text:
Sony is Aware of PSN Problems, Disappearing Friends Lists, Download, Login Issues, NW-31448-0, is "Investigating"
We warned you about the PSN's connection issues ahead of Christmas, and then let you know that the network was struggling over Christmas itself, and now it's time for a Boxing Day update.
While the PSN has improved, it is still very buggy, with tons of people unable to login, download games, purchase things or play online. One specific bug that seems to have cropped up for a lot of people is that their friends list either disappears, or simply makes them look unpopular as half the list has gone.
Sony has now commented on the problems, saying:
Hello PlayStation Community,
We have noticed various reports of connection issues with PSN including, but not limited to friends lists, game download, purchase, and login issues. We are aware of the issues and we appreciate your patience while we investigate.
Sadly, the comment doesn't offer any fixes, or provide us with a timeline, but at least we know that Sony is working on a fix.
Are you angry about all the downtime and crashes, or should we accept problems during peak events? Let us know in the comments below.
Update: If Netflix is down for you, that's not Sony's fault.


text:
purchased this book, I was expecting something a little more philosophical. What I ended up with was a to-do list. The book is broken down into 5 parts, and each part has about 10 little sections, each covering something you can do to improve your career as a software developer. These little sections make the book an easy read and the author writes very well - the entire book is very concise and easy to follow.
Some of the topics seem quite obvious (get a blog going, work on open source, etc) but he also covers topics that you may not have considered. Some of the topics I found most interesting have to do with changing your outlook on daily tasks. An example is to view your 8 hours at work as "only 8 hours." What can be accomplished in this short amount of time?
I've already begun doing some of the tasks mentioned in the book and have noticed an improvement in my performance at work. There's quite a bit of advice to follow and it all sounds pretty solid. I hope to try and incorporate as much as I can in my daily routine and so far, so good.
2017: The Year of Golang
1 year ago

subset: commoncrawl


text:
Skip to comments.When to Doubt a Scientific Consensus
Posted on 03/16/2010 5:53:14 PM PDT by neverdem
A December 18 Washington Post poll, released on the final day of the ill-fated Copenhagen climate summit, reported "four in ten Americans now saying that they place little or no trust in what scientists have to say about the environment." Nor is the poll an outlier. Several recent polls have found "climate change" skepticism rising faster than sea levels on Planet Algore (not to be confused with Planet Earth, where sea levels remain relatively stable).
Many of the doubt-inducing climate scientists and their media acolytes attribute this rising skepticism to the stupidity of Americans, philistines unable to appreciate that there is "a scientific consensus on climate change." One of the benefits of the recent Climategate scandal, which revealed leading climate scientists manipulating data, methods, and peer review to exaggerate the evidence of significant global warming, may be to permanently deflate the rhetorical value of the phrase "scientific consensus."
Even without the scandal, the very idea of scientific consensus should give us pause. "Consensus," according to Merriam-Webster, means both "general agreement" and "group solidarity in sentiment and belief." That pretty much sums up the dilemma. We want to know whether a scientific consensus is based on solid evidence and sound reasoning, or social pressure and groupthink.
Anyone who has studied the history of science knows that scientists are not immune to the non-rational dynamics of the herd. Many false ideas enjoyed consensus opinion at one time. Indeed, the "power of the paradigm" often shapes the thinking of scientists so strongly that they become unable to accurately summarize, let alone evaluate, radical alternatives. Question the paradigm, and some respond with dogmatic fanaticism.
We shouldn't, of course, forget the other side of the coin. There are always cranks and conspiracy theorists. No matter how well founded a scientific consensus, there's someone somewhere—easily accessible online—that thinks it's all hokum. Sometimes these folks turn out to be right. But often, they're just cranks whose counsel is best disregarded.
So what's a non-scientist citizen, without the time to study the scientific details, to do? How is the ordinary citizen to distinguish, as Andrew Coyne puts it, "between genuine authority and mere received wisdom? Conversely, how do we tell crankish imperviousness to evidence from legitimate skepticism?" Are we obligated to trust whatever we're told is based on a scientific consensus unless we can study the science ourselves? When can you doubt a consensus? When should you doubt it?
Your best bet is to look at the process that produced, maintains, and communicates the ostensible consensus. I don't know of any exhaustive list of signs of suspicion, but, using climate change as a test study, I propose this checklist as a rough-and-ready list of signs for when to consider doubting a scientific "consensus," whatever the subject. One of these signs may be enough to give pause. If they start to pile up, then it's wise to be suspicious.
(1) When different claims get bundled together.
Usually, in scientific disputes, there is more than one claim at issue. With global warming, there's the claim that our planet, on average, is getting warmer. There's also the claim that human emissions are the main cause of it, that it's going to be catastrophic, and that we have to transform civilization to deal with it. These are all different assertions with different bases of evidence. Evidence for warming, for instance, isn't evidence for the cause of that warming. All the polar bears could drown, the glaciers melt, the sea levels rise 20 feet, Newfoundland become a popular place to tan, and that wouldn't tell us a thing about what caused the warming. This is a matter of logic, not scientific evidence. The effect is not the same as the cause.
There's a lot more agreement about (1) a modest warming trend since about 1850 than there is about (2) the cause of that trend. There's even less agreement about (3) the dangers of that trend, or of (4) what to do about it. But these four propositions are frequently bundled together, so that if you doubt one, you're labeled a climate change "skeptic" or "denier." That's just plain intellectually dishonest. When well-established claims are fused with separate, more controversial claims, and the entire conglomeration is covered with the label "consensus," you have reason for doubt.
(2) When ad hominem attacks against dissenters predominate.
Personal attacks are common in any dispute simply because we're human. It's easier to insult than to the follow the thread of an argument. And just because someone makes an ad hominem argument, it doesn't mean that their conclusion is wrong. But when the personal attacks are the first out of the gate, and when they seem to be growing in intensity and frequency, don your skeptic's cap and look more closely at the evidence.
When it comes to climate change, ad hominems are all but ubiquitous. They are even smuggled into the way the debate is described. The common label "denier" is one example. Without actually making the argument, this label is supposed to call to mind the assertion of the "great climate scientist" Ellen Goodman: "I would like to say we're at a point where global warming is impossible to deny. Let's just say that global warming deniers are now on a par with Holocaust deniers."
There's an old legal proverb: If you have the facts on your side, argue the facts. If you have the law on your side, argue the law. If you have neither, attack the witness. When proponents of a scientific consensus lead with an attack on the witness, rather than on the arguments and evidence, be suspicious.
(3) When scientists are pressured to toe the party line.
The famous Lysenko affair in the former Soviet Union is often cited as an example of politics trumping good science. It's a good example, but it's often used to imply that such a thing could only happen in a totalitarian culture, that is, when all-powerful elites can control the flow of information. But this misses the almost equally powerful conspiracy of agreement, in which interlocking assumptions and interests combine to give the appearance of objectivity where none exists. For propaganda purposes, this voluntary conspiracy is even more powerful than a literal conspiracy by a dictatorial power, precisely because it looks like people have come to their position by a fair and independent evaluation of the evidence.
Tenure, job promotions, government grants, media accolades, social respectability, Wikipedia entries, and vanity can do what gulags do, only more subtly. Alexis de Tocqueville warned of the power of the majority in American society to erect "formidable barriers around the liberty of opinion; within these barriers an author may write what he pleases, but woe to him if he goes beyond them." He could have been writing about climate science.
Climategate, and the dishonorable response to its revelations by some official scientific bodies, show that scientists are under pressure to toe the orthodox party line on climate change, and receive many benefits for doing so. That's another reason for suspicion.
(4) When publishing and peer review in the discipline is cliquish.
Though it has its limits, the peer-review process is meant to provide checks and balances, to weed out bad and misleading work, and to bring some measure of objectivity to scientific research. At its best, it can do that. But when the same few people review and approve each other's work, you invariably get conflicts of interest. This weakens the case for the supposed consensus, and becomes, instead, another reason to be suspicious. Nerds who follow the climate debate blogosphere have known for years about the cliquish nature of publishing and peer review in climate science (see here, for example).
(5) When dissenting opinions are excluded from the relevant peer-reviewed literature not because of weak evidence or bad arguments but as part of a strategy to marginalize dissent.
Besides mere cliquishness, the "peer review" process in climate science has, in some cases, been consciously, deliberately subverted to prevent dissenting views from being published. Again, denizens of the climate blogosphere have known about these problems for years, but Climategate revealed some of the gory details for the broader public. And again, this gives the lay public a reason to doubt the consensus.
(6) When the actual peer-reviewed literature is misrepresented.
Because of the rhetorical force of the idea of peer review, there's the temptation to misrepresent it. We've been told for years that the peer-reviewed literature is virtually unanimous in its support for human-induced climate change. In Science, Naomi Oreskes even produced a "study" of the relevant literature supposedly showing "The Scientific Consensus on Climate Change." In fact, there are plenty of dissenting papers in the literature, and this despite mounting evidence that the peer-review deck was stacked against them. The Climategate scandal also underscored this: The climate scientists at the center of the controversy complained in their emails about dissenting papers that managed to survive the peer-review booby traps they helped maintain, and fantasized about torpedoing a respected climate science journal with the temerity to publish a dissenting article.
(7) When consensus is declared hurriedly or before it even exists.
A well-rooted scientific consensus, like a mature oak, usually needs time to emerge. Scientists around the world have to do research, publish articles, read about other research, repeat experiments (where possible), have open debates, make their data and methods available, evaluate arguments, look at the trends, and so forth, before they eventually come to agreement. When scientists rush to declare a consensus, particularly when they claim a consensus that has yet to form, this should give any reasonable person pause.
In 1992, former Vice President Al Gore reassured his listeners, "Only an insignificant fraction of scientists deny the global warming crisis. The time for debate is over. The science is settled." In the real 1992, however, Gallup "reported that 53% of scientists actively involved in global climate research did not believe global warming had occurred; 30% weren't sure; and only 17% believed global warming had begun. Even a Greenpeace poll showed 47% of climatologists didn't think a runaway greenhouse effect was imminent; only 36% thought it possible and a mere 13% thought it probable." Seventeen years later, in 2009, Gore apparently determined that he needed to revise his own revisionist history, asserting that the scientific debate over human-induced climate change had raged until as late as 1999, but now there was true consensus. Of course, 2009 is when Climategate broke, reminding us that what had smelled funny before might indeed be a little rotten.
(8) When the subject matter seems, by its nature, to resist consensus.
It makes sense that chemists over time may come to unanimous conclusions about the results of some chemical reaction, since they can replicate the results over and over in their own labs. They can see the connection between the conditions and its effects. It's easily testable. But many of the things under consideration in climate science are not like that. The evidence is scattered and hard to keep track of; it's often indirect, imbedded in history and requiring all sorts of assumptions. You can't rerun past climate to test it, as you can with chemistry experiments. And the headline-grabbing conclusions of climate scientists are based on complex computer models that climate scientists themselves concede do not accurately model the underlying reality, and receive their input, not from the data, but from the scientists interpreting the data. This isn't the sort of scientific endeavor on which a wide, well-established consensus is easily rendered. In fact, if there really were a consensus on all the various claims surrounding climate science, that would be really suspicious. A fortiori, the claim of consensus is a bit suspicious as well.
(9) When "scientists say" or "science says" is a common locution.
In Newsweek's April 28, 1975, issue, science editor Peter Gwynne claimed that "scientists are almost unanimous" that global cooling was underway. Now we are told, "Scientists say global warming will lead to the extinction of plant and animal species, the flooding of coastal areas from rising seas, more extreme weather, more drought and diseases spreading more widely." "Scientists say" is hopelessly ambiguous. Your mind should immediately wonder: "Which ones?"
Other times this vague company of scientists becomes "SCIENCE," as when we're told "what science says is required to avoid catastrophic climate change." "Science says" is an inherently weasely claim. "Science," after all, is an abstract noun. It can't say anything. Whenever you see that locution used to imply a consensus, it should trigger your baloney detector.
(10) When it is being used to justify dramatic political or economic policies.
Imagine hundreds of world leaders and nongovernmental organizations, science groups, and United Nations functionaries gathered for a meeting heralded as the most important conference since World War II, in which "the future of the world is being decided." These officials seem to agree that institutions of "global governance" need to be established to reorder the world economy and massively restrict energy resources. Large numbers of them applaud wildly when socialist dictators denounce capitalism. Strange philosophical and metaphysical activism surrounds the gathering. And we are told by our president that all of this is based, not on fiction, but on science—that is, a scientific consensus that human activities, particularly greenhouse gas emissions, are leading to catastrophic climate change.
We don't have to imagine that scenario, of course. It happened in Copenhagen, in December. Now, none of this disproves the hypothesis of catastrophic, human induced climate change. But it does describe an atmosphere that would be highly conducive to misrepresentation. And at the very least, when policy consequences, which claim to be based on science, are so profound, the evidence ought to be rock solid. "Extraordinary claims," the late Carl Sagan often said, "require extraordinary evidence." When the megaphones of consensus insist that there's no time, that we have to move, MOVE, MOVE!, you have a right to be suspicious.
(11) When the "consensus" is maintained by an army of water-carrying journalists who defend it with uncritical and partisan zeal, and seem intent on helping certain scientists with their messaging rather than reporting on the field as objectively as possible.
Do I really need to elaborate on this point?
(12) When we keep being told that there's a scientific consensus.
A scientific consensus should be based on scientific evidence. But a consensus is not itself the evidence. And with really well-established scientific theories, you never hear about consensus. No one talks about the consensus that the planets orbit the sun, that the hydrogen molecule is lighter than the oxygen molecule, that salt is sodium chloride, that light travels about 186,000 miles per second in a vacuum, that bacteria sometimes cause illness, or that blood carries oxygen to our organs. The very fact that we hear so much about a consensus on catastrophic, human-induced climate change is perhaps enough by itself to justify suspicion.
To adapt that old legal aphorism, when you've got decisive scientific evidence on your side, you argue the evidence. When you've got great arguments, you make the arguments. When you don't have decisive evidence or great arguments, you claim consensus.
Jay Richards frequently writes for the Enterprise Blog and is a contributing editor of THE AMERICAN.
Image by Darren Wamboldt/Bergman Group.
Answer: Never
The frustrating part of being a real scientist is that no matter how well your experiments seem to support your hypothesis or theory, someone out in the audience is already pushing experiments that will demonstrate its inadequacy. That's real science.
When to doubt a scientific consensus: Always
Answered the wrong question above.
...whenever they use the word consensus
"Answer: Never"
Did you mean to say always? Always would be my answer...
Yes, mind-cramp on my part. See my correction just below my ill-advised post.
Science is not consensus, and consensus is not science.
(Tortured musings of a conservative Ph.D.)
I didn't object so much to the "consensus" claims of a small group of grant-baited "scientists". Dangle enough money, and you can always lure a batch of humans to climb onto your wagon.
Their problem is that they don't have the honesty to admit that they are but a tiny subset of the set of ALL scientists. The fleas don't speak for the dog!
But, where they really blew it was when they called their 'science' "settled".
As illustratged by your #2, science is never "settled"!!!
That is what makes science so much fun! There is always better data to be acquired and new discoveries to be made. When science is "settled", I will give up being a scientist!
Exactly, and I agree with you 100%. I think that my word "frustration" reflects the fact that I didn't want to stay in academia. I wanted some sort of "settled" product to come out of my work. So I went into industrial chemistry.
In any case I still like sitting in on my chem prof brother's student seminars to remind me of how glad I was to make the decision.
Good catch. This presents a very good set of objective arguments to deal with warming zealots.
Looks like our other conversation gave birth to a thread of its own!
Agreed; I think it's excellent. Bookmarking.
Climate is, as the author suggests, not as applicable to the scientific method as many other things. For one thing it is impossible to do a controlled experiment (the bedrock of science), there being of course only ONE Earth.
(13) When the frontman for the consensus of scientists is a POS politician named Al "No Controlling Legal Authority", "HE PLAYED ON OUR FEARS" Gore. (Sometimes ad hominen attacks are necessary and true, otherwise...who will protect us from our protectors?)
Thanks for the ping, c_I_c; post, neverdem. OUTSTANDING article by Jay Richards.
Thanks for the ping. Now if we could just get the Coming Ice Age/AGW/The Sky is Falling cheerleaders in the Ministry of Information to apply it. Doubtful it would even make a chink in the armor though.
Have you been pinged to this one???
Thanks for the ping.
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Angry Salesman
Friday, November 13, 2015
You buy the stuff or you fuck off --Angry Salesman
There are times when salesman gets angry!!~~
Sometimes you have to run before you can walk----personally i like the saying.
There are times people would request a sample shower to test the market, they make the budgets, refine their plans everything, but things barely work out.
As years go by, my patience's worn out as a salesman and I would say to the client now in the tone of" You buy the stuff or you fuck off". And I deeply know that they are people coming and going and they're only to fuck your time.
Here's the man requesting a sample shower again, see how I respond, i don't care if it's rude or arrogant or anything, but that's what I think now.
Hi, Mick:
Thank you very much for the reply.
Frankly, I dont favor that sample option, it is kind of wasting of time.
I advise you start with 100 pcs of showers or a little bit more to fill up a 20 ft container.
You will get best prices for everything, costs, ocean shipping,,everything...
And when you have them, you sell them to the local store, whether 2 or 5pcs.. It will be 100 times more convincing/easier now
than simply showing one sample bike to them and asking whether they would buy some when you're having them in real.
I am in the bike business for over 10 years, I know how the sample case end up, well, in most case.
It's not about the popularity of the bike or the quality, it's about their determination to carry the things through the end.
Taking like 100 pcs as the start, so there's no turning back, so you might figure out a way to business.....if you win, you win big, if lose, what will you lose? ??
Secondly for us, we are a professional bike manfacturer and we build the showers strictly to the specification.
We have this client in USA who has been with us for over 7 year, you talk to him, then you know what we're doing.
Think it again and let's start over.
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text:
New York Times Bestseller List
Non Fiction
Week Ending November 11th 2012
10 - Plutocrats - Chrystia Freeland (2nd week on list)
The lives of the global elites in the wealthiest 0.1 percent and the consequences of increasing income stratification.
9 - America Again - Stephen Colbert (4th week)
8 - How Children Succeed - Paul Tough (8th week)
7 - Makeup To Breakup - Peter Criss with Larry Sloman
The Kiss drummer reflects on his life in rock
6 - Proof of Heaven - Eben Alexander
A neurosurgeon recounts his near death experience during a coma from bacterial meningitis.
5 - The Signal and The Noise - Nate Silver (4th week)
An examination of predictions, the ones that come true and the ones that don't.
4 - Rod - Rod Stewart
The pop singer reminisces on his long career
3 - Killing Lincoln - Bill O'Reilly and Martin Dugard (57th week)
2 - No Easy Day - Mark Owen with Kevin Maurer (8th week)
1 - Killing Kennedy - Bill O'Reilly and Martin Dugard
(4th consecutive week at #1)


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CSLA and ASP.NET Core
24 January 2017
I am a fan of CSLA and I recently came accross a need to make a shiny CSLA business layer work nicely within the context of an ASP.NET Core application. This post is aimed at CSLA developers with a similar need. As of the current release, there are a few things that you will need to take care of in order to get CSLA working smoothly, and I will cover those in this post.... Read More
What's this about?
This is about TagHelper's in ASP.NET Core, and how to get more flexible
@addTagHelper directives.
DnnPackager - v2.0.6
19 March 2016
DnnPackager Release -v2.0.6
A short post to announce that a new minor release of DnnPackager is out.
You can find the release notes here explaining what's new: https://github.com/dazinator/DnnPackager/releases/tag/2.0.6%2B2
For an introduction to DnnPackager in general see here
Special thanks to @nvisionative for requesting this feature.
Dnn Extensions - Sources Packages?
19 March 2016
I have been doing some work on DnnPackager recently, and I've come accross the concept of "Source" packages. I have to admit I am not entirely new to these, but I've never personally used them for my projects in the past.
Source packages are basically identical to the ordinary install zip's for your dnn module / extension, i.e you "install" them into your Dnn site like any other install package, except that they also include "source code" files within them, like .cs, .vb files etc.... Read More
ASP.NET 5 Projects - NuGet-NPM-Gulp-Bower-Jspm-Aurelia-Part2
24 January 2016
This post is part two of a series. For part one see here
Part 2 - Replacing Bower with JSPM
In part 1 of this series we created a shiny new ASP.NET 5 project, and I introduced some fundamentals.
For reasons discussed in part 1, let's now go ahead with our first task, which is to ditch Bower in favour of JSPM as our javascript package manager.... Read More


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Todays look was inspired by one of my favorite semi precious stones, amethyst. Sorry the pictures are a bit grayed out it was super cloudy! But I really like the way the eye turned out so I decided to do a tutorial on it anyway.
So I started out with a primer as always and made sure to cover all of my eye. Then I took a purple/gold/champagne duo chrome shade and applied it all over my lid (its showing up champagne here, but you could use a light gold, or light purple color, whatever you have!) Then I took a dark purple color and blended it in to my crease being careful not to bring it in to the lid. After that I took a brighter medium purple color and blended that on to the outer edge of where I put the dark purple. Then I just cleaned up around the edge with a nude color along the edges and my brow bone. Then I blended a little of that brighter purple color along my lower lash line, I brought this about 3/4 the way across the bottom. The I took a bit of the dark purple and blended that into the corner of the lower lash line color. I lined my lid with a matte black shadow smudging it out a little, I then applied mascara and some fluttery falsies that taper out. To top in off I lined my lower waterline with a light champagne color.
I really didn't do a whole lot else, I already had some powder on and then I applied a neutral lipgloss and called it good. XD
Products Used:
In order of application
Eyes: Urban Decay Shadow Insurance, Sleek Purple/ Gold Color (Orignal Palette), Urban Decay Rockstar Eyeshadow, Sleek Purple (Orignal Palette), Urban Decay Blackout Eyeshadow, Maybelline Full n Soft Water Proof Mascara, Ardell 117 Black Lashes, Wet n Wild Idol Eyes Creme Shadow in Pixie.
Lips: NYX Mega Shine Lip Gloss Sponge Cake.


text:
I didn't get any pictures taken in Honolulu, so here's a nice kitty we saw hanging out by the canal in Kapaa.
We had a great time at the show in Honolulu last weekend, and especially visiting with friends Daniel and Karen Howell, of Dee Howl Beads. Karen grew up there, and they drove me and Morgan around a bit. We went up on top of Tantalus mountain and caught the view of the city just after sunset, before hitting a classic local burger spot. I was especially excited to go up Tantalus, since Karen told me she and her friends used to skateboard down that road back in the day. YIKES! She said they would grab the vines to slow down going around the turns. YIKES! Back when skateboards had metal wheels and if you hit a rock you are toast. YIKES!
Sounds fun.
I also got to meet Sara Sally LaGrand, whose work, face, and name were all familiar to me from past shows, but we had never actually talked. She is so talented and interesting. Her work is wonderfully expressive!
The show was great, so now I am pretty officially cleaned out of beads. At the show while visiting with other beadmakers it was hard not to get excited and start making plans for other shows, especially the next Softflex show in Honolulu. I kept having to remind myself that I don't have a torch here, much less someplace to put it and work. We are, of course, looking for an apartment, and working outside in this environment will be a pleasure. After we find a place, we will have to make a trip to San Diego for a major garage sale/packing/shipping vacation. Whee.
This Friday is the deadline to apply for a scholarship to the Gathering, the annual conference held by the International Society of Glass Beadmakers. I am planning to apply, if only for the practice at writing an artist's statement and putting down some goals on paper. I have never really done that before, and it seems like there are a lot of opportunities out there for artists who know how to do stuff like writing grants and proposals. Also, I am self-taught and would really value the opportunity to take a class there. I think I would take a class that seems totally contrary to the kind of work I do myself. I'd also like to pick the teachers' brains about how to get started teaching. I have done lots of demos and enjoy that; teaching seems like a natural extension of demonstrating.
If any readers have some experience with writing statements, teaching, or the Gathering, I would love to hear about it!


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On Earth Day 2010, the famous Christie's auction house held an event to benefit several conservation organizations - Christie's Green Auction: a bid to save the Earth. With an auction to bid on a long list of luxury items ranging from a trip to the Galapagos Islands with National Geographic to lunch with Vera Wang, the well-heeled participated (with an additional silent auction that will conclude on May 6th) in support of Oceana, Conservation International, Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC), and the Central Park Conservancy.
A little too rich for your blood? Only for the celebrities and upper-crust who only care about the environment if there's an opportunity to enjoy a day of sailing with the Rockefellers as a reward?
Conservation and research groups around the world struggle for every bit of funding they can get. Whether it's scrambling for pennies or going for high society gold, it all ends up in the same place, with organizations who need funding to bring about public awareness and provide critical information for policy and decision-makers. So, if you're a down-in-the-trenches, scrounging-for-what-you-can-get kind of conservationist, please don't view these types of events with disdain.
Yeah, I too couldn't afford to bid on a pair of tickets to the pit suites at the Singapore Grand Prix or a walk in Central Park with Candice Bergen. Maybe next year . . . or many years after that. But in the meantime, according to a recent press release, the auction has raised $1,387,000USD, with more to come after the silent auction concludes.
Fundraising is as challenging in many ways as the environmental issues these organizations are confronting. As long as it is well spent (and that is a critical criteria: Is the organization accomplishing anything?), then VIP events for the well-to-do are just as valid as grass root campaigns.
Sunday, April 25, 2010
Christie's Green Auction: over $1.3 million for NGOs
Labels: auction, Christie's, conservation, Conservation International, Earth Day, fundraising, NGOs, NRDC, Oceana.org, VIPs
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text:
Custom built phpBB forum
Ngân sách $30-100 USD
Hello all
I have two websites for which I would like to have one forum. The sites are high on graphical content and I would like to replicate the design for a phpBB forum. I do not want a ready made phpBB template ( I can install that myself!) but one to be purpose built with my own chioce of graphics etc. You may also be creating those graphics.
Please feel free to bid and PM me and I will give you the website details.
Best wishes
1 freelancer đang chào giá trung bình $50 cho công việc này
if only for a template, 50bucks would do. But if there's a lot of work required on graphics, I may ask for 100bucks.


text: PLYMOUTH The Marshall County Historical Society has put together quite a schedule for its 50th anniversary year. Six new exhibits will open during the year, including one honoring the Plymouth Fire Department, for its 150th anniversary. Three events are being planned jointly by the Fire Department, Marshall County Visitor's Bureau (housed in the historical Old Firehouse) and the Marshall County Historical Museum. The current exhibit is about the history of the Marshall County Historical Society. In February, the featured exhibit will be "Quilting Comfort." All three floors of the museum, will feature quilts from the early 1800s through today. Among special activities are a genealogy workshop; a reprise of Kiddies Day in the summer; guest experts Bill Snyder, Tim Manuwal and Lorna Miller highlighting Archaeology Month in September; and former residents of Marshall County haunting the museum for the Ghost Walk in October. The year will finish with a magnificent Old English Banquet in December. Copies of the event calendar are available at the museum, the Plymouth Public Library and the Life Enrichment Center on Harrison Street. Additional information also is available at (574) 936-2306.


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- Soon2BeBee
- 5 years ago
- Wedding: September 2014
OK Bees… Need some advice.
I just ordered my Save the Dates and I am not sure what to do. I am inviting practically all of the women in my office to our wedding (about 8-all with husbands) and I am not sure if I should give them Save the Dates or not. I know that typically you don't in case there is a change of employment but I plan on being with my company for the long haul. I truly wish to only invite the women in my department, my boss and a couple of other buddies but due to the fact that I plan on staying with my company, I would really love to avoid the drama that comes with excluding some of the women. The guys that I get along with well at work probably won't care either way but I know the women will. They may not show it, but some of them can be kind of catty at times. To me, it just seems easier to do this than deal with any potential issues at work. So, to give them Save the Dates or not? What do you Bees think? Should I just give them invitations?
Also I thought I should mention, most of these women will probably be with my company for a long time so I don't think I would need to be concerned if one of them left before the big day.


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1 1/2 cups cooked ground beef
1 (8 oz. pkg.) whipped cream cheese, softened
1/4 cup shredded American cheese or cheddar cheese
1/2 cup FRENCH'S® Tomato Ketchup
1/4 cup mayonnaise
1/4 cup FRENCH'S® Classic Yellow® Mustard
1 Tbsp. dill pickle relish
2 Tbsp. FRENCH'S® Classic Worcestershire Sauce
COMBINE all ingredients in a deep pie dish.
HEAT in 350°F oven for 15 minutes or until hot . Garnish with bacon crumbles and green onions , if desired. Serve with pita chips.


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|Fulcra is a Scrabble word. Scrabble point value for fulcra: 11 points.
|Fulcra is a Words with Friends word. Words with Friends point value for fulcra: 11 points.
Above are the results of unscrambling fulcra. Using the word generator and word unscrambler for the letters F U L C R A, we unscrambled the letters to create a list of all the words found in Scrabble, Words with Friends, and Text Twist. We found a total of 23 words by unscrambling the letters in fulcra. Click these words to find out how many points they are worth, their definitions, and all the other words that can be made by unscrambling the letters from these words. If one or more words can be unscrambled with all the letters entered plus one new letter, then they will also be displayed.
|Definition of "fulcra" found in the Merriam Webster dictionary
|Definition of "fulcra" from The Free Dictionary
|Definition of "fulcra" from Dictionary.com
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We are Moving!!!!!
We are Moving!
Please take a moment and change your bookmarks for us. We have moved to a new, and better, site.
We Look Forward to seeing you there.
There will no longer be posts on this site after January 31, 2012
Thank you and we cannot wait to see you at our new home
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Sunday, March 22, 2009
Review - A Band of Roses by Pat McDermott
Title: A Band of Roses
Author: Pat McDermott
Publisher: Red Rose Publishing
Buy Link: A Band of Roses
Rating: You Want To Read
Reviewed by: Laura
The Boru family and the Wessex family have agreed to a marriage contract between Taillte "Talty" Boru and Thomas Wessex. The marriage is to benefit both families in terms of wealth. After the wedding, members of the Wessex family decide to kill Talty in order to receive the Boru wealth without having to keep her in their family. As it turns out, the planned attack is botched and Talty's grandmother is killed while Talty survives just barely. The Borus see the opportunity to spirit Talty far away to convalesce while the rest of the world believes she has passed on. While they wait for the smoke to clear, they plan on how best to exact their own brand of revenge for the cruel deed done to them.
As I began the over 600-page story, I knew it would be quite detailed. I was not disappointed. The author takes the reader from Ireland to Asia to California. The events that encompass Talty's recovery are many and varied. She trains in the martial arts while in Asia and is employed as a time-travel adventurer in California. The scenes described allow the reader to vividly envision the dojos, residences and landscape that frame each chapter in her life. Her many encounters with other people serve to encourage her to believe in herself and also to keep her guard up for what one least suspects. Neil Boru and Aidan Dacey play significant roles in the vengeance sought by the Boru family. They are both well trained in combat and make it their duty to protect their loved ones. Neil's affection for Talty is a slow and uneventful one until the latter part of the book. However, the battle for revenge ultimately leads to what could be the love of a lifetime. The reader will delight in the detours that Talty takes in her quest to go back to Ireland permanently as well as the adventures that keep her occupied while she waits. I would genuinely like to read more from Ms. McDermott.
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This week comScore announced the launch of its first ad-verification tool called 'Validated Campaign Essentials', alongside a suggestion that over a third of ad impressions on the web are never even seen.
It's not surprising that's there's waste, but the sheer volume of this claim - and the fact that it's been validated by data from 12 leading brands - is sure to raise a few eyebrows.
comScore says that with the launch of this tool, it's now able to provide advertisers with an analysis of which ads in an online campaign are viewed online. The software only tracks display ads on computers, not on smartphones or tablets, and for ads to be deemed 'in-view' they must be viewable for at least one second.
Working with 12 "national premium brands" in the US (across 3,000 placements, 381,000 site domains and 1.7 billion ad impressions) comScore found that in many cases, ads are delivered but not in-view or on target and therefore never have a chance to make an impact.
Those taking part included Chrysler, Discover, Ford, Kellogg's, Kraft and Sprint. All of the impressions analysed in the study were delivered in iframes and none required publisher site pixels.
Of 69% of ads that were found to be 'in-view', 31% of online display ads weren't seen by users. Sometimes the ads appeared below the fold and users don't scroll down the webpage far enough to see them. Other times ads that are placed above the fold are scrolled past before they have had a chance to load.
Again, this doesn't exactly highlight a new issue - but the scale is notable.
On a positive note, the survey also highlighted that just 4% of impressions were wasted on those in the wrong geographic location or where a product wasn't even available. However, inappropriate display ad placements (classified as something harmful to brand reputation) were evident in almost three-quarters (72%) of campaigns.
President and CEO of comScore Dr. Magid Abraham explained that the display advertising market today is characterised by an overabundance of inventory, often residing on parts of a web page that are never viewed by the user. This dilutes the impact of campaigns for advertisers and represents a drag on prices to publishers.
Conversely, some ads below the fold are quite visible and deserve more credit. Ultimately, this type of third-party validation will help identify and appropriately price the proportion of online ad inventory that delivers value, improve buying and selling decisions, and instill more confidence and trust in the industry."
Comments (7)
30% does feel like an incredibly high figure, but I'm not hugely surprised by it.
The way users browse content on display sites will be so different to search engines as an obvious comparison.
Take a newspaper website with display ads on as an example - if you land on that page to read a specific article, it's very rare that you're looking out for anything else on that page except the text.
I think this just serves to reinforce that display advertisers should be using a CPC payment model instead of a CPM model, if they're not already. That way you can ensure that you're only paying for users that are interacting with your ad, and any other impressions around that, that cause a user to take notice (if only at an impression basis instead of by click) should be seen as a bonus that don't incur a cost.
Peter - I agree that the figures aren't all that surprising but advertisers switching from CPM to CPC on all display activity is a pipe dream.
Yes, in an ideal world a CPC trading model on all display buys would make it an ultra efficient channel but the reality is that outside of the likes of Struq the Google Display Network and some other networks, this model isn't feasible on standard display activity and CPM's have to be paid to ensure a (consistent) presence on specific, premium sites.
Until such time that this changes, it is the responsibility of agencies to find the right blend of efficient platforms/trading models and to plan and manage campaigns properly to ensure that they do all they can to ensure any wastage is minimised.
It's incredible to be in discussion about the CPM versus CPC pricing model in 2012 yet!
Well, CPC model depends on the creativities as we know. What's kind of responsability could the publisher have about them? In my opinion, if 31% are really "ghost" the problem is not the pricing model but, probably, the old IAB standard and some great restrictions imposed by the publisher in terms of spaces.
Vikki, one thing that I've never been clear about is where ads that are blocked by adblockers figure in all of this. If I'm running an adblocker in my browser, how is that reported? Is it possible that those are also part of the impressions that are never actually seen?
@John - That's a very fair point. I should probably revise my comment to say that 'in an ideal world, advertisers should be using a CPC payment model instead of a CPM model'.
Like you say, if you want to feature on certain sites, CPM may well be the only option for the visibility required.
Let's hope this does change in the future - I look forward to the day when display can be measured as precisely as other areas of online advertising such as search.
Comscore's results are very similar to the results we found in 2011 for ad impression visibility across major European markets, we arrived at a figure of 34% of ads as never viewed.
More details of this study can be found at:
I find the definition of "seen" to be curious. I would suggest the (grammatically impaired) term "see-able" instead.
If 69 percent are "see-able" in the browser, how many are actually seen and register in any way in the user's mind?
And how many display ads are seen, through peripheral vision, as a display ad and are consciously or sub-consciously ignored?


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. . . back in April, I warned the administration that you had Russian peacekeepers in Georgian territory. That made no sense whatsoever. Does Obama know that Russian peacekeepers were there – and had been there for years - per agreement between Russia and Georgia? He's acting like he just found out some secret information. And what makes Obama believe that "international peacekeepers" would have stopped the Russian invasion?
The first debate is in the record books.
McCain appeared confident. Any questions about his age or his mental agility have been answered. He was aggressive without being overbearing, and he won the debate on foreign policy hands down. The difference in experience and knowledge on foreign policy issues was readily apparent.
That said, it is economic issues at the top of the list today, and Obama did better on the economic issues than McCain. McCain did poorly in response to several of the questions on the economic issues, and I am left wondering whether he was saving the attack on "regulation" and the cause of our current fiscal crisis until after a deal is reached in Congress on the bailout. At any rate, given the importance of economic issues today, it is no surprise that, according to a CBS poll, undecideds gave the night to Obama.
Obama did well on some of the questions, and he won the economic portion of the debate on at least an emotional level. In a Fox News survey of undecided voters, the majority thought Obama won the night because he seemed to understand and connect more with "Main St." I suspect that perception was likely set in the opening statements, before the first question was even asked. Obama's statement was a consise itemization of his priorities to address the fiscal crisis. McCain's statement, was not focused on the economy. First impressions and emotions matter to a large swath of people - and at seems a lot of them are among the undecideds.
In substance, Obama was on the defensive much of the night. He attempted to interrupt McCain on several occasions and seemed on the edge of anger at least once. McCain got under his skin. And while I did not think that Obama repeatedly stating his agreement with McCain's positions sounded bad during the debate itself, cut and spliced onto a Youtube video even before the end of the debate, it sounds pretty cutting.
The debate format was very good. Jim Lehrer did an excellent job as moderator.
My thoughts on some the specific questions and responses:
McCain did a very poor job of explaining why his economic policies would be better for "main street" than those of Obama.
Obama kept trying to tie McCain to Bush's economic policies, but McCain fairly well neutralized that. And indeed, later in the debate, McCain tied Obama to Bush.
McCain allowed Obama to pin the current fiscal crisis on "eight years of bad economic policies" without any substantive rebuttal. This is an issue McCain could rebut and explain clearly in ten sentences or less – and it would be a devastating indictment of the socialist policies of the left as well as Sen. Obama's inaction. That was the low point of the evening, and it occurred within the first minutes of the debate. If McCain repeats that in the next debate, I think he can kiss his presidential aspirations goodbye. People are too upset about the economy, and if he lets them wrongly blame he or Republicans generally, he will lose a close election. Thankfully, McCain will get another bite at that apple in the next debate. I hope that his reticence in making a rebuttal this time around was in respect to the negotiations going on in Congress over the subprime rescue operation.
McCain's comments on reigning in spending and earmarks were good. They will play to the base. But he has the base with him now. A lot of Middle America will be somewhat swayed by this, but again, McCain needs to do a better job of explaining why it is far more to their advantage than Obama's plan to increase spending by $800 billion. That is a massive chunk out of our economy that Obama plans to take from the private sector and turn it into public sector spending. That will do nothing to create wealth or grow the size of the pie for all Americans. It will merely result in greater shared misery.
The real high points for McCain on the economics issue came when he talked about a spending freeze and specific measures to cut wasteful spending, such as an end to ethanol subsidies. Obama would not name a single program that he would cut or freeze.
On foreign policy, McCain looked far more knowledgeable and confident than Obama. Obama committed no major gaffes, but the gravitas and experience gaps here were very visibly a canyon. McCain was speaking from experience, Obama was speaking from cue cards.
McCain was the aggressor and sounded much wiser on the answers to questions about Pakistan, Iraq and Afghanistan. He let Obama get away with the tired and false meme that our standing in the world has deteriorated over the past eight years because of Bush policies. McCain should have mentioned that, today, there are more pro-American leaders of foreign nations than there were eight years ago. The only people who do not like us today were the same people in Europe who did not like us 8 years ago or 18 years ago.
There were a few minor gaffes by Obama, only one of which McCain pounced on. Obama claimed his policy to meet without preconditions with the heads of enemy states was supported by Kissinger. McCain told him that was wrong and, subsequent to the debate, Kissinger called the media supporting McCain. The other was Obama's bizzare assertion on Georgia that McCain was not given an opportunity to respond to:
And what we needed to do was replace them with international peacekeepers and a special envoy to resolve the crisis before it boiled over.
McCain's response to the 9-11 question was, I thought, very good. I must admit I had forgotten that he was one of the legislators who had taken on the administration to get the 9-11 Commission set up.
My favorite line of the night – McCain comparing the stubbornness of Obama in refusing to acknowledge the success of the surge to the stubbornness of the Bush administration in refusing to acknowledge the need for it. Let's not have another four years of McBama.
Most memorable lines of the night both came from McCain –
"Reform, prosperity, and peace, these are major challenges to the United States of America. I don't think I need any on-the-job training. I'm ready to go at it right now"
"I guarantee you, as president of the United States, I know how to heal the wounds of war, I know how to deal with our adversaries, and I know how to deal with our friends."
Most other blogs had a similar take:
Confederate Yankee
Hot Air
Jules Crittenden
Michelle Malkin
Tiger Hawk
Voldka Pundit
Jennifer Rubin at PJM
CNN had their debate report card.
Much more at Memorandum.
You can find the full transcript of the debate here.
. . . back in April, I warned the administration that you had Russian peacekeepers in Georgian territory. That made no sense whatsoever.
Does Obama know that Russian peacekeepers were there – and had been there for years - per agreement between Russia and Georgia? He's acting like he just found out some secret information. And what makes Obama believe that "international peacekeepers" would have stopped the Russian invasion?


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Wednesday, August 31, 2011
Art Boards
So I have been wanting some cork boards to put in Brooklyn's room but haven't really wanted to spend the money. The other day in Mrs Murl's garage I was being nosy and noticed a cork board and a dry erase board leaned against the wall. I asked if she was getting rid of it and she was! Now we have an art center and the girls love it. I just have to decide how to decorate it!!!
Posted by thecaillouets at 3:59 PM No comments:
Taco Spaghetti and some AWESOME Banana soft serve
Taco SpaghettiA pound of hamburger meat cook in 1 packet taco seasoning
5 ounces cooked spaghetti noodles
chopped onion cooked in hamburger if you want
1 can drained corn
1 cup shredded cheese
3/4 cup salsa
shredded lettuce (if wanted)
chopped tomato (if wanted)
cup crushed tortilla chips (if wanted)
Whatever else you want
Cook your hamburger meat in seasoning and onion, drain grease. Add cooked noodles, corn, and salsa, 1/2 cup cheese. Pour into a lightly greased baking dish. Cover and bake at 350 for 20 minutes. Sprinkle the rest of the cheese on top. Add sour cream, lettuce, and whatever else you want!
Banana Soft serve1 or 2 bananas for each person you are serving
food processor
Cut bananas into about 1/4 inch pieces. Freeze for 3-4 hours or overnight. Put into food processor until creamy. You can eat right away or freeze for later. You can add strawberries, peanut butter, cocoa powder, or whatever else you like with bananas!
Posted by thecaillouets at 7:24 AM No comments:
Tuesday, August 30, 2011
Homemade detergent
1 bar grated Fels Naptha Soap
1 1/3 cup Arm & Hammer Super Washing Soda Detergent Booster
1 1/3 cup 20 Mule Team Borax
Mix and store in an airtight container.
Small loads 1 spoonfull
Medium loads 1 ½ spoonful
Heavy loads 2 spoonful
Non-Abrasive scouring powder for disinfecting
4 parts baking soda
1 part borax
(store in a shaker container)
Lemon Spray Cleaner (multi-purpose)
2 cups water
2TBS lemon juice
½ tsp. dish soap (like dawn)
1TBS baking soda
1tsp. Borax
Pour in spray bottle and mix well before using. You can add vinegar but be careful! Baking soda and vinegar mixed has the volcano effect so add it REAL SLOW!
Posted by thecaillouets at 12:23 PM No comments:
Friday, August 26, 2011
So Wednesday we Brooklyn's first day of school and Sophia's first alone, non-family babysitting experience. I was more worried with Sophia then Brooklyn but when I got to Cherie's house Sissy walked right in and told me bye. No problems there. I breathed a little. When we got to school Brooklyn was greeted by her teacher and assistant and the room Maw-Maw. She walked right in and didn't look back. It was orientation day so only 7 kids out of the 20 were going to be there (I think 4 showed up). Orientation was brutal. Everything we had been told before. After the parents were released I went in to get a picture of Brooklyn in her class. The assistant Mrs. Shelia (Mrs. Brown is the teacher and Mrs. Sue is the room Maw-Maw) was praising how detailed Brooklyn's drawing was and how she was actually TALKING some to every body. I got my picture and with a quick kiss and left. Then I went to walmart by MYSELF! When I went to pick Sissy up Cherie and I decided to go celebrate Brooklyn's first day of school with some yummy Chinese. When I picked Brooklyn up the teacher said She did very well. She laughed and said for lunch B "tried" her tuna sandwich because momma always makes her try new things, but she only ate ALL of her peas and asked for more. The Mrs. Brown was surprised because not many 4 year old eat that well! There I did find out that one of the ladies from church is the room mawmaw in the class right next to Brooklyn's so that made me feel a lot better. There were no tears on either side. This is going to be a great experience for her. I really think it is where she needs to be to get ready for kindergarten.
Today is her first day with all of the kids in the class. I am hoping it goes as well as Wednesday did. I've got a busy day. I'm delivering a cake, getting the car, inspected, maybe going to old navy, getting Brooklyn, and last going to the temple for a sealing session. I am super excited the girls are spending the night with Mrs. Murl so maybe I can sleep past 5:30!
Today is her first day with all of the kids in the class. I am hoping it goes as well as Wednesday did. I've got a busy day. I'm delivering a cake, getting the car, inspected, maybe going to old navy, getting Brooklyn, and last going to the temple for a sealing session. I am super excited the girls are spending the night with Mrs. Murl so maybe I can sleep past 5:30!
Posted by thecaillouets at 4:42 AM No comments:
Wednesday, August 24, 2011
Thursday, August 18, 2011
Very True
Some people just need a high-five.
In the face.
With a chair.
I saw this on-line and thought it was hilarious!
Posted by thecaillouets at 5:33 AM No comments:
Wednesday, August 17, 2011
Poor Brooklyn
Monday morning we had our enrollment meeting for Head Start. We have gotten all paper work finished and assigned a class! Brooklyn needed to get her school shots and a wellness check to be completely finished. Her Dr.'s office was able to get her in that afternoon. She is completely healthy. When it came time to do the shots she started to panic some. She had to get four of those suckers! After that they had to draw blood for a lead and iron test. The nurse thought she was going to be nice and just prick her finger. After the THIRD finger prick and still no blood she had to go through a vein in the arm. By this time Brooklyn was besides herself she was so upset. She had to get stuck 8 times before everything was done. I promised her ice cream on the way home. She survived all that. Yesterday when I went to take the band aid off her leg she had a HUGE blister full of clear liquid where the band aid had been! I'm glad shes over it. She really milked all those pricks for everything she could. This morning her teacher is coming over for a home visit. They do things a little different in head start. Most of the kids there are from lower income families and don't get the every day needs of life. Like three meals a day and clean food. I was talking to out advocate about it and she said some of these kids really do come from heart breaking situations. I am very thankful that Trent works so hard to provide us with all of our needs and most of our wants. I am now excited Brooklyn is getting such a great opportunity to be in the Head Start program. She's very excited also and is so proud of her new back pack (Thanks Mrs. Murl)
Posted by thecaillouets at 5:31 AM No comments:
Thursday, August 11, 2011
Head Start and a cupcake party
Posted by thecaillouets at 5:11 AM 1 comment:
Wednesday, August 10, 2011
some past pictures
Posted by thecaillouets at 8:52 AM 2 comments:
Tuesday, August 9, 2011
Sunday, August 7, 2011
Tuesday, August 2, 2011
Back feels much better. Now onto some sewing! My girls and baby Aubree "need" something new right?!
Posted by thecaillouets at 4:42 AM 2 comments:
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4:15am - Aidan wakes up crying. I go to feed him and put him back down to sleep.
5:52am - My alarm goes off. Don't ask me why I set it for such random times.
6:01am - My alarm goes off again. Oops. I typically don't hit snooze because I know Adam gets woken up every time it goes off. I jump out of bed, grab my running clothes and hit the bathroom to change.
6:10am - I am out the door (yep, 9 minutes, I don't mess around). I have my gear and I am headed for a nice solo run. I plan to do around 6 miles and do a nice and easy run.
6:11am - Didn't know this at the time, but Aidan woke up when I shut the door. Oops again. Sorry babe for that one.
7:00am - Back from my run, I walk in to hear everyone is already up and moving. Hope has a light that comes on at 7:15am, which means she is supposed to stay in her room until then. Guess Aidan woke her up so the likelihood that I will get to do abs and push-ups is slim. I run into the kitchen to start making bread.
I decided homemade sourdough bread would be a nice teacher gift for Hope's preschool teachers as well as the co-directors at the school. Each bread takes 3 hours so I have to get started if I want to finish today. I get the first one in the bread machine and head upstairs. Adam gives me a look that says I hope that was the best run of your life because the kids are up and have been and I am tired. I tell him it was an amazing run and thank you for handling the home while I was gone. :) I change everyone's clothes, diapers, etc. and head back downstairs. I have a big water to drink after my run, and now the coffee is made. Yum! I typically drink 2 cups. I decide to do smoothies and sourdough toast (bread I made on Sunday) for breakfast. Everyone loves smoothies, but Hope usually doesn't finish hers. Aidan on the other hand, would probably kill hers as quickly as he finishes his. Mine is a green monster smoothie with kale and vanilla protein powder for some extra protein. I made toast, half with Earth Balance butter, and half with the rest of the (my version) of the kitchen sink nut butter.
8:55am - Aidan is down for a nap, and I have loaded the kitchen table with markers, paper, and coloring books. But before we can start any coloring, she reminds me that she needs "tail nosh" (toenail polish for those of you who don't speak Hope). I run and grab the polish and give her one coat of presto pink. It's perfect because now she will be busy coloring and it will give her toes time to dry. I decided to have Hope draw and color a picture for the Udi's Let's Doodle Lunch Sandwich box.
It's also good because I am in the kitchen cooking up a storm. Since I don't work on Tuesdays I usually spend a significant amount of time in the kitchen. I have a lot on my plate in terms of cooking today, but we will see how much gets done. Bread #1 is still baking. Next, I soaked some adzuki beans the night before, so now I have to cook them for an hour, give or take. And of course, I have to restock my kitchen sink nut butter so I start roasting my nuts. I continue to go back and forth, helping Hope out and managing my tasks in the kitchen. After my beans cooled, I made this little ditty from Scott Jurek's interview on Runner's World.
Check out her picture!
I was so impressed she stayed inside the lines so well (yes, I helped her outline the rainbow and the flower.
11:00am - Aidan is up and changed and we head out to the park (and of course I started my second loaf of sourdough bread). Now you would think things would be a time I could sit down for the first time since 5:52am, but it's not if your son climbs likes mine. He is a crazy climber. I am constantly over him making sure he doesn't go head first down something too steep. After about 40 minutes of climbing and swinging, we have a quick snack (banana and water to share) and head to the grocery store. We usually alternate going to the farmer's market and the grocery store once a week. This week it's the grocery store. I grab a cookie from the bakery for Hope and then try to work like a mad woman to get through the store before anyone has a meltdown. We obviously get most of our produce at the farmer's market and then just refill at the grocery store, but mostly get the things we can't get at the farmer's market (think laundry detergent, garbage bags, etc.). Sometimes the variety is just better at the grocery store, like my almond milk.
1:00pm - We are home. I throw all the bags in the kitchen and immediately start working on making lunch for everyone (I for one, am starved). The kids had avocado dip, Kashi crackers, shared a pear, and pirate booty. I had a big spinach salad with chickpeas, red bell pepper, broccoli, and homemade croutons and more water. I put away the groceries after lunch, and the kids played together in the playroom (it's the living room which is not far from the kitchen). After the kitchen is cleaned up for the second time, I head to the playroom to join in on the fun. We usually play until Aidan shows signs of being tired. This happens at 2:35pm.
It's really hard to fold Aidan when Aidan is around. He throws everything I fold, so it's best for me to sit down on the floor when no one is around. I usually put on the tv and watch something OnDemand. Today I decided on last week's Revenge. I have really cut down on everyone's tv time in the house (myself included) so this is the first time the tv has been on all day. I watch my 48 minute show (thank you for limited commericals) while I fold laundry and read a few blogs. I also start my 3rd loaf of bread, and start prepping dinner, a bean salad inspired by this recipe I found on Whole Foods website that uses adzuki beans (cook them once, use them twice is my philosphy).
4:00pm - Hope's light is on in her room, she is done with her quiet time (she naps maybe once or twice a week now, not everyday like before) and Aidan is up. I take the folded laundry upstairs and put it away while the kids hang out in Hope's room. Then we decide to hit the backyard with the kiddos and play with our water table.
Really, I am now hoping to sit down for 5 minutes and relax. Of course, I have 15 pages left in my current book, and I am dying to know how it finishes. I also had marinated some chicken for Adam and decided to surprise him and actually grill it. So since we were outside and he never makes it home in time for dinner, I could cook it early.
5:45pm - Dinner is served. Bean salad and corn for me and the kiddos, Hope had a little of Adam's chicken. Sparkling water to drink. Last bread is in the machine.
6:20pm - Decided that Hope needed a special treat for her picnic at school tomorrow so decided to make Muddy Buddies mix. And it could serve as a little treat for tonight too.
7:00pm - Hope breaks a snow globe which take sme 20 minutes to get all the glass cleaned up.
7:20pm - Upstairs for bath. Adam calls to say he is going to be late. Awesome.
7:55pm - Aidan is down for the night. We do bath, teeth, pajamas, sometimes a book (he isn't into books at all), and then I do still nurse him 2-4 times a day and usually at night before bed.
8:15pm - Hope is down and I head back to the kitchen. Yikes, what a mess! I clean the kitchen and make lunches for everyone for Wed.
9:15pm - My feet are killing me. I take a nice long shower (yep, first time I have had time to shower today). Adam gets home, eats and heads to the office to work some more.
9:50pm - I pour myself into bed and I had tivoed Real Housewives of Orange County so I watch it. I know, it's a guilty pleasure for sure.
11:00pm - I am asleep. Adam comes to bed and wakes me up. Ugh!
12:22pm - Aidan wakes up. Not thinking I go in and nurse him.
3:15am - Hope wakes up calling me. I go in and lay with her for a little while.
4:00am - Aidan wakes again. Ugh! I go in there. He is teething so I feel bad. I nurse him again.
4:45am - Hope has a nightmare and is crying for me. I go in there and pull the covers over me. I'm not going anyway. I decide to just sleep the rest of the night with her. And her screaming wakes Aidan up so Adam has to get up and tend to him (no nursing involved that time). :)
6:40am - Aidan is up for the day. I go in and nurse him and we start the day. Yes, I am exhausted!


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Series: Providence #1
Author: Jamie McGuire
Publisher: Jamie McGuire
Pages: 326
Format: ebook
Source: Purchased
View/Purchase: Goodreads
Reason chosen:
I read Beautiful Disaster by Jamie McGuire and I thought it was brilliant so I had to give her other books a chance. Because how could they not be great?
Summary taken from Goodreads:
In the old world shadows of Providence, Rhode Island, Nina Grey finds herself the center of a war between Hell and Earth.
Struggling with her father's recent death, Nina meets Jared Ryel by chance…or so she believes. Although his stunning good looks and mysterious talents are a welcome distraction, it soon becomes clear that Jared knows more about Nina than even her friends at Brown University. When questions outnumber answers, Jared risks everything to keep the woman he was born to save—by sharing the secret he was sworn to protect.
When her father's former associates begin following her in the dark, Nina learns that her father is not the man she thought he was, but a thief who stole from demons. Searching for the truth behind her father's death, Nina stumbles upon something she never expected—something Hell wants—and only she holds the key.
Alright, so I had high expectations after reading Beautiful Disaster and the book did not fail. The book doesn't come off the same way as it does through reading the synopsis. Be warned it doesn't feel like a novel about Heaven and Hell and Demons. No the majority of this novel is a romance. One guy has who has always been around and one girl who never knew it. And the things is you fall in love with Jared from about…well I wouldn't say the first time you meet him but maybe the second. At first while I was reading this I thought that they were falling in love all too fast, but when things finally get to be explained then you just seem to understand and if anything you love it even more. This book, like Beautiful Disaster, made me cry, laugh, smile uncontrollably, and some times shakes my head thinking "what the hell are they doing?" But when Jared and Nina go on vacation to the middle of buckshot no where well, I thought it was the most beautiful vacation in the world. The book had my head spinning like her other book and my emotions were all over the place. Is it normal to cry in public while reading? Yes? No? Hmmm…
At one point I was scared that the love triangle between Jared, Nina, and Ryan was going to be like the one from Twilight and to be honest I really didn't want that. Thankfully…it wasn't. Phew! But no matter what this book is definitely a keep and Jamie McGuire has yet to fail my expectation
Nina Grey: She loves her people. And she wants to always take care of them
Ryan: By far the sweetest guy in the world. Although he does stupid things sometimes to prove himself.
Claire: Claire is like the modern day Nikita. Or Elektra maybe. Or Wonder Woman.
Jared: Jared is the sexiest Hybrid. And I imagine him to have the absolute best smile in the world. Even when the guy is stunned happy and they're mouth is hanging open. Ya even then he would have the big smile I've ever seen. He's tall, he works out, he's good at what he does, he LOVES Nina, drives a motorcycle, owns his own business, and on top of it all he's a fantastic dresser. Jamie McGuire posted on her facebook page that Garrett Hedlund would be a good Jared.
Oh yes please!
So far I've found that the main men in Jamies' books happen to be very very much in love with the main women in her book. It's a little scary sometimes and borders on the obsessed level but it always seems to fit and I can't even get mad at the girls for being in love with them or get mad at the guys either.
Overall (Writing style, story line, and general):
Overall I did find some of this book a little confusing at time. Only because Jamie doesn't seem to explain that one second they are in his loft and the next they are at the bank. So it does get a little confusing but then you kind of just figure it out. What I like is how Jamie can get the humour across in her writing and the emotions of the characters. She also really knows how to bring across emotions through the eyes of her characters—literally. Overall, I loved this book and I am happy that I started reading it when the last book finally came out. Because now I can enjoy them all in one week.
Click here to check out some of my favourite quotes!
Next In the Series:
Requiem ->Click for my review
Viewer Type Recommendation:
Angel lovers, paranormal lovers, and lovers of love.
If you liked this you'll probably love:
Beautiful Disaster by Jamie McGuire, Hush, Hush series by Becca Fitzpatrick, Catching Jordan by Miranda Kenneally, Sarah Dessen novels, Storm by Brigid Kemmerer.
Read Completely:
But of course.


text:
Saturday, July 31, 2010
Purepur Kolhapuri
Meal : late late dinner
Loc : somewhere in Vile Parle
It was late and i was returning from a long days work. My friend / (slash) was looking for a dining companion, since he had mentioned this place before, i thought why not check it out. Although the other option was Mexican or Mezze...
Kolhapuri cuisine is usually fairly fiery, red chilly and pepper based. You order a Kolhapuri dish in a restaurant its usually among the fiery ones. So i was a little worried about how the dishes would be. They werent that bad... (in terms of spice)
The food unfortunaely was not upto the mark. I am a big fan of Maharashtrian snacks but i have always found the cuisine wanting when it comes to full scale dining.
There was a dal a few veggies and roti and rice. The normal thali setup but none of it stood out particularly.
The dahi was tangy with a sourish taste, which i like, however i had the chaas which was made with the same yoghurt possibly and was not so good. The peanuts and gur were fun !
Overall, i was not impressed with anything really. Maybe its being run as a restaurant and needs more of the communal lunch home feel to succeed as an ethnic cuisine powerhouse.
Additionally, they have a lot of meat, chicken and sea food options and i reckon this is their mainstay. The vegetarian possibly not their strong point and hence the weakness.
Food : 3/10
Service : 5/10
Damage : 125 pp.
4 comments:
- The knife said...
Gaurav, I've been to their Dadar branch. Loved it. They had only meats then. No seafood. Apparently Kolhapur is not a coastal region and the diet is really meat heaven. No offence, but this one is meant for a non vegetarian :)
Taking the liberty of pasting my link here. Hope you don't mind
I have been to Purepur Kolhapur and i dont think thats its just a place for the non vegetarians...They have couple of options for vegetarians. I personally think that the food wasnt all that great..
- Gaurav said...
hey KK,
i didnt know they had another branch. my friend Shailesh had been there before and i figured what the hell, lets try something new.
didnt work out well for me though. im sure the carnivores rock it hard.
they do have some options for veggies but its a hard core non-veg place.. and yeah i was there with three people and none of us liked it at all.
- The knife said...
Hey Gaurav,
I believe the original branch is at Pune and is pretty famous. My submission is that certain cuisines such as Kolhapuri or Goan Catholic are not as vegetarian centric as other cuisines are. Just as it wouldn't make sense to go to a Gujrati thali joint if you are a steak lover.
Would love to hear from a Maharashtrian on this


text:
I have personally been caught ONCE in my active drinking life thus far and unfortunately for only one pint of my favorite lager. I ended up paying 2000 Rs after a bit of nagging and looking like an ass at a traffic police mosh pit at 1 in the morning. And I was duly pissed off when I got home and switched on my idiot box to see a liquor company advertising responsible drinking.
But how much is responsible drinking? What is the permissible limit to drink and drive? And what are our rights when we are faced with a cop in the middle of the road asking us to test on his breath analyzer? I am not trying to advocate drink and driving today, but there seems to be quite some ignorance and illiteracy about "driving under influence" DUI laws in India. This note will try to give basic info on this subject with my jaundiced opinion as well.
So, do you know why I paid 2000 quid for just a pint of beer before driving? My research shows that anywhere in the world except India I would be within permissible limits of driving under influence because the limit under the Indian law is, unfortunately, the lowest in the world.
The Indian Law: Central Motor Vehicles Act, 1988 Sec 185:
Driving by a drunken person or by a person under the influence of drugs.
Whoever, while driving, or attempting to drive, a motor vehicle,-
- has, in his blood, alcohol exceeding 30 mg. per 100 ml. of blood detected in a test by a breathanalyser, or
- is under this influence of a drug to such an extent as to be incapable of exercising proper control over the vehicle,
shall be punishable for the first offence with imprisonment for a term which may extend to 6 months, or with fine which may extend to 2000 Rs, or with both; and for a second or subsequent offence, if committed within 3 years of the commission of the previous similar offence, with imprisonment for a term which may extend to 2 years, or with fine which may extend to 3000 Rs, or with both.
(You only get a receipt of being caught and will not be allowed to drive the vehicle. You would be required to face the traffic court as early as 730 or 8 the next morning and pay fine as the judge may deem appropriate. )
The level of alcohol in blood is referred to as Blood Alcohol Content/Concentration or Breath Alcohol Content (BAC). It is measured either as a percentage by mass, by mass per volume, or a combination. BAC is a combination of 4 important aspects
- Quantity of beverage consumed
- Percentage of Alcohol in the beverage consumed
- Your weight
- Hours of consuming the beverage.
So, if you consumed a 330 ml can of beer with 5% Alcohol in about an hour and your weight is 90 kgs, your BAC would be about 0.0308%. A BAC of 0.03% can mean 0.3 gram of alcohol per 1000 gram of an individual's blood, or it can mean 0.3 gram of alcohol per 100 millilitres of blood. Per Indian law, you are screwed if you are caught driving at this stage.
World over the average limit is 0.08% which means you can have 2 more beers for sure. There is no logical rationale for Indian law to take such a hard stance when in many other cities of the developed world it is considered safe to drive with levels as high as 80 mg. There is a dire need to revisit the permissible limit for driving under influence in India. But there is absolutely no hope for such trivial amendments when much larger social and relevant laws like child labor, divorce etc are still lingering in their pre historic days.
One more aspect that can screw your happy ride is that breath analyzer tests are not perfect. The analysers are highly prone to errors, malfunctioning due to maintenance issues and you could end up shown as drunk just because the normal mouth alcohol content screwed up the analyzer or its settings are effed. All analysers make certain assumptions about the people being tested which may or may not be true. Besides, breath analyzer tests are based only on your alcohol content without any respect to whether or not you are feeling the effects of drinking. Rumour has it that sometimes to make an extra buck the straw in which you are asked to breathe through to the analyzer is pre-dipped in alcohol and then you are unnecessarily harassed.
Your Rights :
World over the cops are supposed to mention to you in advance that breathing into the analyzer in optional and you may choose to go to the station and give an actual blood test. I do not know if it's practiced diligently. In India, there is no such provision. You are almost at the mercy of the cop. If you refuse to breathe into the analyzer, he has rights to arrest you quoting reasons to believe that you may have been driving under influence without any regard whatsoever to the fact that your driving skills are impaired or not..
So guys, the govt has decided that thou shall not drink responsibly and drive like they do not allow alcohol to be served beyond 1130 in Bangalore and like they decided that you shall not shake a leg at your favorite disco for having good time and fun is crime.
Till such time as the perception of responsible drinking changes in our social ethos, here are a few tips that I gathered over my discussions with various groups, on how to counter cops in namma Bengaluru while driving under no influence:
- The IT professional try: Always wear your company id card on you with your laptop next to you posing you are a late night worker from one of the IT companies. Chances are you won't be stopped.
- Get aggressive: What the F? When I am going back home from a hard day's work, you stop me and ask these silly questions???
- Army trump card: Kya Sir, Aaj kal army walon ko bhi rokne lag gaye kya?
- Avoid them: Avoid any streets or roads where there is a traffic police station as all barricading and testing is done right outside the station for its convenient for the cops to compound vehicles if required.
Some better tips:
- Designate a person in the group as the driver for later and he shall not drink
- Do not drink and drive :) hahahaha. I am practicing this on Wednesday, Friday & Satday.
- Use party driver services. Spot Drivers - +(91)-(80)-66498863. They send drivers to wherever you are to drive you in your own vehicle after you night at the bar. Charges Rs250 for 4 hrs plus rick fare for the driver to get back. You have to book these guys in advance though.
- Use Easy Cabs or Meru Taxi services


text:
Manchester: Manchester United defender Phil Jones has been suffering from "mild thrombosis" and the England international footballer will miss at least three weeks of the English Premier League (EPL) season.
Jones, 23, was left out of United's squad for the opening game of the EPL season on Saturday due to the blood-clotting problem, dailymail.co.uk reported.
Thrombosis is a clotting of the blood in a part of the circulatory system.
The issue means the former Blackburn centre-back will miss Premier League games against Aston Villa, Newcastle United and Swansea City as well as home-and-away meetings with Club Brugge in the Champions League.
His participation for England in the upcoming internationals against San Marino and Switzerland could also be called into question.
Jones trained with his teammates at their Carrington training base earlier this week but was unavailable for competitive action on Saturday.
For all the latest Sports News, download NewsX App


text:
Back from the Bahamas! I had SUCH a wonderful time on this cruise. The ship was beautiful, the food was delicious, the water was stunning gorgeous, and the alchohol was plentiful. What more can a girl ask for?
Here are a few random shots from the trip.
|Right after getting on the ship
|My love and me
|I still can't get over how beautiful the water was. Pictures just cannot do it justiice.
|Add caption
|At the beach
|I LOVED this sign!
I gained 4 pounds on this trip...I don't know how much was from food and how much was from fruity tropical drinks. Oh well.


text:
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text:
Coach "Tin Man" Jacobson
Sleep was difficult to come by the night before the flight. I felt like a little kid waiting for Santa Claus to come or a big kid getting ready for the gun to go off for the start of Ironman Kona. I woke up a couple times during the night and sprang out of bed at 5 am to get the day rolling.
|Pre-flight briefing.
Col. "Wizard" Dick (Front)
1st Lt. "Slash" Struck
|Suited up and nervous as hell!
After the briefing, we suited up. This included the standard Airmen jumpsuit, along with my "Anti-G" (anti gravity) suit and egress and hanging harness (eject seat and parachute harnesses). I had suited up the day before in training, so it was fairly easy to get dressed quickly. We gathered in a holding area before taking a cart ride out to the hangar area, and one of the officers said they were going to see if my fighter pilot handle was going to be 'Tin Man' or 'Iron Man'. Funny! :) I liked "Ice Man", but apparently that was already taken by some dude in a movie.
|Driving out to the hangar.
Once we got to the plane, Wizard took me around it to look over the exterior. What an incredibly powerful looking vehicle! Ours was not loaded with any weapons, since this was not a specific mission... but it was pretty cool to see where the machine guns peeked out, where the ballistic missles would hang and where the counter-measures (chafe and flares) would be. Next step ... get into the plane.
I was '2nd Seat' in the two seater, the one in the back. The guy in the front does the heavy lifting and i just get to take a ride. With that said, many of the plane's function's can be controlled from the back seat, including the steering, weapons activation and ejection. Cool.
|Inspecting the plane before take off.
Wizard then got buckled in and went through a series of tests and other protocol with ground control. Once this was over with, he told me to keep everything close as he lowered the canopy and fired up the jet engine. Seriously, this was an incredible moment. I check again to see where my barf bags were.
We taxied out onto the runway at Tucson International Airport, which is shared with the Tucson ANG. The ANG hangar has about 60-70 jets at an given time, quite an impressive sight. It was surreal sitting out there on the runway with a clear 360 degree view practically on a crystal clear, sunny day, watching the commercial airliners like Southwest and Frontier take off and land. We waited for about 15 minutes on the tarmac before being given the green light. Interestingly, our GPS system was not working due to recent upgrade which must not have booted up properly. Great. Wizard didn't seem concerned, so neither was I!
|Getting situated in the cockpit.
Once we got to the designated 'training zone' where the fighter jets practice maneuvers near Green Valley and Kitts Peak, Wizard asked if I was ready for some fun. Part of me wanted to say, "nah, let's just cruise steady like this and sight see" but the other part of me needed to experience some 'acro' (acrobatics). So, here ..... we ...... go!
Wizard was awesome. First of all, he could have turned me into a pile of green mush in that back seat if he wanted to. Instead, he told me what maneuver he was going to attempt each time and guided me in how to 'handle it'. Our first adventure into the unknown was to pull some G's. A "G" is measured compared to the force of gravity on the earth. Basically, on earth, we are at 1 G. If your head weighs 10 lbs, it feels like 10 lbs. In high performance jets undergoing maneuvers, G's can increase. Therefore, at 5 G's your 10 pound head feels like a 50 pound head. Also, if you're unable to keep the blood in your brain, you can experience tunnel vision when pulling G's and eventually even lose consciousness, known as Gravity Induced Loss of Consciousness (GLOC). Not good if you're driving the $25 Million dollar jet!
|Getting ready to taxi.
In training the day before, I was taught how to do the G-Strain. Basically, the idea is that you need to flex/tense up your core and lower body in order to push blood up to your brain, or else you can pass out. The Anti-G suit straps mostly around your legs and is almost like compression wear. When you pull G's in the plane, air bladders in the suit automatically inflate, helping you push blood back up into the upper body. I like the way the nurse during my medical exam explained how to G-Strain the best. She said, "pretend you are taking a number '2', with all of your might". Got it.
The first maneuver was a bank to the left at 3 G's. Wizard instructed me to watch look to the left and then he started turning the plane that way. I was looking straight down at the ground below and could feel myself being pressed into the seat. Unbelievable! That was the first time I had ever felt the impact of increased gravity.
He leveled out and allowed me to 'recover'. I was hoping I didn't overdo my G-strain (ha ha) ;). The next one he said, was going to be around 4 G's. Wow! That was intense! I flexed every muscle in my body as hard as I could and felt like I had an elephant sitting on my head. Intense!
Next one was for 5-6 G's. Holy Crap! That was nuts!! It seemed like it took minutes, but I'm sure it took only seconds to go through that maneuver. Incredible. Now, the real incredible thing is that pilots in dogfights or other missions will endure constant bouts of 6-9 G's in an hour (or longer) sortie. Now that I've experienced the stress and the physically demanding nature of enduring a few G's, I can tell you first hand that these pilots are super fit! I can only imagine how wasted they must feel after a long mission or battle, incredible! Makes us 'Ironman' athletes look like wimps.
I was feeling ok, but could feel a little nausea starting to settle in. No worries, we had some more acro to do! Next up, a loop. Huh? How is this large plane going to do a loop?! Wizard asked me if I was ready and I sheepishly (yeah, I admit it) said yes. Afterburners fired, speed up and he pulled up on the stick and we're flying straight up in the freakin sky like a rocket blasting off!! F'me!!!! Then we go over on our backs and I'm looking at the freakin' ground below upside down from 17,000 ft!!! Then, we're over the top of the loop and speeding nose first towards the ground!!! That was incredible! I had to catch my breath after that one. Wow!
Finally, we did a series of rolls. That included a combo of feeling some minor G's and going upside down again. What a thrill. I can't describe any of these experiences in words and do them justice.
After that series of acro, we head over Mt. Lemmon, which is incredible. We're only a few thousand feet above the mountain and I can see the road that I've cycled up so many times, wind up the mountain side to the town of Summer Haven, where snow is still on the ground (9,500 ft). Over the mountain, I can see where my community of Oro Valley sprawls at the base of the Catalina's on the West side. Incredible.
We continue towards Globe, due east of Phoenix. Then we go towards Mt. Graham (home of the observatory), the highest peak in AZ at 10,720 Ft. , near the town of Safford. It was incredible to see these various landmarks so close from the air as the F-16 could get within 1500 ft. of the ground (closer if not for regulations).
Then, Wizard gave me the controls to steer (fly) the plane. I took them, but was hesitant as I couldn't see directly in front of me. I used the altitude monitor to stay straight and steady at between 13 and 14,000 ft. as Wizard controlled the speed (and probably had his hand on the stick had I made an rookie mistakes with his $25 Million dollar jet!). I did some subtle turns near the mountain, which was a little bit nerve racking. The plane was so sensitive to the slightest adjustment with the stick, it was incredible. I can see why people want to make a career out of flying these jets. Wow.
Then, before we left that area and headed back home, Wizard told me to do a loop. I said, 'huh?!' This was way outside of my comfort zone, but he insisted it was ok. So, as he coached me on how hard to pull back on the stick, I did a loop in the F-16 and we pulled 6.5 G's! Holy smoke, I almost crapped my flight suit with that one. That had to be one of the coolest, most unbelievable things I've ever done or will ever do in my entire life!! My heart rate was probably around 180 bpm, sitting down, and I was sweating as if I was running a marathon in 100 degree heat. I then proceeded to puke, for the first time during the flight. :)
We were getting low on fuel and towards the end of our flight, so Wizard radioed ground control to return us to the base. On the way back in, he did a super cool banking maneuver before nailing a perfect landing. I was drenched with sweat and happy and sad at the same time to be finished with my F-16 flight experience.
|Made it back to earth!
Me (right) and Wizard - Top Gun Fighter Pilot
I want to thank everyone involved with making this incredible, once in a lifetime experience come true. Lt. "SLASH" Struck, Lt. "EMC" Hammerbeck and Capt. "PIPES" Stimpson were my main points of contact during the process. A special thanks goes to Vice Commander Col. "Wizard" Dick, Wing Commander Col. "Bones" Dennee and Brig. General Vollmecke, ANG USAF. I'm certain I'm missing some of the many folks who were involved with making this voyage happen, like 'TinkerBell', the nice lady who helped coordinate the flight process. The professionalism, attention to detail and focus were second to none and it should give all U.S. citizens comfort in knowing that our military is lead by individuals of such high standards. My 'peek behind the curtain' just reinforced that sentiment all the more. This is one of the many reasons that we've donated several thousand dollars worth of Spinervals video products to our troops stationed overseas, as well as support great causes with cash donations like Team 4-Mil, benefitting the Wound Warrior Project, over the past dozen or so years. For more information about the ANG AFRC Command Test Center and the leadership of the unit, visit HERE. Please join me in supporting the men and women of our armed forces.
As for me, flying a commercial airline will NEVER be the same.
Train smart,
- Troy