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Pop singer Keri Hilson made waves on social media this weekend when she suggested that people "thank" Rachel Dolezal, the embattled president of the Spokane, Washington chapter of the NAACP who was outed as white by her parents after representing herself as an African-American woman for years.
"Let's just all thank #RachelDolezal," Hilson began a series of supportive tweets. "Identity, pathological, & parental issues aside, she's doing more than most of us do for ourselves."
Let's just all thank #RachelDolezal. Identity, pathological, & parental issues aside, she's doing more than most of us do for ourselves.
— Keri Hilson (@KeriHilson) June 12, 2015
It is really weird tho. She took it pretty far with slave whips & what not. Levels. Deep. #RachaelDolezal
— Keri Hilson (@KeriHilson) June 12, 2015
I'm not sayin she doesn't have serious ISSUES, I'm just sayin don't knock her intentions or discredit her efforts. @NAACP stands by her work
— Keri Hilson (@KeriHilson) June 12, 2015
I don't defend her, I just don't like to assume or pass judgement on people's hearts. WE don't really know her motives. Only GOD.
— Keri Hilson (@KeriHilson) June 13, 2015
Hilson's comments were quickly picked up and skewered all over Twitter:
Someone should write a comic book about Keri Hilson being an anti-hero that strives to fail. Like the Batman of wrong.
— Blue Ivy Barter (@KidFury) June 12, 2015
@KeriHilson Keri please, she may be doing more than YOU but don't patronize us like there aren't black folk doing good for the community,
— The florescent beige (@miszmoxxxey) June 12, 2015
@KeriHilson speak for yourself. Using race to deceive others to elevate social status is insulting on so many levels #ReversePassing
— Panama Soweto (@PanamaSoweto) June 12, 2015
@KeriHilson @NAACP You offended ppl by saying she's done more than we do for ourselves. Not bc you asked not to discredit her. Unreal.
— ✨Candis✨ (@Miss_Candis) June 12, 2015
@KeriHilson @NAACP also stood by Donald Sterling…so….
— Yesha (@YeshaCallahan) June 12, 2015
The NAACP has stood by Dolezal, who also teaches Africana studies at Eastern Washington University.
"We represent all civil rights issues, regardless of a person's ethnicity. And the quality of work that she has done to elevate the issues of civil rights in that region is what we applaud," NAACP regional president Gerald Hankerson said in a statement. "It's unfortunate that this has become a trending conversation when there's a lot more important things that are going on in America that we should be better addressing."
Hilson realized she was getting beaten over the comments and tried to clarify in a follow-up tweet on Saturday:
Hey, she got outta bed every morning & did excellent work for the advancement/equality of MY ppl. THAT affects me. Let God handle the rest!
— Keri Hilson (@KeriHilson) June 13, 2015


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Definition of Subagencies
1. Noun. (plural of subagency) ¹
¹ Source: wiktionary.com
Definition of Subagencies
1. subagency [n] - See also: subagency
Subagencies Pictures
Click the following link to bring up a new window with an automated collection of images related to the term: Subagencies Images
Lexicographical Neighbors of Subagencies
Literary usage of Subagencies
Below you will find example usage of this term as found in modern and/or classical literature:
1. Strengthening Management Controls with Less Effort: Streamlining Internal ...Business & Economics (1993)
"While permissible, it is not expected that all subagencies within an agency ... Rather, you should contact enough components or subagencies to make a ..."
2. Monthly Consular and Trade Reports by United States Bureau of Manufactures (1909)
"The best way to do it is to establish head agencies in Vienna and subagencies in this consular district, from which salesmen could solicit orders personally ..."
3. The Encyclopedia Americana: A Library of Universal Knowledge (1919)
"subagencies were opened in Madrid, Rome, Vienna, Brussels and, a little later, in various American cities. Working agreements were entered into with the ..."

subset: commoncrawl


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The advancement in technology has made a breakthrough in the fields of science, medicine, internet, communication, and society in general. It has a significant impact to our life and our environment. It creates a bridge that connects one corner of the earth to the other. Denver is an excellent example where big industries are thriving because of technology. Let us explore some of the major tech companies located in Denver, Colorado:
Storagetek is a company that deals with data storage technology. Formerly known as Storage Technology Corporation and founded in 1969, under the supervision of Sun Microsystems, Inc. which is now a subsidiary of Oracle Corporation. Storagetek specializes in the equipment that deals with data recording, either hardware or software. The company brings out magnetic tape which has been commonly used for decades, and software backup. Magnetic tape is used especially when storing bulk amounts of data because it is cheaper compared to storage products like disks. Software back up is a computer applications that allow you to get an identical copy of the original document stored.
Level 3 Communications is an international telecommunications company. Level 3 sets up a fiber-optic foundation that serves as a backbone for internet and data transmission. In 1985 it was originally called Kiewit Diversified Group Inc. as a subsidiary of Peter Kiewit Sons' Inc. Level 3 is dynamically expanding in the continents of North America and Europe. Level 3 endeavors to provide stable and secure systems. The company offers different services that include internet access, dial-up or broadband, collocation, content delivery, and video transport.
Quark, Inc. is a private company that manufactures software mainly used for publishing purposes. It got its name after the recognized building element of matter. Its well-known computer program called QuarkXPress, a lay-out editor designed for desktops, is primarily used by individuals or large publishing firms because it can handle complex lay-out formats that they commonly need. In the course of time, Quark released its revolutionary software called Dynamic Publishing Solution. It is a dynamic and very innovative solution because all Quark products are integrated in this version.
Isn't that a good technology mix? Denver has been the dwelling-place to large business firms in the United States in recent years. There is no need to go to far places because they are all here. If you need technical services, they is within your reach. These companies share one dream, one destination – success! You can share with them too.


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We are only a week away from the start of the 2016 Toronto After Dark Film Festival. This past weekend, the final batch of films were announced, along with the official schedule. Like I did for the first ten, I'm going to break down the selections, highlighting the films I have already seen.
Can't Miss Films
TRAIN TO BUSAN (Korea) Special Presentation (Review)
Without a doubt, Train to Busan is the year's most solid zombie film and perfect fit for Toronto After Dark's "Zombie Appreciation Night." It initially seemed like Toronto After Dark missed out on its chance to screen Train to Busan, since it had a theatrical release in Toronto only a couple months ago. However, the festival decided to make an exception to their rule of showing only Toronto theatrical premieres to give audiences another chance to see this entertaining and record-breaking film.
Films I've Seen at Fantasia
BED OF THE DEAD (Canada) Toronto Premiere (Fantasia Review)
From the folks at Black Fawn Films comes this supernatural thriller that comes off as a combination of 1408, A Nightmare on Elm Street, and Oculus. Despite an inherently ridiculous premise, this is a film that would be satisfying for Toronto After Dark audiences looking for an ultra-gory thriller. Keep an eye out for my interview with the filmmakers of Bed of the Dead, which I'll post to coincide with the Toronto After Dark screening.
The Rest
STAKE LAND 2 aka THE STAKELANDER (USA/Canada) Canadian Premiere
This is probably the most surprising selection of this year's Toronto After Dark line-up. The original Stake Land was a fan favourite, winning the TIFF Midnight Madness People's Choice Award back in 2010. Very little is known about this sequel, other than the fact that it features the return of Connor Paolo as main protagonist Martin and Nick Damici as vampire hunter Mister. If there is a possible warning sign about The Stakelander, it's the fact that it is apparently produced for SyFy with original director Jim Mickle being replaced by the duo of Dan Berk and Robert Olsen. We'll just have to wait and see how this sequel compares to the original.
BLOOD FATHER (USA/France) Toronto Premiere
Mel Gibson returns in this new acclaimed action thriller. 'Nuff said.
THE MASTER CLEANSE (USA) Toronto Premiere
I actually has this film on my Fantasia schedule, but I decided to skip the screening for one reason or another. As such, I am happy that I will get another chance to see this creature feature.
WAR ON EVERYONE (USA/UK) Canadian Premiere
This dark buddy cop comedy starring Alexander Skarsgard and Michael Pena looks like it could possibly be a hidden gem of the festival.
This dark buddy cop comedy starring Alexander Skarsgard and Michael Pena looks like it could possibly be a hidden gem of the festival.
I AM NOT A SERIAL KILLER (USA) Toronto Premiere
This is one of the films I really wanted to see at Fantasia, but it didn't screen until after I left Montreal. As such, I am quite happy to see this Christopher Lloyd-starring thriller in the Toronto After Dark line-up.
LET HER OUT (Canada) Toronto Premiere
From the director of Antisocial comes this thriller, which looks to combine multiple personality disorder with body horror. Definitely looks like it will be an interesting watch.
From the director of Antisocial comes this thriller, which looks to combine multiple personality disorder with body horror. Definitely looks like it will be an interesting watch.
FROM A HOUSE ON WILLOW STREET (South Africa) North American Premiere
I'm going to say straight out that this is the film that I am most intrigued by in the entire Toronto After Dark line-up. Personally I'm sold by the fact that the film stars You're Next's Sharni Vinson, as well as the fact that the film has one very cool poster.
Well, that wraps up my breakdown of the final films of the 2016 Toronto After Dark line-up. The festival runs from October 13-21 at the Scotiabank Theatre in Toronto. The festival All-Access Passes are nearly sold out, so you have to run fast to get access to every film in the Toronto After Dark line-up. Single tickets are also now available, with many of the high profile films expected to sell out. As of this writing, you will have to rush to get tickets to see Under the Shadow (2nd screening), Train to Busan, or The Void (2nd screening). We'll see you after dark!


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artistic pursuits from the ass-end up.
The first thing that I wanted to write about after my baby was born was, predictably, the birth. I never imagined that I would write, on thanksgiving of all days, from a seaside island apartment in Georgia, nearly five months after the event– the cleaving, the bloodied imparting, the tearing asunder and breath shocked abruption of beings– about grief.
Perhaps it is less about grief and more about murder. Immolation. The worlds I lost, the selves I killed. Assumptions violently shed. On bad days still I see my body bathed in blood. Only the name I gave myself and the burden of accumulated losses cloaking what is– must be– the illusion of self. Kill it. And again. And again. Irrevocable losses- strip them of meaning, if not potency. Crush. Mine. Remake. Destroy.
The ocean is a mirror for the vast tumult of loss inside my own wrecked heart. Despair sweeps, changes diapers, microwaves tv dinners, feeds itself. I am neatly kept, I keep neatly. I have lost all my sharp edges, collapsed into wobbly flesh and bruised shadow. Suddenly I am old, wearing every pinch and frown. I look to the sea. Seemingly it holds everything. I will too, I resolve.
Skinned thinner than tendon, tighter than my breath. Time framed in contractions, slicing spasms of pain. I pick up my feet. Slip deep into mindless movement. Watch a strip of light curve slowly across the wall. I will too. Stretch. Breathe. Arc. Die.
I focus on the curve of each line, the arc and bleed of ink. Over and over, the same word. Prayer comes to me uninvited- hallowed be thy name. On earth as it is in heaven. With both hands I lifted him from the water black with shit and blood. I cracked open with the miracle of him. I whispered his name over and over in the dark. Incantation. Invocation. This one lived. His heart beats. Mine, still, too.
It's 3:31 am. I just vomited up everything in my stomach, most of which was the lemon ginger water that I drink on the constant to prevent vomiting up everything in my stomach. I could not eat yesterday, nor sleep; I can't sleep tonight. I'm trembling from the exertion of puking.
I can feel the baby moving. It's early– I shouldn't be feeling it– but I'm feeling it. Sometimes I wonder if this pregnancy is farther along than I think because Wyrm never died. In the emergency room, after I found out that I was pregnant again, I struggled to remind myself that this wasn't Wyrm back, this wasn't Wyrm. I curled up in the miserable gowns on the thin sheets over the cold ass cracked up plastic of the hospital bed and rocked myself and cried. This isn't Wyrm, it isn't Wyrm.
I know it isn't Wyrm because Wyrm's body was in my freezer for nearly two months. Now he has been cremated and is in an urn in my living room. C. and I were going to release his body to the Pacific Ocean; we were going to do a lot of things. We do not speak now. I puke, he fucks random people. We've gone our separate ways. How quickly everything we hoped for or had counted on so absolutely dissolves.
Sometimes I still have suicidal thoughts. Then I remember that really, I already died. I died and went to hell and came back and died and went to hell and came back and now there isn't flesh anymore, there isn't bone, there is only negative space. Burned clean of even the capacity to want. I may be able to write again, now. There is room.
This baby does not have a name. I cannot hear it's name. The cranial sacral therapist told me that she talked to the spirit of my baby, the last time she was wiggling my ears and poking my neck on her pretty draped table. She said that the baby is the same spirit, come back through all the miscarriages. A spirit that I have known and loved in previous lives, as cousins, best friends, lovers, spouses. This spirit is so fucking happy to be with me again in a new way, she said, sans the expletive. They are choosing to come now because I need them, because I have died and gone to hell and died and gone to hell and now that there is nothing left but death in me, this spirit has come to fill me with new life.
She cried while she told me. I couldn't cry, because there was still more death in me than the capacity for life. I don't know what I think. She said that the animal I need pay attention to now is the blue jay. That whatever I needed the armadillo for, or the frog, had been resolved. We have strange conversations. Last time I was there while she was apparently talking to my baby's spirit I saw all these asses everywhere, all over the ceiling, in my head; I saw mud fat with standing water, a red, red river sensuous with silt– the river I often dream of, a river I once fucked my boyfriend in when I was 15. (Which got real awkward, when some fisherman boated by.) I felt very uncomfortable having my ears wiggled while I saw asses everywhere. Especially when I found out that she had been talking to my baby. Did they see the asses, too?
She said my river was her blue jay. (I didn't mention the asses.) That the question was one of courage, of autonomy. Do I sit in the mud? Or do I brave the sensuous seductions of the river, swoop in and just fucking take what I need, without shame the way the blue jay does? She said that I was making a very important decision, and that I need pay attention to the blue jay.
I don't know what important decisions I am making. Frankly, life feels so unequivocally overwhelming that most of the decisions that I make are immediate, minute things, such as, should I puke before I shit– which end goes over the toilet first? Should I eat cereal before I brush my teeth and puke? Should I take my prenatal vitamin with breakfast or lunch; should I puke generic organic raisin bran or an egg salad sandwich? Most of my decisions right now are about my ass or my mouth, plus all the many yards of beleaguered, pregnancy-shocked gut between. They don't seem particularly imperative. Egg salad puke or raisin bran puke? Spirit of the blue jay! Egg salad, goddamnit, now, without shame!
Spirit of the blue jay. When she said blue jay, I said, but they are so mean. Not mean, she said, they do what they need to do without shame. Like a pregnant person eats a whole pizza. (I have not eaten a whole pizza. But I have thrown up half a calzone.)
C. once said that I am more venomous than an adder. I don't know how much I need blue jay encouragement. I do know that over the last many weeks, I have felt things that I am not used to feeling, like profound loneliness, a deep fear of being alone. Like longing to be touched by another human being. Like needing, actual needing, human presence and contact. Needing a hug.
Usually when people say, do you need a hug?, my secret inner thought is– ugh, why the hell would I want you to touch me? I'm not huggy feely. I don't get how pressure and other people's bodies can feel soothing. Or I didn't, until now.
Sometimes I am so scared that I want to be picked up and cradled, I want to be rocked. I rock myself. Sometimes I ask someone to just sit near me, or lay their hand on my back, although I do not have many people around to ask. Sometimes I just imagine in it in my head, the comfort of another person's palm laid warmly across my spine.
I try to breathe long and slow through these times, when I feel so small and wretched, so terrified and ill that I don't know how the hell I am ever going to make it through this. I tell my baby, this is loneliness, this is sadness, it hurts, doesn't it? But we are okay, we get through. We'll just breathe real slow and get through this. Even when there is no one to hold you, to carry you, time will carry you through.
I learned that time carries when I was locked up for months as a teen in a place where we were "only allowed to blink and breathe without staff permission." I have become very skilled at the simple arts of blinking and breathing. Of waiting without hope, without thought.
At least until the bran cereal decides which end it will make its arduous exit from.
I think I made my blue jay decision this morning. I ended all possibility of friendship or family with C. I cried all day. I wanted to run to him, to wrap myself around him, to place his palm on my belly, on my spine. I wanted him to feel my pulse, my tears, to rock me, to love me, to feel the baby move. To recant, to reclaim. I wanted things to go back to the way they never were, when I trusted him and we brought each other joy.
Instead I entered the river, unsure if I would swim or drown. The baby moves in me; the surface of the water is warm but the depths are cool, almost cold. Sediment and water moccasins ribbon around me. We are far south enough for gators to be a concern. Mud squelches between my toes, slippering my feet. I wade towards center. I look for the white horse I dreamed of once, the dead one. I wonder if the stress will kill this baby, too.
This isn't Wyrm. It isn't Wyrm. I will blink and breathe and fucking swim.
I don't know how to break a silence this long with grace.
In short: I'm nearly three months pregnant. I spent some time in the psychiatric ward of the public hospital. My relationship ended abruptly and painfully. Most days I am too sick to leave my apartment. I'm in the process of clearing up my incomplete and returning to school in January. I should graduate with my second degree by next summer, before the baby is born. And hopefully, sometime in the next year, I am moving on from the state of Washington.
In the hospital they said that I was in shock. Shock is a fairly accurate description. Each day I shed a little more of the assumptions of possibility, stability, and availability that I wasn't aware I'd been holding to. My life feels bottomless. I have no idea what to anticipate or hope for, what to hold to. I live literally moment to moment, day to day. My life feels small and womb-like, yet surrounded by a limitless cavern of uncertainty.
I have never before experienced the profound discomfort and immense effort entailed in literally just sitting with sadness, hope, and fear.
I'm not roving from shelter to shelter anymore, not running for the safety and security of my family, not fending off bigots or bears, not fighting the system for SSI, not trying to be a "real" writer, not "saving" anyone, not exhaustively researching anything, not wildly in love or craven in heartbreak, not building family or community, not expecting or wanting from anyone, not trying to make a living doing anything, just living– not even reading, not even writing, just living. Breathing moment to moment, gestating new life, sitting with some of the hardest and heaviest feelings I have ever experienced.
I can find no way to say this with grace: my heart is broken with the vast and sickening injustices of the prison industrial complex, as well as the systems of state structured bigotry that feeds it. That I sit with, moment to moment, day to day. How that relates to the baby coming to be in me, the heartache, the uncertainty, and even the hospital stay is a story so complex and contradictory that it exceeds my current capacity to relate.
In the meantime, prenatals and puking, WIC checks and waiting, headaches and heartaches and bowels that have also come to a standstill. I hold everything in my heart but hope.
"I said to my soul, be still and wait without hope, for hope would be hope for the wrong thing; wait without love, for love would be love of the wrong thing; there is yet faith, but the faith and the love are all in the waiting. Wait without thought, for you are not ready for thought: So the darkness shall be the light, and the stillness the dancing." -T.S. Eliot
Dear heart,
I will speak directly to you today, to your valves and ventricles, to your canted chambers and controlled floods, to the infusions of charge and spark that animate your determined pursuit of nurturance. Thank you for how you've carried me, and how you've enabled me to carry you. You have guided me through immense uncertainties. I do not know how you have not seized or ruptured; I cannot fathom how you hold so much. I bow to your strength and relentlessness; I bow to the wisdom and language of your pulse. Thank you so much.
Such nightmares, this morning. Your hurt in me, I can barely breathe through you; I can barely keep up. You ache; I ache; we ache. It is profoundly uncomfortable to sit still with you, to sit still, to breathe stillness in.
The stories of my life and of my nightmares are telling me today that you are worthless, a wounded bruise of meat available for quick and cheap consumption. You feel the threat of those stories; you are pumping overtime to bail the sinking vessel. I will not let us sink beneath the surface of those family fables. Let us imagine unforeseen lightness and float through this. Let us remember that today, there is no need to fight or flail. Rest.
Rest. No harm is being brought to you, no capacity taken. Today I vow that I will honor rather than harm you. These things did happen, but they did not happen today. Rest.
Dear cunt,
We will be years or lifetimes in healing towards each other; I will stay that course. I heard your nightmares this morning. I heard your nightmares and your mother's voice. I heard your fears of use, discard, and shame. I heard your mother's voice.
I will be honest. I don't know what to say to you. I wish that I could scoop you up and hold you, to carry you in my hoodie to rest from the pull of want and gravity. You do not have to open and accept the imposition of unwanted contact so that I may eat or have shelter today. You do not have to tear and bleed and ache today, as you contort and stretch to hold bitter and unwanted mass for the safety of faked desire over forcible rape. There is no hustle for survival today.
It is safe to feel and open, to hold and squeeze. It is safe to accept and slick. It is safe to want.
It is safe to want nothing, to close, to merely be, a tight and self-contained bud, untouched.
I will breathe us through the fear of shame and the fear of force. Today we are safe. We are not usable, disposable. We are not triangulated and forced to be pretty, tight, and available for survival. We have power, electricity, worth. I will hold and carry you. I will guard and keep you. I will honor you. I will not blame, cut, "deodorize", or revile you for the actions of others. You did not invite force. True force is not invited. We survived force and unwanted utilization. Today we are safe and off the clock, off the hook. I heard your nightmare and your mother's voice, and they are over now. We are moving through layers of healing. Rest. Rest. Love can be safe.
I am living primarily off of chocolate coconut Luna bars and smoking in the car again– such are my peculiar signs of impending break. I wake soaked in sweat– I wake hearing the anger and disgust in his voice, again, the specific words he said, although now weeks have passed– my heart cringes and crawls like an experimental lab rat, fearing the shock it knows will come and is helpless to prevent. Nightmares bring family and home, Christmas and slaughter, my grandmother's corpse and bears in the bedroom. Nothing feels heavier, more pathetic and insoluble than the weight and dampness, the stink and wind of the sheets tangled around my neck and thighs. I wake bewildered and terrified, tail tucked, in tail spin. Such are the manifestations of home, family, love. I understand nothing. I yield to cover and the repetition of breath. I count hours, empty pillows, the things I know. I study the blinded streetlight bending round the metal bed frame; I try to remember what I've forgotten. I make bed and home in wretchedness, bewilderment, sheeted and bound in the intimacy of my own peculiar breaking.
All night I wrestle, I wind. These ribbons mean danger. Turn up the femme, a fierce and unyielding light. A thin line between birth and death. Listen for the crack. Relief in the determination that I never have to be okay again. And because I don't have to be, I will. This is the blood-boil bewilderment before the fever breaks. I can lose a few brain cells, a few dreams, a lover. Sweat out the impurity of want and certainty. At least I sleep on the groundfloor, now. At least I can sometimes sleep.
Laugh in the morning. This is what healing looks like. A sloughing of skin and want, a lamp left on through the night. We made it through again, we slipped the trap, the shot guns, the hounds; the plywood held against the bear, the kitchen knives stay sheathed in sheets. This really happened. I will tell you, I have to tell you. Over and over and until the terror is limited to words. We lived in hiding in a shed on a mountain. We filled bags with rocks. I lay with knives, baseball bats, a hatchet. Every night the bear came. A real bear that I never saw, only heard, measured paw prints and claw marks, counted tufts of fur. I couldn't believe it myself, shock paralleled with fear and a fierceness that I will never be able to stick words to. I cannot love without ferocity now– I love like a bear now, a mother bear, guarding. Worry billowing wider than want. I didn't sleep so that they could. I couldn't sleep so that they could. I age slipped to a helpless want of comfort that I never really had– 28 years old, I hugged a stuffed fox through the night to hold myself, with knives and bats nearby. More than I have hungered for anything, I wanted to eat that bear's fucking heart. I wanted to warm my fish-cold feet in his disambiguated flesh.
My body can't believe that it ended. But it did. It did. From garage to shed to car to motel to collective to shelter to shelter to shelter to shelter. Home is the hardest of four letter words. It's over now– when I remember I sing this to my heart, a lullaby. Hold my ribs in my palms and remember– it's nearly over now.
It will be truly over next month. We will pass through from homeless to homed. Pray that it sticks. Pray that never again will we plummet. It is time to heal now. I am ready to heal now. I have been healing, slow spiral to the deeper fixing terror of it. I can handle that now. I will handle it now. Tell the snow, the sheets, the plywood, the rats: I can sustain unspeakable loss. Frost creeps in. Femme flares out. Sweat and steam and all the mud and suck of thaw. My bed is the bewilderment of spring, sharp pungent shoots sprung from rot and loss. I broke into parts to survive. Now the most wounded of us is healing the hardest. Parting the earth with root and hunger. We will risk to believe that the sun will come again, that grief will pass on the inevitability of breath and time. That we can push and pulse and slip past stone, against gravity, part layers of transfigured history– from dust to dust– to welcome heat and light and simply stun, stun, all those little parts of us that didn't know we could turn waste to breath, that from the pitch dark and deepest pulse of burial we could flare the most beauteous and blinding of greens.
76 hours from now, I will be in the place where this bullshit started, if bullshit ever starts in any one place. Atlanta. My mind says, time to writhe and thrive, to break into a fury of potentials. My body insists that returning to Atlanta means that I will die. My fool face splashed all over the news, even middle school friends saw me. His fist, my throat, the stairs, the rape. Hunger and mold and cold and rupture. Atlanta is generations of personal and familal history wounded from the roots. Holding tenaciously in the piedmont, the foothills of the mountains, to the south the flatlands, the sunk and trembling lands, dark alligator waters, shotguns, sharks; to the north the bear, the shed. A terrain of violence, impending. Now is the time to part layers of transfigured history– from dust to dust, mold to glitter; from what was to what may be. I'm bringing my fucking heels, a sharp tongue, a short skirt. I'm coming.
I am stumbling to get words out. Profound and enlivening shifts are occurring with the same old nightmares, body aches, anxieties, and sleeplessness cycling through the background. Grief is still riding me, hard. My dreams are full of bears and bodies. My libido has tanked again.
And yet– I feel that I've found a true, legitimate, and plausible/possible calling– one that I feel will integrate fairly easily into the work that I already do, and working for and with people to whom I, in my deepest and most intimate roots, resonate with and do not feel alien to, after a life in which I, almost without exception, have felt alien. It feels like going home. It feels like falling in love. I'm enlivened and burning with ideas. More on that later.
I'm writing, of all things, a trilogy of Greek plays. I have a reading next month, am likely returning to the Lambda retreat this year, and am easing myself back into the writing world. I have a real and plausible opportunity to finish Nuthouse Birthdays this year. I have a chapbook of poems to edit and hopefully publish. My writing has changed in ways both startling and fucking exciting.
After years of what constitutes almost unspeakable personal devastation, I feel like life is starting again. I'm getting back into activism. In three months, I will no longer be legally homeless, and the level of governmental control and interference in my life will lessen. I am connected with my body in ways I never believed possible. I have family and community.
And seriously, I have the fiercest femmey-est fucking bedroom ever. Even with the sweats, with bears hunting my brain through long hours of the night, it is hard not to feel kinda fucking fabulous, what with all the gold string lights and flocked fleur-de-lis.
So. A grand and joyous (and belated) welcome to 2014. Let's see what we can make happen.
The new apartment finally passed inspection today. We turned in the keys to the previous shelter on Monday; I hauled off the last stack of boxes to recycling this afternoon. Although there is still much to do in terms of moving in, the move itself is over. Last night was the first night that we were able to sleep in the new place.
It occurred to me today that the terrific and terrifying odyssey of homelessness that began on January 2, 2010– the day it snowed, the day we found a pink eviction notice taped to our door– is almost over. Technically, we are legally homeless; the new apartment is now a shelter, according to the HATC program at HUD– we will not "graduate" this program until April 2014. Which means the government still has a solid fist up in all my tender private places, and social service visits will continue. But this move marks many differences.
For example? We chose this place to live. In the shelter system, you are told where and how you will live, typically with a day or less notice. We were transferred from 3 different shelters, each with their own respective social workers, rules, and requirements, many of which followed us from shelter to shelter. This place we chose on our own.
And, we don't live exclusively with other homeless people. Although predominantly low-income, this apartment complex is not the projects, nor is it strictly a shelter or reserved for low income people. Which means that not everyone we live with is as traumatized and triggery as we are. Which means that, in ways small and dense and complicated, prickly and a little hurtful, I feel more human, more not-homeless.
I used to scrutinize my appearance and compare that to the appearance of other homeless people, the ones who were visibly homeless and often on the street. I became extremely stringent in attending to my child's appearance and behavior. I did not want to look homeless, I did not want him to look homeless. Even in the emergency shelter, we brushed our teeth and wore pajamas when we laid on the mats on the floor to sleep. Somehow, not-looking-homeless became innately connected to one-day-not-being-homeless. It was the power I had, the ledge I fiercely gripped to, so as to never find out how much farther we might fall. A toothbrush, a comb, clothes that mostly matched. When possible, clean socks and tea tree scented body wipes. These were my arsenal against the uncertainty of whatever weather or future awaited us.
I will likely spend the rest of my life trying to find words to frame the devastation of these last few years. Today, however, is the first day that it seems actually over, or nearly over. From the rape in 2007, to the failing of my mental and physical health, to the lay-off, eviction, and consequential homelessness, the cross-country odyssey for a safe school for my kid, the rats and bears and shelters, the snow and mold and bone-biting cold, I could count each link, each antecendent and consequence; I saw how each bitter peeling back of safety and skin had exposed us, raw, opened us, barely able to catch our breaths, to the next bitter coming.
And now, it feels almost over. We chose a safe place to live. D. is in a good school, my mother lives here, my mother lives, L. and I somehow survived through it and are better, now, although living seperately, than ever before. I do not speak to or hear from the vast majority of my family. We have friends and community. I am back in college, writing again, and in my body, happy in my body, with less nightmares and moments of terror.
I still sometimes forget where I live. In moments I will think I'm in Atlanta, I will write down my address as Townsend, Georgia; I give the wrong area or zip code. Sometimes I see my step-father and my heart stops, until his face passes from a shadow to emerge as a stranger's face in a foreign city, a city where I live, a city where I have a home. Sometimes still I yearn to be near my grandmother's ashes, my grandmother's bones; to oak trees and spanish moss and fiddler crabs. Savannah passes through my mind like a fever dream; I smell the ocean, the body of the shark that night on the pier, fierce and limp and cold.
I still sometimes forget who I am. I still sometimes feel terrified that I have forgotten something, that I am in the wrong time and place, that I am caught in the parallax of a dream while horror rushes headlong towards us.
But I wake up. My child attends a good school. My mother lives. I have friends, community, and love. I wake up; for years I ceased to sleep, ceased to wake. How I lived at all.


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Events & Training
We offer a range of support to equip Members and Officers with the knowledge and skills they need to meet the needs of their communities.
Training and Event schedule, click here...
Forthcoming events are:
- Sep 10, Introduction to Coaching
- Sep 19, Coaching Supervision
- Sep 20, SW Coaching and Mentoring Pool: Group Supervision
- Sep 24, Apprenticeships in our Region - Sharing the Learning
- Sep 28, Local Government Structure
- Sep 28, Political Awareness
- Oct 2, Successful Recruitment
- Oct 3, Management of Volunteers
- Oct 4, South West Challenge 2018
- Oct 15, Mentoring/Coaching
- Oct 15, Coaching & Mentoring
- Oct 15, Executive Coaching & Mentoring
- Oct 16, Pre-Employment Checks
- Oct 18, SW Coaching and Mentoring Pool: Group Supervision
- Oct 22, Travellers, Sites and Unauthorised Encampments
- Oct 24, Giving Appraisals
- Oct 29, Pension Administration
- Oct 30, Facilitation Skills
- Nov 8, Understanding Disciplinary and Grievance Investigations
- Nov 14, Coaching Master Classes Day
- Nov 15, SW Coaching and Mentoring Pool: Group Supervision
- Nov 20, Pension Managers' Conference
- Dec 4, Managing Capability: Health and Performance Issues
- Dec 11, Mediation for Line Managers
- Dec 20, SW Coaching and Mentoring Pool: Group Supervision
Coaching Pool
With coaching programmes featuring strongly in organisational strategies and change programmes, we have qualified and experienced coaches, who can provide individual coaching packages but we have also established the South West Coaching Pool to help organisations build internal coaching capacity and to enable managers to access coaches from other partner organisations with a range of different experience and expertise.
For more information click here.
South West Councils: Working for the South West
South West Councils
Bringing together local authority Leaders from the County, Unitary and District councils in the South West
South West Councils News
Bringing together news and information from across local government in the region.
To read the latest newsletter click here...
Working for the South West
Click here for more information on our collaborative working for the South West.
Epaycheck: National Pay Benchmarking Service
A secure pay benchmarking facility, developed for the public sector by the public sector. Launched to local authorities across the country in 2012, the service has already attracted more than half of our councils to register for this data sharing service.
Epaycheck is delivered through a nationwide network of Regional Employers' Organisations who provide the front end service in their localities and actively work with their users to collect, monitor and quality assure the data available to report against.
Senior Pay Executive Summary
The executive summary of a review of chief executive and chief officer roles, released on 4th September, is available on our website. The full report to assist in decision-making, benchmarking, policy development and workforce planning will be available to Epaycheck subscribers shortly.
For more information on Epaycheck .....
HR and Employment Services
South West Councils handle thousands of queries every year from local government employers and other Associate member organisations. This means that we have an unrivalled grasp of issues affecting local government at both national and local level.
Because all our team members are professionally qualified experienced specialists, we bring a wealth of expertise to bear on the issues facing Local Authorities.
We work at all levels with both Elected Members and Officers to clarify and resolve confidential personnel issues, as well as providing day-to-day advice on routine HR matters.
An office hours service providing expert advice and support on issues including:
We offer confidential advice on salary levels, terms and conditions, termination agreements. Independent support for Appraisal of Chief Executives. Supporting development of new political arrangements such as Joint Chief Executive and Shared Management Teams.
We offer expert advice on recruitment advertising; salary setting; management of assessment centres; psychometric testing.
Job Evaluation / Pay and Grading Consultancy
We are experts in the use of the national Joint Council (NJC) and greater London Provincial Council (GLPC) job evaluation schemes. We offer specific training, independent technical advice and best practice associated with local government pay and grading reviews.
Disciplinary Investigations
We offer independent investigations, advising at disciplinary or grievance hearings and representing employers at Employment Tribunals.
We offer a mediation service to aid the resolution of complex issues. We can also support authorities to design and implement an in-house mediation strategy.
National Pay and Pensions Negotiations
South West Councils represent the South West on the National Association of Regional Employers, who role is to act as a sounding board and conduit for the Local Government Employers on national pay and pensions issues.
South West Councils also forms the Employers' side of the Regional Joint Consultative and Negotiating Body, the South West Provincial Council.
Policy Development and Review
We offer a service to create new policies or assess existing policies to ensure compliance and currency.
Conferences, Events and Networks
We offer a range of topical conferences, events and networks to meet the changing needs of the local government community and promote the sharing of good practice.


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Following the Ebola outbreaks of 2014, the Center for Domestic Preparedness (CDP) was honored to accept several awards, recognizing the efforts of four individuals in the fight against the disease.
The winners of the Unity of Effort Award for Ebola Worldwide Response were Jeremy Guthrie, Jamie Johnson, Mallory Lowe and Babbette Harmon. This team of individuals was responsible for crating the training to manage the disease that entered the U.S. through an infected Liberian national traveling to Dallas. Although the patient died -- and the two nurses who treated him contracted the disease -- the team implemented a course that provided instruction for the proper use of personal protective equipment in response to Ebola.
"The primary training objective was to appropriately don and doff personal protective equipment in a manner that reduced the potential for contracting the disease," Denis Campeau, one of CDP's directors, said.
The team was able to develop the preparation course in a matter of three days, which, according to Curriculum Development and Evaluation, normally requires 160 hours.
The course was distributed through the aid of the National Domestic Preparedness Consortium, whose members delivered the training throughout the nation.
CDP is proud of the work of this small but effective team.


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The Institute believes that global change biology and biodiversity conservation are international priorities for research, and recognizes that a vibrant and sustainable ecological environment and food security are national needs to which our Institute can make contributions. To achieve these goals, the State Key Laboratory of Forest and Soil Ecology, the National Laboratory of Fertilizer Management and Engineering, and the Key Laboratory of Pollution Ecology and Environmental Engineering of CAS should enhance their role as important supporting platforms to for scientific research. The Institute will allocate resources to support research projects in forest biodiversity and ecosystem functioning, resource use efficiency of plants, environmental remediation, and landscape ecology and regional sustainable development.
We will place substantial emphasis on the structure and function of forest ecosystems, as well as forest biodiversity and ecosystem functions. To support program implementations, the Institute will invest more resources in the State Key Laboratory of Forest and Soil Ecology, the Changbai Mountain Forest Ecosystem Research Station, and the Huitong Forest Ecosystem Research Station.
Sustainable development of agriculture in Northeast China is another focal area for the Institute. The State Key Laboratory of Fertilizer Management and Engineering and the Shenyang Agricultural Ecosystem Research Station will be the important research bases to attain these goals. Programs in biogeochemical cycles of carbon and nitrogen, ecological stoichiometry, below-ground ecology and soil biota will be strengthened. Development of new fertilizers and biological pesticides will be effective means of ensuring food security and environmental safety.
The third major research focus includes processes of pollution ecology and environmental toxicological effects, pollution control techniques for soil and water, regional environmental carrying capacity assessment, and environmental management with support from the Key Laboratory of Pollution Ecology and Environmental Engineering of CAS.


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Michele Pernetta, owner and founder of iconic London hot yoga brand Fierce Grace, shares her thoughts on a variety of topics including studios in today's environment, why she created Fierce Grace and some stellar tips for teachers on how to get onto studio's radars.
She brought Bikram yoga to London in 1994 and today has 4 of her own studios, 2 Fierce Grace franchise studios and her system is taught in 21 locations across 12 countries. It is our huge privilege to share her learnings, opinions and recommendations for teachers and aspiring studio owners. Hit play below to listen now!
Note: there is a known widespread issue with some iPhones accessing audio files, if you cannot see the player above then please click here to listen to or download the conversation.
You can connect with Fierce Grace via their website, Facebook, Twitter or Instagram.


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Tamworth Herald
The Tamworth Herald has been proudly serving its community since 1868. The Herald is the trusted brand that bring the news that matters to the people of the district – telling it straight and telling it right! It is a weekly publication, arriving each Thursday.
Day of Publication
The place to advertise
The Tamworth Herald and birminghammail.co.uk contain fantastic advertising platforms and opportunities both in-paper and online.
Why advertise online?
As media constantly changes we've taken it as a new way to engage customers and increase opportunities for advertisers. We've gone beyond a news website to offer a multimedia approach embracing website building, video technology, and digital marketing strategies.
- Tamworth Herald
- Birmingham Live


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Award winning consultancy and Winner of the Chartered Institute of Marketing's (CIM) SWOT Award for marketing excellence.
Former Chairman of the CIM (leading international body for marketing and business development) for its specialist consultants group for sports and leisure. Retains Chartered Marketer and Fellow status. Authors and Lecturer to leading universities. Thirty years' experience in marketing, fundraising and sponsorship, in the main assisting clients to increase sales, raise brand awareness in selected markets and generate funding for commercial projects and developments.
Worked on funding schemes in excess of £120M. Original Assessor appointed by the National Lottery and Assessor with UKCES. First Football Ambassador in UK for Football Partnerships and now same status with PeaceBall Project. Available for Non-Executive Directorships on a cost-effective basis.
Agency with key services that are used by professional and amateur clubs in the United Kingdom and Overseas (especially Turkey) including: commercial marketing to raise additional income from proactive sponsorship programmes; and growing the fan-base and community relations.
Worked on projects with a focus in the main around sponsorship and licensing including for some of the top brand names as defined in the Deloitte's "Football Finance Report" and Brand Finance's "Sporting Brands 2012".
This included projects with FC Barcelona, Panathinaikos FC, Galatasaray SK, Fenerbahçe SK and Beşiktaş J.K. Can help an in-house team or be a sub-contract alternative. Flexible retainers from grass roots to elite available.
Crowd funding is one of a select number of routes to securing finance for sports and commercial projects.
It seemed a logical extension to the activities of ACROBAT and FC Sports Marketing, that it offer a suitable platform to help clients and interested parties to try and achieve their targets. CrowdScrum evolved from a conceptualisation that sought to create and represent campaigns, where a ground swell of support would pursue a particular appeal – a 'crowd'; and that momentum then gather pace from a concerted push towards the overall figure necessary to fulfil the ambitions of any project, the 'scrum'.
So the concept is easy to grasp, and a rugby or sports theme seemed the perfect match. The platform was purposefully created to link to our other work. Of course, crowd funding is not the panacea for all challenges, where the work of the consultancy team may be more suited. Advises on any applications in the interests of giving best advice and maximising returns.


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4D Australasian Devcon in Sydney
by 4D Team
The 4D Australasian Developer Conference will take place on the 7th and 8th of March in Sydney, Australia.
Loaded with useful technical sessions presented by local and international experts, it's sure to be the place to be for 4D developers in the region.
Learn more at the official event page.


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University and Nursing Program Accreditations
At Northeastern University, we uphold a continuous commitment to academic excellence—and it shows with the accreditations and approvals we maintain at both the institution and nursing school level. As one of our nursing students, you can feel confident that your education follows practices that best serve the public interest and aligns with current healthcare demand.
University Accreditation
Northeastern University is accredited by the New England Association of Schools and Colleges (NEASC), located at 3 Burlington Woods Drive, Suite 100, Burlington, MA 01803-4514. Serving more than 2,000 learning institutions, NEASC is an independent, voluntary, nonprofit membership organization that serves to establish and maintain high academic standards at all education levels. A globally recognized standard of excellence, NEASC accreditation verifies the quality of education provided by a learning institution. To learn more about NEASC accreditation, please visit www.neasc.org or call 781.425.7700.


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Published: April
5, 2017
and Highbridge Foodbank issues plea for donations
and Highbridge Foodbank has appealed for help this week as it runs
very short of vital supplies.
Foodbank has seen unprecedented demand this year and despite a bumper
collection just before Christmas, organisers say that need is now
out-stripping supply on vital lines.
Trustee Bev Milner Simonds told Burnham-On-Sea.com: "We are
asking local people to add one or two extra items into their shop
and donate them to the Foodbank to help local family in need."
the moment we are running very short of jam, fruit juice, tinned
tomatoes, tinned potatoes, small bags of sugar and any donations
of toothpaste and shower gel would be very much appreciated."
can be taken to St John's Church in Highbridge or Hope Baptist Church
in Highbridge, the Methodist Church in Burnham-On-Sea (which is
also open on Saturday mornings) or use the drop-off point behind
the tills in Burnham's Tesco store.
who are interested in the Foodbank's work are invited to attend
their AGM on Thursday 9th May at 7.30pm at the Hope Baptist Church
in Highbridge. The AGM will review the final usage figures for the
year, annual accounts and elect a new Chair.
Foodbank had a very welcome visitor a few days ago when the team
from the RSCPA centre in Brent Knoll donated 72kg of their own surplus
food. Volunteer Sonja told Burnham-On-Sea.com: "The 'P' in
RSPCA is all about prevention and there are much loved pets in caring
homes whose owners are struggling a little and need some support
to feed all members of their family."
Helpers at the Highbridge and Burnham-On-Sea Foodbank


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Martin Ronceray, a French national, is a research assistant for the LQS team at ECDPM. He holds an M.A in International Relations & Diplomacy Studies (College of Europe, Bruges) as well as postgraduate degrees in African Studies and European Affairs (Université Paris 1 Sorbonne); and he studied History in France and Germany as undergraduate. Martin's main interests lie at the crossroads of International Development, Diplomacy and Governance. His main areas of expertise are Sub-Saharan Africa and the Post-Soviet Space.
Before joining ECDPM as a result of winning a "College of Europe prize for the best thesis on EU-Africa relations", Martin worked in the corporate world for a year in Prague. Before that, he was a stagiaire for the European External Action Service at the EU Delegation to Ethiopia, in Addis Ababa.
His current activities at ECDPM include research on governance and anticorruption policies and policy coherence in the context of the 2030 Agenda, as well as the management of an international network of government experts on Policy Coherence.
Junior Policy Officer Learning and Quality Support
French, English, German, Russian
Maastricht office
Onze Lieve Vrouweplein 21
6211 HE Maastricht


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A highly successful three week intensive 'hands-on' therapist training workshop took place in Hue, Vietnam from February 15 to March 4, 2016. A team of four international volunteer Cerebral Palsy Therapists ('instructors') from Canada and Hungary, provided training to local physiotherapists, other medical professionals and caregivers at the Hue Rehabilitation Hospital.
The project objectives were to allow Vietnamese children with Cerebral Palsy to achieve their potential by providing the best possible therapeutic skills and clinical knowledge to a maximum number of therapists in order to give access to early and regular therapeutic activities that are critical in supporting these children thereby enhancing their quality of life, independence and well-being.
Fourteen children and their caregivers and 10 physiotherapists/medical personnel, received three weeks of intensive therapeutic training by participating in a hands-on group therapy program for 3 hours every morning. The group therapy program was based upon Conductive Education (CE) and traditional physiotherapy and occupational therapy philosophies.
The afternoon sessions were attended by the professional staff only and were taught through power point presentations, lectures, and the practicing of techniques.
Learning objectives included: teaching children with CP to roll, sit, stand and walk; stretching; how to organize and run a small group program using singing and play; feeding skills; how to manage drooling; communication skills; toileting; correct seating posture; and measuring and fitting for a wheelchair.
The Therapist Training Project was very successful and the Hue Rehabilitation Hospital has continued to provide a small group program based on the principals taught by the NOJF Team.
One wheelchair was provided and fitted, and another 5 will be donated upon returning to Hue in November 2016.


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Over 300 new cards for the NBA's 2017-2018 season


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MySQL and PostgreSQL as NoSQL alternatives
This is the next post in my NoSQL evaluation series. I was tasked with finding alternative data persistence mechanisms for a customer because of the perceived cost associated with SQL Server. The customer eventually decided to stick with SQL Server, for now, but initially they were very intrigued with porting part of the application to a NoSQL solution. The biggest problem I had with this is that there was no in-house NoSQL expertise. My fear is our developers would make a lot of rookie mistakes that would cost us money and time.
I agreed with the initial premise that SQL Server was too expensive but steered the conversation toward cheaper RDBMS alternatives. At least our people would have less of a learning curve. Naturally MySQL and PostgresSQL were at the top of the list. Furthermore, both products are open source and therefore we could extend either to make it a hybrid, customized PartialSQL solution.
It wasn't terribly difficult for me, with limited experience with either product, to put together a proof-of-concept for a small portion of our application. Both products are relational (or at least "set-based"). Both can use Navicat as a development/DBA GUI. Navicat is my preferred GUI tool when I'm a bit stumped on esoteric SQL extensions in either of these products.
Both support triggers.
Both support variants of stored procedures. In fact, I'd argue that MySQL support stored procedures closer to the SQL:2003 syntax than even SQL Server does. If you need to migrated stored procedures then MySQL will be easier. If you are familiar with Oracle then Postres will be a little easier. It's PL/pgSQL is very close to PL/SQL and follows most of the same conventions. For instance, in PL/SQL you can't return a result set directly from a stored procedure. Instead you build a cursor over a result set and then pull from that. Postres calls its stored procedures "stored functions" but they are functionally equivalent.
I'm fascinated by history and the history of PostreSQL (or, just postgres) is kinda fascinating. When System R, the IBM project that was the first RDBMS to use SQL, was being developed there were a bunch of research papers that went along with it. These needed to be searched and cataloged. Instead of using System R to do this a bunch of researchers created Ingres (INteractive Graphics REtrieval System). This was open-sourced and gained quite a bit of traction. Postgres is "post-ingres", or the next evolution of Ingres. Great story to tell at IT cocktail parties.
Either PostreSQL or MySQL make a great SQL Server alternative if you are price-conscious. I find either to be very quick to setup and learn.
Dave Wentzel
data architecture nosql


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Interested in helping shape the vision of PLM World and Siemens PLM World Connection - Americas?
We are looking for dedicated individuals for the following positions.
Please consider nominating yourself or a peer.
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Lisa-Marie Nowakowski
My wonderfully creative friend, Suzy first turned me on to the world of beads & jewelry-making during our senior year of high school, and the interest continued throughout my first few years of college. Eventually, other artistic pursuits took over, and 20 years went by. Then one day while walking on the beach with my mother, she found a pretty pair of shells & hinted that she would like them made into earrings. I took the hint & was back on the pony again. After some meandering, I happened upon the path of the chainmaille artist. Whereas before I was weaving tiny glass beads on a threaded loom, I now found myself attracted to the sturdy luster of metal & the colorful beauty of gemstones & larger glass beads. The origin of chainmaille as a means of protection also appealed to me & I felt this history made sense in relation to its modern-day use as jewelry. There is something about wearing objects of adornment that makes us feel a little bit �more� as we go out into the world: the lucky ring that seems to keep your day on track when it really matters; the bracelet that is a palpable reminder you are dearly loved; the simple organic medallion that brings you a sense of peace & balance. Worn on the outside, but enhancing our deeper sense of who we are, jewelry is a language all its own... and one that I have come to love.


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In one of my earlier blog entries, I casually suggested that testing was like playing a game of 'Battleship'. It is an odd analogy, but as I pondered it a bit more I realized that there were interesting parallels between playing Battleship and testing, many that were worth exploring.
Often, it is exactly our change of perspective that allows us to see things with fresh eyes; even if it is tired and well-tread ground.
For those of you not entirely familiar with it, Battleship was a popular kid's game, a long long time ago, in a galaxy far far away. Wikipedia has a great description of it:
The version I grew up with was non-electronic and consisted of two plastic cases each containing a couple of grids, the 'ships' and a huge number of little red and white pegs.
In the first phase of the game, both players take their five 'ships' of varying sizes and place them on the horizontal grid. After that, one after the other, the players take turns calling out 'shots' by the grid coordinates. The coordinates are alphabetical on one axis, and numerical on the other. A shot to C5 for instance is the third position across and the fifth one down.
If the shot hits a ship, the defending player has to say 'it is a hit'. The calling player puts a red peg in the vertical grid to mark the spot. Otherwise, just so they don't call the same spot again, a white peg is used. The game continues until one player has sunk all of the other players 'ships'. It is a race between who sinks who's fleet first.
The big strategy of the game is to find ways to 'hide' the ships. For instance, lining them up against each other, so it is hard to see where one starts and one ends. Sometimes hiding them on the outskirts of the grid is great, sometimes not. Once the game gets going, it becomes a contest between the two players as to who figures out all of the other locations first. Mostly, the game ends long before all of the pegs have been entered into the board. From my rather random and fuzzy memory, I'd say usually around two thirds of the board was full at the finished. Sometimes more, sometimes less.
What does this have to do with testing? Well, interestingly enough, testing is kinda like playing half a game of Battleship against the code. You can see all of the functionality as a giant grid, a vast sea that contains a number of hidden bugs. The tester's job is to place tests (pegs) at various points in the grid to see if there is a bug there or not. Each test -- or part of the test -- acts as a little peg that reveals a possible bug. For a test suite, one after another, the testers keep adding pegs until all of the the testing is complete.
Battleship ends when one player has sunk all of the other player's ships. Testing ends, when the time is up or you've run out of little pegs. It is also a race condition, but usually against time or resources.
In the real game, the 'ships' come in multiple sizes that are well known. Bugs on the other hand come individually or in clumps and there is very little rational behind either. In fact, there is a totally unknown number hidden in the grid that can be anywhere from zero to NxN bugs.
Now, most people might think testing occurs with a huge number of pegs, but if you really look at the coverage on a line-by-line, input-by-input basis, the grid is absolutely huge, while the pegs are few. Even if you are going to push the whole development team into an intense round of final system-wide super integration testing, it is still a pitifully small number of pegs verses the actual size of the grid.
One big different between the game and real testing is that the grid grows with each release. The game is ever changing. Even when you think you have mastered it, it will still occasionally catch you by surprise. Although for the analogy I picture the functionality as an N by N grid, the real topology of any system, depending on representation, is some multi-dimensional arbitrary structure, where the sea-scape itself holds many clues into the increased presence or likelihood of bugs.
What I really like about this analogy is that it gets across the point that testing is hit-or-miss, and by definition not everything is tested. People tend to view it as a deterministic process; if you do enough testing, then you will catch all of the bugs. In fact, I've seen 'intensely' tested code, that has run in production for years and years, still yield up a bug or two. There are always a huge number of bugs and they are always buried deep. Unless a peg hits them directly with the right input, the presence of the bug is unknown.
Over the years I've seen many 'interesting' strategies for testing. Sometimes it is all manual, sometimes it is heavily automated. Some testing focuses on catching new problems, so of it is more bias towards regression. Generally, though the most common thing about testing is that most of it is done on the easier bits. The hard stuff rarely gets touched, even though it is the most likely source of bugs. In that sense, developers quickly use up all their pegs clumped together in a close location on the grid, while ignoring the rest of the board. They tend to put the most pegs into the spots where the least bugs will exist.
Unlike the game, in testing the board itself offers tonnes of clues on how to test more effectively, but most developers prefer to disassociate themselves from that knowledge. As if, somehow, if we don't get smart about what we test, then the testing will be more thorough, a possibly workable strategy, but only if you have a huge mountain of pegs. If you have way too few pegs, it's effect is probably opposite.
Software developers hate testing, so it is usually handled very badly. Most big integration tests for example are just replications of unit-tests, done that way to save time. An oddly ineffectual use of time, if the tests both refer back to the same position on the grid. Underneath, some bugs may have moved around but we still need to test for them in their final position. Sticking the first peg in, then removing it, then adding it again is unnecessary effort.
Interestingly enough is that for whole sections of the board, if there haven't been any changes to the code, then the same bugs remain hidden in the same positions. So executing the same peg pattern, or regression testing, will produce the exact same results as last time: nothing. No changes to the code + no changes to the tests = no new bugs, but also a huge waste of time.
If you get the sense of this game, then spending a great deal of time sticking the pegs into the boards only to not find any bugs seems as though it may have been a waste of time. Programmer's like to test to 'confirm' the absence of bugs, but really for most code, particularly if it is new -- less than twenty years old -- not finding bugs more likely means the testing is ineffective, not that the code is good. It ain't. So that one, last pass through the tests, with the expectation of not finding anything wrong is really a big waste of time. You regression test to make sure none of the older bugs have reappeared, but that only makes sense if the code was actually effected. Retesting the same code multiple times, even when it hasn't changed is a standard practice, but still crazy.
Clearly this also implies that any second round of testing should be based on the result of any changes, and a first round of testing. Parts of the board are not worth retesting, and it is important to know which parts of the board are which to avoid wasting resources.
I can remember when I was a kid, I'd come up with 'patterns' to try and optimize my peg placement for Battleship. You know, like hitting every other spot, or doing a giant X or cross or something. I wanted a secret formula for always winning.
These never worked, and I would generally be pushed back to messing up the pattern because of the nature of the game. Once you've identified a red peg, you want to finish off the ship quickly. Then you get back to searching.
Overall the best strategy was to randomly subdivide as much as possible. Big gaps allow big things to hide. Random shots, distributed more or less evenly across the board tended to be more fruitful.
One thing for certain about Battleship was that no matter who you were playing against, there was some underlying structure to the way they placed the ships. As the game progressed, the strategy for finding the next ships was based on the success of the current strategy. None of the fixed patterns worked because they were too static.
Although, no one would actually be able to explain why they placed the pieces the way they did -- to them it was random -- it just wasn't. Different opponents tended towards different strategies, which after a game or two became fairly obvious.
In a weird, but rather indirect way, the same is true for code. The bugs in the system are not really random, they come from an extremely complex pattern that will always seem random to human beings, but there is some ordered structure. The most effective ways to find them are by using instinct to work through the parts of the system that are most likely to have problems, or to insure that their aren't problems where they might be really devastating.
On fixing a bug, retesting the entire system is a huge waste of resources. It isn't hard in most systems to narrow the board down to a smaller one that might have been effected by the change in code. Finding the true impact of a change may seem expensive, but it is considerably cheaper than retesting everything. In that regard, a well-crafted architecture, one that isn't just a big ball of mud certainly helps in drawing lines around the possible effects of a software change. It makes understanding the impact of a change a lot easier.
Obviously, if you can reduce the size of the board, you increase the chances of finding any other hidden ships on the field, particularly if you didn't significantly decrease the number of pegs.
There are lots of things we can learn from studying an analogy. They allow us to morph the problem into some other perspective, and then explore the relationships and consequences in some other way. Pushing testing along side a board-game shows the importance of being responsive in the testing process, and not just trying to issue fixed patterns across a huge space. A static approach to testing fails repetitively and is more expensive. A dynamic approach is a more likely way to utilize the available resources.
Clearly shrinking the board but not heavily reducing the pegs will increase the likelihood of finding problems. Also, not just retesting all of the old spots will help to find new hidden dangers. Understanding the topography of the functionality will help in high light areas that need to be specifically addressed. There are lots of strategies for making better use of the resources.
If you see the life of a product as a long series of games against the code, you get an awful large number of chances to test for underlying problems. If you squander that on a massive stack of simple-but-useless regression tests that cover the same unchanging territory again and again, it is no wonder that the product keeps getting released with a significantly large number of problems. Time and resources are not making headway into the real underlying territory.
If you craft tests as absolute sets of instructions, then recrafting them for new games is hard and a huge amount of work. Since we hate testing, we shy away from any work in that area. As such, even projects that do everything 'correctly' and have the 'proper' suites of regression tests and always test 'before' each and every release, let large qualities of bugs through. In fact, the ones that followed the established best practices are probably of the average or worse quality because the programmers tend to shift their minds into neutral during the testing phase. It is the guys with no resources that are anxious about not wasting what little effort they have, that are getting the most bang for their buck.


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I have to confess that I have been to Vegas numerous times, but I have only become a freak about poker lately. I was pretty intimidated to play at any of the poker tables in Vegas when I was there, but I have been playing with friends in their homes from time to time and have been doing amazing! That, of course, is the true irony in poker playing because there is absolutely no way that I would get pocket aces a few times within one game at a professional table.
Maybe our shuffling was sub par, but I felt truly awesome even though my pocket aces happened to lose both hands because I really had nothing else going on on the table. The whole point of the matter is that I have been using my iPhone during my breaks at work to play my new poker apps so I can become even better for my next trip to Vegas. This may be all pipe dreams, but I am hoping to improve my skills enough to actually hold my own in one of the casino tournaments. I'm thinking Mandalay Bay or the Bellagio because I have to dream big! Do you think I can do it??
Click here if you find yourself asking, how do you download songs onto an iPod?
by Corissa
Friday, May 15, 2009
Are You Too a Poker Fanatic?
Labels: Bellagio, Mandalay Bay, poker, poker apps, Vegas
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Copyright © Robert W. Walker
Originally published by 1st Turning Point
In any non-traditional publishing, as in ebook publication, there is no such thing as an advance against royalties. In Traditional Publishing, now often termed DTBs (Dead Tree Books) by our younger generations, the advance has always been there. This is a significant difference. For the older generation—my generation—the first phrase that comes to mind for the author is "an advance against royalties," and what this means is the author gets a lump sum loan payment to start work on the process of crafting a book or novel. However, in ebook non-traditional publishing, wherein everything is lower case, there are no advances. In fact, in "non-publishing" as some like to call it, there are a lot of no's to the traditional model.
However, before we get too far afield, an advance against a royalty of a $100,000 is a thing of beauty on the surface. No doubt about that. A writer can rejoice. However, if it is for four books to be written over four years, that's pretty much slave wages, or $25,000 a year, which if one is independently wealthy makes for nice pen money. Not so with most people who are attempting to make a living (no joke) at writing.
To the midlist author who wins this arrangement or spin of the publishing wheel, $25,000 a year does not go far. It's about minimum wage if that. Whereas in ebook publishing, there are no advances and no paying back of that $25,000 a year. On the one hand, your publisher grants you a "loan" to be paid back via your royalties (if royalties even occur); on the other hand, every cent of an advance must be paid back to the publisher via your royalties, and until that hundred thousand is worked off by your royalties (if at all), you see no additional funds from royalties. Should your sales be too low to return that advance to your publisher, you are left with a bad business loan, and your name or reputation as a writer is mud thereafter.
The above is one area where traditional and non-traditional publishing go in very different directions. But there are far more differences for the writer-as-businessman as well. Below are some of the glaring differences between the two, other than the way they deal with advances:
Traditional Publishing
Ebook Publishing
They contract for all rights including ebook
You are in a partnership with Kindle/other
Your royalty rate for paper is 10 percent/12 hardcover
Your royalty rate is 70 percent
Your chance of having returns is 100%, & remainders, too
So few returns, negligible/no remainders
Your chance of getting a rejection letter 90 to 100%
No rejection letters
Prestige of publishing with 1 of the big six…
Little to no "prestige"/much criticism
Professional, topnotch editorial help at no charge
Editorial help at your expense
Author pockets 10-12% of a $25 book *
Author pockets 70% of $2.99/3.99
9 months to 2 yrs. from acceptance final MS till pub date
Author publishes when s/he wishes
Publisher provides overworked PR person
You are the PR person or you hire PR
Publisher determines everything on cover
Author decides all cover art matters
Publisher writes copy/description of book
Author writes copy/description
Publisher can/often does change title
Author determines title
Publisher determines price of book
Author determines price
Publisher dictates/curtails length of book
Author determines length
Publisher's royalty statement routinely confusing
Ebook gives clear daily sales report
Publisher's royalty statement not seen for 6-12 months
Ebook statement daily report
Royalty statement/payment confusing 90% of the time
Payout arrangement clear
Publisher may/may not find review outlets
You seek out reviewers
* This means an author makes more on each $2.99 ebook than each $25 traditional book
Following up on some of these glaring differences between traditional and non-traditional publishing discussed in allow me to add some other hard-won lessons to the list.
The traditional publisher determines design matters such as single or multiple volumes or a series, and in ebook publishing, the author has control over such issues as series, stand-alone, or three volumes in one.
These differences are due in large part to the medium. The medium is the message. What I can add is that with traditional publishing comes "traditional" notions of prestige, as in "real book publication," which grants a writer a certain prestige among readers, critics, and other writers. However, a new attitude is being seen, an attitude among readers and writers that says the text is of tantamount importance, not the way a book is delivered. While this notion and ebook publishing have been around for approximately thirty to forty years, young people, new generations, are embracing it completely. The idea that a book delivered in sixty seconds on a Kindle reader is as viable a piece of writing as if it is delivered between the covers of a hardbound book—this is something of a radical shift—not in publishing but in readers.
Many traditional publishers either do not get this or simply wish to fight for the old standards of 'proper' format and delivery of books. In the past and now, many people believe that a book showing up in hardcover is a better book, better vetted, better edited, and certainly written better. However, we have all encountered hardbound books riddled with problems from grammar to concept. More and more, readers are learning about the struggle that goes on behind the writing of a novel, the research, the rewrites, the editing, vetting, and more rewrites that go into the creation of an ebook by a writer, and while some ebooks display a lack of talent, nowadays more and more display genius "outside the bun," or in this case, "outside the covers." "Never judge a book by its cover" takes on a whole new meaning, despite the fact ebook cover graphics has spawned a whole new industry as has ebook digital platform and editing services.
Publishing with a major traditional publisher certainly can win one respect and sometimes critical acclaim, neither of which are automatically going to increase sales, but awards and accolades are a wonderful thing. However, the drawbacks can be many for the author, not the least being a far smaller percentage (12 vs. 70). Notably, traditional publishers, since the state-of-the-art Kindle device has skyrocketed in sales, are suddenly insisting contractually that authors turn over their electronic rights to the publisher. Some authors have been savvy to maintain their ebook rights regardless. However, traditional publishers holding your ebook rights—especially the majors—as a rule will set your ebook price far too high to the detriment of ebook sales.
E-readers are savvy and will turn away in droves if an ebook is priced too high. Several of my books are saddled with this problem as the publisher set the price, while ebooks priced by me are selling a thousand books a month nowadays. In short, the e-reading public will seldom to never purchase an e-novel or ebook priced at the same or nearly the same as the paper or hardbound book. Not to mention that an author will always make more money putting his ebook rights to work on his own rather than through a publisher.
Working directly with Amazon.com, the author is basically given—at no charge—the opportunity to become a franchise. Most traditionally published midlist authors are given no advertising budget, no coop monies, nothing, as any ad dollars go for the stars alone. With Amazon/Kindle and other ebook publishers, every ebook an author places on digital platform gains instant distribution (distribution with traditional publishers presents both publisher and author with stripped, returned books, a nightmare in bookkeeping, and a sure path to remainders). Reading a royalty statement from a traditional publisher is always a guessing game; reading the daily 'ticker' on each ebook with your name on it is as easy as reading the stock market and about as addictive.
Going back to ebook distribution—In the ebook world, distribution = advertising & promotion, and advertising and promotion = distribution, as having one's book automatically on Amazon.com/Kindle's bookshelf (without need of trucks and unloading trucks) is online distribution. You have a place to send to anyone and everyone at the click of a key and wink of an eye. Whispernet allows the reader to have the ebook in hand within sixty seconds! And that kind of distribution is at no cost to the author and a great service to the reader. With Kindle ads going out on national TV and Kindles being used as props in major motion pictures, the author can only benefit more.
There are no doubt many other comparison points between traditional and non-traditional publishing, but you know what? Non-traditional modes of publication are getting to be part of the mainstream and hardly 'non' anymore. Many authors are going the Indie Author/Publisher route as it makes perfect economical sense to do so. This is especially true for authors with large backlists of otherwise dead books known as out of prints. Already edited and vetted books that have seen returns, remainder days, used bookstore days—all of which pulls money from the pocket of authors. Now, such lost titles are working for authors to the tune of thousands going back into the author's pocket.
I hope my compare/contrast articles have been of help to you personally, if not professionally. Hope to see you on Facebook, Twitter, and elsewhere online.
I love hearing from you! Have you recently made a leap from one form of publishing to another? Share your experiences with others. And don't forget to enter our contest to win a complete book promo package at http://www.castelane.com/contest-promo-package-s/2041.htm
Award-winning author and graduate of Northwestern University, ROBERT W. WALKER created his highly acclaimed INSTINCT and EDGE SERIES between 1982 and 2005. Rob since then has penned his award-winning historical series featuring Inspector Alastair Ransom with CITY FOR RANSOM (2006), SHADOWS IN THE WHITE CITY (2007), and CITY OF THE ABSENT (2008), and most recently placed Ransom on board the Titanic in a hybrid historical/science fiction epic entitled Titanic 2012 – Curse of RMS Titanic. The original Ransom trilogy straddles the Chicago World's Fair circa 1893, and has had enthusiastic reviews from Chicago historians and the Chicago Tribune, which likened "the witticism to Mark Twain, the social consciousness to Dickens, and the ghoulish atmosphere to Poe!" Rob has since published DEAD ON (also an audiobook), a PI's tale of revenge as a reason to live—a noir set in modern day Atlanta, followed more recently by Bismarck 2013, an historical horror title, The Edge of Instinct, the 12th Instinct Series, and a short story collection entitled Thriller Party of Eight (also an audiobook).
Rob's historical novel CHILDREN of SALEM, while an historical romance and suspense novel exposes the evil in mankind via the politics of witchcraft in grim 1692 New England, which one professional editor reviewed as: A title that only Robert Walker could make work—romance amid the infamous witch trials. The author followed this ANNIE'S WAR, an historical romance set in 1859, a tale from the point of view of the daughter of the infamous John Brown of Harpers Ferry notoriety.
Robert currently resides in Charleston, West Virginia with his wife, children, pets, all somehow normal. For more on Rob's published works, see www.RobertWalkerbooks.com, www.HarperCollins.com, www.amazon.com/kindle books. He maintains a presence on Facebook and Twitter as well.
Killer Instinct, the first book in Robert W. Walker's Instinct series.
DR. JESSICA CORAN - A brilliant and determined FBI medical examiner, she was an expert student of the criminal mind who thought she could face anything.
That was before Wisconsin. Before she saw one of his victims...
THE VAMPIRE KILLER -The FBI agent had a special code name for his unusual method of torture: Tort 9, the draining of the victims blood. The newspapers called him the Vampire-Killer. But his own twisted love letters were signed "Teach"... and were addressed to the one woman he wanted most of all: His hunter, his prey, Dr. Jessica Coran.


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Special Features of the Program
- Team – Teaching, mainly by full-time teachers utilizing the direct method.
- B.I.L.'s teaching method is characterized by our original textbooks used extensively Japanese teachers worldwide and by the approach utilizing audio-visual devices. Our unique curriculum and study materials are based on its superb experience in education.
- Instructions of skills necessary for after entering college.
- Homeroom system. Students receive close guidance for study and course after graduation.


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Action / Adventure
Debut Novels
Fantasy / Sci-Fi
Paranormal / Supernatural
The provocative byline is enough to make you grab this off the shelf...
"Lad's mag", Banter, is heading for the chop unless female Consultant, Alexa, can turn things around. The irony of her position is not lost on her and despite misgivings about taking the starring role of saving such an insalubrious title, the desire to excel in a man's world proves to be too tempting a challenge. Thrust unceremoniously into the testosterone-fuelled atmosphere of Banter's office however, with its misogynistic politics, herd mentality and an overwhelming distrust of the unwanted female Managing Director that has been dumped in their midst; Alexa quickly grasps the size of the mountain she has to climb – but at what cost?
Long-time friend, Leonie, is understated in her disappointment of Alexa taking the job. But feisty, go-getter, Kate, is less judgemental. The see-saw of her friends' perceptions of what she's trying to achieve, however, is nothing compared to the inner conflicts that steadily mount in Alexa's own mind. Faced with sleazy, chauvinist deputy editor, Derek and his grubby underlings who seem determined to make her nine-month stint at the magazine as difficult and miserable as possible; Alexa knuckles down and becomes consumed by her need to make the magazine a viable business proposition. When Alexa's lucrative idea of producing an app that enables users to upload and share explicit videos of their girlfriends goes live; she brings down the wrath of feminist group REACT and particularly, the persistent Georgie, down on her head – but that irritant dissolves into nothing when the app, her app, is cited in a gang-rape case.
Courtney clearly struggled with her stance on "lad's mags" and their impact on modern society, as did her main character, Alexa, and the narrative is laden down with the heavy strain of their mutual conflict. Careful to voice both sides of the argument, interestingly, Courtney failed to consider the role female magazines have on the female perception of self-worth. With their message a convoluted blend of airbrushed images peddling the latest cosmetics to make you irresistible to the opposite sex, to the indoctrination of what is beautiful, or the promise of a handsome and attentive boyfriend if you learn sexual tricks – this aspect of the media would have perhaps been a more controversial subject to tackle. Dealing subtle hammer-blows to the belief in the harmlessness of lad's mags content; in the end, it is Courtney's unflinching and brutal honesty that ruptures any comforting rationalisation for their existence.
Part theatre, part social commentary: It's a Man's World nonetheless illustrates perfectly that the 21st century woman has more than the stresses and strains of elbowing her way in a man's world; she also has to manage a conscience.
- Feb 2012 -
Daughter of Smoke and Bone
Laini Taylor
Only the best books get to be our Book of the Month
We interview C J Daugherty about Night School
- 10 January 2012


text: Amongst my circle of friends, I've been given the title Crazy Cat Lady. I prefer Cat Whisperer but the aforementioned friends seem reluctant to comply. Fine. I am crazy about cats, it's true. Truth be told, however, I'm pretty crazy about all sorts of animals. I'm just an animal person. This truth is very lucky for two raccoon brothers who live under my deck. You see, I have bowls of cat food and water outdoors for my three cats who, in the summer, wander at will inside and out. One of my cats, prefers to eat outside. All three of them like to stay out all night. Ideally, they would have food and water all night as well. However, Sam and Joe (the names I've given to the raccoon brothers) think the feast is set out for them and they come regularly for their feeding. As soon as I hear the clanking and banging of bowls, I know Sam and Joe are getting their fill. This does present a problem to me. Raccoons do not practice portion control. They're little gluttons really. Once they start in on the food they eat every last piece they can find, including scouring the bowl area with their little paws for any morsel that might have escaped the bowl. Essentially, my cats get no food at night. There is no point in refilling the bowls until morning because those bandit-faced puff balls will eat it all again. Oh well, it's not as if my cats will starve to death, and really, who can resist this little face? So, Sam and Joe get a meal once a day and then lumber off to do whatever raccoons do – probably attempting to get into every Green Bin in the neighbourhood. And, just in case you're wondering, no – my cats and the raccoons do not fight. In fact there's no hissing and yowling at all. They seem to tolerate each other. I think my cats are just too smart to tangle with them.