably have a very long list with many keywords. That automatically leads to the following question:
For how many keywords should you optimize a page?
How to optimize a web page for your chosen keyword
Optimize for one key phrase, get high rankings for many keywords
Optimize one web page for one keyword and optimize as many pages of your website as possible for different but related keywords. In this example, optimize different pages of your website for "buy inexpensive golf shoes", "find the perfect golf club", "country club", "golf sport information", "golf carts", etc.
The more pages you optimize, the better. If many pages of your website have been optimized for many related keywords then your website will look relevant to the topic of your keywords (in this example: "golf"). If search engines think that your website is relevant to a special topic then it will be easier to get high rankings for the individual keywords.
|2. Search engine news and articles of the week
|3. Success stories
"Our website went from position #25 to position #10."
|4. Previous articles


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by Connie
by Connie
by Franco Sarto
by Calvin Klein
by Fergalicious
Which of these should I keep and which should I return?
I've noticed that I have a ton of plain pointy-toed shoes and I don't want pointy-toed shoes anymore. I'm tired of them and I want new round-toed shoes with details. Lots of pretty details.
Cute, darling, round-toed Mary Jane Shoes or T-Strap Shoes that make my feet look small and dainty, so grown up yet so girly.
So, I went shoe shopping and shoe shopping I did! I ended up with 6 pairs of shoes.
The reality is, I cannot possibly keep all 6 pairs. That's just tooooooo insane! So, I've decided that I will keep 3 pairs. But which 3??? Please help me decide.
Do I keep the...
- Mary Anne Mary Janes by Connie? They are all leather in a delicious Caramel shade with cut-outs in the front. I really like these because they remind me of something I might find at Anthropologie. They are somewhat eclectic yet preppy. I really like these.
- Brenda Round Toe, Stack Heel Pumps by Connie? These are basic black pumps. I like the round toe and the Stack Heel and I was thinking of going to the Cobbler and getting him to sew on heavy Grosgrain Ribbons on them so that I'm able to tie them into a bow thus creating a ribbon-tied Mary Jane style. I like these because they are cheap and because I can turn these into a pretty ribbon-tied Mary Jane style.
- Essence by Franco Sarto. I really need a pair of Grey shoes. I don't like the 2 that I current own and I want new ones. I like the suede on these. I also like the round toe and the mary jane style. The heel too is very cute. But they're not cheap. They're not expensive but they're not cheap. They are, however, comfortable and very pretty on.
- Orianna by Calvin Klein. These are very pretty. They make me feel all grown up. They are dressy and classic. But they are the most expensive of the bunch. They are regular $148 and are currently 15% off.... and that's the only reason why I got them. While they are pretty, they do not have a round toe, per se. The toe is Almond shape but I love that long, sleek stack heel.
- Rocco in Taupe by Fergalicious. I never thought that I would like a T-Strap but I really do. They are soooo cute and somewhat unusual. T-Straps haven't quite caught on yet and I soooo want a pair. The heels are high, high, high but there's a built-in platform on the front of the shoe so the heels ends up being only 3.25" tall - which is soooo manageable. I like the Taupe but don't know if I will get as much use from it as i would the black.
- Rocco in Black by Fergalicious. The black is so practical. I can soooo see myself wearing these with so much in my closet. But these aren't leather. They're pleather and at $65, that's pretty expensive plastic.
So, what do you think? Which shoes should I keep and which should I return? I would like to keep a pair of black ones for sure. I think the grey would work nicely in my closet as well and so would the caramel. But I also like the taupe T-Strap. Do I get Mary Janes, T-Straps or plain jane regular pump style? Do I get ribbon ties put into the cheap Connie pumps thus creating my own style?
Your opinions are appreciated. Please chime in. :)


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(200 Pcs) Beauticom 5G/5ML High Quality Clear Plastic Cosmetic Container Jars with Screw Cap Lids
• Reusable Acrylic Jars to Store Creams, Lotions, Make Up, Cosmetics, Lip Balm, Lip Gloss, Scrubs, Salves, Nail Accessories, Charms, Beads, Small Jewelry and More
• Can Be Used For Mixing or Sampling Beauty or Health Products
• Great for Professional or Personal Use
• Lightweight and Compact for Easy Travel Use
- Color: Clear
- Quantity: 200 Pieces (Jar and Lid)
- Dimensions: 1.2 Inches x 0.6 Inches
- High Quality Acrylic Resistant to Breaking and Warping, BPA Free
- Use to store a wide variety of items from food to cosmetics to art supplies and hardware. Possibilities are endless!
Refunds & Returns Policy
To begin the return process, please email us at [email protected]/ . A member of our support team will contact you within 24 hours with your prepaid return shipping label.
We appreciate your business and want you to be completely satisfied with your purchase. If for any reason you wish to make a return, we will be happy to help you.We offer 15 days Free returns.
Full Refund: We are happy to offer you full refund of your purchased product provided
(a) we received the product within 15 days of receipt of purchase,
(b) items must be in new, unused and resellable condition
(c) all tags must be attached and original packaging must be included.
- Partial or no Refund: Any items received between 15 - 22 days after the receipt of purchase will be issued a full/partial refund. A 10% fees is added if the return has been initiated after 15 days of receipt of the package and will be deducted from the final refund. Items received later than 22 days will not be eligible for return or refund. In case of an incorrect delivery and/or unintentional purchase buyer does not have the right to claim for either a return or refund.
- Shipping cost on returns: All returns are Free and we send a prepaid return shipping label. We will send a return label via email, however, the final refund will be only issued once the package has been approved after inspection at our warehouse.
- Damaged/Used/Defective Products: It is buyer's responsibility to ensure we get the product in re-sellable condition. In case of receiving damaged/defective/used products as return we reserve the right to annul the return claim whilst keeping the full price of the sold product.
- Wrong/Damaged Item Delivery: In cases when the received item is not as described on our store or is damaged during transit. The buyer is eligible for free returns and full refund within 15 days return window.
We do not accept returns for products which are not broken or delivered correctly.
Instruction for preparing the return:
Please keep in mind the following things while preparing your return
- Securely pack your return merchandise to protect it from damage during shipping.
- Please use our provided return label, as packages sent without our return label will be refused and ineligible for refund or store credit.
- Our support team will send you detailed instructions about dropping your package to your nearest UPS/USPS office.
For cancelling your order, you should email to [email protected]/ within 24 hours of placing the order. All orders are shipped in 24 hours time and once shipped, it is has not possible to cancel the order. In cases the cancellation is received after 24 hours and package has been shipped, the buyer will be charged a restocking fees and return shipping fees @ 25% of order total or $15 whichever is larger.
For any queries related to your orders please feel free to contact our 24/7 customer support team via email. [email protected]/ or you can use the LiveChat option on our store front as well.


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Saturday, March 19, 2011
3 birthday card for this year
card - card and more card la sangat
1st : padini hah. nk soh p shopping
2nd : from my lil brother . thx adik
3rd : veli special . from my daji [ father ]
thank you very much for this card
*tringat nana - dia slalu bg kad .
this yr wish pon x .
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syazwiena khan
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NASHVILLE, Tenn.— The National Ten Pin Coaches Association has announced that the University of Maryland Eastern Shore is the winner of the third annual team grade point average award. First year head coach Kayla Bandy had her Hawks compile an impressive 3.66 cumulative GPA from its eight members in the 2013-2014 academic year.
The NTCA recognized 20 institutions for having a team GPA over 3.2 for the academic year (13-14). This is the third straight year UMES has made the list, and the first time it has won the award. The women's bowling team also posted the highest GPA of any team at UMES, winning that award for the 13th time in 14 years, including 12 straight. The Hawks graduated just one player from last year's Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference (MEAC) Championship team, that being Megan Buja (Rockford, Ill.) who graduated with a perfect 4.0 and won the last three NCAA Elite 89 Awards, given to the student-athlete with the highest GPA at the championship site of each sport. Buja recently finished in the top 10 of all 89 winners for 2013-14 in an online poll from the NCAA.
"I am very proud of our team," said Bandy. "We worked hard on the lanes and in the classroom. The dedication that the girls put in was phenomenal and we intend to work that hard each season."
The list also included fellow MEAC schools North Carolina A&T State with a 3.45 in ninth place, Delaware State with a 3.36 in 13 th place and Norfolk State with a 3.27 in 17 th place. Adelphi University trailed UMES for second place with a 3.63 while Alabama State was third with a 3.6.
UMES returns to the lanes in late October at the New Jersey Jamboree.
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AMA convened task force engages physicians to curb opioid abuse.
Opioid abuse is a serious public health problem that has reached crisis levels across the United States, with 44 people dying each day from overdose of opioids, and many more becoming addicted. Recognizing the urgency and serious impact of this issue on the health of hundreds of thousands of patients across the country, today the American Medical Association (AMA) Task Force to Reduce Opioid Abuse announced the first of several national recommendations to address this growing epidemic.
The AMA Task Force to Reduce Opioid Abuse is comprised of 27 physician organizations including the AMA, American Osteopathic Association, 17 specialty and seven state medical societies as well as the American Dental Association that are committed to identifying the best practices to combat this public health crisis and move swiftly to implement those practices across the country."
The task force's initial focus will be on efforts that urge physicians to register for and use state-based prescription drug monitoring programs (PDMPs) as part of the decision-making process when considering treatment options. "PDMPs vary greatly in efficacy and functionality from state to state," said Dr. Harris. "Alone, they will not end this crisis, but they can provide helpful clinical information, and because they are available in nearly every state, PDMPs can be effective in turning the tide to end opioid abuse in the right direction."
The new initiative will seek to significantly enhance physicians' education on safe, effective and evidence-based prescribing. This includes a new resource web page that houses vital information on PDMPs and their effectiveness for physician practices, as well as, a robust national marketing, social and communications campaign to significantly raise awareness of the steps that physicians can take to combat this epidemic and ensure they are aware of all options available to them for appropriate prescribing.
Read more at: http://newswise.com/articles/physician-groups-band-together-to-address-america-s-opioid-crisis
Source: American Academy of Pain Medicine – August 24, 2015


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My boyfriend and I have decided that we won't be getting married until Prop 8 is overturned, whether that be 6 months or 6 years, we don't really care. We haven't decided yet if we want our marriage boycott to continue after Prop 8 is overturned, and wait for nationwide marriage rights to be achieved, but we are definitely considering it.
Gandhi once said, "Be the change that you wish to see in the world." What kind of activists would my partner and I be if we were to actively enjoy our first-class status while many of our friends are legally treated as second-class citizens? Marriage is a civil right, not a heterosexual privilege. If enough straight couples like us refused to get married under current law, the older generation bigots who wish to see their children married would be forced to confront their own bigotry, and who knows…. maybe they might stop voting against civil rights for others?


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Thursday, March 26, 2009
Not a baby anymore
Shiloh baby-
In our attempt to heal 'better' (I suppose), daddy and I have been doing craniosacral therapy with Rita through Santa Barbara Hospice. I can't say that I really believed in these alternative healing therapies before, but now that I have tried it, I find it amazing. Even if I don't exactly feel the redistribution or equalization of energy in my body, I am always relaxed, sometimes so much so that I fall asleep. To feel relaxed nowadays is not something so easily accomplished for me, and so I grasp at any offer of peaceful moments. But today was even more special for me because I had the chance to see you, through daddy, as an older child. I've heard many times that babies grow up faster in heaven then they do here on earth- this was my proof. The first thing I asked, when he told me he got to see you today in his session, was if you were happy. He said that you had a big smile on your face. I will take this as a yes, and for this, I am so thankful. Here is what he told me:
You were about 9 years old. You were wearing a little dress, had your blonde/brown, long hair in a ponytail, and you had a tooth missing in the front because he could see the gap when you smiled. You looked a lot like me, but had a bit harsher features, still feminine, but more a mixture of daddy's and mine. You were skipping in a field where one would normally find wild horses. He said that you went to a chopped down, hollowed out tree where water was collected and washed your hands in it. He said that he knew you could feel us there because I was the wind, playing with your hair, and daddy's reflection was in the water in which you washed your hands. And… there was an older man sitting on the porch of an old farmhouse in the field, watching over you.
Daddy said he couldn't see clearly who this was, but I already know. This was grandpa, my daddy. I'm so happy that you've found each other and are looking after each other. My heart is so filled with sorrow that I do not have you both here with me on earth, but knowing that you are together makes my pain just a little more tolerable. I will love you until the end of time Shiloh; heavenly or earthly, you are forever my first child.
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Friday, 26 June 2009
Home: Crockery -an inspired life
I don't know about you, but I no longer buy anything for my home unless it's 'special'. Yes, it has to be functional and beautiful (a la William Morris); -but it must also be, 'built-to-last' and delight and inspire me. Because gone are the [wasteful] days of old -when you could afford to buy cheap bits and bobs [that last for a few months -and then need replacing etc]. The 'crunch' demands discipline, ethical, sustainable and sensible purchasing, -conspicuous consumption is died folks. Good sold furniture from local auctions, charity shops, antique shops and car boot sales along side a few choice 'new' pieces -is more appealing than a house bursting with 'flat pack' consumables. Caution, good cheap furniture can be addictive. Know your [home's] needs (they are different from your wants), -and if you are patient, -your interiors will speak to you and tell you what it needs, -because a Victorian semi has very different needs to a 70's tower block. It is also important to know your style, the size of the room -because if you don't know the aforementioned, you stand -to waste money and time. Also, a house full of clutter is a house full of clutter but a warm home, lovingly filled with a few choice pieces of furniture; books, art, plants and lovely crockery, is the most successful.
I love my crockery, but this hasn't always been the case. After I left home, I became a bit of an Ikea junkie (and whilst I still love Ikea and still buy their homeware) -I now prefer a mixture of old, new and eclectic -crockery [I can't stand that matchy, matchy look -and feel that a yummy mix of different plates -looks best]. Because, crockery like your clothes -should reflect your personality, -be stylish and inspired. Remember, style is life -and even the humble toast taste better when eaten off a statement plate. I have many different styles of crockery -but I refuse to be precious about them [life is too short blah blah] -and my four year old also uses them and enjoys them.
As I stated before -I favour a more eclectic mix of new (LSA and Linea from the House of Fraser), the classic (Royal Albert's Old Country Roses tea set, Wedgwood pieces and some hand painted delicate pieces etc) and Retro and collectibles pieces (like my 50's Midwinter collection, 60's floral pieces by Meakin, Hornsea tea caddy set and uber pieces like -the 'Sunflower set -above). Enjoy my collections above -and be inspired. If you have pictures, or know of any fantastic place(s) to buy fabulous crockery -let me know [it is a passion of mine] at: firstname.lastname@example.com.......
1 comment:
A Fantastic range of modern and classic Crockery, Cleaning Products, Glassware are available at sensible prices to help create that perfect dining experience.ReplyDelete
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Tag Archives: wrought iron fencing
What Some Fencing Companies Won't Tell You About Automatic Gates
What some fencing companies won't tell you about how automatic electric gates work. You may have a lot of options when it comes to buying electric gates for your home or business. But before making a decision about which automatic … Continue reading
Vinyl Fencing vs. Aluminum Fencing: How to Choose Fencing Materials
When it comes to fencing material, you have many options, from aluminum fencing to vinyl fencing and everything in between. So how do you know which fencing material is the best for your needs? Below are some key facts about … Continue reading
What You Need To Know About Wrought Iron Fences and Gates by Paradise Valley Iron Fencing Expert
Before installing wrought iron fences or gates on your property, there are a few things you need to know. While wrought iron is attractive and durable, iron fencing also requires more maintenance than other types of fencing. Click here http://www.alliedgate.com/irongates/ … Continue reading


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Being Intelligent About Bathtub RefinishingMaking use of the very best Janitor equipment is very essential so as to maintain your commercial and at the exact same time home places clean. Presently, you will discover many janitor equipments, you on your component require to be a little bit vigilant so as to bring home of the best provided Janitor gear.
If you have a bathtub or have discovered an antique clawfoot bathtub and the enamel is in poor form or the tub is cracked, it can now be produced to look like brand new. The process of porcelain repair will allow even the color the tub to be altered. The process of bathtub restore will permit for the chips and cracks to be fixed to an nearly new appear also.
Also the crimson rose petals are utilized to symbolize adore, and to produce a intimate atmosphere. They can be left to float in the bathtub resurfacing, or simply spread all through the house or close to the fireplace. If your lover is absent you can include some rose petals to your letters.
Use the vertical space! A shelf alongside the leading of the room is a stunning way of displaying stuffed animals or fragile items. Are there toys all more than the location? Bring a box into the space and have your kids assist you "make more room to perform" by placing sending some toys on 'vacation'. This box will go in the garage for a few months and then you can either deliver it in and make a swap for other toys, or if website the toys are not skipped think about donating them (or some of them) to kids in need.
Hot Sitz: Hot sitz entails operating some drinking water in the bathtub reglazing and sitting down on it for about 15 to twenty minutes instantly you have just completed stooling. This will help reduce the amount of discomfort felt following stooling and it also assists reduce the swelling of hemorrhoids.
Don't be tempted to use fake finishes, leafing or glazes. They're trendy and extremely specific in taste. Purchasers will think it will take additional time and expense to remove and alter them.
One of the very best things that a great lights plan has to provide is that you can have different moods when inside the rest room. You can get a bright, distinct mild when you are preparing for your early morning jaunt, a cozy and softer impact when you want to relax inside the tub tub. You can also have a gentle light to direct your way when you get up in the middle of the evening to use the toilet.


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After our conference call this afternoon, CPW released the following statement:
Dear Christian Peace Witness Partners and Friends:
A quick glance at the blogosphere will tell you that, when it comes to the United States' military involvement in Libya, confusion reigns. Various Christian communions, including several Christian Peace Witness partners, have issued thoughtful statements about the violence. Responses range from the World Council of Church's expression of "concern for the humanitarian crisis" to Pax Christi USA's urging "all people of faith to advocate for, practice and promote nonviolent action in these and similar circumstances." Click here to be directed to some of these statements from our website.
The situation on the ground in Libya is obviously fluid, volatile and dangerous. It is also complicated and resists facile analysis and easy solutions. Sometimes when situations resist easy reduction to position papers and talking points, the work of poets can bring new insight. As Salman Rushdie put it, a "poet's work is to name the unnameable, … shape the world, and stop it going to sleep."
Christian Peace Witness has been blessed with two poets lending their gifts to the task of waking the world for peace:
- Ann Weems poem, "Another Day … Another War," comes to CPW by way of the Presbyterian Peace Fellowship.
- Alexander Patico, author of "Well-in-hand," is secretary (North America) of the Orthodox Peace Fellowship.
Their work currently graces the home page of CPW's web site: www.christianpeacewitness.org and you are welcome to share them with your communities and friends.


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It's a wonderful thing when every semester you don't have to worry about buying textbooks or pray that the books you ordered online gets to you on time. As of Spring 2017, about 12.32% of Kapi'olani Community College classes are $0 Cost Textbook. Thanks to the instructors who are teaching $0 Cost Textbook; they helped a total of 2194 students with their book expenses. This means that you helped save students a total of $232,751.40 for just the Spring semester!
Since Spring 2016, the students have saved a total of $511,141.91. Good job faculty and lecturers.


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Silbo Gomero also known as el silbo ('the whistle'), is a whistled register of Spanish used by inhabitants of La Gomera in the Canary Islands to communicate across the deep ravines and narrow valleys that radiate through the island. It enables messages to be exchanged over a distance of up to 5 kilometres. Due to this loud nature, Silbo Gomero is generally used in circumstances of public communication. Messages conveyed could range from event invitations to public information advisories.
Click HERE for more facts
Source: Ultra Facts
Interesting Facts


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Had my second company annual dinner last saturday at Palm Resort located at Senai.We had to reach there by 2pm for a talk and proceed for the annual dinner at 6.30pm. One of my colleague had a sudden back pain and we had to sent her to nearest clinic for an injection on her back. She barely can stand or walk nor move and we need to get a wheelchair to let her sit.She is admitted to hospital on that night for detailed check-up.
As for our annual dinner,everyone was dressed up in hawaii style as you can seen from the title of the post. Here are some of the photos on that night. More photos from FB.
|Decorations @ the ballroom
|Endless beer supplies
As everyone starts to flood in the ballroom, we started our camwhoring sessions with all the iphone and cameras available on the spot.
|Ladies from various branches
|Molekers group photo
Penny got the "Best Dressed" title on that night with her sexy catwalk pose on stage.
|Penny & Me
|Us with the outstanding red specs
|Tina & Me
|Ethan & Me
|Li Yinn & Me
|Remisiers & us
|Jimmy & me
|Fc Loh & Me
|Group photo with heads
|Fatherly Look CEO with us
Other than making effort to dress in hawaii style, we need to perform on that night. It is a performance competition within branches with their own styles.
The first group was from Batu Pahat where they matched the theme with the hawaii comedy drama and chinese songs to accomodate the whole roleplay. They were the first runner up that night.
|Performance from Batu Pahat
We didn't get to watch the whole performance as we need to change to our costume for performance.We managed to get a group photo shot before we get prepared to perform on stage.
|Our performance group
Our overview shots during the performance. The guys received the most laughters as they really dance hilariously and move well with the "move it" song.
|Our performance that night
Followed by the performance from another branch with their love story and little magic to complete the role play.
|Performance from Taman Sutera Branch
Last performance from supervisory branch with the team of 14 participants. They won the first prize that night. The highlight was the guy on the picture from the left showing his back to us. He wore the coconut shell in front of him and steal the limelight of all the ladies that night.Followed by live song from Penny and also Azlan who sang chinese songs. It was really a fantastic performance as they have the storyline.
|Performance from Johor Bahru Supervisory Branch
Last photo is the photo of our branch head. he blowed the whistle non-stop when we were performing. he was very touched to see our performance. He sms-ed us after our performance with a gratitude thanks to our effort. But too bad we still lost in the end.
|Endless support from Boss
However, we did enjoyed the whole process and they went chilled out after the dinner. But i headed home after the dinner. It was a tiring nite and needed to pay visit to grandpa the following day.


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Is anyone else loving Diane Kruger's signature smoky neutral eye look? Well, I am and have finally tried it out on myself. I love the ...Read More
Pinky Red Lips
Red lipstick has been seen on numerous runways this season and is the color to wear right now. What's more right now? Pinky reds. He...Read More
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If you're searching for a company that provides excellent service, OxiGreen Colorado is the company for you. We offer a wide variety of cleaning services including basic carpet cleaning, pet odor and stain control, pet hair removal, and color stains removal. For the carpet that's heavily soiled, we offer our full restoration service. We even offer tile and grout cleaning, mattresses cleaning, and upholstery cleaning.
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text: January 5, 2014 Alexa Chung Are You Wearing The Wrong Pair? How To Pick The Right Shades For Your Face It's 2014!! And the future's so bright, you gotta wear shades (or so the saying goes). But before you invest in your next pair of frames, take a moment to consult this handy guide featuring Miranda Kerr, Gwen Stefani, and more.


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ANSA news
Gazprom, 378 mln USD from Kiev for supplies in December
Sat, 06/12/2014 - 11:29
(ANSA) - MOSCOW - Russian gas giant Gazprom confirmed that they have received $ 378 million from Ukraine as an advance payment for December supplies. Yesterday, Ukraine's new Energy minister Volodimir Demcishin announced the purchase of one billion cubic metres of Russian gas in December. (ANSA).
See also: ANSA Nuova Europa


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- HubPages»
- Travel and Places»
- Visiting North America»
- United States
Mansions & Gazebos in Rehoboth Beach: Includes Photos
Nearby Rehoboth Beach Bandstand Gazebo
Silver Lake, Steps From Rehoboth Boardwalk
This hub will feature the exclusive Silver Lake area of Rehoboth Beach, Delaware, and will include a photo gallery of its mansions, gazebos, outdoor seating areas and wildlife. Most visitors come to Rehoboth Beach to enjoy its mile long boardwalk, fine restaurants, bandstand entertainment, art galleries and the unique boutiques that line beautiful Rehoboth Avenue. Thousands of tourists enjoy the town's sandy beaches and numerous festivals throughout the year, but not many realize that if they walk to the south end of the boardwalk and turn right onto Queen St. they can stroll, jog, or bike ride around a glittering fresh water lake. Private gazebos adorn Silver Lake's shoreline like a strand of pearls. Here, amidst lavishly landscaped lawns and gardens one feels miles away from the hustle and bustle of activity on the boardwalk and yet this stunning walk is just a few blocks inland. This hub is a pictorial tour of Silver Lake during a sunny fall day and all the photos were taken by Gail Sobotkin, the hub's author. The area is full of prime real estate and has an exclusive feel to it but the community is not gated and as long as visitors stay on the public sidewalks or street they can enjoy the stunningly lovely views, abundant wild life and quiet beauty of the lake.
Beautiful Mansions on Silver Lake with Gazebos
Wildlife is Abundant
Facts About Silver Lake and its Abundant Wildlife
Silver Lake is one of the closest fresh water lakes to the Atlantic Ocean along the east coast and is designated as a waterfowl preserve making it a popular attraction for wildlife photographers who capture stunning images of the lake and its flocks of ducks, Canada geese and other aquatic birds, fish, several species of water turtles and one blue heron. The lake is picturesque and is located directly behind the Atlantic Ocean, between Rehoboth and Dewey Beach. It covers approximately 45 acres and the roads that surround it have luxury condos, townhouses, single family homes, mansions and a few remaining building lots. This pictorial covers the area on Lake Drive which is where most of the mansions and gazebos are situated. Zoning restrictions prevent land that is directly adjacent to this side of the lake from having a permanent standing structure, with the exception of docks and gazebos which is why most of the homes on Lake Drive have unobstructed views of the lake.
Gazebos and Outdoor Seating ArrangementsClick thumbnail to view full-size
Cluster of Gazebos
Be Sure to Visit Silver Lake if You're in Rehoboth Beach
Hope you have enjoyed this pictorial stroll through picturesque Silver Lake during the fall season and will come for a real visit to the tourist friendly Rehoboth Beach resort where you can enjoy free concerts and ocean swimming in the summertime and fine dining, festivals and beach combing in spring and fall. Now that you know about the quiet beauty of South Rehoboth's Silver Lake, be sure to take a break from the excitement and many activities on Rehoboth Avenue and the boardwalk to walk, run or bike ride around the lake. Bring your camera and take your own photos of the lovely gazebos and abundant wildlife and don't forget to smile at everyone you meet along the way spreading shineshine wherever you go.
Have you ever been to Rehoboth Beach, Delaware?
If so, did you know about Silver Lake before reading this hub?
Hi HBN,
Thank you for this beautiful tour. Looks like such a wonderful place to relax. Great photography!
Such a beautiful peaceful place. The photos are awesome!
Amazing pictures and awesome views. I feel like i ve been there. Great work
What a lovely collection of gazebo and wildlife photos...it looks like you got your egret just fine!!
Awesome and voted up for beautiful and everything but funny as well~ I'd love to see an egret so will have to put that on my wish list of birds.
What a beautiful place HBN. The pictures are quite amazing. I always wanted a home such as this. I like being comfortable in my surroundings. I believe beautiful places put the mind at peace and it helps with writing. I write best when I am calm and the beauty of such places like this, it brings out the creative side. Just like fall HBN, with all the beautiful leaves and perfect temperature days. This just seems like that kind of place. Absolutely stunning. Voted up and across but funny. A great article.
Hi Gail,
I just have to agree that the more I "stretch" and admire my "homey RN pals" like you, Sunnie, Pamela, Peggy, Denise..., I tell my students to think of themselves as creative in their Nursing roles. One of my students (a single Mom) started her own blog as a result. One picked up her paintbrush again. We all "do" something... at least when we allow ourselves to, OK... sorry, sweetie! See you around all the excitement, mar!
I just skimmed your hub because I'm behind in a lot of things (like reading hubs) but I enjoyed your photos (again!) I didn't realize Delaware was such a beautiful state. Although I will say that I do like the east. We lived in CT for about 2 years while my husband was stationed in Groton and I really liked it there.
Dear Gail,
My mind is going a mile a minute... I am having some AHAs...(hee-hee!):
1-This is truly exquisite and shows that you have a gift with photography! I wish you much good luck with the contest and vote this UP & ABI...
2-I guess I didn't register how "close" we really are to each other... Geoff and I love Tilghman Island, MD as our little getaway but have often commented that we wanted to check out Rehoboth Beach..... and now I have such an excellent review and reason!! I am so happy to bookmark this!
November is exciting in HubLand with everyone's special talents coming alive! "See" you soon, mar!
Thank you Boomer. I promise, I get far more from the writers on the Hub than I could ever manage to give.
I learn something new every time I read here, and beyond the mastery at the word smithing, I've met so many people I've come to admire on a personal level, which has been the true nugget of gold in being here.
I'm thrilled that you had fun with your camera! You're becoming quite the accomplished shutter bug!
It's true that I love words, but words with photos are the cherry on the cake, and you put them together for this piece beautifully.
I really have to take a little time and figure out how some of you are including those tiny photos that enlarge in the frame below them. I've just started noticing them, and I think it's a very cool set up because it allows for you to include many more shots.
As my great-grand used to say, "There's just no such a thing" ... as too many pictures. ;)
Happyboomernurse, thank you for sharing this amazing hub about a wonderfully beautiful place. I definitely want to visit Silver lake one day in Rehoboth Beach. I have never been to Delaware, but so hope to go in the future.
You sure picked a great day or days to get photos of this area, they seem perfect and so lovely. It was a joy to view them, and take a tour. There is so much offered there as well. I am glad to learn of other areas like this, its going on a dream list of places I hope to visit one day. :) Loved the wildlife too. Excellent hub!
Boomer, you've maybe missed a calling. You'd make a fabulous tour guide. :)
Silver Lake is stunning and WOW - great job with the photos!! They're excellent! You did wonderful with the showcasing of the gazebos and homes, but the animal shots were my favs. :)
I think I'd enjoy realizing in one of these gazebos, gazing out at the water, and enjoying the peace.
Such a beautiful area of the country! Thanks for introducing those of us who have never been there (like me) to Silver Lake. The pictures of the waterfront with all of those gazebos and the wildlife are great. Best wishes with the contest. Loved learning about this! Votes definitely up!
What a fabulous place and beautiful photos, I thoroughly enjoyed this tour thank you.
Voting up/awesome and good luck in the contest.
Best wishes MM
This is a beautiful Hub. I also love the pictures and the turtles are so cute. I have a picture of turtles on a log. They must enjoy hanging on while sunning themselves. Great Hub HBN.
This is a wonderful hub. It grasp a sense of nostalgia, of simpler times, perhaps because these structures are used often in movies. Beautiful photographs. Your Hub was a mini vacation.
These are stunningly beautiful photos - another place to put on my 'must go to' list!
I love the Silver lake photos and the gazebos. Would love to stay there and just laze around...so beautiful! :)
The east coast seerms more beautiful with your hubs. Thank you so much for sharing!
I am unlikely to ever get ti the uSA again so being able to visit these beautiful places through someone elses eye is a real treat. These Gazibos that are built over the water are so pretty.
Thank you for sharing and giving a little insight of this lovely place
Dear Gail,
What a beautiful place and a very informative hub with breathtaking pictures. I have never been along the east coast except Wahington DC. Maybe one day..Thank you for sharing a wonderful hub.
It just occurred to me that without wealthy people, we wouldn't have any of these beautiful things.
Voted way up!
Silver Lake looks like a lovely, peaceful place to enjoy a walk on a fall day. I love the pretty white gazebos that are built out over the water, and I can just imagine sitting out there with a book or sketch pad and a cup of coffee. You've captured the elegance and grace of the gazebos and the community so well in your photographs! Good luck with the contest! This hub is a great kick-off!
Lovely place Gail. Very enjoyable discovering Silver Lake through your photos and words. The gazebos are so picturesque and the wildlife is just wonderful. Even turtles sunning on a log. Love birds AND reptiles. Thanks Gail, if I ever have the good fortune to visit Delaware Rehoboth Beach/ Silver Lake will be a must-see!
Awesome fall photos! Nice to see you here, Gail. Good luck with the contest. I voted 'hope to visit R.B. in Delaware in the near future. :)
Beautiful pictures, beautiful place.
HBNurse, these are very inspiring, beautiful views and I can see why you like to walk there! This was a wonderful! The topic was very focused and the photography was exquisite. What a lovely topic. I wish you all the best in the contest!
I've always thought that gazebos were beautiful structures, but the only time I've seen any that look as elaborate as these have been on screen or in pictures. The ones I've seen around here are basic. I love the photographs.
I was wondering when we'd see a new Hub from you. I just knew you wouldn't let the contest go by without you entering. I'm glad you entered this one, because it quite beautiful. I'd hate to be a judge in this contest! Good luck to you, my friend, Mary


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Monday, January 30, 2012
Message from January 29, 2012
Part 2 in our series on Jonah. This talks about what role does obedience play in the life of a Christian.
Monday, January 23, 2012
Message from January 22, 2012
The first in a series on the Old Testament book of Jonah. This message deals with a couple of things that Jonah went through in the first part of the book: running away from God, and disobeying Him.
Thursday, January 19, 2012
Message from January 8, 2012
It took a while to post this, but this is the message from January 8, about how to understand God's guidance for our lives.
Thursday, January 5, 2012
Message from January 1, 2012
This was the New Year's message, though it wasn't a typical one. I admit, many of the thoughts came from this website: http://www.dancinggod.org/ Such good stuff.
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San Diego Shows–Saturday, July 31
PLAN A: Transfer, Lights On, Mister Loveless, Aaron Swanton @ The Casbah. Rarely does a band headline The Casbah twice in the same month—let alone two days in a row, as local big-shots Transfer will this week. (They're also playing on Friday, July 30.) Tonight's highlight is indie-rockers Lights On, who're getting tons of buzz for their stirring, pitch-perfect debut, Here Comes the Ocean. PLAN B: Nero's Day at Disneyland, Mincemeat or Tenspeed, Bubblegum Octopus, Take Up Serpents, Nerfbau @ Che Café. Oakland's Nero's Day at Disneyland mashes up 15th-century sacred music with break-core la Squarepusher. (See our feature on Page 25.) BACKUP PLAN: Smalls Uno, Broken Dreams, OPhrap & 5thP, DJ InDJnous, Universal Greetings, Fifty Fathms, Rock Bottom, DJS Zole, Deprave, W. Steele @ Beauty Bar.
Paula Poundstone @ Anthology.
Wendy Bailey & True Stories, The Answers, Bombast @ Bar Pink.
SaviorSelf, The Seed, Deigo Brown, Beehive, DJs Pound, Adikt 1 @ Brick by Brick.
Heavy Hawaii, Sleepover, Pure Ecstasy, DJ Mario Orduno @ Tin Can Ale House.
The Tattle Tales, The Maxies, The Bertos, JJCnV @ Soda Bar.
Them Jeans, Salter, Groundfloor @ El Dorado.
Zack Thompson, Christopher Titus, Jason Lawhead, Joe Rogan @ House of Blues.
"Bassface" w/ 6Blocc, Sam XL, Reactivity, Jason, Osal8, Biggs, Headshake, MC Subliminal @ Kava Lounge.
Sleeping Giant Music @ U-31.
"Caboose" w/ DJs Trail-Mix-A-Lot, Mane @ Whistle Stop.
The Heavy Guilt, Melly Frances & the Distilled Spirits @ Portugalia.
Circa Now, The Relay, Gear, Native June @ Onyx Room.
Atomic Punks, I-90, Bryan Ingraham' Kidney Kickoff Matinee w/ Jon Swift and Band, RedFoxTails @ Belly Up.
White Apple Tree, Stripes and Lines, The New Archaic @ Ruby Room.
Molly Hatchet @ Ramona Mainstage.
Rio Peligroso @ Riviera Supper Club.
Lee Morgan tribute w/ Gilbert Castellanos, Brian Levy, Mikan Zlatkovich & Kevin Kanner @ Dizzy's.
Southern Storm, Bread & Bruises, Buckshy, Wheatstone @ Dream Street.
"Butcher the DJ Dance Party Edition" w/ DJ Dana @ Bluefoot Bar & Lounge.
"Juicy" w/ DJ Mike Czech, Daft Punk'd @ AC Lounge.
Jake Newton, Jamie Drake, Leila Broussard @ Lestat's.


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Soliciting donations and selling memberships in an enterprise that is wholly contrary to that promoted on the Internet is a federal felony in the United States. Internet fraud in the US is policed by the Federal Trade Commission, and prosecuted by the U.S. Attorney General.
Avaaz, Purpose and 350 use the Internet for fraudulent purposes, i.e. "humanitarian intervention" and fossil fuel divestment campaigns. As these organizations are a product of the Democratic Party, and tools of Wall Street moguls like Buffett and Soros, they will not be prosecuted for fraud.
They could be charged under international law for abetting crimes against humanity, but with the UN controlled by the US, this will not happen. That leaves civil society moral sanction. Moral sanction against these NGO adjuncts to the U.S. Department of State and Department of Defense, because they are politically immune to prosecution by the Department of Justice.