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Bedrooms: 3
Bathrooms: 3
Sq Feet: 2,732
City: Scottsdale
Zip: 85251
Sub Division: Safari Drive 1 Condominium 1ST Amd
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***$85,000 Price Decrease**.* Seller wants it SOLD*****Architect Miller Hull's Contemporary One of a Kind Urban Residence in the SKY @ SAFARI DRIVE-ALL ON ONE LEVEL that RARELY comes available. Urban chic in the heart of Old Town. 2,700+ square feet of Luxurious Indoor/Outdoor Living Set in ''the Open Skies of Scottsdale and Paradise''. 3 bed & 3 FULL bath. Each room has its own PRIVATE outdoor patio. This Gem has over 1,600 square feet of outdoor living to enjoy each w/ unique views. 360 degree views from every direction possible w/ sights of Camelback, Papago Peaks, McDowell Mountains, 4 Peaks & Red Rock. Step outside to the miles of bike & walking paths on the much desired Arizona Canal. Everything Old Town Scottsdale has to offer is minutes, footsteps, bike pedals away.
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- Directions:
- North on Scottsdale Rd from Camelback. East on Coolidge (just south of Mercedes Dealership). East to Safari Drive. 4747 N Scottsdale Rd. is Safari Drive. 4741 N Scottsdale is where G3001 is located.
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Friday, July 18, 2008
The Decline of Judaism
These stages and patterns of the progress of a Culture from its birth to its "death" are chronicled by various historical cultures all over the globe, and these stages can be summed up, and using these stages one can identify where, for example, American or Jewish culture IS on this cyclical chart. The West, and America as the hyperactive embodiment of the West, is in Decline, and so is Judaism - not meaning Judaism will disappear, because the stages are cyclical. American culture is self-destructing, and what will take it's place is another stage on the journey. Jewish culture is also self-destructing along the same path - and what will emerge from our self-inflicted wounds? That is the question.
This post picks up the analysis in the second part of the Introduction of Spengler's book. The first part can be found at
Analysis of the rest of the chapters of Spengler's book will continue intermittently over this summer and fall. But I think this part of the Introduction sums up our situation rather aptly.So, with no further ado....
Decline of the West, continued: Part two of the Introduction of Oswald Spengler's comprehensive philosophy of history, with commentary I have inserted to illustrate the "Decline of Judaism" parallels the fate of the West and for the same reasons.
Introduction, continued:
Kant philosophizes...but what he poses as necessary forms of thought are in reality only necessary forms of western thought.
It is this that is lacking to the Western thinker, the very thinker in whom we might have expected to find it - insight into the historical relative character of his data, which are expressions of one specific experience and one only, knowledge of the necessary limits of their validity, the conviction that his "unshakable" truths and "eternal" views are simply true for him and eternal for his world-view, the duty of looking beyond them to find out what the men of other Cultures have with equal certainty evolved out of themselves.
Almost all of what passes for current Orthodox Judaism is based upon a shtetl mentality that they idealize as having been "perfect" for Judaism when in fact anything but. It gave the Ravs a power and control that they had never had in the past, and paved the way - perhaps for the first time introduced - coercion, intimidation and violence into the Rav's "protection" of the community and an individual's choices concerning stringencies in the practice of Halacha. The philosophy, that is, the thinking of Jewish thinkers was also stunted in an incestuous way in the shtetls - no new blood because no idea allowed to grow that had not "already" existed, stunting the growth of Judaism and encasing it in a backwards and medieval cast that has no room for the realities of the present age. They cast this paradigm backward onto their grandparents and founding fathers as if it has always been - in order to give it legitimacy, but it certainly has none. The mental products of the shtetl are direct results of the shtetl, and had no reality before, and should have no reality now. Pretending to still live in shtetls will not make economic, scientific, medical, philosophical, and political reality just go away.
But something much more disquieting than a logical fallacy begins to appear when the centre of gravity of philosophy shifts from the abstract-systematic to the practical-ethical and our Western thinkers from Schopenhaur onward turn from the problem of cognition to the problem of life ( the will to life, to power, to action). Here it is not the ideal abstract "man" of Kant that is subjected to examination, but actual man as he has inhabited the earth during historical time...and it is more than ever futile to define the structure of his highest ideas in terms of the "ancient-medieval-modern" scheme with its local limitations. Bit it is done, nevertheless.
Orthodox Judaism, of course, tries to obscure this fact by claiming that their modern interpretations are in fact the same as the Bronze Age, but any intellectually honest perusal of the history of Jewish populations around the world will clearly show this is just not the case. What is now "ultra-orthodox Judaism" is a construct of the 20th century, and is joined to the fathers of the Bronze Age only in the most superficial sense. Instead of acknowledging the ebb and flow of the course of the history of practice of Judaism as a religion, the Ultra Orthodox have invented a mythology of a "direct transmission" to themselves from Sinai.
Consider the historical horizon of Neitzsche. His conceptions of decadence, militarism, the transvaluation of all values, the will to power, lie deep in the essence of Western Civilization and are for the analysis of that civilization of decisive importance. But what, do we find, was the foundation on which he built up his creation? ...In short, "ancient,medieval and modern" history. Strictly speaking, he never once moved outside the scheme, nor did any other thinker of his time. ...Is not their whole psychology, for all its intention of world-wide validity, one of purely West European significance?
Likewise the Near Eastern and North African social, earlier halachic (that is, pre-western contaminated halachic), and philosophical viewpoints, the true Sephardi origins, are completely ignored and even discriminated against by modern orthodox Jews, with their white European ethno-centric interpretation of Judaism.
What the West has said and thought, hitherto, on the problems of space, time, motion, number, will, marriage, property, tragedy, science, has remained narrow and dubious, because men were always looking for THE solution to THE question. It was never seen that many questioners implies many answers, that any philosophical question is really a veiled desire to get an explicit affirmation of what is implicit in the question itself, that the great questions of any period are fluid beyond all conception, and that therefore it is only by obtaining a group of historically limited solutions and measuring it my utterly impersonal criteria that the final secrets can be reached.
The natural, the "Copernican," form of the historical process which lies deep in the essence of that process and reveals itself only to an eye perfectly free from prepossessions. For [example], such an eye was Goethe...for him, the world-as-mechanism stood opposed to the world-as-organism, dead nature to living nature, law to form. ...So here we shall develop the form language of human history, its periodic structure, its organic logic, out of the profusion of all the challenging details.
Unfortunately, this requires an interpretation of the picture of Classical history very different from the incredibly one-sided, superficial, prejudiced, limited picture that we have in fact given to it.
What Orthodox Judaism needs, to be accepting and inclusive of all levels of practice within the halachic framework, even the basic Biblical minimums, is a non-prejudiced view of the history of Judaism, which looks at the reality of the myriad interpretations and fluctuations of practice in the historical Jewish communities. Orthodoxy also needs to discard the myth, which the Ravs themselves created, that Judaism has always been or was ever meant to be a monolithic entity of exact sameness everywhere. Equal, yes. Identical, no. The original 12 tribes lived in different territories, with different microclimates, different agriculture products and practices, different cultural and social practices, and different practices within the halachic framework. This was, and still is, acceptable to Hashem.
Economists, politicians, jurists, are inclined to take the "progress" of present mankind as a standard for judging everything earlier. Conversely, artists, poets, philologists and philosophers may feel themselves out of their element in the present, and choose a standpoint in this or that past epoch that is just as absolute and dogmatic from which to condemn today.
In all history there is no analogous case of one Culture making a passionate cult of the memory of another. We have projected our own deepest spiritual needs and feelings onto the Classical picture.
Or, in our case, onto the Judaic past.
[For example], there there is not the slightest inward correlation between the things meant by "Republic," "freedom," "property," and the like then and there and the things meant by such words here and now, it has no notion whatever.
Looked at in this way, the "Decline of the West" comprises nothing less than the problem of Civilization. Every Culture has its own Civilization. The Civilization is the inevitable destiny of the Culture, and in this principle we obtain the viewpoint from which the deepest and gravest problems of historical morphology become capable of solution. Civilizations are the most external and artificial states of which a species of developed humanity is capable. They are a conclusion...they are an END, irrevocable, yet by inward necessity reached again and again.
Pure Civilization, as a historical process, consists in a progressive exhaustion of forms that have become inorganic or dead.
The transition from Culture to Civilization was accomplished for the Classical world in the fourth, for the Western in the nineteenth century.
World-city and province - the two basic ideas of every civilization - bring up a wholly new form-problem of History proper, the very problem that we are living through today with hardly the remotest conception of it immensity. In place of a world, there is a city, a point in which the whole life of broad regions is collection while the rest dries up. In place of a type-true people, born and grown on the soil, there is a new sort of nomad, cohering unstably in fluid masses, the parasitical city dweller, ...utterly matter of fact,...clever, unfruitful, deeply contemptuous of the countryman and especially that highest form of countryman, the country gentleman. This is a very great stride towards the inorganic, towards the end - what does it signify?
For those reading this with even a passing familiarity with Cheredi and Ultra-Orthodox communities of all kinds, you know that the contempt for people who work for a living is palpable, and of course farming most of all.
To the world-city belongs not to a folk but a mob. Its uncomprehending hostility to all the traditions representative of the Culture...the keen and cold intelligence that confounds the wisdom of the peasant...the [unacknowledged, but widely practiced] new-fashioned naturalism that in relation to all matters of sex and society goes back far to quite primitive instincts and conditions, the reappearance of panem et circenses in the form of wage-disputes and [entertainment] - all these things betoken the definite closing down of the Culture and the opening of a quite new phase of human existence - antiprovencial, late, futureless, but quite inevitable.
Though the Ravs are at pains to attempt to cover up how far Jewish society has gone down this path, the sexual perversions, drug use, pornography, and other signs are all there, plainly to see. Rejection of honest labour leads to decadence, and the communities of Orthodox Judaism have become profoundly decadent while denying they are decadent at all. It is an amazing cognitive dissonance to watch, but will have an inevitable outcome. As Spengler says, it is futureless. The sooner the communities are redirected into a more healthy paradigm, the less damage will be done. But it is unclear how much damage can truly be mitigated. Jewish Culture appears to be going through every stage of Decline as Western Culture in general.
For it will become manifest that, from this moment on, all great conflicts of world-outlook, of politics, of art, of science, of feeling, will be under the influence of the same contrary factor. What is the hallmark of a politic of Civilization today, in contrast to a politic of Culture yesterday? It is, for the Classical rhetoric, and for the Western journalism, both serving that abstract which represents the power of Civilization - money. It is the money-spirit which penetrates unremarked the historical forms of the people's existence, often without destroying or even in the least disturbing these forms...
Though forms subsist, the great political parties nevertheless cease to be more than reputed centres of decision. A small number of superior heads, whose names are very likely not the best-known, settle everything, w hile below them are the great mass of second-rate politicians - rhetors, tribunes, deputies, journalists - selected through a provincially conceived franchise to keep alive the illusion of popular self-determination.
The conclusion: Imperialism. To maintain the herioc posture for centuries on end is beyond the power of any people. Imperialsim may continue to exist for hundreds or thousands of years - dead bodies, amorphous and dispirited masses of men, scrap material from a great history - is to be taken as the typical symbol of the end. Imperialism is Civilization unadulterated. In this phenomenal form the destiny of the West is now irrevocably set. The energy of culture-man is directed inwards, that of civilization-man outwards.
It is not a matter of choice - it is not the conscious will of individuals, or even that of whole classes or peoples that decides. The expansive tendency is a doom, something daemonic and immense, which grips, forces into service, and uses up the late mankind of the world-city state, willy-nilly, aware or unaware. Life is the process of effecting possibilities, and for the brain-man there are only extensive possibilities.
The Jewish Civilization is expressing its Imperialistic stage of development in the Orthodox world by attempting to invalidate, co-opt, and rule all other sects and expressions of Judaism. There is no doubt about it - the gedolim have become Imperialist conquerors in a quest that has little to do with "concern" for the "spiritual fate" of other Jews and a whole lot to do with money and power and control.
Political success means territorial and financial success, and only that.
This should be self-evident. Coercion does not lead to real spirituality, or love for Hashem, or respect for Chassidic leaders.
All this, broad and imposing, is the prelude of a future which is still in store for us and with which the history of West European mankind will be definitely closed. The nineteenth and twentieth centuries, hitherto looked on as the highest point of an ascending straight line of world history, are in reality a stage of life which may be observed in every Culture that has ripened to its limit - a stage of life characterized not by Socialists, Impressionists, electric railways, torpedoes and differential equations (for these are only body-constituents of the time), but by a Civilized spirituality which possesses not only these but also quite other creative possibilities. That, as our own time represents a transitional phase which occurs with certainty under particular conditions, there are perfectly well-defined states (such as have occurred more than once in the history of the past) later than the present-day state of West Europe, and therefore that the future of the West is not a limitless tending upwards and onwards for all time towards our present ideals, but a single phenomenon of history, strictly limited and defined as to form and duration, which covers a few centuries and can be viewed and, in essentials, calculated from available precedents.
To this single idea one can refer, and by it one can solve, without straining or forcing, all those separate problems of religion, art-history, epistemology, ethics, politics, economics with which the modern intellect has so passionately - and so vainly - busied itself for decades.
Up to now, everyone has been at liberty to hope what he pleased about the future. Where there are no facts, sentiment rules. But henceforward, it will be every man's business to inform himself of what can happen and therefore of what with the unalterable necessity of destiny and irrespective of personal ideas, hopes or desires, WILL happen.
We have to reckon with the cold hard facts of a late life.
All genuine historical work is philosophy...but the operations of the systematic philosopher are subject to constant and serious error through his assuming the permanence of his results. He overlooks the fact that every thought lives in a historical world and is therefore involved in the common destiny of mortality. He supposes that higher thought processes an everlasting and unalterable objectiveness (Gegenstand), that the great questions of all epochs are identical and that therefore they are capable in the last analysis of final answers.
But question and answer are here one... There are no [cultural, philosophical, world-view, social] truths. Every philosophy is the expression of its own and only its own time and - if by philosophy we mean effective philosophy and not academic triflings about judgement-forms, sense-categories and the like - not two ages possess the same philosophic intentions.
And the prevailing attitudes toward halacha and Judaism ARE philosophies of our time, and in the same manner birthed in our immediate past and reflective of our fears and issues of our time only, not all of history.
At highest, the philosophy may absorb the entire content of an epoch, realize it within itself and then, embodying it in some grand form or personality, pass it on to be developed further and further. Only its necessity to life decides the eminence of a doctrine.
Or a Culture can pretend to such an absorption, in spite of all historic fact to the contrary.
[But] all philosophers [and religious thinkers] of the newest age are open to a serious criticism. What they do not posses is real standing in actual life.
Whenever [Spengler] takes up a work by a modern thinker, [he finds himself] asking: Has he any idea whatever of the actualities of world-politics, world-city problems, capitalism, the future of the state, the relation of technics to the course of civilization, Russia, Science? Goethe would have understood all this and revelled in it, but there is not one living philosopher capable of taking it in.
We must allow ourselves no illusions as to the gravity of this negative result. It is palpable that we have lost sight of the final significance of effective philosophy. We confuse philosophy with preaching, with agitation, with novel writing, with lecture room jargon. It has come to this, that the very possibility of a real philosophy of today and tomorrow is in question.
So here we are - Jewish Culture is in a crisis and "more of the same" is not going to solve it. The question is, can we formulate a real path out of this quagmire that can function in the real world and meet people's needs without sacrificing the covenant? We can, but will we?
2 comments:
- "UOJ" - "The Un-Orthodox Jew" said...
A very well thought-out piece. Please know that this site gets about 2000 hits a day. Having few if any comments, does not represent no readership.
Keep writing!
- Friday, July 18, 2008 1:31:00 PM
- Ahavah said...
Thanks. I don't worry too much about readership. But this isn't exactly light reading (neither was the book, so far what I've quoted in italics is just excerpts!). This sort of esoteric stuff is the kind of thing one either likes or doesn't like, there's not much in-between. It's probably not really suitable for blogs - but my future dissertation may never get published, LOL.
I'm so tired of writing about the economic situation for the moment - it's all starting to get repetitive. I feel like people are trying to tune it out, to hold on to "business as usual" as long as possible. They won't make any preparations until it's basically to late to do so. It's fairly depressing to think about - how much we could do and how little we are doing. So I thought I'd write something different for a while.
If nothing else, it will help put people to sleep at night.
- Friday, July 18, 2008 2:26:00 PM

subset: commoncrawl


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Cross-stitch isn't all I have been up to. I have a quilt in the works
and one on the design wall
Quilt market is only 2 months away and I have miles to go before I sleep. I also have a fun embroidery project in the works. I started it on the flight to Galvestan where we left for our cruise and even worked on it while laying on the beach in Roatan, Honduras. Worked on it again last night while watching the movie RED with my husband. I have to have a project to work on while watching TV at night or I am lights out! I can't wait to share this one with you, but it will have to wait - it's a large project and I have hours of stitching left.
Here's to a wonderful Sunday.
Happy Stitching!


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Thursday, May 27, 2010
I have been waiting to see this movie since it was such a sensation with awards and what not. I must say that the graphics were amazing; it was so lifelike! It was also a little long for my taste, but overall I liked it. I felt that it kind of followed the story of Pocahontas and Fern Gully both, but looking back it was A LOT like Fern Gully but with less music and more violence. Comparing the two: Fern Gully was about a magical forest that a little fairy (native) was trying to protect when man was coming to destroy it. Fern Gully had a normal human thrown into a position where he was also a part of the forest but also tied to with what man's plan for the forest was. Fern Gully also had the main man love interest falling in love with the girl and the forest and putting his own life at risk to protect the girl and the forest. See?? Weird, huh? Well, fortunately for Avatar, I loved Fern Gully, so I also liked Avatar. If you just watched Avatar I suggest you go back and watch Fern Gully!
Posted by Miss Lizzy at 6:07 PM
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WASHINGTON (CNN) -- President Barack Obama said Friday he looked forward to signing a bill that would give the Food and Drug Administration power to regulate the manufacturing, marketing and sale of tobacco.
In related news, President Barack Obama also said he looked forward to signing a bill that would allow cops to pull drivers over for killing pedestrians.
In related news, President Barack Obama also said he looked forward to signing a bill that would allow cops to pull drivers over for killing pedestrians.
Good lord in heaven....the government has controlled the manufacturing of cancer sticks for years, and even supported tobacco growers with subsidies until a few years ago. They already control the marketing of cigarettes (remember when cigarette commercials were on TV?)
And unless I'm mistaken, Uncle Sam already controls the sale of tobacco. Try bringing in a lot of smokes from China or Canada. Or Cuba.
The legislation would give the FDA power to ban candy and fruit-flavored cigarettes, widely considered appealing to first-time smokers, including youths. It would prohibit tobacco companies from using terms such as "low tar," "light" or "mild," require larger warning labels on packages, and restrict advertising of tobacco products.
And here's the Associated Press on Obama's take on the legislation:
President Barack Obama, admittedly still struggling with his own nicotine habit, saluted passage of the bill, which he will soon sign. He said, "For over a decade, leaders of both parties have fought to prevent tobacco companies from marketing their products to children and provide the public with the information they need to understand what a dangerous habit this is."
As usual, it's for "the children...."
Ok, kids. Pull up a chair. Got your pens and notebooks ready? Good. Yes, Johnny, it's ok to smoke in class.
Let's pretend that we're the CEO's of Philip Morris and R.J. Reynolds, our two biggest tobacco companies and let's pretend that Big Bad Barack is going to restrict our advertising budgets even more.
Does this make you angry if you're a Big Tobacco CEO ? No, it doesn't.
Why do businesses advertise? Several reasons. Partly to attract first-time buyers, and partly to attract people who have been buying other brands for years.
Who has to do the most advertising? New businesses, or businesses with new product lines.
What's one way to guarantee that no new competitors will enter a marketplace? Ban advertising.
What company helped write some of the latest anti-tobacco legislation?
Pics of the Hot Smokin' Teleprompter Jesus from here and here.
For another post that explains the concept of "Regulatory Capture", an economics concept explaining why regulators almost always turns into defenders of their industries, go here.


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Baby Jesus II
This is copied to the best of my ability from La Madonna che Allatta il Figlio by Michelangelo Buonarroti. The rendering looks weird but… I suppose that's just how it is?
I visited the High Museum today to look at a few pieces for art history. I decided to write my paper on Madonna and Child by Giovanni Bellini. I'm just in a baby Jesus kick I guess.
There were a great deal of other interesting works as well. Here are two more of my favorites.


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Well, I've been asked by one of my best friends from back in Ye Old Minneapolis to talk a bit about reality today. So, for any of you just re-tuning in on my life, here's the skinny.
Moving, moving, moving! I'm not going to get too detailed here lest I bore some of you to tears. So, my husband is in Law right? So, he has a Canadian education and can't practice in MN without going back to school, and he went and took the NYBar while we were still exploring our options. And passed. That's the basic background.
We left MN at the end of last August, went to NYC where he got sworn in and had a two week "vacation" while we explored housing options, since the times we had come out before everyone who was supposed to show us apartments canceled on us. After really not having any luck, since Will hadn't been working in the US long enough, we decided to fly up to Canada to visit family on the Canadian west coast.
Flew to Vancouver. Visited family. Drove to Salt Spring Island. Visited family. Drove to Squamish. Visited family. By this time Will has had an offer from a lawyer in Revelstoke (where his immediate family is building a house and moving too) to be an articling student. For those of you who don't know, Canadian law graduates have to do one year apprenticeships called their "articles" as well as passing the Canadian Bar before they can practice.
So, to make this shorter, we end up moving to Revelstoke. Then Will had to go down to Vancouver to do his PLTC and Canadian Bar Exam -- all of this takes 10 weeks -- starting in Feb. We have *just* moved back up to Rev. We are currently staying in the place we were before for 2 weeks until other people have moved out of where we will ultimately be living.
I have gotten so good at packing. REALLY looking forward to being settled finally in a few weeks. Hopefully won't be moving again before next spring.
In other news, (which you may realize if you've looked over my blog) I am an indie dyer! I am dyeing and selling yarn to keep myself busy up here. As well as doing hobby knitting/crocheting/beading and taking care of housewife-type things.


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Bush's California trip will begin a whirlwind California weekend on Friday (4/21/06) filled with appearances and fundraisers from the Wine Country to Palm Springs. Bush 's first stop will be Silicon Valley where he will push his plan to dramatically increase federal research funding at computer giant Cisco Systems in San Jose.
The White House also may be keeping specific details under wraps for security reasons or to help prevent large demonstrations in the Bay Area, where the president is unpopular.
The visit will be Bush's fourth to Silicon Valley, but only his second to San Jose -- a Democratic stronghold -- since taking office. Thursday, the White House offered few details of the event, but San Jose appears to be the venue for the president's featured policy statement of the trip, according to his itinerary.
"The president will participate in a panel to discuss his American Competitiveness Initiative to encourage American innovation and strengthen our nation's ability to compete in the global economy," White House press officer Alex Conant told the Mercury News. Conant, however, declined to say where in San Jose the event would be held or if it would be open to the public.
Many of Silicon Valley's leading policy and technology groups contacted Thursday said they were unaware of the president's visit -- or any planned event on the multibillion-dollar initiative -- raising questions as to whether the event was already planned or if the administration had yet to organize it.
Bush will spend Friday night in St. Helena [at the Meadowood Resort], where he and his entourage will take over the entire resort Friday and Saturday, where rooms start at $450 a night and go up to almost $4,000 for a suite.
These luxury accommodations all provided at your (taxpayers') expense.
The next day (4/22/06, 2:35 p.m.), Bush will travel to West Sacramento to participate in a tour of the Fuel Cell Partnership and make remarks on advanced transportation technology. No further details were available today about this portion of his trip.
The California Fuel Cell Partnership in West Sacramento was created to promote the production of hydrogen-powered vehicles. The partnership is a collaborative of auto manufacturers, energy companies, fuel cell technology companies and government agencies working together to advance a new vehicle technology that's better for the environment, but at the same time practical and affordable. The goal is to increase energy efficiency, and reduce or eliminate air pollution and greenhouse gas emissions.
Bush will tour the facility's fleet of prototype cars, a hydrogen refueling station and vehicle maintenance areas.
The visit coincides with the 36th annual Earth Day.
Protests are being planned for every stop of Bush's California trip:
Talk about greenwashing,
On Earth Day (Saturday, 4/22) Bush is going to visit a fuel cell research station to pay more lip service to alternative energy:
...show up at this location in West Sac on Saturday and let GW Bush know that the people of California are sick of smog and escalating oil wars. We demand action to make alternative energy available to everyone, not just more nonsense talking from the Petroleum Puppetmaster..
California Fuel Cell Partnership
3000 Industrial Blvd. Suite 1000
West Sacramento, CA 95691
(916) 371-2870
(916) 375-2008 - fax
Later Saturday, Bush is off to a fund-raising reception for the Republican National Committee in Palm Springs, spending Saturday night in Rancho Mirage:
Bush plans to attend a Republican National Committee fundraiser at the Toscana Country Club in Indian Wells the evening (6:35 p.m.) of April 22. He will then spend two nights in Rancho Mirage (undisclosed location), leaving on April 24, as reported Friday on thedesertsun.com.
Indian Wells Mayor Ed Monarch learned of the president's plans to visit the city through The Desert Sun's inquiry Friday.
"We're certainly glad to welcome President Bush to our city," he said.
Bush can expect a warm reception in Indian Wells, Monarch said.
On Sunday (4/23/06), after attending church service at the Marine Corps Air Ground Combat Center at Twentynine Palms, Bush will have lunch (12:20 p.m.) with Navy and Marine Corps families at the base, attend a Marine Corps training exercise in Twentynine Palms (2:10 p.m.), and spend a second night in Rancho Mirage. Monday, he may have more events.
Meeting the Marines:
Few Marines know yet about the president's upcoming visit, said Capt. Chad Walton, public affairs officer at the Marine Corps Air Ground Combat Center at Twentynine Palms, who himself learned about the visit only Friday morning through the White House's release of Bush's upcoming itinerary. Many Marines have left the base for Easter weekend leave, he said.
"I think people will be looking forward to it once (news) gets around a little more," Walton said.
Bush's schedule calls for him to attend a morning church service at the base, to have lunch with Marine Corps and Navy families and then to attend a military training session.
"It's going to be a good opportunity for the base to show how important the Mojave Viper training we are doing is," Walton said.
Mojave Viper is the Marine Corps' name for the training exercises that are undertaken by Marines before deployment to Iraq, Walton said. It consists of urban terrain and a "small town" of multiple-story mock buildings, a pseudo-mosque and more than 250 role players "to make it as realistic as they can to represent Iraq," he said.
Training includes paint-pellet and some live-fire activity, Walton said.
"It trains Marines to recognize IEDs (improvised explosive devices), do security types of patrols and get assimilated as close to the real thing as you can without actually going to Iraq," he said.
"The importance of it is, every Marine unit that deploys to Iraq comes to Twentynine Palms to go through this."
Security at the Marine base will be heightened prior to and during the president's visit, Walton said. And Marines will work in the week ahead to spiff up the place, he said.
"I'm sure we're going to try to present our best face," he said. "Obviously, he's the commander in chief. It's an honor to have him come out and see all of the work we're doing out here."
What residents said about the visit:
"If he comes here to say he's going to end the war, it's a good thing. But if it's just for a vacation, then I don't want to know."
Maria De Jesus
31, Cathedral City
"Other than more traffic (his visit will create), I'm not interested. I'm just waiting out (Bush's time in office)."
Jeremy Gosselin
32, Palm Desert
"It's cool, I guess. I'm like, OK. It doesn't make much difference to me."
Elizabeth Ogimachi
25, Palm Springs
"I wouldn't go see him. I support some of his policies, but the biggest one I don't support is the war in Iraq."
Steve Campbell
43, Palm Springs
Californians are organizing to give Bush a great big 'Howdy!'
Filed under: Bush, California, San Jose, Silicon Valley, St. Helena, Meadowood Resort, Sacramento, California Fuel Cell Partnership, Palm Springs, Rancho Mirage, Toscana Country Club, RNC, protest, Twentynine Palms, Earth Day, fundraiser, RNC, Marines, Navy, Mojave Viper, Indian Wells,


text:
The family and I took our weekly trip to the grocery yesterday evening and as the cashier asked if I preferred Paper or Plastic, I was reminded of a recent conversation that Mom and I had about an article she read on Paper vs. Plastic. Did you know that it takes a paper bag many, many years to disintegrate and that plastic does not compost and will stay in tact for thousands of years?!?!? Did you also know that a paper bag, if packed properly, can hold the same amount of items as four plastic bags?!?!?
Now, I'm not going to sit here and tell you that I am "pro-paper" or "pro-plastic" because there are many sides to this debate and both sides have some valid points. This is a family blog, not a debate forum for paper vs. plastic, and I made what I considered to be the most echo friendly choice with the facts I had at the time.
So, I think about the question and our conversation, then I quietly respond (as if there is a wrong answer) "paper please". I guess they are not used to that response, because I had to repeat myself twice – then she had to repeat it again to the sacker. Maybe there really was a wrong answer and I lost points for saying paper?!?!? Do you loose cool points if you want paper instead of plastic?? Hmm….something for me to check into…would hate to be loosing cool points. Ha!
Although my logic isn't the same as others in the question of paper vs. plastic, this grocery trip has given me a few more reasons to feel good about my decision for requesting paper:
The paper bags were much easier to fit in the trunk of the car, they don't slide all over the place and items don't fall out whenever you turn a corner (as a side note, I will admit that the paper bags aren't as easy to bring into the house as the plastic ones), and last but not least Drake and Spice had so much fun playing with the empty bags - and it's actually safe for them to play with the paper bags.
Drake ran in the kitchen, grabbed a bag and took off to tear it up, just incase someone may have wanted to stop him. Maybe I should have stopped him but my thinking is this: If a paper bag keeps him from chewing on my furniture, our shoes, their toys, our clothes, or our arms and legs then let him chew the bag… Go for it! It's not hurting anything and the mess can be picked up.
Spice found two small sized paper bags and created herself some boots. She's so entertaining!
So there you have yet another side to this ongoing debate…
What decision will you make the next time you're asked the inevitable question? Will it be an informed choice? Will it be the best ecological choice? OR Will it be a choice based on family entertainment?
Close Out
1 year ago


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A book that left me so giddy I couldn't bring myself to write a longform reaction to anything since.
A book I read when I was in High Scool.
A book that stood out among all of the DC offerings.
A book that couldn't even be saved by the main character's involvement in DC's best company crossover.
A book that I haven't even seen referenced in a very long time.
A book that I never dared hope to see again.
A book that is weird, and morbid, and seems to be written specifically with my dark sense of humor in mind.
A book that justifies the entire reboot. No matter what they do to Green Lantern, Wonder Woman, Batman, the Teen Titans, Sgt. Rock, Lois Lane, Superman... all of it is worth it even if this book is cancelled at the six-month mark because even then for six sweet, sweet months we'll have all been able to enjoy...
That's right folks, this September a character from the above image will DIE!
And then again in October... and then again in November...


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At the end of last year, Concorde assembled a collection of all 4 soundtracks to the Indiana Jones soundtracks, with Raiders, Temple of Doom and The Last Crusade expanded and completely re-mastered.
In addition, unreleased cues from the first 3 scores and an interview are included on a 5th CD.
Crystal Skull is exactly the same as the standalone Concorde disk, but is a nice value-add, and everything matches up stylistically.
Score Completeness
It should be obvious that the scores are not complete. However, this is by design, and actually works well, and unless one is really intimately acquainted with the scores and movies, there is nothing that is missing to the ear.
The Temple of Doom is a real find here, with a lot of fantastic music added.
Also, the scores are rearranged into film order, with a couple of minor exceptions, and it is a great listening experience.
The only problem in terms of content is the fact that the Desert Chase cues is the original album edit, and not the complete cue as presented on the DCC release from 1995.
Sound Quality
The sound quality is absolutely stunning on this set, and is a joy to the ears. There are slight speed/pitch issues, but these are not even noticeable to my ears, and do not detract from the listening experience for me.
Cue Editing
It has been pointed out that cues that are often heard together are separated in this release.
I actually LIKE my soundtracks like that. It means I get to hear smaller snippets of music, and it becomes easier to skip to my favorite cues.
In many ways, the presentation and packaging is very good, though it could have been better.
I have had no issues with the DigiPaks instead of the standard Jewel cases, but I know some people do.
The lack of a detailed cue breakdown, ala the 1995 DCC Raiders disk, is disappointing, but what is there is very nice.
The bonus disk is presented within a simple slipcase, so I am very careful whenever I get the disk out. This is my only major issue with the presentation.
The set is contained within a very nice fake leather case that looks like an old book, with a very nice Fedora and Whip logo. This is very good, and it looks good next to my Lord of the Rings Complete Recordings sets.
Value for Money
In as of itself, this set is easily worth the $40-55 price tag it carries, and provides a nice collection of music, some of which is rare, unreleased or only available via Japanese import.
In addition, this is absolutely classic stuff, and sounds fantastic.
The CDs for the first 3 are becoming available as individual CDs in February 2009, though the additional material and interviews on the 5th CD is not included.
For those who want only one or two of the soundtracks, this might be an option, but there is some great material for all of the scores.
Much has been said of this release, to a point where a web site has been set up for those who must know what is missing, and what was on the other releases of these scores.
Classic scores at a reasonable price, despite the flaws, and a must-have. 4 out of 5.


text:
|VOS Theatre members at the EODL Brunch.
We shall not identify them out of respect
for their clear and intense desire for privacy.
Conversation Starters
- VOS Theatre didn't enter this year's Eastern Ontario Drama League Festival—but they went to Awards Brunch anyway, and came away with something valuable.
- The RISER Project is a producing model where "senior" producers assist with cash, space, and publicity for new producers—having seen this model advocated in forums like 2amt for years, it's terrific to see it in practice in Ontario.
- David J. Loehr "kicks the tires" of Meerkat and Periscope to see what these live, instant streaming video apps can do for theatre.
- Sad to hear the news of the death of Sten Eirik, the founder of Guild Festival Theatre in Scarborough and recent director of Living Curiosities at Theatre Erindale.
- … to the finalists for the Ottawa Arts Council Arts Awards, including Janet Irwin—a past President of our Board of Directors—who will be receiving the Victor Tolgesy Arts Award for her forty-year contribution to the development of local theatre and opera artists and a variety of arts organizations in Ottawa.
- … to Mary Jane Boon (Treasurer on our Board of Directors) who was awarded the Best Lighting Design of a Comedy THEA from the Association of Community Theatres—Central Ontario for her design of Almost, Maine at The Curtain Club. Congrats to all of the ACT-CO Festival THEA Award nominees and recipients, with a bashful nod to the Best Director of a Comedy.
- (And we'll be toasting the EODL Festival award recipients when their webmaster is back in town and the results are up-to-date on their website.)
- It's National Volunteer Week—and we say thank you to all of our volunteers at Theatre Ontario.
You can also receive news from Theatre Ontario every month by email. Our archives are online and the April issue is now available.


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As the post title suggests, the voting for Round 0 is officially over. We had a good turnout for the initial seeding round of the contest...but now that we are about to start the knockout rounds, I expect things will really get kicked up a notch.
Here's the bracket based on the poll results:
As you can see, a normal tournament would have a bunch of byes for the higher seeds. However, I didn't want anyone to have to sit out a round so I simply moved all the "prelim" rounds and combined them with the first round of the contest in order to fit everything in a 16 person bracket (with 20 players).
For instance, Round 1 will see Play at the Plate taking on both Spiegel83 and shlabotnikreport with the highest vote getter moving on to Round 2 and the other two being eliminated.
I will have the next round's card prompts on my blog at 7:30 AM tomorrow (Monday) morning. I wanted everyone to get a fair shot at writing time so I decided against posting late at night on a Sunday evening.
Good luck everyone!
Totally Raz!
58 seconds ago


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Hey folks!!
Sorry for the super delayed Comic Con recap. My wife, Melitia, and I had our first table at any sort of nerdy convention and I will say it will not be our last! We sold out of a lot of stuff (sold out of more when we got back to friends - thanks Adam H!) but we did come back with some merch and a lot of learning for next time. Where to begin in terms of recapping. I guess I'll just say I didn't get to walk around as much as I had hoped and we said we wouldn't buy anything but the one thing I did end up buying was Mike Henry's book, FaceBomb Vol. 1. TOTALLY worth the $$$. Only $25, hardcover and he does a small commission sketch in the back of the book. He also has some streaming videos on how he goes about his techniques with great detail. On top of having talent flowing out of his pores, he's an awesome guy. Super genuine.
We had horrible table placement, but it turned out to be a blessing in disguise. We had some awesome table mates such as Justin Currie who couldn't keep people away from his table.
Just down a few people was comic veteran, Hilary Barta. Super awesome guy, uber talented and very complimentary. He's been doing the comic thing for a long time and just oozes talent. I regret not buying any of his stuff. He's done stuff for all of the big boys - Marvel, DC, Image, Malibu, etc.
Another table mate was Luke Smarto, a Comic Con veteran. I was surprised to hear he doesn't work in the comic world since his stuff was GREAT! I was able to trade a stuffed Skeletor for an X23 original sketch.
One last artist I wanted to call out was Edmond Lee. Super awesome guy also (do you see a trend here? They're all super awesome). Great talent. He had a lot of this samurai type stuff but his other stuff on his blog is great. He does pretty sweet caricatures as well. It was also his first time and I hope to run into him at another show.
In terms of Comic Con'ers that swung by one that stood out was The Pokemon Gangsta Nerd. Hilarious guy. Super nice. He is a man of many talents and makes You Tube videos of his nerdom. Keep nerdin!
There were a lot of other great people I met and unfortunately I didn't get everybody's name or card. I don't do commissions but had to do one for an awesome lady, Sarah Kramer (thanks! You and your fam/friends were awesome!). She has a sketch book of just Muppet commissions she has her fav artists do. I have a photo but need to get it off my phone. I also met one of the founders of a sweet artist collective/show in San Diego called Trickster. Her name was Anita Coulter. Super awesome person who puppeteers! How awesome?!
I think that's it for now. I have a bad memory so I know I forgot plenty. Hope you enjoyed!


text:
Naomi Campbell failed to appear for her hearing at Manhattan Criminal Court yesterday and she has been warned she faces arrest if she fails to appear in court next month.
Campbell was due in court to face accusations she threw a mobile phone at her housekeeper's head in January. Her lawyer, David Breitbart, claimed her absence was "not due to professional reasons," but refused to divulge further information.
The case has been adjourned until November 15. Judge James Gibbons told the jury, "I want to make it clear that she is absolutely obliged to appear at the next hearing. If she fails to appear on that court date, the warrant will go into effect." Yeah, yeah....like she cares
Thursday, September 28, 2006
Wanted: Naomi Campbell
Posted by Gabs at 7:49 AM
No comments:
Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)


text:
We're rolling the finale part 1. This is Ezra. I'll be your liveblogger for the evening. I'm also starting late — wonders of Tivo — so all timestamps are off.
10:12: Fabio has a faux-hawk. Carla has straight hair. Top Chef New Orleans is a world of madness. Also, gumbo.
10:13: Matt asks, "is America ready for a black Top Chef?"
10:14: Aren't we supposed to have contempt for Emeril? Can someone explain the rules of being a foodie to me? (Also, Tommy thinks aged Emeril could have been an extra on the Sopranos.)
10:15: Fabio is in a faux-hawk and a pink scarf. Team Rainbow lives!
10:17: Leah, Jamie, and Jeffrey get to compete in a quickfire to reenter the competition! IFA is split on whether or not this is awesome. I believe it's awesome. The challenge is a dish with crawfish.
10:19: IFA poll: 0 for Leah. 2 for Jeffrey. 10 for Jamie. Spencer and Miller object to the premise. Elimination challenges are, to them, sacred.
10:23: Emeril says everyone is a winner. But only one of them will win. This is sort of like the Special Olympics. Commercial break!
10:24: Jeff wins! But in order to continue on to the finale, he has to win today's challenge. Can't simply not lose. Top Chef is getting a bit Calvinball-ish.
10:26: Fabio keeps saying he needs money to care for his sick mother. I'm pretty sure Italy has a universal health care system. Going to have to look into this later.
10:35: They're certainly selling a Stefan overconfidence story. He's using sausage from the freezer and wandering out for a smoke. On the other hand, these are Emeril's sausages. Presumably they're pretty good.
10:37: I like Real Talk with Tom Collichio. Let's make that a regular feature. Also, why is Carla making a dish that requires shucking oysters if she doesn't know how to shuck oysters? It's not like she pulled this dish out of a knife block.
10:40: Gayle!
10:49: Emeril says Fabio needs some "heat." I think he means he needs to kick it up a notch.
10:52: Jeffrey is overstating his own agency.
10:56: Are we looking at a finale without Stefan? Or just some fuck you editing from the Top Chef producers?
11:03: How strange that the closer a chef was to New Orleans' food, the better a chef did. Weird! Bet Stefan would own a Helsinki challenge, though.
11:12: Carla wins! What's up DC!
11:14: And Fabio loses. Which means his mother probably dies. Top Chef is cold, yo. But we all look forward to his inevitable cooking show!


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The big TWENTY TWO outfit!9:54 pm
Hello lovely people!
|Necklace - New Look, earrings - Accessorize, clutch - Boohoo, watch - Olivia Burton via The Dressing Room, bracelet & rings - various places
|Top & necklace - New Look
P.S. I know a lot of bloggers tend to feature photos of themselves in the outfits (which is brilliant and I love such posts!), but for me I'm not comfortable having such photos of myself viewable to a public audience (yet, at least). For those of you that have followed me from the start will know that it took me 6 months to actually use a photo where you can see my face for my profile picture!
23 comments
Perfect 22 outfit, sophisticated but still young and fun! Happy birthday :)ReplyDelete
xo Annie
New England Romance
gorgeous necklace and happy birthday (: that remmeber of me .. because im 19,almost 20 and i feel very sad about it because i will have to act like an adult and do adult things of course..and sorry about that,i have put the translate tool on my blog if you want to check it out (:ReplyDelete
Eeeep! How exciting! That OB watch is beautiful, I just want them all.ReplyDelete
Tara xo
That's a great outfit and the necklace is so nice. It's ok if you don't want to take photos of yourself in different outfits. It's your blog and you can do whatever you want and the readers will still love you for who you are.ReplyDelete
Lovely outfit :) It's fine that you don't want such pictures online :)ReplyDelete
Congrats on turning 22 soon! That is so exciting. Pretty accessories. Loving the necklace and the watch girl.ReplyDelete
Lauren xo
Sophisticated In Style
I love this pastel outfit, especially the watch, clutch bag and necklace!ReplyDelete
that top and necklaces go perfectly together! love both of the piecesReplyDelete
- Anonymous31 July, 2014 23:21
love the bracelet and the blog.. followed!!ReplyDelete
Happy (early) Birthday! I hope you will have a wonderful day.ReplyDelete
Grey and pink go so well together =]
Carolyn | BLOG
Congratulations! The accessories are lovely, especially the beaded clutch and the watch. I bet you would like gorgeous in outfit post photos...but you need to do what is right for you...we all have our own insecurities right?ReplyDelete
x Diana
The Cole CollectionReplies
Hi Diana, thanks for your comment. It's not about insecurities but more about the fact that I don't know who might be looking at (and without my knowledge using) my photos. I don't really want posed pictures of me for anyone to see! Maybe when I am a bigger blogger.. Hmm. :) xxxDelete
How exciting to turn 22! Your birthday outfit looks incredible - love the watch and the necklace! xxReplyDelete
22! Wow, such a stepping stone! I love the outfit you are going to wear. I love the accessories your chose!ReplyDelete
I love this necklace its so pretty! I'm really loving your blog and it would really mean a lot to me if you checked mine out and left a comment on what you think?xxReplyDelete
Nice post.Really like it! :)ReplyDelete
Antonella <3
This top and necklace look amazing together!ReplyDelete
New post on my blog and it'll mean the world to me if you check it out. I always follow back :)
Hey you´ve a great blog!ReplyDelete
Please check out mine and if you want we can follow each other
here on bloglovin and via GFC?
Let me know, now it´s your turn.
Love that t-shirt and happy early birthday :)ReplyDelete
Bf Gf Does Blogging
Hiya! That's so understandable, am abit wary about posting pictures about myself as am only 14 and I have been told to be very careful so completely understandable! I'm officially your #18 follower, via GFC , do check out my blog and maybe follow back too :)ReplyDelete
Rebecca | Blog
Those look so pretty!ReplyDelete
Loving your beaded clutch so much and the color scheme of your outfit so perfect for a birthday!ReplyDelete
xx 365hangers
- Anonymous20 August, 2014 16:07
Happy birthday! you have some great picks for the occasion ;)ReplyDelete
Thank you for reading and commenting! Feel free to leave your blog link so I can check it out, but please no follow-for-follow requests! ♥


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I'm 99.9% sure this is the final presentation. All there is left to do now is cut out the form...sculpt...apply a clay-like substance over it...sculpt more....sand it down till its smooth...then paint... I might do 2 of them...so I guess they're limited editions...lol.
I went with a white sweatsuit after all. If I ever get a hold of a mold as well as the resources to make a plastic version of the figurine, I'll make the sweatsuit clear with the veins the same color as they are in the picture. I like the dunk colorway. Nike holla at ya boy.


text:
The stainless-steel housing is electrocoat-painted and powder-finished to resist
corrosion and the transparent UV-shielded lens has a neoprene gasket for moisture
protection. The package is 1.5 in. deep and weighs 14 lb. (From $725—available
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Visit our website at www.LEDtronics.com.
Data sheet URL address is: SLL003
Let us help you get started with ourPremium-brand LED lightingproducts.


text:
This simple little circuit can be used for AM, FM, and Shortwave(SW). On the shortwave band this active antenna is comparable to a 20 to 30 foot wire antenna. It is further more designed to be used on receivers that use untuned wire antennas, such as inexpensive units and car radios.
Parts List:
C1 = 470pF
C2 = 470pF
L1 = 20uH to 470uH (see text)
Q1 = MPF102, 2N4416, or NTE451
A KIT is available and may contain any value uH for L1, between 20uH and 470uH, to get you started. Change this value to suit your needs.
Parts only, no pcb: [Parts KIT]
L1 can be selected for the application. A 470uH coil works on lower frequencies and lie in AM, for shortwave try a 20uH coil. The KIT is supplied with a value whatever is available up to 500uH. The color code for L1 is generally yellow-violet-brown for a 470uH type but still this can vary by the type of inductor.
This unit can be powered by a 9 volt alkaline battery. If a power supply is used, bypass the power supply with a 0.04uF capacitor to prevent noise pickup. The antenna used on this circuit is a standard 18-inch telescoping type, but a thick piece of copper, bus-bar, or piano wire will also work fine.
The heart of this circuit is Q1, a JFET-N-Channel, UHF/VHF amplifier in a TO-92 case. Although many different types of FET's may be used--such as the MPF102, or the 2N4416--bear in mind that the overall high-frequency response is set by the characteristics of the FET amplifier. The direct replacement for the MPF102 is the NTE451. Second runner up is the 2N4416.
Output is taken from jack J1 and run to the antenna-input of your receiver.
Although this little circuit can easily be mounted on a piece of vero-board, I have supplied the printed circuit board and layout diagram if you wish to make your own.


text:
Volunteer fundraising ambassador (Southport)
Volunteer fundraising ambassador (Southport)
We are looking for proactive and outgoing people with a good knowledge of their local community to join our fundraising family as Fundraising Ambassadors, helping to make a difference for Merseyside Dogs home by giving just a small amount of time.
We're fortunate at Merseyside Home that we have many wonderful supporters who hold fundraising events for us throughout the community, and they often invite us to attend in support of their activity and/or give a talk about our work. Unfortunately the Community Fundraising team is a small one with many demands on our resources, so we cannot attend every event we're invited to. We are therefore recruiting volunteers who we can train to represent Merseyside Dogs Home at these events and help us to raise vital funds for the 600 dogs and cats that we care for every year
•Represent Merseyside Dogs Home at events organised by us and our supporters; these can include town centre collections, workplace fundraising events, schools, local dog shows, village fetes, and meetings of clubs such as Rotary or Women's Institutes.
•Accept donations and bank them on behalf of Merseyside Dogs Home, following guidance provided.
•Give talks and presentations about the work of the Home to local groups, clubs and associations. Personalised training will be given and a presentation will be provided for your use.
•Liaise with the Centre Support Officer to ensure accurate records are kept and supporters are thanked.
•Always be a positive and proactive representative of the Home.
•Promote our values and key policy messages
Please contact firstname.lastname@example.com


text:
- They fit nicely in my hands and have grips on the handle.
- They can be used for other tasks, like removing the beard from mussels.
- They come in a variety of sizes from tiny three inch pliers to larger, full sized versions.
- They are inexpensive and readily available.
- They come in different colors so it is very easy to make sure you get them back after loaning them out.
- And they are spring loaded, unlike most pliers purchased at the hardware store.
Thursday, August 18, 2011
To Pin or Not to Pin
Pin boning fish seems to be one of those tasks that will follow you everywhere, so I recommend getting a pair of something to aid in the pin boning process. I use a pair of 6" Jewelry Pliers that I picked up at Walmart for $8.00 (it was a set of three). Why do I like these more than the pin boning pliers used in Fish Fabrication Class? Well,
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text:
We had tons of food so that wasn't a problem. It was all delicious too! Then after dinner we played speed scrabble (so fun!) and Uno and the friend of Aunt Bonita played us some violin pieces. He is very talented and it was so fun to listen to. Although, Emery might disagree...more on that later.
I really need a new camera! I just looked at all these pictures and every one of them is blurry!
This was from Sadie's kindergarten class. They made those vests out of paper! They had a feast and got to dress up like this. So fun. She loves school!
Here are Sadie and Zac chowing down on their drumsticks. Rob was pretty sad that they got these since he loves the dark meat. :) When Zac was done with his he tried to snag it to finish it off, but Sadie wanted it. Poor Rob...
We had three tables: kids table, my craft table and our regular dinner table. It was a little bit of a tight squeeze, but we made it work. :)
Full house! I should have taken a picture of all of the food...it was so yummy!
Zac finished eating and patiently waited for Rob to finish eating so he could play chess. Rob is so proud that Zac is interested in chess!
Speed scrabble.
Enjoying some beautiful violin music.
The violinist. He was really really good.
This is Emery being comforted by Rob after the first song he played scared her half to death. We didn't really warn her that he was going to play the violin and it was pretty loud. She was over playing in the corner by herself and when he was done playing the fiddler on the roof we heard her making some sounds and she was hiding and had a huge frown on her face. She was holding in her tears. Poor girl. I bet if she was sitting with one of us when he started playing she would have been fine. But now when we ask her about it she says "violin plays beautiful music." ha ha.
Sadie sitting with Aunt Bonita enjoying the music.
Emery loved great grandma!
She did dances for her and showed her tons of toys.
All the kids with great grandma. We really should get together more than we do. They don't live too far away.
We had a great Thanksgiving and we are so glad everyone could come. It was so fun. We are so thankful for all of our blessings. We have a wonderful family, awesome friends, a beautiful home, Rob likes his job....I could go on and on. Hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving!


text:
For days I've been excitedly counting down the hours until school starts and now at this final hour I'm pummeled with a heavy heart. You would think that with all the feelings of excitement and anticipation that can be felt in my house; as I hear happy chatter and feel the elevated energy that is bursting from their little bodies, that I would hop on board and join in this jubilious, celebratory moment. Instead I'm burdened with this indescribable, painful lump in my throat. WHY??? What the heck changed and when??
Maybe it's the start of new adventures for each one of them that has me. Travis is a Senior, Kaymin is a Freshman, Logan is going into Jr. High, Mallory 4th grade, Jentzen 1st grade and Gage starts preschool on Friday. Gosh, there's that lump again. Is anyone else feeling this way?
This is definitely a first for me. I'm usually the one skipping through the neighborhood singing and dancing with an ear-to-ear grin, but for some strange reason, I don't feel like that. Of course it IS after 11:00pm and my house is totally quiet and peaceful and their sweaty little heads do smell delicious after their toasty baths and they look awfully cute! Who knows? Maybe tomorrow morning when the hustle and bustle is in full swing and the fighting has ensued: ("So and so won't let me in the bathroom!", "He had two bowls of cereal!", "I was sitting there before her", "I called shotgun!!") Perhaps I will have an entirely different post, perhaps I WILL be singing and dancing through the neighborhood. One thing is for sure, there will be milk and cookies and an anxious Mom waiting for them to come flying through the door to tell her about their day!!


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6 attempts at snaring a celebrity co-presenter.
31 editions of Must Watch Radio.
112 songs.
I didn't know that I had it in me.
One of my strongest Spring and Summer memories from my childhood was sitting at home shortly after dinner watching television with my mother.
The patio door would be open and the sun would be setting down over the pine trees. Despite my father and myself having vicious allergies to grass and hay fever, my father would be out mowing the lawn with the tractor.
The local evening news would come to a close and despite the fact that it was a non-ratings season, US networks would roll out a special variety show on early Saturday nights:
To those in Australia, if that jingle sounds very familiar, it's because NBC shared it with the Seven Network:
So for this: the last Full Hi-Katastrophe,–the Ultimate Hi-Katastrophe–let us all sit together with those who we all wish were there, and enjoy The Transpacific Funk & Soul Festival on The Full Catastrophe.
The Playlist
Rufus Thomas – Do The Funky Chicken
Marcia Hines – Disco Inferno
The Jets – Crush on You
Vince Harder – It's The Life (featuring K.One, P Money & Dan Aux)
Gloria Taylor – Grounded Part 1
Chaka Khan – Love You All My Lifetime
The Dynamites (featuring Charles Walker) – Burn It Down
Jill Scott – Golden
Dionne Warwick – Heartbreaker
Slow Down Honey – When I See You
The Jones Girls – You're Gonna Make Me Love Someone Else
Marcia Hines – I'm Coming Out
Teena Marie – I'm A Sucker For Your Love
Isaac Hayes – Out of the Ghetto
Funkommunity – Pass It On
Jimmy Barnes & INXS – Good Times
The Undisputed Truth – Ain't No Sun Since You've Been Gone
The Gap Band – Party Train
Janelle Monae – Sincerely, Jane
Ten City – Superficial People
The Transpacific Funk & Soul Festival on The Full Catastrophe would like to thank the following:
Tonight's Must Watch Radio
Doing The Funky Chicken
About Wattstax
About The Steve Harvey Morning Show
Want to relive it all over again? The Festival is yours anytime in this handy-dandy podcast version.
Next week: Fearless Leader Rejoins us!
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There were three things about this book that instantly struck me when it arrived in the mail:
1) It's the first solo venture by Naomi Duguid (whose previous books were usually authored with her ex-partner, Jeffrey Alford);
2) This book looks and feels much more like a working cookbook than those previous endeavors;
3) It's a relatively unfamiliar cuisine for the West, yet out of a region (Southeast Asia) that has become a rich mine of material for cookbooks published here of late.
All of this made for fascinating testing – and some flavors that startled and intrigued even the rather jaded palates of our household.
Read the review of Burma: Rivers of Flavor here.


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(Click on photo to enlarge)
Hello Y'all!!
First off.......WHO DAT!!!!!!! Congrats to the New Orleans Saints for winning the Super Bowl!!! This is the card that I created for Sunshine Monday using Sunshine and Giggles Stamps!! Thanks for looking and have a great Monday!!
Card Recipe for Dude...You Rock Card
Stamps: Digi(SAG), Sentiment(Signature Greetings Set-PTI)
Paper: SU!, White Cardstock(Office Supply), DP(American Cratfs)
Ink: Printer Ink, Basic Black(SU!), Copic Markers
Tools: Stapler(Swingline), Corner Rounder Punch(EK Success)


text:
There 19 Indian casinos in Michigan which are owned and operated by 14 federally-recognized Native American tribes. In addition there are three state-licensed casinos in Detroit.
Select any of the casino locators below to search for Michigan casinos:
Michigan Indian casinos are listed below by county! To find a casino either: Click map or search the county list below.
|Kewadin Casino
|Gun Lake Casino
|Wayland Twp
|Saganing Eagles Landing
|Ojibwa Casino
|Four Winds New Buffalo Casino
|New Buffalo
|FireKeepers Casino
|Battle Creek
|Four Winds Dowagiac Casino
|Bay Mills Resort & Casino
|Kings Club Casino
|Kewadin Casino
|Sault Ste. Marie
|Odawa Casino Resort
|Odawa Casino Mackinaw City
|Mackinaw City
|Grand Traverse
|Turtle Creek Casino
|Northern Waters Casino Resort
|Soaring Eagle Casino Resort
|Mt. Pleasant
|Kewadin Casino Lansing (Proposal Denied)
|Leelanau Sands Casino
|Suttons Bay
|Kewadin Casino
|Kewadin Casino
|St. Ignace
|Little River Casino Resort
|Ojibwa Casino
|Island Resort & Casino
|Lakeshore Casino and Resort - Planned
|Bay Mills Casino
|Kewadin Casino
|Greektown Casino
|MGM Grand Detroit
|MotorCity Casino
|Caesar Windsor
|Van Buren
|Four Winds Hartford Casino
12.21.2015 Four Winds Casinos Donates Food Baskets
12.09.2015 New Golf Course to be Built at Island Resort & Casino
11.03.2015 $100,000 to be Won on Dec 06 at Four Winds Casinos
10.06.2015 Public Hearing to be held for Mackinaw City Casino
08.24.2015 Plans Proposed to Renovate Chocolay Casino
08.19.2015 Gun Lake Casino Stops Payments to State
06.24.2015 MI Tribe Approves Mackinaw City Casino Project
06.13.2015 Little River Casino Resort to Be Renovated
02.24.2015 Plans for Fruitport Township Casino Moves Forward
12.15.2014 Baraga casino Denied
in Election
12.02.2014 Four Winds Casino to Give Away $185,000
10.02.2014 Gun Lake Casino Allowed to Stay Open
09.29.2014 New Off ramp Design for Greektown Casino
06.12.2014 Saulte Ste. Marie Chippewa Indian tribe Applies for Casino Land Trust
05.05.2014 Four Winds New Buffalo Announces Heart Performing Live
03.25.2014 $509,036 Jackpot Won at Four Winds New Buffalo
02.18.2014 Pokagon Band of Potawatomi Indians Gave $44 million Additional Contributions
02.03.2014 Four Winds New Buffalo Announces Diana Ross In Concert
11.30.2013 MI Casino Agreements
between Tribes and State to Expire
10.14.2013 Muskegon County Casino wins one more approval
10.13.2013 Little River Band Casino is One Step Closer to happening
09.17.2013 CEO of Saganing Eagles Landing Casino to Review Expansion Plan Alternative
09.12.2013 MI Court Starts Session Tribal Land and Casinos On Topic
08.14.2013 New Parking Lot at Gun Lake Casino Might Bring More Additions
07.01.2013 U.S. Supreme Court to rule on Bay Mills Casino
06.24.2013 Case for Bay Mills Casino Vanderbilt heads to Supreme Court
06.03.2013 Millions In Jackpots Paid At Kewadin Casinos
05.10.2013 COO and GM announced for Four Winds Casinos
04.29.2013 Four Winds Dowagiac casino Opens
04.24.2013 Four Winds Dowagiac prepares to Open
02.26.2013 Four Winds Dowagiac Gets Community Support
01.04.2013 Four Winds Casino Gives Away $744,966 Jackpot
11.14.2012 Tribe asks federal
court to dismiss Lansing casino lawsuit
11.01.2012 Kedawin Lansing Casino Project receives land parcel
09.26.2012 Mackinaw City Casino planned by Odawa Indians
09.11.2012 Opposition over Kewadin Lansing casino may stop project
08.14.2012 New Electronic Roulette Machines added to MGM Grand Detroit
08.06.2012 MI Group says Casino Proposals are Unconstitutional
06.26.2012 Petition to build more casinos in Michigan submitted
06.14.2012 Vote passed for Four Winds Dowagiac Casino project
05.13.2012 Casino Competition from Ohio may hurt Detroit Casinos
04.11.2012 Petition for possible New Casino in Grand Rapids
04.02.2012 MotorCity Casino Hotel offers Points for Buying New Car
03.20.2012 Kewadin Lansing Casino Project Gets One Step Closer
02.13.2012 Lansing Casino Opposed by State
01.29.2012 Tribe plans to buy land for Kewadin Lansing Casino
01.23.2012 Kewadin Lansing Casino proposed
1.03.2011 More Progress made
On FireKeepers Casino New Hotel
10.24.2011 Employees at Greektown Casino Agree on New Four Year Contract
10.18.2011 Growing Support for Several New Casinos in the State
09.15.2011 Greektown Casino Gets Read to Open SuperPit
09.12.2011 Greektown Casino-Hotel completes First Phase of Remodel
08.30.2011 Four Winds Hartford is now Open
08.29.2011 Four Winds Hartford Gets Ready to Open
07.13.2011 Revenues for Greektown, MGM Detroit, and MotorCity Casino are up
05.07.2011 Job Fair for Harford's Four Winds Casino held at High School
04.19.2011 Detroit Casino Tax Increase
04.12.2011 Hartford's Four Winds Casino to open in August
03.31.2011 Michigan Is Yours campaign to build 7 new state casinos
03.31.2011 Possible 7 new casinos for Michigan
03.01.2011 Expansion at Firekeepers Casino
02.26.2011 Woman wins $41,444 jackpot won at Gun Lake Casino
02.16.2011 Robert Anthony is New Gaming Board Member
01.26.2011 Four Winds Awards $100,000 in Diamonds
01.20.2011 Vanderbilt Casino closes to prep for re-opening
01.12.2011 Lakes Entertainment Reports Update to Ohio Casinos Project
12.28.2010 Bay Mills Indian
Community Defends Opening of Casino
12.21.2010 State orders Bay Mills to close Vanderbilt casino
12.08.2010 Bay Mills Casino Vanderbilt to open expansion in January
12.07.2010 Gun Lake Casino receives first slot machines
12.02.2010 Four Winds Casino announces New Years Eve promotions
11.24.2010 MotorCity Casino Hotel Player Wins $1,561,371 Jackpot
11.06.2010 Site drawing for Muskego County Casino released today
11.03.2010 Bay Mills Resort & Casinos' adds new gaming facility
10.29.2010 Kewadin Casinos
Celebrates 25 Years with Party
10.06.2010 Four Winds Casino announces October promotions
09.18.2010 Gun Lake Casino to open in February
09.07.2010 Four Winds Casino giving away 2010 Jaguar XF and cash
08.26.2010 Four Winds Casino
offers $1M on NFL picks
08.24.2010 Michigan's most popular slots!
08.06.2010 Four Winds Casino's $100,000 Labor Day Weekend
07.20.2010 Gun Lake Casino wants January opening
07.13.2010 "Best Michigan Casinos" by Survey
07.08.2010 Little River Band pushing casino proposal at Great Lakes Downs
07.07.2010 Four Winds Casino receives 15 awards for excellence
05.21.2010 Four Winds wins 7
categories of 2010 Best Of Awards
05.03.2010 Indian casinos are exempt from smoking ban
04.17.2010 Campaign to build 7 new casinos in Michigan
04.15.2010 Detroit's 3 casinos see hiked revenues in March
03.22.2010 New Indian casino could be coming to Muskegon County
03.02.2010 Two proposals to expand gambling in Michigan
02.01.2010 Gun Lake Casino construction on track
01.04.2010 Indian casinos exempt from 2010 smoking ban
11.30.2009 Windsor casino
revenues hurt by passport restrictions
11.30.2009 FireKeepers Casino giving away $1 million in December
11.24.2009 Greektown Casino giving away $330,000 in December
11.02.2009 Greektown will open new poker room
09.12.2009 Four Winds Casino
Resort receives 24 'Best' awards
09.09.2009 Gun Lake Tribe breaking ground on $157 million casino
09.08.2009 FireKeepers Casino offers bingo sessions
08.24.2009 Roadblock removed
for Gun Lake Casino
08.18.2009 Gun Lake's proposed casino site is now reservation land
08.11.2009 Four Winds Casino unveils new smoke-free slot room
08.05.2009 Firekeepers Casino celebrates grand opening
07.07.2009 Four Winds Casino Resort has wins major reader surveys
06.22.2009 Odawa Casino Resort announces Gourmet 2 Go
05.19.2009 FireKeepers Casino will open early August
04.28.2009 Four Winds Casino starts new bus service from Benton Harbor
04.15.2009 Gun Lake Casino remains on track
03.24.2009 FireKeepers Casino
completes 2,078 parking-space structure
03.12.2009 Greektown Casino offers $99 room rate
03.12.2009 Supreme Court ruling may not stop Gun Lake casino
02.17.2009 Gun Lake Casino land
taken into federal trust
02.13.2009 Little River Band casino plans proceed at Fruitport Township
02.12.2009 Burt Lake Band plan $125 million casino in Sturgis
02.12.2009 Michigan senate passes compact for Gun Lake casino
02.05.2009 Island Resort & Casino hosts satellite poker tournament
02.04.2009 Judge approves loans for Greektown Casino hotel to open
01.26.2009 US Supreme Court
clears Gun Lake Casino
01.25.2009 Fed drops lawsuit against Kewadin Casino St. Ignace
01.14.2009 FireKeepers Casino to hire 1,500 employees
12.17.2008 Turtle Creek Casino
wins architectural award
11.24.2008 Little River Band's land-buying spree in Fruitport Township
11.13.2008 Greektown booking rooms before February 12 opening
11.01.2008 FireKeepers Casino reaches construction milestone
10.09.2008 The Greektown Casino is for sale
09.12.2008 Promotions at Blue
Chip, Four Winds, Harrah's and Majestic Star
09.11.2008 Michigan smoking ban status
09.09.2008 Motor City Casino's $300M expansion
09.08.2008 Little River Band buys more land in Fruitport
09.02.2008 Four Winds Casino planning expansion
08.28.2008 Greektown Casino
debuts 600 new slots
08.25.2008 Hannahville Potawatomi pursue casino near Detroit airport
08.20.2008 Gun Lake casino delayed again by court
08.18.2008 Greektown Casino construction will meet deadlines
08.14.2008 Muskegon county to vote on Little River Band casino
08.03.2008 MotorCity Casino
07.30.2008 Greektown Casino enters final phase of construction
07.29.2008 FireKeepers Casino opening in summer 2009
07.24.2008 Four Winds Casino Resort Celebrates Its First Anniversary
07.18.2008 Muskegon County Board supports Little River Band casino at Great Lakes Downs
07.17.2008 Little River Band's buys Great Lakes Downs
07.15.2008 Greektown To Hire 400 New Employees
06.20.2008 Gun Lake's casino in
final court fight
06.10.2008 Gaming Board lets Greektown continue bankruptcy plan
06.05.2008 U.S. House nearing vote on Romulus casino
06.04.2008 Judge OKs $51M Greektown financing for construction
06.02.2008 Kewadin Casinos win five awards
05.30.2008 Greektown Casino
files for Chapter 11 bankruptcy
05.20.2008 Greektown Casino faces "show-cause" hearing June10
05.19.2008 New Turtle Creek Casino & Hotel to open June 17
05.07.2008 FireKeepers Casino completes financing
05.06.2008 Sault Tribe sells 40% of Greektown Casino
05.02.2008 Gun Lake Tribe wins key court decision for casino
04.21.2008 Caesars
Windsor opens June 19th
04.16.2008 Gun Lake Tribe's compact may become model
04.10.2008 $1 Billion offered for Greektown Casino
04.09.2008 Greektown given deadline of April 30th
04.03.2008 Conyers' committee opposes Indian casino bills
03.25.2008 U.S. House rejects Romulus and Port Huron casino bill
03.24.2008 State and tribes settle keno dispute
03.12.2008 New Turtle Creek Casino opens June 17th
02.27.2008 Firekeepers Casino Construction Job Fair Tuesday 3/4 (Battle Creek)
02.15.2008 House Committee Approves Bills for Romulus and Port Huron Casinos
02.13.2008 Muskegon Makes Agreement with Lac Vieux Desert Band
02.12.2008 Second Tribe Presents Muskegon Casino Plans
01.24.2008 Casino Windsor Transforming into Caesars Windsor
01.08.2008 Fed Rejects Romulus Casino Plan
01.07.2008 Prosposed Casino in Muskegon
01.02.2008 New Standish Casino Opened New Years Eve
12.18.2007 FireKeepers Casino Will Open Mid-2009
12.11.2007 Smoking Ban Bill Excludes Casinos
12.27.2007 Saganing Eagle's Landing Casino Delays Opening
11.28.2007 MotorCity Casino Hotel Opens
11.16.2007 US House Stalled on Port Huron and Romulus Casinos
10.23.2007 Proposed $2.4B Muskegon Waterfront Casino Resort
09.19.2007 New "Saganing Eagle's Landing Casino" Opens December
A World-Class Casino! *Best Slots, Blackjack, Table Games, Sports Book.


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All ideas expressed in this blog are temporal and any resemblance to manifested reality are purely co-incidental. The forgoing is a casual musing from a fellow coder, not an iron clad promise of features and products - The Law
Tuesday, 26 November 2013
Tuesday At Quadington
It's very rare I allow physical discomfort to stop me coding, but for whatever reason Tuesday has been a real mare for me. Might be overwork, or just the weather, but my energy levels are barely registering. I did however have the professional sense to make today count so I booted up and carried on regardless for a few hours.
Quad Progress
More progress made here, with each quad now having the correct UV coordinates assigned, the viewport system rendering a single object to each gap in the community texture and I have started the code to correctly align the view camera with the target object.
I am currently struggling with ensuring the view camera alignment remains unaffected, and to work out the optimum distance to place the camera from the object to encompass the whole object and match it perfectly with the quad size too. Doing this correctly means the quad system will work from any camera, and any angle, and any quad size.
I remember my early days at school and I don't think we did advanced 3D maths at GCSE level, but I wish I did. For what might take a modern programmer five minutes to work through the relationships between all my vectors and matrices, will take my brain a considerable amount of time, usually through trial, error and stubbornness.
Other Bits
Also managed to catch up with my emails, do this blog and start one or two plates spinning so no-one is waiting on my feedback.
Signing Off
Hopefully Wednesday I will feel better. For now, I am going to put the kettle on, watch an episode of Time Team and then get an early night. I did not sleep a wink (that I remember) in the last 36 hours so hopefully I can drift off. The quad system is the last visual hold-up to the next update, as after this it will be clean-up and testing which requires less 3D math and more donkey.
10 comments:
(It's very rare I allow physical discomfort to stop me coding, but for whatever reason Tuesday has been a real mare for me. Might be overwork, or just the weather, but my energy levels are barely registering. I did however have the professional sense to make today count so I booted up and carried on regardless for a few hours.)ReplyDelete
You have done a lot of work with great progress.Working,meeting,driving,working.Remember its a job.
Lee.. this is not your mother speaking but ...take a break, get some rest. Over doing this programming stuff will not make you any taller and or smarter. Some times the body says... ENOUGH! We can WaitReplyDelete
I agree,ReplyDelete
Not a good day myself either probably due to similar reasons. Too much work and no play and all that kind of stuff.
I would suggest that if not before when you get the current run done and another update out to users you have a rest while they play with it.
In the mean time try and pace yourself, take some breaks and have a guiness now and then.
Hi LeeReplyDelete
You have done most of the hardwork now. I suggest after the next performance BETA to maybe work on some more fun stuff to give yourself a break.
When I developed ZAP for Android I told the team I was going to take 3 months out to work exclusively on performance and went through the exact same process you have to know each and every draw call in the game.
There were a couple of really difficult things to solve on that front but sure enough after 3 months I came back and had increased our FPS from 10 to 40 with all the graphics we wanted still in there.
After that doing the gameplay and interface programming seemed like fun in comparison! I think the key thing is to have a balance on all of this.
Reloaded is just starting its journey and you are doing all of the right things to make it successful.
The comment below is from two blogs before by xCept, whom I give great thanks & props to for mentioning the source of those images I have shown:ReplyDelete
"The screenshots from littlevince104 are powered by Tesseract, which is a fork of Cube 2: Sauerbraten (https://github.com/lsalzman/tesseract) and requires you have those binaries too. A technical readme of how they render shadows is available at http://tesseract.gg/renderer.txt. The thread with the map in question is http://www.polycount.com/forum/showthread.php?t=121367 but the download link no longer works. You can see additional screenshots there with the final one having softer (more fuzzy) shadows dependent on the lighting."
Thank you for your time.
Looks like you are over worked and lack of sleep has your body talking louder than your brain. Trying to do things that are impossible for me to even try to comprehend . After a good rest you will jump back in with both feet and before you know it you will be knee deep in code. Your body once again will tell your brain time to shut down , and sooo it goes . The circle of a coder.ReplyDelete
If you're that tired, Lee, for goodness' sake take a break! I'm sure there are some people that just don't care and would even get angry, but you're no good to anyone if you're causing yourself harm with overwork.ReplyDelete
I've been following your blog for the last couple months (once I discovered it.) You're doing a great job, Lee! I very much appreciate all the work you're doing on performance and in general for that matter. I've never been a beta user of anything before Reloaded so it's been neat seeing everything progress. And your blog has been great in letting us know what's going on. Hope you feel better!ReplyDelete
Having spent many sleepless nights on programming projects myself, I can confirm that once you hit the 24+ hour mark with no sleep you do more harm than not by continuing without some rest. I've actually failed to complete a few projects on time specifically because I was sleep deprived--to the point where it'd take me an hour to code what would've otherwise taken five minutes because my concentration was completely shot. There were a couple times that I've gone over three days with no sleep, coding endlessly. I've since realized it is far more productive to always ensure you are well rested especially for mentally-intense exercises, deadline-driven or not. Get some rest Lee!ReplyDelete
You can see farther on a sunny day than you can on a foggy day. Back off, chill out, regroup, and refresh. As I stated before, Rome wasn't built in a day and neither will Reloaded be. Reloaded is sooo much better than X9 and I prefer you complete Reloaded before you work yourself to death. Include chill time in your schedule!ReplyDelete


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Cheers erupted from the table.
"For the Mountain Dew!"
The Dungeon Master however, was not impressed. Sifting through his stack of papers he found the photocopies of our character sheets and made some quick references. "Wait a second. How did you beat the dragon's grapple checks? That's impossible with your modifier!"
We all looked to the victorious warrior who leaned back, a slick grin on his victorious face.
"Remember the minor Shadow Ring artifact we found in the Citadel of Midnight? You said it had the ability to change into any one magical ring. Well, I changed it into a Ring of Freedom of Movement before the battle. Pretty smart huh? See, I wrote it on my sheet!"
"Smart?" Wisps of steam rose from the pink-faced Dungeon Master's ears. "You didn't tell me you had Freedom of Movement cast! You just said you beat his grapple checks!"
"Well, the dragon wouldn't have known about the ring or it's effects on me. I knew if it couldn't grapple me the first time it would get frustrated and - not being able to take defeat well - would keep trying and waste all of it's rounds."
"I can deal with what the dragon knows. As the Dungeon Master though, I need to know what your character has for abilities and items! That's why I made copies of your sheets! How can I run a fun and challenging game for you all without knowing what will actually challenge your characters?"
"If you run your challenges based on what we can do, then what benefit is there for getting more powerful and coming up with unique strategies? You'll have an answer for every attack!"
*Cue fight music*
Secrets at the table. Good idea? Bad idea?
You Can Never Know Everything
Any good DM knows that even if they know the ins and outs of their player's character sheets, they could never know everything about a character. Some players assume that when a DM has a copy of their sheet, they lose all chances to do something which surprises the DM, but they must realize that a DM can never account for imagination and creativity.
Players, you still hold the power! So, if your DM wants copies of your sheets, try not to worry TOO much.
DMs, please remember that you can't control what the players do. Just because you have their stats doesn't mean you know everything they're going to throw at you. Even if you think you can predict your player's movements to a T, don't rely on it, lest your carefully planned campaign de-rails a little and you find yourself uttering those words no DM should ever utter.
How Much Fun Is "Challenging"?
Challenging is an interesting word. I don't think anyone, player or DM would say that they wanted a simple, non-challenging campaign. An easy campaign is just no fun. Sure, having the occasional encounter where the heroes simply stomp the enemies can be fun, but overall a campaign should be challenging.
But how do you make a campaign or encounter challenging?
Is it simply by sending boatloads of monsters at your PCs, or launching something several levels higher than them onto the grid?
One of the best ways to make an encounter challenging is to tailor a monster specifically to battle the group. If the group is seriously lacking in aerial attack power, throw something with wings at them. Take down your party's pyromancer with a monster immune to fire! Yes, this is challenging... but is it fun?
One of the big reasons DMs may keep careful tabs on their players is to tailor encounters to be "challenging" for them, but TREAD SOFTLY DMs! If you take away all of their favorite toys, your players may close down and stop having fun. As soon as a player feels "useless" in a battle, you've hit a major problem.
Tip: If you want to keep a challenging battle fun, rather than make your character's abilities useless, force them to come up with new and creative ways to use their abilities. Puzzle bosses are a great example of how you might incorporate this idea.
An Unfortunate Reality
One benefit of transparency is that it takes a big stab at cheating. Players can't change their skill points, or their prepared spells, or their eye-color mid-campaign. The other edge of this sword is that a call for transparency unfortunately does imply at least in some small way that a DM wants to keep tabs on their players.
Is that so bad?
Well, it can put pressure on the DM/Player relationship, even though it does help to keep everyone at the table honest.
Obviously this aspect of transparency at the table should be addressed in an individual group-to-group manner. Only you know what will work best for your group, and how trustworthy your players are to not fudge their sheets. In an ideal world, no D&D player would ever cheat, and in many groups it never happens.
Every so often though, there are players who make an attentive DM raise their eyebrows. I've sadly seen this more often than I'd like in my time as a DM.
Final Verdict?
The question of whether or not players should be able to keep secrets from their DMs is one I've dealt with in many of my gaming groups and really should be solved on a case-by-case basis. What will work best for your group? What will maintain levels of fun and a healthy degree of challenge?
A DM's expectations of transparency should be laid out at the beginning of a campaign (don't hold your players to high expectations that you've never explained), and players should work with their DM rather than against them.
In the end, it's up to you! It's true that "secrets, secrets are no fun", but sometimes they're the best things ever.


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Tuesday, May 29, 2007
I've Been Bootlegged
Chris Brown: BOOTLEGGED
I am alway so honored when someone writes and lets me know when they are inspired by my work and the things I do. A very sweet, young lady named Michelle Kristal, a interior design student, has emailed me several times over the past year. She sent a email about two weeks ago letting me know about her new blog, Chris Brown: BOOTLEGGED. I am so blessed and honored to know I have inspired Michelle and that she enjoyed my Urban Prairie lifestyle enough to have BOOTLEGGED me. I hope to contribute to her blog as often as possible. Visit the blog, have fun and get BOOTLEGGED.
Photo: D'Ette Cole
Posted by Chris Brown at 7:21 PM
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A Cafe with a difference ! A Cafe which opens once every fortnight.
A warm and welcoming meeting place for young people to come and develop their idea related to citizenship action.
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Also, whilst you're here why not have a bite to eat from the Pravah kitchen!" based on concept of organic and healthy food.
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here people who comes in share their ideas..resources.. be it a raw material..utensils..or small donations... u can also contibute in cooking..serving..cleaning and whatever u want...
Come join us ! this monday..3rd August..from 3 pm -7 pm and discover lots more...!
PJI & Kafe Mohalla
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