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With SharePoint 2013 in beta, we wanted to bring what we've learned straight to you. Join us for a week of webinars hosted by our SharePoint experts.
All times are CDT
SharePoint 2013: An Information Workers Introduction with Jennifer Mason, Monday, Aug. 27 at 1 p.m.
With each new release of SharePoint there are many small features that make a big impact. In this 30-minute session, Jennifer Mason will give a glimpse into these new features. We will give an overview of what the new sites experience will be for users and navigate through some of the common settings that can be configured. For those who are new to SharePoint 2013, this overview will give you the 30,000 foot view into what's new and what you can expect to see when you create a new solution within 2013.
View This Webinar
SharePoint 2013: A More Social Enterprise with Laura Rogers, Monday, Aug. 27 at 2 p.m.
In SharePoint 2013, it is more natural than ever to get the enterprise involved socially with SharePoint. In this 30-minute session, Laura Rogers will give you a glimpse of several of the new and the improved features of SharePoint…socially. We will take a look at community portals and sites, with the improved discussion boards, tagging, activity feeds and the ability to follow content and people. The new My Site will also be demonstrated, along with all of the different and new functionality, such as the rollup of a user's tasks from anywhere in SharePoint. Laura will not only demonstrate these features, but show an example of a day in the life of an information worker, and how natural it will be to make social participation a part of their daily activities.
View This Webinar
Installing and Configuring SharePoint 2013 on a Test Machine with Todd Klindt, Tuesday, Aug. 28 at 2 p.m.
By now we all know that the SharePoint 2013 beta is out, and it's just begging you to install it. But it has some new parts. There are new switches to flip and knobs to turn. How can you be sure which of those knobs is safe to turn up to 11? Spend an hour with Todd Klindt and watch him configure a new SharePoint 2013 farm. He'll walk you through each step and explain the settings. At the end he'll have a functioning SharePoint 2013 farm, and you'll have a handful of scripts, a head full of SharePoint 2013 smarts, and the ability the create a SharePoint 2013 farm that you won't be ashamed to show your friends –even your non-nerdy friends.
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Let's Play with Upgrading from SharePoint 2010 to 2013 with Shane Young, Wednesday, Aug. 29 at 2 p.m.
Upgrading to SharePoint 2013 is a lot the same but yet different enough from 2010 that is worth a quick peek. For this session we will take a look at the upgrade process and notice there is only one option this time. From there we will see that we have a 2010 site collection even though it is 2013, and while we have seen that trick before with visual upgrade, that isn't what this is. This time the portion of the upgrade of changing over the content and look and feel is radically different. This will not be the end all, be all upgrade session, but it should give you enough to try it out for yourself and see where you are at.
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SharePoint 2013 Architectural Changes for Web Developers with Tom Resing, Thursday, Aug. 30 at 1 p.m.
SharePoint 2013 has improvements many web developers have been waiting for. Tom will give you an overview of some changes Microsoft has made behind the scenes that effect how web pages are rendered and accessed. Learn about and see effects of improved Host-named site collections, better HTML Rendering and new Metadata driven friendly web addresses.
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What's New with Web Content Management in SharePoint Server 2013? with John Ross, Thursday, Aug. 30 at 2 p.m.
The way we think about and approach web content management (WCM) in SharePoint is about to change. In the past, the way we'd always thought about planning a WCM project hinged on where our content in SharePoint was located, and then we tagged it with metadata and surfaced it with things like the Content Query Web Part (CQWP). SharePoint Sever 2013 changes things by driving content management via search, which opens up many new powerful possibilities. In this session I'll provide an overview of the new WCM features in SharePoint Server 2013 and explain the benefits of search driven content management, and how this will change the way we approach SharePoint projects.
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Moving to SharePoint 2013 from Your File Share with Jeff DeVerter, Friday, Aug. 31 at 11 a.m.
SharePoint 2013 represents a substantial improvement in core capabilities and user experience. In this session we will explore the new user interface and capabilities of SharePoint as we go through the example of moving a corporate file-share into SharePoint 2013. We will do this through the viewpoint of several personas within the company so we can also see the vast improvements in the social-networking capabilities contained with SharePoint 2013.
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Introduction to SharePoint App Model with Jonathan Mast, Friday, Aug. 31 at1 p.m.
During this session we'll take a look at the newcomer to the SharePoint Customization Party™: SharePoint Apps. Apps, combined with investments in SharePoint's REST and Client Object Models, provide a mechanism for developers to provide complete solutions to users as "SharePoint Apps." These apps can run as a SharePoint Hosted App, a Provider Hosted App or a Cloud (or "Auto") hosted App based on the provider's requirements. This talk will cover an overview of the SharePoint App Model including architecture and security. We'll also show an example of creating a basic app from within Visual Studio.
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What's New for Branding in SP2013 with Randy Drisgill, Friday, Aug. 31 at 2 p.m.
With SharePoint 2013, Microsoft has a made a large investment in new features that allow designers to more easily apply custom styles and branding to their SharePoint sites. In this session we will look at how the SharePoint branding story has evolved for SharePoint 2013 and explore some of these new features like the Design Manager, Managed Navigation, Device Channels, Composed Looks and more.
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|Episode Description
|Tuesday, Mar 12, 2013 - 7:00 PM
"The Pork Chronicles"
As opposed to the lean-is-better preference in the United States, Koreans love their pork full of fat - and flavor. In this episode, Marja, her dear friend, the actress Heather Graham, and an expert food blogger named Daniel eat classic pork barbeque at Heukdonga restaurant in Seoul. They also stop by Songgane Gamjatang, where Seoul's taxi drivers convene for pork bone soup and the grand pork dish known as bo ssam. D
|More on LEARN/CREATE (MT)
|No upcoming shows in database

subset: commoncrawl


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Thick: Bad Girls Club "Catya" Goes Off & Spits On A Guy Over A $32 Tab! [8-17-2010][Fixed]
Bad Girls Club 5 Miami
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Message Board
Clive Cussler and Paul Kemprecos Message Board
Talk about the novels, new and used books that Kemprecos has written!
Author Kemprecos's Book Reviews
Fire Ice - The NUMA Files 3
After the breakup of the Old Soviet Union, an evil, power-mad leader arises. With the help of a mad Rasputin-like monk, this charismatic individual begins to draw many of the now-defunct USSR military personnel to his side. His goal? World conquest, of course. His method? Inducing tsunamis near the American coastline which will devastate the ocean-bordering states. Kurt Austin and Joe Zavala, two top investigator/scientists with an organization c...
White Death
Putnam, Jul 2003, 26.95, 432 pp. ISBN: 0399150412 In 1515, a Basque caravel sinks two Spanish war galleys. In 1935 a German zeppelin soars northward on a top-secret flight to reach the North Pole, but in the Arctic the Germans see a ship stranded on the ice. He goes to help. In the present off the Faroe Islands, whale rescuers try to stop Islanders from killing whales, but lose control of the ship to an overhead helicopter that sends the vesse...


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Product Details
Mitsubishi Montero Canada Built / USA Built 1999, Spin-On Full-Flow Lube Oil Filter by WIX®. Oil is the life-blood of an engine, which means the oil filter should never be taken for granted, especially in harsh heavy-duty environments. The small price maintenance teams must pay for premium filters is well worth the cost when you consider the components that make up an oil filter.
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After my last post about the Farmer's Market, this project was ready to be shared. This is part of a larger project I'm working on....or rather, I plan on working on at some point in the near future, and by saying this is part of that project I'm hoping it will make me force myself to finish that project since I don't like dangling/incomplete projects, though my life is filled with ideas in the oven. On another note, I'm totally fine with dangling participles. This has nothing to do with the other, but....it seemed like a good time to mention it.
Anyway, I love making felt food. I've made quite a bit of felt food in the past. No calories, this is a good thing. I went back and tagged some of those projects, and I've now added a 'felt food' label to those post. I guess it's that girl in me that would have spent my whole time in the play kitchen in pre-k....except I didn't attend a Pre-K program, so I have a lot of playtime to make up for in my adulthood.
OK...enough on that other mumbo jumbo...on to the specifics....
I have a friend with little boys, one of which really likes barns and farms. I decided to make some felt farm food to go with that large project I'm working on for the family....I'll get to rest of the project...right after I post this....and watch some day time TV....and surf the net....and paint my dog's toenails...and....
I bought felt in the colors I needed. I did a sewing assembly line of stitches that would match the food's dents/bumps/features/characteristics...whatever.
Here is my 'corn features' sewing assembly line:
I sewed two sides, and the tip of the vegetable inside out. I turned it rightside out, stuffed the vegetable with scraps of felt, and cloth, and then cut out the shape of the 'green leafy part.'
I squished it into whatever shape I wanted it to be in, and then placed it in the (still) open end of the vegetable.
I just sewed a line across.
I know there is a whole process to hand stitching and pulling these so the tops are more rounded,and authentic, but I just didn't think the 6 and under-year-old kiddos cared about that extra step.l..incidentally, neither did the 31 year old making these felt foods.
The Carrots
The Corn
The Eggs (I've seen things like this around on the net with a cool little blanket stitch around the yolk. I didn't do this....I just used my machine....I didn't want to show off, oh, and I have no idea how to make a blanket stitch.)
I made little egg yolks...
They fit inside the plastic eggs I saved from Easter...
And I slipped the yolk filled eggs inside the cartons...
Here's the problem with a farm project....I could go on...and on...and on. I wanted to make pails of milk, but I imagined the milk drops all over the house...and my friend never speaking to me again...b/c she's too busy collecting parts.
...or all the felt farm animals I could make.
...oh no, this can't be good.
Someone please call me in thirty minutes and make sure I'm not ordering chicken feathers off Amazon or something.
Forget felt. I want a real farm.
Do they sell chickens on Amazon?
...let me go check...I'll post the rest of this in a few weeks....assuming my new chickens don't chew through my power cord.
Linking To:
Under the Table and Dreaming
Sew Can Do
Topsy Turvy
Trendy Treehouse
Featured On:
Saturday, July 31, 2010
Felt Farm Food
Posted by Christy Robbins at 1:53 AM 10 comments
Labels: Felt Food, Homemade Gift, Sewing
Friday, July 30, 2010
Farmer's Market
One thing I love about summer are the fresh fruits and vegetables. I guess I should just say....I feel less guilty in the summer paying less for fresher vegetables that too often (still) go to waste. I blame it on being single, and being forced to buy too much of each vegetable/fruit in the prepackaged containers. Really, it's eating too many carbs and not making enough room for vegetables. I still like to pretend I'm going to eat really healthy...and that dream usually takes me downtown to the farmer's market.
There are actually little stands all along the highways during the spring and summer months, and there are farmer's market, and gourmet grocery stores all over the suburb in which I pay my house taxes, but I like the Dallas Farmer's Market b/c it's big....4 huge sheds full of fruits, vegetables, and other goodies.
I like to stick to shed one when purchasing b/c they are the farmers within the closest radius, and that's sort of the point-the closer, the fresher....I hope.
You can get full just walking around and sampling all the fruits and vegetables at each stand.
And they also have some pretty neat little cafes with some really great looking food....I've tried out few of these meats, tamales, and meals, but I did go to this vendor selling roasted corn.
The regular toppings for the corn is a large slathering of butter, and parmesan cheese....and then every salt/seasoning option in the grocery story....
How many calories can I pack into an ear of corn? I'll leave that for another blog entry someday....
If it helps, among other things, I bought these...
....and other healthy 'stuff.'
....but, I have to be true to myself, and so I also bought these....
....and I made blueberry muffins...
I think I've established I have a carb problem, but I'd still like to count this as one serving of fruits.
Posted by Christy Robbins at 12:00 AM 2 comments
Labels: Dallas Area Activities
Thursday, July 29, 2010
Blythe's Play Tent
I sewed all six pieces together along the 24 inch edge, and then, as I got to the sixth piece and sewed the first and sixth together, I inserted the ribbon to hold the entired tent up, created a loop and then sewed back and forth 5 or 20 times to hold it in place.
I then turned it inside out and pinned it on the hula hoop.
Next I took the second sheet (I had left over from the first sheet....I'll be able to put this to use on one of the 3,456 projects I plan on working on this month, I could have added a little more to the width of sheet two if I wanted the tent to meet completely, but....I didn't. Mostly because I'm lazy, but also b/c....I didn't want to.). I cut out 8 inch wide triangles, sewed the edges, and then just attached them along the top of the sheet that would be sewn onto the tent top later.
Posted by Christy Robbins at 5:15 PM 12 comments
Labels: Crafting, Homemade Gift, Sewing
Adding "You Might Also Like" Feature to a Blog
I try to keep up with blogs, and I'm always adding new blogs that I find and love to the list I follow. When I start following someone, I usually start exploring their blog, but depending on how long they've blogged, sometimes it's impossible find all their fun post. I've seen this great little feature at the bottom of several of people's blog post, and I love them b/c they hint at past post I may have missed for one reason or another. I finally googled how to do this, and it was much easier than I thought when I put it off over...and over again.
If *you* (as usual *you*=me in the future) want to add these fun little teasers to past post on your blog, go to http://www.linkwithin.com/ and follow the instructions. There are about two that involve hitting something like 'allow' and 'save.' Now, I'm going to solve another one of the 'world's problems.' And when I say 'the world's problems'....I mean the dust currently residing in my living room.
Posted by Christy Robbins at 1:47 AM 2 comments
Labels: Blogging
Wednesday, July 28, 2010
Europe Scrapbook...So Far
To say I didn't get everything I wanted accomplished on the retreat I wrote about yesterday....would be an understatement. BUT....I did get started on my Europe album from my trip a year ago. I knew it would be a huge undertaking b/c I took thousands of pictures (not exaggerating)...and I just am not willing to cut as many as I usually do. I only finished scrapbooking 1 of 8 boxes of pictures, so...it looks like I have a long road ahead of me....and no doubt, this won't be the last I blog about this project. I'm including a sampling of a few of the pages I did...just b/c I need SOMETHING to represent 3 days of scrapbooking. These are in no particular order....
I love making little paper pockets to store brochures etc I sometimes ave when on vacation....depending on how much of a pack rat I'm feeling like at the moment. I was feeling like a packrat on this vacation!
Around Town
(I ALSO like making little books, like the one on the left hand page I can slip in and out with more pictures. I want to be able to look at the pictures, but I don't want 4 or 5 pages of the same type of thing. I also saved some of the brochures/maps etc from the different tours I took, and I used one of those as my 'paper' on this page, so I have the map to remember the journey, and it doubles as this paper in my scrapbook....frugal is good.)
London Eye
London Bridge
(No, not the real one, the real one was apparently imported to America...who says money has limitations?)
Buckingham Palace
Tower Of London
Rhineland Valley
...for now....I'm moving on to other crafts and letting this project nap.
Linking To:
Scrappy Gifts
Posted by Christy Robbins at 6:30 PM 4 comments
Labels: Scrapbooking


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Directional light with light guard. Most useful for every installation.
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Rain barrels painted by Springside Chestnut Hill Academy students have been selected to be part of the EPA's exhibition, entitled "The Art & Science of Rain Barrels," at its Public Information Center in Philadelphia.
The exhibition supports the City of Philadelphia's Green City, Clean Waters plan by educating the public about stormwater issues and the ways people can help reduce runoff. It also promotes the message that small actions in stormwater management can make a big difference.
The SCH students worked on the rain barrel project with Mt. Airy Art Garage (MAAG) co-founders Linda Slodki and Arleen Olshanand and SCH Academy's Fine Arts Department chair Dan Brewer. Other barrel designs chosen for the exhibition were painted by students from Charles W. Henry School, the Pennsylvania School for the Deaf, the Philadelphia Water Department and the Energy Coordinating Agency in Philadelphia.
At the opening of the exhibit on July 9, Olshanand praised the students' barrel designs and their commitment to the environment.
"The students were enthusiastic about art, sustainability, learning more about the Wissahickon Watershed, and beautifying the community," Olshanand said.
Alison Weiss, one of the SCH students, whose barrel was selected for the exhibition, added, "The paintings themselves bring color and creativity to unexpected places. More importantly, these barrels help the environment by holding water to be recycled."
"The Art & Science of Rain Barrels" exhibition will run through Sept. 20. After the exhibit, the rain barrels will be distributed throughout Northwest Philadelphia and to each school that participated.


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Featured News - Current News - Archived News - News Categories
The Buffalo Sabres have announced the club will host an authentic camouflage jersey auction, beginning today, in honor of Veterans Day.
Sabres players will wear camouflage jerseys during pregame warm-ups prior to this evening's home game against the Los Angeles Kings. The jerseys will then be put up for auction on the NHL.com auction site immediately following the game at 10 p.m. All proceeds from the auction, which runs through Wednesday, Nov. 20, at 9 p.m., will benefit the Buffalo Sabres Foundation.
The Buffalo Sabres Foundation is a New York state not-for-profit corporation that is dedicated to stimulating, supporting and encouraging organizations that serve Western New York and are committed to youth hockey initiatives; the health, wellness and education of underprivileged /disadvantaged youth and military personnel; and physically and mentally challenged athletes. It provides financial generosity and other platforms for such endeavors.


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HEY HEY HEY Everybody! It's your favorite MC and Anchor, DAX MIC!
Man, this day sure seemed to have go on forever huh, like, months even. And now it's finally here, our Grand Jarl Khaar is set to give an address to the nation.
(Post ALDIH, he'll find some way of surviving)
(Keep in mind all of my posts about New Scandinavia has taken place over the course of a day)
At the moment, the podium sits alone. Well, not really alone as there is a huge crowd of all you fine folks in front of it. Khaar is set to appear on stage any moment now.
OOO! OOO! Here come's Khaar's personal Mandoa Guard, this is it folks.
And two RANGER guards. I'm sure the rest of their squad is hidden here somewhere.
There he is folks!!! Grand Jarl Khaar! Give it up everybody.
Thank you Dax Mic, and thank you all of my fellow New Scandinavians for all your support. I know I am one of the youngest Grand Jarls elected, and I thank you having me be elected. Now, in the coming days, it will mark the 10 year anniversary of our armistice with the Clone Confederacy. As you all know, I fought till the end of that battle, losing many friends in the battle. I had agreed to continue the armistice, out of respect for our late Grand Jarl. However, it was only for 10 years, and that 10 years is coming to a close.
And so, tonight, I am announcing the next step for our great empire, hell, for our world. OPERATION: UNITED. Along with this announcement, I bring to you a great truth. We are not alone. We have had irrefutable proof of existing extra-terrestrial worlds, even great universe wide conflicts. We have even been contacted by some to join the fight. I have decided to delay such a thing in favor of OPERATION: UNITED however. The backbone of a strong galactic empire is a strong, united homeworld. OPERATION: UNITED is our attempt at that.
As you can image, the goal of this operation is to unite the planet under one government...our government. I have already contacted the Rebel Regime and the Droid Hivemind to attempt a peaceful resolution with them. They have not gotten back to me on that yet. As for the Clone Confederacy, General Tyson Kip's exact words were, "You'll have peace when you're dead and buried." And so, as of now. We are officially at war with the Clone Confederacy once again. As for you citizens, I know that all this news in one few minute speech must be quite something to comprehend, and all I can say to you all is, Prepare. "Live and Die by the Blade" brothers and sisters.
...my...my God. I...I for once have no words. Dax Mic, out.
Hopefully this will start to make up for my long state of quasi-absence. Once I can get the rest of my NS troops in order, I can have my first forum battle.


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A couple of years ago I wrote a blog post titled Seeing More.
It was about a shell seeking trip that Jim and I took to the Naples beach just after a thunderstorm and what I discovered there. To this day, it is still one of my favorite blog posts.
Just after publishing that post, my brother John sent me this book in the mail.
The author, Dr. Gary Greenberg, took sand samples from different beaches all over the world and looked at them under a microscope. And he was shocked at what he saw. When his brother sent him a sample vial from Maui, he put it under the microscope and expected to see a bunch of tiny brown rocks. What he saw instead amazed him.
Spectacular colors, shapes and textures...remnants of rock, yes...but also lots of bits of dead flora and fauna. Under the microscope, they all looked like jewels...and they told a story. (You can see more of his photos on his website here.)
Re-reading this book in light of my current project made me very curious to know more about the components that make up the sand on my Dad's beach in Naples, Florida.
Though the author didn't specifically photograph any of Florida's sand, he does mention that most sand is the product of eroded rock. Continental beaches like those in Florida are most likely made up of quartz and feldspar that results from the erosion of the local granite bedrock. I did a little research on the internet and found this post on the beach sands of the Gulf of Mexico. Given the number of shells that land on my Dad's beach, I predict that his sand is likely made up of biological components of sea creatures and shells together with quartz. I would love to put some under a microscope and see for myself.
In ordet to get a sense for the colors that make up the Naples beach, I used the color picker tool in Photoshop to create a palette...
And I was surprised yet again by what the color picker reveals. Inevitably, there are colors involved in a tree trunk, a sea star...even sand...that I wouldn't have chosen if left to my own naked eye. Like the author, I expected the color to be off white. So I was surprised to see mostly taupes and grays show up.
Ever since I heard a radio interview with Betty Edwards, author of Color: A Course in Mastering the Art of Mixing Color, my whole understanding of color has made a continental shift. She felt that our schools had done a tremendous disservice to young children when teaching them that skies are blue and that trees have green leaves and brown trunks. In reality, they are many colors, hues and shades that make up the trees and sky that we see. I've never forgotten that....and have been using the color picker to help select color ever since.
And isn't it interesting that when Dr. Greenberg looks at sand under a microscope...he sees sooo many different colors?
Somehow, I wanted to give the appearance of sand on my block...so that you would know that the sea star is resting on the beach.
Here's my problem. The sea star was stitched with size 15 seed beads. In order to give the appearance of sand, I would need to use a bead that was significantly smaller. So I went back to my antique seed beads (I get them from Beadcats) and found the closest colors I could find to my palette...old ivory and old silver lined 22 degree seed beads.
There's no way to stitch size 22 beads without using a size 16 beading needle and 00 nymo thread, both of which I have to order online because no local bead shop carries anything that small.
Now, there's no way I can stitch a whole beach worth of sand on my block. I just wanted to give the impression of sand...by suggesting it.
And my little mix of beads I hope will do the trick.
That being said, it's still a lot of stitching to attach a random pattern of tiny sand beads onto my block. So that's my job this weekend.
Of course, I'm laughing at myself thinking I would be done today.
I should know myself by now. I take too many side trips and tangents to ever get me to the goal in a straight line.
Have a great weekend everyone! I'm off to stitch sand, one grain at a time...
P.S. I found this great close up pic of the nine-armed sea star. Don't those scales on his legs look like beads?


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Growing Up With
Undiagnosed Asperger's
Tim Page
Doubleday: 198 pp., $26
Are we who we are in spite of our afflictions, or because of them?
This question beats at the heart of Tim Page's brief, unadorned memoir, "Parallel Play: Growing Up With Undiagnosed Asperger's." An odd, obsessive yet intellectually gifted man, Page was diagnosed in his 40s with Asperger's syndrome, part of a cluster of disorders that includes autism. Asperger's is often characterized by extreme awkwardness in social interactions, clumsy motor skills and a compulsive desire to collect encyclopedic details about random subjects.
"Parallel Play" book review: A review of Tim Page's book "Parallel Play" that ran Sept. 6 in Arts & Books incorrectly rendered a quote from the book about Page's connections to loved ones. The quote in the review read: "Once somebody becomes a part of my life, I will let them out only for the most urgent of reasons. Death doesn't count. I'm not priding myself on my loyalty here: I'm loyal enough but my brain simply isn't agile enough to comprehend such seismic changes, and the world with my parents . . . and other people I've loved, is no more imaginable to me than the world without clouds, the color green or the city of London." The line in the book actually reads "the world without my parents," not "with." —
The Viennese pediatrician for whom the disorder is named noted that a "dash of autism" is essential for a successful career in the sciences. Perhaps he should have added music critic to the list, if Page, a Pulitzer Prize-winning classical music critic, is any example. (Page has authored several books of criticism and biography, notably on the forgotten satirical novelist Dawn Powell).
But this not a "how I trumped the odds" kind of book. Nor is it an account of how to cope with Asperger's. On its face it appears to be a middle-age man's reflection on his formative years and what led him to his profession, certainly a classic memoir structure and not exactly pulse-pounding. Yet in its quiet way, "Parallel Play" is simply lovely.
Context is everything in this case: Here we have not a memoir about someone with a disorder, but a memoir by a man who happens to have a disorder. Consider the implications: At its most severe, Asperger's makes the kind of self-expression required to write a memoir near impossible. While Page does not have a severe case, nevertheless he is attempting a literary form that would seem to put him far outside his comfort zone.
In the book's prologue, he quotes Oliver Sachs, who wrote that in people with "classical autism there is no 'window,' and we can only infer" their interior life; Page's goal with this book "may be counted as one person's attempt at a 'window.' " And he does so even as he details potentially embarrassing events, such as his tyrannical behavior as a child filmmaker (he was also the subject of the 1967 short documentary "A Day With Timmy Page"), the caddish way he handled his first sexual encounter, stupid antics on LSD and even his affection for the rock band Procol Harum -- not to mention the post- Brian Wilson Beach Boys (dude, really?).
Three decades in as a music critic (and after a disastrous turn as a senior administrator at the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra), Page goes into therapy. After one psychiatrist incorrectly diagnoses him as bipolar and prescribes lithium -- "which did nothing but make me feel weirdly outsized" -- and another prescribes anti-anxiety pills, he finds a psychologist who identifies his condition as Asperger's. At last, Page finds a way to understand himself: "Here it all was -- the computer-like retention, the physical awkwardness, the difficulties with peers and lovers, the need for routine and repetition, the narrow, specialized interests. . . . I was forty-five years old when I learned I wasn't alone."
As would be expected, his relationship to music is central to his story. After hearing Steve Reich's minimalist composition "Music for 18 Musicians," he is moved to stay up all night writing his impressions. He was 21. "Today I find myself wondering if I would have responded so profoundly to this starkly reiterative, rigidly patterned music had I not had Asperger's syndrome," Page writes. "As the Quakers might say, this music spoke to my condition; it was what my insides sounded like."
This memoir is essentially an expansion of a much-lauded essay Page wrote for the New Yorker in 2007. Literary agents love to sell a book idea to a publisher based on something that has already been successful, although too often the book is a watered-down version of what was good about the original. In this case, however, details underscore the point: Page's careful rendering of the date a family friend dies, the verbatim police report from a serious car accident, the addresses of childhood homes -- this exactness is not a description of the author's character, but an experience of it.
As Page puts it, "Learning to make connections with people -- much as I desperately wanted to -- was a bewildering process, for they kept changing, and I felt like an alien, always about to be exposed. . . . Not only did I not see the forest for the trees; I was so intensely distracted that I missed the trees for the species of lichen on their bark."
Yet he does connect, and profoundly. His prose becomes the most luminous and wrenching when he writes of dearly beloveds, from his steadfast and protective parents who afforded their difficult son every chance at success, to his lifelong best friend, Annie, his two ex-wives and three sons, and a Cecil B. DeMille-sized cast of others. He explains:
"Once somebody becomes a part of my life, I will let them out only for the most urgent of reasons. Death doesn't count. I'm not priding myself on my loyalty here: I'm loyal enough but my brain simply isn't agile enough to comprehend such seismic changes, and the world with my parents . . . and other people I've loved, is no more imaginable to me than the world without clouds, the color green or the city of London."
Page does not glorify or mythologize his condition, nor does he render a portrait of a soul victimized by circumstance. The view from this window is merely one of the human condition, painted in emotions known to us all, yet rarely so finely drawn.
Dunn is the author of two memoirs, "Not by Accident" and "Faith in Carlos Gomez."


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Last month, on a cold November night in Times Square, Police Officer Lawrence DePrimo, who had been assigned there as part of a counter terrorism unit, noticed an old man. He was clearly homeless and even more obviously barefoot. Officer DePrimo asked the man his shoe size. He then went into a nearby Skechers Shoe Store and bought the man a pair of all-weather boots. They would normally cost about $100, but the sales clerk, understanding their purpose, used his employee discount to bring the price down to $75.
Does this sort of thing happen often? Maybe it happens more than we think, though obviously not as often as it should. According to Jose Cano, the shoe salesman, "Most of us are New Yorkers and we just kind of pass by that kind of thing. Especially in this neighborhood." Indeed, no one would know of this incident, but a tourist from Arizona snapped a picture of Officer DePrimo, giving the boots to the homeless man. The photo went viral.
All feasts of the Church are both joyful and prophetic. We never simply extol the life of Christ, or one of his saints, without bringing the gladsome news to bear upon our own lives. How does the teaching that Mary, by a singular, prevenient grace, was preserved from all sin, from the first moment of her conception, come to rest in our lives?
Perhaps by noting that, although the grace was singular, its prevenient nature was not. God's grace is always anticipatory. It runs ever before us. Indeed, come the end, that Gospel truth may well be the one most highly confessed: that grace outraced the times of trial.
What God did in the life of Mary, and does in our lives, is not unlike what Officer DePrimo did for that homeless man. Lawrence DePrimo didn't turn away. He saw a need and responded. Compassion shod the feet of another.
At the core of the Christian faith is a conviction that we are alienated from that deepest, most loving core of reality, which we name God. The Gospel is the proclamation that God hasn't turned away. God saw our need and responded. Compassion compels the Incarnation of Christ.
The Feast of the Immaculate Conception is the great acclamation that grace ran ahead, purchased the shoes we would need to walk and set us on our way. Christ is God's new beginning in the world. In Christ God clothes our humanity with divinity. But grace, like charity, must run deep. It has to permeate the foundations. Feet must be shod.
On this Feast of the Immaculate Conception the Church confesses that there is one person, completely created, no more than human, where grace was utterly triumphant. If Christ is God's divinity clothing our humanity, then Mary is our humanity, responding absolutely to God. Mary is humanity's shod feet; our happy new foundation in grace. That truth is meant to set the rest of us on our feet.
Genesis 3: 9-15, 20 Ephesians 1: 3-6, 11-12 Luke 1: 26-38


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TUESDAY FEBRUARY 13TH, 2018 PODCAST – Jehovah's Witnesses: A Non Prophet Organization
GET THIS DVD FOR A GIFT OF Of $20.00
This production exposes the false prophecies and deceitful lies that have colored the history of the Watch Tower Society (i.e., Jehovah's Witnesses) since its inception. As the filmmakers use the Society's own published works to reveal internal contradictions and a troubling history of revision in the Society's own teachings, a number of ex-Jehovah's Witnesses personalize the story by talking about the negative effects the Society had on their lives. If you're looking for a critical examination of Jehovah's Witnesses' doctrine, though, you won't find it in this particular documentary. Instead, Jehovah's Witnesses: A Non-Prophet Organization focuses primarily on historical truths that the Watch Tower Society has attempted to sweep under the rug over the course of its existence.
Obviously, the Watch Tower Society leaders' history of false apocalyptic prophecies serves as a predictably strong magnet for criticism. 1897, 1914, 1925, 1975 – these are just some of the years in which the apocalypse was to have taken place – according to a succession of Jehovah's Witnesses leaders. The 1975 prophecy in particular led to disillusionment among a significant number of followers, particularly those who had given up all of their worldly possessions and, in some cases, even the joys of parenthood because they were assured that the end of the world was imminent. The controversial founding fathers of the movement, Charles Taze Russell and Joseph Franklin Rutherford, are revealed to have had significant ties to spiritualism in their personal lives, and charges of occult influences on the founding and development of the religion are further developed in relation to the movement's New World Translation of the Bible. Ex-Jehovah's Witnesses explain how they came to see the Watch Tower Society as a false prophet usurping the rightful place of Jesus Christ in their lives, recount the intolerant reactions of their religious leaders to any doubts or questions, and – in a couple of cases – relate how they were essentially thrown out of the order for choosing life, in the form of a blood transfusion, over Watch Tower Society dogma. Questions are then raised about the growing coffers of the Watch Tower Society – although suggestions of corruption are not pursued to such a degree as to be truly credible. The documentary concludes with a number of ex-Jehovah's Witnesses discussing their conversion to Christianity.
Production-wise, Jehovah's Witnesses: A Non-Prophet Organization isn't all that impressive. A superfluous narrator sometimes appears to ask questions of people he obviously isn't addressing in person (they routinely start their replies with the very words of the question being asked), and several of the experts being consulted aren't completely comfortable in front of the camera. This can sometimes make for a rather banal presentation of the facts. In contrast, the personal testimonies of the former Watch Tower Society faithful is personable, sincere, and oftentimes poignant. Listening to these people lament their former beliefs and mourn family relationships that were sundered by their break from Watch Tower Society dogma for compelling viewing. In the end, this documentary makes for a very good introduction to the history and nature of the Jehovah's Witnesses.


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Temple Harrisburg offers a variety of graduate degree programs, certificate-programs, and professional development opportunities.
Temple University Harrisburg is located in the heart of downtown Harrisburg, the home of Pennsylvania´s state government and capitol. The campus is located within the Strawberry Square complex, close to many state associations and businesses.
We cater to the busy adult by offering a convenient evening and weekend course schedule.


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intelligentvibes needed a new logo design and created a contest on 99designs.
A winner was selected from 276 designs submitted by 64 freelance designers.
Intelligent Vibes
Intelligent Vibes is a remote SQL Server DBA service that is hoping to move into other facets of DBA services (Oracle, Sybase, DB2, and MySQL). The culture of the company is reserved and conservative, yet not stuffy. The nature of the business requires us to be compliant with government regulations and our clients require us to provide secure services.
Our target audience will be small to medium size business with a need for enterprise-wide database administration. The people within that group that we want to target are IT managers as well as company decision makers.
We'd like to portray that we are up to date on new technologies, yet respect the security of our clients' data. We want our clients to understand that we know how to troubleshoot their database issues and will do it in a timely fashion. We also want to portray that we will provide the service at a fraction of the cost of having a full-time DBA staff on-site, but do not provide inferior service. We will be a 24-7 shop and we want our clients to feel that we are their dedicated DBAs even though we are not on-site.
We'd like the design to use blue tones and have a very professional feel to it. We want to portray professionalism and yet still have a techy feel. Other than that, we encourage a creative mind to have fun with this design.
Find out how a design contest works or learn more about our logo design services.


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Holiday Events Showcase
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by Mike Masnick
Wed, Jan 26th 2011 1:05am
Filed Under:
addiction, correlation, depression, video games
Over on Dr. Sanjay Gupta's CNN blog, there's a report claiming that excess gaming is linked to depression and bad grades, with the report clearly suggesting that those "addicted" to gaming get depressed and do poorly. It even trots out the old silly argument about making "video game addiction" an official disorder. But, of course, the study is really only showing a correlation between these things, rather than any sort of causal relationship. One could just as plausibly argue that depressed kids choose to deal with or mask their depression by playing more video games. But, I guess headlines that say "depression causes kids to play more video games" isn't as catchy as assuming it's the other way around. Those who have worked with compulsive video gamers have found that there's almost always a separate cause, and treating the problem as "video game addiction," rather than figuring out why the person wants to play so much, tends not to work.
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Call me Al, 26 Jan 2011 @ 1:10amThis seems a fairly typical moral panic. To me it seems obvious that people who are depressed might like to play more games as its escapism from their own world and troubles. Of course what is obvious is rarely what is newsworthy.
Anonymous Coward, 26 Jan 2011 @ 6:34am
Re: AgreedI agree 100%. During college I hit a rather rough spot and wound up failing a few classes and almost got kicked out. While the whole thing was going on I used video games as an escape. If I was conquering the world in Civ3 or taking out Nazis in Battlefield I fealt great and was able to forget all about my actual problems.
Jim G., 26 Jan 2011 @ 9:17am
Re: Re: AgreedI have had many conversation with friends about whether playing violent video games makes someone more likely to commit violence themselves. We always laugh at this idea and mock the people who believe it.
Then we casually comment �Of course, I nearly flunked Calculus in school and my best friend DID get an F, and I lost my girlfriend when the WoW expansion came out, and I got in trouble at work just last week for reading message boards. But violence? HA!�
I will admit that computer games are my heroin. They are the perfect escape in which I seem to be awake and thinking, but I am actually lost in a dream world. They give me the illusion of success, an illusion so compelling that I can�t shake it off. �Well, you didn�t get that promotion at work� my brain says to me, �but you DID get your archmage to level 20! What a productive day!�
monkyyy, 29 Jan 2011 @ 12:12pm
Re: Re: Re: Agreedillusion?
some games are actually hard and worth playing
Anonymous Coward, 26 Jan 2011 @ 2:14amCorrelation and causation can both happen at the same time through the magic of positive feedback, and everyone can be right. For example, if a depressed person plays more videos games, then you can be right. If the video games make a person more depressed, then Dr Gupta can be right in his diagnosis. He can be right in his prescription, as well: taking away the video games will break the positive feedback loop and remove a contributor to depression. Since removing video games must necessarily result in replacements such as going outdoors in the sunshine or socializing with friends, all of which lead to less depression than sitting in a chair and watching pixels move about.
cc (profile), 26 Jan 2011 @ 4:10am
Re:In that case, you could substitute "video games" with any activity that may be said to exacerbate depression, including for instance "sleeping".
"Depressed people sleep more. Sleeping leads to more depression. Therefore, depressed people shouldn't be allowed to sleep." I think we should write that into law.
Michael, 26 Jan 2011 @ 6:48am
Re: Re:Let's throw some important statistics into that as well...
100% of depressed people eat.
Eating causes depression.
We should take food away from all depressed people.
This one actually works since it would reduced the number of depressed people to zero in about a week.
Anonymous Coward, 26 Jan 2011 @ 3:30pm
Re: Re: Re:
100% of depressed people eat.
Eating causes depression.
We should take food away from all depressed people.
You are clearly not thinking of the children.Since eating causes depression, we should take food away from everyone.
Then our children will inherit a world free of depression.
Jose_X, 26 Jan 2011 @ 5:07am
Re:>> Since removing video games must necessarily result in replacements such as
Well, if depression came "first" in this feedback cycle, then removing games should not be expected to lead to a resolution of the depression (eg, get sunshine or socialize).
It might lead to a resolution (eg, now I have some experiences to share in social contexts where I failed before), in which case we can thank gaming, or it might lead to looking for another escape that won't resolve the depression and might do more harm (eg, drug abuse).
Anonymous Coward, 26 Jan 2011 @ 3:30am"...replacements such as going outdoors in the sunshine or socializing with friends..."
Or drugs and alcohol abuse, but your idea is good too.
The eejit (profile), 26 Jan 2011 @ 3:41am
Re:Whoi needs drugs, when you have sugar?
cc (profile), 26 Jan 2011 @ 4:12am
Re: Re:You could also do both. At the same time.
Oh, and drink coffee, too!
Planespotter (profile), 26 Jan 2011 @ 3:41amThe CNN article is based on research by Professor Douglas Gentile, there is a question and answer session done by Playstationlifestyle.net here >> http://playstationlifestyle.net/2011/01/24/the-dark-side-of-gaming-professor-douglas-gentile-on-depr ession-and-addiction/ and I think the actual paper can be downloaded/read here >> http://pediatrics.aappublications.org/cgi/reprint/peds.2010-1353v1.
I still think it's a great moral panic!
abc gum, 26 Jan 2011 @ 4:37amI think the Chinese have developed a cure for this ailment.
Bengie, 26 Jan 2011 @ 5:14am
Addicted to WorkI heard people who work over 40 hours per week can get stressed, leading to depression or social issues.
Working overtime should be outlawed.
Hephaestus (profile), 26 Jan 2011 @ 8:11am
Re: Addicted to Workentitlement much?
Anonymous Coward, 26 Jan 2011 @ 5:35amBasically, they used the "Masnick Effect" on the data, allowing the results to be based not so much on fact, but on what they wanted it to say to start with.
Hephaestus (profile), 26 Jan 2011 @ 7:33am
Re:"Basically, they used the "Masnick Effect" on the data, allowing the results to be based not so much on fact, but on what they wanted it to say to start with."
I do have to say mike does this sometimes, but so does everyone else. People see things as through the filter of what they believe. You are no different, after all you attached a label to it, the "Masnick Effect", which shows your belief.
Also ... is it my imaginiation or are the titles of these stories getting more tabloidish recently?
Anonymous Coward, 26 Jan 2011 @ 8:22am
Re: Re:I pointed that out ages ago, titles that either are WOW GOLLY GEE or are somewhat to completely misleading.
The "Masnick Effect" is just a nice parody of the silly "Streisand Effect". Proof if nothing else that cause and effect often come from the same place.
Hephaestus (profile), 26 Jan 2011 @ 8:32am
Re: Re: Re:" Proof if nothing else that cause and effect often come from the same place."
Mike is sometime guilty of that. Agiain we all are. In the case of this article. Its a combination of both Correlation, and Causation. Where depression causes the escapism and gaming, and there is a correlation between the loss of friends due to gaming and depression. Its a gray area that is case dependent. So both titles hold ...
"Gaming causes depression" and "Depression causes gaming"
Also do you want to see the cat in a box my uncle schrodinger left me? :)
Anonymous Coward, 26 Jan 2011 @ 11:54am
Re: Re: Re: Re:only if you tell me his collar is a mobius strip.
average_joe (profile), 26 Jan 2011 @ 9:06am
Re:Basically, they used the "Masnick Effect" on the data, allowing the results to be based not so much on fact, but on what they wanted it to say to start with.
"Masnick Effect." LOL! I like that.
Jose_X, 26 Jan 2011 @ 5:41am
Let this "correlation" serve as a warningMy academic performance went *down* after I stopped playing video games. [honestly]
The Cabin, 26 Jan 2011 @ 6:21am
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Anonymous Coward, 26 Jan 2011 @ 7:09amGupta is just depressed because he tried World of Warcraft and the n00b got pwned!
AZ Libertarian, 26 Jan 2011 @ 9:24am
Another possible cause ...For me, watching CNN causes minor depression, so I turn it off. Clearly established cause-effect.
Remember when Gupta failed to correct the error that "embryos aren't fertilized?" http://newsbusters.org/blogs/matthew-balan/2009/03/12/cnns-gupta-fails-correct-bill-clinton-s-multip le-fertilized-gaffe
Gupta's junk science is caused by an excess of political correctness. Now that's cause and effect.
keith (profile), 26 Jan 2011 @ 10:00am
thoughtlessBut Mike, think of the children! Obviously the right thing to do is for Congress to hold a special session and legislate software timer locks for all video game systems that only allow 60minutes of playtime per day.


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Today in Techland: Steve caught up with the lovely Kari Byron of Mythbusters, to talk about her return to the show, Evan brought us a look at upcoming game Spider-Man: Shattered Memories, and Doug tracked down the latest on the Loch Ness Monster. Happy hump day! And just in case you missed something…


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By Pat Coleman and Keith McMillan
|Dejection and confusion characterized the Lycoming sideline after the two-minute wait for the officials' final decision.
Photo by Pat Coleman, D3sports.com
CHESTER, Pa. — For the second time in as many weeks, Widener's Mike deMarteleire completed a pass in overtime to lift the No. 6 Pioneers to a Middle Atlantic Conference victory, a bizarre 20-14 triumph against No. 8 Lycoming at Quick Stadium.
On a day in which Mike Warker completed just seven of 30 passes and neither team scored a point in the first half, it took an overtime reminiscent of Central's "Miracle in the Mud" 2000 playoff victory against Linfield to decide the game.
After Lycoming (4-1, 4-1) was held without a first down in its half of overtime, Widener (4-0, 4-0) lined up to attempt a 38-yard field goal. Carl Schoenman's kick was blocked behind the line of scrimmage by Lycoming's Brian Bond, and deMarteleire, the holder, picked up the ball and in the process of being tackled for a loss, threw a shovel pass to wide receiver Bo Fischer, who ran into the end zone uncontested for the game-winning score.
The officials conferred for several minutes before coming to the center of the field and making a touchdown signal.
"I do believe the refs made the right call," said Widener head coach Bill Zwaan, "[deMarteleire] threw the ball from behind the line of scrimmage. But the fact that you never see a play like that, of course everyone's going to question it. Nobody deserves to lose a football game like that."
"As soon as we blocked the thing, my mind was going directly to offense," said Lycoming head coach Frank Girardi, "the first down call. ... The amount of emotion in the last two minutes of that ballgame was enough for a lifetime."
It was a defensive matchup in the first half as Widener and Lycoming entered the locker room scoreless and combined for only seven first downs and 119 yards of total offense. Lycoming had produced four first downs to Widener's three and Widener produced 77 yards on 29 plays while Lycoming had picked up 42 yards on 33 plays.
The second half saw the two teams trade touchdowns, each team scoring once in each of the final two frames. Lycoming struck first in the third quarter, scoring on its first possession of the second half. Tim Schmidt had intercepted Mike Warker, who went 7-for-30 for 132 yards, at the 35-yard line and returned it to Widener's 48-yard line. Six plays later, Roger Kreutzer completed a 17-yard pass to Ray Withelder, and Dave Christensen's extra point gave the visitors a 7-0 lead with 11:47 left to play.
After forcing Lycoming to punt from its own 6-yard line, Widener took possession at the Lycoming 36-yard line. The seven-play drive that resulted in a 4-yard Warker touchdown pass to Luther Bowen with 5:31 left in the third was aided by a 15-yard pass interference penalty on Lycoming.
Lycoming capitalized on Warker's second interception of the game. Schmidt picked off his second pass of the afternoon and this time returned the ball 42 yards, and a face mask penalty set the ball up on the Widener 9 with 12:05 left in the fourth. It took Lycoming just three plays to reach the end zone as Kreutzer hit Jon Neve for a 5-yard touchdown with 10:23 left to play.
deMarteleire returned the ensuing kickoff 41 yards, setting Widener up at the Lycoming 48-yard line. Warker completed a 39-yard pass to Bowen, and then kept the ball for the 9-yard touchdown with 9:47 left to even up the score.
Christensen, who had previously nailed both extra point attempts, faced a 26-yard field goal from the left hash with 4:32 remaining and missed the go-ahead score going wide to the left. Widener went three-and-out, turning the ball back over to Lycoming with 3:30 left to play, but got the ball right back as Fran Golden intercepted Kreutzer.
Widener then pushed the ball to the 27-yard line and opted to pass on fourth down but Warker was incomplete. Lycoming then took a knee, forcing the game into the extra session.
Lycoming's drive was ended on its fourth-down play as Bill Walsh intercepted Kreutzer. Widener took over and also faced a fourth-down situation, setting up the field goal.
Widener held Lycoming to 199 yards of total offense, including 45 on the ground to a team that was ranked 15th in Division III in the offensive category. Widener was held to its lowest offensive production of the season with 206 yards on 64 plays.
Kreutzer completed 13 of 29 passes for 154 yards and two touchdowns but was sacked six times for losses of 60 yards. Jared Morris led Lycoming's ground game with 65 yards on 24 attempts.
Bowen led all Widener receivers with three catches for 49 yards and a touchdown.


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BRANDON — The efforts of Brandon Fire District No. 1 have once again been recognized in creating the best drinking water in the state.
The district has received a 2014 Governor's Award for Environmental Excellence in the municipal category for its Comprehensive Groundwater Source Protection Plan and for being the first municipality in the state to receive Class II reclassification of its drinking water sources.
Brandon Water Supervisor Ray Counter said he is pleased with the recognition.


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Monthly Archive
August 2017
Welcome to our Archives page. On this page you will find totaly 1 of our articles broken down into Months and Years.
DISCLAIMER: These commentaries and analyses are the independent opinions of TPPR and any named guest writers. They are in no way to be construed as the opinions of any client, associate or individual who is not named as a contributor.
Recent Posts
- Back in The Saddle! And to Brexit ...
- Sound & Fury Signifies ... Little
- The Tectonic Plates Start To Settle
- Labour & Brexit - Shifting Sands
- Shoved Under The Carpet - Migration
- Public Sector Pay - Who Will Run The Tory Party?
- Government Stability and the Prospects for Brexit
- The Dead Accuse A Failed System
- Brexit on Track & Unexpected Consequences
- Final Observations - General Election 2017
- Tracking the Polls - General Election 2017
- Could Britain Turn Socialist?


text: Sijun Forums :: View topic - [img] Gladiator of Giedi Prime Log in to check your private messages Sijun Forums Forum Index >> Archive : Sep99 - Dec00 View previous topic :: View next topic Author Topic : "[img] Gladiator of Giedi Prime" Flexible ElfmemberMember #Joined: 01 Aug 2000Posts: 642Location: Parker, CO Posted: Sat Dec 30, 2000 4:20 am Hey all. It's been a while since I've been here. Been busy with non-art crap This is a re-make of the dreadful picture I posted on here a little while ago. It's still a bit rough but I like it quite a bit more regardless. It's Feyd Rautha fighting slaves in the Harkonnen palace on Giedi Prime. And as you can see he has a small audience of slave traders, Harkonnen stormtroopers and a couple Spacing Guild folk. Crits/Comments/Thoughts? -Flexible Elf ------------------ http://www.geocities.com/flexible_elf/Main.html Back to top SolitairememberMember #Joined: 03 Nov 2000Posts: 429Location: Hamburg (Germany) Posted: Sat Dec 30, 2000 4:39 am that's not a remake, that's an entire new picture (in a series )! Now I get what you meant in the previous thread it's getting better - I like the characters - the troopers are awesome but I think it's a very small audience and I wonder if the guards lack of discipline...if you know what I mean. Where's Vlad's doc? Back to top StarseedmemberMember #Joined: 14 Sep 2000Posts: 144Location: Vancouver, Canada Posted: Sat Dec 30, 2000 4:39 am . . . nice scene! Looks well-done, but here is what stood out that could be changed: - central character (gladiator?) has a weird right leg (his). I cant tell what way its pointing . . . the thigh looks like its going one way then that big calf another. - texture on the clothes to match the texture level on the walls. Nice work . . . you probably have a lot of scenes in your head from this (film?). -mt ------------------ everything is relative Back to top JoachimmemberMember #Joined: 18 Jan 2000Posts: 1332Location: Norway Posted: Sat Dec 30, 2000 4:42 am very nice work Flex, as always ! Great characters with very nice gestures, and really awesome how you make them look so good in an enviroment. Comments, would be the background. The black outlines is ok, as it is in a bit of a comic styles picture, but maybe you could remove or make make different details a bit more subtle, like the cracks, etc...and give the picture a bit more of a color the affects everything, I guess I mean something that loose up on the contrasts a bit. But, great work as always ! ------------------ Joachim's Place Back to top SemperememberMember #Joined: 20 Oct 2000Posts: 206Location: Spain Posted: Sat Dec 30, 2000 4:53 am Good pic. The most I like is the fat-floating-chara (maybe Giedi Prime?) chara. He derserves a big revised version as an "portray" il·lustration. --- I have just uploaded my "Gladiatorus !!! " pic. It´s not what you´re thinking. I sure you. Worth the visit Gladiatorus !!! post: http://www.sijun.com/dhabih/ubb/Forum2/HTML/008358.html I will very glad if you send me an opinion... Thanx. Back to top CosmemberMember #Joined: 05 Mar 2000Posts: 1332Location: UK Posted: Sat Dec 30, 2000 7:05 am Mr.Elf great pic! I like it, very cool style. I like the composition and the whole scene really. To offer some crit, the reflections on the floor tho, I kinda imagine them going off at more of an angle for some reason, rotated clockwise another 45degrees although maybe i'm wrong. Also maybe you could block some more shadow on the characters to make them look a little less superimposed and more solid. keep up the good work Back to top ZosomemberMember #Joined: 23 Dec 2000Posts: 132Location: Stuttgart, Germany Posted: Sat Dec 30, 2000 7:42 am Ahhh.. thank you Frank Herbert for creating the Dune universe. Very nice interpertation of a harkonnen gladiators pit. I especially like the barron and the gaurds. They kind of remind me of the robots from battle star galctica. Good stuff! Back to top El CaseronmemberMember #Joined: 31 Mar 2000Posts: 254Location: Germany near Hamburg Posted: Sat Dec 30, 2000 9:03 am You're a great drawer... I love your style. But the colouring on some things just look... er... newbie-like Only two or three shading grades... well, maybe you wanted to do that Back to top BubonicmemberMember #Joined: 21 Sep 2000Posts: 209Location: Long Island, NY, US Posted: Sat Dec 30, 2000 9:31 am Nice job of not only the painting, but your telling a story all in one frame.. Like the girls in the back talking to each other, you don't hear what they are saying, but you can just tell they are like " We can share him after the show" or something like that.. heh Nice job with reflections on the floor Back to top RinaldomemberMember #Joined: 09 Jun 2000Posts: 1367Location: Adelaide, Australia Posted: Sat Dec 30, 2000 10:06 am Nice one Flex I like the narrative elements as well. it's all working together Personaly I would prefer more realistic anatomy compared with the tense comic book style stuff you have going on the main subject. but that's just me. Back to top Flexible ElfmemberMember #Joined: 01 Aug 2000Posts: 642Location: Parker, CO Posted: Sat Dec 30, 2000 1:00 pm Thanks guys. Solitaire> Hehe, The Doctor had to go to the restroom. I envisioned doing a whole bunch of characters and onlookers but they were covering up some of the background work I spent so much time on Starseed> Yeah I made that left-hand muscle a bit too dominant. His foot is actually more or less pointing right at you. I agree, definitely more texture in the people. I just got inspired after watching the Sci-Fi channel movie on the book. Cool to see the different take on it than the David Lynch movie. Joachim> I tried to get a half painting/half comic book feeling with this one. I see what you mean though. It's a habit I've formed. Sempere> The floating fat man is Baron Harkonnen. I'm glad you like but I think I may only have one Dune picture left in me. Very cool drawing of yours by the way. Cos> Thank ya! Yes you're right on about the shadows. They would help definitely. Zoso> hehe. I was thinking the same thing when I finished them. If I made them chrome and gave them a red eye bar they'd definitely look like Zylons (I think that's what they're called) Zep is the best band ever btw El Caseron> Ugh, newbie like? I try to work with a limited palette lately, I guess it's not that popular on here. Bubonic> Thanks! That's about right on what they're saying Rinaldo> Yeah he is a bit comic-book ripped Blitz> Thanks heh. Yeah I need to do the comic -Flexible Elf ------------------ http://www.geocities.com/flexible_elf/Main.html [This message has been edited by Flexible Elf (edited December 30, 2000).] Back to top El CaseronmemberMember #Joined: 31 Mar 2000Posts: 254Location: Germany near Hamburg Posted: Sat Dec 30, 2000 3:21 pm I didn't want to say you post newbieish pictures. I love your style man. I really do. and I wish I could do that. But everyone's telling that so I thought I might add some critique aswell. The linedrawings, as I said are COOL. Only the colouring at SOME points I dislike... for example: the trooper in the front on the left side... his breast is so simple. it doesn't fit to the rest of the picture. For example the main character with the naked chest is done so very well. You know what I mean? Prolly not. Maybe a coloured lightsource would give it more colourcontrast? Just my opinion. Well, by posting this reply I just wanted to say that I really dig that picture [This message has been edited by El Caseron (edited December 30, 2000).] Back to top SkeezermemberMember #Joined: 12 Oct 2000Posts: 348Location: Lake Stevens, Wa, USA Posted: Sat Dec 30, 2000 3:42 pm Niccceeee! very nice, I really like the lighting, and the environment, and those slave girls are pretty hot. I agree with Rinaldo about Feyd, I would personally tone down the definition a little, so that it matches the painterly style you have going with the rest of the painting. One thing I could point out is the Barron, it looks like he's tipping sideways, at least in relation to the perspective of the pillar behind him. I think you would see more of his underside. The perspective indicates he is on a higher plane than the viewer, but his current angle suggests that he is tilted down towards the viewer. just something I noticed. Hope to see more dealing with this subject, very cool. -Skeez Back to top faustgfxmemberMember #Joined: 15 Mar 2000Posts: 4833Location: unfortunately, very near you. Posted: Sat Dec 30, 2000 4:07 pm beats me how i missed this post.. dig! love dune, alot, i do. ------------------ sky high with a heartache of stone you never see me 'cos i'm always alone email@example.com icq#35983387 http://faustgfx.0wns.org Back to top Flexible ElfmemberMember #Joined: 01 Aug 2000Posts: 642Location: Parker, CO Posted: Sat Dec 30, 2000 11:56 pm El Caseron> Thank ya kindly. I didn't take offense really. And you're definitely right. I think a lot of my paintings could stand for a bit more of non-standard white overhead lighting. Skeezer> I actually did the drawings of the people seperate in my sketchbook, scanned them in and colored them. A hard lesson learned I couldnt tell how I was going angle the Baron, you're definitely right.. he looks like one of his thrusters gave out I'll just have to make sure to do the whole thing in photoshop or on paper from now on I think. Just messing around faustgfx> Thanks! Yes Dune is pretty damn cool. -Flexible Elf ------------------ http://www.geocities.com/flexible_elf/Main.html Back to top ZosomemberMember #Joined: 23 Dec 2000Posts: 132Location: Stuttgart, Germany Posted: Sun Dec 31, 2000 12:16 am Flexible Elf, you're right about Zep. Most folks miss the reference, but not everyone is into them. I have this overwhelming desire to watch both Dune and Battle Star Galactica now. Hmmmm.... Back to top BlitzmemberMember #Joined: 04 Oct 2000Posts: 752Location: Sedro-Woolley, WA Posted: Sun Dec 31, 2000 12:55 am Well Your really damn good. The only thing I can say is maybe loosening the Big guy in the middle right arm. Its just so stiff and the rest of him has a nice flow to him. I duno. Take it or leave it its up to you. *Claps* Bravo..... Now how about that comic Blitz Back to top Display posts from previous: All Posts1 Day7 Days2 Weeks1 Month3 Months6 Months1 Year Oldest FirstNewest First Sijun Forums Forum Index -> Archive : Sep99 - Dec00 All times are GMT - 8 Hours Page 1 of 1 Jump to: Select a forum Digital Art----------------Digital Art DiscussionWork in ProgressGallery/Finished Work Miscellaneous----------------Random MusingsArchive : Sep99 - Dec00 You cannot post new topics in this forumYou cannot reply to topics in this forumYou cannot edit your posts in this forumYou cannot delete your posts in this forumYou cannot vote in polls in this forum Powered by phpBB © 2005 phpBB Group


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Available ebook formats: epub mobi pdf lrf pdb txt html
Sonya Lee grew up in Chicago, IL. She lived on the south side of the city. She taught at many Chicago Public Elementary schools before relocating to the south. Ms. Lee wrote as a child but the demands of school and work stopped her from writing for many years. Ms. Lee began writing again in December of 2011. Since that point she has published several short stories and two novellas. She is currently a Doctoral Candidate at the University of Mississippi and will continue to write books and teach.


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Breaking News Emails
This time, it looks like Congress will avoid a government shutdown without all the fuss.
Current government funding is set to expire on January 15, but the House on Tuesday passed a three-day stopgap bill that will keep the government open through Saturday at midnight.
That measure -- which passed by voice vote -- gives lawmakers extra time to complete work on a massive $1.012 trillion spending bill, expected to make its way through both chambers by the end of the week.
The "omnibus" spending bill, which clocks in at 1,582 pages, will fund the government through September 30th, 2014.
The nine-month budget bill is based upon the breakthrough deal reached by Rep. Paul Ryan, R-Wisc., and Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., in December.
The sweeping legislation doles out funds – and enacts policies directing how those funds can and can't be used – for everything from school vouchers in the District of Columbia and foreign aid in Egypt to the fight against Asian Carp in the Great Lakes.
It would also reverse a cost-of-living decrease to the pensions of disabled veterans, an unpopular cut that was part of the Murray-Ryan deal last year.
The legislation doesn't mean smooth sailing on fiscal matters for the rest of the year. The United States is once again slated to hit the debt ceiling next month.


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Staples boys blow away Warde
FAIRFIELD -- The Staples High School boys basketball team had it all working on Friday night.
Paced by Peter Rankowitz's 24 points, the Wreckers rolled 79-55 over Fairfield Warde.
"We played with intensity and emotion for 32 minutes," Wreckers coach Colin Devine said.
Nick Esposito added 13 points, and James Frusicante chipped in 14 points -- including his errant alley-oop pass turned 3-pointer in the third.
"It was kind of a fluke," Rankowitz said. "When something like that happens all you can say is ... everything is going well."
Frusciante also added five assists as the Wreckers won for the fifth time in six games. Staples improved to 8-6, and qualified for the Class LL state tournament for the sixth straight year.
"You've got to give the seniors credit, because they continue to improve every day in practice," Devine said. "We're playing better and better as we go along, and that's our goal."
Staples' tough defense held Warde's two leading scorers, Mark Byrne and Max Garrett, to just 10 points. Nick Cotto led Warde with 17 points, and Giacomo Brancato scored 10, as Warde lost its sixth straight, falling to 3-11.
"They didn't allow us to do anything," Warde coach Ryan Swaller said. "We couldn't execute on offense at all."
The aggressive Wreckers forced 27 Warde turnovers -- 15 of which came in the first half. Staples used its trapping press defense and rebounding prowess to get easy transition buckets.
"We talk about winning the 50-50 balls in pregame and in practice," Devine said. "It's a credit to the kids working hard."
Rankowitz also kept the Mustangs' defense off guard, scoring both on jump shots and drives to the basket. The Washington University-bound swingman scored 13 of his 24 in the first half, including a breakaway dunk off a steal.
"When I'm in the top of the 1-3-1, I'm able to get some deflections and get some steals," Rankowitz said. "Anything to kind of mess with Warde's offense."
"The way he attacked the basket tonight showed me he's a top player in our league," Swaller said of Rankowitz.
After the squads were tied 7-7 through the first 3:46, the Wreckers blew Warde away with runs of 13-2 and 17-6. Staples led by 11 after one and built a 37-18 halftime advantage.
The Wreckers did not relent in third quarter, outscoring Warde 22-7. Staples' efficient offense moved the ball with relative ease, especially during a 20-4 run, in which eight of Staples' nine field goals were layups.
"We looked to push on every miss and even on some makes," Rankowitz said.
Esposito, Darryle Wiggins and Ross Whelan also crashed the glass, allowing Staples to gain extra possessions, and holding the Mustangs to few second chances.
"The role players have been stepping up," Rankowitz said. "That's making the difference."
Frusciante also added 10 of his 14 in the third.
"He was so under control the whole game," Swaller said of Frusciante. "It was tough."
email@example.com; twitter.com/Pat_Pickens
Staples 79, Warde 55
Peter Rankowitz 10 4-5 24 David Katz 2 3-4 9 Jake Melnick 1 0-0 2 James Frusciante 5 3-4 14 Darryle Wiggins 1 2-2 4 Ross Whelan 3 0-0 7 Todd Goldstein 0 1-2 1 Nick Esposito 6 1-2 13 Andrew Felman 0 0-0 0 Nicholas Ward 0 1-2 1 Alex Addessi 2 0-0 4 Totals 30 15-21 79
Max Garrett 3 2-4 8 Hunter Smaldone 1 0-0 3 Mike Pehota 2 0-0 5 Mark Byrne 1 0-0 2 Terrance Walden 0 1-2 1 T.J. Tracey 2 1-2 5 Nick Cotto 5 3-5 17 Giacomo Brancato 3 3-3 10 Brian Kerrigan 2 0-0 4 Dylan Reilly 0 0-0 0 Christopher Smaldone 0 0-0 0 Totals 19 10-16 55.
3-pointers: Staples 4 (Katz 2, Frusciante, Whelan); Warde 7 (Cotto 4, H. Smaldone, Pehota, Brancato); Fouled out: Warde-- Kerrigan.


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Forty-five minutes into his speed dating-style presentation, County Councilman Chris Trumbauer had finally reached "Question O" on the Anne Arundel County ballot, the most crowded of any in Maryland.
"Last one!" Trumbauer said to an Annapolis crowd during the recent meeting. "You guys excited? Ready for a new act? The Trumbauer Show's getting old, I know."
The long ballot piles 15 local questions atop of seven statewide initiatives and a presidential election, prompting fears that Anne Arundel voters will face long lines as people try to figure out the questions in the voting booth or that voters will just skip them altogether.
"We are concerned," said Anne Arundel County Board of Elections Director Joseph A. Torre III, who devoted an entire page of the county's sample ballot to warnings.
"VOTERS: AVOID LONG WAIT TIMES!" it reads. "Please review your specimen ballot BEFORE coming to your polling place."
Torre is advising residents, if they're not voting absentee, to visit early-voting centers, which open Saturday or, if they will cast a ballot Nov. 6, to vote during the lull at midday.
"It's the questions," Torre said. If "people stand there to read 22 questions and it's the first time they see them — it's not going to be pretty."
Elections workers will hand out copies of the questions at polling places, but Torre is advising people to fill out their specimen ballots and remember to bring them to the voting booth to keep things moving.
Now that Trumbauer has been through four community meetings on the questions he and his colleagues placed on the ballot, his presentation had been trimmed to only three minutes per question, plus the six-page handout he gives to voters to help them sort out a large volume of queries on what he and his colleagues acknowledge can be arcane topics.
"I tried to put the ones that I thought were most urgent up at the top, when people are paying the most attention," said Trumbauer, an Annapolis Democrat. "I think the council had a little too much verve in putting those on the ballot. We should have restrained ourselves to the most important issues."
The local questions ask voters to approve changes to the county charter. The questions range from measures that spell out how to remove elected officials from office or strip power from the county executive to whether council members get a vacation in August and whether a digital record counts as a "copy."
"If you don't figure it out looking at the sample ballot," said Dan Nataf, who heads the Center for the Study of Local Issues at Anne Arundel Community College, "you're going to be in the voting booth for an hour trying to make sense of what these things mean."
State Sen. Edward Reilly, a Crofton Republican, said he and his wife needed quite a while to read the county questions and make their choices.
"We are two pretty informed people, and it took 20 minutes," he said.
Lawmakers, observers and election officials expect most voters to simply give up before they get through the county issues, which are labeled Question A through Question O.
It's "going to be decided, in my opinion, by a relatively small percentage of the voters who have taken the time to read it and study it," Reilly said. "And that's a shame. In politics, if you have to take time to explain the question, you've lost them."
Said Nataf: "I don't think most people have the patience for it. They may just say yes, or they may say, 'No, because I want you to stop tormenting me.' "
Or, he said, they may throw their hands in the air and head for the exit.
County Council members and others have been making the rounds to community meetings, both to explain what all the questions mean and to urge people to consider voting early or by absentee ballot, to avoid the crowds on Election Day.
"It will take two to three times the regular time to vote on the ballot," Reilly said. "The lines will be unbearable."


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Stephen Prothero, a professor in the Department of Religion at Boston University, lists the six things he does not want to hear in the wake of massacres like last week's.
- It was God's will.
- Jesus called the children home.
- After death, there is the resurrection.
- This was God's judgment. (Are you listening, James Dobson?)
- This happened because America is too secular. (He's talking to you, Mike Huckabee and Bryan Fischer)
- Guns don't kill people, people kill people.
He explains why he finds each rationalization offensive.
But unfortunately we will hear all those sentiments over and over again after every tragedy because this is the best that the religious apologists have to deal with the problem of theodicy.


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To the Editor:
An exit interview was just conducted after an audit of the Village of Valley Stream's cash receipts and selected village operations dating from June 1, 2011, to Dec. 31, 2012, by the New York state comptroller's office ("Village ups financial controls after audit," April 24-20").
The tone of the interview was very congenial, and it confirmed that our village is in excellent financial condition.
Auditors can be very sobering and minutely critical. They often nitpick at the smallest of things, such as asking, "Why don't you staple duplicate receipts to your documents?" They usually tell you only what you are doing wrong and are devoid of compliment.
However, the state auditors who conducted this job were genuinely pleased by what they encountered over the six months that they viewed our documents and business practices. They made some non-binding suggestions on some perfunctory procedures, and, to their delight, most of these recommendations were already in the works by our supervisory staff — even before the audit report.
Over the course of the 18 months of the audit, Valley Stream had, on average, a $36 million budget. The only monies that there was a discrepancy about were some unbalanced amounts between cash register tapes and daily admission logs. This netted $262 more in cash collected than recorded by the manual admissions log. The money was not missing; it was there. This $262 represents four-tenths of one percent of the $660,047 in pool receipts collected during the summer. In a $36 million fiscal plan, this represents an infinitesimal portion of the village's collected revenue. All in all, not bad.
Valley Stream has a healthy $6.2 million in reserves, a strong and steady AA2 bond rating, and a solid tax base with reasonable village taxes. With the implementation of new state-of-the-art computer programs, designed to eliminate mistakes and heightened accountability, our village should enjoy an even better record of fiscal excellence.
I would pit Valley Stream against any other village in New York state when it comes to our fiduciary duty to the taxpayers. Fiscally, the residents and taxpayers of Valley Stream should be very pleased about how we handle our finances..
Michael J. Fox
Village treasurer, Valley Stream


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This is a pack of 6 aggressive, energetic and powerful Alternative rock tracks All tracks has extremely progressive mood. Music will be great for any projects related with racing, sports, gaming, fighting- presentations, commercials, videohive items, games, youtube videos.
Depard – Still Something [2:42]
Depard – The Hollow [2:26]
Depard – Hope [2:27]
Depard – Catch Me [2:15]
Depard – Retro Soldiers [2:51]
Depard – Getting Faster [2:34]


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Of all the new fall shows, ABC's "Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D." was the most anticipated and continues to be among the most closely monitored by critics, columnists and Industry bloggers. Many people who are not ABC executives want this show to succeed: Avengers fans, Joss Whedon fans, Clark Gregg fans and parents clinging to that quaint old notion of family viewing. I do too.
To paraphrase the immortal Bonnie Tyler song, I need a hero.
After years of emotionally crippled, morally conflicted, downward-spiraling and/or angrily brilliant men taking the lead in so many dramas big and small, American TV needs a hero who is neither super, reluctant nor anti. And Gregg's Agent Phil Coulson is just that.
Brimming with integrity, loyalty and quiet competence, Coulson is as retro as Captain America. He's an old-fashioned leading man undamaged, at least visibly, by heartbreak, addiction, diagnosable behavioral issues or childhood trauma.
He doesn't whine or sulk or gaze at the camera with mad eyes and hollow cheeks. He shaves. Every day. He drives a James Bondian sports car, gives people a second chance and speaks in declarative sentences that are stern but not scary. He is self-deprecating in a pre-ironic, which is to say sincere, way.
It's difficult not to want to run away with him.
That he may be dead, robotic or mostly a computer chip is certainly a possibility but beside the point. This is what Agent Coulson was like before he was skewered by Loki during the Battle of New York, and why he went from providing a bit of comic relief in "Iron Man," to all but stealing "The Avengers," to now having his own TV show.
Coulson provides an antidote to all the supercilious masculinity cluttering up our screens. He is first and foremost an adult, a man among a swarm of perpetual adolescents (including all those superheroes) who may get the job done but not without a lot of immoral and deeply self-justified rule-breaking.
The only other new character showing signs of the same commendable attributes is "Sleepy Hollow's" Ichabod Crane (Tom Mison), and he's more than 200 years old. Also British. Which makes sense. Somewhere along the line, Americans started outsourcing adult masculinity.
As the boomers hit middle age and Fridays went casual, immature became the new interesting in American film and on American TV. When "Mad Men" debuted, part of its initial charm was the simple sight of men in white shirts and ties, men who looked like men. Don Draper and company turned out to be far from heroic, or even mature, but at least they looked the part.
Most other male stars dutifully began dressing down — and duressing up. They filter the demand for puer aeternus through the boyish (Richard Castle, Seeley Booth, Patrick Jane), the brutal ("Game of Thrones," "Grimm," "Revolution"), the broken (Adrian Monk, Gregory House, Sherlock Holmes [American edition] and the narcissistically amoral (Dexter Morgan, Walter White, pretty much every lead of an FX show).
Some female leads were similarly beset by our need for chronic imperfection — "Homeland's" Carrie Mathison is bipolar — but being a "woman in a man's job" (i.e., too tough to surrender to love) is often obstacle enough.
Male heroes, on the other hand, went snarky or sad, their gifts became burdens, their motivations unclear. They were, to a certain extent, the country's tattered psyche writ large. In a world crisscrossed by Ponzi schemes, anything that resembled an actual moral code seemed archaic and naive. Better to be guided by the squishy ethics of your gut. Indeed, the only admitted "white hat" on TV belongs to "Scandal's" Olivia Pope, a D.C. "fixer" whose brand of personal justice includes rigging an election and covering up state-sanctioned murder.
So if we were looking for a few good Men we could to stick to old standbys — "Law and Order" and "NCIS" — or British television. There the men still wear button-down shirts, own really great coats and rarely feel sorry for themselves. "Downton Abbey," "Luther," "The Hour," "Sherlock" (British edition), "Ripper Street" and "Foyle's War" revolve around characters disparate and complicated but united in one thing: They're grown-ups.
Of them all, "Foyle's War" may be the best example of what's missing on American television (and why we can only pray, as a nation, that rumors suggesting this past season was its last are false).
Christopher Foyle (Michael Kitchen) is a detective in a small coastal town during WWII, holding the line between morality and corruption on the home front. Kitchen is not a big man, even his female costars often tower over him, and there are few scenes in which Foyle exerts himself physically, much less violently.
A widower with a grown son, Foyle has a young female driver, and there is never a moment of romantic, much less sexual, possibility. He does not carry a gun, respects authority and often allows himself to be dressed down in public without a word of protest. He says little, in fact, for a lead player, saving his speeches for when he brings the hammer down.
Nonetheless, Christopher Foyle is always the most powerful man in the room. Men admire and women swoon for a short, soft-spoken retirement-aged detective who doesn't like to drive but can always be counted on to do the right thing. Because he believes people should always do the right thing.
Simple moral math but increasingly rare on television.
And that's why characters like Coulson and Crane matter so much, despite their CG 'n' high-concept surroundings. Joe Friday may be laughably outdated and even über-parent Cliff Huxtable more wish than reality, but there is always a space, a pretty big space, in the American narrative for the Good Guys. The ones who leave the sexual preening and internal angst to the teens and twentysomethings, who willingly don the uniform and responsibility of adulthood and just get on with the job.
Once upon a time they seemed boring. Now they're the stuff of myth.