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The idea that food can think is so bizarre, it's a relief that the first inkling appeared in a children's book, Judi and Ron Barrett's Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs, and in Sony Pictures Animation's (SPA's) subsequent animated feature. Now, in SPA's Cloudy 2 that notion has come to full fruition.
Cody Cameron and Kris Pearn direct the pun-filled comedy starring returning voice actor Bill Hader as Flint Lockwood. Both directors were story artists on Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs.
In that film, Flint Lockwood's Diatonic Super Mutating Dynamic Food Replicator (DSMDFR) turned water into food with sometimes disastrous results.
"The idea of sentient food came about two years into the first film," Pearn says.
"We have gummy bears attack a plane in that one," Cameron adds.
In Cloudy 2, the foodie characters become even saltier. Flint discovers that the DSMDFR is still operating, but now rather than spaghetti tornadoes, it's making food-animal hybrids. The first film was a disaster film with food attacking from the sky. Cloudy 2 is a monster movie.
FOOD "PEOPLE," like Pickle and Barry (the strawberry), eat up the screen in this "fruit-loose" comedy.
"I basically posed pickles and strawberries in action scenes in the backyard," Cameron says. "Then, we started talking about food creature combinations. [Character Designer] Craig Kellman came up with maybe 80 hybrid combinations, and then other members of the crew started in. We had food tribesmen, food hybrids, and food-animal monsters."
"Foodimals," if you will, like the Watermelophant, Flamango, Cantalope, Fruit Cocatiel, Hippotatomus, Shrimpanzee, Tacodile, and the especially dangerous Apple Pie-thons.
"Lewis Carroll used the portmanteau in which the sound and meaning of two words combine into one," Pearn says. "A lot of our food creatures are portmanteaus."
The foodimals and other food creatures - a strawberry named Barry, pickles, wild scallions, and so forth are visual as well as verbal puns that serve a tantalizing purpose beyond making us laugh.
"The food creatures represent Flint's creativity," Pearn says. "The hook of this film is that there's a meta thing going on. Flint is chasing himself through the film. By accepting the creatures, he accepts himself."
"He goes through an artist's journey," Cameron says. "He learns to be creative and to trust himself."
Cameron and Pearn began their journey on the film at SPA in July 2010, but the team at Sony Pictures Imageworks didn't get into the meat of production until March 2012.
"It was definitely the shortest production SPA has scheduled, and then we ended up shaving a couple months off the end," says Pete Travers, visual effects supervisor. "It was originally scheduled for February 2014, then December 2013, and then September 2013. The last five months were harrowing."
The nutty schedule meant that Animation Supervisor Pete Nash and the five supervising animators organized a crew of 80 to 100 animators more organically than usual.
"Typically, a lead animator has a team with the same artists," says Supervising Animator Joshua Beveridge. "This time, the schedule was so fast, we worked together. Sometimes we had 50 animators, sometimes 10. It was hard, but we made it our responsibility to exchange information." Most animators worked out of Imageworks' Vancouver studio, but some animators and supervisors cooked up the mouth-watering performances in LA.
"Using our own software, we could sync the computers and control each other's machines," Beveridge says. "At every meeting, we were talking face to face using our version of Skype and drawing over each other's work. I didn't expect it to work as well as it did."
Because the film is a sequel, the animators didn't have to work out an underlying concept. "In the Cloudy world, we cue from a UPA-style of animation, which is an extremely limited animation," Beveridge says, referring to the studio that produced such cartoon characters as Mr. Magoo and Gerald McBoing-Boing.
"But, UPA limitations didn't determine how everything moved," Beveridge continues. "The concept does. Some of the food-character designs are funnier when we animate them like believable visual effects creatures with strong weight. Others are funnier if they don't move because the design itself is so funny. Every character was different. We had only one overall rule: Any change has to be funnier. We'd go with whatever made the directors laugh."
From all accounts, the most difficult character was Barry the strawberry. "It was tricky to keep Barry on model and have him look good with all the seeds," Pearn says. "We had to subtract seeds around his mouth."
Cameron provided Barry's voice. "Barry had to emote," Cameron says. "He became one of our key leads in the film. We had a big conversation happening between design and animation."
ANIMATORS gave the carnivorous Double Bacon Cheespider, one of the most dangerous foodimals, the same weight and type of performance as a visual effects monster.
All told, there are approximately 50 food-based characters, 10 human stars, and thousands of extras, including the Livecorp nerds where Flint works and the citizens of Sanfranjose. Flint and his friends all appear throughout the film.
"It's a buddy film, so most shots have the entire group," Beveridge says. "We overhauled how the faces work to give the animators more intuitive controls, but the bodies are almost identical under the hood to the characters in the first film. One advantage of a sequel, though, is that we could perfect and harness in our design rules. We were more brutal about the eye shapes, which we felt were a little mooshy in the last film. We made them sharper and clearer."
To resurrect the character models and rigs used for Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs, the team created what Visual Effects Supervisor Pete Travers calls a "back-in-time snapshot" of that previous film.
"We brought back the same versions of software, the same rigs, even the same hardware," Travers says. "We even put the turntables of the characters into the old version of QuickTime. It was an interesting experiment. Once we had done that, the R&D department brought everything we wanted from the past into the Cloudy 2 production environment, and we went from there. It was remarkably successful."
Because the crew needed to serve up the population of Swallow Falls again in this film, they also revived the crowd system used on the first film. However, when the action moved from the tiny Swallow Falls Island into the more complex world of Livecorp and the Greater Sanfranjose area, the directors asked for more diversity.
Kellman again provided the artwork. "He must have done 50 sketches of nerd-like employees," Travers says, and added, laughing, "He probably had plenty of reference here at our company." Model Supervisor Marvin Kim and his crew then had to scramble those shapes into a palatable and manageable crowd system.
"In most crowd systems, you have a mondo character from which you create lots of variety," Travers says. "You build 'guy A' and try to build 'guy B' out of that topology, and if that doesn't work, you modify the topology."
Eventually, the modelers sculpted a topology from which they could create a variety of body types and mix those with multiple hairstyles. "People often think of rigging as bones and joints, but our mondo rig would access model shapes, like blendshapes," Travers says. The result was akin to applying a facial animation system to an entire body.
"You could move a slider, and a head would morph into another shape," Cameron says. The trick was in rolling out a system in which the animation snippets would work with all the different body types.
"Short nerds walk differently than tall nerds," Travers says. "So, we had a character-creation engine that would semi-bake out the character, and animators would create specific cycles for those characters. That required a little more brute force on the back end, but it was far more effective."
Travers estimates the maximum number of individual characters they created with this system at 4,000. "That was for an auditorium sequence," he says. "The directors wanted an overall feeling that Flint entered a real world, not a simplistic world. All the characters mattered. And, even though they were generic, some had speaking parts. Beyond 4,000 it would be hell, but this is how to create crowds."
Beveridge led the team responsible for animating the sequence in which Flint brings his friends back together, and their introduction to the foodimal creatures in the jungle. "There's a reveal in Sardine Circle," he says. "When we had hundreds of characters, we split the shots into sections and had five or more animators on one shot, with one animator responsible for the characters closest to camera. We tried to avoid that, but sometimes we just had to. By the end of the movie, we started sharing sequences with two supervisors per sequence. It might not have been the most efficient time-wise, but we got higher-quality work. Each of us brought different skills to the table, and we leaned on each other's strengths."
After a few scenes at Livecorp and in Sanfranjose, the action moves to the jungle. "In the first film, Flint's lab represented a mood ring for him," Pearn says. "It was always a graphic
response to where he was emotionally. So, when he first enters the jungle, we play it more like a garden with the camera low. Later, after he makes poor decisions, it's overgrown and feels more like Angkor Wat."
Adds Cameron: "We have some food-looking jungle plants -a take on onion shapes, and a pancake bog that looks like something from a John Ford Western - but it's more like a giant garden."
Unlike the first film in which many zany effects happen within one environment, Cloudy 2 's action has Flint and his friends encounter foodimals in many environments. "We reveal the foodimals in the Sardine Circle, and then Flint and his friends travel down the coconut river and there's a new environment in every shot," Travers says. "We built all those environments from scratch."
The process began with Travers and Production Designer Justin Thompson looking at concept art. "It was Impressionistic with more of a storybook look than the typical precise CG environments," Travers says. "I loved the style. Justin turned to me and asked, 'Can we do this?' I said 'Yeah, but it isn't one person working with Photoshop making a tree from a brushstroke. We need to quantify and translate it into the CG world.'"
Fortunately, Travers had experience with Impressionistic computer graphics. As a CG supervisor at Mass Illusions, the seasoned veteran had supervised the first painterly sequence for the film What Dreams May Come, which won an Oscar for best visual effects in 1999, one of 20 films for which he has served as a CG, digital effects, or visual effects supervisor. Travers received a BAFTA nomination in 2005 for his work on The Aviator.
"What Dreams May Come was a real eye-opener for me," Travers says. "I saw how imprecise you could be, and that within the imprecision you can create beauty and capture a style."
The artists had a limitation with Cloudy 2, though: They had to relate it to the first film. The answer was to keep the similarity with the first film but create a more painterly environment in the background. Whisking the two together would require some magic.
"We called it 'depth styling,'" Travers says.
A TOOTHY Tacodile Supreme hovers behind Tim Lockwood, Flint's father, as Watermelophants, Wildabeets, Hippotatoes, Meatbalruses, Cantalopes, and various pickles and berries look on.
Often, artists will create establishing shots by using a technique called "level of detail" in which they reduce the complexity of the geometry as it recedes into the distance until, in the far distance, the 3D geometry becomes a matte painting. The crew on Cloudy whipped up a new technique.
"One of my pet peeves is to watch a movie with pristine, precise lighting on objects and then a matte painting takes over and there's a stylistic gap," Travers says. "We did a blend based on Z depth. We render a depth map and strip out lighting as the jungle plants get farther away."
The environments in these establishing shots were 3D geometry that extended back into infinity. "The skies were matte paintings, but the rest is 3D," Travers says. "The background looks like 2D because it's stylized, but this is a stereo film and you can truly see the depth of everything. The shots are beautiful. I wish they were longer."
To create the look, the artists preserved the geometry and original textures, but flattened the lighting and saturated the colors. For tools, they used a pipeline consisting of Autodesk's Maya and The Foundry's Nuke and Katana. "Our environments relied on the artistry of every color and lighting artist on every shot," Travers says.
Rather than composing shots with a photographer's eye, the team saw the shots as a painter might, looking at shapes and colors to balance the composition. "We'd pick plants and make them super-bright orange or turquoise," Travers says. "Usually when you put shots into rendering and start adding lights, the texture becomes muted. When you flatten the lighting, you enrich the color."
Thus, a scene might have an eggplant-colored night scene with tangerine-colored plants. "It's a super-rich environment," Travers says. "The artists would ask, 'Like this orange?' and we'd say, 'More orange.' I would tell people 'Good job' for making a shot un-integrated. It isn't what we usually do."
Although the images in Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs were highly color saturated, Cloudy 2 pushes saturation even beyond the first film.
"If someone tracked the record for the most saturated movie, I'm sure we broke it," Travers says. "It was unbelievable how much we cranked the color. Digital projectors can capture it, but you will not see the whole richness and color on film. Film can't handle it."
The depth styling also created problems for Arnold, the raytracing-based renderer that Imageworks used. "We were breaking Arnold," Travers says. "Arnold is not exactly rigid, but it is a disciplined, physics-based renderer, and the renders we got out of the box didn't look like what we wanted. The characters were all Arnold-centric. But, for these environments, we had to break Arnold into multiple passes and then rely heavily on compositing to adjust the mattes for anything in the background."
Travers points to other areas in which Arnold excelled. "We used global illumination a ton in this movie," he says. "There's a shot of Chester, the bad guy, wearing a vest that glows, especially in the dark. We used the vest as a light source so, when he walks down a tunnel, we see the light from his vest casting on the walls. And, the cavern sequence is awesome. The interior of a mountain has rock candy and pools everywhere with caustics. People asked if we were really going to raytrace this. I said, 'This is what Arnold is for. Why have a raytracer if not to do something like this?' So we did full-blown raytracing, and it looks so pretty."
To maintain control over the composition, the artists would often dress the shots to the camera and sometimes even asked modelers to add geometry after animation. "It was a bit of a nightmare to do that, but it was worth it," Travers says. "The whole point of the movie was to create a world we haven't seen before. It isn't photoreal. We could do whatever we wanted. There are frames in this movie that look like artwork. They couldn't be better balanced from a composition standpoint."
Animators used a cartoony, "UPA animation" style for main characters.
Inside this zingy world, effects animators needed to peel back and pare their physics-based simulations in ways that would fit the tangy actions. For simulation, the crew used Side Effects Software's Houdini and proprietary software.
"[Animation Supervisor] Pete Nash did an amazing job bringing characters to life in a whimsical world," Travers says. "But the jumpy, jerky motion was difficult for the effects animators. My analogy is to Road Runner cartoons where you see a character pause and then drop quicker than gravity. Simulation software gets confused with that style of animation in a movie."
For shots with the characters shooting down coconut milk rapids, the effects artists applied physical simulation properties and then worked with scaling the simulation and the characters until the fluid had the consistency they wanted. The artists also sent the gooey maple syrup in a breakfast bog rocketing off to infinity with cartoon acceleration.
integrating Impressionistic, painterly backgrounds with cartoony foregrounds was not, ahem, a piece of cake.
"I look at some of the shots and marvel at them," Travers says. "Ten years ago this wasn't even possible. We didn't have this capability of integrating the physically based simulations into a cartoony animation feature."
Sometimes shots had to go back to animators to adjust, but more often, the simulation artists had to fix flakey details. "We have talented people who know where to take shortcuts, where to re-map a simulation, scale up, scale down, trim out undesirable effects," Travers says. "They'd fire off a bunch of simulations and then use 80 percent of this and 20 percent of that."
The directors wanted Flint's coat to move in a certain way, for example, to create a satisfying silhouette. "When his arms become twice as long and the coat still has to behave, it took brute force," Travers says. "The simulations on this film required talent and artistry. Some of the most creative people we have are programmers."
In Cloudy 2, Flint, the main character, travels what the director calls an "artist's journey," in which he learns to be creative and to trust himself. So, too, the crew on this film. These artists learned to work with shapes, color, lighting, and simulation in juicy new ways to produce the lip-smacking feature the directors wanted.
"Our rule was the food had to look delicious," Pearn says. "The cheeseburger might want to eat you, but subconsciously, you want to eat it."
Barbara Robertson is an award-winning writer and a contributing editor for CGW. She can be reached at firstname.lastname@example.com.


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Fred in Cypress, says to us, he's looking at what builders are doing in his area, up in Cypress.
He says, "One of them is using OSB for roof and walls instead of plywood." And, he understands that OSB was a bad product. "It fell out of favor", he says, "about 10 years ago." But for you of course, I know it's forever Tom.
"I'm looking", he says, "To build and plan to pay the extra cost to go with plywood, or has OSB caught up?"
Podcast: Play in new window
Say OSB went out of favor, because it's cheap, and production builders use it all the time. A lot of builders use it a lot. But, it's not something that I would recommend either, to use. I wouldn't recommend it now. It hasn't changed any. It's just still cheap, and readily available, and a lot of builders use it because of the cost.
But, no, I'm still a plywood guy, and if you go into windstorm areas, you've got the use plywood. You can't use OSB. And, if you look at a lot of the hurricane areas. A lot of places have been hit by a hurricane afterwards, where the roof deck is missing, or in some of these tornadoes that his some of the neighborhoods in the last few months here in Texas. You look at the roof decking. The ones that lost their decking were primarily OSB roofs. They were not plywood roofs.

subset: commoncrawl


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9/2015 UPDATE to this post. The video has been removed. The lawsuit was unsuccessful.
In this video Jerry Day interviews Liz Barris about the upcoming class action lawsuit she's coordinating against California utilities SCE and PG&E for health damages from smart meters. This lawsuit may be extended to other CA utility companies soon.
"Those industries, businesses and individuals who profit from wireless technologies, such as your power company, are suppressing information about the hazards of wireless technologies. They are attacking proponents of responsible wireless management and they are knowingly exposing the public to harm and damage hoping that the general public and the media will refuse to believe the obvious and proven connection between electromagnetic radiation and biological damage. Because of the wireless industry's irresponsibility and wrongdoing, unfortunately, legal actions have become necessary."
Lawsuit contact: Liz Barris email@example.com website: http://citizensforaradiationfreecommunity.org


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New York, NY – September 13, 2016 – October brings one of the most awaited musical treats for New York Salsa fans. Come October 22nd, Digitunzz Records presents the New York debut of Grammy nominee, Luis Gonzalez, also known as "El Tsunami de la Salsa." Luis Gonzalez who is also a winner of the prestigious 2016 Feyjoo Eliott Trumpet Award, will be performing at the West Gate Lounge in Nyack, New York.
Luis Gonzalez has been performing with great success for over 30 years with the finest salsa orchestras in Puerto Rico and New York City. Some legendary names include the great Celia Cruz, Ray Barretto, Nino Segarra, Conjunto Clasico, Willie Rosario, Luis Perico Ortiz, Bobby Valentin, Tommy Olivencia, Roberto Roena, Jerry Rivera and Puerto Rican Power.
"I am ecstatic about coming to New York to deliver a musical tsunami," said Luis Gonzalez. He warned with enthusiasm, "You should bring an extra pair of dancing shoes because it's going to be a hell of a night." CEO of Digitunzz, Felix Moreno added, "New York is in for an extra special treat. Salsa lovers and dancers should be sure not to miss this monumental performance at West Gate Lounge".
Luis Gonzalez and his Orchestra's music is all about never-ending energy. It takes the listener to a zone where he/she is immersed in the energy of joy, happiness and vibrancy. The orchestra's ensemble is comprised of vocalists Ricky Ramos, Augustin Marrero and Eric Pabon.
West Gate Lounge Management said, "This is one of Puerto Rico's hottest Salsa Bands. The West Gate is proud to present Mr. Luis Gonzalez, "El Tsunami De La Salsa", and his entire 13-piece orchestra direct from Puerto Rico. Additional information about West Gate Lounge, can be obtained by calling (845) 358-8100.
Prior to the musical performance at West Gate Lounge, there will be a media presentation at La Floradita Restaurant, 2276 Twelve Avenue, New York, NY 10027, between 3:00pm to 5:00pm, on October 22nd. Members of the media interested in attending should RSVP to firstname.lastname@example.com by October 17th.
About Luis Gonzalez y Su Orchestra
Grammy Award Nominee and recipient of the 2016 Feyjoo Eliott Trumpet Award, Luis Gonzalez is a talented and accomplished Maestro who has played alongside many musical legends such as Celia Cruz, Ray Barretto and Willie Rosario.
About Digitunzz Records
Digitunzz Records, LLC is an independent digital record label based in New York covering all areas (discovery of new talent, talent management, record production, talent development, performance and production of videos) as well as managing to establish their products and impacting millions of fans worldwide.
About West Gate Lounge
Westgate Lounge is one of the finest Latin Music and Dancing venues in New York for over 30 years. A top favorite venue for music lovers to experience some of the greatest musical shows and events featuring prominent artists, such as Eddie Palmieri, Puerto Rican Power and the likes of Luis Gonzalez y su Orchesta.
About La Floradita Restaurant
Harlem's Floridita Restaurant, is a New York favorite, established in Harlem, New York in 1969 and serving authentic Cuban cuisine for over 40 years.
Joseph Rivera (Manager)
Felix Moreno (CEO)
Website: www.digitunzz.com
Media Contact
Company Name: Digitunzz Records, LLC
Contact Person: Felix Moreno (CEO)
Email: firstname.lastname@example.com
Phone: 917-690-0773
Country: United States
Website: www.digitunzz.com


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Book Description: If only a pile of wayward curls and the inability to stay on her feet were seventeen year-old Foster Kelly's most pressing concerns. Unfortunately, stubborn hair and clumsiness is just the tip of it. It was only a mistake, but when at the age of five Foster is told "You don't belong here" the result is one broken heart. These four carelessly spoken words have shaped and shadowed Foster, and now—a senior at Shorecliffs High School—she seeks the wallflower's existence, denying herself the most casual of friendships, much too afraid that someone will see what Foster believes is certain: she does not belong anywhere – or with anyone. This reality would continue to suit her just fine, however . . .
Love has a long-standing history of undoing broken hearts.
Like a comet, an unexpected arrival knocks Foster out of the crowded, starry sky, sending her directly into the limelight. Exposed and afraid, she will attempt to regain anonymity; but it isn't so easy now that someone is watching. He pursues this shy enigma, confronting Foster's deepest fears head-on, and in the process falls wholly and completely in love with her. But there is something he is not saying; a secret capable of certain ruin. There are two probable outcomes: either he will break her heart once and for all, or he will heal it.
In the end, though, it is Foster who must decide if she is worth mending.
My Review:
I loved this book. Foster Kelly is sweet and kind. She is also at war with her self. She's invisible to everyone at her school, sometimes literally, and she doesn't really want to be. She doesn't share herself completely with anyone. I don't think she even shares herself fully with her parents. She finds a certain kind of freedom in it. She feels that she can't be hurt any more than she already has by people. We can all relate to that.
This book is told from Foster's point of view and we get to know her very well. There were points where I wanted to throttle Foster but this book is about her life and her journey through it. It's also about music. Foster sings but she also plays the piano. Her music is an important part of who she is. It's the running theme throughout the book.
All of this is well and good until she meets a boy that confounds her. He hates her the second she bumps into him. (Foster is accident prone. Who isn't?) He hates her completely and when they are paired together for music class he quite simply looses his mind. It isn't pretty. He quits music class. It also appears that he quits coming to school. Odd even for a new student. Eventually he does tell Foster why he completely freaked out. The explanation is really something. What I liked about the relationship between Foster and Dominic was that it was complicated. She was unsure if he even liked her. It was obvious to the other characters as well as the reader but not to Foster. I liked that. There was no sense of destiny. As in real life, we were left waiting to see what would happen.
The explanation of Dominic's melt down is directly related to the end. I'm not going to really talk about the end of this book. It is mind bending and it took me several days to digest. The size of the ending is in direct proportion to the size of the book. It is long but the payoff is huge. The ending is also completely dependent on how well we get to know Foster. If you skip through the book reading quickly you won't have the same experience that you would have if you read carefully.
Let's compare some long books. Breaking Dawn by Stephanie Meyer is somewhere around 754 pages. The Deathly Hallows by J. K. Rowling is in the neighborhood of 759. By comparison Awakening Foster Kelly is not long at all. Especially if we compare it to The Stand which comes in at around 1153. Don't let the length of this book scare you off. It's worth the investment.
This book is clever, charming and without question will be on my list of the best books that I've read this year.
Look for our interview with Cara Rosalie Olsen tomorrow.
PG- This book is a drama with complicated Foster situations. There are no sexual situations. There isn't any violence except for Emily, if you read the book you'll understand. She was my favorite character after Foster.
I had a couple of favorite quote from this book.
"If Murphy's Law and Bad Luck had a child- you'd be it." Dominic to Foster about all the crazy things that happen to her.
The final line of this book is one of the best closing lines I've ever read.
"Our story, it's not for the logical, certainly not for the unimaginative; it belongs to the dreamers." -Foster
If this book sounds good try these:


text: Am I Covered for that? Written by Mike Pynnonen on 3/3/2017 1:30 PM in Insurance, policy, galt insurance, Galt Insurance Group. It has 0 Comments. Ever wonder why your insurance policy is thicker than Tolstoy's War and Peace? It is because your insurance policy has definitions, coverage language, policy conditions, exclusions and endorsements. Should you rush home to read your insurance policy? Maybe. I might first suggest opening a bottle of wine:)


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By John Gruber
Tara AI
The smart and free Jira alternative.
His $2.99 Google Voice client app for the iPhone was removed back in July 2009, during Apple's purge of all Google Voice-related apps. As of this weekend, it's back in the store. More proof that Apple is, for now at least, loosening up on App Store restrictions.
No word yet on whether Google's own official Google Voice app will make it into the store, though.
★ Monday, 20 September 2010


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Pressure Washing
Pressure washing (also called Power Washing) is a great way to maintain the beauty of your home or office building. Many homes or commercial buildings require pressure washing prior to painting or staining. Dirt, mold and fungus build up over time on homes and buildings. Pressure washing is a great way to clean the surface of a structure and bring back its' beauty. It's also an important step to preparing the surface of a structure which will be painted or stained.
We use an environmentally friendly solution with bleach to remove foreign substances from the surface to be cleaned. This solution is allowed to sit on the surface for several minutes before we rinse it off carefully using pressure so as not to damage the surface. Also, any surround gardens or landscaping are maneuvered around without disturbing the area. Please contact All Pro Painters today if you are interested in scheduling a pressure washing for your home or commercial building.
- Homes – wood, masonry, vinyl or aluminum
- Commercial Buildings
- Decks
- Fences
- Sheds
- Barns
- Patios
- Walk Ways
- Masonry Steps
All Pro Painters provides power washing services in Needham, Newton, Wellesley, Weston and the surrounding towns in Massachusetts.


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Five years ago, in the early morning of July 24, 1998, Thomas Wolfe's childhood home in Asheville, North Carolina, was nearly destroyed by fire. Since then, conservation specialists and staff at the Thomas Wolfe Memorial have worked to reconstruct the museum and hope to reopen it this fall.
Based on an investigation by the Asheville fire department and reports of suspicious behavior, authorities suspect the blaze was deliberately set to the two-story house that inspired Dixieland, Eugene Gant's home in Wolfe's 1929 novel Look Homeward, Angel. Starting in the dining room and spreading to an upstairs bedroom and then to the attic, the flames quickly consumed most of the roof, causing about $2.4 million in structural damage and the loss of irreplaceable furniture and other valuables. There were 800 artifacts in the Victorian Queen Anne–style house—everything from the bed in which Wolfe's brother Ben died in 1918 to a silver serving set from the dining room, a wedding-anniversary present his father, William Oliver Wolfe, gave his mother, Julia, in the 1890s. All of the items were damaged; 200 were destroyed.
Investigators are still looking for the person responsible for the fire.
The renovation of the house, which was built in 1883, began last March and is being funded by a variety of sources, including contributions to the Fire Fund, which was established by the Thomas Wolfe Memorial staff; sales from auctions; and other fundraising events. Prior to the fire, plans had been made for a $400,000 renovation, including minor cosmetic repairs and a few structural improvements, but this money quickly dwindled in the initial stages of the reconstruction.
As of this writing, the house is roughly 70 percent restored—most of the structural elements are in place. Using photographs taken prior to the fire as guides, conservationists are now working to ensure that details such as the furniture and the interior molding and woodwork are reconstructed in such a way that the character of the house is maintained. Specialists are also using the 17 layers of paint and wallpaper on the interior walls of the house as a kind of time line to restore the house to its appearance in 1916, the last year Wolfe lived there.
"We've done an incredibly good job of maintaining the site in light of this horrible thing that's happened," says Steve Hill, site manager. "It really has been a miraculous story of loss and recovery, and it underscores the tenacity of the folks around this area—we don't give up on something because it's hard."
For further information about the Thomas Wolfe Memorial or to contribute to the Fire Fund, visit the Web site at www.wolfememorial.com [3] or call (828) 253-8304.
Suzanne Pettypiece is managing editor of Poets & Writers Magazine.


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On day 4 of our trip, we did a few hikes in Valley of Fire National Park – about an hour's drive northeast of Las Vegas.
The first hike was a short, ~1.4 mile out-and-back trip to see the well-known 'Fire Wave' rock formation.
Our longer hike took us down the White Domes loop, then connected up with the Prospect Trail. Near the White Domes, we passed through a short slot canyon, which Micah was fascinated by.
The Prospect Trail is a little over 5 miles one-way (10-11 miles round trip), but as we quickly learned, the trail isn't exactly easy to follow. I'd expected it to be well-marked, so I hadn't brought along any maps. The trail snaked through numerous canyons, forking into several unmarked trails, and I'm pretty sure we ended up losing the main trail in the process.
We hadn't planned to hike the entire trail, though, so it didn't really matter. We explored a few side canyons, before eventually backtracking and returning to the car.
At one point we stopped for a break on a large, slanted slab of rock, and let Micah get out of the carrier and practice his climbing skills. He was surprisingly coordinated on the uneven surface, and did a nice job of imitating what he had seen us do – climbing uphill on all fours, then turning around and crab-walking down feet first.
We stopped for a late mid-afternoon lunch in Overton, NV, and I was even able to catch a few minutes of the Colts game while we ate.
Rather than returning to the hotel via the interstate, we took the scenic drive along Lake Mead, stopping along the way for another short hike, which we let Micah walk for rather than riding in the carrier.


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Raising Children Network
Find reliable advice to support parents in the day-to-day work of raising children while looking after their own needs.
Our monthly newsletter covers topics and news that support you in developing wellbeing in your students. Based on your choice of educator, parent or student, content is tailored to your needs.


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Charles Dickens
Mentioned-only character
Charles Dickens
Charles Dickens (February 7, 1812 – June 9, 1870) was an English writer and social critic, of the Victorian period.
Dickens was born in Portsmouth, England. After his father was thrown into debtors' prison, a young Charles left school to work in a factory. Though he received little formal schooling he nevertheless went on to become one of the most popular and influential writers of all time. Over his lifetime, Dickens wrote 15 novels and 5 novellas, along with hundreds of other publications.
He died on June 9th, 1870 (at 58 years of age) from a stroke.
His name, along with the title of one of his novels, Bleak House, can be seen on a Vault 101 blackboard.
Charles Dickens is only mentioned in Fallout 3.


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Baden-Württemberg Bank (BW-Bank) selects Kx Systems to provide realtime data capture and complex analytics for proprietary trading desk
6 Dec 2005
Kdb+tick provides multi-asset traders with accurate and instant view of global markets.
Kx REQUEST A DEMO
Call us at UK: +44 (0)28 3025 2242 |
Kdb+tick provides multi-asset traders with accurate and instant view of global markets.
Miami (13 May 2002) – Kx Systems, leader in enabling financial services firms to meet the challenges of acquiring, managing and analyzing massive amounts of business data at extremely high speeds, today announced that Chicago-based FutureSource is building a scalable tick commodities database using Kx Systems' kdb. FutureSource will replace an earlier, in-house solution with
Kdb's fast time-series analysis, combined with efficient data management, provides an ideal platform to handle complex querying in real-time.
New consulting partnership extends Kx availability for European financial services companies
Premier broker-dealer to manage U. S. trade and quote (TAQ) data using Kx Ktdb
Kx Systems' Powerful Database Supports Portfolio Analytic System
Don't miss the Kx Streaming Analytics Launch today!


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Jeff Clawson (Broker/Owner)
Jeff Clawson has been a lifelong Central Texas Resident. Jeff was raised in Williamson County near Georgetown and Liberty Hill. Jeff graduated with a BA in Economics from the University of Texas at Austin in 2000 and obtained a Texas Real Estate license in 2002. Noticing a need for honest and reliable property management services, Jeff founded AustinVestors Property Management in 2006 and has since leased and sold over 1000 homes in the Austin area. Jeff has a passion for real estate investing and truly believes that real estate is the best vehicle for long term wealth creation. Jeff currently resides in Georgetown with his wife and business partner, Ashley Clawson and their 3 children, Harper, Beckett, and Asher. In his free time, Jeff enjoys spending time with his family and in the outdoors.
Ashley Clawson (Business Manager/REALTOR®)
Ashley was raised in Round Rock, Texas and graduated from Texas State University with a BS in Early Childhood Education. After her time in the classroom, she went on to obtain her Texas Real Estate license and joined AustinVestors as the business manager.
Ashley has found great joy in the real estate world. From investing to flipping residential & commercial spaces, handling short term rentals, and walking alongside her husband, Jeff, in the property management sector.
In her spare time, Ashley's top priority is raising their 3 children, Harper, Beckett & Asher. She enjoys traveling, hiking, exploring the city, staying active, and spending time with friends & family.
Tyler Worley (Leasing Agent/REALTOR)®
Tyler Worley was born in Dallas, Texas and raised just north of Austin, in Georgetown, Texas. After graduating from Georgetown High School, Tyler attended Baylor University and earned a degree in communications. After graduation, he interned for ESPN and eventually accepted a job with the University of Texas athletics department working with The Longhorn Foundation.
In 2015 Tyler left UT to pursue other interests and decided to seek a career as a Realtor in 2016. Tyler joined AustinVestors in 2017 as a leasing agent. In his spare time, Tyler enjoys traveling, exploring new places, golfing, watching sports, and spending time with friends and family.
Mindy Quinones (Property Manager)
Mindy joined our team in July 2016 after relocating back to her home state of Texas after 23 years in South Florida. For 17 years in Florida, Mindy flourished in the customer service industry which has made her a great asset to AustinVestors. Mindy first started as a property services inspector and worked her way up the company where she is currently the lead property manager. She also obtained her Real Estate License in January 2018 in order to further her career with in AustinVestors property management.
Mindy likes to spend her free time with her two sons, friends & family. She loves the outdoors and thoroughly enjoys watching football. Go Cowboys!
Luke Valerio (Leasing Agent/REALTOR®)
Luke grew up around North Austin where he has lived for more than 20 years. He began his career in Information Technology serving the state of Texas shortly after obtaining an AAS in Network Administration from Austin Community College.
His love of the city and customer service skills led him to real estate where he realized his passion resided. He obtained his Texas Real Estate License in 2018 and has loved working in the industry ever since he joined AustinVestors.
Jami Harrison (Assistant Property Manager)
Jami has been in the real estate industry going on 13 years. She started her career working for a manufactured home company and has now worked in all aspects of the field. Property management has always been the fore font of her interest in real estate, which is what lead her to AustinVestors. She started as an administrative assistant and is now working as an assistant property manager.
Jami has the joy of being called mom by her four beautiful children who inspire her every day. In her free time, she is usually at the lake with her family and friends. She loves to watch HGTV and is a huge Fixer Upper fan. Her DIY spirit takes her to antique shops and flea markets to find ideas and pieces of furniture she can refurbish.
Forrestt Eubanks (Business Development/Realtor®)
Forrestt moved to Austin in 1989 and has been active in the real estate industry for 24 years as a contractor, title professional and Realtor®. He has vast experience from which to help his clients navigate the entire transaction. Forrestt will be a true partner in the process, believing that the personal touch matters. He is a Realtor dedicated to dependable, proactive and attentive first-class service.
Forrestt began his career as a Realtor with AustinVestors in 2013 initially working with buyers and tenants to find the perfect home. Having earned his CIAS (Certified Investor Agent Specialist) designation, Forrestt now works with our investor/owner clients helping them in all aspects of their investment portfolio's. In addition to helping them buy or sell properties, he also markets their properties for lease and works closely with contractors on improvements or upgrades to maximize their return on their investments.
In his spare time, Forrestt enjoys spending time with his family/friends and loving on his dogs, Ava & Diogie. He loves to cook and has been known to fire up his smoker with a great slab of brisket when he has time for the low and slow they require. However, his favorite food is Mexican Food and he enjoys it often! At home or on the go, he always has music playing and may dance when no one's looking. One thing's for sure, Forrestt is never bored!
Cameron Ramirez (Property Services Manager/Realtor®)
Cameron was born in the 'Live Music Capital of the World' and raised in Round Rock, Texas where he currently resides. In the middle of 2017 he began working with AustinVestors as their Property Services Manager, and towards the end of the year he acquired his Texas Real Estate License thus making him a licensed Realtor®. His attention to detail and great love for the city of Austin has made him a fundamental part of the team.
When Cameron is not working he likes to attend live music events, be adventurous out in nature, travel around the world, and most importantly spend quality time with his friends & family. His love for food has expanded his horizons when it comes to trying new, bizarre, and out of the norm cuisines.
No one in the Austin property management industry has a better reputation. Tenants, owners, and investors enjoy working with us because we're efficient, proactive, and here to serve you and your property.
Whether you're a homeowner who needs to find a tenant, an investor who can't figure out the requirements of the Texas property code, or a tenant trying to turn a house into a home – AustinVestors is here for you.
Call or text us at (512) 360-0945 during business hours.
We guarantee that a team member will be on the other end to answer any questions you may have.
Pet Restrictions:
The following breeds are not allowed:
If you are applying with a pet, please include a photo of the pet with your rental application. An additional pet deposit will be required for each pet. Maximum allowable number of pets is 2, but some properties may be limited to only 1 pet, or no pets.
Management Services:
Kira Davis (Trust Accountant)
Kira is a jack of all trades. She has work experience in child care, sales, administration, accounting, and electronics. She met her husband while in the Navy, stationed in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. Their daughter was born there too. She is originally from Minnesota but moved to Texas with her husband after leaving the military. The latest adventure is in the real estate industry as our trust accountant with AustinVestors.
She is currently a student at Texas State University pursuing an accounting degree and later a CPA. Kira enjoys spending time with family. Hobbies include, puzzles, reading, and crafts, when time allows.


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Kentucky gov signs abortion bill already facing a lawsuit
FRANKFORT, Ky. (AP) — Kentucky's Republican governor on Tuesday signed into law an anti-abortion measure already entangled in a federal lawsuit, instructing his lawyers to fight the legal challenge against the new restrictions on the procedure.
Days before Gov. Matt Bevin put his signature on the legislation, the American Civil Liberties Union filed its challenge in anticipation he would do so. The new law bans abortion for women seeking to end their pregnancies because of the gender, race or disability of the fetus.
The measure took effect upon Bevin's signature, and his lawyers filed a response to the lawsuit aimed at blocking it. Kentucky lawmakers and GOP-led legislatures in several other states have pushed anti-abortion measures in hopes of getting a case before the U.S. Supreme Court to challenge the court's landmark 1973 Roe v. Wade ruling that legalized abortion nationwide.
In asking a judge to block the new Kentucky law, the ACLU argued that it removes a woman's right to an abortion if the state "disapproves of her reason" for the procedure. The suit was filed on behalf of EMW Women's Surgical Center in Louisville, the only abortion clinic in Kentucky.
In reply, Bevin's legal team said: "EMW and its abortionists have responded with a novel claim: Women have a constitutional right to undergo race-based abortions, gender-based abortions, and disability-based abortions. In (the) plaintiffs' view, somewhere in the Fourteenth Amendment's penumbra lies a secret protection of eugenics."
Bevin's lawyers called it a "perverse distortion" of the Roe v. Wade decision.
The measure's supporters have said it would ban discrimination against fetuses because of race, gender or disability. Republican Rep. Melinda Gibbons Prunty, the bill's lead sponsor, has said abortions in such cases are "reminiscent of the social evil of eugenics," a belief that the human race can be improved through controlled breeding.
The new Kentucky law would require doctors performing abortions to certify in writing that, to their knowledge, their patient did not want to end her pregnancy because of concern over her unborn child's sex, race, color, national origin or disability. Doctors violating the measure would face felony prosecution and the loss of their medical license. Any clinic where a violation occurred would lose its license. Pregnant women would not face penalties.
The ACLU's challenge is part of a broader lawsuit also challenging another new Kentucky law that would mostly ban abortions in the state once a fetal heartbeat is detected.
Soon after Bevin signed the heartbeat measure, a federal judge issued a temporary restraining order late last week to block its enforcement. It would be one of the country's most restrictive abortion measures. The ACLU is seeking a similar order against the new abortion law.
There was no immediate indication when the judge in the latest challenge might rule.
A fetal heartbeat can be detected as early as six weeks into pregnancy, before many women know they're pregnant. ACLU attorneys said the heartbeat bill would prohibit 90 percent of abortions in Kentucky.
Anti-abortion measures in Kentucky and elsewhere come amid surging optimism among conservatives that the restrictions might have a chance of prevailing in the reconfigured Supreme Court that includes President Donald Trump's appointees, Neil Gorsuch and Brett Kavanaugh.
Federal judges struck down two Kentucky abortion laws in recent years, and the state appealed both rulings. A trial was held last year in a third lawsuit challenging a Kentucky law aimed at a common second-trimester procedure to end pregnancies. A federal judge has not yet ruled.
Attorneys for the ACLU and other groups are seeking $1.5 million from the state to cover attorneys' fees and other costs in one of the cases that led to an abortion law being struck down.