text:
|2006-12-11, 22:01
|Link #161
Gantz Survivor
I very rarely remember my dreams and these are the only two I remember vividly from the entire year:
In the first one my parents are driving me to my highschool reunion. Why I couldn't drive myself, no idea. I get to the reunion and everyone is wearing black suits and black dresses and it feels like some people died inbetween graduation and the reunion as there are pictures of them with flowers and stuff around them. We all file into an auditorium and have a seat and start watching a movie. Apparently it is tradition to watch Goldeneye....the James Bond movie. Only in this version of Goldeneye, instead of Xenia and Natalya as the bond girls, its Halle Berry as Jinx from another James Bond movie, Die Another Day. Anyway, while watching the movie we get to a scene where there is this army of Native Americans walking through the ocean. The ocean is only up to their waist and they are just marching through it. The person im sitting next to turns to me and says "Weren't you in Goldeneye?" I say yeah and I pick out the only white guy in this mass of 200+ Indians. I see Ralph Wiggum from The Simpsons dressed in Indian garb saying "My cat's breath smells like catfood" and I wake up.
Next one I had was about a week ago. I was in a casinos movie theater and I was watching Rocky Balboa. The movie is on for awhile and then the film breaks. I get annoyed and leave along with everyone, going outside the casino. Outside of the casino it is like a fair or amusement park or something. I see some food vendors and then im back in the movie theater and Rocky Balboa is starting again. I get distracted by a couple of movie attendants carrying a paraplegic black man. For some reason instead of setting him in a chair, they set him in the aisle and give him a pillow to lie on. He responds to this by saying "Are you fucking kidding me?" Then I wake up.
Seems like all I dream about is movies, tv, and games. When I was like 10 and Mortal Kombat had just come out, my mom woke me up because I was talking loudly in my sleep what buttons to press for moves and fatalities. No idea if I still talk during my sleep, I hope not. A friend of mines ex-husband used to shout SUCK MY C*** in the middle of the night while he slept and it would wake up her daughters.
EDIT: Added 12/13 - My alarm went off and I turned it off and went back to sleep for an hour and half and had another dream since I was more lucid. Maybe writing about them is helping also. Again, it was heavily influenced by anime, movies, tv, and games. Its more fragmented than the others.
Me and my sister were with my dad and he had to go talk to some woman. We enter a submarine (had just watched Black Lagoon where they raid a sub for a painting) and to my left there is a little memorial to some dead crew members. I wrote a note that says "Good Job" and put it next to the pictures of the deceased. We navigate through the sub and we enter a wood house with the woman he needs to talk to and some other people. He tells me and my sister to have a seat and we do, but once we sit down hes already done talking to her and we leave. We get through the front door and we are in a forest. We walk on a trail through the forest for a bit and I feel guilt for leaving the Good Job note, then the scene changes.
I am now in a hallway in like an apartment complex with a woman in front of me leading me. There are three people ahead of us, one of which has a gun. The other two look unarmed but are bad as well. I advance past the woman leading me and stick a needle in the guy with the gun's neck. (Haven't seen Kiss of the Dragon in a long time but I guess thats what influenced that.) I look at him and watch as he gets woozy and passes out. I do this to the other two and the woman leading me gets annoyed. The bodies vanish and I tell her it wasn't lethal, the bodies begin to materialize back and scene changes again.
Its now me, my mom, and my step dad at the bar of a restaurant. We are all watching Twin Peaks on the bar tv. (In my mind all of this is making sense and at this point the last two scenes also took place on this episode of Twin Peaks.) I hear someone say "Yeah this was a good show in the 60's." I think to myself "Idiot, it was made in 1990." We watch the tv and theres a stream with a large boulder in the middle of the screen and some personal pan pizzas to the left of it. My mom says she needs a bigger pan, indicating she was the one who made the pizzas. The boulder is alive and appears to be talking but no sound is coming out.
In the next scene Cooper from Twin Peaks is on a radio urging a woman driving to pull over while she is on her cell phone. (Cooper is the only one in my dream that is actually in the show. I think this scene happened because I had watched Everest: Beyond the Limit before going to bed and in that episode Russell is urging two of the guys to come back). She crashes her car and Cooper is now in the road and sitting down on his ass. A woman gets out of the car and goes to Cooper and points a gun at him. Another woman comes out of nowhere and points a gun at her. A shot is fired and blood and brain go on the back of the car which makes no sence unless Cooper shot her. The camera pans down and Cooper is holding a sawed off shotgun but it has a ceiling fan attached to the front of it. My mom at the bar says "Tom Hanks makes gadgets like that too." Then I wake up. I guess Cooper got the drop on her using a shotgun disguised as a ceiling fan.
Last edited by Bandersnatch; 2006-12-13 at 15:57. Reason: New dream
|2006-12-11, 22:11
|Link #162
For the Love of L. haha
|2006-12-11, 23:25
|Link #163
Senior Member
Join Date: Dec 2005
Age: 32
While I was taking a nap yesterday I dreamt that I was trying to get into the upstairs bathroom, but when I finally got the door open it ended up being a fake bathroom, and then there was another door in the back that opened up into another bathroom, one after another, each becoming more like the "true" bathroom until I finally made it to the real one.... then I woke up.
When I was younger I had two reccurring dreams... One where I could never get away from a giant owl, and another where I was being chased by bad guys through a never ending waterpark.
|2006-12-12, 10:30
|Link #164
lol that fun yeah what would we do without dreams oh that remindes me my friend said she dremt of her whole family hanging in a room all cut up an sown back togever, that s where i ask , whats the point of sowing em back togever.
or one of my creations was that i'm standing on a log with my family. the log is flowting on a lake or somehing there are crocs and bad fishyis in that lake and i fall in my dad pulls me out but because he's so strong he pulls me out one side andlets me fall in on the overside and this kept on going till i woke up the next morning that kinda sucked.
|2006-12-13, 12:19
|Link #165
Ha ha ha ha ha...
Graphic Designer
Join Date: Apr 2006
Location: Right behind you.
Age: 30
I have a weird recurring dream. I'm traveling down a road, in the backseat of a car, staring up at the sky. Telephone lines (gently sloping) pass by on the right side, and everything is grey-cast. There's no color to speak of. Then when I reach the end of the road, there's a cave on the right. We turn in, there's darkness, and then I wake up.
Isn't that weird?
|2007-01-13, 02:07
|Link #166
Senior Member
Join Date: Dec 2005
Lucid Dreaming
This morning, I had an amazing lucid dream. I was about to wake up during a regular dream, but suddenly realized I was dreaming. I eventually coaxed myself into thinking my eyes were open when they were actually shut, and started to modify the dream as I saw fit. I was able to hover above the ground and jump great distances. I was able to see this one girl I met a while ago and haven't seen for a while. We just flew around, completely free and happy. It was the most amazing thing, even though I've had lucid dreams before. It has motivated to more actively pursue lucid dreaming as an actual goal.
Anyone else have lucid dreams and/or dream control? If so, what types of techniques do you use to induce lucidity?
|2007-01-13, 03:32
|Link #167
Retweet Member
Join Date: Dec 2005
Location: ニュー・オーリンズ、LA
LOL....I know all too well about this and know several techniques aswell...
When I was a soph in college a few years back me and my frat-brother read up on it and challenged each other to use all the techniques we learned about lucidity in dreaming...It was really an incredible experience but it does take work and tons of patience (also trial and error)...The reason I stopped is because it became too time consuming and like most young men I have a natural ADD that takes my attention to something else...It was basically just a fad, and lucid dreaming isn't very easy to achieve (especially if you don't faithfully use these techniques) but here's some advice...
-Start a dream journal and everyday you wake up before you do anything else write down as much as you can remember this will aid you in recall (Very important!!)...Always read the journal too when you have a chance because your dream recall will get incredible after a while...Few people realize that they dream 5, 6 times a night and just remember the last dream (After a while I would remember all my dreams)...The better you are at dream recall, the better your lucidity will become...
-Give yourself reminders 5-10 times everyday...this will create triggers that alert you that you are sleeping...Look at yourself in the mirror and tell yourself that you are sleeping...Click the lightswitch in your room several times a day and when you dream of your lightswitch you'll become Lucid...Talk to yourself several times a day looking at your hands asking yourself if you are dreaming...(The more you do this, the more you'll get triggers in your dreams that alert you that you are sleeping--I must repeat if you don't do this faithfully it wont work as well)
-When you realize you are dreaming don't get excited or it will dissapear because you will be to close to actual conciousness....The best technique for stopping yourself from waking up is to violently spin around in the dreamworld--This will stop you from waking up in most cases (Trust me it has worked for me)...
-Get a friend to do it with you...Now you might not wanna ask a friend who thinks stuff like this is insane, but ask somebody who you think will find this interesting because it's that motivation that keeps you doing the techniques...
-Finally, be confident and tell yourself you are gonna do it...As you lay down for sleep think about what you want to dream about and tell yourself you will become lucid because the more it's on your mind the more it will happen...
I also have some other techniques I can't really mention in the genral forum ...
I did this for almost a year and had some of the most incredible dreams of life culminating in this absurdly ridiculous Dragonball Z type of dream I had where I was flying with speed and invincibility feeling it all in a 100% real-state..I mean when I flew close to the water huge waves were being made because of my speed....I was making zig-zags at top speed, punching $hit it was so fun....I also had dreams where I would float around looking at my dream world like a ghost creeping up on people, walking thru walls and snooping on people...I've had dreams of using super speed and whole lot of other stuff directly related to the amount of anime I watched...I also had many dreams too which are unbelievably fun lmao....Pretty soon you'll be able to change any scenerio in your dream with ease (Like one time this cop pulled a gun on me and I laffed because I knew I was dreaming and made the gun dissapear from his hand into mines )...
One more thing to try when you're Lucid is to read any words you see in the dream...You see the part of the brain that is used for reading isn't used in dreaming so if you see a Pepsi bottle in your dream when you read it it'll say something like Pcpz1 (But it will look almost exactly the same)..It's really hilarious because no matter how hard you try you can't change this and I've tried...I even dreamed I was in a supermarket and every label looked exactly like it did in the real world but with funny lettering xD....
After I stopped doing the Lucid Techniques for about 2 weeks I stopped having the dreams so it does take effort...But it pays-off, it just became too time-consuming to keep up and still have a normal life for me and my bro...Try it out for a while it's ten times cooler than any of the current bull$hit out today like for example a damn 500$ mobile phone with a keyboard and Tv screen ...
Who am I kidding I want one of those phones ....
|2007-01-13, 05:16
|Link #169
Heh, I used to get these. Never had to work to it though, it was always in the last part of summer holidays where I did just about nothing and had to force myself to go to sleep for the sake of it. Usually took a while, but every often I'd get them. And yeah, they are awesome. Ever since I've stopped getting like 12 hours sleep a night I've stopped having them though Oh well, least I had the experience I guess.
|2007-01-13, 05:30
|Link #170
Retweet Member
Join Date: Dec 2005
Location: ニュー・オーリンズ、LA
I guess I should have mentioned there's a difference between simply being Lucid in your dreams which just means you are aware that you are dreaming and lucid control which is a far more in-depth experience...Everyone has lucid dreams from time to time, but just being half-aware isn't the same as taking complete control because you can be lucid yet still be incapable of doing anything but running the coarse of the dream...This is common, but dream-control takes a degree of effort for most (I mean there are some mutant freaks out there that probably don't need to do as much as others though^^)...I mean monks and others who participate in meditative ventures can do things 100 times more incredible than dream-control in the form of astro-projection, but as I've read it takes supreme discipline to even come close to this level so this amount of effort to reach the basic level of what I described is worth it for some...As I've said, even I tired of the whole technique thing, but it works and it's undeniably fun if you have the time to do it...Hell I wish I didn't stop because having to pay bills in this real world makes me wish I could escape via ZZzzZz-lucidity...
|2007-01-13, 05:46
|Link #172
♪♫ Maya Iincho ♩♬
Now i remember one of my science teacher talking about a device you wear to sleep that can induce this "lucid" feeling or controled dreaming you are talking about. Though i have no idea what's this device is called.
Personally for me, I can't control my dreams really that much. There has have some dreams that i can totally overcome and control them, but over all 98% of all my dreams happen without me noticing that i'm asleep, dreaming away.
|2007-01-13, 05:54
|Link #173
Retweet Member
Join Date: Dec 2005
Location: ニュー・オーリンズ、LA
^There is a device that gives off light beeps that you can only hear in your dreams, but it was far too expensive for any college kids just fooling around to get...I wouldn't waste my ramen money on something like that anyways...But to just keep a journal and do some brainless techniques that paid dividens was cool...and like anything else in life you get tired of it and move on to something else...
|2007-01-13, 07:58
|Link #174
Asuki-tan Kairin ↓
Join Date: Feb 2004
Location: Fürth (GER)
Age: 38
There is a device called Molechaser (something to scare mole away), which uses anoying peeps. Such a device is installed next to my window. It prevends dreaming, because it prevents sleeping (quite successful).
|2007-01-13, 11:32
|Link #175
Senior Member
Join Date: Dec 2005
Wingdarkness, you sound like a pro at this. I tried to keep a journal once too, but like most people, I thought it was way too much trouble. And I never discover I'm dreaming from using reality checks. It's usually that I feel like I'm waking up, and I just make myself stay asleep.
Sometimes, I use external sounds though. While I dream, I can still here ambient sounds in the background. If I set a soft alarm, I can learn to associate that sound with reality, even though it can become deeply integrated into the dream, i.e. hearing police sirens.
|2007-01-13, 11:42
|Link #177
Senior Member
I didn't know that this was something you had to work towards. o_O I have control over things almost every time I dream--it's very rare that I don't. I can also read in dreams which I'm told is supposed to be really hard. It's not something I remember actually conciously trying to do; it's just always been that way.
Maybe I'm a freak.
|2007-01-13, 14:12
|Link #178
Retweet Member
Join Date: Dec 2005
Location: ニュー・オーリンズ、LA
|2007-01-13, 15:03
|Link #179
Senior Member
Join Date: Dec 2005
|2007-01-13, 15:33
|Link #180
Gantz Survivor
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subset: commoncrawl


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Bridgeport Sound Tigers: You come from an untraditional hockey country. What was your upbringing in the game like and how did you first get into it?
Mike Dalhuisen: I got into it because my dad was a huge hockey fan. Funny enough, my parents actually met when they were 16 years old because of hockey. It doesn't really get very cold in Holland, but my mom had a hockey stick and my dad asked her if he could borrow it so he could play with his friends. So they just hit it off from there. My dad's always been a hockey fan even though Holland is really a huge soccer country. So when he had a boy he said, "He's definitely going to become a hockey player."
BST: So you must have played soccer too, right?
MD: Oh, yeah. Everyone did. You're pretty much born playing soccer. You play in recess, before and after school. Even in between hockey practices I was playing as much soccer as I could. But when I moved away from Holland and started playing more hockey I had to give that up.
BST: When did you move away?
MD: I moved away from Holland with my whole family when I was 11.
BST: Hockey is kind of unique in that players move away from home when they're pretty young. What was that adjustment like and how did you react to it?
MD: I reacted to it by just going. I played two years in the Ontario Provincial Junior Hockey League and then three more in the USHL. I knew if I wanted to make it to the NHL one day, I was going to have to sacrifice a lot and I couldn't really look back. Either you do what you have to do or you don't make it at all. I just went and kept in touch with my mom and dad a lot. It was somewhat tough the first year, but I was fortunate to have great billets (host families), so that made it a lot easier for me.
BST: How do you think getting four years of college hockey experience before turning pro is going to help your game?
MD: I think it's already helped me a ton, not just hockey-wise but also mentally. I've matured a lot over the past four years and I've learned a lot about dealing with ups and downs and time management. A lot of things that you wouldn't really have to deal with if you were just playing hockey. In juniors, you pretty much just show up at the rink and then have all day to do whatever you want. In school, it's a lot of keeping up with everyday tasks and classes and things like that. I think I struggled my junior year. I had a couple of off games and I was getting scratched, but that really prepared to deal me with both success and failure. So I think those past four years have helped me in more ways than I could have imagined.
BST: Speaking of ups and downs, I'm sure last year was a lot of that rolled into one.
MD: It was an amazing ride. It's still kind of fresh in my mind so it's a little tough to talk about, still. Everybody says you guys built the program and put the school on the map, but coming in second place is still kind of a bittersweet thing. But the ride was amazing. Being No. 1 in the country for however many weeks we were was really, really nice. And I'm happy for our school that people know where it is now and how to pronounce it.
BST: What was the timetable like from the time the season was over to the time you heard from the Islanders?
MD: It was like a minute after we lost. I got undressed and I checked my phone and I already had texts from teams. The Islanders were one of them and I ended up talking to them. It just came down to them providing me the best opportunity out of the other teams that I had talked to. I really felt a good connection when I came here. Everyone was very friendly and told me the ins and outs of things. They were very straight up with me and that's how I like it, people telling me how it is rather than trying to beat around the bush. So I really liked that. I went out to Long Island and watched one of the games and signed right there. So that was pretty exciting.
BST: For fans that are just being introduced to you, describe your game a little bit and what they can expect from you this season.
MD: I'd say I'm a hard-nosed player. I'm not afraid to back down and I try to keep it simple and make a good first pass out of the zone. I like to think I'm one of the hardest-working players on the ice and I'll do whatever it takes to help my team out.
BST: What are some of your goals for this season, both individually and for the team?
MD: I'm really just going to try to adjust to the pro level as best I can. I want to learn from the veterans and ask a lot of questions. Working on my footspeed is important, it's something that people have harped on pretty much my whole career. But as a team, my goal there is to win a championship. I want to finish in first place and be there at the end of the season. I really just like to win.
BST: How has that adjustment been so far? You've gotten a little taste of it in camp before the season gets going I'm sure.
MD: I think it's been going very well. Everybody's been very helpful. They always say, "Get in my ear if you ever have any questions whatsoever." And that's been great. The veterans like to go out of their way to help the younger guys and nobody feels that they're too good or anything like that. It's really nice to see that everyone is so friendly. They know where they came from at one point, so the adjustment as been pretty smooth so far.


text:
The Lady Bisons defeated the Lady Govs of Austin Peay State University on Tuesday afternoon 4-3 in extra innings. Game two of the double-header was suspended due to darkness. Game two will be continued at Austin Peay on March 17.
Lipscomb made a dramatic come from behind win after being down 3-2 going into the bottom of the 8th inning. Heather Collins excuted a sacrifice bunt to advance Erin Gonzales to third base. Jessica Wilson then hit a sac-fly to right field to score Gonzales from third base and tied the score 3-3. Leigh Little hit a two out pinch-hit double. Kate Richards came to the plate and reached on an error by Austin Peay's first baseman, Little scored the winning run.
Lipscomb knocked in four runs off of 10 hits while committing four errors. Austin Peay scored three runs off of five hits and committed two errors. Austin Peay left seven runners on base, Lipscomb left 11 runners on base.
Sara Meek not only pitched a great game, but was offensively perfect in game one. Meek went 3 for 3 at the plate and scored two runs. Candice McWherter also had a multi-hit game as she went 2 for 4 at the plate. Jessica Wilson was 1 for 3 and drove in a game high two RBI's.
"I was really proud of the way we battled throughout the entire game. So many times last year we were so close, but couldn't get over the hump. It was nice to be able to keep coming back and get the win. We felt good with the way we hit the ball. We had a lot of chances to score, but we just couldn't get the timely hit that could have opened it up. When you get the pitching with did with Sara's outting and get ten hits you feel pretty good, but the 11 runners left on is something we'll need to improve on. When you put a new team on the field you always have some growing pains and I think we'll get better with our communication as we learn to play together. I really feel like we have a chance to have a special season if we keep working hard and playing together,"said Head Coach Andy Lane.
The Lady Bisons are now 1-0 and the Lady Govs are now 0-1 on the season. The Lady Bisons will be in Oklahoma this weekend for the OU/Nike Classic Tournament. Lipscomb will take on Oklahoma on Friday at 1:00 p.m. followed by two games on Saturday vs North Texas and two singles on Sunday against Creighton and Oklahoma. Oklahoma University is once again one of the nations top teams and a former National Champion. Be sure to visit the Oklahoma website to hear the games via the internet when the Lady Bisons play Oklahoma.
"This will be a nice trip for our team. It is always good to go on the road as we build our team. A trip like this will help you down the road as we enter into conference play,"said Lane.
Score by Innings R H E ------------------------------------------ Austin Peay......... 000 101 01 - 3 6 2 Lipscomb............. 000 101 02 - 4 10 4 ------------------------------------------


text:
Review Group Week #258: The Spirit #10
Hey you! Reader! Want to be a part of the GREATEST COMIC BOOK AND GEEK COMMUNITY on the web?! Well, they're not accepting new members, but we'll take anyone here, so why not sign up for a free acount? It's fast and it's easy, like your mom! Sign up today! Membership spots are limited!*
*Membership spots not really limited!
Hey you! Reader! Want to be a part of the GREATEST COMIC BOOK AND GEEK COMMUNITY on the web?! Well, they're not accepting new members, but we'll take anyone here, so why not sign up for a free acount? It's fast and it's easy, like your mom! Sign up today! Membership spots are limited!*
*Membership spots not really limited!
by Greg » Sun Jan 23, 2011 1:42 am
by Starlord » Sun Jan 23, 2011 2:00 amThe Spirit #10I didn't like The Spirit that much but I do like Avenue Q.
Story: 5
Art: 4
My Score: 4
by Greg » Sun Jan 23, 2011 2:02 am
Jeez, do you like any freakin' comic?!
by Starlord » Sun Jan 23, 2011 2:27 am
Lately...? not really...
by God-Man » Sun Jan 23, 2011 3:35 amGood issue. Roscoe was a pretty well sketched character, and I liked seeing how his obsessions slowly consumed him throughout the story. It was also a good example of how powerful the character and idea of The Spirit is in that universe. The man himself is pretty ordinary, but his legend is anything but.
by BlueStreak » Sun Jan 23, 2011 7:44 amFor anyone who can't find this comic, my copy will be available to be sent out early next week. I already have one Review Grouper reading it, so I can send it out after he's finished with it.
by Garofani Spruzzo » Sun Jan 23, 2011 8:19 am
No one said you did.
by Royal Nonesuch » Sun Jan 23, 2011 8:35 am
It was strongly implied, Mr. "I like Avenue Q despite the fact I'm straight."
by Zero » Sun Jan 23, 2011 8:38 amI'm gonna Byrne The Spirit on Tuesday unless I can magic the cash for it out of my bank account that afternoon.
Back on topic though: I hate musicals. Hate 'em all.
by Garofani Spruzzo » Sun Jan 23, 2011 8:43 am
Wow, Royal, you really misinterpreted that whole [joking around] exchange.
In fact, it was neither stated nor implied.
The point was, it's okay for fourthy to admit he liked Rent and there's no reason to think that makes him gay, which he thought we were indicating it did. Because if liking Ave Q doesn't magically mean you're gay, why would Rent?
Rest assured when you finally read The Spirit it won't tax your reading comprehension nearly as much.
by Royal Nonesuch » Sun Jan 23, 2011 9:59 am
I was joking around too.
Unless this response was also a joke, in which case, well played.
I think posting in this thread makes you gay.
by Garofani Spruzzo » Sun Jan 23, 2011 10:10 am
Your first response I did think you might've been for real, but not by the second one.
by GLX » Sun Jan 23, 2011 2:38 pm
Buy Who is Jake Ellis? #1.
by Eli Katz » Sun Jan 23, 2011 3:56 pm
Really? I'm curious why you gave it a failing score.
by Garofani Spruzzo » Sun Jan 23, 2011 4:27 pmThe Spirit #10
The hardest books for me to review are the books I liked, but didn't love. Books where I appreciate the craft, but it didn't quite leave me wanting more. I really enjoy writing reviews for books I thought were fantastic, or that took me by surprise. I take a different sort of pleasure from writing even just a scathing paragraph about a book I absolutely despise. But a book I thought was pretty good? Is a lot more difficult.
But hey, I liked The Spirit #10!
I just didn't love it.
So I will borrow a quote here from the real-life Mikhail Kalashnikov, from whom the unfortunate protagonist in the story is named probably and inventor of the AK-47: "Before attempting to create something new, it is vital to have a good appreciation of everything that already exists in this field."
It's clear David Hine has an excellent appreciation of what makes for classic Eisner-era Spirit: the self-contained and tidy story without a single sub-plot or loose end, the mix of genre elements using a crime, some wry humor, and even a little horror. But the story of this Kalashnikov,a mentally-ill burglar who hallucinates the crooked old fence he unloads his ill-gotten goods on is a giant bug and kills her then is haunted to suicide by an oath she makes before dying, first makes the reader empathize for the criminal by showing the horrific abuse he was subjected to as a child. The true villain here is the father, shown only in the beginning flashback. Even the old woman he kills--and no, "Mary Jane" doesn't do that--is crooked, herself a criminal and pretty despicable on top of that. So when he shoots her, I give a big ol' shrug of the shoulders, but poor Kalashnikov here totally fucking loses it and, in a classic "eaten alive by their own guilt" scene, sees reminders of The Spirit everywhere until he turns the gun on himself. Speaking of that gun, how exactly did Kalashnikov remember to ditch the used silencer, but not the gun itself? Or not notice the gun in his coat pocket before then, guns being sorta heavy? But then Roscoe K sets himself up for an episode of World's Dumbest Criminals and leaves his wallet on the table? I'm not sure this guy was cut out for the crime world, really.
Real-life Kalashnikov again: "Anything that is complex is not useful and anything that is useful is simple."
Ok fair enough, I won't ask any more questions. He has time for just one more dumb move, hiding in the basement instead of just tossing his rod like a sensible guy. Poor old Roscoe Kalashnikov. It seems very familiar somehow, like I've seen or read a very similar story before,and The Spirit himself is barely in the book at all, so it seems unfair to judge it as a Spirit book at all really--more like one of those archetypal morality tales we tell ourselves over and over.
The art is at times reminiscent of Eisner as well, but only at times. Oh, and if your gunman is left-handed in real life, he's also liable to be left-handed in his imagination--a minor quibble for sure. A bigger gripe would be that even as little as he appears, The Spirit's face looks actually swiped from Eisner in some panels and more like a weird pseudo-anime version of himself in others. It's not consistent, and in some panels I did not like how he looked at all. It definitely felt like there were two styles at war here, the artist's style, and the artist-doing-Eisner's style and you can't merely look like you're imitating a writer/artist creator of that calibur some of the time. Especially with coloring this bad. Seriously, I am not going to look for the colorist's name in case I remember it. Work on that level should be forgotten anyway. It was abysmal.
So, I would give this an 8, but the truly shit-bad peas 'n' vomit coloring drops me to a
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Jaded Alt blogged this week that she's ok with not capping out her Valor Points every week right now. That if she's "doing it wrong" as a raider, it's ok.
Week one of 4.2 I capped my vp because I was bored and had nothing better to do. Week 2 I came close. This week? If I get any valor at all I'll be shocked. Reversion got a little VP last week, none the week before, because he was traveling for work.
Today we leave for my sister's wedding, and we won't have playtime until next Tuesday night. That's a whole week of no valor, probably no dailies. No boss pulls, and since both our raid tanks and myself will be at this wedding, no raid at all. So not only are we blocking our own progression, we're slowing down the whole group.
Three weeks with no actual progress on new bosses is a bit depressing. But you know what? Life works that way sometimes and life is more important than World of Warcraft. If I ditched my sister's wedding for raiding there would be something wrong with me.
Oestrus was the one who inspired Windsoar's post and she responded this week. I liked what she had to say. I'd say she's one blogger that I have very little in common with but that doesn't mean what she says doesn't make sense. But I swear, looking at her schedule makes me tired. Yeah, I play WoW that much. Why does having it scheduled out like she does look like it takes the fun out of things?
I wonder, people who schedule their WoW time and run heroics for VP on a tight schedule, do you get annoyed with me when I have to afk for two minutes to change the toddler's diaper?
Does it let down my raid when I let little things like our main tank being out of the country slow down our progression? Maybe if I'd pushed harder we could have gotten Shannox down. I didn't; that meant the other guild raid is ahead of us right now. Heck everyone on the planet is ahead of us.
But you know what, I raid to have fun. There's a tradeoff for me between the place where wiping on bosses is no longer fun, and where being super hardcore isn't fun. Joking around with our raid and letting Log die is fun, but if we're still wiping on Shannox three weeks from now, it's not going to be as much fun. Before we get to that point I'll have re-evaluated my tradeoffs. Probably I'll work harder on getting VP, and getting other raiders to come along for their own. Might even schedule some runs for us.
So. I'm going to try to spend the next few days not thinking about raid, or work (ugh don't think about work) or the state of the house when we come back to it. I'm going to enjoy myself.
And I'm going to look like a pumpkin. Seriously. Four bridesmaids and I'm the ONLY one in orange. What the heck is up with that?


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A table's columns usually represent the properties of real-life entities such as employee and product names. When your query contains a predicate—a WHERE clause containing search criteria—that includes a column, SQL Server's query optimizer can find the data that satisfies the query in two different ways: by using a table scan or index access. In a table scan, the query optimizer sequentially reads all rows of a table and compares each row with the search criteria in the WHERE clause. SQL Server typically decides to scan the entire table when the query selects a significant number of table rows. The query optimizer considers index access when a column index (clustered or nonclustered) exists. The decision about whether to use the existing index depends on many different factors. (For a description of factors that influence the use of index access, see "Which Is Faster: Index Access or Table Scan?" January 2000.)
If the query optimizer has to decide how to access a column that contains nonunique values, the distribution of distinct values for the column across a table's rows becomes an important consideration. Suppose your organization stores all customer names in the customers table, which includes two columns named gender and country. Also suppose your business is based mainly in North America and that the country column has 10 distinct values. If 70 percent of your customers live in the United States, 10 percent in Canada, 5 percent in Mexico, and 0.05 percent in Germany, the distinct values in the country column aren't uniformly distributed across the rows of the customers table. In this example, the country column's data is skewed because the frequency with which this column's existing values (United States, Canada, Mexico, Germany, and so on) appear in the rows of the customers table differs significantly. In contrast, the gender column lists roughly the same number of males and females, so the gender column's data isn't skewed. Let's look at different SELECT statements to see how the query optimizer decides to select the resultset in different situations in which the skewed-data column is in the WHERE predicate. In preparation, you need to first write a T-SQL statement that creates the customers table, which Listing 1, page 62, shows. You can then use the batch that Listing 2, page 62, shows to load 100,000 rows into this table.
Skewed Data Causes Plenty of Mischief
Skewed data can affect the query execution plan of queries containing a predicate and queries containing a join operation. Let's first explore the impact on queries containing a predicate.
Evaluating the predicate. Suppose you want to find out how many male customers you have in Germany. Because Germany accounts for only 0.05 percent of your customers in the earlier example, the predicate that Listing 3 shows will select at most 50 customers. The relationship between a predicate and the number of rows it chooses exemplifies the concept of selectivity. A predicate's selectivity is the ratio of the number of rows satisfying the WHERE clause to the total number of rows in the table. The selectivity of an index is said to be high, as in this scenario, when the index key value identifies only a few rows. If selectivity is high and if a corresponding index exists, the query optimizer typically uses index access because retrieving a relatively small number of rows is much faster with the sorted row order that the index access uses than sequentially scanning the whole table. Applying the index access strategy, the query optimizer uses the existing index i_country to satisfy the query, as Figure 1 shows. In contrast, Listing 4's predicate, which identifies US customers, selects significantly more rows. In this case, the best access strategy is a table scan, which Figure 2 shows, because reading all data pages sequentially is significantly faster than reading specific pages by using the existing index. So we can see that the query optimizer chooses a table scan if the I/O estimate for index access is greater than the number of pages that the table fills. Here, selectivity is low.
In Listing 3 and Listing 4, the query optimizer chooses the query plan you expect. However, if you try to write a generic SELECT statement that you can use to query any country your customers live in, the query optimizer's choice for data access might surprise you. Following the earlier line of reasoning, you might conclude that the query optimizer would choose the index scan for executing the batch that Listing 5 shows because the @country variable's value is set to Germany. Instead, the query optimizer uses a table scan—even if the corresponding index for the country column exists. The reason for this behavior is simple: The query optimizer can't use the existing statistics as the queries in Listing 3 and Listing 4 did because one of Listing 5's predicates contains a variable. And Listing 5's batch declares the @country variable in the same scope as the query. The query optimizer doesn't know the value of the variable when it chooses the access method because it doesn't perform multiple passes when it optimizes the query. Thus, Figure 3 shows that the query optimizer used the table scan because the Row count parameter has a value of 0. The query optimizer assigns this value when it doesn't know the number of selected rows.
Join operations. Columns containing skewed data can also influence the performance of join operations. Consider a table called orders, which contains 500,000 rows. Listing 6 shows the statement that creates the orders table, and Listing 7 contains the batch that loads the table's rows. Suppose 20 percent of your business comes from PC sales, and controllers account for only 0.05 percent of total sales. Also suppose that all relevant columns in the query (customers.customerid, orders.customerid, item_name) are indexed. If you ask for the average income of customers who bought PCs, as Listing 8 shows, SQL Server has to read all rows from the customers table and 80,000 rows from the orders table to perform the join. Because both tables contain so many rows, the query optimizer chooses not to use existing indexes and instead executes the join operation by using the hash join method that Figure 4, page 64, shows. A hash join performs best on tables that differ considerably in size, on unsorted rows, and on nonindexed columns. This join method is two-phased. First, SQL Server builds a hash structure consisting of the smaller (outer) table's values, which have been hashed, then probes each row on the larger (inner) table for matches in the hash table. The hash join scans the inner table only once. In contrast, to execute a join of the customers and orders tables, based on controller sales, as Listing 9, page 64, shows, SQL Server has to read only 200 rows from the orders table. For this reason, the query optimizer chooses to execute the join by using the nested loop join that Figure 5, page 64, shows. In a nested loop join, SQL Server accesses the outer table row by row. Then, looking only for matching rows, SQL Server scans the inner table, which must contain an indexed join column. This join method produces I/O for each index scan of the inner table (i.e., I/O for 200 scans).
Curbing Skewed Data's Misdoings
You can use several methods to enhance response time for queries that have to contend with skewed data:
- Use multiple threads to scan one table. If your SQL Server system runs on an SMP computer, the query optimizer applies parallel table scans.
- Divide the table by using local partitioned views.
- Avoid using variables in batches.
You can apply all these methods in situations where the query optimizer uses a table scan—that is, where the selectivity of a column's value is low.
If your computer has several processors, SQL Server might split a table's rows into different logical parts and process these parts on different processors, thereby permitting parallel table scans. If the query optimizer applies a parallel table scan, you can significantly enhance the response time of Listing 3's query, which accesses skewed data in the customers table. By using sp_configure, SQL Server autoconfigures the max degree of parallelism configuration option, which controls the use of parallel queries.
When you apply parallel scans, SQL Server groups the table's rows. Because this grouping is an internal process, a user can't directly influence it. However, if you use distributed partitioned views (available only in SQL Server 2000), you can specify how to partition the table's rows. The main advantage of distributed partitioned views is that the query optimizer knows which values of the partitioning column are stored in which partition and can omit the search in views that don't contain the value from a given predicate. For example, consider the query in Listing 4. If you create two distributed partitioned views, one with females and one with males, the query optimizer will search the rows of the all-male view to satisfy the query. (For more information about distributed partitioned views, see the three-part series by Kalen Delaney and Itzik Ben-Gan: "Distributed Partitioned Views in SQL Server 2000," August 2000, "Querying Distributed Partitioned Views," September 2000, and "Modifying Views with INSTEAD OF Triggers," October 2000.)
As for avoiding using variables in batches, let's look again at Listing 5. To execute the query in Listing 5, the query optimizer can't use the existing statistics because a variable in one of the predicates is joined by the AND operator. For this reason, avoid batches that contain a variable. If you have to use such a query in a batch and if the join column's value has high selectivity, consider using the INDEX query hint to maintain index access.
Accounting for Data Skew During Database Design
Because many columns in relational tables contain skewed data, carefully consider your data distribution when you design your database. First, take skewed data into account when you create indexes for your database tables. The way you use indexes for columns containing skewed data depends on the values of the column that you name in a predicate. Second, be aware that the size of tables containing skewed data directly impacts performance by index access and table scans. Index access becomes faster and table scans slow down as tables become larger, resulting in an increasing performance gap between the two access strategies. Hence, the effect of skewed data is highest in the data-warehousing field.
As you've seen in this article, the query optimizer accesses skewed data effectively. The only case in which the query optimizer doesn't recognize the selectivity of a column's value is when the predicate contains a variable. However, if your query's predicate contains a column that has skewed data, you can enhance your query's response time by using parallel table scans or local partitioned views and by avoiding variables in batches.


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Age and Nostalgia
His column seems too calculatedly ageist for me to take very seriously, as though his essential conceit is that we still shouldn't be trusting anyone over the age of thirty. It is too easy to diss nostalgia when it's your elders' nostalgia. Within the Itzkoff Retirement Home, 2040, where everyone reminisces of the days of internet fiascos and flame-wars, I can imagine the furious youth flaming the sepia-toned Ben Rosenbaum and Christopher Rowe short-story collections, and all that old-fogey blog crit nobody reads anymore.This reminded me of a conversation I had with a writer friend some time back, when he said he looked forward to the day when he and I would be like the old guys on "The Muppet Show" who booed everything and hated everybody. "Nobody's writing anything worth reading anymore!" we'll cry. "Not like when we were in our prime!" ("Remember when we all had our blogs and hadn't had our brains uploaded into the Bush-Clinton Imperial Library yet? Oh, those were the days!")
I would like to disagree a bit with Brian that it's all about younger up-and-coming writers, though. There is a generational difference within the SF community in certain ways, in that a lot of the younger writers did not rise up through fandom, and their influences include more weird pop culture than they do Asimov or Heinlein, but there is also a segment of younger readers and writers who are interested in the traditional core of SF, and there are also a lot of writers working their way toward their own retirement homes who are not simply trying to rewrite the stories they wrote when they first got published. I don't care a bit about the age of a writer, because their age doesn't tell me anything about how they write or what they're interested in. The writers who interest me are the writers who surprise me, and surprise can come from a writer of any age, just as a writer of any age can be derivative and unimaginative.
What I try to fight against in myself, sometimes successfully and sometimes not, is the ossification of perspective -- I don't want to end up twenty or thirty years from now thinking that the only type of writing that is interesting is the kind of writing that was exciting in 2006. I hope that I will change enough as a person and a writer, and that the world of writing and the world at large will change enough in that time for me to discover new types of stories to appreciate and new ways of appreciating them. If not, I can't imagine any reason to keep reading and writing.


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Alison Sweeney is back on the cover of Shape once again! What can you expect with a killer bod like that? Shape's May issue marks the second Shape cover that The Biggest Loser star has coveted. The evidence of why she got another cover shoot is right in front of your face. Seriously—the girl rocks that mini red bikini.
OK! News: OK!'s Countdown to Summer
In May's issue, Alison chats all about her fitness schedules, how she's completed a triathlon, and even shares a workout—plus more! Honestly, from the looks of it, Alison is doing something right! Um hello—the beach-ready inspiration has never been clearer.
OK! News: Healthy Eats! Yummy and Good-For-You Snacks
Will you pick up the May cover of Shape? It looks good, right?! Tweet @OKMagazine and leave a comment below.


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SPRINGFIELD, Mass. - In the semifinals of the New England Women's and Men's Athletic Conference (NEWMAC) championship, the No. 2 seeded MIT women's soccer team were eliminated from the tournament final after No. 3 Wheaton advanced in penalty kicks, 4-3, following a tied game of 1-1 in double overtime. Senior Emily Kuo (Chicago, Ill.) scored the lone MIT goal early in the first half, marking the 12th of her senior season and the 41st in her career.
The game started off in MIT's favor when, 16 minutes into the half, Kuo scored the first goal of the day, giving the Engineers a one goal lead over Wheaton. The Lyons were not able to even the score in the first half, taking only one shot that was saved by senior keeper Meghan Wright (Devon, Pa.). The Cardinal and Gray took three shots at net, two of which, sent by sophomore Ambika Krishnamachar (Darien, Conn.) and freshman Jennifer Ibanez (West Windsor, N.J.), were saved by goalie Taylor Wilson. The first 45 minute period ended with a score of1-0 in MIT's favor.
In the 53rd minute, Kristina Braga put Wheaton on the board when she closed the gap and tied up the game at 1-1. Both teams only shot at the net once, the ball switching possession too frequently for either squad to get close enough to the opposing box. Still tied at the end of the 90 minutes, the game went into overtime.
In the first overtime period, MIT took two shots, both by sophomore Faith OBrian (Raleigh, N.C.), one of which was saved by Wilson. With less than a minute remaining in the ten minute period, Cassey Muse fired the ball at the net, but was thwarted by Wright, who made an impressive dive to the right to save it. Wheaton outshot MIT, 2-0, in the final overtime period, forcing Wright to save one of them, but this did nothing to disrupt the tie. After playing for 110 minutes, the game moved to penalty kicks.
Lined up in the middle of the field next to the Wheaton players were seniors Kuo and Andrea Park (Irvine, Calif.), juniors Rachel Dias Carlson (Albany, N.Y.) and Samantha Fleischmann (Eastchester, N.Y.) and sophomore Elena Gianotas (Trabuco Canyon, Calif.). The Lyons took advantage of a missed MIT shot, scoring their fourth goal and ending the game with a score of 4-3. They will advance to the finals of the NEWMAC tournament tomorrow against host and No. 1 seeded Springfield.
The Engineers wrapped up their season with a record of 13-3-2.


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Shelbyville City Council condemns hate groups ahead of 'White Lives Matter' rally
Weeks ahead of a white nationalist rally, Shelbyville City Council voted unanimously on Thursday to condemn hate groups.
Shelbvyville neighbors called on the city council to back them up with a resolution condemning hate groups. Word has spread quickly about the October 28 rally planned on Lane Parkway and Highway 231 in Shelbyville.
"I don't think it should be a problem as long as they don't try to bring violence into it, but there are a lot of people around Shelbyville that are scared," Jayla Booker said. "They're scared."
Before the white nationalists arrive, County Democratic Party Leader Sharon Edwards hopes to get another message posted in windows of local businesses.
"That's what we have tried to focus exclusively on is getting the businesses to have some sort of visual so that everybody coming to town can see that we do not support the ideology of white supremacy," Edwards said. "This stands against our values as a community."
While many people disagree with the groups beliefs, they support their right to free speech.
"We have freedom to say what we think," said Resident Linda Vestreese said. "I would hope that they would be respectful and be able to voice what they feel."
"If we're practicing diversity, then we can't exclude certain group of people because a certain belief," Business Owner, Issac Knott said. "So we afford them the opportunity to express themselves in a free country."
"I don't agree with the white supremacy aspect," said Johnny, a resident who didn't want to give his last name. "I don't agree with it, but I agree that all life matters and everybody matters so everybody should have an opinion. Long as it can be done peacefully and everybody can get along, why not."
Edwards said more than 500 people signed a petition urging the city council to pass a resolution making it clear Shelbyville rejects this and other hate groups.
"I feel like people in leadership here need to decide are they going to let these white male Christians be there voice," Edwards said. "Where are they going to oppose them?"
Read the full resolution below or here on mobile.


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MILTON, Mass. – A 10-yard touchdown pass from freshman Garrett Dellechiaie (Leominster, Mass.) to junior Phillip Saint-Juste (New Rochelle, N.Y.) as time expired propelled visiting Fitchburg State to a 20-19 win over Curry in non-conference football action Saturday afternoon in Milton. The Falcons evened their season record at 1-1, while the Colonels fell to 0-2.
Curry used a pair of first-quarter, nine-yard touchdown receptions by junior Jordan Shairs (Gloucester, Mass.) to open up a 12-0 advantage through the first 15 minutes of play. Senior quarterback Kevin Fruwirth (Agawam, Mass.) found Shairs at 13:03 after a 23-yard drive, and at 3:54 after a 77-yard drive.
Fitchburg notched the only points of the second frame, using a 21-yard scoring pass from Dellechiaie to junior Ty Spencer (Foxboro, Mass.) with just 24 seconds remaining before intermission to pull to within 12-7 .
After a scoreless third quarter, the Colonels extended their lead to 19-7 early in the final period after yet another nine-yard Fruwirth-to-Shairs connection. Less than two minutes later, Fitchburg State closed to within five points again (19-14), as Dellechiaie found Saint-Juste from 35 yards out. That capped a five-play, 58-yard drive that took less than two minutes off the clock.
The defenses dominated the remainder of the quarter, until the Falcons got the ball back at their own 37 with 54 seconds left in regulation. Dellechiaie went 4-for-7 on the final drive, which covered 63 yards on seven plays.
Dellechiaie went 18-for-33 for 269 yards, with three TDs and one interception. Saint-Juste had seven catches for 151 yards and two TDs, while Spencer collected seven receptions for 93 yards and one TD. Fruwirth finished the day 17-for-34 for 151 yards, with three TDs and one interception. Senior Phil Bigelow (East Orange, N.J.) led Curry on the ground, carrying 11 times for 85 yards. Shairs had highly productive day, making seven catches for 72 yards and three TDs, while also carrying the ball 14 times for 49 yards.
Senior Tony Louis (Medford, Mass.) led paced the Falcons' defense with eight tackles (all solo), including two tackles for loss (-5 yards) and one sack (-1 yard). Freshman Kellyn Faraone (Whitefish, Mont.) had a pair of sacks for -16 yards among his five total tackles. The Colonels were led by junior Parrish Rogers-Reed (Westfield, Mass.), who amassed a game-high 10 tackles (all solo), including four tackles for loss (-29 yards) and two sacks (-25 yards). Senior Jeff Claffey was right behind Rogers-Reed with nine tackles (7 solo).
Fitchburg State resumes play next Saturday, traveling to MASCAC rival Framingham State for a 1:00 p.m. kickoff. Curry is off until September 27, when it opens its New England Football Conference (NEFC) schedule by hosting Endicott at 7:00 p.m.


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Jesuits are known for their cross-cultural explorations. In this issue John Worthley celebrates one of the most famous of the early Jesuit missionaries, Matteo Ricci. Li Madou, as the Chinese call him, was so successful in introducing Western Christian culture to China and Chinese civilization to the West that, Worthley believes, his legacy can still serve as a bridge in the tense relations between Rome and Beijing.
After Ricci, my favorite Jesuit pioneer missionaries are Antonio Andrade and his successors, who were among the first Westerners to cross the Himalayas to explore Tibet. Michael Wood followed Andrade's extraordinary journey in the PBS series "In Search of Myths and Legends." In Tibet: The Jesuit Century (Hargrove), the late Philip Caraman, S.J., described the Society's several attempts in the 17th and 18th centuries to establish a mission in Tibet. Most remarkable was Ippolito Desideri, the last of the Jesuit explorer-missionaries to establish himself there. He settled into a Buddhist monastery, learned Tibetan and studied the sacred Buddhist texts. When Capuchin friars arrived to demand he turn over the mission to them, he was carrying on what today we would call interreligious dialogue with his hosts. From the Spiritual Exercises, wrote the Jesuit superior general, Adolfo Nicolás, recently, these missionaries learned "one should always presume that those with whom one speaks are worthy of trust and fairness." As a result, they "exemplified a true dedication to the overall truth shared by all."
Jesuits today continue to engage in interreligious dialogue. Given the global religious-political situation, it should be no surprise that Jesuits are especially active in Catholic-Muslim dialogue. One of the more celebrated is Paolo Dall'Oglio, who revived the Mar Musa monastery in the Syrian desert as a site for Muslim-Christian encounter (see John Haughey, S.J., "Friends of Mar Musa," Am., 11/27/06). Another is Samir Khalil Samir, sometimes called the father of Arabic patristics for his pioneering work on early Arabic Christian writing. Georgetown University, with its Center for Muslim-Christian Under-standing and the Jesuit Islamicists Daniel Madigan and Tom Michel, is becoming well known for advancing the dialogue. At Fordham University, Patrick J. Ryan, S.J., hosts public interreligious dialogues each semester with Muslim and Jewish colleagues.
Internationally, one of the better-known Jesuit Islamicists is Christian Troll. A consultant to the Pontifical Council for Interreligious Dialogue, he has worked in Sudan, Iran, Pakistan and India and taught in Britain, India, Italy, Turkey and his native Germany. In recent years, he has turned to popular education. New City Press has just issued a convenient handbook to aid both Catholics and Protestants in their dialogues with Muslim neighbors, titled Muslims Ask, Christians Answer.
It is not unusual for the questions of devout believers in one faith to arouse renewed interest on the part of others in their own faith. Two decades ago at the Jesuit catechetical center in Amman, Jordan, I met young Arab Christians who freely admitted they were studying theology because of encounters with their articulate Muslim contemporaries.
By elucidating what Muslims think about key doctrines (the word of God, the Incarnation, God, the church) and practices (prayer, celibacy, religious freedom), Muslims Ask, Christians Answer provides a beginner's knowledge of contemporary Islam for Christian readers. Father Troll's inclusion of a chapter on religion and the world and another on the religious pluralism and freedom of religion open up the ground for discussion of the testy political issues that often vex believers on both sides. Following this study guide may help readers find the "ray of truth" in the Muslim "other."


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Stewardshipprevious next
Also: Thrift
Stewardship means being good managers of the resources that we have earned and that life has given us. As good stewards we know that when we choose to spend our time or money there are always opportunities foregone. We consider our choices and we use our resources in keeping with our values and life mission.
Stewardship means that we weigh not only our own needs and desires but those of other people and future generations. We realize that none of us is a self-made person and that part of what we own is wealth that flows from others through us. We appreciate the natural resources, societal resources and financial resources that have been handed down to us by our ancestors and we are conscious of our own legacy.
- What does stewardship look like in a person? (0 responses)
- What does stewardship look like in a society? (1 response)
Photo: Miguel Ugalde, Mexico


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In 2001 a fellow by the name of Sam Hoerter published the second edition of "The Airport Management Primer." This document is chock full of interesting observations and unique insights. It is an absolute goldmine of information that is pertinent to the management and operation of airports large and small. For an intellectual assault on a technical subject, it is a remarkably easy read that borders on being truly entertaining.
Clocking in at 84 pages, the remarkably conversational tone of this publication belies its real value in the marketplace. The Airport Management Primer is a "must read" for anyone who feels they are even casually drawn to the idea of managing, marketing, or operating an airport.
Hoerter knows of what he writes. The retired director of the Charleston County Aviation Authority spent two decades overseeing the management and operation of Charleston County's three airports, which showed a marked improvement over the period of time he was at the top of that particular pyramid.
You can find a copy of Hoerter's publication, free of charge, on the Internet. The book is available as a PDF, which downloads quickly due to its lack of complex graphics. This is a book filled with words, ideas, explanations, and rock-solid information. There are no pretty pictures hidden inside this beautifully written compendium of airport management.
Grab your own copy at: www.secaaae.org/PRIMER.pdf
You'll be glad you did.
Jamie Beckett is a CFI and A&P mechanic who stepped into the political arena in an effort to promote and protect GA at his local airport. You can reach him at email@example.com.


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Gold Coast man Gable Tostee is planning to fight a charge of murdering a New Zealand woman who allegedly plunged from the balcony of his Surfers Paradise apartment.
Tostee was arrested at his parents' house in Carrara on Friday, a week after Warriena Tagpuno Wright, 26, fell to her death.
He was charged with murder and taken to the Gold Coast's main watch house at Southport.
Tostee won't be able to seek bail when he appears in Southport Magistrates Court on Saturday morning, but defence lawyer Michael Purcell says his 28-year-old client plans to do so in coming weeks.
"He has exercised his right to silence and he maintains his innocence and he will be defending the charge," Mr Purcell told reporters.
"The process is he will appear in the magistrates court.
"He can't make an application for bail there, but I expect he'll be making an application for bail in the Supreme Court in the weeks to come."
His arrest comes a day after Ms Wright's younger sister Marreza, 23, made a tearful plea for information.
"It's hard for me facing the loss of my sister without knowing what happened in the last hours of her life," she said.
Ms Wright was found at the base of the Avalon Apartments building in the early hours of Friday, August 8, after reportedly meeting Tostee through the dating app Tinder.
Tostee's neighbours reported hearing voices and noises before Ms Wright, from Lower Hutt, allegedly plunged from the 13th floor of the high-rise about 2.20am.
Detectives first questioned Tostee last week, but they said he "exercised his right to silence".
They have used a cherry picker to examine the balcony of Tostee's unit, which reportedly had secret cameras installed throughout the property to record his encounters with women.


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Car Review
2007-2011 Toyota Camry Hybrid: Used Car Review
While Honda may have been the first automaker to bring a hybrid car to the U.S., it is Toyota that gets credit for building the first mass-production hybrid car, the Prius. The technology that created the Prius has pretty much become the template for all hybrid cars. In fact, Toyota's hybrid design is so good that rival manufacturers lease some of Toyota's Hybrid Synergy Drive patents for use in their own hybrid models. If all this tells you that Toyota's hybrid cars are probably the most tried and true hybrids on the planet, you'' be right. And, if you're in the market for a roomy, comfortable family sedan that can also accommodate your need to be as green as possible, then the 2007-2011 Toyota Camry Hybrid is the right car at the right time and the right price.
Why You Want It
If you're looking at the Camry Hybrid, we suspect the Prius is either too small or too funky for your taste. With the Camry Hybrid, you get the same Hybrid Synergy Drive system as in the Prius, only with a larger gasoline engine and a lot less high-tech instrumentation and features. The Camry Hybrid is nearly identical to its gasoline counterpart, with the only measurable differences being the Hybrid's smaller trunk and small trunk pass through (due to the placement of the battery pack). If cargo storage isn't a deal breaker, then the Camry Hybrid's impressive fuel economy, greatly reduced emissions and conventional styling make it an excellent choice for four-person families or busy professionals who are required to spend a lot of time behind the wheel. It also makes a great daily long distance driver and, although not yet ready to replace Fido, is a dutifully reliable companion.
Notable Features & Options
The Camry Hybrid comes nicely equipped and includes the Smart Key system with push button start, dual-zone automatic climate control, power functions for the windows, mirrors and locks, steering wheel touch controls for the audio, temperature and cruise control, a tilt/telescopic steering wheel, AM/FM CD stereo, 16-inch steel wheels with plastic wheel covers, low rolling resistance tires, a power driver's seat, and a 60/40 split folding rear seat. The 2007 Camry Hybrid has more standard features, including a 440-watt JBL audio system and Bluetooth hands-free phone technology. Standard safety equipment includes four-wheel anti-lock disc brakes, electronic traction and stability controls and seven airbags including a driver's side knee, front side-impact and full-length side curtain airbags. Options for the Camry Hybrid are bundled into packages and include the JBL audio system, Bluetooth, voice activated navigation, heated front seats and side mirrors, a power glass moonroof, leather seating surfaces, fog lamps, USB port and iPod interface, Satellite radio and 16-inch alloy wheels.
Model Milestones
2008: In an attempt to lower the Camry Hybrid's price, some features that were standard in 2007, such as the JBL audio system and Bluetooth, are made optional.
2009: The Camry Hybrid remains unchanged.
2010: The Camry Hybrid receives a mild makeover, with a new grille, new fog lamps, new 16-inch alloy wheels, and some interior upgrades.
2011: There are no major changes for the 2011 model.
Engines and Performance
The Camry Hybrid doesn't perform like a normal gasoline car, at least not when you first start out. With a push of a button, the Camry comes to life but there is no audible clue to tell you so, only the lights on the dash and instrument cluster. Shift into drive, push the accelerator pedal and the Camry Hybrid glides forward in deafening silence. The electric motor is doing all the work, nearly imperceptible to the ear but providing plenty of torque for quick starts. Once the speedometer passes the 25 mph mark, the gasoline engine kicks on, and the Camry Hybrid's driving experience reverts to that of a standard gasoline powered Camry. The Camry Hybrid's 2.4-liter gasoline engine produces 147 horsepower, while its electric motor adds another 40 horsepower for a combined rating of 187 horsepower. Strong acceleration gives the hybrid the feel of tepid V6, but its fuel economy, especially around town, is quite impressive for a midsize sedan (33-mpg city/34-mpg highway).
Inside, the Camry Hybrid is laid out similarly to a Camry LE, with the only exception being the small pass through behind the rear seats and the revised instrumentation. The hybrid powertrain can be monitored by a gauge that resides in the spot normally occupied by the tachometer. The gauge shows fuel economy as well as when the vehicle is being powered solely by electric power.
Recalls, Safety Ratings and Warranties
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, or NHTSA, has issued the following recalls for the 2007-2011 Toyota Camry Hybrid:
2007: A recall was issued for a possible problem with the airbag inflators not having enough heatable gas pellets to ensure proper inflation.
2007-2010: Recalls were issued for floor mats that could interfere with the accelerator pedal and for a defective accelerator pedal assembly.
2007-2011: A recall was issued for vehicles that may be missing the required load carrying capacity modification labels.
Recall repairs are required by law even if the vehicle is out of warranty. Your dealer can check to see if the repairs were performed and if not, will fix the car at no charge to you.
As for the 2007-2011 Toyota Camry Hybrid's safety record, the car performs well in both NHTSA and the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS) crash tests. NHTSA gives the Camry Hybrid five out of five stars in its front end and side-impact crash test, and four out of five star for the rollover crash test. The IIHS gives the Camry its highest rating of GOOD in the frontal offset crash test, the side-impact crash test and the roof strength test.
Toyota provides the Camry Hybrid with a 3-year/36,000 mile basic warranty, a 5-year/60,000 mile drivetrain warranty and an 8-year/100,000 mile warranty for hybrid-related components. You can extend your coverage buy purchasing a Certified Pre-Own (CPO) Camry Hybrid from a Toyota Dealer. CPO cars undergo a rigorous inspection, come with a 12-month/12,000 mile comprehensive warranty from the date you purchase the vehicle, and extends the original powertrain warranty to 7-years/100,000 miles (begins from the date the vehicle first entered service.)
Word on the Web
We were quite pleased by what we found out on the web, both from consumers and sites dedicated to informing them. ConsumerReports.com gives the 2007-2011 Camry Hybrid high marks for its build quality, reliability and overall design, with the one exception being a low mark for the 2009 model's fuel system. J.D. Powers and Associates also think highly of the Camry Hybrid, giving it a score of 8 out of a possible 10 in its Predicted Reliability survey. Owners heap praise on the Camry Hybrid, often finding their fuel economy far exceeds the EPA estimates. Some complaints where logged regarding getting used to the car's drivetrain, and to the regenerative braking setup which some feel doesn't slow the car much.
Competitive Set
You could look at the Toyota Prius, which has a similar drivetrain as the Camry Hybrid, gets better fuel economy and exists in greater numbers. The Prius is smaller than the Camry, however, and its high tech cockpit might not appeal to everyone. The Nissan Altima Hybrid was sold only in California and it uses much of Toyota's hybrid technology. Although hard to find, the Altima Hybrid is about the same size as the Camry and offers the same fuel economy. If you can go with a late model hybrid, the 2010 Ford Fusion Hybrid offers much of the same features as the Camry, gets better fuel economy (41-mpg city/36-mpg highway) and it can be had with the cool SYNC voice activated communications system. The Fusion Hybrid is newer, however, so the pricing is probably going to be higher than with a slightly older and higher mileage Camry. If you're more into good fuel economy vs. the part-time zero emissions aspect of the Camry Hybrid, we would suggest looking at the Volkswagen Jetta TDI clean diesel.
AutoTrader Recommendations
We have to say no matter which year you choose or what options, the Camry Hybrid is sure to please. For those on a budget, try to find a 2007 or 2008 model on a CPO Toyota lot. This way, you can add additional coverage for the non-hybrid components. If you're not worried about breaking the bank, seek out a low mileage model with the leather and JBL audio packages. The leather seating makes the Camry feel like a little Lexus, and the JBL audio system rocks!


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Have fun at dinner using this fun Pirate placemat that you and your child can make together. Easy preschool craft.
Items needed:
- Paper
- Laminate pages or laminate pouches
- Print design on paper.
- Place printed paper between two pages of plastic laminate.
- Press pages firmly together.
- Wipe off placemat prior to use.


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LeAnn Rimes and Brandi Glanville have similar tastes in men, aviator shades ... and gold bikinis!
Here's Eddie Cibrian's latest wife LeAnn showing off her country goods in a metallic swimsuit in Cabo (left) -- and Cibrian's ex-wife Brandi lookin' smokin' hot as she goes two pieces in L.A. (right).
Eddie definitely has a type.
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Zoe Saldana is definitely one of Hollywood's sexiest actresses. The beautiful 'Colombiana' star is featured inside GQ for the magazine's September issue. Zoe sits down for a chat and talks about her character saying she used to be a tomboy rather than girly, but also about her latest movie and the type of roles she would love to play. Zoe looks smoking hot is the spread for GQ. However, even though it is rather hard to believe, the 'Avatar' star confesses she wasn't always so sultry and feminine and that she is naturally a tomboy. ... Read More


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Tomos468Budding Enthusiast
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New: Ford Ka Rear Footwell Leaks Possible Solution
Tomos468 replied to Tomos468's topic in Ford KA / StreetKA ClubHi jeebowhite, Thank you for doing that for me, sorry about placing the thread in the wrong section, this is my first time on one of these sites, so still learning. Kind regards. Tomo
New: Ford Ka Rear Footwell Leaks Possible Solution
Tomos468 posted a topic in Ford KA / StreetKA ClubHi all, I have been read that Ford KA owners are having problems with leaks to the rear Passenger footwell. I contacted Ford Customer Relations helpline, and having explained the problem I was given a case number. The car was booked into Jennings in Middlesbrough, they charged me £72. Jennings stated that they had received 3 memo's about the leaks on KA cars. The first mentioned a grommet on the rear bumper, the second the passenger door seal, and the third was the drain ducts running along the car. I got the car home and the leaks were still there. I removed the passenger and rear (base) seats, all the door trim and lifted the carpet up. The underlay was soaking and it fell apart as I removed it. I dried all the area with a hairdyer for about an hour and a half, I would now be able to see any new leaks and hopefully where they were comming from. My wife had noticed that the rear footwell had soapy water in it. I found that when I used the rear wash wipe the water poured from the black plastic hose pipe that runs along the inside of the car. Ford recommends using a double compound glue to seal the whole, this should take about half an hour to set, before testing to see if this has worked. Hope this info is of help to other owners, as this has been a very frustrating problem to fix. We will of course be writting to Ford Head office to try and claim back our £72.
Tomos468 started following Leak in brand new Ka and New: Ford Ka Rear Footwell Leaks Possible Solution


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Selecting your vehicle's make, model, and year allows us to display only parts and items specific to your car's model and year.
Part# CH22363
Mfg# POW301050
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OPGI Price: $55.99
Part Type: (A) Aftermarket product, usually an enhancement product
Years: 1959-1977
Sold As: EACH
Check the condition of your engine with our high-performance 0-300 psi compression tester. Our unit features a 16" heavy-duty long-reach flex hose, side release valve (for multiple readings), 14 mm long and 18 mm spark plug adapters. Our large 2-1/2" easy-to-read gauge is graduated in both pounds and kilograms.