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Mexico City: Bedbugs, $60 Shoeshines, and Papal Demons
In fall 2013, I briefly lived in Mexico City for about a month and a half. I never got the chance to write about it, mostly because I was too busy and it felt like every moment I was about to have the opportunity to sit and write, some new, odd, and unusual thing was happening.
I was in New York City when I made the decision to go. Why Mexico, I'm not really sure. I had no home. No plans. And I had a matter of days to figure out where I was going next. Where I end up is often arbitrary and decided on a roulette of whim. Sometimes, it's answering to the question of "where I will get the most of my money?". Other times, it's "where will I live most authentically and not constantly be engaging with and having my feet stepped on by other Americans?" Typically the answer to both of these questions are the same types of places.
So I simply figured Mexico, namely Mexico D.F., was worth a shot and found a guy who was in Amsterdam at the time, subletting his top floor apartment in a neighborhood (or colonia, as they are called there) called Roma Norte for a scandalously low price. Unlike other adventures I've embarked on, I was feeling jaded at the time. I was superficially excited, but I was in a dark place on the inside, feeling no more like a nomad… but more like a drifting vagrant on the run. I wasn't without action or decisiveness, but I didn't feel like anything I did mattered.
The night of my trip, my first flight was delayed and I ended up arriving at LAX 2 hours after my flight departed, at 2AM, rescheduling my flight into Benito Juarez on a 7AM flight. I waived the opportunity to get a free hotel room and slept on the floor using my backpack as a makeshift pillow. A cleaning lady continuously bumped my backpack with a vacuum cleaner. This made me feel exceptionally homeless.
I was working for DeviantART at the time. And I was notoriously known for 30,000 feet deploys and commits from weird IP addresses in other countries, but I didn't say anything at the time to anyone. I wanted to disappear. I was tired of the identity I had created for myself by negation. I'm the kind of person who doesn't own things. I'm the kind of person who never wants for anything. I'm the kind of person who always bucks tradition. And, you know, when you are all of these things, or none of them rather, people lose all ability to relate to you except through the lens of voyeurism and vicariousness. Maybe not all who wander are lost, but sometimes those who wander are misguided gypsies.
When I first arrived into Mexico City, it was mid-afternoon and the taxi driver dumped me off at the corner of Calle Chihuahua and Avenida Frontera (as a side-note, I never did figure out what Frontera, which translates to "border", was actually supposed to be a border to, because the eastern border of the Roma neighborhood was actually one street over on Cuauhtémoc). Given that Teseo, the guy who owned the apartment, was out of the country, I needed to call the building's super to get in. This was an old lady named Nati, who spoke no English and was perhaps the sweetest little old lady I have ever met. For perspective, Nati lived in the building's garage and spent her days parking cars and mopping the stairwell with turpentine and flannel sheets. Despite her meager living, every morning when I ran down the stairs, she was there to greet me with a polite smile and a calm "buenas."
My first meeting with Nati was one of confusion and near-panic and within moments, turned all of the gloom and funk hanging over me into a surreal awareness that… well, when shit goes all wrong, sometimes it's pretty fucking funny. And that's what my life in Mexico was. Things were constantly going haywire in the worst way possible, but even as I was living it, man it was a riot.
And so, I will share, now, all these horrible stories.
My penthouse was great. From the front door of the building to the inside of my apartment, there were 5 separate locks with 5 individual keys. There was an initial door that entered into a very tiny atrium leading to a second door which led to my terrace. Far inside the terrace was the glass door entrance to the apartment's interior. The penthouse was, inside, fairly averaged sized (maybe 400-500sqft?), but its terrace was 800sqft and had an impressive view of the central historic district with both sunset and sunrise views.
Inside, although decorated quite fascinatingly, there was something left to be desired. It was dirty and despite frequent attempts to resolve this with Nati, the water heater was broken. Fortunately my gym down the street, which I went to daily, had hot water.
The weather was hot, and I often slept with the front door to the terrace open. About a week in, I found myself waking up in the middle of the night to bites. I wasn't sure what was causing the bites. They were too small to be mosquito bites, I was sure. Ant bites? Maybe. Stinging flies? Possibly. Maybe it was the open door. I closed it one night, but still, there I was once more waking to weird track marks down my arms and legs. Parts of my body that were buried under the sheets also victim. I wasn't sure what to say, but all signs were pointing at bedbugs.
I had already invited my boyfriend, Joel, who I had just recently started dating less than a month before, to come visit… and was horrified of the thought of him being exposed. For me, it wouldn't have been a huge deal. I had no home. But he did. I wasn't sure what to say to him. We had only just had the "is this a relationship" talk and I didn't know what the protocol was for having the "do you want to share my insect infestation" talk.
I also didn't want to say anything to Nati or Teseo without knowing for sure. A cleaning lady, Vicki, came by once a week, but I found communicating with her difficult. We never seemed to be in the apartment at the same time. And she often left notes for me asking if she could take the leftover bread and any uneaten food I had in my fridge. Her letters were filled with spelling errors that are relatively confusing for someone who doesn't speak the language natively.
Ah yes, te llebaste. I sort of appreciated this, though. As a non-native speaker, these aren't the same types of spelling mistakes I make. When your ear is trained differently, the way you fail is different too.
So yeah. I moved the bed from the wall and decided to flip the mattress to inspect for bugs. But I didn't see any bugs, per se. It was just that special kind of dirty that causes immediate gagging. I'm pretty sure there were blood stains. The stains were probably millimeters wide but in my head, they've been exaggerated to several feet in diameter. And at that point, I really didn't know who to turn to, lest I let the guy subletting his apartment to me know that I was privy to his undercover murder house.
I ended up booking a separate place to stay for a couple of weeks in a hotel in the historic district, put all of my clothes in a tightly sealed plastic bag and bought new clothes at the mall–which is a huge testament to how cheap it is to live in Mexico. I took the bed sheets to the corner tintoria (full-service laundromat), hoping for the best. It's really hard to explain just how dirty and tainted I felt. No matter how clean my clothes were or how many showers I took, every time a stray hair tickled my arm, I reactively flinched.
When I went to collect the sheets from the tintoria, the lady handed me back someone else's bed spread. Alarmed, I pointed at it, letting her know, "Este no es mi cobertor…" (this isn't my cover) We had a back and forth in which we discussed various colors and I misremembered what color my different blankets were, but it ultimately was uncovered that my blankets had ended up on a delivery truck out to someone's house and I, feeling more guilty than ever, eeked out, "podria haber estado chinches…" ("there may have been bedbugs…")
Several phone calls were made and after waiting 20 minutes at the counter, getting the stink eye from the tintoria owner and her daughter, the plastic-wrapped bed spread was thrown in my arms and I turned and walked out never to return.
As it turns out, I learned after a week, I did not have bed bugs. I just had a very dirty apartment with random biting bugs. Which kind of bugs, I may never known.
$60 Shoeshine
Remember me saying that living in Mexico is cheap? That's when you're not getting accosted by weird men on the street after dark. One night I was walking back to the historic district from the Reforma colonia, a bit north of Roma Norte and a bit west of Centro Historico, with Joel after eating dinner. Walking in D.F. is not particularly dangerous, no more than walking in a large American city is. In fact, it's sort of charming at night. Different street vendors walk around with carts selling tamales or trying to buy your used junk. Like an ice cream truck, you can hear these from blocks away, playing recordings. The recordings are often a monotonous voice chanting things like, "Hay ricos tamales oaxaquenos calientitos" (guy selling fresh tamales made in the style of the Oaxaca region of Mexico) and "Se compran colchones, tambores, refrigeradores, estufas, microondas, o algo de fierra viejo que vendaaaaaaann" (guy buying your old mattresses and household appliances). Sometimes the cart has a sharp whistling sound. This might be a steamed yam guy. But it might also be the knife sharpener.
I was sick and my leather boots were speckled in many layers of dirt from D.F.'s dusty streets. When the old man in his dingy grandpa denim slacks and red suspenders kneeled down before me on the street, offering to touch up my shoes for 120MXN, I thought, "Yeah I need it. And that's not a horrible price, why not." We talked as he quickly buffed my left shoe, he moved on to the right. And suddenly, he was asking for 240MXN. I quickly said, "No, you said 120…" to which he replied, "That was per shoe," and before I knew it, he was doubling the price again in some other shifty manner. It was confusing and suddenly I realized, we were in a darkly lit street and no one was around and he was grabbing the last bit of cash…. 1000MXN, roughly $60-65 USD at the time. It sounds ridiculous and there's really no explaining how it all went down–the guy was a grifter. I've tried to recount the whole experience with Joel, but between the two of us, we've never been able to really rehedge the whole thing in a logical fashion. It was all very crafty slight of hand, robbery.
For days, I was somewhat angry about it. I could have walked away, but I'd be putting myself at risk if he had a concealed weapon. The guy didn't look particularly noteworthy and I knew reporting it to the police was worthless. But… here's the kicker, he did do an excellent job shining my shoes. They looked brand new. And he gave me tips on how to keep the shine looking good. So he definitely knew what he was doing. And because of that, it was suddenly comical. $60 wasn't a lot of money to me. It didn't ruin my week. So I learned to let it go.
It was the most expensive shoe shine I have ever received.
72 Hours of Non-Stop Fireworks and Gunfire
Everyone knows about Dia de los Muertes. It's the day after Halloween (Noche de Brujas [Witches' Night]) on November 1st. However, Mexico celebrates a few holidays before these days, including a very important holiday called Dia de San Judas Tadeo. San Judas Tadeo is the Patron Saint of Bottle Rockets. Actually, it's Saint Jude the Apostle, but you'd never know that based on a visit to Mexico. It started off with a fairly lovely celebration involving some folk dancing and street celebration (link to video) .
As I've mentioned a few times now, I was sick for a couple of weeks. I won't go into excruciating detail, but it felt like my upper abdomen was being stabbed with a knife repeatedly, I didn't have any antibiotics with me, and it wasn't available over the counter in the pharmacies. As a result of my illness, I had very little awareness for a few days of anything occurring around me unless its impact somehow managed to outdo the sensation of being stabbed.
Sometime on the 27th of October, it began. It sounded like distant gunshots in the middle of the afternoon. I was walking up the street along Parque Alameda on a beautiful Sunday afternoon trying to find a pharmacy willing to sell me under-the-table Cipro, when I heard a lone blast from several blocks away. "Que extraña," I remarked to the cashier but she seemed disinterested and unfazed by the noise. As I walked back to the hotel empty-handed, the shots started to increase in frequency, but everyone on the streets seemed about as unmoved as the pharmacy cashier. I tried to reason an explanation internally, deciding quite judgmentally that crime must be so crazy in Mexico that people don't even notice gunshots anymore (side note: crime in Mexico City proper is about as bad as any similar sized city in the United States). In hindsight, this was a really stupid observation because I'd been in Mexico for a month at this point and had never heard any gunshots before then.
The streets outside Parque Alameda are crazy on weekends, filled with all sorts of people (link to video). It's like being in Times Square except without all the highrises and advertisements for Broadway shows. No one is really going anywhere in particular. There's just a lot of strolling and enjoying being with your friends and family. A lot of street performers. But as undertones to all the music and laughter, distant gunshots continued to erupt from some neighborhoods southeast of the area.
"What is that??" I thought, but I was just too sick to even want to go investigate. When the pharmacist couldn't even hook me up with "acetaminofeno," I was about to lose my mind, wondering how a pharmacy couldn't have something as simple as Tylenol, only to have a woman interrupt the conversation–I guess she had traveled to the US before and explained to me that outside of the US, everyone knows it as paracetamol, all the while gunfire continued to ring in my ears. After thanking the random woman, I commented how loud the guns were, but she just shrugged as if it were nothing to her.
As the day grew long into the night, the gunshots turned into bottle rockets–and so many of them. They were being set off from the roofs of adjacent industrial supply stores and were spaced apart by only a matter of seconds. Even more confused, I turned to Twitter but it felt like the combination of gunfire and fireworks were just one big inside joke amongst everyone. My favorite tweet was from a guy who said, "Escuchar fuegos pirotécnicos mientras estás cagando… El df lo tiene todo" ("Hearing fireworks while you're shitting, D.F. has it all.").
The fireworks continued all night long and were still going strong the next morning. You couldn't see them though. They were commercial grade only in volume but cheap with no visual effect. About as disappointing as you can get. This went on for 3 full days. I'm not really sure the exact time they finally stopped, but it was at some point in the middle of the night the day before Dia de Muertos… when things grew more crazy. The streets then were flooded with all sorts of costumed figures, including video game characters, oversized gorillas, and a demonic version of the Pope? *shrug*
Because of my very non-Hispanic facial features, the face painter did a very weird job painting my face to the extent that I made a small child cry and overheard a young girl asking her mother, "What's wrong with her face??" I thought my face looked pretty cool, but I guess it was too weird for some people 🙂
A Plate of Paella Bigger Than Your Head
While both of us were simultaneously sick, Joel and I headed over to a part of town that is only frequented by locals and ended up in an upstairs traditional restaurant, Casa Rosalía. The waitress was a very portly grandma-type figure with a very assertive discipline in the way she spoke. The restaurant was fairly busy and even though it was nearly 6PM, still relied on fading sunlight as its only lighting. A group of musicians were set up in the center of the ballroom-sized room playing an accordion duet. A somewhat irritated-looking old man in a baggy sweat and salt and pepper hair sat at a neighboring table, occasionally throwing shade at us with his side eye and sipping the tiniest cup of coffee (link to video). He didn't seem to enjoy the music.
I had read Foursquare reviews of this restaurant. Foursquare is fairly popular with Mexicans and so all the reviews are by locals, but you'll be hard pressed to find decently rated restaurants outside of Condesa (one of the richest, popular neighborhoods), everything else seems to fall around a 5-7. Everyone recommended the paella at this restaurant. "Q rico" they all said. And "OK" I said. Naturally we should be eating seafood when we both have stomach illnesses. It's logical, right?
The waitress gave us a mild look of approval as we both ordered it, the only positive expression we'd see from her. When she returned, she came bearing two plates of paella, each one certainly, and with no exaggerations, bigger than my own head. I ate about 1/6 of it. It was delicious. I wouldn't say it was as good as a Spanish paella but it had its own unique charms in terms of freshness and flavor. But it was just way too much.
The old lady finally returned and seemed confused, asking if we didn't enjoy our food. I reassured her that it couldn't be better, but that we were both sick and that it was difficult to eat so much. In some restaurants, the waiter would take this as a cue to take the food away. But she stood and stared. When I asked for "la cuenta, porfa" (the bill), she shook her head no, and told us that we had to eat more.
It must have been here aggressive head-of-the-family nature, but we obliged and continued to peck at our paellas. She would return every now and then, still not pleased with the amount of food left on the plate. After half an hour, I started doing things I haven't done since I was maybe 5, like trying to rearrange food on the plate so that it looked like I'd eaten more than I had and even reaching across to Joel's plate trying to advise him on how he could do the same with his ("Look if you scoop the rice to the sides, you can see the bottom of the plate…")
The waitress returned a fourth time and finally I started to beg for the bill, telling her that it was delicious but we feel very sick and don't have anywhere to keep the food in order to take it in a box to go. She finally gave us the bill, but not without a stern lecture on wasting food and several grumpy looks from the old man nearby.
"Women don't do that around here."
I lift weights. These days, I do Crossfit and do more olympic-style lifting, but back in these days, I was more into powerlifting, like back squats and deadlifts. I didn't want to give that up when I was in Mexico, so I got a membership at a gym near my apartment in Roma Norte. It wasn't a huge gym, but it had a respectable amount of equipment encompassing two floors of the building and having a dance studio. Going to non-Crossfit gyms, I was used to there not being many women in the free weights area and getting all sorts of odd looks, but it was a very different vibe at this gym and I got a weird peak into gender cultures one day after finishing up a fairly low-weight set of back squats.
I passed by the locker room attendant and started taking off my shoes. I was kind of on edge because there's a lot of etiquette and rules that vary in other countries when it comes to gyms (for instance, the concept of having to shower naked in front of other people in Iceland before using the pools) and I really had no idea what was normal here. The locker room mirrors were plastered with some sort of fake notice about how it will cost you like, 50 pesos to wash your hands at the sink if you don't stop wasting water (as an outsider, it was hard to not take this at face value and was kind of weird until I realized it wasn't for real). And occasional reminders from other women in the locker room that you shouldn't leave anything, even stuff that is worth nothing, in the locker room while you work out because it'll get stolen.
People were usually helpful in letting me in on these little things without me really asking for it. So when a group of four women suddenly accosted me one afternoon in the locker room after my workout as I was putting my street shoes back on… I just assumed they were going to clue me in on some other thing I didn't know. We don't do that around here, one of them said. I was lost. I thought maybe she meant change clothes in the locker room and I looked around and didn't see anyone else changing. "Oh…" I said, not really sure how to react and feeling kind of put on the spot, maybe even embarrassed a bit for committing whatever faux pas. But it was a short-lived feeling of embarrassment because my naivette caught up with me and I realized after the fact that they were being kind of rude. So I picked up my bag and started to walk out.
Suddenly, in English, I heard the words, "You're gonna get ugly." I turned around, the locker room attendant suddenly to my side, my face a crinkled sack of bewilderment, and stymied out the words, "Excuse me?" I felt like I was in some teen movie from the 80s. I didn't realize bullying like this actually took place in real life, especially amongst adults. I think these were adult women at least. Maybe they were just super-developed teenagers who confused me for a teen. I don't know.
"You keep doing those exercises, you gonna get big and you gonna get ugly."
The words just kind of hung there in the air and I wasn't sure what to do. "Ummm." My face was getting red. Other people outside of the locker room could hear my side of things and were starting to stare. I continued to hem and haw. "I…. "
The women started to laugh and I didn't know what to do, so I just turned around and left, not really feeling like playing into their drama. I later found out they were dance students taking some sort of combo Rumba/Hip-Hop fusion class and after each session they would stare out into the adjacent free weights area to ogle the guys who lifted weights.
It's a really negative story and I would never make the idiotic claim that women there were "bitches" or anything so assuming like that, since that's really not true at all… I met so many genuinely nice people in D.F., but it gave me that crude insight into gender roles–the things that go unspoken. Far less women do serious weight lifting (Mexico historically has not had much presence in the weightlifting category of the Olympics from female competitors).
But it hung over me. And I suddenly became more aware of how much of an outsider I was in the gym. And how devastating it must be to be a woman who lives here permanently and feel like you can lift so much but yet you can't lift off the oppressive weight of everyone's disapproving stares.
Scarring My Hand on a Pyramid
Before leaving D.F., I took a trip out to the Aztec pyramids. This involved taking the metro to a kind of far-out bus station that ran out to the pyramids. However, it was not a tour bus, but a normal bus route that just happened to have an hour-long route that led out to these semi-rural pyramids. To be as creepy as possible, the bus company takes photos of every single passenger on the bus before the bus departs the station in case the bus gets hijacked and all the passengers kidnapped or held hostage. Halfway into the bus ride out, a traditional Mariachi player in full costume boards the bus at the outskirts of a random neighborhood and serenades us all with music. The music is actually pretty fucking good, despite being about as campy as possible.
Finally, we are dropped off at the pyramids. It was a semi-touristy place, I admit, filled with these horrid souvenir shops. The guy selling admission warns us about the sunlight, which is very, very fierce out in this area, even at ground-level. None of the shops had sunblock, so I ended up buying the largest and gaudiest sombrero I could find to shield me from the light. The sombrero was about twice as wide as my body and had a weight to it that made it impossible for me to turn my head.
From every direction, you could hear the sound of coyote whistles being sold from random men.
And then there were the actual pyramids. The largest one, Pyramid of the Sun, is one of the largest pyramids in Mesoamerica, very, very steep with short steps. The steps, for both directions, have a shared wire rope. Many people scale these pyramids, many of them very, very old women with no lower body strength. They would hold on to the wires and pull themselves up using just their arms.
Even with the hat on, the sun was making me somewhat dizzy and so I grabbed on to wire near the very top… where most people tend to let go… and the wires suddenly tend to fray. The wires hit the outside of my hand in such a way that gently ripped open my skin, forcing me to have to sit down and apply pressure at such a high altitude to get it to stop bleeding.
I don't really have any scars. My skin has always managed to be pretty resistant to scarring somehow. But even still today… I have a scar from the time I climbed a pyramid. And that's pretty cool.
All of these are pretty negatively based stories, but you know, I kind of had a blast in Mexico. There's gorgeous art everywhere you look. History. Some of the nicest people you could meet. Dia de Muertos has the most beautiful flower arrangements. Conchas and Pan de Muerto are like the best breakfast breads ever. Mezcal tastes like a soft velvety dream. And, in general, there's very few places I've been that felt quite as alive as D.F. did at night.
TQM, Mexico D.F.!


text: Good Monday Morning everyone! Monday sure did come around soon and so did 5 am! Had a nice relaxing weekend with difficult child. We started off relaxing together on Friday after the first week of school. difficult child went up and took a two hour nap after he got home from school Friday! Saturday we went to see the 4th Resident Evil movie that just came out. Yesterday I canned some blueberry jam and he and I ended the day watching the True Blood season finale together. It was a nice weekend. Today is about getting things going again! Laundry, house cleaning, and waiting for the plumber. The wax ring on my guest toilet failed and I had a water leak on my living room ceiling! He's coming today to replace the ring, but the ceiling can't be repaired until everything dries out - perhaps a week or more! So I have a nice gaping whole in my living room ceiling! Naturally, since he's going to be here, I found a couple other things I wanted done........ Hope your Monday follows the No Meltdown Rule!!! Sharon

subset: commoncrawl


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5 June 2016
Stranraer and District Riding Club are holding a Stewart/BHS Scotland Working Hunter Blair qualifier 2016
For further details please visit their website www.stranraer-ridingclub.co.uk
Horses must be 15hh or over, 4 years old and over.
Riders must be 18 years old or over.
To compete at the final, either the rider or owner of the horse must be a member of the BHS.
8-12 fences approx 3'6", judged in line with Sports Horse GB rules.
The first three partnerships will qualify even if they have not jumped clear. If one of these has already qualified, their qualification may be handed down to the fourth placed horse and rider provided they had a clear round in the jumping.
2016 Rules and Regulations
Tel: 01764 656334


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Style and Design (History of the 20th Century)
by Knowles, Eric
Parragon Plus. Hardcover. 075253145X Gill, Deborah. Style and Design; 100 Years of Change. Hurrell, Karen; Prescott-Walker, Robert; Raymond, Martin; Richardson, Vicky. Bath: Parragon, 1999. 200pp. Indexed. Illustrated. Bibliography. Glossary. 4to. Hardcover with pictorial boards. Book condition: Very good with lightly bumped edges. Dust Jacket Condition: Very good with bumped edges and chipped corners. Small open tear in bottom edge of front panel near fold. Fun salmon pink endsheets. . Very Good. 1999. (Inventory #: UGILSTY00MEL)


text:
Safety 1st Alpha Omega Elite Convertible Car SeatThe Alpha Omega Elite Convertible Car Seat is an extended-use car seat with superior comfort and convenience features which will please parents and children alike. It starts as a rear-facing infant car seat, converts to a forward-facing car seat and later transitions into a belt-positioning booster! This convertible car seat features a 5-point harness with up-front adjustments that fit babies up to 50 lbs. The QuickFit 5-position padded headrest a
I have tried 4 convertible car seats and this one is my favorite for rear facing. Its very comfy for my big baby and I bought it on discount so even more worth it! It's a big seat, but it fits very nicely in my Versa. A grown man can sit in front comfortably.
I love that carseat, it evolves wonderfully with our kids. One drawback is the size: rear-facing this carseat may not enter small cars like toyota yaris or honda fit.
These reviews are the subjective opinions of ChickAdvisor members and not of ChickAdvisor Inc.


text:
When I run out of my last piece of toilet paper…
Virtual Exchange (2016)
Strathcona Elementary School, a public school in Vancouver, became a sister school to the village school of Iyoli, a school in the Kondoa district of Tanzania. Two teachers, Perry Buchan and Doug Sherrett were part of the team who developed and implemented an innovative exchange curriculum. The exchange used the Iyoli water project as a catalyst to integrate two vital themes: the complex human relationship with water and the incredible power of storytelling.
ALL of the curricula was translated into Swahili by Jackline Omondi and followed simultaneously by a teacher in Tanzania who lead the storytelling group.
Strathcona students worked on 4 different projects for 6 months: a book of stories, a video, a song and a virtual reality tour of their school. In addition, the kids had questions about each other so we filmed them which created awareness and ultimately resulted in a partnership with Innovation: Africa who is going to build a well in Iyoli village. The H2Ope campaign was created as an extension of the exchange which was used to create awareness. Kids answer similar questions and it is beautiful.
We believe that this curriculum provided a synergistic medium for the exchange of ideas, allowing different cultures to connect and learn from each other through the power of the human story augmented by modern media tools. Education, Development, and Media should go hand in hand.
Doug's Classroom Outcomes
"Working at an inner city school I have limited resources that constantly impact how and what I can provide for my students. Lara outlined how her access to quality cutting edged technology and her network of professionals would bring the project well beyond what I could have envisioned. She worked with Perry and I collaboratively, carefully illuminating where her creative and technical skill would help engage my student and present our learning in professional and dramatic way."
"Educating students always comes down to how accessible and relevant the learning is to students. We started with oral stories and used photos, videos and the internet which brought what they wanted to say to life with my students. She brought hardware to my class for kids to use, not just look at. When Lara traveled to Iyoli and had the village school duplicate this curricumlum with the village students it forged a global community with my class. These were not just two classes halfway around the planet from each other, hey were connected and meaningful to each other."
"Lara kept providing ways for the two schools to connect through technology and old fashioned communications. My students came away with a global understanding of third world issues that up till then were academic exercises. In Iyoli, students came to appreciate that they were valued and appreciated for the similarities between fellow students. Lara bridged the globe with technology and caring."
"The pride that my class feels from starting at meager beginnings to completely transforming this Iyoli community to having safe, accessible water (the most basic of needs) is astounding. The learning my students made about themselves, water, technology, global community is profound and permanent. I only wish all my lessons were so complete."
"Lara has helped the kids in the class gain new perspective on children who live in Tanzania. A lot of filming was done at our school and the kids loved every chance that they had to showcase their skills. The short film exchange was a great story telling opportunity for the children to get to know each other from different parts of the world. There was fun and learning happening at the same time. We also went to Lara's office where some kids got to meet and talk about how to promote the big water project. It was an amazing experience working with Lara. She is a remarkable women who is able to connect deeply with children with big world ideas."
In March 2016 I went to Iyoli primary school with a projector and generator to show the Iyoli storytelling club the Strathcona creations and help create the Iyoli content.
POST 10: A Party in the Village
Today we drove to Iyoli with Moshi.
POST 9: Digging in a Dry River Bed
The red dust sits on the surface of my skin.
POST 8: Movies Under the Stars
Today I learned that perfection is overrated.
POST 7: Whatever works, works!
I forgot a belt so am using my USB cord.
POST 6: In the Middle of a Cornfield
I am in the middle of a corn field in Tanzania.
POST 5: Let's Talk Science (sayansi)
I met with the water technician, Jafari.
POST 4: The Village (Kijiji)
We went to see Baraka's mom and grandmother.
POST 3: My Young Friend (Rafiki Yangu)
I found my translator for Iyoli.
POST 2: I see light (Nimeona mwanga)
You know that feeling when you wake up a little confused.
POST 1: Goodbye Vancouver (Kwaheri)
It's international woman's day and a perfect way to start this journey.
Lara Kroeker (Executive Director, Canada)
Lara is an Emily Carr graduate and the co-founder of Randomlink Interactive Inc., an award winning interactive studio, founded in 1997. Lara is key in developing and documenting the stories that come from the remote communities using her media and photography skills.
Moshi Changai (Project Management, Tanzania)
Moshi Changai has been leading tours for over 15 years. He has worked for many of the biggest companies as a safari leader. Moshi Changai was born in Sori, a small village in the Kondoa district, where he was the major driving force behind the Cheku Water project. He successfully managed both the people and money required to successfully build the Cheku solar powered water well. He is working hard to improve the quality of life for both individuals and the community at large.
Perry Buchan (Curriculum Development, Canada)
Understanding and creating social change has been Perry's lifelong passion. Both as an academic, and as a career elementary teacher, he has studied, created and implemented alternative methods of education designed to help create a better world. Perry was instrumental in creating the curriculum for the original Cheku Water Project.
Jackline Omondi (Cultural Liaison and Curriculum Development Officer, Canada) Jackline Omondi has a Master of Arts, Sociology degree from University of British Columbia. For the past 15 years, she has been involved in training initiatives for youth and adult learners of culturally diverse backgrounds. She is passionate about empowering individuals through culturally sensitive training methodologies that enhance transfer of knowledge. Born and raised in Kenya and established in Canada, Jackline offers critical lenses to ways of learning that are cognizant of both resource limited settings and the technologically enhanced communities.
Doug Sherrett (Curriculum Development and Implementation, Canada)
Doug is a grade six and seven teacher at Strathcona Elementary where the new curriculum will be implemented.
The Beneficiary Community (Iyoli Village, Tanzania)
The local community of Iyoli will be actively involved in the project through a local water user committee.


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020 3445 5150
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Colourful graphic style for a vintage touch
Colour shades
Pastel green #RAL. 6019
Honey yellow #RAL. 1005
Graphite grey #RAL. 7024
Cement grey #RAL. 7033
Beige #RAL. 1001
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Materials Details
Weight and Dimensions
Delivery via DPD UK
International home delivery
Cost of delivery : £7
Expected, Planned shipping date is 26 January 2018
Delivery time: 48-72hrs after shipping
From Paul
on 27/01/2016
"Very good"
From Stephanie
on 23/04/2015
"Nice tray, colors according to photo. Plastic material on the bottom is a little cheap for the price"
Style of the 50s and 60s
The furniture style took a great boom because of modernity and the decorative style of the 50s and 60s which is still used today. During this period of time many technics, production forms and revolutionary creations developed. People separated more and more from the classic furnishing style and therefore functional and adjustable furniture became more popular.
Ferm Living
Besides it's extraordinary Scandinavian style the company Ferm Living produces products since 2015 that respect nature. Their craftsmen use natural materials as for example, biological cotton and recycled paper. The Danish saying 'ferm på fingrene', translated 'gifted with their hands' already says that the company combines simple products with the perfect processing. Ferm Living takes their inspiration from the natural and simple Scandinavian design. They finish up their products by adding modernity to the Scandinavian design.


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|( 6 upvotes )
|Thanks crotchety. But can't take all the credit...George helped a little ;)
|Wow, this is fantastic! 5L + faved
|Okay that reply just blew my imagine of you right out the door...lmao.
|Oh I bet you wish...would make for some incredible poster material...teehee.
|...and go back in the sack? LOL
|Do we start as a rotting corpse?
|( 54 upvotes )
|yes, an UP yours
|5 lions, lgvernon. Anti-gun zealots won't agree till said criminals come to their house and they run next door to my house & I tell them to go back home.
|( 20 upvotes )
|( 12 upvotes )
|"This is my bowl, and anything in it is my food to eat. You're now in my bowl. Do you understand?"
|( 16 upvotes )
|It was a great idea, especially 81 proof Wild Turkey!
Misc info


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Hedging Options in a GARCH Environment: Testing the Term Structure of Stochastic Volatility Models
This paper develops a methodology for testing the term structure of volatility forecasts derived from stochastic volatility models, and implements it to analyze models of S&P 500 index volatility. Volatility models are compared by their ability to hedge options positions sensitive to the term structure of volatility. Overall, the most effective hedge is a Black-Scholes (BS) delta-gamma hedge, while the BS delta-vega hedge is the least effective. The most successful volatility hedge is GARCH components delta-gamma, suggesting that the GARCH components estimate of the term structure of volatility is most accurate. The success of the BS delta-gamma hedge may be due to mispricing in the options market over the sample period.
If you experience problems downloading a file, check if you have the proper application to view it first. In case of further problems read the IDEAS help page. Note that these files are not on the IDEAS site. Please be patient as the files may be large.
|Date of creation:
|Dec 1994
|Publication status:
|Published as "Bayesian Analysis of Stochastic Volatility Models: Comment", JBES, Vol. 12, no. 4 (1994): 395-396.
|Contact details of provider:
| Postal: National Bureau of Economic Research, 1050 Massachusetts Avenue Cambridge, MA 02138, U.S.A.
Phone: 617-868-3900
Web page: http://www.nber.org
More information through EDIRC
References listed on IDEAS
Please report citation or reference errors to , or , if you are the registered author of the cited work, log in to your RePEc Author Service profile, click on "citations" and make appropriate adjustments.:
- Nelson, Daniel B, 1991. "Conditional Heteroskedasticity in Asset Returns: A New Approach," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 59(2), pages 347-370, March.
- Bollerslev, Tim, 1986.
"Generalized autoregressive conditional heteroskedasticity,"
Journal of Econometrics,
Elsevier, vol. 31(3), pages 307-327, April.
- Tim Bollerslev, 1986. "Generalized autoregressive conditional heteroskedasticity," EERI Research Paper Series EERI RP 1986/01, Economics and Econometrics Research Institute (EERI), Brussels.
- Black, Fischer & Scholes, Myron S, 1973. "The Pricing of Options and Corporate Liabilities," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 81(3), pages 637-654, May-June.
- Hull, John C & White, Alan D, 1987. " The Pricing of Options on Assets with Stochastic Volatilities," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 42(2), pages 281-300, June.
- Engle, Robert F, 1982. "Autoregressive Conditional Heteroscedasticity with Estimates of the Variance of United Kingdom Inflation," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 50(4), pages 987-1007, July.
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Monthly Archives: February 2014
Healthy Love = A Healthy Heart
I'm sitting in a coffee shop writing about the heart, when I overhear soft cries coming from the table next to me. I witness the stressful exchange on my way to the restroom. Two women are sitting across from each … Continue reading →
Mystic Moment & Energy Pulse
Mystic Moment Remember you're not alone…ever! Loved ones who have passed on may have you in their sights, literally. This can be great information if you're feeling lonely. The earth realm is so inundated with beings from other dimensions, that … Continue reading →
Ask Marie – February 2014
Have a question for Marie? She answers questions written into her website inherquarterly newsletter. As an Intuitive, Marie is able to read the energy of the author and gain intuitive information to answer the questions regardless if she has ever met the … Continue reading →


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The Image Templates screen in the Customer Portal displays all images associated with an account, allows users to interact with those images and enables users to import new images that are stored on existing Object Storage accounts. Both Standard and Flex Images are displayed on the Image Templates screen. Follow the steps below to access the Image Templates screen.
Access the Image Templates Screen
- Access the Customer Portal using your unique credentials.
- Select Devices > Manage > Images to access the Image Templates screen.
What Happens Next
From the Image Templates screen, new devices may be ordered from either a Flex Image or a Standard Image, details for private images may be edited, private images may be deleted and images may be imported or exported.


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CodePlexProject Hosting for Open Source Software
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THE friend of a talented bagpiper who died after being stabbed 11 times by a stranger in the street described the deadly altercation to a jury today.
Craig Hepburn, 19, died and Connor Paton, 18, was injured after they were attacked in Marsden, West Yorkshire, just hours after arriving in the village to visit Mr Hepburn's uncle.
Leeds Crown Court has heard that the pair from Linwood, near Paisley, Renfrewshire, were walking back from a night at pubs in Marsden where Mr Hepburn had been playing his bagpipes on Friday July 6 last year.
Mr Paton, who was giving evidence today, said they were approached by two men who said something to them, though he added that he did not know why his friend was attacked.
He said: "They said something to us first. That's when Craig said something back."
The mood altered, he said, adding: "It changed from what it was. I wouldn't say he (Mr Hepburn) was aggressive.
"My view was just walk away and Craig would walk with me.
"I didn't want anything bad to happen."
Mr Paton said he had begun to walk away and was aware of "punching and kicking", so turned round to help his friend. "It happened quick," he added.
He helped Mr Hepburn off the ground and was struck several times in the back, jurors were told.
Mr Paton was stabbed three times and needed hospital treatment, the court heard. Mr Hepburn died from multiple stab wounds, mainly to his back.
Police said Mr Paton reported that one of the men was carrying a knife similar to a Stanley knife, but he told the court he could not remember telling officers.
Anthony Driver, 36, and Luke Elliott, 22, both deny murder and attempted murder.
Peter Moulson QC, prosecuting, has told jurors it was not up to the prosecution to establish the motive for the attack.
But he pointed out to the jury of four men and eight women that Mr Hepburn was wearing a Manchester City football shirt on the night he died.
The prosecutor also said Driver posted on his Facebook account two months before the incident: "I hate city more than police. Ha Ha. That's saying summat."
Today, the court heard that Mr Hepburn was "swinging his arms about, talking about Glasgow Rangers" as the pair walked home.
The court has also heard how witnesses remember Driver telling them he had been involved in an argument over football shirts and Elliott had stabbed someone.
Mr Moulson told the jury: "We say Driver and Elliott were in it together."
Driver, of Grange Cottages, Marsden, and Elliott, of Main Avenue, Cowlersley, each deny murder, attempted murder, causing grievous bodily harm with intent and perverting the course of justice.


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Considering Details of the Tenancy Agreement when Renting Edinburgh property
When a landlord and a tenant reach an agreement with regards to a property, they put it in writing in order for it to be legally binding. This is called a tenancy agreement. There are different kinds of tenancies. Mostly they are in the form of an Assured Shorthold Tenancy, which is for a minimum of six months. This minimum period can sometimes be longer, it totally depends on the arrangement between both the parties.
A tenancy agreement between the two parties can be either oral or written. A written agreement, however, is always better as an oral one can lead to misunderstandings. The tenancy agreement will outline it nature along with the rights, responsibilities and duties of landlord and tenant. Hence it is always better to put it in writing.
Details of the tenancy agreement
Across the UK, tenant's rights to written assured shorthold tenancy differ. In Scotland, Edinburgh however, the landlord has to provide the tenant with a written tenancy agreement. This agreement includes, name of the landlord and the tenant, address of the property, duration of the tenancy, the notice period, amount of the deposit and details of what it covers and when the tenant will be able to get it back. The agreement will also outline the rent, method of payment, when it will be due, any advance and if utilities and the council tax will be included in it. This agreement will also give details of the type of tenancy. In case it is an open ended tenancy, the agreement will include all details of when and how the rent will be increased. Moreover, the tenancy agreement will also include the obligations, rights and responsibilities of the landlord and the tenant. This will include all important factors with regard to the maintenance and repair of the property, where the landlord's responsibility to maintain
the property will end and the tenant's will begin. The tenancy agreement will also have a clause which will either permit animals or lay down a restriction on it. If animals are allowed, then the agreement will explain the house rules with regard to them. This will mostly include, care of the furniture during the tenants stay and making sure that everything will be in the same condition when they leave. Lastly, the agreement will include an inventory of all furniture and goods which are coming with the property and will outline the way in which expenses for damage to any of these items will be covered.
LauraCampbell - About Author:
Laura Campbell is a marketing officer for Greenlet, property lettings website in Edinburgh. If you want more information on flats in edinburgh, please visit for rent edinburgh.
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Words containing claverho
Found 1 words containing claverho. Browse our Scrabble Word Finder, Words With Friends cheat dictionary, and WordHub word solver to find words that contain claverho. Or use our Unscramble word solver to find your best possible play! Related: Words that start with claverho
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In 2008, Heritage Valley Partners, Inc., (HVP) was established as the development arm of the Lackawanna Heritage Valley National and State Heritage Area (LHV). HVP, a not-for-profit 501(c)(3) organization, supports the mission of LHV through fund development and through the support of Ambassadors in Action, LHV's volunteer organization. HVP is working to expand opportunities for funding for LHV's wide range of projects, programs, and events.
Heritage Valley Partners' goals and accomplishments include:
HVP and the Lackawanna Heritage Valley Authority, the management entity of the heritage area, collaborate to strengthen the sustainability and effectiveness of the Lackawanna Heritage Valley.
The following individuals serve on the Board of Directors of Heritage Valley Partners, Inc.:
Ellen Q. Bush, Chair
John Wiercinski – Vice Chair
John Monnier, Secretary/Treasurer
David Bosley
Julie Schumacher Cohen
L.P. Frieder, III
Fafi Karam
Stacy Kearney
Dominic Keating
Grace McGregor Kramer
Lori Rudalavage
Robert Tamburro
Sean McDonough, Esq.
Jim Sullivan
Thom Welby
Lawrence D. West
Joseph J. Corcoran serves as the Executive Director of Heritage Valley Partners, Inc.


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Showing all 12 results
As a bombardier and colonel with the Royal Prussian Army, Baron von Sextant made his fortune and learned the skills of his new trade–freelance exploring. Whether by train, by camel, or by zeppelin, the baron's adventures took him far and wide across the globe.
An avid inventor and accomplished hot air balloon pilot, Dr. Enerator is publishing tales of his adventures in unknown lands far from his native Europe. The Mortimer G. Enerator coat is paired here with the Enerator Vest (MC174), sold separately.
Young Ebenezer Scrooge, a respectable gentleman in his youth, belies the avarice of his later years. His Victorian-styled tux tail coat covers a taffeta vest offering velveteen lapels and satin ascot tie.
Collecting tickets from passengers traveling near and far, the train conductor adds an air of dignified order to the din of the train station as the locomotive engines begin to warm up. As the steam whistle blows, indicating another on-time departure, the conductor tips his iconic cap to recognize it is time to go. A sharply cut coat, vest with pocket watch and stately brass buttons give him his recognizable look.
The duke and duchess, landed gentry from Sussex, are embarking on their first sightseeing tour of the United States. Dressed in nineteenth-century style that reflects their refined nobility, they elicit many second looks on the streets of Baltimore and Philadelphia.
Fresh off their successful hunting expedition in South Africa, French nobleman the Marquis D'Ouest and his wife, the marquise, are ready to begin their safari tour of the Great American West. Smartly dressed for the stagecoach journey, but elegantly appointed to remind others of their gentry status, the Marquis and Marquise get noticed in each dusty saloon they step inside. His coat is made of heavy tweed with wide lapels, fitted waist, and flared hemline. The double-breasted vest is made in twill with decorative buttons, while the stand-up shirt collar is finished with a long, satin string tie. The pants coordinate with the coat in matching heavy tweed.
Gentleman Jim, a dapper Victorian gent, was known about town as a ladies' man who broke the hearts of many. His double-breasted velveteen vest sports a striped ascot tie. His light tailcoat features velveteen collar and contrasting trim on the lapels.
A free-spirited artist and third-class passenger ignited the unquenchable fires of passion inside Tess, when he dressed for elegance in his black twill tailcoat trimmed with velvet lapels, white satin vest, and tie.
As majestic as the Great White North itself, he is the "Man of the Moment"–a symbol of dignity and respect. This red twill tunic is complemented with a navy collar, epaulettes, and piping. It also features regal buttons, white cording, matching pants, and the authentic stars and stripes of a bygone era.
Quite the ladies' man in his herringbone jacket with satin trimmed collar and lapel, herringbone vest, and crisp Victorian pants, the Earl used his influence at court and his association with the Duke of York to promote his own interests.
Revolutionary London fashion designer Charles Frederick Worth came from a noble background of earls and counts to become the father of high fashion in the 19th century. His herringbone jacket with satin trimmed collar and lapel, matching herringbone vest, and matching pants are given an air of affluence when combined with the deluxe Victorian cape.
Striking a pose for the political press–big hat, big cigar, big dreams!! The conservative dress of a politician in a black knee-length twill coat, a grey heather vest accented with a watch fob, and a crisp pair of black twill pants-is used as a catalyst for the support of his constituents.


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Bob Mayer is the bestselling author of more than 50 books, who has sold over four million copies across a variety of genres. His books have hit the NY Times, Publishers Weekly, Wall Street Journal and numerous other bestseller lists.
Mayer graduated from West Point and served in the Infantry & Special Forces. He commanded recon teams, a Green Beret A-Team and held other positions in Special Operations, where many of his bestselling ideas were formulated.
Mayer's obsession with mythology and his vast knowledge of the military and Special Forces, mixed with his strong desire to learn from history, is the foundation for his science fiction series Atlantis, Area 51 and Psychic Warrior.
Mayer is a master at blending elements of truth into all of his thrillers such as The Green Beret Series, The Shadow Warrior Series, The Presidential Series as well as his historical fiction, leaving the reader questioning what is real and what isn't.
Bob Mayer Interview
Scroll down for a complete transcript of the interview or click the Play button below to listen to the interview now. And don't forget to leave a comment to let us know what you thought of this interview!
Books by Bob Mayer
Bob Mayer Transcript
Tim Knox: Hi everyone, welcome in to Interviewing Authors. Bob Mayer is my guest today. Bob is a former West Point grad, Green Beret, Special Forces officer who became a NY Times bestselling author.
His science fiction series Atlantis, Area 51, and Psychic Warrior continue to be bestsellers. He's 50 books in now, sold over 4,000,000 books so far, and they just keep going on and on.
Great interview with Bob. He is someone who has been around awhile and seen pretty much everything and is not afraid to talk about it.
Some good opinions here, some good advice. So if you're an author interested in writing the kind of books Bob writes — or just an author in general — there's a lot of good advice here.
Bob even has his own publishing company now called Cool Gus Publishing and we talk about that, too.
Great interview with Bob Mayer, NY Times bestselling author, former Green Beret; the author of one of my favorite books The Green Beret Survival Guide. If you're writing any kind of end of the world you need to read this one.
So hang on tight. Here's Bob Mayer on this edition of Interviewing Authors.
Tim Knox: Bob, welcome to the program.
Bob Mayer: Thanks for having me.
Tim Knox: We have a lot to talk about today. I appreciate your time. Before we get started though if you will, just tell the audience a little bit about you.
Bob Mayer: I've been writing for a living for about 25 years now. Before that I was in the military in the Green Berets. I was traditionally published for 20 years with 42 books and I went indie in about 2010. Since then I don't know how many books I've published. I think I've got a little over 60 books out now.
Tim Knox: Wow, very prolific and you also started your own publishing company. I want to talk about the Cool Gus Publishing. We both have dogs named Gus so that's a pretty good basis to start from. Before we go into it though let's kind of go back. Have you always been a writer even before the Green Berets?
Bob Mayer: No, not really. I was a reader. I know there's people who say, "I always wanted to be a writer," but for me it was just reading. I read all the time. In the military they weren't big on creative writing though sometimes it seemed like that. I ended up writing a lot of standard operating procedures, operation orders, deployment orders. I just started writing fiction when I had the time.
Tim Knox: You were always a reader. What did you like to read?
Bob Mayer: I read everything. I got to the point where… I grew up in the Bronx and I pretty much read everything in the local library and I had to go to the next branch over and the next branch over – a lot of nonfiction actually, pretty much every historical book I could get my hands on. I remember finding The Hobbit and being so excited that there were three more books after it. That was pretty cool. Just pretty much anything and nowadays, for the last 20 years, I pretty much read whatever my wife tells me to read. She's the most prolific reader I've ever met.
Tim Knox: She has you trained.
Bob Mayer: Well she always chooses correctly.
Tim Knox: Very good. At what point did you go into the military? Give us a little background there. Did you go to college? What was your background?
Bob Mayer: Actually that's when I went to the military. When I was 17 years old I entered the Military Academy at West Point, spent four years there, graduated, went into the infantry then volunteered for the Special Forces. I spent about 8-10 years on active duty and about the same amount of time in the Reserves.
Tim Knox: A lot of your books are about the special ops and Green Berets and the sort of thing. Do you pull from that time in the military? Is there anything real life there to the work or is it just kind of a basis?
Bob Mayer: There's a lot there that's real life but, you know, you have to change everything. Real life we always said it was 99% boredom and 1% terror. If you write the 99% boredom the readers would get really bored. One of our favorite sayings was 'hurry up and wait' or 'prepare to prepare'. That sort of stuff doesn't really make it into a novel but a lot of the missions we did you can just change the location and the reasons for it and a bunch of other things and they made their way into my books.
Tim Knox: How old were you when you did start writing?
Bob Mayer: That's a good question. How old was I? I guess I was – let's see, 1989 – 30.
Tim Knox: So the first 30 years of your life you were a voracious reader. You didn't write much. What made you decide to flip that switch?
Bob Mayer: You know I think I was living in Southeast Asia studying martial arts and you can only do that for about 4-6 hours a day and I think I just got bored. I had the old original 512K Mac with me and I just sat there and said, "I can write a book. Why not?" I think I wrote three before I even did anything with them. Someone read one, the manuscripts and said, "Hey, this is like a real book," and that got me thinking.
Tim Knox: I love that term – "It's like a real book," as opposed to a non-real book. What were those books about?
Bob Mayer: Those were all military thrillers. They started my Dave Riley series which actually I just picked up last year the 9th book in the series. My character's aged. He's in retirement now. He's a little old, knees not so good, a little rough around the edges. I aged him with the timeline in between the books.
Tim Knox: So the first three books were Riley books in a series and then you took a break for him.
Bob Mayer: Oh no I wrote actually six books with Riley then I took a long break and then I wrote a character, Horace Chase in Chasing the Ghost, who sort of was a younger version of Riley on Delta Force Afghanistan, things like that. Then I realized why don't I hook the two of them up? So I got them together in the low country of South Carolina in Chasing the Lost and I just really like it. I call it the Deadwood of the United States because the law isn't the greatest down there in the low country. I'm actually working on the 10th book in that series now, Chasing the Sun.
Tim Knox: How was it going back and working with Riley? Did he say, "Hey Bob, where you been?"
Bob Mayer: It was interesting. I got emails from some of the guys I served with and a lot of them are retired now and they kept saying make him a little more beat up, a little more tired, a little crankier, taking a lot more pain killers for the various injuries and wounds he's received.
Tim Knox: I want to talk a little bit more in a few minutes about your characters because you really do write some really strong characters and they're not all perfection. They've all kind of had a real world slant about them but just going back, when you wrote those first three books and decided it was a real book, how did you figure out what to do with them?
Bob Mayer: I had no clue. I rode my bicycle down to the local Army post and found the writer's marketplace. It was like 10 years out of date. I did everything wrong. I didn't know about agents. It took me three years to get published. I was actually in graduate school back in the States when I got "the call". I picked up an agent in the meanwhile.
It was a steep learning curve and that's one of the big things I'm really big about. Nowadays with the internet you can do that. Pre-internet teaching writers to be authors was almost unheard of.
Tim Knox: That's one thing that you do a lot now with your blog and that sort of thing. You're very much giving back when it comes to teaching authors. So you found an old Writer's Digest and did you just start querying agents?
Bob Mayer: Yeah I started querying agents in snail mail from South Korea.
Tim Knox: How long did that take?
Bob Mayer: It took forever. People get upset now if something doesn't happen in a day. We're talking three months if you heard back at all. A lot of times you just never heard back anything. So it took forever. Sometimes I think we forget what it was like when it was just snail mail and you didn't know how a book was doing for 18 months.
Tim Knox: Some authors are a little spoiled these days. I just love the fact that you rode your bike down to the library, got a 10 year old Writer's Digest and queried agents for that amount of time.
Bob Mayer: I didn't query agents. I queried publishers.
Tim Knox: Oh did you? You went directly to publishers.
Bob Mayer: Directly to publishers and I think Avon requested a full and then another publisher. I just queried everybody. I violated the rules that they say of know who you're sending to. They called me back and said, "Listen, we don't do this type of book but we have an agent," and that's how I got my first agent.
Tim Knox: So you finally did get an agent through a referral from a publisher. Did he sell those first three books?
Bob Mayer: Yeah.
Tim Knox: What year was that? Do you remember?
Bob Mayer: First book came out in 1991.
Tim Knox: So I guess at that point did you make the conscious decision that hey I'm a writer and this is what I'm going to do from now on?
Bob Mayer: Yeah I did. Of course I lived rather cheaply in a one room unheated apartment for quite a few years. Plus I was still in the Reserves and with my specialty in Special Forces they called me quite often needing my expertise. If I needed extra cash I could serve for active duty.
Tim Knox: So you could just go be a Green Beret for a little while and pocket some money and go back and write. There's a book in there somewhere if you haven't already written it. You know that.
Bob Mayer: Oh yeah.
Tim Knox: You have been so prolific. You've gotten so many books published over the years and sold a lot of books. You started doing independent self-publish a few years ago. What made you decide to do that?
Bob Mayer: Actually what made me decide to do that was I got the rights back to so many of my books over the years and my wife and I sat there and we could never quite understand why no publishers saw that as valuable. I eventually ended up with the rights to all my books and even during my career I reinvented myself over and over. I worked through I think five of the big six back then. I just never understood why no publisher looked and said, "Oh my gosh, you've got the rights to 20 books. If we break you out with this new series we can take your backlist and make you huge."
Nobody looked at it that way. They all kind of looked like, "Well you had your chance and you failed." Regardless of the reasons why the books didn't sell and we won't get into that with the returns and declining print runs and all that.
So in 2009 I met Jen Talty, my business partner, and she asked me what I was doing with my backlist and I said nothing. She said, "Well have you heard about digital books?" We started out kind of slow. The first year we hardly sold anything but it really wasn't until I decided the hell with it; I'm going full tilt into this. I pretty much gave up on New York. Things really took off.
Tim Knox: Once you made that decision things really took off for you. You've done self-publishing ever since. You also have your own publishing company, right?
Bob Mayer: Yeah I self-publish through my own company called Cool Gus and since we have the expertise we've picked up other authors. We stay small because I think you can only really work… we don't view ourselves as a publisher. We're more a concierge service for authors where the author comes first. The author makes all their choices. We have an author right now who Amazon Publishing approached him just last week and said we really like one of your books, which Cool Gus published, and we're okay if he wants to take it there because that's the best thing for his career.
So I think putting authors first is really critical. The business model has been really skewed towards publishers were more important than authors and that's not the right way to look at it.
Tim Knox: That's one thing I was going to ask you because you did have so much experience with so many publishers. The old mentality there was the author really was kind of a… you just turn out the books, we'll do everything else and take care of it. Things have really changed now with digital publishing. Do you think traditional publishers are ever going to come around?
Bob Mayer: They're our competition in a way and that's what nobody wants to talk about. We are competing against each other. It used to be the competition was to get published. Now the competition is discoverability.
What I see happening is the rich are getting richer and the midlist is getting killed and that's pretty much it. They're going to give bigger and bigger deals to their top authors because if you look in an airport bookstore it's a little mind-numbing. It's the same exact names, nobody new. That's all they're putting their money into now to get the best return for their buck but they're not racking the midlist anymore. They're not taking chances on new people as much as they could. So I don't know where it's going to go with that.
Tim Knox: What are your thoughts on self-publishing as a whole? I think the internet really has kind of leveled the playing field. Anybody can be a self-published author now but you still have to have that talent and the ability to build an audience, don't you?
Bob Mayer: Well my mantra is always the best marketing is a good book and better marketing is more good books but it's a lot more complicated than I think a lot of people realize. When we start talking with an author, and we pretty much only work with previously published authors who have backlists. To explain to them what we do takes about 40 minutes because you think oh I just need a cover, format the book, get it edited, formatted, cover, slap it up there. The whole intricacy of indie publishing is much more. Right now everybody's arguing should you go Kindle Unlimited? Should you go Select? Should you do this? Should you do that?
My business partner just had a phone call today. She was talking with Barnes & Noble about a new venture they're trying. It's really complicated. It is publishing. There's a reason publishers are so big and have so many parts. You kind of need a lot of those parts. Now you can make it small and lean, which we do at Cool Gus, but still you cannot replace that expertise.
Tim Knox: Do you think the authors now have to be more than writers? They have to be business people, marketers; they have to do it all.
Bob Mayer: They have to do it all or they have to work for somebody who's willing to do that for them. Most of your successful self-publishers work with a handful of people. Belle Andre a couple weeks ago was talking and she said, "I really need a CEO for my company or operating officer, somebody to handle all these details." It just gets a little bit overwhelming, especially if you have multiple titles out there.
Tim Knox: And especially when you get to where she is. Even a lot of midlisters now that are making a nice living writing and doing this sort of thing. They have to be very entrepreneurial in the whole approach, don't they?
Bob Mayer: Every author does. Unless you're getting a seven or eight figure advance from a traditional publisher you've got to run a business. Even traditionally published authors have to run a business. You can be the greatest writer in the world. If you don't know how to run a business it's going to be a tough way to go.
Tim Knox: Yeah and that seems to be the theme. I've interviewed probably 65 or 70 authors and it is a running theme. You've got to be an entrepreneur now. The thing that I have seen and I want your take on this is a lot of the, I don't want to call them old guard but the guys and gals who have been publishing traditionally for years. They're having a hard time making the switch you did successfully from being traditionally published to doing everything themselves.
Bob Mayer: Yeah I know quite a few traditionally published authors and especially if they've been very successful it's almost an inverse problem in that their publishers took such good care of them that they're pretty clueless with a lot of the things. I think for some of them besides the issues of their backlist being held hostage, they're very scared of going indie and that's one of the reasons why Cool Gus we work with some of the authors who go, "I don't want to do all of that stuff. You guys do it for us. Just fill me in on what's going on but you guys take care of all those details because it's just overwhelming."
Tim Knox: Right and it's good that you do that because some of them, they can't even figure out how to do the Kindle publishing. Granted it's not easy for anybody but when I talk to someone who's sold a ton of books and been doing it for 30 or 40 years and they're lamenting that fact. It really does show me how it really is a different world. They've got to learn how to take care of themselves now.
Bob Mayer: That's just the tip of the iceberg. It sounds simple to self-publish. You can hire a cover artist. You can hire a formatter to upload you onto Kindle. You can hire an editor. But there's a synergy to it all that's really hard to explain to people, all the little subtleties to all the different platforms – how they market, how they merchandise. A lot of it is personal contact. We go to Amazon at least once a year. We meet them at conferences because it is a people business and the more you work with these people the more you get filled in on all the things going on.
Tim Knox: Talk a little more about that because that's another kind of underlying theme is the relationship building that you have to do, not just with people in the industry but with readers and book buyers. I think if the internet has done one thing it has made authors much more accessible to their readers and their fans.
Bob Mayer: I think authors are incredibly accessible now. I think readers don't even realize how accessible, especially indie authors. I tell people at conferences, I say if you've got an author you like email them and say, "If you send me a free Kindle file of your next book I guarantee I'll post a review for you." You could probably get a lot of free books because reviews are really, really important these days.
You mentioned book buyers. That doesn't exist for indie authors, for most of us. It's all of a sudden the reader and the only people between us is a company like Amazon. The interesting thing at Amazon is they are siloed and one of the things we do at Cool Gus is we try working with as many silos of Amazon that we can because that exponentially increases our chances for merchandising.
Tim Knox: Right and you have to take advantage of every option you can. I love your blog. One of the things you have So You Want to Make a Living Writing: The 13 Harsh Truths. Talk a little about that because I'm sure you're approached all the time from bright-eyed bushy tailed writers or people that want to write and they think it's going to be an easy road. It really isn't.
Bob Mayer: Every road's different. I think that's one of the hardest things I try to emphasize. There is no right or wrong. I did follow up to 13 Harsh Truths with 13 Great Truths about how great it is. I think when we go into it we're very naïve and we think oh I'll just write the book and the book will stand by itself. There's so much competition out there, especially nowadays.
There's a large degree of luck involved which people really have to admit. A lot of your bestselling authors were just in the right place at the right time. There were 50 other books just as good as their book but they worked really hard but they also got a bit lucky. I also believe you can make a living here if you're willing just to work really, really hard at it, be professional.
One of the things I watch now, the problem with the internet is everybody reacts to everything that's going on too quickly. Nobody cares. I just wrote a blog today called Nobody Cares What I Feel Like. The only thing I can do is make business decisions and I think that's one of the hardest things for writers to do is pull their emotions out of it and say, "Okay, I'm running a business. With anything I do I have to ask myself how does this affect my bottom line?"
Tim Knox: Right so you've got to be a writer and again… I had one writer sum it up I think best to me. Writing is a business. You are creating a product and you're selling that product to a customer and you have to approach it like that with the marketing, the relationship building, that sort of thing. It is strictly a business.
Bob Mayer: Yeah I mean even back in traditional publishing I said the minute your book is done and it's published it's not your baby anymore. It's a product. People always say, "What's your favorite book?" I say it's the book I'm writing because you have to sever your emotional ties to a book when it's done. First off of course you're going to get reviews, especially on Amazon or Barnes & Noble or Goodreads but also it is a product you're trying to make a living off of.
Tim Knox: Yeah and do you think now with self-publishing, indie publishing, there are a lot more people, authors who may not be making a living but maybe they're making a nice little side money that they never would have made before?
Bob Mayer: Yeah I think there are but I also think writers lie. I do think we hit a peak and I do think a lot of people's numbers are down from where they were just a year ago or two years ago and nobody ever wants to blog about that or admit that or talk about it. I think there's an air of desperation I'm picking up. I'm picking it up in traditional publishing. I don't think we'd be seeing this huge pushback from these very successful traditional publishing authors if they weren't a bit afraid. They're looking at their royalty statements and thinking I'm not doing quite as well as I was two years ago.
Tim Knox: Why do you think that is?
Bob Mayer: There's more product out there. I mean that's the bottom line. Jon Fine of Amazon called it a tsunami and I said that's not the right term because a tsunami recedes. This thing isn't receding. This is a flood that's here to stay. Now there may be things coming up that will sort that out a little bit but you're competing with millions of titles now. Some of these people are really good writers. They're really good writers who never would have got an agent before or gotten published. They're making an impact on the marketplace.
Tim Knox: You see that flood only continuing to get higher and higher.
Bob Mayer: Yeah absolutely. The only thing that can stop a writer right now is themselves and there will be a lot of people quitting but for everybody that quits there will be two who think, "Oh I've got a great book."
Tim Knox: Let's talk a little about your books. You write the Atlantis Series, Area 51, and Psychic Warrior. Tell us a little about those series and how you came up with those and why you like series.
Bob Mayer: Well I remember Susan Wicks hit number one in the New York Times. I asked her how she did it and the first thing she said was series. Series are key. I've written a lot of standalone books. I'm just fascinated by myths and legends. Atlantis is the older legend and Area 51's a modern myth. What I've actually done is I've got a book at Amazon right now. I do also work with 47North. They're science fiction and my Nighstalker Series and I'm literally combining four of my series into one storyline. I'm combining Atlantis, Area 51, Nightstalkers and my Cellar Series. All the characters are coming together into one main storyline, which is really kind of cool.
Tim Knox: That is kind of cool. When did you come up with that thought?
Bob Mayer: Well I had combined Cellar into Nightstalkers and 47North was really open for me doing that and then people kept saying they wanted more Atlantis books but I kind of closed out that. But since I have time travel and parallel worlds the possibilities are infinite so into my Area 51, Nightstalker world I rolled the Atlantis concept into it. It actually fell together pretty well and I tried thinking wow I had this great master plan for 20 years, which is what it seems like, but in reality since I was the writer my brain works a certain way so it makes sense that it all pulls together.
Tim Knox: Was it a lot of fun writing that book and bringing everything together like that?
Bob Mayer: Yeah it really was because it really opens things up. The book is out in November, called The Time Patrol and what I'm going to be doing then is I can just play with anything. I've got parallel worlds I can go to. I've got Amelia Earhart appearing and disappearing as a character throughout the series, characters from other timelines and other series appearing and disappearing. As long as I keep it straight in my head it's a lot of fun.
Tim Knox: How do you keep all that straight in your head?
Bob Mayer: I just need to start killing characters off.
Tim Knox: That's one way to do it.
Bob Mayer: Yeah.
Tim Knox: We have to talk about some of the fundamentals because this show is primarily listened to by authors who want to do what you've done. They want to write, want to be discovered, want to sell books and that sort of thing. From the fundamental standpoint let's talk a little about character development. Now that you are bringing all of these characters together and you may kill off some, how close do you get to your characters and when you're developing how deep into the background do you go?
Bob Mayer: You get pretty close to them. A lot of my main characters are reflections of me in different ways. One thing my wife and I do, we kind of joke that our hobby is… we don't travel much because we've been all over the world but it's story and character.
One thing we do, which drives some people crazy because they say kill your TV, but we watch a ton of TV. What we do though is we'll watch a series and then we'll watch it again. We watch Breaking Bad as it came out, all the seasons, but then the last year we sat down and watched all the previous seasons again and the difference is the second time you watch something whether it's Breaking Bad, Deadwood, Rome, is you know what the story is so now what you focus on is what did the writers do with these characters? How did they develop the characters?
We watched Weeds. We just discovered it about two months ago and we just watched all seven or eight seasons and we're really fascinated about that lead character, Nancy Botwin. We try to figure out what her personality disorder is. We did the same thing with Walt in Breaking Bad. What's his personality disorder? How do the writers keep him consistent?
That's what I think one of the hardest things for writers to do is to keep a character consistent to their personality instead of adjusting their personality for the plot. You can't do that. You've got to make them do things that occasionally the reader's going to go, "That's pretty stupid," but if they really understand the personality they go, "But that's what they have to do because that's who they are."
Tim Knox: It's kind of funny because I do the same exact thing and I just did it with Breaking Bad. The Walt that you come to know up to the last episode there and then you go back and start over. The Walt that's standing in the desert in his tighty whities, when I saw that the first time it never occurred to me where he would ultimately end up.
Bob Mayer: One of the things that struck me was why he wouldn't take the offers he got to work at Gray Matter but then when we looked at his personality disorder and one of the things in his personality disorder is he cannot stand being offered charity. So that wasn't even a choice on the writer's part. If that's who they pegged Walt as, when they get to the point where someone's going to offer him healthcare they're going to go, oh he ain't going to take it. That's just who he is. He's not going to accept it even though it makes sense. Everything would have been fine for him to take that.
My favorite Breaking Bad moment actually is when Marie steals the stupid little spoon at the open house because we went back and looked at that and we said if she hadn't done that none of the rest of the seasons would have happened because that's what brought her husband back into the plot line, back into investigating Heisenberg. All of that stemmed around one little action and that's the things we find amazing.
Tim Knox: Yeah I agree. I mean there are just so many little things going on but do you think the true Walt, was it the Walt in the beginning or the Walt at the end?
Bob Mayer: Yes because a lot of people are in the situation Walt was in at the beginning of that. How many people end up doing what he does? I mean that was in him. It took the circumstances to bring it out and that was the hard part for the writers. They had to give little hints in that early character that he had the potential to become that thing he became.
Tim Knox: Yeah and this is completely off topic but did you find it fascinating that so many people were rooting for Walt? The more evil he got I'm like Walt's the man.
Bob Mayer: I don't know. I don't get that. He lost me when he sent that woman in to check his house when the killers were in it. He didn't care if she got killed. I'm like this guy is a bad, bad, bad guy. This is a very bad guy. You can root for Jesse to a certain extent but even he had his bad parts.
Tim Knox: Yeah I don't know anyone who was really without some kind of blame in that entire show. Let's talk a little about the research that you do for your novels. How deeply do you go there? I know you've traveled all over the world and been a lot of places but when you are writing about a location do you try to make it as factual as possible or is it all made up?
Bob Mayer: I try to make it as factual. I call it an area study because in Special Forces we want to get a feel for the place. Like I've written about Little Bighorn and never understood that battle until I actually went there. As soon as I got out of the car and looked around I went, "Oh I see what happened to Custer." I think a feel for the terrain is really, really critical. I mean I've parachuted into operational areas in the middle of the night and when the dawn comes and you look around you go, "Oh my God, where the hell are we?" You had no clue what you were really getting into until you're actually there.
Tim Knox: You have no idea what you've landed in until the light comes up.
Bob Mayer: Right.
Tim Knox: Let's talk a bit about marketing again if you will because that's such an important aspect of authorship, selling books – being able to market yourself. How much time do you actually spend on social media, doing the blogging? How much of your time is taken up in the marketing side?
Bob Mayer: Less and less because I think you have to do it. I don't think it's as effective as people think. It doesn't really sell books. It can give you reach and it can give you presence but as far as selling books I don't think that's necessarily the goal of marketing. It's sort of to put your footprint out there, your platform out there. When push comes to shove you've got to spend more time writing.
What I actually spend a lot of my time on is not necessarily specifically marketing; it's running a business. Especially since I'm in publishing and checking on the other authors. What are they doing? We outsource some stuff. We do slide shares and book trailers for our authors and things like that.
Tim Knox: Are you enjoying that business, being on that side of it?
Bob Mayer: Well my business partner, Jen Talty, does most of it. I like the control. You talk to a lot of indie authors and they like the fact that our success or failure rests on us. When you're writing a book you're not sitting there going oh I hope my agent loves it or I hope my agent can sell it to an editor and I hope the editor can sell it to a publisher and the publisher can sell it to the bookstores. It's like eight people you have to please before you get to the reader. Now it's like, okay, I know I can publish this and I've got to please the reader. That's it. What is the reader going to think?
Tim Knox: Is that who you should write with in mind, the reader?
Bob Mayer: Totally. I always write for the reader but now the distance between me and my reader is the internet and that's really close.
Tim Knox: Do you like that?
Bob Mayer: Yes I like it a lot.
Tim Knox: In the time we have left let's talk about some general advice. I know you do a lot of teaching and advising at your retreats. Given where we are now in the business, if I come to you and say, "Bob, I've written a book. What the heck do I do with it?" What's some good advice?
Bob Mayer: Write the next book. Really I mean a lot of new authors query us even though we don't really take queries like that. I always tell them to write their next book. One thing I might do differently I think nowadays is if I had a book I would think about writing maybe four or five shorts in the same world as the book.
With the things I'm doing right now, in the next couple weeks I'm putting together seven short books that are all interconnected non-fiction. All interconnected and we're going to burst them out in the market like that because we really feel like the more titles, the more they're connected, the more we can do with them as far as marketing goes.
Tim Knox: I really like that advice and I hear that a lot. Hugh Howey, when I was interviewing him he talked about how his original plan was I'm going to write for 10 years, I'm going to build up a catalog. At some point maybe somebody will find me and discover me and when they do I've got a backlist.
Bob Mayer: He was really smart about that and I agree. I would not be where I was if I didn't bring 42 backlist titles into the picture. If I had been starting out fresh it would have been a whole different ballgame.
Tim Knox: What's on the horizon for Bob?
Bob Mayer: These seven nonfiction books which are either going to really do well or just tick everybody off. The title is Shit Doesn't Just Happen. That's going to be the title of all seven books and it's about the gift of failure. Each book's going to cover seven catastrophes, disasters, failures and say why it didn't have to happen and then say what did we learn from that? There's going to be seven books with seven catastrophes in each of them.
Tim Knox: Can you give us an example?
Bob Mayer: The first book's going to have super storm Sandy, the Kegworth airplane crash, the Titanic, Custer at Little Bighorn, the World Trade Center, Touching the Void which is a mountain climbing story and the housing bubble. It's very quick and to the point where I list the seven cascade events that led up to each event and I say how it happened and I say anywhere here this is a human decision that could have changed these events and kept them from happening.
Tim Knox: Where did you get the idea for that? That's really such an interesting concept.
Bob Mayer: My wife and I have always been fascinated by that. My wife doesn't fly and there's a TV show on National Geographic called Seconds from Disaster and it covers a lot of disasters, a lot of the same ones, but particularly plane crashes. We started noticing a theme in plane crashes that it was never just oh the plane crashed. It was always seven things went wrong and any one of them wouldn't have crashed a plane but by the time they hit the 7th one the plane crashes and always one of them is human error. If you can fix that one human error the plane won't crash.
Tim Knox: I find that fascinating. I'll be your customer number one. I'm always interested in dissecting that sort of thing and seeing exactly what that tipping point where things went dreadfully wrong was. Bob, tell us how we can find more information about you and your books.
Bob Mayer: The easiest way to do that is to go to CoolGus.com. I have an author's page and links to every platform, including audiobooks which is huge right now. I've done 40 audiobooks. And there are other authors there listed on Cool Gus.
Tim Knox: Are you doing your own audiobooks or do you have them narrated?
Bob Mayer: I have them narrated. That's another thing people don't understand. You've got to be a professional about all this stuff. Things have to be professionally done.
Tim Knox: Do you have to put that ego aside and let somebody else do it?
Bob Mayer: Oh certainly. It's a talent and it's a skill.
Tim Knox: Very good. Bob Mayer, this has been a pleasure. We will put up links to Cool Gus and I hope to talk to you again soon. This has been great.
Bob Mayer: I appreciate you talking to me. Thank you.


text:
muppet <scott asofyet org> writes:
I tried setting up a similar case with GLog handlers to create a unit test,
So did I ...
but GLog appear to keep the handlers alive across invocation to avoid this issue.
Actually, there's comments in GLog.xs about leaking handlers, or handler data, which I think may be true, ie. the data is never dereffed.
So, without writing C code for a test, i don't know a way to unit test this.
Doesn't look like it with Glib alone.