text:
tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-76620296940113211242018-09-17T01:12:40.845-07:00Tomorrow is Another Jaythe passions, progressions, and ponderings of the letter JJay E.http://email@example.com:blogger.com,1999:blog-7662029694011321124.post-52091028479429964202011-07-31T21:41:00.001-07:002011-08-07T17:31:36.652-07:00Pendulum wavesIf you ever want to see a visual representation of patterns in nature (or mathematics), or just like to be hypnotized, then line up a group of pendulums with varying lengths and swing them together (or just watch this video):

 The various speeds of the swings causes a palindromic succession of shapes to appear: 1 long "snake", 4 small lines rotating around each other, 3 lines rotating and then reversing rotation, 2 lines that rotate clockwise then line up and rotate counter clockwise, 3 lines rotating and then reversing, 4 small lines rotating, then the snake again swimming in the opposite direction. What's interesting is the pattern is the same if you watch the video in reverse, and the entire cycle takes 1 minute to reach the starting point again.

All of this from the simple action of a swinging weight.Jay E.http://email@example.com:blogger.com,1999:blog-7662029694011321124.post-72594583338926572011-06-30T22:38:00.000-07:002011-06-30T22:44:48.737-07:00Meet the MedicI've always been a fan of the "Meet the..." videos Valve does for its Team Fortress 2 game. There are nine different character classes in the game and Valve has created short animated films to introduce each one. Recently they released "Meet the Medic":

While the Medic is quite enjoyable, my favorite "Meet the..." is the Spy:

Considering Valve released this game in 2007, and recently made it free to play forever, it is amazing they are still spending time and money to promote it with such well-made animations. Most studios "forget" about their game 6 months after the release and move on to the next thing, while Valve continues to please its fans with treats like these. Just one final "Meet the..." video to wait for now...Jay E.http://firstname.lastname@example.com:blogger.com,1999:blog-7662029694011321124.post-9854970629498767262011-05-31T21:39:00.000-07:002011-05-31T21:54:51.995-07:00Khan Academy (and Time)I recently discovered the Khan Academy. Sal Khan began creating 10-minute Youtube videos to tutor his cousins in various school subjects. Five years and over 2200 videos later his website is now an invaluable resource for learning, and great for anyone with a passing interest in subjects ranging from Physics, Finance, Astronomy, History, Calculus, Biology, Stocks, Chemistry, etc. I've recently been watching his videos on Astronomy and found them fascinating. Here are two of my favorites which emphasize the vast scale of the universe in both time and space (similar to my own "How Big Is a Billion" post).

Visualizing the age of the universe

Visualizing the scale of the universe
Jay E.http://firstname.lastname@example.com:blogger.com,1999:blog-7662029694011321124.post-22892880924766453772011-05-26T12:23:00.000-07:002011-05-28T18:23:05.554-07:00Weird Job Interview Questions (brain teasers)I am a few months late on this, but business sites published a list of the "Weirdest Interview Questions from 2010" earlier this year. Some are fun brain teasers, others are completely subjective questions with no right answer, and a few seem almost deviously presented to obtain information that interviewers can't legally ask ("what has happened in this country over the last 10 years" may offer some insight to political leanings).

Before reading the questions and then a select few of my personal responses, you must understand the purposes to questions like these. I've interviewed many candidates for computer engineer and various tech positions and questions like these help us get insight on a person's thought process and ability to "think outside the box". In an interview, a candidate does not have to answer the question with the correct answer (if there is only one), but seeing a candidate realize that there just isn't one answer to the question or ask for details which were intentionally omitted tells us they can adapt and try new methods to real life problems presented to them on the job. Sometimes they may give a wrong answer, but the thought process that took them there is what impresses us; and since they really only had 5 min or less to come up with the answer we understand that the first hypothesis is usually not correct but a stepping stone to finding the final answer if given enough time. (a self-motivated candidate who calls back a few days later with an updated answer after time to reflect on the question is even more impressive).

Few of the Weirdest Interview Questions from 2010:

If you were shrunk to the size of a pencil and put in a blender, how would you get out?

How many ridges are there around a quarter?

What is the philosophy of martial arts?

Explain to me what has happened in this country during the last 10 years?

Rate yourself on a scale of 1 to 10 how weird you are?

How many basketballs can you fit in this room?

Out of 25 horses, pick the fastest 3 horses. In each race, only 5 horses can run at the same time. What is the minimum number of races required?

If you could be any superhero, who would it be?

You have a birthday cake and have exactly three slices to cut it into eight equal pieces. How do you do it?

Given the numbers 1 to 1000, what is the minimum number of guesses needed to find a specific number if you are given the hint "higher" or "lower" for each guess you make?

If you had 5,623 participants in a tournament, how many games would need to be played to determine the winner?

An apple costs 20 cents, an orange costs 40 cents, and a grapefruit costs 60 cents. How much is a pear?

There are three boxes. One contains only apples, one contains only oranges, and one contains both apples and oranges. The boxes have been incorrectly labeled such that no label identifies the actual contents of its box. Opening just one box, and without looking in the box, you take out one piece of fruit. By looking at the fruit, how can you immediately label all of the boxes correctly?

How many traffic lights are in Manhattan?

You are in a dark room with no light. You have 19 grey socks and 25 black socks. What are the chances you will get a matching pair?

What do wood and alcohol have in common?

How do you weigh an elephant without using a weigh machine?

You have 8 pennies. Seven weigh the same, but one weighs less. You also have a judges scale. Find the penny that weighs less in three steps.

Why do you think only a small portion of the population makes over $150,000?

You are in charge of 20 people. Organize them to figure out how many bicycles were sold in your area last year.

How many bottles of beer are [consumed] in the city [in a] week?

What's the square root of 2000?

A train leaves San Antonio for Houston at 60 mph. Another train leaves Houson for San Antonio at 80 mph. Houston and San Antonio are 300 miles apart. If a bird leaves San Antonio at 100 mph, and turns around and flies back once it reaches the Houston train, and continues to fly between the two, how far will it have flown when they collide?

How are M&Ms made?

What would you do if you just inherited a pizzeria from your uncle

And now for a few of my answers to these. They may not be right, but I really enjoyed the thought processes it took to get me to them! One thing to note is many of these questions use a similar idea of the candidate assuming the "standard way" to do an activity. Once you break that assumption, these questions actually become really easy.

DO NOT READ MORE IF YOU DO NOT WANT TO BE SPOILED! HALF THE FUN OF THESE QUESTIONS IS THE PROCESS OF FIGURING THEM OUT!

If you were shrunk to the size of a pencil and put in a blender, how would you get out?
Pencil sizes are not all standard, a person the size of a "large pencil" could easily get out. Or, a person the size of a regular #2 pencil is still long enough to easily shimmy up the sides of a normal-sized blender. (there likely isn't a right answer, I'm sure "screaming my lungs" out tells as much insight as these answers)

Rate yourself on a scale of 1 to 10 how weird you are?
This reminded me of the "How humble are you" catch 22: a humble person never admits they are humble. My answer is 5, because a person who says 1 is afraid of being weird; yet we are all weird/different, so who wants to be the same? And a truly weird person doesn't believe they are weird and would never say 10. Anyone who says 10 is flaunting themselves in a way a weird person would not. Answers 4-6 work just as well.

How many basketballs can you fit in this room? This is just a good example of estimating lengths and volumes, and a good test of memorization of formulas (but having the guts to ask for the volume of a sphere formula, since really we would just look one up if we didn't know it, is good too)

Out of 25 horses, pick the fastest 3 horses. In each race, only 5 horses can run at the same time. What is the minimum number of races required?
My favorite question, this one was fun. My first answer was based on the obvious omission: do we have a clock? If so, you would only need to race each horse once (5 races) and compare their speeds to find the top 3.
If not, my original thought was 11, since each race you could always eliminate the slowest 2 horses. It would take 5 races to get the top fifteen, 3 races to get the top nine, 2 races to get the top 5 (if you raced the winner of the previous race again you could order all 9 horses), and 1 race to get the final 3.
But the general rule of a numbers answer is the first one you get is likely wrong especially if it is double digits. So I worked on it more. Currently I believe 7 is the right answer, but I may be wrong:
5 races to find the five horses who place #1. 1 race between the five "first placer" horses to get the champion of champions, then 1 race with the 2nd and 3rd placed horses of the "first placer" race, the 2nd and 3rd place horses from the champion's first race and the 2nd place horse from the 2nd place horse's first race. The idea is the 2nd and 3rd place horses who originally lost to the champion horse may still be faster than the other horses who won 1st in their races, and the 2nd place horse who lost to the 2nd overall horse may be faster than the other 1st placers and 2/3 of the champion's first race too. Take the 1st and 2nd place winners of this race and along with your champion you have the three fastest horses.
Read it a few times, it makes sense :)

You have a birthday cake and have exactly three slices to cut it into eight equal pieces. How do you do it?
The first of the "breaking the assumption" questions. The assumption is when cutting cake you cannot move any pieces, which is false. Cut the cake in half, then in half again to get 4 equal pieces in the original shape of the cake (square, rectangle, or circle). Then line up the pieces in a row and cut one long cut through all 4 to get 8 equal pieces.

Given the numbers 1 to 1000, what is the minimum number of guesses needed to find a specific number if you are given the hint "higher" or "lower" for each guess you make?
I originally got snooty with the semantics on this one and said 1. It only takes 1 guess to possibly get the right answer (this is not the right answer and may come across wrong). But if you want the "minimum number needed to guarantee a right answer" then this is a simple binary search any computer engineer learned when first studying: you always guess halfway between the numbers.
The guess pattern assuming the answer number is 1: 500 - 250 - 125 - 63 - 32 - 16 - 8 - 4 - 2 - 1! The answer is 10 guesses, but you will likely find it before the 10th guess unless the number is 1 or 1000.
Also, if you paid attention in math class you know binary searches are all based on powers of 2. If you find the power of 2 higher than (or equal to) the maximum amount you know the answer based on the power. If the answer is between 1-8 your guesses would be "4 - 2 - 1", 8 is 2 to the 3rd power (2^3) so the answer would be 3. 2^10 power is 1024 so the answer to the 1-1000 question is 10. And any computer/video game geek should know the powers of 2 up until 11: 2 - 4 - 8 - 16 - 32 - 64 - 128 - 256 - 512 - 1024 - 2048 etc (these are the common numbers for "bits" and "bytes" for ram, memory, and processors among other things)

If you had 5,623 participants in a tournament, how many games would need to be played to determine the winner? Very similar to the "guess" and "omitted info" problems above. My first answer was the obvious: 1 game. Nowhere does it say how many participants can battle in a single game, so a game where 5,623 gladiators fight each other until 1 is standing is possible.
 But if you assume only two can play at once then the answer changes. I got this answer "wrong" when I read this, I assumed it was asking for rounds and treated it like the "guess" question above. My answer was 13, since it would take 13 rounds (2^13 = 8000ish which is higher than 5,623) with multiple games per round.
But after reading the question again while typing this post, the question asks for the number "games" not "rounds" So instead of asking the number of "guesses" like above, we are adding the actual number of the guess. I don't know the answer while typing this, but the formula is similar as above where you keep halving the number: 2,812 + 1406 + 703 + 352 + 176 + 88 + 44 + 22 + 11 + 6 + 3 + 2 + 1.
In an interview I could likely spout off the string of numbers above (doubling or halving numbers in your head is easy) but without a calculator and pen and paper I wouldn't know the answer is 5,626 (I cheated and just used this computer's calculator), which is suspiciously close to the original 5,623 number above (I rounded a few times which explains the difference) which tells me there was probably an easier way to answer this than brute forcing the numbers and adding them. I will need to reflect on this. :(

An apple costs 20 cents, an orange costs 40 cents, and a grapefruit costs 60 cents. How much is a pear?
Not enough info. Probably market value. Plus you can't compare apples, oranges, and pears but if I had to guess it would be closer to the apple's price since the others are citrus and larger than a pear.
In honesty, that is where I left my answer. But I researched the answer because I didn't feel like it was "right" like I felt my other answers were. And the "best" answer I found is when this question is asked verbally most candidates mishear the final word and think it is "pear" when the questioner really meant "pair". Therefore the answers would be a pair of apples = 40 cents, a pair of oranges = 80 cents, etc. When the question is written this confusion is removed.

There are three boxes. One contains only apples, one contains only oranges, and one contains both apples and oranges. The boxes have been incorrectly labeled such that no label identifies the actual contents of its box. Opening just one box, and without looking in the box, you take out one piece of fruit. By looking at the fruit, how can you immediately label all of the boxes correctly?
This one is really easy if you have a vivid imagination (or can draw it). Since you know all boxes are labeled incorrectly, you just draw from the box labeled as "Both". If you pick an orange you know only oranges are in it (since it is mislabeled), thus the box labeled "Oranges" must be apples and the "Apples" box must be filled both.

How many traffic lights are in Manhattan?
I've never been to Manhattan, so I would guess the number of blocks (and likely be way off) or ask someone in the room if they knew, then assume each block has 4 lights, realize that blocks share traffic lights so I can't multiple by 4, and arbitrarily multiple my guess by 2, then find the closest square number (my geeky Rubik's Cube days taught me 1 block has 4 intersections, 4 blocks have 9 intersections, 9 blocks have 16 intersections, etc, thus all intersections are to the 2nd power: 4, 9, 16, 25, 36, 49, etc. There is a formula in there somehwere but it would take longer in the interview to figure it out than just creating an educated guess as mentioned above.

You are in a dark room with no light. You have 19 grey socks and 25 black socks. What are the chances you will get a matching pair?
I assumed the was a trick question (as you always should), so my first answer is 50/50 chance (since picking a second sock is not affected by the color you picked first). My next guess is slightly less than 50, like 47ish, but it would take some math of total possible solutions which may take me a while (I'm rusty on my probability formulas). My 3rd guess and final answer (because this is what I would do in real life) is to just pick 3 socks and ensure a 100% chance of picking a matching pair. Nowhere does it say how many socks you need to pick up at once.

How do you weigh an elephant without using a weigh machine?
Using water, such as a pool, and determining the elephant's volume and then measuring its density. I don't know the exact formulas off the top of my head, but that is how you find weight without weighing an object. There are probably other ways too, but that was the first that came to mind. Given enough time, I could probably come up with some pretty creative contraptions that were not technically "weigh machines". Now getting the elephant to voluntarily participate is a much harder problem...

You have 8 pennies. Seven weigh the same, but one weighs less. You also have a judges scale. Find the penny that weighs less in three steps.
 Really easy, although I had done a harder version of this test years ago. The assumption is you can only weigh 2 pennies at a time, which, again, is false. Weigh all 8 pennies as 4 vs 4. Take the group of 4 that was the lightest (since you know the light penny is among them) and weigh them 2 vs 2. Take the lighter pair and weigh them 1 vs 1 to find the lightest one.
This test gets much harder if you don't know if the one odd penny is heavier or lighter than the others. The answer to that problem is long and complicated but uses the same principle as above (you start off weighing 3 vs 3 and hope the odd penny is one of the 2 not weighed), it just takes a few more rounds to determine if the penny is heavier or lighter.

What's the square root of 2000?
My final answer is a guess depending on how far they want to go into decimals. But I know 40^2 is 1600 and 50^2 is 2500 so the answer is between 40 and 50. 2000 is smaller than 2050 which is halfway between 1600 than 2500, so the number is likely less than 45 which is halfway between 40 and 50. A quick mental multiplication tells me 45^2 is 2025, and 44^2 is 1936. I hate multiplying decimals mentally, so at this point I would guess 44.7 since 2000 is roughly 70% of the difference between 2025 and 1936. If I was allowed a calculator (and couldn't cheat the answer by typing it in) I would brute force the answer by narrowing down the decimals from 44.7 until I got the answer (which my computer now tells me is 44.72135... yea, I would not have found that precisely without a calculator to help).

A train leaves San Antonio for Houston at 60 mph. Another train leaves Houson for San Antonio at 80 mph. Houston and San Antonio are 300 miles apart. If a bird leaves San Antonio at 100 mph, and turns around and flies back once it reaches the Houston train, and continues to fly between the two, how far will it have flown when they collide?
Yea, I hate these problems as they are too cliche and not that hard to figure out. Not to mention we don't know if the trains are on the same track, left at the same time, or if the bird is even flying towards Houston.
Anyways, I know the distance traveled in a specific time must add up to 300 so the formula is 60x + 80x = 300, or 140x = 300 where x is an equal amount of time both trains travel. I would need a calculator to figure out the exact decimals but mentally I know it it is just over 2.14 hours (140 goes into 300 2 times, the remainder of 200 another 1 time, and 600 4 times, etc). Convert this into time and you get roughly 2 hours, 6 minutes + less than 3 minutes (.04 x 60) or a little less than 2 hours and 9 minutes (again, without a calculator) until the trains hit. But the actual time in minutes is pointless, I want miles.
A bird traveling 100 mph for an x time of 2.14 (100 x 2.14) travels 214 miles.

Whew! That was fun, yet draining. Let's see what odd questions 2011 brings!Jay E.http://firstname.lastname@example.com:blogger.com,1999:blog-7662029694011321124.post-46186094843191338442011-05-26T11:46:00.000-07:002011-05-26T12:18:47.361-07:00The face tells allAn amazing reference sheet for animators (or amateur detectives) came across my desk this week:

(click here for the full-size-readable version)

An artist called Cedarseed compiled all of her notes on facial expression to create a "facial map" detailing the differences between emotional expressions! For example: the difference between a "sad expression" and a "blue expression" is that in the blue face the eyebrows are lower and the eyes' irises are partially covered by the eyelids, whereas in the sad face only the pupils touch the eyelids.

Cedarspeed analyzes 60 different expressions in this manner and offers a great starting point for any artist depecting a subtle expression. Of course, facial expressions are not universal (each culture may express the same feeling in different ways) and the accompanying body language can easily change the meaning of an expression. But for a quick facial cheat sheet, they don't get much better than this!Jay E.http://firstname.lastname@example.com:blogger.com,1999:blog-7662029694011321124.post-21851170842907388422011-05-20T15:30:00.000-07:002011-05-20T16:52:56.281-07:00Sonic youth(ful) nostalgiaThis week I had not one, but two (unrelated) interactions brought upon my retention of frivolous Sonic the Hedgehog facts from my early 90's gaming days. That is twice as many frivolous-Sonic-fact-caused-interactions in the past week than I've had in the past 16 years! (but that other previous interaction is a post for another day)

The first interaction this week came from my meeting with a video game composer who worked on the Sonic games 18 years ago. A few months ago I read an article about a local art school. The article briefly mentioned the President of the school, Spencer Nielsen, composed music for Sega games. Upon looking him up, I realized not only did I know much of his music but he wrote the soundtrack for "Sonic CD" which was my favorite soundtrack of the Genesis era. I talked to my coworkers who previous worked at the art school and this week I finally got to meet Spencer.

The conversation was amazing and we discussed various topics, both old and new. As the meeting ended I finally was able to ask the question that bothered me for 18 years: "What were the voices saying"?

Sonic CD was the first CD based game I owned and also the first to have a "Red Book Audio" soundtrack which meant the music played from an audio portion of the CD as opposed to a synthesizer chip from inside the game cartridge or system. As such, the soundtrack used actual recorded instruments and vocals when most soundtracks of the era were rudimentary beeps and bops. To celebrate the occasion, I bought my first pair of speakers and plugged them into the Sega CD system to enjoy the game's music in glorious stereo. Hearing the music out of multiple sources allowed me to pinpoint various instruments, vocals, and tracks in each of the soundtrack's songs. And after playing a specific level a few times I noticed something odd: in the background of "Tidal Tempest" music I heard voices speaking.

 (listen to the left track at 1:03- 1:06, headphones help]

 Now, much like earlier generations thought they heard secret messages hidden in LPs, my 11 year-old self was sure I had stumbled upon a secret code that I could use to "cheat" in the game (infinite lives, level select, etc)! Games of this era were notorious for hiding cheat codes in the least-expected places of the game for players to find (which incidentally is was led me to my second encounter detailed below). Unfortunately, I couldn't tell what the voices were saying so I had no idea how to use the "code". I listened to the music over and over and eventually, as in months later, gave up and moved on to the next game. But I never forgot the "code" and the question of "what the voices said" stuck in the back of my mind in the "will likely never know" folder. That is, until I met the composer of the song.

Eighteen years later, Occam's Razor had taken hold and I assumed the voices were from a conversation unintentionally picked up on mic. But I still wanted to ask the composer just in case... Spencer did not know of the voices I mentioned and assured me there was no way a conversation was accidentally recorded. But upon sending him my digitized copy of the song he conceded that was exactly what it was and was surprised anyone could hear it (no one had noticed it up until now). He also gave me a personalized signed copy of one of his out-of-print CDs; not for finding the "secret code" but just because is an overall awesome guy!

And so my Sonic-knowledge-event ended for the week, or so I thought.

As mentioned above, games of the 80's and 90's hid secret codes in the least expected places to reward "superfans" who found them (and to allow programmers to use them to skip to various levels in the game to bug test). Many games also offered a special menu for players to listen to every piece of music in the game, which sometimes numbered over 100. And Sonic 2 is notorious for hiding its codes in the "music test" option. If players listened to track 19, then 65, then 9, and then 17 a special sound occurred which allowed the player to select any level from the game (the numbers are actually the birthday of the director of the game - 9/17/1965). Other combinations of track order playback opened up other secrets, but this was the most famous.

So this week while reading one of my favorite webcomics, Sam and Fuzzy, a throwaway line caught my attention. One character yelled a computer command, "Command Code 1965917", which caused all the robots in the scene to attack the heroes. My guess is most people "read" the first two numbers of the sequence then glossed over them to the next word with the understanding that is was just a string of numbers. But for some reason the numbers stuck in the back of my mind and when I read them again the memories of selecting any level I wanted in Sonic 2 came flooding back. So I e-mailed the artist to point out his hidden geekery (another Sonic "superfan") and a few days later he posted my e-mail and his reply on his website.

I'm not sure I have many more frivolous-Sonic-facts left that could lead me to intersting interactions, but you never know what the future holds...Jay E.http://firstname.lastname@example.com:blogger.com,1999:blog-7662029694011321124.post-75436648508559026822011-05-18T20:42:00.000-07:002011-05-18T21:47:36.448-07:00Fossils and MythsNot long ago I read some interesting theories regarding the origins of myths and legends. One fascinating theory states various ancient societies unearthed fossils while digging for stones to build their civilizations. The bones of long extinct animals perplexed the ancient people who then created imaginative stories to explain them.

For example, imagine you lived in ancient Greece and one day while hunting for food you come across this strange skull as large as your chest:

Well obviously, this must be from some large one-eyed creature with vicious teeth capable of rending a man in half:

(of course, since you live no where close to the Serengeti you wouldn't recognize a the skull as that of a dwarf elephant , complete with a large hole for the trunk, which lived on Mediterranean island until 9,000 years ago)

Similarly, if you came across a protoceratops skeleton (ie a triceratops without horns) you may assume it was an beaked creature the size of a lion with giant wings connecting to the frilly areas behind the neck.

Thus the griffin was "born".

Finally, if you lived in ancient China/South America/Europe/India/pretty-much-anywhere-thanks-to-Pangaea and you came across this skeleton larger than your house:

That must be a dragon (and not a Spinosaurus). Better call a knight to dispatch of him, and then eat his bones to claim his power.

Many of history's most fantastical stories have humble beginnings grounded in reality.Jay E.http://firstname.lastname@example.com:blogger.com,1999:blog-7662029694011321124.post-40106019615434956692011-05-17T20:02:00.000-07:002011-05-17T23:49:53.231-07:00Good Life shot - blockingIt has been a busy month of animating. As mentioned in my last post, I "finished" my shots for my short and began a new dialogue piece. I spent weeks of filming reference, building sets, modifying rigs, and blocking the 600 frame shot (ie more frames than all of my "finished" short shots) to the point where it can be shown in its first stage here.

When I am "finished" with this shot I will upload my video reference for the piece, but right now the "scruffy-bearded-man-effeminately-crying-over-a-teddy-bear" video is too embarrassing to be shown without countering it with the successful final product.Jay E.http://email@example.com:blogger.com,1999:blog-7662029694011321124.post-10010597311752300442011-04-14T15:07:00.000-07:002011-04-14T16:31:45.774-07:00Animation eye + 1, morale - 1Have you ever had a creative epiphany from a successful endeavor which completely killed your morale?

For the past few weeks I have polished a segment of my animated short with the intent of updating my reel. And by polish I mean painstakingly positioning each individual finger, toe, knee, elbow, etc on 600 frames so that they made beautiful arcs. My plan this week was to finish* polishing the segment and add my highly-regarded "Get Out" dialogue to the end. Bam! New reel completed.

I accomplished the former, but the latter step hit a major block:

Six weeks of over-analyzing minutia in my "Head of the House" shot had inadvertently trained my eye to be more sensitive to animation principles. When I finished the short's polish, I opened my "Get Out" shot to add it to the reel and audibly gasped: It looked terrible.

This was a shot I spent months writing about on this very blog. It represented my best animation and I proudly showed it off. I even received feedback on it from some very influential animators and came away happy. But now, I see so much "wrongness" in it. Or, to be more precise, I see so many ways that I could do it even better.

The piece itself isn't bad, it just is no longer indicative of my current skill level. I have progressed enough over the past year that creative choices I was once proud of now cause me to cringe. I stared at this shot for over a hundred hours completely oblivious to errors that now loudly scream "look at me!" to me in every playback. And I couldn't be happier.

Well, at least now I couldn't be happier. When it first happened my morale was obliterated: my months-long plan to update my reel for the first time since January '10 was foiled by my obvious lack of skill. The simple task of pasting my last shot to the end of my current shot suddenly turned into a scores-of-hours process of updating my old shot to at least be decent. And again, I had tirelessly worked on this animation for months and then prominently displayed it for the past year to everyone. Goodbye self-esteem!

But it didn't take long for me to perk back up. This is natural, after all. Artist actually want this to happen. All artists look at their old work and shudder with disbelief. And all artists are exponentially more critical when looking at their own work. Many readers on this site may look at my "Get Out" shot and say "it looks great to me", which is fine. But I know I can do better and have already begun my next shot to prove it.

And I'm sure in a year I will look at my "Head of the House" shot and ask, "what the hell was I thinking" and repeat the cycle all over again (it has already happened once). I look forward to that day.

In other news, my new reel is up. Although there is a very good chance it will be replaced in the next 8 weeks. :)

*nothing is "finished" in animation, they just take it away from you and tell you to move on.Jay E.http://firstname.lastname@example.com:blogger.com,1999:blog-7662029694011321124.post-73834089211553225192011-04-01T11:58:00.000-07:002011-04-01T12:08:50.509-07:00Head House - SP11 state of the short!It is a new term at Animation Mentor and after a fantastic Winter term I am super excited to animate even more of my "Head of the House" short. I received wonderful feedback at the end of the term that motivated to put all of my focus into my animation for the next few months (some studios are keeping a very-interested eye on my progress, I've heard), so again sorry for the lack of blog updates but my animation is eating up most of my non-work time recently.

For the sake of progress, here is the current state of my short. This includes animation from 2007 (the beginning and end of the short) and the new animation I redid from scratch at the end of 2010 and beginning of 2011 (anything with the new couch). Hopefully the difference in quality is obvious enough that I don't have to point out where the cuts are. :)

Jay E.http://firstname.lastname@example.com:blogger.com,1999:blog-7662029694011321124.post-81780954436470975772011-03-18T17:07:00.000-07:002011-03-18T17:41:53.744-07:00Head House - The frisbee catchI've been working on a new shot from my short recently. Below you can see my stages:

planning (sketching ideas)

reference (filming myself doing the actions)

blocking (ie choosing poses from reference and recreating them in Maya)

splining (adding the motion in between the poses)

The next week(s) I will be polishing the shot to make it look even better. Those hands before the jump are a little floaty for my taste!Jay E.http://email@example.com:blogger.com,1999:blog-7662029694011321124.post-47914755614425930272011-02-28T21:17:00.000-08:002011-02-28T21:43:14.563-08:00Head House Week 8Moving right along! Came to a stopping point on many of the shots in this sequence so it is time to begin a new one. (and also deal with that couch, after all these years it has gotten old and needs to be replaced)
Jay E.http://email@example.com:blogger.com,1999:blog-7662029694011321124.post-67895614394473388072011-02-13T23:05:00.000-08:002011-02-13T23:09:58.295-08:00Digital Domain's TronThe movie was fun; imperfect but fun. But the amount of work put into the design and visual effects of the film is mind blowing. Especially considering how easy it is to forget that 95% of what you see is not real and was added later:

This also includes some of my favorite music from the movie. Congrats to everyone at Digital Domain who worked on this!Jay E.http://email@example.com:blogger.com,1999:blog-7662029694011321124.post-37163219855058821752011-02-13T22:53:00.000-08:002011-02-13T23:04:42.198-08:00Head House dog sideAnother week, more animation! This week I focused on the dog and improved his walk animation. I also tried something new and received critiques on an animation from another angle, this time from the side. Usually, you animate to a camera and as long as it looks good in that one camera then it really doesn't matter how you "cheated" to get it there (sometimes a character walking towards camera is actually taking 10 ft long steps just to get the right angles in the legs). The dog walk was throwing me for a loop from the front angle so I stepped to the side to see how well it looked from there... not bad! The bounce shot also went from blocking to splining this weekend (meaning there is animation between my poses from last week)

Notes
Dog walk
- rotated camera towards center
- Smoothed foot rolls so the feet take off at the last moment without floating the weight
- Smoothed head roll arc so it doesn't hit a "wall"
- added snout overlap
- smoothed ear arcs

Bounce Prep
- rotated camera towards center
- splined all controls, ironed out pops
- focused on bounces in body, head, and shoulder
- smoothed frisbee arcs
- did a finger pass on screen left handJay E.http://email@example.com:blogger.com,1999:blog-7662029694011321124.post-83312021809533483372011-02-09T20:39:00.000-08:002011-02-09T20:49:02.447-08:00Head House 2 - blockStarting a new shot on my "Head of the House" short. Blocking is now finished (meaning I have the major poses done and will start creating the inbetween frames):

Before I know it, the final polish will be uploaded and it will be time for a "progression post"!Jay E.http://firstname.lastname@example.com:blogger.com,1999:blog-7662029694011321124.post-78086856148436865632011-02-06T23:18:00.000-08:002011-02-06T23:42:20.984-08:00Buccaneer Band logoBefore heading down the animation path, I studied graphic design in college. And occasionally, my friends would come across a project or two that needed the services of a graphic designer. Since many of my friends were musicians, during my college years our band program's fliers became far more interesting. After graduating I focused completely on animation and moved on from graphic design, but recently one of my longtime music friends (and now a head band director) called me up with a new project: all the departments in his school were to design logos which were then scaled and painted on the school's hallways. He gave me the band font, color scheme (I could only use black and the school's blue) and in return I sent him this:

A few weeks later he sent me the final image after it was painted:

I was impressed at how well the painters were able to recreate a 6 foot image on the wall, especially the negative-space-from-hell French Horn and the vanishing-point-parallelograms of the xylophone. Sadly the painting ended up only using one color, but even then it still works.

Yay! And now that I have the graphic design bug out of my system it is time to hit the animation splines again.Jay E.http://email@example.com:blogger.com,1999:blog-7662029694011321124.post-78555448914934207142011-02-06T22:53:00.000-08:002011-02-06T23:17:56.391-08:00To buy or rent?I came across a fun, informative, and interactive chart today at Trulia

The chart takes various factors, such as rent cost, purchase price, foreclosure rates, etc and uses an algorithm to determine if in the long term it is better to purchase or rent. Unsurprisingly, San Francisco is a "rent" suggestion, but I surprised my old stomping ground of Fort Worth was one position away from Los Angeles (although the cutoff from "buy" to "rent" occurs between those two positions.

As much as I love living in the Bay Area, sometimes I tempt/tease/depress myself by looking at other cities on charts like these and realize that what we pay in rent for a relatively small apartment could buy us an extravagant, large house in another metro area. *sigh*
Being the optimist, I like to think that if we ever do buy a place and then sell it and move out of state we will then live like royalty.

Until then, I will (ab)use my location in the Bay Area to the fullest and enjoy the multiple luxuries the area provides! Plus, animation studios are here! Woohoo!Jay E.http://email@example.com:blogger.com,1999:blog-7662029694011321124.post-18618698342275549902011-02-01T22:21:00.001-08:002011-02-01T23:25:21.976-08:00Specks in the skyI've been on an astronomy kick recently (not to be confused with an astrology kick, although I have some posts on that as well coming up). Every now and then I come across a photo which stuns me: some for the sheer colorful beauty of the heavens depicted, others for the ideas they represent. Today's primary photo falls in the latter category, but I'll include a little reminder of the former too.

Today's photo comes from the Herschel Space Observatory courtesy of Dr. Scott Chapman from the Institute of Astronomy in Cambridge.

(click to zoom to get the full magnitude of the photo)

While this image may look like a bunch of static, what it represents is far more mind-blowing: Each non-black pixel in this relatively small infrared image depicts an entire galaxy. And, as previously discussed, a single galaxy contains over 100 billion stars (more than the amount of humans that have ever lived) each with the possibility of its own solar system with a possible earth-like planet. If each star was 1 square foot in size, there would be more stars represented in this picture than could cover the entirety of Earth.

That is a lot of galaxies, and billions of stars, especially for an image which is only a minuscule fraction of the total sky. If the amount of "space" out there doesn't inspire awe in you then maybe it hasn't "clicked" yet, because for me that hint of knowledge changes a seemingly boring photo of static into a masterpiece of possibilities and colors.

Plus, it helps to remember that each dot of "static" represents one of these:

 To quote the great Keanu: "whoa"Jay E.http://email@example.com:blogger.com,1999:blog-7662029694011321124.post-88272273876178235302011-01-31T23:16:00.000-08:002011-01-31T23:28:58.584-08:00Touring AM with Jay and VictoriaOne of my jobs at Animation Mentor is hosting various Q&As and webinars for students, alumni, and prospective students. The last group requires a special webinar as accurately describing an online school where professional animators teach animation and critique students' animation can be a difficult task. A few months ago we recorded one of my Q&As on the subject, so if you are interested in seeing me discuss exactly what we do at my company then your wish is granted:

http://www.animationmentor.com/campustours/replay.html

Woohoo!Jay E.http://firstname.lastname@example.com:blogger.com,1999:blog-7662029694011321124.post-35510910264416915262011-01-30T19:12:00.000-08:002011-01-30T21:03:05.256-08:00Head of the House - polish!My animation short "Head of the House" is coming along. After "finishing" it a few years ago (more like shoving it under the bed out of disgust) I reopened it with fresh eyes and new animation knowledge. After a few (spread out) months of focus on specific shots, I finally have a coherent clip of polished shots!

Currently I am working on the middle of the short on arguably the hardest shots of the piece. Here is the most recent update:

And here is the original "finished" piece from years ago. Not a single key from below is retained above, I have completely recreated the each shot from scratch.

Finally, here is the original animatic for the short:
Jay E.http://email@example.com:blogger.com,1999:blog-7662029694011321124.post-44108053058025356012011-01-29T22:39:00.000-08:002011-01-29T22:39:09.177-08:00A Mouse called TronAfter 7 years I finally replaced my mouse on my computer. While my old mouse continued to work, it finally passed the point of no return: no amount a cleaning supplies could remove the finger oil from the mouse. I had literally worn away all the paint and plastic covering of mouse and was brushing against the endo-skeleton, at which point the oils began to build up into their own coating.

Moving on, it was time to get a new mouse. And luckily, the perfect mouse for me just arrived on the market. Meet Tron: The Mouse:

Not only does it glow (and shut itself off at night)...

But it also creates fascinating glow trails as you scroll across the mouse pad! I sometime find myself moving the mouse cursor to out-of-the-way areas on the screen just to create cool new patterns on the pad. I am not ashamed to admit I have written my name in cursive once or twice this way.

And as an added bonus, it makes the Tron bike noises from Tron Legacy when you start the computer. At this rate, I may have to spring for the matching Tron keyboard and call it a set.

/Geek

Jay E.http://email@example.com:blogger.com,1999:blog-7662029694011321124.post-14143043723913404132011-01-29T21:18:00.000-08:002011-01-29T21:34:56.831-08:00Salt and PepperIn January, I grew out a beard for a combination of artistic prank reasons (the product of which to be posted in April), a gentlemen's agreement, and a Hanukkah gift to a friend who wanted to see someone at the company in mutton chops (if only for a day, and no picture to be posted for that one).

 While trimming the beard to keep it somewhat presentable I made a startling discovery:

How cool is that!? Here is a close up:

Oh noes! I am teh old! :P

Or more accurately (at least to my mental state), I am now "distinguished". Bring it on, Father Time!

Jay E.http://firstname.lastname@example.com:blogger.com,1999:blog-7662029694011321124.post-35581105778703556762011-01-24T21:45:00.000-08:002011-01-24T22:40:46.029-08:0050's advice from the fitness godfatherToday I learned about a man who changed the world and inspired people to take the same the same steps in improving both their physical and mental health as I have taken over the past few years. Yet this man gave his advice to a national audience over 50 years ago and spent a lifetime changing peoples' lives. Sadly, I am only discovering this man due to his untimely death at the young age of 96: Jack LaLanne.

Here are just a few of his numerous accomplishments: starting the first public gyms in America (now Bally Total Fitness), inventing leg exercise machines and pulley weight machines, hosting a fitness show for 34 years, performing 1,000 pull ups and 1000 jumping jacks in just over an hour, creating a vegetable juicer line still sold today, performing over 1,000 push ups in 23 minutes, swimming in handcuffs while towing 70 rowboats with people for over a mile... at age 70. This man could do straight-body finger pushups at age 90, a feat I just tried at a relatively fit age of 29 which nearly resulted in breaking all my fingers (I won't even attempt the one-handed version he did at age 50).

Even with all these amazing feats, what surprises me most is how his life advice from his 50's TV fitness show is still applicable today. This man knew what he wanted in life and chose to share his secrets to achieving happiness and longevity to everyone. And the fact that he happily lived to the age of 96 shows that there may be some merit to his teachings. Here are a few of my new-favorite inspiring videos:

Life needs incentives

Stop being so tired

The effect of bad habits

Why people are unhappy

And more can be found here

Add color, update the outfits, and change the hair and these videos could be mistaken for current day "self-help" programming. The maladies he mentions, from obesity (from empty calories and man-made foods) to general happiness due to modern luxuries, still apply today. Even his primary rule of nutrition "if man made it, don't eat it" is the basis of many of today's popular diets (and the organic movement).

Thanks to constant technological improvements, scientific discoveries, and general generational gaps, I grew up with the (often erroneous) assumption that the older an advice on health (or self-help, finances, etc ) is usually wrong and I should only read the newest book with the newest advice. It is videos like these that remind me how little has changed throughout the years and that some advice is timeless.Jay E.http://firstname.lastname@example.com:blogger.com,1999:blog-7662029694011321124.post-74934373219152199812011-01-23T13:36:00.000-08:002011-01-23T14:13:09.725-08:00Get Out - 2011 PolishAfter two false starts at the end of last year (sadly, due to waiting for a event that kept on being postponed) I am back in an animation class to work on new and old work alike. At the beginning of the class I showed my current reel and expected a lot of notes on my perpetual-work-in-progress short. While that did occur, I also got a lot of notes on my "finaled" dialogue shot "Get Out" from 2009. Thus, I returned to "Get Out" to polish it even more, and see things that my oh-so-naive eyes of 2009 completely missed.

Here is the newest polish:

And for reference, here is my "final" shot from the end of 2009

As is true polish, the changes may so small enough that you don't see them at first, but as a whole improve the entire shot:

Added a preparation breath prior to the dialogue

moved lip sync to hit the accents better

added nicer arcs to hands before "plague" and the jump "why to me?"

eyebrows are used more

Eyes are consistent throughout the shot, the old shot had him looking at 3 completely different "people" during the tirade

took out the staggered "Pixar blink" before the silent "whaaa?" (I have a Dreamworks mentor this time, it was the first thing he axed)

subtle hip and lower body movements throughout to keep him alive

subtle camera change at the end to keep him from hitting the side of the video window

Jay E.http://firstname.lastname@example.com:blogger.com,1999:blog-7662029694011321124.post-25578959452389350042011-01-22T10:00:00.000-08:002011-01-22T10:52:21.216-08:00The best laid plans... (of 2010)'Tis 2011 and my blog has been far more barren than I had planned. I would like to say "life got in the way" but I also know that I could have posted more if I had prioritized it higher. In retrospect, my biggest downfall was reaching my year-long goal of a "healthy, talented Jay" for my 10 year reunions. After traveling and spending two weeks with my old high school friends I found it hard to motivate myself to return to my strenuous routine when I returned. I still worked on each of my stated goals, but instead of doing all six of them every day I would do only 1-3. And the most affected, and public, of these goals was posting to this blog. My "upcoming posts" admin page has 20+ partially finished posts each waiting on me to finish an earlier, time-sensitive post before I can publish them in chronological order. I must overcome that desire for accurate chronological posts and instead post when I have a topic that needs to be written.

Regardless, I have no more excuses and plenty of motivating factors to encourage me to return to my goal-accomplishing habits of old: I'm taking another animation class (yay for daily animation); I've organized a gym team at work (exercise, woot!); I've moved and now have a 1.5 hour round trip commute (dedicated time for audiobooks and family phone calls); and most importantly (and unexpectedly) I've moved in with a wonderful someone who has similar goals and the mutual desire to help the other reach their goals. Most of all, I'm looking forward to 2011 and seeing this poor little blog have some life again!Jay E.http://email@example.com


text:
Good Day, Loyal Subjects!
HM The Queen Mum has submitted this photo of HRH Princess Marigold to "The Daily Kitten" for consideration. "The Daily Kitten" holds a stong sentmental place in Our hearts, as there is where we all came to know each other. "TDK" begat "Kat's Cat of the Day", where HM Queen Emily was featured recently, and where the initial concept for Rose and the Royals began. We all have a long (well, for our 14 weeks of life) history together.
It was suggested today, by Our Most Gracious Godmother Deb, that Our Biography be written. And so it shall be. HM Queen Mum will begin Her outline today, and We will share Our lives with you from Our earliest memories.
Godmother Deb accomplished a most remarkable feat of gracious charity today! She was made aware of a rescue shelter in Paterson, NJ in despirate need of a new air conditioner. The Kindhearted Lady Leslee Dimond, of "Here Kitty Kitty, Inc." circulated an electronic mail message alerting those among the Feline Inclined population to her plight. As Fate would have it, The Queen Mum noticed this message and forwarded it among Our FuZZ Family. As always, Godmother Deb responded immediately to the needs of Our cousins in New Jersey, and contacted The Home Depot in Passaic, NJ. Now, Godmother Deb is a true Lady of action! What can be done tomorrow may as well be done today, and after speaking with the kind Manager for 5 minutes or so, she had procured a DONATION of a Brand New Air Conditioner for Lady Leslee's cattery! Not only that! Our Lady ML, also of generous heart, donated to the cattery funds to help provide for Fresh Step Cat Litter, Lady Leslee's choice brand, and other necessities our cousins may have. If Our Subjects would like to visit "Here Kitty Kitty, Inc." site, it can be viewed by the following link: (http://www.herekittykitty.petfinder.org/) .
Well, we've had a most eventful morning, and it has just chimed 12:00 Noon!
We thank you as always for visiting us, and hope you have a Most Blessed Day!

subset: commoncrawl


text:
'Stasis Ecstatic' features new works performed by Perth new music ensemble Decibel. Led by artistic director Cat Hope, Decibel is unusual in the new music world for the way they blend the aesthetic of classical music experimentation with noise, sound art and song like sensibilities.
This gatefold album, with elegant design and artwork by When Studio, features six tracks by Australian composers, and comes with a 6 page booklet that features introductions to the pieces contributed by the composers themselves, accompanying photos, drawings and two essays. In addition to works by WA composers Hope, Lindsay Vickery, Stuart James and Malcolm Riddoch, there is a track by Julian Day (NSW) and the debut recording release of Alan Lamb's 'Infinity Machine', an instrument made for Decibel by Lamb and performed by Stuart James. Mixed and mastered at Sound Field Studios. Each album comes with a download code for digital copy.
Decibel won the APRA|AMC Inaugural Award for Excellence in Experimental Music¬ in 2010.


text:
As part of prevention, AEDs (Anti-Epileptic Drugs) have been taken in pill form. However if paramedics are called to attend during a seizure then administering pills is not an option. Now it is possible to administer drugs via EpiPen into the blood stream. Typically the drug might be administered via the thigh muscle directly into the blood stream.
In my daughter's case paramedics were called to the scene. But from the information we have it was too late. However they did try to resuscitate her. I would like to think that had this tool been available then it could have been tried.
I would love to hear from someone who has seen this applied to someone with Epilepsy.


text:
Although I preferred to use SugarCRM Community Edition with English menu, it might be better to localize for easier implement. I download virtual machine from TurnKey Linux: SugarCRM and import to VirtualBox. Here are some tech notes to launch with localized menu.
TurnKey Linux
Create a Web Application with yiic in TurnKey Linux
After playing with the default web application in TurnKey Linux: Yii Framework, I try to create my own with yiic. It's like MFC Application Wizard which helps to create a simple application for you.
Use NetBeans to Work with Yii in VM
Because my NetBeans is on the host while the development environment is in the guest, I need to treat Yii Framework in TurnKey Linux in virtual machine as a remote server. Here is how to make them work together.
Play Yii Framework with TurnKey Linux
Yii Framework is the base of ZurmoCRM. To learn more about customization, I begin to learn Yii. It is very different from CodeIgniter. More object-oriented features and style.
I test the Yii Framework in TurnKey Linux and add CRUD to the demo application.
Setup Time Zone and Sync with a NTP Server in TurnKey Linux
If you launch TurnKey Linux virtual machine , the default time zone might be different from yours. It might cause issues when you want to sync files between host and guest based on date and time. Therefore, it is a good idea to setup the right time zone.
Fail to Launch TurnKey Linux in VirtualBox After Importing
TurnKey Linux should be the easiest way to test new applications. Download, unzip, and import to your VM. Now you are ready to launch.
But it doesn't work after upgrading my Oracle VM VirtualBox, I cannot boot to VM after importing. It just stops and halt. At first, I think something wrong with my file. But after downloading it again, it is still the same.
Optimize TurnKey Linux for ZurmoCRM
It's not easy to install ZurmoCRM and that's why I encourage beginners to Test your ZurmoCRM with VirtualBox. Although it is much faster than start from scratch, it is not perfect. You may need to modify some configurations and install extra package to keep it stable and accelerate performance.
This post will be updated when I found more optimization in the future.


text:
Part Time Online Data Entry Jobs to register before you really know what you?
Part Time Online Data Entry Jobs, you can see that Very, very wrong and misleading. Do not get me wrong, I'm at home opportunities looking for some work at home, work can make money. I work in the field of data entry door of wealth rather than a company, and we hope to have more than an illusion.
First, part-time jobs, online data are few and far between these days. In fact, most people do not understand what the data is encoded. In most cases the medical field is used for billing purposes. At the hospital, doctors, nurses need to pay. You sit around a group of people to pay their bills cannot be processed. So what they do is outsource the billing data work. The companies and people like you and I arranged to work from home. Full-time to part-time work is not so.
This is simply not the case, the odds are that you try, very wrong. As you can. Membership dues end you visit Google AdWords, probably it
Hidden fees recommended online part time job data.


text:
Our June Community Gallery exhibition of Yukon postcards by artist Katie Newman created from digitized hand-made collages.
Monday to Friday: 10 am to 5 pm
Saturday: 12 pm to 5 pm
Closed Sunday
Open for theatre performances.
This exhibition by Whitehorse-based artist Katie Newman features Yukon postcards created from digitized hand-made collages. Using 'Yukonic' images from tourism brochures, 1960's illustrated children's encyclopaedias, and a brochure on chronic jaw pain, Newman's collages reflect the combination of stress and awe she experienced after first moving to Yukon from Ontario in September 2012, and also act as a reponse to some of the 'cheesier' postcards she has sent to friends back home.


text: All 3 Major Indexes Close at Record Highs Dow ends day up 39 By Newser Editors and Wire Services Posted Sep 13, 2017 3:17 PM CDT 7 comments Comments Specialist Peter Mazza, left, works with traders Kevin Lodewick, center, and Mark Zifchak on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange, Monday, Sept. 11, 2017. (AP Photo/Richard Drew) (Newser) – US stock indexes managed to end slightly higher on Wall Street as gains for retailers and energy companies outweighed declines in health care and technology companies, the AP reports. Target rose 2.8% Wednesday after issuing a bullish hiring forecast for the holiday season. Energy companies rose along with the price of oil. Chevron climbed 1.5%. Apple fell 0.8% a day after unveiling its new lineup of iPhones. The Standard & Poor's 500 index rose 1 point, or 0.1%, to 2,498. The Dow Jones industrial average rose 39 points, or 0.2%, to 22,158. The Nasdaq composite edged up 5 points, or 0.1%, to 6,460. All three are at record highs. (Read more stock market stories.) My Take on This Story Report a story error Show results without voting | 7% Hilarious 18% Intriguing 11% Depressing 54% Brilliant 7% Scary 4% Ridiculous


text:
TAIPEI, Nov 24 (Reuters) - Taiwan's top financial regulator said it intends to send a high-level official to a private-sector meeting in China in December where financial supervisory issues will be discussed, as Taipei seeks to maintain relations even as political ties have chilled.
Wellington Koo, chairman of the Financial Supervisory Commission, told Reuters on Friday in his first foreign media interview since he took up the post in September, that it aims to send an official of "deputy bureau chief or higher" to the meeting, which he said would be organised by the private sector.
The last time Chinese and Taiwan financial regulators publicly met was in 2015 at an annual cross-straits meeting.
Those meetings have not been held since Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen, of whom Beijing is deeply suspicious, took office in May 2016.
Koo also said Taiwan would look to emulate Singapore's approach to regulating fundraising using digital tokens and cryptocurrencies like bitcoin. (Reporting by Emily Chan and Brenda Goh; Editing by Kim Coghill)


text:
Schedule your campus visit today!
The Library provides access to a wide range of tools facilitating the access of academic research. Search our above library catalog for books, movies or music contained within our collection, as well as electronic databases containing full-text access to articles from various disciplines within the universities curriculum.
* Databases and Journals are available to students, faculty, and staff both on and off-campus. Off-campus access requires a valid Marian University username and password. *
© 2018 Marian University
Notice of Nondiscrimination
Marian University does not discriminate on the basis of race, ethnicity, color, sex, gender, gender identity, sexual orientation, religion, creed, national origin, age or disabilities in the selection of administrative personnel, faculty and staff, and students. *Placement rates are gathered from data collected from graduates within six months of graduation.


text:
Zhongtian Lighting released its new product [ZT-HB-1-80W-Led Bay Light].
(PRWEB) July 24, 2012
Recently, Zhongtian Lighting released its new product [ZT-HB-1-80W-Led Bay Light . This model's performance is more excellent than previous models. Its light source is the LED white light with higher brightness and the shell is aluminum alloy (other materials can be used according to the customers' requirement). The combination of heat conduction of copper and the heat dissipation of alloy enables this model to dissipate heat perfectly. Its appearance also can be changed depending on the demands of customers. The technical specification of this LED bay light is presented as follow:
Model: ZT-HB-1-80W
Shade dimension: D240*H240mm
Rated power: 40w
Lamp beads: 1 piece
Housing material: PC
Input voltage: 85-264VAC/DC,50-60Hz
Net weight: 5.2kg
Luminous flux: 6805lm (warm white), 7605lm&7440lm ( neutral white & cool white)
Color rendering index: 75±5Ra
Color: Warm white/White/Cool white
Color temperature: (3000K-3500K),(4000K-4500K), (5500K-6500K)
Working temperature: -40℃ - 55 ℃
Luminous efficiency: >70lm/w
Except these technical specifications, the LED bay light has some merits. It has the excellent explosion-proof performance, which allows it to be safely used in a variety of flammable and explosive places. Zhongtian Lighting adopts the brand chip to make its lamp beads and optimize the encapsulation structure, so as to gain the low attenuation, high efficiency and long service lifespan.
With the strong and advanced technology, Zhongtian Lighting produces its own powers supplies, making it possible to ensure the quality of the bay light. In addition, it can't corrode and rust even used under the humid and high temperature condition, because this bay light employs the light alloy with special surface coating and seal. Furthermore, the special lens makes it be used in different lighting occasions. At last, due to the angular locking device, the position of LED bay lights can't be changed even working in the vibration condition for a long time.
Zhongtian Lighting is trying their best to offer the better products to the customers and they are improving their innovation capacity continuously. Please see more details at http://www.ztlights.com/Led-bay-light.html


text:
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2 crossed the $900 million worldwide mark on Wednesday, its 15th day in release. That made Harry's last stand the fastest movie ever to reach that milestone, breaking Avatar's 18-day record.
On Wednesday, Deathly Hallows Part 2 brought in $24.7 million worldwide ($5.2 million from domestic and $19.5 million from foreign), lifting its total to $906.8 million. It climbed to 19th place on the all-time chart, jumping past Goblet of Fire's $896.9 million final haul.
The first Harry Potter, Sorcerer's Stone, still ranks as the top-grossing with $974.8 million, while only Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides and Transformers: Dark of the Moon slot higher for 2011 with $1.03 billion and $926.1 million, respectively. Deathly Hallows Part 2 is on course to join the $1 billion club by early next week.
Domestic alone, Deathly Hallows Part 2's business was down 58 percent from last Wednesday to $5.2 million, falling harder but grossing more than the previous July Potters, Half-Blood Prince and Order of the Phoenix, at the same point. With a $291.7 million tally in 13 days, it also edged out the final gross of Goblet of Fire ($290 million) and will eclipse Order of the Phoenix and Deathly Hallows Part 1 on Thursday (though it will still rank last in estimated attendance).
Captain America: The First Avenger topped the Wednesday domestic box office with $5.8 million. With an $86.4 million tally in six days, the Marvel Comics adaptation extended its lead over the summer's other superhero movies through day six. Thor had $80.7 million by day six, and its latest total was $180.3 million.
Discuss 'Harry Potter's record-breaking performance on Facebook, Twitter, and in Box Office Mojo's forums. Related Stories:• 'Captain,' 'Harry' Keep Rollin' on Tuesday• 'Captain' Stays Strong on Monday• Weekend Report: 'Captain America' Rockets to the Top, 'Potter's Bubble Bursts• Around-the-World Roundup: 'Potter' Still Magic OverseasRelated Charts:• 'Harry Potter' Franchise• 2011 Worldwide Grosses• All-Time Worldwide Grosses• Daily Box Office for Wednesday, July 27• Weekend Box Office Results• Showdown: 'Captain America' Vs. 'Thor'• Showdown: 'Harry Potter' Vs. 'Dark Knight'• Showdown: 'Harry Potter' Vs. 'Twilight'
An company
© IMDb.com, Inc. or its affiliates. All rights reserved. Box Office Mojo and IMDb are trademarks or registered trademarks of IMDb.com, Inc. or its affiliates. Terms of Use and Privacy Policy under which this service is provided to you.


text:
Lol, T(h)ink - rub or scratch gently: -
When the skin is badly itching,
like a lot of needles stitching,
causing ache and nervous twitching:
scratching helps far more than bitching -
all the more if "babe" is "scrolling",
with the rubbing gently strolling
to reduce the stinges' trolling -
so, hub's* wheels can go on rolling.
* (hub's and/or hubs')
Lol, Rooster, don't give up; these old Cockney and Western slang words or rhymes, and some synonyms might help:
And check with Virginia and T(h)ink - lol.
The guy in the article below seems to think English cuss words had more to do with the politics of the Norman Conquest than anything else, but I don't think he's right. It's not polite to use the equivalent words in other countries or languages either.
But the following is more to the point:
"...but by Rabelais' beard she will throw several fits, if you speak of them roundly as good honest...---"
Oh what wonderful lyrics here, Other Tink!
* * *
...and I loved the Psy Today article...the etymology of obscenities? Well I DO know at least one gesture considered obscene in the USA, but the parallel in Europe and South America is apparently not so much...and it's The Famous BIRD!
Here is the parallel, in Europe and South America it's the FIGA, means the same thing as The Bird, but I have read it's not considered obscene. Even Dante mentioned "the figging sign"...look closely, the thumb tucked between index and middle fingers? Whew! (Now if we only knew how ours came to be called "bird"...)
Lol, Virginia, yes, Four-Letter Words is an old poem/song, but i don't know anything about its origin.It seems to date back at least to WW2.
As for 'flipping the bird', that seems to be quite ancient, and of varied usage.
Lol, T(h)ink - your links about the 4-letter-words and the song are a hilarious delight.
By the way, I found a link about the lyrics (censorship seems to persist):
About Anglo-Saxons:
About Normandy:
Lol, Virginia, you might also like to look into the links about the norsemen - pardon, normans - and their linguistic "integration".
North: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Langues_d%27o%C3%AFl
O'Tink, those are two fascinating links! Amazing the term "flip the bird" did not come into usage until the 1960's...and the erotic poem from WWII (at least back to then) is wonderful!
One of the verses about "plowing the field," I remember seeing something like that in a translation of a very ancient scripture from Old Europe in the time of the mother goddesses. The ancient goddess was saying to her prospective paramour, "Plow my field, O Dumuzi, plow my field" ... (or something like that). This of course from an Earth-centered era in which the sexual act was honored as a sacred act...
Yes, Virginia, the 'flip' form is relatively recent. I think the old way of giving someone the finger was to pump one's fist upwards with the middle finger already extended. Maybe a more modern form is to raise a completely clenched fist and then flip the middle finger up.
I have observed both, but have never used either, so I am not an expert on the matter.


text: Green, black, red and clear dichroics fuse together beautifully in these pretty little drop earrings. They are backed with a copper coil bail and fitted with solid sterling silver hooks. Dichroic glass is created by stacking micro-layers of metals and oxides within glass, giving it colour-shifting and iridescent qualities. As all our jewellery pieces are individually hand-made, there may be slight variations in size, colour and design. We think this just adds to their beauty.


text:
Rated on TripAdvisor.com
Step into the world of Katniss, Peeta and President Snow on this exciting 3-hour tour. Experience the real life sites of The Hunger Games: Catching Fire, Mockingjay Part 1 & 2!
- 3 hours with a guide from the industry, $65/person, starts from our shop in Castleberry Hill in Downtown Atlanta, 327 Nelson St SW, Atlanta, GA 30313
- Experience what it was like to be in President Snow's Mansion
- Catch a glimpse behind-the-scenes at the Districts
- May the Odds be Ever in Your Favor!
Tour Gallery
Interested in a tour on a day we aren't running the Victory Tour? Check out the Capitol Tours at Swan House at the Atlanta History Center!
* In an effort to stay current, we are constantly updating our tours with new locations and cannot guarantee the presence of locations mentioned on our site. If you have a particular interest in locations from a specific TV show or movie, please note at the time of booking and we will make every effort to accommodate. We also make no claims regarding the viewing of any live filming or active sets.


text:
David W. Tice
David W. Tice is the Bear Market Strategist for the Federated Prudent Bear Fund. He has been at the forefront of bear market investing for more than 20 years. He gained national recognition through articles he wrote for Barron's and as the subject of numerous business journal and television interviews beginning at the time when he was among just a handful of courageous people who dared to short the market. Mr. Tice launched his firm, David W. Tice & Associates, LLC, in 1988 to provide clients with hedging and sell discipline perspectives and recommendations through his "Behind the Numbers" publication and research service. This effort formed the origins of Federated Prudent Bear Fund in 1995 and Federated Prudent Global Income Fund in 2000. Mr. Tice holds an undergraduate degree in accounting as well as an MBA from Texas Christian University. He is a Chartered Financial Analyst.


text: > Message: 5 > Date: Tue, 09 Sep 2008 10:52:53 -0400 > From: Steven Toth <stoth at linuxtv.org> > Subject: Re: [linux-dvb] HVR-1500Q eeprom not being parsed correctly > To: Patrick Boisvenue <patrbois at magma.ca> > Cc: linux-dvb at linuxtv.org > Message-ID: <48C68DC5.1050400 at linuxtv.org> > Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1; format=flowed > Patrick Boisvenue wrote: >> I cannot get my new HVR-1500Q to work at all even though it's recognized >> as such. The best I was able to figure out was it does not like the >> eeprom. After enabling the debug mode on tveeprom, I got the following >> when loading cx23885: ... >> cx23885[0]: warning: unknown hauppauge model #0 >> cx23885[0]: hauppauge eeprom: model=0 >> cx23885[0]: cx23885 based dvb card ... >> Did a hg pull -u http://linuxtv.org/hg/v4l-dvb earlier today so running >> off recent codebase. >Fixed it, see linuxtv.org/hg/~stoth/v4l-dvb<http://linuxtv.org/hg/%7Estoth/v4l-dvb> . >Pull the topmost patch and try again, please post your results back here. >Thanks, >Steve This is the same problem that I was having [ 589.382427] tveeprom 5-0050: Encountered bad packet header [ff]. Corrupt or not a Hauppauge eeprom. [ 589.382431] cx23885[0]: warning: unknown hauppauge model #0 [ 589.382432] cx23885[0]: hauppauge eeprom: model=0 I was working with the cx23885-audio branch for the analog support. Could these changes be added to that branch as well? Or could I get things working by simply merging with the ~stoth/v4l-dvd branch? -- --Tim -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://www.linuxtv.org/pipermail/linux-dvb/attachments/20080909/305e0b53/attachment.htm


text:
Artichoke is a cloud-based salon management and appointment scheduling solution for small businesses. It helps users book online appointments, manage client notes, sell gift cards, collect reviews and process payments through a single interface. The solution supports multiple locations and allows salon managers to customize working hours as well as services for each location.
Artichoke offers a booking page where users can set requirements to automatically add preparation time between two appointments. Artichoke also integrates with users' existing websites for online booking and reviews collection.
Artichoke enables businesses to sell gift cards and view the details of unredeemed cards on a user dashboard. Users can also create packages and memberships to increase client engagement and retention. It offers integration with Xero, QuickBooks, Freshbooks and MailChimp.
October 2018
October 2018
My professional liability insurance has a very good reputation and has always done well by me. Getting a discounted rate and coming from a reputable referral seemed like a easy decision. With unclear functionality and clear gaps in basic payment functionality, this has become a wash. Virtually non-existent and, when present, ineffectual customer service has been the deal breaker.
It was offered as an add-on for my practice insurance at a reduced rate
Have been waiting for days for a response to a simple but critical function of adding a tip to a transaction. As a company that gets a break on each transaction I make, forcing me to make more transactions per customer (i.e. not offering a tip function on certain sales) is egregious.
There is no call back and the most rudimentary response to a critical issue is inexcusable. Do not use this service.
They were hawking me for investment in the company within my first months with the service - not a good look. Stay away.
Danielle from Danielle's massage therapy
Employees number: 1 employee
September 2017
September 2017
Helps everyday with my own business. Cuts out the middle man.
User friendly!
Clients love it.
Customers find online booking easy to use.
Fits within my budget.
Great notation system.
No app :(
Doesn't show all info I need from intake.
Not sure how I can limit online Booker's to only x amount a day but that's a matter of asking I'm sure.
Jenn from Miles Away Massage
Employees number: 1 employee
September 2017
September 2017
Keeping track of income, schedule, goals, and referrals.
I love that my clients can book online. It keeps track of my referrals, gift certificates, client history, and goals.
It doesn't run very fast. Has a lot of glitches. Most of the time I have to write down when my client would like to rebook and finish after they've left so they don't have to wait forever. Also so I can move on to my next client. I wish I could set up a clean up time to the end of my services and customize those clean up times. Since I need more for a Stone Massage or body wrap than a quick 30 minute massage. I would also like to be able to pay for two clients on one ticket. My hope is that this software will get better with time.
Maryjane from Maryjane Kuroly LMT
August 2017
August 2017
Manages my appointment, my income and my expenses
It's dependable and customer service is excellent. Any time I have had questions they were quick to respond.
If a new client is booking the same time as another client-they believe it just went through because they don't realize if they actually got the appt they would get a confirmation email.
Vicki from 3B's Massage and Bodywork LLC
August 2017
August 2017
Very easy to set up and use. Did not take a ton of time to do. Love the ability to upload clients into the system.
I don't really see a ton of negative things with this software. I guess the only thing I would like the ability to see a report on the notifications. being sent out.
Jamie from Jamie Scammahorn, MEd, LPC
Employees number: 1 employee
August 2017
August 2017
Online scheduling and tracking of clients
I enjoy the ease of use and the ability to override the scheduled hours of the need arises. I also like the easy link from my website
Having to sign in every time from my phone is way too time consuming!! Need an app that truly functions as an app!
Rachel from Return to Form
Employees number: 1 employee
August 2017
August 2017
This is great for small business owners who work from several locations.
My clients were really happy that I added this feature to my business. They liked being reminded as well as the fact that they can' cancel without having to bother me.
The software doesn't really accommodate group classes. So if one person responds that they can't make it and cancel their appointment they cancel it for the whole group.


text:
The President of Warri Chamber of Commerce, Mines Industry and Agriculture, Alex Sharta has urged all wealthy Nigerians to invest in nation's economy, saying such efforts will impact positively on the gross domestic product (GDP) among others.
The chambers boss made this remark recently at a press conference to herald the forthcoming 50th golden jubilee celebration of the chamber in Warri, Delta State.
Speaking earlier, the chairman of the local organising committee, Sir Simon Asite said, the 50th anniversary tagged: "The Role of Agriculture in nation-building" will also discuss other sub-themes like job creation, raw material production to power industrialization as well as commerce and human capital development.
Among the dignitaries expected at the event include Chief Edwin Clark, former Federal Minister of Information, Dr. Akinwunmi Adesina, Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, as the guest speaker and the Delta State governor, Dr. Emmanuel Uduaghan, etc.


text:
I have a 2010 Flex Limited with Sync & numerous steering wheel controls. All are working except to volume and change station/etc. button. Any suggestions as to what the problem might be?
Custom Search
Welcome to the Ford Flex Forum
- Start new topics and reply to others
- Subscribe to topics and forums to get email updates
- Get your own profile page and make new friends
- Send personal messages to other members
- Create a photo album and post photos. . .more!
Guest Message by DevFuse
Steering wheel controls problem
Started By cocobill , Jul 04 2013 12:43 PM
1 reply to this topic
Posted 04 July 2013 - 12:43 PM
Posted 26 July 2013 - 09:05 AM
Hey cocobill,
Occasionally, a master reset will restore the functionality of your steering wheel buttons. I recommend giving it a shot!
If you have the navigation system, here's a link with information on how to reset:
If you have the regular SYNC radio, click this link instead:
Custom Search
Privacy Policy Terms of Service ·


text:
Rendell to blame
(292) Sunday, November 13, 2016 – If you were rooting for Trump, send a Thank You" card to Ed Rendell.
If Rendell would have left Joe Sestak alone in the PA primary for US Senate, Democrats would not only have won that seat but also cast its electoral votes for Hillary Clinton for President.
Assuming Hillary had also won Wisconsin through a better deployment of resources, her vice president, Tim Kaine, would be breaking ties in a 50-50 Senate chamber.
For Rendell, former PA Governor, Philadelphia Mayor and Chair of the Democratic National Committee, greed has always come first.
Rendell is a fixer and rainmaker to a law firm. His job is to bring in business plums to his employer which requires friends on both sides. His influence with certain powerful office holders can border on control.
Sestak and Rendell have rubbed each other wrong since 2010. Rendell now is 2-0 in head-to-heads with Sestak.
Six years ago, Arlen Specter was convinced that his unabashed liberalism would not survive another Republican primary for a US Senate term. Democrat bigwigs, meeting in a telephone booth and not consulting with rank-and-file, welcomed Specter.
Those guaranteeing him continued ownership of that Senate seat included everyone from President Obama to Democrat Senate leaders Harry Reid and Chuck Schumer to Rendell and union bosses.
Rendell, and others, had already recruited Sestak for the Democrat Senate nomination, apparently figuring Specter would not survive another Republican primary.
Sestak had already abandoned his intentions to run for re-election in a SE PA Congressional district.
Rendell ordered Sestak to drop out of the Senate race. In 2004, the last time Specter appeared on a Republican ballot, it was my duty to inform then-Gov. Rendell that we would be supporting Specter.
Many Democrats, like myself, had always voted for Specter when he was running on the GOP ballot.
Rendell told me "I have no problem with that. In Philadelphia Specter gave me my first job."
(My enthusiasm for Specter in 2004 knew few bounds. At one point in the primary, a campaign staffer called, asking me to dial it back a bit, at least until after the primary.)
The end, for most of us, occurred in 2009 during the financial crisis. We learned Specter's vote for Obama's recovery package came at a steep price. Obama agreed to swap $80 billion in infrastructure projects for a like amount in tax breaks for the rich.
Sestak stayed in the 2010 primary race and defeated Specter. He was able to muster enough votes from the rank-and-file who defied party and union bosses.
The bosses won the next skirmish. They made sure that Sestak would not have enough funds to mount a winning campaign. Even against those odds, Sestak only lost to Pat Toomey by two percentage points.
Following his loss in 2010, Sestak established himself to make another run in 2016. For five years he crisscrossed the state, appearing at both public and political events in every county, helping to raise party funds and developing a base of supporters in the tens of thousands.
He campaigned for numerous Democrats involved in local municipal elections, rarely if ever seen here.
Rendell and his power-hungry cronies had to stop Sestak once again.
In mid-2015 they decided they would throw Katie McGinty against Sestak. She had served in Rendell's cabinet and obviously would be more responsive to him.
McGinty was chief of staff to then-newly elected Gov. Tom Wolf. She was his point person in a historic budget battle. Despite how crucial McGinty's public service mission was, Wolf also bowed to Rendell. He released her to run against Sestak in the primary.
When McGinty could not raise enough money to fund the primary fight, Rendell turned to Schumer who controlled the purse strings of the Democrat Senate campaign committee.
About $4 million of contributions we made assuming the money would be spent against Republicans, instead was used in an "open" Democrat primary.
McGinty erased a 15-point deficit in polls and defeated Sestak. Soon we had Hillary Clinton and McGinty running for two top offices where voters had never selected a woman.
The real campaign dynamics occurred between Clinton and McGinty. They battled to see which could appeal to voters as more liberal.
Among a multitude of incidents demonstrating McGinty's open adulation of Clinton, she found time to appear at a campaign event in Philadelphia with Jesse Jackson.
Both McGinty and Clinton seemed convinced they could win the state without mining votes in Western Pennsylvania. That was in tune with Rendell's philosophy.
We were told their margins in Philadelphia and surrounding counties would outweigh the shellacking expected in 60 other counties.
Rendell was also partially correct in another pre-election prognosis. He said Clinton's ground game was superior. "Neither the RNC or Republican state committee had much of a street program," he said.
He and the Party bosses ignored Pat Toomey's ground game. The Koch brothers and their other "dark money" friends did not sit out the 2016 election. They directed their funds to down ballot Republicans.
The Toomey-McGinty senate race – at about $180 million – was the most expensive in US history. Toomey spent money in areas where Democrats did little. This also benefited Trump.
The only Democrat with a semblance of a field operation in conservative areas was Joe Sestak.
Bottom Line: Granted, Democrats won all three state row offices Tuesday. However, they lost ground everywhere else.
Will our Party leaders put some sort of spin on Tuesday's results? Do they even believe they owe rank-and-file an explanation?
Stay tuned.


text:
BRASILIA (Reuters) - Brazil's central government on Monday posted a primary budget deficit of 38.357 billion reais ($11.6 billion) <BRCGPB=ECI> in November, a wider gap than expected that erased nearly all the gains recorded the previous month.
The central government, which includes federal ministries, social security and the central bank, had been expected to post a deficit of 34.5 billion reais, according to the median forecast in a Reuters poll of eight economists.
Treasury chief Ana Paula Vescovi said the government will meet its 2016 primary deficit target of 163.9 billion reais and still be able to pay an extra 20 billion reais in accrued obligations that have been accumulated over the years.
Recommended Slideshows
- Celebrity deaths 2018: All the stars we lost too soon 45 Pictures
- Photos: Starbucks Reserve Roastery NYC reconnects you with your coffee 48 Pictures
She also said the government expects the country's public sector debt to continue to climb in the next three to four years and only stabilize with the help of a mechanism that starts limiting public spending in 2017. The country's gross debt stands at 70 percent of gross domestic product.
In October, the central government recorded a surplus of 40.8 billion reais thanks to income from a program that gave amnesty to Brazilians who paid fines and taxes over undeclared assets held abroad.
(Reporting by Marcela Ayres and Alonso Soto; Editing by Leslie Adler and Alan Crosby)


text:
The Economic Development Advisory Commission (EDC) assists the Medford Township Council in the development and maintenance of a positive business environment. The group meets monthly, consulting with the Council and Manager, and collaborating with the Medford Business Association. The Economic Development Commission goals are:
To this end, we invite you to email us at email@example.com, or to join us at an EDC meeting.
Meetings generally take place on the Fourth Monday of each month, at 7:00 P.M., in Cranberry Hall. Cranberry Hall is located behind the Municipal Building at 17 North Main Street. All regular and special meetings of the Commission shall be open to the public. Please check the "Meetings" tab on the homepage for up-to-date meeting locations and times, or contact us at firstname.lastname@example.com if you would like to attend a meeting.
Agendas are posted here on the Friday before each meeting.
January 22, 2018
February 26, 2018
March 26, 2018 (No meeting due to lack of quorum)
April 23, 2018
May 21, 2018 (No meeting)
June 25, 2018
July 23, 2018
August 27, 2018 (No meeting due to lack of quorum)
September 24, 2018
October 22, 2018
November 26, 2018
December (NO meeting)
January 23, 2017
February 27, 2017
March 27, 2017
April 24, 2017
May 22, 2017
June 26, 2017 (No meeting)
July 24, 2017 (No meeting)
August 28, 2017
September 25, 2017
October 23, 2017 (No meeting)
November 27, 2017
December 2017 (No meeting)
January 2018
February 2018
March 2018 (No meeting)
April 2018
May 2018 (No meeting)
June 2018
July 2018
August 2018 (No meeting)
September 2018
October 2018
November 2018
December 2018 (No meeting)
January 23, 2017
February 27, 2017
March 27, 2017
April 24, 2017
May 22, 2017
June 26, 2017 (No meeting)
July 24, 2017 (No meeting)
August 28, 2017
September 25, 2017
October 23, 2017
November 27, 2017
December 25, 2017 (No meeting)
2018 Commission Members
Mike Pagnotta, Chairperson
Pete Jamison
Jim Previti, Vice Chair
Allison Eckel
Paul Fortino
James Scott Roe
Joe Burgoyne
Beth Portocalis, Manager's Office (Ex-Officio)
David Vaughn, Medford Business Association Liaison (Ex-Officio)
Bill Stauts, Medford Business Association Liaison (Ex-Officio)
Contact the EDC
Please contact the EDC by emailing email@example.com. You may also call (609) 654-2608 x324.
Click HERE for a PDF map of the major commercial corridors in Medford.
Click HERE for our Business Recruitment Prospectus.
Please visit our Doing Business in Medford page for business resources.
The Medford Business Association and the Medford Economic Development Commission have presented three (3) free SOCIAL MEDIA AND YOUR BUSINESS! tutorials which can be viewed here online and Part II here. The Powerpoint presentation is available here. Content included "Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Pinterest, Youtube, hashtags: What are they, how can they help your business reach more customers, what do you need to get started, and more!".


text:
FAIRFAX, Va. -- Combined, their performances lasted a tad longer than 14 seconds at the Mobil 1 Invitational. Andre Cason and Tony Dees hope to make a more lasting impression on the American consciousness this summer.
Cason and Dees are the hottest practitioners of their respective arts on the indoor track and field circuit, and both completed weekend sweeps with victories at George Mason University yesterday. On Friday night, they were dominant at the Snickers Millrose Games.
Cason, 23, who set a world record of 6.45 seconds in the 60-meter -- on Jan. 29 in Belgium, continued his unbeaten season with a 6.54 clocking that beat Leroy Burrell's 6.61 by a yard. Cason, a native of Virginia Beach who ran collegiately for Texas A&M, was on the U.S. team that set a world record in the 400 relay at last year's world outdoor championships, but he's more inclined toward individual honors in 1992.


text:
Available ebook formats: epub
AC Oswald grew up in a small town in Germany and has always loved creating her own fantasy worlds. Now she is in her mid-twenties but still a total child at heart.
She makes a living as a German and English teacher who also happens to work as an editor in a small publishing house. When she's not teaching or editing, she watches Netflix with her girlfriend or writes her own stories.
Since she's a big Disney nerd, her favorite place on earth is Disneyland Paris. If she could, she'd grab her family, her laptop, and her pug and move there permanently.


text:
If we ever allow ourselves to become too busy to engage with the Word, then we have lost sight of Who our strength is and from where our success comes. We become wise in our own eyes, thinking we 'got this thing,' when in actuality we are heading down a road that will eventually lead to self-destruction.
Let me challenge you today: For the next 30 days, carve several minutes out of each day to confess the Word of God over your life, your family, your business, and your ministry. Not simply as a discipline to check off your list and get on with your day, but to speak these words slowly and purposefully, mixing each scripture with your faith. I am confident that you will begin to experience an inner strength and peace that you've never had before. Your vision will grow, your confidence in God will deepen, and most importantly, your relationship with Jesus will become more intimate.
In the last blog, I included part of the confession I have used for years, and I'm giving you the next section of it below:
"The love of God has been shed abroad in my heart by the Holy Spirit and His love abides in me richly. I keep myself in the Kingdom of light, in love, in the Word, and the wicked one touches me not. I fear not for God has given me a spirit of power, of love and of a sound mind. No weapon formed against me shall prosper. Every tongue that rises against me in judgment shall be shown to be in the wrong. God is on my side, I tread upon the serpents and scorpions and over all the power of the enemy. I take my shield of faith and quench every fiery dart. Greater is He who is in me than he that is in the world."
(Ps 91:13; Is 54:17; Rom 5:5, 8:31; Eph 6:16; 2 Tim 1:7; John 4:4,16, 5:18)
"The Lord is my shepherd. I do not want. My God supplies all my needs according to His riches in glory in Christ Jesus. I do not fret or have anxiety about anything. I do not have a care. I dwell in the House of Prayer. I am the body of Christ. I am redeemed from the curse, because Jesus bore my sickness and carried my diseases in His own body. By His stripes I am healed. I forbid any sickness or disease to operate in my body. Every organ and every tissue of my body function in the perfection in which God created it to function. I honor God and bring glory to Him in by body."
(Ps. 23; Is 55:7; 1 Cor 6:20; Gal 3:13; Phil 4:6; 1 Peter 2:24; 5:6-7)
"Through skillful and godly wisdom is my house built, and by understanding it is established on a solid foundation. My house is securely built. Jesus is our cornerstone. As for me and my house, we shall serve the Lord."
(Prov 24:3-4; Josh 24:15; Luke 6:48; Acts 4:11)


text:
Displays: Work it Like the Stylish Stylists
Think me crazy, but a great place to find display inspiration is a catalog or showroom. While not interior designers, stylists for home goods retailers are still paid to group objects, display art and generally make a room look great. It's their job. Here's what we learned:
Don't worry about making your rooms looking catalog-ish &mdash they won't when you're using your own unique, eclectic objects. (I.e. not a room full of IKEA, or West Elm or whatnot.)
• Less is more, and white space is a good thing, from West Elm.
• Bright colors make bright colors pop, from Pottery Barn.
• Displaying fruit like a collection in a bowl warms up a seemingly cold, modern space, from Room & Board.
• Organic material, such as this huge piece of dried material, gives a room life, from West Elm.
• The traditional triptych, stood on its head, can also make a big statement, from Williams-Sonoma Home.
• At least two matching pillows helps unify your sofa's pillow collection, from Williams-Sonoma Home.
• The front of books &mdash not just the spines &mdash can be art, too, from Pottery Barn.
• The right rug can be art, and displayed as such, from Crate & Barrel.
• Displayed wine can be art too, from CB2.


text:
Andover Bank has business checking accounts designed to meet the needs of all businesses. Big or small, we have the right account for you. A wide variety of support services are available to enhance the convenience of your account relationship.
Our most popular account for retail, manufacturing and medium sized businesses.
This account is most popular for non-profit organization, sole proprietors and small business.
Our Commercial Interest Checking offers a tiered interest earning structure, allowing you to put your excess funds to work.
Our knowledgeable account representatives will help you choose the account that is right for you. Contact us today by phone at 440-293-7605 or e-mail us at email@example.com
Andover Bank Funds Availability
Andover Bank Substitute Checks
Andover Bank Account Terms and Conditions