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"If wind and water could write music, it would sound like Ben's."
(Yehudi Menuhin)
If Benjamin Britten had achieved nothing else, he would rank as the greatest opera composer Britain has produced since the time of Purcell – arguably, the greatest opera composer of the second half of the twentieth century. The premiere of Peter Grimes (1945) didn't just announce the emergence of a fresh, powerful and deeply humane musical dramatist. It remade opera for the post-war age, as an art form in which social issues could inspire heartfelt drama, and the political becomes unforgettably personal.
Britten's later operas range from drawing-room comedy (Albert Herring – 1947) to psychological horror (The Turn of the Screw – 1954) and sensual fantasy (A Midsummer Night's Dream – 1960); each, though, shares an unerring sense of drama, an intimate understanding of the human voice and an absolutely distinctive creative sensibility. Whether coolly atmospheric, exuberantly playful or stark and powerful, they are always, unmistakably, Britten.
Those qualities define Britten's superb body of choral music, from Rejoice in the Lamb (1943) to the Spring Symphony (1949) and the War Requiem (1962), and his extraordinary, genre-busting song-cycles Les Illuminations (1939), Serenade for tenor, horn and strings (1943) and Winter Words (1954). They also allowed him to prove that great contemporary music could be written for amateurs and young people. St Nicolas (1948), Noyes Fludde (1958) and The Young Person's Guide to the Orchestra (1946) continue to delight and entertain without a hint of condescension.
Even the many works by Britten that defy categorisation – the Metamorposes after Ovid for solo oboe, the Sinfonia da Requiem, the Church Parables, and three richly-imagined string quartets – speak with that voice: clear but questioning, timeless but modern. Like the "wind and water" of Britten's beloved Aldeburgh, they're local – and yet absolutely universal.
Want to know more? Explore Britten's music on the Britten100 website here, where you can search by everything from mood to genre and listen to a huge range of audio clips. You can also see Britten's music and life in the form of a timeline here, and listen to some of the music which features in the Birmingham celebrations on our Spotify playlist.


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Much more me!
|Dress £45 - Marks & Spencer, Bag old - Modalu (similar)
Sandals old - Marks & Spencer (similar)
Thing is, I would NEVER have spotted it online. It looks a little bit meh to me. What do you think?
|Dress £45 - Marks & Spencer
I've been trying really hard this year to build a wardrobe of very wearable pieces that will transition from one year to another. This is neither in fashion or old fashioned so it will sit in my closet for a long time and will be easy to update with accessories each season. Easily accessorised today in fact with snake printed sandals, black structured bag and rose gold jewellery.
|Dress £45 - Marks & Spencer, Bag old - Modalu (similar)
Sandals old - Marks & Spencer (similar)
A very flattering v-neck with drop sleeves (great for triangles who need to balance shoulders to hips) and a lovely soft white colour. This shade suits everyone (we all get soft white) and in my humble opinion is so much more flattering against mature skin. Pure white can be terribly harsh. For me, the waist is a triumph. Although pleated, they are stitched into the waistband and then ironed flat so they sit flat against the tummy. Now that can only be a good thing! It also means that if like me, you struggle to wear a belt, it all becomes a lot easier to pull off because it's very neat around the waist. Oh and the belt has a rather nice pin stripe detail which pleases me more than it should. And no, I don't have an hourglass figure (sob) but this dress gives the illusion of one 😀
I'm wearing a size 10 and I'm 5ft 8 1/2 which is my normal size in M&S.
As part of our summer holidays this year, we're doing a city break and the dress will be perfect as it feels cool and airy. It's actually viscose, not cotton so let's see how it performs crease-wise. Husband mentioned something about bikes. Yeah right because I'll be cycling in a white dress. He did of course get the look. It's a no from me!!! I won't be doing heels for the amount of walking planned but my beloved pompom mules from Next will serve me very well, I'm sure. It's probably the first time ever that I've worn something before Alex at The Frugality (who has amazing style) showcased them. And it was way before as well. Go me!!!
The dress is very office appropriate too. I've come to realise that after two decades of corporate dress, I still tend to favour smarter, tailored pieces.
And finally, it's thick enough not to be see through although to be on the safe side, I'd only do nude underwear.
Countdown to our hols and sods law I have the busiest couple of weeks coming up. Not helped by the son who seems to think I am his personal driver (I am), on call 24 hours a day. I've told him that he can have 100 miles per week free and then it's 40p per mile. Of course that went down like a lead balloon. He's also costing me a small fortune. So far we've had golf, golf-football (whatever that is), driving range, cinema, shopping and food. Food!! How much does a teenage boy eat? I'm filling the fridge up daily. Oh I can't wait for my kids to have kids and then I'll be laughing along merrily as I ride off into the sunset in my old banger (because they've bled me dry).
Have a good week.
Shop the pieces in this post.

subset: commoncrawl


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while i'm thinking about it, i wonder if i should go ahead and get oscar a camera for christmas. he always loves playing with my camera, but also enjoyed playing with gramma's and uncle chris's cameras at the reunion. i found this nice orange one on amazon which will give oscar a camera of his own and me the satisfaction of buying an orange camera.
oscar walked in while i had the amazon page full of kid cameras and said 'look at all the cameras!! can you buy me one??' so i must be on the right track.


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Author ~ Andrew Grey
Publisher ~ Dreamspinner Press
Published ~ 12th May 2017
Genre ~ Contemporary M/M Romance
It could be the catch of a lifetime.
William Westmoreland escapes his unfulfilling Rhode Island existence by traveling to Florida twice a year and chartering Mike Jansen's fishing boat to take him out on the Gulf. The crystal-blue water and tropical scenery isn't the only view William enjoys, but he's never made his move. A vacation romance just isn't on his horizon.
Mike started his Apalachicola charter fishing service as a way to care for his daughter and mother, putting their safety and security ahead of the needs of his own heart. Denying his attraction becomes harder with each of William's visits.
William and Mike's latest fishing excursion starts with a beautiful day, but a hurricane's erratic course changes everything, stranding William. As the wind and rain rage outside, the passion the two men have been trying to resist for years crashes over them. In the storm's wake, it leaves both men yearning to prolong what they have found. But real life pulls William back to his obligations. Can they find a way to reduce the distance between them and discover a place where their souls can meet? The journey will require rough sailing, but the bright future at the end might be worth the choppy seas.
Freya's Book Brief
Mike lives in a small, close-knit Florida town where everyone knows everything about everyone - since they were in diapers. Few, if any, would be supportive of the rainbow flag. William charters Mike's boat twice a year. Since the beginning, they have looked but not touched. That is until Mother Nature lends a hand, sending a hurricane into town. The charge outdoors works its way inside, and the men share a night of passion that has the promise of more. But Mike realises that A) he needed to put his daughter and mother first – providing for them, and B) William would be going home soon – to Providence.
Long distance relationships are hard at the best of times, and this one is no different. The passion between them sizzles – together they are hot and adorable. But, their individual extenuating circumstances and differing backgrounds add complications. But being grown men they try to talk their way to a solution without lingering insecurities marring the issue; though they do invade. As is pointed out several times, their environments make the decision to be together hard. William has security in his money. Coming out could cost Mike his livelihood.
This is a story that sucks you in and is well written. Mainly, it is calm seas with a few choppy times, with waves of insecurity and a few cloudy moments, advice and sunshine provided by family and friends. I would say it's a story of learning and about having the patience to wait for someone to look at the bigger picture, work it out, do what's right for them and trust that you'll be on the same page after.
Purchase Links
Meet Andrew Grey
Andrew Grey grew up in western Michigan with a father who loved to tell stories and a mother who loved to read them. Since then he has lived all over the country and traveled throughout the world. He has a master's degree from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee and now works full time on his writing. Andrew's hobbies include collecting antiques, gardening, and leaving his dirty dishes anywhere but in the sink (particularly when writing). He considers himself blessed with an accepting family, fantastic friends, and the world's most supportive and loving partner. Andrew currently lives in beautiful historic Carlisle, Pennsylvania.


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This is my next to last Saturday before I go back to work. The recovery process has been slow and having fibromyalgia made it more drawn out. The nurses at the hospital even warned me that it takes longer because of the nerve sensors and their overreaction.
I've been contemplating why I sit at a computer screen and no words come forward. I am not quite sure what is going on. I see what I want to write, but the translation becomes lost. I think it is fear. My husband keeps telling me that I am talented. It isn't that I don't believe him, I just feel that I am not as talented as he thinks I am.
I have vast room for improvement. I need to finish my book. I have been trying to write everyday even if it is a few hundred words. At least it is something, right?


text: The nnewRdn and nnewSuperior arguments are the normalized version of the newRdn and newSuperior. back-perl apparently doesn't care about normalization. I've never set up back-tcl and I have no idea what it needs to do. It's been unsupported since about when I joined the team, I think... -- Howard Chu Chief Architect, Symas Corp. Director, Highland Sun http://www.symas.com http://highlandsun.com/hyc Symas: Premier OpenSource Development and Support > -----Original Message----- > From: email@example.com > [mailto:firstname.lastname@example.com]On Behalf Of > firstname.lastname@example.com > Sent: Wednesday, April 03, 2002 12:37 AM > To: firstname.lastname@example.com > Subject: Untested patch: back-tcl used wrong types (ITS#1719) > > > Full_Name: Hallvard B. Furuseth > Version: HEAD (2002-04-02) > OS: > URL: http://folk.uio.no/hbf/OpenLDAP/tcl.txt > Submission from: (NULL) (188.8.131.52) > > > This patch is untested (except for compiling it); a compiler bug > prevented me from compiling it completely. > > back-tcl is outdated: > - It expected be->be_suffix to be a char**, not a struct berval**. > - It expected the string arguments to the tcl_back_*() routines > to be const char*, not struct berval. > - tcl_back_compare() expected an Ava* instead of AttributeAssertion*. > - tcl_back_modify() expected an LDAPModList* instead of Modifications*. > - tcl_back_modrdn() expected too few arguments. > - And finally, back-tcl did printf(%ld, ber_int_t) instead of > printf(%ld, (long) ber_int_t). > > Note: This patch merely ignores the two new arguments nnewrdn and > nnewSuperior to tcl_back_modrdn(), because that's what back-perl does. > I have no idea what these arguments do. Whoever invented them should > have a look at tcl_modrdn.c. (And maybe back-perl/modrdn.c too.) >


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So as the title of this post suggests, I spent Memorial Day weekend up in New York on a mission. Two missions, actually, though one of them was Andrew's, not mine. We went up on Friday so he could check out an apartment he's interested in for when he moves up there later this year. Then we met up with Laura, who I hadn't seen since...I guess February for Adam and Corky's birthday thing in Hoboken, for happy hour. I wanted to go up to say good bye to her (sniff), and Andrew needed to go for the apartment thing, so our forces combined with the end result being a really great weekend. Ok, it was mostly the forces of the firm he's going to be working for, but still. Saturday we went out to Long Island for some grilling at Laura's place, and Kaitlin (henceforth refered to in this blog as "Shirt") and Jim came for one last good bye. The whole afternoon was so relaxed, it could have been any afternoon barbequeing on the roof of Pennbrook or something back at school. Eventually we had to say good bye though, and needless to say I was a little down about it. I'm gonna miss both of them like crazy!
Andrew and I spent the rest of the weekend just kind of exploring the city. I had never really done the whole New York thing (despite passing through on numerous occassions...and drinking copious amounts of wine there...and facilitating photo shoots with bongo-playing homeless men...and...ok I'll stop there), so Andrew got to show me around. I'm so jealous he's moving there! He says he's jealous I'm going to Africa, but I think he's just saying that to make me feel better. :)
On the subject of Peace Corps, I just had my flight to Atlanta booked. This whole moving to Africa thing is starting to feel very real. Tomorrow is my last day of work, and I can't say I'm disappointed about that, but it just means that my departure is swiftly approaching. Eek!


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Several of you lovely folks out there have posted the Christmas Meme and I have loved it. I thought I would use it for today. I hope you are having a good day with those you love the most, because really that's all that ever matters. The sun is shining through my window, the color is so radiant and golden and warm. Today I am at 14 weeks -- 2nd Trimester. I love you my monsters.
1. Eggnog or Hot Chocolate?
OK, hot chocolate is for sureseys absolutely wonderful…BUT…during the holidays, I wants me some eggnog. I can get hot chocolate any time, I can make a fabulous hot chocolate, but there is no way my lazy ass is going to make eggnog. When the season comes around, I buy my favorite brand too. Organic Valley. Mmmmmmmmmmmmmm. I always require a dash of fresh nutmeg grind and except for this year (being up the duff and all) I alternate between bourbon and dark rum for a little warm boozy goodness.
2. Wrapping paper or gift bags?
I like wrapping paper because there's a little more suspense and no peeking! I don't like the waste of paper and would some day like to figure out a way to make wrapping from pre-sewn cloth squares and velcro strips/drawstrings.
3. Real tree or artificial?
I love real trees, but MrBeep doesn't. He makes a good point by how much mess they make when the needles fall all over the place and they are a fire hazard. I did splurge and get a decent artificial tree when it was on 75% off mega sale last year. It's pretty and very convenient and I can leave it up until after New Years which is nice…but I'd still rather have a real tree.
4. Colored lights on tree/house or white?
I like colored lights, but was on bed rest during decorating season, so we have no lights outside this year. :-(
5. How do you decorate your Christmas tree?
I have these little red glass hearts in matte and shiny, with copper colored beads that wrap around and a copper shiny skirt. I have these pinecone clusters arranged in various places on the tree and the rest is decorated with all different kinds of ornaments. We have dragons and penguins playing hockey, a panda bear taking a ride on a zeppelin, a skiing frog, the grinch, Seattle space needle bulbs, a pharaoh's head and we always get a couple of bags of lindor chocolates that have the shiny wrapping, we put those on the tree like ornaments too.
6. Do you hang mistletoe?
No, but now that you mention it, that would be cool.
7. Do you have a nativity scene?
8. Mail or email Christmas cards?
Ehhhhhh…I always mean to do it and then life gets in the way. I do manage a few New Years cards.
9. What is your favorite holiday dish?
All. Bring it on, I'm not picky.
10. Favorite Holiday memory as a child?
I always liked going out to pick out the Christmas tree. We generally didn't have one or decorate the house when I was a kid because we always went somewhere else on Christmas Eve and Day, but every now and then we got a tree and when we did, I was pretty happy.
11. When and how did you learn the truth about Santa?
We had put out milk and cookies for Santa one year when I was 7 or so. I wrote Santa a letter thanking him for coming to the house and telling him that I hope he liked the cookies I baked. The next day, Santa wrote on the back of the note thanking me for the cookies and that they were delicious…it was in my Dad's handwriting.
12. Do you open a gift on Christmas Eve?
No, but I have no problem if someone wanted to. We are generally at home alone relaxing on Christmas Eve.
13. Snow! Love it or Dread it?
Are you kidding?!? I love snow. I'm from LA and never had a "White Christmas" growing up. Now that I live in Seattle, the possibility is there, but we never get enough to be terribly inconvenient.
14. Have you ever recycled a gift?
Rarely. I'm fairly allergic to things like scented candles, lotions with perfume and the like. A few times when I have received a very nice quality gift like that I have added it in with the gift I've already purchased as a bonus. Why let it go to waste? Most people aren't sensitive to it like I am.
15. What's the most important thing about the Holidays for you?
Just being with family and friends. Having a time of year when everyone takes a few extra moments to wish you cheer and joy in your heart. I like that.
16. What is your favorite Holiday Dessert?
Apple pie or Pear Tart with Cinnamon ice cream. I made an eggnog bread pudding last year that was really fabulous. I'm not a huge chocolate dessert fan.
17. What is your favorite holiday tradition?
Cooking dinner for my loved ones and then sitting around the table to enjoy it together. Love that.
18. What tops your tree?
A shiny silver ornament that looks like a miniature spiral galaxy.
19. Favorite Christmas Show?
Dr. Seuss' How the Grinch Stole Christmas, with Boris Karloff narrating and singing. MrBeep sometimes calls me Cindy Lou Whoo.
20. Saddest Christmas Song?
Grandma got run over by a reindeer, it's so sad what happend to that old lady. Brings a tear to my eye every time.
21. What is your favorite Christmas Holiday Song?
Hard to pick. I like "A Christmas Song" sung by Nat King Cole, "White Christmas" sung by Bing Crosby, "Silver and Gold" sung by Burl Ives and of course "Christmas Is" sung by Lou Rawls


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和諧政治中的雜音 January 3, 2008Posted by oiwan in Great Fire Wall, In-Media, politics, Press freedom.
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From Article-in-itself to Incomplete Article October 14, 2007Posted by oiwan in Freedom of Speech, In-Media, Press freedom.
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Got a new letter from OAT and wrote a citizen report at inmediahk.net.
In brief, the good news is, OAT agreed to defer my case until the Chinese University Student Press and Ming Pao have gone through the judicial review. If they win (succeed in challenging the procedure), it will favor my case.
An amusing news is: the article that TELA submitted to OAT is proved to be an incomplete article. According to the TELA notice in June, "the feature article downloaded from internet" on "hyperlink censorship" has been classified as "indecent", however, in this latest round of communication, the OAT has attached the "article" submitted by TELA to the OAT in June (see the picture). It is shown that in the "article", almost one third of the text were cut, and the website's logo, banner, the comment section of the "article" are missing.
I wonder how the OAT can make a fair judgment with this distorted and incomplete article.
香港的新聞自由 Press Freedom in Hong Kong August 8, 2007Posted by oiwan in Citizen Journalism, Freedom of Speech, In-Media, Press freedom.
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聽到他講電話,心想,這些事情在主流媒體一定不會發生,因為轉過頭,官員就會打電話給報館上司:剛才打電話來的那位記者好無禮貌,做咩問埋呢啲問題等等...接著上司就會係咁 Sa 晒,驚搞衰關係,以後 briefying 無佢地份.結果,唔啱既好似永遠係窮追猛打的記者,尤其是無經驗的新仔.咁搞法,新聞自由慢慢就縮下縮下 ,到最後無得浄.
Recently because of the Queen's Pier and OAT issue, Chong frequently called up government department to check out some facts and forced the government officials to answer. Yesterday, his questions about the sealing off of Edinburg Place made the civic engineering and development department and transportation department so nervous. And eventually development bureau had to give a public statement to the issue.
I told chong that his "interrogation" style would have never happened in mainstream media because the government officials would call back the reporter's supervisor to make complaint: your reporter has very bad manner, how can s/he ask such question, etc. The supervisor of course would apologize for fear that the government official won't call them up for media briefing next time. In the end, aggressive reporters are the ones to be blamed, especially those young reporters without much experience. If such newsroom management prevail, we will eventually lose our press freedom.


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Lena Dunham's much-hyped new HBO show Girls, which follows four newly graduated young women as they navigate New York City-and the recession-in privileged poverty, has been anointed by countless journalists as pinpointing the coddled, twentysomething female zeitgeist. The main character, Hannah, a version of (and played by) Dunham herself, is downwardly mobile and broke and overeducated, negotiating hookups and sexual mixed messages and social media while trying to mine dignity out of a delayed adulthood.
Because Dunham is deft at preserving her vision, and because it's an HBO show, Girls is more natural than anything else on television, especially when compared to all the new sitcoms starring young women: 2 Broke Girls, New Girl, Whitney. The show hasn't even aired yet-the premiere is Sunday-but there's already a backlash brewing. Critics who are scandalized or irritated by the frank, unglamorized sex scenes, who are turned off by the upper class entitlement of the central foursome, or who simply, as one Jezebel commenter put it, would like to be notified "when Lena Dunham realizes that there's a person of color in New York City." Most of the criticism can be summarized thusly: "I was/am a young woman, and that's not my experience."


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IFComp 2016 Review: 16 Ways to Kill a Vampire at McDonalds
Posted by Reiko on November 25, 2016
This is a review of a game from the 2016 Interactive Fiction Competition. Scoring criteria can be found here.
16 Ways to Kill a Vampire at McDonalds
Author: Abigail Corfman
Format: Web – Twine
Now this is Twine interactive fiction done right. None of the fiddly guess the verb issues of parser IF, but the same kind of geographic inventory-based puzzles that you might find in most parser IF. (I guess I favor the interactive part more than the fiction part of IF.) It's really one major puzzle (kill the vampire, of course), so each playthrough is fairly bite-sized. But there are a dozen different solutions, some with variations, some that can even intersect. My favorite scenario was rigging a bucket of holy water over the door and then driving the vampire out with running water from a jammed-up toilet. Splash! Wicked vampire of the west goes poof. Many items have multiple uses, too, particularly things like the paper towels or the holly wreath. There's also a time-limit, and some actions can only be taken early on, and some can only be done later.
It's a very polished piece, particularly in terms of puzzle solutions, which must have required a lot of testing. I wondered why driving the vampire out with running water counted as a separate solution when driving it out with scripture doesn't (you have to seal the vampire into the building and kill it with scripture to make that solution count). That's why I wanted to see if the extra twist of rigging the bucket of holy water would also work (the time limit was tighter for getting all that done). But throwing the holy water on the vampire directly (at the right time) is how I originally achieved the holy water ending, so you don't need to be that clever with it. It's a testament to the depth of the implementation that you can, though.
The writing is clever and amusing throughout. The PC's defensiveness about smoking cigarettes and resignation about being vampire bait, the homeless woman's prickliness if you offend her, the "adorable cashier" and the smarmy vampire: all the characters are well-realized. I did see a few typos: the text could have used one more proofreading, but only the "boddy-pinned up" bit was enough to annoy me because I kept seeing that every time I first looked at my hairdo in a playthrough.
Clearly someone's done a lot of research about vampires. In the "Unlockables" section at the end (which indicates there are even *more* than 16 endings once you've completed enough of them), there's a link to display nearly every known historical belief about vampires, including what they do, how to kill them, etc. Plus references for further reading.
Time: 30 min (2 hours+ to find all endings)
Scoring: base 7, +1 for multiple endings (at least 16), +1 for depth of implementation, +1 for realistic characters, -1 for typos
Score: 9
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Not a long post, just something useful for thrash metal fans.
If you bought The Big 4 (Anthrax, Megadeth, Slayer, Metallica) box set and have been looking for sleeve artwork when ripping the CDs to your iPod or whatever, you'll have found that the CD sleeve arts are not online.
So, here are the scans below to save you scanning them out, if you even have a scanner. They look slightly grainy enlarged but come out perfectly on an iPod screen.
*If any label people want me to take these down I'll be happy to, but I've only put these up as people will try scanning these regardless. It just saves the hassle.


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Status: Open
Know more about this business than we do? Cool! Please submit any corrections or missing details you may have.Help us make it right
017090attr:poolapartments & buildings
Be the first OregonLive.com user to add photos or videos of Cascadian Village
Cascadian Village is located at 1841 Claxter Rd NE Apt 13, Salem, OR. This location is in the Keizer neighborhood. This business specializes in Apartments.
Cascadian Village can be found at Claxter Rd Ne 1841. The following is offered: Apartments. The entry is present with us since Sep 8, 2010 and was last updated on Nov 12, 2013. In Keizer there are 25 other Apartments. An overview can be found here.


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|I was always in good spirits!
No Mini Pump. This one is easy, and I should have known it. A mini pump makes it easy to be lazy, and I had a second flat just a few miles down the when I didn't get the pressure I needed for a loaded touring bike. The solution will be a frame mounted mini=floor pump (Like the Bontrager Mini Charger I have on our tandem) or a traditional, full size frame pump. (And I have 3 of those from Silca and Blackburn).
The Wrong USB Charger. I had a pair of backup batteries for my iPhone, but I only had a one-port USB charger, and it was the low-powered iPhone model, which could not fully charge the batteries. At the very least, my next tour will have a two-port, dual output charger. My ideal solution? A backup battery/charger with two USB out ports, that could charge a phone and the backup battery at the same time. I will let you know if I find that product.
Leave the sling chair home.
|Only used it since the picnic table was soaking wet.
Too many miles per day. Though I was bound by the lodging availability restraints on the Katy Trail, my overly optimistic mileage planning didn't allow enough slack for wrong turns and bad weather. My next trip will be based on shorter days, with longer days just an option. I loved the time I was riding; it just seemed I never had any down time during daylight.
A real headlight. I had a small strobe/safety light, but when things wrong, it was inadequate for safely finishing a late ride into camp, or even riding around a dark campground (when the showers and restaurant were each over a ½ mile from my tent site). I am also going to continue to ride with a running light when on highways. My Light in Motion Urban 650 will make the next trip, and probably one of their Vis180 tail lights. And that adds one more USB item to charge.
Bring some PDF Road Maps. Even though I was relying on the iPhone for navigation, road maps can still be handy. They will be stored on the iPad for my "plan B" for navigation.
Did I need the Big Ring? When a loaded touring bike keeps you under 20mph, and you have 8, 9, 10 or 11 cogs going down to 12 or 11 teeth, I am not so sure about triples and big rings. On my very first touring bike, I used a 47-42 combination. But this really gets into bike design as well, so I will leave this discussion, along with 650B (27.5") wheels for another post.
|Small rings good in "flat" Illinois.
So there you have it, my post-tour review. I thought I would come up with 10 items, but I guess my prior experience paid off. And the last two were really more conceptual, than anything I did wrong on this trip. I have a few more days to wrap up, and then I will tie these all together in a summary, as I start planning my trips for 2015.


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Zotero (pronounced "zoh-TAIR-oh") is a Firefox addon that collects, manages, and cites research sources. It's easy to use, lives in your web browser where you do your work, and best of all it's free. Zotero allows you to attach PDFs, notes and images to your citations, organize them into collections for different projects, and create bibliographies.
It automatically updates itself periodically to work with new online sources and new bibliographic styles.
It is similar to Endnote.
See also this great guide published by the Zotero developers themselves. Also available as a PDF.
Zotero will run on any operating system. It requires Mozilla Firefox 3.0 or greater. If you don't have Firefox, you need to download and install it.
After confirming that you have Firefox installed, you can add Zotero.
To install, go to http://www.zotero.org/ and click the red "Download" button. Click "Install Now" and follow the instructions.
If you see the message "Firefox prevented this site from asking you to install software on your computer," click "Allow".
Restart Firefox and you're all set! You'll see a small Zotero button at the bottom of your Firefox window.
If you have any problems, check the Zotero installation page.
You'll probably also want to download and install the Microsoft Word citation plugin (or the OpenOffice plugin if you're using OpenOffice). These allow you to easily cite items from your Zotero library in your papers.
Mac users: The Zotero 1.0 plugin doesn't work with Word 2008 for MacOS. If you're using Word 2008 on a Mac, you should probably use Zotero 2.0. More info here.
Zotero provides the ability to save references from most library catalogs (including Millsaps') and databases, and even some regular web pages, with one click. (Zotero publishes a list of compatible sites, and many sites not on this list also work.) If Zotero detects that you're looking at a book or article on a catalog, database, or a site like Amazon.com, LibraryThing or the New York Times, you'll see a book or page icon appear in the address bar of your browser. Just click the icon and Zotero will automatically save the citation.
If you're on a page of search results with many items, you'll see a folder icon instead. Click this to get a list of all the items on the page, and check off the ones you want to save.
Other Web Sites
Zotero can't automatically capture citation info from some web pages, but you can still add them to your Zotero library.
Click the Zotero button at the bottom of your browser to access Zotero's controls. Click the page button (to the right of the green plus sign) to save a link to the page. This will save a new "web page" item to your library. You can add information about the author, etc., if you wish.
This will also attach a snapshot of the page to the citation. Taking a snapshot saves a copy of the page to your computer. It includes the page's text and images, so if the page is removed later, or if you're offline, you'll still be able to view your copy.
It's easy to attach files (like PDFs) to items in your Zotero library. Just drag the file into your Zotero pane. Dropping a file onto a collection, or in between library items, will copy it into your library as a standalone item. Dropping it onto an existing item will attach it to that item. This is the easiest way to attach a copy of an article to its entry in your library.
Each item also has an Attachments tab in the right column. You can attach files by clicking the Attachments tab and then the Add button.
Click the Zotero button at the bottom of your browser to open your library. At the top left is a folder button with a green plus sign. Click this to create a new "collection."
Create collections to organize your references. Collections are like file folders on your computer, but a reference can be in more than one collection at a time. In other words, a book on the Civil War could be filed in your "Civil War" collection, your "Georgia History" collection and your "19th Century America" collection without having to make three copies of the reference.
It's easy to create a bibliography from your Zotero library.
Select the references or collections you want to include. Hold the control key and click to select multiple items. Right-click one of the selected items and choose Create Bibliography. Choose the bibliographic style you want, and select the output format: Save as RTF or HTML, copy to clipboard or print. (The RTF file format is compatible with all word processors.)
Or you can just drag and drop references from Zotero into your document! They'll turn into fully formatted citations. This works with any word processor including Google Docs. Change the default style under Preferences on the "gear" menu.
Creating Your Bibliography: While You Write
Zotero offers word processing plugins for Word and OpenOffice. The plugin adds a Zotero toolbar to your word processor that allows you to add citations to your document while you write.
To add a citation, click the first button ("Insert Citation") on the toolbar. Select the reference you want to cite and click OK. Zotero will add the citation at your cursor.
At the end of your paper, click the third button ("Insert Bibliography"). Your bibliography will appear, and new citations will be added automatically. Change bibliographic styles with the last button on the toolbar ("Set Doc Prefs").
Zotero comes with only a few bibliographic styles, but many more are available to download.
(This feature requires Zotero version 2.0)
If you're regularly using more than one computer in your research, Zotero's sync feature can keep your library up to date on all of them. Zotero can store a copy of your library on the Zotero.org server and check it for updates whenever you open your library on a different computer. All your computers must be running the same version of Zotero.
First, set up a (free, of course) Zotero.org user account. Then:
- Open Zotero preferences (via the gear menu) and select the Sync tab.
- Enter your Zotero user name and password.
- Check the "sync automatically" box.
- Check both boxes under File Syncing and choose Zotero storage for My Library. This will sync your PDF attachments as well as citations (more info).
- Zotero will upload your library to the server.
Repeat this configuration on each of your computers. Any updates you make on one of your computers will be reflected on the others. This even works to synchronize your library among Windows, Mac and Linux computers.
For more details and help troubleshooting sync problems, check the Zotero site.
Your Zotero library is stored in your Firefox profile on your hard drive. How do you bring it with you to use the library's computers?
Install Firefox and Zotero on a USB drive and you can take your library with you to use on any computer.
First: download and install Portable Firefox for Windows or Mac on your USB drive. This is a special edition of Firefox designed to run entirely from a portable drive. It keeps its own settings, bookmarks and Zotero library separate from the settings installed on your computer.
Second: copy your Zotero library from your computer to your USB drive.
One way to do this is to open Zotero on your computer, click the gear button and choose Export Library (as in the image below). Save your library to a file anywhere on your computer. Then close Firefox, run Portable Firefox from your USB drive, open Zotero, click the gear button and choose Import. Import the file you just saved.
Another, perhaps easier, way to copy your library is with the Zotero sync feature. Follow the instructions on this page to set up Zotero sync on your computer. Then close Firefox, run Portable Firefox from your USB drive and set up Zotero sync there too. If you use the sync option, any changes you make to your Zotero library will update themselves in both versions of Firefox.
Just take your USB drive to the library with you, plug it into one of our computers, and run Portable Firefox.
(This feature requires Zotero version 2.0)
It's easy to add PDFs to your Zotero library and automatically import their citation info.
First, enable PDF indexing on the Search tab of Zotero's preferences. Zotero will download and install a small plugin.
Next, just drag your PDF files into the Zotero pane.
Right-click the PDFs and choose "Retrieve Metadata for PDFs." Zotero will retrieve their citation data from Google Scholar and turn them into citeable items with PDF attachments.
If Zotero can't find a match on Google Scholar, don't worry -- you can still save the citation from another catalog or article database, then drag the PDF onto the citation to make it an attachment.
(This feature requires Zotero version 2.0)
Have the book in front of you and want to add it to your Zotero library without having to search for a citation?
If you have a book's ISBN, an online article's DOI or PMID number, just click the magic wand button: "Add item by identifier." Type in the book or article's number, and Zotero will automatically download its information and save it to your library.
(This feature requires Zotero version 2.0)
Zotero's new Groups feature allows you to share references with other Zotero users online. It's a great way to work on collaborative research projects.
First, set up Zotero sync as described on this page.
Next, log in at Zotero.org. There's a "Log In" link in the top right corner of the page.
You can search for existing public groups or create a new group. Groups may be public (searchable, and anyone can join) or private (users can only join if invited).
You'll now have two sections in your Zotero collections pane: My Library and Group Libraries. You can drag items back and forth between them at will.
Installing Zotero
Collecting References: Books and Articles
Collecting References: Other Web Sites
Attaching Files
Organizing Your Library
Creating Your Bibliography: From Zotero
Zotero Sync
Portable Zotero
Indexing PDFs
Adding items by ISBN
Zotero Groups
Zotero has produced several great how-to videos on their site that demonstrate step by step how to use Zotero's features.
This is a quick overview of how to save citations from the web.
Library / Main Desk
Tel: (601) 974-1073


text:
There, I've said it. Let's get past that. I needed something undemanding on the brain, OK? I didn't set out to watch it – I was a victim of circumstance.
The trouble is I am a child of the Blockbuster Video age. I just can't wrap my head around streaming. The infinite choice makes it impossible for me to take a chance on something (as I was forced to in the days of video rental) because the lure of some mysterious TV Eldorado urges me on, through a jungle of countless pages and options. The quest inevitably grows hopeless, whereupon I become disgusted with myself and fall back on old favourites from my teenage years:
Hence Voyager.
Watching it again I was struck by a couple of things: First was the memory of the shameful connotations the show has for me, more than any other scifi viewing. I think its because I got into it (aged 18ish) through my brother, who in turn discovered it through a chef at the hotel where we worked.
I seem to recall spending an evening with them both, "doing a Voyager-a-thon" in a disused hotel room the size of a broom cupboard. I remember eating crisps in shimmering blue TV light, choking on the scent of the chef's sweat, listening to my viewing companions occasionally say something like: "Tuvak rocks". I remember the chilling sense that I had fallen very far from the cool tree, and may never find a way back.
|There's always an
exception to the rule
I'm talking about the manner in which a tremendously promising ensemble of characters was almost immediately allowed to stagnate into a crew of un-relatable Mr Perfects.
Don't get me wrong, there are some great stories in there, and one or two crew members - notably the Doctor, Seven and Tuvak - have their moments. But for the most part the Voyager writers have a perverse habit of refusing to write characters to their own specifications.
Here are just a few examples:
Specification: A half-Klingon member of the Maquis, the resistance fighters who have been waging a desperate war on the edge of space. Generally regards Starfleet as appeaser of an evil, occupying alien force. Thrown to the far end of the galaxy by "The Caretaker" and forced to join up with Starfleet Vessel Voyager. Proud, violent, impulsive, furious.
|Ooh, she is stroppy
Sounds promising right? After all, Kirk himself told cadet Savik that "the Klingons don't take prisoners" - as many Maquis of WW2 refused to do. She should clearly then be someone who has summarily executed her fair share of foes, and therefore a destabilising element on Voyager.
Yet the writers give her nothing to do but propose fixes ("it might be enough") to the endless stream of remarkably unthreatening threats which the ship encounters. Oh, she has the occasional tetchy moment, but the writers don't go close to exploring how the rebel hell-bitch they specified would act if forced to accept Starfleet orders - espcially from a Captain like Jinxed Janeway.
If she led a mutiny, or harboured a homicidal grudge, then maybe I'd believe she was a member of a warrior race. I might also be interested in her. Instead she is pretty much indoctrinated into Starfleet living death by halfway through season 1.
Meanwhile those warrior genes are only explored through jaw-splittingly tedious "coming to terms with my heritage" episodes, spent buggering about on the holodeck reenacting hunting rituals - which all has the feel of a "one-eighth Hopi" New York stockbroker spending a weekend in a tepee.
Speaking of which...
So why is he such a bloody bore? I have no trouble with him deciding to make the alliance with Voyager work, but he should maintain discipline among his people as a pirate captain would – tossing them in airlocks, slapping them about, employing a bit of a Kirk-style itchy trigger finger. He should be untidy and uncomfortable in that dumb uniform. Instead he is manicured and hair gelled, wearing that tattoo with all the authenticity of a Chinese character on the back of a student's neck.
His personality is all wrong too. He should be gruff, instinctive, fatalistic. Instead he spends most of his time remembering everyone's birthday and handing out pep talks. The writers also insist on exploring his bloody heritage again. Do we really want this guy to be moaning about how "I don't understand the ancient language of my people?" Hell no. We want him slapping anyone who suggests he tries to grow. And as for dream quests, well…let's not even go there.
It's a real shame, because if he did come across as more of a frontier gun-slinger it might, you know, make him likable. It might also create genuine sexual tension between him and Janeway, which would be interesting - and certainly more entertaining than the chaste tea-and-biscuits thing they have in the show.
Tom Paris
Specifications: Disgraced protégée from illustrious Starfleet family. Covered up his own mistakes in a crash that killed three colleagues – later, racked by guilt, he confessed. After being dumped by Starfleet he joined Maquis, but was captured on first mission. An opportunist convict who brings shame and disgrace wherever he goes. Cynical, reckless, gifted, insecure.
The writers obviously started out loving this guy. How do we know that? Because in the opening episode we have his fat back-story dropped in our laps. Compare him to Janeway, supposedly the lead character, of whom we learn nothing save that she's a brassy lady with big hair. You'll also notice that they cast a bloke with one of the sleaziest faces in TV history. You can tell the writers wanted to have fun with him.
Then, just as with the others, it's all jettisoned like an overheating warp core. I can forgive Paris accepting his field commission on arrival in the Delta quadrant, because hey, he needs some time to
|Deeply sleazy
But no. Nothing happens. From episode two his character is loyally entombed on the bridge, bleating "Yes maam" to every crazy Janeway order. Even during an episode like 30 days, during which he is demoted for disobeying orders, he does it all in the name of literally saving a world. He has no questionable intentions. Which makes him DULL.
Oh, the writers have the odd crack at livening him up. They give him gags - but they are rarely amusing, mostly lame references to Jeffries tubes and warp nacelles (rather than prejudice and wordplay). Eventually he's reduced to the Doctor's straight man, which is almost sad.
In that respect, his romance with Torres makes sense. After all, if you refuse to let either personality play out, what's left but sex? But even here the relationship is of zero interest. Paris should sleaze onto other women. That might engage one or two of those elusive female viewers (I've heard that some women, in rare cases, love a bastard?) and help make his character a little hot-blooded. Torres should slap him about in response. And shouldn't they have amazing make-up sex?
No. Not a bit of it. It's all being late for candle-lit dinners, because they're so darn dedicated they had to pull an extra shift. It's impossible to give a damn about them. Why? Because you don't get chemistry between two inert substances.
After all that initial promise Paris is left a neutered pup, with nothing to fill his time but holodeck recreations of "20th century" science fiction - which look an awful lot more entertaining than his own adventures. And that can't be right, can it?
Oh , I forgot. There is one more thing that defines Tom Paris. His friendship with…
Ensign Kim
Specifications: Er…he loves his folks?
OK, so this guy doesn't really have specifications to live up to, but as the ultimate purveyor of the oblivious chirpiness that permeates the Voyager crew, Kim drives me nuts.
It wouldn't be a problem if he was the only torch-bearer of that damned can-do optimism: that at least would have the potential to make him a funny foil for other character's frustrations ("Kim, why don't you take that picture of your folks and shove it right up your ****"). Instead the chirpiness infects everyone, giving the whole group the feel of the galaxy's dullest cult.
I could only forgive a character as thin as Kim if one episode we saw him pick up a phaser and go on a glass-eyed rampage about those endless, identical corridors, executing everyone of his relentlessly up-beat ship-mates.
That I would believe.
I'll have to leave it there for now. After all, what's worse: writing Voyager or complaining about it on your obscure blog? Suffice to say that I do still love the show, and I'm not blaming the writers entirely. They do seem shackled by the same Roddenberry-ordained moral code which prevents any post-TNG character becoming truly lovable. Besides, they do pull it out of the bag here and there - episodes like Equinox, Year of Hell and Scorpion have some great B-movie fun in them.
I just felt compelled to write because every time I revisit an episode I can't help but think:
I wish this thing had more balls.


text:
Click here for a list of the best selling televisions this week. Samsung, Sony, LG, Philips and Panasonic brandsRecords are good - they are immutable and cannot be changed by users.
Record Centres are also good - they provide a repository for records that users can submit their documents to, to be transformed into records.
Event receiver rules that automatically commit as records any document submitted to a list are also good, because as soon as content is placed in that list it becomes a records, and so immutable.
What if something goes wrong? Perhaps a users submits a document that should not be locked as a record ans should be removed, or perhaps the wrong meta data is attached to the record?
In these cases an admin has to temporarily suspend the records management features of SharePoint in order to rectify the fault. This is a big deal since SharePoint admins have a different role to server admins, and so normally would not have the authority (or indeed the know-how) to do this, whereas the server admins would not be able to understand the records and content. In my experience the only people who know both how the system works, and what it is supposed to do, are the developers! And we do NOT want to do admin, because among other things they somehow get paid more than we do...
Furthermore, if you are automatically declaring documents as records when they enter the list, you will not be able to "undeclare" the record from the SharePoint front end without first disabling this feature - quite a risk if you end up having to do this a lot.
This is why I like to create my own tools to fill the gaps, and in this case we programmers can turn to a little known feature of the Object Model to help us: Records.BypassLocks().
This neat little method, part of the Microsoft.Office.RecordsManagement.RecordsRepository namespace, allows use to define a delegate function that be be run even on locked down records. Wrap it in a security delegate and you have the makings of a class that can be used to provide users (preferably power users and admins) with tools to manage their records centre WITHOUT suspending record handling functions.
Remember - this allows you to override records handling, so only use this if you really need to. However if you have found this blog and read this far, you probably really need to!
Here is a basic method that shows you how to use Records.BypassLocks() in a simple record cancelling scenario. In this example I pass in URL to the offending record, open a security delegate (in order to ensure that the process has permission to perform this task), and then use BypassLocks to edit the meta-data on the document to change the name and title and set the Status to "CANCELLED".
Please not that I have present this a method inside a class with no constructor - I will leave that up to you (simple copy the methods into whatever class you are working in if this confuses you).
using System; using System.Collections.Generic; using System.Linq; using System.Text; using Microsoft.SharePoint; using Microsoft.SharePoint.Publishing; using Microsoft.SharePoint.Utilities; using Microsoft.Office.RecordsManagement.RecordsRepository; //You are going to need to include the dll in teh references using System.Web; namespace BusinessLayer { public void Cancelrecord(string documentURL) { // Pass in the document URL in a format such as: //string documentURL = "http://test_reocrds/records/wrong_file.pdf"; //Run this in a security delegate SPSecurity.RunWithElevatedPrivileges(delegate() { using (SPSite site = new SPSite(SPContext.Current.Web.Url)) { using (SPWeb web = site.OpenWeb()) { web.AllowUnsafeUpdates = true; try { SPListItem target = web.GetListItem(documentURL); Records.BypassLocks(target, delegate(SPListItem item) { //Perform any action on the item. CancelItem(item); }); } catch (Exception ex) // it all throws up to here { throw ex; } finally { web.AllowUnsafeUpdates = false; } } } }); } //Set item name to start with CANCELLED and set status to CANCELLED public void CancelItem(SPListItem item) { try { // Update the name of the file item.File.CheckOut(); item.TrySetValue("Name", String.Format("CANCELLED {0}", item.Name)); item.TrySetValue("Title", String.Format("CANCELLED {0}", item.Title)); item.TrySetValue("Status", "CANCELLED"); // item.Update(); //This records library is set to use check in/out and versioning so it records any updates such as this item.File.CheckIn("CANCELLED", SPCheckinType.MinorCheckIn); } catch (Exception ex) { // Permissions failed. Undo checkout item.File.UndoCheckOut(); throw ex; } } } }
In my example above I use an Extensions class to add useful methods to SPListItem class to get or set values. Here is the class:
using System; using System.Collections.Generic; using System.Linq; using System.Text; using Microsoft.SharePoint; namespace BusinessLayer { public static class Extensions { public static T TryGetValue(this SPListItem listItem, string fieldInternalName) { if (!String.IsNullOrEmpty(fieldInternalName) && listItem != null && listItem.Fields.ContainsField(fieldInternalName)) { object untypedValue = listItem[fieldInternalName]; if (untypedValue != null) { var value = (T)untypedValue; return value; } } return default(T); } public static bool TrySetValue(this SPListItem listItem, string fieldInternalName, T value) { try { if (!String.IsNullOrEmpty(fieldInternalName) && listItem != null && listItem.Fields.ContainsField(fieldInternalName)) { listItem[fieldInternalName] = value; } return true; } catch { throw; } } } }


text:
Primary Citation PubMed: 9249047
Citations in PubMed
This linkout lists citations, indexed by PubMed, to the Primary Citation for this PDB ID.
Data mentions are occurrences of PDB IDs in the full text articles from the
PubMedCentral Open Access Subset
of currently about 1 million articles. For each article, the sentences containing the PDB ID are listed.
Article titles can be filtered by keywords and sorted by year.
Towards third generation matrix metalloproteinase inhibitors for cancer therapy.
(2006) Br J Cancer 94
PubMed: 16538215 | PubMedCentral: PMC2361222 | DOI: 10.1038/sj.bjc.6603043
The catalytic domains of MMP3 (PDB:1CIZ), MMP8 (PDB: 1KBC), MMP9 (PDB:1GKD) and MMP12 (PDB: 1Y93) were structurally aligned and superimposed.
Publication Year: 2006
Analysis of X-ray structures of matrix metalloproteinases via chaotic map clustering.
(2010) BMC Bioinformatics 11
PubMed: 20932281 | PubMedCentral: PMC3098083 | DOI: 10.1186/1471-2105-11-500
sub-families classes PDB codes archetypal MMPs MMP-1 1CGE, 966C, 1HFC, 2TCL, 1CGL, 1CGF, 2J0T Collagenasi MMP-8 1MNC, 1ZS0, 1ZP5, 1MMB, 1JAO, 1JAP, 1JAQ, 1JJ9, 1I76, 1I73, 1ZVX, 1BZS, 1KBC, 1JAN, 1A86... 1A85, 1JH1, 3DNG, 3DPE, 3DPF, 2OY2, 2OY4 MMP-13 1XUC, 1XUR, 1XUD, 1YOU, 830C, 456C, 1ZTQ, 2D1N, 1CXV, 2PJT, 2OW9, 2E2D, 2OZR metallo-elastase MMP-12 1Y93, 1RMZ, 1OS9, 1OS2, 1UTZ, 1UTT, 1JIZ, 1ROS, 1JK3, 3F15, 3F16, 3F17, 3F18, 3F19, 3F1A, 2W0D, 2HU6, 2OXU, 2OXW, 2OXZ Stromelysin MMP-3 1B8Y, 1CIZ, 1CAQ, 1G4K, 2USN, 1USN, 1SLM, 1UEA, 1HFS, 1QIC, 1C3I, 1CQR, 1BQO, 1BIW, 1SLN, 1HY7, 1G05, 1G49, 1D5J, 1D8F, 1D7X, 1D8M, 2D1O, 1B3D, 1QIA, 1C8T MMP-10 1Q3A matrilysin Matrilysin MMP-7 1MMP, 1MMQ, 1MMR gelatinases Gelatinase MMP-9 1GKC, 1GKD, 2OVX, 2OVZ, 2OW0, 2OW1, 2OW2 MMP-2 1QIB convertase-activatable MMPs MT-MMPs MMP-14 1BUV, 1BQQ MMP-16 1RM8 stromelysin-3 MMP-11 1HV5 After removing water molecules and co-crystallised inhibitors, MMPs were aligned onto Cartesian coordinates of C-alpha atoms and the three catalytic histidine side chains of 1ZS0, selected as template.
Publication Year: 2010
RCSB PDB (citation) is managed by two members of the Research Collaboratory for Structural Bioinformatics: Rutgers and UCSD/SDSC
RCSB PDB is a member of the
The RCSB PDB is funded by a grant (DBI-1338415) from the
National Science Foundation, the
National Institutes of Health, and the
US Department of Energy.


text:
Cupid's Castle
Here's the "castle"...
We stayed at this place for a weekend because Natalie won it from her work. It's in the middle of nowhere, kind of near an indian casino. The owners are very nice, there was just a little too much Renaissance Fair flavor for us.
Here's the website if you want to make a reservation.


text:
I am trying to decide on a restaurant to go to with a friend from out of town. This friend does not eat any seafood whatsoever, nor does she care for Mexican, Indian, Asian (other than suburban American -Chinese fare) Spanish, French... well, you get the picture. She would probably really appreciate a nice German restaurant, but that would not be so much fun for another friend of mine who will be joining us. So we're left with steak and Italian. I can think of about 20 great Italian places I'd like to go to, but I think they would be too trendy/expensive/wine-oriented. Friend #1 specifically requested a restaurant that is "reasonably priced", so that leaves the big steakhouses out.
Before I call Crispo (which would not be a bad thing, as I do love it) can anyone suggest a not-too-stodgy Italian place that also offers good meat dishes? Or a steakhouse that is affordable? I imagine she would not want to spend more than about $50, total. Oh, and she is strictly a beer drinker, so an emphasis on wine or spirits would not go over too well.
Thanks in advance.


text:
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text:
Buyer's remorse?
"Big Wins for Clinton in Texas and Ohio..."
"Clinton Beats Obama in Texas and Ohio..."
"Resurgent Clinton tops Obama in Ohio, Texas"
But is the message really that clear?
There's no question that Hillary Clinton lives to fight another day after taking three of the four Tuesday primaries. In this topsy-turvy year where a candidate can lose 11 straight contests and still remain alive, it's a given that three out of four is a momentum switcher in the eyes of the media.
But is it? As the Times notes:
Her victory in Texas was razor thin and came early Wednesday morning after most Americans had gone to bed. But by winning decisively in Ohio earlier in the night, Mrs. Clinton was able to deliver a televised victory speech in time for the late-night news. And the result there allowed her to cast Tuesday as the beginning of a comeback even though she stood a good chance of gaining no ground against Mr. Obama in the hunt for delegates.Or the Post:
Clinton still faces daunting odds in her bid for the nomination. Obama began the day with a lead in pledged delegates that will be hard for her to overcome in the 12 primaries and caucus remaining, despite the results from the four states voting yesterday. But her advisers said that the big win in Ohio alone would force a serious look at both candidates and that the race was far from over.It's clear we are in the buyer's remorse phase of the campaign. This is not the elusive (and now-dead) Bradley Effect which posited whites told pollsters they will vote for African-Americans than do not. Buyer's remorse is where front-running candidates suffer setbacks as primary voters get second thoughts.
And so we will go through another six weeks of ringing telephone ads and change versus experience debates with the voters of Pennsylvania likely to set things straight in April.
For progressives concerned about a continued split in the ranks, there's at least some cause for cheer this morning: John McCain is picking up George Bush's endorsement.
That need to pander to the GOP's remorseful hard right is just the ticket for the rest of the American public counting the days until the Blight of W is lifted from the land.
Labels: 2008, Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton


text:
It took me an awful long time for several reasons, not least of which is getting a lot of experience in teaching and outreach during the degree, but I'm finally done my thesis draft. I'm printing it today and bringing it to school tomorrow morning. My defence will likely be the first week of September.
As requested many months ago by friend and colleague Christian Muise, here's a wordle for my text:
I will post the final version of the thesis after the defence and any resulting revisions are made.
It's no secret that I did not emphasize research during my Masters degree. This will change for my PhD. I love the fact that I have accomplished many goals during the Masters and thus don't need to be distracted from research in the future.
I also love the fact that I will be able to work on projects I am much more interested in. I learned during the Masters that I don't really love working on the purely experimental side of things. I enjoyed the theoretical portions of my project, but while testing the image matching implementations, I just kept thinking, 'darn, there are so many cool applications of this, and I won't get to any of them!' When I switch my focus to augmented reality, I want to look into using it for educational entertainment. The focus on people and interesting applications this will have excites me!
By the way, I also had a low point or two (as most grad students seem to have) while getting through this thesis. I plan to make a post about impostor syndrome and all that once I figure out how to capture my feelings.
Tuesday, August 18, 2009
4 comments:
- Frozone said...
Congratulations on finishing your draft! I can totally relate to your feelings about loving the theory and then feeling bogged down with some implementation or testing details, and wanting to explore so many avenues for application ideas. This happens to me both with my research and with my office job!
- August 21, 2009 at 1:10 AM
- PhizzleDizzle said...
hooray!!! congrats gail!
- August 21, 2009 at 1:36 AM
- Dimitri said...
First of all congratulation for completing the Draft......I'm computer Science graduate...and has taken many projects......I'ld appricate if start working on some new innovation and much bigger project.....you can visit my organisation......
Cash Online Get Easy cash at your door step
- August 21, 2009 at 5:52 AM
- Gail Carmichael said...
Thanks guys! :D
- August 21, 2009 at 9:29 AM
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text:
|This is the back view. Each door will be opening up to the cats patio area. When it is cold or bad weather we can close the doors to keep everyone dry and warm.
|Front View. Have to put on the awnings and landscaping.
We will be posting pictures as the insides are done.


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Americans love diversity, but not complexity. This is my theory on why we only have a two party system. We value freedom so much that we do not investigate what we really believe. But, our freedoms are only ours because there have been those who have investigated the complexity of the issues and sought to bring about a system that most benefitted and represented the many. Our two party system which represents ALL of us, I think should divide into several different parties, instead of remaining a two party system, then we Americans that care, can be informed of a number of different ways in which to view different issues. Then, mores of us can be involved in our representative government and we can continue to do what was done in the past, but with more awareness of the complexity of the issues than our Founding Fathers ever comprehended.
Americans love their freedom to do what we deem "fit" and don't want to be bothered by things outside our scope of "life". We value freedom, but are not willing to "pay the cost for it". Some of the cost to us recently is because of a two party system. While a two party system is much easier to evaluate , it limits our "education" in governmental concerns.
Last night, while watching the Democratic National Convention, it was more and more obvious to me the distinctions between the two parties. The Republicans, while valuing the free market system, most value the freedom of the individual in pursuing their goals and dreams by hard work, ingenuity, and innovation. These values have brought about what we most enjoy as Americans, economic freedom; liberty.
But, while this freedom of economics is an ultimate for American values, the Democrats prey on on the downside to that value; man's innate coveteousness and promise economic freedom to all, irregardless of education, work, ingenuity, or innovation. Democrats believe that we should be socially accountable because we do not all have equal opportunity. This social accountability in economics feeds into government's purpose in provision for the needy. While many in our world and some in our nation do not have enough economic freedom, what should guide the values of Americans in these two diverse views?
While we are individuals made in God's image and must take our own responsibility before God and others in how we choose to live our life, we are also called to care about others. The difficulty lies in how do we "care about the needs" in our nation/world. The Republican chooses to leave it to personal choice, while the Democrats want the government to take the responsibility for the needs of the needy. There is a difficulty with both views.
While one leaves the door open to crass capitalism, ignoring the needy's needs, the other oppresses the market, where there is no "cream on the top" to be given to the poor. A free market system is necessary for the flourishing of our economy. And the flourishing of the eoconmy is necessary for there to be enough profit for the individuals who have benefitted to provide for the needs of the needy, through charitable giving.
Again, we are individually accountable in how we are stewards of our resources. Both Democrats and Republicans prey on the coveteousness of our hearts. One does so in the name of justice for the poor, the other in seeking liberty of the market. Neither is wrong, unless the one seeking justice or liberty does so at the expense of the "other".
Becoming a Christian
18 hours ago


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I have abruptly disengaged my vehicle to a halt. Currently, I'm at a 4 way stop when it comes to the title of this post. Here's what I got brewing:
- Peter Pan's Rodeo
- My T and His Feathered Mohawk
- Who's Behind That Comb Over Called Bangs?
- Prints-a-Plenty
Eli & Casey tag teamed this photo shoot. When you get specific instructions from your freshly turned 5 year old to "quit slouching" you know it's time to double up on the calcium intake.
Let's rap here, shall we?
Ensemble Statistics
Shirt 1:
- Magenta sweater
- Limited brand
- It has real cute drawstring ties on the shoulder that make it all flirty like.
- Love this in the Spring by itself with a pair of white boat pants and a patterned heel
- It's a thin sweater like material.
- Looks great alone with a chunky shorter necklace too
- Goodwill
- Paid $2.00.
Shirt 2:
- Navy & white 3/4 length sleeve
- Gap brand
- I have worn it alone with cowboy boots and white shorts before...CLASSICALLY SPUNKY.
- It also looks great paired with turquoise and then once again with lavender.
- Goodwill
- Paid $2.00
Shirt 3:
- Merona brand
- Great under layer shirt.
- It's tight so you can trust that as you add more shirt layers, you won't get that blousy, bulky feeling.
- Goodwill
- Paid $2.00
- Totally looks like a family heirloom.
- Rhinestones are chunky fun yet give off that "old money" vibe.
- An older lady friend of mine was just gonna toss out her old junk jewelry to the trash and said I could have anything I wanted.
- Navy & white
- LOVE the whimsical floral pattern
- Gap brand
- It's a shorter jacket so it actually accentuates the layered shirt look nicely to me.
- Yeah, I turned the color up. Don't be hatin' on me.
- I totally look my Dad in this profile.
- Yes, my lips naturally rest this way when I'm not talking. Weird, I hear you dawg.
- Goodwill
- $3.00
- My step mother-in-law bought me a feather pack set of 2 that you can just clip in when you want a little ooomph.
- Eli and Casey's Nana knows me and the serious amounts of happy joy this treasure brings.
- It's a party in my ponytail every time and you know this.
- 2 days dirty.
- For those of you with long hair, you KNOW this is the miracle of the ponytail.
- Bangs...can you say it's time for a haircut?
- No, I'm not any relation to Donald Trump.
- A special thank you to the big barrel curling iron for taming my 3 cowlicks in my bangs. That's right. THREE.
- These were my great-grandmothers.
- They're clip-on.
- aDoRe the floral pattern the rhinestones make.
- I lose feeling in my lobes up until about 15 minutes after I have had them off.
- Beauty is pain, people.
- I am the Mr. T of bracelets.
- It's time you know this.
- Navy & white polka dots
- Makes me SOOO happy every single stinkin' time I put it on.
- Goodwill
- 10 cents
- leggings
- dark charcoal grey
- It's the new black, you know.
- TJ Maxx
- $3.00 clearance
TOTAL spent on outfit: $12.10
The Peter Pan in me immensely enjoyed this ensemble. All day long I felt like Eli & the Face were my Lost Boys.
Mixing prints and layering on offset colors schemes is all kinds of happenin' in the fashion world.
Take it from me, Mr. T.
Well, would you look at that? My vehicle just found itself in drive.
.mac :)


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Interested in public policy, the DC budget, research and information to inform and improve the caliber of public policy discussions or advocacy? This is the place for you: information and intelligence that improves advocacy is the stock in trade of this blog.
Monday, February 9, 2015
The do's and don'ts of making Twitter work better for you
While the following Storify captures advice to journalists, the suggestions and research mentioned can be applied to nonprofits and government agencies using Twitter.
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In my books, women often solve the problem. Even if the woman is not the hero, she's a strong character. She does change the plot. She'll often rescue the male character from some situation.
I don't think there's any great mystery to writing female characters, so long as you talk to them. If you lived in a monastery and never met any women, maybe it would be difficult.
I like to create imaginary characters and events around a real historical situation. I want readers to feel: OK, this probably didn't happen, but it might have.
When I'm writing a woman character, I don't think, 'What would a woman do?' I just think, 'What would this character do in this situation?
Thrillers have been traditionally very masculine books; the women characters often rather decorative.
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or simply:


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Even with the aforementioned excitement, I'm genuinely digging teaching my 12th graders The Things They Carried. For starters, it gives me a chance to closely read a book I love and try and figure out just exactly why I love it so damn much. Also--it's really illuminating to teach this book to the handful of students I have who are headed for the armed forces. In general, they seem to really be loving it, though I wonder sometimes if that's more posturing than anything else. Lastly (but not least-ly), the book says so much about the nature of story-telling and, perhaps, why we writer-types are so driven:
"And sometimes remembering will lead to a story, which makes it forever. That's what stories are for. Stories are for joining the past to the future. Stories are for those late hours in the night when you can't remember how you got from where you were to where you are. Stories are for eternity, when memory is erased, when there is nothing to remember except the story."
I was lucky to have dinner with Tim O'Brien when I was a student at Elon. Not sure how finagled that, but it was cool. He mentioned, more than once, that he always writes wearing nothing but underwear. He signed my copy of his book right underneath a big stamp that says "Property of Lansing High School."
Killer first line of the moment:
"Shall the water not remember Ember"
from Fred Chappell's "Narcissus and Echo"
(Shadow Box, LSU Press, 2009)
He's crisscrossed the country to meet with state and local officials in coastal areas, urging them to start planning now for the slow-motion flood. Yet his warnings have mostly fallen on deaf ears. "We were often told by mid-level officials that their bosses did not want to plan for anything past the next election," he says.
via Slate
Half-interesting, half-terrifying.
via NYT
On the real, though, this whole thing in Arizona seems surreal. I have a hard time understanding how anyone can not see this legislation as anything but hateful and dangerous. Hey, people of Arizona, remember when your state was, um, part of Mexico? But the immigrants are the interlopers, right? Unbelievable...
Whoa. Calm down, Eminem. Nonetheless--crazy. Definitely not a freestyle...


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This beautiful paragraph comes from an article by Noah J. Efron, American-born chairman of the graduate program for history and philosophy at Bar-Ilan University (where my late mother attended in 1956) in Israel:
In the summer of 2004, while I watched television and saw Gal Friedman receive an Olympic gold medal for windsurfing, "Hatikva" playing in Athens, to my alarm tears streamed down my face. I looked at my wife and her face was streaked with tears, too, and she said, "Look what we have done." She wasn't talking about the handsome, determined kid on the sailboard. She was talking about everything, about a hundred years of Jews who came to this place with nothing and built something. She was talking about the roads and the trees and the art and the music and the army and the Knesset and the universities and the million Russians and half-million Haredim and 60,000 Ethiopians. About loving this odd place so much and about all the heartbreak that goes with it.


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King told members of the media that they "are interested in doing it, but we can't make a deal." The organization has been in discussions for several months with Calgary's mayor Naheed Nenshi on the possibility of a new arena as part of a further redevelopment of the downtown core. Even NHL commissioner Gary Bettman had spoke with the mayor back in March about the potential new arena.
While the Scotiabank Saddledome is a grand old building, it is out of date as it was built in the 1980s and with the lack of amenities in the old building it hurts the fan experience.
Flames president of hockey operations Brian Burke said in June that if there wasn't a new arena that the team could end up relocating. Relocating, new arena. That gets us thinking. Didn't Seattle put news out that they could have the KeyArena ready to go for a hockey team in 2020?
This wouldn't be the first time Seattle has had its name batted around for an NHL team. If you remember, the Edmonton Oilers owner Daryl Katz threatened to move his team to Seattle if they did not get a new arena in Edmonton. Thankfully for Oil Country the Rogers Place was built.
Burke remarked to a member of the golf tournament that questioned past comments from Ken King that "we're not going to make a threat to move, we're just going to move if we don't get the deal we need."
Could this be the beginning of the end of the Flames or the beginning of a new round of negotiations to get a new arena in the downtown to keep the Flames burning in Calgary?


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Im not talking about if they send you to collections, im just asking if they report if you pay a couple of days late. (With contract)
Usually if its less than 30 days no. My friend had an experience with verizon in which they cut his service for not paying then solicited him for the debt internally and when they didn't succeed they sent him a letter stating they closed all his lines and charged the maximum possible cancellation fee per line and then sent it to external collection agency - last I heard atleast.
Starting: 563 | Current: 748 (TU 8/15) | Goal: 800 | Garden since: 08/10/2015
No they do not...... I have a friend that works for them....... just called him and asked......
they dont report lates or collections. i have a friend whos always late to the point they suspend her line monthly lol
I used to work as a CSR for a cell phone company and as a general rule, if a customer went 30+ days late they MAY get reported to the credit agencies and we were told to advice the customer of this (you could call in for a payment arrangement and -to my understanding- keep the account current (also prevent suspension) with no ill effect even if you have 30+ days behind). I have seen family members get reported for 30 days and have seen others have 60 days and not get reported, it is a YMMV thing. I would expect it to report at the 30 day mark and try to avoid it.
They reported me when I closed a line and refused to pay the termination fee. Reported it to collections mobile solutions or something and I was able to pfd it.
I forgot to pay my bill one time and the line was suspended (for a few hours) but they did not report. When you start service with them they do a hard inquiry though. I think most cell companies won't report unless it goes to collections.


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We are very excited to announce that Baby Cakes cupcakes are now being sold at the very cute, very stylish, All Tucked In. This is perfect for those of you who want just 1 or 2 cupcakes. Go ahead and check out this awesome shop, and buy a cupcake for yourself while your at it. You deserve it!
All Tucked In
115 S. Main Street
Bountiful, UT


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Thursday, August 7
Bonus HV Article
The NC News Service made the Pauline edition translation for quick publication in the Vatican's L'Osservatore Romano newspaper when HV was promulgated. This very first version in English is still the most widely published and used in the United States, despite the later emergence of better translations which are based on the Latin, including one published by the Vatican. The Pauline edition relies heavily on Italian to English cognates and it copies the Italian sentence arrangement without proper regard for English structures. While it adequately presents the Church's teaching against contraceptive use, it inaccurately communicates the Church's teaching on periodic abstinence.
In one example, paragraph 14 states (italics added):
If, then, there are serious motives to space out births ... (Pauline edition)
If therefore there are well-grounded reasons for spacing births ... (Vatican translation)
The first difference occurs because the Pauline edition renders the Italian
words "seri motivi" as "serious motives," while the Vatican translation renders
the Latin words "iustae…causae" as "well-grounded reasons."
Language nerds will particularly find some of the various permutations interesting, but the author explains each step of the way clearly enough for anyone to grasp. The implications of this are far-reaching, especially given the social pressure in some Catholic social circles (actual and virtual) to have as many children as possible when 'grave reasons' aren't manifest.


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Here you go Carissa:
I think I need to find more striped fabric to play with because this one is my favorite.
A little embroidery to bridge the gap between the two focus fabrics.
This was the first block I sketched out. The embroidered motifs jumped out at me right away.
A little foray into hand applique for me.
Every one is a different size and I'm excited to see how Carissa joins all of them. I hope they all give you sweet dreams during naptime.


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But I'm back, and wanting to bring you all up to date on what I was so busy with.
So I'm going to back up a week ago or a little more and start. Lets start in the kitchen.
I finally got the last of the cucumbers used up and finished off with another batch of Celery Relish.we have had some heavy frosts the last few nights.
If any would like the recipe let me know.
I got 2 batches more of apple jelly made. I only get a crop of apples every second year here so I have been trying to make enough apple items for two years.
If you would like my apple jelly recipe again I will certinally share it.
I also tried out Donna's Apple pie filling Recipe over at Merry Heart Crafts. Thank you Donna it turned out lovely.
I highly recommend it for you go to pie filling. :)
We picked tomatoes, and more tomatoes, and filled our baskets with ripe ones. It seemed like it took forever this year for them to ripen, but once they started.
We also had way to many cherry tomatoes. I planted to many and my mouth is all broken out from eating so many. But they are so good.
I bottled 18 quarts for the winter,and made Ketchup in the slow cooker with the rest. We ended up with 16 pint jars of ketchup.
Then a neighbour dropped by and gave us more tomatoes. I did up another 11 quarts of sauce. They also brought me 6 more heads of cauliflower so we did 4 up and blanched and froze them. We are still eating the rest with our own.
I have my windows sills in my home filled with green ones waiting for them to ripen.
I should be making a batch of chow with the green ones,but just have not had the time as of yet.
We got the corn all picked and I have been storing the bags in the cooler to preserve it longer. The girls helped me and we were able to do up some cream corn. I also blanched and froze some on the cob for winter eating. There is still a half bag and we have been enjoying a lot of corn on the cob with our suppers.
As for our pork.....
2 Thursday evenings ago we cut up the first one. It went well and after babysitting a cooler for the week I was happy it was done. Well most of the week that is.Then our weather changed back to rain and cold about mid week and the cooler worked perfect.
2 Friday evenings ago we butchered our second one,and hung it in the cooler. We grounded up all the pork that was left from the first pig,and put it back into the fridge for Saturday to make Sausages.
Saturday afternoon we made our first batch of sausages with my husbands cousin that had came to help out. We were only able to get medium casings for the sausages as we were completely out and I was having trouble finding them as our normal rep was out of province. But they worked. We usually always made our maple ones in the breakfast size and our honey garlic in the large size. But this year is a it different. No worries they still taste wonderful.
This year we were able to try a new flavour.. Donair ...... They are wonderful and I bet they would be even better wrapped in a pita, added with shredded lettuce, a little tomato, onion, and topped with Donair sauce. Can't wait to try this out.
Tuesday evening we cut up our bigger more fattier pig. It went well as well.
Here you can start to see a little of what the meat room, and cooler looks like
long ways to go yet, but it sure beats where we were before. We have not had enough time yet to get the counters built so we had to use a table for now to wrap the meat.
Jill loved to help wrap the meat.
Wednesday morning we had our annual family breakfast at Jill's school. It was family week and every year they host the most wonderful continental breakfast of pancakes,cereal,toast, muffins,fruit, cheeses,tea,coffee,and juices.
After sitting eating and chatting I said my goodbyes to Jill and Jayne and I headed over to her school to drop her off. Then it was off to Moms for my routine day.
The kiddies had the remainder of the week off for teachers meetings, and with it being Thanksgiving weekend here in Canada, they will not have to go back until Tuesday.
We had a very easy chicken burger and fry supper, as I had a meeting for Jill's grade 5 end of year trip at 630 which went well.
I got back home around 740 and Hubby has just finished grounding up the pork for the sausages. We all got involved and got more made.
Another job done. It feels great to have all the pork done up in the freezer. Along with all those Sausages.
I am not sure if we will need a deer this year for our sausages. We have a little time to think about it. We still have our beef left to do.
Partridge season has started here as well back on the 1st, and we have not had time as of yet to go hunting.Justin has gotten one so far. I was hoping over the long weekend we will get a chance to start. I have been craving a bouillon, but this was not the case as Friday after noon my Dad ended up in the hospital with very high blood pressure and a gull bladder attack. So I spent Friday, Saturday, and Sunday running back and forth to the hospital and looking after my Mom. Thank goodness I have such a understanding family. No pumpkin pie got made, no pie crust got done, and no apple pie. But my family says that we have all this week to get them done and we will eat pumpkin pie all next weekend. I love my Family.
Dad is feeling a bit better. he still wants to go back to work tomorrow.We had a wonderful brunch with my family this morning.