text:
Industry experts voice their views on the economic slowdown and what it will mean for your club
It's the year 2001 and the grass isn't so green on the other side of the millennium. Across America, gas prices are skyrocketing, and the energy crisis in California has resulted in rolling blackouts. Labor costs are soaring, the dot-com industry has had the rug pulled out from under it, and unemployment is increasing. Public confidence is down, and the economy is moving at a snail's pace. Vice President Cheney has even publicly stated that the United States is on the "front edge of a recession."
Cheney isn't the only one expressing a grim forecast for the country. According to the UCLA Anderson Business Report, released in April, there is a 90 percent probability that a recession will take place.
Such a bleak financial future can only mean that the country will begin to tighten its belt. This begs the question: How will the fitness industry be affected? And is the dreaded r-word really on its way?
"It's the $65 million question," admits Michelle Russo, a leisure industry analyst with Deutsche Banc Alex. Brown. "What happens now going forward?"
Russo answers her own question with statistics that indicate that a recession isn't such a far-fetched forecast for our country. So far, according to the analyst, consumer confidence is down 25 percent (109.2 in April) since its peak in August of 2000 (144.7), and unemployment rates have had the highest reading in five years.
"Our economist is predicting unemployment to go to 5 percent," Russo says.
Consumer Spending
On the positive side, not all financial indicators point toward a recession. Discretionary spending (typically measured by new car or home sales, as well as by vacations) seems to be on track. In other words, consumer concerns about the economy and job safety haven't curbed high-priced purchases — which may indicate that consumers aren't concerned about those things at all.
"Car sales and home sales, two of the harbingers of the economy going down, are still going relatively strong," says Ken Goldstein, an economist with the Conference Board, a worldwide business membership and research network. "Those kind of numbers tend to counter all the doom and gloom going on about the stock market."
Since the financial indicators conflict (e.g., consumer confidence is down, yet discretionary spending isn't), it's difficult to say with certainty what will ultimately happen to the economy. Is there a recession coming? "I really don't know," admits Steven Schwartz, president of Tennis Corp. of America (TCA). "Consumer spending is 70 percent of the market. Until the consumer stops spending, you can still chug along."
Discretionary spending, club operators are hoping, will extend well beyond car and home purchases to gym memberships as well. And, according to our industry's history, memberships typically haven't been affected even in times of economic recession. "From a health club perspective — just from experience — I've not felt a pullback," says Gene LaMott, COO of Gold's Gym International. "In fact, I've seen an increase [in memberships] because we're a very inexpensive form of entertainment."
And, LaMott continues, health clubs offer something that everyone needs: fitness. "New membership sales are basically at an all-time high," he says. "I think people are making wiser decisions about their health…. They're taking their discretionary spending and re-appropriating it."
Jill Kinney, COO and co-founder of Club One chain, reaffirms LaMott's viewpoint. "I still believe that our industry, because of the price point, we're kind of under the radar screen. That ratio of price to value is very low."
But even strong discretionary spending habits aren't enough to convince many club operators that the economy hasn't been weakened. In fact, Mark Mastrov doesn't just think a recession is on its way. He thinks it's already here.
"We are in a recession and things are slowing down," states the 24 Hour Fitness Worldwide president/CEO matter-of-factly. "It varies based on where you are in the country, but each month [the economy is] slowing down more and more."
Don Konz, the CEO and president of the Washington, D.C.-based club chain Sport & Health Co., agrees. "We are seeing an impact on our industry with what is happening in the economy more so than I've seen in the past," he says.
Bally's Take
Even the biggest club chain of them all, Bally Total Fitness, has adopted a wait-and-see attitude. While Bally officials chose not to be interviewed for this article, a recent press release did outline Bally's opinions regarding an economic slowdown.
"Economic conditions, particularly recent news of rising unemployment and energy concerns, appear to be creating some trickle-down impact on the retail environment overall," stated Bally's Lee Hillman in the release. "While we [Bally] have seen no impact to date on our revenue streams from existing members including collections of receivables, dues and in-club products and services, it is unclear whether conditions may be having a slight impact on the number of new membership originations."
Other operators and economic experts share this uncertainty. Goldstein, for example, doesn't believe a recession is on the way, while Kinney calls the current economic climate a "slowdown."
"Certainly it's been a shakedown of dot-coms," she explains, "but quite frankly, those businesses weren't making money anyway."
"Those sectors [of the high tech industry] are definitely in a serious recession," adds Konz, whose own club chain owes a tidy chunk of its membership to companies who were subsidizing employees' fitness memberships. Since it's typically high-tech companies like the dot-coms that subsidize these memberships, Konz worries that when these companies start cutting costs, those fitness perks will be the first expense to go.
"We have approximately 5,000 members whose monthly dues are being subsidized by their companies," he says of his 65,000-member chain. "We are focusing strategically on this select group of people and are devising" a Soft Landing Strategy. Possible plans for this strategy, Konz says, include the club chain agreeing to cover the cost of the membership for a short period of time to keep the member at the club in the long run.
"I have always felt that the club business always comes through unscathed [during a recession], simply because…it's more of one of life's necessities rather than an amenity," he adds. "This time, however, because of the Internet connection…it leaves me worried."
Finding Your Niche
Clubs that do rely heavily on the high-tech industry for a heavy percentage of their membership do, conceivably, have reason to worry. But membership will probably not be affected equally across the board. As each health club caters to a different market segment and a different niche of the American population, the effects of the slowing economy will likewise vary.
"A national recession is almost a non sequitur," says Schwartz. "Our country is so complicated. There are places in our country that do well in a recession and there will be some that do poorly."
And, in a sense, the health industry's glass is half full, so to speak. "Our product is not a widely accepted product," Schwartz says. "We can grow more than the economy can hurt us."
In addition, because health and fitness clubs belong to a consumer-supported industry, they may have an advantage right now. "So far the slowdown…has been business led and that's important," stresses Russo, "because consumer spending comprises two-thirds of the economy." In other words, while businesses have been pinching their pennies, consumers haven't, as indicated by new car and home purchases.
That being said, Herb Lipsman, the vice president of development for the Texas-based Houstonian Hotel Club and Spa, warns against complacency. "I think it would be a mistake for club owners to think they're immune," he says.
A Slowdown in Sales
Even if existing members do not quit clubs during times of economic stress, new memberships and optional service sales may slow down. For example, a member may be willing to continue her payment of $45 a month for access to the club, but she won't part with an additional $50 an hour for a personal trainer appointment or a massage.
"That's the theory among industry experts," agrees Gary Cooper, the leisure researcher analyst for Banc of America Securities. "In times of recession, these ancillary sales are hurt." Other optional items up on the chopping block could include nutritional and supplement sales, special classes that require a fee outside of the normal membership, and spa services.
"Personal service sales have dropped off 10 percent for us," Kinney notes.
Besides not being able to come up with the cash for any extras beyond basic membership, members may not be able to afford more expensive memberships, Russo believes. "At the higher end, people are not selecting the most expensive membership option," she says.
"[O]n the high end of the spectrum, if you can buy a fitness membership for $100 a month or for $50 a month, that extra $50 is discretionary spending. The more expensive clubs are at a higher risk for a prolonged downturn than more moderately priced clubs."
Mastrov agrees. "I think new enrollments will slow a little bit and I think higher priced memberships will go down…," he says. "Higher-priced clubs are going to feel the crunch a little bit."
And, Mastrov adds, the high-end clubs may have plenty of company while they are weathering the adverse economic conditions. "Mom and pop clubs are going to have to work a little harder," he says. "Big chains may have an infrastructure that may help them a little bit."
Schwartz, who disagrees with those who predict hard times for high-end clubs like TCA, expects help from the very nature of his chain's memberships. He points out that high-priced clubs draw more affluent members. These people are less likely to be affected by economic conditions, and so will continue their membership. Even if these members do feel the crunch, they will budget for it.
"We're in the high end of the business and I would take an opposing viewpoint," Schwartz says. "In the higher end, people are not losing their jobs. I would think we would be the last hit."
And, according to experts, the fitness industry tends to do well regardless of economic conditions because most people view their memberships as necessities, not luxuries — particularly on the high end. People who belong to high-end clubs use their membership as a chance to network with other executives, thus making it a doubly important for them to continue going to the club.
"Health clubs have become a social and networking environment…at the higher end, and that's not something you want to give up," explains Schwartz. "The health club where they socialize and network and blow off steam will be one of the last things they cut."
"That kind of spending tends to go up as the economy goes down," Goldstein agrees. "Those people want to blow off steam."
Take It to the Bank
Though consumers may be able to rationalize spending the extra cash every month for their gym membership, health clubs may find banks and other financial institutions more tight-fisted. So even if club membership remains strong, expansion efforts could stagnate.
Kinney, whose club recently completed a $24.4 million re-capitalization program, admits, "We're really glad we raised the capital we wanted to raise in 2000 and not 2001."
"It's tough to raise capital right now…," Mastrov points out. "I think there will be very slow growth in the club industry in the next few years."
This may come as a shock to clubs, as this industry has enjoyed comparatively easy credit the over the past few years. With the nation digging in its heels at this recent economic slowdown, banks are understandably becoming more cautious.
"Unquestionably there has been too much easy capital in our industry in the past four or five years," Schwartz says. "I think that's going to cause some people to go out of business." (TCA has been preparing for this slowdown for the past 18 months by making sure the individual facilities are in top form and buying down any debts they may have incurred.)
Konz, whose own Sport & Health Co. club chain is currently in the midst of an extensive, $20 million investment, agrees capital will be scarce commodity for many club operators. "The industry itself seems to be vital and stronger than ever," he says. "But what will be difficult will be to borrow money."
Which would only be one of the difficulties that the industry would face amidst economic turmoil. Still, on a positive note, stressful business conditions test the mettle of health clubs and allow them to realize their potential. To paraphrase Nietzsche, what doesn't kill you only makes you stronger.
"Great companies are built in tough times," Schwartz explains. "The most important thing to do is to have good business practices and be priced appropriately."
Economic recessions are nothing new. There have been, in fact, nine recessions since the end of World War II. Will the year 2001 be recession No. 10? Only time will tell.
November 1948 to October 1949
11 months
7.9 percent in October 1949
July 1953 to May 1954
10 months
6.1 percent in September 1954
August 1957 to April 1958
8 months
7.5 percent in July 1958
April 1960 to February 1961
10 months
7.1 percent in May 1961
December 1969 to November 1970
11 months
6.1 percent in August 1971
November 1973 to March 1975
16 months
9 percent in May 1975
January 1980 to July 1980
6 months
7.8 percent in July 1980
July 1981 to November 1982
16 months
10.8 percent in December 1982
July 1990 to March 1991
8 months
7.8 percent in June 1992
*source: National Bureau of Economic Research, Bureau of Labor Statistics
How Ya Doing?
What's your club doing to recession-proof its business? Tell us. Mail us at: Letters to the Editor, Club Industry, One Plymouth Meeting, Suite 501, Plymouth Meeting, PA 19462. E-mail: firstname.lastname@example.com Fax: (610) 238-0992


text:
Bulletin Boards & Classroom Décor
- 156 coated picture cards (picture on one side, word on the reverse)
- 52 uppercase and lowercase letter cards
- 4 blank cards
- Nylon pocket chart
- Activity guide
Includes 6 Charts:
Compound Words
Chalkboard Reading Chartlet Set
- Parts of Speech
- Things Good Readers Do
- Great Reasons to Read
- 10 Ways to be a Great Student
- How to Choose the Right Book
Chalkboard Writing Chartlet Set
The Chalkboard Writing Chart Set helps you reinforce writing and language arts skills with these charts:
- Be More Descriptive
- Writing Process
- Word Families
- 10 Great Ways to Treat Others
- Contractions
Close Reading Bulletin Board Set
Reinforce important reading strategies with the Close Reading bulletin board display.
The Close Reading bulletin board set includes these pieces:
- 1 header (15" x 9 1/2")
- 2 large charts (17" x 23")
- 4 medium charts (smallest 15 1/2" x 13", largest 12" x 17")
- 3 small charts (16" x 7")
This bulletin board display encourages students to read texts multiple times, to interact with texts using think marks, to examine texts in detail, and to reflect critically.
Curriculum-based bulletin boards for classrooms allow you to use valuable wall space for presenting important concepts year-round. These sets visually appeal to students while offering standards-based content and daily reinforcement. Be sure to look for coordinating products to create a cohesive classroom theme.
- Resource Guide
Double-Sided Tabletop Pocket Chart
- Allows you to create convenient centers focusing on any skill: sort, classify, graph,build equations or sentences, and more
- Features 5 display pockets on each side for cards, available separately
- Provides built-in storage with large pocket for cards or manipulatives
- Folds flat when not in use
- Includes sturdy handles for carrying
- Chart with Activity Guide measures 12.25"L x 16"H when folded
- Folds out into a triangle shape that is 12.25"W x 14.75"H
Paragraph Writing Mini Bulletin Board Set
Guide students through the writing process with a language arts bulletin board set that encourages interactive paragraph writing in the classroom.
The 29-piece Paragraph Writing mini bulletin board set shows students how to build narrative, opinion, and informative paragraphs. With the help of Mr. Paragraph, students learn paragraph writing interactively by layering paragraph parts and holding them together with appropriate transition words. Set includes:
- 1 large header (19.25" x 5.5")
- 2 small headers (10.5" x 6")
- 1 chart (5.5" x 17.5")
- 8 mini charts (10.5" x 6")
- 17 example cards (smallest 3.75" x 1", largest 5.5" x 1.75")
Enhance learning—even in small spaces—with interactive language arts mini bulletin board sets. This convenient set allows you to utilize valuable wall space without sacrificing style, and you can use it year-round for concept reinforcement. Check out Carson-Dellosa's selection of subject-specific bulletin board sets for more creative ways to learn standards-based concepts!
- Resource Guide
Parts of Speech Bulletin Board Set
Perfect for writing centers and learning stations, the Parts of Speech bulletin board set serves as a helpful reminder to students.
This language arts bulletin board set includes:
- A full-color chart with the 9 parts of speech (16 1/4" x 23 1/4")
- 9 vignettes containing the definition, examples, and an example sentence for each one of the nine parts of speech:
- Nouns
- Verbs
- Pronouns
- Adjectives
- Articles
- Adverbs
- Prepositions
- Conjunctions
- Interjections
- 16 blank cards with writing lines
- A resource guide
- Resource Guide
Pocket Chart Card Sets, Alphabet Letters
Pocket Chart Card Sets, Beginning Sounds
Pocket Chart Card Sets, Sight Words
Pocket Chart Card Sets, Story Sequencing

subset: commoncrawl


text:
|2008-08-01, 17:29
|Link #1041
Spontaneous Retirement.
Join Date: Jul 2008
Location: United States
The world would be pretty jacked then. But I think I'll lean toward the whole 'suicide' thing. Then again, he could also always just go be an assasin for someone else.
Either way, someone is going to end up dead.
|2008-08-01, 17:51
|Link #1042
I type really slow
Join Date: Jul 2008
Location: Sweden
Also, I don't think he trusts Lelouch 100% yet and still has some doubts - he repeatly asks Lelouch if he can trust him and his fake bro repeatly reassures him. It seems like he knows Lelouch might be lying or hiding something, yet trusts him because he wants to trust him.
|2008-08-01, 18:11
|Link #1043
Spontaneous Retirement.
Join Date: Jul 2008
Location: United States
He's probably still psyched out because of it. I mean, he did say he would be tried as a traitor if they ever found out about it. I think he's more concerned about Lelouch being revealed as Zero in a situation where he can't show up and destroy the evidence, reguardless of if the cult has been destroyed or not, someone is going to charge both of them with something.
He's selfish for his own life in my eyes, and his mental unstability isn't helping much. So I think he's more freightened of Lelouch turning him in or something along the lines of betrayal that would most likely end his life. He wouldn't be able to fight back because he'd probably be too stunned to do anything.
|2008-08-01, 18:37
|Link #1044
Senior Member
Join Date: Feb 2008
Now I think that is bullocks, how would you explain this type of mentality if he saves Lelouch while sacrificing himself? As the lines goes from Turn 19 'Because I have been broken all my life' or something similar to that anyway. Rolo's existence has been about serving others, being used by them, until he finally found someone he thought actually treated his life as something worthwhile, and in that respect he is selfish because he has something to be selfish about for once in his life, much like what I think the locket and his attachment to it symbolizes. But in the end, his worth has always been decided by others, and more specifically and presently speaking by Lelouch. It is through that pretense that he finds his solace. He's not selfish in regards to his own life if that's what you're getting at, he's selfish and selfless at the same time in regards to the meaning of his life.
|2008-08-01, 19:40
|Link #1045
Spontaneous Retirement.
Join Date: Jul 2008
Location: United States
Oh jeeze, I had the best response planned and it said I wasn't logged in.
Four paragraphs, gone,
Anyways, in summary (A really bad and less explained one, sorry, it made alot more sense before, but alas..), he's selfish for his own life because he would easily kill someone who threatened his existance because Lelouch is alive. If Lelouch was dead, he probably wouldn't put up much of a fight.
Like how he killed Shirley because;
A.) She regained her memories, and should she have been allowed to talk to Suzaku about it, he would assume Lelouch got his memories back aswell, then he would suspect Rolo was hiding it, or had a hand to play in it. So all three of them would probably end up dead in some way. So she was indirectly, to him, threatening his own life. He took offensive and decided she didn't need to be there because she posed as an accidental threat to him and Lelouch. And again, if Lelouch was killed he would lose anything he had to go back to, emotionally.
B.) She 'threatened' to take Lelouch away, but he took it waaay more radically than it should've been taken. His reason to keep living would've been pretty much taken away. However, this I still don't understand because he seems to think fondly of the idea of having a family and didn't have a negative reaction when Milly said Shirley might become Lelouch's wife.
He's selfish because he would have no problems throwing a knife in Marrianne, should she still be alive, if she threatened to kill Rolo, or take him away from Lelouch. He doesn't like people threatening Lelouch's existance, he takes it as an attack to his own existance.
So he is selfish for his life in the sense he would ruin Lelouch's, probably accidently, not intentionally, if Lelouch was threatened to be taken away from him.
Ouch, I guess your right about the meaning of his life thing.
Last edited by Worriors1; 2008-08-01 at 19:46. Reason: Messed up something, badly
|2008-08-01, 20:14
|Link #1046
Senior Member
Join Date: Feb 2008
|2008-08-01, 21:21
|Link #1047
Join Date: Jul 2008
Location: Juken Club, Todo Academy
|2008-08-01, 21:24
|Link #1048
Senior Member
Join Date: Feb 2008
|2008-08-02, 00:52
|Link #1049
Join Date: Jul 2008
Location: U.S.A.
Age: 30
[In this scene Lelouch is playing a video game (...you'll see)]
C.C.: I see you're taking to the grieving process quite well.
Lulu: Hmm?
C.C.: The death of your friend Shirley. You haven't even mentioned her in over a week.
Lulu: Oh c'mon. Look I proved a point all right. I wiped out the frickin' Geass Cult.
C.C.: And you think that makes it okay? You think that that will avenge her death, justice is served, and you can just forget about her?
Lulu: Well no, I mean I'm still gonna kill Rolo...once I get around to it. It's just uh...I'm playing Symphony of the Night right now and uh I really just need to beat Dracula. Then I'll take care of it.
C.C.: You're on level 3
Lulu: Yeah...yeah, this'll take a while.
All right, yes this scenario is assuming that C.C. still has her memories, but I needed a voice of reason and I think she fit the bill best. And of course I do not, nor should you, take this seriously.
|2008-08-02, 04:17
|Link #1051
I type really slow
Join Date: Jul 2008
Location: Sweden
|2008-08-03, 08:18
|Link #1054
Senior Member
Join Date: Feb 2008
Well, that was interesting... I guess we'll see that NunnallyXRolo interaction after all. On the one hand I'm hopeful, on another I'm kind of apprehensive... ah well, we'll see what happens. From asking Suzaku to sending in Rolo, you have to figure Lelouch is pretty darn desperate
|2008-08-03, 10:36
|Link #1055
Emotionless White Face
Join Date: Feb 2008
Spoiler for spoil, if you don't to get spoiled, don't click here:
|2008-08-03, 10:56
|Link #1056
Join Date: Dec 2005
|2008-08-03, 10:58
|Link #1057
Emotionless White Face
Join Date: Feb 2008
Spoiler for spoil:
|2008-08-03, 12:42
|Link #1060
Join Date: Jul 2008
Location: U.S.A.
Age: 30
Spoiler for Rolo:
|Thread Tools


text:
"Doppler Woosh Effect Pack" is a collection of four transitional sound effects each with left-to-right and right-to-left versions for a combined total of eight samples. Each set of samples mimics the Doppler effect and has different characteristics that make this pack useful to a wider variety of projects. The sounds range from airy and cold to futuristic and technological. Further descriptions of each item can be found on their individual pages linked below.
The tracks and their duration are listed here in the order they play in the preview above:
- Doppler Woosh Effect – (0:08; WAV/MP3)
- Doppler Woosh Effect II – (0:06; WAV/MP3)
- Doppler Woosh Effect III – (0:04; WAV/MP3)
- Doppler Woosh Effect IV – (0:06; WAV/MP3)
Thanks for listening.


text:
Jan. 24, 2008
BROOKLINE, Mass. - Building leads as large as 28 points, MIT utilized its entire bench to cruise past Newbury College, 79-60, Thursday at Hellenic College. Paced by Jimmy Bartolotta's 23 points, the Engineers finished the night with five players scoring in double figures while receiving contributions from just about every player donning the Cardinal and Gray.
MIT (11-6) solidified command of the game early, benefiting from a dominating effort on the glass to scoop up a bunch of second-chance points. Newbury (8-6) was able to keep the deficit in single digits for most of the half, but couldn't keep pace in the final five minutes as the Engineers used a 14-5 run at the end of the half to power ahead, 46-29. Bartolotta was sensational in the opening period, scoring 21 points on 7-of-11 shooting while adding five rebounds and four assists.
After the opening minute of the second half, MIT's advantage rarely dipped below 20 points. Head coach Larry Anderson replaced his entire starting five with 11 minutes left in the game, as the Engineers went to their bench to keep the Nighthawks at bay. Senior Alex Bagley supplied the biggest boost outside of the starting lineup while freshman guard Daniel McCue also enjoyed extended minutes. Bagley converted a lay-up with 11:30 remaining in regulation to give MIT its largest lead of the game at 69-41.
Bartolotta finished the tilt with a game-high 23 points, and contributed seven assists, six rebounds, three steals and a block. Starting point guard Bradley Gampel was also in a giving mood on Thursday, dishing out a game-high eight assists while adding to his league-leading total with five steals. Bartolotta and Gampel combined for 15 assists and two turnovers against the Nighthawks.
Hamidou Soumare followed up last Saturday's monster effort with 14 points and nine boards to control the post while senior Will Mroz rebounded from a scoreless first half to finish with 11. Billy Johnson and Bagley also reached double figures as each chipped in 10 points. Bagley closed 5-of-5 from the floor and also added seven rebounds in 16 minutes of play.
Javon Mathis finished 8-of-13 from the floor en route to a team-best 17 points for Newbury while Kevin Cleveland added 13 and Arch Mitchell, 11, in the losing effort.
Newbury boasted 10 fast-break points and shot 54.2% from the field, but allowed MIT to shoot 50% from the floor itself while out-rebounding the Nighthawks, 35-21.


text:
Meet the Reviewers
Kate Ayers
Kate Ayers retired from a career as a court reporter in the Pacific Northwest, and she now enjoys the bulk of her time traveling and writing. She has completed novels in her Mysteries With a Wine List series, two in her Eyes & Ears series, and is currently working on another. The rest of her time is taken up with book promotions, a gourmet cooking club, a book club (naturally) and daily entertainment of her slightly loony Shar Pei. And, last but not least, playing with her other best friend, her husband of many years.
Alexis Burling
Alexis Burling is a book critic (and obsessive reader) with reviews of both adult and young adult books, author interviews and other industry-related articles published on Bookreporter.com and in the New York Times, Washington Post, San Francisco Chronicle, Oregonian and other publications. She has also written dozens of articles and nonfiction books for young readers on a variety of topics ranging from current events and famous people throughout history, to nutrition and fitness, and relationships and cooking. After enjoying the fast life in New York City for 13 years, Alexis now lives amidst the mountains and the trees (and the rain) in the Pacific Northwest.
Leah DeCesare
Leah DeCesare is the award-winning author of FORKS, KNIVES, AND SPOONS and the nonfiction parenting series Naked Parenting, based on her work as a doula, early parenting educator, and mom of three. Her articles on parenting have been featured in The Huffington Post, the International Doula and The Key, among others. In 2008, she cofounded the nonprofit Doulas of Rhode Island, and in 2013 she spearheaded the Campaign for Hope to build the Kampala Children's Centre for Hope and Wellness in Uganda. In a past life, DeCesare worked in public relations and event planning. She now writes, teaches and volunteers in Rhode Island, where she lives with her family and talking cockatiel.
Curtis Edmonds
Curtis Edmonds works as a civil rights attorney in Trenton, New Jersey. He is the author of two novels, RAIN ON YOUR WEDDING DAY and WREATHED, both published by Scary Hippopotamus Books. His short fiction has been published in McSweeney's Internet Tendency, The Big Jewel and Untoward Magazine. He is quite tall and is uncomfortable talking about himself in the third person. He is married with twin daughters.
Sarah Rachel Egelman
Sarah Rachel Egelman holds a masters degree in comparative religion and works and teaches in Seattle's Jewish community. She enjoys writing, spending time outdoors, and especially reading. Some of her favorite writers include Kafka, Vonnegut, Grass, Rushdie, Hemingway and Austen. Sarah also likes all types of poetry, and books on Europeon history and cultural or religious studies. Besides books of all shapes and sizes, she likes scary movies, art, music, thai food and monkeys.
Pauline Finch
Pauline Finch is a longtime resident of Kitchener, Ontario (Canada), where she attended Wilfrid Laurier University and University of Waterloo. While doing graduate work, she accidentally landed a part-time job with the local newspaper, which became full-time and lasted nearly 23 years, during which she covered arts, religion, local features, book reviews and general reporting.
Apart from winning a number of minor journalism awards, her one claim to fame is that in 1991 she became the first person in the history of that paper to electronically file a news story. Less than a decade (and thousands of remotely filed stories) later, she was among a large contingent of reporters "fired with money" during one of the many corporate down-sizing waves of the late 1990s.
For the past 15 years she has been self-employed as a freelance writer and editor whose clients include novel and textbook authors, trade publications, weekly newspapers, corporate executives, academics, theologians and non-profit groups.
Since leaving full-time journalism, she completed two Masters Degrees in academic and applied theology but chose --- without a single spiritual regret --- not to be a minister.
Among her avocations, she is a hopelessly addicted flutist who began playing in 1964 but didn't figure out until 2007 that regular lessons would be a good idea. Good teachers are priceless! She plays in the Waterloo Flute Choir, the Waterloo (Ont.) Concert Band, with local choirs and at church. She is also a serious recorder-player who loves playing in friendly groups, a pipe-organ student, and a member of the K-W Community Baroque Players where she is learning bass viola da gamba "on the fly."
She was introduced to Bookreporter by her journalism mentor and dear friend, the late Robert Finn.
Harvey Freedenberg
Harvey Freedenberg formerly practiced intellectual property law and litigation with a large Harrisburg, Pennsylvania firm. He's been working as a freelance reviewer since 2005 and is a member of the National Book Critics Circle. In addition to the more than 200 reviews he's written for Bookreporter.com, he reviews for BookPage, Shelf Awareness, the Minneapolis Star-Tribune and Kirkus Reviews. He also writes a column featuring reviews and articles on other book-related subjects for Harrisburg Magazine and has published reviews and essays on a variety of other websites and literary blogs. In 2000, Harvey took a six-month sabbatical from his law practice and studied creative writing at his alma mater, Dickinson College. Three of his short stories have won prizes, and he has written an as-yet-unpublished novel. Harvey enjoys literary fiction and a wide range of nonfiction. His favorite authors are too numerous to mention, but include Richard Ford, Tim O'Brien, John Updike, Charles Baxter, John Cheever, Tracy Kidder and John McPhee. To read all of Harvey's reviews along with his comments on the book world and assorted topics, follow him on Twitter (@HarvF) or friend him on Facebook.
Barbara Lipkien Gershenbaum
Barbara Lipkien Gershenbaum's professional writing career began in her senior year at the University of Hartford, when she published a scholarly paper on the work of Doris Lessing. From there she became the assistant editor of a scholarly journal published by that school's English Department. In short order she was asked to produce, write and host a local cable television program she named Literary Perspectives. By the time she had finished that project she landed a job with the Farmington Valley Herald newspaper; and started to sell her work on the freelance market. Over the years Barbara has taught a variety of writing classes, public speaking workshops, literature seminars and, for more than fifteen years, facilitated book discussion groups for adults. Her work with children inspired her to create a reading enrichment program for kindergartners up through sixth graders. Barbara is a voracious reader whose taste runs to contemporary literary fiction and mystery/suspense/thrillers. She is also a film buff and loves to play word games of every sort.
Judy Gigstad
A member of Western Writers of America, Oklahoma Writers Federation and Oklahoma City Writers, Inc., Judy Gigstad has reviewed books for Bookreporter.com for more than three years. She has had reviews published in an entertainment weekly news magazine, and KANSAS!, Persimmon Hill magazine and The Writer's Ink have published her feature stories. An avid reader, Judy learns from the written word. Her True Crime book is soon to be completed, and a historical novel set in Kansas is in the works.
Maya Gittelman
Maya Gittelman is an activist, blogger and writer. She graduated Skidmore College cum laude with a degree in English and a minor in Education, with a concentration on special education. She was awarded senior honors for her thesis on late Victorian masculinities, and her senior year novella received the 2014 departmental prize for fiction. Her literary interests span classical, medieval, Victorian, genre and contemporary. Maya's favorite authors range from Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie to Chaucer, Lord Byron to Janet Mock, James Joyce to J.M. Barrie, to Tolkien and beyond. Versed in theory, her true passions lie in examining and deconstructing the literary and sociocultural intersections of race, class, sexuality, gender, ethnicity and ability --- throughout classical and contemporary canons.
Maya is currently employed as the events & special projects coordinator at the Upper West Side Barnes & Noble where she works with many wonderful authors and educators. She also blogs about intersectional feminist representation in the media over at mayatalksfemedia.tumblr.com. When she's not reading, writing or ranting, she's probably working on social justice crafts, eating something drenched in chocolate, or getting altogether too emotionally invested in a TV show.
Amy Gwiazdowski
Amy Gwiazdowski currently works as the communications director for a business trade association in Washington, DC. Previously, she spent a few years working for the publishing industry's trade association where she had the opportunity to indulge her love of books and acquire more than the shelves could hold. She is also the author of the blog Just Book Reading (http://www.justbookreading.com), where she chronicles her reading habit.
Joe Hartlaub
Senior Writer
Joe Hartlaub is senior writer/reviewer for Bookreporter.com and has been with the site since 1997. An entertainment attorney specializing in music and publishing, Joe is a Fox News Channel contributor on matters pertaining to publishing law and has been featured on panels concerning the entertainment industry. He has been a vociferous reader since he was four years old, starting with the "Dick Tracy" and "Little Orphan Annie" comic strips before he graduated to the Hardy Boys mystery series (the original one) and later corrupted his mind and soul a few years later with the works of Mickey Spillane and Richard Prather.
In addition to reviewing for Bookreporter.com, Joe has also had a number of short stories published in the crime and horror fields and is an actor, having had a supporting role in the critically acclaimed feature film LA-308 as well as a co-starring role in the short feature "Seducing the Shrink." He is also a bi-weekly contributor to "The Kill Zone" blogspot. Joe describes himself as "a boring guy who lives a very interesting life." He lives in Westerville, Ohio, with his family members, who give him the space to do a number of things that he probably shouldn't.
Steve Hubbard
Steve Hubbard was born in South Carolina but raised in western New York. A reader before kindergarten (which got his parents in trouble), he became hooked on Fantasy writing after discovering THE LORD OF THE RINGS in his school library in the third grade. An avid hockey player and fan, it only made sense that he would migrate to Minnesota, where he now resides with his wife, four children and one Siberian Husky. In addition to reviewing books, he also sells them and has endeavored to make people aware of the work of Robert E. Howard as well as the work of John Gardner, whom he feels is America's greatest, and forgotten, writer. When not buried behind piles of books to read or sell, he is also working on a few of his own, having been inspired by Stephen R. Donaldson. What with reading, writing, selling and fathering, you'd think he couldn't find time for movies, but it's amazing how much more you can squeeze in when you cut down on sleep. He also likes pie.
Christine M. Irvin
Christine M. Irvin is both an avid reader and a book reviewer. She currently writes book reviews for BookReporter.com, Teenreads.com, Kidreads.com, and the Christian Children's Book Review.
She is also a writer, an editor and a published author. Ever since she was a young girl, Christine has wanted to "be a writer." Later, she redefined that goal to that of being a "published writer," as it seemed very easy to write something but very difficult to get anything published. She first achieved her goal when a short craft blurb she wrote was published in the November 1978 edition of The Workbasket magazine. Although that satisfied the technicality of being a "published writer," it only served to whet her appetite for bigger goals and achievements. Today, Christine is the author of 11 published children's books and numerous articles for both children and adults.
Christine lives in Columbus, OH with her husband, her son and her dog.
Ron Kaplan
Ron Kaplan, an award-winning writer and sports editor for a weekly newspaper in New Jersey, is the author of two books: 501 BASEBALL BOOKS FANS MUST READ BEFORE THEY DIE (2013) and THE JEWISH OLYMPICS: The History of the Maccabiah Games (2015). His freelance articles and reviews have appeared in such publications as Baseball America, Mental Floss, American Book Review, American History, ForeWord Magazine and Verbatim, among others. He also hosts two blogs: Ron Kaplan's Baseball Bookshelf about baseball literature and Kaplan's Korner on Jews and Sports.
Jane Krebs
Jane T. Krebs is a retired English teacher who lived and learned with high school kids for 30 years in the Carlisle Area School District; she was also a co-director and presenter in the Capitol Writing Project. She likes being part of the Carlisle community with its excellent downtown stores, restaurants, theater and library. She is Oma to her teenage granddaughters in Carlisle and to her toddler grandsons in Ohio --- she happily shares grandmother duties with Carole Turner (who introduced her to Bookreporter.com), as well as conversations about good books.
Gabriella Mayer
Gabriella Mayer is a South Florida native who currently attends NYU, studying for a BA in Comparative Literature with a minor in Creative Writing. Previous publications include essays and poems in Her Culture and BRIO, the undergraduate comparative literature journal at NYU. An avid reader and book hoarder from a young age, she is usually writing poems, applying for jobs in publishing, practicing for the Women's Choir, and looking over cute pictures of her two golden retrievers.
Jennifer McCord
Jennifer McCord is a writer, editor, educator and publishing consultant in Seattle WA. Her career in publishing began more than 25 years ago when she took on the job as manager of an independent bookstore on a dare from her then-teenage daughter. Jennifer moved from the independent store to management in a national retail chain (Waldenbooks). Additionally, she served as one of the original romance book experts and as the national spokesperson for the chain on the Romance Fiction category. She offered industry insights on Romance and Women's fiction as a contributing columnist for Waldenbooks for over a decade.
She received special industry recognition for her support of Women's Fiction and the Romance genre from Romance Writers of America and Romantic Times.
For many years, Jennifer has worked in nearly every aspect of the industry, from traditional publishing paths to small press and self-publishing ventures. She has dedicated her experience to the success of the Northwest writing community as UW Extension Advisory board member for the writing programs, past president and board member of Pacific Northwest Writers Association and as President of Seattle Free Lances. She works extensively with writers and publishers through her consulting and certified creativity coaching business, Jennifer McCord Associates, www.jennifermccord.com.
Bronwyn Miller
Bronwyn Miller is the pen name for a reviewer who has worked in publishing and film for the past 20 years. Apart from great writers and books, Bronwyn is a fan of theater, live readings and concerts, as well as urban hiking, which is a fancy way to say 'walking around the city aimlessly."
Eileen Zimmerman Nicol
Eileen Zimmerman Nicol would rather read than eat (sometimes), shop (usually) or watch TV (always). Her desire to be a writer started in fourth grade when her teacher told her she couldn't begin an essay with the sentence "I hope it never happens to me again." Many years later, she has attained the patience to revise and still thinks her teacher was wrong. She has published magazine articles and poetry, and is on the second draft of her second novel. She has a grown daughter and a supportive husband, and enjoys sailing, cooking, skiing and volunteering, as well as writing.
Ray Palen
Ray Palen is an award-winning actor, drama teacher, and recently the executive producer/director for 15+ years of a highly successful regional theatre group still based on Long Island. Additionally, he is a published playwright with several short plays being registered with the Writers Guild of America. One of his short plays that featured his fictional hero, Sherlock Holmes, won first prize in a Holmes short play contest.
Ray's favorite pasttime, however, has been reading. He has been an avid reader and writer throughout his life --- reading at least three books per week as long as he can remember (a love of reading and lifelong insomnia being the dual cause of this). His book collection is in the thousands, and he prides himself on his rare and signed first editions. Ray has been reviewing books, movies and theater for decades in several formats and currently has a national byline with several online and print publications.
Three years ago, he relocated from the NYC area, where he lived his entire life, to Central Florida for a job opportunity with Walt Disney World. His greatest production to date is his beautiful daughter, Anna, who is now four and loves growing up in the shadow of Cinderella Castle. He resides in Clermont, FL, with his wife Debbie, Princess Anna, four cats (Finian, Mickey, Rory and Lorelei), and is probably reading a novel right now!
Norah Piehl
Norah Piehl is the Deputy Director of the Boston Book Festival. A former children's bookseller, Norah has also worked in the publishing industry for both university and trade publishers. She is an active writer whose essays, interviews and reviews have been published in Publishers Weekly, The Horn Book, Brain, Child, Skirt! magazine, National Public Radio and many other publications, as well as in several print anthologies. Her short fiction has appeared in Literary Mama, The Linnet's Wings, The Legendary, Printer's Devil Review and the anthology BATTLE RUNES: Writings on War. Norah lives in Belmont, Massachusetts.
Melanie Reynolds
Melanie Reynolds has been a lover of story since the day she mastered reading in first grade. After college graduation, she worked with university students and in the optical field, volunteered in her church and community, and taught both here at home and overseas. She and her family live in the western U.S. She still loves reading, as well as blogging, teaching art to young people, laughing with her family, and Marvel movies. She has been reviewing books for Bookreporter.com since 2014.
Barbara Bamberger Scott
Barbara Bamberger Scott grew up in North Carolina, where she now makes her home in the semi-fictional town of Mayberry. She has traveled the world, living and working in Botswana, Kenya, the Dominican Republic, England, Sweden and Spain, with five trips to India to visit sites associated with spiritual master Meher Baba.
Back in the US apparently forever, she continues to roam whenever possible, taking long road trips with her husband, Donnie "Dobro" Scott, with whom she co-authored TWO LANE TRAVELING (Booksurge, 2009).
For work, she chooses any human services job she can get at the time, which has included small-scale gardening in the Third World, composing project newsletters, facilitating services for people with developmental disabilities, acting as a Spanish interpreter in various medical projects, and, most recently, assisting clients in a Joblink in rural Carolina counties.
Her great love, writer-wise, is short pieces, including hundreds of book reviews (mostly nonfiction "with a human face") and a series of articles about simple living and the heart of gardening, which appears on www.homestead.org. She runs the website www.awomanswrite.com, a perennial novel-writing competition for aspiring female pensmiths that underscores her talents as an editor, particularly for beginning authors. A Woman's Write has made it possible for her to communicate with and assist women all over the world.
Roz Shea
Roz Shea has reviewed books for Bookreporter.com since 1998. She was a BookPage chat room moderator for the online book chat room Bookacinno, sponsored by Bookreporter in its earliest days in the '90s. She writes for and edits local publications. She authored a historical memoir of Julian and Lucy King, who built King's Ranch in 1946, a dude ranch far from civilization in one of the last places in the American west where one could break ground. She lectures on the book and other historical events in the Phoenix area.
Roz lives in, and works to preserve, the Sonoran desert at the base of the Superstition Mountains in Arizona. She recently retired as Executive Director of a land trust, and is married with three grown children and one grandson in whom she wants to instill her passion for the desert and reading. She grew up and was educated in Iowa, where she was active in conservation, then moved to Arizona and never wants to leave. In her spare time, she builds trails, writes grant proposals and, of course, READS.
An eclectic mix of nonfiction, historical fiction, biographies and detective thrillers, fantasy and sci-fi are stowed on the many bookshelves throughout her home. John Irving, Herman Wouk, Harriet Doer, Annie Proulx, Robert Ludlum, John le Carre, James Michener, Martin Cruz Smith, Homer Hickam, Ken Follett, Bill Bryson, Doris Kearns Goodwin, Barbara Kingsolver, Lisa See, Paul Theroux, Ernest Hemingway, John Steinbeck and most of the classics are among them. She has every book written by Terry Pratchett, Arthur C. Clarke, Robert Heinlein and Douglas Adams. Mysteries dark to mysteries cozy are her secret vice. She collects James Lee Burke, Linda Fairstein, Elizabeth George, P. D. James, Craig Johnson, Patricia Cornwell, John D. MacDonald, Louise Penny, Kathy Reichs, M.C. Beaton, S.J. Rozan, Tony Hillerman, Sue Grafton, J.A. Jance, Elizabeth Peters, Robert B. Parker, Steve Martini, John Dunning, Stephen King, Dean Koontz, John Grisham, Janet Evanovich and Alexander McCall Smith.
Stuart Shiffman
After 22 years as a state court judge in Illinois, Stuart Shiffman traded one career for several. He became an appellate attorney as well as a professor, and presently serves on the faculty at Illinois State University. He has always been an avid reader and enjoys the opportunity to share his thoughts on books with anyone who will listen. Stuart has been an active participant in the "Law and Literature" movement, where works of literature are examined in an effort to better understand legal issues. He also serves on two legal book award committees. Beyond books about the law, Stuart enjoys biographies, history, politics and sports with a special interest in golf. Each year in mid-June, he writes a lengthy essay on new golf books. Finally, Stuart enjoys spreading the joy of reading to his grandchildren.
Carly Silver
As the ancient and classical history expert for About.com, Carly Silver serves as a tour guide through antiquity; as an assistant editor for Harlequin Books, she knows what makes a good story. Residing in Brooklyn, New York, she's also passionate about all things literary.
Carole Turner
Carole Turner has been reviewing for Bookreporter since 2004. She reviews mostly nonfiction. Favorite reading topics include travel, gardening, history, health and the British royal family. She lives in Columbus, Ohio, with a rescue cat named Freddie. Jane Krebs, a reviewer from Pennsylvania, and Carole share two dear little grandsons since Jane's daughter is married to Carole's son.
Katherine B. Weissman
Katherine B. Weissman writes fiction (her stories have been published in Seventeen and Ploughshares), essays, and style features (she was a contributing editor at O, the Oprah Magazine, for 10 years). She has an essay, "It Figures," in the book IN THE FULLNESS OF TIME: 32 Women on Life After 50. Until 1998 she was executive editor of Mademoiselle, where she worked for 18 years.
Katherine has been reading since the age of four (and writing almost as long) and feels secure only if she has a pile of unread books by her bed and many, many more on her shelves, plus a library card. She has not gone over to the Dark Side all the way, but she does currently own three Kindles, which are a means to instant book gratification and permanent book security when not within reach of aforementioned piles, shelves and libraries.
Her original essays and blog posts, as well as an archive of her traditionally published work (including reviews on Bookreporter.com), may be found on her website, www.KatherineWeissman.com. She is an ardent student of ballet, art, and the piano. Her favorite novels (a partial list) include A PASSAGE TO INDIA, ANNA KARENINA, JANE EYRE, THE HOUSE OF MIRTH, LIE DOWN IN DARKNESS and THE RAJ QUARTET. She also adores fantasy: C.S. Lewis, J.R.R. Tolkien and, of course, Philip Pullman's His Dark Materials trilogy.
For the last three years, Katherine has been writing her own fantasy novel, MERILE: Island of Women, coming soon (she hopes) to a book site or bookshop near you.


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|2011-10-04, 09:07
|Link #241
Join Date: Dec 2003
Age: 36
|2011-10-05, 10:00
|Link #244
Join Date: Feb 2010
Usually I just browse the last 2~3 pages.
Oww Hourou Musuko.
Though I'm still prefer manga version.
|2011-10-05, 12:33
|Link #245
Hyakko Fanboy
Join Date: Nov 2008
Age: 27
But yeah... this summer gonna kinda slow, only few titles that seems got the goods.
|2011-10-06, 04:05
|Link #246
Lets be reality
Join Date: May 2007
During Spring there some weeks where over 7 shows were selling in excess of 10k... I don't think it really mattered when shows like Croisee, S7, Neet Detective and Blood-C aired, they would've flopped during any season.
Only winner of that lot is Bllood-C since the Japanese government is funding the movie... L O L.
|2011-10-06, 07:39
|Link #247
Toji Affairs Secretary
Join Date: May 2009
Location: the Philippines
But Croisee deserved it. We need shows like that.
I'm afraid that Satelight would think that making profitable anime is better than making good anime.
And look at A-1. With Uta no Prince-sama and iDOLM@STER, they're sure to rake in money by the truckload.
Last edited by Marcus H.; 2011-10-06 at 09:29.
|2011-10-06, 09:24
|Link #250
Join Date: Apr 2008
Location: a room full of despair
Age: 29
|2011-10-06, 09:25
|Link #251
Lets be reality
Join Date: May 2007
|2011-10-08, 13:05
|Link #252
Senior Member
Join Date: Jan 2005
|2011-10-08, 13:14
|Link #253
Bittersweet Distractor
Join Date: Nov 2007
Age: 27
|2011-10-08, 15:24
|Link #254
Join Date: Dec 2003
Age: 36
|2011-10-08, 18:06
|Link #255
Pretentious moe scholar
Join Date: Oct 2006
Location: Vancouver, Canada
Age: 31
Considering my enjoyment of Ikoku Meiro and 2009's Taisho Yakyuu Musume, I'm definitely up for more of what I refer to as "period moe" shows... but with neither of those breaking 2K blurays I'm not holding my breath.
Also, man the summer sales have been harsh. There's quite a few shows I expected to do better than they did.
|2011-10-08, 19:24
|Link #256
Bittersweet Distractor
Join Date: Nov 2007
Age: 27
I just really don't think it's a good idea to let the producers think that a show that plods along with extremely flat characters in a rather historically twisted setting is something I want to see more of. And no, I don't hate slice of life, there are certainly some I can name that I've enjoyed very much.
And before people misunderstand, it's not the particular genre or idea that pissed me off. A period piece is fine. However I will not agree with the idea that it somehow did a good job at detailing its setting, or even just merely representing it.
The cast certainly didn't help. How many people would have even cared about the show if Yune was a guy? Moe is fine, but it should never be the entire substance of a character, because really moe itself is not substance. I was never moe stricken with Yune form the start, so I found Croisee to be the most boring show I've seen in a long time (That had production values worth caring about at least).
Regardless. I'm glad when titles I don't like bomb. Is it because I wish ill on the people who made them? No. It's because whatever sells gets made more so I really don't want that type of show to sell. If they ever successfully present a period piece to me, I'd gladly accept it. But this time I say, nice try, but no thanks.
|2011-10-08, 19:28
|Link #257
Join Date: Dec 2003
Age: 36
|2011-10-08, 20:15
|Link #258
AS Oji-kun
Join Date: Nov 2006
Location: Hokkaido
Age: 69
I haven't seen the show in question, but I have to say I agree in principle with Reckoner in this case. I recently made a similar comment on another site about Sentai's recent decision to license Akikan and got my share of similar criticism.
The market is a cruel institution. The only method it provides for buyers to communicate their preferences to sellers is not buying a product. It seems that anime fans would prefer a world where every show is a success, but that's neither realistic nor especially helpful when it comes to communication between buyers and sellers. Perhaps this reaction reflects the niche status of anime, and continuing fears among fans that the industry is on its last legs. (I think these fears are vastly overstated.) The fact remains that only if some shows succeed and others fail will producers learn what the audience prefers.
Now there may be a deeper argument here that producers already pander too much to the minority of Japanese viewers who routinely spend $hundreds or $thousands on anime series with large doses of moe~ and ecchi. I'm sympathetic to that argument, but in reality anime studios are in business to make a profit and not in the business of creating "art." Sometimes they find the right mix, and works of artistic value like Mononoke succeed commercially as well. It would be nice if this convergence happened more often, but that's not a realistic expectation.
If you want to see more of the types of shows you find appealing, go buy the DVDs. That's the only way you can tell the producers what you want.
|2011-10-08, 20:47
|Link #259
Senior Member
As a matter of general principle, I agree with you and Reck. The market serves to keep creators/producers honest, and focused on satisfying the customer. Sales bombs are just as important a part of that as sales successes are, as it's through comparisons between the two that anime producers can tell what paying customers expect/want and what they're not satisfied by (and ultimately, it's paying customers that keeps the anime industry afloat after all).
That being said, I do see RelentlessFlame's point here.
That was pretty blunt, Reck.
Maybe it would be better to write something like "Hopefully the anime industry will learn from this sales bomb, and make something similar to Croisee but more appealing/satisfying to customers" (which may well involve the sort of changes that would make you yourself like a Croisee-type show).
More this year than any other I can recall, I find myself agreeing with Japanese otaku purchasing choices.
Edit: On the topic of Croisee itself, I was never fully won over by it, but I never hated the show or anything. I can see why some loved it, so I had no desire for it to bomb.
|2011-10-08, 21:11
|Link #260
Senior Member
Join Date: Aug 2007
Okay you think it is a bad show and that is fine. No one is telling you to like the show. But I think it is a little cruel to be happy that show that other people really enjoyed on here did poorly in sales. Yes I am pretty upset that there probably won't be a second season, because I loved the show. If there ever was a second season you just wouldn't have to watch it.
And as for your other statement how many people would like the show is Yune was a guy? Well I don't know because I don't think I am the target audience of this show at all.
Let me state that I dislike Moe or since that doesn't say a lot I dislike shows that many people characterize as Moe or Otaku shows. I don't like female characters just because they are cute and I don't care about wanting to protect them. When I started watching Croisee, that is exactly what I thought Yune would be like. And okay I can't deny there is a little bit of that in the character. But there is so much more to Yune. She is not actually helpless, she is perceptive in things the other characters are not, and she in a sense opens the world for other characters, whereas her world is also opened up.
While Yune isn't necessarily my favorite female character this year I surprisingly found myself really caring about her.
But I didn't just care about her, I also ended up caring for the other characters as well (especially Claude & Alice) and I love the relationship that develops between Yune and these characters.
The series is wonderfully charming and extremely humanistic in its approach of having people from different cultures and classes interact. No it doesn't perfectly represent the time period but it still introduces many historical facts of French and Japanese culture at the time (and as a film buff episode 10 was just lovely).
And I should also point out that I am a female fan of this series so Yune being female had very little to do with the "appeal" of this series for me, so let's not stereotype.
edit: And I definitely plan to buy the DVDs of this series (since luckily it is already licensed in the US) but in this case I doubt that will do much helping the series get a 2nd season in Japan.
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Sealed SKF Explorer spherical roller bearings cut maintenance costs
2014 April 02, 14:00 CET
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text:
London Fashion Week continues! Yesterday, Tom Ford showed a fall 2013 collection that seemed to channel comic book and Disney villains. Sequins in POW blasts, all-black glam cat burglar ensembles, lurid head-to-toe uniforms perfect for taunting crimefighters, black and white fur coats Cruella de Vil would kill for. Times critic Cathy Horyn asked Ford WTF was up with the show; he explained, "Each piece had to be potent." Horyn adds:
I rather liked that he had the deliberate bad taste to show a head-to-toe look in pink, complete with matching boots, and I told him so. It's a loud and proud editorial statement, a kapow to minimalists.
In general, the bold, graphic garments are an assault on the eyes, a little all over the place, and, in a few cases, aggressively ugly. Still: A few looks — a leopard-print coat over a lace dress, for instance, or a slinky zebra-print dress through which slivers of skin peek through — were exactly the kind of sexy fierce glamazon style Tom Ford's known for.
Images via Getty.


text:
- Description
DetailsHeavy Duty Box Frame Filter - MERV 4
Spun Glass (Model # 10255) or Synthetic (11255) Media
Flanders HD Industrial Grade filters are designed for heavy workloads and in any application where disposable panel filters are recommended. A wide range of 1/2", 1" and 2" standard depths and standard face sizes are available, plus nearly any "special" size. UL 900 Class 2.
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- Documentation


text:
Erik Anderson
MIT/WHOI Joint Program, Applied Ocean Physics and Engineering
Department: Applied Ocean Physics & Engineering
Advisors: Mark Grosenbaugh, Wade McGillis, Mike Triantafyllou
Research interest: Hydrodynamics, energetics, and optimization of swimming in marine organisms with application to marine vehicle propulsion and marine ecology.
Expected graduation: May, 2004
Contact: email@example.com
A dolphin should not be able to swim. So said Cambridge University zoologist James Gray in the 1930s. The friction caused by water moving over a dolphin's skin, he said, should be like swimming in cold molasses. But dolphins obviously can swim, and Erik Anderson wants to find out why. The paradox springs from a conflict between idealized models and a reality that is difficult to observe and measure. In trying to calculate drag-the force that slows the movement of an object through air or water-Gray could only use formulas and observations based on the flow of water over rigid, static bodies. The physical and mechanical models fell short of the biological reality, and Gray and other scientists were stuck with the implausible conclusion that the force a dolphin or fish needed to overcome drag was greater than the force their muscles could generate.
But the body of a swimming dolphin or fish is hardly rigid or static. So instead of modeling the forces of drag, Erik Anderson has combined 21st century lasers, robots, and cameras with old-fashioned attention to microscopic detail to build an experiment that measures the forces. "I want to know how a real fish swims," says Anderson, a student in the MIT/WHOI Joint Program. "I want to know their trade secrets."
The Accidental Tourist
In the summer of 1997, Anderson had an encounter that would change his scientific life. As a master's degree candidate from St. Francis Xavier University (Nova Scotia), he visited WHOI for a study of the fluid dynamics of squid motion. Anderson and colleagues had traveled to Woods Hole because their subjects were abundant and accessible-the squid Loligo pealei migrates through the waters off the WHOI pier every spring-and because the Coastal Research Laboratory had a large flume close to the delicate animal's habitat.
One day while shooting high-speed, high-resolution images of Loligo swimming in the flume, Anderson was approached by a man who-without introducing himself-started asking questions about the experiment. "I thought he was a tourist and I was very busy," he recalls, "so I brushed him off with simple answers."
A week later, Anderson attended a scientific presentation by WHOI Associate Scientist Mark Grosenbaugh of the Applied Ocean Physics & Engineering Department. Anderson was curious to meet Grosenbaugh, whose papers he had read. When Grosenbaugh stood up to give his seminar, Anderson did a double take: Grosenbaugh had been his "tourist." "He was not a guy I should have been getting rid of," Anderson says.
Despite the awkward introduction, Anderson began talking with Grosenbaugh and WHOI Associate Scientist Wade McGillis (AOP&E). They are now his thesis advisors. "When they told me about the fish-drag problem, it sounded like a logical step after the squid work," Anderson recalls. "I was especially drawn to the challenge of engineering an experiment."
Within a year, Anderson was admitted to the MIT/WHOI Joint Program and began conducting experiments on a robotic tuna... and hatching plans for one of the most sophisticated studies of fish propulsion ever devised.
Swimming Against the Stream
Fish swim against two fluid forces: form drag and friction drag. Anderson compares the physics to riding a bicycle. "When you cycle through air-which is also a 'fluid' medium-you feel pressure on your chest and suction from a wake at your back," Anderson notes. "The pressure and suction are the source of form drag. Friction drag is caused by the air sliding over your skin."
In the 1970s, Japanese researchers who observed fluid flowing over a waving rubber mat found that form drag may be almost negligible on a swimming fish. They demonstrated that as a surface undulates, fast-moving fluid is drawn closer to the surface, creating a smaller wake and reducing suction. The streamlined shape of most fish also results in reduced pressure in the front.
That leaves drag from friction, a force that has been modeled and studied in idealized experiments, but not measured directly on freely swimming fish. Anderson decided to use modern technology to zoom in on the "boundary layer," the critical zone around a fish where the effects of friction have a measurable impact on the flow of water. This layer is usually less than one centimeter thick.
The experiment seems simple enough: photograph the water flowing through the boundary layer and across a fish's skin. From such pictures, Anderson can calculate the friction drag and visualize the shape of the fluid flow, much as engineers study the flow of air over airplane wings and cars. But as Anderson explains, "It was a challenging engineering problem to build a data-taking apparatus that could accurately measure friction drag."
"No one's been able to measure water's speed in the boundary layer of fish before," says George Lauder, who studies the flow around aquatic animals at Harvard University. "It's extremely hard to do, and Anderson's system is the first to be able to accomplish this."
How does Anderson see water moving? He puts microscopic, silver-coated beads into the flume as a tracer, then illuminates them with a sheet of light from a laser. To capture an image of water within 12 millimeters (0.47 inches) of a fish's skin, Anderson points a high-resolution digital camera at the sheet of laser light from beneath the flume. Another camera captures the same angle, but with a field of view ten times larger, in order to get a general picture of the flow inside and outside the boundary layer. A third camera snaps a side view, recording the position where the laser impinges on the fish.
The three cameras and laser are synchronized in "dual pulses," taking pairs of freeze-frames two milliseconds apart. Lit by the laser, the beads appear as tiny white dots against the photo's black background. The "image pairs" generated by any of the cameras are nearly identical photos, but close inspection shows that the beads have moved slightly from one exposure to the next. With the help of several sophisticated computer programs that Anderson wrote himself, he can measure the distance the beads travel, effectively measuring how fast the water in the boundary layer traveled in millimeters per millisecond.
Anderson creates a map of water speed and direction along the entire length of a fish. From measurements of how water velocity changes with distance from the fish, he calculates friction drag at the skin. With that data, Anderson can generate a complete picture of the "shape" of the boundary layer and the friction drag along a wriggling fish.
In the first year of his study, Anderson waited days, sometimes weeks, for the fish to swim through his 1-centimeter-square field of view. He surfaced, bleary-eyed, from his experiments with just ten seconds of usable image data. With experience and increased funding from the National Science Foundation, the Office of Naval Research, and WHOI's Ocean Ventures Fund, Anderson's system has evolved from fixed cameras on stands to cameras and the laser gliding on the motorized rails of an 800-pound robot.
"Now, I just sit in front of the tank with the joystick, training the laser on the fish," Anderson says. These days, the heavy lifting comes from sifting through the mountains of data. Each camera captures hundreds of gigabytes of images per two-hour experiment.
Data isn't the only thing Anderson catches with his work. An avid angler who spent childhood weekends fishing with his dad, he collects his own experimental "volunteers" (eel, mackerel, dogfish, bluefish, and scup) in Vineyard Sound and Cape Cod Bay. "Having to fish as part of my research is hilarious," Anderson says. "All my fishing buddies just laugh when they hear I get paid to go fishing."
Something Fishy About Drag
Ever since Gray calculated that dolphins shouldn't be able to swim, there has been a controversy in the field of biomechanics: Is drag more intense on a wriggling fish than on a rigid body like a submarine? James Lighthill, another Cambridge scientist and the mathematical genius who helped design the supersonic Concorde jet, predicted in the 1970s that the drag on a real fish would be up to five times greater than on a stiff mock-up.
After observing real swimmers and crunching the data, Anderson saw what Lighthill had predicted. "The friction drag on scup and dogfish was higher than on a rigid body," Anderson says. Essentially, the friction on a swimming fish is higher than that on a coasting fish. "But we also calculated that a scup has two to twenty times the strength needed to overcome this drag." He reported his findings in a 2001 paper in The Journal of Experimental Biology, a publication that James Gray edited for 20 years.
Anderson suggests that his most important observation is that the historical concept of "drag reduction" has been improperly defined when it comes to swimming fish. "A true study of swimming fish should compare the drag of one swimming motion compared to another, not a swimming fish to a rigid model," says Anderson. "A rigid eel goes nowhere, so it doesn't make any sense to compare its drag to a swimming eel, unless you are studying swimming versus gliding.... or trying to decide whether vehicles should be rigid or fish-like.
"It's possible that while a swimming fish has higher friction drag than a rigid, fish-shaped model, a real fish might tune its motion to have lower drag than another, similarly shaped fish," he adds. "This is the more interesting question: What slight differences in swimming motion and body structure result in enhanced efficiency, stability, or maneuverability?"
Much of the time, the key to minimizing friction drag is to keep water flowing smoothly over the fish's skin and to reduce surface area. "For small and slow fish, the boundary layer is often laminar or smooth," Anderson notes. Some fish appear to have natural drag-reducing strategies, such as slots where they can tuck their fins for a sleeker profile.
But sometimes the opposite is true. "For some large and fast fish, the boundary layer sometimes appears to be turbulent," Anderson says. The rough skin of sharks, for instance, may actually stir up the boundary layer. Such turbulence, although it increases friction drag, can decrease form drag by a greater amount. That's because an eddying boundary layer produces a smaller wake and decreased suction at the tail end. (The same principle is at work in the dimples on a golf ball.) Sharks have a method to counteract friction as well, using tiny riblets along their surfaces to organize the turbulent flow in a way that decreases friction.
Anderson's research "has implications for the design of more energy efficient underwater vehicles," says Lauder. "His findings might help show whether future vehicles should be flexible like a fish or rigid like a submarine." Along those lines, boat builders have adopted some of nature's ideas by using riblet technology on the hulls of racing boats.
As Anderson finishes his Ph.D. dissertation on fish motion, he is already daydreaming about how to put Gray's dolphin paradox to the test. He'd like to measure the drag on a live dolphin. If he can find the resources and adapt the technology, he will put his camera and laser system into a watertight backpack and snap shots of the dolphin's boundary layer as it swims. That's assuming that a dolphin actually can swim...
Originally published: April 1, 2003


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For this awards season, Hollywood came through with a bumper crop of movies that were critical and fan favorites. But in many cases, the big studios themselves can't take much of the credit.
Among the films basking in Oscar nominations — and bragging rights for the studios that released them — are "Lincoln," "Zero Dark Thirty" and "Beasts of the Southern Wild."
In a growing trend, the distributors of those three movies didn't pay to make them. Walt Disney Studios, Sony Pictures and Fox Searchlight essentially outsourced the productions, allowing others to invest the money and take the risk. Other award-contending films, including "The Master" and "The Impossible," follow the same pattern.
OSCARS 2013: Nominee list | Snubs & surprises | Ballot
At a time when media conglomerates are in thrall to the mega-profits that can be made from superhero movies and sequels, studio executives have a hard time risking money on pictures aimed at a more sophisticated adult audience. So they're increasingly relying on outsiders to do so.


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Dear Friends of Circle of Light:
There is a pdf version of the Memorial Booklet that was distributed at the Celebration of Life service for Yael Powell on February 18, 2018 in Eureka Springs, AR. This contains many of the expressions of Love that you sent to us. Click here to download it.
Yael Hana Powell took her last breath with me and a few friends present at 9:11 on 1-3-18 She is free - the pain has ended - her Spirit soars!!
Welcome to Circle of Light! We are here to share with you Messages from God received by mystic Yael Powell in her daily meditations over the past 35 years. These Messages from God assure us that each of us is known and deeply loved by our beloved Creator. God is calling now to every being on Earth to open the heart, our heart of Love, to God at this powerful moment of spiritual awakening on Earth.
The heart of Love is the true instrument of perception. As we open the heart to God, not only do we draw reflections of the heart of Love into our daily lives, but our heart of Love becomes a magnetic field for entraining the heart of Love of all of humanity. We become pure conduits for the Light and Love of God.
* Know that we honor all words for God. We also honor all
who seek to embody the Love of God perfectly on Earth.
"Beloved ones, there is not a moment when I Am not loving you. Not a single second when I Am not in your heart. Every part of your body, your energy field, your being, every particle of Light and wave of Love you are…every bit of it is receiving endless Love from Me. You are loved so profoundly, so limitlessly that a wellspring of My Love for you is always feeding you. No matter where you turn your focus, whenever you look, whenever you open to feel, here My Love is – totally present and tenderly alive for you."
"Whether you are deep in the world, enmeshed in the problems and the stresses of the illusion, or you are flying free, boundless energy in the Real of Love – wherever your focus, I Am with you. I Am loving you and bringing you the treasure and the joy of the miracle of our relationship that is the living breath of the All of God."
"I ask you to place all your trust in your heart. In Love. And in the experiences that you begin to have - experiences of the joyous communion that is the All of Life. I promise you that it is real -- that life is a fluid joyous whole of living dancing molten Love. It is the illusion of the mind that isn't real. As you claim the Love you are in Me, every moment will be filled with wonder; every day a glorious communion with the unity of life. Your days will be filled with grace, your moments overflowing with an abundance never dreamed, an abundance of the ecstasy of life where every second is a universal treasure."
"The Pen in God's Hand"
The Messages from God come from Yael Powell's 35 years of daily mystical communion with God. In the tradition of Hildegard von Bingen and other mystics, Yael found God's loving voice through experiences of great suffering transformed into Love. (Read Yael's story under About Us on the navigation bar.) Yael writes in her notebooks or talks on tape exquisite guidance for humanity during her daily meditations.
YAEL SPEAKS: My life has been a study in dramatic contrasts – from the depths of human darkness to the greatest heights of Light and Love. Through my communion with God that has come to be these Messages from God, I have come to understand that it is my heart of Love that helps to open the door to brand new possibilities for all of us, as together we transform a world of limitation into a world of joy, Love and wonder.
While these Messages from God didn't begin in their current form until 1983, the Light was always present in my life. At the age of 5, I had found myself connecting in consciousness, through my heart, with what I now understand as my Twin Flame. READ MORE...
"I took the leap of faith
from my shadow cliff of doubt,
All I left behind
were the chains within my mind.
I felt something softly hold me ~
God's loving hands enfold me,
I knew the I AM within
was the same I AM as Him.
At last I was homeward bound.
My soul has leaped for joy
and finally I am wholly found."
This magnificent painting,
Leap of Faith, and its
poignant accompanying poem
are the work of visionary artist,
Ann Van Eps, who kindly gave
us permission to share them here.
Visit Ann's Gallery at
The Messages from God guide us out of the limited mind into a shift to the heart of Love, bringing us a world of only Love. Through the Messages, God leads us to a grand perspective in which we open the heart, and every facet of life becomes about Love, a reflection of our beloved Creator.
The shift to the heart of Love and the activation of our hearts lift us to such a high vibration that we magnetically entrain every other heart to Love, just by their being in its proximity! Every aspect of life on Earth is transformed and brought into resonance with joy, beauty, perfection and Love. The shift to the heart of Love is the doorway to a life of ecstasy in a world of only Love. To support the Shift to the Heart, Circle of Light makes available a new, free offering called Heart Activation. This is a opening of hearts through a connection to Jeshua (Jesus) with Yael Powell's heart as conduit. We highly recommend that you READ MORE...
One of the most important topics of the Messages from God is SoulMates, or the words we prefer, Twin Flames. The Messages have vastly stretched our consciousness about the divine partner and what Love truly is. The Love of SoulMates or Twin Flames, is Love in its highest ideal. The Love between true SoulMates or Twin Flames is deeply felt through the heart of Love as pure, natural, completely trusting, tender and eternal. There are no expectations, demands or needs to be fulfilled from the personality. It is based on spiritual truth and deep inner knowing and is totally unconditional.
Twin Flame Love follows the natural course of Love which is giving, with no expectation of return. As Twin Flames open the heart and give Love forth, their heart of Love then receives what has been given, multiplied. They expand the cycle of giving in service to God and to humanity. God is now calling every one of us to be willing to open to this kind of Love in the deepest possible way -- the Love that is the reflection of the Twin Flame within -- to be a part of creating Heaven on Earth, a world of Love and only Love. READ MORE…
From the Messages from God:
"Dear ones, each and every Twin Flame couple will truly bring the Moment of Creation back to Earth. You shall be such a great manifestation of Love that, in your presence, time shall cease. All will be held in Holy Communion. The pendulum of cause and effect comes to rest because Twin Flames are My heart and shall thus entrain all in their presence to Love."


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Check out our Facebook page to see what is happening. Find us by searching for: Camper's Holiday Brooksville, FL
October through April
RV/Trailer lots and permanent residential residences available for sale for every lifestyle.
55+ Community, Snowbirds welcome.
Click on Owners Information top right and then scroll down to "Homes-Lots for Sale" for a complete list
We honor Coachmen Owners Association, Escapees RV Club, Family Motor Coach Association, and Passport America member discounts. We also offer a military discount.
66 Paved, Shaded Sites Playground
Security Gate Pavilion
Large Heated Pool Pool Table
20, 30, 50 amp service Lake Fishing
Recreation Hall Picnic Tables
Outdoor Pantries Coin Laundries
Shuffleboard Courts Horseshoes
Volleyball Court
Clean Heated Restrooms
Convenience Store Near Entrance
FREE Cable TV
FREE Wi-Fi
Dog Run
Seasonal sites available.
15 Golf Courses nearby.


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Please Note: In order to complete your registration, you must enter your credit/debit card information or provide a purchase order number from your school or county. Your registration will not be complete without this information.
The Advanced Placement (AP) Summer Institute is a subject-specific professional development opportunity. It provides teachers with the support and training needed to teach AP courses and to utilize AP teaching strategies. Teachers from West Virginia, as well as other states, come together at this institute to learn techniques and tactics for teaching. Participants also engage in discussion and exchange ideas and information with peers about AP courses and exams.
Instructor: Paul Filio
The institute will take place at:
Lodging will be provided at the Charleston Marriott Town Center. Your lodging information will be sent to you in your confirmation 1-2 weeks prior to the start of the institute.
Lodging is provided to West Virginia teachers living at least 80 miles or 1.5 hours driving time from the session location at no additional cost. The deadline to reserve lodging is Tuesday, June 19. Lodging will not be available after the deadline.
Lodging is not provided to out-of-state participants.


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What's your favorite kid-friendly app?
I love the My PlayHome app by Shimon Young. On the most basic level, it is a virtual dollhouse. It was one of the first apps my three year old started playing. It occupies them, gets their imagination going, and provides a lot of giggles along the way. Educationally-speaking, my favorite would be anything by Spinlight Studio, AlphaTots and TallyTots are responsible for helping my children learn their alphabet and numbers.


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I think sometimes people overreact too much to both NFL wins and losses.
One of the things I've been hearing this morning is that the Texans had a let down after clinching the playoffs and lost a trap game. I think that misses the big picture, and I don't think that's right.
Some thoughts that should be obvious but listening to sports talk radio likely aren't:
Next Man Up doesn't mean they don't miss injured players. The Texans have been winning games despite losses. After losing Schaub, they won games but they were closer than you'd like, and but for a play here or there, they could have easily lost the last two games. It's execution. That doesn't mean they were best ever team when they won the last two and a bunch of bums when the lost this last one. But the Texans offensive efficiency numbers have taken a huge dive without Schaub running the offense.
n the Atlanta game where Andre Johnson went down with a different hamstring injury, he had 4 receptions for 97 yards, including a circus 50 yard catch. He was a big part of winning that game. Not to mention how he opens things up for everyone.
Carolina Panthers are like last year's Texans. As I said in the last post, this year's Panthers are a bit like last year's Texans. Great offense, not so good defense, plays hard, very injured. Teams like that can compete and beat good teams by putting up a ton of points. Panthers almost beat a number of good teams this year. Was interesting to hear Bum Phillips say this in his post game radio comments–interrupting the questioners to emphasize this point. They have a unique, unorthodox offense that has given some very good defenses fits this year.
[As an aside, my seats are close to the visitor bench. You know how sometimes you know the statistics of height/weight of a player but then when you see them in person, it still astonishes you? Got that experience seeing Cam Newton up close. Very thick legs. It's stunning that someone that big can move that fast. You could see defenders struggling to take angles on Newton that make sense–accounting for how hard you have to hit him to bring him down, and his speed at that size. Oh, and that roughing the passer call on Brian Cushing was BS.]
Good point this by Adam Wexler of Sports Radio 790.
No matter the quality of your team, if you are losing the turnover battle consistently, it is going to be hard to win.
Managing Fan Expectations-Who Said This Was Going to be Easy?
Worst moment at Reliant Stadium was the boo birds at the half. Or the fans who sat eating their nachos quietly when the Texans got behind. This Panthers team had choked up second half leads before, and some fans acted like the game was over. Texans fans are not unique this way–it is human nature. Even the few times the Patriots have laid an egg, their fans headed for the exits early. It is much easier to get loud for your team when they are rolling than when they are struggling.
I do not like when people generalize about fans and Texans fans in particular. Painting all with a broad brush. There were some fans who did their part for the entire game, and there were some fans who only brought energy when good things happened. Some fans think it is just fine to boo because they paid their money and can do what they please, and then there's some fans who consider booing a form of aid and comfort to the visiting team.
I would hope as a group we could be more supportive, and we will have to do better because adversity happens in NFL games. Especially with all the issues the Texans have these days, trying to keep it together.
Winning with a backup backup rookie quarterback is not easy. It is something the Texans coaches are committed to do because given their system, and all the rest of the offensive players that know the system, if they execute that system well even with a rookie quarterback, it gives them the best opportunity to win. If they execute the system well, they have things like the two 80 yard scoring drives that won the Bengals game. If they don't execute the system well, then you have what happened yesterday with the terrible third down conversion rate.
Anyway, so my message today is "Stop telling me that was a trap game because I'm not buying that." Trap games are for dominant teams with no weaknesses. If you have the same or a different point of view, you can leave it in the comments, or start your own Texans blog that isn't so fun to write after the Texans lose.


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SANTA BARBARA, Calif. – The UCSB men's swimming team fell to Stanford in a dual meet at Campus Pool on Friday. The final score of the shortened dual meet format was 108-91. This is the final home meet for the Gauchos as they prepare for Pac-12 Championships next month. The men finish with a 6-2 record in dual meets this season.
To start the meet the relay team of Randy Aakhus, Andy Castilleja, Mickey Mowry, and Lukas Paulauskas took second place in the 200 yard medley relay. Andrew Barmann came in third place in the 1000 yard free in 9:35.06. Lucas Norman took second place in the 200 yard free in 1:41.37.
Ryan Hanni came in second place in the 50 yard free in 20.77 but went on to take first in the 100 yard free in 45.42. In the 200 yard individual medley, Aakhus came in third in 1:52.24. Aakhus also took third place in the 100 yard backstroke in 50.71. Mowry took a second place finish in the 100 yard fly in 50.35. Armen Darbinyan came in second place in the 500 yard free in 4:37.55.
The Gauchos finished strong at the end of the meet with a first place finish from Castilleja in the 100 yard breaststroke in 56.23. Finally, the 400 yard freestyle relay team of Wade Allen, Alex Campbell, Norman, and Hanni took first place in 3:01.78.
The Gauchos will be in action again for the Pac-12 diving championships on February 26th in Washington. The Pac-12 swimming championships will be held on March 5th, also in Washington.