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Free English Dictionary oxford
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Free English Dictionary oxford Review
Unfortunately, professional review of the Free English Dictionary oxford app is not yet ready. This app is on the list and will be reviewed in the nearest feature. Meanwhile, you can find more from the official description below.View all reviews
Free English Dictionary oxford Review0
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• 'Word of the day' section to expand your vocabulary daily and definition. we hope that you will enjoy our Free English Dictionary Oxford Offline to translate words and definition .


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"Desirable Daughters"by Bharati Mukherjee
A review by Ruchi Mital
Reviewing Bharati Mukherjee's Desirable Daughters In her latest novel, Desirable Daughters, Bharati Mukherjee continues to explore the transformation an immigrant undergoes in leaving the physical, cultural, and mental space that is the motherland, for America. Once again she traverses this sliding scale of being and becoming and how it affects the individual, the family, and the larger idea that is being "American."
Desirable Daughters is the story of three sisters, Tara, Parvati, and Padma, born and raised in Calcutta in the 1950s, and the different paths they travel from this nexus. The narrative is told from the perspective of Tara, the youngest sister who has moved the furthest away. Now divorced from her parent-selected husband, Tara lives in San Francisco with her adolescent son Rabi and lover Andy, an ex-biker/ hippie Buddhist carpenter. Tara sees herself as an American, but is constantly aware of the India that is always with her. When a young man, Chris Dey, shows up at her doorstep and announces that she is his "mashi" and he the illegitimate child of her older sister Padma, Tara must reevaluate. She is forced to look at her the relationships she has with her sisters, and their past: three different people within a specific upbringing and rigid cultural context. The novel shows that the past is not something that stays in a neat frame or album, but one that collides with and influences the present, as well as how the present is one that can color and illuminate the past. Mukherjee has often said in interviews how she has been influenced by the Hindu epics and myths in which animals can transform into gods and monsters and gods can transform into people. She applies this tradition of changing forms to the mythology of America in which people are allowed to think of themselves as American, undergoing their own sort of transformation. As concepts these come through in the novel. Bengali words and ideas are intermingled with English prose and American norms. This style reflects the fluid and changing nature of the American immigrant. However, in many places it seems that the concepts are more important than the characters that become representatives of an idea rather than incarnate individuals. Andy, Tara's lover is almost a cartoon character, saying things like "Zen's a bummer, babe." His complexity as a character is never allowed for.
There are also overblown plot turns that seem to coming from nowhere and then disappear back there. For instance, it is discovered that Chris Dey is not who he says he is, and actually belongs to a large Indian organized crime ring that is after Tara's ex-husband's money. This seemed more of a vehicle to comment upon related issues of immigration and crime, to connect Tara and her ex-husband Bish, and to take Tara and Rabi back to India, rather than an event in the lives of the characters.
There are some wonderful images in the book, ones of earthquakes especially, and how they apply to family structure and events. There are also many moments of humor, and pointed observations and criticisms of both Indian and American stereotypes, and especially of the Indian immigrant community in America. Those familiar with these groups will smile at much of the commentary. Mukherjee's writing is strong, and there are a lot of things brought up in the book to think about, as far as what it means to be an immigrant in America. There is also much to enjoy in the descriptions of life in India, life in Jackson Heights or "Little India", and the interweaving of old Indian tales. It is just unfortunate that the people in this story are never fully people, but devices used to convey concepts in a way that is not wholly convincing.
Ruchi Mital - Tribes © July 2002

subset: commoncrawl


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Autumn Term 2015
We are studying Energy this half term. We are looking at sources of renewable energy ( wind and solar power) and non-renewable energy (fossil fuels). We've had great fun using alternative sources of energy to make digital clocks and bulbs work.
We used fruit and vegetables to make electricty. We made a circuit using wires, potatoes, oranges, digital clock and 2 spikes. One spike was made from copper the other was made from zinc. We had to make sure the spikes did not touch inside the fruit or vegetable. One of the groups used an onion and it made them cry! But at least the clock worked!
Cilfynydd Water Works.
Definitely a wet but wonderful day out.
A big thank you to Shawn and Cam for their knowledge, care and enthusiasm throughout the day.
We hope to come back.
Memories of our Cilfynydd trip... Tristan remembered to tell the reader about what he had to remember to take on the trip.
On the bus...
Rory said " The bus was really posh."
Lois said " We felt a bit sick but we were so excited we forgot all about it!"
Mason: "Shawn came on the bus and told us safety rules: don't go too close to the ponds."
Sienna enjoyed the talk about different habitats.
Amelia said that she went pond dipping and her group caught water boatman, beetles, shrimps, baby newts, baby dragon flies and, best of all, the naughty one which eats everything else! Logan warned his group to put the naughty one in the naughty jar so it wouldn't eat anything.
Kairon used the scientific term for creatures: mini beasts.
"Back in the classroom, we used microscopes to inspect the creatures and insects", stated Ellis.
Criran told us about the dog biscuits we used to throw in the river Taff to find out which part flowed the fastest.
Joe said, " We had a competition boys against girls to see which pipe of water held the most."
Lillie said " The best bit of the day was pond dipping because it was fun finding creatures."
Lois wants to do it all again. Watch this space... we have entered a competition to get a free trip with the bus paid and will find out nearer Easter time.
Fingers crossed!


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Yesterday Mike Donohue and Noelle Bartlam's BI Publisher Hands on Lab was so popular that there were over 150 people trying to get in! Mike and Noelle were so great they gave additional sessions until 6:30 at night! In many cases there were 6 people at a table looking at the 2 screens.
The turnout was fantastic! Mike also said that they are trying to setup a hosted image and allow the lab to be taken after the conference. If this happens we will post information. It is great to see so many people interested in the new BI Publisher 11g!


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Planning Application Lodged for Alterations, Extensions and Change of Use of Redundant Licensed premises to Form a Malaysian Cultural Centre.
13/14 Adelphi, Aberdeen.
This is a new cultural concept for Aberdeen. The Malaysian Cultural Centre will incorporate a Reception/Welcoming Area, Restaurant with Bubble Tea Bar, Juice Bar and Take Away Facility, Common Room including Stage, Business Development Areas including Meeting Rooms, Cultural Library, Hot Desk Area and Overnight Accommodation with Zen Garden and Health Spa Bath and including all necessary Ancillary Accommodation Areas including Kitchen and Catering Areas, Toilets and Administration Facilities.
The purpose of the business is to provide a central hub to Promote the Malaysian Culture and Business on a personal and commercial basis to the population and business community of Aberdeen, encouraging communication, promotion and linkage to the mutual benefit.
Our Client, Grampian Links have direct association with PLC Group of Kuala Lumpur who already provide HSE and Training Services to the Oil and Gas Industryat both local (North Sea) level and also internationally.
Aberdeen already has a significant Malaysian presence through the Student population in attendance at the Universities and Colleges in Aberdeen and also employees and contractual presence in the Oil and Gas industry.
The services and accommodation to be provided will make a positive addition to facilities already offered by Aberdeen City to the business community of Aberdeen and to the wider North East Community generally and will offer the space to create, foster and encourage closer community and business links between the businesses and cultures of Scotland and Malaysia.


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Security officers tackle NFL over Super Bowl's potential impact on San Francisco
When they heard the National Football League (NFL) was bringing an irresponsible security contractor to town, security officers who have raised standards in San Francisco by organizing their union with SEIU United Service Workers West (USWW) testified in front of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors.
"By associating with an irresponsible security company like SIS, the NFL could push back all the gains we have fought for over the past ten years," said USWW member and security officer Mike Malley. "It's frightening that protecting human lives should come down to the lowest bidder."
Security Industry Specialists (SIS) is under investigation in California because of allegations that the company used unlicensed security at another large public event—the Academy Awards.
SIS has also settled complaints with the NLRB and Seattle's Office of Civil Rights, regarding freedom to form a union and paid sick time.
"They called an entire staff meeting just to tell us not to hand out union pins," said former SIS security officer Richard Bankston, who used to protect Amazon headquarters in Seattle.
According to the San Francisco Weekly, taxpayers are forking over $5.3 million to help throw what Supervisor Jane Kim called "a party for billionaires." It's time for the NFL to learn: public funds come with public responsibilities. That includes good jobs for security officers.


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Be sure to pick up one of our 4 x 4 prayer blocks this Sunday in Karis Church. We're asking our folks to commit to pray at least four days a week for four weeks about four different topics: - 4 inside Karis (pray for four people in our church by name)
- 4 outside Christ (pray for four people who aren't yet Christ-followers)
- 4 for our church (joy, humility, diversity, boldness)
- 4 for our city (education, leaders, reconciliation, freedom)
Will you pray with us? Special thanks to Jonah and Jaylyn Wilson for their hard work on this project!


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Recently our customers complained that when they try to edit page with IE8 it takes too much time to proceed the changes. When I tried to reproduce the issue I found that IE8 waits ~ 20-30 seconds and then shows the following javascript warning message during postbacks:
"Are you sure you want to navigate away from this page?
The page took too long to save. You can click "Cancel", and then try to save the page again. If you click "OK", you might lose unsaved data.
Press OK to continue, or Cancel to stay on the current page."
Notice that IE7 works properly – i.e. there are no any warnings and it works fast enough. So 1st I tried to launch the page in Compatibility View by setting "Display all websites in Compatibility View" in Tools > Compatibility View Settings:
But it didn't help – mentioned issue didn't disappear. Also I tried to change Browser Mode and Document Mode in Developer Tools – and it didn't work also:
During further investigation I found the following blog post: http://www.chakkaradeep.com/post/2009/07/11/IE8-to-SharePoint-e28098Are-you-sure-you-want-to-navigate-away-from-this-pagee28099.aspx. It describes solution which worked for us: in order to fix it you should go to Tools > Internet Options > Advanced and turn off "Enable native XMLHTTP support" option:
After this warning disappeared and IE8 started to work as fast as IE7 in edit mode.
The remaining question for me: is why Compatibility View didn't help in this situation? Seems like Compatibility View doesn't give compatibility for all features, e.g. native XMLHTTP support still works differently in IE8 even in Compatibility View.


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Musings after reading Your Brain at Work
Here are some things I learned and thought about while reading Your Brain at Work by David Rock (much of what I have here is taken verbatim from this book):
In the heart of the Doge's Palace in Venice is a room that is floor to ceiling with drawers for documents that listed the status of each person in the city. The documents stated whose child you were, how you were connected to royalty, merchants, or others of importance. These documents implicitly defined where you would live, what you would eat, how much you would be educated, how much attention others would pay you, and even how long you would live.
I thought this idea was interesting for, as an adopted person from New York, I don't have access to my original birth certificate. What does this mean? Does this mean that in this day and time it no longer matters who gave birth to you? There is wonderful freedom here, a freedom from a restrictive class system, but there is also a strange mystery. The son of a farmer inherits the farm, and, in part, this life may be in his DNA, so it may be right in a very fundamental way. What if you don't know what careers your birth parents had because this knowledge was deemed unimportant by those in power? How can I follow in the footprints of my parents, or how can I rebel, if I don't even know what they are? And why is this important?
Because knowledge is power, particularly knowledge of the self.
The German word schadenfreude is about the feeling of joy that comes from seeing or hearing about another person's misfortunes or failures. I'm glad I'm not you. Rock said that in one study they'd seen that reward circuits were activated when people saw others worse off than they were. He said that status is relative, and a sense of reward from an increase in status can come any time you feel "better than" another person.
This is a bit of a stretch, but is it possible that one reason the world as a whole doesn't seem to care much about adoptee rights or sufferings is because the world gets to feel superior, gets to feel the relief of the unrelinquished? Well, it's too bad that your mother didn't choose to keep you. Mine kept me.
In one study, there was a game where certain participants weren't thrown the ball. The brains of the excluded people had increased activity in the dorsal portion of the anterior cingulate cortex, which is the neural region that's also involved in the distressing component of pain, or what sometimes people call the "suffering component" of pain. Those people who felt the most rejected had the highest levels of activity in this region. Exclusion and rejection is physiologically painfully. A feeling of being less than other people activated the same brain regions as physical pain.
Rock said, "Your brain manages status using roughly the same circuits used to manage other basic survival needs," and I started to wonder how the idea of status affects adoptees.
This is important to note because while I believe the suffering of adoptees is real and that it originates in chemical changes in the brain, not everyone does and so adoptees don't get the specialized attention they need as children and adults.
Certain words make me feel strong: love, hope, run, spaghetti. Candy bars. I hear these words and I feel good. Other words make me feel weak: hate, murder, skunk, bastard, orphan, foster home, abandoned. I hear these words and it's harder to take a full breath, as if trouble just walked into the room and had sucked up half the oxygen.
How, as an adoptee, one who lives in a world where words like bastard, orphan, foster home, abandoned are part of the mythology of life, can one garner strength from language rather than buckle under disempowerment? How can one get a sense of strength from a thing—adoption—that has inherently implied to adoptees the world over you were not good enough to keep?
But I tell my adopted nephew he is lucky, you say. I tell him he was chosen. I see adoption as opportunity, you say. And that is wonderful, and it doesn't work. When your nephew hears the word orphan and knows that he was, once upon a time, that thing, how is his sense of status not affected? How is his brain not affected?
How do we get adoptees to feel really good about themselves? How do we help them see they are not of a lower status just because their mothers didn't keep them? I have this funny feeling the answer has to do with creativity, with neurolinguistic training or biofeedback or something that involves machines that tap into the brains. I have this feeling we are on the cusp of figuring this stuff out. We have to keep asking questions, looking for answers, barking up the tree of love.


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Doubtful Sound and Dusky Sound Helicopter Scenic Flight
This scenic flight visits both Doubtful Sound and Dusky Sound. Two of Fourteen beautiful Fiords within the Fiordland National Park.
- Adult
- $985.00
Contact Us
Departing from Te Anau airport, head west over Lake Manapouri for Dusky Sound. Passing over head New Zealand's famous hydroelectric power station at the West Arm.
Tracking along a glacier carved valley, you will cross from the East coast of New Zealand to the West coast and into Dusky Sound. A remote alpine landing will show you how isolated this part of Fiordland is and also how beautiful and untouched the mountains are.
After lifting off from the remote landing site, you make your way towards Doubtful Sound, and its many arms which meander off the main Fiord. Another landing in Doubtful Sound brings more great photo opportunities.
Once again crossing the Southern Alps heading East this time back to Te Anau Airport.
Physical address
Doubtful Sound and Dusky Sound Helicopter Scenic Flight, 42 Aviation Drive, Te Anau Airport, Manapouri, Te Anau, Fiordland, New Zealand.
Opening times
- Business hours:
- 8am - 5pm
- Months of operation:
- All months of the year
Facilities and Features
- Proximity to airport:
- We are at Te Anau Airport. 169km to Queenstown Airport.
- Proximity to town:
- 17km to Te Anau.
Pricing and Conditions
- Other charges:
- Discount for children may apply with Minimum of 2 adults.
- Further pricing information:
- Minimum of 2 adults. Courtesy transport from Te Anau or Manapouri is available.


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April 4, 2011—How To Walk With Someone After Reporting Sexual Abuse
Keeping kids safe is more than just making a report. Supporting their emotional and spiritual needs is just as important. The following presentation will walk you through many of the issues associated with teens who have had to disclose some sort of sexual contact.
To listen to the audio portion of this presentation, click the play button below. You can follow along with the visual presentation by clicking the play button at the bottom of the window below.


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Wearable tech for dogs started out with anti-bark collars and remote trainers that gave a mild shock for correction when they misbehaved. Using this same technology, innovative companies created a way to keep dogs in the yard with an invisible fence. Here are some other ways that advances in wearable tech continue to improve dogs' lives.
More Humane Training
In response to outrage from dog owners who don't like shock collars, researchers have developed humane training collars. Training hunting and herding dogs, for instance, still requires remote cues. The next generation of electronic collars doesn't zap dogs, but emits a variety of tones, beeps or vibrations. Each sound is a cue that is right around the dog's neck, where the animal can hear it easily. In the same vein, today's anti-bark collars spray pheromones or emit sounds instead of giving painful corrections.
Basic Identification
The most significant advance in wearable tech for dogs was the identification microchip. A vet implants the chip containing the owner's contact information under the skin on the dog's neck. Anyone who finds a dog without a collar can take them to a vet or humane society to scan the chip and get their owner's information. Microchips are still widely used and have reunited thousands of pets and owners.
Advanced Identification
The dog tag USB drive is a step up from microchip technology. Stored in or on the collar, these tiny USBs contain more information than can fit on a microchip or traditional tag. If anyone finds a dog with a USB drive, they can plug the drive into a computer and be able to find the owner. This technology also allows the owner to update their contact information quickly and easily from a home computer. It also allows the owner to leave important information for whoever finds the dog, like its health history and medical needs. It's a simple piece of tech that makes keeping vital information up to date much easier.
GPS Tracking
One of the newest wearable devices for dogs is the GPS tracker. The Tagg tracker gives peace of mind to owners of escape artists — it's a GPS device that sends messages to your phone when your dog wanders outside of a defined safe area. A phone app guides you directly to the collar and hopefully the dog. With the Tagg tracker, owners don't have to hope or wait for someone to find their dog.
Fitness Tracking
The WÜF activity tracker, the newest device for dogs, combines all these features and more. It's a GPS tracker, identification device and an electronic fence, with two-way audio to give the dog cues from a distance. It also performs the same functions as human health tracking devices, like activity tracking and weight management, and provides location-based gaming and training advice.
Health Monitoring
The smart collar from Nuzzle measures combines GPS tracking, activity level, impact-monitoring and even tells you if your dog's temperature is high. This device not only collects your pet's vital health information, but it also lets your browse pet insurance plans based on your dog's unique health profile.
Evolution in wearable technology for dogs continues to amaze. Not only has technology made life safer for dogs, but it's also let owners monitor their furry friend's health and fitness as closely as they monitor their own!


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Pulmonary Vein Recordings, 3rd Edition - Macle 9781935395041
Pulmonary Vein Recordings, 3rd Edition - Macle 9781935395041
Pulmonary Vein Recordings: A Practical Guide to the Mapping and Ablation of Atrial Fibrillation - 3rd Edition
by Laurent Macle; Rukshen Weerasooriya; Jason Andrade; Christophe Scavée; Pierre Jaïs
Foreword by Michel Haïssaguerre
Product Details:
Published May 2014
Trim size: 8.5 X11 inches, landscape, 240 pages
Formats: Paperback; eBook
Paperback and eBook set:
Only available from Cardiotext
(eBook will be shipped with book)
Pulmonary Vein Recordings A Practical Guide to the Mapping and Ablation of Atrial Fibrillation is an essential reference for electrophysiologists, fellows-in-training, and all those involved in the mapping and ablation of atrial fibrillation. Extensively illustrated with annotated multichannel tracings, this revised and updated edition adds 30 new tracings that illustrate important practical points and useful tips that will facilitate the interpretation of electrogram recordings obtained by circumferential mapping, leading to successful pulmonary vein isolation. PV electrograms from rare and interesting cases are also included.
Laurent MACLE, MD Montréal Heart Institute, Montréal, Canada, Université de Montréal
Rukshen WEERASOORIYA, MBBS Royal Perth Hospital and Hollywood Private Hospital, Perth, Western Australia, University of Western Australia
Jason ANDRADE, MD Montreal Heart Institute, Montreal, Canada, Université de Montréal,
Vancouver General Hospital, Vancouver, Canada • University of British Columbia
Christophe SCAVÉE, MD Cliniques Universitaires Saint-Luc, Brussels, Belgium, Université Catholique de Louvain
Pierre JAÏS, MD Hôpital Cardiologique du Haut-Lévêque, Bordeaux-Pessac, France, Université Victor Segalen-Bordeaux 2
Doody's Review Service
Sudarone Thihalolipavan, MD(Ochsner Clinic Foundation)
This is a concise, practical guide to understanding pulmonary vein recordings in radiofrequency catheter ablation for atrial fibrillation.
The purpose is to provide an advanced understanding of atrial fibrillation, catheter-based mapping, and ablative therapy through annotated pulmonary vein recordings.
This book is suitable for cardiovascular physicians in training as well as practicing electrophysiologists. Electrophysiology staff, including nurses and technicians, also may benefit, if they have an advanced appreciation for mapping and ablative therapy. The book assumes a basic knowledge of electrophysiology and intracardiac tracings.
The guide begins with a concise overview of catheter basics, positioning, and pulmonary vein anatomy. Subsequently, it addresses the complex electrical potentials as well as the many specific challenges of mapping, pacing, and isolation by radiofrequency ablation. This practical resource uses examples of intracardiac tracings with annotated cases that are organized by specific sites of circumferential catheter mapping, including left and right pulmonary veins as well as the superior and inferior vena cava. Additionally, it provides angiographic pictures to illustrate ideal catheter position in conjunction with tracings. Overall, this book focuses on the practical points to be expected during pulmonary vein mapping and isolation, using a logical approach to reinforce the core concepts.
This pragmatic guide to understanding pulmonary vein tracings is most appropriate for practicing electrophysiologists, fellows in training, or those interested in a pursuing an advanced understanding of radiofrequency ablative isolation for atrial fibrillation. The concise and focused approach lends itself to rapid review without compromising effectiveness.


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Pastor Jenkins has led the church through five major building programs. Presently, our church facilities exceed 58,200 square feet of space in 18 buildings on 37 acres of property. We reach out to our community with sixteen bus routes, designed to provide safe and regular transportation to hundreds of children and adults who wish to attend our worship services. In 1992, we began Grace Baptist Christian School, desiring to provide a Bible-based and Christ-centered education for the generations to follow and we remain committed to striving for excellence in education today.
In the year 2000, our church established a 24-hour fundamental Christian radio station (88.1 FM) as Northern Michigan's conservative family Christian radio. Then in 2003, through the leadership of Pastor Jenkins, Grace Baptist College was founded for the sole purpose of training young people to effectively spread the Gospel to the world through the avenue of full-time ministry. We have helped in the starting of five area churches. We give well over $100,000 annually in the support of world missions and passionately reach out with the love of Christ to all of Northern Michigan.
Truly the Lord has worked a miracle of His grace through the vibrant life and ministry of Grace Baptist Church. Still, our greatest concern is for the needs of individuals just like you! We would love the opportunity to get to know you and to have you as a part of our church family.
Service Times
Copyright 2019, Grace Baptist Ministries | Admin


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Well, it was anime day once again with my friend so for the audio part of our day, we got to listen to the "Girls und Panzer Herbst Musikfest 2015" which was the recording of a special concert featuring the Tokyo Philharmonic Orchestra playing passages from the soundtrack of the anime "Girls und Panzer"(ガールズ&パンツァー). It was then and there that I decided that I would have to promote the show into a category of its own on "Kayo Kyoku Plus", the second anime that I've treated in this manner after "Shirokuma Cafe"(しろくまカフェ).
Of course, when the show is mentioned, a lot of folks talk about the most moe version of "Katyusha" that was portrayed, and that is of course fine. However, I've also remembered "Girls und Panzer" for that brief tune used as punishment for the members of the Anko Team. Indeed, that was "Anko Ondo" (Anglerfish Folk Song) as sung by Sayaka Sasaki(佐咲紗花). One of the big surprises was that I had already written one anison article about her for her rendition of the opening theme for the motorcycle-based anime "Bakuon!!"(ばくおん!!), not knowing that it was indeed the same singer who had been behind "Ah-a-ah-anh, ah-a-ah-anh..." for the notorious ondo. I had assumed it was performed by a much older enka singer!
Surprise No. 2 was that I had also assumed that "Anko Ondo" was a long-established traditional folk song from the real town of Oarai, Ibaraki Prefecture where "Girls und Panzer" was set. Nope, wrong there, too. It was created specifically for the show by Reiko Yoshida(吉田玲子)on lyrics and Tsutomu Mizushima(水島努), the director of the show, on the melody. And apparently, it did become a thing. Looking at those 3D women on the truck, I think their odds of getting married have actually increased (inside joke)!
Looking at the J-Wiki article for "Girls und Panzer", I found out that the Oarai Anko Festival has been held annually since the premiere of the anime, and it actually attracted its highest number of visitors (110,000) last year when it was held on November 15th 2015. I'm fairly confident that the dance was performed a number of times, although I wonder what the citizenry must think at times as they realize that their town has become popular due to a cartoon featuring high school girls and their tanks.
A pleasant travelogue of the 2015 Oarai Anko Festival by uploader yoneyasu.
|Yeah, that was my reaction, too,
when I discovered how popular the song became.
by Florian Hardwig


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Last Month I did some moderation for an event at the International Rotterdam Film Festival here in Holland. There is a write-up in independent magazine about it. Have a look!
Blogging Rotterdam, Part Five: Understanding Europe's Zeal for Media Literacy
The Independent's
Randi Cecchine, a filmmaker and educator from New York City, is impressed to learn that governments in Europe are eager to come up with policies to promote media literacy among their citizens, particularly young people. But as a European friend suggests, the role of the government in establishing guidelines concerning media literacy and education can be complicated—especially if media makers are cut out of the policy-making loop.
Via: Randi Cecchine on www.independent-magazine.org
Here is my quoted excerpt (for family to be proud) the rest you should really read if you are interested in this stuff.
Gabriel McIntyre (I'll call him Gabemac) was the charming conference moderator. I found it interesting that they chose an American to lead the discussion. Gabriel is originally from Atlanta, but has lived in the Netherlands for many years, working as an educator and with emerging technology and advertising.He helped me understand the European media literacy context a little more clearly, reminding me that most media is funded by the government, and that historically media has often been used for propaganda for pretty bad purposes. The notion is that if the government has such a large role in creating the media, it also has a responsibility to enhance the cultural undersanding of media.
I ask Gabe what he thinks comes out of events like this.
"Policymakers make policy. It's up to artists to take the policy and make it right. That's always how it is, in any democratic society. And if they didn't make right policies, the artists wouldn't take it up. Or they would say, you screwed up there—this is better.


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About half-way through this process, I wanted to do a recap. It seemed like a good place to pause and reflect but I eventually decided to wait until I was totally finished so I could get some perspective on the project as a whole. I've decided to go back and re-watch all the films, writing a little summary for each one, so here we go:
January - Flying South
I was already a week or so into the year when I got around to writing this script. I had been recovering from holiday travel and finishing up some work when I realized that I had already told people that I was going to be making one short film every month. I had to get on the ball and write something.
I opened up my screenwriting software and started a conversation between two characters which is often how I like to start writing. With a quick pause to go shower about halfway through the morning, I finished it quickly. A couple little revisions and it was ready to shoot. Casting went quickly and the shoot went relatively smoothly apart from a blown day when the wind kicked up so badly that we'd never be able to record audio.
Flying South, more than any other of the Twelve, is a perfect example of me trying to do too much. I didn't plan ahead enough, took too much for granted and the film suffered because of it. The audio is distractingly bad and I didn't know enough about the camera to really make it look great. Still, it was the first and holds a very special place for me, if only because it was just me and Matt Ryan on a freezing cold day shooting the first of the series.
The film also started a trend within the narratives in the series...the conversation film. All of the narratives (except for Heist-Off! which I'll talk about later) are simple conversations between people, which are the kind of films that I really love.
February - Thirty Years
Here's where things started getting better. I decided to up the production value a little (and test out some gear that I wanted to buy) by renting a slider and a focus pulling system and I think the film looks worlds better than Flying South. It also SOUNDS a lot better due to renting better mics and finally figuring out how to run the audio.
Shooting another narrative, I was trying to play to my strengths a bit more in the beginning. I had directed more narrative than anything else and so I was living in my comfort zone a bit while I got better on a technical level.
My biggest issue with this was timing. Sadly, I got no rehearsal time with the actors except for a few read-throughs before we started shooting and I think it shows. I feel like the overall timing of the piece, the dialogue and the back and forth between the actors is lagging. They did a great job, I just wish we had more time to work it before we started shooting.
March - Stars Fall
I've known Andrew Rosas for a while and have always been a big fan of his music. When I heard this song, I really loved it and wanted to make a music video for it. After making two narrative films, I wanted to step out a bit and do something different which is why I asked him if he wouldn't mind running around downtown Austin with me for a few nights.
As it turned out, we had a lot of fun and managed to get some really good looking footage just using available light. I also got to stay within my comfort zone a little by shooting the green screen stuff and really utilizing my post-production experience to make the video pop.
One thing I got to try on this was speeding up the song and the frame rate of the camera so that, when everything was slowed down, it would have a dreamy quality to it. I only got to do this when we were shooting the green screen, but it was a good test and something that I would be able to use later.
April - 360
After buying my camera slider in March (I got to use it on a couple shots for Stars Fall) I decided to do a project where I got to use it a lot so I could get good with it. Sliders are deceptively difficult. It looks easy enough (just side the camera along the rail) but getting good at timing and slow moves was a lot more challenging.
I had seen some of Philip Bloom's "mood pieces" before, where he would pick a location or a subject, shoot pretty shots of it and then set the edit to music. I had been inspired by them because he would use those pieces to get good at a new camera or tool in his bag of tricks. So I decided to do something similar and chose the 360 Bridge in Austin (one of my favorite landmarks) as the subject of my April film.
I really love this one. The music is wonderful (a cut from The Rentals album, Resilience) and shooting this was a huge challenge that ended up being a lot of fun. The bulk of the shots were taken from the top of a cliff that overlooks the bridge and I (by myself) had to lug not only my camera gear, but the slider and tripods as well, up some very slippery steps in pitch black. Since I wanted to get timelaspe shots of the sun coming up over the bridge, I had to get up there and set up around 4am. Once I was up there and done shooting the timelapse, I set up the slider and shot all of that. It was a blast, but a lot of hard work.
May - Farm to Trailer
Wanting to break out of my comfort zone even more, I decided to try my hand at making a short documentary. I've always loved watching documentaries but had never considered making one.
Julie and I had eaten at Odd Duck and Barley Swine and loved Bryce's food. When I started thinking about documentary ideas, the "farm to table" concept really jumped out at me. I called Bryce and left a message, but what I didn't know was that when I left that message, he was in New York accepting the Food & Wine Magazine Best New Chef award.
When I learned that he had won, I figured I'd need a new subject since he'd be too busy or maybe even too important to talk to me about doing some little documentary. But a few days later, he called and we talked for a while. I met him down at his restaurant and explained what I'd want to do. He agreed and we shot his interview a few days later.
Shooting this documentary was a lot of fun and it really taught me the importance of a pre-interview. Apart from our phone conversation and meeting at his restaurant, Bryce and I really didn't talk before the interview and so I only went in with the questions I came up with based on research I did online. I feel like, if we had spoken more before the interview, I would have had more information and better questions. Still, I do love this doc and think it was a great way to open the door to that world of filmmaking.
On a side note, Farm to Trailer was accepted into the Sedona International Film Festival recently which was huge for me. It was the first of the 12 Films to be accepted into a festival and, as my first documentary, I'm very proud of it...and Sedona is an amazing festival, so that made it even more incredible.
June - Heist-Off!
When I started the Twelve Films Project, Matt Ryan said that there was bound to be one of them that just wasn't very good. This was it.
Looking back, I'm amazed how good it was given the 48-hour time constraint. And when we went to the screening and saw it up against many of the other films that had been made that weekend, I felt a lot better about it.
It's a goofy little film filled with many mistakes and some pretty awful storytelling, but there are also moments in there that make me laugh every time I see it. Looking at it against the other films in the project, it's pretty awful, but looking at it for what it is, it's actually not too bad.
July - Charcuterie
For my second documentary, I decided to focus on something that was near and dear to my heart, cured meat. The Kocurek's had been on my radar since I moved to Austin, only because they make some of the finest charcuterie I've ever had. Their bacons are wonderful and their sausages are inspired. What's funny is, when Julie and I looked at their website about a year earlier, we said, "We should be friends with these people!"...and that's what happened.
I got in touch with them and asked if they'd be interested in participating. Originally, I had wanted to make the doc about three different charcuterie companies here in Austin, but when I met Larry and Lee Ann and saw what they were doing, I knew the doc should only be about them.
Learning from my mistakes with Bryce, I spent a lot of time with Larry and Lee Ann in their kitchen, shooting them making their charcuterie as well as talking with them and getting them comfortable talking to me. We developed a bond that made everything a lot simpler when it came time to sit down for the interviews.
In the end, Charcuterie is one of my favorite of the Twelve, if only because I made some amazing friends out of it.
August - The Cathedral of Junk
I won't lie...this was a quickie. I was buried under a lot of work and was struggling to find time to get something done for August. I knew of the Cathedral and had thought about doing that for the June film, but the 48-Hour project seemed like a better idea (ha!). I got in touch with Vince Hannemann, who owns the Cathedral, and he was open to having me come out and shoot.
I decided to go early as August in Austin is pretty brutal. I arrived around 7am and shot for 4 hours. I got everything I needed and had it edited in a few days...pretty easy, but it's actually one of my favorite pieces. The simple piano music plays against the chaotic visuals that are full of things to look at and I was very happy with the camera moves and how that helped to show off just how big the Cathedral is.
September - Layover
Until moving to Austin, I never really had much in the way of allergies. Usually, when the weather turned from Summer to Fall, I'd get the sniffles for a few days, sneeze a few times and that was it. This year, my immune system (or whatever it is that controls allergies) decided to go on vacation. I got the worst sinus infection/allergy/whatever that I've ever had. It seriously destroyed me, sending me to bed and even for a quick trip to the emergency room. Of course, all of this was happening while I was trying to make Layover.
The original idea came to me when I was directing a web spot for a cell phone that never made it on the market. We shot for a day at the Austin airport and it was a very cool experience. The people at the airport were very accommodating and, even though we were shooting right next to an active gate all day, the whole thing went off without a hitch.
Since the web spot was never going to be seen, I decided to go back and shoot a short film out at the airport. We shot the whole thing in one night, from 8pm to 3:30am and I was in quite a bit of pain for the whole thing. I had started taking steroids for my allergies, but they hadn't kicked in fully yet and I was a bit of a zombie that night. Fortunately, I had Paul Toohey with me to help with the shooting and general "keeping shit going". The shoot went well and because we were shooting with two 7D's, we were able to get a lot of angles in a short amount of time.
I think this is the narrative piece that I'm most proud of in the 12 Films. There are some fun moments and it really does feel like something that might happen at some airport late at night. There are plenty of mistakes, but I think it has a real organic feel to it.
October - Instant Lovers
Hands down, the most fun I had shooting any of the 12 Films. I was introduced to Deano by David Barrow of Applebox Imaging who knew I wanted to do another music video for the 12 Films. Deano sent me his upcoming album and when I heard Instant Lovers, I knew that was the perfect track for a video.
The song is kind of a throwback to those great "butt rock" songs from the 80's when the men were men and the women were hot and in bikini's, so I decided to make something that had that feel to it, but was a bit of a satire on those videos as well.
I had shot at the swimming pool location before when I directed a web spot for Verizon. We shot there at night, and so I thought it would be cool to go back and do it during the day. Putting the band in the water was an idea I had when I started looking at the location and figuring out how I would shoot it. I knew I could speed up the song and the camera's frame rate and get some really amazing shots.
I assembled the same team from the Layover shoot and got on Craigslist to find some used musical instruments that we could trash by keeping them underwater all day. The weather looked like it was going to hold, but the night before the shoot, a cold front moved in, chilling the air a little which made it a bit uncomfortable for the band, but they were troopers and the day went off without a hitch. Playing the "hot girl" was Natalie Monstanto who I directed in Sketch last year. She came out and really nailed the mix of sexy and gross that it needed.
November - Local
This originally started as an idea for a documentary about farming, and how the dynamic of farming has changed in the past 3-5 years with the rise of the "organic" and "local" movements. I had the idea in June after interviewing Farmer Kris Olsen out at Milagro Farms for the Farm to Trailer documentary. In the months between June and November, I learned a lot more about local food and the differences between that and "organic" food and, in the end, I decided to expand the scope of the film to include, not just the farms, but the people who supported the farms and brought that produce and protein to the public.
I wrote down all of the people I wanted to interview and the list was about 17-20 people. I knew I wouldn't be able to interview everyone and still have time to edit the doc, so I culled the list down to 10 people and got started near the end of October. The shoots went well and it was a beautiful time of year to be out on the farms. I got lucky with a couple of my interviews including Valerie Broussard and Paul Hargrove at the W Hotel's restaurant, Trace. In the end, I had about 14 hours of interviews and another 5 hours of b-roll from the farms and restaurants.
I finished the interviews around the 13th of November and started going through the footage, synching the interviews and getting a sense of all the b-roll. I knew going into it that this was going to be the biggest of the 12 Films. The scope of the doc was big and after going through all the interviews and b-roll, I decided to go for a 30-minute running time. I probably could have made a 40-45 minute film and still had a lot of great stuff left over, but I knew I'd never be able to really focus on a film that long. The 30-minute mark was realistic and it worked out well.
Local was probably the hardest of all the 12 Films, mostly because it was the only film that took up the majority of the month. I was also finishing up a lot of work for my "day job" clients at the same time, so I ended up editing on Thanksgiving while my wife and family was making dinner...that was a long month. In the end though, I think I'm most proud of Local and what I was able to do in the limited time. The film has got an amazing amount of positive feedback, both online and within the Austin local food community.
December - SB 81
I originally had planned on making a narrative film for my final entry, but I just couldn't come up with an idea that felt right. I read an article by my friend Melanie Haupt at the Austin Chronicle that caught my eye and I decided that I would use the article as the jumping off point for the doc.
SB 81 is by no means my best work, and I was kind of sad to end on what I considered a low note. The doc is fine, but by the end I was just exhausted and ready for the project to be over. Mix that with the holidays and my need to take a small vacation before the New Year started, meant that I just didn't have the time or energy to really knock it out of the park.
Still, people in the Austin food and home baking community liked the doc and the State Representative for Austin, Eddie Rodriguez, did a blog post about the doc, saying how much he liked it, so it wasn't a total disaster.
In the end, the one thing that I had hoped for was that, if someone was to watch all the films from January through to December, they'd see a progression in quality. Watching all of these back, I feel like that happens, both technically and in the degree of difficulty.
I learned a lot while doing this project, but the thing I learned that surprised me the most is that I really love making documentaries. Don't get me wrong, I still love scripted narrative films, but there's something thrilling about finding the thread in the edit and crafting a story out of many hours of footage. I think I'll always make scripted films, but I really was bitten by the doc bug.
This blog is finally winding down and I think this might be the best place to end it. I'm moving on to a few bigger projects this year and none of them would have been possible without this project, what I learned while doing it and the people that I met in the process.
This past year was incredible and I wouldn't trade it for anything. Thanks.
January 2011 - January 2012


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Desecrated Giveaway
Louis Puster
Hey Everyone! Very quick post this morning. Desecrated (Book 2) and the new edition of Wracked are both out and available on Amazon. I will post more about that later. This morning I just wanted to let all you Goodreads.com members that there is a giveaway going on for 3 copies of Desecrated:
Goodreads Book Giveaway
by Louis Puster III
Giveaway ends August 01, 2012.
See the giveaway details at Goodreads.