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Inside & Pictures of the Arsenal Emirates Stadium
Published 27 September 2009
I had the extremely good fortune of knowing at the right time and being at the right place to take advantage of buying some tickets for an Arsenal football match. As Arsenal is such a popular team with a huge fanbase, it is usually almost impossible for the supporters, let alone the general public, to be able to purchase tickets for a home game at the Emirates Stadium in Highbury.
A few weeks ago I managed to get tickets for the Arsenal vs West Brom Carling Cup match. I heard about it just when they went on general sale to the public that morning, and managed to snag some tickets 5 rows from the pitch and near the midway line too! And all for a bargain price of a tenner each. Why were such good tickets still available? It was because it was a cup match and on a weekday afternoon; apparently Arsenal supporters only like to watch their first team play, and Arsene Wenger, the coach, likes to play his youth team in cup competitions. Still, Arsenal's youth team isn't taken lightly by the opposition, and in fact could probably beat half the Premier League teams on a good day. Indeed, they did not disappoint on this occasion and won the match 2-0, with a red card and a shot that hit the post providing some drama.
Anyways, this article is about the stadium, and I will stick to that topic! Having been to a couple of football stadiums around the UK, I have to say that the Emirates Stadium beats all the others in terms of atmosphere. Even with a largely touristy crowd that night, the songs were in full flow, the chanting continuous. Those Gunners really know how to be the 12th man on the pitch! The modern seats were cushioned and much comfier than the hard plastic ones in some of their rivals (*cough* Chelsea *cough*), and the leg room was enough to fit an eight foot giant if needed. The stadium is a bit big though, with a maximum capacity past 60,000. I have sat in some of the seats on the Upper Tier before, and frankly, if you get a seat way up there on a back row, you might as well watch the game on TV! But if you can get some tickets on the lower tier in the first few rows, the view from there is just amazing and you can see the players close up. The best seats and views in the house, of course, are located in the corporate boxes, in-between the lower and upper tiers!
Arsenal fans are generally very well behaved, and everything you have read about hooliganism in football has largely disappeared with the times. How can a low-class, no-life football hooligan afford tickets anymore? Instead, the crowd is made up of fathers bringing their sons, tourists, and the various bankers/lawyers/etc working in London. Everyone sits down when they are meant to, says "excuse me", and drink imported beers instead of local lagers.
Practical Information & Getting There
The whole stadium is very modern, and behind the seats there are plenty of food and drink serving points, as well as plenty of clean toilets and of course loads of gift shops. The two Arsenal merchandise shops are normally open until 5pm every day, but on matchdays they do open later and there are special stands inside the stadium with a limited range of Arsenal souvenirs like football jerseys, t-shirts caps, and footballs.
However, they do charge an arm and a leg for food and drinks, and a hot dog and a pint will set you back almost a tenner. You can bring outside food and drinks into the stadium, but they will insist that any bottles have their caps removed (so they can't be used as effectively missiles). The smart thing to do, however, is to arrive early and get a bite to eat either at a posh restaurant near Highbury station or Upper Street, or one of the numerous burger and kebab shops around Holloway Station and down Holloway Road. They are definitely not the tastiest, but are filling and cheap!
As most games are sold out, one should arrive early so you don't miss the kick-off. During game days, Holloway Road Station is shut and so the Piccadilly line stops at Arsenal Station (5 minutes walk), and the stadium is also only a 15 minute walk from Highbury & Islington Station. Holloway Road is still open and buses still go up and down, but its so jammed during match days that you're better off just getting off at some point before and walking the rest of the way.
Can't make it for a game?
The best way to experience the stadium is to watch a match, but having said that it is hard to get tickets, especially if you're a tourist and only in London for a few days! The only other option is to go for a guided tour of the stadium, which will show you all the important stuff as well as some of the history. More information about the Arsenal Stadium Tour and how to book online is available here.
You can also purchase the Arsenal football shirt and kit from Kitbag, who is an official retailer of Arsenal gear in addition to all the other Premier league club kits.
Anyways, here are some pictures of the stadium that I took during the game!


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It has been a while since I even attempted blogging for a whole truck load of reasons. I am not in a position to start back. However, I need a platform for journaling scripture I am chewing on. I considered various platforms but I want something that is online for safe keeping and will assist me in keeping my progress organized. It may mean several entries in a day and some contradictory thoughts. But this is a chewing process for my own edification.
Monday, September 26, 2011
One Plants, Another Waters, But God Makes It Grow
If unity is a sign of spiritual maturity the Corinthians must have had "fail" stamped on their foreheads. Sounds harsh but they had fallen into the trap that many Christians fall into today - leadership worship. You can't say that it doesn't exist because you can read it all over the internet. I often hear certain teachers and leaders being lifted up more often than Jesus. The problem becomes even more complicated when people start comparing and pitting one leader against the other. That is exactly what the Corinthians were doing:
My brothers, some from Chloe's household have informed me that there are quarrels among you. What I mean is this: One of you says, "I follow Paul"; another, "I follow Apollos"; another, "I follow Cephas[a]"; still another, "I follow Christ." (1 Corinthians 1:11-12)
You probably have certain teachers you enjoy learning from but I would hope you have a good grasp of the way the Body of Christ works. Each member of the Body has a different function, a different purpose in order that you can be built up and increased in maturity. The differences between leaders and their gifting are for your benefit. In order to move along in our journey to maturity we need to gain a good understanding of the Body of Christ. Do you know what you have become part of, what you belong to and how it functions? The best place to ponder this is in 1 Corinthians 12:
The body is a unit, though it is made up of many parts; and though all its parts are many, they form one body. So it is with Christ. For we were all baptized by one Spirit into one body—whether Jews or Greeks, slave or free—and we were all given the one Spirit to drink. (1 Corinthians 12:12-13)
Division can never take root as long as the various parts of the Body have this understanding along with the knowledge that there is only one head, and that is Jesus. Part of our maturing process is learning how God's love and grace allow us all to work together for the same purpose. The friction happens when we start seeing the leadership through the eyes of the world instead of in the context of the Body. Leaders are servants and leaders are gifted differently in order to meet the various needs in the Body:
Now you are the body of Christ, and each one of you is a part of it. And in the church God has appointed first of all apostles, second prophets, third teachers, then workers of miracles, also those having gifts of healing, those able to help others, those with gifts of administration, and those speaking in different kinds of tongues. Are all apostles? Are all prophets? Are all teachers? Do all work miracles? Do all have gifts of healing? Do all speak in tongues? Do all interpret? (1 Corinthians 12:27-30)
It is important to note that a leader never chose to be a leader, he was appointed by God. I think many churches have by-passed God and appoint their own leaders but that is an entirely different topic. It is enough for us to trust God in the selection and gifting of the various leaders. In doing this we will begin to realize how foolish we are to try to compare them and to lift up one as greater than another. Again, one of the clearest statements on the purpose of leadership in the Body is found in Ephesians 4:
It was he (Jesus) who gave some to be apostles, some to be prophets, some to be evangelists, and some to be pastors and teachers, to prepare God's people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ. (Ephesians 4:11-13)
Note again that leaders do not choose their own calling but are appointed by Jesus. Their purpose is clear, "to prepare God's people for works of service". They are the trainers. They come along and teach us, help us, prepare us, train us. We do not get our strength from them, they do not choose our calling, we do not find our purpose in them and they cannot save us. They are not Jesus, only his servants and the servants to the Body.
Returning to the problem of the Corinthians, Paul gives us a great visual picture of leadership in the Body of Christ:
What, after all, is Apollos? And what is Paul? Only servants, through whom you came to believe—as the Lord has assigned to each his task. I planted the seed, Apollos watered it, but God made it grow. So neither he who plants nor he who waters is anything, but only God, who makes things grow. The man who plants and the man who waters have one purpose, and each will be rewarded according to his own labor. For we are God's fellow workers; you are God's field, God's building. (1 Corinthians 3:5-9)
Not only does our foolish attitude toward leadership reveal our immaturity it also becomes a stumbling block to our growing up process. We need the Apollos', Paul's and Cephas' of this current age. We need our pastors but we also need our prophets, apostles, evangelists and teachers. We have to stop being the disciples of men and become the disciples of Jesus. Some plant, others water but only God makes it grow. When we let go of our foolish thinking and grasp this Kingdom-fact we will begin moving forward in our growing up process. We allow leaders to serve us but we lift up and worship only Jesus.
7 comments:
- The Manic Chef said...
This is a very good entry and I agree there are many so-called Pastors who are 'idolized' many of them are truly False teachers, and I'm a bit concerned that you are not addressing this issue. We need not leaders, this term is not presented in the Gospels whatsoever. We need as you have stated, those that are called by God and taught by the Lord in His Ways. Many so-called Pastors, leaders, or even the present so-called Apostles have been produced by the Bible School machine. Present day Bible schools,and colleges, were never to be established, it's an unbiblical principal, it's a Roman Catholic tradition which has never been eradicated from the "born again" evangelical circles. I must state that there are no longer any Apostles chosen by the Lord in our present time. Anyone who thinks Apostles are still chosen in our age are erring greatly from what the Bible states. The time for Apostles is over, they already were given, the ones who helped pen the new testament are the ones that were called and who continually bless us to this day with their God given wisdom and experiences. I agree with you we need less man worship, and more of leaning on Christ, and learning from Christ through His Holy Spirit and God's Word. This scripture really fits our times, the days of 'denominations' are over, as we mature in Christ we learn the truth, for He teaches us: 1Jn 2:26 These things have I written unto you concerning them that seduce you.
1Jn 2:27 But the anointing which ye have received of him abideth in you, and ye need not that any man teach you: but as the same anointing teacheth you of all things, and is truth, and is no lie, and even as it hath taught you, ye shall abide in him.
1Jn 2:28 And now, little children, abide in him; that, when he shall appear, we may have confidence, and not be ashamed before him at his coming.
May Jesus be our only true HERO, and pray that He make us what He desires us to be. AMEN!
- September 27, 2011 at 9:31 AM
- Pastor Paul said...
I agree with you that several of the things you mention are not biblical, such as denominations. However, I would like to know what scripture indicates that apostles are no longer part of God's training team, as we find in Ephesians 4. I have heard this often but I have yet to find any biblical support for the end of the apostle.
I think you are missing the purpose of my posts recently. I am doing a series on maturity by going through the first letter to the Corinthians. I deal with issues as they present themselves. We are some beginning steps, not yet address the "wolves in sheep" clothing. Perhaps that will put your mind at ease concerning this issue.
- September 27, 2011 at 5:13 PM
- The Manic Chef said...
Concerning the Apostles, I too was at the place where you are. I was involved with the Pentecostal denomination and it's influences for about two decades, (shortly after the Lord revealed himself to me, I ended up at this denomination). After being seduced into a 'cult like' group lead by a woman, (who have no authority to lead the church or to teach or rule over men) I have since been re-taught by the Lord using other men of God, to give me His understanding of His word, and how to read His Word in Context with His understanding not man's. I am no longer influenced by the false teachings of the "Spirit filled" groups. I am born-again of God's spirit, and the Lord dwells within my heart, that is the indwelling of God's Spirit in me. Once realized that I had, due to being a babe in Christ, allowed misinterpretation of God's word to effect my 'faith', I cried out to the Lord to help remove everything that is not of His revealed truth. And in the last decade he has been faithful in doing such, and that has caused me to separate myself from all influences that lead to a false faith. Many believers in the past few years have experienced this same coming to terms with false teachings, and have come out from the Pentecostal influences and teachings. I pray the Lord will get you there also. In His Eternal Love....
- September 29, 2011 at 12:50 PM
- The Manic Chef said...
This growing into the Lord's Word is true maturing in Christ, so that we are no longer tossed back and forth with false doctrine and beliefs. This maturity is also extremely important to walk the walk, to walk in the light as He, Jesus is in the light. He loves His sheep, and His sheep hear His voice. He promised that He would guide us into ALL truth, His revealed truth, in His Word established by Him, and His Chosen Apostles, whom through revealed revelation were the only ones that have established the true foundations upon which our Faith must be built upon. Anything that is not built upon Him shall come to destruction, and lead many into a false Gospel, and bring terrible consequences in their spiritual growth. In His Eternal Love, the Lord bless you with His understanding concerning these issues.
- September 29, 2011 at 12:57 PM
- Pastor Paul said...
My friend you assume that I am part of Pentecostalism, which I am not. I was saved by direct intervention from the Lord, with no man's guidance. I was overwhelmed by the Spirit without any understanding of the experience. What I teach has not been influenced by any as I receive revelation every time I open the Word. I have never studied with commentaries, although I have looked on occasion to see what another opinion was on a passage, but never changed my understanding of what the Spirit gives to me. I do not adhere to teaching by popular opinion but instead by direct revelation. However, I have never been led to remove myself from the Body of Christ or to tear down another servant. I do not find just cause according to the Word. Unless a man preaches against Christ crucified I must assume they are at a different point in their walk than I am. Paul told us not to discourage or kill those who are less mature in their freedom of relationship but instead to conform our behaviour as not to bring them harm. Perhaps you and I are in this place of different positions in our walk.
Personally I find myself to be a powerful man of God not because of my work but instead because of the work of Christ in me. I trust the Lord's guidance and I try very hard to remain sensitive and in tune to him and the one thing I know I have learned from him is that after everything else is stripped away all that matters is faith demonstrating itself through love. Love must always be the foundation to all we say and all we do, and if it isn't then I want no part with it. I really believe that Scripture that tells me not to criticize another man's servant because at the end of the day Jesus is going to make sure that they are successful. I don't think that my Jesus is so weak that he needs me correcting other leaders over matters other than Christ crucified. I trust the Lord to correct any errors of teaching as he has with me on several occasions. It's his Body, I trust him, and refuse to allow myself to be separated from that to which I was called to serve.
- September 29, 2011 at 10:12 PM
- The Manic Chef said...
I thank you for sharing a bit of your testimony, I also was saved in my room with no Bible, no man, just a tract that I found on the subway in Toronto. The Lord clearly allowed me to know that the life I lived was a lie, and that I was not a true Christian. When I saw the truth, I understood what the Lord was doing, and He set me free from the lie. I wept and asked for His forgiveness, and then realized He really did exist, and that my Baptist background did not bring me to salvation, (a mental ascension to the need to be saved). I then understood in part what being Born-Again truly meant. Born of Him, by Him, and through Him. I know I do seem to be very forward, but I have been through much in my walk, and I'm seeking out brethren, who is of like mindedness as the Bible clearly instructs us to do. Many preach Christ's crucifixion, ie; Roman Catholic church, the Jehovah Witness, Anglican, Baptists, Presbyterian, Episcopalian, etc,, you can preach Christ crucified with the lips, yet know nothing of Christ. I do hope you know many are of the Anti-Christ spirit, they preach a different Christ, such as the RC, Jehovah witnesses, Anglican's etc. Do you consider those brethren or false? I believe in Love, but God's word does informs us to stay away from false teachers who teach a different Christ and to rebuke them openly, and to warn others of them. Are you against the ecumenical movement, which represents a 'one world church'? I'm not trying to be difficult, the Lord expects me to find these things out before committing myself to any group without knowing what they believe, who and what they support, and to be a Berean, not giving myself over to anyone unless ALL things are according to God's Word. Do you consider Benny Hinn a follower of Christ? Are you familiar with the Latter Rain movement? Do you believe in the rapture?
I'm just a bit confused why you don't mention, why you consider, Mr. Billy Graham a servant of the Lord. With what Biblical evidence do you back this up? I do believe the Lord mentions that if we are asked a question by someone, we should have an answer. Look to you it would probably seem that I'm being very, no extremely careful, very 'walled up', and yes I am. I know what it has cost me. I do think you understand. I'm not nit picking to find some little flaw, the Lord knows there is no perfect group of Christians, but I just want those who do adhere to the Word on the major issues. I live in Montreal and I'm looking for fellowship. Can we talk more? Thank you for your patience, in His Eternal Love.
- September 29, 2011 at 11:21 PM
- Pastor Paul said...
I hear a lot of pain in what you write but I am not here to lift myself or anyone else up. I understand you have been hurt but I don't have time to preach against anyone. All my time is taken up with lifting up Jesus Christ, of caring for those he has placed in my care and to always understand that no one and nothing belongs to be. I point everyone to Jesus.
I have no personal doctrine other than the Word of God. I try my best not to act or preach outside of that context. If it's in the Bible then I believe it 100%. I believe in the five-fold ministry of Ephesians because there is nothing saying that it has not continued to this day. I have heard man's opinion but that counts for nothing outside of the Word.
I do not believe in any man's ministry but I hold to the ministry of the Holy Spirit. I respect my fellow servant's unless they are preaching against the Word.
I am sorry that you find yourself being so cautious about the Body of Christ. Personally I find her to be a radiant Bride and I know the Groom will keep her sanctified; she belongs to him, not me. I am simply a servant wanting to obey my Master's voice. If he tells me to correct then I will correct. If he tells me to teach then I will teach. I have come to understand these words:
"The only thing that counts is faith expressing itself through love." (Galatians 5:6)
And that is what I aim to do until I hear his voice calling me to his side.
- October 3, 2011 at 2:15 PM

subset: commoncrawl


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Confusing therapy and therapeutic
This is something that has been making me think a little bit. Many treatment facilities use a wide range of "therapies" to combat a person's eating disorder. Now, really, the more ammunition, the better. I have no fear of the use-a-sledgehammer-to-kill-a-fly approach, because Ed is one hell of a big fly. So let's bring in the big guns, shall we?


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New Jersey Stage
Saturday, October 1, 2011
ReVision Theatre Presents Little Shop Of Horrors
Mary Catherine Burke (Austentacious, NYMF) is set to direct, with choreography by Brad Landers (Cats Nat'l Tour), and Musical Direction by Michael Thomas Murray (ReVision's Tommy, Rocky Horror, Xanadu, Spring Awakening).
The Little Shop creative team includes, Clifton Chadick (Set Design), Sarah Maiorino (Costume), and Dan Jobbins (Lighting).
One of the longest-running Off-Broadway shows of all time, this affectionate spoof of 1950s sci-fi movies has become a household name, thanks to a highly successful film version and a score by the songwriting team of Howard Ashman and Alan Menken, who redefined the animated musical film with Disney's The Little Mermaid, Beauty and the Beast and Aladdin. Charming, tuneful and hilarious, with tongue firmly planted in cheek, LITTLE SHOP OF HORRORS never fails to entertain.
Director Mary Catherine states, "I was thrilled to be offered this opportunity to rethink Little Shop of Horrors, especially when the producers told me they didn't want to rent the "traditional" plant. When most people think of this show they think of a giant puppet, but in this production we've cast Audrey Two as a woman who sees how infatuated Seymour is with Audrey, and uses this knowledge to manipulate Seymour into feeding her. The show has quite a few Sci-Fi elements, it is about a plant striving for world domination, and in this production the "Street Urchins" who normally function as a Greek chorus, are under-cover agents who are here to stop Audrey Two. It provides a lot of dynamic choreography moments".
As always, ReVision audiences should expect a new take on this hilariously, entertaining musical that is set to bring joy to audiences of all ages and will have you singing the tunes all the way home. This production is not to be missed!
In addition, ReVision has announced a new performance schedule with added Saturday matinees at 2 pm on October 15th and 22nd with special family discounts available for select performances. If you are ordering between 4 – 8 family tix, please use the on-line code: family4. Also audience members are encouraged to come in costume to all matinees for a chance to win prizes from the Little Shop cast!
Little Shop of Horrors opens October 6 and runs through October 30 at The Carousel House located at 700 Ocean Avenue on the boardwalk in Asbury Park. Tickets are on sale now! Please call 732-455-3059 for more info on discounts. To order tickets please visit www.revisiontheatre.org, by phone 732-455-3059 or at a ReVision Theatre ticket outlet, Flying Saucers Retro Kitchenware, 659 Cookman Ave, in Asbury Park. Please consider buying your season tickets in advance as you will receive the greatest discounts.
ReVision Theatre is a professional regional Equity theatre company dedicated to producing invigorating theatre with a fresh new perspective reaching the diverse community of Asbury Park and beyond. ReVision Theatre produces reinventions of previously produced classics, overlooked or forgotten work in a new way, and new work with a fresh voice. ReVision Theatre produces readings, workshops, cabarets, concerts, and main stage productions. ReVision Theatre is a not for profit 501(c) (3) organization.
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From The Eco Urban Sustainability Video Newsletter!
Basil seedlings Raised & reared underneath a Tomato!
How to raise seedlings and save money is a question that is asked by many a gardener. Who among us who get our fingers down in the dirt doesn't want to reduce costs? Half the fun of gardening is saving money, don't you think?
There are many ways we can save money in the garden. We can do it by recycling. We can do it by creating our own fertilizers instead of buying them. Also, we can collect seeds from our own plants and then raise even more plants. And we can do this last for only a few cents!
If you don't have any plants as of yet to collect seed from, then you will need purchase some. Or you can buy seedlings from your local nursery or garden centre.
Link to fanpage
The Benefit of Raising Seedlings at Home!
How To Get Started With Salad Seedlings!
How to Store and Raise Tomatoes from Seed
Providing an Early Start for Your Seedlings.
- Providing a head start in early spring for your seedlings is advisable. It means you have fresh produce, either plants or flowers, that produce much quicker.
- One way to do this is to place your seed trays on top of your water heater before they sprout. Yep, kick the cat off, and place your seed tray there. At this stage those seeds don't need light, and the water heater works exactly the same a heat –mat. Saves you money!
- Raise your seedling in a plastic bag mini greenhouse. Place your seed tray, after planting and watering, in a clear plastic bag and tie it off. This creates humidity and warmth. It'll give your beloved seedlings a great start. If you want to grow them in the bag mini greenhouse, then bend some wire so it is shaped like an igloo or small tent. You can keep them in there until they reach the top. But you must prick some holes in the bag to let air circulate.
- Create a mini greenhouse from a plastic bottle or yogurt container. This system works great. But please remember to prick holes in the container for drainage. Also, once the plant has sprouted, open the top to let air circulate.
Money Saving Tips
The mission here is how to raise seedlings and save, so I have provided some money saving tips below as well as advice on how to give your seedlings a great head start.
- Share seeds amongst friends and communities to create a Seed Saving Bank. Always collect seed from your best producers, that are your most productive plants.
- Raise your seedling in recycled containers such as ice-cream, butter, margarine, milk containers, second hand pots etc. Just make sure you place adequate drainage holes in them.
- Look for second hand pots at the junkyard, industrial tip, or when there's a council throw out. You be surprised how many are tossed out. But always wash and sterilize before using old containers.
- Keep an eye out for containers that can be used from second hand stores. Seedlings can be sprouted in anything as long as it has drainage.


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Sunday, March 30, 2014
Saturday, March 1, 2014
Bottle Green
Oil on canvas with palette knive
4 x 6"
This tiny painting has history ! What's the big deal about a small still life, you would wonder! Well, the story goes such. This bottle is important! About a year or so back, I read an article that plastic bottles are not good for storing drinking water and long usage leads to cancerous diseases. I realised then that I did not have a single glass bottle at home. I went out to the nearby stores to buy glass bottles, only to realise that they weren't easily available. That was when I asked some friends to pass on whatever throw-away bottles they had. In the stock of bottles that I received as donation, this was the biggest bottle; however, it came with a cork and smelt of wine every time you filled it with water, in spite of washing it several times. Eventually, it gave in to the rinses and became the "show stopper" water bottle of the kitchen! Well, to cut a boring story short, I soon lost interest in filling up glass bottles and especially this bottle, as it was too big in size. Every time I walked into the kitchen, it reflected beautiful reflections in the green colour and so it finally landed up on my canvas! The green bottle that is painted with bottle greens is an evergreen bottle on my kitchen rack, albeit empty!
Posted by Kasturi at 10:31 PM
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Labels: Still Life
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Optimization and Optimal Control (etit-522)
V-UE; 4 SWS; ECTS-Points: 6
Lecturer: Prof. Dr.-Ing. habil. Thomas Meurer
Many problems in industry and economy rely on the determination of an optimal solution satisfying desired performance criteria and constraints. In mathematical terms this leads to the formulation of an optimization problem. Here it is in general distinguished between static and dynamic optimization with the latter involving a dynamical process. This lecture gives an introduction to the mathematical analysis and numerical solution of static and dynamic optimization problems with a particular focus on optimal control problems. The lecture addresses the following topics:
- Fundamentals of static and dynamic optimization problems
- Static optimization without and with constraints
- Dynamic optimization without and with constraints
DatesSee UnivIS (lecture ID 080184) and UnivIS (lecture ID 080189)
Data and files will be updated during the teaching period.
Lecture notes
Direct links refer to pdf files for two side printout. Files for single side printout are provided separately.
- Title (version for single side printout)
- Chapter 1 (version for single side printout)
- Chapter 2 (version for single side printout)
- Chapter 3 (version for single side printout)
- Chapter 4 (version for single side printout)
Exercises will be provided successively during the lecturing period. A very brief introduction to some python 2.7 commands is provided in this notebook. Use ipython or Anaconda depending on your operating system.
- Exercise 1 (16.11.2017)
- Exercise 2 (07.12.2017, full 4 hours including parts of Exercise 1)
- Lecture notes (WS16/17)
[2] A.E. Bryson: Dynamic Optimization, Addison-Wesley.
[3] D.G. Luenberger, Y. Ye: Linear and Nonlinear Programming, Springer.
[4] J. Nocedal, S.J. Wright: Numerical Optimization, Springer.
[5] M. Papageorgiou: Optimierung, Oldenbourg Verlag.


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YA age range 13+
paranormal, romance, apocalyptic
They'd become fast friends who played together, shared countless secrets, pulled numerous pranks. And now, they'd survived together, when others hadn't.
"I can't believe there's a horse near here. I can't wait to see it again." Taryn grasped his shoulder and squeezed. "This is so unbelievable." She bounced on the bed next to him.
"You and those high maintenance hay burners." He threw his hands in the air and gave her a pointed look. "You can't have a horse, Taryn. Where do you plan keep it, anyhow? People in the compound would serve it up for dinner. Peter would be first in line with his knife and fork."
Taryn cringed at Flyn's words. Peter, the current leader inside the sanctuary, was also her arch enemy Vanessa's father. "Hey now, I can't help it." A pressure built in her chest as her lips formed a pout. His grim words threatened to take the wind out of her sails.
"The stallion is beautiful, powerful. Free..." She stared off in the distance. "Maybe that's why it calls to me. It represents what we don't have and haven't experienced in a very long time." Her emotions betrayed her and a tear escaped down her cheek before her fingers could erase it. It seemed a lifetime ago she'd even seen one of her beloved equines.
"Hey now, don't cry." Flyn gathered her into his arms. Her head rested beneath his chin. His scent was familiar and calming to her senses.
She pondered how he'd changed this past year they'd lived inside the refuge. He's grown into a man. The smattering of facial hair across his jawline proved it. A very handsome man at that. She sighed. He'd be seventeen this year.
"You know I hate to cry. It's a useless waste of energy."
"But it makes you feel better," Flyn said, brushing his finger across her cheek, wiping away the evidence.
"Do you remember the things we used to dream about doing? I'd have my license and could work now. Be able to save money for college. I sometimes wonder if I'll ever be able to go to school and become a veterinarian. I hate this life...fearing if the only thing I have to hope for is to dodge zombies in order to make it through another day." Taryn quieted. The bleak outlook she'd spoken of darkened her mood. If I can catch this horse, life will be more tolerable.
"Don't feel bad. I have the same worries. In my mind, I try to come up with ways to make our current situation better. There must be a way to get through this, find our families, and feel safe again." Flyn looked her in the eye.
"I hope you're right," she said.
Right now, they endured and existed. Food, health, and a ray of sunshine. They considered the simple things in life precious gifts to hold tight to their hearts.
"From now on, when we leave the compound, I'm not letting you out of my sight. Understood? It'll be over my dead body one of those zombies gets a chance to infect you." He pulled her from his chest and clutched her upper arms. Tension radiated through his fingertips and zinged across her skin.
"You know I'm able to take care of myself. I've learned how to stay alive. I don't need you babysitting me every second of the day." Her words sounded strong and sure to her own ears. Too bad little nags of doubt crowded her mind. She brushed them away. If I want to capture this horse, I need to be strong.
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Western Libraries' Sustainability Blog, connecting people to sustainability information and resources.
Who is Hans Wholebean?
Meet Hans F. T. Wholebean, Western Libraries' Sustainability sock monkey! Hans was given to the library by Office of Sustainability's Carol Berry, partly as recognition and reward for Haggard Circulation's participation in the Sustainable Office Certification pilot project.
Hans was handmade by Carol, and his clothing comes from recycled and re-purposed materials. Hans always carries his own re-useable bag and drinking mug, and he also has a book about sustainability that he enjoys reading.
Hans wants to help inform people about sustainability in the library, and you may occasionally see him monkeying around and having a good time. He now officially resides in Special Collections as part of the Mathes Reading Figurines Collection, but he also enjoys checking out the Map Collection for hiking maps, or browsing through the library's DVDs looking for interesting documentaries.
Hans thinks libraries are one of the greatest wonders of the world because they are founded on principles of sustainability in that they seek to provide access to information to people (and sock monkeys), and they do this by sharing and re-using resources.Of course it is only fitting that Hans be a member of our sustainability blog team, so you will be seeing more of him on this site as he finds new information that he wants to share with you!
1 comment:
- AnonymousApril 6, 2013 at 8:16 PM
I think Hans needs a hat, possibly many hats, because library staff wear many. He should visit every department and let students and faculty behind doors they've never been through where work behind the scenes is done. He might even want to change the name cataloging to monkeyalogging. Thanks for giving me the opportunity to meet him.ReplyDelete
A retired library staff member.
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From Beijing to Amman. Next up? Moscow. For family and friends who want to follow our adventures, this is it...
Friday, January 11, 2013
Iron Chef
My mom and dad taught me to cook, back in the day, so I came into this marriage pretty proficient, but what really forced me to learn was Armenia. It was our second post, and I loved it, but when we lived there, there were almost no imported or convenience products available in the local shops. Our time there coincided with 9/11 and the anthrax scare, which meant that we were without mail for half of our tour, so we couldn't order the things we wanted from the States. There weren't a lot of restaurants: if you wanted to eat something, you had to make it yourself.
There were no canned beans: you soaked the dried ones overnight and boiled them. There was no pizza restaurant, and the first time I tried to make my own pizza dough, it turned out flat and dry and toothbreakingly crunchy.
I figured it all out eventually - even the pizza dough! - and my part time housekeeper taught me to make both Russian and Georgian food - everything from borsch to hachapuri to chicken tabaka. I still love making that stuff, all these years later.
I love to eat. I love to cook, too, and one the best things about this foreign service life of mine is that I've learned to make so many unusual things, like dumplings and ricotta cheese and fried rice. I cook weird stuff sometimes - like mustard greens, or Swiss chard, or lentils. Sometimes my kitchen experiments are gigantic flops, like that first awful pizza dough. But no matter - time spent in the kitchen is my own personal zen.
Little wonder, then, that I've spent these last few snow-bound days in my kitchen. You could say I kind of went a little crazy on the cooking this weekend. I trudged through the slush yesterday in order to buy butter and cream and sugar and flour from the little shop around the corner and ohmygawd, you guys, what haven't I made? I started with brownies and caramels - tragically, they are already gone. I made a couple of loaves of whole wheat bread. I made 2 kinds of soup for the freezer. I made bran muffins and crepes. I still have plans for another batch of bread if tomorrow cooperates.
Ironically, then, we went to someone else's house for dinner last night and had takeout pizza. Tonight the boys have sleepover pals and we promised them Mexican takeout from the new restaurant down the road. I've cooked and cooked and cooked, yet the only things we've eaten have been the caramels and the muffins and the bread.
No matter. It got me through the snow days. Today is warmer and the steady drip-drip outside the window tells me it'll be time to get outside again soon.
4 comments:
- Meaghan said... [Reply]
Sounds fun! I wonder if you could expand a little on the "exorbitant prices" bit - I have a vested interest in that I'm headed to Amman this summer! Is it mostly convenience foods or imported goods that are pricey? What about staples, like butter and cream and flour? I'd read that food was fairly reasonable there (and am very much looking forward to cheap shawarma!).
- January 11, 2013 at 10:44 PM
- Kate said... [Reply]
Donna- I was wondering if you were planning on participating in the girl scout cookie order? If so, would you mind a hanger's on? I'm in Amman but not with the US Embassy, but I'm sure I could come pick them up from you or meet somewhere if you'd be more comfortable with that.
- January 12, 2013 at 3:10 PM
- Donna said... [Reply]
Hey Kate, if you give me your email address, I can write to you and we can work something out.
- January 13, 2013 at 8:19 PM
- Donna said... [Reply]
Argh. I keep trying to reply, but blogger is not cooperating. The short answer is: it depends. Local foods are inexpensive - white flour, fruits and veggies in season. Cereal will kill your wallet,as will healthier foods like whole wheat flour or quinoa. Pasta cheeses, ouch. Canned soups, yikes. We get by because we try to eat locally as much as possible. Email me (see the contact me tab) if you have more questions. And I'll look forward to meeting you in person soon!
- January 15, 2013 at 9:19 PM


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The Minimum Requirements for Installing the Software is DirectX 8.0 Version of Higher and is Compatabile with Windows Version 98,ME,XP and 2003. You need to have atleast 10MB of space free in the Hard disk.
The Interface of the Software is Pretty Nice and the Audio and Video Quality of the Ipod Video Format is Pretty Impressive. You can Download the Software for Free.
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Tuesday, 30 November 2010
Waiting for a yes, no, or "bugger off, you o'rrible lot"
As you may have guessed from the casual way it was mentioned here, the decision to move in with my Boyfriend was never a big deal. It never discussed in detail, umm-ed over or debated. It never seemed worthy of a big fanfare or announcement; it's just always been on the cards.
Not much seems to phase the Boyfriend. Whether it's flying across the world to see a girl he'd only known for two months, or leading the search for a one bedroom flat (for two), he doesn't shy away from the things that would make a lot of 23 year olds tremble in their boots. I am continually surprised by how much he seems to like being with me. It seems like I'm less (eek! Gasp! Shit the bed!) moving in with my Boyfriend (omg omg omg), and more like we're just two people who are getting out of homes they feel too old to be living in, and closer to a person they spend most of their time with anyway.
And even that simple explanation seems to dissect the process too much.
Besides, the other day I found a television dressed as a zebra.
And the sooner I get that in my life, the better.
8 comments:
- Kirses said...
Wait - is he your toyboy?
When I was 25 my then 21 year old Boyf followed me to Oz to live there with me for a year in a wee flat in Newtown, there definitely are some good guys out there (why didn't I hold on to that one??)
- 30 November, 2010 14:06
- Please Don't Eat With Your Mouth Open said...
He is indeed, there are three years between us. Well, two and a half if you're doing the maths properly.
It seems like the sort of bloke who goes for older girls is more at ease with doing these sort of big gesture things for some reason. Hmmm.
- 30 November, 2010 14:11
- Anonymous said...
A TV dressed as a giraffe?!
No, NEED!
- 30 November, 2010 14:24
- Please Don't Eat With Your Mouth Open said...
Need. Neeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeed. Neeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeed.
- 30 November, 2010 14:29
- Anonymous said...
Only you could find a TV dressed as a zebra Jo!
Fingers crossed you get the go ahead sooner rather than later. You might even get in for Christmas.
- 01 December, 2010 10:25
- Anonymous said...
Where did you find the TV/zebra?!
We've still not bought a TV for our flat... Tempted to put the zebra on the Xmas list...!
- 01 December, 2010 16:01
- Ellie said...
Holy shit. Imagine watching zebras on the TV within the zebra!
- 02 December, 2010 17:06
- Please Don't Eat With Your Mouth Open said...
Perp - Don't want to get in for Christmas really, as it's a year lease which means we'd have to be out at Christmas (should we want to move on), plus January will give us more time to save up precious pennies! :)
Roseski - There's a shop in Westfield. I was dragged in too quickly to see the name. Hann or something? Google zebra TVs.
Ellie - Woah. You've just opened up an entire other range of possibilities.
- 02 December, 2010 19:23


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Thanks to all who entered my giveaway...and a very special thanks to each of you who are followers of this blog.
Grand Prize:
Package #1:
Package #2:
Congratulations, winners!
Please send me an e-mail with your US mailing address so I can get your prize package out to you.
{You can find my e-mail address in my blog header or on my Blogger profile.}
Tuesday, August 9, 2011
Posted by Tifany on Tuesday, August 09, 2011
Labels: Blog Candy, Giveaway, Information, Winner
5 comments:
- Shannon Marie said...
thanks so much!!
- August 9, 2011 at 4:21 PM
Congratulations to all the lucky winners!!!
Thank you for having such a fabulous RAK to celebrate your birthday Tifany - hope you had a great day :)
- August 9, 2011 at 7:12 PM
- mish said...
- August 9, 2011 at 7:30 PM
- Emily said...
Congratulations ladies!!
- August 9, 2011 at 9:34 PM
- Gaylynn said...
Yay. Just found out today (on my birthday). Thanks so much! :)
- August 11, 2011 at 4:08 PM
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IBB January 30, 2013
January 30, 2013
Bret Beye called to order the special meeting of the Board of Education of U.S.D. 487 at 5:00 p.m., January 30, 2013. Present: Ben Meyer, Rod Erickson, David Powell, Anna Gustafson, Deb Geissert, Barb Kurtenbach, Lyneva Bryan, Megan Mein, Patty Kahle, Superintendent John Thissen and Clerk of the Board Robyn Heitfield. Stacey Berndt joined the meeting at 5:04 p.m. Patty Kahle joined at 5:15 p.m. Absent: Alan Stuart and James Carnes.
1. ADOPT AGENDA David Powell moved (Meyer) to adopt the agenda. Motion carried 5-0.
2. IBB MEETING John Doern with the Federal Mediation & Conciliation Service was not able to attend due to weather conditions.
Ground rules were reviewed. An addition will be made at the beginning of the ground rules. PURPOSE: To work together for the betterment of the district. This is not board members or teachers. This is a team effort. There will be no individual agendas.
Mr. Thissen explained the anticipated revenue shortfall with the 2013-14 budget. Members were conscious of the scheduled budget cuts that would likely occur to offset this decline in revenue.
Budget 2012-13 (actual) Budget 2013-14 (estimate)* Deficit
$4,490,765 $4,076,279 = <$414,500>
* This estimate is based on the following:
- State funding formula used in declining enrollment the last 3 years <$196,000>
2010-11 30 less kids from previous year
2011-12 20 less kids from previous year
2012-13 10 less kids from previous year
- Loss of new facilities weighting (two year program only) <$218,500>
QZAB Payment (last payment was made in December 2012) = $55,000
Transfer less from GF and LOB to special funds(1 year only)= $100,000
Contingency Reserve (possibly two years) = $100,000
Personnel (not replacing all retirements) = $100,000 to $150,000
Savings $405,000
These two figures could cancel each other out for one year and partially for the 2014-15 budget year with the exception of transfers.
Salaries (all USD 487 staff)
Steps and columns only w/admin and classified same % increase = $24,640
Add $500 to base w/ admin and classified same % increase = $61,100
Add $1,000 to base w/admin and classified same % increase = $99,500
Mr. Thissen talked with a representative of ESSDACK and although the district has seen no increase in health insurance over the last two budget years, the intent of ESSDACK is to use their own reserve and absorb any premium increase so they would not have to pass it on the districts.
There are other options to cut spending as listed on the cut list created 4 years ago. A couple of these options are:
- After School Program – an estimated $30,000 could be saved if this program was cut. At Risk funding is used to continue this program so this would not add money to the General Fund.
- In Town Bussing – The district does not receive any funding for a student that lives less than 2.5 miles from the school so eliminating most of the in town bussing would save a considerable amount on wages, fuel etc.
Issues left open from the previous year:
Sick Leave Buyback upon Retirement
Mr. Thissen contacted several area districts as to whether they had a policy on buying back sick leave when an employee retires:
- Marion - $25/day (must be employed by district 15 yrs)
Also pay $100/year notification bonus for years in the district
- Hillsboro - $25/day (must be employed by district 15 yrs)
Nothing for notification bonus
- McPherson – $45/day no stipulation on years in district (can accrue up to
75 days)
- Great Bend - $25/day no stipulation on years in district
The following issues were listed:
- Sick Leave Buyback
- Pay out upon retirement
- Combine MS and HS Wrestling Programs
- Similar to the track program
- Salary
- Insurance
- Evaluation
- Confidentiality
- Protection of Personal Days
- Allow dock days to be used before exhausting all personal days
- Extended Contract with Vocational Ed Coordinator
- Parent/Teacher Conferences
- This year as compared to previous year
- Covering teacher absences
- Length of Contract
- Length of Days Per Year
- Tie to calendar committee work
- Extra Duty Pay
- New Teacher Mentoring Program
- Early Retirement Language
How it is worded and interpreted
The group began discussion on specific issues.
14. Early Retirement Language
The following requirement is listed under Eligibility (pg 12)
a) is currently a full-time employee
Confirmation of what qualifies as a full-time employee was requested. A full time employee is an employee that works 30 hours or more per week during the school year. This is a requirement to be eligible for insurance throughout employment so this requirement carries over to be eligible if an employee retires before 65. An employee will be eligible for insurance upon retirement if they are covered at the time of retirement. There cannot be a lapse in coverage.
13. New Teacher Mentoring Program (pg 11)
Concerns were expressed as to the guidance new teachers receive upon entering the district. Currently, new teachers arrive two days prior to all staff coming in for training on procedures, policy and other minimal information. A first and second year teacher is assigned a mentor teacher for support. The district uses Smoky Hill as a resource for new and mentor teachers. Workshops are attended by both teachers during the year. This support is still minimal. Mr. Thissen will communicate with Smoky Hill to see what additional measures can be taken to make our program stronger. Additional training for the mentor teachers is also desired. A "how to" list could be developed and given to new teachers as a guide. This issue will move to the parking lot.
8. Extended Contract with Vocational Ed Coordinator (pg 14)
This issue was brought to Mr. Thissen's attention last year when contracts were generated. With Vocational Ed teachers creating their own pathways, a coordinator was no longer necessary. This was not included in with the regular teaching contract and therefore was not paid out for the 2011-12 school year. It will be removed from the list under Extended Contracts in the Negotiated Agreement (pg 4).
12. Extra Duty Pay (pg 3)
A concern was brought to members as to what can and cannot be considered extra duty pay. One example was the elementary DARE program held in the evening. Because it was not on the list of approved extra duty pay, it was assumed it could not be reported. Classroom teachers were required to attend. This could be identified as an administrative assignment and therefore would qualify for extra duty pay. Instead of listing individual assignments within the Negotiated Agreement, the group agreed that better direction should be given to building administration as to what administrative assignments can include.
1. Sick Leave Buyback
This issue will go to the parking lot until the value of other benefits is determined.
2. Combine Middle School/High School Wrestling Program
It has become a challenge to find and maintain coaches. As the programs currently stand, even though separate contracts are issued, coaches are generally involved in working with both. There would be no additional cost in combining the programs and it would be formed the same way as the track program. This issue will be put in the parking lot. Mr. Thissen will add staffing for supplementals on the board meeting agenda.
3. ADJOURNMENT At 7:40 p.m., Bret Beye declared the meeting adjourned.
Robyn Heitfield, Clerk of Board of Education
Attest: ____________________________________
Bret Beye, President
Date: _____________________________________


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Gossip Girl Stylist Eric Daman On Spring Essentials Amp Chuck Bass Fridays
His appearance had warm receptions from Fifth Avenue in mid-America. While his name might not ring a bell, as a designer of good faith, cult classic series CW Gossip Girl, Daman could also be a family name. But while Gossip Girl designer-in-designer Abigail Lorick (that responsible for the design of Eleanor Waldorfs namesake line on the show) has achieved substantial recognition in recent months thanks to the successful launch of its namesake women collection at Fashion Week New York last September, Daman flew relatively under the radar. Meet Eric Daman, one of the most influential labor force in the world of fashion today. Until now!.
Verantwortlich für die Inhalte ist der Autor. Dein kostenloses Blog bei myblog.de! Datenschutzerklärung


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Thursday, 17 November 2016
Just waiting for news . . .
An appropriate photo for this brief post. The bay pony having 40 winks is how I feel I would like to be now. Worrying about Tricia, and being on steroids AND having a cold resulted in NO sleep last night. I was feeling drowsy around 2.30, blew my nose and got the mother of earaches and painful neuralgia right down the right hand side of my head. I had to get up and take some painkillers, and then I sat and watched tv and had a cup of tea, waiting for the pain to ease a little. I watched a very good programme about the Bohemians by Victoria Coren Mitchell - the 2nd of 3 - and she covered the Bloomsbury Set, Edward Carpenter (the original hippy, and who invented sandals but wearing them with huge hairy socks was NOT a good look), the Bright Young Things, dastardly Augustus John who thought it was fun to live in a gypsy caravan with his entourage of wife, mistresses and their naked most of the time children and who reckoned he has sired 99 bastard children, and so on to Eric Gill, who broke every rule going when it came to who (and what) to have sex with . . .
Sadly, I heard this morning that Trish has taken a turn for the worse again and is struggling with a chest infection and her lung cancer worsening now she is off the chemo. It is just a matter of time and so I am having to brace myself for the phone call - it could be a few days or just a few hours.
The photo above is one of the beautiful ones I took when I was staying with her last month. It seems so long ago now. A Beech tree with Gout!!
8 comments:
The peace and quiet of that beautiful beech tree - let's all hope that your friend's end is quiet and peaceful. Thinking of you.ReplyDeleteReplies
It's very serene isn't it Pat? I hope she just drifts away.Delete
I feel for you and hope Trishe's passing is peaceful.ReplyDeleteReplies
Thanks Dawn. She's a fighter though, and perhaps won't give up without a struggle.Delete
Sending gentle thoughts to you and for your friend, a painful time.ReplyDelete
Many hugs to you at this difficult time. We are also waiting, for my 90 year old Mother in law who is in hospital and fading and one of my apprentices who had a biopsy for a brain tumour on Tuesday so the specialists can decide on treatment. Your mention of sandals and hairy socks made me smile. When I first started work at the Community Health Council one of the local psychiatrists thought he was making himself totally accessible by wearing sandals and socks. His clients just called him a hippy and didn't think much of him as a professional! Augustus John was a great hero to the herbalist Juliette de bairacli Levy. She went and stayed with him for a time before the war and would send him water from Abbotts Well when she was living in the New Forest with her children. Her father, Joseph Levy was a great art patron before his money disappeared. He even paid for the artist, Charles Spencelayh, and his family to reside in Manchester for several years so he could paint the portraits of Joseph and his wife, Rosa. I've always wondered if Augustus John actually visited one of the Levy's house parties in Didsbury and whether his tales of the romantic gypsy life influenced Juliette to dedicate her writing life to the Romany people. I always think her herbal knowledge and subsequent writing came after she found she could earn money writing about the gypsies.ReplyDelete
A slow death from cancer with its months of treatments, remissions, relapses, seems like the cruelest ending of life.ReplyDelete
I'm sorry you are dealing with this grief along with a bout of illness. Neuralgia is dreadfully painful. Hoping for better news regarding your health--and peace for your friend and those who love her.
I hope you feel well soon and you get some much needed sleep. Sleep deprivation makes everything feel worse sometimes doesn't it. So sorry to read of your friend. Take care xxReplyDelete


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Blog Archives
vSphere – vCloud – Fast Provisioning – My Thoughts…
Yea, some would say this post is probably overdue but lately I have sincerely been thinking. Have we been drinking some Kool-Aid around this feature? I couldn't help but have some concerns around possible implementation of this feature in VCD installments. I in particular, am not sold on it completely. Here are just some quick reasons for me that didn't exactly sell me.
- It's a very "new" feature in regards to VCD which is still early in its years as a cloud platform.
- No way of currently updating those linked clones unlike VMware View. (some admin over head as well as using local and shared catalogs)
- Added complexity (with linked images, snap chains, and how you have handle storage motion)
- By Default ALL linked clone images are mis-aligned. (VMware has yet to address this problem) In some cases this could be a compounding factor causing some additional I/O overhead.
- Design has to be highly considered and evaluated with a max of 8 node clusters (This will affect current installments as well)
So yeah, I know I look like the bad guy but I seriously think this release was just a target more to SMB than anything. IMO, this is more like a feature for those of smaller businesses because now they don't have to go out and spend all that crazy dough on a VAAI capable array (Hooray for them :)) which begs to question….
Why do you need to enable this feature if you already leverage VAAI capable arrays?
It just seems to me that Fast Provisioning is a little pre-mature in its release. Although VCD continues to improve I think this features needs some serious improving before some bigger shops may decide to utilize it. The other down is that we have yet to see any real progress on the UNMAP problem and it's now treated as a manual task we should run during certain times… or outages I should say. That really blows because we all know what kinds of benefits and problems thin provisioning on some array can cause. For the most part, it's just really bad reporting… lol.
Here are some other sources I would recommend reading and I seriously think you should read them and learn for yourself if it's really worth it. Also, be careful not to put the cart before the OX and do your homework. Some people drink the kool-aid and don't think to question or ask "What's really under the hood?". Fast Provisioning should never be compared to VMware View… It's similar but not identical.. I would definitely recommend reading Nick's blog it opened my eyes to what he calls the "Fallacies" and of course Chris has a good read.
vSphere 5 – Storage pt.1 VMFS and Provisioning
VMware® vStorage Virtual Machine File System (VMFS) is a high-performance cluster file system that provides storage virtualization optimized for virtual machines. Each virtual machine is encapsulated in a small set of files and VMFS is the default storage system for these files on physical SCSI disks and partitions. This File system enables the use of VMware® cluster features of DRS, High-Availability, and other storage enhancements.
For more information please see the following document here and the following KB here.
Upgrading VMFS:
There are two ways to upgrade the VMFS to version 5 from previous 3.xx. An important for when upgrading VMFS-5 or provisioning new VMFS-5 is that legacy ESX host will not be able to see the new VMFS partitions. This is because of the enhancements made into ESX and the partitioning. Upgrading VMFS-5 is irreversible and consider always what you are doing. Lastly, there are many ways to provision VMFS-5 these are just two of the more common ways of doing it.
Method 1: Online Upgrade
Although an online upgrade does give you some of the new features in VMFS-5 it does not give you all of them. However, it is the least impacting and can be performed at anytime without an outage. Below are the features you will not gain by doing an in-place upgrade:
- VMFS-5 upgraded from VMFS-3 continues to use the previous file block size which may be larger than the unified 1MB file block size.
- VMFS-5 upgraded from VMFS-3 continues to use 64KB sub-blocks and not new 8K sub-blocks.
- VMFS-5 upgraded from VMFS-3 continues to have a file limit of 30720 rather than new file limit of > 100000 for newly created VMFS-5.
- VMFS-5 upgraded from VMFS-3 continues to use MBR (Master Boot Record) partition type; when the VMFS-5 volume is grown above 2TB, it automatically & seamlessly switches from MBR to GPT (GUID Partition Table) with no impact to the running VMs.
- VMFS-5 upgraded from VMFS-3 continue to have its partition starting on sector 128; newly created VMFS5 partitions will have their partition starting at sector 2048.
RDM – Raw Device Mappings
- There is now support for passthru RDMs to be ~ 60TB in size.
- Non-passthru RDMs are still limited to 2TB – 512 bytes.
- Both upgraded VMFS-5 & newly created VMFS-5 support the larger passthru RDM.
The end result in using the in place upgrade can be the following:
- Performance is not optimal
- non-standards can still be in place
- Disk Alignment will be a consistent issue with older environments
- File limit can be impacting in some cases
Method 1: How to perform an "Online" upgrade for VMFS-5
Upgrading a VMFS-3 to a VMFS-5 file system is a single-click operation. Once you have upgraded the host to VMware ESXi™ 5.0, go to the Configuration tab > Storage view. Select the VMFS-3 datastore, and above the Datastore Details window, an option Upgrade to VMFS-5 will be displayed:
Figure 3. Upgrade to VMFS-5
The upgrade process is online and non-disruptive. Virtual machines can continue to run on the VMFS-3 datastore while it is being upgraded. Upgrading the VMFS file system version is a one-way operation. There is no option to reverse the upgrade once it is executed. Additionally, once a file system has been upgraded, it will no longer be accessible by older ESX/ESXi 4.x hosts, so you need to ensure that all hosts accessing the datastore are running ESXi 5.0. In fact, there are checks built into vSphere which will prevent you from upgrading to VMFS-5 if any of the hosts accessing the datastore are running a version of ESX/ESXi that is older than 5.0.
As with any upgrade, VMware recommends that a backup of your file system is made prior to upgrading your VMFS-3 file system to VMFS-5.
Once the VMFS-5 volume is in place, the size can be extended to 64TB, even if it is a single extent, and ~2TB Virtual Machine Disks (VMDKs) can be created, no matter what the underlying file-block size is. These features are available 'out of the box' without any additional configuration steps.
NOTE: Some documentation are excerpts and provided and used from VMware Documentation and Sources..
Method 2: Provisioning New VMFS-5
This method explains how to update VMFS without performing an "online" upgrade. Essentially this would be the normal process of provisioning a VMFS LUN for ESXi 5 or older. Here are the listed benefits of VMFS-5 provisioning without doing an "online" upgrade.
- VMFS-5 has improved scalability and performance.
- VMFS-5 does not use SCSI-2 Reservations, but uses the ATS VAAI primitives.
- VMFS-5 uses GPT (GUID Partition Table) rather than MBR, which allows for pass-through RDM files greater than 2TB.
- Newly created VMFS-5 datastores use a single block size of 1MB.
- VMFS-5 has support for very small files (<1KB) by storing them in the metadata rather than in the file blocks.
- VMFS-5 uses sub-blocks of 8K rather than 64K, which reduces the space used by small files.
- VMFS-5 uses SCSI_READ16 and SCSI_WRITE16 cmds for I/O (VMFS-3 used SCSI_READ10 and SCSI_WRITE10 cmds for I/O).
Other Enhancements:
- Disk Alignment for Guest OS's become transparent and have less impact.
- Performance I/O and scalability become a greater value to running online vs. new.
As you can see the normal provisioning of VMFS-5 is a lot more robust in features and offers a great deal of improvement to just performing an "Online" upgrade. The online upgrade is easy and seamless but for normal considerations all benefits should be considered. In my case the chosen Method would be Method 2. The only instance in which an "Online" upgrade would be considered under normal circumstances would be if you were already at capacity on an existing array. In this type of scenario it could be viewed as a more beneficial way. Also, if you did not have Storage vMotion licensed through VMware further considerations on how to migrate to the new VMFS would have to be made. Migrating workloads to new VMFS-5 would be a bit more of a challenge in that case as well. However this is not an issue under most circumstances.
Method 2: How To provision new VMFS-5 for ESXi
- Connect to vSphere vCenter with vSphere Client
- Highlight a host and click the "Configuration" tab in the right pane.
- Click on "Storage"
- In the right pane click "Add Storage" (See image)
- Select the LUN you wish to add
- Expand the Name column to record the last four digits (this will be on the naa name) In this case it will be 0039. Click "Next"
- Select to use "VMFS-5" option
- Current Disk Layout – Click "Next"
- Name the datastore using abbreviations for the customers name with the type of storage followed by the LUN LDEV (Yes, a standard). This example would be "Cust-Name"=name "SAN"=type "01"= Datastore Number "LDEV" = 0038. (cus-nam-san-01-1234)
- Select the radio button "Maximum available space" click > Next
- Click Finish and watch for the "task" to complete on the bottom of vSphere client
- After the task completes go to the Home > Inventory > Datastores
- Make sure there is a Fiber Storage folder created. Under that folder create a tenant folder and relocate the datastores in the new tenant name folder.
- After moving the folder you may need to provision this datastore for vCloud. Proceed to the optional method for this below.
Note: Some of the information contained in this blog post is provided by VMware Articles and on their website http://www.vmware.com
VMware vSphere Labs – Foundations – VMware Workstation Storage Considerations
This video informs you of what you may or may not know about the different types of storage you can use for your VMware vSphere lab set up. Things like physical iSCSI and NFS and Virtual Storage Appliances (VSA) are important to know about and some are MIUCH cheaper than the other.
Links Show in the video:
***Disclaimer: The thoughts and views expressed on VirtualNoob.wordpress.com and Chad King in no way reflect the views or thoughts of his employer or any other views of a company. These are his personal opinions which are formed on his own. Also, products improve over time and some things maybe out of date. Please feel free to contact us and request an update and we will be happy to assist. Thanks!~
HDS Storage Best Practices – What you need to know
Here are some notes I find useful for anyone wanting to learn more about the latest that HDS has to offer. Please note the date of this post and that something are subject to change.
1.Thin Provisioning > Unmap primitive WILL not be availible until Q1 2012
PER HDS > Reason being is that the UNMAP primitive when issued from VMware ESXi (vSphere 5) causes all the workloads on the Provisioned Storage Pool
to take a performance hit. This is because the UNMAP is issued with a "high priority".
The KB provides how to disable this feature.. It IS NOT disabled by default. This is a command ran locally on each ESXi 5 host.
2. sVmotions, VMDK deletions on various storage platforms with ANY thin provisioned Arrays will always be showns as space allocated. (The space is never reclaimed) To counter this negative effect UNMAP was introduced however is not production ready and causes problems.
3. Round – Robin PSP – is the HDS best practice for multi-pathing. HOWEVER we cannot do any clustering (MSCS or Oracle RAC) with this plug-in or AKA – Physical Compatible Raw Device Mappings. (VMs accessing physical SAN LUNS vs. VMFS) However HDS has released HDLM which is the HDS branded VMware Multi-Path Plug in and you can do both with this plug-in.
4. Block Size on HDS is 42MB – with vSphere 5 unified block size of 1 MB HDS arrays have to delete more blocks due to the unified block sizing. Stated that proper alignment is important between SAN, VMFS, and VMs.
5. Tier 1 Applications need special consideration depending on the use case – we may need to look at dedicating a particular level of Guaranteed I/O or creating seperate Dynamic Storage pools to meet the workloads. There is HDS documentation for using VSP with vCloud Director however it doesn't cover application workloads > waiting for these from HDS as we virtualize MANY different workloads in our cloud and it needs to scale easily on demand.
7. vCenter plug in – more to come..
8. I/O and measurements for performance on the SAN side is done through Performance Tuner from HDS. More to come.
9. No firmware update should be needed on the HDS side for VSP array to utilize the two new vSphere 5 VAAI primitives. Not sure about AMS…
10. VASA is coming quickly and this will give customers the visibility and deeper reporting for other things especially for VMware environments using HDS storage.
11. HDS recommend doing VMware Guest OS'es as Thick and doing San array thin. However there is not a huge gain in performance between the two. Our direction is to use Thin on Thin provisioning for reporting purposes, and etc..
For more HDS white papers and such you get to those here under a resources tab:
Hitchi Data Systems VMware resources
***Disclaimer: The thoughts and views expressed on VirtualNoob.wordpress.com and Chad King in no way reflect the views or thoughts of his employer or any other views of a company. These are his personal opinions which are formed on his own. Also, products improve over time and some things maybe out of date. Please feel free to contact us and request an update and we will be happy to assist. Thanks!~
Blah Blah Cloud… part 1
When you look at cloud today in context of VMware what is your biggest concern? For some of us it may be networking, others storage, and maybe even focused in a more broader perspective like; availability, scalability, and BU/DR. Since I have been working with vCloud director day in and day out I have been asking some deeper technical questions centered more around scalability of storage and other related components to the overall design. I have been challenged in various ways because of this technology. Prior to vCloud it was vSphere and a lot of how you implemented and managed vSphere was much less complex. Cloud brings another level of complexity – especially if your initial "design and management" is poor to begin with. Usually you end spending more time and money going back addressing issues related to simple best practices that most Architects and Engineers should already know. In some cases it's a disconnect between that design and infrastructure team and the help desk. This may not always be the case but in my experience it seems to happen more often than naught.
I am sure we could all spend plenty of time talking about operations, procedures, protocols, standards, and blah blah…. but this isn't the point of this blog…. Even though these things are of the highest importance and the more effort that is put into this the better the results you will get and the less cost you will end up spending. Anyways…
So, as I was saying vCloud has challenged me in several ways. Now not only do I have to consider the design of vSphere, but I also have to look at the design of vCloud director and how we manage all these different components. Even though you simply add vCloud director still doesn't mean that is in the end of it all. More complexity comes with integration of other applications, Application availability, and Backup and DR. I have been amazed at how many things I see as an oversight due to the lack of expertise in this area. This is no offense to anyone but really VMware is still in its infancy when running against other markets. Though I strongly sense that VMware is going to be majority market share for a while.
Crossing the gaps:
Since I have been studying and learning day and day out covering VMware best practices and other companies best practices (not VMware) I continue to see a lot of disconnects in certain areas (vCloud Director). Storage guys have no idea or clue about running virtualized workloads on Arrays and often times they care not to even want to learn about VMware. Usually they already have plenty to do but this disconnect on some level will affect the implementation. I honestly say that in most cases the Architect should be the one researching and ensuring that all the components which make up the cloud computing stack should be standardize and implemented correctly, even so these gaps still cause setbacks. Which now leads me into the networking side of things. Networking engineers I see are beginning to come up to speed more quickly on virtualization. The main factor of this is because of Cisco UCS and how it appeals to those network administrators and engineers, and add to that FCoE/CNA's. However, the disconnect once again lies in that knowledge transfer of the virtual platform of how it works and best practices designed around VMware. I first one to say that many don't really get the choice especially if a company just threw you into the fire. It's like right now we are looking at giving our network team the keys to the kingdom (CISCO UCS) but yet they have nearly ZERO understanding and training of how any of it works…. scary right? We have to cross these gaps people we need to make sure that we have people positioned in areas who can understand and impart that training or have someone available as a resource.
My Real Concerns:
vCloud director is something totally new and alien to me when I first stepped in the cloud. I had to learn and quickly. Having my background I quickly go to the manuals, read the blogs, get plugged into good sources, learn even more, read books, and I start auditing. I start looking at designs that may be questionable and start asking the questions of "Is it ignorance" or "What the … was he thinking?" and quickly find that usually it was the latter.. simply ignorance. No one really is to blame because we have to understand YES, it is a NEW technology – BUT how much more critical is it that we research and ensure that we are implementing a design that is "rock" solid before rolling it out… Yes, I know deadlines are deadlines but it is what it is either way. You either spend a lot more money in the long run or spend a little bit more to get it right the first time. We are now having to go back and perform a second phase and for the past couple of months we have been remediating a lot of different things that could've been done right had a simple template been designed correctly. We now spend countless additional hours updating and working more issues because of this one simple thing. This isn't even getting into the storage and other concerns I have.
Cloud and What's Scary?:
Yeah, I know right scary? I don't know about yours but some of the ones I have seen are. Here is what scares the heck out of me. ABC customer decides deploy a truck load of Oracle, MSSQL, IIS, Weblogic, and etc Virtual machines all on the fly. Next thing we know we see some latency on the storage back-end and see some impact to performance. Come to find out a bunch of cloning operations are kicking off… I/O is spiking, the VM's are writing many types of Iops and in a matter of about 12 hours we are having some major issues. This is called "Scalability" or sometimes "Elasticity" whatever you want to call it. Some catalogs host every kind of application and majority of the apps are all tier 1 virtualized workloads. This isn't the little stuff most corporations virtualize. They usually put this stuff off for later because the need of having a high performance server and old traditional thinking still tells them to not do it (Playing it safe). Scaling a cloud to accommodate tier 1 workloads is going to be something I think we are going to be seeing a lot more. In fact, most vendors provide documentation of implementing solutions on VMware Cloud Director – but they almost NEVER cover the application workloads. I am speaking to Storage, Networking, and Server Hardware. This is probably because in most cases due to the mixed nature you can have in an environment you should do THOROUGH testing to ensure that you can scale out and run an optimal amount of workloads… some would call it vBlock..
Anyways I didn't mean to write a blog this long but I have just had a lot on my mind lately and I will continue to write more as I continue my VMware Cloud journey.
***Disclaimer: The thoughts and views expressed on VirtualNoob.wordpress.com and Chad King in no way reflect the views or thoughts of his employer or any other views of a company. These are his personal opinions which are formed on his own. Also, products improve over time and some things maybe out of date. Please feel free to contact us and request an update and we will be happy to assist. Thanks!~


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I'm still thinking about GOD. That's a good thing, (being a nun and all.) Trinity Sunday is my favorite feast of the Lord. That statement is not an indicator of theological comprehension but an unexplainable joy in the mystery of who GOD is. I've read many good books on Trinitarian theology. So many brilliant scholars have tried, valiantly, to say something about the nature of the Godhead. My favorite is + Catherine LaCugna. Her book, "God For Us," begins with a brilliant deduction. Paraphrased, she suggests that we cannot know who GOD is in GODSELF. We can only know who GOD is from what GOD does for us. It may sound simple, but it's really quite revelatory. By LaCugna's standard every human being could say something true about who GOD is. If you say down and made a timeline of your life and inserted places where you know GOD intervened, blessed, protected, you'd have the makings of a theology. (I might do this during Community Retreat!)
Have you read "The Shack"? If not, it might interest the God-seekers among you. It's a story – pure fiction. Yet, this tale of loss and love has given me new insight into who GOD might be. There is a definite Trinitarian theology embedded in the tale. And GOD is personified, conveniently, into three, wonderful Persons. The GOD drawn in this portrait is total, self-giving, abiding love – love that is ever in motion, dancing in and out of our lives as we permit grace to do its thing. Rightfully, GOD never answers all our questions. JESUS told his friends, "I have much to tell you, but you could not bear it now (John)." But the author spins a tale that touches the pain of real life – the pain that only GOD can heal. I liked it. Can you tell?
I often wonder why I love the Trinity so much. There is no greater mystery – no bigger headache in the world of systematic theology. I guess I love it for several reasons: 1) I can't understand it, so the pressures off. All I need to do is be content to live in the mystery. 2) This GOD is Community. As a monastic woman, this goes to the very heart of my life. We are individuals and we are one body. We spend our lives learning how to give them up for love. This Triune GOD is our teacher and we are just students in "the school of the Lord's service (Rule of Benedict, Prologue)." Yes, I love this GOD who is Three and One. May your search for this GOD be filled with surprises and yield great peace, deep joy. For where GOD has been, these things will be.
Blessings and love to you all...
Sister Vicki


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Daniel and I both celebrated birthdays this month. My birthday on Sunday was spent visiting my brother Johnny in KY with Eli and Mom, and then the long drive back home. Eli enjoyed meeting his Great-Grandmother, Great-Great-Aunt Joan and Uncle Ed, his Great-Aunt Ellen and second cousins Emily and Sarah and other relatives at the Mitchell-Edwards store in Greensburg, KY. We came to visit while Cow Days was going on in Greensburg so we went to play at the festival in Mom and Ellen's hometown. Daniel most awesomely finished putting up baseboard around the house while we were gone and took care of the family mini farm. (The chickens are laying eggs!) We are getting ready for the cooler weather by getting our portable orchard in a more permanent home around our yard (except for the mangos, avocado, and grapefruit which will come inside for the winter). Also, we will be moving the fish inside soon.
Eli is changing so much everyday, he smiles more often and holds his head up quite well now. He is getting closer to sitting on his own and is very strong. He has taken to holding on to blankets or towels and pulling them over his face and peeking out from behind them. Holding a blanket seems to make him instantly sleepy, a trick we are glad to know! Though most of the time, he has become a good sleeper through the night, knock on wood.
2 days ago on my birthday I made up my mind to write or illustrate every single day of my 30th year. So today I will write my Day 3 entry. Because I can't be a writer if I don't write. I've got a plan and I'm sticking to it. The hardest part is to have a schedule and make time. I thought the perfect time would be around 8pm every night, but I forgot that Daniel often has meetings to cover at that time during the week, and Eli won't be ignored (not that I'd want to). So it may take some figuring out, and the schedule may vary depending on the day, but I will make the time. Just like I have to get a shower or eat dinner everyday, I have to write.
Tuesday, September 21, 2010
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Christmas Gifts for Boys
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Azure support for Linux RDMA
Thursday, July 9, 2015
We now support Linux remote direct memory access (RDMA) technology, enabling scientists and engineers to solve complex problems by using simulations running on Azure. RDMA technology allows A8 and A9 Linux virtual machines in Azure to directly communicate through the Infiniband network. This helps enable faster communication between virtual machines at low latency for parallel workloads and applications that take advantage of the Message Passing Interface (MPI) stack. With this release, Intel MPI is supported. For more information, please visit the About the A8, A9, A10, and A11 Compute Intensive Instances documentation page.
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Tuesday, 6 April 2010
Frozen Yogurt
After the tiresome and laborious days of the place labelled as a school, the holiday represents a time for relaxation and doing absolutely nothing, unfortunately my parents do not understand this key yet simple idea. So the marvellous invention known as a TV was turned off until six, the wii unplugged and anything relying on electricity was banned, and with the sun refusing to shine, finding a way to fill my time was definitely a chore. Somehow I survived by filling my time eating away at cakes and chocolate... Not the healthiest of ideas. So to say the least, my mum was relieved I was getting out of the house on Wednesday with my friends Olivia, Lucy and Ellie to Covent Gardens. After conveniently deciding to meet at my house as it was easiest to get to our destination from here, we wasted no time in getting our selves on the first bus to Hammersmith Station. After successfully managing to get on the right tube and land at Covent Gardens, the true challenge came. Climbing the stairs which where a better representation of Mount Everest. As we bravely set off determined in our minds, we soon began to feel the effects of this grueling climb, this was only after one flight. As we continued our ascent, people around us we dropping like flies, too weak to continue, how many more flights, would we ever see the light? Ten minutes later we saw a flicker of light breaking up the harsh grey surroundings, relief overcame us. We had made it. We instantly hit the shops with H&M, Zara, Mango, Urban Outfitters, an array of random little shops and then came the highlight of my day, when Lucy lead us into a vintage shop that I had never heard of, Rokit. My first impression was not one that positive but this was soon to change when I spotted the rack of Dungarees! After searching through them and trying to work out the peculiar sizing, I found a pair which caught my eye and the rest is history. I have not been able to take them off. After a delightful paella from Hola Paella and puddings from Snog, we decided to make a move. It was a delightful day and I am unbelievably happy with my buy! I will post pictures later!
Posted by faye.elise x at 13:28
3 comments:
haha! Your description of our climb is EXACTLY what i felt like! :P very good day :)ReplyDelete
- Anonymous9 April 2010 at 13:16
It was a very good day!ReplyDelete
The stair climb description made me laugh.
I only wish I had tried the green tea snog!
Lol!! Thank you! I reckon that green tea snog would of been DISGUSTING!!.... unless you love green tea? :sReplyDelete
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