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Proton therapy is effective in treating many types of cancerous and non-cancerous tumors.
Proton therapy can precisely target your tumor, reducing damage to healthy tissue near the tumor and potentially allowing you to receive higher, more effective doses of radiation.1 Proton therapy not only effectively targets a tumor, but it can also be used in combination with chemotherapy, as a follow-up treatment to surgery, and in combination with standard X-ray radiation treatment.
Learn more about the benefits of proton therapy.
Proton therapy is an advanced form of radiation therapy that destroys cancer cells by preventing them from dividing and growing—the same as with standard X-ray radiation. Proton therapy uses protons—positively charged atomic particles—instead of the photons used in standard X-ray radiation therapy.
With proton therapy, doctors can precisely target the tumor while minimizing damage to the surrounding, healthy tissue. Unlike X-ray radiation (such as intensity-modulated radiation therapy [IMRT]), protons deposit much of their radiation directly in the tumor and then stop. For example, in prostate cancer, proton therapy eliminates about 60% of excess radiation delivered to healthy tissues surrounding the prostate compared to IMRT.
Proton therapy allows for a higher radiation dosage to be delivered to the tumor site, while minimizing damage to healthy tissues that surround the tumor.1,2 Standard X-ray radiation, on the other hand, releases radiation from the moment it penetrates your skin all the way through to the other side of the tumor. The potential for damage to healthy tissue and organs is higher (see chart below).
How proton therapy works
Protons and X-rays both destroy cancer cells by preventing them from dividing and growing. The difference is in their delivery. Protons deliver their radiation at exact depths to precisely targeted tumors. Much of their radiation is deposited exactly at the tumor site and then stops.1 X-rays, on the other hand, release their maximum dose of radiation quickly after penetrating the skin, potentially damaging healthy tissue and organs on their way to the tumor and as they pass through your body beyond the tumor.1
Want to learn more about proton therapy?
Visit our Frequently Asked Questions for answers to some common questions.
Studies on EffectivenessResearchers around the world have studied the effectiveness of proton therapy. A growing number of studies report on the effectiveness of proton therapy and its benefits compared to other cancer treatments. The amount of research being conducted on proton therapy is rapidly increasing as more centers open and more patient experiences become available.For more information on recent studies and publications, please review the Clinical Literature.
Is proton therapy new?Proton therapy is not new. The first patient received treatment with protons more than 50 years ago, and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved proton therapy as a radiation treatment option in 1988. To date, more than 90,000 people worldwide have received proton therapy at cancer centers in Europe, Asia, and the United States.1 Many private insurance companies, Medicare, and many state Medicaid programs cover its cost.
Why haven't I heard of proton therapy?Many doctors may not be familiar with proton therapy because of the limited number of treatment facilities in the United States. ProCure is dedicated to making proton therapy accessible to everyone who needs it, wherever they are. ProCure also partners with leading cancer facilities around the world to continuously advance proton therapy research through protocols and clinical trials. All ProCure Proton Therapy Centers share a single focus—using proton therapy to treat cancer patients. At ProCure, your health is our mission.
British physicist Ernest Rutherford demonstrates the existence of protons (elementary particles found in atoms).
Physicist Robert Wilson first proposed that protons could be used to deliver an increased dose of radiation to a tumor while simultaneously decreasing the exposure of surrounding healthy tissue to radiation.
The first research trials were conducted on patients in the US and Europe. Results were promising, but the inability of imaging technology to accurately see or locate many tumors and the inability to direct protons to sites deep within the body meant that only a few patients were appropriate candidates for the treatment.
Advances in imaging technology, including CT, MRI, and PET scans, help researchers to better diagnose and see tumors, making proton therapy—which requires identifying the precise location of a tumor—a more practical treatment option.
Advances in imaging, CT, MRI, and PET scans now allow physicians to see deep inside the body and precisely define the location, size, and shape of tumors. This capability, coupled with improvements in proton technology, brought about today's growing interest in proton therapy as an important treatment option for cancer.
Proton Therapy is an innovative means of cancer treatment that delivers radiation at exact depths to precisely target tumors. Much of the radiation is deposited exactly at the tumor site and then stops, reducing excess radiation to healthy tissue compared to X-rays. X-rays release their maximum dose of radiation quickly after penetrating the skin, potentially damaging healthy tissue and organs on their way to the tumor and as they pass through your body beyond the tumor.


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SALISBURY, Md.—Buffalo State (2-4/0-3) opened the scoring, but host Salisbury (3-2/2-0) responded with 34 unanswered points to pull away for a 34-6 victory in an Empire 8 game today at Sea Gull Stadium.
Salisbury finished with 404 rushing yards, including a pair of 100-yard rushers, with quarterback Joey Jones going for 121 yards on 19 carries, and Jerome Johnson totaling 110 yards on just six tries. Jones was also just 3 of 6 passing for 51 yards. Steven Gamble came up with two of the Sea Gulls three interceptions on defense.
Buffalo State quarterback Casey Kacz (Amherst/Sweet Home) finished 22 of 32 for 153 yards and three interceptions. Rich Pete (Utica/TR Proctor) was held to 51 yards on 14 carries, and Mike Doherty (Tonawanda/Kenmore East) had six catches for 64 yards. John Alessandra (Tonawanda/Kenmore East) had a career-best six tackles and a strip and fumble recovery to highlight the defense.
Buffalo State piled up 65 yards of offense on its first possession, but finished with just 239 yards of total offense for the day. The Bengals 153 yards through the air and a season-low 86 yards on the ground.
After Scott Koen (Oxnard, CA/Santa Clara) and Brian Greene (Syracuse/Liverpool) teamed up for a fourth down sack to stop Salisbury's opening possession of the game, Buffalo State used 13 plays to march down the field and take the lead. The Bengals found the end zone on a 3-yard run by Kacz, but had their third-consecutive extra point try blocked.
Salisbury would find the end zone on each of its next three possessions to take control with a 20-6 lead at the half. The Sea Gulls got on the board with a 35-yard run by Brandon Norwood. Salisbury added two more rushing touchdowns in the second quarter, with Jones scoring from 17 yards out and Johnson breaking a 40-yard scoring run.
Buffalo State assembled a 15-play, 63 yard drive to open the second half, but Kacz was intercepted by Gamble deep in Sea Gull territory and the Bengals' never threatened again.
Salisbury answered with a 11-play, 85-yard drive that ended with a 1-yard dive by Tyler West, and then completed the scoring in the fourth quarter on a 31-yard keeper by Jones.
Buffalo State will return home next Saturday with another Empire 8 contest when Frostburg State visits Coyer Field for a 2 p.m. kickoff.

subset: commoncrawl


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My notebook is a Pavilion dv6-6030el with an Intel i7-2630QM CPU, 8 GB of RAM and the ATI HD 6490m as VGA dedicated. I was forced to stop it due to the switchable graphics issue editing the GRUB and rc.local files, so right now the notebook is running with the only Intel Sandybridge Mobile graphics chip (I've earned something like +400% of battery life after this trick), I'm running Ubuntu 11.10 with Unity 3D, X.Org Intel drivers and Mesa drivers are installed but I can't make Compiz and advanced graphics effects to work. I've seen many videos on YouTube with older and worser VGA running Compiz at full capabilities while here the "Experience" rate is only "Standard". I've installed also the CompizConfig Settings Manager but I can't even change the size of the Unity Dash icons.
Thanks for your attention, I'm looking forward for any kind of help :)


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Adidas Campaigns Take Derrick Rose, Josh Howard Back To The Streets Of CHI, ATL
By Barry Janoff
September 28, 2012: New creative from adidas takes two distinct routes — one continues to follow Derrick Rose in "The Return of D-Rose" campaign, the other has Josh Smith opening up about the pressures of being an NBA star. But both campaigns converge in story lines that show the close connection that each player feels to his respective NBA city.
"Wake Up" is the newest spot in a series of ads that have followed Rose's rehab from knee surgery due to a torn ACL suffered by the Chicago Bulls point guard during the first round of the 2011-12 playoffs. It coincides with the worldwide launch of the D-Rose signature collection and D-Rose 3 basketball shoe on October 4.
"Heavy," Smith's ode to Atlanta, where he has been with the Hawks since 2004, supports the release of the adizero Ghost 2.
Both spots are scheduled to break next week.
In "Wake-Up," we hear an actual broadcast soundbite from the moment that Rose tore his ACL against the Philadelphia 76ers. Time seemingly stops in Chicago, where people throughout the city, including sports bars, in taxis, at home, on Lake Street Bridge and South Side neighborhoods and parks, are frozen. The action then cuts to Rose working out in a gym, which enables the citizens of Chicago to regain their mobility.
The commercial ends with Rose walking through the player's tunnel at a United Center to the crescendo of fans anticipating his return to the court. (See the full spot here.)
Rose had surgery on May 12, with doctors estimating between 8-12 months before the NBA's 2010-11 MVP could reclaim his spot with the Bulls. He appeared in just 27 games during the 2011-12 lockout-shortened season due to other injuries.
Where Rose's spot contains no vocals, Smith's ad is narrated by the player himself.
"They say the hopes of a franchise are heavy," Smith begins as we see shots of him hitting the court at Philips Arena. "And that they are nothing compared to the hopes of a city. The weight, they say, can be impossible to carry."
As we see Smith in various locations throughout Atlanta, he continues his soliloquy. "They say there's no telling what something that heavy can do." Then, holding up the adizero Ghost 2 he states, "I say, there's no telling what light can do." (See the full spot here.)
The conversation for both players continues online via such social media destinations as YouTube, Facebook and Twitter.
Rose's signature line includes jackets, hoodies, T-shirts, shorts, pants, hats and socks to match each colorway of the shoe.
"The D Rose 3 signature collection is special to me because I worked side-by-side with adidas on everything from materials to fit to colors to make it the best we've done yet," Rose said during a recent launch event. "I love the new logo that calls out the most important things to me: my family, basketball and the city of Chicago."
Last season, Smith had career highs in points (18.8 per game) and rebounds (9.6). Regarding his adidas shoe, the Hawks co-captain offered, "With my type of the game, I need speed. I can't have a shoe that weighs me down. The adizero Ghost 2 is light, and has support for when I'm driving to the basket. Plus the shoe's got style too with the patent leather toe—clean and sleek so you can look good while you play good."
Adidas' other major NBA endorser, Dwight Howard, is currently rehabbing his back following surgery early this year. He went on a tour of China during August under the adidas banner, the same month he was traded from the Orlando Magic to the Los Angeles Lakers in a 12-player deal that also involved the 76ers and Denver Nuggets. The Lakers have not made a timetable for his return, but he currently is going through workouts with members of the team's coaching staff.
Adidas is expected to unveil Howard's first shoe with Lakers' colors as well as marketing support, but have yet to reveal details.
Adidas Builds Alliance With Derrick Rose Via Lifestyle Elements
D-Rose Hits Comeback Trail With Adidas


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London Check and Leather Pouch
All orders will be fulfilled by Burberry Limited and shipped from the UK. When you place your order, you accept Burberry's Terms and Conditions and confirm that you have read our Privacy Policy.
Size Guide
Use the Size Guide to choose the best fit for your measurements.
In this window, you can find out the shipping and returns options for the selected item.
In this window, you can contact customer service for further assistance.
- A compact pouch in London check with leather trims. Designed for travel, it features multiple zip pockets to keep essentials secure, and is protected with metal feet. Carry it by the curved leather handle.
- 24 x 12.5 x 10.5cm/9.4 x 4.9 x 4.1in
- Handle drop: 4.5cm/1.8in
- Outer: 68% thermoplastic polyurethane, 21% polyester, 11% cotton
- Trim: 100% leather
- Lining: 100% polyester
- Zip closure
- Exterior zip pocket, interior zip pocket, two interior slip pockets
- Hand-painted edges
- Imported
Item 80060691


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Members of the Russian punk band Pussy Riot were nominated by Time magazine for the 2012 Person of the Year.
The punk band is among 40 candidates, who influenced news this year for better or worse. The list also includes US President Barack Obama, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad, Olympic champion Michael Phelps and others.
"In a year when so many voices of liberty and dissent have suffered harsh retribution, the Russian feminist punk group Pussy Riot has paid a particularly steep price for provocative political expression," the Time wrote describing the nominee.
Five women from Pussy Riot performed in late February a "punk prayer" in downtown Moscow's Christ the Savior Cathedral, which is Russia's biggest Orthodox church.
An edited clip of the band's protest posted online showed the group high-kicking near the entrance to the altar of the cathedral accompanied by the song "Holy S**t" urging the Virgin Mary to "drive (Vladimir) Putin out". The song mocked Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Russia and believers in insulting terms.
Soon after, police arrested three of the suspected performers. The three women said their performance was a political protest against Patriarch Kirill's support for Putin ahead of the March 4 presidential elections that returned him to the Kremlin, but the court found the performers guilty of hooliganism aimed at inciting religious hatred and jailed them for two years each Aug 17.
The prison term for one of them was later replaced with a suspended sentence.


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Using MySQL Enterprise Backup on its own, you can restore your data as it was at certain moments in time: every N hours, every day at 2 AM, and so on depending on your backup schedule. To reproduce data based on an arbitrary time somewhere in between backup jobs, you can use MySQL Enterprise Backup in combination with the MySQL binary log feature.
To recover the database to a specific point in time:
Binary logging must be enabled in MySQL, before taking the backup that serves as the base for this restore operation.
Find the binary log position that corresponds to the time of the
backup. InnoDB only stores the binary log position information
to its tablespace at a transaction commit.
To make InnoDB aware of the current binary
log position, you must run at least one transaction while binary
logging is enabled. When you run the
apply-log operation on your backup,
mysqlbackup prints the latest MySQL binary
log position the backup knows of. Also,
mysqld prints it when you start it on the
restored data:
$ mysqld --defaults-file=/export/mysql/my.cnf 040122 15:41:57 InnoDB: Database was not shut down normally! InnoDB: Starting crash recovery. … InnoDB: Last MySQL binlog file position 0 27183537, file name ./binlog.000005 … mysqld: ready for connections.
The MySQL version must be >= 5.1.
The printed position is the MySQL binary log byte position from the moment when MySQL Enterprise Backup finished copying your data files.
Use the mysqlbinlog to dump all the SQL
activity that happened after the binary log position of the
backup. Direct the output of the mysqlbinlog
command to an output file, instead of piping it directly to
mysql. This output file contains timestamps
for all SQL statements in the binary log.
$ mysqlbinlog --start-position=27183537 /sqldata/binlog.000005 >partial_binlog
$ mysqlbinlog /sqldata/binlog.000006 >> partial_binlog
$ mysqlbinlog /sqldata/binlog.000007 >> partial_binlog
$ mysqlbinlog /sqldata/binlog.00000
N >> partial_binlog
In an editor, remove all statements after the point in time to which you intend to restore.
Replay the SQL statements to update the backup data with the same operations that happened after the backup. Process the modified file with mysql, like this:
$ mysql < partial_binlog
To recover the database to the latest possible time, skip the
steps of saving the mysqlbinlog output in a
file and removing recent SQL statements from it. Pipe the output
mysqlbinlog --start-position=...
directly to mysql to replay all the SQL
statements after the last backup.
For more tips on using the binary log for point-in-time recovery, see Point-in-Time (Incremental) Recovery Using the Binary Log.


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Cervical Cancer
Data and Statistical Reports
Of women born today, 1 in 142 will be diagnosed with cancer of the cervix during their lifetime. Nationally, 11,270 women will be diagnosed with cervical cancer and 4,070 will die due to cervical cancer.
Cervical cancer tends to occur in midlife. Half of the women diagnosed with cervical cancer are between 35 and 55 years of age. Over 20 percent of cervical cancer is diagnosed in women over age 65.
Nearly all women with cervical cancer have human papillomavirus (HPV). About 10 to 30 strains are directly linked with pre-cancers or cancer of the cervix. HPV is a virus with over 100 different types. Women with an abnormal Pap result may be tested for HPV to see if they have a high-risk type. There are two HPV vaccines available to females 9-26 years of age. The vaccine can protect women from two types of HPV infection that causes about 70 percent of the cases of cervical cancer.
Other possible risk factors include giving birth to many children, having many sexual partners, having first sexual intercourse at a young age, smoking cigarettes, oral contraceptive use, and a weakened immune system.
Life Savers - Programs For You!
Live Like Your Life Depends On It
Information and resources to help Missourians live longer and healthier lives.
Organ & Tissue Donation
Learn how to join the Missouri organ and tissue donor registry.
Show Me Healthy Women
Early detection saves lives. Get breast and cervical cancer screenings.
Get access to health screenings and lifestyle education that can reduce the risk of heart disease and stroke.
Missouri Tobacco Quitline
Access to counseling, information and referrals for smokers who want to quit using tobacco.


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There's so much fun stuff coming up this month that you'd almost have to take four weeks' vacation to experience it all. You have the staples such as Magic Waters, Friday Night Flix, City Market, world-class museums and parks.
Now there's a new attraction, and an old one is coming back after a one-year absence.
Laurent House: The Laurent House on Spring Brook Road in Rockford is the only Frank Lloyd Wright house designed for a client confined to a wheelchair.
Wright designed the house for Kenneth Laurent, a veteran of World War II who was a paraplegic because of a spinal cord injury. He was recuperating in a hospital in 1948 when he wrote Wright and asked whether the architect could use one of his trademark open floor plans to accommodate Laurent's physical restrictions. Wright agreed.
Laurent died in January 2012. His wife, Phyllis, died in December 2012. Their home will be opened as a museum this week.
The Laurent House is unique, it's historic and now the public will be able to see one of the famous architect's masterpieces. This is grand opening week, with a series of events before public tours begin Saturday.
Check out Georgette Braun's column today for more details. You can also go to laurenthouse.com.
Flying high: Rockford AirFest has become the premier festival in the region. People come from all over the Midwest — about 100,000 showed up for the 2012 show.
Last year's show was canceled after government spending cuts grounded military performance teams, which headline shows and serve as the biggest attendance draws. The U.S. Navy Blue Angels had been scheduled to perform in the canceled 2013 show.
This year's highlight is the U.S. Air Force Thunderbirds. Rockford is one of three dozen appearances by the Thunderbirds this year, so we're very fortunate to have them here.
United States Army Golden Knights and the Royal Canadian Air Force Snowbirds also will be at the Chicago Rockford International Airport.
The fun starts Saturday and ends Sunday. See RockfordAirFest.com for details.
Reminder: Get Outside!, the innovative program to encourage Winnebago County residents to enjoy their forest preserves, kicks off at noon Saturday at the Hononegah Forest Preserve. There will be food, games and exhibits at the event. Learn more about your forest preserves and Get Outside!
Chats are back. We took a break from our weekly question-and-answer sessions, but we'll be back on track Wednesday when Belvidere Mayor Mike Chamberlain joins members of the Rockford Register Star Editorial Board for an online chat. The chat begins at noon. Go to rrstar.com/chat to join the discussion. Also, you can ask questions in advance by going to the Register Star's Facebook page.
On June 11, James D. Nowlan and J. Thomas Johnson, authors of "Fixing Illinois," will be our guests. On June 18, Dan Riggs, executive director of Klehm Arboretum & Botanic Gardens will join us.
Opinion videos: Senior Editor Chuck Sweeny and Editorial Page Editor Wally Haas ask whether there's a market for a casino in Rockford given the proliferation of video slots. In a separate video, Haas says that Winnebago and Stephenson counties should not be competing for a marijuana farm. Go to rrstar.com/videos and check out what these veteran journalists have to say.


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Jazz necesitaba un nuevo diseño de logotipo y lanzó un concurso de diseño en 99designs.
Un ganador ha sido elegido entre 81 diseños de 20 diseñadores freelance.
L'amour Designs
Three girls venturing out to do something different from corporate jobs. Each of us have a little to offer in our own way to try to make this new venture work. We want to do event planning for weddings, engagement, anniversaries, birthdays, baby showers, and corporate events. Offer a range of services from floral decor, party favors, decoration, invitations, entertainment, etc.
Target audience are couples, expecting parents, corporate event planners, etc. People who have a little money, are ambitious and looking to do something different. Our designs are classic and glamorous with a modern twist. We will also work with any budget.
L'amour Designs logo with tag line "sharing a little piece of you"
We want a modern, chic & classic design incorporated into the logo. We would like the colors of the logo to be brown, blue & green. Please have some sort of symbol within the design (maybe a blown up letter "L" to start the logo...we also like Kim Kardashian's logo on her website http://www.kimkardashian.celebuzz.com as reference only...please make it original!)
Logo version must be suitable for reproduction in print & online.
Descubre cómo funciona un concurso de diseño u obtén más información sobre nuestros servicios de diseño de logo.


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The good news is that Chipper Jones is officially seven pounds lighter than his 2011 playing weight. Now comes the rest of the news. His knee hurts. He's hitless in eight at-bats and has missed five games this spring. A scout told Jon Heyman of CBS Sports he "looks terrible" and that he seems to be moving in "slow motion." And this is what Chipper Jones had to say about himself yesterday to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution:
"The body is starting to tell me every morning when I wake up that it's getting close," he said. "I'm signed through the end of this year. If I play in a certain amount of games, I got an option for next year. I don't know what next year entails. I don't know if I can make it through this year."
Jones also said he was "nowhere close to being ready" when he came to spring training. He talked some more about his five knee surgeries, about the inescapable reality that he turns 40 next month. The elephant is indisputably in the room.
Chipper discusses uncertain future, difficult spring [AJC]
Scouts concur with Chipper; end isn't far away for future Hall of Famer [CBS Sports]


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Madrid flights
Fly with us to Madrid and you'll be in Spain's vibrant capital in just over two hours.
Fly with us to Madrid and you'll be in Spain's vibrant capital in just over two hours.
A cosmopolitan hub of history, artistry and nocturnal energy - experience Madrid's intoxicating blend of tradition, modernity and culture. The Spanish capital is simply bursting with culture and buzzing with a unique energy that is impossible to resist.
Take time to enjoy the splendour of this buzzing city –explore by foot or bicycle to take in the sights as you go. Admire treasured artworks by eminent Spanish artists at the world-renowned Prado Museum. Marvel stunning architecture and majestic monuments and shop 'til you drop at El Corte Inglés. Then once darkness falls, embrace the exuberant nightlife. Madrid has more bars than any other city in the world, but this is just part of the appeal. Dining out and dancing until dawn is a genuine pleasure that must be experienced - there's no doubt about it, the Madrileños know how to live.
For lovers of opera and classical music, a visit to the beautiful 19th century Teatro Real, in the aptly-named Opera district, is simply a must. A few short steps away from the theatre is the Royal Palace, where stunning architecture and its famous Royal Armoury make this historic landmark another essential sight. The 4 star Hotel Opera is close by. Watch the world go by over coffee at Plaza Mayor, Madrid's grand square at the heart of the historic Hapsburg district.
The price you see first is the price you'll see last.
Low price finder and low initial deposits.
Fly with British Airways and enjoy award-winning service and excellent value for money.
Economy prices include:


text: I just wanted to introduce myself. I have been diving since 1994 and I'm presently a Public Safety Diver for the local Sheriff's Office. I want to learn more about DIY dive light making. I was instructed to focus my attention in this forum. So far it looks promising. I want to thank everyone ahead of time for your help.


text: September 11, 2013 - Quinnipiac University Poll Accurately Measures Outcomes In New York Primary PDF format The Quinnipiac University poll accurately measured the results of the New York City Democratic primary for mayor and comptroller. A September 9 survey of likely Democratic primary voters by the independent Quinnipiac (KWIN-uh-pe-ack) University showed Public Advocate Bill de Blasio with 39 percent, followed by former Comptroller William Thompson at 25 percent, City Council Speaker Christine Quinn with 18 percent and 8 percent undecided. That poll noted that a few undecided voters could put de Blasio over the 40 percent mark needed to avoid a runoff election. Unofficial results on September 11 show de Blasio with 40 percent, Thompson with 26 percent and Quinn with 16 percent. The September 9 survey showed Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer leading former Gov. Eliot Spitzer 50 - 43 percent in the comptroller's race. September 11 results show Stringer over Spitzer 52 - 48 percent. An August 7 Quinnipiac University New Jersey poll showed Newark Mayor Cory Booker leading U.S. Rep. Frank Pallone by 37 percentage points among likely voters in the Democratic primary for U.S. Senate. Booker won by 39 points. In more than 20 years of public opinion surveys, Quinnipiac University has developed a reputation for accuracy. From September 6 - 8, Quinnipiac University surveyed 782 likely Democratic primary voters with a margin of error of +/- 3.5 percentage points. Live interviewers call land lines and cell phones. The Quinnipiac University Poll, directed by Douglas Schwartz, Ph.D., conducts public opinion surveys in Pennsylvania, New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, Florida, Ohio, Virginia, Iowa, Colorado and the nation as a public service and for research. For more information, visit http://www.quinnipiac.edu/polling, call (203) 582-5201, or follow us on Twitter.


text:
Tuesday, November 3, 2009
Baby steps (you gotta start somewhere)
On first blush, it's an intriguing move, as Hoffpauir appears to have solid on-base skills, with a career minor league OBP of .365 (not a typo). The knock on the 26 year old appears to be his limited defensive skill set - and hello there, Brian Butterfield. Glad to see you weren't run out of town.
While Cards writer Brian Walton (see link above) seems to think this is just another Blue Jays "claim 'em & slide 'em through waivers" move (tough to argue the evidence), this addition to the 40-man bears watching for a variety of reasons:
1. These aren't your father's JP Ricciardi waiver wire claiming Blue Jays. It remains to be seen if these are really Alex A's Blue Jays, I guess, but let's give the retooled front office the benefit of the doubt on this one.
2. Outside of Aaron Hill, the entire infield - starters and reserves - is a major question mark heading into next season for the Jays, with Scutaro and McDonald heading to free agency. Jose Bautista and Eddie Encarnacion would be best advised to keep their real estate options open, too.
3. Did I mention the OBP? Oh, I did? How about the .843 OPS he put up in 350+ AAA at-bats last season. Why was this guy available again? Right - defense. Butter!!
Vernon Wells will remove the knife from his back and have it applied to his wrist
Word is that the much maligned Vernon Wells will have his left wrist repaired, after quietly dealing with the problem for a good portion of his brutal 2009 season. While it's certainly not unreasonable to believe the injury contributed to his miserable campaign, I don't think we should all go expecting the 2006 version of ol' Vern to reappear.
But a reasonable facsimile of the 2008 vintage Wells wouldn't be too much to ask, would it?
(No, seriously, I'm asking - what do you think is a reasonable expectation for Wells in 2010?)
10 comments:
- DaveC said...
At this point, our wagon train is hitched to Vernon, like it or not. So we have to hope for the best here.
Maybe a new season and a fanbase that isn't rooted in misery will help him regain some of the old form, but I'd say .270-20-80 with continually declining skills in CF (with no other alternatives, sadly) is about where we can slot him in.
I like these 'intriguing' claims in the wake of no other news, let's get more Hoffpauirs and fewer Barretts on the 40-man.
- November 4, 2009 at 12:07 AM
I don't mind the Jays becoming the Salvation Army Soup Kitchen for wayward prospects in the short term. If Butters can turn the Hoff around remains to be seen - surely Butters won't be the first coach to try and help he guy out, so I wonder what exactly his problem is? It could be a question of skill or a question of comprehending the position, or both.
I remember one thing Aaron Hill once said about his playing time at LSU (not 100 % on location) is that in College hitting was the focus, not defense. So yeah, Butters will have his work cut out for him on tweaking EE a little (who isn't really that bad) and getting the Hoff to resemble something that looks like a decent infielder.
- November 4, 2009 at 4:38 AM
- Peter D said...
I think Dave's projection for Vernon is bang on.
As for these waiver claims, I don't expect any of them to have a significant impact on the Jays, and it's a bit of a waste of time to even hope for everything to magically come together for one of them. I remember JP Ricciardi getting pissed off at the Batters Box guys for this very thing, his comment was along the lines of 'Here I am adding quality major league talent and I get bashed, then I claim a guy for depth in the minor league system and I am praised for the move, you people need a reality check'
- November 4, 2009 at 8:41 AM
- Ty said...
I don't know if we can set expectations for Vernon without knowing what the heck was wrong with him this year. It had to be more than just a physical thing -- his home/away and lefty/righty splits were just unbelievably backwards and deviated so far from his career stats that it's hard to know how to interpret them. I doubt we'll ever find out why, but hopefully he'll at least get over those anomalies for next year.
- November 4, 2009 at 9:51 AM
- The Ack said...
Peter, I think that's a bit of a pessimistic take on the claim. I wouldn't say everything needs to "magically come together" for Hoff (thanks anon), but obviously there is a reason that a 26 year old with solid on base skills hasn't stuck at the major league level yet. Then again, Scutaro was little more than bench fodder until he got his break with the Jays....
And considering some of the fringe the Jays have on the 40 (nice knowing you, Bill Murphy), it's hard to knock the move.
re: Vernon - I'm slightly more optimistic - say .290-25-90.
- November 4, 2009 at 10:00 AM
- Jim Briggs said...
Free Buck Coats.
Free Randy Ruiz
- November 4, 2009 at 10:35 AM
Please explain the attraction to Buck Coats, keeping in mind that his mediocre AAA numbers were from a launching pad park in a launching pad league.
Hoffpair falls somewhere between Joe Inglett and Emaus/Campbell on the infield pecking order.
Wells will put up an OPS between .780 and .810.
- November 4, 2009 at 1:08 PM
- eyebleaf said...
Wells will post an OPS of above .850. I can't wait.
- November 4, 2009 at 2:53 PM
Vernon will hit .300 with 35 HR in 2010. Believe it.
- November 4, 2009 at 10:49 PM
- Mylegacy said...
I thought it was his eyesight. Then I thought it was his shoulder again. Then I thought it was his hammy. Then I thought it was just between his ears. Then I heard it was his wrist.
All you religious types spend the winter praying to your various Invisible Spaghetti Monsters that they fix it. Amen.
- November 5, 2009 at 2:42 PM


text:
Long Division Learning ideas
The Living Math Forum (LMF) was quite active from 2004 through 2014, a ten year period of time that we were homeschooling our four children over Pre-K through high school years. Following are responses to the question about learning ideas.
Long division woes may take the lead for the most-often discussed topic on LivingMathForum email list. This is a compilation of postings related to several threads on long division struggles posted on the Forum.
Question Posted: My 10 year old has just started long division in school and he's lost. He can complete the steps with lots of help, but he doesn't 'get it'. I've broken the dividend down and he sees it better, but not fully.
Are there any other ways to explain it than the standard school explanation? Anything like the lattice method of multiplying – he really took off with that and over time was able to adjust to the "standard way".
Thanks, J.
Responses from [LivingMathForum] to My son is having trouble with long division
My youngest daughter learned what we called "Break It Up" division because she hated the long division method (I believe this is called the partial quotients method, but don't "quote" me on that ;o). She simply "broke up" the number to be divided into pieces that could easily be divided by the divisor. For example, 1757 / 15 could be:
1500 / 15 = 100 What's left after this piece is broken off? 257
150 / 15 = 10 What's left after this piece is broken off? 107
75 / 15 = 5 What's left after this piece is broken off? 32
30 / 15 = 2
The 2 leftover is the remainder
Add the 100, 10, 5 and 2 together and you get 117, R2.
This makes it easy to do with mental math skills, the child breaks off pieces he/she can easily divide. I would, for example, have divided 105 when 107 was left, but my daughter sees that 75 is half of 150, so she breaks that piece off since it's easy for her to see 15 goes in five times. This just works pretty well for her.
This is one resource that was sent around:
Re:My son is having trouble with long division
I feel your pain greatly - I have 4 boys - all really math minded but Long division is slow and boring (their words) -
I'm not sure if there is a name for this method or not - but my sons call it short division - you write the problem as you normally would let's say 531/4- ask the question what x 4 gets you close to 5 - the answer of course is 1 - ask with what remainder? The answer of course if 1 - write a small 1 before the 3 as you would if you're were borrowing or carrying and then start the process over with what times 4 would get you close to 13 - 3 with remainder 1 - write a small 1 next to the 1 - what times 4 gets you close to 11 - 2 with a remainder 3. This might not make any sense as it's hard to describe in an e-mail but instead of going down in a column you just jot the "remainders" in the original problem. This really helped my sons BECAUSE I realized that their main issue was too many steps and loosing track of what they were to do next. Conceptually they get division but I got questions like "why do I have to write down a subtraction problem when I'm doing division?".
We use Singapore and love it - they've been taught through their mental math methods to get it done in your head if possible and the "short division" way really helps them to visualize it instead of making all the notations.
Re:My son is having trouble with long division
I loved Double Divison for myself... it made so much more sense! But neither of my boys liked it. I thought it would appeal to them since they both love lattice multiplication.
Sometimes it's hard to figure out what will work and what doesn't. But I love that I am learning new methods; it helps me understand so much of the math I just didn't get when I was in high school and college.
Re:My son is having trouble with long division
This is the only way we were able to make it through long-division.
It's a really BORING game, but my son at least stopped writhing on the floor. It teaches long-division just by rote memorization of the algorithm. Not sure any real learning took place at the time, but I think it may click for him now.
Re: [LivingMathForum] Long Division Help
There are both good ways to break down division into phases so that what's really going on becomes more evident, and alternate algorithms involving estimation, partial quotients, etc. And of course, the two are intimately related.
Consider a simple division problem such as 54 / 6.
Have your son repeatedly subtract 6 from 54, keeping track of the number of subtractions until he has either 0 remaining or less than 6 remaining. This number is, of course, the quotient, and in this case he will be able to do this 9 times and have 0 left, hence the answer is 9 r. 0
Do another example (say 55 / 7) where there is a remainder, to be sure he sees why, and what the two numbers he winds up with (7 r. 6) really mean. Make sure he can "prove" that this is right by multiplying 7 * 7 and adding 6 to get 55, the dividend.
(Of course, you can use other examples, smaller numbers, physical models with chips or plastic bears or whatever feels right for you and your son).
Then have him do something like 132 / 33, to get into the notion that we can subtract larger numbers. But we keep the quotient manageable, in this case it is 4.
Next, go to something "not so manageable, like 1242 / 54. It's not outlandish, but repeatedly subtracting 54 from 1242 takes 23 steps.
This raises the same question about division that he hopefully has considered about multiplication as "repeated addition": is there a faster way than simply repeatedly subtracting the divisor, one at a time, from the dividend?
The answer, of course, is yes, because we can subtract multiples of powers of 10 times the divisor. Pause and make sure you understand what that means.
For example, in the previous problem, 1242 / 54, what is the biggest power of 10 we can multiply 54 by without "going over" 1242? The answer is 10 (that is, 10^1), because if we went to 10^2 = 100 and multiplied that by 54, we'd get 5400, which is already too big. But then, we can "do better" than just 10 x 54 = 540. We can in fact multiply 2 such groups without going over the dividend. So we say 2 and put that over the 4 in the dividend. But why? Because we're really multiplying not 2 x 54, but 2 x 10^1 x 54 or, more compactly, 2 x 10 x 54, or most compactly, 20 x 54 = 1080. But what we actually WRITE is 2 x 54 = 108, write the 108 under the 124 in the dividend, and subtract. This is one of the places the real confusion sets in. We're "hiding" in the notation what's really going on, because place value is secretly at work in this "compressed" or "compact" algorithm.
How do we get kids to see this? By having them write out the COMPLETE multiplication, and realize that the 2 really represents 20, and that the complete partial product we subtract from the quotient is real not 108, but 1080, and they should get in the habit of writing that extra 0. No harm can come from this.
From there, we subtract as previously suggested, and have a remainder of 162.
(note that in the traditional approach, we'd have a remainder of 16 and "bring down the 2," but this is a completely mysterious and mechanical step. By writing that trailing zero, it's OBVIOUS (sort of) what's going on: 20 x 54 = 1080, and when we subtract that from the original dividend, we have 162 left. That 16 is really 160, and then we take the remaining 2 and add it to get 162.)
From there, we ask if we can take any powers of 10 times 54 away, but even 10 x 54 is too big, so our next step is, technically, 10^0 power (the next smallest power of 10), which is 1, times 54. Can we take multiples of that? Yes, exactly 3 times 54. Which makes 162 exactly, which we subtract from the remaining 162 to get remainder of 0. Our quotient is 23. But that's 20 groups of 54 + 3 groups of 54, which makes 1242.
Again, check with multiplication.
I wouldn't necessarily go into the exponent thing with the powers of 10, but the student has to be able to thing in terms of 1, 10, 100, 1000, etc, in reverse order, times the divisor, and then see which power is the greatest s/he can use, and then check to see if there are multiples between 1 and 9 of that result which won't be too big to subtract from what's left.
If this is confusing, and without diagrams it very well may be, my apologies. But it's really what is going on in our standard long division algorithm.
Let's take the same problem with a "looser" approach: the student may look at 1242 times 54 and estimate that 100 x 12 = 1200, so 50 x 24 should also equal 1200. That's not too big, so we subtract 1200 from 1242, leaving 42. But we still have to multiply 50 x 3 = 150, which is bigger than 42. So 24 is too big for our initial quotient. The student may go down by 1 or so, or may go down to 40, or a host of other strategies, but any of them can lead to the correct solution as long as the individual arithmetic steps are right, and the student keeps track of the partial quotients, products, and remainders.
Another student might not be so bold and would use groups of 10 or 20 x 54, but that's okay. The point is to reduce the number of steps from the maximum, which is 23 individual subtractions of 54, and the closer we get to only needing basically TWO steps as in the first approach, the better. But accuracy and understanding are worth sacrificing a little speed for, in my opinion.
Re: Long Division Help
I teach grade 6 math and once the students hit division by 2 digit numbers they often hit the wall.
Looking at the problem1242/54 i suggest the student round the number up to the nearest 10....1240/60...rounding up gives the student the chance to estimate the first number to multiply...1240/60 (which also is the same as 120/6) gives them 20...they are then able to continue with the original question an multiply 54 x20 (1080) and and then subtract 1240-1080 (160) and then continue on from there.
RE: [LivingMathForum] Long Division Help
My daughter, who I thought understood it, demonstrated to me a few days ago that she had simply followed steps without understanding it, when we were working a Singapore math problem that required division. I WISH there was as simple a method as the Lattice Method for multiplication, my kids love this method.
What I realized, however, is that we could do something similar with the long division format if we were creative in understanding what it was about the lattice method we liked. Well, we liked the fact that the process was structured and you almost couldn't make a mistake. You could do different operations in a different order and it wouldn't affect the answer. It was aesthetically pleasing :o). This is what we came up with the past couple days.
On a problem she had already started and was having trouble with, I showed with colored pencils what was going on, matching colors to results. She had not caught on to the fact before that it could be an infinite process. She asked me to make a longer problem and show her how it worked, and then she kept asking me to add digits. Again, I made a division "lattice" in a sort of way, showing each step, and had her orally narrate to me each step as we went along. You can see what we created here: http://ph.groups.yahoo.com/group/LivingMathForum/photos/view/58f3?b=1 after which she got the answer to her question in the Singapore book (that's the "344" part).
Then she asked me to make her a super long problem to do, and help her do the "division lattice." That is in this photo: http://ph.groups.yahoo.com/group/LivingMathForum/photos/view/58f3?b=2 She did all the math in two sessions after taking a break in between :o). The thing is, it showed her that each step of the process has a specific beginning and end that she could *see*. Something about the color blocking caused it to stick for her. Now if she wants to, we can create the lattice before she puts in all the "data", just like with lattice multiplication. We did one today where we color blocked the areas before filling them in. But she didn't need this anymore after that one time (it's a lot more effort to do that). She did obviously see how important it was to line things up with the blocking, those are her dotted lines going all the way down.
Note this was a method – she actually did understand division, but couldn't seem to find a way to do long problems keeping track of the steps. If a firm understanding of what division is is not there, I'd go back to concrete representations like dividing up blocks with and without remainders.
She understood that if she had a zero remainder she could have just carried down the next number, but she didn't want to alter the symmetry of her blocks, so she just did the zero steps without that shortcut.
She has a math notebook, and when she forgets some things, she runs to the notebook for her best visual examples of things, so this is now filed away in her math notebook to refer to if she forgets the process again. The other day we were doing some word problems involving converting recipes and she was trying to remember fraction conversions such as two fourths equal four eighths, but we had done an exercise where we'd colored graph paper into a half, quarter, eighths, sixteenths, and 32nds, and just looking at that totally refreshed her memory on these.
I don't know if your son will respond to this idea or not. For us, because it was a stumbling point, I put the Singapore book away and we just focused on the process for a couple days. Usually they can't do that in school unless the whole class is struggling, so it's an afterschooling activity. If you have a good working relationship with your son and he likes the visual effect of this, it might help, it made all the difference for my daughter.
Re: [LivingMathForum] Long Division Help
From a mathematical viewpoint, I don't see this adding anything, and like lattice multiplication, there's the danger of mistaking an effective organizing tool being used as a black box for a method that promotes understanding.
You have to make a choice: do you care about whether kids understand why long division algorithms work, or does it suffice that they be able to do the process and get the right answer? If the latter, then your method will be attacked by educational conservatives as gimmicky and needlessly time-consuming (at least the ones who attack lattice multiplication that way are likely to do so). If the former, then I will criticize the method as failing to add conceptual understanding, just as lattice multiplication, the way it's taught in a lot of classrooms, fails to add such understanding.
You want to be sure that a method doesn't turn out to be more than a "neat trick." See my blog (rationalmathed.blogspot.com) for comments on the error of teaching lattice multiplication as a black box. On my view, mathematics should never be taught as black boxes, but it so frequently is as to be truly harmful for kids.
RE: [LivingMathForum] Long Division Help
M., you are exactly right. I posted this expecting it would be used the way I used it - in a one-on-one contact setting with a child, with the parent / tutor monitoring the entire process and adapting it to the child. This was a creative process that evolved as I know my daughter, what attracts / motivates / triggers her to remember and engage, and it is working well for her to that end. It's an idea for a parent to try - if it doesn't fit the individual child, you try something else. It's a very different approach than teaching a class, because you have total flexibility to adjust to your child's signals of understanding or lack thereof. If you ever take the time to view the archived discussions here, you'll see that this is the perspective ideas are offered from.
Everything I do with my daughter is geared toward process and understanding rather than product and only "right" answers. She chooses lattice method as her preferred method after learning three different methods. But even as we work our way through Singapore and Primary Grade Mathematics by Zacarro, she looks at each problem for the best strategy to solve it, enlisting my help and feedback as she needs it.
For example, in a word problem involving multiplication of 59 by 12, she doesn't use the lattice. She adds the products of 59 times 10 and 59 times 2, because she can see that multiplying by 10 and doubling is much easier to do than setting up the lattice. She also recognizes this is exactly what she is doing if she does the lattice method, which she reserves only for longer multiplication problems she can't break up other ways, and similarly, it doesn't matter if she multiplies the 59 by 10 first, or by 2, as long as she does both, and adds both, she gets the right answer. My middle son, who is really amazing me with his ease in working through a formal algebra course, had similar likes. No black boxes here, although I certainly see the danger that a child can see it that way if all they are taught is the process.
My daughter is creative and aesthetics motivate her. We have done many art and math projects that she saves in her notebook, and the most visual and colorful projects she has created on her own are the ones that have seemed to be the kinds of things that drive lasting learning and that she refers back to. This was what gave me the idea, not that it was a one size fits all solution to teaching long division to any child.
For my daughter, the boxing was what caused her to see the regularity of the process; prior to that she got lost in a sea of numbers by the time she got to a third or fourth digit. As we talked through it on the smaller problem, she understood she wasn't dividing three into 10, she was dividing three into 10-hundred. But she didn't seem to grasp that the carrying down was of the next place until we repeated this over and over. The looonnng problem which she specifically requested that I set up for her, and which she asked me to add digits to even after she finished the initial problem, totally engaged her in the process. She only repeated the color boxing herself one time, and since then she does not seem to need or even want the boxes. So I see the exercise as something similar to what I do in my own homework when I color code and copy things down in a way that facilitates what I want to understand and remember.
I saw that spending the time to do this with her accomplished several things. The repetition of the process helped her remember where we put the elements of the process, which she had trouble remembering before. She could have done this by doing pages of practice problems, but this was far more interesting to her. She was figuring remainders in her head before this, and occasionally making mistakes - by showing the subtraction she could see where she was making mistakes. It *motivated* her to practice, and for me, this is a big positive. She can do shorter division problems pretty easily in her head, and has a good head for mental math, so she has tended to not willingly practice an algorithm like this until she can either see the reason for it or become proficient enough at it that she can enjoy the process. And the fact that I was willing to sit with her and work with her as long as she needed to understand the process meant a lot to her. I had no expectation that she "get it" by any deadline.
In our home educating environment which differs from a classroom, I allow my children to see learning as something that occurs all the time, and that we (meaning the child and I working together collaboratively) have choices in how, when and with what materials they learn. You can go with whatever works, and you don't have to be concerned that every base is covered in terms of the offered teaching and curriculum, because all you are doing is providing what they *need* based on your observation of what they have already learned or are effectively teaching themselves. This is of course not very easily duplicated in a classroom, the teacher must select what he/she believes to be the best presentation of concepts to the group as a whole.
My goal is to gradually move my children toward taking full responsibility for their own educations, and many homeschoolers have this goal for kids much younger than the more typical high school graduation date. Therefore much of my efforts are put into helping my children learn how to use resources to teach themselves, to find enjoyable ways to learn, and – what is probably most different from classroom situations - to be a participant in assessing how effective the materials, processes and timing is to their own learning process, using that collaborative feedback to make changes in materials, processes or timing as we see fit. This was an example of my daughter and I recognizing the explanations in her book and my explanations were not adequate, and our further work together to make these ideas comprehensible to her. Then, when my daughter and I do sessions like this, and she files work like this away in her binder to refer to later, it has a lasting benefit to her, so we deem it to have been valuable, even as it may not work for other children. Having taught groups of 15 to 20 or more at a time, I understand how different this approach is to classroom teaching.
The value to me of facilitating a child's learning in a way that is uniquely individual to them is the primary reason we homeschool. It fosters 24/7 learning attitudes in my children. I got home today from my kids martial arts class, sat down at our kitchen table with a cup of coffee to talk to my husband, and my 7-1/2 y/old climbed up in my lap with her Singapore math book and began working problems while we talked. She looked to me to give her feedback on her answers to some word problems, and after about 20 minutes put the workbook away to read - this was Saturday afternoon, no "school hours" mentality exists. My children's attitudes toward learning are developing in a self-driven way, and my goal is to be there when they need help, to provide them all the materials, support, facilitating and teaching they need when they need it. It is a way of looking at education that we have evolved to over nearly 11 years of homeschooling that really works well for us.
It is from this perspective that everything I suggest is offered, unless it's specifically stated otherwise, for example, ideas for a homeschool co-op class wouldn't be offered in the same way.
Re: [LivingMathForum] Long Division Help
I'm interested in offering help to anyone interested in exploring more deeply how our "standard" algorithms work and to offer a functional (not in the technical sense), rather than historical view of how these algorithms developed. That is, we can readily imagine that multiplication derived from wanting faster repeated addition, and that division developed from wanting faster repeated subtraction (and that exponentiation derived from wanting faster repeated multiplication). There's a way of exploring finding square roots by hand that comes from the fact that the sum of the first n odd integers always yields the nth perfect square (e.g., 1 + 3 + 5 = 9 which also equals 3^2). You can therefore subtract consecutive odd integers from a perfect square to find its square root. Of course, if you knew the square root in advance, you could do this differently, but then you wouldn't need an algorithm.
What I find interesting about all of the above is the issue of compacting and loss of information. When we use any of the "standard algorithms" for multiplication or division, for example, we compact the process of the lower operation by grouping and using place value (hence, the left-shift of each partial product in "long multiplication" and the right-shift/bringing down process in long division). Once you understand what's going on, you don't need to think about it, and you just develop a certain level of automaticity. Only if you're confused or forget the algorithm (or have intellectual curiosity) is it necessary to get into the guts of the procedure. Then, you need to recapture the lost information, lost due to compacting and "assuming" place value. Kids go nuts with these algorithms for a host of reasons, but the shifting is one of the biggest "black boxes" in both algorithm, I believe. It's taught as a magic rule, not as a matter of sense-making. And my belief is that the more we allow students to think of mathematics as magical rather sensible, the more damage we do, at least potentially.
So for elementary teachers and home-schooling parents, I strongly advocate sense-making mathematics over procedural mathematics. Parents who never liked or got basic math may amaze themselves at how much sense it really can make. And once a child approaches mathematics from that perspective, I believe s/he will always want to ask good questions, will always demand understanding over mere facility, and will have fewer difficulties grappling with challenging problems and ideas.
But that's simply MY belief and I can't tell anyone else what he or she MUST do. Nor would I care to be in that position.
RE: [LivingMathForum] Long Division Help
In this forum particularly, you are preaching to the choir when you say: "So for elementary teachers and home-schooling parents, I strongly advocate sense-making mathematics over procedural mathematics. Parents who never liked or got basic math may amaze themselves at how much sense it really can make. And once a child approaches mathematics from that perspective, I believe s/he will always want to ask good questions, will always demand understanding over mere facility, and will have fewer difficulties grappling with challenging problems and ideas."
Absolutely true in my experience. Algorithms are only taught well after conceptual understanding is there. My oldest son did not understand long division until 6th grade, and I was a little uncomfortable with that given he was my oldest, but I kept backing off the algorithm and focusing understanding. My middle children get math quicker, so it's been more like 4th or 5th grade for them.
My daughter seemed to understand conceptual division very well, she just wasn't getting the algorithm, in part I am guessing this is due to the fact we simply don't focus on algorithms, and only use those we see are truly worthwhile. And even then, I sometimes wonder why we do, my practical experience teaches me that when we get to the point where we'd be reading for the tool of lattice method or long division, in real life, we'll have a calculator or computer at hand to do the gruntwork of computing, freeing us up to focus on how to set up and solve the problem.
> Once you understand what's going on, you don't need to think about it, and you just develop a certain level of automaticity. >
Exactly. My oldest is a great case in point again. He was taking some homeschool classes in 2nd grade where he attended math classes three days a week as I was working part time when we decided not to go the traditional school track for him. The math text was teaching the long division process in 2nd grade, and he was simply in knots trying to remember the steps. That experience along with the trauma he experienced from "speed drills" was the point I realized that we could do better if we just took him home and homeschooled him full time without the support of the classes. The first thing I did was drop the procedure-based math text and get a curriculum that was highly regarded for teaching math sense. Now, years later, it's just natural for me to explain and teach this way with all my kids.
Re: Long Division Help
My daughter was having a difficult time understanding long division. I taught her short division with one-digit divisors and she was able to do that with little problem. Once she had that mastered she was able to understand the steps and see the need for long division with two- or more digit divisors. I know that short division is not usually taught in school, but it is what I use all the time, even with two-digit divisors. It is so much more useful than long division (less paper, less chance of error in keeping everything lined up). Here's a link that explains short division:
Re: [LivingMathForum] Long Division Help
I found this through the MathingOff yahoo group.
Does anyone recommend a workbook on long division that has good explanation? I have general work books but the process is not good in mine. Thanks L
Re: [LivingMathForum] long division
I'm finding this to be a much easier thing to explain. There are also some links to other division pages here.
RE: [LivingMathForum] long division
Long division is discussed in a lot of upper level math readers http://www.livingmath.net/Library/MultiConceptLists.html - The Essential Arithmetricks comes to mind.
I just read Divide and Ride, a MathStart reader, to my 6 y/old the other day, she loves the book, and I realized that it is a great set up to long division, because it's all about taking a group of 11 kids and dividing them up on the rides to fill the seats. Of course, with eleven, there is always a remainder when you divide by 2, 3, 4, 5 or 6. There is a good visual representation of the division being done as they show each ride's seats being filled. They fill the remainder with kids they grab from the side to make new friends. Neat book.
RE: [LivingMathForum] long division
The JUMP workbooks cover basic concepts in very small, incremental steps. Long division is covered in the grade 6 workbook that we are using (it may be covered in gr 4 or 5 as well but I haven't used those levels) and my son had no trouble catching on - the workbooks are a bit dry but my son enjoys them because they are so straightforward. You can see more about them at http://www.jumptutoring.org
RE: [LivingMathForum] long division
My 10 y/old and I were watching The Teaching Company's Basic Math series together. When the instructor got to long division, he emphasized again and again that the student estimate what they expect the answer to be *before* performing the long division algorithm. He does this by showing you how to round to numbers that will go into each other. You can guess whether you think the final answer will be more or less than what you rounded.
To estimate, you have to understand what long division is doing. It's sectioning off a big number into a certain number of "compartments" and indicating how much is left over when you are done filling these compartments up.
What it does is leave long division for what it really is designed for, a process to get an *exact* answer if you want one, vs. an estimate. Which makes me absolutely certain that long division generally shouldn't be taught to a child until they can comprehend this process and estimate closely. Otherwise, long division becomes a sort of black box where you put things in, and something comes out, and you don't know why or how to judge the accuracy of the process.
Hi, I fell like such an idiot asking this, being 16 and all, but I have a real problem with long division of any kind. can anybody help me with this?
RE: [LivingMathForum] long division
We're a Math-U-See family, so I'll give credit to Steve Demme for this explanation, but it helps my son to understand it as an "area" problem.
If you have to find the area of a rectangle that is 2 yards by 10 yards, you know that the total area will be 20 sq yards. Easy.
Now, to turn this into a division problem, take that same 2, but put the area in the middle of the rectangle, and now try to find the amount you had to multiply the 2 by to get 20. 2 goes into 20, 10 times.
Now erase the lines and you actually "see" the long division.
All you are trying to do is find the other number to multiply by to get the area. If there is a remainder, then you know that it would be like finding the area of someone's backyard and instead of a perfect rectangle, you have to work around their deck and so the "area" is the rectangle part, plus the small side next to the deck.
Area of grass: 61 sq. yards. You know that one side is 10 yards, so how long is the smaller side? 10 goes into 61, 6 times plus one yard. So you have a backyard that is 6 yards, by 10 yards, with one little sq. yard on the other side of the deck. If you break it down simply like this, and get a grasp on what you are trying to do, you can apply it to all sizes of back yards :-) or all sizes of long division!
Blessings, P
Re: long division
I would like to suggest Math Matters, Understanding the Math You Teach, by Suzanne H. Chapin which has often been recommended on this site. It is aimed at teachers for grades K-8. It shows several ways that kids understand and work long division. I only recognized one method as traditional... But I understood a couple of the other methods very easily.
I would highly recommend ordering the book through your local library or consider buying it for yourself. It discusses all elementary math topics, so it is very appropriate. I have used it several times teaching my two boys.
The best explanations for long division I have seen are in the book "Math Matters." The authors show several ways that different people approach long division. The one that made the most sense to me was NOT the one that I learned in school. Here it is:
Lets say you want to divide 1967 by 15.
167 =
Add up all of the products on the right hand side (100 + 10 + 10 + 10 + 1) and you get 131 remainder 2.
You only have to estimate how much the smaller number goes into the bigger number to a certain point. If you guess too low, it's okay and you keep going. With the traditional method, if you guess too low, you have to go back and try again. You do have to know some basic times tables but you can choose the easiest ones for you with this method. I could have done 15 X 30 instead of 15 X 10 three times, but I don't have to. I can choose the numbers that work best for me. And it is really easy to multiply by 100's, 10's, and 1's.
If this doesn't work for you don't fret. Try to check out the book "Math Matters" and take a look at the division section.
RE: [LivingMathForum] long division
My 12 year old is struggling with understanding long division. He knows all his division facts.. and he does fine doing the problems with me- spits out the answers very quickly. but he just doesn't understand it- or comprehend it to do the questions himself.. any tips or ideas? thanks, debra
RE: [LivingMathForum] long division
Debra, my oldest son struggled to understand long division, and the Math U See trick of looking at a division problem as just a representation of area seemed to work for him.
To think of it with easy numbers first, say you have 32 blocks and you want to build a rectangle. If you make one side of the rectangle 4, how many would be in each row?
This is exactly what you are doing when you draw:
4 | 36
MUS even introduces it like this, setting it up just like an area problem earlier in the series:
4 | 36 | (there should be a complete box around the 36 but I can't make my email do that :o)
You can concretely build it out - if you have a rectangle of an area of 36, and make 4 rows, each row would have to have 8, and there are none left over.
This is exactly what you are doing with long division. If you pick a number like 38, and decide to build a rectangle out of 4 rows (i.e., divide 38 by 4), each row will have 8 and you will have 2 odd pieces left over - this is your remainder.
To go to more esoteric numbers, if you were dividing 137 by 12, what you are saying is, if I have an area of 137, and I wanted to build a rectangle that had 12 rows, how many would be in each row . . . Well, here is where I could use the process of dividing 12 into 130 first = 10 times with a remainder of 10, add the 7 and get 12 goes into 17 one time. You'll be able to build a rectangle 12 by 11, and you'll have 5 blocks left over.
This seems to be the best concrete way I know of representing long division before leaping to the abstract or process.
Re: [LivingMathForum] long division
I thought Math U See does a great job of explaining the 'why' by completing the box formed by the long division lines and then looking at how the two factors that you have are multiplied to equal the 'area' inside the box....probably not very clear and someone better versed in MUS can explain better.... I'm going by memory here, since we don't use math u see (yet!).....we're so looking forward to starting it after the summer break.
Re: [LivingMathForum] long division
My son could not understand long division until he had a thorough understanding of decimals. Over several years he would try long division and give up in exasperation. As his understanding of decimals increased, he suddenly "got" long division, in one 10 minute process after being so frustrated. I am not sure of the exact connection, but the concept of "remainders" had never worked for him and it had something to do with getting beyond that.
Re:long division
Long division has 4 steps for each digit in the dividend. We repeated the steps out loud and noticed a rhythm. Repeating this has helped my daughter do long division on her own.
"Divide, multiply, subtract, bring it down! Divide, multiply subtract, bring it down!"
This does not explain the why of division, but it does help them remember the sequence of steps. Hope this helps.
Re: long division
Here is a PDF file that will open a wonderful paper on the algorithms of mathematics. You will find many different ways (algorithms) to not only teach but to solve math problems - including your issue with long division. The traditional way you were taught of multiply and carry down does not help them with mental math - which is the number one way adults do math in the workforce. Go down to page 18 and 19 of this PDF file. We often use Stage 3; 'Expanded' method, when we solve long division. It is like doing partial products with multiplication. Pretty soon you'll find your kids are doing long division and big multiplication numbers in their heads. If you would like practice or other math resources, let me know what grade and I'll post them.
Re: long division
Here's a link that explains short division: http://www.themathpage.com/ARITH/divide-whole-numbers.htm
Re:My son is having trouble with long division
Long division is the bane of our life.
We used Miquon and then Singapore and both boys did an about face when we hit long division.
With the first child, I took a break and we explored living books. When we returned to the long division, it was no better. He started doing math with his Dad and his Dad just kept insisting that he use the formula. It took a while but he memorized and was able to manage. I did try using other long division methods with him (much like using the lattice method for multiplication), but they didn't work for us. He can now do long division comfortably.
With my second child, we introduced it once, he fiddled with it and didn't do real well. Then we moved on in the math book. When it came up the second time (just a couple of weeks ago), we took a break from Singapore and worked only on long division. We only worked on it about 10 minutes a day. We took it in easy strides. I broke it down into the smallest pieces possible. Two weeks later, he not only understands but he is very competent in using long division.
So, no "living math" solutions for this one, I'm afraid. At least not in this family. I think that's why we had the longest struggle with this one! We all wanted a different way but this is a sequential method and it means that it will challenge the non-sequential learner. But it doesn't mean they can't memorize it. It just means they will need more time.
Re: My son is having trouble with long division
This was a hard spot for us with Singapore math, too, because it seemed like they "skipped a step"---or rather, tried to teach too much at once. It would have been better, I think, if they had given the kids practice with the notation (putting the number to be divided inside the long division symbol and writing the answer on top) before they taught division with remainders. My son stumbled over the notation, especially the idea of writing an answer ON TOP, more than over the concept.
If you're looking for videos, Khan Academy has some very good ones, starting here. It starts out very simple, but he introduces the long division symbol near the end, then the follow-up videos get to more difficult problems. The second one stresses place value, etc.: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MTzTqvzWzm8&feature=youtube_gdata
Sometimes, the point of long division is easier to see if you work with a very big number to start with, rather than some small number your son could figure out in his head. Something like 67,589÷3=?
I used a "cookie factory" metaphor to help my students understand the steps. Pretend you are running a cookie factory, and you produced 77,582 cookies today. You need to ship them out to 3 stores, and to be fair, each store must get the same number of cookies. You can ship cookies as:
individual ones
boxes of 10
cases (10 boxes = 100 cookies)
pallets (10 cases = 1000 cookies)
truck loads (10 pallets = 10,000 cookies)
How many cookies can you send to each store? Well, you will obviously want to pack the cookies in the biggest chunks you can, so first check to see if you can send whole truck loads. Can you send a whole truck (or two or more trucks) to each store?
2 trucks per store x 3 stores = 60,000 cookies
(Write it with all the zeros at first, to emphasize the place value.)
17,582 cookies to go...
Then, if you have truck loads that you can't send out (since you have to send the same to each store!), you will have to open those trucks and share out the pallets. So here we have 17 pallets:
5 pallets per store x 3 stores = 15,000 cookies
2,582 cookies to go...
And if you have any pallets left over, you will break them open and send out cookies by the case load:
8 cases per store x 3 stores = 24,000 cookies
182 cookies to go... And if there are any cases left over, you will send out so many boxes per store. And finally you get down to divvying up the individual cookies.
And if you get that far and have a few cookies left over, I'd say it's snack time!
Here's another video, a good introduction to the notation, and a bit shorter than the Khan Academy one: http://www.mathplayground.com/howto_longdivision.html
[LivingMathForum] Long Division Woes
Hi. I have a 12 yo dd who hates math. We use MUS primarily. Although she claims she hates math my dd loves to read and has read most of the 'Murderous Math' series (all the ones we own anyway).
Two years ago we did MUS long division. It was difficult - dd didn't like MUS's method of piling the nos. on top so I taught her the method I was taught which is to write the nos. down the side. This was OK and we got there in the end. But now we're doing long division of decimals and we're having a very teary time over them.
The problem with the long division appears to be that although she can do the method she is not keeping the nos. in the right places. For example her answer might be .0210, whereas the correct answer is .002001. She can also give very bizarre answers and be totally unaware that her answer, just intuitively, does not make sense. She doesn't look at her answers and think 'does this sound right?'.
Some of the problem seems to be that she makes her division way too long. Even in normal long division I notice this. So, instead of looking at a problem like 5689 divided by 83 and saying 'OK, I'll try and multiply by 70 first and see what I get since 7 x8 = 56 " she'll start with a small number like 20, and then she'll end up doing 20 twice more and adding the whole lot up at the end. I hope that makes sense. I've tried explaining to look at the first couple of digits and think about what goes in them to find a better number to start with, but she says this is too hard (this doesn't make sense to me as she knows her math facts better than us all). Any suggestions to make this easier ?
I've also wondered, since she can do the method, if we just forget the whole thing ? But then I remember that this is what happened to me at school with math - if I didn't get something we moved on and while at the time it didn't make a lot of difference by the end of high-school I was struggling.
Thanks, P
RE: [LivingMathForum] Long Division Woes
P., long division seems to be such a common woe! I recall that it was literally the LAST STRAW that caused me to take my son out of a homeschool center math class and take over his curriculum etc. (we started out with a homeschool center that told us what books to use, etc. - It just took a while for me to figure out it wasn't that much different than school and I could do better!)
I can understand your dilemma. I have no problem using any sort of method for dividing larger numbers that works, my daughter is using a method she made up. But I can personally see how the more traditional method works well with decimals by keeping the place of the decimal straight!
A couple comments though about the problem you said she struggled with. I know, I know this makes some people uncomfortable, but honestly, in the real world no one in their right mind would do this by hand unless they loved doing math. I'd ROUND both numbers, estimate an answer, talk about whether the real answer is lower or higher than the estimate and do we think it's a lot lower, or a little . . . how close you feel you need to get if you are dividing something up for various purposes, and then use a calculator after that.
For example, what is 5,600 divided by 80? 70 of course, and that's close enough to the calculator answer of 68.542 for probably 95% of life's applications of this problem. That estimation process is the real life skill she'll need for the rest of her life, we will rarely of ever need to be more accurate than that without using a calculator or computer. Seriously, beyond dividing one digit into a longer number, which only means you have to recall your basic multiplication facts to do the problem, who would be doing this without a calculator today?? If she knows *how* to do it, I really wouldn't go on with the algorithm which seems to actually be doing her more harm than good, given what you wrote about her confusion and lack of ability to *see* the numbers. I wrote a review about a book called Arithmetic for Human Beings http://groups.yahoo.com/group/LivingMathForum/message/14627 here that you might want to take a look at if you have any trouble understanding why I am saying this, it is a GREAT book for understanding how this kind of blind application of arithmetic skills can and does kill any potential interest or enjoyment in math for so many kids especially in the pre-algebra phase. Maybe if you do this FIRST, and use the calculator afterwards, you can get her to begin thinking more the way you seem to understand she needs to, and not come up with nonsense answers. In fact, I'd be dealing with why she is doing that to begin with, and focus on that first.
You wrote: < But then I remember that this is what happened to me at school with math - if I didn't get something we moved on and while at the time it didn't make a lot of difference by the end of high-school I was struggling. >
But here is the beauty of homeschooling! Your daughter will never be "condemned" to the same fate unless you follow that same school model in how you go about learning. My own 12 y/old son and I sat down with an algebra text he worked part way through last year. We went back to the beginning, and we're reviewing the majority of it orally, just discussing and refreshing. It's customized to him - zero to minimal time reviewing things he remembers well, as much time as he needs on areas - I just earlier shared how he'd forgotten the right way to divide fractions, something he learned 2+ years ago. He just didn't use the skill for a while, and needed a refresher. We never got the time we needed in school targeted this way, nor were we ever taught how to teach ourselves, we were taught to rely on teachers.
Most of us didn't learn how to do manage our own learning until college, when we had a lot more choice in the content, teachers and schedule of our learning. My son does not see this effort as some indication he was "behind" - in fact, the pre-algebra portion of the review took us a mere 4 days. We've already skipped whole sections of the beginning algebra and celebrated the fact that he did in fact remember 90% or more of it. You can't do this in a classroom of kids, but you *can* do this homeschooling, you can use a text, or curriculum as a tool for you, not be a slave to it.
Re: Long Division Woes
I certainly am not an expert. But, I have an 11 yr old who is math challenged and I thought I would share what worked for us. We also use MUS, but got stuck in division.
I ended up going back to the basics with him on division. I used Maria Miller's Math Mammoth. I know I have seen her post on here. She has two websites. One is www.mathmammoth.com and the other is www.homeschoolmath.net. We used the blue series book on division. She explains the concepts differently than Steve Demme. It was what my son needed to be able to understand it. I still use alot of her worksheets for review. Thank you, Maria!
Just a quick note on MUS & children's learning differences. We met Steve Demme this summer at a homeschool conference. He is such a nice man. My son told him he was behind. Mr. Demme emphatically (in a nice way) said "No, you are not." He basically told him each child is different and nowhere does it say you must know certain math facts by a certain age. Some people may disagree with this. But, it helped my math challenged child to think more positively about his own math abilities.


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Aretha Franklin realizes everyone make mistakes--even the President of the United States.
After Barack Obama botched the spelling of "Respect" during the White House's Women of Soul Event last week, the Queen of Soul herself released a statement regarding the politician's flub. "I'm sure the President had much on his agenda and was just a little tired," Franklin told "E! News." "However, spelling and giving it, is a huge difference. The President and I are mutual when it comes to R-E-S-P-E-C-T."
Obama paid tribute to Franklin Thursday for turning the 1965 classic into "a rallying cry for African Americans, women and anyone else who felt marginalized because of what they looked like, who they loved." When he first introduced the singer, however, he misspelled "R-E-S-P-E-C-T" as "R-S-P-E-C-T."
PHOTOS: 15 stars who could be president
The audience laughed at his gaffe, but Obama soldiered on and continued to praise Franklin. "Later, when somebody asked her why it had such an impact, she said, 'I guess everybody just wants a little respect,'" the married father of two said during the show, airing in April on PBS. "Today, they still do."
Franklin, 71, and Obama, 52, go way back: she serenaded the crowd at his first inauguration in January 2009, and she sang during the dedication of the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial in October 2011. Franklin also performed during the national Christmas tree lighting ceremony in December 2013.
PHOTOS: Stars meet the president


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UK Government Admits Spying On Innocent Citizens, Reveals Flawed Assumption Underlying 'Collect It All' Surveillance
from the illegal,-unnecessary,-inefficient-and-counterproductive dept
Back in May, Techdirt reported on a bold attempt by a group of privacy rights groups to take legal action against the UK government in the wake of Edward Snowden's revelations about GCHQ's massive surveillance of the Internet. The move has already produced an important admission from the authorities, reported here by The Telegraph:
Britain's spy agencies do gather the communications of innocent people in order to target genuine suspects, Government lawyers have admitted but insisted it was lawful and appropriate.
Surprisingly, the UK government's lawyers also claimed that it was "common ground" that such an approach was necessary:
In a written submission to the tribunal, James Eadie QC, for the Government, said it was "common ground" that the only way to intercept communications of a suspect was to "intercept a substantially greater volume of communications and then apply a selection stage to identify the communications in question".
This statement is extremely important, because it lays bare the fallacy at the heart of the "collect it all" approach of surveillance practised by GCHQ and the NSA. It conveniently ignores the fact that until recently this was not how the intelligences services worked, for the simple reason that it was impossible to gather communications on such a vast scale (for example, opening all letters, or tapping all phones), or to search through them. Instead, painstaking work applying traditional spycraft techniques -- HUMINT (human intelligence), SIGINT (signals intelligence), OSINT (open source intelligence) and GEOINT (geospatial intelligence) -- was used to narrow down interest to a small and manageable group of suspects, before then proceeding to intensive surveillance of just that group.
"In other words, it is common ground that the only practical way to find and reconstruct most external communication 'needles' is to look through the communications' 'haystack' ".
But he added: "Unless the claimants wish to submit that the intelligence services should not be able to obtain the external communications that are needed for the purposes of national security, they must accept some form of interception regime that permits substantially more communications to be intercepted that are actually being sought."
Today, as admitted by the UK government in its submission, it has reversed this approach. It gathers huge quantities of data about large numbers of people, mostly irrelevant and quite innocent, and then tries to find persons of interest -- the "needles" as the usual metaphor puts it -- amongst that "haystack". This is largely a matter of convenience and technical capabilities: it is now relatively easy to "collect it all", and then sift through it, and so has become the norm.
But there is no reason why it has to be done this way, or indeed why it should, given the collateral damage to privacy it entails. Moreover, the constant complaint that intelligence services are "losing capabilities" because the volume of communications traffic continues to grow, is purely because those services try to gather so much indiscriminately. If they applied the older method of narrowing down the field before gathering communications data, they would not be swamped, and would not be "losing capabilities."
This latest admission by the UK authorities, and the attempt to claim its view as "common ground", when it is anything but, exposes the underlying weakness of its intelligence-gathering approach. Privacy rights groups can now focus on dismantling this lazy assumption and on showing why mass surveillance of so many innocent citizens is not just illegal and unnecessary but also highly inefficient and counterproductive.
Follow me @glynmoody on Twitter or identi.ca, and +glynmoody on Google+
Filed Under: collect it all, gchq, privacy, surveillance, uk


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- home
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Food Service & Agriculture, Real Estate, and Retail
College town restaurant rolls into downtown
College grads across Michigan will soon be able to bite into some nostalgia in downtown Grand Rapids.
Menna's Joint — a restaurant chain known for its grilled sandwich wraps or Dubs — is coming to an 1,800-square-foot space in downtown Grand Rapids, at 44 Ionia Ave. SW.
The restaurant is scheduled to open this fall, according to a Colliers announcement.
Michigan-based Menna's Joint first opened in 2003 and has been popular in college towns, such as East Lansing, Mount Pleasant, Kalamazoo and Allendale.
Known as the "Home of the Dub," Menna's Joint also sells soups, salads and cookies.


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wincel necesitaba un nuevo diseño de página web y lanzó un concurso de diseño en 99designs.
Un ganador ha sido elegido entre 33 diseños de 10 diseñadores freelance.
Exciting minisite required aimed at "Relieving Stress Naturally" niche. Header, Footer and Product shot (DVD and Book) only required. Let your imagination run wild!
Relieve Stress Naturally
I urgently require a minisite (header, footer, product shots) to be used as a backdrop for a simple text and video squeeze page and sales page. The site is aimed at the "Relieve Stress Naturally" niche. I am hopeful that it will gain considerable exposure to traffic. I represent a small private company rather than a huge conglomerate.
- Item 1...Header graphic and appropriate footer.
- Item 2...Product graphic - showing branded DVD and Book showing the text "Relieving Stress Naturally".
- Item 3...The text that I will be adding to the page will be about "Relieving Stress Naturally". Hopefully this subject will trigger your imagination for suitable graphics.
- Item 4...The mini site will be aimed at both men and women
- Item 5...I like the idea of the text I add to the site being able to stand out on a white background.
- Item 6...I'm quite happy for a border and/or backgound to be coloured to fit in with the header and footer.
- Item 7...I don't really have any colour preference – I guess I'm looking for the graphics to evoke the concept of "Stress" conquered by "Natural Relief". So I guess earthy colour(s) may help – dark brown and green, say.
I like sites like http://www.moneysiphonsystem.com and http://www.djkassassin.com and they both have a dark mysterious background.
- Item 8...Product shot to include colour and be in 3D with a slight shadow or reflection.
- Item 9...Art in a vector format like that produced by Adobe Photoshop or Adobe Illustrator.
- Item 1...No need for boxes for testimonials.
- Item 2...No need to provide opt-in box graphics.
- Item 3...No need for links to other pages


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Free Downloads for Fast Holiday Projects
Make it easy, save yourself time and get creative during the holidays using your computer! Quite simply, it's just one awesome time-saver wrapped in a neat little package with a bow on top. Your computer is the perfect present when you're at your busiest. How? I've done the work for you. All you have to do is print, embellish and go! Use my designs and let your computer do the work while you reap the rewards. Homemade Christmas—coming right up!
1. Use holiday Quick Pages to make scrapbooking fast and easy.
Quick Pages are the perfect solution to a busy season—simply download these predesigned pages and add your own photos to create beautiful holiday layouts. When finished, print the pages and add your own accents. Place the pages into an album to display during the holidays or give as a gift—it's that easy!
Click the following links to download the pages. Please note that these are large files so it may take a few minutes to download depending on your connection speed. We have provided both PDF files and PSD files.
To download the PDF files click each link below.
To download the PSD file click each link below.
2. Use Word Art for an effortless embellishment.
Microsoft's Word Art can dress up a project or page in half the time of a rub-on or sticker. Holiday quotes work exceptionally well to set the tone of any project. Simply print the winter-themed Word Art on cardstock or patterned paper and decorate around it to create a fun and personalized piece.
3. Print digital labels and tags to save time.
Printer papers come in a variety of sizes and types. Print this label on sticker paper to easily adhere to glass jars. Or, print the same design on cardstock for a sweet gift tag. Make sure to review your printer's manual to choose which paper works best with your printer.
Here's how I used these downloads on my scrapbooking projects.
Simply Christmas 2007 by Tiffany Tillman. Supplies: Tab board book: Zsiage; Digital kit products: Merry Kissmas by Michelle Coleman, www.littledreamerdesigns.com; Alphabet stickers: EK Success; Dimensional accents: KI Memories; Brads: SEI; Ribbon: Michaels (black and white) and Strano Designs (red and white, green); Fonts: 28 Days Later (title), www.dafont.com, Georgia (journaling), Microsoft; Software: Adobe Photoshop CS3.
Winter Door Hang by Tiffany Tillman. Supplies: Cardstock: Prism Papers; Patterned paper: Delightful by Michelle Coleman, www.littledreamerdesigns.com; Dimensional accents: KI Memories (epoxy and tree) and Technique Tuesday (snowman); Brads: SEI; Ribbon: BasicGrey; Glass glitter: Diamond Dust, FloraCraft.
Holiday Gift Label by Tiffany Tillman. Supplies: Label paper: Avery; Dimensional accents: KI Memories; Ribbon: Strano Designs; Font: Georgia, Microsoft; Software: Adobe Photoshop CS3.
To see even more projects using these downloads, check out my "Cookie Cutter Designs" article in the December 2008 issue of Creating Keepsakes.
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Saturday, April 24, 2010
I posted this vestment because I'm genuinely conflicted about it. On the one hand, it is everything I like in a work of visual art. Simple, direct, to the point. What better idea for a Christian to focus on than the Cross and only the Cross? And the fact that you enter into spiritual combat looking like a Knight Templar certainly doesn't hurt.
But on balance, I'm going to have to turn this one down. Because when I saw this picture, the first thing that popped into my head was a chess piece. The second was Alice in Wonderland. So while I can't really declare this a bad vestment, I honestly can't declare it a good one.
13 comments:
I think this is the case where an ad orientem vestment is worn versus populum and what would be an OK simple vestment looks awkward
- April 24, 2010 at 3:41 PM
- Al said...
It reminds me of "The Bishop" sketch from Monty Python.
- April 25, 2010 at 2:49 AM
I like it, and there is nothing really intrinsically wrong with it, but it makes me think of a target on his chest.
- April 25, 2010 at 5:19 PM
- margaret said...
First Aid bishop. Mind you, his idea of Mass probably wouldn't give me the vapours compared to most of what's celebrated in the vestments you so kindly showcase.
- April 25, 2010 at 5:31 PM
- AncientBriton said...
His look is as though he is daring the dragon with, "Come and have a go if you think you're hard enough." Petros
- April 26, 2010 at 9:45 AM
This is certainly a candidate.
- April 26, 2010 at 2:51 PM
- James said...
Someone should offer h.e. an amice. Shabby state of things, really.
- May 5, 2010 at 12:29 PM
He's the guy that defeated the Highgate Vampires, I kid you not.
- May 8, 2010 at 4:04 PM
- wyclif said...
Like a giant chess piece.
- May 16, 2010 at 5:17 AM
- Donna Farley said...
The guy has literally wrapped himself in the flag-- in this case, the flag of St. George, the symbol of England.
- June 2, 2010 at 9:30 AM
Yes, that is the flag of St George.
Looks very medieval to me..I don't think it's that bad at all.
- June 2, 2010 at 11:30 AM
This is definitely going to be a popular one during the next few weeks over here in England, he might have to pose for a few more pictures while the Football World Cup lasts. At least he already had the clothes, most others have to buy them now ;)
- June 8, 2010 at 7:15 PM
- Michael said...
I actually really like this one. Simple, classic...
And if he looks like a chess piece, well, maybe the chess piece just looks like him, eh?
- July 2, 2010 at 8:59 PM