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Black Bean Burger (Homemade Veggie Burger Recipe)
Have you started preparing your 4th of July menu? I always plan ahead, because along with ribs, burgers and hot dogs, I have come up with a vegetarian option as well. As always, there's going to be a platter of grilled vegetables, corn on the cob and fire-roasted sweet potatoes but I still wanted to make a "main course" worthy vegetarian dish that's substantial and filling.
After polling the herbivores in my house, I settled on black bean burgers. They're just seasoned, mashed black beans bound together with lecithin and xanthan gum. You could always use an egg instead if there are no dietary restrictions or allergies to contend with. A couple of minutes on the grill and they're good to go. You could also opt for other legumes such as pinto beans, chickpeas, kidney beans or fava beans.
I'll probably grill the veggie burgers first, then cook the regular meat burgers and let each guest assemble their sandwich with tomato slices, greens and onions. What could be better on Independence Day than a little freedom?
Yields: 6 burgers1 (16-ounce) can black beans, rinsed and drained
3 tablespoons red bell pepper, stemmed, seeded and chopped
2 tablespoons canola oil (or any neutral oil)
2 cloves fresh garlic, cut into quarters
6 tablespoons fried yellow onions (see tips)
½ teaspoon xanthan gum
½ teaspoon liquid lecithin
2/3 cup one-day-old bread
1/3 cup milk (see tips for vegan version)
2 teaspoons ginger garlic paste (see tips)
1 sprig oregano, chopped
2 teaspoons cumin seeds, freshly ground
½ teaspoon cayenne powder
½ teaspoon garlic powder
½ teaspoon paprika
1 teaspoon horseradish mustard
3 tablespoon flat-leaf parsley, chopped
½ teaspoon black pepper, freshly cracked
1 teaspoon salt
½ red onion, sliced
¼ cup ketchup
3 tomatoes, sliced
2 cups sautéed spinach (or lettuce leaves)
6 bread buns, toasted
Soaking the bread:
Cut up the slice of bread and place it in a bowl. Pour the milk on the bread so it will get mushy as you mash it with your hands.
Preparing the black bean veggie burger mixture:
In a small pan, heat 2 teaspoons of oil. Add the small pieces of fresh garlic and fry until golden. Add the ginger garlic paste, paprika, cayenne powder, ground cumin and oregano. Set aside.
Lightly oil the bowl of a food processor with a silicone brush. Combine the black beans, the fried garlic and seasoning with the flavored oil. Coarsely blend until a thick paste is formed. Season with salt and pepper. Add the parsley and pulse 3-4 times. Transfer the black bean paste into a bowl.
In a bowl, combine the xanthan gum, 1 teaspoon of olive oil and liquid lecithin (or one lightly beaten egg, see tips). Add the xanthan gum / lecithin mixture to the mashed black beans. The mixture will thicken. Add ¼ cup fried onions, garlic powder, soaked bread and mustard. Mix well.
Checking the seasoning: In a small pan, heat about 1 teaspoon of canola oil. Add about 1 to 2 tablespoons of the black bean mixture. Cook for about 2 minutes. Taste the burger. Adjust seasoning with more salt and pepper if necessary. Finish by adding a drizzle of oil to the black bean mixture.
Assembly time:
Grease disposable gloves with oil. Form 6 round patties and place them on a tray. Chill them in the freezer for at least 30 minutes (this step will make the cooking of the patties much easier).
Remove the patties from the freezer. Brush them with a little oil (you could also dust them with a little all-purpose flour).
Brush a griddle pan with the remaining canola oil. Grill all the bread buns. Transfer to a platter.
In the same pan, place the patties (add more oil if necessary). Cook for about 3-4 minutes on each side until a crust is formed on both sides of the patties. Transfer to a platter.
Spread a thin layer of ketchup on each bun. Stack a few thin slices of red onions, a veggie burger, tomato slices and sautéed spinach (or lettuce leaves). Spread 1-2 teaspoons of caramelized onions on the other bun side. Finish with the top of the bun.
Serve immediately.
Bon appétit!
For a vegan burger version, replace the milk with soy milk.
You've probably noticed I use ginger garlic paste a lot in my cooking. It tastes great and is very healthy for you as well. Just clean the ginger, carefully removing any dirt. Peel the ginger root with a paring knife or the edge of a spoon, then finely chop it. Place the chopped ginger and 5 cloves of garlic in a blender and, add about 2 tablespoons (or more) of water for a smooth flow. Transfer to a jar and store in the refrigerator. You can keep this paste for at least a week in the refrigerator.
Xanthan gum is a fine powder used as a binder and emulsifier. If you look at the list of ingredients for salad dressings and ice cream at the supermarket, you'll find that they contain xanthan gum. I use it for texture and as an egg white substitute. You can find it online or in any specialty food store such as Whole Foods.
I use liquid lecithin as an egg yolk substitute. You can also find this online or in specialty food stores like Whole Foods. You can replace both the xanthan gum and lecithin with one lightly beaten egg.
I buy Maille brand horseradish mustard at Safeway. You can also find it in specialty stores such as Whole Foods and in many regular grocery stores.
How to caramelize onions: Heat about 1 tablespoon of oil in a non-stick pan. Add thinly sliced onions. Cook over medium-low heat for about 10-15 minutes, stirring frequently to prevent the onion from burning, until the color is evenly golden brown. To save time, I often have already-caramelized onions on hand in the freezer. I suggest making them in advance in large batches. Just place about 1 tablespoon of tightly packed fried onions per slot in an ice-cube tray and freeze them. Transfer the ice-cubes into sealable plastic bags and place back in the freezer. I think it's the best way to keep the same flavor without getting freezer burn.
You could also store the remaining un-seared veggie patties in the freezer. Using a tray, chill the patties (placing little squares of parchment underneath each patty) for about 1 hour in the freezer. Once hardened, stack the patties with the parchment squares between them to prevent them from sticking to each other. Place the stack in a large re-sealable bag (remove as much air as possible from the bag). The burgers can be stored up to 1 month in the freezer. Don't forget to label your food with the date!
You could also serve these as mini appetizers using mini hamburger buns.Published By: on June 30, 2011.


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A number of western states are holding workshops on how to attract beavers and are realizing beavers can be the tool to reverse the disastrous effects of global warming and world-wide water shortages.
"The bottom line is, [beavers are] your ace in the hole. […] If the snowpack's coming off earlier and ranchers want water, then we're going to have to figure out how to keep it on the landscape, because it's no longer going to be stored as snow in the mountains, and what beaver do […] is they create these little savings accounts, […] no longer as snow, but as surface and groundwater."
- Suzanne Fouty, Hydrologist U.S. Forest Service Oregon

subset: commoncrawl


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All things are relevant when considering today's world. All topics will be discussed.
Monday, April 1, 2013
Everything and everything. They have OTC investments and derivative investments in dark pools. They are buying CDSs and leveraging banking deposits. They are toying with everything imaginable, all with cash they recieced from the Federal Reserve Bank, a private for profit bank that is under charter from the UST to "maintain the stability of the financial markets". The markets have the appearance of being stable, so say the MSM, but is that the case?
The way the markets are being held up is by massive positions on both sides of the shorts and longs. Imagine the Great Wall of China, but instead of its actual size, imagine it being wider than it is long. That is what the money changers have done - they have put a massive amount of cash on both the longs and shorts to hold a price in place.
This is not only excessive but dangerous, and the slightest imbalance could bring any one option down. It is likely that it could be the dollar, since that is the largest market. Or it could be the UST market, as it is the biggest bond market. It could even be a small market such as silver, since not only does silver correlate directly with oil and thus the dollar but the amount of silver traded everyday equals the total mining done in a whole year.
So the markets are highly unstable and only kept a float by massive amounts of cash long and short. The game will end when an investment, like silver, shows that it can not be papered over. I think silver is the best case to do this because there is such strong demand industrially and for personal invesment for the phyiscial bullion. Other front runners include oil. When one of these investments shows the paper price does not equal the real price based on supply/demand, the house of paper will fall and leave the whole system looking like a naked emporer.
4 comments:
- AnonymousApril 12, 2013 at 7:17 PM
Asset classes are getting blown out of the waters but commodities and PMs are getting gunned down. Where does one hide now? LoLReplyDelete
Spend your money on useless junk please, we dont even care what it is. Please do your patriotic and civic duty to our wonderful country which has given you so much fluff n stuff. We are in desperate and dire need for our printing press fiat to catch a M2 velocity wave.....Wait a second, strike that, if we increase velocity then the snowball effect will be that of hyperinflation....(lightbulb)aha, that is what my wonderful boss has been thinking and planning all along. Silly me. Yes, continue with the buying of our useless junk and fast.ReplyDelete
Federal Reserve Spokesperson Du Jour
Peek runs around with giant bubble hoop humping paper !ReplyDelete
Miss ya Dudness ! ThHhHH
you are been called a charlatan in many blogs, I wonder why.ReplyDelete


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Dorsey studios is the authorized partner to Soundtrack Business offering the most advanced, licensed streaming music service for business. Now available in Canada.
The Soundtrack Business music service offered by Dorsey Studios has enabled us to take our Aroma Espresso Bar sound to the next level, enhancing local control over the music playback while maintaining brand standards and an elevated experience for our customers. The Aroma Espresso Bar music soundtrack curated by Dorsey is an integral element of our brand experience.


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Johnny Depp appears drunk at the premiere of his new movie
Johnny Depp reappeared after many hidden months for the presentation of his new film «Murder on the Orient Express».
After starring with his ex-wife, model Amber Head, one of the most expensive and troublesome divorces in Hollywood history, which resulted in the payment of 6.2 million euros to the mannequin. A problem that was joined by the lawsuit that his law firm brought against him in which he was publicly accused of being a spendthrift that lived beyond his means and blamed his lawyers to steal part of their profits accumulated over the last decade., the actor was presented again before the cameras with a radical change of look.
But his return to the red carpet did not serve to redeem himself in front of a disappointed audience, but it increased his bad reputation by presenting himself with more than one glass of more. Far from his disheveled, carefree style and disheveled hair, Johnny Depp's new appearance was elegant and neat, a façade that made a radical contrast to his attitude.
The actor, 54, arrived late and with evident signs of drunkenness. While his fellow cast awaited him for the joint photo, his bodyguard led him with some difficulty through the red carpet without letting go, a gesture that showed what many feared. After the uproar caused, Depp decided to retire and not attend the party after the premiere and several English media suggest that he apologized to the film crew saying roughly that "two blondes awaited him. "
Hours after the celebration of the premier the news was confirmed, the interpreter had extended the "party" of the previous night in London almost until after dawn in the disco The Box.


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Fried Chicken and Sushi 299 The Otaku Girls Hear the News/
Even though it was probably fun for J to tell the Otaku girls that he's going to live in Japan, I'm sure he's not going to miss them. Of course, there are many more true Otakus in Japan. J might prefer the American ones. We'll see!


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I'm speaking, of course, of Kevin Goldstein and Jason Parks, the impresarios of the Baseball Prospectus podcast "Up and In," which I have now listened to all 34 episodes of--a real feat and/or waste of time considering that each one runs around two hours, if not more. I started listening with episode 19 and then listened to numbers 0.9 (did I mention they are appealingly pretentious?) to 18 interwoven with 20 through 34. This has led to a great deal of confusion on my part. I'm really looking forward to the World Series, though--the Reds look like dark horses to me.
Tuesday, January 25, 2011
Baseball is full of echoes, starting with the name itself--those concatenating "b-" sounds, admittedly differentiated by vowel length--and continuing to how we talk about players (e.g., "That guy swings like Danny Cater"). We look for resonances and similarities everywhere, if only to clarify how we're distinctive--or to find out how we're not. While it's not unusual for a baseball blog to go a bit into hibernation during the off-season, I've been slowed up far more than anticipated because I've been steeping in the work of our evil twins. Yes, there is a duo of baseball nerds out there who (thankfully) outstrip us in geekery but (inevitably) also know way, way, way more about minor-league ball than Rob and I ever will.
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An active star-formation region in the constellation Orion, as seen by Planck. This long-wavelength image covers a square region of 13 by 13 degrees (which is equivalent to 26 by 26 full moons). It is a three-color combination constructed from three of Planck's nine frequency channels: 30, 353 and 857 gigahertz.
The giant red arc of Barnard's Loop is thought to be the blast wave from a star that blew up inside the region about two million years ago. The bubble it created is now about 300 light-years across.
Image credit: ESA/LFI & HFI Consortia› Larger image


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There's More to Life than Dieting
Dad overindulged, mom wasn't interested in cooking, but with her grandmother's help, My Fat Dad memoirist Dawn Lerman found a path through a difficult childhood.
by Sue Tomchin
"Everyone has a food story to tell," Dawn Lerman said when we spoke recently about her new book. But the story she tells in her affecting memoir with recipes, My Fat Dad, is a far cry from the usual fare. She writes about her hunger as a child as the lonely child of distracted parents who weren't equipped to create nourishing meals or a conventional home life.
Learning to cook healthfully gave her a focus and direction—and ultimately a professional calling. "Eating healthy and cooking for myself even as a young child brought me a sense of stability in an environment that was very chaotic," she told me. Today, a certified nutritionist who coaches families and individuals in healthy eating through her company Magnificent Mommies, she also contributes to the New York Times Well blog and offers "Girl Power," a class on self-confidence and empowerment for teens.
Lerman's dad is now a vegetarian who has his weight under control. But when she was growing up, he was constantly fighting a war against obesity. At his heaviest, he tipped the scales at 450 pounds. A brilliant ad copywriter who created such iconic slogans as "This Bud's for You," "Coke is It.," and "Leggo my Eggo," he often worked late or had to be out in the evening wining and dining clients. That meant indulging in the "Mad Men" diet of martinis, steaks, and blackout chocolate cake. He also felt he needed to use and believe in the products for which he was developing ad campaigns, "testing them excessively—especially when he was working on Kentucky Fried Chicken, Schlitz Beer, Sprite and Pringle's Potato Chips," Lerman writes.
The pounds packed on and he became a yo-yo dieter with shirts of every size to accommodate his ever expanding and contracting girth. He tried one plan after another to reduce: Atkins, Pritikin, the Cabbage Soup Diet, the Grapefruit Diet, the Metrecal shake diet, et al. He even spent six months at Duke on the legendary Rice Diet, which had as its centerpiece small servings of white rice and fruit. At one point, he insisted that to keep him on track, Dawn and her mother adapt to the saccharine-laced, freeze-dried food plan he was trying.
Lerman's mom's attitude toward food veered to the opposite pole. She was happy to subsist on tuna eaten out of the can with a plastic fork while she talked on the phone. She had minimal interest in preparing meals, rebelling against her mother's life centered on cooking. Showing affection didn't come easily to her. She longed for adventure, and preferred to be out in the world, taking drama classes, pursuing her interest in various causes and accompanying her husband when he entertained clients and traveled for business. The family almost never had meals together, Lerman writes, and, "in fact, never ate sitting down."
Having one person who loves and believes in you can help you "feel good inside and grow up strong," Lerman's maternal grandmother Beauty told her. Her grandmother was that person. Spending weekends with her grandparents became a weekly ritual that Dawn looked forward to and her parents depended on since they liked staying out until late in the evening. Beauty always had "a pot of something cooking on the stove, a freshly drawn bath, and a fluffy lavender- smelling nightgown" ready for when her "precious Dawn" arrived.
They would sit down together for Shabbat meals at a table that was beautifully set with gleaming silver and an embroidered cloth. The food was made-from-scratch and delicious. Together, they strolled through Beauty's Chicago neighborhood, visiting the bakery, fish market and fruit stand, sampling as they went along, returning home to put on a pot of chicken soup or measure the ingredients for a batch of matzoh balls.
"My grandmother taught me how to nourish myself emotionally and nutritionally," Lerman related. "She would say 'If you know how to make a pot of chicken soup or a noodle kugel you'll be able to nourish yourself for a lifetime.'"
Years before healthy eating advocate Michael Pollan penned his Food Rules, Beauty taught her granddaughter that when you use fresh and healthy ingredients, you are never disappointed in the results. Food "needs to be made in nature, not in a factory," she would say.
"One day she held up one of my dad's chocolate crumb doughnuts and said 'smell this,'" Lerman told me. "'What does it smell like? Nothing.' But when she would make a homemade muffin the whole apartment would be filled with the aroma of chocolate, vanilla, and bananas."
When Lerman was nine, she and her parents and younger sister moved to New York City where her dad had been offered a position as creative director for the advertising firm, McCann Erikson. Despite being far apart geographically, Beauty didn't waver in her devotion to her granddaughter. Each week she sent her a recipe card and a $20 bill so she could buy ingredients. Those, "recipe cards saved me and gave me a purpose," Lerman said.
Today, Lerman works to teach others what her grandmother taught her about eating healthy and nourishing families. "I come into my client's home and the first thing I do is what I call a 'kitchen raid,'" she said. "I go through the cupboards and find out about what foods family members crave."
After learning about the family's schedule and the foods that everyone enjoys, she takes both parents and children on a field trip to Whole Foods or a health food store to explore healthy ingredients that can be swapped for less healthy ones. (At the back of My Fat Dad she includes a "Swap Chart.")
If brownies are a favorite, Lerman makes a healthy version with pureed garbanzo beans instead of flour, sweetened with dates, and using coconut oil as the healthy fat. "They have protein, a complex carbohydrate and healthy fat and taste delicious," she told me. Even chicken nuggets can be reinvented. In a few minutes you can take pieces of boneless chicken, dip them in beaten organic eggs, roll them in almond flour and then fry them in coconut or olive oil.
As a mom herself, Lerman recognizes that families are time-challenged. "I can make a healthy version of anything you love and you'll be able to prepare it in 10 minutes with a baby in one arm," she said and supplies clients with recipes for five easy breakfasts, lunches and dinners based on their food preferences. She checks back with them to offer suggestions and more recipes.
Lerman even revamps kugel by using Ezekiel pasta, replacing sour cream with yogurt, adding flax seeds and apples, and using coconut oil instead of butter. She has never forgotten her grandmother's chicken soup and usually makes a pot once a week. "It takes 15 minutes to prepare and makes 10 meals. I keep adding water to it and and chopped kale or spinach before serving." She sometimes adds ginger or turmeric to give it an international flair.
"Prepare once a week on Sunday for meals the rest of the week," she advised, by making up batches of muffins, mini quiches, French toast and soup that can be frozen and then popped in a toaster oven or microwave. Each thing takes a few minutes to prepare, "less time than it takes to wait in line at Starbucks."
"If you can't do family dinner every night, do it once a week or Sunday and Wednesday or have a picnic together while on your way somewhere else," Lerman suggested.
"Know that food does matter," she said. "Be conscious of what memories you create. Your kids will remember that their mom picked them up from school with a homemade banana muffin."
Beauty's Salmon Patties
(used with permission of the author)
At the insistence of her daughter, Dawn Lerman included this recipe in her book. "This was the first recipe my grandmother taught me to cook, and it was the first recipe she taught my son Dylan and my daughter Sofia to cook," she writes. It was also the dish Lerman served at her grandmother's shiva. "When the traditional Jewish ritual was over, I made sure that everyone left with a recipe card," she writes. "That way a little bit of Beauty and the traditions that were so important to her would continue to live on."
- Oil, for frying
- 18 ounces canned wild salmon in water
- 2 eggs, beaten
- 1 cup finely chopped onion or ½ cup onion and ½ cup green or red pepper
- 1 cup tomato sauce
- 1 cup bread crumbs
Preheat oven to 350°F. Lightly oil a baking sheet. Drain the liquid from the salmon and put the fish in a large bowl. Mash with the back of a fork until the fish is in small flakes. Add the eggs, onions, tomato sauce, and bread crumbs. Mix well and form into patties. Fry the patties till brown. As soon as they are brown, move them to the prepared baking sheet and bake for 15 to 20 minutes. Flip carefully with a spatula. Cook another 5 to 10 minutes.


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metal stage, act 1
In this theatrical installation, the viewer is seduced to slip into a hyper real performance show in which one takes on the lead singers role. Vocal input completes the installation and is instantly transformed into an immersive, multi-sensorial composition in multi-channel sound, stroboscopic light and vapour. Precomposed harsh sound textures of digital glitch and distorted noise are fused and layered with the natural voice of the viewer and played out at very high volume to release an almost visceral power. Depending on the nature and quality of the noises produced by the viewer the audio-visual elements are constantly recomposed, with more complex and intense patterns the stronger the vocal input. In a playful and exhilarating manner the self-created large-scale noise quickly surpasses the human capacity in speed, complexity and volume. Thereby, the installation breaks the natural function of the voice as a signifier of the self by replacing and abstracting all lingual and extra-lingual content. This offers a disorienting yet engaging, liberating and even cathartic experience.
The precomposed audio on which the real-time generation of the sound stream is partly based has received an honorary mention at the Ars Electronica (section Digital Music, 2004).
(audio mixer, audio to light transducer, computer running max/msp, dvd, fog machine, floor monitors, Marshall amp top, Marshall cabinet box, microphone, microphone stand, stage construction, spot lights, stroboscopic lights, subwoofer, 2 x 3 tv monitor stacks; dimensions and sizes variable)
Concept & Realization: Benno Belke and Alex Kloster
Video: Arno Coenen
Programming: Francisco Baena Gonzales
Royan (F) 2009
Royan (F) 2009
Expo Leeds (UK) 2009
Expo Leeds (UK) 2009
Bordeaux (F) 2009 © Jared Gradinger
Bordeaux (F) 2009
Bordeaux (F) 2009
Bordeaux (F) 2009


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TMMN Podcast #003: Which Mega Man Game Wins the Most?/
WARNING: This Podcast contains suggestive language and... no acid drop jokes? Also, spoilers about Mr. X (hint: he's Dr. Wily... oops). Listen at your own discretion. Recorded September 16th, 2007 - YES I KNOW I SOUND HORRIBLE AND LAME I WAS SICK AND HARV IS ANNOYING AND OMG SORRY. OK, OK, so. We decided that since we just did a podcast about which game we would deem the best in Mega Man-dom. But John promptly turned it to which games from each series were the best, which if anything, ensured a longer podcast. We chalked up some good ones (yes, we mentioned Mega Man 2, jeez), and for some reason got into a discussion about... BN4. Don't ask. Anyway, rest assured that The Mega Man Network is always uses 40% of it's budget on everything we do... meaning we waste a lot of our budget on stuff... our nonexistent budget... yeah, well, enjoy the podcast!
Podcast Members This Session:
- comicchaser
- Goten X (Podcast Host)
- Harv
- John (Host)
- Jowy (also known as Sixteen)
- theory C
- TheDivine
TMMN Podcast #003 - Which Mega Man Game Wins the Most? - Right Click and Save! (31.8 MB)


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Indian Lawmakers Pass Bill to Create Corruption Watchdog
Creates Independent Ombudsman at National Level
NEW DELHI—Two years after thousands of Indians marched through the streets to protest what they viewed to be endemic corruption, lawmakers responded by passing a landmark law to create a new graft-busting body.
In a rare display of partisan unity, politicians of most parties passed the so-called Lokpal bill Wednesday in the last major legislative session before India goes to national polls next year. Lokpal means protector or caretaker of the people in Hindi....


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Saatchi & Saatchi officially welcomed ASB into the building at the start of July, along with around 12 new staff across its account service, digital, production and creative teams. And while there's no title on his business card (and just a fullstop on his LinkedIn profile), Philip O'Neill—ex Mitchell's and TBWA\ managing director and self-proclaimed "adman at large"—has joined the agency as the main man on the account.
Having worked at plenty of local agencies in his time, including M&C Saatchi, DDB and Ogilvy, he says success is usually predicated on "finding four or five people who you like spending time with and who have a common view of the world". And with the new senior team of managing director Nicky Bell, executive creative director Antonio Navas and head of planning Murray Streets, he says that's exactly what he's got.
"I'm really enjoying being back in a creative agency. It's more my natural habitat," he says. "And, as you've seen from meeting the gang [for the cover story in the latest NZ Marketing magazine], I've come at an ideal point in time ... There's a sense of positivity, a sense that something's going to happen. So who knows what it will look like a year from now."
In theory it's all new for him—new agency, new clients, new role—but he says there are also enough familiar faces around the table to make it comfortable. Guy Roberts and Corey Chalmers are there as creative directors, having followed ASB from TBWA\ to Droga5 to Saatchi, and O'Neill will also be working closely with ASB's Roger Beaumont, who he dealt with when Mitchell's controlled ASB's media.
O'Neill also worked on the ASB account when it was with TBWA\ and, completing the circle of advertising incestuousness, Carat now takes care of ASB's media, so, given Aegis/Carat took over Mitchells last year, he'll also be working with some of his old homies from High St.
"ASB feels very different as a client than it did two years ago. Like Saatchi & Saatchi, it has also undergone a restructure ... The ASB team is largely new, so we've basically got around 25 people who are all starting reasonably fresh on the business."
Not surprisingly, O'Neill says his current remit with ASB is pretty much all-consuming as it gets bedded in, so at this stage he's unsure whether he'll be working on any other clients in the future. But he is hoping to do a bit more writing and public speaking.


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A little barangay in Pagalungan, Maguindanao might be showing the way home for evacuees in the war-torn central Mindanao. Last January 25, the hopes of Kudal residents came alive when some 70 people witnessed the groundbreaking in Sitio Bridge, Kudal of a self-build housing project of the Suwara Kalilintad, the organization formed by the war evacuees last year. Suawara had led the June 24-25, 2003 Bakwit Power highway protests of evacuees from Pagalungan, Pagagawan and Pikit, Cotabato.
Stop Troop Movements and Armed Clashes in Maguindanao
The clashes between government forces and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) happening in Datu Saudi Ampatuan and Datu Piang, Maguindanao Province since mid-January are dangerous fires that should be doused. Already, many civilians in those towns have started to pack up their belongings including their livestock and preparing for another uncertain life in the evacuation centers.
"Bantay Ceasefire" field reports on "Camp Cararao" and the Buliok Islamic Center
This field report relates to civil society efforts to bring back the Philippine government and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) to the negotiating table. Among the obstacles to the resumption of formal peace talks this year is the reported links of the MILF to the terror group Jemaah Islamiyah (JI), as alleged by the government. Another contentious issue is on the pull-out of government troops from Buliok, which the MILF cites as a "precondition" to the resumption of the talks.
The Hunt for Al-Ghozi: An "Anti-Terror" Campaign that Terrorized Lanao?
In October 7-9, 2003, before the reported killing of Al-Ghozi, a "Bantay Ceasefire" field monitoring mission was conducted by the Mindanao People's Caucus (MPC) along with local non-government organizations in areas in Lanao del Sur and Lanao del Norte. The mission looked into the pursuit operations against Al-Ghozi in relation to the July 19, 2003 GRP-MILF ceasefire, among others.
The Initiatives for International Dialogue (IID) is a Philippines-based advocacy institution promoting human security, democratization and people-to-people solidarity.
IID conducts policy advocacy and campaign programs on Burma, Mindanao, Southern Thailand, West Papua, and East Timor.


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- This pack contains three creative colourful notebooks with three different inners (Ruled, Dotted & checked)
- Corduroy cover (3 different designs and colours) Notes, Contacts & To do
- Foil stamped
- Round cornered
- Lay flat Finish
- No. of pages 96 for each notebook
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"An era of hyper connectivity has already come, and how we respond will determine the national competitiveness for the next few decades," Yoo said.
The second edition of the Innovate Korea forum co-hosted by National Research Council of Science and Technology covered a range of topics including the fifth-generation network technology, autonomous driving, smart health care and ICT cooperation between South and North Korea. An around 400-strong audience participated in the event.
|ICT Minister Yoo Young-min delivers a speech at Innovate Korea 2018 held at Hotel Shilla in central Seoul on Wednesday. (Herald Business)
The ICT minister cited data, network and artificial intelligence technologies as key elements that will lead the country's "fourth industrial revolution" to success.
"Korea will introduce the MyData system to boost big data businesses, commercialize 5G network services next March, and invest a total of 2.2 trillion won in AI R&D for the next five years," Yoo said. "These data, network and AI capabilities will be applied to autonomous driving, manufacturing and health care sectors that will create immense economic effects."
ICT cooperation and exchanges with the North will be an important opportunity for the South in terms of its national competitiveness, too, the minister added.
"Not only connectivity by technologies, but also the connected South and North with roads and railways will bring about another era of connectivity," said Won Kwang-yeon, chairman of NST in a congratulatory message.
By Song Su-hyun (email@example.com)


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Brokebot Mountain is a podcast created by Blazing Caribou Studios to discuss HBO's Sci Fi Western Westworld. In this episode, Kari Simms and Phil Rood celebrate #Valentine's Day the only way they know how, talking about making a romantic connection with a robot. In today's episode "Love Machine" They discuss Spike Jonze's 2013 Oscar Winning Film HER. Who needs real relationships when you now have smartphones.
Synopsis: Theodore is a lonely man in the final stages of his divorce. When he's not working as a letter writer, his down time is spent playing video games and occasionally hanging out with friends. He decides to purchase the new OS1, which is advertised as the world's first artificially intelligent operating system, "It's not just an operating system, it's a consciousness," the ad states. Theodore quickly finds himself drawn in with Samantha, the voice behind his OS1.
They start spending time together they grow closer and closer and eventually find themselves in love. Having fallen in love with his OS, Theodore finds himself dealing with feelings of both great joy and doubt. As an OS, Samantha has powerful intelligence that she uses to help Theodore in ways others hadn't, but how does she help him deal with his inner conflict of being in love with an OS?


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The AMC540 is based on Xilinx Virtex-7 XC7VX690T FPGA. The FPGA interfaces directly to the AMC connector, allowing the core to interface to the host with multiple protocols such as 10GbE, PCIe or SRIO. The FPGA has three external banks of 64-bit DDR3 memory.
The AMC540 has dual multicore Digital Signal Processors (DSP) TMS320C6678. The DSPs are routed to the FPGA via PCIe x2, and SRIO x4. The DSP's are also connected via dual GbE to the on board managed switch, allowing for flexible signal processing applications.
The module routes GbE on Ports 0 and 1 per AMC.2, PCIe Gen3/SRIO/10GbE dual x4 or single x8 on Ports 4-11 per AMC.1/ AMC.2/ AMC.4 specifications. Ports 12-15 and 17-20 are also routed to the FPGA.
AMC540 has on board managed Layer two switch which interconnect the GbE via the front,DSP, FPGA and rear (Ports 0/1). The on-board, re-configurable FPGA interfaces to the AMC FCLKA and TCLKA-D via a clock and jitter cleaner. The module also has Ref CLK IN/OUT and Trig IN to the front.


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Daisy & Bryce | The Inn at Willow Grove
Daisy & Bryce's July 9th wedding was truly a dream come true, friends!
When I spoke with Daisy on the phone earlier this year, she mentioned that she wanted their wedding day to be personable and family-oriented, as family meant a great deal to her and Bryce. After meeting their families and seeing their close-knit bond, we can see why! We were so touched by the love that they all had for each other, and were excited to be able to highlight so many sweet moments between these wonderful families. One of our favorite moments was when Daisy's father sang "Mustang Sally", while Daisy, her mom and sister sang backup. It was so good that we couldn't help but include the whole song at the end of the film!
Not only were there so many sweet moments throughout Daisy & Bryce's beautiful wedding day, but every. single. detail was STUNNING! From the soft blue and peach tones, to the incredible florals by Whimsical Floral Design, to the AMAZING venue, this wedding was one for the books. Oh, and if their families aren't talented enough, Daisy's mom handmade the gorgeous flowers on their wedding cake AND the rompers the girls were wearing before the wedding! Say whaaaat?? And even though the style of the wedding was soft and romantic, we love that Daisy & Bryce chose to include a few Star Wars items throughout the wedding! (See if you can spot the Chewbacca mask in the film!)
So without further ado, enjoy Daisy & Bryce's wedding film!
<3 Micah & Josh
Venue & Catering | The Inn at Willow Grove
Photography | Kristen Lynne Photography
Weddin g Planning | Ashlee Virginia Events
Cake Artist| A More Beautiful You
Hair Artist | A More Beautiful You
Florals | Whimsical Floral Design
Cake Artist | Passionflower Cakes
Cake Floral Design | Markie Post
DJ | High Note DJ Services


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Code Comments/
What makes good code comments? Should they be terse or expansive? Should they be frequent or used sparingly? Opinions on these and other aspects of code commenting vary widely. My take is this ... to answer these questions, start with the objectives for code comments:
To assist in development: Comments aid in understand functionality being implemented in code. For example, they can be used as pseudo-code place holders for eventual real code.
To speed development and maintenance: Comments allow more rapid digestion of code sections. This is especially important when revisiting code not recently seen or code developed by others.
To clarify code: The function of a section of even well constructed code may not be evident. Comments can add that critical piece of missing information.
Given these objectives, here are some suggestions:
Comment appropriate groups of code: Sometimes a single line of code might need explanation. Or there might be a long section of code that repeats similar functionality and a single comment will suffice for the group. It's a judgment call.
Leave signposts for developers: Even if a section of code can be understood without a comment, how long will it take for you, or someone else, to understand it after time passes? Also, it's sometimes important to be able to understand the flow of a function or application without necessarily understanding all the details. Give yourself and others a break, make understanding as easy as possible. Most code is not a programming quiz.
Clean up comments: Keep them up to date and free of extraneous information. Remove temporary words used during development. Make them understandable. After all, that's their purpose in life.
Add comments while coding: It's tempting to think you can go back later and add a comment to some code that looks perfectly clear to you as you write it. Don't do it. Leverage the knowledge you have in that temporary cache in your brain.
Use a fairly uniform comment style: You don't have to be perfectly uniform, but it's a good idea to used some consistency within an application. It helps with understanding and looks more professional.
Add value to the code being commented: Don't just repeat what the code obviously tells you. Make the comment compliment and add value to the code.


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Eggless Eggnog
1 (3.5 ounce) package instant French vanilla pudding
1 1/2 quarts milk
2 1/2 teaspoons rum flavored extract
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
1. In a large bowl, combine the pudding mix with 2 cups of milk, following package directions and allow to chill for 5 minutes.
2. To the pudding stir in the rum flavoring and nutmeg, then slowly mix in the remaining 4 cups of milk until the mixture is a thick but drinkable consistency.
Chill until ready to serve.


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StorataTM provides secure storage of structured and unstructured business documents which are processed and integrated through StorataTM driven workflows. We also extract business data during the workflow which is analysed to provide critical business intelligence thereby allowing organisations to predict or prevent events. In automating these routine tasks, organizations can significantly increase responsiveness to customers, provide higher levels of service and grow their business while in the process greatly reducing operating costs. In addition, this data can be aggregated across larger data sets to provide true artificial intelligence applicable to not only themselves but to a larger representative body. In an era where the connected, fast moving customer demands high levels of service, speed, awareness, collaboration, productivity and adaptability, StorataTM embeds sustainable best practices.
StorataTM Added Benefits
StorataTM brings together a close working relationship of multiple cloud based solutions to deliver innovative solutions to Australia's largest commercial and government organisations.
StorataTM Gold Support
Provided by certified StorataTM Consultants that are dedicated to the suite from the various Cloud Universities. With support based out of Sydney Australia, assistance is never far away for your critical initiatives.
StorataTM HealthChecks
Have your deployed solutions formally reviewed by our experts to achieve a best-practices implementation and maximise the return on your investment.
The StorataTM Innovation Centre
The StorataTM Innovation Centre; a collaborative workspace and dedicated environment housing a comprehensive menu of the latest cloud technologies to pilot some of your innovation initiatives without interrupting your production environment or business as usual activities.
The StorataTM Innovation Centre – a collaborative workspace and technical lab dedicated to technologies in our partner ecosystem. Accessible from anywhere across the globe, the StorataTM Innovation Centre provides a specialised rapid prototyping environment built to test and sample a menu of cloud technologies, enabling customers to implement their innovative ideas and solve complex business challenges with tools and resources available on demand. Your organisation can leverage this powerful facility to explore and trial business innovation ideas prior to delivering the solutions full potential in your production environment, a game-changing opportunity awaits.


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What happened to me recently is - apparently - a common problem amongst male photographers in their thirties. It was embarrassing and awkward. And it had never happened to me before, honestly.
It occurred that a few weeks ago, the first time in my life: someone said to me, "Wow, nice pictures - you must have a nice camera!"
It's difficult to write my feelings about this without sounding arrogant and snotty. Especially since I do have a nice* camera, and a bit of a cold.
This article is only for those people who see nothing wrong with the compliment, and for photographers who've had their egos bruised by it.
I take the picture. If it's good, I take the credit. If it's bad, it's someone's fault. Not mine, of course. But certainly not the camera's. The camera is a tool. Simple as that.
I wouldn't compliment a chef on the sharpness of her knives. I wouldn't bet on the outcome of a race based on the shoes worn by the athletes. Nor do shelves I put up have anything to do with the type of the hammer I use. So what does it matter if I use a Canon, a Nikon, or a camera phone?
And who cares, anyway?
A "good camera" often makes the job easier, sure. Yet let's make the distinction between photography as a job and as a hobby. So although I occasionally need something a bit more from the camera on a difficult job, the main thing is still knowing how to use the thing. Or even recognising what it is I need to do.
But it doesn't follow that a non-photographer (if such a person exists) would win awards but for lack of access to expensive gear.
It's more than this, though. The primary functions on a camera - shutter speed, aperture and ISO are all any of us use, 98% of the time. And every camera has these - even yours. Unless you really do have a rubbish camera (also known as an "Auto-Everything") which won't let you control exposure because it's dangerous.
What else? Think about all those amazing pictures by the greatest photographers that you see in galleries, on posters, in books. Especially the ones taken many years ago, which played a part (to a greater or lesser degree) in making a difference, perhaps making some change in law, informing or upsetting society, even helping to start a war, or bring it to an end. The grainy, black and white images which form part of our collective consciousness.
I'd bet any money that even my camera phone is better than what they used. Yet they produced great things with so little, because it's the photographer who takes (makes) the picture, not the camera. On the other hand, I have lots of pictures of my cats on my phone.
*Anyway, for anyone who's interested in my own camera, I use a Nokia (circa 2002 model). And I allow myself only one frame per shoot. A bit like Scaramanga.


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Friends With Benefits
Sour FRUIT ALE
COLLABORATION WITH Playground Brewery
TIME IN OAK: 9 Months
HOPS: Celia, Hallertauer, & Strisselspalt
GRAINS: Pilsner Malt, Wheat Malt, Munich 10, & Crystal 30
ADDITIONAL INGREDIENTS: Bokbunja (Korean Black Raspberries ), Blackberries, & Raspberries
LAST RELEASE: September 2018
Friends With Benefits is a sour fruit saison that we brewed in collaboration with our friends at Playground Brewery, located in South Korea. It truly pays off to have friends with benefits!
This saison was fruited to death with Korean black raspberries (Bokbunja), blackberries, and raspberries. The light saison base allows for the berries to shine or maybe it's the 31 pounds of fruit per barrel of beer! Friends With Benefits pours a brilliant purple hue and is bursting with notes of fresh raspberries and blackberries, mild Jolly funk, and moderate acidity.
Collaborating with Playground Brewery has been a rich and rewarding experience for so many members of our team, it's hard to know where to start.
We helped them source, install, and commission their brewery, giving some of us the chance to see another part of the world and get immersed in a new culture in the process.
Their Head Brewer Richard has spent time here with us training, and giving us insights into South Korean culture and life. We learned while he learned. The best kind of exchange.
Our chef visited them, and came back inspired to create whole new menus for us. Come visit us in Dexter (once we open our restaurant here) for a taste!
Saison with black raspberries, blackberries, and raspberries added!
Cheers & Mahalo plenty!
Ron Jeffries, Founder and Chief Squeegee Operator


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Although Bordentown Bluffs is part of the Delaware and Raritan Canal State Park it is not mentioned on their site.
GPS Coordinates 40.161122, -74.703328
View Larger Map
|Stanton Avenue dead ends at a utility building and it is plenty wide for on-street parking.
Abbott Marshlands - Bordentown Bluffs - NJ Trails Association
Abbott Marshlands - Bordentown Bluffs, NJ at EveryTrail
2.2 miles with some exploring at the northern end.
This was hiked in conjunction with Roebling Memorial Park, a short drive away.
|Start of the trail on Stanton Avenue.
|Blazes are spray painted - there is a red trail and a yellow trail.
|At this T-intersection red goes left to the tidal beach (return route) and also to the right towards Orchard Avenue.
|Where red ends and yellow starts.
|You don't expect to see mountain laurel and rhododendron in these parts!
|Some yellow with green blazes at the overlook.
|The trail follows very closely along the edge of the bluff.
|Crosswicks Creek
|Approaching the overlook from a different direction, a climb up some tree roots to the top.
|Heading back south. The yellow-blazed trail goes farther into the woods where unmarked trails continue along the bluff.
|Where the red trail ends ...
|... a trail does continue for a while before you have to retrace to back to the sign.
|The tidal beach,
|Returning to Stanton Avenue on the woods road from the tidal beach around the utility buildings.


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You are here: Home / Store
You will get a 100g Pack BeeSPutty Plastic Summer Firm Xtra. Color is GreyGreen. This firm version is a bit less sticky and a bit firmer than the normal firm, that makes it easier to work with it at temperatures of 25 degrees celsius during the summertime 😉 . Or it can be used for extra fine detail work. This version bakes at 140°C and has a xtra waxy touch and it is stronger after baking.


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Because HSDPA isn't the only kid on the block.
In all truth the snail-like roll out of WiMAX looks to have relegated the technology to HSDPA support act but that hasn't stopped Samsung from showing off just how snazzy devices based on it can be.
It used 3GSM to show off two mobile devices – the P9000 and M8100 – and a WiMAX USB dongle. The first is a real crowd puller based on the UMPC (Ultra Mobile PC) design and squishes a 5in display, fold out keyboard, Windows XP OS, 1GHz CPU, 256MB RAM, WiMAX chip, CDMA EV-DO and 1.3MP camera inside an ultra portable 143 x 94 x 29.7mm body that weighs just 583g.
Granted it isn't as powerful as most some UMPCs out there but it is certainly different.
By contrast, the M8100 is far more typical being built around a slider handset design and boasting a 2.8in screen, 2MP camera with VGA cam for video calls, Bluetooth with A2DP and 128BM ROM/64MB RAM memory. Where it makes use of WiMAX however is in its integrated Terrestrial-Digital Multimedia Broadcasting (T-DMB) chip which is capable of streaming high quality television signals as well as other data services.
Finally the company displayed the most compact WiMAX USB dongle I've seen yet and one which looks perhaps the most market ready. Like a 3G or wireless g dongle it simply plugs into a USB1.1 or USB2.0 port, installs and provides your devices with WiMAX functionality.
Sammy was marketing all three devices as more conceptual than real world but you can guess the distribution of WiMAX has more to do with this than any production drawbacks. I can almost hear the sniggers from HSDPA as we speak…
Samsung UK


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Previous Challenge Entry (Level 2 – Intermediate)
Topic: Beach (07/04/05)
- TITLE: The Seaside Sentinel
By Debra Brand
In his snug little room, General Herschel sleepily stirred. His ten day sabbatical completed, he was completely rejuvenated. The injured eye and appendage had been restored. Gingerly he stretched and opened his eyes upward to test his sight. Yes, returned to normal.
The night lights peeked into his abode, scurrying shadows from the corners. Giving a great sigh of comfort, the General settled once again into his favorite position. His eyes closed and mind at rest, he waited for slumber once again.
Little by little, he became aware of a furtive scurry outside. Opening one eye at a time, he listened carefully, getting a bearing on the direction of the sound. A mighty soldier is always alert, always concerned with safety.
Cautiously he moved to peer out through the opening. Several shots of water squirted passed his vision and indistinct shapes were slithering forward towards him.
ATTACK! Imagine a battle on his doorstep! At night! Scurrying around without making a sound, the General reached for his weapons of defense and carefully surveyed the situation at hand.
The enemy was only a few feet away but what were they after? Surely, not him! Oh! There's the quarry! Buried in the sand, their only defense was the intermittent spewing of bodily secretions aimed in the enemy's direction.
The pea clams were under attack! Again! Will they never learn? Don't they realize they are no match for the Moon Snails when they give away their location by their spray? Oh dear! The General never stopped to think but rushed out to save his weak friends.
He surged forward towards the army of drills, brandishing his weapons. His movements were erratic to confuse the adversary and to divert their attention. Moon Snails are very thorough in their attack. Catching a clam unawares, their sandpaper like tongue drills a small hole in the clamshell near their hinge and then sucks out the contents. Many a poor clam has lost his life this way.
The General pitied the defenseless clam and snapped the snail in two. Hurray! Another notch on his gun, another strike against the forces of evil and another victory for the valiant! The snails call retreat!
Scouring the perimeter of his yard Herschel gives the all clear yell. His friends sigh in relief and bury themselves farther into the sand. This time there were no losses. No battle wound this night to bother his sleep.
Securely confident that the battle is over, the general headed back to his home. Entering his bedroom he stared at the bleached sand dollar hanging over his bed.
Even a hermit crab knows the mystery of life. For God reminds his creatures with whatever is at hand (or claw) that He is the giver of life and heals all our diseases and by His wounds we are healed (even a missing eye). Kum ba yah, my Lord, kum ba yah!
The opinions expressed by authors may not necessarily reflect the opinion of FaithWriters.com.
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It's About Time… University of Missouri Fires Unhinged Professor Melissa Click
In November Mizzou race activists harassed an Asian reporter while protesting on campus.
University of Missouri professor Melissa Click was directing the protesters.
Mizzou professor Melissa Click, an assistant professor of mass media at the University of Missouri, ordered a journalist to leave an area where demonstrators had gathered on the Missouri campus.
Melissa Click then called activists to "muscle" the Asian journalist off campus!
In early February Professor Click told reporters she was "trying to keep the crowd calm" when she told the race protesters to rough up an Asian reporter.
Melissa Click told reporters she had no prior history of altercations in her 12 years of experience at the University of Missouri.
Melissa lied.
The activist professor participated in race protests at Mizzou on homecoming weekend!
They shut down the homecoming parade!
Newly obtained video released last week shows the unhinged Mizzou professor Melissa Click berating police officers at a homecoming parade in October.
In the video Click is seen screaming at the police officer, "Get your f*cking hands off of me!"
(Warning on Content and Language)
Today the University of Missouri Board of Curators fired Melissa Click.
FOX 2 Now reported:
The University of Missouri Board of Curators has fired Assistant Professor of Communication Melissa Click. She drew national attention in November when she called for "muscle" to remove a student journalist from the scene of a student protest on racism. The video went viral.
The announcement came during a Thursday afternoon conference call. Board chair Pam Henrickson said they received the results of an investigation. The board voted to terminate based on the findings.
When asked if there is a severance package Henrickson responded, "It is a straight-up dismissal."


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For lack of a better outlet, I point my personal songwriting blog to a matter of classical music business today.
Classical music critic Norman Lebrecht leaked news via his blog on Monday that fellow critic Allan Kozinn, who's been writing for The New York Times for the past 35 years, has been reassigned from his position as staff reviewer to the position of general cultural reporter. Citing internal politics, the reassignment was called a "demotion" and a General Cultural Outcry has ensued.
On a road trip at the time, I could contribute little from the passenger seat of our Subaru but I have a few observations, having worked closely with the Times' classical team as a pitching publicist in recent years.
The Times classical staff is arranged thusly: James "Jim" Oestreich (Classical Music Editor) assigns coverage and contributes essays and reviews, usually regarding music written before 1950. He is extraordinarily busy. Anthony "Tony" Tommasini (Head Classical Critic) negotiates coverage with Jim and specializes in opera/vocal music (usually written before 1900). Then there was Allan Kozinn, whose area of expertise covered standard repertoire (the older, more established works for those readers who are not in our little world) but whose knowledge of 20th and 21st century music is nearly encyclopedic, and who can write with equal passion and authority on The Beatles, John Cage, and C.P.E. Bach. Enter the free-lancers: Steve Smith (Music Editor of Time Out New York), whose knowledge of and curiosity about contemporary music parallels Allan's but he has far less autonomy over his assignments, let alone time; Vivien Schweitzer, whose area of expertise is piano music; and Zachary "Zack" Woolfe, who, like Tony, specializes in vocal music, especially opera.
OK. If Allan, who reportedly averaged (!) 5 concert reviews a week over 35 years, is removed, then the Times classical department is left with two staffers + three free-lancers. And the range of specialization is then traditional orchestral/chamber music (Jim), opera (Tony), opera (Zack), piano (Vivien), contemporary music of 20th + 21st centuries (Steve). What's curious to me is this: Does our city's "paper of record" need two specialists in opera and only a part-time contributor for 100+ years of contemporary music, spanning multiple epochs? From what I see, this staffing does not accurately reflect the cultural landscape which the paper of record is attempting to record.
Currently in NYC we have two major opera companies, neither of which has been delivering significant productions at breakneck pace. As a matter of fact, there have been numerous articles lamenting how very behind-the-times and inadequate NYC's big opera companies are compared to those around the world. Beyond that, Times has noted a very lively collection of upstart organizations presenting high-quality and/or grassroots opera/theatre works on a smaller scale. (Full disclosure: I work for one of them.) But even so, the Times — to this point — has seemed more transfixed by big houses, anyway. So?
Meanwhile, we are in a golden age of contemporary music in NYC. Composers and young performers are literally flocking to the city from all over the country, forming labels, collectives, ensembles, bands, festivals, and audiences at places like Roulette, Issue Project Room, (le) Poisson Rouge, Rockwood Music Hall. I almost can't get above 14th Street for all of the music happening below it and across the river. Brooklyn is some kind of independent musical capital of the world right now but are we seeing that reflected in our paper of record? Perhaps on the pop side, but with classical Allan has been the staffer who knows the current artists and who can contextualize this movement with 35 years of experience on the ground. Even with Allan, to me the balance of coverage happening Uptown versus Downtown (let alone across the river) hasn't seemed to be reflective of the current times. How much more so now that he's off the beat? Can one part-time free-lancer (Steve) really be the one only with his ear to the ground for 100+ years of music, including this current movement, while holding down the fort at Time Out? Or will the Gray Lady's ears become lopsided?
All of that said, I will also say this: I long for music writing that transcends the preview/review grind. From the perspective of a reader and also of one who pitches stories, I can attest that there are very few opportunities for a good story in print outlets. (Mark Swed? Anne Midgette?) Even if a critic is interested in the conversation at hand, writing an actual story (trend, news, or otherwise) rather than filling a review assignment amounts to working overtime. It's a critic's extra credit. Without the time and space for critics to start meaningful conversations in "official" print outlets, such conversations have largely moved onto legitimate blogs and webzines (George Grella The Big City, Frank J. Oteri NewMusicBox, Alex Ross The Rest Is Noise, Thomas Deneuville I Care If You Listen) and social media. I've read far more interesting insights and witnessed far more challenging discussions about the current state of contemporary/classical affairs via colleagues on Twitter and Facebook, or even on the personal blogs of such amateurs as myself. But with social media there is no lasting historical record. As far as having such discussions with the vast majority of staff critics who might have much knowledge and insight to offer? For me it's mostly off the record over lunch, or in an unprintable email. Too bad for all of us.
If Allan's new position as general cultural reporter fills that void — Can I be optimistic? — there might actually be interesting stories to read in a print daily about classical music, and set in broad cultural context.
Wednesday, September 5, 2012
The Grey Lady's Bent Ears
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Google Goals and Development; the Resurgence of Whitby Yacht Club
When Stephen Brickell, Sailing School Director of the Whitby Yacht Club, speaks of a "google goal", he refers to an unachievable goal; falling just short of an unachievable goal still means surpassing an achievable goal. Over the past few years, the Whitby Yacht Club had been experiencing declining enrolment. Brickell came on board as the club's Director in 2014 and began immediately to implement massive changes to the club's programs, introducing couples adult programs with childcare provided, and challenging instructors to do community outreach. Since then, the Whitby Yacht Club has seen tremendous growth. Not only did the sailing school grow by 20% in the first year of Brickell's tenure, but when its membership completed a satisfaction survey, 95% indicated that the club "exceeded their expectations."
For the current 2015 year, the aggressive "google goal" for the club's sailing program was to enrol 200 people into its programs. Due to tremendous community-based marketing strategies and hard work, the Whitby Yacht Club has 189 people currently enrolled, and is expecting 100% of their goal. The sailing program is not the only field of growth that the Whitby Yacht Club is focusing on; the club is now considering adding a rowing program to its established roster of programs.
The Shells & Sails team visited the Whitby Yacht Club on June 24 and 25 in order to help the club better understand the local demand for a rowing program. The Shells & Sails the team joined the local sailing instructors in showing elementary school kids how to tie knots and rig sailboats in addition to teaching them basic sailing theory, and how to use the indoor rowing machine. Over the course of the week, approximately 500 kids visited the Whitby Yacht Club. In the afternoons, the Shells & Sails team worked with the club's instructors and racers to get people out in some rowing and sail boats. There were a lot of participants that came specifically to try rowing, and the team had some local rowers come and volunteer their time to help build excitement about the sport. These try it days were such a success that the Whitby Yacht Club is working with ROWONTARIO board member Jurgen Schubert to establish a rowing program. The goal for the Whitby Yacht Club is to develop a rowing membership next year.
The Whitby Yacht Club is growing thanks to great goals, but also with hard, hands on work, by everyone at the club. Stephen Brickell will be speaking at the ROWONTARIO conference on November 28, 2015 about goal setting and local marketing tactics that were successfully employed to significantly increase the club's membership. Stay tuned for more information about the conference!
In the meantime, if you or your club has equipment or boats that you are willing to loan or donate to the Whitby Yacht Club, this would go a long way to helping the club establish their rowing program.
Please contact Stephen Brickell at email@example.com; any help would be much appreciated.


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Devising a Social Media Strategy
Once you've settled on some realistic expectations for your social media efforts, it's time to develop a social media strategy.
Start with clear goals and objectives. What are you attempting to achieve? Who are you hoping to talk to? Are you trying to drive more traffic to your site? Manage your company's reputation online? Boost sales? Without specific goals, you won't know whether you've been successful.
Tie your social media goals to your brand and to your company's larger marketing strategy. "If you're a fun consumer brand like Cordarounds, your social media conversations should reflect that," says Parr.
Decide how you will measure success. If your objectives are to increase traffic to your Website through social media, how will you track your site traffic to see if your social media efforts are working?
Measuring Social Media ROI
When businesses ask if social media can deliver a return on investment, the example often discussed is Dell.
Dell's U.S. outlet store started tweeting special offers to its followers in June 2007. The company recently said that sales generated from its tweets have added more than $3 million to its coffers.
Of course, that isn't a lot for Dell--the company had $12.8 billion in revenues during its second fiscal quarter alone. But that result shows what can happen when a business leverages a free and popular communications channel, in this case Twitter, to its advantage.
Inevitably, the next question is: How do you measure social media ROI? The answer, depending on whom you ask, ranges from "you can't" to "it's extremely difficult."
"There's not really a formula or set of standard metrics you can use to measure the ROI of social media," says Jeff Zabin, vice president and customer management technology analyst for Aberdeen Group. "The whole area of social media is experimental and everyone's still trying to figure this out."
"There's no killer app for this yet," Parr adds.
Larger companies, such as Dell, sometimes have proprietary software designed to capture and analyze how Twitter posts translate into sales. However, small businesses with limited budgets have a few ways to tell if their social media efforts are gaining traction.
For example, you can include a Twitter-only discount code for a product and track it, suggests Naked Pizza's Leach. "We've added the Twitter discount codes to our point-of-sale software, so we can track their use," he adds.
You might also see how often your Twitter posts are retweeted (when someone tweets about your tweet). Retweets are at least one indication that something you tweeted about is of interest to other people. You can follow retweets in your Twitter stream, or you can use sites such as Retweetist, Retweetradar, or Tweetmeme to track retweets on a larger scale.


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Jean Shin
Jean Shin is an artist. Her magnificent work not only takes unusable material, transforming it into something wonderful, she has the most creative titles for her work that give a deeper meaning to the piece.
In her piece, Chemical Balance, Jean Shin uses empty prescription bottles, taken from numerous sources, and arranges her piece to show the kind of world we live in. Ms. Shin is telling us that our lives are frail and delicate, while our bodies depend on external sources to keep us in homeostasis.
Another piece by Ms. Shin, Key Promises, is a collection of keys from a computer keyboard arranged to form a poem. There are groups of keys repeating "Control", "Pause/Break", "Escape", and others. Displayed in the gallery, these words show the gallery-goer to the other displays. But for we viewers behind a glowing screen, using the very keys she placed upon a wall, Ms. Shin's work should make us ponder the gross amounts of time we spend at a computer.
The Verdict:
The computers are controlling us, that we need to take a break and escape from this way of life.
The Quibbler


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Israeli military downs drone entering airspace
JERUSALEM The Israeli military said troops shot down a drone that penetrated the country's airspace in the south.
A military spokesman said the drone was shot down Saturday morning. He would not say where it originated.
Israel borders Egypt in the south and Jordan in the east. The spokesman was speaking on condition of anonymity in accordance with military protocol.
Israel radio reported that it appeared to be an intelligence-gathering drone.
An Israeli defense spokesperson told The Times of Israel that the Air Force identified the unmanned aerial vehicle as it flew over the Mediterranean, and that the IAF tracked its flight over Israel before shooting it down in the northern Negev desert.
The Times said military officials do not believe the drone came from the Gaza Strip. They are considering the possibility that it originated in Lebanon.
In 2006 the IDF shot down a drone belonging to Lebanon-based Hezbollah.
Defense Minister Ehud Barak has congratulated the military in a statement, adding, "We view this incident of attempting to enter Israeli airspace very severely and we will consider our response later."


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If you are anything like me, tragedy causes you to question everything you say to the people you care about. You question whether or not to say anything at all. In order to help myself in these situations, I've decided to think about it ahead of time and write down some bible verses that are helpful for a variety of difficult situations in which I want to be careful no to say something stupid.
Now, doing this, remember that even when you are nervous about what to say, your presence speaks loudly. Be present for the people you love even when you don't have the words to say.
But given that you are like me and you want to know what places to point people to in these moments, I thought it would be helpful to consider what we can say when someone dies.
Scriptures that are comforting when someone dies:
Psalm 23, which speaks to the God who walks with us and cares for us even in the darkest valleys and in the shadows of even death itself.
The Lord is my shepherd, I lack nothing. He makes me lie down in green pastures,he leads me beside quiet waters, he refreshes my soul.He guides me along the right paths for his name's sake. Even though I walk through the darkest valley, I will fear no evil, for you are with me;your rod and your staff, they comfort me. You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies.You anoint my head with oil; my cup overflows. Surely your goodness and love will follow me all the days of my life,and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever.
Isaiah 25:6-9, which speaks to the important reality that death doesn't get the last laugh. Death stings, but it doesn't win.
On this mountain the Lord Almighty will prepare a feast of rich food for all peoples,a banquet of aged wine— the best of meats and the finest of wines. On this mountain he will destroy the shroud that enfolds all peoples,the sheet that covers all nations; he will swallow up death forever.The Sovereign Lord will wipe away the tears from all faces;he will remove his people's disgrace from all the earth.The Lord has spoken.9 In that day they will say, "Surely this is our God; we trusted in him, and he saved us.This is the Lord, we trusted in him; let us rejoice and be glad in his salvation."
John 11:35, which is the shortest verse in the Bible and reminds us that in our moments of grief, Jesus grieves with us.
Jesus wept.
Romans 8:31-35, 37-39, which speaks to God being on our side. While death and the devil are raging war against us, God is for us. While we suffer and are in pain, we can be reminded that God is fighting for us and nothing is going to stop him.
What, then, shall we say in response to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all—how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things? Who will bring any charge against those whom God has chosen? It is God who justifies. Who then is the one who condemns? No one. Christ Jesus who died—more than that, who was raised to life—is at the right hand of God and is also interceding for us…No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Death is always hard. And often more important than being able to remember these scriptures is going to be you being present in the lives of the people you love. As Christians, we can put our hope that death is not the end. And because of that, while we might hurt, we also can hope.
A teacher of mine once suggested about death that, "Resurrection makes dying hard."
This might be a bit odd at first glance, but consider it. The fact that Jesus rises from the dead and the fact that we are promised a resurrection proves that death is not the way God intended things to work. And so while we have the hope of eternal life that comes with dying, dying is still hard. And it's hard because it's not the way God intended for this to work. Death isn't just an escape from the awful, worldly life.
Death is the enemy and it still stings, but it doesn't win.


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ESCP Europe Business School is proud to announce that it is this
year's winner of the Franco-British Intercultural Trophy, awarded
at PwC's headquarters in London on Thursday 5th February 2015.
The Franco-British Intercultural Trophy has been awarded by
the French
Chamber of Commerce in Great Britain since 1997. The
trophy, designed by Cartier, is presented to companies which have
made particular efforts to develop stronger ties between Britain
and France or to promote Franco-British cross-cultural relations.
The winner is elected by all the Members of the
ESCP Europe's UK Director, Professor Chris Halliburton, took to the stage
to receive the trophy from previous winners, Emmaus.
Past winners include: Emmaus (2013), French Radio London (2012),
Mazars (2011), Bouygues (2010), Cinémoi (2009), Eurostar (2008),
Saint-Gobain (2007), EDF Energy (2006).
This year, the 18th edition of the Intercultural Trophy, sponsored
by AXA, was awarded during a Cross Cultural Quiz Evening on
February 5th at the PwC Offices.
This year's candidates were:
Professor Halliburton said: "We are genuinely
thrilled at winning this award and honoured to join the
distinguished roll call of former winners, especially as the first
educational establishment. The trophy represents for us a great
success in working across cultures wherever ESCP Europe is located,
particularly in Britain where our students and workforce are truly
Established in 1819, ESCP Europe is the world's
oldest business school and has educated generations of leaders and
With its five urban campuses in Paris, London, Berlin, Madrid and
Torino, ESCP Europe's true European Identity enables the provision
of a unique style of cross-cultural business education and a Global
Perspective on international management issues.
ESCP Europe's network of 100 partner universities extends the
School's reach from European to worldwide. The School is founding
partner of heSam, a cluster of well-known institutions for research
and higher education structured around the Sorbonne
Triple-crown accredited (EQUIS, AMBA, AACSB), ESCP Europe welcomes
4,000 students and 5,000 executives from 90 different nations every
year, offering them a wide range of general management and
specialised programmes (Master, MBA, PhD and Executive Education).
The School's alumni network counts 45,000 members in 150 countries
and from 200 nationalities. Together with its long-standing
relationships with national and multinational companies, this
network allows ESCP Europe to provide unique career opportunities
on an international scale.
The French Chamber of Commerce in Great Britain
is part of a network of 112 French Chambers of Commerce and
Industry Abroad (CCI France International), which is the largest
private French network in the world with a combined membership base
of more than 30,000 companies.
The largest Foreign Chamber in the UK today in terms of both
turnover and range of services offered as well as one of the top
French Chambers worldwide, it counts more than 600 member companies
- ranging from SMEs and entrepreneurs to blue chip companies. The
diversity and quality of its members - 40% of which are non-French
nationals - largely contributes to its success and to the
reputation it has acquired over the last 131 years of
Anything in here will be replaced on browsers that support the canvas element
ESCP Europe Business School
527 Finchley Road
London NW3 7BG
Ph: +44(0)2074438800
Email: email@example.com


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Join millions of players in one of the most competitive football games ever created.
Race around the woodland track in the quickest possible time. Collect the stars for more points.
By clicking "Add Wood Runner to Your Website", you agree to the Webmaster Terms and Conditions.Add Wood Runner to Your Website Help
There are no awards for this game!


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Mobile Monday is a weekly CanvasPop blog series featuring reviews on some of the coolest mobile photography apps, or gear available. Check back on Mondays for a new review!
PicFrame from the developers over at Active Development, is an app that gives you the ability to combine multiple photos into awesome looking frames. The final result is a cool looking image, that actually reminds us of our Photo Mosaic prints.
The app is super versatile, and offers a ton of different features so that you can fully customize each frame you create. Here are just a few things … Read more


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Bay Bridge
Editorial: Brown must vet integrity of bridge
Once it is rebuilt, the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge will be an iconic structure whose majesty should give all Californians a deep sense of pride.
But as we learn today, Caltrans, the state agency responsible for overseeing this massive $6.3 billion undertaking, has placed the integrity of that bridge in question.
It let every Californian down by failing to properly monitor an inspector, Duane Wiles, who was responsible for testing seven of 13 pilings that form the bridge's foundation. After Wiles was disciplined for faulty inspections, Caltrans conducted only a cursory review of his work.
Its failure to police its own is shameful, and requires Gov. Jerry Brown's immediate intervention.
Brown must consider convening a panel of top engineers to review shoddy work by Wiles to determine if there is any risk to the public. The governor should gather outside experts to review the state Transportation Department, to better understand how Wiles was allowed to operate as he did.
In stark language, The Bee's Charles Piller discloses Wiles' role in supposed inspections of the foundation of the Bay Bridge and at least 24 other bridges, walkways and other structures in San Diego, San Jose, Anaheim, Oroville, Placerville and Los Angeles.
Instead of following established procedures, Wiles skipped important steps, including failing to verify the accuracy of his gauges; falsifying results; and discarding files that could have been used to check his inspections, Piller's reporting showed.
In 2009 and 2010, a whistleblower, whose documents Piller later obtained, and Caltrans testing employees fought to get the attention of Caltrans' leadership and of the Bureau of State Audits. Inexplicably and inexcusably, Caltrans' leadership did nothing.
Brian Liebich, Wiles' direct supervisor, was among the managers who seemed to turn a deaf ear to warnings issued by Caltrans workers.
"We are putting the reputation and integrity of the (testing branch) at stake," Michael Morgan, then a Caltrans foundation test engineer, told Liebich in a memo. "We are a public agency, and the data and conclusions contained in our reports can end up costing contractors thousands to millions of dollars. Our work also can be linked to the safety of the traveling public."
When Liebich didn't act, Morgan went to Liebich's boss, Mark Willian. In April 2009, Willian reprimanded Wiles, writing that the fabrication was "a critical and inexcusable breach of ethics." Willian excused the ethical breach by requesting that Wiles behave in an ethical manner in the future. The punishment could not have been more limp.
Caltrans' responses to Piller have been especially troubling. Its spokesmen have dodged the issues raised by Wiles' actions, minimized potential problems, taken no responsibility for failing to act, and refused to release key documents.
Incredibly, Wiles and Liebich remain employed by the state of California. They were placed on administrative leave only after Piller started asking his uncomfortable questions.
Caltrans' problems are not new. In 2004, the Bureau of State Audits pointed to a financial crisis stemming from the failure by the managers of the Bay Bridge reconstruction to disclose huge cost overruns.
This $13.3 billion agency remains in a sorry state of disrepair. The Legislative Analyst's Office has recommended that lawmakers cut the Caltrans workforce by 1,500 positions. That would be a start.
No doubt, legislators will read today's articles and have serious questions for Caltrans' acting director, Malcolm Dougherty, and his predecessors, Randell H. Iwasaki and Will Kempton, as well they should. If the Legislature does attempt to carry out its oversight function, lawmakers should be sober in their review, and not grandstand.
Brown needs to get engaged in this issue. He began his tenure with ambitious plans to enhance his state and his family's legacy, and has hopes of undertaking big projects. He will be unable to solve this state's many needs unless he confronts the mismanaged agency that is Caltrans.


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Matthew 9:37 "… The harvest truly is plenteous, but the labourers are few"
While mega churchesare putting the sword to the battle in Asia and Africa, and the Middle East;passionately taking new ground for the kingdom, our generals (heads of thesereformations) have failed to guard our flank. Overtly, the three headed monsteris attacking us in our own homeland eating at the fiber of our faith, gnawingat the entrails of our morality, imposing their thoughts and doctrine on ourchildren because we have failed to equip them to the faith.
They are the ones, knocking on doors, andhanding out literature, and talking to our children about their faith. Creatingnew convert for their beliefs at the root level where we have all butcompletely failed. This three headed monster understands very well that thefuture of our faith is dependent on the hope of our youth. So while wesit high and mighty in foreign lands the monster sneaks into the homework andstories of our children.
Matthews24:15 tells us that the gospel shall be preached in "all the nations", so we have sent missions to Asia and Africa and every corner ofthe world. Yet we failed to reach our own back yard. Our neighborhood churchesare slowly being replaced with Mosque, or Kingdom Hall, or whatever the Mormonscall their place of worship.
We are sendingmoney to save the children in every 3rd world country, yet our ownchildren are killing themselves, because we have failed to tell them aboutJesus. While we are feeding our egos with plane trips to far off places, it'sthe Jehovah Witness that are knocking on doors, the Mormons that are handingout literature on the buses, and the Muslims that are reaching our children inthe playground.
I believe that if we teach our children the waysof Jesus Christ we can affect positively the problems that weight down ourcity. I believe there is a place for missions in Africa but not at the cost of forgettingthe missions here in Philadelphia.
Too few churches have a commitment to evangelism;too few Christians have a heart for the lost. We have found it so much easierto ignore the problems that plague our city because of lake of knowledge of God(Hosea 4:6) than to realize that becausewe are not part of the solution we are the problem. (Matthew 12:30). The question is, are you satisfied with beingpart of the problem?
Or do you want to be part of the laborer of theharvest. It is my desire to make a difference in Philadelphia. to hear about my calling and possibly be a part of this great Harvest please contact me at email@example.com
Your Brother in Christ
T.Charves FireSpeaks


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For art jewelry to be considered for exhibition at the gallery, please email Jenna at email@example.com with the following:
artist biography
curriculum vitae/resume
artist statement
4-6 images of your work.
website and social media links
Please note that we do not review work unsolicited in the gallery without an appointment.
We will notify you should we seek further interest.
Thank you.


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My Scrappy Life
My Scrappy Life Tutorials
The Creative Chicks
Tutsations Tuts by Callie
For a small fee you could have yours done too!
Contact me for details
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Thursday, September 23, 2010
Freebie Halloween kit
This freebie kit can be found @ The Crafty Chicks forum.
Its one of the kits that can be found in our monthly scrapkit challenge..
It will eventually find its way on the crafty chicks blog but if you want it now..
Come check out our forum..
This with many other great goodies can be found there!
Labels: Freebie Kits
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Blog Archive
- ▼ September (4)


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a/s/l – 5^2+5-4/that Venus symbol thing/The beautiful state of Colorado
Well, that covers what most people care about, right? Probably not, or probably so, I don't really know.
Well, if you want to know more, I am a recently married, twenty-something Army trained nurse working at a psychiatric acute treatment unit in metro-Denver. I'm madly in love with my husband (yes, yes, I know, newly weds, yadda yadda yadda, so not ready to actually listen to that) and for some reason or other that is a topic which will frequent my blog. As will my work, politics, my opinions, occasional short stories, and anything else that piques my interest. Oh, I also recently started back to school, so there may be some posts about that too.
Please know that while I enjoy writing and many various topics that I am not a professional or semi-professional writer, nor do I actually know all that much about the world and most everything that I will write on here is opinion or experience based, biased as those both are. Due to my line of work, some of them may be a bit disturbing or unsettling. I won't apologize but will say that there are some scary things out there in world and I see and hear about a lot more of the personal and private ones than I care to think about.
Honestly, I never know what to say in these about me things. I think that's enough to get on with.


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Psycho pony!
Today I was supposed to have a lesson, but it turned into a training session with lots of groundwork instead of riding.
I think the fault may be partly mine. I wasn't paying attention to the weather, and it rained and snowed last night. Poor Panama was stuck without his blanket and not much of a winter coat left. When I arrived at the barn this morning, he was in his shelter — I think he was probably cold all night long, since he doesn't usually hang out in the shelter unless he's trying to get out of the weather.
Being cold tends to make him tense and highly reactive. While I was grooming him, I noticed pretty quickly that he was jumpy. It also probably did not help that a horse was in the next set of cross ties, getting shod, and the farrier was making a whole lot of noise while he worked.
Anyway, when my trainer arrived, she watched as I had numerous problems with Panama, first getting him to stand still so I could finish tightening the girth, and then getting him to settle once I mounted. Water was running off the roof of the indoor, so there was a constant dripping, which had him more concerned than he usually would be. He humped his back when I asked him (ever so gently) to move forward, and then jigged nervously several times as we started our first lap around the arena.
"I'm getting a lunge line," my trainer said. "We're doing groundwork today."
I don't know if she thought I couldn't handle it, or just didn't think it was worth the risk. For the record he was starting to calm down by the time she came back with the lunge line, but I knew we probably wouldn't accomplish much along the lines of cantering and jumping, even if he did settle down a bit. I hopped down while she pulled a couple of barrels off the rail and set them up on their sides, end to end, with about 3 feet of space between them.
First she lunged Panama so that he had to go between the barrels with every lap. He had a really hard time with this at first, and invariably froze as he approached, then bolted through in a panic. It took a while the first direction, but eventually he walked through calmly, so she praised him and changed directions. The second direction didn't take quite as long to get a calm walk-through.
Then she pushed the barrels a little closer together, and a little closer, until he started jumping them on his own. Once he did that, she pushed them all the way together. He did pretty well jumping them, except for one time when he got one foot over the lunge line and then panicked. My trainer had to drop the line, and he bolted around the arena for several minutes while the line "chased" him. Finally he stopped next to me, so I grabbed the line and started to reel it in. At the first slight pressure on the back of his fetlock, he calmly picked up his foot, and put it back down on the other (correct) side of the line. Too bad it took him several minutes of panic before he remembered to check in with his brain!
After half an hour or so of lunging, my trainer decided to call it quits. While we were standing there messing with him, though, as we finished up, he had a severe meltdown over the line getting caught on the saddle. So my trainer did a little desensitization work by looping the line behind his butt while she lunged him. At first he did nothing but buck in circles around her — huge bucks that actually flung sand up, he was digging in so hard. Finally, either because he figured it out or just was too tired to keep fighting it, he stood still and let her rub the lunge line all over his hind end, albeit with a rather harassed look on his face.
He was pretty sweaty by this point, and it was still cold, so I toweled him off (which he enjoyed more than usual, half-closing his eyes and dropping his head to show how much he liked it) and put his cooler on, then took him for a walk around the property. We walked some of the obstacles in the field behind the arena, working mainly on that puddle he refused to cross yesterday, and when he was cool enough I put his rain sheet on him and returned him to his corral.
It's been a while since I've seen the panicky, super-reactive side of Panama. My trainer was pretty matter-of-fact about it ("oh well, that's just Panama"), but he's been so good for lessons the last few months that I was really surprised. I really think being cold all night had to have had something to do with it — it seemed like too extreme a mood to be just a reaction to the change in weather. Hopefully it won't have lasting repercussions — I'm worried that some of the behavior will spill over into the next time I ride him, which with any luck will be tomorrow morning!
Labels: horse training