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Thursday, June 1, 2017
may wrap up
To newcomer Ellie, Avalon High seems like a typical American high school, complete with jocks, nerds, cheerleaders, and even the obligatory senior class president, quarterback, and all-around good guy. But it doesn't take Ellie long to suspect that something weird is going on beneath the glossy surface of this tranquil hall of learning. As she pieces together the meaning of this unfolding drama, she begins to recognize some haunting Arthurian echoes, causing her to worry that she has become just a pawn in mythic history. A powerful novel by the author of The Princess Diaries.
How To Make a Wish – Ashley Herring Blake ☆☆☆☆
All seventeen year-old Grace Glasser wants is her own life. A normal life in which she sleeps in the same bed for longer than three months and doesn't have to scrounge for spare change to make sure the electric bill is paid. Emotionally trapped by her unreliable mother, Maggie, and the tiny cape on which she lives, she focuses on her best friend, her upcoming audition for a top music school in New York, and surviving Maggie's latest boyfriend—who happens to be Grace's own ex-boyfriend's father.
Her attempts to lay low until she graduates are disrupted when she meets Eva, a girl with her own share of ghosts she's trying to outrun. Grief-stricken and lonely, Eva pulls Grace into midnight adventures and feelings Grace never planned on. When Eva tells Grace she likes girls, both of their worlds open up. But, united by loss, Eva also shares a connection with Maggie. As Grace's mother spirals downward, both girls must figure out how to love and how to move on.
Seeking Mansfield – Kate Watson ☆☆☆☆
Sixteen-year-old Finley Price has perfected two things: how to direct a world-class production, and how to fly way, way under the radar. The only person who ever seems to notice Finley is her best friend, the Bertram's son Oliver. If she could just take Oliver's constant encouragement to heart and step out of the shadows, she'd finally chase her dream of joining the prestigious Mansfield Theater.
When teen movie stars Emma and Harlan Crawford move next door to the Bertram's, they immediately set their sights on Oliver and his cunning sister, Juliette, shaking up Finley and Oliver's stable friendship. As Emma and Oliver grow closer, Harlan finds his attention shifting from Juliette to the quiet, enigmatic, and thoroughly unimpressed Finley. Out of boredom, Harlan decides to make her fall in love with him. Problem is, the harder he seeks to win her, the harder he falls for her.
But Finley doesn't want to be won, and she doesn't want to see Oliver with anyone else. To claim Oliver's heart—and keep her own—she'll have to find the courage to do what she fears most: step into the spotlight.
The one guy Bailey Rydell can't stand is actually the boy of her dreams—she just doesn't know it yet.
Classic movie fan Bailey "Mink" Rydell has spent months crushing on a witty film geek she only knows online as Alex. Two coasts separate the teens until Bailey moves in with her dad, who lives in the same California surfing town as her online crush.
Faced with doubts (what if he's a creep in real life—or worse?), Bailey doesn't tell Alex she's moved to his hometown. Or that she's landed a job at the local tourist-trap museum. Or that she's being heckled daily by the irritatingly hot museum security guard, Porter Roth—a.k.a. her new archnemesis. But life is whole lot messier than the movies, especially when Bailey discovers that tricky fine line between hate, love, and whatever it is she's starting to feel for Porter.
And as the summer months go by, Bailey must choose whether to cling to a dreamy online fantasy in Alex or take a risk on an imperfect reality with Porter. The choice is both simpler and more complicated than she realizes, because Porter Roth is hiding a secret of his own: Porter is Alex…Approximately.
There is a secret organization that cultivates teenage spies. The agents are called Love Interests because getting close to people destined for great power means getting valuable secrets.
Caden is a Nice: The boy next door, sculpted to physical perfection. Dylan is a Bad: The brooding, dark-souled guy, and dangerously handsome. The girl they are competing for is important to the organization, and each boy will pursue her. Will she choose a Nice or the Bad?
Both Caden and Dylan are living in the outside world for the first time. They are well-trained and at the top of their games. They have to be – whoever the girl doesn't choose will die.
What the boys don't expect are feelings that are outside of their training. Feelings that could kill them both.
To All The Boys I've Loved Before (To All the Boys I've Loved Before #1) – Jenny Han ☆☆☆☆☆*
Lara Jean's love life gets complicated in this New York Times bestselling "lovely, lighthearted romance" from the New York Times bestselling author of The Summer I Turned Pretty series.
What if all the crushes you ever had found out how you felt about them… all at once?
Sixteen-year-old Lara Jean Song keeps her love letters in a hatbox her mother gave her. They aren't love letters that anyone else wrote for her; these are ones she's written. One for every boy she's ever loved—five in all. When she writes, she pours out her heart and soul and says all the things she would never say in real life, because her letters are for her eyes only. Until the day her secret letters are mailed, and suddenly, Lara Jean's love life goes from imaginary to out of control.
P.S. I Still Love You (To All the Boys I've Loved Before #2) – Jenny Han ☆☆☆☆☆*
Lara Jean didn't expect to really fall for Peter.
She and Peter were just pretending. Except suddenly they weren't. Now Lara Jean is more confused than ever.
When another boy from her past returns to her life, Lara Jean's feelings for him return too. Can a girl be in love with two boys at once?
In this charming and heartfelt sequel to the New York Times bestseller To All the Boys I've Loved Before, we see first love through the eyes of the unforgettable Lara Jean. Love is never easy, but maybe that's part of what makes it so amazing.
Lara Jean's letter-writing days aren't over in this surprise follow-up to the New York Times bestselling To All the Boys I've Loved Before and P.S. I Still Love You.
Lara Jean is having the best senior year a girl could ever hope for. She is head over heels in love with her boyfriend, Peter; her dad's finally getting remarried to their next door neighbor, Ms. Rothschild; and Margot's coming home for the summer just in time for the wedding.
But change is looming on the horizon. And while Lara Jean is having fun and keeping busy helping plan her father's wedding, she can't ignore the big life decisions she has to make. Most pressingly, where she wants to go to college and what that means for her relationship with Peter. She watched her sister Margot go through these growing pains. Now Lara Jean's the one who'll be graduating high school and leaving for college and leaving her family—and possibly the boy she loves—behind.
When your heart and your head are saying two different things, which one should you listen to?
Let luck find you.
Alice doesn't believe in luck—at least, not the good kind. But she does believe in love, and for some time now, she's been pining for her best friend, Teddy. On his eighteenth birthday—just when it seems they might be on the brink of something—she buys him a lottery ticket on a lark. To their astonishment, he wins $140 million, and in an instant, everything changes.
At first, it seems like a dream come true, especially since the two of them are no strangers to misfortune. As a kid, Alice won the worst kind of lottery possible when her parents died just over a year apart from each other. And Teddy's father abandoned his family not long after that, leaving them to grapple with his gambling debts. Through it all, Teddy and Alice have leaned on each other. But now, as they negotiate the ripple effects of Teddy's newfound wealth, a gulf opens between them. And soon, the money starts to feel like more of a curse than a windfall.
As they try to find their way back to each other, Alice learns more about herself than she ever could have imagined…and about the unexpected ways in which luck and love sometimes intersect.
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by Anonymous
I have dryer hair, so I wash it once a week and every time I do, I use this product. It doesn't create buildup, it makes my hair frizz-free and it gives it an INCREDIBLE shine. Everyday I get compliments and have people asking me what my secret is, and I just simply tell them and it blows their mind.
Return to Reviews Of Black Hair Products.

subset: commoncrawl


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Even Barron Trump Has a Fidget Spinner Now
The past few months have proven that kids are obsessed with the three-pronged gadgets. Barron is no exception.
Uber Is Going to Eat Your Children...
…and the other top tech trends of 2015.
Edible Flowers Are Back on the Menu
Top restaurants all over the world are serving up dishes using blooming herbs and seasonal blossoms
Only the Lonely
Paying someone to be your pal may be the ultimate contradiction in terms
Jell-O Shots Across the Bow!
Bars everywhere are going wobbly over the hottest trend in cocktailing
Beyond Glass and Steel
Architects in Zurich have created the first fully printed room – and it's a beauty
Toying With Our Emotions
15 things you don't know you know about toys
The Internet of Everything Holiday Shopping Guide
Our gadget guru scours the earth for newfangled connected devices. A Porkfolio for the person you love?
Vino? No Thanks. We're Italian
As the nation's wine exports soar, the beverage is getting less amore at home
Eating Our Words
Foodism has turned every restaurant outing into an adventure, and every dish an epiphany. What happened to, "I'm hungry?"
Hexing & Texting
Millennial hipsters are finding solace (and some cool outfits) in that old black magic


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Well, I made the leap and just ordered a binding machine. It isn't the fanciest, but it isn't the cheapest either. My stomach is doing some flip flops right now. I am very very excited to start binding my own notebooks. I have hundreds of covers at home waiting to be put to use. My next investment is the button machine so I can make coasters and mirrors. I am picking up some extra shifts at the video store to pay for it.
I spent part of the weekend organizing all of my paper stuff that I use for notebooks and collage. I am not quite finished, but I feel like things are off to a good start. I need to get things in order because once Market starts I won't have much free time.


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Thursday, November 27, 2008
caffeine to stay energized!
It's working great! She's been up over 80 oxygenization. Eyes wide open. Jen says she's trying to dance and she says, "AAAAAH."
Zoe would be the guy in the back of the line. (sorry about the popup. just close that window)
3 comments:
What I meant was, I didn't want to suggest I knew what someone else should do ... I was afraid that putting it in a comment, during this stressful time, would come across that way. But I've wanted to mention caffeine to you for a long time. My daughter's been on it since her first month (her apnea was dramatic, scary) and has not had problems at all with it. I worried about sleep, irritability ... doesn't cause problems (though I'd have tolerated some of both side effects if it meant she stopped having apnea). She was pretty irritable in her early months, but her irritability issues turned out to be reflux, we think ... and us needing to learn what soothed her ... and her needing to learn that we could figure out, eventually, so she'd let go and let us try.ReplyDelete
My daughter just prayed at dinner and prayed, "Thank you Lord that Zoe got caffeine. Amen." My kids keep asking for Zoe updates. We've even got the young ones praying here.ReplyDelete
My daugher loved the Will Ferrell video. We were laughing picturing Zoe in the future at Starbucks.


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I've been working out of my old tool box for almost 20 years. It was a great tool box, but it was time to move on. I talk about the need for this in one of my recent videos.I Need a New Tool Box!:
Well, I tried to get in touch with Mac, but unfortunately I never heard back form them. Things didn't turn out so bad though.
I saved up for a long time and it paid off. I got a smoking deal on this Snap-on KRL1023 I found on Craigs List. Half price, and it's BRAND NEW. Sure it was in someone elses garage, but it looks like it just rolled off the assembly line. The stainless steel top still had the plastic on it! A deal I could not pass up for sure.Here's a link to the tool box: https://store.snapon.com/KRL1023-Series-Roll-Cabs-Roll-Cab-Triple-Bank-22-Drawers-P651187.aspx
Stainless top: https://store.snapon.com/Stainless-Steel-Tops-Top-Stainless-Steel-28-15-16-x-72-13-16-KRL1003-KRL7003-KRL1023-KRL1032-KRL7023--P665527.aspx
BTW, I did a special video for Premium Members of my website touring the new box with tools in it.
Intro music by Eric Cook "ETCG1 Intro".
Check out the ETCG Blog for the latest info: https://www.ericthecarguy.com/blog
Thanks for watching!
EricTheCarGuy Channel: http://www.youtube.com/user/EricTheCarGuy
Discussion about this video: https://www.ericthecarguy.com/kunena/17-ETCG1-Video-Discussions/67695-etcg-gets-a-new-tool-box#185180
Related Videos:
Luxury Vehicles:
What's Inside ETCG's Tool Box?:
What's Inside ETCG's Home Tool Box?:
Clutter In the Tool Box:
The Tool Factor:
The Tools I Use on Hondas and Acuras:
Recommended Tools For the Salvage Yard:
Craftsman vs Craftsman Professional vs Mac, vs Snap-on vs Matco vs Harbor Freight:
ETCG's Tool Reviews:
The Shop Tour (Original Shop):
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Tutorial by: Adam Pash at http://lifehacker.com/
Google Reader is one helluva feed reader, but unless you've spent a little time digging into the documentation, you probably aren't taking full advantage of what it has to offer.
Today, I'm going to show you the ins and outs of Google's powerful newsreader, with an emphasis on Reader's powerful and time-saving keyboard shortcuts. To round things off, I'll finish up with some of my favorite Google Reader-related tweaks and downloads to get you up to speed with the best newsreader on the planet.
Google Reader and its wonderful keyboard shortcuts
First off, since I'm such a big fan of keyboard shortcuts, I want to start off highlighting the incredible shortcuts baked into Google Reader
Google Reader's Quicksilver-like keyboard shortcut interface may look familiar to anyone who's used the Gmail Macros Greasemonkey script I described in my Gmail Master post. It should, since the Gmail Macros script was written by Google Reader frontend tech lead Mihai Parparita.
To get started, let's suss out some of the shortcuts I used in the video above:
Baked-in shortcuts: Google Reader integrates shortcuts to the hard-coded locations (like Home, All Items, and Starred Items) to simple, hard-coded shortcuts. So you can hit g + a (Go + All Items) to jump to all of your items. Likewise, g + h goes Home and g + s goes to your Starred Items.
Navigating subscriptions: That's all well and good, but where Google Reader's keyboard shortcuts for navigation really shine is in regards to the customizations you make to your feeds. For example, you can navigate to any feed by title by typing g + u + Feed Title (Go to Subscription). For example, g + u + Lifehacker will take you to your Lifehacker feed (assuming you've subscribed to it).
When you hit g + u, you'll see a pop-up that shows you a list of all of your current subscriptions. As you begin typing, the list will begin filtering out matches and the top match will be selected by default. You can navigate matches with the arrow keys, or continue typing until only one match remains.
Navigating Labels/Tags: If you organize your feeds by labels and tags (Google Reader isn't sure what it wants to call them – sometimes it's label, sometimes it's tag), Google Reader's got you covered there, too. To navigate by label/tag, you can either type g + t + tag-name (Go to the tag called tag-name), or g + l + label-name (Go to the label called label-name). I don't want to confuse anyone – labels and tags are the same thing in Google Reader, so either method will work. From here on out, I'm going to refer to them as labels, since that's what I've gotten used to with Gmail.
Labeling feeds and posts: Whenever you subscribe to a new feed, you have the option to file it into a 'folder'. Basically, adding a feed to a folder is no different than if you were to set up a filter that labels every post from a feed with the same label. Since Google Reader does not have filtering, it works with folders. So if you were to set up a label/folder called productivity, then add Lifehacker to the productivity folder, every post from Lifehacker would automatically be labeled 'productivity'.
However, you can also label feed items individually. When you're reading an item that you want to tag individually, just hit l + label or t + tag (whichever you prefer). You can add more than one label by separating each label with a comma, and you can create new labels on-the-fly or use one of your pre-existing labels, which will show up in an auto-suggest drop-down.
Navigating feed items: Google Reader lets you navigate from item to item in a number of ways. If you use the keyboard shortcuts available in Gmail, a lot of these shortcuts will be very familiar to you. You can:
* Move from item to item with j (down) and k (up).
* Move from item to item (without opening) with n (next) and p (previous). If you're viewing your feeds in Expanded view, j/k and n/p both do the same thing.
* If you're navigating List view with n and p, pressing Enter or o will Open/close the currently selected item. (Incidentally, you can move between Expanded and List view with 1 or 2, respectively.)
* Star the current item (or remove an already starred item) by pressing s.
* View the current item at its originating web site in a new tab/window with v.
* Mark an item as read with m.
* Go fullscreen by pressing u. This toggles the sidebar, maximizing your reading space.
A few more choice shortcuts: The navigation shortcuts above are sort of the cream of the crop – however, Google Reader comes with several more built-in shortcuts that you might want to familiarize yourself with.
The other great part about Google Reader, aside from its inherent good looks and charm, is that its popularity means that there are a handful of really great Google Reader add-ons, both Google- and user-created. My favorites are:
# The Google Reader Notifiers: Google has yet to release an official notifier for Reader, but luckily Reader lovers have rolled their own versions. You can get Google Reader Notifier for Windows, Mac , and Firefox.
# Using Google Co-op and this Greasemonkey script, you can create a custom search of your Google Reader feeds.
# Speaking of Greasemonkey, the Smart Google Reader subscribe button (also by Mihai Parparita) gives you a simple way to subscribe to a site's newsfeed while also letting you know if you've already subscribed to that site. If you subscribe to a lot of feeds (like we do at Lifehacker), this kind of thing can come in very handy.
# Integrate Google Reader with Gmail – again with a Greasemonkey script (once again, by Mihai Parparita).
Let's hear your favorite Google Reader features and tweaks in the comments.
Note: Adam Pash is a senior editor for Lifehacker who appreciates applications that pay special attention to the keyboard. His special feature Hack Attack appears every Tuesday on Lifehacker
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Sunflower Mermaid decoupage sheet to decorate the outside of the seed holder. The cardstock is from SU and the main colour is Daffodil Delight. The image has been matted onto some retired SU designer papers and Tempting Turquoise cardstock. The edge of the card has been cut using an X Cut doily border punch and the sentiment is from Papermania.
The sentiment shows up when either open or closed and I thought very appropriate for the gardeners of this world as all plants need sunshine to grow. A couple of brads keep the bottom of the holder in place so that the top can tuck inside.


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Maddog writes: "Sure is a huge slant towards women and the non white male. If we don't start counteracting all the relentless one sided articles soon. Then SF is going to look a lot like the Romance Genre. And the funny thing is there wasn't even a fight.
Thats my Counterpoint Mirror to todays Half Truths(its the other half that will complete you)"
David Greybeard writes: "I was about to comment on that myself. It's a very girly list for the most part. But looking back a few years, the Nebula's been that way for quite some time.
Not much of interest here for my reading tastes. I read 346 books last year and my tastes are quite wide and roaming, but I do tend to stick to male authors.
That said, I'll pick up a copy of the Mary Robinette Kowal's series. As I've heard great things about it by folks I trust."
Carl V writes: "The Mary Robinette Kowal books are good, and an easy series to judge, in my opinion, on whether or not a person will connect with it. If you enjoy the period drama of stories like Jane Austen then these are a no-brainer. If that is not your thing I strongly suspect that these won't appeal to you."
Yup, that's what us poor, deprived, vagina-owning cattle write about every single day, period romance. That's it. The full scope of our mental capabilities is thinking about men in kilts because we all know women only ever think about sex. All day. Every day. I walk down the street and it's all I can do to stop myself from ripping the clothes off of every male I see. If I see a kilt there's just no stopping me. I must have sex with men who wear kilts. It's in my genetic code. I'm only a woman after all.
And I know guys understand this. I know it must be horrible for the males who venture out in broad daylight with bodyguards who see women seconds away from raping them at every turn.I'm sorry guys. I would never want to intimidate my male readers so I hereby pledge to keep my filthy, female, nymphomaniac ways confined to hot lovin' with my legally wedded husband.
My minute by minute obsession with sex has led me to write several books about men in kilts and the women who rip their clothes off them in period romance settings. You'll notice all my books advertised off to the left, complete with the mandatory rippling pectorals. Please feel free to buy (or take since several are free) those books and enjoy...
... um...
Wait. I'm looking at these covers and - people! - there are no kilts! Ohmigosh! How could this happen? Did I grow penis in my sleep those are sci-fi and fantasy books!
Hold on. I've got to go to the little ladies room and check to make sure I'm still a lady.
... crisis averted. I am still the proud owner of a vagina. And, apparently, a brain that writes MAN FICTION!!!! Everyone gasp with me now. One, two, three... GASP!!!!
Sexless, gory, violent Man Fiction.
Well, okay not exactly sexless. I'm a woman after all. I like sex. That just comes with the territory.
Do you think I should apologize?
I mean, I get it. Most adults are not in a sexual relationship and never have been. It is unlikely that anyone over the age of 18 will ever be in a meaningful, long-term relationship with another human being. Especially if they are not together with someone they trust for a long period of time as you might find in combat situations or when populating a new planet.
Sex in science fiction is completely unrealistic, I see that now. Only women like sex and SF should be the bastion of male strength and freedom from their vagina-weilding oppressors. Just like ancient Rome. (NSFW)
Yup. Got it.
Dear Ancestors, if I have to explain the irony of this to anyone I may just give up on the human race entirely.
Love is a human emotion. Anger, hate, fear, hope, joy... all of these are what make us what we are. Trying to cut any of these emotions out of a genre weakens not only the book, but the genre itself. No on, least of all an avid fan of a genre, should demand that romance by removed from the storytelling.
I can understand if graphic erotica isn't your thing, it isn't mine either. I know that not every book can have the Happily Ever After that's the hallmark of the romance genre. I want the bloody conflicts, tactical geniuses, and tense battles of science fiction as much as anyone. But I want those characters in the book to be as human as we are.
They must have weaknesses. They must have fears. They must have friendships. They must have dreams. They must, however briefly, have love. For a human without love is the saddest thing in all the universe.
If you are interested in reading Science Fiction Romance and don't know where to start in this subgenre I highly recommend considering the works of Louis McMastr Bujold, Linnea Sinclair, or any of the fine authors listed in the SFR Brigade Library.
I haven't read all of the books nominated for the Nebula Award but I did read THRONE OF THE CRESCENT MOON, it's fantasy but a new twist on the old tropes and I think many of you would enjoy it.
As always, I want to point out that most of this post is satire, and I apologize if you find this offensive. Frankly, I'm over this nonsense. I don't care who writes the books as long as the book is good. I hope you feel the same way. If not, the little red X at the top right of your screen will make this whole horrible nightmare go away.


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Pedestrians arise: you have nothing to lose but bad infrastructure | Resource for Urban Design Information
September 5, 2012 Leave a comment
In this post, John Dales wonders why there isn't really a pedestrian lobby. There is, of course, a very vocal motorist's lobby, and cyclists are becoming more and more vocal, to the point where a candidate's cycle-friendliness was an issue in the latest London mayoral election. But pedestrians, maybe not always happily, seem to put up with unsafe, ugly, and otherwise poor travel conditions in their chosen mode. Dales speculates that there are three reasons why we do this. First, walking is such an ordinary activity (Dales compares it to breathing), that we don't think it needs to be a special or pleasant experience. Second, we've dealt with poor conditions so long we don't even know any better. And third, we can cheat at it—jaywalking, walking in the street when the sidewalk is obstructed, etc. We, as pedestrians, need to be more vocal about our opinions of our travel ways. We need to demand better streetscapes from our cities.


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Examine This Report on personal protectionEstablishing a Safehaven Observe three simple techniques in creating a safe-haven in your house: Designate an inner place;
If you utilize a phone answering equipment, turn from the ringer on the telephone. If you don't have an answering equipment, unplug or convert off ringers on all telephones.
Even the profile of the client right influences Anything you're compensated, so wages will differ considerably from one particular personal security guard — or bodyguard, as they're frequently termed — to a different.
have observed them at nighttime within our lawn when I might convert The sunshine on, trying to find "items"…I still left him alone, as figured I knew he was there, and several two legged critter might get yourself a shock…
In some jurisdictions, anyone might act in self defense if he is staying unlawfully arrested. This can be legitimate even the place the defendant knows that the one that is arresting him can be a regulation enforcement officer. On the other hand, most jurisdictions crack from this rule and hold that anyone just isn't permitted to use drive in self defense to shield himself from an illegal arrest if he recognizes that the arresting party is usually a legislation enforcement officer. Eventually, self defense is a whole defense, that means that, the place it is actually properly elevated, the defendant will probably be acquitted in the crime for which he is becoming billed.
Trust your instincts and take action if you think that you are increasingly being adopted. As confidently as you can, cross the highway, turning to view who's behind you. If you are still becoming adopted, continue to keep transferring. Make for just a hectic space and notify people what is going on.
Personal Security has detected interior computer software conflict. Some application endeavors to entry procedure kernel (this sort of conduct is common for spyware/malware). Simply click here to forestall method crash and remove opportunity threats (Proposed)
I wasn't carrying and felt like I used to be a dead male, but jumped from the car prior to he could access me, manufactured myself as significant as I could possibly be, and yelled that I would tear his file-ing head off if he took another Read Full Article action. I utilised just about every swear would within the e book. MF, GD, FU, and so on. The male turned and ran like a scalded Canine. My head is on a swivel now…
My mate downstairs experienced that shit on his machine following clicking a "Run Free of charge Scan" button. I eliminated it by booting up in Secure method and finding/deleting psecurity.exe manually.
A difficulty that often arrives up if the defendant argues self defense inside a deadly power problem, is whether or not the defendant had the responsibility to retreat in advance of employing self defense if, in fact, the defendant experienced the opportunity to do this. Underneath the frequent legislation, to ensure that the defendant to use fatal drive in the self defense predicament, the defendant has to show that he had no opportunity to retreat or that he searched for a possibility to retreat and could find none.
The choice to established the automatic alarm system may possibly differ from area to location. Electric power outages and brownouts might journey alarm devices. Check with all your security officer view publisher site for advice on environment alarm programs when you are away for prolonged amounts of time.
Training as a bodyguard differs and several states have distinct licenses. Bodyguard colleges offer the classes necessary. People desirous to get personal security Employment ought to be bodily in shape, have instruction in self-defense, along with weapons schooling.
Assist in adjudicating personal track record investigations for suitability for work With all the FBI and/or issuance of the security clearance....
US forces could use such force in self-defense only so long as the hostile drive proceeds to current an imminent menace.


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Friday, 7th April 2017
The Prince of Wales
Brixton Boogaloo - The Disco Hustle w/ 80's Child
Warrington born UK DJ & Producer 80's Child aka Danny Worrall) is a true Child of the 80's, born in 1980 and raised by his parents on a strict diet of Toto, Prince, Michael McDonald, Hall & Oates, Michael Jackson and the like.
Inspired by the productions of fellow dusty fingered archivists such as Greg Wilson, Late Nite Tuff Guy, & Tiger & Woods, Danny's edits have grown wilder as he's experimented, extended and completely re-worked into some of the hottest club edits around over the past 12 months, a brilliant Dj who always displays his love for all things 80's.
Danny has also Dj'd with some of the best around including, Late Nite Tuff Guy, Greg Wilson, Faze Action & Yam Who? to name but a few.
He also set up his label Masterworks Music in 2014 which has had releases from some of the biggest producers around both Vinyl & Digital and support from some of the best in the business.
Starts: Friday, April 7th 2017
Timezone: Europe/London
Bookings close: April 7th 2017
This event is organized by The POW.
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Celebrating the Immigrant Entrepreneur
For the past couple of months, The Immigration Learning Center has been reaching out to local communities and collecting nominees for its upcoming Immigrant Entrepreneur Awards Dinner. Now with the deadline for submitting names passed, it's time for the selection committee to go through the lists and determine who the Center will honor as outstanding Massachusetts immigrant entrepreneurs in four categories: business growth, neighborhood business, high-tech business and life science business.
"There was so much negativity generated by last year's (presidential) election that we at The ILC are really looking forward to the hopeful inspiration that comes out of the Immigrant Entrepreneur Awards," said ILC Founder and CEO Diane Portnoy in a press release announcing the event. "Every year, I am so impressed by the triumphant stories of the nominees and winners, from the corner store owner to the innovator curing cancer. I'm sure there are even more great stories out there, and I can't wait to see the nominations roll in."
While the committee has specific details that they will be looking for in an ideal candidate (click HERE), Color Magazine recently interviewed the ILC CEO to find out what qualities she thought the ideal Immigrant Entrepreneur candidate needed to have.
"When I think of the people who will be nominated, I always think of my parents, who were Holocaust Survivors and who came to America looking for a new life after the war," she said. "They went from Ellis Island to Malden, Massachusetts. They didn't speak English, they had very little money and they had no idea of American culture, but they found immigrant people like themselves and eventually built a community and, through hard work, became American business owners."
While hard work is certainly a key factor to any potential award winner, Portnoy talked about other important attributes the committee will be looking for.
"It takes an amazing amount of courage for someone to leave everything behind – their country, their friends and sometimes family, their culture and travel hundreds or thousands of miles to start all over again," she said. "And it takes an equal amount of drive and courage to become successful. So, the entrepreneur candidates need to show they have that drive to make a better life for themselves.
"More importantly, though," she added. "They need to be doing something to give back to their community and to the people who will be following in their path. Are they providing local jobs? Are they active participants in the life of the community they live in. What are they doing to improve the quality of life for the immigrant people around them?"
Portnoy then shared another story, this one from her experience at the ILC. "We offer free English classes to immigrant and refugee adults over the age of 16," she said. "There is a group of men studying now who work from midnight to 8 AM working in a refrigerator packing salad. When they finish work, they come here to learn. That to me says a lot about the immigrant spirit we are celebrating at the awards dinner; people who are willing to do whatever it takes to make life better for themselves, their family and their community."
The sixth annual Immigrant Entrepreneur Awards Dinner will be held on Thursday, May 4, 2017, at the Royal Sonesta Hotel in Cambridge, Mass, presented by The Immigrant Learning Center, Inc. (ILC) with featured speaker Jeff Bussgang, general partner at Flybridge Capital. For tickets and information, click HERE.


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I've been a tinkerer and a maker all my life so I was literally counting down the days to this course! I remember my grandparents and parents always making, building, creating, and tinkering; growing up in a small island community, this was just our normal way of life. The idea of community and educational makerspaces is incredibly appealing to me because I love working on projects with others and being inspired by tools and materials available to solve a problem, making something, or to complete a challenge. The idea of robotics, however, is much more intimidating; exciting, but still intimidating!
I had started reading about constructionism last semester in the Online Learning and Teaching course, this week as I started looking for more resources, I realized there is more information about constructivism as opposed to constructionism. Reading other blogs this week, @ScottRoleff's summary of Papert's 8 Big Ideas helped me formulate a definition and understanding about what makes constructionism an expansion of constructivism. @OrtizJad4est referenced an Edutopia article written by our text author, @smartinez, and something she wrote really crystalized what we've been writing about this week, "Constructionism empowers learners to connect with everything they know, feel, and wonder, stretching themselves into learning new things. It seeks to liberate learners from their dependency on being taught." That's a big deal for schools and teachers to adopt, to admit that we've been enabling students to be dependent learners. I've been thinking this week about what new theories like constructionism mean for an individual teacher; when school districts adopt policies and pedagogies, it is important that they restructure the school environment to support the transition and capacity for teachers to learn and implement these new concepts. I think Constructionism challenges schools to rethink how they organize the physical environment of learning as well as the culture that exists for students AND teachers. Several of my peers have shared their anxiety in waiting to find out which grades or classes they will be teaching next school year; the uncertainty can be disruptive for a teacher who has invested time and resources in building a repertoire of tools, strategies, and resources. @ak_agryga wrote about the importance of being part of a peer learning community. I think if the trend of shuffling teachers continues, it will be increasingly important for teachers to have a supportive community outside of their own school, so that they can continue to stay connected to a broader community of educators to help them make these difficult transitions.
So as I am starting to understand Constructionism, I am looking forward to our virtual Makerspace through Google Hangouts. I spent some time this weekend, setting up my workspace and rearranging my personal makerspace. @ak_leeg's video on opening up her robotics kit made me a bit anxious about multi-tasking in a Google hangout, trying to figure out the robotics kit, and making a video or taking pictures of my work along the way. This is going to be an interesting experience, that is guaranteed to have some bloopers as I try to figure it all out!


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(The recordings on this video correspond to some of the recordings discussed below.)
Some of the hallmarks of Rubinstein's best playing – the gorgeous tone, technique that was solid but never for show, healthy temperament - were so obvious that much else that distinguished the pianist from many of his contemporaries was missed. It was not Rubinstein's style to offer the high-wire excitement of a Horowitz, the dynamic contrasts of a Hofmann, or the gaunt angularity of a Serkin. At the tail end of the "Golden-Age" of piano playing, Rubinstein's straightforward, uncluttered performances must have come as a splash of cold water across the face of the cognoscenti. It's not for nothing that Paderewski, who Rubinstein considered the epitome of the "bad" 19th Century school, much preferred the young Horowitz. (Paderewski described Horowitz as "self-disciplined, and above all, he has rhythm and tone…Without any doubt, he is the most convincing of the younger pianists.") Rachmaninoff, whose own style of playing was straighter than Paderewski's but still rooted in an earlier tradition, considered Horowitz his heir. If Rachmaninoff ever had any opinion on Rubinstein, aside from his advice to his Polish-colleague to stop playing "dirty modern music" like Stravinsky's Petrouchka, I have yet to see it.
I never heard Rubinstein in person. I was only nine years old when he retired. I first heard AR's playing in 1983, when I found an old 78RPM recording of Beethoven's Appassionata Sonata in my grandmother's basement (it was the 1946 recording, in retrospect a pretty slapdash performance - despite the surface thrills). Since that time, I've come to know his playing much better.
Several times, I've heard young pianists comment to the effect that they didn't understand why Rubinstein was so popular with the older generation of music lovers. The recordings they'd heard (which would naturally be the most easily available) sounded cautious or even stodgy.
The historical view of Rubinstein as pianist and musician has become somewhat distorted. It's not easy to get a grasp of the totality of Rubinstein's career. It may be impossible, since there's no one alive today who would remember his earliest performances. Recordings give a very incomplete picture: Rubinstein's very first recording, made in 1910 when he was 23, has never been issued on LP or CD and is nearly impossible to find. (I have never heard it, but have been told that all one can hear through the poor sonics is rather careless, sloppy playing.) His next recording wasn't made until 1928 when he was over 40 - the same age Evgeny Kissin is at this writing. From that point on, Rubinstein recorded prolifically until he was 89 – at one point he was the world's most recorded Classical pianist. But he was loath to make live recordings, and the few he made reveal that he played differently in concert than in the studio. RCA (now Sony) reissued Rubinstein's stereo studio recordings several times - going back to the early CD era, while the most of the mono recordings have been issued only once - and many are hard to find. Problem is, most of the stereo recordings capture the final phase of Rubinstein's long career - and it's impossible to have a balanced view of his playing without knowing more of his output. It would be like judging Toscanini's conducting based only on his last years at NBC, or Horowitz solely on his Deutsche Grammophon recordings.
About ten years ago, I bought RCA's mammoth boxed set of Rubinstein's complete recordings with that label – over 106 hours of recorded music covering a period from 1928 to 1976. Many of these performances were unfamiliar to me. But it was fascinating to follow the evolution of his playing from middle to old age. Rubinstein's recording career coincided with a quantum leap in recording technology, starting in the earliest years of electrical recording (that is, recording with a microphone instead of a horn) during the 78RPM era, to the LP, and stereophonic sound. (By time digital recording came into common use, Rubinstein had retired – and early digital recordings seldom sounded very good anyway.) Every time recording technology improved, Rubinstein would rerecord his core repertoire – so we often have at least three recordings of the same works.
There were basically three phases of Rubinstein's recording career:
* 1928-1946: Impetuous playing, full of brio, but sometimes uncontrolled, very much a virtuoso but sometimes gets carried away, more freedom and imagination than in later years.
* 1947-1962: greater maturity, still hot blooded but starting to mellow, most secure technically, increasing understanding of musical structure.
* 1963-1976: maturity giving way to stodginess, control of pianissimo failing, best in contemplative repertoire like late Brahms.
In short, if you haven't heard recordings drawn from Rubinstein's early and middle periods, you haven't heard Rubinstein. Examples of the evolution in Rubinstein's playing can be found in the many works he recorded several times. One that comes to mind for me is Brahms' Second Piano Concerto, which Rubinstein recorded in 1929, 1952, 1958, and 1971. (There are other, unauthorized recordings from broadcasts and the like, but I am only including the authorized versions here since they presumably reflect Rubinstein's wishes.) The 1929 version is a hell-for-leather performance that runs contrary to "traditional" Brahms, and quite marred by technical lapses and over-pedaling. But wrong notes were inevitable in the days before tape editing, so those can be forgiven, and Rubinstein may have been falling back on his youthful habit of leaning on the pedal to avoid exposing cheated passagework. The question is: Did Rubinstein not practice enough for this recording? Or was he determined to present his conception of the work no matter what the obstacles and blemishes? I am inclined to believe the latter. It should be noted that Rubinstein's tempos in this performance are closer to Brahms' metronome markings than any other recording I've heard.
The 1952 and 1958 are very similar in approach, although the stereophonic sound of the latter makes it preferable. These are still rather impetuous performances, not as extreme in tempo as the 1929 version, but outgoing. The pianist often stated that since Brahms was alive until Rubinstein was ten years old, he thought of him as a living composer instead of an old master. This is not the tired, grey bearded Brahms, but a vigorous, temperamental, even lusty conception.
The last version, with Ormandy, is the weakest. His conception of the piece had changed dramatically in the intervening years, and he seems to have traded one extreme for the other. The octogenarian pianist's tempos are slow here, phrasing is flabby, then opening flourish of the Scherzo is played in an almost dainty fashion, and Rubinstein seems overwhelmed by the Philadelphians. A pseudo-reverential quality drains the spontaneity and passion that marked his earlier recordings. One wonders if Rubinstein was thinking of this recording when he stated in his autobiography that the first versions he recorded inevitably remained the best.
Much the same could be said for Rubinstein's Chopin as for his Brahms – but there is a twist since Chopin wrote across more solo piano genres than Brahms.
Rubinstein recorded the bulk of Chopin's solo works three times (roughly: in the 1930s, late '40s/early '50s, and in the stereo era starting in 1958). There are exceptions to this pattern: the Ballades were recorded only once, as were the Op. 28 Preludes and the Third Sonata – and some assorted pieces were recorded more than three times.
As has been noted by many, Rubinstein never recorded the Op. 10 & 25 Etudes in the studio (an attempt in the late 1960s was abandoned after one session). But he did record the Trois Nouvelles Etudes twice – the early stereo version from 1958 is a bit more alert than the 1962 remake.
Rubinstein's one traversal of the Preludes, from 1946, is a perfunctory rendition and not among his best efforts in any composer's work.
I heartily endorse his 1950s Chopin Polonaises which I reviewed under the headline "The Best Polonaises – EVER!". (That headline earned me a good amount of hate-mail, particularly from Pollini fans. The headline was a parody of a famous line from Mommie Dearest.) I have yet to hear a set of Polonaises that combines the fire, swagger, and gravitas of this idiom better than this cycle. The same for his 1949 Scherzos – although the superior sound in the 1959 Scherzos compensates for a slight falling off in tempos.
But in the Nocturnes and Mazurkas, I recommend the 1930s set, which have many moments of magic missing from the later sets. Why is this? For one thing, some of these pieces were probably new to him. Rubinstein played only a small selection of Nocturnes and Mazurkas in concert, and the idea of recording a complete set of them was unusual in the 1930s and fairly daring on Rubinstein's and HMV's part. (Schnabel's set of Beethoven Sonatas had to be financed in advance via subscriptions.) The freshness in this set is palpable. But by the 1960s, Rubinstein was very much aware that he was the "elder statesman" of Chopin; he knew this would be his last cycle of Chopin's music, and he was thinking of "posterity." As such, his last set of Mazurkas was over-thought and rather stiff – "stripped of pungency" in the words of David Dubal. There's also the problem - likely caused by his failing hearing – that Rubinstein consistently played too loudly in the last decade of his career. That especially marred his last version of the Nocturnes.
Indeed, of Rubinstein's later Chopin recordings, I can only recommend one without reservations: His 1961 recording of the famous Funeral March Sonata is head and shoulders above his 1946 version. There is a relaxed kind of virtuosity here, and a keener grasp of the totality of the piece than in 1946. The B minor Sonata (his only recording of the piece, made over a two year period) is not on the same exalted level. Rubinstein seems to have had a troubled relationship with the B minor sonata, and legend has it he threw a tape of a concert version of this piece into his fireplace.
There is a pattern to be discerned above in the Brahms and Chopin examples above, and it can also be confirmed by listening to Rubinstein's recordings of other works like Franck's Prelude, Chorale, and Fugue or any of his concerto recordings: His understanding of large scale works improved as he aged, while his recordings of shorter works tended to lose imagination with time.
(I do not endorse the notion, claimed by some, that Rubinstein's last producer, Max Wilcox, was responsible for the character of Rubinstein's later recordings. There are plenty of instances in the later years, such as the all-French album or the Chamber music recordings, where Rubinstein is clearly "on." In any case, recordings were never issued during Rubinstein's lifetime without his consent, and one can presume that they met his standards. The idea of Wilcox pressuring Rubinstein into playing in a certain way, or tricking the pianist into releasing something not to his standards, is at once laughable and defamatory.)
Despite the changes in his performances, positive and negative, that came with age and maturity, Rubinstein's interpretations were always very normal, in the sense that they didn't call attention to themselves. In the last half of the 20th Century, there were growing numbers of pianists who offered straight interpretations of the standard repertoire (Ashkenazy was the king of normalcy, IMO). But when Rubinstein was starting out, this kind of straightforward, unfussy approach was somewhat new. The notion that Glenn Gould put forth, that one shouldn't perform a work unless one consciously intended to perform it differently, was anathema to Rubinstein's philosophy. As Daniel Barenboim said, Rubinstein put all of his musical ideas through a "strainer of naturalness" and if an idea didn't pass through that strainer, Rubinstein rejected it. His early Chopin performances put off the old-schoolers, who expected a more personalized approach. Rubinstein once said that his masculine approach to Chopin, performed without the "swan dive into the keyboard" angered many critics – "they said my Chopin was 'cold'". But there were pianists before Rubinstein who rejected swan diving, including Hofmann and Rachmaninoff.
Although Rubinstein's never recorded the complete Beethoven Sonatas or Mozart Concertos, his repertoire was vast stylistically – encompassing Bach to Szymanowski. And he seemed to play so much of it remarkably well, in the same suave, warm, uncluttered way his public came to expect. It's no surprise that the concert going public, who felt fear/awe at Horowitz and respected Arrau, considered Rubinstein to be their "beloved Artur."
It may be a false sense of causation by way of correlation on my part, but I feel that Rubinstein's knowledge of various human cultures helped him musically. Born in Poland, he studied in Berlin and spent his adult years living in London, France, and the United States. He traveled so widely that he became fluent in eight languages. (He once stated that he would play anywhere except Tibet, because it was too high, or Germany, because it was too low. Contrary to popular belief, he was not referring to the Holocaust in his condemnation of Germany, but to that nation's behavior during World War I. I have sometimes wondered if Rubinstein's boycott of Germany is an underlying reason why some have never accepted him as a Beethoven interpreter – I can't find a musical justification for the dismissal of some of his Beethoven.) It seems to me, also, that Rubinstein was able to play an uncommonly large swath of repertoire with a high degree of authenticity. Although it can fairly be pointed out that Rubinstein sometimes glossed over details - particularly with regard to dynamic markings - everything he played had a clear, high-level approach. Neither his German, French, nor Spanish repertoire was ever played with a Polish accent. His Chopin, appropriately, was. Yet even in his countryman's music, he was more urbane and cosmopolitan than, say, Witold Małcużyński.
Now, following an era when normalcy gave way to stultification, it seems like interpretations are moving back into a more personalized approach - witness the explosion of pianists who play transcriptions (their own and others) and the very individualistic performances by pianists such as Lang Lang, Denis Matsuev, Alice Sara Ott, and others. But without the tradition of 19th Century performance practice as a foundation, many of these youngsters flounder in their attempts at individuality. Rubinstein was able to balance his individuality (that tone alone makes him instantly identifiable) and his romantic temperament with his innate classicism – note the small "r" and small "c".
Arthur Rubinstein proved that Classicism and Romanticism, upper or lower case, are not opposing virtues.


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I first saw Abbey brooks on an episode of Tim & Eric's Awesome Show! Great Job! in the "Pizza Boy" sketch with David Cross.
Friday, February 20, 2009
I Love the '00s: Abbey Brooks
Posted by Darius Whiteplume at 6:00 AM
Labels: Abbey Brooks, David Cross, I Love the '00s, Tim and Eric
1 comment:
- Keith said...
I've never seen her, but I'm glad I've seen her now. Wow! What a body!
- February 20, 2009 at 10:01 AM
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