text:
My land, your home. Welcome to my country.
From 21st to 26th January we have celebrated the II Transnational Meeting and the I Student's exchange in Tenerife. It's been a week full of activities and fun where teachers, students and families have worked all together in an environment of friendship and kindness.
Sunday 21st January 2018
Arrival day of delegations that are welcomed at the airport by families and teachers.
17 students from Turkey, Portugal, Estonia and Croatia will stay with 16 local students.
Monday 22nd January 2018
The week begins with a welcome ceremony at the school. Our Headmaster, Rafael Luis, together with the Inspector of Education, Carmelo Expósito, the Education Town Council, Leopoldo Díaz and our Deputy Headmistress, María Antuña receive the delegations at school and send their best wishes to all during the week. Our college, Alejandro Díaz, teacher of the English Department is our official interpreter.
After a family photo at the stairs guest students and teachers take a tour around the school guided by local students.
During our tour, some students improvise a song for us in the Music class.
Before the break, guest students and teachers attend a lesson on 'Spanish to survive'. Special thanks to Laura López and Cristina Cores, who performed this lesson with such professionalism.
Before the break, guest students and teachers attend a lesson on 'Spanish to survive'. Special thanks to Laura López and Cristina Cores, who performed this lesson with such professionalism.
Tourism for all
During the second part of the morning, we walk to Hotel Mar y Sol, the only hotel in Europe that provides care, hospitality and therapy to disabled people. There, we are received by Hotel Manager, Renate Kraus, Ina and Thomas Fischer, as well as their father and founder of the Hotel, Mr. Hans-Joachim Fischer. Our love and thankfulness to all of them for their refined behaviour and kindness.
Sport Tourism
In the afternoon, we travel to El Médano, a near town in the south coast of the island well known all over the world by the practicing of kite surf and wind surf.
We spend Tuesday at school. First thing we do is complete our countries presentations:
Afterwards we choose our logo: each school celebrated the logo competition during December 2017 and bring two logos. Between the ten logos presented, three teachers and four students per country voted to select the logo that will represent our project from now on. Thank you to Javier Reyes, Julia Martín and Mario Cruz for participating in the selection and organization of logo competition in Spain.
Later, we presented the posters and video footage of Istanbul. Great job of students and teachers from the five countries!
Just before the break, job shadowing for teachers. Some Students attended an English lesson with Alejandro Díaz, some others went to the Chemistry Lab, with Félix Rodríguez...
And some others went to Music and Arts class with Mercedes Martínez and Álvaro Cedrés.
Some of the students' performances for us during the Music lesson:
During the break, our SEN students invited us to have breakfast with them. Thank you to all of them and their teachers, who are always eager to participate.
Finally, Estonian students will give a lecture on Video Editing and Photography. Well done, guys!
Wednesday 24th January 2018
Sport Tourism / Nature Tourism
Teide National Park is our next destination. Although the weather forecast announces a temperature of 8º, a spectacular clear and sunny day will accompany us all the way.
Teide National Park is our next destination. Although the weather forecast announces a temperature of 8º, a spectacular clear and sunny day will accompany us all the way.
Two guides from Volcano Teide: Darío and Ancor, will lead us all over the National Park, providing all the information required to expend a wonderful time among volcanos and nature. Thanks guys, it's been a pleasure! Here some words from Darío:
Compulsory stops when visiting El Teide National Park are El Portillo Visitor's Centre, Izaña Observatory and some Panoramic Views:
Thursday 25th January 2018
We begin with II Transnational Meeting.
City Tourism
After the break we take bus to La Laguna, World Heritage city in the north of the island where we are received by the Tourism Town Councilwoman, Mrs. María José Castañeda.
Thank you very much to Mercedes García, our German teacher for organising the visit and guided tour.
Gastronomical Tourism
In the afternoon, we visit Tajinaste Winery in La Orotava valley.
Thank you also to Diego Sánchez and Félix Rodríguez for joining us today.
Rosi's mother with Karin and Elle, from Estonia.
Friday 26th January 2018
Gastronomical and Agricultural Tourism
The day begins with a visit to Aloe Park, in Arona. Thank you to Esther Hernández and Pilar González for joining us today.
The day begins with a visit to Aloe Park, in Arona. Thank you to Esther Hernández and Pilar González for joining us today.
After lunch, we all enjoy our last day in one of the best waterparks of the world: Siam Park
In the afternoon, host families, teachers and students gather to celebrate the end of a fantastic week.
Special thanks to all of them for sharing with us this wonderful experience. And a big hug to all the teachers and staff of IES Los Cristianos who have worked so hard during the previous months to make this dream come true: Javier Reyes, Diego Sánchez, Mercedes García, Félix Rodríguez.
Thank you to María Antuña for working so hard for this project and to Esmeralda Hernández for her music and kindness.


text:
tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35414280786473059462020-02-28T20:46:25.664-08:00Rich FrogA poor attempt to share the cool stuff that I'm working on right now.Anonymoushttp://email@example.com:blogger.com,1999:blog-3541428078647305946.post-66433466856959071132012-07-12T11:16:00.002-07:002012-07-12T11:16:46.293-07:00Opscode Chef running under bundlerI like to run chef-solo under bundler. It lets me hack on chef easily and brings all the benefits of gem management to my chef. That being said chef and bundler don't play well together. I finally got the gem_package resource and commands to work without the restrictions bundler imposes. I put this file in the libraries directory of one of my cookbooks.

Anonymoushttp://firstname.lastname@example.com://richfrog.curzons.net/2012/07/opscode-chef-running-under-bundler.htmltag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3541428078647305946.post-49543730112201838552010-07-08T02:59:00.000-07:002010-07-08T02:59:52.640-07:00Please seperate configuration from codeWhen configuration and code are managed together it means that I can't test old code because it's configuration no longer matches the current environment. It is extremely frustrating when my assignment is to find a performance regression.

I guess this supports the idea that even in small environments where you control everything, you should support discovery in your code. You shouldn't have to tell it everything. It should be able to find out most of what it needs from the environment itself.Anonymoushttp://email@example.com://richfrog.curzons.net/2010/07/please-seperate-configuration-from-code.htmltag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3541428078647305946.post-75502785643489040912010-06-30T23:27:00.000-07:002010-06-30T23:27:28.197-07:00Mysql replicationToday I was working on a master-master replication setup and I couldn't get the slave threads to work. I could connect between the servers with the mysql client, but the slave threads couldn't connect. I finally found that although you can set a long password for a mysql user, the mysql replication will silently truncate long passwords before it uses them to log into the master server. So you set the password to one thing and something shorter is actually used. I ended up using a 10 character password and that worked fine.Anonymoushttp://firstname.lastname@example.com://richfrog.curzons.net/2010/06/mysql-replication.htmltag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3541428078647305946.post-56437166836453468622010-05-05T04:37:00.000-07:002010-05-05T04:37:42.811-07:00Questions and AnswersI've been asking my self questions for a long time. This evening I thought of something:

There is somebody to do everything, but everybody must do something.

I think this will come to mean a great deal to me.Anonymoushttp://firstname.lastname@example.com://richfrog.curzons.net/2010/05/questions-and-answers.htmltag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3541428078647305946.post-30518245959957487972010-04-07T14:57:00.000-07:002010-04-07T14:57:01.915-07:00Defensive programming, the real reasonFor better or for worse I am very possessive of code that I write. When people break my code, I have to take deep breaths in order to not insult them.

Of course this has helped me better understand the purpose of tests like solo programming never could have. It's made me realize that team programming is a war. If I didn't build my tests well enough, such that someone else is able to break my code, that's my fault, not his.

If you really want to impose your will upon the codebase, write tests.Anonymoushttp://firstname.lastname@example.com://richfrog.curzons.net/2010/04/defensive-programming-real-reason.htmltag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3541428078647305946.post-49235469459323220242010-04-01T09:26:00.000-07:002010-04-01T09:26:53.458-07:00My polyphasic storyA friend asked me about my sleeping and here is what I sent him:

There are actually two stories. For about three years I was doing a sleep schedule commonly called "Everyman" where I sleep 4.5 hrs/night and take 4 naps a day for 23 minutes. That worked very well even though previously I needed 8.5 hrs/night to be functional. I had high levels of energy all day even until bed time. I felt basically the same whether it was 1am or 8am. It also helped improve mental and emotional aspects of my life because of the regular breaks. I started that when a coworker idly talked about it at lunch one day. Although I've been working at home for the most of the time I've been on the schedule, I chose naptimes that would work at a full time job, so it can work for people at work too.

Google has lots of information about it, often under the title "polyphasic sleep", but lots of the search results you'll find are people trying to document their attempts. Most people fail, but I think also that when people succeed, they forget about their blogs and never report the success. It is physically and emotionally taxing, but it is doable. Large amounts of sleep deprivation are par for the course and that causes depression, so you have to be careful. In my opinion the only reason I succeeded was because my wife was pregnant and couldn't sleep at night, so after each nap she would stand me up and walk me around the house until I was lucid. The benefit to her was that for several months after the baby was born I was still doing the no core sleep thing. I took care of the baby all the time during the night and helped the baby nurse without my wife waking up. So my wife never had to deal with a crying baby in the night.

The other story is that since December I've been trying to change back to the more ambitious version which is no "core sleep". In polyphasic sleep terms, "core sleep" is the big chunk of time that you sleep, usually at night. Going without core sleep is either called Uberman or Hexaphasic. I have not read any public accounts of people maintaining it more than 6 months, but I think it is doable. I started doing Hexaphasic when I started this whole thing and had adjusted to the physical difficulty of staying awake, but being suddenly VERY alone for 8 hrs/day and the mild sleep-deprivation induced depression made me stop.

Now that I have more experience and am more adjusted to the naps and the night time, I'm trying to go hard core. When I went to bed (on the 4.5hr/night schedule) I still had lots of energy and couldn't stand just going to bed when I had so much energy. However, I have found that there is a world of difference emotionally between getting a small about of core sleep and no core sleep. I'm going on 3 months of trying to make the change from 4.5 to no core sleep.

If you are interested in trying it, my suggestion is to start by taking naps. I think my schedule works well: 7am (depending on when you wake up you won't take this one to start), noon (before you eat anything for lunch), 5pm (ideally naps should be 4hrs apart, but you can fudge it a little. You should probably take this one at work to keep the fudge as small as possible), 10pm, and then go to bed when you feel like it. With that many naps, you'll naturally go to bed later, if you find yourself staying up until 1am, take another nap at 1am. All naps should be between 18min and 25min, you'll have to play with it to see what makes you groggy when you wake up. Too long a nap is WAY worse than too short a nap. If your brain moves into deep sleep, you very well may not wake up and your mind will be foggy. Even if you were to choose not to go hard core, you'd still have more energy all day and more awake hours. While you are trying that you can read stuff on the net to see how far you want to take it.

So that's me spiel. As you can tell, I enjoy the topic quite a bit.Anonymoushttp://email@example.com://richfrog.curzons.net/2010/04/my-polyphasic-story.htmltag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3541428078647305946.post-60491072360542288682010-02-03T00:13:00.000-08:002010-02-03T00:13:46.074-08:00That's cool. The iSight's "other" purposeWith my new job I got a company laptop. This evening I was working on it and happened to keep adjusting the angle of the screen. Every time I did I the screen dimmed. I started moving my hand around the screen and I found a really cool feature.

The Macbook Pro, at least with Snow Leopard installed, dims the screen brightness according to the amount of light sensed by the iSight camera. So when you turn off the lights, the screen automatically dims so that it's not too bright.

That's really cool.Anonymoushttp://email@example.com://richfrog.curzons.net/2010/02/thats-cool-isights-other-purpose.htmltag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3541428078647305946.post-87993357195070270112010-02-01T19:51:00.000-08:002010-02-01T19:51:20.614-08:00Still PolyphasicFrom what I read on the net, you're not polyphasic unless you continue to announce it. I guess it makes sense given that even the people that say they are long term polyphasers seem to go off the schedule for months at a time.

Over christmas I changed from Everyman to Uberman and it went well. At the end of the holidays however I got really sick. It wasn't just me, people in my family in 3 states got the same thing. I slept all day and all night for 2 weeks. After that I got back on the schedule only to have problems when I went on a business trip and couldn't take any naps for a few days.

Now that I am back home, I am back on the Uberman schedule. My naps are 10pm, 1am, 4am, 7am, noon, and 5pm. Next time I go on the business trip I've found a quite room that I can take my naps in and lunch time and after work. When I am at home I get in 6-7 hours of work between 10pm and 7am. After that I only have to be available for communications (I work from home). I do that Monday through Saturday and have most of the day all week with my family.

Like I said, I only changed to Uberman during Christmas so I'm still adjusting to having so much time with my family. I've been running around cleaning and doing dishes and projects. My wife is very happy with the new schedule and all the cleaning I'm getting done. :)Anonymoushttp://email@example.com://richfrog.curzons.net/2010/02/still-polyphasic.htmltag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3541428078647305946.post-29048717615588967992010-01-30T06:48:00.000-08:002010-02-02T16:30:52.168-08:00GC patched ruby for performance testingThe Guide for Rails performance testing has instructions for patching ruby to provide garbage collection statistics. The only problem is, the patch is against a ruby version that is 2 and a half years old and doesn't compile by default on my machine.

The patch doesn't apply cleanly against the latest ruby 1.8.7 (p249). I found a version of the patch on github and fixed it up to apply to 1.8.7. Here is my fixed up copy.

I downloaded ruby from here and applied my updated patch with "patch -p1" and it compiled fine and doesn't seem to have any problems. Of course this version of ruby is only for profiling.

Updated Feb 2, 2010
Sorry to disappoint, but when I finished the patching the rails performance tests still wouldn't give me memory metrics. Back to the drawing board. I'll update this when I get a better patch.Anonymoushttp://firstname.lastname@example.com://richfrog.curzons.net/2010/01/gc-patched-ruby-for-performance-testing.htmltag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3541428078647305946.post-56555231324072064542010-01-29T23:18:00.000-08:002010-01-29T23:18:41.277-08:00Autotest just keeps getting betterRight now I'm working with a ruby on rails project that has lots of test and they take quite a while to run. I'm also doing more testing than I have on previous projects, so I'm running the tests frequently.

Obviously I'm using autotest, but I just found out about the "-c" and "-f" switches. "-c" makes autotest run run the full regression tests each time the tests all pass. "-f" makes autotest not run all the tests are startup.

As I was playing around with autotest, I found easy instructions on how to setup notifications for autotest in linux. I figured I'd copy the code and see what it is like. Wow! I really like it. When I finish changes, I just keep on going and the notification lets me know when the tests are done running and what the out come was. It really helps me focus on what I am doing and helps me stay in the "groove" better.Anonymoushttp://firstname.lastname@example.com://richfrog.curzons.net/2010/01/autotest-just-keeps-getting-better.htmltag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3541428078647305946.post-56926006549047063152010-01-28T18:08:00.000-08:002010-01-28T18:10:01.598-08:00When computers aren't enoughA friend forwarded this to me today and I couldn't stop laughing:

A cowboy named Bud was overseeing his herd in a remote mountainous pasture in California when suddenly a brand-new BMW advanced toward him out of a cloud of dust.

The driver, a young man in a Brioni suit,Gucci shoes, RayBan sunglasses and YSL tie, leaned out the window and asked the cowboy, "If I tell you exactly how many cows and calves you have in your herd, will you give me a calf?"

Bud looks at the man, obviously a yuppie, then looks at his peacefully grazing herd and calmly answers, "Sure, Why not?"

The yuppie parks his car, whips out his Dell notebook computer, connects it to his Cingular RAZR V3 cell phone, and surfs to a NASA page on the Internet, where he calls up a GPS satellite to get an exact fix on his location which he then feeds to another NASA satellite that scans the area in an ultra-high-resolution photo.

The young man then opens the digital photo in Adobe Photoshop and exports it to an image processing facility in Hamburg , Germany .

Within seconds, he receives an email on his Palm Pilot that the image has been processed and the data stored. He then accesses an MS-SQL database through an ODBC connected Excel spreadsheet with email on his Blackberry and, after a few minutes, receives a response.

Finally, he prints out a full-color, 150-page report on his hi-tech, miniaturized HP LaserJet printer, turns to the cowboy and says, "You have exactly 1,586 cows and calves."

"That's right. Well, I guess you can take one of my calves," says Bud.

He watches the young man select one of the animals and looks on with amusement as the young man stuffs it into the trunk of his car.

Then Bud says to the young man, "Hey, if I can tell you exactly what your business is, will you give me back my calf?"

The young man thinks about it for a second and then says, "Okay, why not?"

"You're a Congressman for the U.S. Government", says Bud.

"Wow! That's correct," says the yuppie, "but how did you guess that?"

"No guessing required." answered the cowboy. "You showed up here even though nobody called you; you want to get paid for an answer I already knew, to a question I never asked. You used millions of dollars' worth of equipment trying to show me how much smarter than me you are; and

You don't know a thing about how working people make a living - or about cows, for that matter. This is a herd of sheep. ....

Now give me back my dog.

Anonymoushttp://firstname.lastname@example.com://richfrog.curzons.net/2010/01/when-computer-arent-enough.htmltag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3541428078647305946.post-6259841198944294162009-12-27T03:07:00.000-08:002009-12-27T03:08:52.862-08:00Polyphasic Sleep MapI just found this really nice map of polyphasic sleepers around the world. If you are trying to adopt polyphasic sleep, or are already deeply into it, please sign up and put your pin on the map.

http://trypolyphasic.com/map

I'm proud to say that Oregon is the only state other than California (as far as I can see) that has TWO people doing uberman. I think that's pretty cool. At the same time, I hope people become more aware of polyphasic sleep and play with it as their situations permit.Anonymoushttp://email@example.com://richfrog.curzons.net/2009/12/polyphasic-sleep-map.htmltag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3541428078647305946.post-66009487652725130632009-12-27T02:46:00.000-08:002009-12-27T02:46:05.931-08:00Uberman Sleep patternFor about two years now I've been doing a sleep style called "polyphasic sleep". The two popular terms on the internet for it are Uberman and Everyman. Originally I started on Uberman and stayed on it for several months, but due to the psychological effects of being awake and alone for an extra 8 hours per day, I changed to an Everyman schedule. I sleep for 4.5 hours per night and take three 30min naps evenly spaced throughout the day.

Last week I went back to the Uberman pattern and things have been going good. Normally the transition to Uberman is truly killer, but my body is already used to taking naps and having a shortened core sleep period. It's been hard and I've fallen asleep on the couch a few times, but it's been manageable.

One of the things that has really helped me this time around is a Nintendo Wii and Wii Fit. My inlaws have it and when I get up from each nap during the night I get on the Wii and run through 30min of Wii Fit routines. When I do that my mind is awake and alert for the rest of the period until my next nap.

Another factor in my transition to Uberman this time around is that I've had 2 years to adjust to a milder version of the same psychological effects. I'm now comfortable working by myself for long hours on end in a low light environment. Feeling alone in your house is one thing, feeling alone in your entire timezone is another (I'm just saying that there are no appropriate locations open at 3am).

Post a comment if you'd like to know more, either on the blog or privately.Anonymoushttp://firstname.lastname@example.com://richfrog.curzons.net/2009/12/uberman-sleep-pattern.htmltag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3541428078647305946.post-75929610202686746362009-12-03T06:39:00.000-08:002009-12-03T06:41:38.440-08:00Word pair matching challengeIn trolling the net I found a problem that I thought would be fun. It was posted by CitrusByte and is as follows: Given a dictionary, output all word pairs where both words share all their letters except the last two, which are distinct and reversed.

My solution is a bit long to post inline, but go check it out on github.

My first attempt kept all the words around while the first letter remained the same. It ran in 4 minutes using a ~450k words. This last implementation runs in 5 sec on the same list. Yea! I was surprised too. Just goes to show that you don't always understand the real nature of your data until you test it.

The reason for the speed up it drawn on my board in pictures and diagrams, but I'll try to explain it. When the list of words we can check against is sorted, and our list of possible matches is sorted, when we have passed a given word (represented by the current word being greater than the given word) there is no possibility of a match existing so we can remove the word from the list.

If we are only considering words of the same length in a given list and we remove all words that we have passed, then the word we are looking for should be on top if it is in the list at all. Remember this is using a sorted list of matches. We have to resort the list each time we add an item, but resorting the list each time isn't too bad because the lists stay very small.Anonymoushttp://email@example.com://richfrog.curzons.net/2009/12/word-pair-matching-challenge.htmltag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3541428078647305946.post-47979941270286759652009-11-08T15:20:00.000-08:002009-11-09T06:34:08.217-08:00DataMapper adapter for FluidDBI've built and released a DataMapper adapter for FluidDB. This was a fun project because it was actually my first time using memcache and it is also my first rubygem. You can read the details on github or checkout the Quickstart:

Anonymoushttp://firstname.lastname@example.com://richfrog.curzons.net/2009/11/datamapper-adapter-for-fluiddb.htmltag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3541428078647305946.post-49360186262479247832009-10-25T06:44:00.000-07:002009-11-09T06:59:09.946-08:00CSV to GeoRSS converterA friend of mine was trying to mark on a map the location of 50 people as he read their names and addresses out of a database. The data changes slightly every month and he was doing it with a marker.

I told him I could plot the names on Google maps for him and so I built my first public web app. I've built a lot of web applications, but this is a first in many ways. It's the first time I've used Sinatra, DataMapper, Heroku, and Compass. It's the first time I imagined and created my own layout and styling, and it's my first app that I've tossed out there for people to use and play with. I'm trying to learn to participate more in the Ruby developer community.

The app converts a csv file into a georss feed and then redirects you to google maps with the url of the rss feed as the query string. That causes google maps to fetch the feed and display it's data an a map. The data isn't actually rss feed content, but the georss feed format is a super simple way of passing data to google maps.

Feel free to leave suggestions or check out the code.Anonymoushttp://firstname.lastname@example.com://richfrog.curzons.net/2009/10/csv-to-geocss-converter.htmltag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3541428078647305946.post-54277358130324422332009-10-20T06:20:00.000-07:002009-11-09T04:24:34.064-08:00RDoc: I'm convertedWorking on a new rails app yesterday I happened upon a file I hadn't read before: doc/README_FOR_APP

Use this README file to introduce your application and point to useful places in the API for learning more. Run "rake doc:app" to generate API documentation for your models and controllers.

So I ran the rake task and looked at what it generated. Wow. I'm not a big fan of tests in rapidly changing prototype code, but I LOVE documentation when it is easy to add and easy to find. This rake task generates rdocs for your application. If you don't know, rdoc notes are very easy to add to your code.

The rdocs are hyperlinked and have the method bodies inline so you can drill down for more details when you need them. This really helps when you are working on a large code base and can't remember everything about it. Tests are good, but understanding the code you're working with is primary.Anonymoushttp://firstname.lastname@example.com://richfrog.curzons.net/2009/10/rdoc-im-converted.htmltag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3541428078647305946.post-24299867143620191582009-09-14T09:47:00.001-07:002009-11-09T07:04:07.489-08:00Zookeeper as a Cluster Management FrameworkAs applications scale the line between operations and application development fades. Your application probably depends on multiple layers all tied together in a unique fashion. Index servers, database servers, BLOB storage servers, cache servers, etc. Who keeps everything connected properly? What happens when something doesn't work as expected?

Nati Shalom posted an article about applications taking responsibility for themselves. It takes ideas from the long standing meme of "self-healing applications" and combines it with move to dynamic cloud applications that interact with their environment through API's. Nati is the founder of GigaSpaces and in a later article talks about their implementation of this concept in their product.

An open source project that I have been following for a while is called ZooKeeper. It was written at Yahoo as a application coordination layer comparable to the Google Chubby Lock Manager. Unlike Chubby, ZooKeeper implements some basic primitives that support a really wide array of uses.

Although ZooKeeper isn't a Cluster Management API like Nati envisions (that is the application's responsibility) ZooKeeper is a powerful coordination framework that can give your application a sense of identity as a cluster with which to manage itself. Servers and services and report their status and needs, monitor each other, and store and find dynamic configuration information. Your application can also receive notifications when anything changes.

Check ZooKeeper out and let me know if it solves any problems you've been facing.Anonymoushttp://firstname.lastname@example.com://richfrog.curzons.net/2009/09/zookeeper-as-cluster-management.htmltag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3541428078647305946.post-18395817954127589802009-09-13T06:26:00.000-07:002009-11-09T04:23:16.125-08:00A git based wikiI decided that I wanted to document all the ideas in my head in a Wiki instead of Google Docs. I use git and vi a lot and like to have access to the text files backing anything. So I was excited to find WiGit.

WiGit is a php-based wiki that stores everything in Textile-formatted flat files in a git repository. 10 minutes and I had a wiki and a git clone of it on my laptop. I can edit things locally and push them back to the web server and the wiki automatically reflects the changes. Of course, the pages can be edited through the web interface too.

The power of Git as a web-based wiki is really awsome.Anonymoushttp://email@example.com://richfrog.curzons.net/2009/09/git-based-wiki.htmltag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3541428078647305946.post-48531588221044092462009-08-25T05:13:00.000-07:002009-11-09T04:27:00.980-08:00Employee Engagement
"If you could get all the people in an organization rowing in the same direction, you could dominate any industry, in any market, against any competition, at any time."

- Patrick Lencioni

My reading lately has started to show strong correlations between several current business leadership themes.

1) Strengths-based leadership/hiring - The Gallup organization is one of the major sources of information on this topic. "Now Discover Your Strengths" was written by them and lots of people have started preaching this idea. I personally really like the idea of people being organized according to their strengths. I agree that it helps people enjoy their work. Example article.

2) Democratic workplaces - Coming from a different direction is the idea that your employees are willing and even interested in helping improve the company and business. Historically management has been based on distrust between the top and the bottom of the hierarchy. Democratic workplaces are based on the idea that if you let employees make their own decisions, that they'll act responsibly. This is one of my favorite concepts as I love to come up with new ideas and need people to be open to those ideas. Example article.

3) Collaboration - Enterprise 2.0 is challenging existing management styles because it is all about power and knowledge at the edges. This is the big topic right now, but it gains a lot when considered together with democratic workplace strategies. A lot of the resistance that E2.0 faces is due to organizational culture more that anything else. Wikinomics is a decent primer that introduces the concepts for those still learning what Web2.0 is all about. For the more advanced, Amazon recommends some really great books, dipping into psychology and organizational behavior.

4) Teamwork - Just because we have fancy Web2.0 tools doesn't mean we work well together. Management gurus have long touted the importance of teamwork, but that doesn't mean everyone gets it. Five Dysfunctions of a Team is definitely my next purchase after I finish the 4 books I'm currently reading. Have you ever wanted to start a business just so you could work with your friends and trusted associates. We can build those kinds of teams. We can build teams of trust and inter-dependency.

I'm still not sure if my recent studies have taken such an "organizational-behavior" bent lately because I enjoy it for it's own sake or because it is so important to my personal work style. Either way, these are ideas that I feel could revolutionize any company.Anonymoushttp://email@example.com://richfrog.curzons.net/2009/08/employee-engagement.htmltag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3541428078647305946.post-76347304298291935332009-08-22T04:40:00.000-07:002009-11-09T04:28:13.918-08:00Nothing is EasyWhat happens when you spend years pushing your career in a particular direction and something tells you to go back where you came from?

I'm grateful for the things I've learned by pondering my entrepreneurial interests, but to drop my efforts for a freelance career path is hard. Having read "The Dip" helped me understand the decision that I face, but it was still up to me to take the action. I had to say no to some job opportunities and that was hard too.

I've realized that I really want to help improve cooperation inside organizations through both correct application of technology and good communication and social skills. Startups need this as much as big companies, but they tend not to have a problem with it. I want an environment where I can apply all the business management topics I'm studying and where there are enough people that I can help grease the gears of interaction.

I worked at Brigham Young University and Novell and, when I felt the organization resistance from the trenches, I thought I needed to move to smaller companies. Now I realize that what I really want to do is to reduce that resistance to employee contribution. Having been there and left is a blow to my pride, but I just need to stand up and move forward. It's unproductive to lament past choices once your lesson has been learned.

Tally-Ho!Anonymoushttp://firstname.lastname@example.com://richfrog.curzons.net/2009/08/nothing-is-easy.htmltag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3541428078647305946.post-41930317748961032722009-08-08T06:38:00.000-07:002009-11-09T04:27:00.980-08:00Cisco's Democratic managementI recently caught the story about Cisco changing it's management structure from command-and-control to collaborative. McKinsey Quarterly, FastCompany, and several blogs have articles about it. It think it's interesting that John Chambers talks about command-and-control structures in much the same language as Ricardo Semler. I wonder if Chambers read the book?

The comments on the WSJ blog article are disheartening. Everybody that commented talked about how big a failure Cisco's new management style is. They all said that the entire concept is a bunch of "mumbo-jumbo". FastCompany's article title even calls the idea "Socialist", although it appears to give a balanced analysis of it. How is it that such a modern, liberal idea can remain so inaccessible to people?

Netflix and Cisco are the only two companies that I had read about that are embracing collaborative/democratic management, but I just found a site all about organizational democracy and the companies that embrace it.Anonymoushttp://firstname.lastname@example.com://richfrog.curzons.net/2009/08/ciscos-democratic-management.htmltag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3541428078647305946.post-44807360975984443882009-08-07T06:35:00.000-07:002009-11-09T04:27:00.981-08:00Personal Initiative vs Business HierarchyAs I've moved through jobs I've seen things I liked and things I didn't like. I decided pretty quickly that I don't like the hierarchical rigidness of big companies. I do however enjoy the large problems they have to solve.

So between wanting to tackle large and difficult problems, and wanting the flexibility to exercise initiative, I started to study entrepreneurship and startups. That lead me to study business management styles. I wanted to know what kind of company I would fit in with and what it was about big companies that made them so different from small companies. That was when I started to understand the rigid structure that forms inside most companies as they grow.

I took that rigid structure for granted until I read a book called Maverick. It's a book about allowing all levels of your organization to self-organize and self-manage. It completely changed my perspective about how businesses should be run. At the time, I didn't know of any companies that had incorporated any of these ideas.

Evidently not many do. Rob Patterson pointed me to a presentation about Netflix and said, "In a lifetime of studying organizational culture, I have seen nothing this clear or brilliant." For me it is really exciting to have more study material as I learn about cultivating personal initiative in businesses.

The presentation says that it is for reading more than presenting so dig in. It's a long one, 128 slides, but as I digest it I'm sure I'll have some new ideas to share.Anonymoushttp://email@example.com://richfrog.curzons.net/2009/08/personal-initiative-vs-business.htmltag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3541428078647305946.post-86784809432938298762009-08-06T21:58:00.000-07:002009-11-09T06:59:09.946-08:00Dead easy google maps integrationSeveral months ago I had to plot data on a map. It didn't need to be very fancy, it was a low budget project and they just needed to see between 100-5000 data points on a map. After looking around it seemed to me that the easiest way of plotting the data was to just generate a georss document and send the user to a google maps url that would load the rss document.

RSS is most commonly used for keeping track of blog updates, but that doesn't mean that's the only thing you can use it for. Nothing says that the data in the RSS feed has to be time oriented or even changing. My application generates the RSS document from the database, so it could change from time to time, but on the whole it shows the same items all the time. It actually doesn't even have a date in the document.

My application just created a url that the user could visit to view the RSS for the needed data and then redirected them to google maps with the RSS feed url as a query option:
http://maps.google.com/?q=http://mywebserver.com/path/to/georss.xml
Google maps downloads the RSS document and displays the items on the map. The xml is really easy to build. If you are just putting this data in RSS to get it to google maps (I did) then you'll have to build the RSS from scratch. It's still easy. Here is an example of some simple RSS markup that you can easily generate from what ever language you are using.

It took me 30min to roll out basic google maps integration with my data using this really easy method. You can read more about it at georss.org.Anonymoushttp://email@example.com://richfrog.curzons.net/2009/08/dead-easy-google-maps-integration.htmltag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3541428078647305946.post-69726118518523836712009-08-01T22:30:00.001-07:002009-11-09T04:27:23.747-08:00Benjamin Franklin's AutobiographyI recently read Benjamin Franklin's autobiography and it had a lot of meaning and inspiration for me. He talks in detail about his efforts as a young man to improve himself and is training. He spends a large portion of the book on his mid-life and his efforts to establish himself in the community as a business man and the mis-steps he made and the keys to his success.

The route the Franklin took in building his business and then profiting from it as it grew beyond himself and in his later years seem to me an excellent pattern for encouraging entrepreneurship and instilling a sense of ownership in the front line of our productive efforts as a society.

One of the elements that had the greatest effect on me was that Franklin consistently pointed out the importance of his relationships to his business activities. He made friends with lots of people and as friends they each found was to help each other mutually. The repeated examples in his life really helped drive home the need for me to reach out and really connect with other people. Not in a sleazy marketing way, but make a really effort to extend my circle of friends. My nature is to have a small circle of very deep friendships, so have a looser circle of less frequent friendships is something that I have to work on.

My marketing professor said, "All things being equal friends buy from friends. All things not being equal, friends still buy from friends." That has stuck with me as I've read many sources and it has really helped me understand the direction I need to take to be a successful business person.Anonymoushttp://firstname.lastname@example.com://richfrog.curzons.net/2009/08/benjamin-franklins-autobiography.html

subset: commoncrawl


text:
Yesterday morning we were out of coffee, which I hate. It took everything I had to power my body down to the Safeway. I thought I'd take just one of the dogs with me, so I took Edward, the handsome beagle. I tied him to the bike rack as if he were the horse I rode in on. He barked louder than I've ever heard an animal bark in my life, and then I paid $2.25 for the world's worst coffee. (Safeway, what the fuck? You burn your coffee every single time. It's not an anomale at this point, you just serve burnt coffee.) A man loomed by the bike racks.
"That dog's got some anxiety issues," he said.
"I know that."
"Looks like he's got some coon hound in him."
"He's a beagle."
"And some pitbull." the Man added. "You can see it in his face."
"No. He's just a beagle."
Mind you, I'm not inordinately attached to the idea that my dog is a purebred animal, and he doesn't have fucking papers or anything, but for some reason I found it incredibly irritating that this guy didn't know what a beagle was. He persisted again:
"I'd say he's part coon hound, part pitbull."
"Sir, you're just describing what the parts of two dogs add up to, which is a beagle."
I tried to look up dog training videos on how to train your dog to be tied outside of a business without crying, but the searches just came back with "Don't tie your dog up outside of a business." You can't win.
The dogs love me. They follow me from room to room; they whine and cry when I leave. I am the new love of their life. I take them for lots of walks. Earlier, the smoke had cleared and the wheat colored hills to the north had no cows on them, but now the smoke is back and there are cows. I think they're cows, anyway. They could be black mounds with legs, but who would go to such trouble.
The dogs love me, but they fear and respect my roommate. The beagles got out and wouldn't listen when I told them to come in. I said, "Jesse, call your dogs." And Jesse said, "Get in the house" and it's like they understood English; they just ran inside single file. Jesse said to me, "Here's the difference between you and me: You ask them to do things, and I tell them."
I hate that, but he's right, and I don't understand the difference. There's a finality inside of Jesse that doesn't exist in me, and I don't know how to find it. I read about dog training all day long, and Jesse just does it. It pisses me off.
I might have to stop writing about my roommate so much, for a lot of different reasons.
1. It's weird to make an art project out of your relationship. It's just plain weird.
2. He said in the beginning that he wanted me to write about him, but that always has its limits. He was a little sore the other day. He said "I just wish you wouldn't write about me with your emotions" to which I said, "What the fuck are you talking about? That's how I write everything."
3. I can never get to the heart of the matter. The really good stuff is classified. To really get to the heart of Jesse, you have to rip him open, and then he'd be dead and it would be too serious.
4. My roommate is damaged goods. He's an abused pitbull who snarls and bites people who try to get close to him. He's misunderstood and he's been hurt in the past. It sounds condescending, but I don't mean it that way. Jesse is smarter than me, and he knows how to take care of himself, and it's thrilling to watch him navigate the world. I love him exactly how he is, but there's something wrong with him. He's not like normal people. I think he might be the three-legged dog I've been dreaming about.
5. I should save him for the book.
One of the mini poodles escaped today. Two hours of unmitigated anxiety, plus imagining that phone call: "Funny story, I killed your dog…" But he came back. After that I had lunch with an author in town who invited me out specifically to remind me of my potential. He said, "You could write anything you put your mind to." Being reminded of your potential is fine when you're using it, but when you're just sitting around not writing, it cuts like a knife. I'm not mad at anybody, I'm just anxious. Not writing feels like your dog ran away and you don't know if he's ever coming back. I should put an ad on craigslist. My beloved book has gone missing! Send help.
Casey Hannan and I did this story exchange thing for Story Tapes. Watch it! I am robotic and my eyes are all wrong, but I think look pretty.


text:
Hemlock Grove, based on Brian McGreevy's novel of the same name, puts a spin on the current trend of werewolves and vampires, replacing love triangles with body parts and unconsummated longing with raunchy, bloody sex. The story picks up in the small town of Hemlock Grove following a string of grisly murders when new boy in town, Peter Rumancek, gypsy trailer trash and rumored werewolf, comes under suspicion for the crime. Peter finds an unlikely ally in Roman Godfrey, golden boy of the wealthy and influential Godfrey estate, Hemlock Grove's resident wealthy philanthropists in the model of the Carnegies. Together the pair attempts to solve the mystery of the murder before the killer can strike again. The show stars Famke Janssen, Dougray Scott, Lili Taylor, and Bill Skarsgard, Landon Liboiron.
Shortly before the WonderCon panel (here's my recap), executive producer Eli Roth and director Deran Sarafian sat down for a roundtable interview. We talked about what attracted Roth to the TV format, what they loved about the book, creating a unique werewolf transformation, balancing the gore with good story, Roman and Peter's Unique Relationship, and more. Check out the full interview after the jump. Please be aware that there are minor spoilers for the first three episodes.
We're very excited about your series.
ELI ROTH: So are we, it was a crazy, fun, exciting thing to shoot. I've been wanting to get into television for a while, but there was always an inherent problem that I couldn't solve, which is that what makes horror great is that anyone can die at any second, but what makes television great is that you have characters that you love that you come back to see week after week. As things started evolving in television you get The Walking Dead, Game of Thrones, and Boardwalk Empire, and you can see these very violent stories playing out over a long period of time. You could feel the medium was evolving. Then of course what Ryan Murphy did with American Horror Story was terrific. It was the producer Eric Newman, who I did The Last Exorcism with, who brought me the manuscript of Hemlock Grove, and when we read it we thought, "This is it, this could be like a monstrous Twin Peaks." It's a murder mystery. It's about something rising from the ashes of steel town America. We pitched it to Netflix and they were so excited to go for it, and we loved the idea of doing something new that was bold and different, but having every episode available to you and really approaching it like a 13 hour movie.
Then of course working with Deran, it's so great when you have somebody who's so experienced in television and feature films, and comes from the feature world. Very few people know this about Deran, but he actually cut his teeth, in his twenties, working under Dario Argento and Lucio Fulci, shooting second unit for those guys and even acting for them. So when we talked about things like the werewolf transformation, the attacks and the kills, we knew that he was going to photograph the dramatic stuff to look beautiful and fantastic, but he cared about the horror scenes the way I did, and he was just a perfect creative partner.
DERAN SARAFIAN: I've been a big fan of Eli's before this even started and once I had the opportunity to work for him I just went for it. We have a similar agent and I said, "Get me in there with Eli, let me work something out, I feel like I know the guy." We sat down, we started talking and we just hit it off. We have very similar sensibilities; I see it in his work. Very, very similar. When we started this he goes, "Listen, I want to do something that is reminiscent of great horror, but I want to twist it." He brought up Lynch and people that we all aspire to be like, because it's like looking at a Picasso, we want to be like that. We got into this with the mindset of twisting this and making it different. Something that Eli told me early on that we sort of tried to follow is if you look at a rock, don't film that rock, film what's beneath that rock, which has been really, really fantastic.
ROTH: There's a whole world going on under there; rot, worms, disease.
SARAFIAN: Exactly; I just thought it was brilliant and it just gets more under that rock as the series goes on.
ROTH: Yeah, it gets darker, and Brian wrote such a wonderfully twisted novel. I was so impressed with his research, and in particular his research about the root mythology of what Bram Stoker based Dracula on, Upirs and Vargulfs. It's literally the original folklore that the very first novels were based on, but setting it in this world where biotech has risen out of the ashes and these new monsters have been created, using them as a metaphor for teenagers and all those things. It was a very, very dark twisted novel that's unapologetically so, but still fascinating and strange. We talked about that transformation and how we were going to pull it off and we sat there for weeks. For me the benchmark was always An American Werewolf in London, the Rick Baker transformation, but I also love the Rob Bottin transformation from The Howling. We thought about if you're a fourteen year old girl, your idea of a transformation is a shirtless guy who walks around a tree and comes back a wolf. I want people to watch it and go, "Oh, that's what it's really like." A violent birth and visceral, he eats the placenta, and then Deran was like, "Yeah, then he should shake it off like a wet dog!" Both of us just went to town.
SARAFIAN: I wanted it to feel like an orgasm. It's the same thing. I want this thing to be personal.
ROTH: I remember Deran was like, "You got to pound your fist into the ground." It was so brilliantly rendered, and it really was Deran's years of television experience and horror experience, and his artistic eye that we were able to pull that off. You're shooting an episode in eight days, we could have spent eight days shooting that transformation, and I know how to do it from my feature films, but Deran has so much experience. And because we're not airing every week he was able to shoot the transformation over the course of ten episodes and put it in episode two, because they're all going to air at once. That way if there's something we want to change in episode one, we just do it. We really got to approach it like a thirteen hour movie.
SARAFIAN: If this transformation wasn't good, if we didn't feel great about it, it's almost like Texas Chainsaw Massacre when Leatherface took the girl and hung her on the hook.
SARAFIAN: This is our moment to make you go, "This is not your normal horror series."
You took a different approach to the relationship between your two male leads as well. Roman and Peter, rather than butting heads, they have almost an instant bond.
ROTH: I love when you really play out long term mythology, like in the early X-Men movies when they're working together and you're like, "Oh that's so cool, Magneto and Xavier we're friends, they worked together." You want to see the moment where they split apart. Of course you want to have somewhere to go in season two and season three, so if you start them off as enemies, where do you go from there? Starting them off as friends that work together then slowly these other sides of them can come out. That's the great thing about a story like this, Brian has three novels already written, so he's got these character arcs that he can go back and remember how things were. It's like your relationships and your friendships; some of them might have been your best friend three years ago and you might not even be talking to them now. So it's fun to be able to play that out over different seasons.
Was there discussion about how much you would take advantage of this format where you can really run with the gore? The elements of gore that we've seen in the first three episodes are intense, but they're pretty sparing.
ROTH: Absolutely, normally restrained is not the word associated with me, but we also wanted people to get into the story and we didn't want to be like, "Hey look, we're on Netflix, we can rip someone's guts out!" We could have done that, but I think you then become very self-conscious about it. The gore is like an ingredient in a pizza, it all has to serve the story. If you're watching and go, "What happens next?" That's the right amount.
SARAFIAN: We wanted to be the shark under the water, we really did. That's the whole idea. The sexual tension between the two lead characters- I mean this is a love story, really, if you look at that novel, this is a love story between these two guys and that's what we wanted to go after. The ad campaign is so right on; "The monster within." We didn't want it to be just a big monster show. When we read the book, and we talked about this, what our hero David Lynch really did so well was get into the duality of who people are, what they're all about.
ROTH: Nobody is who they seem, everything is under the surface, but also there was the cold sterility of an isolated, wealthy world that Hal Ashby did so well in films like Harold and Maude where these people with money in these gorgeous, old houses have the saddest life. We kept talking about, what does Roman do? He's sits there in a drained tub with slippers on, listening to music, smoking cigarettes, whereas Peter lives in this trashy trailer, but it feels warm, it feels cozy, it feels like everybody could hang out there and be comfortable. Roman's house is like a strange, sterile museum. We didn't want it to be all about making a gory show; we wanted to create a world.
SARAFIAN: It's funny you say that because it was a museum and we were lucky enough, in Toronto, to shoot in this place called Parkwood Estate, it was a real museum and they let us film in there.
ROTH: There was a bowling alley, it was crazy.
Click here for all our Hemlock Grove coverage. And here's everything we've posted from WonderCon 2013.


text: Razorfish, Seattle hired Christopher Esposito as director, user experience. . ... Bi-coastal/London-based production company MJZ signed director Harmony Korine for U.S. and U.K. spot representation. ... HSI, London music video directors Phil and Olly, Scott and Laurence, Chris Cottam, Dan Knight and Jim Canty formed the new directing collective, Rebel Alliance. ... Paris-based production company Wanda signed director Baker Smith and Paul Hunter for French spot representation. ... Rabbit, New York signed former HKM director Matt Ogens to its roster. ... Wexley School for Girls and JWT alum Chris Lohman launched Seattle-based agency Saint St. ... German agency Pragmagency relocated its primary operations to Alhambra, California.


text:
Peep Kanye West ""Chicago Hip Hop 101" (Unreleased)" Video, the latest visual from Kanye West. It dropped on Thursday, April 18th, 2013. Kanye West's future brightens with every new release, and Kanye West ""Chicago Hip Hop 101" (Unreleased)" Video certainly isn't an exception. It's a fitting addition to a solid catalogue that Kanye West has been developing since stepping foot in the game. We're excited to hear more.Here goes some never-before seen footage of Kanye West talking about Chicago hip hop all while getting a fresh cut from Ibn Jasper. Shot back in 2002.
Can you appreciate the bars here?
Did y'all catch Kanye West's latest visual for Kanye West Feat. Kim Kardashian "Hip Hop Baby Mash-Up: Kim Kardashian & Kanye West" Video?
Hit up Kanye West's profile page for the latest info, news, songs, and mixtapes. Don't forget to follow Kanye West on Facebook and Twitter.


text:
Happy Sunday!
There are two reasons I am back to blogging. One, I had a box full of empties and I mean full. Two, I had so many empties of tried and true products I feel good again about trying new products. Grab some moscato and get ready to read, or marvel at how many products I have been able to use up since my last empties post at the end of January. Continue reading


text:
Öxnäs Temptation
Mixing instructions:
Start by adding the vodka and the banan liqueur. Fill the glass with sprite or similar soft drink. Pour some conc. orange juice. Stir. Add some grenadine for that nice Tequila Sunrise effect, or don't if you think it will be to sweet. Add a slice of orange for decoration.
Buy shakers, bartending videos, bar tools and supplies in
The Webtender's BarStore.
Copyright © 1995-2020 The Webtender.
About | Disclaimer | Privacy policy


text:
Powerpoint 2000- Dual Screen Tips
The first thing to keep in mind about dual screens with PowerPoint is that it is not a solve-all for church presentation applications, but it is a giant leap forward. Worship software packages specifically designed for the needs of worship are still superior in flexibility and are faster when preparing a service (See Tim's Top Ten Worship Software List, page 66). My advice is to use a worship program for songs and PowerPoint for more graphic intense applications.
New features in PowerPoint 2000 include:
1. Dual monitor support
2. Animated gifs
3. F5 hot key to start presentation
4. Projector wizard
5. Screen saver auto-disable
6. Graphical bullets
In order to easily understand how the dual monitor feature is best utilized, refer to this screenshot.
Notice the new GUI (pronounced 'gooey', stands for graphic user interface).
1. The outline view to the left will serve as a reference to your order of worship. In order to name the slides as shown, type in the name of the song and the verse or chorus number in the outline view (e.g. where Crown Him With Many Crowns V1 is highlighted next to slide number 15).
2. The text will appear on the slide. Select and move the text-box off of the slide so that it will not be seen during the presentation. Notice that the text-box located above the slide in the screenshot.
3. Once you have named all of the slides you will have a list similar to the one in the screenshot.
4. Select Slideshow > Set Up Show. In the Show On drop-down menu select Monitor 2.
5. Press F5 on your keyboard to start the presentation.
6. You can navigate the presentation as you normally would. I recommend using the forward and backward arrows on your keyboard.
7. Your primary monitor (the one that the operator sees) is really more of a reference monitor rather than a control monitor. Click on a slide in the outline view. Notice that the slide does not appear on the second output.
In order to make the slide appear:
A. Note the slide number.
B. Click Resume Slide Show.
C. Type in the slide number and press Enter.
You can see that the reference monitor is replacing that printout that you usually refer to.
Notes: In the box below each slide, you may type in notes to the operator (e.g. "this slide repeats")
Searching: Press Ctrl > F and type in a keyword. Click Find Next. Note the slide number, resume the slide show, and enter the slide number.
PowerPoint gets spontaneous: Import all of your songs into one big presentation using Insert > Slides from Files. Import them in alphabetical order and rearrange as needed. Use the search feature to find a song during a worship service.
System Requirements for Dual-Screen: You will need Windows '98 and two graphics cards. They do not need to match. 4 MB of video RAM is recommended as a minimum.


text:
The team felt Kerstin really captured the vintage side of this challenge as well as evoking a real feeling of cool water. Congratulations Kerstin on being our favourite for the 'Cool Water' challenge and winning the opportunity to be a Guest Designer here at Frilly and Funkie for a future challenge.
And Random.org has chosen a winner for our $25 gift certificate to The Funkie Junkie Boutique. Our congratulations go to #18 Smiles by Debbie.
A huge vote of thanks from the Frilly and Funkie team to everyone who took part in this challenge and congratulations again to our winners. Please email Linda at email@example.com for the codes for the winner's badge and to give us your email address for the Guest Designer details (Kerstin) and for the gift certificate details (Debbie).
Our current challenge, 'Vintage Travel' runs through Tuesday, August 12th. We hope to see you entering this time around so that you too can be in with a chance to win. And remember, you can enter up to 10 challenges including ours, and a maximum of 3 entries per person to our challenge. Please remember to link back to our challenge in your entry and mention in your post that you are entering this Frilly and Funkie challenge.
Have a great week!


text:
The perfect summer accessory! This cute cap is a total necessity for any beach trips on your agenda.
- Grey pigment dyed hat with light pink embroidery
- Embroidered front and back
- Adam's brand
- Caps are unisex, one-size fit
- Adjustable leather strap with metal closure in back.
As always, up to 50% of proceeds are donated to benefit foster children and foster-care related charities so you can shop guilt-free.


text:
Metropolis Ruhr:
The following 53 cities belong to the Ruhr area: Alpen, Bergkamen, Bochum, Bönen, Bottrop, Breckerfeld, Castrop-Rauxel, Datteln, Dinslaken, Dorsten, Dortmund, Duisburg, Ennepetal, Essen, Fröndenberg, Gelsenkirchen, Gevelsberg, Gladbeck, Hagen, Haltern am See, Hamm, Hamminkeln, Hattingen, Herdecke, Herne, Herten, Holzwickede, Hünxe, Kamen, Kamp-Lintfort, Lünen, Marl, Moers, Mülheim an der Ruhr, Neukirchen-Vluyn, Oberhausen, Oer-Erkenschwick, Recklinghausen, Rheinberg, Schermbeck, Schwelm, Schwerte, Selm, Sonsbeck, Sprockhövel, Unna, Voerde, Waltrop, Werne, Wesel, Wetter, Witten, Xanten
The Ruhr area is located in the German state "Nordrhein-Westfalen" (North-Rhine-Westphalia) and is named after the river "Ruhr". It has a population of about 5,3 million and an area of 4.435 km2. 37,6 % of the area is built up, 40,7 % is used for agriculture and the proportion of forest is 17,6 %. The remaining area are surfaces of the water and other types of land use. In the Ruhr area there are about 615.000 people with a migration background, the percentage of foreigners is about 10,5 %. It includes 11 independent towns and 4 urban districts. The biggest independent towns are Dortmund (585.000 inhabitants), Bochum (380.000 inhabitants), Essen (580.000 inhabitants) and Duisburg (495.000 inhabitants).
Since the 19th century, these towns have grown together into a large complex with a vast industrial landscape, the fourth largest urban area in Europe after Moscow, London and Paris. Seen on a map, the Ruhr Area could be considered a single city, since there are no visible breaks between the individual city boroughs. For this reason, the Ruhr Area is described as a polycentric urban area. The area is characterized by a similar history of urban and economic development.
Before industrialisation began in the early 19th century, the Ruhr Valley was a former manufacturing region. Industrialization began in the region with the establishment of several iron works in the late 18th century. During the same period, locks built at Mülheim on the Ruhr allowed the expansion of coal mining further up the river and led to the expansion of Mülheim as a port. Development of the Ruhr Area's coal deposits fueled further expansion of its iron and steel industry. By 1850, almost 300 coal mines were in operation in the region. The coal was processed in coking ovens into coke, which was needed to fuel the region's blast furnaces, which produced iron and steel. Before the coal deposits along the Ruhr were used up, new mines were sunk farther north. The Ruhr Area's mining industry migrated northward from the Ruhr to the Emscher and finally to the Lippe, sinking ever deeper mines as it went. The expansion of railways across Germany beginning in the mid-19th century gave further impetus to the Ruhr Area's iron and steel industry. The Ruhr coal-mining district grew into the largest industrial region of Europe.
Nowadays the old minings can be visited by tourists, Bochum occupies a large museum of mining. The famous coal mine "Zeche Zollern" in Dortmund, representing these days a museum which shows social and culture history of the mining in the Ruhr area.The landmark of Dortmund is the so called "Dortmunder U" which is named after the Dortmunder "Union brewery", founded in 1873
The Ruhr Valley is also an attraction for many tourists to discover the large and eclectic cultural highlights. There are a lot of historical and industrial museums showing the history of the Ruhr Valley, but not forgetting also many museums of art. Especially within the "European Capital of Culture 2010" the Ruhr Valley is presenting a variety of cultural events. There are 20 museums of art in the Ruhr Valley, which have joined forces to a close network, called "RuhrKunstMuseen" (www.ruhrkunstmuseen.de). The first collaborative exhibition project will be taking place in the context of Ruhr2010.
European Capital of Culture:
In 2010 the "Metropolis Ruhr" became the European Capital of Culture.
The European Capital of Culture is a city designated by the European Union for a period of one calendar year during which it organises a series of cultural events with a strong European dimension. Preparing a European Capital of Culture can be an opportunity for the city to generate considerable cultural, social and economic benefits and it can help foster urban regeneration, change the city's image and raise its visibility and profile on an international scale.
It is also a real asset for attracting tourists in the city. In 1985, former actress Melina Mercouri, then Greece's Minister of Culture, and her French counterpart Jack Lang came up with the idea of designating an annual Capital of Culture, to bring Europeans closer together by highlighting the richness and diversity of European cultures and raising awareness of their common history and values.
The Commission of the European Union manages the title and each year the Council of Ministers of the European Union formally designates European Capitals of Culture: more than 40 cities have been designated so far, from Stockholm to Genoa, Athens to Glasgow, and Cracow to Porto.
An international panel of cultural experts is in charge of assessing the proposals of cities for the title according to criteria specified by the European Union. List of European Cities/Capitals of Culture.
A 2004 study conducted by Robert Palmer (known as the "Palmer Study") for the European Commission demonstrated that the choice of European Capital of Culture served as a catalyst for the cultural development and the transformation of the city. Consequently, the beneficial socio-economic development and impact for the chosen city are now also considered in determining the chosen cities.
Under the title "RUHR.2010" the region will be presenting itself for the first time as European Capital of Culture and offering a twelve-month programme with some 300 projects and 2,500 events under the motto "Change through Culture – Culture through Change". The programme focuses on three guiding themes: mythology, metropolis and Europe. "We want to make the Ruhr mythology comprehensible, shape a new metropolis and move Europe," says Oliver Scheytt, managing director of "RUHR.2010", as he explains the basic concept.
The Ruhr will be celebrating the biggest festival on July 18, when 60 kilometres of tables stretching from Dortmund to Duisburg will unite the inhabitants of the whole region at a banquet of the cultures, nationalities and generations. In addition to this, over 1700 artists' groups and cultural associations are taking part in the "TWINS" project, which involves over 150 towns paired up with locations in the Ruhr.
Projects we liked:
Ruhr Lit Cup
Writing and sports: the combination is an unusual one, but at the Ruhr Lit Cup, every player is an author, and every author is a football enthusiast.
Last weekend the German author's football team won the Ruhr Lit Cup tournament held as part of the Ruhr.2010 cultural celebration.
Eight teams hailing from Sweden, England, Italy, Austria, Germany, and Turkey met in Unna – a small city east of Dortmund – to compete in the four-day tournament. One of the German teams was comprised entirely of mystery-novel writers.
Off the field, players and lit-fans met for readings, concerts, and discussion panels under the mottos "Bolzen" and "Balzen." Many notable authors participated, including Alessandro Baricco for Italy, Cansel Elçin for Turkey, und Franzobel for Austria.
During a close game Sunday in Dortmund's "Rote Erde" ("Red Earth") stadium, German authors kicked off against Turkish authors, and won 5:4.
The tournament took place as part of Ruhr.2010, a celebration of culture in north-east Germany's Ruhr region, which has been named a "European Cultural Capital" this year.
Design Kiosk- Across-the-counter designer goods.
In Germany, kiosks are street-side stalls that sell newspapers and confectionery. In 2010, thirty of the region's kiosks will be offering the general public the opportunity to buy hand-made everyday items from European designers. A competition was held to identify the 30 designers with the most compelling products. The conditions stated that the item had to have a functional purpose, fit into a box measuring 11x11x11 cm and cost less than € 20.
An integral part of German city life, kiosks provide the ideal platform for this project masterminded by BochumDesign e. V. It's an undertaking that unites several of the region's recognised virtues: resourcefulness, problem-solving, practical thinking and high-quality craftsmanship. Discovery tours lead out from Bochum, traversing the Ruhr region and ending at the 30 kiosks. Beyond the shop counter, the "design kiosks" themselves bear witness to their industrial locations where, often, yet-to-be-discovered firms in the creative sector have set up base. Indeed, consumer demand for better quality and greater individuality when it comes to functional, everyday items is boosting the design industry in the region as much as it is elsewhere.
A mobile design kiosk developed by students of the Dortmund University of Science and Technology will be unveiled during the "Local Heroes" week in Recklinghausen in March 2010. The bus will ply its trade along the design kiosk route, selling all the products from the 30 kiosks. Accompanying the project will be a retrospective exhibition of work by all Bochum Design Prize winners and entrants since 1997. DESIGNKIOSK RUHR.2010 has already led to the establishment of a network comprising numerous universities, companies, trade associations and institutions.
Flying grass carpet
You'd better hop on it now! July 31 will be the last day the impressive Flying Grass Carpet will be in the Essen city centre. The carpet "landed" there on July 2 as part of the RUHR2010 program of events and transformed the Willy-Brandt-Platz it into a green meeting place of cultures for the entire month of July, 2010.
This unusual travelling exhibit is on a tour through this year's three European Capitals of Culture. It was already in Pécs (Hungary) from 21 May – 10 June and after leaving Essen on the July 31, it is slated to appear in Istanbul (Turkey) in September.
The eclectic program for outdoor fun on the carpet included picnic music performance, a theatre piece, a dance performance and much more. With urban spaces losing more and more of their public green spaces, this green blanket is a welcome and refreshing locale for community events and relaxing with family and friends.
HUNK-design and ID Eddy have designed the Flying Grass Carpet and it is an instant park that can be unfolded in any city. It brings a unique experience of fun and relaxation. The carpet is a portable "mini park", measuring up to 25 by 36 meters.
The Flying Grass Carpet is designed to look like an immense Persian rug with its pattern executed in different types of artificial grass, giving it a typical look and touch. As with ordinary parks, people can lie down on the grass or play ball with their friends. It's an excellent spot to have a Frisbee tournament, a city picnic and all sorts of contests and performances.
Like in fairytales the Flying Grass Carpet travels from one city to the next and connects different cities and their citizens with each other. A worldwide shared public domain is created.


text:
I just finished watching a video by Daniel Akin about what Jesus believed about the Bible (below) and thought it was about time I shared on this issue. I am aware that many people don't share Jesus high view of Scripture and don't take the Bible literally, and if we are Christ followers we should!
I believe that many Christians are embarrassed about some of the parts in Scripture (creation, worldwide flood, literal Adam and Eve). They don't believe because they have been intellectually bullied and intimidated by people that they think are smarter than them. Some have been professors or scientists and sadly some have even been pastors.
Why should we take the Bible literally?
Because Jesus did!
Yes, the world (and all those scientists and professors who hate God) will mock you for taking seriously and literally the things in Scripture. Skeptics find it difficult to swallow things like a literal six days of creation (hasn't science proven that wrong?), Adam and Eve, a worldwide flood, Jonah in the whale. BUT, these are the very things that Jesus referenced as historical and trustworthy fact. Are you prepared to call Jesus a liar? Because I am not. In fact, I am glad he validated Scripture so thoroughly so that I can know my faith is in the right place in his word.
Why would anyone think that to beleive Jesus is not smart. Think about it. If Jesus rose from the dead, it proves that he is in fact God and by extension proves absolutely reliable everything that he said and affirmed – i.e. the whole of Scripture.
I found it helpful (and a very useful tool) to have the notes on this teaching open as I followed along. (I copied and pasted it below as well).
Daniel Akin – 20/20 Collegiate Conference 2012 – Session 1 from Southeastern Seminary on Vimeo.
The following is from www.danielakin.com:
"What Did Jesus Believe About the Bible"
(Matthew 5:17-18)
"The question of biblical authority is ultimately a question of Christology. What you believe about Jesus will ultimately determine what you believe about the Bible." (Russ Bush, Professor of Philosophy and Apologetics)
―The Holy Bible was written by men divinely inspired and is God's revelation of Himself to man. It is a perfect treasure of divine instruction. It has God for its author, salvation for its end, and truth, without any mixture of error, for its matter. Therefore, all Scripture is totally true and trustworthy. It reveals the principles by which God judges us, and therefore is, and will remain to the end of the world, the true center of Christian union, and the supreme standard by which all human conduct, creeds, and religious opinions should be tried. All Scripture is a testimony to Christ, who is Himself the focus of divine revelation.
I want to try and answer the question, "What did Jesus believe about the Bible? What was the Savior's view of Scripture?" After all, as Clark Pinnock put it so well early in his academic career, ―Unreserved commitment to Jesus requires us to look at the Bible through his eyes. (God's Inerrant Word, 202). We shall call to the stand several statements made by our Lord. The key texts where Jesus speaks to the issue of biblical authority are: Matthew 5:17-18; Luke 24:25-27, 44-49; John 10:35; 17:17. In particular I want to give attention to Matthew 5:17-18. A careful examination of this text reveals 2 basic truths concerning Jesus' view of the Bible.
I. Jesus believed all the Scriptures point to Him. 5:17
In the greatest sermon ever preached, the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus returns to the theme of the kingdom (3 times in 5:19-20) These verses serve as the introduction to the ―6 great antitheses of 5:21-48. They also explain how it is that we can live out the beatitudes of 5:3-12 and be the salt of the earth and the light of the world (5:13-16).
1) 5:17 introduces us to the high view of Scripture held by Jesus. Though there is no questions He has the Old Testament Scriptures in view, what He
affirmed about the Old Testament He also promised concerning the New Testament as well. In John 16:12-15 He said,
"I still have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now. When
the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth, for he will not speak on his own authority, but whatever he hears he will speak, and he will declare to you the things that are to come. He will glorify me, for he will take what is mine and declare it to you. All that the Father has is mine; therefore I said that he will take what is mine and declare it to you.
2) Jesus introduced teachings that were new and striking. Indeed, as John 7:46
states, "No man ever spoke like this man." Some may have concluded that His
teaching constituted a decisive break with the Old Testament Scriptures. That is certainly the judgment of some Baptists today. Not so says Jesus. Do not think (or consider) that I came to destroy (annual abrogate, disintegrate, demolish.) J.A. Alexander notes the idea is that of ―the destruction of a whole by the complete separation of its parts, as when a house is taken down by being taken to pieces. Jesus says I did not come to tear apart or dismantle the law and prophets (a reference to the whole of Scriptures of His day). I did not come to destroy (repeated for emphasis) but to fulfill. Note that the antithesis is not between "abolish" and "keep" but between "abolish" and "fulfill."
3) Jesus provides not only an emphatic denial but also a positive declaration for his coming – he came to fulfill, complete the Scriptures. To set them aside was never His agenda. To bring them to fulfillment and fruition was why He came.
Don Carson has it right when he says, "Jesus fulfills the entire Old
Testament in many ways. Because they point toward him, he has certainly not
come to abolish them. Rather, he has come to fulfill them in a rich diversity of ways … Jesus does not conceive of his life and ministry in terms of opposition to the Old Testament, but in terms of bringing to fruition that toward which it points. Thus the law and the prophets, far from being abolished, find their valid continuity in terms of their outworking in Jesus. The detailed prescriptions of the Old Testament may well be superceded, because whatever is prophetic must be in some sense provisional. But whatever is prophetic likewise discovers its legitimate continuity in the happy arrival of that toward which it has pointed."
(Carson, Sermon on the Mount, 37).
John 5:39 – "You search the Scriptures, for in them you think you have eternal
life; and these are they which testify of me."
Luke 24:25-27 – "Then He said to them, "O foolish ones, and slow of heart to
believe in all that the prophets have spoken! Ought not the Christ to have
suffered these things and to enter into His glory?" And beginning at Moses and
all the Prophets, He expounded to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning Himself."
Luke 24:44-45 – "Then He said to them, "These are the words which I spoke to
you while I was still with you, that all things must be fulfilled which were written in the Law of Moses and the Prophets and the Psalms concerning Me." And He opened their understanding, that they might comprehend the Scriptures."
It's All About Jesus!
Jesus is the true and better Adam who passed the test in the wilderness and whose obedience is imputed to us.
Jesus is the true and better Abel who, though innocently slain, has blood now that cries out, not for our condemnation, but for acquittal.
Jesus is the better Ark of Noah who carries us safely through the wrath of God revealed from heaven and delivers us to a new earth.
Jesus is the true and better Abraham who answered the call of God to leave all the comfortable and familiar and go out into the world not knowing where he went to create a new people of God.
Jesus is the true and better Isaac who was not just offered up by his father on the mount but was truly sacrificed for us. And when God said to Abraham, "Now I know you love me because you did not withhold your son, your only son whom you love from me," now we can look at God taking his son up the mountain and sacrificing him and say, "Now we know that you love us because you did not withhold your son, your only son, whom you love from us."
Jesus is the true and better Jacob who wrestled and took the blow of justice we deserved, so we, like Jacob, only receive the wounds of grace to wake us up and discipline us.
Jesus is the true and better Joseph who, at the right hand of the king, forgives those who betrayed and sold him and uses his new power to save them.
Jesus is the true and better Moses who stands in the gap between the people and the Lord and who mediates a new covenant.
Jesus is the true and better Rock of Moses who, struck with the rod of God's justice, now gives us water in the desert.
Jesus is the true and better Joshua, who leads us into a land of eternal rest and heavenly blessing.
Jesus is the better Ark of the Covenant, who topples and disarms the idols of this world, going Himself into enemy territory and making an open spectacle of them all.
Jesus is the true and better Job, the truly innocent sufferer, who then intercedes for and saves his stupid friends.
Jesus is the true and better David whose victory becomes his people's victory, though they never lifted a stone to accomplish it themselves.
Jesus is the true and better Esther who didn't just risk leaving an earthly palace but lost the ultimate and heavenly one, who didn't just risk his life, but gave his life to save his people.
Jesus is the true and better Daniel, having been lowered into a lion's den of death, emerges early the next morning alive and vindicated by His God.
Jesus is the true and better Jonah who was cast out into the storm so that we could be brought in.
Jesus is the real Rock of Moses, the real Passover Lamb, innocent, perfect, helpless, slain so the angel of death will pass over us. He's the true temple, the true prophet, the true priest, the true king, the true sacrifice, the true lamb, the true light, the true bread.
The Bible's really not about you — it's about Him. Adapted from Tim Keller, ―It's All About Jesus‖ (Theology and Quotations, Dec. 4, 2006)
Jesus believed all the Scriptures point to Him.
II. Jesus believed all the Scriptures were perfect in detail. 5:18
Verse 17 affirms a promise – fulfillment understanding of Jesus' view of
Scripture, not a promise – abolish paradigm. Verse 18 provides the Christological and theological rationale.
1) Jesus introduces verse 18 with a note of personal authority that transcended all other rabbi's. "For truly" or "I tell you the truth" is the word Amen. It alerts us that the words that will follow are of paramount importance and authority.
2) Until heaven and earth pass away means until the end of the age, as long as
the present world order persists.
3) Not an Iota, a reference to the yod, the smallest letter in the Hebrew alphabet, similar to our comma.
4) Not a Dot, the smallest projection or part of a Hebrew letter,
5) Will by no means (ou me) a double negative used for force. "No not."
6) Shall pass away from the law till all is fulfilled
In the Lukan parallel we read, "It is easier for heaven and earth to pass
away than for one tittle of the law to fail." (Luke 16:17)
Jesus in the strongest possible language affirms the reliability and truthfulness of the Scriptures. He is not saying the Old Testament contains some truth or that it becomes truth when men and women have a significant encounter with it. As he affirms in John 10:35,"the Scripture cannot be broken." As it proclaims in prayer to the Father in John 17:17, "Your word is
truth." The outstanding scholar H.C.G. Moule says it well, "[Jesus] absolutely trusted the Bible; and though there are in it things inexplicable and intricate that have puzzled me so much, I am going, not in a blind sense, but reverently, to trust the Book because of Him." (Pache, 223).
―However difficult the interpretation of Matthew 5:17-20 may be, or how disputed the exact nature of the ―fulfillment,‖ surely it is clear that when Jesus says, "I tell you the truth, until heaven and earth disappear, not the smallest letter, not the least stroke of a pen, will by any means disappear from the Law until everything is accomplished" (Matt 5:18), he assumes the truthfulness and reliability of the "the Law" (which in the context refers to all of Scriptures: cf. "the Law" and "the Prophets" in 5:17; 7:12) as it is enshrined in Scripture. (Don Carson, ―Approaching the Bible,‖ in New Bible Commentary, 1-19)
When we survey our Lord's teaching in the Gospels we discover that the judgments of these scholars is confirmed.
1. Jesus consistently treated the historical narratives of the Old Testament as straightforward records of fact. He referred to Abel (Luke 11:51), Noah
(Matt. 24:37-39), Abraham (Jn 8:56), Sodom and Gomorrah (Matt. 10:15, 11:23-24), Lot (Luke 17:28-32), Isaac and Jacob (Matt. 8:11), the manna (Jn 6:31), the wilderness serpent (Jn 3:14), David (Matt. 22:43), Solomon (Matt. 6:29, 12:42), Elijah (Luke 4:25-26), Elisha (Luke 4:27), Jonah (Matt. 12:39-41) and Moses (Matt. 8:4), among others. No where is there the slightest hint that he questioned their historicity or the accuracy of the account.
2. It is interesting to note that Jesus often chose as the basis of his teaching those very stories that many modern skeptics find unacceptable (e.g.,
Adam and Eve, Noah's flood, Sodom and Gomorrah, and Jonah).
3. For Jesus, Scripture was the final court of appeal in his disputes with the
Pharisees and Sadducees. In their battle in the wilderness both Jesus and
Satan accepted scriptural statements as arguments against which no further argument was possible (Matt. 4:1-11). Jesus might set aside or reject the Rabbinic or Pharisaical interpretation of the Old Testament, which He does in Matthew 5:21-48, but He never questioned its authority or truthfulness.
1) I had much of my initial theology formed and influenced by Clark
Pinnock. Few lament his theological disintegration more than I. Earlier
in his life as he reflected, in my judgment, more clearly on this matter of
Jesus and the Bible, I believe he saw the issue with crystal clarity.
―Shall we follow Jesus in his view of Scripture? In the light of this
evidence the question calls for another. How can a Christian even consider not doing so? Our Lord's view of inspiration was not an incidental tenet on the border of his theology. His belief in the truthfulness of the Old Testament was the rock on which he based his own sense of vocation and the validity of much of his teachings. The question about the inspiration of Scripture really boils down to the issue of Christology. It is impossible to affirm his authority while at the same time seeking to evade his teachings regarding the divine authority of the Bible. If Christ's claim to be the Son of God is true, his person guarantees the truth of all the rest of his teachings as well.
So long as Jesus Christ is confessed, honored, and adored, we may confidently expect a high view of Scripture to persist in the church. And in the light of a considerable defection from that view amongst professed Christians today we boldly appeal for a return to a proper view of the Bible on the basis of the massive fact of our Lord's doctrine of inspiration. (Clark Pinnock, "The Inspiration of Scripture and the Authority of Jesus Christ," in God's Inerrant Word, 215)
Related articles
- "More on How We Got Our Bible" (jpfinn7.wordpress.com)
- Real Men Know the Scriptures (Real Men, Part 2) (counselofafriend.wordpress.com)
- Bill O'Reilly: The Bible contradicts itself (wnd.com)
- What Are The Heavens Telling Us? (vineoflife.net)
- The Holy Scriptures (ptl2010.com)
- Jumping Over Jesus (daviddflowers.com)


text:
We improve the day-to-day lives of families raising children with food allergies and empower them to create a safe and healthy future for their children.
A diagnosis of food allergy is a major adjustment that can have an adverse impact on the whole family's quality of life. Families need to always read food labels, learn how to cook and bake without things like milk or egg, and learn how to safely navigate schools, restaurants, vacations, birthday parties and holidays. Families also need to learn how to be prepared to treat anaphylaxis, an allergic reaction that can be severe and life-threatening.
Kids With Food Allergies (KFA) is a division of the Asthma and Allergy Foundation of America (AAFA), the nation's oldest and leading asthma and allergy charity. With one in 13 children now having a food allergy, KFA services are needed more than ever. We are a vital lifeline to families raising children with food allergies.
KFA offers free tools, educational materials, webinars, videos and other resources to help families and caregivers learn how to keep children safe and healthy. Families need not live in fear. With the right tools, all families can raise healthy, confident children who can learn to manage their own food allergies as they grow up.
We help families by offering:
We offer many other services as well. Please browse our website and see how we can help you. We encourage you to sign up for our free e-newsletter and to complete the free registration to ask questions and participate in our forums.
The results of a recent study by researchers at the University of Chicago School of Medicine show that KFA's resources may help parents:
If you support our mission, please consider making a charitable donation. Together, we can help all families with food allergies keep their children safe and healthy!


text:
On May 30th, Fresca Italia recalled a single production batch of its Burrata Italian-style fresh cheese after the California Dept. of Food & Agriculture detected Listeria monocytogenes in the product.
The cheese, which was sold in restaurants and retails stores in Southern California and the San Francisco Bay area, was labeled with the manufacturer's name "Caseificio Voglie di Latte" and an expiration date of 24/5/2008.
Tests carried out subsequently by FDA found Listeria monocytogenes in additional batches of Burrata. In consequence, Fresca Italia has expanded its recall to include all outstanding batches of "Caseificio Voglie di Latte" Burrata that are still in circulation – 1,757 pounds of cheese in all.
Consumers who purchased "Caseificio Voglie di Latte" Burrata with an expiry date of 24/5/2008, 31/5/2008 or 07/06/2008 should return the cheese to the store for a full refund.
Monday, June 23, 2008
Cheese Manufacturer Expands Recall
Posted by Phyllis E at Monday, June 23, 2008
Labels: cheese, dairy, Listeria monocytogenes, recalls
1 comment:
Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)


text:
Our new foundation is excited to serve and support the Catholic communities in San Diego and Imperial counties today and for many generations to come.
Our foundation is intended to be a one-stop resource that promotes thoughtful, spiritual and effective Catholic philanthropy. One of the foundation's many benefits is that it can streamline the process of giving by allowing individuals or companies to establish funds that can benefit several charities over time.
Our primary focus is to support our parishes and our schools, to support vocations and our community's social services organizations. By creating new endowments for these organizations, we can be confident that these institutions and ministries will be sustained and thrive in future generations.
We are Catholic. We understand the stewardship and spirituality of our Catholic heritage. We understand and respect your desire to support the Church and provide a legacy of faith for future generations.
We are one of 28 Catholic Community Foundations in the United States. We were formed as an autonomous pious foundation under canon law and incorporated as a tax-exempt nonprofit under civil law. Our Foundation is independent from the Diocese of San Diego and we have our own Board of Trustees.
We are here to help and support you with your charitable giving. We are the only foundation in San Diego and Imperial counties that specifically serves our Catholic community. We are blessed to work with so many passionate and good stewards of the gifts God has bestowed on them, who want to express their Catholic identity by creating a legacy, and provide their support in a purposeful and meaningful way to those organizations that are near and dear to their hearts.
We are already standing on a firm foundation. We are currently stewards of more than $26 million under management. Most of these funds are permanent endowment funds from parishes, schools and other Catholic institutions in San Diego and Imperial Counties.
Our short-term goal is to grow our endowment funds to $50 million. You can be an important part of our exciting growth by prayerfully considering and making an outright gift or planned gift to the Foundation. For endowment funds, your designated beneficiary can be any Catholic charitable organization(s) that you value deeply, organizations that provide spiritual meaning, organizations that you want to see sustained and thrive for many generations. Any individual or corporation who contributes toward achieving our $50 million goal will be recognized as a member of our Founder's Circle.
The Foundation also supports the popular Pass-Through Donor-Advised funds where beneficiaries may include non-Catholic charitable organizations whose mission is consistent with the teachings of the Catholic Church. All of our investments follow the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops Guidelines for Socially Responsible Investment Practices.
It is important for you to know that one of the Foundation's core values is to be completely transparent and "donor-centric." This means that we honor the intentions and directives of each donor in all grant distributions, today and forever. You will always have online access to the current history and status of your gifts to the Foundation. Our intent is provide peace of mind for our donors. They will always know the status of their funds held at the Foundation.
Why should you consider giving back to Catholic organizations and ministries supporting your Catholic faith? Reflecting on your faith development, what other institution has been with you throughout your lifetime, from the beginning of your Catholic faith at baptism, through your spiritual development as you faithfully received the sacraments, brought you into holy communion with Christ, provided the formation for your deep faith and trust in God, has been your rock in the good times and bad, and will continue to be with you until your eventual passing into Heaven? And, not only for you, but for your parents, grandparents and your children?
We hope that you will prayerfully consider creating your Legacy by expressing your Catholic identify and making an outright gift or a planned gift to the Foundation, designating those Catholic organizations and ministries that support your values. You have the ability to make an impact today, tomorrow and for many generations to come.
At the Catholic Community Foundation of San Diego, our belief is that funds received and distributed to your designated beneficiaries represent "Our Faith, Our Gratitude, Our Community and Our Future" as a faith-filled Catholic community. I hope that you will work with us to create your Legacy in our Catholic faith community.
James 2:24
"A man is justified by
works and not by
faith alone."


text:
Is The "Old Spice" Guy Sexy? Professor Tracey Doesn't Think So......
He looks constipated. And what in the hell is wrong with his lower body? This man is so NOT sexy.
I don't think he's sexy either but I do think those commercials are funny as hell!
He seems a parody or somethin, but not sexy.
The character comes across as "undercover gay brother".
He trips the sensors on my
"gay-dar" equipment.
This work is licensed under a
Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License.
© Blogger templates ProBlogger Template by Ourblogtemplates.com 2008
Back to TOP