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If Andrew Stanton's career has taught him anything, it's the power of toys, fish, and robots. Stanton was the lead writer of Pixar Animation Studios' "Toy Story" trilogy; he also wrote and directed "Finding Nemo," about a father fish's quest for his son, and "Wall-E," about a janitor robot's quest for a sexy probe droid. The latter films earned Pixar more than $1.3 billion, and Stanton the rapt admiration of children everywhere, as well as two Academy Awards. He explains that Nemo and Wall-E, saucer-eyed and naïve, evoke our yearning for the infantile: "Studios spend so much time and money trying to get audiences invested in characters—and it comes for free with a baby or a puppy. The younger or more animal you go, the more you imbue them with innocence."
Squinty, damaged grownups are a harder sell. So Stanton's colleagues were startled when he embarked on a live-action film about adults for Pixar's parent company, Walt Disney Studios. "John Carter," which opens in March, is based on the John Carter of Mars novels, which Edgar Rice Burroughs wrote nearly a century ago. Stanton hoped his adaptation would have the mythic sweep and zoological fizz of "Star Wars," the action and humor of "Raiders of the Lost Ark," and the grandeur of "Lawrence of Arabia." But he had trouble explaining to his friends—and even to his wife—why he was drawn to the material, and they worried that Stanton, who is forty-five, was having a midlife crisis, an aberrant fling with a two-hundred-and-fifty-million-dollar trophy film.
For animators, turning to live action is like driving stick shift in Britain: familiar yet disconcertingly strange. At Pixar, which has had an astonishing run of twelve straight hits, production begins only after the company has critiqued a story in reels, or roughly animated storyboards, six or seven times. They edit and reëdit before they film. In live action, you get only a few takes of a given scene—even as storms blow in and actors act out—and then you must assemble the film from a relatively modest larder of footage. "I always felt intimidated by the speed of live action," Pete Docter, the director of "Monsters, Inc." and "Up," told me, before adding, loyally, "But Andrew is made for it. He can outthink and outtalk anyone in the room."
Stanton is ginger-haired, candid, and boyishly eager. What preserves him from ingenuousness is the mulish will of a onetime enfant terrible. Whenever he faces a vexing story problem, he pulls abstractedly at his forelock, twisting it into a kind of tusk that, if he lowered his head and charged, would deal the problem a mortal blow. When Stanton was working on "Toy Story," he argued that Sid—the kid next door who blows toys up—is more normal than Andy, the gentle soul who owns Woody and Buzz. "I was Sid," he says. "The happiest moments of my childhood were when my toys broke, because then I could destroy them with impunity." In the Pixar films Stanton has guided, the children are mostly destructive and the adults mostly feckless—leaving a moral vacuum that only a guileless doodad can fill.
John Lasseter, the director of "Toy Story" and "Cars," is Pixar's public face, its Walt Disney. But many at the studio, including Lasseter, see Stanton as their Scheherazade. Jim Morris, who runs Pixar's daily operations, told me, "Among all the top talent here, Andrew is the one who has a genius for story structure. It's as if he sees a diagram on the wall and he knows that if a character does x in Act I it won't be possible for him to do y in Act III."
When I first visited Stanton, in April, he was doing some reshoots on the Playa Vista lot, near the Los Angeles airport, and he was in a gregarious mood. He led me around his Martian dioramas as if he were the archeologist who'd discovered them, nudging my elbow to indicate various gee-whiz details. In mid-tour, he whipped out a Moleskine notebook and sketched a pan for his cameraman, adjusted his second-unit director's framing of a map, reviewed the last take with his film editor, then veered off to his iPod to blast David Bowie's "Changes" over the sound system. All that was missing for full sensory immersion was a gift pack of Martian scent strips.
As the cameras reset, Stanton sat with his stars, Taylor Kitsch, who played the troubled heartthrob Tim Riggins on "Friday Night Lights," and Lynn Collins, a Juilliard-trained actress in her first major role. Collins mentioned an interview she'd given about the film, in which she'd dispensed only sweet nothings. "What I didn't want to say is 'We're doing a reshoot.' "
Kitsch said, "Or even 'We're doing a few pickup shots'—because they'll fucking nail you, like the movie is doomed."
"Reshoots should be mandatory," Stanton insisted. "Honestly, if we had the time and everyone was available, I'd do another reshoot after this one." When I said it sounded as if he longed for the old studio system, he replied, "That's exactly what Pixar is! And some of the Pixarness we're trying to spread at Disney is 'It's O.K. to not know, to be wrong, to screw up and rely on each other.' Art is messy, art is chaos—so you need a system."
Burroughs's original story needed a system badly. John Carter is a Civil War hero who is accidentally teleported to Mars, where he befriends a doglike creature, falls for a Martian princess named Dejah, and battles to bring the planet's civil war to an end. All this is good red-blooded stuff, and Carter's ability to hop vast distances on the lower-gravity planet made him the original superhero, the progenitor of Superman and Flash Gordon. Yet a half-dozen earlier adapters had been defeated by the requisite special effects: Carter exists in a world—Barsoom—of light-powered airships and shape-shifting Therns, as well as red people, white apes, and green Tharks, nine-foot-tall creatures with four arms, tusks, and anger issues. The task of adaptation was further complicated by Burroughs's racial bushwa, Mad Libs terminology ("Sab Than, the Jeddak of Zodanga" turns out to be fill-in-the-blanks for
Villain's Name, the
Ruler of the
Bad Guys), and general barminess.
Stanton prepared as if he were going to scale Mt. Everest. After he and another writer spent two years cutting trail, he brought in the novelist Michael Chabon as a guide for the final ascent. Their repeatedly revised script toggled between planets and time periods, kicking off with Carter's mysterious death on Earth, in 1881, and then shifting back to 1868, when he was zoomed to Mars after he shot an interloping Thern and touched the alien's transport medallion. We track how his desire to return to Earth evolves, after he meets Dejah, into a need to rescue her and derail the Therns' plot to foment perpetual war. Countless gears and flywheels had to be lifted from Burroughs's wheezy Rube Goldberg device and fashioned into a humming Rolex. Chabon told me, "Having a director who's also a writer hire someone to rewrite him—firing himself, to some extent—is very rare." But Stanton viewed it as enlightened self-interest. "I'm really good at structure and collaborating, but Michael is just technically, poetically, and intelligence-wise a better writer," he said. To ready himself to direct, Stanton dropped twenty pounds, ran fifteen miles a week, and, once on set, vowed not to go to his trailer or even sit down unless absolutely necessary: "I didn't want to look like the privileged animation geek who'd cheated his way to the top."
The hard part of the adaptation, the "world build," proved relatively easy. Stanton was able to create a convincingly strange Mars in the Utah desert, and he breathed life into the Tharks, Carter's captors and eventual allies, with an ingenious lost-actor process. He had Willem Dafoe and Thomas Haden Church perform on stilts wearing "head cams" that filmed their faces, then wiped the actors out of the frame and applied their voices and facial expressions to computer-animated green warriors.
It was the supposedly simple part, the characters and the story, that got lost. In December, Stanton showed a two-hour-and-fifty-minute cut of the film to Disney and Pixar executives, a check-in known as a Braintrust meeting. At most studios, filmmakers try to keep the execs at bay, but at Pixar the Braintrust of six to twelve story gurus is intimately involved in revising every movie—"plussing" it, in Pixar's term. The group liked Stanton's major innovation: turning Carter from a reactive bruiser into a damaged misanthrope who's haunted by flashbacks to an earlier marriage—a tragic hero who draws trouble down on everyone he meets. But they were confused by the film's beginning, in which Princess Dejah delivered a lecture about the state of the Barsoomian wars, and they found her arch and stony. Worst of all, the film didn't feel personal. Stanton films have a particular stamp: "They're clean and clear, with an ornery-trickster quality to them, a sort of Tom Sawyer orneriness," Bob Peterson, who co-wrote "Finding Nemo," says. They draw deeply from the artesian well of Stanton's childhood, and you can feel his love for his wife and his son and daughter onscreen. This time, thus far, not so much. John Lasseter asked Stanton, "What are people going to hang on to and care about?" Stanton's younger brother Nate, a Pixar story artist, told me, "The first cut felt like one of our movies that we'd then go reboard"—or heavily revise.
The Braintrust suggested a fix for the opening: why don't we discover Mars through John Carter's eyes, when he arrives? "That's lazy thinking, guys," Stanton replied. "If I do that, then thirty minutes in I'm going to have to stop the film to explain the war, and Dejah, and who everyone is, and we're going to have even bigger problems." Stanton is famously candid in other people's Braintrust sessions, and famously prickly in his own. Lee Unkrich, who directed "Toy Story 3," says, "Andrew is the guardian of the character of Woody," the pull-string cowboy who wrangles the other toys. "Woody feels he has to lead and stubbornly adheres to his decisions, then has to untangle himself from the resulting mess—all qualities that are to some extent true of Andrew."
Stanton and his writers came up with their own fresh opening: we briefly meet the warring Martian tribes in mid-battle and see the evil Zodangans receive a deadly nanofoam gun from the even worse Therns; only then do we cut to Earth and meet John Carter. But that was just the beginning of their attempt to overhaul a story that was already largely committed to film. Stanton storyboarded a group of new scenes and cut them into the film to convince Disney—or, as he put it, to "preëmptively prove"—that they would hugely improve the narrative. The studio acceded, and in April he began an unusually extensive (and expensive) eighteen-day reshoot.
One afternoon on the Playa Vista lot, Stanton was prepping a scene on the narrow ledge of a Thark temple. Carter and Dejah, who'd met earlier that day, warily agree to escape the Tharks and journey together to the shrine at the Gates of Iss, where Carter hopes to learn how to get home. The director listed the mistakes he'd made the first time. "The scene was matter-of-fact: if we light them pretty, you'll think they like each other," he said. "We didn't take advantage of the small ledge for them to be intimate on. And we'd buried the lead—we hadn't told you till later that Dejah was running from a forced marriage to her enemy, Sab Than, so she came across as unsympathetic. It's my usual weakness, being too oblique. On 'Finding Nemo,' I originally had this whole slow reveal, in flashbacks, of the barracuda having eaten Nemo's mother, which, as you never understood until the end why Marlin"—the father—"was so overprotective, made him totally annoying." He shook his head. "It's surreal how 'The Taming of the Shrew' can so easily become 'Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?' "
Taylor Kitsch lounged on the temple ledge, having his cordwood biceps misted with silicone spray, while Lynn Collins had her skim coat of tattoos and red shellac retouched. Stanton hovered alongside, as intimate as a pickpocket. He was following Steven Spielberg's advice ("Get as close to the actors as you can") and also his natural inclination. Kitsch can get broody, so Stanton strove to make their relationship feel like a two-buds-just-chilling hangout. The actor told me, "I fight with my director on every film, fight out of passion—but I never had a fight with Andrew, even on day eighty in the miserable fucking desert, because I respect him so much."
Stanton playfully mashed up some dialogue from the scene, mimicking Kitsch's sultry whisper and adding an overlay of the stoner drawl he himself used as the voice of Crush, the sea turtle in "Finding Nemo": "What if I could take you to the gates, mon, and you were, like, 'Earth, dude.' " After Kitsch laughed, Stanton waited a beat and casually added, "I need Sarkoja"—their Thark guard—"to have heard you for the next scene, so see if you can find a justification to speak a little more loudly." Kitsch raised his intense murmur about two decibels, and the resulting take was both more casual and more sexually charged.
The following morning, the crew moved outdoors to reshoot the landing after Carter bounds into the sky to catch a falling Dejah, a move known on set as "the Superman catch." Stanton directed his crane operators to shift a green-screen backdrop so he could capture the scene from a better angle, and told a stuntman to unspool the wire that dropped Carter and Dejah faster, then faster still. (Stanton later told me, "The conflict between safety and the collective belief of how superhero physics should work drove me nuts.") He repeatedly moved a light-reflecting bounce card, trying to avoid irritating Collins's eyes—she was blinking at just the wrong moment—and then had to wait half an hour for the sun to stop flaring off the camera lens. "Juggling weather and stunts and light and green screens—it's like trying to do synchronized swimming with aircraft carriers," he observed.
Still, he said, "This is what I wanted—after two decades in animation, I was spontaneity-starved." And he couldn't resist adding, "We came on this movie so intimidated: 'Wow, we're at the adult table!' Three months in, I said to my producers, 'Is it just me, or do we actually know how to do this better than live-action crews do?' The crew were shocked that they couldn't overwhelm me, but at Pixar I got used to having to think about everyone else's problems months before all their pieces would come together, and I learned that I'm just better at communicating and distilling than other people."
Sean Bailey, the president of production for Walt Disney Studios, was startled by Stanton's "my kung fu is stronger than yours" approach, but he soon became an admirer. "Andrew is the opposite of the usual 'We prep it, we shoot it,' " Bailey said. "He's always dropping in new storyboards and scenes—it's the Japanese idea of kaizen, a continual process of improvement. Any scene that's an eight he'll tear up to try to make a ten."
Stanton's home office, in Mill Valley, north of San Francisco, is a tidy, three-dimensional to-do list. Pinned to the crosspieces of his bookshelves are index-card reminders: "Inevitable but not predictable," "Conflict + contradiction," "How they choose is who they are," and, in a different vein, "I don't want success to follow me home." It's the office of a workaholic and a defender of the faith. Where Lasseter is Pixar's beaming dad, Stanton is the noogie-dispensing firstborn who keeps his siblings in line. He once told Lee Unkrich, "I'm the older brother you never wanted."
"I'd only known Andrew from Braintrust meetings when we started on 'John Carter,' " Mark Andrews, who helped Stanton write the first drafts of the screenplay, says. "Friends who'd worked with him told me how collaborative he was, and I now realize that's completely true. But back then I said, 'Really? Really, he's collaborative? Because he doesn't come across as collaborative. He comes across as an asshole.' " Someone had to be: "Toy Story 2," "Ratatouille," "Cars 2," and the forthcoming "Brave" were all going so badly, midway through, that their directors had to be replaced. Michael Arndt, who wrote the screenplay for "Toy Story 3," observes, "Andrew's primary allegiance is not to his fellow-filmmakers, or the characters in the story, but to the audience. When you look at things through that lens, there's an imperative to be harsh."
Stanton's precepts are often invoked at the studio, particularly "Be wrong fast" or "Fail early." He explains, "It's like every movie is a kid, and no kid avoids puberty. Just dive through it—get that outline that should take three months done in one, so you get the inevitable bad stuff out of the way and have more time to plus the good stuff." Another Stantonism is "Do the opposite": if a woman is going to spurn a marriage proposal, Stanton will open up possibilities by wondering, "What if she said yes?" He urges writers proposing a fix for a balky scene to "finish the sentence"—to follow their change's consequences to the end of the movie, to insure that it works throughout. His byword, though, is not tactical but emotional. Pete Docter, whose first directing job was "Monsters, Inc.," says, "I thought the film was about clever ideas and bits, and Andrew kept saying, 'What makes me care?' " A loyal dog or a syrupy score won't do it. Lee Unkrich remarks that if Stanton "feels a filmmaker is telling him how to feel, you can see the red rising in his face—the red-thermometer face."
Stantonisms are the closest thing Pixar has to a secret sauce. Michael Arndt, who came to the studio shortly before winning an Academy Award for his "Little Miss Sunshine" screenplay, says, "I thought they must have some foolproof system, some big Pixar story machine, but they actually just make it up each time as they go along. Pete Docter's analogy is 'Everyone holds hands and jumps out of the airplane with the promise that they'll build a parachute before they hit the ground.' "
Yet there is also a purely mechanical aspect to audience arousal. Stanton's home office displays the black field binoculars that inspired the face of Wall-E, the unlikely star of his 2008 film. He borrowed them from a friend at a Red Sox-A's playoff game in 2003, then tuned out the game altogether: "I started bending them at the hinge and making them go happy and sad, and it began racing at me how I used to do that with my father's binoculars. John's Luxo lamp"—the architect's lamp from Lasseter's first Pixar short—"only goes up and down, but the binoculars' fold would give me just enough feature and depth to hold your attention for a full-length film. The art directors later added an iris, which was a surrogate for eyebrows, and eyebrows are the feature, in people, that tells you that someone is thinking, that they're alive." (Fish don't have eyebrows, either, yet on "Nemo" Stanton's animators paid a lot of attention to "eyebrow mass.") He considered his prize fondly: "I literally stole the flat brow of this pair, and the sad-sack bags under the eyes, the Buster Keaton quality that gave you a default sadness."
The Braintrust was effusive when it saw the first reel. "It ended up haunting me for the rest of the film," Stanton said, "because nothing else went easily. In fact, I don't think I'll ever make anything that will feel as divinely dropped in my lap as the opening of 'Wall-E.' " The first reel has almost no dialogue. Lasseter says, "It was classic animation, where, as Chuck Jones"—the great Bugs Bunny director—"always said, 'You should be able to turn the sound off and know what's going on.' But it also scared the crap out of Disney, and us, because our idea until then had been 'Great animation has big stars saying witty dialogue.' " Stanton made audiences care about his workaday robot with exquisite storytelling and clockwork gags worthy of Keaton himself. In one scene, set in a derelict supermarket, Wall-E accidentally dislodges a bunch of shopping carts, which pursue him down a ramp as he flees in terror. When my five-year-old daughter watched it, she bent completely double, laughing as hard as I've seen anyone laugh.
Wall-E's roll home at the film's outset was a two-minute tour de force: we notice that the entire deserted landscape—banks, gas stations, soft drinks—bears the brand of a corporate government called Buy N Large. Wall-E rolls over a tabloid Buy N Large Times, and we see "TOO MUCH TRASH!!! EARTH COVERED." He pauses to scavenge a caterpillar tread from one of the rusted-out Wall-E units that litter the scene, then tools on past a Transit terminus, where motion-sensitive screens pop up to explain that there's room in space for everyone, with "BNL Starliners leaving each day—we'll clean up the mess while you're away!" We learn that Wall-E is alone and resourceful, who made him and why, and where everyone went. Those two minutes took Stanton and his twenty-person crew six months of work.
Stanton was given a large assist by Pete Docter, who first proposed the film, then called "Trash Planet," and twice tried to develop it himself. "I had the cool Act I that Andrew inherited and plussed," Docter says. "What I failed at, and what Andrew cracked, was Act II: where do they go?" Originally, Stanton had Wall-E working on an alien planet and venturing into space to find alien gel people who spoke a daffy language taken from the IKEA catalogue. "The me before I came here would have stopped at the jello people," Stanton said. "That Monty Pythonish stuff was what naturally came out of me." With nudging from the Braintrust, the alien gels finally became tubby humans on a Starliner.
Even after Stanton found the film's proper locale and established the love interest—the probe droid Eve—he and the Braintrust continued to be stumped by exactly how to place Wall-E in jeopardy at the end. Michael Arndt recalls, "We spent two years with Eve getting shot in her heart battery, and Wall-E giving her his battery, and it never worked. Finally—finally—we realized he should lose his memory instead, and thus his personality." Stanton concludes, "We're in this weird, hermetically sealed freakazoid place where everybody's trying their best to do their best—and the films still suck for three out of the four years it takes to make them."
By dint of terrific labor, he and his crew were eventually able to make the second act of "Wall-E" perfectly acceptable. In one breathtaking sequence, Wall-E uses a fire extinguisher for locomotion so he can dance with Eve in space, but the rest was a lot of hectic milling and chasing—Pixar's default mode. If the studio's films have a recurrent flaw, it is Hollywood's flaw, magnified: a ceaseless need to entertain. When I suggested as much to Stanton, he replied, in a tone of mingled defensiveness and acknowledgment, "With each passing year, the difference between the beginning and end of 'Wall-E' and the middle gets less and less egregious to me. Anyway, it's a wonderful, privileged problem to have. I get to make so many things that there may be a clichéd Pixar look. Oh, poor me."
Nearly every weekday morning for two years, Stanton had videoconferences with the three London-based effects houses that were populating the imaginary gardens of Barsoom with real Tharks. After screening their efforts, he'd sketch improvements on his tablet: "Scene 600 needs to be rowdier—there's too much staticness in their midsections." And "Just make sure the inside lining of the hatching egg is also wet and mucus-y." And, of one crowd scene that left me vaguely uneasy, "Perfect, except these Tharks on the opposite sides of the frame, and this one in the middle, are swaying in unison. Desynchronize Thark sways!"
In the afternoons, he and his editor, Eric Zumbrunnen, tightened the film. The reshoot had solved some problems—making the beginning an amuse-bouche rather than a rebus; clarifying and strengthening the Carter-Dejah bond—but, in doing so, it had brought into relief a difficulty endemic to all stories: the middle. "It's gone from a second-act overweight problem to a second-act slump to what we're hoping is only a second-act sag," Stanton told me. Any novice could start a film off or bring it to a conclusion, he said, just as "any person with decent observation skills can probably deduce if you're sick or not. But only a doctor can diagnose what's truly going on. You can't fake the middle of your story: if you haven't achieved a deep enough understanding of what you're doing, it will always reveal itself in the middle."
One afternoon in May, he and Zumbrunnen sat in a production office in Berkeley, fine-tuning a second-act sequence known as "Dump Dejah." Carter and Dejah have escaped the Tharks, and she is guiding him toward the Gates of Iss. When Carter discovers that they're actually heading toward her home city (where she hopes he'll fight for her tribe), he dumps her off her mount, a galumphing Thoat. In the initial version of the scene, she'd seemed imperious for tricking him, and he'd seemed brutal for tossing her off. Only then—too late to make us warm to her—did she explain that she was fleeing Sab Than's proposal. The reshoot solved that problem but created another. "Since we already know why she's running, what's the point of this sequence?" Stanton said, draped on a couch as Zumbrunnen sat at his Final Cut station. "I need to see her vulnerable, and then I would buy that Carter was starting to fall for her. And we realized that if he's conning her that he's going to dump her and leave her, it makes what he does O.K." In a new insert, Carter murmurs to their Thark companion, "Just play along," before he gets tough with Dejah. And Dejah has a new line that links her private fears to nobler concerns: "I was afraid, weak—maybe I should have married, but I so feared it would somehow be the end of Barsoom."
Stanton watched carefully, sipping a Diet Coke. "Subtle changes, but I think they make a big difference," he said. "I've always felt you unearth story, like you're on an archeological dig. Stories tell you what they are—you don't have a say in what bones you're going to get, and when. You just have to have the intestinal fortitude to acknowledge, Oh, my stegosaurus is actually a T. rex. The demon I'm chasing is 'Can I figure out what my story is before I run out of time?' " The print would lock in two months.
Stanton asked Zumbrunnen to linger on Carter's reaction when he learns that Dejah is a princess. The editor tapped a few keys and cued it up: Kitsch took the news in and smiled—and then his smile curled toward a smirk.
"No!" Stanton said. "I went from loving him to hating him."
"Shouldn't have followed my instincts," Zumbrunnen said, dryly.
"Fear your instincts!" Stanton cried, only half joking. The composer Thomas Newman, who scored Stanton's earlier films, told me, "On 'Nemo,' I said it was so cute and funny when Dory"—the blue-tang fish voiced by Ellen DeGeneres—"is talking whale talk. And Andrew said, 'Oh, we stopped laughing at that a year ago.' You become inured to the feelings provoked by your movie, a few years in, and you have to rely on memory and confidence."
Even as Stanton banked on that confidence, he knew that Disney didn't fully share it. He'd always planned to make a John Carter trilogy, but the studio hadn't yet green-lit a sequel, and didn't seem eager to discuss the topic. It also nervously lopped "of Mars" off the film's title, to lower the barrier between women filmgoers—who are famously averse to sci-fi—and Taylor Kitsch's smoldering aura. Disney's caution was perhaps understandable; earlier this year, the studio's "Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides" grossed more than a billion dollars around the world, but made only a small profit because it was so expensive to produce and market. "John Carter," which will be nearly as expensive, will have to earn about seven hundred million dollars to justify a sequel.
Stanton screened "Dump Dejah" again, wondering, "What am I not seeing?" He ran his hands through his hair, sharpening his lance against unseen enemies. "I couldn't get up in the morning or get to sleep at night if I thought perfection was possible. In between, though, you have to trick yourself into believing it is possible, which is dangerous." After watching it twice more, in silence, he surfaced to ask, "Is today Thursday?" It was Tuesday.
Just when Wall-E starts to admire the probe droid Eve in flight, she wheels and blasts him with her wing gun. This, in a nutshell—moony sap woos feisty babe—is Stanton's narrative of his courtship of his wife, Julie. Over dinner at El Paseo, a snug restaurant a mile from their house in Mill Valley, the Stantons recounted their origin story, set thirty years ago in the seaside town of Rockport, Massachusetts. Julie, who now runs a local arts-and-crafts store, told me, "I have to say that I did not have the thunderbolt moment Andrew did. He was drawing me squirrels and rainbows and anthropomorphized grapes, kind of desperately hoping I'd find them cute. He's an incurable romantic—"
"—trapped in the body of a cynic," Stanton said. "Our first date, I was fifteen, you were thirteen—"
"Ellen's Harborside, on the wharf—"
"I was so nervous I couldn't eat, and the waitress pointed that out, and then the town crazy lady came and hissed at us." Stanton shivered, as if she might suddenly reappear.
"My parents wanted me to break it off, saying, 'He's older and he has long hair and he does drugs.' "
"I did have long hair, and I hung out with the druggies, but—"
"—they were seventh-generation there, and very townie, so the long hair . . ." Yet Julie defied her parents, and the lovers have remained together, to her continuing surprise.
Stanton's parents had made a calculated decision to raise Andrew in Rockport, where artists and fishermen mingled easily. Andrew's father, Ron, told me that they'd relocated from nearby Wellesley after Andrew was born, in 1965, because "folks there are predominantly rich and white, and interested in being richer and whiter than their neighbors, which is a terrible environment for a child."
By the time Stanton's identical-twin brothers came along, five years later, it was clear that Stanton was precocious. His mother, Gloria, who gave up acting to have a family, says, "I took Andrew to his first animated movie, 'Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs,' when he was three. Afterward, he said, 'Mommy, I do that. I make movies like that.' " Stanton says he always had an animator's sensibility: "I can't remember not thinking that my bike was cold in the rain, that fish are lonely in their bowl, that leaves are frightened of heights as they fall." Gloria recalls, "We realized that Andrew had multiple talents, and we could easily raise a little monster, so we were very conscious about not making him into a spoiled child prodigy"—an issue accentuated by his flighty behavior, which would nowadays be diagnosed as attention-deficit disorder.
Ron Stanton was one of the founders of Hycor, which did confidential radar work for the Department of Defense. He was often away and usually tight-lipped when he was home—"a classic authoritarian figure," Andrew's brother Nate told me. Julie Stanton says, "When Andrew had done something wrong, his father never needed to say anything. He'd just come stand in Andrew's room, silently, and Andrew would tell him everything."
Gloria was the fun mom all the neighborhood kids loved, but it was Ron's approval that Andrew sought. And it was Ron who introduced him to science fiction, including the John Carter novels. "I place a lot of value in stuff that won't leave my head," Stanton says, "and those characters stayed with me: the Thark best friend, the loyal dog that was an alien creature, this woman he was fighting not to lose. The books seem to hook a lot of boys when they're in the formative preteen years."
In high school, Stanton did a lot of acting and directed his friends in anarchic skits for Super-8 films they called "The Silly Show." After a year at the University of Hartford, he transferred to the character-animation program at California Institute of the Arts. Ron Stanton recalls, "It wasn't until late in high school that you could see that Andrew had an ability to look at other people's flaws and get them to take that oxymoron 'constructive criticism.' His talent as an animator was pale in comparison to his colleagues' at CalArts, but he had timing, a sense of how to make things work. There are some people who have a knack for creating confidence where no confidence is justified, who can inspire a solution to the problem simply by believing a solution can be found."
Two weeks after Julie graduated from Georgetown University, in 1989, she and Stanton got married. They settled in Los Angeles, where he'd got a glamorous, welcome-to-show-biz job animating sperm for a sex-ed film with Martin Short. After Disney rejected him three times, however, he began to wonder if he was cut out for animation. Then, in 1989, John Lasseter, a CalArts grad who'd loved Stanton's student films, asked the younger man to join him as Pixar's second animator. The company, which Steve Jobs had bought three years before, had begun producing digital commercials. "We did boxing Listerine bottles, and I was happy as a clam," Stanton said. "I really looked at John like he saved my life."
As the company grew from thirty-eight employees, in 1992, to more than twelve hundred today, Stanton's responsibilities grew with it. When Pixar began developing "Toy Story," its first feature, in the early nineties, Lasseter brought in some Hollywood screenwriters to shape the story. Feeling he could do better, Stanton quietly versed himself in the discipline: one shelf of his home office is filled with classic screenplays—"Ryan's Daughter," "Schindler's List"—that are scored with a yellow highlighter wherever he spotted a lively verb, a tone seized on the wing. He read and reread Lajos Egri's "The Art of Dramatic Writing," which taught him to distill movies to one crisp sentence before making them. For "Finding Nemo," it was "Fear denies a good father from being one," and, for "Wall-E," "Love conquers all programming."
Pete Docter says, "Until 'Toy Story,' Andrew seemed happy-go-lucky and even lackadaisical, relying on his humor to get by. Then he got annoyed with the screenwriting we were getting and really applied himself and became the main writer. The rigor and structure he brought to that film now oozes out of every pore of every film we make."
As he began to realize his value, Stanton increasingly wished for wider recognition. Julie Stanton told me, "Andrew can never get enough acknowledgment, so he's very susceptible to flattery. What I've said to him—which he does not like—is 'When is the wonder of it over? Two Oscars, O.K., "Nemo," one of the most loved animated films ever—people like you.' " When she made a similar point over dinner at El Paseo, Stanton, who often offers up his recollections pre-interpreted, said, "My parents were very spartan with compliments, so my private demon is 'Can I make something so good that people can't help but be effusive?' "
"Your dad has a Nemo flag on his boat, but he'd never talk to you about it," Julie said.
Stanton frowned and sighed. He's grown close to his father in recent years, and even sports a similar beard. "To give my parents credit," he said, "they did instill my love of movies. They took me to everything from 'Jaws' to 'The Tin Drum,' and it had a huge effect. I'm always trying to get an art-house feeling into a blockbuster."
"Have you ever asked your parents what they think of your work?" I said.
"That wouldn't count," he said, horrified. "It has to be pure, unprompted praise."
Early one morning in July, Stanton drove to Skywalker Ranch, the site of George Lucas's post-production studio, in Marin County. He was going to show "John Carter" to the film's composer, Michael Giacchino, who won an Academy Award for his haunting score for "Up." Usually, a director lets the editor or the music editor cut in the scratch music—a working score of magpie bits from other movies—but Stanton had done it all himself. "My favorite thing is sessions with the composer," he told me. "It's therapy for the film—and it forces you, in explaining what music you want, to realize what your film is really about." The film was now a relatively svelte two hours and seven minutes, but it was still a hodgepodge of finished scenes, half-animated ones, and storyboards that only gestured toward the fireballs and Martian tableaux to come.
In a Skywalker sound room, Giacchino sat alongside Stanton as the director explained, "There are two plans at work, and the clock is ticking on both. The audience knows about the Therns' plan—and that should maybe have one theme, which I made the choral music from 'Perfume'—but there's also Carter's secret plan." He continued, "The other thing I tried to track was the maturation of John Carter, from being John Carter of Earth to accepting being John Carter of Mars." Giacchino nodded.
When the film began, with Willem Dafoe providing a voice-over about the warring tribes on Mars as the camera spiralled toward the Red Planet, Stanton said, "This music is from 'Syriana.' It felt dire and Middle Eastern and forlorn, like a culture clinging to its nobility." Giacchino nodded again. "I don't think we have to marry that to the John Carter theme—just because you're master of the high seas doesn't mean you can't have a separate theme for the ocean." Stanton glanced over anxiously.
"I agree," Giacchino finally said. "But there might be a way to link them together at some point. Just as, while you would want to keep the Mars theme and the Therns theme separate, you could have the Mars theme in choir at one point, to suggest how the Therns are taking over the planet."
"Great!" Stanton said, relieved: someone who got him and could plus him.
They watched Taylor Kitsch soar up to save Lynn Collins as she fell from her airship—the Superman catch—and the newly met couple then carve up an enemy platoon. "Do you have a take where Lynn isn't smiling when she says, 'Let me know when it gets dangerous'? " Giacchino asked. "She just met the guy. Why would she be smiling playfully?"
"Mm-hmm," Stanton said. He folded his hands behind his head.
"It was a bump in the movie for me."
Afterward, Stanton told me, "I was mentally kicking my own ass, because I don't think I have a take where she didn't smile—and I don't want my learning curve to be the reason a scene doesn't work."
He went on to acknowledge a deeper anxiety: "John Carter" faced a test screening the following night in Portland, Oregon, before four hundred citizens and five of Disney's top executives. He was hoping that the lorazepam he'd take to palliate the flight north would keep him tranquillized for the duration. "If there's anything looming as a threat, it's this medium," he said. "Because if, worst-case scenario, there's some story line or motivation that seventy-five per cent of the people aren't getting, I don't have many options, other than cutting it out. If I can't cure the tumor, in a way I'd rather not know it's there." He twisted in his chair, brooding. "I'm only as good at solving problems as I have the ability to do something about them—and it makes me so mad."
For years, Stanton believed that the original Braintrust—Lasseter, Stanton, Docter, and Joe Ranft (who died in 2005)—did much better work together than any of them could do solo: they were like the Beatles. "Pixar is the healthiest place to be," he said, "because our movies got famous, not the moviemakers—which bought you time to continue your work for a few years before you became a total asshole."
Yet he also wondered if he would ever escape Lasseter's shadow. "Even on 'Toy Story,' my ego kept wanting to see how I'd do on my own," he said. " 'Finding Nemo' was my first chance." Like a stool, the idea required three legs to stand. "I'd always wanted to do the ocean in animation, and I was fixated, as a child, on my dentist's fishtank, which was embedded in a wall: what a weird way for fish to see humans. The missing link—What is this movie about? What makes me care?—came on a walk to the park with my five-year-old son, Ben. That was when I realized that my anxiety—I kept cautioning him—was making me a terrible father." Stanton worked up an idea about an anxious clown fish, Marlin, whose son, Nemo, defiantly swims out from the reef—and is promptly scooped up by a diver and deposited in a dentist's fishtank in far-off Sydney.
Lasseter loved the pitch, saying, "You had me at the word 'fish,' " and Stanton began pre-production in 1999. But Ed Catmull, Pixar's president, says that problems soon became apparent: "Andrew is phenomenal at pitching, but the pitch isn't going to end up onscreen. And the tank story was really derailing him." In the dentist's tank—which looked exactly like the aquarium in the office of Stanton's childhood dentist—Gill, a Moorish-idol fish voiced by Willem Dafoe, becomes a surrogate father to Nemo. But no matter how Stanton rejiggered the subplot it kept stopping the movie: there was no emotional payoff. And the delayed revelation of the source of Marlin's anxiety, the barracuda attack, "was absolutely not working," Lasseter says. Lee Unkrich recalls, "Andrew wanted to be arty in the storytelling. He was trying to be fiercely independent and prove himself. But I know he was finding it hard to come in to work, because he feared, 'This is the film that's going to take Pixar down.' "
Stanton told me, "I just felt, I suck, I suck, I suck, and they're going to replace me." One morning over the Fourth of July holiday in 2001, while he was visiting his parents in Rockport, Stanton woke before dawn and wrote a mission statement. He admitted to himself that he'd been at once stiff-necked and craven. "Try to get fired," he wrote, as a corrective. "Don't be concerned about box office, release dates, audience appeal, Pixar history, stock prices, approval from others." He added, "You have a gift for looking at the world with a child-like wonder. . . . You lose that and you lose it all." After this reckoning, he began to ask colleagues for help, and the main thread of the film, Marlin's quest for Nemo, finally came together: kids thought it was hilarious, and adults found it almost unbearably poignant. With that solved, the fishtank subplot suddenly became only a minor interruption to the over-all flow.
"What I realized," Stanton told me, "is, 'Fine, I'm not an auteur. I need to write with other people, I need people to work against. It's not about self-exploration—it's not about me—it's about making the best movie possible.' And as soon as I admitted that, it was amazing how the crew morale pivoted and suddenly everyone had my back. If you own the fact that you don't know what you're doing, then you're still taking charge, you're still being a director." Aware of the irony, he added, "I learned that from John on 'Toy Story'—every time he got confessional, and said, 'Guys, I think I'm just spinning my wheels,' we'd rise up and solve the problem for him."
At the end of his Independence Day memo, Stanton pasted in a recent note from his journal—"Remembered how my father always would pick lint out of our rug by hand. Always trying to perfect things"—and reminded himself to maintain that paternal habit. One of the most Stantonesque moments in "Nemo" is when Gill describes his intricate escape plan: after the dentist transfers the fish to individual baggies to clean the tank, "we'll roll ourselves down the counter, out the window, off the awning, into the bushes, across the street, and into the harbor. It's foolproof!" The film ends with a coda in which Gill and his tank mates have executed the plan—and are now bobbing in the harbor, stuck in their baggies. "That's life in a nutshell for us," Stanton told me. "There's always something you haven't thought of. It's never-ending."
Before the "John Carter" test screening, Stanton and the Disney execs chatted casually, everyone looking relaxed in sweaters and jeans, pageantry that fooled no one. Rigid despite the lorazepam, Stanton waited for the film to begin, then waited through a long scene of exposition for the first expected laugh. It came, and it was loud. "I realized, O.K., they're with me," he said. "Then they laughed at anything that was meant to be a smile. There was no fidgeting in the air battle with Dejah, the least-finished part of the film, and I was thinking, O.K., just get them to the kiss, because I've always been very confident about the last third. And there was applause at the end!" A robust seventy-five per cent of the audience rated the film as excellent or very good—the vital "top two boxes" score—a number that Disney's lead marketer said they'd round up to at least an eighty, because the work was so unfinished. The film had scope and humor and gusto, and you could feel—barring a few niggles about the precise workings of superhero physics—a bounding imagination at work.
The following afternoon, Stanton sat in his red office chair with his feet propped against the wall, weary but pleased. "In the late eighties and early nineties, when Disney animation was at its height, with 'The Little Mermaid,' 'Aladdin,' 'The Lion King,' and so on, I used to joke, 'How come they always name their movies after their most boring characters?' I skirted that problem with 'Nemo,' did just fine with 'Wall-E'—and unanimously, in the focus group after the screening, they all said John Carter was their favorite character. And their favorite scene was the Warhoon attack"—in which Carter single-handedly takes on a savage tribe that threatens Dejah, while in intercut flashbacks we see him reckoning with the loss of his family on Earth. The sequence, laced with fatherly tenderness and grief, was a "make me care" moment original to Stanton. It elegantly elaborated his initial one-sentence distillation of the movie: "We survive to fulfill our purpose for others."
Obstacles to complete fulfillment remained, naturally. The focus group felt a sag in the middle, was puzzled by the Therns' motivations, and felt unprepared for Carter and Dejah's wedding at the end. In August, as Stanton was in the midst of trimming half of the Thark temple scene he'd so painstakingly reshot, he flew to London to film Sab Than (Dominic West) having a clarifying conversation about the Thern plot. Then he flew to Los Angeles to film an insert he'd written in which Carter proposes to Dejah. Then he flew back to London to shoot the other half of the Thern conversation with the other actor, Mark Strong. So there was a second reshoot, after all, done piecemeal around the globe. "It still makes no fucking sense to me, but this is how we do it," Stanton said. Disney's Sean Bailey told me, "What I admired about Andrew was there was zero complacency after that very good screening. He was relentless in coming out of it and saying, 'Here are the things I can still improve.' "
Stanton had been hoping a successful screening might earn him a green light for the second film, but, he said, "Disney didn't—and won't, history tells us—have the balls to commit" until they see how "John Carter" does. If he wants to continue serving as a planetary mythmaker, the studio's investment will have to be amply repaid. "There were hugs and handshakes all around, but there was no 'Conquering hero!,' " Stanton said. "It was 'We got a lot to do—let's get back on the horse.' " He sharpened his forelock in readiness. "Which, frankly, sadly, is the feeling I give off to others, so no surprise I get the same feeling back." ♦


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Dec. 9, 2001
By Tim Nash
collegesoccer.com in Dallas
Dallas, Texas -- Santa Clara has a rich tradition in the NCAA tournament. The Broncos have appeared in the last 13 post-season tourneys and have posted a 25-12 record, outscoring opponents 74-35.
Eight of those 12 losses have come in the national semifinals. For the first-time ever, Santa Clara head coach Jerry Smith sat in the Saturday press conference to answer questions about his team as they prepare for the national championship game.
"We're very excited to be here," Smith told reporters. "I've never been to this press conference before."
And the reasons Smith and the Broncos have never played for the national championship is one of the great mysteries in women's college soccer. They have certainly been talented enough in past years. From 1996 through 1999, Santa Clara lost a total of nine games, while posting 85 wins. But each year, they lost in the semis. Friday night in an overtime win over Florida, it appeared like they might make yet another early exit.
"We've lost in this thing every which way you can think of," Smith said after the game. "I thought we were going to find another way tonight."
But the Broncos found the way to win. Veronica Zepeda scored in the fifth minute of overtime. Surviving a semifinal match may have given the Broncos the psychological boost they need to finally win an NCAA crown. And it might just give Smith a reprieve from his depressing College Cup history.
The losses by 1998 and 1999 teams were particularly shocking. In 1998, the Broncos entered the semis with a 22-0-1 record. In 1999, they were 23-0-0. This year's Broncos, despite not being the most talented or experienced team in Santa Clara history (that distinction would most likely go to the 1999 side), may have the best chance at bringing home the title that has eluded them for so long.
And the reasons have little to do with tactics, talent or luck -- whether it is good or bad. It has everything to do with heart.
On Thursday, Santa Clara's Aly Wagner, the most impressive player in the semifinals this year, talked about her willingness to grind it out, to do whatever it took to get the win. Pretty losses, Wagner has realized, are pretty much useless. She wants nothing to do with them.
"One of our Achilles'' heels in the past has been that we were not able to grind it out," said Smith. "That's one of the lessons we've learned."
For several years, Smith suspected the missing ingredient had little to do with talent. After his 1999 team flamed out in the semis to Notre Dame, he knew for sure.
"We had such a great season in '99," said Smith. "It was highlighted by beating UNC in the regular season. Then we scored seven times on a good UCLA team and beat Portland by eight goals. We just rolled. But we came up short. Maybe there was a softness to our team.
"Before 1999, we weren't fully funded, and I thought when we got fully funded (with the maximum number of allowed scholarships) that would change things. We kind of had a 'Woe is me' attitude. But after 1999, we had to take a very close look at it. Were we putting enough emphasis on intensity in training sessions? Were we recruiting players who were mentally tough enough? The answer was no."
The 2000 season helped Santa Clara grow in terms of heart and desire. Ironically, it was not in the way Smith would have chosen. Injuries to key players like Wagner, Danielle Slaton and Anna Kraus contributed to a season that saw the Broncos struggle. Seven losses and tie stuck out on Santa Clara's usually spotless record last year, but by the time the year wound down, the Broncos had advanced all the way to the NCAA quarterfinals.
Last year, the Broncos had to rely on things other than superior talent, and they were relatively successful. This season, six of Santa Clara's 22 wins have been by one goal, including their last two playoff matches. Wagner says those games - 3-2 wins over Virginia last week and Florida on Friday - prove the team has decided to do whatever is necessary to win the big games.
"I think the last two games showed that we are willing to grind it out," said Wagner who had a goal and three assists in the past two matches. "We'll definitely be mentally prepared for the game (Sunday). It's the last game of the season, and you have to leave everything on the field."
Wagner is certainly the key to Santa Clara's fortunes, and all indications are that she is not about to let a lack of effort or heart keep her and her teammates from a national title.
"Sometimes in the past, if Aly wasn't getting the ball or if we couldn't get her the ball, she would get frustrated," said Smith. "And this isn't anything she hasn't heard before. Now if teams are focusing on her, she finds a way to impact the game. I think that's something that has helped us get over the (semifinal) hurdle."
There's one more hurdle - perennial national champion North Carolina. A win against UNC would answer virtually every question that surrounds the Bronco program.
"First, we just wanted to get to the final," said Wagner. "Now we're excited to play Carolina. They're always the team you want to play. If we made it to the final and they didn't, everyone would wondered what would have happened if we played them. It should be a great game."
And the one that grinds it out the most will most likely be the winner.

subset: commoncrawl


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Industrial Gas Pressure Regulator
The BelGAS division of Marsh Bellofram has introduced the P200P series manual, direct-acting, self-operating, spring-loaded, adjustable pressure regulators for use in applications where pressure reduction is required.Designed for maximum durability, Marsh Bellofram BelGAS P200P regulators are offered with cast iron or WCB steel bodies, with aluminum bonnets and with a durable powder-coated epoxy exterior finish.
Units offer installation versatility, an internal relief valve for overpressure protection, and minimize sudden downstream load changes, reducing the risk of safety equipment shutting an operation down. The regulators are available in a wide range of available flow capacities and spring ranges. These robust and reliable features make the P200P ideal for use in other types of industrial monitoring applications, such as pressure regulation of compressors, gas engines, and service regulators.
- direct-acting
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HerbalGram 106 includes articles on the New York Attorney General's herbal supplement investigation; UK crackdown on St. John's wort products; ginkgo extract safety and efficacy in treating dementia; valerian and lemon balm combination improves symptoms of ADHD in children; cinnamon extract reduces postprandial blood sugar levels in humans and rats; systematic review of ashwagandha for the treatment of anxiety; schisandra (Schisandra chinensis, S. sphenanthera) profile; and more.
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The information on this site is intended for educational purposes only and is not a substitute for the advice of a qualified healthcare professional. The American Botanical Council does not endorse or test products, nor does it verify the content or claims made, either implicit or explicit. ABC does not accept responsibility for the consequences of the use of this information or its most up-to-date accuracy. ABC is an independent, nonprofit, tax-exempt research and education organization under IRS section 501(c)(3). All text, images and content Copyright © 2016 American Botanical Council, unless otherwise noted.


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About walking, hill walking and hiking
We have masses of walking routes, areas and events to choose from. To discover more about our Park and learn useful skills, you could join an organised walk, or set out with a qualified walking guide.
What to do
1. Tasters (for beginners)
The Brecon Beacons National Park has a fantastic range of walks suitable for all ages and abilities. This is why so many visitors come to the area.
If you're new to hill walking, you could maximise your experience by booking a qualified walking guide. Using their local knowledge guides can choose a suitable hill walk or a more demanding mountain walk, planning the route to suit your preferences so you don't have to worry about getting lost or missing places of interest.
Guides can take you off the beaten track to see breathtaking scenery and experience the real Brecon Beacons which you may not otherwise get the chance to visit. You can book a single day guided walk or a full weekend and combine a walk with other activities.
Or, you could join an organised walk. Check our Events listings for details.
2. Improvers (for returners and skills builders)
You may have enjoyed your guided mountain wilderness experience so much that you now want to take it to the next level.
You could learn basic mountain skills such as map reading, using a compass and keeping yourself and others safe in what can be a harsh and dangerous environment. That way, the next time you will feel confident enough to go out alone or with friends and family and lead the way.
The Brecon Beacons National Park has numerous professional instructors and organisations who can offer tuition in mountain skills.
3. Independent experiences (for enthusiasts and experts)
Walking in the Brecon Beacons National Park is an excellent activity for independent adventurers. We have plenty of published routes that even young children can try. For wheelchair users and families with pushchairs, there are short, easier-access trails which allow you to get out in the fresh air in a safe and controlled way. Many starting points can be reached by bus.
For those looking for a more challenging experience, there's a wealth of choice, from short mountain walks lasting a couple of hours to long-distance hikes such as the eight-day Beacons Way.
Where to go: eight fantastic walking destinations in the Brecon Beacons National Park
Beacons Way
The ultimate long-distance challenge in our National Park. Allow eight days to complete this inspiring, 95-mile hill walking route.
Black Mountains
Lovely rolling country walks in a beautiful and popular part of the park.
Brinore Tramroad
Wonderful walking in and above the Talybont Valley, discovering the area's industrial past along the way.
Central Beacons
Stretch your legs on the open hillsides of the highest range in southern Britain.
Craig-y-Nos Country Park
A relaxing, leafy starting point from which to explore the Tawe Valley.
Monmouthshire and Brecon Canal
If you like to take it easy, our 33 miles of towpath could be just the thing, with pubs to visit along the way, riverside picnic spots near Brynich Lock and a wonderful visitor centre at Goytre Wharf.
Taff Trail
This rewarding long-distance trail enters our Park at Merthyr Tydfil and follows the Taf Fechan past Pontsticill Reservoir then crosses the Central Beacons to Brecon.
Waterfall Country
Steep paths lead through pretty woodland to deep gorges and plunging, atmospheric waterfalls on the rivers Mellte, Hepste and Nedd-Fechan.
How to get there
When planning a route, why not use the bus to get you to the start, back from the finish, or both? You can cover far more ground that way. The summer Beacons Bus service is designed with walkers in mind. Local services can also be helpful. If you do use your car, be sure not to leave any valuables in it when parking in the countryside. Sadly, vehicle crime is an ever-present problem.
We've included details of many walking routes on this website. Our National Park Visitor Centres can provide additional maps, guides and information. Their expert staff will be glad to advise where to go for wonderful walks.
Be prepared, be responsible, stay safe
Help us to protect our National Park by taking care to cause minimal impact when walking.
Please stick to the paths and follow the Countryside Code.
For useful advice, visit our page on staying safe while walking.


text: Calendar Breastfeeding Basics 11/12/2019 The get-real breastfeeding guide class provides parents with information about breastfeeding and offers positive support for new breastfeeding families. Fathers and grandmothers are encouraged to attend to learn what breastfeeding is like and what to expect. Breastfeeding is most successful with positive support. You'll discuss how breastfeeding is initiated in the hospital, what to expect in those first weeks, handling working situations, and pumping and storing milk. We'll recommend some great books about breastfeeding that you can read during your pregnancy. When you leave class, you'll have the basic knowledge of correct and comfortable positioning and how to assess adequate feeding. For more information, please call Memorial's Healthline at 217-788-3333. Time: 6 - 8 p.m. Location: Memorial Center for Learning and Innovation Room: 2B H.D. Smith Classroom Registration is closed for this event Questions? Contact Us.


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Even the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) mayor of Taipei was moved to say that Taiwan's low wages are a national shame. President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) has been running around asking companies to raise salaries and dispensing nominal sweeteners such as entitling expectant mothers to five days' half-paid prenatal examination leave and their husbands two days' unpaid leave to accompany them. These are just desperate ploys to keep the public quiet.
The administration is using these tactics to distract people from the real issue — that the proposed service trade pact and the free economic pilot zones are part of the KMT and the Chinese Communist Party's conspiracy to secure eventual unification.
The new minister of science and technology has said that there "can be no salary increases without innovation," while neglecting to mention the reasons for the lack of innovation: The overseas relocation of industry, the lack of domestic investment and the dearth of local R&D. The minute these issues are broached there will be a conflict with Ma's pro-China policy.
The pro-blue media have blamed unfair allocation of resources, saying workers' salaries have fallen as a percentage of GDP. They avoid exploring why because for the last decade they have encouraged companies to relocate to China, and analyzing the roots of the problem would implicate themselves and their China ideology.
Is the educational system at fault? Education reform is a mess, but from the showings of local students in various international science Olympiads and the International Exhibition of Inventions, rumors of its demise appear to have been exaggerated.
Saying that the economy is too isolated is nonsense. Taiwan surpasses Japan, South Korea and China in terms of deregulation, being 17th in global rankings compared with 25th, 31st and 137th respectively for the others. In fact, over-reliance on China's resources fueled the disregard for the importance of innovation and renewal.
Claiming that South Korea has been more aggressive in signing free-trade agreements that allowed its economy to overtake Taiwan's is nonsense, too, for South Korea had surpassed this nation long before it signed all those pacts with Western countries.
Even more ridiculous is the pro-blue media's contention that blames the opposition's obstructive ways. It takes a thief to catch a thief. The Ma administration has signed 19 agreements with Beijing over the past five years. Whatever happened to the opposition party applying checks and balances to the government?
What exactly is the real reason for the low salary levels?
The answer is Taiwan's economic marginalization. The "great China market" is different from the trade we have with Japan, the US or Europe, because of the shared language, culture and ethnicity, and the sheer size disparity, all of which has a magnetic effect.
Massive deregulation toward China and the 19 pacts have given China more direct channels for draining national capital, talent and technologies, speeding up the turning of Taiwan into an outlier economy on the fringes of the "greater China" economic entity. This status on the periphery, is the reason for the low salaries.
If the opposition does not pull its finger out and stop passage of the service trade pact, then the process started by the signing of the Economic Cooperation Framework Agreement — or the "Eventual Colonization Framework Agreement" — will be signed, sealed and delivered and the low "marginalized wages" in Taiwan will be perpetuated.


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What many writers don't realize is that waiting is a part of the writer life. It's frustrating, but it is part of the deal and it doesn't change. Writing the novel is a task in itself, but it's also the only part without the wait, so relish it. Once you type those two final words, the game changes and the waiting begins.
Writers wait while critique partners and beta readers read their words. We wait for their feedback and we wait all over again when we make their changes and resubmit. Then comes the querying, and we wait. Partial requests? Wait. Full requests? (Squee!!) and wait.
Here's where I once misunderstood the complete situation. You see, once you find an agent and sign that contract, the waiting doesn't end. Your agent needs time to get to your manuscript and time to make suggestions and changes. Then you update and resubmit. The process continues. Even when it's perfect, your agent still must submit to editors. That means more waiting, and the waiting at that point in the game can be six months or more, so patience really is a necessity. But once you find a publisher the waiting ends, right? Not even close. Writers must wait to work with editors and for cover art and release dates. It's simply part of the deal. Because I believe most writers are compelled to write and cannot walk away, we have to learn to wait gracefully – or at least productively.
Every writer is in the same boat to some extent. We're all waiting on something. It's what we signed up for, or at least it was in the invisible ink.
So, the question becomes what to do while we wait. I've tried everything from yoga to archery to gourmet baking. All were fun, but here's the thing…writers write. We must. Writers who don't write, make me nervous. I am of the opinion that the very best thing we can do while we wait is write some more. Every word counts, every sentence created enhances your skill and improves your craft. You don't need to start another novel, start a blog, maybe just guest blog for a friend, or submit an article to an online magazine. Try your hand at flash fiction or look for an upcoming anthology.
Writing passes the time while you wait, improves your craft, and once you have enough irons in the fire, the wait time is shorter. Someone is sure to get back with you on a regular basis if you have enough submissions going on. It breaks up all the waiting and brings some good news along the way. Fabulous sites like Wow! Women on Writing feature a different writer every Friday. They've even let me have the floor a time or two LOL. It feels good to get your name out there and it boosts your confidence.
Another great way to pass the time while you wait is to embrace social media. Networking is a great way to establish a name for yourself in the writing community, build a web presence and drive traffic to your blog. Twitter is a great place to start. I've met some of my closest writer friends, beta readers, and favorite authors through twitter. It's a huge resource that's greatly underestimated.
In the end, waiting won't change, but you can embrace the challenge. Be productive. Enjoy the time away from your manuscript and test your chops. Waiting might be just what you need to discover a whole new part of your writing self. Enjoy!


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Resturant Hours
Open 7 days a week
11 Am - 9.30 Pm
Lunch Buffet :11am to 3pm
Dinner Buffet : 5pm to 9pm
2890 S. Colorado Blvd.
#J Denver , CO 80222
The Cuisine Of India. Welcome to The official Website Of India Oven. We Are Located at 2890 S. Colorado Blvd, #J Denver, CO 80222.Serving Traditional Cuisine Of India Full Of Aromatic Delight, Colors & Spices Prepared Fresh Daily To Transport You To India.The finest of India's cuisines are as rich and diverse as its civilization. It is an art form that has been passed on through generations purely by word of mouth, from guru(teacher) to vidhyarthi( pupil). The range encompasses a vast scope when one takes into account regional variations. Very often the taste, colour, texture & appearance of the same delicacy changes from region to region.
The hospitality of the Indians is legendary. In Sanskrit Literature the three famous words 'Atithi Devo Bhava' or 'the guest is truly your god' are a motto of Indian hospitality. Indians believe that they are honored if they share their mealtimes with guest. Even the poorest look forward to and are willing to share this meager food with guest. And of perticular importance is the Indian matriarch's pride that she will not let a guest go away unfed or unhappy from her home. Indians are known for their incredible ability to serve food to their guests invited or uninvited.Food customarily forms the crowning part of most festivities & celebrations. Whatever the occasion Indians eat with great gusto and are adept at finding reasons to feast and make merry.


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- Home
- Eastwood Fender Roller Tool
Eastwood Fender Roller Tool
Eastwood Fender Roller Tool
Item #31158 Brand: Eastwood
tire rub on lowered vehicles
Eastwood's Fender Roller won't let your fender ruin expensive tires on lowered vehicles!
- Professional grade high quality tool for years of service
- Durable powder coated finish
- Delrin® ball-bearing fender-former wheel
- Fender former eliminates tire rub by increasing tire-to-fender clearance
- Adjustable fender-rolling roller gradually rolls the inner lip flat
- Perfect for lowered vehicles and vehicles with larger wheels
- Adjustable-height arm lets you work on a wide range of automotive and light truck applications
Professional-grade fender roller tool helps you easily increase the clearance between your tire and the fender, roll the fenders, or repair wheel-arch collision damage.
Our exclusive fender rolling tool bolts directly onto the wheel's hub flange, and the elongated holes in the adapter plate fit all popular 4- and 5-bolt hubs. It's held in place with the included dished washers and your vehicle's lug nuts. Accommodates up to a 120.6 mm (4.75") 4- or 5-lug bolt circles. Forming arm adjustability ranges from a minimum of 14" to a maximum of 22-3/4" hub-center-to-edge-of-roller to handle most automotive and light truck projects. Non-returnable. Limited one-year warranty: if defective, we'll replace the tool.
Delrin® ball-bearing fender-former rolling tool is tough enough to easily form the fender, but without damaging the paint finish. To prevent paint from cracking when forming wheel arches, gently heat the paint before forming; we recommend our Eastwood 1500W Heat Gun
Durable, heavy-duty powder-coated steel Fender Roller.
Download Eastwood Fender Roller Tool instructions PDF
Make sure vehicle is secure before removing wheels. Use high-quality jack stands and wheel chocks. Always wear eye, skin and respiratory protection.
Limited one-year warranty: Non returnable, if defective, we'll replace the tool.
Q: Will the Fender Roller work on all passenger cars?
A: For the most part, yes, but won't work with vehicles with larger hubs, such as trucks, VWs and Porsches.
Q: Will it work on all fenders?
A: Yes, except dual-thickness flanged fenders, mostly found on the rear of full-size cars, such as a 1987 Grand National.
Q: What range will it extend?
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Eastwood Offers Free Lifetime Technical Support
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Scroll Down & Click "Get Your E-Price!"
603 Second Avenue South
Directions Hettinger, ND 58639-7455
By T45 on Friday, December 02, 2016
By The Phantom Owner on Saturday, March 25, 2017
By M on Thursday, January 18, 2018
* The advertised price does not include sales tax, vehicle registration fees, other fees required by law, finance charges and any documentation charges. A negotiable administration fee, up to $115, may be added to the price of the vehicle.
* Images, prices, and options shown, including vehicle color, trim, options, pricing and other specifications are subject to availability, incentive offerings, current pricing and credit worthiness.
Exterior Color: Billet Silver
Interior Color: Black
Vin Number: 2C3CCAGG7JH264928
Stock: B7053
View this 2018 Chrysler 300 Sedan S for sale at


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A community for military sci-fi & space opera roleplaying
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Business Profile: A Day in the Life of Oscar Camarena, Simple Bicycles
Attracted to the district because of its central location and access to everything he requires for his business, Oscar Camarena moved his metal fabrication business from Yakima, Wash., to the Central Eastside last year. Now on the first floor of the Gardeners and Ranchers Building at SE 3rd and Madison, Oscar creates bike jigs for frame builders and bicycle product developers around the world. He also builds custom bike frames under the name Simple Bicycles for the high-end cycling market.
He can often be found hanging out with his fellow tenant craftsmen and women, sharing industry knowledge and acting as the de facto "mayor" of this unique community of metal-smiths, designers, bike builders and other entrepreneurs. On Fridays they have their own happy hour in the building.
A self-described "foodie," Oscar likes the Central Eastside location because of its proximity to lots of restaurants as well as all of his suppliers, distributors, services and other frame builders. He can push a shopping cart loaded with jigs to the powder coater, ride his bike to Winks for small parts and tools or drive his truck to pick up larger supplies in Northwest Portland, all within a 20-minute radius.
Oscar says there's nowhere else in the city that he would rather do business.
Industrial Ecosystem
It's easy to look at the Central Eastside and see a collection of individual, albeit diverse, businesses. However, a closer look at these seemingly independent enterprises reveals that most have a symbiotic relationship with other businesses in the area — from the same sector as well as from other sectors — that provide essential goods and services.
Together they form a loose economic ecosystem. Each supports the other in multiple ways, and the removal of one key business, let alone a whole sector, can have a ripple effect that begins to undermine the health and potential survival of many other businesses.
Oscar Camarena of Simple Bicycles provides an example of this kind of industrial "ecosystem."
This is the ninth installment of a blog series aimed at exploring the past, present, and future of the Central Eastside. To learn more about the industrial businesses of the Central Eastside and the planning efforts for the district, read the Central Eastside Reader and visit the SE Quadrant Plan calendar to learn about future events.


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Project Coordinator: Dan Taylor
Welcome to the Royal Astronomical Society of Canada's International Year of Astronomy Sky Quality Measurement Project (IYA-SQM Project). This project is continuing beyond IYA.
Perhaps the greatest legacy we can leave through the IYA is greater public awareness of the plight of the nocturnal environment. Understanding light pollution and the growing list of affected items will most certainly lead to increased public sensitivity. It was perceived that the SQM-L can help facilitate this end. More specifically, the SQM-L when operated in controlled conditions has the potential to be highly useful research tool.
The renowned "Earth at Night" poster, produced through defense meteorological satellite (DMSP) imagery, has lent substance to the pursuit of light pollution abatement. The image was the basis for work by scientists in Italy to develop a light pollution maps based on upward directed light and reflected ground illumination visible in the images.
The potential scientific value of the SQM-L is that the sampling platform is at the base of the atmosphere. Hence the measurements are from the atmosphere above the observer. Therefore SQM-L measurements generate real data on light pollution conditions.
When sufficient sampling is undertaken, inherent errors are minimized. Given that precise geographic locating is now commonplace, developing a grid of SQM-L measurements will yield int specific data. Thus SQM-L generated light pollution maps will for the first time provide a true baseline of light pollution levels in a given study area. Your responsibility is to sample your study area as thoroughly as practical.
This packet includes:
- This information sheet,
- Manufacturer information sheets on the SQM-L for care and handling,
- Measurement method instructions,
- Data reporting format and procedure instructions,
- Terms of use and expediting method, and
- A SQM-L unit of course.
This SQM-L has been tested, calibrated and prepared for use during the IYA by Unihedron Inc.
By entering the SQM Project you are obliged to make extensive use of the SQM unit in both public outreach and night sky measurements. After use you shall return the unit to the RASC or to the next user as instructed. The potential for groundbreaking understanding of light pollution consequences cannot be understated. Your active participation is vital to the success of the RASC IYA SQM Project!
Measurement Method
Every measuring device, whether a thermometer, speedometer, or tape measure, has inherent sources of error. The same is true of the SQM unit. But the variable conditions of the sky compound the variability of the SQM reading.
The manufacturer, Unihedron, states this error is ± 5 %. For casual readings this is just fine. A simple click of the device will dispense a reading that will approximate light pollution conditions above that site.
For scientific measurements however, it is important to reduce the probability of these errors for reliable results. The easiest means for use to do this is by taking multiple samples from the same site during the same session. Haze and other aerosols affect transparency and most importantly skew SQM readings. Thus caution should be exercised when selecting an observing session.
When and Where to Take Readings:
- Regularly, within the lending period.
- At as many sites as possible with the goal of developing a grid of readings in your region.
- During each session one final reading from a control site should be taken. The control site may be as simple as out your back door. This will ensure the reliability of the unit during the session.
- Clear, moonless sky
- It is best to avoid pointing towards the milky way, especially in rural dark locations
- No buildings or vegetation within the field of view (±10 degrees, wider if using the older wide-field model)
- Follow Unihedron's instruction pamphlet at the end of this booklet
The geographic location of your reading trial must be pinned to the dataset. Without this info your data can not be combined with the data from the other units on loan. A GPS reading along side the SQM-L would be ideal. Although, it would suffice to query online map sites that can generate latitude and longitude coordinates. Please report in the following sexigesimal format: ±degrees:minutes:seconds. The SQM also records temperature. Please see Unihedron for more on why the temperature is necessary.
A preferred spreadsheet form is available for data submissions. Note: there are places for ten SQM readings, a temperature reading, and one for latitude/longitude. Please consider taking at least five readings per observing site.
Online submission is the preferred method.
- Log in to post comments


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Link Ring
Diamonds = 0.245 CT (F/G-VVS1/VS1)
Available in Yellow, Rose or White gold
Made in NYC
Click here for ring size conversions.
Size 6 ready to ship; please allow 2-3 weeks for all other sizes.
Shee's Fine Jewelry was founded by Shee in 2015 in New York City, after attending Parsons School of Design prior, and obtaining certifications as a Graduate Gemologist and in Jewelry Design from the GIA in New York. Always an aficionado of art and design, Shee's creativity is inspired by daily life and her 10 years of modeling experience worldwide. Shee's Fine Jewelry embodies the designer's creative eye for design and vision for beauty; it is her ultimate expression.
Shee is known for her unique eye when experimenting with different gemstones, the culmination of which often results in a delicate yet powerful aesthetic. Careful dedication is involved in designing these pieces that are both versatile and functional. Shee's Fine Jewelry believes in daily luxury, and each design is created to empower women and allow them to discover their true beauty inside and out. We believe that precious jewelry should never be kept away in the dark; each piece should serve to illuminate us and effortlessly complement our daily looks.


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Nice shots and I'm enjoying your story. Be safe
2016 R1200gsa
Montauk Point Lighthouse commissioned by President George Washington
My friend's Montauk home. The hospitality was fabulous!
This morning I had a nice Montauk breakfast and headed to visit more friends in Hastings on Hudson, NY. The ride was virtually uneventful (a good thing!) except for a couple of traffic delays. I crept in traffic along side a guy and girl on a new BMW 1600. Although it's beautiful, I like Ol' Blue's boxer.
So far, I've done 2375 miles on the trip. Talk about taking the long way around to NY. I realize it ain't Ewan and Charlie....just me.
Tomorrow, heading to the BMW dealership in Maine for the 6000 mile service and a new rear tire. The route I plan to take will run through NY, western CT and MA then across NH, VT and into Maine. It should be a full day.
By the way, the weather I've been touring in has been better than anyone could wish for; blue skies, 65˚- 75˚ most of the time. Bright sunshine, no rain. I'm taking it while it's good 'cuz I know it could all turn on a dime. Whatever lies ahead, I've got to believe that someone is watching over me.
I miss my family so much that physically, it hurts.
You are carrying the spirit of your father with you so there is no wonder why the weather is great and you will be home soon enough to the family. Travel well.
Nice job documenting and sharing your ride, your family misses You too ! God Bless
Glenn W.
At The Foothills of The Rocky Mountains
I can't thank my friends enough that took me in, fed me and shared their words of encouragement. It was great looking over the map with my buddy Gerard and having a few beers. The biggest compliment was that he repeatedly kept saying, "I should be going with you."
Riding up from Hastings on Hudson, on the west side of the Hudson (9W), was some of the most treacherous roads I've ever ridden on in my life. Rocky, vertical drops of probably 1000 feet or more and low guardrails. Not a place to carve.
Heading more north, I shot diagonally, on 44, across northwest CT then picked up 7 north into MA and then southern VT. There I picked up 9 East which connected with 202 through NH and into ME.
The ride was nice, meandering in towns that were founded in the mid to late 1700's. I had a reality check when I approached what had to have been a fatal accident; two cars that appeared to have had a high speed broadside or head on collision. As I passed by the wreckage, I counted eight "jaws of life" tools scattered around the two cars. The reality check came when I was rubber-necking and almost ran over a police officer directing traffic past the scene. Hey stupid, KEEP YOUR EYES THE ROAD.
2770 miles traveled thus far and, except for another ten miles north to get the BMW serviced, the south to north portion of the trip is done. Today, I point Ol' Blue west and head to the Pacific.
Baby's got a new pair of shoes; Metzlers installed front and rear for the next 6000 or so miles. Ol' Blue had her service and is good to go for throttle up to the west.
I sat down with a guy, Roger, at the BMW dealership and he turned me on to some great roads through western Maine, central New Hampshire and Vermont. Roads so fine that I didn't want them to end so I saved some for tomorrow before heading into Canada. The guys in Maine gravitate to Vermont. It's their motorcycling mecca.
I found myself attacking these Vermont roads. Long sweepers, tight switchbacks, no traffic, no police and great, great weather. With the Beemer loaded to the gills with luggage, I was still able to drag the pegs and keep pace with the sport bike guys. Small children near the tight curves couldn't figure out why sparks were flying from my bike. Merely the pegs scraping from a BMW R 1200 RT at full lean my child.
By the way, did I mention Vermont?
It's all that, roadwise, and absolutely beautiful to boot.
This is the first time on the trip where I am jazzed to hit the roads tomorrow.
Did I mention no cops?
I mean the Blue Ridge was super nice, but leisurely. You can't help but attack the roads here. Fun, fun, fun.
Did I mention no traffic?
The folks here know the proper way to drive these roads. The gang of hooligans on the Ducati Hypermotards have got nothing on a particular housewife in a Jeep Wrangler. I did all I could to stay with her. Granted, she knows the roads but I had to believe that she was having a good time returning from the grocery store. She gets it. "Honey, just gonna run up to the market for some milk. Need anything?" Thrash!
This was also the first day that I felt no "monkey butt". Granted, me and Ol' Blue only clocked about 240 miles or so but I was moving on the seat, shifting from side to side.
Like Roger said, "I could spend the rest of my days just riding in Vermont."
Last edited by manwohr; 10-02-2012 at 01:13 AM.
Chelsea, VT
Since my last post, I've been suffering from Vermont withdrawals. After spending Saturday morning finishing up on the beautiful VT roads, I entered Canada. Somewhat shell shocked I believe. The Canadian countryside is pretty enough but what I drove through was not spectacular. It reminded me of Ohio or Indiana only with it's signs in French. I'm sure there must be some real great roads somewhere. I guess I took the wrong route. I've got to say that the Canadian people are some of the nicest, most cheerful people I've seen. It seems like wherever they are, they are super happy to be there.
The next day I awoke in Canada psyched and ready for a great ride. The weather was nice. 68˚ and partly cloudy. I fired up the Beemer and headed west on hwy 17 on my way to Sault St. Marie. At about the 100 mile mark, the clouds that I was watching to the west started to become ominous. At 12:30 the first drop of rain hit my windshield and I decided to pull over to put on my foul weather gear. Another 30 minutes later, it was coming down in buckets. Lightening bolts lit up the otherwise dark grey sky. My thoughts immediately went to a story my mailman told me about a buddy of his who went cross country on his motorcycle only to be killed by a lightening bolt in Idaho. It would be too weird for my mailman to have two friends killed the exact same way so I continued on. 68˚ soon turned to 58˚ but the rain only got worse. Just let me make it to the U.S. and it'll all be fine. Then a break. Just as I was approaching the U.S. border the rain stopped. I crossed into the U.P. (Upper Peninsula) of Michigan and stopped to have a bite. After my meal I Looked to the west and the dark clouds were building once again. Thirty minutes later, I'm in a fight for survival. Thick heavy rain. Gusty winds. Two lane roads. Now I could have pulled over and gotten a hotel right then and there but I was determined to make Wisconsin before stopping. This was to be a defining ride. The temperature had dropped to 42˚ on Ol' Blues ambient temp display. The rain was relentless, but so was I. Heated grips and a heated seat made what I was about to attempt possible. My gear wasn't keeping all the rain out but given the conditions, it did a pretty good job. My gloves were soaked but again, the heated grips kept my hands toasty warm. Make no mistake, this was not a comfortable ride. I'm not sure exactly how long I drove through this cold and nasty stuff, 4, maybe 5 hours. The RT never missed a beat. I arrived in Iron Mountain at around 8pm with the rain still coming down. After checking in at the front desk, I looked back and noticed a huge puddle that had gathered were I had been standing. Went to the room, turned the heat to 90˚ and the fan on high. Slept like a baby.
Last edited by manwohr; 10-02-2012 at 01:17 AM.
Today I looked out my Iron Mountain window and the sky was crystal blue. As I went to load up the bike, I was shocked to see just how nasty and dirty she was. You've probably seen what I'm referring to on the cars from up north when they finally make it to a warm climate. Just filthy. Anyway she sparked right up and off we went. My first destination was to go by Crivitz, WI. Our family and our friends family, who actually own the place, have spent a number of summer vacations on 55 pristine acres in a cabin on the Peshtigo River in this cool little town. It seemed so strange driving through the same place all by myself. After a couple of pics, I headed north to route 8 across Wisconsin. Finally, the Autumn leaves that I've been searching for. And all this beauty framing up some damn nice roads. Northern Wisconsin is beautiful this time of year. Crossed into Minnesota at Taylor's Falls and headed north, and around Minneapolis. The weather for today's ride was a bit chilly at 55˚ but otherwise perfect. Except for one strange occurrence at the end of my Wisconsin leg. I stopped to photograph a beaver lodge and as I was finishing up, I noticed a small cloud overhead. All of a sudden a bit of hail fell gently all around me. It almost looked like snowflakes. Not a drop of rain and this gentle hail floating down. Simply beautiful.
I ended today's leg in ND. To me it is the gateway to all things west.
Praying for a safe rest of the ride. Praying for good weather. Missing my family and friends.
Last edited by manwohr; 10-02-2012 at 01:19 AM.
Beaver Lodge


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Beaumont man sentenced to 25 years in prison
According to a press release from the Jefferson County District Attorney's office, 35 year-old Travis J. Guillory, who last resided at 3095 Roberts St. in Beaumont, was convicted and sentenced to 25 years in the state penitentiary in connection with a 2011 narcotics investigation.
Guillory was apprehended in a drug bust March 16, 2011 at 2460 Park St. in Beaumont. He was in possession of 20.95 grams of cocaine, a pistol and counterfeit money. Guillory had three prior drug felony convictions.
"I applaud the jury's decision," prosecutor Christopher Cadena said. "It speaks volumes about the character of our community and how they feel about repeat drug offenders."


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The UMUC Library Newsletter
Spring 2014 • Volume 14, Issue 1
Previous Issues
In this issue
From Stephen Miller
Associate Vice Provost, UMUC Library
My colleagues and I at the UMUC Library extend warm greetings to all new and returning students, faculty, and staff at the beginning of the spring 2014 semester. Welcome!
As always, the Library provides access to the most up-to-date iterations of our electronic resources. Please see Electronic Resources News for information on improvements to the LexisNexis Academic and Project Muse databases.
UMUC Librarians continue to contribute to professional literature. Please read about our latest publication, as well as newest additions to the Library staff in Staff News.
UMUC librarians are available for research assistance through a variety of formats, including 24/7 e-mail and live chat, as well as instant messaging and telephone during regularly-scheduled hours. Individual research consultations are available in-person, by phone, or via Web Conferencing. See Ask a Librarian for more information and to schedule an appointment.
Faculty are encouraged to take full advantage of the Library's liaison program and course-related library instruction. The Library is committed to student success and retention.
Best of luck in the fall semester!
Electronic Resources News
Project Muse released a new Advanced Search functionality, providing users with the ability to construct detailed and precise search queries to access the broad array of scholarly journal and book content available on the platform. To explore this new functionality, click on the Advanced Search link in the upper right of every page on the MUSE site.
A new LexisNexis Academic interface has been released that includes the following new enhancements:
- A simple, streamlined design
- A more intuitive place to start your research
- One-step search capability
- Improved options for advanced queries
For more information please see this video tutorial.
As always feedback regarding any changes or updates to our Electronic Resources is always welcomed!
UMUC Library Staff News
Lindley Homol has joined the UMUC Library staff in the role of Reference and Instruction Librarian. Ms. Homol earned her Masters in Library and Information Science from the University of Pittsburgh and previously worked as a Librarian for the Chesterfield County Public Library.
Emily Keithley, a first year MLS student specializing in the Curation and Management of Digital Assets at the University of Maryland's iSchool, is the newest addition to the UMUC Library's Document Management team. Ms. Keithley is a Library Technician III.
Jennifer Diffin, Assistant Director for Systems and Access Services, John Coogan, Systems Librarian, and Li Fu, Digital Services Librarian, co-authored an article entitled "Library Systems Documentation: Pulling it Together with SharePoint" in New Library World, October 2013.
Faculty Corner
Library Liaisons
The UMUC Library provides library liaison services to UMUC faculty. We welcome the opportunity to work closely with faculty to provide tailored library services for individual classes, whether it be visiting your online or face-to-face class, assisting in adding information literacy components to specific course assignments or projects, or providing handouts or online resources customized to your discipline or current course topic. Library liaisons have been actively involved in The Undergraduate School's e-resource project by providing assistance in locating open access e-resources. Please keep the liaison librarians in mind when you have library related questions, need extra help with research, or need instruction on how to use our resources.
- Megan A. Davis
TGS: Information and Technology Systems
- Julie Harding
TGS: University College Special Programs (UCSP) and COMM 600
- Barb Mann
TGS: Education
- Neal Pomea
TGS: Management, Accounting, and Finance
- Ryan Shepard
TGS: Cybersecurity
- Cynthia Thomes
TGS: Business and Executive Programs
- Lindley Homol
TUS: Center for Student Success (CSS)
- Robert Miller
TUS: The Sciences Programs (SCIP)
- Ed O'Donnell
TUS: Department of Business and Professional Programs (BAPP)
- Joe Rawson
TUS: Department of Communication, Arts, and Humanities (COMM)
- Ryan Shepard
TUS: Cybersecurity, Department of Computer Information Systems and Technology (CITE)
The October 2012 report from the University of Washington's Project Information Literacy discusses how employers are finding newly-hired recent college graduates deficient in their ability to conduct job-related research. UMUC librarians endeavor to better equip UMUC students, in partnership with their instructors, in the provision of research instruction - either via the UMUC online learning management system or on-site. The transferable skill building and concept understanding that librarians offer in these sessions provide a deeper comprehension and comfort level for students in locating, evaluating, and using information relevant to their studies and workplace tasks. This preparation and reinforcement hold students in good stead as they navigate the vast amount of available information during their academic careers and as productive employees and citizens.
Please complete the Faculty Request for Library Instruction form to schedule one or more sessions for your classes.
Need instruction but don't have time to schedule a facilitated session? Consider adding a stand-alone instruction module to your online classroom. Please contact your library liaison for more information.
Questions? Comments? Need more information? Please contact Barb Mann, Associate Director, Public Services, or the UMUC Library.
We look forward to working with you!
On the Web... Educational Opportunities for Military Students
UMUC is proud to include a large number of active, reserve, and retired military personnel among its students. In order to provide these students with the most accurate and up-to-date information regarding educational opportunities, the UMUC Library has compiled the following Web sites.
New GI Bill Benefits Calculator
Sponsored by the Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America, the GI Bill Benefits Calculator allows members of the military to calculate educational benefits under the new GI Bill.
Military OneSource
Military OneSource, a virtual extension of installation services, is provided by the Department of Defense at no cost to active duty, Guard, and Reserve service members (regardless of activation status), and their families. The site includes free educational materials on topics including parenting, deployment, service member education, spouse education, career opportunities, non-medical counseling, and more.
United States Department of Education: Information for Military Families and Veterans
The United States Department of Education: Information for Military Families and Veterans includes sources designed to equip veterans with the information that will assist them in today's competitive job-placement environment, as well as information on education funding for military personnel and their families.
Veterans Administration: Education and Training
This site allows military personnel to compare VA-approved institutions, apply for benefits, and review other information in order to choose the most appropriate educational program.