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Our CultureWe're like family. Find out more about what makes FLASH's culture awesome.
We're about People
At FLASH our internal culture forms part of everything we do.
We are committed as an organization to benefit our employees so they can strive for the company's purpose to Make People's Lives Easier in the informal retail market.
Check out what FLASH has been up to below.
FLASH Culture News
Kempton Park Casual Day
Our Distribution Centre based in Kempton Park enjoyed supporting Casual Day on Friday the 4th September 2015 to raise funds for people with disabilities.
Human Rights Days 2015 at the FLASH Call Centre
The FLASH Call Centre celebrated Human Rights Day on Friday, 20 March 2015 by creating presentations on Human Rights. Staff created posters and voiced their feelings surrounding the meaning the day held for them. The Vouchers Department won first place with the...
Easter 2015 at the FLASH Call Centre
The FLASH Call Centre held an Easter Egg Hunt Competition and dressed themselves in white clothing to commemorate the day. Lungisa from the Banking Department found the winning egg within the last 2 minutes of the hunt and was selected as the winner. Easter egg...
Valentine's Day Celebrations at FLASH
The FLASH La Lucia office celebrated Valentine's day by participating in a secret Valentine activity. Staff where tasked with doing small gestures of kindness for the day to make their chosen Valentine feel special. The FLASH Call Centre held a Valentine's Day themed...
Heritage Day 2014
FLASH staff nationally celebrated Heritage Day 2014 by participating in a Braai Day and a Heritage Day Potluck. Staff where encouraged to bring a traditional dish to work and these dishes were shared at each office in the spirit of embracing our diverse South African culture.
FLASH 2014 Amazing Race
The 2014 FLASH year end function took the form of an Amazing Race. The theme was chosen to promote teamwork and saw staff working together and participating in collaborative activities towards a common goal.


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Unlike monkeys, dogs, and almost any other animal, a lot of humans aren't into giving into their cravings for all to see. A lot of people are even hesitant to kiss when they are out in public. They feel uncomfortable displaying their love for each other and prefer to keep it private. That's understandable. The thought of making love in front of a crowd is intimidating enough but imagine that you are also being filmed. Now, there are some people that might enjoy being watched and filmed but most people aren't too receptive to the idea. Nerves, embarrassment, and shame are just a few of the emotions that would consume someone in that situation.
This is where we must concede that being an actor is not the easy job that a lot of people believe it to be. S*x has been a staple of movies and television for years but it seems that the s*x scenes that are portrayed these days push the boundaries further and further.
Nothing is off limits anymore. Straight s*x, gay s*x, and everything in between is in our faces every time we turn on the television or go to the movies. Some of the actors and actresses that act out these scenes don't think it's such a big deal. Quite a few even enjoy it. They don't mind people milling about on the set while the cameras catch the action from every conceivable angle. Naturally, there are those actors that don't enjoy being put in this position. Here are 15 actors who despise their love making TV scenes.
15 Lea Michele (Glee)
This 30-year-old hottie started her acting on Broadway as a child. She had roles in such stage productions as Ragtime, Fiddler on the Roof, and Les Miserables before gaining a lot of recognition for her role of Rachel Berry in the television series Glee. This role called for occasional s*x scenes with her future boyfriend, Cory Monteith, and Michele didn't like doing those scenes at all. She felt awkward and uncomfortable as she pretended to get down and dirty in front of so many people. She was also stated during an interview that she was grossed out by the fact that Monteith would sweat so much. She even felt the same way about shooting s*x scenes with Monteith later on in the show's run when the two were dating in real life.
14 Henry Cavill (The Tudors)
British actor Henry Cavill's career started out with a small role in the movie Laguna. From there he landed parts in other movies such as The Count of Monte Cristo, The Cold Light of Day, and Justice League. He had a steady role as Charles Brandon on the television series The Tudors between 2007 and 2010. This role required him to do a few s*x scenes and it's safe to say that Henry isn't a fan of acting them out. He recounted how that in one particular scene he found himself getting aroused and he apologized profusely to the actress that he shared the scene with. Like most people on this list, Henry feels a great deal of discomfort when he is naked and trying to be intimate when there are so many people standing around and the cameras are rolling.
13 Nina Dobrev (The Vampire Diaries)
Nina Dobrev has been in television and movies for a little over ten years. The 28-year-old got her first big break when she was cast as Mia in Degrassi: The Next Generation. She then went on to star as Elena Gilbert in the supernatural drama The Vampire Diaries. This role called for Nina to do a few steamy scenes and she wasn't exactly thrilled about it. For starters, she had to do some of them with her ex-boyfriend, Ian Somerhalder. Perhaps the most uncomfortable aspect of doing those scenes was having her mother on the set when the scenes were shot. According to Dobrev, her mother would approach her after the takes and hand her notes that contained advice on how to make Nina's character sexier and more convincing. Yeah, that would be awkward.
12 Luke Grimes (True Blood)
Shooting a s*x scene with a gorgeous woman is tough enough for a lot of straight actors but imagine how difficult it would be to have to shoot an intimate scene with another dude? This is exactly the position that Luke Grimes found himself in when he was part of the cast of True Blood. Grimes was stunned when he discovered that his character, James, was, in fact, gay and he was scheduled to do a lovemaking scene with another guy. How did he deal with this surprise? He left the show. Some cast members blame his homophobia for quitting the show after just 6 episodes but Luke said that he left due to an increasingly hectic movie making schedule. Shortly after leaving the show, Grimes was on the big screen in American Sniper, The Magnificent Seven, and the Fifty Shades franchise.
11 Alexis Bledel (Gilmore Girls)
You probably remember this 35-year-old sweetheart as Rory Gilmore on the popular series Gilmore Girls but she has also appeared in several movies and television shows over the past 20 years. During season 4 of Gilmore Girls, her character had an affair with Jared Padalecki's character, Dean. Alexis was quite opposed to doing the hot scenes. To begin with, she didn't feel that having an affair with a married guy made sense for her character but she understood that the screenwriter liked to add a bit of shock value and she begrudgingly went along with the script. It was also quite difficult for her because Padalecki is much taller than Bledel and they shot the scenes on a miniature twin bed from which Bledel tumbled off of a couple of times.
10 Charlie Hunnam (Sons Of Anarchy)
Most people got familiar with Charlie Hunnam through his role as Jax Teller in the series Sons of Anarchy. He'd already been around the industry for several years having appeared in television shows such as Queer as Folk and Undeclared as well as landing parts in numerous movies. While his character in Sons of Anarchy had a steady relationship, Jax also had plenty of pretty women on the side with whom he got intimate with. This meant that Charlie had to shoot quite a few racy scenes which he does not like doing. He feels a certain amount of guilt because he's in a committed relationship but on top of that he has been a self-admitted germaphobe since he was a young child back in England. These could be a couple of reasons why he turned down the lead role in the Fifty Shades franchise.
9 Natalie Dormer (Game Of Thrones)
Natalie Dormer's star has been on the rise in recent years thanks to her roles in television shows like The Tudors, Elementary, and Game of Thrones as well as her appearances in movies such as Captain America: The First Avenger, The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Parts 1 and 2, and Patient Zero. The 35-year-old British actress is quite the good looking lady and most viewers of Game of Thrones loved it when she would do those raunchy love scenes. You should appreciate those scenes because Natalie didn't enjoy doing them. She described doing the scenes as awkward, unsexy, and unglamorous. Her fans were probably a little disappointed that her character, Margaery Tyrell, was killed off recently. Hopefully, she will go through with more awkward, unsexy, and unglamorous scenes in the near future.
8 Jared Padalecki (Gilmore Girls)
This 35-year-old Texan got his break when he won a "Claim to Fame Contest" which landed him at the Teen Choice Awards where he met an agent. He got the role of Dean Forester in the television series Gilmore Girls and soon found himself getting roles in other television and movie productions. Like Alexis Bledel, Jared didn't care much for the s*x scenes that he had to perform in Gilmore Girls. Due to his height and the fact that the bed on which the scenes were filmed was so small, Jared described the experience as "awkward". He also gets nervously anxious in the days leading up to a s*x scene because he is in a relationship (now married) and is a little freaked out about being in bed with another woman. He refers to s*x scenes as an "occupational hazard".
7 Olivia Wilde (Vinyl)
This 33-year-old siren started to get noticed when she appeared in the short-lived television series Skin. She then appeared in several episodes of The O.C. before landing the role of Dr. Hadley in House. She has gone on to act in several movies and other television shows. Like everyone else on this list, Olivia Wilde despises doing love making scenes. Nevertheless, she has been a professional and gone through with them despite her reservations. She is very uncomfortable with crew members and others watching her act out. She recently got naked for a scene in the television show Vinyl in which she was in 8 episodes. She told Howard Stern that she wore a merkin, a wig for her private area and it made her feel "less naked". She also told Stern that she is "pretty clean" down there in real life.
6 Jesse Metcalfe (Desperate Housewives)
Jesse Metcalfe got his start in television on the series Passions on which he had a regular role. He then got more exposure on Desperate Housewives on which he played the recurring role of John Rowland. Not only did this part lead to roles in movies; he also got to make out with the beautiful Eva Longoria. Even better is that he got paid to make out with the dark-haired sexpot. This may sound like a dream to most guys but Jesse had his share of embarrassing moments while making these scenes. He told interviewers that he found Longoria to be so hot that he would "pop a wheelie" during the scenes and couldn't get out of bed after the scene was shot. Oh, that's what he meant when he said that shooting those scenes was hard.
5 Carice van Houten (Game Of Thrones)
This 40-year-old Dutch actress is well known these days for her role of Melisandre of Asshai in the hit television series Game of Thrones. She's an experienced veteran of the big screen having appeared in Valkyrie, Repo Men, and Brimstone. She is currently filming the movie Domino which should be released next year. If you are a fan of Game of Thrones then you know there are quite a few graphic s*x scenes. Carice doesn't mince her words when she is asked about how she feels about acting out these lurid scenes. She simply says "They are definitely not my favorite things". We have to give her credit for being a consummate professional. There are plenty of viewers out there who appreciate her dedication to her role and her willingness to show off her hot body.
4 Daniel Gillies (The Vampire Diaries)
41-year-old Daniel Gillies began acting in the Aukland Theatre Company in New Zealand. He got his first big break when he landed the lead role in the Canadian drama Street Legal. He got a few movie roles before getting a recurring role on The Vampire Diaries and then the lead role in Saving Hope. He is now the lead in The Originals which is a spin-off of the Vampire Diaries. Daniel isn't a fan of doing s*x scenes. He admits that the idea of getting intimate with somebody as sexy as Nina Dobrev should be a turn on but he found the experience to be "by the numbers" and the fact that there are cameras rolling and people on set makes it even worse for him.
3 Lena Dunham (Girls)
Lena Dunham's career started out when she produced a few independent films and put them on YouTube. Many of her works centered on s*x and featured a fair amount of nudity. Lena doesn't really seem to mind baring it all but she doesn't particularly like doing s*x scenes. Dunham is the star of the television series Girls. She also just happens to be the writer, producer, and the director of the show so it's not like she's an unwilling or unsuspecting participant in those s*x scenes. She has said that when she is shooting them she wants out of the bed, out of the scene, and out of this life. She realizes that she is the one to put herself in such an awkward position and has even stated that she feels like she is holding herself in "sexual slavery".
2 Chris Potter (Queer As Folk)
Chris Potter is one of those guys who you have likely seen in a few movies and television shows but you don't remember his name. He has been in dozens of movies and loads of television shows like Heartland, Kung Fu: The Legend Continues and he's had a recurring role on The Young and the Restless since 2007. He was also on the television series Queer as Folk back in 2001. Potter was pretty apprehensive when it came to shooting erotic scenes with other guys. Potter went through with them but he is very clear about his dislike for filming those scenes. He said that he feels dirty and that he wants to spit immediately after the director says "cut".
1 Chris Engen (The Young And The Restless)
There are plenty of people that think actors have it easy. Sure, some might have it easier than others but a lot of actors need to go well beyond their comfort zone when they are performing. Chris Engen is a prime example. The 37-year-old got into television in 2000 when he appeared in a few episodes of Felicity. He bounced around a few other shows until 2007 when he took the recurring role of Richard Vargas in Saints and Sinners. The bad news was that the show was canceled. The good news was that he was cast in the long-running soap The Young and the Restless. More bad news came his way when he found out that his character was gay and that he needed to film a romantic scene with a male cast member. He decided to leave the show and we haven't heard much from him since.

subset: commoncrawl


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Thursday, April 25, 2013
Crazy 9 Highlights {This & that}
After a family funeral in February in Iowa, Papa and I have 2 more funerals to attend, one tomorrow on Friday and the other on Monday. Both for women who died of cancer, (one breast and the other kidney cancer) and both who died WAY to young. Don't even get me going on the loss. It's just not right. Or fair. And I won't even try to figure out God's plan on this one. It just didn't make sense for either of these beautiful women both who fought like hell to deal with what they were given, only to loose in the end. And sometimes in the very end, death is far from a calm passing. And that fact is also lost on me. I am overjoyed that are both at peace after their years of struggle and in Heaven and the good Lord with them.
We'll split the funerals. Papa will go to one, and I'll go to another.
Looking for your experiences and challenges on raising teenagers. I think there's a blog post in the making. I'll keep it all anonymous. Coincidentally (divinely?) I have engaged in conversations with 3 women is just as many days about the trials of parenting teenagers and how we as parents aren't talking about it. How it can really really be a struggle and hurt. Please email me if you'd like to share your challenges. Whether or not you've come out the other side, doesn't matter. Please change the names. I think we need to share for the betterment of the village.
On Monday I'm leaving on a little me-vacation, (as I'm calling it.) I've never done this before. This going away with just me and leaving the remainder of my family behind. I'm going away with just a few ladies, (my mom invited me!) and flying clear across the country to the Outter Banks! The beach. The sand. The un-harried life of book reading while sipping an umbrella drink, and wiggling your toes in the sand.
I'm going!
I am racked simultaneously with guilt and worry and giddiness and excitement. Will they actually get their hair brushed before getting on the bus? Should I buy a new hat for the beach? What if a crisis arises and I'm not here to race to the ER? What book should I read? What if I die on the plane and leave them as orphans... again? Should I go carry on or check my suitcase? Will Papa remember to chill their water bottles?
I'll be checking in periodically, but honestly I need some me time. Parenting and life in general have been exhausting as of late. I'm looking forward to being with my mom, (how old are you when you stop needing your mom, btw? I'm still not there.) taking photos in a whole new setting, and coming home with a rejuvenated spirit.
In light of the aforementioned "me-vacation," I'm looking for 2-3 folks to do a guest post here on Ordinary Miracles. It's a great way to expand your own readership and share some good stuff with a whole new audience. Yes, you can cross post on your own blog. No, I don't pay anything. Yes, it needs to be a topic that is something similar to what I already share here, parenting, recipes, marriage, adoption, special needs, seeing the ordinary miracles in life... No, it shouldn't be something you've posted in the past. New content only please. Yes, it has to be your original work and would be peachy if it had at least 1 photo.
Please email me your blog address and idea, and I'll get back to you. We'll have to work quickly because as usual I've put this off to the last moment.
Mimi's favorite movie by far is Tangled. Recently she has gone to carrying a frying pan around all the time. It's a little metal frying pan from IKEA, but metal like I said. When she gets ticked off at her siblings, she now pops them upside the head with it. Many 'o times, I'm in the kitchen or another room to hear the familiar sound of metal on cranium followed immediately by shrieking. Seriously, frying pans. Who knew?
It has been so long since I've posted Crazy 9 Highlights that the last time I did it they were called Crazy 8 Highlights! You know I can't leave you without at least one pic that is totally unrelated to anything.
10 comments:
Hi Nancy thanks for stopping by my page, so I could discover your amazing page and story. I'm sorry to hear about all the loss you're dealing with, I hope you have fun on your mini vacation. It's always good to get away for a short time. I look forward to reading more of your story, and getting to know you.ReplyDelete
Life with RA is a Pain
Oh! I'm tempted to offer to do a guest blog post, but I have to think of a great idea. And I guess you need to know really quickly. I'll see if anything comes to me soon. So sorry for your losses. And I'm jealous of your break and time with your mom. It sounds so wonderful.ReplyDelete
Nancy I am so happy you are getting away!!! If I ever tried to do all that you do I would be taking vacations every other week:) I hope you have an amazing trip and I look forward to hearing about it. Very well deserved!ReplyDelete
Trip.. what... when.. but the kids... and the house... oh my. Dear Lord please help me next week and protect my wonderful bride as she travels.ReplyDeleteReplies
Wait... did I forget to tell you? Was I contemplating sneaking off in the middle of the night? HmmmmmmDelete
Luv you. Thank you for affording me this,
Great stuff Nancy - good catch up on "this and that"! I'm sure that Papa will do fine - we guys really are more capable than we try to let on!! ;)Delete
Concerning the loss of your friends - it's never fair - or understandable...we'll hold them and you in our thoughts and prayers!
And finally - enjoy the break - come back refreshed - and maybe make sure the frying pan is aluminum - hurts less than iron~!! ;)
aus and co.
I have wanted to do a post inspired by a quote you had in your blog about a year ago, something like, out of every mother a new woman emerges (too busy to go searching for the exact wording). I am having a bit of an identity crisis, moving from that stage of being a stay at home mom of babies to a working mom of independent preschoolers and I love it and I hate it... and I want to write about it.ReplyDelete
I would love to do a guest blog post :) Just an amateur blogger at the moment but I love sharing stories, ideas and just simply, thoughts for a better world :)ReplyDelete
You said it could be something about being able to see the ORDINARY miracles of life?
I would like to share a story - my story - of how touching actions from absolute strangers helped to create a ordinary miracle (something others may have brushed off or taken for granted) but meant the world to me.
Also, I typed my idea out but it is not allowing me to publish, and tells me that it is too long...Would it be alright for me to tell you my idea via email? I have only recently started blogging, am pretty shy and would rather share the idea via email if you don't mind... in case you decide not to use it :)
Thank you!


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aQuellé Midmar Mile swimmers smash R3m fundraising target
Issued by Good News Lab on behalf of aQuellé - Feb 13th 2018, 11:38
Despite a lagging economy, swimmers at South Africa's premier open water championship, the aQuellé Midmar Mile, have smashed an ambitious target of raising R3-million for charities nationwide, fundraisers announced on Monday [12 February].
Drawing amateur and serious athletes of all ages, this past weekend's event saw many swimmers raise funds for causes ranging from cancer to water awareness as Day Zero draws closer in the Western Cape.
As of Monday morning, charity organisers announced that more than R3.1m had been raised – a staggering 55% increase on the R2m raised in 2017. And more is expected to flow in in the coming weeks, they say.
"Not all EFT's made over the weekend have come in yet. We'll also keep fundraising open for a few more weeks to give people a chance to hit their targets. But it's an impressive number regardless," said Stan Kozlowski, chairman of the main fundraising initiative, the 8 Mile Club.
"I'd imagine by the end of this week the 8 Mile Club alone will have surpassed the R3-million mark. We're currently sitting on R2.98m raised, with the 16 Mile Club having raised R113,000".
Over 13,000 swimmers from across the country descended on Midmar Dam near Pietermaritzburg for the 45th edition of South Africa's premier open water race. Among them were the 200-plus members of the 8 Mile and 16 Mile clubs.
Suzelle Stegen, marketing manager for aQuellé, said the water brand was proud to support such great initiatives.
"Helping the community is a key element of our brand. We love the fact that families, clubs and corporate teams can come together and take part in a healthy, water-based activity that spreads the joy and does so much good for many worthy causes," said Stegen.
The 8-Milers – so called for the distance each member swims for charity – each swam the eight-mile-long events on Saturday and Sunday to collect as much money as possible for their seven chosen charities. These included breast cancer charity Pink Drive, Singakwenza Education and Health, Childhood Cancer Foundation (CHOC), Princess Charlene of Monaco Foundation, KZN Wildlife for Save the Rhino, Wildlands Conservation Trust and the Cancer Association of South Africa.
Former East Coast Radio DJ Brad Ray, 40, now living in Johannesburg, completed his fifth 8-Mile challenge. He and his sister, Abigail Ray, swam on behalf of Singakwenza, a non-profit organisation that works to improve the lives of disadvantaged children through early childhood education programmes.
"I am a huge believer in education having the power to change people's lives for the better, and what Singakwenza does for young children is amazing," said Brad. "I knew the bigger charities would have support already, and the smaller charities need the money more."
Joining the 8-Milers was former Paralympic silver medallist Terence Parkin, who is on a 902km cycle-swim-run journey to raise funds for the Deaf Children's Learn to Swim and Water Safety Programme.
Their 16 Mile Club counterparts raised funds for the Duzi Umngeni Conservation Trust (DUCT), which is dedicated to protecting the uMsunduzi and uMngeni rivers.
Gary Albertyn, 49, of Pretoria, swam his first 16-Miler for DUCT two years ago. This past weekend he swam with Cape Town's looming "Day Zero" in mind.
"I think that with the reality of Day Zero looming in Cape Town and the water restrictions that exist in many parts of our country, clean water sources are more important than ever. DUCT provides a life-changing service and being part of the fundraising team for them is an honour," said Albertyn.
It was a family affair, he said.
"We as a family have been doing the aQuellé Midmar Mile since 2012."
Race director Wayne Riddin said the spin-off of the event as a major national fundraiser showed the true heart of South Africans.
"We are incredibly happy that it has become a platform for swimmers to challenge themselves both physically and mentally, and to challenge their friends and families to contribute to their fundraising efforts," said Riddin.
Click here for more information on aQuellé
Related Activity
When members of a small Kranskop community drilled down in search of water to meet the daily needs of community members, they could not have known that from it would spring one of South Africa's purest and most beloved water brands – aQuellé.
aQuellé recently concluded their "Triple the Joy" campaign, which saw the brand travel over 4800 kilometres across South Africa and distribute bottles of aQuelle and gifts to children and adults in various communities.
aQuellé has decided to permanently add three new popluar flavours to their range.
Around 13 000 swimmers are expected at the 45th aQuelle Midmar Mile. As the world's largest open water swim, the event has become an important annual fundraiser for a variety of South African charities.


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Monday, 28 April 2008
Response from ex Jersey social worker
The ex social worker has now responded to clarify the situation and I have pasted that response below.
"Dear all,
Ex Jersey social worker here.
When I left the main reasons were to do with culture of secrecy/ lack of feeling able to complain about poor practice without feeling very vulnerable. In my opinion the overall systems were not in place to protect children in care ie inspection by UK CSCI/Ofsted (even though probation and prisons are inspected by Uk inspectorates), poor feedback form partner agencies about the functions of child care systems in jersey (voluntary and statutory partners) plus lots of bureaucratic bits about policies not being followed.
Yes I did ask about childcare availability and flexible working for child care both of which I was informed was available at interview. Neither was available in social services when I arrived (even though there was a states flexible working policy, which curiously applied to all depts except social services) but that wasn't why I left! I could have coped with that! No there was a whole host of other issues which I wont go into.
Individual staff do a good job but in my opinion the overall performance monitoring of the child protection processes are not up to the job. I left, but until CSCI/OFsted undertake regular inspections of child care in jersey there will always be a nagging doubt.
Why OFsted? Well, to performance manage child care you need to do what they call "benchmarking " a service against a set of fixed criteria. The process also needs to include feedback from young people and families who receive the service.
Children would need to have absolute confidence the people they are talking to to give feedback are independent and objective and able to take action against poor practice if reported.
For these reasons, and thinking about recent jersey childcare history the
"inspectors " would need to be from the uk and experienced in inspecting childcare services.
OFSTED are the only group with this experience. It would also bring child care into line with Prison and Probation departments. So far the govt has had numerous one off reports ie kathy bull andrew williamson etc but no "Benchmarking" against set criteria.
Its obvious really so I am not sure what the delay is! Can any one think of why?Anon"
If the author of the first comment would like to respond to the 'ex social worker' it would be appreciated.
Has anyone got any views about this? What do people feel is needed? Do people think that the States of Jersey need to introduce regular independent 'checks and balances' to regulate their services for children and young people?
I fully support this notion, however, if this is all that is needed why has the prison service received 3 scathing reports and yet still fails on virtually every assessed standard? The service has now received a financial boost from the States of Jersey but my theory is that this has been a reactive damage limitation excercise as a result of the child abuse scandal and not as a result of the reports themselves. I think that the world media raised the accountability stakes - something Jersey's senior civil servants and politicians need so very desperately to improve public services for the islands most vulnerable people.
It would be great to get some views on this. Also, please, if you can register a name, still stay anonymous but use a fictitious name so that it is easier to follow the communicate with each other.
1 comment:
I agree with everything that is being said i.e the benchmark of organisations such as OFSTED. Checks and balances do need putting in place. Our civil servants and ministers should be held accountable. Our current goverment could well be described as corrupt.
But in all honesty you're not telling us anything we don't know or at least nothing that will suprise us. As I commented previously we, or I need to know what can be done about it all. I'm getting bored with the repetitive stuff of how bad things are.
Most people seem to be happy living in the problem when they should be getting into the solution.
I know it was strongly suggested to you to stand as a candidare for the next elections, something I believe you should consider seriously.
I believe you to be a man of high morals, integrity and courage and would get my vote any day of the week.
Senator Syvret already has the market cornered with telling us all how bad things are and how corrupt our goverment is and really has the captive audience on that.
Like I said your blogs are very little new and nothing suprising, you have my upmost respect and sympathy's, but do us a favour and get out of the problem and into the solution!!
Pike Mollard.
- Monday, 28 April, 2008


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The latest Norwich Bus Page fleet lists are available for Anglianbus, Konectbus, Norse & a first release version of the First Eastern Counties fleet list! It is sill in the development stages and is still missing some information.
Fleet lists are available to the right hand side of the screen or at http://norwichbuspage.yolasite.com/fleet-lists.php
If you spot a fault with one of our Fleet lists please inform us through Email: email@example.com or through Twitter: @NorwichBusPage


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Sound Advice
Good acoustical design plays a major role in creating comfortable and productive indoor environments. Air terminal units and air outlets are located in close proximity to occupants, so they tend to have the greatest impact on room sound levels. The proper sizing and selection of these products is critical to achieving the desired acoustical environment. Manufacturers publish sound performance ratings but they are of little value without a proper understanding of what they mean and where they come from. In order to properly specify system components, a basic knowledge of acoustical terminology, ratings and criteria is required.
Attending this session will improve your knowledge and understanding of HVAC acoustics.
· You will learn about the various industry standards used for testing and rating the acoustical performance of terminal units and air devices.
· You will learn how to apply manufacturers' acoustical data in order to achieve design goals.
· You'll learn the differences between noise criteria and the importance of sound quality in creating optimal acoustical environments.
· You will learn the best techniques for specifying acoustical performance.
· You will learn how to select and install terminal units and air devices for improved acoustical performance.


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@ACMilan 17/18 #UEL Europa League Avatar Pack Now Available!
Skip back to main navigation
To celebrate AC Milan's return to European football, check out and use one of these avatars in the gallery below!
The AC Milan crest and UEFA Europa League logo are from Wikipedia. Both images are properties of their respective owners.


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Dependency calls are requests, which your application makes to the external services (such as databases or REST services). When this telemetry type is enabled, all the dependent actions form a timeline within the scope of the parent action. Using this timeline we may easily verify whether the delay in our application is caused by an external service, or the application itself. Let's analyze in detail how this data is collected.
How dependency calls are tracked by the application insights?
This article has been originally published on Low Level Design blog by Sebastian Solnica. Follow him on Twitter to get more fantastic news and content!
Application Insights is a performance monitoring service, created by Microsoft and available on Azure. It gives you space to store the performance metrics and logs of your application (1GB for free!), as well as functionalities to search and manage them. In this post I am not going to present you the whole platform – Microsoft already did it in the Azure documentation, but rather focus on an element of the log collection, named dependency calls tracking. I did some analysis on the Application Insights libraries, and decided to publish my findings, in the hope that the results might interest some of you too.
Application insights setup
Before your application logs enter the Azure servers, you need to make some adjustments in the source code or/and install an agent on the application server. Modifying the application code is called in the official documentation the instrumentation at build time, whilst the agent installation is the instrumentation at run time (you may use both simultaneously). The table below (copied from https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/application-insights/app-insights-monitor-performance-live-website-now) lists the differences in capabilities between these two approaches:
The "Dependency diagnostics" row is the one we will investigate further. As you can see the official docs state that the run time dependency diagnostics provides more details about the calls, and it works for all versions of .NET, whereas the build time dependency diagnostics is supported only on .NET 4.6+ and lacks some details. If you are surprised, don't worry – I was too, but everything will be clear soon.
Instrumentation at build time
If your project is an ASP.NET MVC/Forms/WebApi application, adding the Application Insights instrumentation is as simple as right clicking on the project name and choosing "Add Application Insights Telemetry" from the context menu:
Visual Studio will then run a wizard, in which you will need to sign in the Azure portal, and configure the Application Insights account. Next, a number of Nuget packages will be installed, a new ApplicationInsights.config file will be added to the root folder of your project, and the web.config file will be slightly modified. The table below describes some of the Nuget packages, and their role in the log collection process:
The list of telemetry modules used by the Application Insights component can be found in the ApplicationInsights.config file. The Application Insights settings are read by the ApplicationInsightsHttpModule, which is configured in the web.config file:
<httpModules> <add name="ApplicationInsightsWebTracking" type="Microsoft.ApplicationInsights.Web.ApplicationInsightsHttpModule, Microsoft.AI.Web" /> </httpModules>
On initialization, the Application Insights component loads all the telemetry modules, including the DependencyTrackingTelemetryModule, by calling their Initialize methods. The dependency tracking module checks whether a profiler is attached to the application (we will talk about it soon), and if it is not, the InitializeForFrameworkEventSource method is called. The main purpose of this method is to initialize two fields: httpEventListener of type FrameworkHttpEventListener and sqlEventListener of type FrameworkSqlEventListener. Both those types inherit from the System.Diagnostics.Tracing.EventListener and override the OnEventSourceCreated method. This method is called for all the event sources existing in the application, as well as new event sources attached to a given listener. The first call happens while the class is being instantiated (have a look at the call stack below), which is a great moment to attach the listener to the interesting event sources:
Microsoft.AI.DependencyCollector.dll!Microsoft.ApplicationInsights.DependencyCollector.Implementation.FrameworkHttpEventListener.OnEventSourceCreated mscorlib.dll!System.Diagnostics.Tracing.EventSource.AddListener mscorlib.dll! System.Diagnostics.Tracing.EventListener..ctor Microsoft.AI.DependencyCollector.dll!Microsoft.ApplicationInsights.DependencyCollector.Implementation.FrameworkHttpEventListener..ctor …
And this is exactly what our two listeners are doing. The FrameworkHttpEventListener attaches to the events with a keyword 0x4 sent by the FrameworkEventSource (we may verify in the .NET source code that this keyword is assigned to the NetClient events):
if (eventSource != null && eventSource.Name == "System.Diagnostics.Eventing.FrameworkEventSource") { base.EnableEvents(eventSource, EventLevel.Informational, (EventKeywords)4L); DependencyCollectorEventSource.Log.RemoteDependencyModuleVerbose( "HttpEventListener initialized for event source:System.Diagnostics.Eventing.FrameworkEventSource", "Incorrect"); }
The FrameworkSqlEventListener is using the Microsoft-AdoNet-SystemData event source, which has only one keyword available:
if (eventSource != null && eventSource.Name == "Microsoft-AdoNet-SystemData") { base.EnableEvents(eventSource, EventLevel.Informational, (EventKeywords)1L); DependencyCollectorEventSource.Log.RemoteDependencyModuleVerbose( "SqlEventListener initialized for event source:Microsoft-AdoNet-SystemData", "Incorrect"); }
You may later check the OnEventWritten methods in both those listeners to see how the received events are processed. As you see, the dependency calls instrumentation at build time is based on ETW events. Let's analyze what happens at run time.
Instrumentation at run time
Instrumentation at run time does not require any changes in the application code. You simply install an Application Insights agent, and choose which IIS application you would like to instrument. After finishing the wizard, the agent will drop AppInsights libraries in the application bin folder, and will add the ApplicationInsights.config file to the root folder of the application. The list of DLLs is almost the same as for the build time instrumentation, except for one additional assembly: Microsoft.AI.HttpModule. You may be wondering why this additional assembly is required. Everything becomes clear when you check its assembly attributes:
… [assembly: PreApplicationStartMethod(typeof(WebRequestTrackingModuleRegister), "Register")] [assembly: TargetFramework(".NETFramework,Version=v4.0", FrameworkDisplayName = ".NET Framework 4")] [assembly: AssemblyFileVersion("126.96.36.199")] …
As we are no longer in control of the web.config file, we need to find a different way to inject our HttpModule. The PreApplicationStartMethod attribute comes with help here, as it allows an easy and straightforward way to register an HttpModule dynamically on application start. With the HttpModule registered, all the predefined telemetry modules should be loaded into our application AppDomain. One of them would be the DependencyTrackingTelemetryModule. As you recall, in its Initialize method body, there is a check whether a profiler is attached to the application. And this time it is! That's the biggest difference between instrumentation at build time and at run time. It took me a moment to figure this out, but as you will soon see the configuration is quite simple. After enabling the Application Insights telemetry for any of your ASP.NET applications, and restarting the IIS, you should see three new environment variables in the svchost.exe process hosting the IIS service:
- MicrosoftInstrumentationEngine_Host={CA487940-57D2-10BF-11B2-A3AD5A13CBC0}
If you are wondering how they got there, check the Environment value under the HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\W3SVC key. Consequently, these variables will appear in w3wp processes (application pool processes are created by the svchost.exe and inherit the environment settings). Let's move back to the DependencyTrackingTelemetryModule initialization process. As the profiler was found, the next called method would be InitializeForRuntimeProfiler, which at the end calls the DecorateProfilerForHttp and DecorateProfilerForSql methods of the ProfilerRuntimeInstrumentation class. Both these methods use the Functions static class (from the Microsoft.AI.Agent.Intercept assembly) to inject callbacks into the interesting framework methods. Instead of analyzing the decompiled code, let's use the profiling engine in our own application, in which we will measure the HttpWebRequest.GetResponse method execution:
using System; using System.Diagnostics; using System.Net; using Microsoft.ApplicationInsights.Extensibility; using Microsoft.Diagnostics.Instrumentation.Extensions.Intercept; public static class Program { public static void Main(string[] args) { InitializeProfiler(); var req = WebRequest.Create("https://lowleveldesign.wordpress.com"); using (var resp = req.GetResponse()) { Console.WriteLine("Content type: {0}", resp.ContentType); } } internal static void InitializeProfiler() { Decorator.InitializeExtension(); Functions.Decorate("System", "System.dll", "System.Net.HttpWebRequest.GetResponse", new Func<object, object>(Program.BeginGetResponse), new Func<object, object, object, object>(Program.EndGetResponse), null, false, true); } private static readonly Stopwatch stopwatch = new Stopwatch(); private static object BeginGetResponse(object thisobj) { Console.WriteLine("Begin GetResponse"); stopwatch.Start(); return null; } private static object EndGetResponse(object context, object returnValue, object thisobj) { stopwatch.Stop(); Console.WriteLine("End GetResponse: {0:0.###}ms", stopwatch.ElapsedMilliseconds); return returnValue; } }
Before running the application, we need to set the required environment variables:
set COR_ENABLE_PROFILING=1 set "COR_PROFILER={324F817A-7420-4E6D-B3C1-143FBED6D855}" set "MicrosoftInstrumentationEngine_Host={CA487940-57D2-10BF-11B2-A3AD5A13CBC0}"
And as a result we should receive:
Begin GetResponse End GetResponse: 1094ms Content type: text/html; charset=UTF-8
You may be now wondering which instrumentation type you should use in your app. If your app runs on .NET older than 4.6 and you want to use dependency diagnostics, you don't have a choice, but to install the agent on the server. If your app uses .NET 4.6+ you may configure only the build time instrumentation. The profiler way (run time instrumentation) generates more overhead compared to the ETW way (build time instrumentation). Thus, I would recommend starting with the build time instrumentation, and enable the run time instrumentation only if you need more details. Finally, if you have both types of instrumentation enabled, the profiler way will take precedence
Issue. Incoming Request in Live Stream Telemetry is not showing graphs. Refer below snapshot:
We are trying to get live stream telemetry dynamically from code. We are not using Appinsight.config and Web.Config.
While referencing Microsoft.ApplicationInsight.Web from Nu-get package for fetching Live Stream, an entry(mentioned below) is automatically added in in Web.Config which helps in fetching incoming request for live-stream.
After removing this entry from web.config, Incoming Request in Live Stream are stopped working. We are trying to make above code entry dynamically with C# code.
Sample Code is given below:
private void LiveMetricStream()
bool enableDependencyTracking = true;
bool _telemetryModulesInitialized = false;
// Telemetry modules can be only instantiated and initialized once per app domain.
if (!_telemetryModulesInitialized)
var telemetryModules = new List();
var httpModule = new List();
httpModule.Add(new ApplicationInsightsHttpModule());
if (enableDependencyTracking)
telemetryModules.Add(new DependencyTrackingTelemetryModule());
telemetryModules.Add(new PerformanceCollectorModule());
telemetryModules.Add(new QuickPulseTelemetryModule());
var reqTrackingModule = new RequestTrackingTelemetryModule();
telemetryModules.Add(new UnhandledExceptionTelemetryModule());
telemetryModules.Add(new ExceptionTrackingTelemetryModule());
TelemetryConfiguration telemetryConfiguration = new TelemetryConfiguration();
telemetryConfiguration.TelemetryInitializers.Add(new HttpDependenciesParsingTelemetryInitializer());
telemetryConfiguration.TelemetryInitializers.Add(new AzureRoleEnvironmentTelemetryInitializer());
telemetryConfiguration.TelemetryInitializers.Add(new AzureWebAppRoleEnvironmentTelemetryInitializer());
telemetryConfiguration.TelemetryInitializers.Add(new BuildInfoConfigComponentVersionTelemetryInitializer());
telemetryConfiguration.TelemetryInitializers.Add(new WebTestTelemetryInitializer());
var syntheticAgentIntializer = new SyntheticUserAgentTelemetryInitializer();
syntheticAgentIntializer.Filters = "search|spider|crawl|Bot|Monitor|BrowserMob|BingPreview|PagePeeker|WebThumb|URL2PNG|ZooShot|GomezA|Google SketchUp|Read Later|KTXN|KHTE|Keynote|Pingdom|AlwaysOn|zao|borg|oegp|silk|Xenu|zeal|NING|htdig|lycos|slurp|teoma|voila|yahoo|Sogou|CiBra|Nutch|Java|JNLP|Daumoa|Genieo|ichiro|larbin|pompos|Scrapy|snappy|speedy|vortex|favicon|indexer|Riddler|scooter|scraper|scrubby|WhatWeb|WinHTTP|voyager|archiver|Icarus6j|mogimogi|Netvibes|altavista|charlotte|findlinks|Retreiver|TLSProber|WordPress|wsr-agent|http client|Python-urllib|AppEngine-Google|semanticdiscovery|facebookexternalhit|web/snippet|Google-HTTP-Java-Client";
telemetryConfiguration.TelemetryInitializers.Add(new ClientIpHeaderTelemetryInitializer());
telemetryConfiguration.TelemetryInitializers.Add(new OperationNameTelemetryInitializer());
telemetryConfiguration.TelemetryInitializers.Add(new Microsoft.ApplicationInsights.Web.OperationCorrelationTelemetryInitializer());
telemetryConfiguration.TelemetryInitializers.Add(new UserTelemetryInitializer());
telemetryConfiguration.TelemetryInitializers.Add(new AuthenticatedUserIdTelemetryInitializer());
telemetryConfiguration.TelemetryInitializers.Add(new AccountIdTelemetryInitializer());
telemetryConfiguration.TelemetryInitializers.Add(new SessionTelemetryInitializer());
telemetryConfiguration.TelemetryChannel = new ServerTelemetryChannel();
var quickPulseProcessor = telemetryConfiguration.TelemetryProcessors
.FirstOrDefault(processor => processor is QuickPulseTelemetryProcessor);
if (quickPulseProcessor != null)
var quickPulseModule = new QuickPulseTelemetryModule();
_telemetryModulesInitialized = true;
TelemetryConfiguration.Active.TelemetryProcessorChainBuilder.Use(next => new QuickPulseTelemetryProcessor(next));
TelemetryConfiguration.Active.TelemetryProcessorChainBuilder.Use(next => new AdaptiveSamplingTelemetryProcessor(next));
TelemetryConfiguration.Active.InstrumentationKey = "Your Instrumentation Key Here";
foreach (var telemetryModule in telemetryModules)
What else can we add or remove in above code to make it workable.
great article!
Can I use Functions.Decorate() in other project to hijack the code? What's the usage of thos environment variables?
Bardzo fajny artykuł


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Another amazing malt from Kavalan who have to be a distillery that is talked about in any conversation about who is making the worlds best and most reliable single malt. This is a big and bold Sherry cask aged malt that has flavours more reminiscent of darker sherry than fino cask.
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text:
RabbitMQ, ActiveMQ, ZeroMQ, HornetQ
Warning: In this post I'm going to compare RabbitMQ, ZeroMQ, ActiveMQ, and HornetQ. The basis of the comparison is not the performance, or the scalability, or any other serious feature. The comparison is done purely based on the popularity of those systems. Therefore, if you came here to see some performance metrics, you will be disappointed — there is none in this post.
Note: To calculate popularity, I'm going to use MongoDB and Python, so if you don't care about message brokers, but you want to see some examples of MongoDB scripts, this post might be interesting to you.
What is the best messaging system out there? If you read my blog regularly, you probably know my biased answer. But to give an objective answer, we have to compare the candidates based on some criteria. There are many possible criteria, some of which are more relevant to your project than the others. One of them is how popular the candidate solutions are. In other words, if you choose a message broker and then you encounter a problem, how easy would it be to solve it? Is there anybody who can help you? One way to find it out is to check how many people are interested in the same solution. And the obvious way to do it is to ask Google.
Here is the Google trend graph for the last five years. It turns out, my personal preferences coincide with the public interest.
At this point I can stop and say "Well, you see who's the winner". There are 5 times more people interested in RabbitMQ than HornetQ, so if you bet on Rabbit you have more chances to get the help from your fellow programmers, if you need to.
But before we make the final decision, I want to hear another opinion about the popularity of our candidates. Where do people go nowadays when they have software related problems? Right, they go to…
The best thing about StackOverflow is their REST API. For our purposes we need two API queries: get all questions by a tag, and get all answers for the question. In fact, the second one is optional. Even the first query alone can give us most of what we want to know:
- how many questions have been posted for every candidate on our list?
- how many answers did those questions receive?
- how many answers were accepted?
- how many questions and answers were marked useful?
When we get all the numbers, we should know what people are actually using. We can also check if there is any correlation between Google data and StackOverflow.
So how do we proceed? We cannot use API directly to run analytics, because we would quickly exhaust the daily quota. What we can do is to fetch the data, save it locally, and run analytics against the local data. Here is another good thing about StackOverflow API: it comes in JSON format. What is the best way to analyze JSON data? Obviously, saving it in a JSON-oriented database that supports aggregated queries. And that's where MongoDB comes into play.
Here is the Python script that downloads all the questions for the specified tags from StackOverflow, and saves the results in the local MongoDB instance. I chose Python because I want to draw some graphs later, which is easy to do in Python. Plus, it's a simple and expressive language.
After we run this script, we get all the questions we need in our database. The next step is to get all the answers for those questions. Here is the script that does exactly that.
Depends on how many questions we have saved on the first step, there might be quite a lot of queries to run to get all the answers. With my second script I exceeded the daily quota, so I had to wait for the next day to get the rest of the answers.
Now, when we have all the data, let's take a look how we can use it. Here is a typical StackOverflow record. I highlighted the fields that might be useful for our analysis.
{ "_id" : 269363, "accepted_answer_id" : 290764, "answer_count" : 4, "answers" : [ ... { "view_count" : 0, "answer_comments_url" : "/answers/303710/comments", "answer_id" : 303710, "title" : "ActiveMQ .net client locks up", "community_owned" : false, "down_vote_count" : 0, "last_activity_date" : 1317300099, "creation_date" : 1227135282, "score" : 1, "up_vote_count" : 1, "owner" : { "display_name" : "HitLikeAHammer", "reputation" : 1152, "user_id" : 35165, "user_type" : "registered", "email_hash" : "584cd9905db85f744e7e96740b11b7c0" }, "accepted" : false, "last_edit_date" : 1317300099, "question_id" : 269363 }, ... ], "community_owned" : false, "creation_date" : 1225989513, "down_vote_count" : 0, "favorite_count" : 1, "last_activity_date" : 1317300112, "owner" : { "display_name" : "HitLikeAHammer", "reputation" : 1152, "user_id" : 35165, "user_type" : "registered", "email_hash" : "584cd9905db85f744e7e96740b11b7c0" }, "question_answers_url" : "/questions/269363/answers", "question_comments_url" : "/questions/269363/comments", "question_id" : 269363, "question_timeline_url" : "/questions/269363/timeline", "score" : 1, "tags" : [ ".net", "activemq" ], "title" : "ActiveMQ .net client locks up", "up_vote_count" : 1, "view_count" : 1183 }
First of all, we want to know how many questions are posted for each messaging system from our list. Here is the MongoDB query for that. The first snippet is a query, the second is the result.
The next query is to get the total number of answers by tag
It seems that the number of answers is proportional to the number of questions. With MongoDB we can quickly verify it.
Indeed, the answers/question ratio is almost the same for every tag. That means we can use just the number of questions for our analysis.
Here is the query that calculates the number of accepted answers by tag. Again, it correlates fairly well with the total number of answers and questions.
The next query is more interesting. It calculates the number of question up-votes by tag. In other words, it shows the number of useful questions. If we divide it by the total number of questions, we should see which messaging system has bigger rate of useful questions than others
Interesting. The ZeroMQ users seem to ask more useful questions than the users of other brokers.
Let's do the same analysis for the answers. Here is the query that calculates the number of answer up-votes by tag.
Again, ZeroMQ users post more useful answers than others.
To complete the picture of typical users, let's run the following query that calculates an average reputation of people that post answers
Wow. ZeroMQ users not only ask more useful questions and give useful answers, they also have higher reputation on average in the StackOverflow community.
As a final exercise, I want to build a graph of question distribution over time. After all, ActiveMQ is the oldest broker, and it might have got more questions just because it was launched first. For this purpose I created this Python script that uses amazing matplotlib library. And here is the result for the last 60 months
It shows that the proportion of interest in different massaging systems was approximately the same all the time. Furthermore, the StackOverflow statistics of this year correlates well with the Google statistics.
RabbitMQ and ActiveMQ are very popular. If you choose one of them for your messaging infrastructure, you shouldn't have any problem with the community support. HornetQ might be a good message broker but it definitely lacks the community interest. Finally, as I suspected before, ZeroMQ is worth looking at. There are bunch of smart and helpful people in ZeroMQ community.
MongoDB is really nice! Its aggregation framework is powerful and easy to use. It was fun playing with it.


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netname: NOS-FON
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admin-c: TVCA1-RIPE
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text:
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This program was developed by Dr. Randy Flemmer who has over 30 years of driver education and fleet safety experience.
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The course was well worth it. I have learnt so much and would recommend it for anyone!
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In addition to IZA's in-house researchers and global network, our sister institutes SUN and briq also benefit from our services.
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text:
The lyrics "Ya'll gonna make me lose my mind, up in here, up in here" come to mind when I think of the old fart, windbag, homework machine. Walter told us today she is making him do his homework during recess while the other kids play. He's started telling us he hates school and acting up before bed and before leaving in the morning. This teacher is literally undoing progress that we have made.
So, I got some advocating to do. First of all I'm going pen to paper and going to attempt to get communication with the principal via email. I need more access to her to make sure she is controlling her teacher. I plan on writing a unemotional recap of the meeting we had and what my understanding was coming out of that meeting. I'm then going to list out via bullet points what has transpired since then. 3rd and final paragraph will be my ideas to address the situation. I'm going to call the SW in to speak with the principal as well. I'm trying to get our therapist involved as well. I'm not getting this done myself so it's time for back up. I've been good and left social workers alone for over a month. I should have some good will for that because I was bringing the heat there for a while.
Walter had a tough day today. He felt he should be able to see his mommy and was pretty pissed we were not accommodating him. He was stalling before school but Dudette had the day off and I was working from home so frankly I could give a fuck if he's late. Our lack of concern and zero freak out threw him for a loop and he ended up at school on time. Funny how that works.
After school he fought with Dudette and she went to the bedroom and locked the door. The lack of attention kills the little guy so he got himself straight and played nice for the rest of the night. Almost.
Story time I made the mistake of correcting his pronunciation of a word and he lost his shit and went Nam. He takes any sort of criticism so hard and when he's tired he just can't help himself. Dudette told him she loved him and left. I turned off the light and got into bed. He sat on the floor and hit himself in the head with the Dr. Seuss book we didn't finish. I let it go because I knew he wouldn't do any damage like that and I knew he desperately wanted a confrontation with me. So I closed my eyes. He went on for about a minute then stopped. As soon as he did I opened my eyes and looked at him with slight sympathetic 'I'm not mad' smile. He started again and I closed my eyes. He stopped and says, "Who asked you to be in here?" I raised my head and said, "Do you want me to leave?"
"YES!" he says laying on the sarcasm so I hit him with a If/then.
"If you want me to leave then you have to stop hitting yourself and lie in bed."
Walter hits me back with a if/then of his own, "if you leave then I'll get into bed." He said it in such a smart ass tone it was all I could do not laugh. Instead I said, "Deal. I love you, I will see you tomorrow. If you change your mind gimme a holler and I'll come cuddle."
I left him alone and sat outside his room waiting for him to come to the door. I looked in after a half an hour and he was sound asleep. I gave him some kisses and covered him up. To be honest I sort of wanted to wake him so he could see me smile. I wanted him to really know I still love him even when he acts like an asshole. I truly believe these outburst are not directed at me. I'm just here and who else can he scream at. I'd scream too. He's moved to us without warning, his visits with BM are cut in half without warning and no explanation. I know it's for the best and I want them stopped frankly but that doesn't mean it is easy for him. Part of my job is to clean up the mess the rest of these people made and get him on the right track. If I got take some abuse then so be it.


text:
- Director
- Pioneer One
- Date
- 2010
- Runtime
- 35
- Tags
- sci-fi
A mysterious spaceship has entered Earth's atmosphere. A US Department of Homeland Security investigation has uncovered a live human being in a Soviet space suit in an unstable condition. A note in Russian, found at the crash site, claims the man is the child of cosmonauts living at a base on Mars.
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Episode 6: "War of the World"
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Taylor prepares to go to the public with Yuri's story, and everyone discovers the consequences of their actions in the conclusion to Pioneer One's first season.
Pioneer One is a serialized drama produced and distributed online through VODO and the DISCO network. Downloaded almost 2,000,000 times and winner for Best Drama Pilot at the 2010 New York Television Festival, the show is independently produced and financed by viewer donations.
Episode 5: "Sea Change"
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When an unannounced visitor breaks in to the Calgary base with just days left in the Quarantine, tensions are at an all-time high. The fate of Yuri and everyone on Tom Taylor's team is about to be decided.
Episode 4: "Triangular Diplomacy"
As the media begins to question the story about the crashed satellite, Secretary McClellan starts to play hardball with the Russians in pursuit of his own truth. But everything hinges on what Yuri, the frightened boy at the center of it all, might have to say…
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Episode 3: "Alone in the Night"
Quarantined to the Calgary base for two weeks, Taylor and his team have bought time to get answers from the supposed Martian cosmonaut. But who can get him to talk?
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Episode 2: "The Man From Mars"
Mars expert Dr. Zachary Walzer (Jack Haley) fights to prove the validity of the Mars story. Can he convince the government to mount a manned mission to Mars? Agent in charge Tom Taylor (James Rich) faces pressure from both the Canadians and his own superiors, and has to make a call.
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Episode 1: "Earthfall" (Pilot)
An object in the sky spreads radiation over North America. Fearing terrorism, U.S. Homeland Security agents are dispatched to investigate and contain the damage. What they discover will have drastic implications.
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The Pioneer One Team
In late January 2010, writer Josh Bernhard pitched his Untitled Mars Show idea to director Bracey Smith. In February, the pair quit their jobs and got down to work on the pilot episode of Pioneer One, finished by May with a budget of $6000. The enormous response to its release on VODO prompted them to continue producing the first season with viewer-donated support.
The Pioneer One team is based mostly in and around New York, NY. At its core is a group of filmmakers who met at the avant-garde cinema department at Binghamton University in Binghamton, NY. With P1, they've amassed an amazing group of talented performers and crew, all willing to work for free because of their belief in the project.
At 22:04 on 14 Dec 2010
Episode One: This 35-minute sci-fi pilot revolves around the discovery of an object from space, a lost cosmonaut and the U.S. government's efforts to contain the situation. The production values are impressive given the low budget, and the scripting, acting and direction are solid. If you enjoyed the slightly talky but eerie Quatermass series, Pioneer One would probably be right up your alley.
At 19:42 on 23 Apr 2011
Here's a bold statement: episode three of Pioneer One may go down in history as one of the most program-revolutionizing episodes in a series, ever. In this episode we saw a complete gear shift – characters were fleshed out and brought to life in a hitherto unexplored fashion, giving far more depth to the show on the whole. The actors, whether under some adjustment of direction or simply achieving comfort in their roles, seemed to blossom and take a giant step forward towards achieving their potential. In some cases, such potential was revealed where it had previously not been clear. Before I go any further into my review, I must disclose two things. First, this review does contain spoilers, and I will not clearly label them. So if you have not yet watched it, stop reading and stream/download it now – then proceed. Second, unlike with the previous two episodes I was completely sober when watching this third installment. See? No need for an intervention. I have already lauded the character development and acting in this episode, and these elements will comprise the bulk of this review. Why? Because the story was not greatly advanced. Plot took a back seat to "getting to know you", and this is more or less OK. The end result was an episode that was thoroughly engaging regardless. My only concern is that what plot was advanced seemed to be mostly sub-plot – and I would hate to see the primary storyline diluted by too much flotsam and jetsam. There was nothing inherently bad about these asides and incidentals. However, some struck me hit or miss. Some I am fairly certain will have a major impact on future episodes. Time will tell. One example of such hit or miss storytelling was the puzzling glimpse into Tom Taylor's personal life. After a cursory and somewhat clumsy conversation between Tom and Dr. Walzer about Walzer's failed marriage, Tom was suddenly desperate to escape quarantine to go to his rather impatient and mostly unlovable significant other to pop the question. No doubt this was intended to grip us, as it was left a cliffhanger, but it seemed so hastily thrown-together as to feel like a non-sequitur. I found myself not the least bit emotionally involved in the scenario. And while I'm speaking of Tom Taylor, let me state that while your mileage may vary, to me he went from being one of the most, if not the most, likable characters on the show to something of an unsympathetic dick. It's the only character whose progression, in my opinion, ended up a regression. Case in point: in this episode he delivered the worst pep talk in history to a distraught Jane Campbell when she was doubting her suitability as companion to the stricken "Martian boy", Yuri. His idea of motivation was to tell her, "Sure, there are tons of people who are better than you. But you're the one we're stuck with, m'kay?" Now, I have already pointed out that he seems unprepared and unsure of how to handle the situation in which he's at the helm. Understandable. Maybe that sequence was intended to underline this. And, while I'm proposing excuses, maybe the whole rush-to-marriage-proposal thing was meant to illustrate how fed up he is with being in charge. Maybe his sudden desperation to escape quarantine was, whatever his ultimate motive for so doing, more or less symbolic of his need to escape the turn his life has suddenly taken. But at this juncture you may be asking yourself, unless you were good enough to watch the episode before reading this review, "Who is Jane?". She's a new character brought abruptly onto the scene to help keep Yuri company, and to perhaps elicit from him some intelligible responses to the inevitable onslaught of questioning to which he'll be subjected when he's recovered more. In a nutshell, she's a nurse who's experienced working with sick kids, and she happens to have a passable grasp of the Russian language. (Though this was never fully illustrated.) She is, quite simply, the most stunning element of the show thus far, and if the preview of episode four is to believed, she will (thankfully) play a much larger role in plot to come. She is well and believably acted, but more importantly, she's identifiable and you cannot help but relate to her on any of a number of levels. And for my money the best scene in the entire series thus far is her attempt at storytelling, guiding the clearly frightened and suffering Yuri through a little good old-fashioned escapism. It wasn't not the first time someone reached out to him with a personal touch – more on that in a bit – but it's the most touching outreach. Combining a simple fairy tale with something I can only describe as interpretive dance (and this is the only time you'll ever hear me mention interpretive dance in a positive light), she came across as graceful, almost ethereal, and you couldn't help but fall in love. And, for what it's worth, it was one of the least choreographed-looking dance sequences I can recall seeing in TV or film. The end result was a totally organic scene. Since we're on the topic of reaching out to Yuri, let's discuss the brief but important conversation Dr. Walzer had with the young lad. Walzer veered sharply from his Vizzini-esque path in this episode, becoming someone it's possible to truly like. During his little chat with Yuri we saw a side of him that's not yet been highlighted. We were given a chance to better understand what motivates him. And the show is better for having one of its central characters clearly explained. But that's not the only case of "meet and greet" with already-established players. Remember the guy with the emo haircut? Turns out he's not so much emo, but actually just a nerd, and a fun nerd, at that. (He never stood a chance at being hip; he was named after Adlai Stevenson.) Why it took three episodes to learn more about him I can only speculate – however, getting to know him brings about another layer of polish and greater chance of immersion to the series. Perhaps it's coincidental that it was Jane who brought him out of his shell. Then again, maybe not. One last instance of character development, as well as a shining example of acting vastly improved from the previous episode, came in the form of the Canadian liaison, whose acting was stiff and actually distracting in episode two. In this episode, however, we were shown more of his character – a character who continues to assert his importance to Tom verbally, but more or less rolls over when told. And finally, this was brought to life with better-delivered dialog and body language. Hell, he even made a witty remark. A vast improvement. "Vast improvement" is actually the key phrase when it comes to the entirety of episode three. And considering Pioneer One was a solid show to begin with, that's a feat. As I pointed out in my review of the first two episodes Pioneer One began with much room for growth. It has made good on its promise and grown. I am greatly looking forward to episode four and hope you'll join me both in watching it when it's released, and in reading my future reviews of the series.
At 16:42 on 15 Mar 2012
Today we're revisiting a series that I kinda gushed over last year. Since reviewing the pilot, Pioneer One has since been able to crowdfund five more episodes for six in total, they won the drama category for 2010′s NYTVF (and should've won pretty much everything else. Illuminati Brothers? Greg And Donny? Really?), and their first two episodes as of January 2011 received over 1.7 million downloads. So, for the equivalent of an hour-long television pilot, they had more viewers than either of the first two season premieres of Breaking Bad. According to their blog, it sounds like creator Josh Bernhard and director Bracey Smith are tiring of discussion over their novel distribution methods—hint: torrents are effective! I'll skip that. Let's talk the show itself. Are you watching it? You should be. You should be talking about it. When people say, "there's nothing good on the web,†or "you can't do drama on the web,†you point them directly to this series and you say, "shut up.†With each episode, small revelations, things that on the surface appear mundane, have major and lasting consequences. A single word near the end of Episode 4 (by this time, our running time is deep into TV Miniseries lengths) and with no shocked response, no intense musical cues, everything you thought about the series changes. Political intrigue is shown through devil-in-the-details moments, from using old immigration agreements and laws as ammunition for forcing the Russians into backing down to simply not answering the phone until they're damn good and ready to buy time. Humanity shown through old clips of a character begging Congress for funding to go to Mars because "it's the next step,†and the power of simple human contact for someone who may have never felt it before. We talk a big game about the web overtaking TV, about the creative freedom it provides. And while only a semi-full picture of its ratings are known for the first two episodes, less than 1,500 people have watched Pioneer One's fourth episode on YouTube, released on October 4th, 2011. You want us to overtake TV? You want to talk about how it can provide something that TV never could or would? Viewers are gonna have to do better than that. We're going to have to have the balls to bring it up at the water cooler. We're going to need to be willing to discuss it at least the way we would a Sundance film. We need to take the "just†out of "it's just on the web.†When someone produces something that at its core stands up against anything on any medium, we as advocates for our particular medium better step up. Not just for a pilot. But continuous. I'm not going to lie — that Pioneer One's producers are unable to make this their full time, somewhat lucrative job pisses me off. Doubly so because I'm partly to blame. I forgot about them. I talked it up but I didn't champion it. It was only through dumb luck talking with Marc a week or two ago that I was reminded about the series. They've made it on the summer issue of Moviemaker Magazine. They won best drama pilot in 2010 for NYTVF. I gave it a full on, no-strings-attached win review. What more do you want, a cookie for watching? Fine, I'll start baking. We want great dramas on the web, ones that are independently made and don't sink to the lowest common denominator? We only need to get up off our asses and watch and talk about the ones that're already here to those who don't necessarily watch series on the web. It's entirely that simple.
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I like the story and the writing. The production value could be a bit higher though. Also the producers might benefit from a larger acting pool for some of the more minor characters. I really liked the score but would like to hear more of it throughout the show. Cant wait for Ep 2!
ok the guy with the long review doesn't know what he's talking about. You totally forget about the shaky camera after a few minutes and it really doesn't bother anyone. The plot was great l did not see that coming .
And l like the style of directing really keep up the good work l really hope this works out because it's a terrific idea
Looking like a first semester college film class must be the new thing to try and do. Seriously I can see that a lot of thought went into this but I cannot believe that this took more that five months from planing to execution. The actors seemed to be very "oh this is my line, right?" Also not a whole lot of emotion. One camera works to get the job done but on the whole if you had two, even if they are cheap, you could have such a smoother vantage change. Last, but certainly not least, is lighting. lighting in this seems to be very stale. the only time I really noticed a change in light that could be considered for the mood was during the scene when the fed was trying to coerce the scientist into helping... and that was achieved seemingly by accident with the EXIT sign hanging above them. For example having the walls unlit and the characters and objects close to them lit in a dim light works very well. and for outside shots use a filtered lens or even shoot it during dusk/ sunset to give it a cooler light, mid-day shots are always way too bright and wash out the color your looking for.
Over all though I could see this pilot becoming a fantastic series if done properly. I did enjoy it the first time through and used the second time for my critique. hope to see the next installment soon. have fun :)
Looking like a first semester college film class must be the new thing to try and do. Seriously I can see that a lot of thought went into this but I cannot believe that this took more that five months from planing to execution. The actors seemed to be very "oh this is my line, right?" Also not a whole lot of emotion. One camera works to get the job done but on the whole if you had two, even if they are cheap, you could have such a smoother vantage change. Last, but certainly not least, is lighting. lighting in this seems to be very stale. the only time I really noticed a change in light that could be considered for the mood was during the scene when the fed was trying to coerce the scientist into helping... and that was achieved seemingly by accident with the EXIT sign hanging above them. For example having the walls unlit and the characters and objects close to them lit in a dim light works very well. and for outside shots use a filtered lens or even shoot it during dusk/ sunset to give it a cooler light, mid-day shots are always way too bright and wash out the color your looking for.
Over all though I could see this pilot becoming a fantastic series if done properly. I did enjoy it the first time through and used the second time for my critique. hope to see the next installment soon. have fun :)
okay you have done absolutely NO research whatsoever. Calgary and Edmonton are not exactly "adjoining" cities you flit between via helicopter, in fact I'm not aware of a helicopter that could go between them without stopping to refuel. Why given that Edmonton has major hospitals would they transport someone to a "defunct" airbase [incidentally the correct term would be 'mothballed'] further even making 'adjustments' between reality and tvland for a moment, do you really think that Canada would just cede jurisdiction on something like this? OR if they had that suddenly a medical doctor would have to take orders from a US department? What world do you idiots live in?
Good plot got to inmprove camera use still camera and preferably more army people to make it look better and the chief desk has no files the plot needs it to be more dramatic but the story despite its need for speed is slow love the charecters but they make it look reharsed too love the plot love the idea hope they fix all of these in the second episode good luck
brilliant. i love the fact this isn't polished and buffed and faked up, that the actors aren't superactors on their 50th take. it lends to a realisticish documentary feel and the plot is far more fun than some generic pander to the masses three hits and you're done mediocrity. more please.
For a low-budget project, extremely well done!
However, the dialog (in places) is really bad, and has that "written by a student/noob" vibe, and trying so damn hard to sound like the "Big Boys". Otherwise, most all of the other departments did a fabulous job in keeping this project somewhat believable and non-"studenty". But again, some of the dialog is comically bad, and trying way too hard. And makeup department....really? Nice job of having a scene in which the shine off the lead characters scalp takes precedence over everything else happening. That is a makeup/DP/LD/camera operator, fail!
Overall, a monumental effort. But bad/unbelievable dialog (in parts), laughably bad CGI, and really bad lapses in judgment both during, and also in post production, will keep this from going as far as it might have. I rarely see a project which is winning so heavily in most all areas FAIL so miserably in some fairly minor ones.
Learn from this, kiddies. CGI is NOT supposed to draw attention to itself. And it's even more (if thats possible) offensive when it not only draws attention to itself, but in a way in which the audience is like "wow, that's some crappy, 1st year, sub-sub-par CGI work". Pathetically bad CGI harms a film more with it in, then if it was edited out. So what if those scenes werent there? Cut out the bad flesh, so the body can live, noob editor/director.
Use your heads people, you obviously have some brains since the overall look and feel of this project were so good. Fire whichever idiots are dropping the ball, he/she/they are screwing up the value of this project.
I am not one to ever comment on online forums. But after watching the pilot I was very disappointed. Nothing was believable. The writers should watch the first 4 seasons of the West Wing. The writers of that show were actually aware of how situations were handled. And if not, they made me believe thats how security threats were handled. Correct me if I'm wrong, but wouldn't the United States government send more then 1 agent from homeland security to sort out the issue. And would their agents actually have laptops with huge "homeland security" stickers on them. Would there not be CIA up in Canada doing what they do. For example, the scene with the rocks. I think I saw a car drive by in the background. Would something like that not be moved to a secure location. There is an old army base just south of Edmonton with a huge underground bunker, a very secure location. I live outside of Calgary and I can't think of 1 place in the city that would make sense a strange capsule that spread radiation would be moved to. The writers need to do a lot more research and a lot more thinking on how to make something seem real. In the area 51 stories, there was mas amounts of agents sweeping the landing sites and airplane hangers converted to secure the findings (I believe. Area 51 stories aren't told to often up here in Canada). the only part of the show I found to have reason is when the main guy made some comment about RCMP officers being incompetent. Being Canadian, I know that to be true.
I loved the pilot! It's really interesting and captivating (speaking about both the plot and the idea itself).
Though I've noticed few omissions, won't repeat them, they've been mentioned by koreth and yattaman. I really hope that the areators will do some googling and won't make something like " Baikonur, Russian Federation"
Also I am concerned about language mistakes (I mean Russian language) - you've made not many yet, but you have, and the pronunciation leaves much to be desired - I could hardly recognize this or that word (although I am native russian)
I was really REALLY disappointed it wasn't time travel. The writing and characters need shoring up, they just arn't believable at it made it boring at times. Still, the ending left me wanting more and if theres an interesting sequel of the same or higher caliber I'll donate.
LOVE the storyline! Interesting and leaves much to follow! This has soo much potential!!
But I'm not liking the cameraman, moving the camera so much when people are having dialog is nauseating. Cutting from person to person would work better.
The writing could be more.. human, less character. Make your actors get into the characters, not the other way around. Make them real with personalities, not persona's. Since this project doesn't have the restraint of big studio bullshit focus groups, your actors should be able to develop their characters and the writers should be able to integrate them into the scripts.You're trying to make Scully and Mulder, and they aren't. And did I see the Joe (Clive) smirk at 10:04? Really??? Kathleen is doing good as Christine. She should be lead.
The support characters are boring, make them funny. I liked the guy in the beginning texting while talking to the redhead, he had a acting ability. The guy in that scene with the glasses, not so much. And the Dr. Zach isn't wowing me either. He's smart but doesn't realize its a great idea to be involved in a gov't coverup that deals with ANYTHING from space??? Thats not so much the actors problem as it is the writers.
And what happened to the background music? Its was all over the place in the first 15 minutes, but as the intensity grows towards the end, its all but existent.
Amatuerish, yes, needs REAL scifi geek preview (such as mine). It doesn't have to be bad, even though its no budget. I donated, make me see some good!!


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If you're contemplating an expansion in your business, whether it be for more clients, into new premises, taking on more staff, outsourcing some work, or you have simply discovered that a leap of faith will be required.
Anything new is by definition going to be uncomfortable as you become familiar with new structures, a new environment, new people. And it's before you take that leap that the uncomfortable mind chatter occurs – recognize this?
"Eeek! Help! Dare I? Will I? Should I? Can I? I know it will be good for me but… it's so expensive; it's such a commitment; it might not work; it might work; it might just be another waste of my time and money; what if I end up disappointed again; what if I fail; why did I ever think I needed to move on?"
And on and on the mind goes. Continue reading


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For my first Life Lately linkup I wanted to just give a taste of the day in the life of me {minus career}.
I hope you can get a feel of what my daily happenings are like, and I hope you enjoy! Writing this post {or I should say snapping} made me remember how much I really do LOVE my life!