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"Play Ultimate. See the World."
On February 8th I received a most unusual email from Satoru Ishii, an employee of Club Jr., inviting me to play in the Dream Cup in Fuji City, Japan: "In 2013 for 15th anniversary, we're trying to form 'USA all-star team'." I decided not to question too much where things went right for me (or wrong for Club Jr) in order that I should be invited, and quickly accepted.
The roster was finalized a few days later:
Bart Watson (*captain)
Martin Cochran
Max Cook
Brodie Smith
Will Driscoll
Dalton Smith
George Stubbs
Peter Prial
Ken Porter
Dylan Tunnell
Jimmy Mickle
Dylan Freechild
I think most would agree that the roster lived up to it's billing. This was clearly going to be a fun weekend.
Headless wandering
Most arrived as expected in Tokyo Narita Airport by Thursday afternoon; some delays in Bart's itinerary meant that he would be a day behind the rest of us. The first signs of Club Jr's, and Sat's in particular, preparedness and meticulous planning for the event and our participation in it began to show in the way of a chartered bus to our hotel.
Without prior Dream Cup participant and captain Bart, like any beast without it's head, we proceeded clumsily towards Fuji City that evening, getting to know each other and discussing various timely topics like the AUDL, MLU, and Team USA rostering along the way.
A pit stop during the drive yielded more foreshadowing: we were recognized by a player also traveling to the Dream Cup and had our pictures taken with him.
Finally at 11pm, exhausted from international travel, we arrived outside the hotel and began to unload our bags and proceed to the hotel foyer. Upon entering we found, in what kicked the surreality into high gear, a group of Club Jr staff who applauded when we entered the room. I guess if you're going to call a team "All-Stars" it makes sense to treat them as such. Another round of classiness expertly played by our hosts Club Jr.
Welcome to Fuji City
We arrived at the fields several hours earlier than our first game to ensure there was enough time for… autograph signing. Although probably more common to the super-stars in our sport, this was a new phenomenon to me and others on the team, but delightful. The requests continued over the course of the weekend, and I estimated that I signed over 100 autographs. At other times there was also palpable, over-the-top excitement at our presence: on several occasions players literally jumped up and down when we said they could throw or take their picture with us. Again, happenings that were totally surreal, but also unique and undeniably flattering.
|Ladies love Peter Prial
Taking the Field
Finally, we got to start playing together, still without Bart, on Friday afternoon. We scrimmaged two college teams and built some chemistry. It was remarkable how quickly a team dynamic developed over the weekend: there was the younger cabal, with Dalton being the clear rookie (sorry, Dalton – you know I love you). And then there were a bunch of older veterans swapping war stories (Dylan and I spent the entire flight back to the states doing this – quality stuff), but no real "middle". We joked that the team was "NextGen + Used-to-be-Gen." Bart arrived that evening to bolster the old guy crew.
|Me with… something
The Japanese style of play
Saturday brought the first tournament games that counted in the single-elimination bracket. As we started off playing the 64 seed, we weren't expecting huge challenges on the first day but the Japanese teams quickly surprised us. During previous Revolver matches against the Buzz Bullets it was evident had a very distinctive style of play relative to American teams: low, flat hucks to speed and / or across the field, long handler cuts to the break side, quick first steps, and no clear separation between the handler and downfield roles. To my horror, all Japanese teams seem to play this way, and play it well. The U-23 team gave us a great game in the quarters, and we barely survived semis 12-11 with a timely D as the clock expired (hard caps were effective immediately, basically). As I knew Buzz played this style the best, I also knew it'd be a challenge to win the tournament. This, I later learned, was a gross understatement: Buzz had won the tournament 13 out of 14 times, including against Sockeye the year they brought the whole team and one in which they won UPA nationals. No American team had ever won.
The Brodie question
"What's it's like playing with Brodie?" This was the most frequently asked question I received after the tournament. However, to answer that question I think you really need to ask a wider question: Who is Brodie Smith and what is his role in the sport? I think it's fair to say that he's one of the most talented throwers and players in the game. He's also, and let's make no mistake about it, the ambassador for the sport: his youtube.com video view counts sum to over 30 million, and there may be many "pro" ultimate players in the MLU and AUDL these days, but Brodie is the only one I'm aware of who is truly making a living playing the sport.
And herein lies the line Brodie has to walk: for him Dream Cup is not just a weekend for fun and travel. It is a professional obligation and opportunity, and one of many at that. Brodie wants to play well and win, but it doesn't hurt to make sure to have a highlight reel at the end of it, even at the expense of a few turnovers here and there. It also means that when the team is getting to know one another over beers, Brodie was in his room editing film, nurturing his substantial social-media following and otherwise being the professional that he is.
To get back to the original question, I had a great time playing with Brodie: he was easy to read as a thrower and cutter, and he made a bunch of big plays, saving his best game for the final. But I think he also hasn't quite figured out how to walk that line between his professionalism and being the ideal ambassador for the sport: there's one highlight (play #8) from the finals where he makes a great play over his defender, then does a punch-spike from the ground, watches the disc rise and fall in the air, then remembers to try to give his defender, who has walked away at this point, an encouraging hi-five. I think with a little more hi-fiving and a little less punch-spiking he'll find more success, on and off the field.
Finals vs Buzz (video)
Living up to expectations, Buzz gave us one hell of a game in the finals. We were pumped to be the first American team to win the Cup, and they were equally determined to not let that happen. It was back-and-forth for most of the game, with one interesting point where George Stubbs made a heroic greatest attempt. Despite standing 10 yards away on the sideline, and watching the video replay, I'm still not sure if he was in, but the Buzz coach called him out and Satoru came over to mediate the disputed call. "He says he was out," Sat explained. "So he was out."
Eventually we pulled to 12-12 and called a quick timeout to muster up a final rally. Subsequently and even more quickly, Buzz rattled off 3 points for the win. Let me just close by saying that they are a very good team. (Their national mixed team also looked extremely strong – team USA and others will have their hands full.)
Closing ceremonies and Dinner with Club Jr.
Opening and closing ceremonies bookended the tournament, with all teams respectfully present along with several city officials and representatives of Japan's governing body of ultimate (side note – one of them showed me his application to the IOC to make ultimate an olympic sport!!). The language barrier prevented the full impact of the ceremony from reaching us; Dylan Tunnel won some individual award (spirit?) and Dalton tried to collect an award that didn't exist, much to our amusement. Rookie.
The highlight of the tournament for me was the dinner and shenanigans with the Club Jr staff that evening. We gave away a bunch of swag and toasted to many things while wearing silly hats. It was an incredible cultural experience and one that is impossible to convey in writing, but one that I will never forget. If you ever run into someone from Club Jr or associated with Japan ultimate in any way, please thank them for what they are doing for the sport and generally be helpful. I guarantee you if you travel to Japan the favor will be repaid ten times over.
Thanks to everyone involved and especially Yoshida-san and Satoru-san for the amazing weekend!


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As an event architect, OPC thinks, conceives and realizes events, from the smallest to the most grandiose. They propose strategies that integrate, in an overall vision, business pragmatism and creativity. They have both feet on the ground and are fully aware of the challenges of organizing any event.
We use the best analytical tools available on the market to grow your business. Web marketing has never been easier!Contact us

subset: commoncrawl


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With the start of the season 2018/19, Iván Pérez takes over the artistic leadership of the new Dance Theatre Heidelberg at Theater und Orchestra Heidelberg. Intendant Holger Schultze is very proud to have won this internationally renowned choreographer for Heidelberg. He is convinced that the success of the Tanzcompany, which he firmly anchored in Heidelberg, is further strengthened and the audience can look forward to interesting, exciting dance performances.
Pérez is known for his physical and emotional choreographies. This season, his performance BECOMING tours in theaters in the Netherlands, London and Taiwan. BECOMING is the third performance he creates with his team under the name INNE. With audience and critics acclaim, he launched INNE with The Inhabitants in the summer of 2016 at Operaestate festival in Italy. Before INNE, Iván created from production house Korzo, for example, Exhausing Space and Waiting for the Barbarians in collaboration with theatre director Michiel de Regt. International collaborations have always been part of his work. He made new creations with Ballet Moscow, Compañía Nacional de Danza and Balletboyz London. In spring 2018 he will create a new work for the Paris Opera Ballet.
"I plan to position the Dance Theater Heidelberg as a creative and innovative hub in the global dance world," says Pérez. For example, he will collaborate with inspiring new voices in the field of dance, visual arts, music, fashion and social science. He wants to establish partnerships with educational institutions to stimulate dance-theoretical research and communication about dance, as well as keep developing existing relationships with national and international theaters. He will realize a vision for the company within the theme "generation Y, the Millennials".
Read the press release on Tanznet, in Germany, Italy, the Netherlands


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Wonder Park in 3D (PG)
Release Date: March 15, 2019
WONDER PARK tells the story of a magnificent amusement park where the imagination of a wildly creative girl named June comes alive.
Starring: Mila Kunis, Jennifer Garner, Jeffrey Tambor, Matthew Broderick, Ken Jeong
Directed By: Dylan Brown
Run Time: 1 hr. 25 min.
Released By: Paramount Pictures


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ON AIR - Non-Stop Music
GPs here say between 1 and 5 people a day are visiting practices because they are lonely.
The Royal College of General Practitioners has said that 10-minute appointments are not enough to give patients the attention required.
They have recommended that every practice have someone who specifically helps those struggling with loneliness.
RCGPNI Chair Dr Grainne Doran says it can be as bad for patients' health as chronic long-term conditions.
Loneliness puts people at a 50% increased risk of an early death compared to those with good social connections, and it as bad for health outcomes as obesity.
Launching the community action plan, Dr Doran said: "Loneliness has become a public health epidemic.
"GPs and their teams have a key role to play in identifying people who are chronically lonely or who are at risk of becoming lonely. All too often, GPs are the only human contact that chronically lonely patients have. These moments of meaningful connection matter."
However, 10 minute appointments mean there is often not enough time to properly help those who are chronically lonely.
The College has said they want to see a dedicated professional for every practice to help those struggling.
Dr Doran continued: "Tackling loneliness is about more than medical care. This is why we are launching our community action plan to help tackle the problem and ensure that GPs and their teams can provide the best possible care to lonely patients."


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Shuttle Release 1.0.2
Shuttle Release 1.0.2
What's New?
- Source Date Expressions: This new enhancement will allow you to manipulate the date/time Source field, using Nunjucks expressions, in order to configure it to the format your Destination understands.
Check out the Manipulating Source Field article for directions on how to implement this feature.
What Improvements Have Been Made?
- Implemented various bug fixes throughout the platform.


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Yesterday was the wedding of Meredith and Dan. What a beautiful day it was. The ceremony took place at St. Marks in Mt. Joy. Rev. David Woolverton officiated and there were two beautiful solos, one by his wife and one by the groom's sister. Kelly Steadman of All Things Beautiful was on board, we just love when we get to work with the best in the industry! By the time myself and Kelly M. arrived ATB had already set up the ceremony decor. The flowers were gorgeous and I couldn't wait to get to the reception to see what they had done there. Soon after we arrived another one of our favorites Jeremy Hess and Nicola Pearce of Jeremy Hess Photographers arrived. There were some special moments planned before the start of the ceremony. The first was the giving of a beautiful diamond bracelet to the bride, from the groom. It was a wonderful surprise that all the family was in on! The second was a coordinated gathering of the bride and groom to stand behind a door, not seeing each other but holding hands for that perfect shot. Let me tell you what, that was such a beautiful moment of emotion, and it was pretty intense.
After the ceremony the bride and groom greeted and dismissed all of their guests who then exited to the church's courtyard for a rose petal toss! The details were so beautiful!
Meanwhile, Janelle Foltz, who has come on board with Planned Perfection as an intern was setting up place cards on all the guest tables and keeping an eye on things for me at the reception. Thank you for your assistance Janelle.
When I walked into the reception, it was just beautiful. Kelly and her team had done an amazing job. The centerpieces were big curly willows in large pilsnar vases with little orchids hanging from the branches. The details were done by the bride and her family. Handmade napkin ring rings out of blue wire, pretty favor boxes filled with yummy Wilbur Buds and name cards that were designed by the bride's sister, Janessa. (Who's name closely resembles mine!!) Janessa also designed all the invitations, the programs, directions, seating chart, and name cards, which also served as the menu and order of events for the evening. She is so very talented. The cake was delicious, provided once again by the wonderful Renee of Bella Manse ! The bows on the cake matched the bridesmaids bows on their dresses to a t! There was much dancing to be done with the 20 piece band, the Big Big Jazz Band! Everyone was showing off their moves!
What a wonderful day it was. Congratulations to you Meredith and Dan. Thank you Evann and Steven for hosting such a fabulous event and being so kind to work with! You guys were the best and I will miss working with you.
Thank you to all the OUTSTANDING wedding professionals who made this day possible.
The Eden Resort (Cyndi and her team are always a dream to work with.)
Jeremy Hess Photographers (Thank you Jeremy and Nicola, it was so great to work with you again and I can't wait for the pictures.)
All Things Beautiful (Kelly your work is truly inspiring and what you do brings the dreams and visions bride's have to life!)
Bella Manse (Your cakes are always beautiful and flawless, and on top of that so TASTY!)


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One way to turn any room into a warm and cosy place to live in is to dress windows stylishly. Blinds not only provide privacy and protection from extremes of cold and heat, but also provide fashionable window treatments that give you just the look you want. Think of window handles and position when planning to hang your blinds in order to get the perfect fit. Our comprehensive guide on blinds types, measuring up and fitting is designed to help you specifically fit roller blinds, but the do-it-yourself steps involved are also applicable to vertical and venetian blinds.
Choosing your blinds
Roller blinds
Roller blinds are versatile and fantastic for any decor. The most common and temperamental of these blinds are cord operated, but you can also find other designs like spring-loaded roller blinds. Choose roller blinds if you want a soft fabric look in your room. For better insulation and total darkness at night, go for blackout roller blinds.
Vertical blinds
Vertical blinds are some of the most affordable window treatments in the market. They are available in a wide range of material like PVC vanes and aluminium louvres, colours and sizes to fit any window. The blinds are a good choice for most windows, but they go especially well in patio doors, French doors, bay windows and over-sized windows.
Venetian blinds
Venetian blinds have horizontal slats one place above another that are highly versatile. The blinds allow you to block light entirely or direct light upwards or downwards to achieve desire soft light effects by adjusting the cord winder. Choose vertical blinds if you want total control of the amount of light entering your room.
Measuring Up
Once you have the right type of blind for your windows, it is time to take measurements for the right fit. Measure the width and length (drop) required to cover the full window using a tape measure. Add at least 25 milimetres allowance on either side of the window, if you are fitting your blinds outside the recess. Buy the closest blind width and cut it to size, if you can't find the exact width and drop of your window.
Measuring and cutting the roller
If you are fitting your blinds inside your window reveal, you will need to cut the blind roller to the right width. Measure the exact dimensions of the space inside the reveal of your window. Cut the roller about 38 milimetres smaller than the width of the space inside the window reveal to allow space for the cord winder and brackets. Use a hacksaw for cutting and a round file to smooth the roller's ends. Remember to cover the area you want to cut with masking tape so that the hacksaw does not slip.
Measuring and cutting the blind material
Use the roller you have just cut as your guide for taking measurements and cutting the blind material or fabric. Mark several points along the whole length of the material 1.5 milimetres in from the end of the roller with a pencil. Join the points on the blind material using a ruler or straight batten. Now use a pair of scissors or craft knife to carefully cut the blind fabric into size. Next cut the plastic bar found at the bottom of the blind 12.5 milimetres smaller than the width of the blind material. Insert caps on both ends of the plastic bar and fix the cord winder into place. Your blind is now ready for fitting.
Fitting the brackets
Place the blind brackets where you want to install them and mark the screw positions with a pencil or bradawl. You can screw the brackets in place on adjacent walls, window frame or underside of the uppermost part of the window. Drill guide holes and screw in the brackets using blind screws or rawl plugs.
Hanging the blind
Insert the end of the blind with the cord winder into the bracket first. Ensure the insert peg or pin locks securely into the bracket's insert hole. Move to the opposite end and slot the dummy pin into the other bracket. Congratulations, you are done! Pull the cord winder to raise, lower and work your new blinds as desired.
Tuiss blinds and curtains have a wide selection of different blind types and patterns to suite your every need.


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How To Create A System Image In Windows
You can create a system image in Windows to quickly restore your computer's files, applications and Operating System back to a known good state. Your hard drive will fail. It's only a matter of when it will fail. Making a disk image you can restore to is a painless way to get your system back up and running.
When recovering an Operating System and applications, two terms are often used: Cloning and Imaging. So what is the difference between cloning a hard drive and imaging a hard drive? Cloning a hard drive is making a bit by bit copy of a drive and using that to replace an existing or failing drive. Disk imaging is creating a bit by bit copy of a drive and using the image to restore from in the future if you want to quickly reinstall Windows and your programs all at once.
In this example, we will be creating a disk image that we can restore to at a future date. The best time to create a disk image is after a clean install of your OS, your applications, and after downloading and installing the latest Windows Updates.
Creating Your First System Image
First, Download Macrium Reflect here. Click Next to extract the setup files and to install.
You will be asked if you want to register, which is not necessary and can be skipped. Click through the prompts and use the default settings to install. Once the install is complete, launch the program.
On the main screen, you will see your C drive up top and any possible destination disks below. The C drive will be broken up into a small boot partition and a larger main partition. Make sure both of these are checked.
Select Image this disk. You will then have a chance to save the image destination to another internal drive or external drive. We do not recommend saving the image to a different partition on the same physical hard drive in case the drive ever fails.
Select the folder destination where you want to save the image. In this example, we stored the image file in a folder we created on a separate physical hard drive installed in the computer. Once the destination drive and folder is selected, click OK to proceed. The imaging process is extremely fast, and once complete, you have an exact duplicate of your computer hard drive that you can restore from at any time.
The last step in this process will be to create a bootable Rescue Disk. In the event your computer no longer boots, you will need this rescue media to find and load your image file.
From the main screen, click the disk icon to create your rescue disk. Next, click the Windows PE 4.0 option and then insert a blank USB drive or CD/ DVD disk. Follow the onscreen prompts to finish creating the rescue disk and then store this disk in a safe place for future use.
Restoring A System Image File
You can restore your new system image file two ways. If your system is still operational, launch the Macrium Reflect program and select the Restore tab. Browse to your image and then click Next to restore the image. This is a great option if you discover you have a virus or other system errors and want to revert back to a known good state.
Or if the drive no longer boots, you will need to restore the disk image using the rescue disk. To boot to the disk, you may need to first enter the BIOS setup and select either the USB drive or Optical drive as the first boot device. Once you boot to the PE environment, you will be able to select the restore tab and proceed with loading the image.


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A few months ago, I took a 3-week vacation to SE Asia for 3 weeks — all over Vietnam, Cambodia, and Thailand. Nobody on this site knew I was gone. Yet while I was abroad, I earned tens and tens of thousands of dollars while completely off the grid.
Taking a break from eating before eating again
I always wanted to stay in a hotel room with a pool. This was my back yard in one of my hotels in Thailand. It was a very romantic time with my brother: "Welcome, Mr. and Mr. Sethi." Classic.
This is the second vacation where a white friend crashed his scooter. What is it about Americans that they can't drive these things.
Didn't smell too good.
In all that time, you continued to get emails and blog posts from me. My business grew: 1 day's sales would have paid for all my meals and airfare — many times over. I rarely checked emails. And when I came back, I had a detailed status report of exactly what I needed to know.
To a lot of people, this is the holy grail of passive income.
Yet why do I still tell my readers that passive income is largely a myth for 99.9% of people?
I've said this over and over, including in 7 Lies We Tell Ourselves About Money and Why Most People Fail at Online Products: Passive income is unrealistic for most people. They see some guy go on a 3-week vacation and continue earning money, and say, "I can do that!"
What they don't see are the systems that took years to put in place.
Honestly, I couldn't have taken this trip last year, and I've been writing this blog since 2004! But dreams are more powerful than reality. Here's a classic example from a guy who emailed me:
Hi Ramit:
I love your psychological insights on changing our minds.
One of the products I have been looking is how to make money buying penny and small stocks that ballooned to 15,0000% within a year.
I am only interested in business that make residual income like Paris Hilton. Everytime someone stay at a Hilton Hotel, she gets $1 per room because his grandpaddy left her stock in the company.
Why work for money? or work until 65 years old or older?
If you unleash and are interested in this area would created MAXIMUN VALUE for your customers,I will be first to sign up.
Unfortunately, this guy is doomed. He is so focused on a dream that he has spent close to zero time understanding the realistic universe of options to improve his finances.
In fact, if you asked him to break down the risks/rewards of 5 different ways of improving his finances (negotiating a salary, investing in the stock market, buying real estate, freelancing, etc), he would have no clue.
Instead, he's developed tunnel vision around the idea of penny stocks, no doubt hastened by scammy penny-stock pushers who suggest you can live a ridiculous lifestyle while working 3 hours/day from your house dressed in your terrycloth robe.
I have a lot of friends making 6- and 7-figure incomes. Some of them even make it "passively." All of them work harder than you would ever imagine, even the passive guys. In order for me to go on a 3-week vacation, it took nearly a year of building systems, hiring people, and systematically testing how far we could push it to remove me from day-to-day management.
And finally, when I felt ready, I vanished, stuffing my face with unimaginably large, spicy meals and returning a man who expected beautiful Asian women to bow to me everywhere. Thank you Asia.
Would you call that "passive"?
Would most people be willing to put in the work and go through failure after failure to learn how to earn "passive" income like this? (Not to mention that a lot of success is pure luck.)
Look, IWT isn't just about simply making money. It's certainly not about cutting back on lattes. It's about deciding what "Rich" means to you, and using psychology and systems to get it.
For me, two years ago, I decided that one of the markers of success would be taking a long trip where I would be off the grid — totally out of touch with people — and my company would still run without me.
Two years later, after a lot of failures, I had finally built the systems to be able to handle it.
This is what frugality zealots and passive chasers don't get. They believe that cutting back is a virtue in and of itself, or that making $200/day is the end goal. I believe that cutting back teaches good values, but I also know that most of us want MORE — we want to travel to more places, buy more rounds for our friends, try nice restaurants.
I believe that making money without doing work is great, but I know there really is no such thing. The amount of work I put into building the systems that power IWT is gigantic — and I continue doing that work today.
You can't out-frugal your way to Rich. You can't fixate on earning passive income without trying the low-hanging fruit — negotiating your salary, automating your investments, freelancing — first. You can try, but you will almost always fail. I'm telling you the truth as a guy who earns a lot of money "passively!" In fact, I've left millions on the table by not teaching that very class:
A confession: I've left millions of dollars on the table by not developing a course about how to build your own online product and sell it on the Internet. My courses have sold well over $100,000 in one hour, and I get asked about how I did it over and over.
It would be relatively easy to teach. I could build a product teaching you how to build a product (now we're getting meta), including sharing actual sales data, the tactics I use for product launches, my sales copy, the biggest mistakes I've made, and conversion rates for various techniques. The product would handily make me 7 figures.
Unfortunately, the blunt truth is, I don't believe most people will ever be successful building online products. This isn't just a condescending "I can do it but you can't" view. No, the data backs this up. The vast majority of people who try to create online products fail — like 99%+. This is the elephant graveyard where the dream of passive income goes to die.
See, to succeed with an online product, not only do you have to be extremely good at your area of expertise and know the basics of marketing — including identifying your niche, pricing, finding customers, etc — you then have to learn all about productization: packaging, upsells, cross-sells, advertising, email funnels, JVs/affiliates, refunds, customer service, sales-page construction, A/B testing, continuity programs, etc.
Unlikely. If we're being honest, most people have enough trouble mastering the first part of the equation (creating something other people will pay for), much less learning the rare skills of productization. Think about it: Would a personal trainer have you do 400-lb squats on Day 1? No, he would start you off with light lifting to perfect your form.
Why would I sell something — even if it could make me millions of dollars — when I know the vast majority of people won't be successful? The money does not motivate me if you're not seeing measurable success. Remember, IWT was never about making me money. It was and is about behavioral change. There are tons of ways I could make easy money, but I have no interest in creating a product about creating a product when the vast majority of people will fail. (I encourage you to read The $75,000 Email, a story about turning down easy money because I simply wasn't interested in it.)
But you can use other proven methods to make more money money and give yourself the freedom to do what you want.
Maybe that means finding a dream job. Or finding your first profitable idea to earn more money. Or even just automating your finances.
Each of these is far, far more likely to give you the lifestyle you want. You may not be able to brag about it on some random internet blog, but you will be able to do the things you really want to do.
Besides travel, I'll give you an example of how money has changed my lifestyle. In a recent interview, Andrew Warner of Mixergy asked me exactly that:
Andrew: What's the best part of having made it? You've done really well. This is on the sidelines, we're all studying your sales copy. A lot of us are on the sidelines trying to valuate how much revenue you've done. Estimates are pretty high. Higher than Fortune Magazine seemed to say so maybe people are exaggerating. But on a personal level what do you get to do? Do you get to travel somewhere interesting? Tell me about that.
Ramit: Well, I've always said money is a small part of being rich. I've said that from day one and I genuinely believe that. For me there's so many other things with being rich. In fact, I wrote a post years ago 'what does rich mean to you?' Helping your parents with their retirement. Being able to travel and visit your friends.
I'll tell you a couple of things that I guess I'm able to do now that I wasn't able to do before. The first thing is I'm a cognitive miser. We're all cognitive misers. We have limited cognition. I always wanted to be able to go and just, if I see something in a grocery store, or I want to take a taxi instead of a subway, I didn't want to have to think about it. That doesn't seem like that glamorous of a thing but it really matters to me. I think it's the freedom thing, the flexibility thing, on a very micro, day to day level. If I see, let's say I feel like ordering a drink or if I feel like getting an appetizer. I never got appetizers when we were kids. I can do that.
Also, by the way, things don't change that much. We were a very middle class family and we had a lot of kids in the family. We would eat at Taco Bell sometimes and we would never, ever order the Mexican pizza….We go there but we can never order the Mexican pizza because it was too expensive. I still remember, it was $3.45…To this day I have never ordered a Mexican pizza. I could walk in there and order it without a problem. My friends are like come on, I'll get it for you. I'm like no. I had that mentality (inaudible).
The big thing, besides just like if I want to get an appetizer I can do that, is, you know, I'm a little bit flexible so I can travel. I guess my one big luxury would be that I have two apartments. One in San Francisco and one in New York. I can travel back there and I can decide that I want to go tomorrow and go to San Francisco. That is possible. Before I would have never dreamed of doing that. I would have been checking on the prices all the time.
Aside from that it becomes less amount money. I have a huge platform to be able to test my ideas and see if they work. To me, that's a rich life.
I'll give you another example of living a rich life:
One of the things I always told my friends was, "When I make it, I'm bringing everyone with me." So when I finally realized I could leave for 3 weeks this year, I came up with a new motto: "My villa is your villa." I invited my friends to come, hang out, take a room in one of the hotels I was staying at, and come chill. I flew my brother out. I used my money to live the kind of life I wanted.
To me, the idea of living a rich life transcends passive income, or blogs, or what software you're using. Instead of being driven by the tactical, you're deciding how to live. You're deciding on your values (e.g., frugality and cutting back vs. growth and an abundance mentality).
And here's the biggest thing I can share with you…
You don't have to wait until you're making $100,000, or $500,000, or $1,000,000 to do this. You can decide today. Take out 3 pieces of paper and break it down:
- Where do I think I'm spending my money?
- Where do I want to spend my money?
- Where am I actually spending my money?
This simple exercise will shock you.
For those of you who claim that "family is everything," how much are you actually spending on visiting your family? If you claim health is important, how much are you spending on a gym/trainer/food/health books?
You can do the same exercise with time, btw. This opened my eyes years ago and I'm still not even close to where I want to be.
This post is different than the ones I usually write, but I think it's important to sit back and think about why we're striving to live a rich life. It's not just to master "passive income" (whatever that is) and sit on a beach and do nothing. To put it bluntly, anyone who has the skills to actually earn a substantial enough passive income to do that would be bored out of his mind after a few weeks of that.
It's about deciding what money is for. What a rich life means. And how you can start today, instead of a distant "some day" in the future.
If you're interested in more on this, I recorded an interview with my friend Derek Sivers (who used his skills in systems-building to build the ultimate distributed company…then sold it for $22 million). You can get that interview here.
You can also browse this site or my email list for the "secrets" to living the life you want. My savviest readers will laugh since there really are no secrets. I've laid it out, both for free and in my premium material, and the information is out there. Now it's up to you.
How I traveled for 3 weeks and made passive income is a post from: I Will Teach You To Be Rich
Read more posts on I Will Teach You To Be Rich »


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Steve Burd
For the past 16 years, Steve Burd has been fighting a winning battle. The chairman, president and chief executive officer of Safeway, Pleasanton, Calif., has managed to push open the door of the company's profitability against the resistance of economic downturns and amid pressure from a raft of competition. As a retailer operating in a thin-margin business, we have had to be very good at controlling


text: This past week has been busy, busy between trying to get unpacked and organized from our month down in Palm Springs and trying to get all ready for a little girl's FOURTH birthday! I know it's crazy to even think that - FOUR years already?! You might be able to guess the party theme already… Continue reading Glow Stick Light Saber DIY


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Billy Foster began as a full time caddy in 1983 and has since proved himself as a world class performer, working with some of the game most illustrious professionals none more so than the legendary Seve Ballesteros. Foster has amassed a stunning total of 30 tournament victories, including 8 wins with Seve Ballesteros, 12 with Darren Clarke, 4 with Gordon Brand Junior and 1 each with Sergio Garcia, Sam Torrance and HJ Baiocchi.
Among many career highlights, Foster has caddied in 10 Ryder Cups and is immensely proud to have been part of some of golf's special moments including Seve's victories in the 1991 PGA Championship and of course Darren Clarke's victory over Tiger Woods in the final of the 2000 WGC Accenture World Match Play. Following 6 years with Darren Clarke and 2 with Sergio Garcia, Billy recently caddied for 2009 Race to Dubai winner and World No.1 Lee Westwood - a partnership which proved very formidable.
A quiet Yorkshireman, Billy Foster is recognised throughout golf as a world class caddie and Tiger Woods "borrowed" him from Clarke for the Presidents Cup in 2005 when his caddie, Steve Williams was unavailable due to the arrival of his firstborn.
Tiger said, "I like his personality it's very competitive. Very feisty!"
An extremely popular figure on Tour, Foster famously walked 'with the tour bag on his back' the 90 miles from Loch Lomond to Turnberry last year in aid of charity. Unsurprisingly Foster was rewarded the HSBC Caddie of the Year Award in 2009.
Thanks for getting in touch, and asking me to review Billy Foster's recent event at my Captain's Charity Sportsman's Dinner.
Met and chatted to him before event started, he was very courteous and friendly. He was greeted very well by all members and guests
He was extremely honest and attention holding to guests. His stories were first class
His delivery was great. The length of time given to us as a speaker was good 40/50 mins.
Thereafter: He then entered into a Q & A discussion with members, it was very well received and lasted a further 50 mins.
Great guy, very focused into what people want to here.
Recommend him to anyone.
Thank Billy very much for a great night, hopefully will see him perform again soon.
Many thanks
Patrick Rodgers. Heswell Golf Club. 12.11.15
Billy Foster was absolutely fantastic. He was honest, funny, quick witted,
and a very approachable gentleman.
His stories of golfers and caddies were hilarious, and all guests were in
hysterics all evening. Billy also stayed to do a Q&A session, he didn't
limit it to just a few questions he in fact stayed until everyones questions
were answered. Billy was also not in a rush to disappear, he stayed with the
top table guests for a decent amount of time at the end of the evening too.
He was absolutely superb. Billy's stories of his time with Severiano
Ballesteros were a delight, and I would highly recommend Billy to anyone
holding a golf club sporting dinner or similar.
Jon Sutherland Ogbourne Downs Golf Club 18.08.16
Bernard Greaves 23.05.17
"We booked Billy Foster for a charity fundraising night, we were certainly glad we did.
From arrival Billy was so friendly and down to earth, a typical yorkshireman!
His funny stories and observations on his life as a top caddy kept our members duly entertained, he ended the evening with a very informative Q&A session.
I would have no hesitation in recommending Billy, our members are already asking when we can have him back again!"
Shaun Smith. Scarborough South Cliff Golf Club 27.07.17


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When taking photographs, learning the art of getting a picture perfect moment every time is easy if you know the right tricks. After following the advice found in this guide, you will have a much better understanding of ways to enhance your current abilities, and discover other ways to improve your talents.
When shooting pictures on an overcast day, avoid capturing the sky in the image. If too much gray sky is in your picture, it will look muted and bland. If you have to shoot with an overcast sky, use black and white methods of photography. However, if it is a cloudless day, feel free to include as much of the sky as you desire.
Use manual white balance to spice up your photos. It is possible to let the camera decide the proper white balance for a given environment, but sometimes the camera will get it wrong and the photo will look washed out. Using a manual white balance also allows you to take artsy photos with sepia tones, for instance.
Be aware that the weather will influence your pictures. You might not realize it when you take the picture, but a dark sky will give a very gloomy atmosphere to your picture. Compose your pictures accordingly and let the weather inspire you for interesting creations. You can also wait for different kind of weather before you take pictures.
Don't be afraid of taking pictures. If you use the wrong settings, it's okay. Go ahead and take the picture anyway. If you want to photograph a person or pet, go up and ask if it's okay; create a release form to sign if it makes you more comfortable. Just go do it!
Keep your pictures relatively simple. A good image should be straightforward and easy to interpret and appreciate. It is important to take meaningful pictures, but in most cases your pictures will say more if you focus on a detail rather than put together a complex composition that might not strike people as much.
When traveling, take pictures of your food. Take the time to play with lights, colors and compose your pictures. You might get used to the food by the time you come back home, but these pictures will look very original to you and your friends later when you reflect back on your trip.
Do not rely on your equipment or on editing too much. Expensive equipment can make every picture look great, but the artistic quality of a piece still depends on your creativity. You can take great pictures from an artistic point of view with an extremely cheap camera as long as you create something original.
One great tip for photography is to use the flash when the sun is out. Sometimes the sun creates nasty shadows and makes the subject of the photograph not look as good as they could. By using flash, some of the shadows will be filled in and the subject will look better.
Always stabilize your hands when taking pictures. If a tripod is not handy rest your arms on a table, wall or even another person to get a clear shot. Also, holding your breath while taking the picture will keep the camera from moving and assure the picture you need.
When photographing people, try to avoid having anyone that they know standing on the sidelines and watching the photograph being taken. It will almost always lead to feelings of self-consciousness if your subject knows they are being watched. This will, in turn, lead to unnatural, posed images that nobody will like.
If you're photographing nature, take care. Take in the beauty of the scene, and make sure you do nothing to spoil it. Don't try to set up a scene in nature. Just take the beautiful photograph in front of you.
There are times when the lighting cannot give you the right look for an outdoor picture. At times, you may be unable to locate a preferable area. How do you solve this dilemma? You may want to utilize gradient filters in photographic programs, such as Photoshop, in order to correct lighting imbalances.
With this newfound information about photography, you are well on your way to taking better shots. You will enjoy spending less time deleting pictures and rustling through the catalog looking for the right picture. Just apply this information to what you already know and watch your photographs come to life.


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Tag Archives: suplex
We like: Flying Submissions
Posted on August 1, 2011 by fred
The following wrestling move is easily one of the coolest flying throws we've seen so far. It is even more kickass, considering Ellis Coleman (in blue) pulled it off during the Junior World Championships in Bucharest, Romania. The throw might best be … Continue reading →


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ACC football: Six years after league's expansion, its shadow grows no longer
It may not have appeared that way, but there was good news for ACC fans Saturday.
Now that the football season has ended early, they can focus on the fall sport that actually matters to them: basketball recruiting.
Remember all that talk this summer about how this was going to be the year when the fruits of the ill-fated football expansion finally began to pay dividends? Five ACC teams appeared in the preseason polls. What's more, the first two weeks of the season would present multiple opportunities to make some serious noise against highly ranked teams. So how have things worked out?
Virginia Tech's virtual home game against Boise State? Loss.
North Carolina against LSU in Atlanta? Loss.
Miami's visit to Ohio State? Loss.
Florida State's trip to Oklahoma? Loss.
Virginia at USC? Loss.
Five potential statement games. Five losses.
Of course, those were not the worst results of the first two weeks for the Already Can't Compete league. Defending champion Georgia Tech went to Kansas to play a team coming off a loss to division I-AA North Dakota State, a team booed by its own fans during that 6-3 loss.
They weren't booed Saturday: Kansas 28, Georgia Tech 25. At least the Yellow Jackets didn't actually lose to a I-AA team, though.
No, they left that to Virginia Tech, which fell to James Madison, 21-16, to join the 2007 Michigan squad as the only two ranked I-A teams to lose to I-AA teams.


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Busse New Addition
As Christmas Eve Eve rolled around, I was traveling to meet the newest member of this family that I have been blessed to get to know over the last 6 years. This sweet baby girl has been long awaited and some heartache has preceeded her, so her arrival was maybe even more celebrated.
She was calm, cool, and slept for the most part through a bit of canine chaos, excited big sisters and general 3rd baby noise that all first time moms can't imagine their baby sleeping through. She's beautiful, with a full head of hair and is definitely a sister to her spunky older two.
I love being able to be a part of a new life so early in that new life. I love to capture moments between each family member with this tiny new life. These moments at their house...in the thick of things....they are real. No fancy clothes, no putting on the best side, just being in the presence of a little miracle, and enjoying every minute of it.


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Looking to buy flamenco shoes, skirts, mantons, castanets, and accessories for your fall flamenco classes? We have it all for women, men and children, at our "Back to Flamenco School Sale" in our Otra Vez Boutique from 11 am - 5 pm on Sunday 9/10! We will have new items from Flamenco West and the Pure Flamenco Store, and new and used items from our Otra Vez boutique. We are also celebrating the one year anniversary of our studio, so we'll also have some free drinks and appetizers, and informal palmas sessions on our sunny patio.
Back to All Events
Earlier Event: August 17Flamenco@Duende Third Thursdays
Later Event: September 21Flamenco @ Duende Third Thursdays


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Buy my e-book A Conspiracy of Wizards
Some events are better than others. At a reception preceding a presentation by Janet Napolitano (Secretary of Homeland Security) yesterday evening, I enjoyed a series of chats with Frederico Peña (former Denver mayor), Su Ryden (current Colorado state representative), Pilar Ingargiola (apparently a co-founder of the small policy LLC for which I currently do frequent short term research contracts), a bunch of guys from Iowa, and Aaron Harber (Denver talk show host).
Then the speeches began (for the smaller crowd invited to the reception; there would be another round for the full audience gathered upstairs in the auditorium where Secretary Napolitano was to speak). Larry Mizel of the CELL (Counterterrorism Education Learning Lab) introduced Michael Bennet (Junior U.S. Senator from Colorado), who had two endearingly spontaneous human moments during his speech: 1) He paused at one point during his introduction of John Hickenlooper (Denver Mayor and Colorado gubernatorial candidate) to say "God, I'm tired," and 2) after saying that neither John Hickenlooper nor Larry Mizel would take credit for the CELL, nor would either of them give full credit to the other, Hick gestured from the side that he would give full credit to Larry, to which Michael said, "Well, John will give full credit, because he's…," quickly checking himself before saying "a candidate" or "running for office." The audience filled in the blank and chuckled appreciatively.
After the speeches, we went up a back staircase to the auditorium, where the first few rows were reserved for us. Larry and John gave two more short speeches, and then Secretary Napolitano took the stage. Her presentation struck several chords with me, the underlying theme resonating with themes that I have been developing on this blog, and, in fact, with themes that are woven through my novel.
Secretary Napolitano referred to "the threat landscape," a phrase that parallels my frequently used phrase "the social institutional landscape." They are, indeed, two aspects of the same landscape, one a destabilizing, chaos-producing aspect, and one the ordering and re-ordering aspect. This was a major theme in my novel (An epic mythology): The interplay of chaos and order, and the ways in which the disorganizing influences (personified in my novel by mischievous imps, the Loci, who I considered to be, in effect, magical terrorists), lead to more subtle and complex, increasingly organic, re-orderings.
Indeed, that was precisely what Secretary Napolitano was describing. Homeland Security recognizes that the best counterterrorism network would be an all-inclusive one, informing and mobilizing up and down through social institutional layers from the Department of Homeland Security to individual citizens, and creating channels for individual citizens (and others up and down the hierarchy) to inform those more charged with acting on that information.
The "see something, say something" campaign is one aspect of this attempt to mobilize and organize the populace in a decentralized system of cooperative vigilance, utilizing diffuse observation and information to create a counterterrorism network comprised of everyone, with eyes everywhere, far more comprehensive than anything that could be accomplished in any other way. Indeed, it is another example of activating "the genius of the many," a theme I have discussed in my series of essays on the evolutionary ecology of our own social institutions and technologies (The Politics of Consciousness , Information and Energy: Past, Present, and Future, The Evolutionary Ecology of Audio-Visual Entertainment (& the nested & overlapping subsystems of Gaia), The Nature-Mind-Machine Matrix), as well as my post on "wikinomics" (Wikinomics: The Genius of the Many Unleashed) and "crowdfunding" (Tuesday Briefs: The Anti-Empathy Movement & "Crowdfunding").
The system is far more involved than just recommending that people report suspicious behavior. It involves a network of "fusion centers," basically information way stations and processing centers, through which information is channeled upward and downward. In other words, Homeland Security is consciously trying to create a centralized system of upward and downward flows of information, of utilization and implementation of decentralized effort and in-put. This is the increasingly organic model of human social organization that I have long been discussing as our inevitable path of development.
To be sure, one model of such decentralization, with, in many respects, little need for a centralizing agent, is the market economy itself. But the market economy, while able to exist almost independently of governments, does so only in a crude, inefficient, and failure-laden form. Refining that organic system into the robust market economy of today required the development of government backed currency and clearly defined and enforced property rights. It has since benefited from the development of a complex regulatory structure that ensures that market actors aren't able to exploit information asymmetries to their own advantage and at the public expense. And it will benefit in the future from increasingly sophisticated Political Market Instruments (see Deforestation: Losing an Area the Size of England Every Year) which both internalize externalities, and bring a variety of public goods and public bads under the umbrella of market dynamics.
But markets are just one social institutional material among several (A Framework for Political Analysis). Our development of a more organic, robust, sustainable, and fair social institutional and technological landscape does not benefit from monomania, but rather from a commitment to develop all of the social institutional materials we have in productive, integrated, and decentralized but coherent ways.
Despite the decentralization of the counterterrorism regime that Secretary Napolitano was describing, it was a return to a sense of communal effort, and away from our growing extreme individualism. It is a "neighborhood watch" writ large, a community of people watching one another's back, addressing a collective need, nationwide. One of its benefits is that it helps move us back in the direction of recognizing that we are inherently in a collective enterprise, whether we are satisfying collective needs through markets, or hierarchies, or normative rules of conduct, or values and beliefs which motivate us to do so. We are not just a collection of disconnected individuals, neither in the production of wealth, in the production of human welfare, in the coping with life's challenges, or in the vigilance against the violence of others. We are inherently interdependent, and need to cultivate the cultural and social institutional acknowledgement that we are, so that we are not constantly fighting to disregard the demand to meet the needs posed by that interdependence.
In terms of counterterrorism, there are other subtleties to incorporate besides the upward and downward flow of information, and the upward and downward flow of its utilization and implementation. There are also privacy concerns, which Secretary Napolitano addresses by having experts in privacy law at her headquarters, involved in the design of our counterterrorism architecture from beginning to end. There is the challenge to create an informed and activated society without creating a more fearful one (something accomplished by the sense of empowerment that participating, and knowing that most others are participating, in our shared vigilance against terrorism). And there is the emphasis on suspicious behaviors rather than suspicious ethnic membership, discouraging the ethnic profiling that is so corrosive to our coexistence in a diverse society, though completely avoiding the noise of prejudice in a decentralized system will undoubtedly prove to be impossible.
Nor will our ability to prevent all terrorist attacks. But the rise of this decentralized and very dangerous form of warfare, benefiting from modern communications and information technologies much as other decentralized enterprises do, increases the demand for intentional and coordinated development of decentralized and organic systems of response. Even terrorists contribute to the evolution of the human ecosystem, albeit at too high a price.
Buy my e-book A Conspiracy of Wizards
The title quote, uttered by President Obama to describe the choice we have in the 2010 elections, captures the essence of the on-going struggle between humanity's inner-angels and inner-demons, a struggle which produces the realization of both our dreams and our nightmares, depending on which prevails in any given moment of history.
The refrain "we want our country back" is the refrain of those who fear progress, who cling to a mythologically sanitized past rather than forge a path into the inevitable future. It attracts, along with those who are making some vaguer, narrower reference, those who want to take the country back from, among others, women, African Americans, Hispanics, non-Christians, and Gays, groups which have succeeded in diminishing the opportunity gap between themselves and the white, male, Christian minority that has historically maintained that gap to their own advantage and in accord with their own bigotries. And while we have progressed in diminishing the gap, the legacy of history remains with us today, and demands our forward-looking rather than backward-looking attention.
Those who have the courage to hope, to aspire to do better, don't ever want their country "back." We always want it "forward." Our history has been the story of a people moving forward, conceived in a Declaration of Independence which continued and contributed to a transformation of the world already underway, accelerating our reach for future possibilities, and our removal of the shackles of past institutional deficiencies. It was a nation of Progressives, of people who knew that you don't just accept the institutions handed down, but always seek to refine and improve them. It was a nation that drafted a document by which to govern itself, one which proved insufficient (The Articles of Confederation, drafted and adopted in 1777, though not actually ratified until 1781), and then got its representatives together to try again, ten years later, and get it right (producing the U.S. Constitution, which was a document drafted to strengthen, not weaken, the federal government).
The drafting and ratification of our brilliant Constitution marked a beginning, not an end, a point of departure through which to express and fully realize our collective genius, not an impediment to the use of our reason and will to address the challenges yet to come. It was drafted by people wise enough and humble enough not to imbue it with the quasi-religious hold it (or an insulting caricature of it) now has over some contracted imaginations. It was meant to be a source of guidance rather than a source of idolatry. It provided the nation with a robust legal framework through which to address future challenges, some of which were already visible at the time, and some of which were not, but which the framers knew would ceaselessly present themselves (and which many thought would promptly make the Constitution itself obsolete. The fact that that hasn't come to pass is a tribute to our ability to make from the document they created in a given historical context one which adapts itself to changing historical circumstances).
Ahead of the country remained the abolition of slavery, the protection of individual civil rights from state as well as federal power, a far-too-late end to the slaughter and displacement of the indigenous population (too late because they had already been nearly exterminated, and removed to tiny, infertile plots of land), the institution of free universal public education, the extension of suffrage to unpropertied males and women, the passage of anti-trust laws to preserve a competitive market, the establishment and necessary growth of an administrative infrastructure which immediately preceded and facilitated the most robust acceleration of economic growth in the history of the world, the desegregation of our schools, the passage of The Civil Rights Act of 1964, and the beginnings of absolutely crucial efforts to address the long-term detrimental health and economic consequences of environmental contamination.
There never was a moment in the course of this story when there weren't challenges yet to be identified and addressed, many of which could only be successfully addressed by means of government, and, often, only by means of the federal government (e.g., the abolition of slavery, which ended up requiring the federal government to prosecute a civil war; the enforcement of Civil Rights protections; and environmental protections covering interstate pollutants). Our Founding Fathers understood that. Thomas Jefferson himself said that every generation needed to refine its institutions to adapt to changing circumstances and meet the challenges of their own day. Such people never wanted their country "back." They always wanted it "forward." And they dreamed of establishing a country that would renew rather than renounce that commitment with every new generation.
Though there are many today who don't get this, most don't get it by means of blurry vision and historical inconsistency, rather than a retroactive commitment to what they claim currently to be an immutable truth. It is a tiny minority today, utterly detached from reality, who want to completely abolish Social Security or Medicare, though there are many who vehemently oppose health care reform and improved financial sector regulation. The difference between those past acts of our federal government that we have come to take for granted and whose value we almost universally recognize, and those present acts of our federal government that so many (so absurdly) call a "socialist" threat to our "liberty," isn't in the nature of the policies themselves (they are actually very similar in nature), but rather in the difference of perspective granted by elapsed time and an improved quality of life.
The impassioned, angry, vehement opposition to today's progressive reforms, almost down to the precise words and phrases (including cries of "socialism"), is virtually identical to that which confronted the passage of Social Security and Medicare in their day. It is the perennial resurgence of the same faction, the same force at work today as in those previous generations: The voice of fear, the clinging to past failures and deficiencies for lack of courage, the perception of progress as a threat rather than a promise, though those same cowering souls could hardly imagine living without the promises of progress fulfilled before their birth and in their youth. They take gladly from those progressives who came before and fought to establish the world they now take for granted, but fight passionately against those progressives of today striving to provide similar gifts of social improvement to future generations.
In Colorado, these two sides, these two opposing forces of Hope and Fear, are embodied in our U.S. Senate and Gubernatorial races. In both races, it is the urbane, highly informed, business savvy, pragmatic Progressive pitted against the retrograde, chauvinistic, insular and regressionary Conservative. Michael Bennet, as I have written before at some length (Why Michael Bennet Truly Impresses Me), is a model of reason, civility, humility, and subtle systemic understanding, all focused on how to leave our children with more rather than less opportunity than we ourselves have enjoyed. Ken Buck, his opponent, is a sexist troglodyte who accused a rape victim of "buyer's remorse" (though the accused rapist admitted in a taped phone call from the police station that he had in fact raped her!), a candidate who opposes access to abortions even by victims of rape and incest (condemning some pre-teen girls to a premature motherhood that will, in some cases, utterly destroy them). With the same indifference to reality, Buck is committed to the pseudo-economic certainties of his ideological camp, certainties which defy the lessons of history and the prevailing economic models of those who actually study the subject.
In our gubernatorial race, we have a very similar match-up, with Democratic candidate John Hickenlooper (currently the very popular mayor of Denver) as a model of the rational, urbane entrepreneur (who, after being laid off as a geologist in his youth, opened a very successful brewpub in a downtown Denver area –LoDo– which, through his enterprise and hard work, he helped to turn into a very robust restaurant and bar district), opposed by Tom Tancredo, the U.S. Congressman (from my district, CD 6) who became nationally and internationally infamous for his outspoken xenophobia and belligerent anti-immigrant demagoguery. Again, it is a race of hope against fear, a repeat of similar struggles we have seen around the world throughout human history, with prosperity and human welfare flourishing where hope has prevailed, and a contraction of wealth and opportunity taking hold where fear prevails (sometimes accompanied by nightmares of violence directed against the scapegoats who have been identified as personified targets of that fear).
Economically, Hope counsels that we employ the best economic models to forge the best fiscal and economic policies possible to ensure the robustness, sustainability, and equity of our economic system, while Fear counsels that we base our economic policies on information-stripped platitudes, contracting rather than expanding, insulating rather than competing, cowering rather than aspiring. A hopeful people invests in its future; a fearful people stuffs its money in a mattress. A hopeful people works to create a higher quality of life, while a fearful people works toward enshrining past achievements and, by doing so, obstructing future ones. A hopeful people seeks to expand opportunity; a fearful people seeks to protect what's theirs from incursions by others. A hopeful people reaches out, looks past the horizon, and works toward positive goals. A fearful people builds walls, huddles together, and obstructs the dreams and aspirations of others.
But this year, in this election, it is not just any other incarnation of the struggle between Hope and Fear. It is the most dangerous form of that struggle, the form it takes when we are on the brink of inflicting on ourselves enormous suffering. Because the struggle this year is characterized by a terrifying discrepancy in passion: The angry, fearful mob is ascendant, while cooler heads are too cool, too uninspired, to face that mob down and disperse it.
It is under just such circumstances when, historically, Fear prevails over Hope. It is under these circumstances, circumstances that the hopeful among us are allowing to take hold, when countries get sucked into the nightmare that fear produces. This is what responsible, reasonable people of goodwill cannot, must not, allow to happen.
Vote. Make sure everyone you know votes. Confront the angry, frightened and frightening mob and insist that we are better than that. Don't let them put this state, this country, and this world back into Reverse again, as it was from 2001-2009, when America became a nation defined by fear, with a government defined by the belligerent ignorance which is Fear's most loyal servant. Let's keep this nation in Drive, and move hopefully into the future. In 2008, many of us were excited by that prospect, and in 2010, we should remain warriors of reason and goodwill in the face of the Grendel of small-mindendness awoken by the small, fledgling steps forward we have taken as a people. We need to defend, preserve, and advance what we accomplished in 2008. We need to move forward, not backward.
Don't sit this one out. Don't let the brutal tyranny of Fear and Ignorance rule us.
Buy my e-book A Conspiracy of Wizards
Senator Bennet constantly impresses me with his understanding of nuances, with his awareness of social systemic complexity, and with his reluctance to reduce things to simplicities that they are not. In one speech in a small venue, for instance, I was struck by the simple phrase "…create a context in which it is more probable rather than less probable…." Rather than typical political bluster, feeding the audience whatever it wants to hear, he went to the trouble of capturing some of the complexity and nuance of governing. Rather than speak in absolutes, he spoke in deference to reality, and did so in a way which clearly engaged his audience.
Many (including me) were bewildered by Governor Ritter's appointment of Michael, then DPS Superintendent, with a very thin political resume, to the Senate seat that was vacated when Ken Salazar was appointed by President Obama to be Secretary of the Interior. There is speculation, possibly accurate, that there were negotiations involving the president himself, who wanted to make sure that an effective and politically durable replacement for Salazar was chosen before making the Salazar appointment, and took an active hand in choosing Michael. That would only be a further recommendation of Michael's talents, if President Obama had had any hand in his selection. But Governor Ritter tells a different story, which struck me as certainly at least somewhat accurate: That he (Gov. Ritter) had asked sitting senators, and others in positions to know, what qualities made for a successful U.S. Senator, and then compared the profile thus constructed with the list of people he was considering, concluding that Michael Bennet most closely matched the description.
But it hasn't been an easy journey for Michael, despite having been appointed. He was wrongly cast by opponents, to the extent that opponents were able to make it stick, as someone in the pocket of big money interests. His votes in the senate, taken as a whole, don't support that allegation, and most of the evidence used to support it is disingenuous. His rate-swap investment deal as DPS superintendent, for instance, which some use as fodder, was, according to the best informed accounts I've read, actually a good financial move, and preserved DPS's long-term financial health better than any alternative would have.
In the Democratic primary, Andrew Romanoff (whom I also like and respect) made a (political) virtue out of necessity, and emphasized his refusal to take PAC money. To many, that was, and is, an admirable position to take. To me, it is based on a classic kind of logical fallacy, called a "levels of analysis error". What is desirable on one level is not necessarily facilitated, and can in fact be undermined, by pursuing it on another, pretending that the world is simply the sum of such actions.
Most of us probably agree, for instance, that world peace is a laudable goal, that carefully implemented multilateral disarmament could certainly contribute to that end, and that we should support candidates who demonstrate an effective commitment to these understandings (as Michael does of campaign finance reform). But most of us probably also agree that an American policy of unilateral disarmament would neither serve these laudable ends, nor lead to a happy outcome for the American people.
Similarly, most of us probably agree that the role of money in politics is horrible, that campaign finance reform is a highly desired end, and that we should support candidates who demonstrate an effective commitment to these understandings. But we should also realize that unilateral campaign-finance disarmament in the domestic political competition between two broad visions for our country (conservative and liberal) suffers from the same defects as unilateral military disarmament does in the geopolitical and military strife among nations. It does not serve the desired end, and does not bode well for the camp that attempts it.
I use this example not to fight an old fight, but to illustrate what I consider the necessary combination of integrity and intelligence, a commitment to serve the public good, even when it means not yielding to the demand to make empty and counterproductive political gestures that undermine one's ability to do so. Michael stayed on message during the primary, and stayed focused on the necessity of balancing political reality with idealistic goals. That's not easy to do.
I've listened to Michael many times, and he never panders to his audience, never says what he thinks they want to hear at the expense of truths he knows they don't want to hear. Sure, he couches hard truths in the most palatable way possible; that's part of the skill set his job requires. But he isn't willing to compromise the truth to win support. That takes integrity. It is abundantly clear to me that Michael isn't running for office for personal glory; he's running because he's a very bright and talented guy who wants to do what he can to improve the world we live in and the quality of our lives.
But what separates Senator Bennet from the many other very intelligent and capable people who would like to be a U.S. Senator (none of whom are in the race against him) is a talent that the very best and most successful elected officials have, usually as a natural trait (though it doesn't matter whether it is learned or inherent, as long as it is authentic), that many others, even with immense charisma and public speaking skills often lack: His ability to put anyone he is talking with at ease, to make them feel that they are in the company of someone who is just a humble, reasonable, well-intentioned person trying to work together with all others to get the job done. Bill Clinton was famous for that skill. President Obama is well known for having that skill. And Michael Bennet has that skill.
Not all politicians do. And it's value isn't just (or primarily) that you win over the electorate that way; it's value is that you win over other politicians and captains of industry and agency heads and leaders of non-profits and activists and all and sundry others at the nexus of political decision making that way. It's value is that that is the trait that makes someone effective in the inner-political arena, where decision-making occurs. It's value is that those who have that quality are the ones who can get the job done.
In our few brief one-on-one interactions, I have always been impressed with Michael's personal aura of humble, good-natured affability. Some might say, "sure, all politicians play that role," but most of those who are playing it rather than are it, deeply and sincerely, with more concern for the welfare of others than for their own self-glorification, betray their actual priorities in various small ways. Some of them are wonderful people, with a very real commitment to the public interest, but if their ego is bigger than that commitment, you can usually tell, especially in one-on-one conversations. There are a few, and they are the best and most successful, whose special talent is to make each person they are talking to feel like the sole focus of their attention. Michael has that talent, and it is a talent that makes him the right person for the job.
I supported Michael in the Democratic primary against a very charismatic, very popular, very talented, and very deeply loved leader of the Colorado Democratic Party, the former Speaker of the Colorado House of Representatives, and someone, to his immense credit, who had generated deep and passionate loyalty among those who had worked with him and knew him. I didn't make that choice because I thought Michael's opponent was deficient, or would support an agenda that I opposed (I thought neither), but rather because, as impressive as his opponent was, Michael was more so.
As you might imagine, I support Michael with an incalculably greater sense of urgency against his Republican opponent, Ken Buck, a torch-bearer of Tea Party fanaticism, a person who is rapidly making a name for himself as a political chamelion of convenience by trying to back-pedal from the extreme (and clearly sincerely held) positions that won him the primary (in a contest of extremism with Jane Norton, who could not hope to keep up).
For the positive reasons of Michael Bennet's formidable talents and qualities, and the negative reasons of who he is running against, we need to get out there, talk to our friends and neighbors, and ensure that Michael Bennet continues in his role as our junior U.S. Senator from Colorado.


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The Dang Family 2011
It's good to have a photo session with a family that I've already photographed before. You get to see how much kids have grown and (sadly how much taller they are than you).The Dang family has so much energy and so much personality! I am really glad that I got photograph them again! Thank you Kim, Bill, Rachel, Rebekah, and Aaron for a great session!
Then and Now (2009 and 2011)
These last two shots were my absolute favorite of the day =)


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Original Warner Brothers Pink Panther Limited Edition Cel, Wet Cement, Signed by Friz Freleng
Studio: Warner Brothers
Medium: Limited Edition Cel
Title: Wet Cement
Year: 1989
Characters: The Pink Panther, Inspector Clousseau
Edition: 254/300
Signed: by Friz Freleng
Unframed Size: 12" x 10"
Framed Size: 20 5/8" x 16 5/8"Original Warner Brothers Pink Panther Limited Edition Cel, Wet Cement, Signed by Friz Freleng
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Animation Sensations, a premiere Animation Art Gallery, has animation art cels, production cels, and limited cels, prints and giclees from a variety of animation studios. Our "other studios" section highlights eclectic animation art including animation cels from television, film, and commercials featuring cartoon characters like Clifford the Big Red Dog, Starkist's Charlie Tuna, Trix Rabbit, Captian Crunch and other vintage animation favorites. We buy and sell original animation art. Please call or email to ask questions or to make a purchase.


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11 Kid-Friendly Recipes/
Got any wishes for Christmas this year?
Is it a full-on, legitimate, letter-to-Santa list? Or is there just ONE thing you really want and everthing else may as well be pencil-shavings in comparison?
Things I've wished for, for Christmases past include: Polly Pockets, American Girls Dolls, an encyclopedia (I was eight and this request prompted my Dad to introduce me to the "Internet" and Brittanica.com), a pony, and an Easy Bake Oven (Got it! Have since graduated to the big kids' oven.)
This year some of the "things" on my list are not actual things. And I think that's totally acceptable, especially as a grown-up, to have lists of Christmas wants that do not take up more space in your life. True?
Read More


text: One thing I've learned in the last couple years is that my kids' feet grow so fast that sometimes I feel like we are constantly outgrowing shoes! I'm a firm believer in buying their shoes at the resale shop because 1. They are just going to get them dirty and scuffed up 2. I can't afford to buy shoes all the time! This pair of silver shoes that Xandrie is wearing cost me $4 and they go with so much! I'm pretty sure X has double the amount of shoes as I do, but I rarely spend more than $10 on a single pair!


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Picture: Sam Sparro performs live on stage at the 2008 Godskitchen Global Gathering festival Stratford-Upon-Avon, England - 26.07.08
Australian singer Sam Sparro has cancelled his U.S. tour after experiencing problems with his visa.
The Black and Gold hitmaker failed to appear at Santo's Party House in New York on 5 August, and at a gig in Los Angeles on 6 August (08).
He had rescheduled the dates for September (08), but it is unknown if his visa issue will be resolved in time for the concerts.
Meanwhile, Sparro has also cancelled his scheduled appearance at the U.K.'s V Festival this weekend (16-17Aug08).


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The Family Night last night became Family Day today. We started with church, followed by a clamor to see Ted. I've been wanting to visit him. It was nice to hear his sweet, welcoming grunts as I approached. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W5c08gli1f4A couple licks, and he was interested in the crowd at the fence where he had seen behind-the-scenes groups all summer. I don't know if he wanted to greet more people or if he thought there was food. Gabrielle or Heinrik asked if there were any way to see him closer. As if he understood, he immediately started to the fence with more sweet grunts. People are stimulating to Ted and make his day. He sniffed hands through the fence but we weren't feeding. It's February. I know some thought we had peanuts, but maybe a finger looked like that. Ted went back to his chalet and crawled into his straw as was captured in this 6½ minute video.
He wasn't done. A few minutes after we left, he came out for a second look, just in case. I don't know if he was taking a second look in case we had food that we might have dropped, or if he just missed us as was captured in this 4+ minute video. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=69fIWGFrlL0
In a couple months, he'll be up and active. It was good to see him and feel how warmly he greeted us.
Thank you for all you do.
Lynn Rogers, Biologist, Wildlife Research Institute and North American Bear Center


text: In the post "And You Thought It Could Not Be Done: Blogging In Math", Silvia Rosenthal Tolisano, the author of the blog, discusses how she uses a blog to help her math students succeed in school. I never thought that blogging in math would be of any use, but she uses it for her students to communicate problems they are having and help each other. In my response, I explained how students are more engaged in school when they are using things that they are interested in, such as the internet and blogs. Reading this post has made me reconsider using a blog in my future classroom, because it will keep students engaged in school and in contact with each other outside of a classroom setting.


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Eagle Brow Dental Care and Implant Centre
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Offering dental treatments and innovative solutions, services include procedures such as full arch restoration, C-Fast orthodontics, dental implants and Zoom Whitening.
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Visiting the dentist needn't be a chore, which is why the practice offers extended opening hours. The team ensures that each patient feels welcome and relaxed when taking care of their dental health - making sure the experience runs as smoothly as possible.
Find out more about the treatments available and book a patient consultation today.


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Dicentra; Bleeding Hearts:
Dicentra's are lovely plants for dappled shade. We only use the white flowered variety in our designs, purely as the white of the flower shows up in the shade much more than the pink version (which gives the plant it's name).
This plant also has the prettiest foliage too, so it really is a showstopper once it has grown…the downside is getting it to point it can flower! Unfortunately, slugs and snails do find Dicentra a fantastic munch, so you will have to protect it.
However, please don't smother the ground with slug pellets to protect it, as they kill off more than just the slugs. There are some really good bug remedies that don't involve killing everything else that you can use instead.
(Main image: H Ardai)


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The Islanders fired Coach Jack Capuano on Tuesday, halfway through a disappointing season.
Capuano will be replaced on an interim basis by Doug Weight, one of his assistants, who is also the team's assistant general manager.
Capuano has the second-most wins in franchise history, with 227, behind Al Arbour. He led the team to three playoff appearances in the past four years and two 100-point seasons. His final game was Monday's 4-0 victory over the Bruins in Boston.
"We need to turn this ship around," General Manager Garth Snow said. "I don't know that Jack fell short of expectations. When you're a head coach in this league, sometimes you're a victim of different circumstances."
The Islanders (17-17-8), who are in last place in the Eastern Conference, have been inconsistent this season after adding the free agents Andrew Ladd and Jason Chimera, who have not met expectations. Two weeks ago, the starting goalie, Jaroslav Halak, was sent to the minors, even though he is owed more than $7 million.
Snow, who has been the general manager since 2006, will have the chance to search for a permanent coach while Weight guides the team, starting with Thursday's home game against Dallas.
"I don't imagine system-wise we will change too much," Snow said. "A tweak here and there that Doug may want to implement. At the end of the day, sometimes a new voice in the room can be a difference, a little bit of a spark for a team. We're trying to create that, and we'll see where it goes."
Capuano coached the Islanders' American Hockey League team in Bridgeport, Conn., before taking over for Scott Gordon behind the bench on Nov. 15, 2010.
The Islanders have struggled to find the right pieces to build around their superstar forward John Tavares, who can become a free agent after next season.
Snow took responsibility for the myriad personnel decisions he has made since the end of last season, when the Islanders won their first playoff series in 23 years with a first-round victory over Florida.
They let the longtime Islanders Kyle Okposo, Frans Nielsen and Matt Martin leave via free agency. They signed the former Islander P. A. Parenteau to play alongside Tavares, only to waive Parenteau days before the season started. Ladd, who is the team's highest-paid player, making $8 million, has scored only eight goals.
"Obviously, I'm not hiding from the fact that it starts with me," Snow said. "One hundred percent."
Despite having one playoff series win to show for his 10-plus seasons as general manger, Snow said he was not fearing for his job under the new owners Jon Ledecky and Scott Malkin.
"I don't even worry about that," Snow said. "I just worry about what I have to do on a day-to-day basis. As managers, we can't control anything else than what we do on a day-to-day basis."


text: RYAN LOVELACE RYAN LOVELACE Contact RYAN LOVELACE Your Email Address * Message * Your message has been received. Someone will be in touch with you shortly. Executive Producer, Orion CreativeRyan focused on Marketing before receiving his BFA in Design. He then moved to Los Angeles to attend USC, where he received an MFA in Animation. Since joining the trailer industry RYAN has had the pleasure of working on over 250 theatrical and broadcast marketing campaigns.


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The Kelmark GT Including Complete Instructions And Parts List
Microsemi delivers a devoted portfolio for demanding automotive requirements. My automobile began with the noise you have got defined final week and immediately I have taken it to the storage to repair it, however they told me that the elements should be ordered and will not be sure when the half will arrive. It was fairly scary feeling the kart fully locked up and starting to spin but a contact of lock in either path and releasing the brake seemed to permit me to turn in and carry through a lot more speed. I still have the unique snow broom with the wooden deal with, I use it to clean the snow off my scorching tub, and the froth pad is nice because it will not harm the fabric on the hot tub cover or the paint on your car.
You should purchase individual / single use measurement containers of Parts A and B, however it prices much less to buy the molding putty in bigger quantities and measure out equal quantities into cheap airtight containers, comparable to Buddy Cups or air-tight paint storage cups. When a technician connects a scan software or laptop to the system, it should learn out temperatures in degrees, pressures in PSI and positions in percentages.
The most evident fundamental power behind this announcement is the expertise — as a result of with out that the dream of an autonomous automotive would merely be the stuff of science fiction. You should buy a reasonable, aftermarket repair guide at most auto components stores or on-line — test the Amazon advert beneath. And the auto industry saw a wave of latest entrants on the manufacturing side, including Venture Vehicles, Fisker Automotive, and Miles Automotive.
After a few decades as a plant rat and engineering and purchasing honcho, he made the transition to marketing for Cadillac (NO ONE strikes from engineering to advertising within the auto business; it is the business equal of the Maginot Line). UTI's Automotive Technology program is Master Certified by the National Automotive Technicians Education Foundation (NATEF), a division of the National Institute for Automotive Service Excellence (ASE). The Camargue's body was in-built London by Mulliner Park Ward and designed by automotive designer Paolo Martin at Pininfarina.
My present area of research is I.T (Information Technology) Engineering and I like it however I love car designing subject too (actually love it extra, that doesn't mean I dislike the I.T learning area) and other people inform me If I go to automobile designing area, I'd have much less danger of having unsuccessful life. Now I can paint my father's bike for the sake of artwork and practicing what I've learned…quickly! Established in 1947, our core automotive enterprise has grown to change into India's No.1 Utility Vehicle maker. So the individuals who worked in the experimental department came up with the concept of a flat bed truck using components from one other automobile – the kubelwagen.


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I find the story of wine in nineteenth century Victoria unceasingly interesting, so please forgive my minor detour here. St Huberts in Victoria's Yarra Valley was first founded in 1864 by Hubert de Castella (a prominent nineteenth century wine identity and author of two books on Victorian wine in the period, which I have managed to track down and read). By 1876, St Huberts had over 200 acres under vine, expanding to 250 acres in the 1880s: a serious size. Yet in a story familiar to Victorian viticulture, depression, war and lack of demand for cool climate table wines led to the vineyard's cessation in the 1920s.
Interestingly, phylloxera, which laid waste to much of the rest of Victoria's vines and wine industry in the nineteenth century was not to blame for the Yarra Valley's decline as a wine region. It did not reach the Yarra Valley until the twenty-first century, having been positively identified in December 2006 in the Foster's owned Beavis vineyard on St Hubert's Road – see further the case study of Phylloxera in the Yarra Valley prepared by the Phylloxera and Grape Industry Board of SA dated April 2010. The St Huberts vineyard was replanted in 1966, and it now falls within Treasury Wine Estate's stable of brands.
Which, you may be relieved to learn, brings me to the wine in question. Tasted blind, it had the aroma of a Bordeaux, yet not the colour. Too deep. I noted that it was initially a bit dumb, with blackcurrants, anise, hay, gravelly earth and cloves emerging with time. Medium bodied on the palate, with a touch of pepper, a hint of capsicum and an elegant, restrained expression of blackcurrant. I guessed it to be a Mount Mary wine, which considering it is about $50 cheaper, is not a bad endorsement of it. 89 points (very good)
Abv: 14%
Price: $29
Vendors: try Dan Murphy's
Website: http://www.sthuberts.com.au/
Tasted: May 2012


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Berlin, Germany
Goodpatch GmbH, Oranienstraße 6 (Treppenhaus 4), Berlin
Hey Product Crunch Lovers,
You are invited to our 6th Product Crunch Meetup, Connect Edition!
On Thursday, March 23rd we welcome Julian Vogels from Sound Brenner with topic:"Berlin born, Hong Kong raised: Smart music technology for everyone."
Julian Vogels
www.soundbrenner.com | www.julianvogels.de
Julian Vogels is CTO and Co-Founder at Soundbrenner Limited, a rising music technology startup based in Hong Kong and Berlin, developing the first wearable device for musicians. The Soundbrenner Pulse is a smart, connected metronome. As a Music Technology Engineer, Julian takes care of Product Concept and Project Management, Hardware Prototyping and App Development. He holds a Master of Arts degree in Music Technology from McGill University Montréal, where he was awarded a Graduate Excellence Fellowship.
Julian is also a passionate designer of novel digital musical instruments. He hosts the weekly Musical Instrument Maker Meetup at the Fab Lab. Berlin. He lived in Germany, West Africa, Canada, and China, and currently in Berlin.
18:45 – Doors open
19:10 – Greetings from Goodpatch and the Product Crunch Team
19:15 – Guest talk: Julian Vogels "Berlin born, Hong Kong raised: Smart music technology for everyone."
19:50 – Break
20:45 – Drinks & refreshments
Looking forward to hosting you,
Teodora & Khanh


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WebAssist, a top ecommerce solution firm, partnered with a top hosting firm, DreamHost to launch the new ecommerce, software-as-a-solution known as CafeCommerce. CafeCommerce is useful in enabling enterprises to build online store via sophisticated and simple web interface. CafeCommerce also allows businesses to leave everything including the maintenance of hosting and technology arrangement to the software such that business owners can focus on business growth.
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DreamHost Co-founder and CTO Dallas Kashuba commented, "Our customers are definitely interested in ecommerce and through our partnership with WebAssist, we now have a great solution that we can offer. While CafeCommerce is a new solution, it was built using tried and tested technology that both companies have developed over the years. CafeCommerce customers can be assured that they will have secure and reliable hosting so that their storefronts are always available and making them money."
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About DreamHost
DreamHost provides Shared Server, Virtual Private Server and Dedicated Server Hosting as well as Domain Name Registration to worldwide customers. DreamHost also takes pride in being environment friendly. It is a member of the Green Power Partnership Program of the Environmental Protection Agency. Visit www.dreamhost,com for further queries.