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Three years to the day a trip to the ER saved my life. And I'm still here. Without energy to write anything, but here I is.
I kind of miss my old blog. Work. Weirdos. Life. Love. Nothingness. Pain and Hope. It hurts to read some of it. Especially on days that I feel like cacapoopoo. Reading October 2005 makes me cry and laugh. The greatest of emotions. The ache of those words. That time.
Three years to the day, my friend's twin girls were born. I don't know why, but at the time it felt reassuring. Life. Beautiful perfect little girls. Little twin angels. Then I met you and you and you. All my internets.
I took cough syrup and it made my nose run while I was coughing up my entire spleen.
I didn't feel like eating whatsoever. I had Sixbucks.
I was online way too much. Dude city.
I have a new penpal overseas. I be prayin for the dude. He thinks I'm cute.
Talked to another dude tonight. He sent me some pictures which were oddly wonderful because they were artistic and he's beautiful. Funny, he was pretty cool. You think that a man that gorgeous would be so full of himself, but he was amazingly insightful and thoughtful. He is one of those people that you hope to know your whole life.
Got called a pussy by this stuck-up Republican dude because he has rheumatoid arthritis and doesn't take pain meds. I told him to go fuck himself. With the appropriate punctuation.
I got 9234823098 text messages from a secret agent. No really, he's some kind of spy or something.
I got 2 text messages from Tim. Oddly familiar and sweet.
And I met a San Antonio Tim who took Zoe and me out to eat sushi. He's a rare true Southern gentleman and he got Zoe's shoe off the roof.
Zoe read her book. It's cute when she can't read a word and she spells it. I half hear her and she has to repeat it several times before I can figure it out. I'm a site reader. She brings home like six library books every day. Bookmarks in all of them. Like mother like daughter.
I prayed. I prayed a lot today.
Bren/Cody's Mom reminded me of Yatzee. We used to call it Snotzee and it's too gross of a story. Even for me.
Every time I get a headache, and I think it can't get any worse, it does.
Zoe is bright and lovely. A bright shining star. Showing me the way. Just when I think I couldn't possibly love that child any more, I do. I just do.
Thank you God for my three extra years. I pray for more, but I'll take what I can get right about now.
I think Nico is dying. I'm the last one now. The last one of 25. How does that make sense?
Pray like hell. I miss all of them. So many nameless familiar MD Anderson faces. All gone. And Brenda. And Sarah and Nikki, and Clem and Paula and Ashley and Victoria and Liza and Robbi and Robin and Pam and Cookie and Joan, and sweet Kadin and Eric and Laiken and Steven, and S's Gayle, Nick Harriet and Joseph, and there are so many I begin to forget and then I remember and remember and remember and then Zoe.
I can do this. I just can.
Your assignment today is to listen to music and just dance around. Thank you Sisters for my iPod. It is my memory and my joy. It makes me cry and laugh at the same time. It just does.
Thank you.


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Lets take a closer look at using Zappa in a real-world development environment for a full-featured Django app deployed to an AWS Lambda function, with static assets loaded to S3 and served by Cloudfront.
Getting a Django app to run in Lambda is a game changer. Lambda gives you the luxury of abstracting away the minutia behind the computing power needed to serve your dynamic web site. Better still, operating system patches and security headaches become a thing of the past, and your monthly hosting costs will likely drop to nearly $zero. A command-line deployment tool named Zappa was created to do exactly that, provided that you've setup both your cloud environment and development environments according to the set of "norms" that are described in this article.
"Zappa makes it super easy to build and deploy server-less, event-driven Python applications on AWS Lambda + API Gateway."
Body Calc is a Django app running in an AWS serverless architecture based on the following diagram. The complete source code for this app is available on Github at https://github.com/bodycalc/bodycalc.io. In contrast to blogosphere articles showcasing simple "Hello, World" apps, I wanted to evaluate Zappa on a project that leverages real-world technologies like Git, NPM, Pip, Pipeline, Environ, Yarn, Gulp, Webpack and Bower. The good news is that only one of these, Pipeline, is affected by deploying to a Lambda function. As of this publication I've successfully used Pipeline to compress CSS and Js files, and to compile Sass. But thus far I've been unable to implement "cache busting" strategies with Pipeline, so keep checking back on this article from time to time as I continue to trouble-shoot this last remaining pain point.
Identity Access Manager
Security is always a challenge, but especially so within cloud infrastructure environments like AWS because the services can be literally scattered around the world. Identity Access Management (IAM) is AWS' internal role-based security model. We'll be using IAM exclusively to manage access and permissions for all of the AWS services referenced in this tutorial; even in cases like MySQL where an alternative native security scheme already exists. IAM allows you to issue text security keys as an alternative to user names and passwords. This is helpful because Python, Django, Zappa and AWS CLI require this method of access.
Zappa will use the AWS Command-line Interface (CLI) to deploy your Django app to AWS. To manage the myriad permissions surrounding the deployment, you'll need to create a custom IAM policy and then assign this custom policy to an IAM user that has "Programatic Access". You can use a copy of this policy as a reference. Just copy/paste the text of the policy into the screen you see below.
Certificate Manager
bodycalc.io runs over https. This is made possible by issuing a free SSL/TLS certificate with AWS Certificate Manager, which enables your to easily provision, manage, and deploy public and private SSL/TLS certificates for use with AWS services. CM certificates automatically renew, which is enormously convenient. I used CM to create certificates for use with API Gateway and Cloudfront. We'll see more about that below. The first certificate is created in my "home" data center of Oregon and is linked to a custom domain that I created within API Gateway in order to change the public URL from https://bl3r81quk5.execute-api.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/dev to https://bodycalc.io. The second certificate is created in US East (N.Virginia) and is used exclusively for adding a vanity domain for the Cloudfront CDN, changing the URL from d2aeb81h32shl0.cloudfront.net to cdn.bodycalc.io.
* There are many alternatives to Certificate Manager that you could use, if you wanted to.
Route 53
If you want access your Django/Lambda app via a custom domain name then you'll need to add records to your DNS server mapping the native AWS URL's to your custom domain or subdomain. If your DNS is currently managed elsewhere then you might want to consider moving it to Route 53, AWS' domain name server (DNS) service. It works seamlessly with all other applicable AWS services, and cheap, fast, reliable and flexible. You can refer to this screen shot to see how I linked the API Gateway and AWS Cloudfront native URL's to my custom domain, bodycalc.io.
API Gateway
Zappa will fully manage the API Gateway resources for this tutorial, so I'm mostly including this in the article just to make you aware that API Gateway will become part of your architecture so that you know to take a closer look at after you've deployed. Also, you'll need to make some minor configuration changes after deployment if you want to use a vanity URL as I've done in the case of bodycalc.io. See the screen shot below as a reference.
It's worth noting that Zappa pushes the boundaries of the intended API Gateway use case. The general idea behind API Gateway is that you'll implement say, a REST api, one resource at a time, and in each case using API Gateway tools to define the resource name, its features and behavior, and the internal AWS resources with which it interacts. In the case of Zappa however, we're really only using API Gateway as a simple wrapper for the entire Django app, such that all inbound http requests pass through a comparatively simple API Gateway resources that blindly forwards everything to Lambda to be further evaluated.
AWS Lambda lets you run code without provisioning or managing servers, and you pay only for the compute time you consume. There is no charge when your code is not running. With Lambda, you can run code for virtually any type of application or backend service – all with zero administration. Just upload your code and Lambda takes care of everything required to run and scale your code with high availability. You can set up your code to automatically trigger from other AWS services or call it directly from any web or mobile app.
Better still, Zappa fully manages the single Lambda function onto which our Django app will be deployed. Actually, once deployed, the source code of your Django app will be too large to view with Lambda's online code editor tools. However, there are useful dashboard deployment metrics that you'll definitely want to take a closer look at.
Note: Zappa seriously pushes the boundaries of what Lambda functions are intended to do. But, it works, so no worries! A typical Lambda function (by the strict "micro-services architecture" definition) performs a single, atomic function. In our case however, we stuffing an entire Django app inside a Lambda function, including for example, Django's routing functionality. Thus, our Lambda function will receive all inbound http requests and generate and serve all outbound http responses.
Relational Database Service
This tutorial uses MySQL database hosted on AWS Relational Database Service (RDS), which is really convenient but expensive ($50 USD per month or more). For production environments, RDS makes it easy to set up, operate, and scale a relational database in the cloud. It provides resizable capacity while automating time-consuming administration tasks such as hardware provisioning, database setup, patching and backups. But if you're on a tight budget then keep in mind that any SQL database which Lambda can access will work fine. For example, you could alternatively create a standalone MySQL server on an Ubuntu EC2 instance running on the free usage tier. The important thing is that you think thru the connection and security implications of your chosen environment, all of which is beyond the scope of this article. Be aware however that your Django development environment needs a way to seamlessly switch between a development database and a deployment database.
Simple Storage Service
AWS Lambda does not expose its file system. You therefore will not be able to serve your static assets directly from the Lambda function itself. AWS' Simple Storage System (S3) is a completely free cloud storage service that integrates easily with other AWS services and thus is a great substitute for a local file system. In this tutorial we'll synchronize our Django static assets to an S3 bucket using the AWS command line interface (CLI).
S3 is an object storage service that offers industry-leading scalability, data availability, security, and performance. Organizations of all sizes use it to store and protect any amount of data for a range of use cases, such as websites, mobile applications, backup and restore, archive, enterprise applications, IoT devices, and big data analytics. S3 provides easy-to-use management features so you can organize your data and configure finely-tuned access controls to meet your specific business, organizational, and compliance requirements. S3 is designed for 99.999999999% (11 9's) of durability, and stores data for millions of applications for companies all around the world.
Cloudfront is AWS' content delivery network (CDN) service. Technically, this is not necessary for this tutorial. However, AWS makes it easy to integrate an AWS S3 bucket to Cloudfront, as well as to create a vanity subdomain for your Cloudfront CDN as I have with cdn.bodycalc.io. With modest incremental effort on your part your static assets will be propagated to more than 100 content servers located around the world. This results in a significant reduction to page load times for your international site visitors.
I. AWS Environment
The challenge of getting Django to work inside a Lambda function is mostly about finding a workable combination of services to take care of the miscellaneous stuff that Lambda cannot do. For example, Lambda functions are not public facing, so you have to find an alternative way to host a public-facing URL that provides users with access to your site. Lambda functions do not include a file system either, so you need to implement an alternative strategy for serving the static assets associated with your site. Lambda functions cannot persist data, so your SQL database has to reside elsewhere, and in a location where Lambda can gain access over port 3306. Finally, you need a reasonable way to manage the myriad set of permissions across the various cloud services that makeup your deployment environment; sufficient to enable you to deploy your code, but secure enough that you're not running the risk of your account getting breached.
II. Development Environment Prerequisites
pip is already installed if you are using Python 2 >=2.7.9 or Python 3 >=3.4 downloaded from python.org or if you are working in a Virtual Environment created by virtualenv or pyvenv. Just make sure to upgrade pip.
pip --version #check to see if pip is already installed pip 18.1 from /Users/mcdaniel/github/bodycalc.io/.env3/lib/python3.6/site-packages/pip (python 3.6)
Installation: https://pip.pypa.io/en/stable/installing/
Zappa leverages your AWS CLI installation to manage all aspects of deployment of your Django app. Additionally, we'll also use the AWS CLI to upload and synchronize our app's static assets to an S3 bucket.
$ aws --version #check to see if awscli is already installed $ pip install awscli --upgrade --user $ aws configure
Python is an interpreted high-level programming language for general-purpose programming. Created by Guido van Rossum and first released in 1991. Django is a framework that runs on Python. Importantly, there are many different versions of Python in circulation, and believe it or not, it's common to have more than one version installed on the same computer.
Installation instructions: https://realpython.com/installing-python/
The dirty business of keeping multiple versions of Python from wreaking havoc on your computer is taken care of by a pip package named Virtualenv . We're using virtualenv in this tutorial so that we can install exact versions of downloadable, open-source software; not only of Python but also of the various dependencies such as Django and Zappa. It's worth 15 minutes of your time to read the summary page on the Virtualenv web site that describes how Virtualenv works. spoiler alert: it's really simple.
$ virtualenv --version #check to see if virtualenv is already installed 15.0.3 $ [sudo] pip install virtualenv
Zappa does not explicitly require Node. I'm including it in this article solely because it's a common project dependency. In the case of Body Calc (to the extent you're interested) I'm using Node for a handful of common project automation tools including Yarn and Gulp, as well as for a few html and static asset optimizers that are called by Django Pipeline.
node -v #check to see if Node is already installed v6.10.0
Installation: https://nodejs.org/en/download/
like Node, NPM is not explicitly required by Zappa. Node Package Manager (NPM) is to Node as pip is to Python. That is, if you're installing Node then you're definitely also going to need npm, because that's how you install all of the really cool stuff. NPM is a splendidly organized tool. It creates and maintain a detailed manifest of everything that it's installed into your project, along with version information. You can see the manifest for Body Calc here: https://github.com/bodycalc/bodycalc.io/blob/master/package.json
$ npm -v #check to see if npm is already installed 6.4.1 $ [sudo] npm install npm -g
Django is a pip package. It only takes a couple of minutes to install and then use to create a simple "Hello, world!" app by following their "Getting Started" instructions.
$ virtualenv .env #create a new virtual environment named ".env" $ source .env/bin/activate #activate the new virtual environment $ pip install Django #install Django
Zappa is — surprise — a pip package. Once installed it is a command line tool that leverages your AWS CLI and Python / Django project files to package, upload and deploy your Django app to AWS. It's really simple to use (see below). Once deployed, Zappa will echo the URL of your app to the console.
$ pip install zappa $ zappa init
III. Django Development Environment
I initially had a lot of difficulty getting Zappa to work because of the locations of files and folders in my project. In my case, problems ranged from simple stuff like Zappa including my static assets when it uploaded everything to Zappa not being able to see certain Django files within my project. Take note of my "final" working structure on the right, as this might save you some time.
More generally, following are my commands to create this project and to run it locally in order to verify that it at least works in a development environment.
$ virtualenv .env #create a new virtual environment named ".env" $ source .env/bin/activate #activate the new virtual environment $ $ django-admin startproject app # create a new project named app $ cd app $ python manage.py runserver # to verify that django installed and initialized correctly $ python manage.py startapp bmi # create the BMI web app $ pip install django mysqlclient zappa django-environ django-npm django-pipeline jsmin
Settings.py is modified so as to relocate things in a way that works for Zappa. You can review the file in its current state here: https://github.com/bodycalc/bodycalc.io/django/app/settings.py
IV. Zappa setup
Zappa is actually a simple, easy-to-use command line tool. Once I'd properly organized my project files I only ran into a couple of other setup challenges. The more opaque of these regards the information that is supposed to get gathered up during the zappa init process. In my case at least, the settings identifying the AWS Virtual Private Network (VPC) subnet id values didn't get populated, and so I had to look these up and add the values to the zappa_settings.json file manually as per this illustration.
You can lookup these values by navigating to "VPC" from the main console of AWS. From there, look for "subdomains". The values in the json file correspond to the "Subnet ID" values that you'll see on that screen. There should be three subnets.
You can probably disregard the SecurityGroupIds value, unless you need access to AWS resource like for example, RDS, for your development environment. If you do need this then you can lookup your security id values by navigating to "EC2" from the main console of AWS and then choosing "Security Groups".
The second problem regards security and the IAM profile that I created. Zappa needs admin-level access to each AWS resource in your deployment architecture, which frankly, is a LOT of access. Compounding matters, IAM security is granular, and the specific permissions that Zappa needs remain unclear as of this publication. I ultimately had to temporarily add "admin" privileges to my IAM user to get my site deployed initially. Afterwards, after a lot of tweaking, I was able to use the IAM profile that you can review here: https://github.com/bodycalc/bodycalc.io/aws-iam-policy.json
I'm including the next couple of screenshots in case you're new to IAM and are unsure what you're supposed to do with this file. The basic idea is that you create an IAM user with programatic access (ie it uses a public ID and a secret key), and then you create and assign an IAM security profile that is custom tailored to the permissions that Zappa needs to deploy your Django app to AWS.
My IAM policy in Github is a json file which you can paste into your IAM policy by clicking the "Edit Policy" button from this screen, and then afterwards clicking on the "JSON" viewer option.
Following are the sources I used while researching this post. You might find these useful.
I hope you found this helpful. Please help me improve this article by leaving a comment below. Thank you!

subset: commoncrawl


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Name: Travis Bergren – Callsigns: "Bergy" "Trydus"
Character: Founder and CEO of Rivet City Limited and Rivet City Productions. Executive Producer of Players Required. Host of Nerds in Cars. Super Saiyan in training.
Age: 374….
Species: Human?
Bio: Combining a farmer's work ethic and the eccentricities of nerddom, this burly bastion of both brevity and bravery is constantly charging into the unknown, determined to build amazing things to bring the most value to people while speaking fluent sarcasm and not trying to take life too seriously.
Nerdy Interests: Video Games (currently streaming Heroes of the Storm), Photography, Videography, Anime (DBZ for life!), Writing, Reading, Entrepreneurship, VR, Cosplay, Fitness, Self Improvement, Immortality.
Where else you can find me: @Trydus on IG, Twitter and Facebook, Twitch: tryduslegionairre
Name: Red – Callsign: "Red"
Character: Founder and CTO of Rivet City Limited and Rivet City Productions – Content Creator, Streamer, Actor, Soulless Technology Mercenary (with a heart of gold)
Age: I will be a kid until I'm damn good and ready not to.
Species: Human simulating android
Bio: I've never been able to escape my inner geek, so I've let it become my outer geek as well. Technology is my passion, I love figuring out how things work, then making them work better, for me. My involvement in RCL/RCP has allowed me to explore my creative side.
Nerdy Interests: Video Games, gadgets, technology, Writing, VR, camping, craft beer, Magic: The Gathering.
Where he can be found: @dw87 on Twitter and rivetcityred on Twitch.
Name: Spenser Barton
Callsigns: "Didact" "Barton"
Character: Founder and Graphic Designer of Rivet City Limited – Content Creator, Streamer, Actor, Magic/Pokemon Master and Scrub Lord.
Age: old enough to know better young enough to not care
Species: Life Model Decoy
Bio: Son-of-a-canuk who is unfortunately not Wolverine. Nerdy most of his life and has attended many a convention, usually in costume. Makes his internet living looking a fool as he stumbles through the metas of online PvP, usually having to resort to "Scrub warfare" to even make the cut.
Nerdy Interests: Video Games (currently streaming Overwatch), TCGs (mainly Pokémon, dabbles in MtG Commander), Soccer, Cosplay, Pro Wrestling, Tabletop RPGs
Where else you can find me: @Didactgaming on Twitter and Facebook, @St.Dethloon on IG, Twitch: DidactGaming
Name: Charles Lindemann
Gamertag: LokiPlague
Character: Gaming Commentator of Rivet City Limited
Age: 30
Species: Yes.
Bio: I am not outside of the box, I destroyed the box. Tryhard in casual games and cheese in competitive. Breaking the social norm one day at a time.
Nerdy Interests: Why have one vice when you can have them all?
Where else you can find me: @LokiPlague on Twitter and Twitch
Gamertag: DrakeSpirit
Nerdy Interests: Board Games, anything Lovecraftian, Xenogears, Malifaux, Video Games, and Audio Dramas


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Love is universal language. Without love, there is no point in life.
Grace is God's initiative to form the circle of our salvation. Without grace, there won't be a life.
Truth is the One that will set us free. Without the Truth, there won't be a freedom in life.
As Christians, we need to ask ourselves this question: have we truly been freed yet? I think that this one simple question is very important for us all.
In my experience, I've seen a lot of Christians who are subconsciously struggling to break free from their bondage of sin and bad behavior. Notice the word 'subconsciously', which means that the chains that are binding us are sometimes invisible to the naked eyes. The chains will continue to bind us without us noticing and strangling us from within, like a cancer would do to our body.
This kind of problem has occurred since thousands of years ago.
Isaiah 1:1 = in this verse it is said that Isaiah served the Lord as a prophet during the reign of King Uzziah. Now, Uzziah was a good king, and he reigned in the Kingdom of Judah for around 52 years, which was one of the longest in the history. During his reign, Judah (South Israel Kingdom) grew to be such a wealthy nation, with one of the strongest military force in the entire vast land. Other nations feared and respected Uzziah and his strong kingdom.
The people of Judah were also rich. Almost no poor people could be found during Uzziah's reign. And more importantly, the people were even more diligent in their prayers. They went to the temple everyday and bring fine cattle and lambs as sacrifices to the Lord. And since they were all richer than before, their sacrifices have been doubled than the previous amount. People were so happy and wealthy. All of them felt good because of the wealth as well as their sacrifices in the temple of the Lord. They thought that the Lord must have been so very happy with what they did, and thus, the Lord blessed them all as a nation. But, during this very moment, the Lord Almighty sent Isaiah the Prophet to rebuke the nation.
All of us need to know that our God does not see the natural world (appearance from the outside). He sees straight to our spiritual world. How are our hearts and minds react, our integrity when no one else sees, and et cetera. And as for the Israelites, it grew to a point where the Lord said through Isaiah that He grew tired of all the fat lambs as the offering. God demanded that obedience is more important than sacrifices. And obedience here refers to our hearts and minds. Whenever we want to give sacrifices and pray to God, He demand a pure and sincere hearts! There are many people who give sacrifices to church or other people with a heavy heart, complaining all the way when no one else sees. But this is not what the Lord wants!
What should drive us from within then? God sees the inside of our hearts and not the outside appearance. One thing I realize here is that we must stop living a lack-driven life, and start a fullness-driven life. We need to realize that whatever things that we have right now is not because of what we did, but because God has more grace and mercy than we could ever imagine. And no matter how small our treasure is, we must receive it and believe that the small amount of treasure is the one thing that the Lord has entrusted to us, and we must make it count with a grateful heart. It's easier to be grateful when our treasure is a lot, I know. But, it's not always like that. Lots of rich people are also having such a hard time to feel grateful. When they don't have that much of treasure, they could still learn to be grateful. But when God entrusted a lot more treasure to them, greed took control of them, even without them noticing.
These kind of things may have happened in our lives without us even noticing! So, how do we deal with it? Love, Grace, and Truth is the very essence of God's Word, and these things will be the filter of our lives if we understand them correctly.
1). Start to acknowledge your fear and problems. Don't run away from it, because you never could. It lives within you. And you need to counter it with strong faith in Christ. Say it out loud to yourselves and God. When you embrace your weakness, you're ready to embrace the grace of God. And from that point on, you won't ever take God's grace for granted. Grace is not a free ticket to do sin, but it is God's initiative to form a circle of salvation for us. As long as we are within grace, we are saved, not because of our work, but because of God's initiative. He made the impossible to be possible. And how do we see our fear and problems? It is by reading the Word of God in the bible. God's Word in the bible will be able to make you see a lot better. The bible said that God's Word is like a lamp for our feet. The Word lights our ways in this world. And if we don't read our bible, we would easily be lost in our journey.
2). The Holy Spirit lives within you. The moment you receive Jesus Christ as your personal savior, the Holy Spirit lives within you. He is the One that God sent to help us get through our rough days on this earth. And we can consult the Spirit within us. Sometimes, we might feel or sense something. Sometimes, we might hear our hearts talk to us. We thought that they were just thoughts. It maybe true, but in most cases, those are the voices of the Holy Spirit within you. Your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit, use your body wisely. So, in order for us to avoid the same mistake that the Israelites as well as Christians made thousands of years ago until now, we need to always consult the Holy Spirit within us by communicating with Him in our prayers and daily lives.
3). The third way to deal with such "invisible" problem in our christian lives is to have a good, empowering community. Good community would be able to remind you when you started to set off course. Good community will not judge one another, but will talk and remind each other with love.
So, our inner drive must be derived from the fullness of Christ in our lives. Whatever things that God has entrusted to us, no matter how small the number is, be grateful and do the best that you can for God. And the way to detect and avoid the "invisible" problem is by implementing the three ways above and by understanding the real meaning of love, grace, truth, as I have mentioned above too.


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Strategic Initiative
This content was COPIED from BrainMass.com - View the original, and get the already-completed solution here!
In the attached document, identify a strategic initiative discussed in the organization's annual report and answer the following questions in approximately 400 words (an idea would be the closing of their German and Korean operations)
1) How will this strategic initiative impact sales?
2) Describe how these risks which are associated with the initiative and the financial impact these risks may have.
Please cite any references.© BrainMass Inc. brainmass.com June 3, 2020, 9:25 pm ad1c9bdddf
Solution Preview
One of the strategic initiatives that WalMart has discussed in their annual report is the $4 generic prescription drugs. Even in 2003, prescription drug prices were a problem. "Skyrocketing public health costs are bankrupting individual Americans and posing serious challenges to city, state, and federal budgets" (Snow, 2003). This is true now in 2008. There are many drug subsidy programs out there but individuals must qualify financially for assistance and many do not meet the requirements. This was the rationale behind the $4 monthly supply of prescription medication on over 400 generic medications at WalMart.
How will this strategic initiative impact sales for WalMart? It ...
Solution Summary
The solution answers the question(s) below.


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Tagged: Brent Morel
6 Random Thoughts on the Off-Day
This and that from SoxWorld following an impressive 8-1 victory over the Indians to split the four-game series after dropping the first two…
1. Alejandro De Aza is a terrific story. Signed by the Dodgers as an amateur free agent in 2001 and later drafted by the Marlins in the 2004 Rule 5 draft, it wasn't until 2007 that he finally made his big league debut with Florida. He was selected off waivers by the White Sox after the 2008 season and 10 years after signing with L.A., De Aza became a regular last year, hitting .329 with a .400 on base percentage in 54 games from the leadoff spot. Based on his 2011 performance, the Sox felt he was ready to take over permanently–evidently they were right. So far this season he has been outstanding, As a result of his red-hot series in Cleveland his batting average has risen to .285 with a .369 on base percentage.
2. Adam Dunn continues his quest for "Comeback of the Year." He connected with home run No. 10 last night, giving him 25 RBIs. Add that to an OPS of .970, all indications point to the fact that he is indeed "back."
3. Paul Konerko keeps rolling along. He's been so good and so consistent in his first 31 games that there's a tendency to take him for granted. That, of course, would be a mistake. He's got six homers and 18 RBIs along with a .345 batting average and a terrific 1.010 OPS.
4. Dayan Viciedo is due to break out anytime now–and, boy, would it be welcomed. If Viciedo can overcome his slow start (3 homers. 5 RBIs, .204 BA), it would mean so much to the offense. Let's hope he snaps out of it soon.
5. Brent Morel has been struggling, to say the least. He has yet to hit a home run, has only four RBIs and is hitting a paltry .172. The skipper has shown his support for his starting third baseman, but if Morel doesn't turn it around it's inevitable a change will be made. There doesn't seem to be a great alternative on the current roster (platoon of Escobar and Lillbridge?) and the likely choice at AAA Charlotte, Dallas McPherson, has been injured.
6. Jake Peavy's performance this season has been amazing. Don't be surprised if he's an All-Star and a candidate for his second Cy Young.
Despite Three-Game Losing Streak, Sox Still in Early A.L Central Hunt; Is it Time for Reed to Take Over as the Closer?
As deflating as last night's 10-3 loss to the Red Sox was, look at it this way. Despite the current three-game losing streak the Sox are still in a virtual tie for the A.L. Central lead. It seems that the division rivals, including the Tigers who just got swept at home by the Mariners, are struggling a bit as well.
It was only a few days ago that the Sox swept Seattle, won the opener of the A's series and were at 10-6. That's just baseball. And the current slide aside, I feel good about how the Sox are playing. Just wish Gordon Beckham and Brent Morel could turn it around and Hector Santiago can avoid the long ball.
Beckham and Morel are mysteries. Will they turn it around? Will one or both spend some time in Charlotte? Will the Sox turn elsewhere at second and third? Stay tuned.
As far as the closer situation, the Sox certainly have options if Santiago's problems continue. Addison Reed (pictured above) seems like the logical choice, but Matt Thornton and Jesse Crain (once he's healthy) will be the mix as well.
I hope Hector overcomes his woes, but the thinking is here that Reed will be the closer by the All-Star break–maybe a lot sooner.
Two to Forget
I couldn't bear to post my blog yesterday after the Sox meltdown Monday night against the Orioles. A 4-2 lead in the ninth should be enough, but we all know that there are always going to be a bunch of these heartbreakers during the course of the season. We just don't want to admit it–and I couldn't face writing about it, especially the 10-4 final score.
I had good feelings about the South Siders bouncing back last night with John Danks on the mound, but very few teams are going to win games with two, maybe three hitters, doing what they're supposed to do. The result? a 3-2 loss.
To state the obvious, we are struggling offensively. Adam Dunn, Alex Rios and Gordon Beckham are among the culprits along with Brent Morel. And the few who are on their game, like Paul Konerko and A.J. Pierzynski, haven't provided enough firepower to overcome the slackers.
The new skipper is still showing confidence in the non-producers. It'll be interesting to see how long he waits before a makes an adjustment or two.
Viciedo Heads a Host of Heroes in Victorious White Sox Home Opener
Regardless of who you may have chosen as today's White Sox "Pick to Click," you could likely make a case for your choice as the Sox celebrated their home opener with a host of heroes in their 5-2 triumph over the powerful Tigers.
Conventional wisdom would seem to be on the side of Dayan Viciedo, who put the Sox ahead 1-0 in the fifth with a long homer over the centerfield fence (pictured above) and made a spectacular catch in left of the bat of Andy Dirks to prevent the tying and go-ahead from scoring with the Sox ahead 3-2. The catch was certainly a game changer.
But how about Alexei Ramirez, whose diving grab behind the second base bag started the key double play off the bat of the dangerous Miguel Cabrera with one out and men on first and third in the eighth inning. Another game changer.
Or how about Jake Peavy, who gave up just two runs in 6 2/3 while striking out eight.
Then there was Paul Konerko who singled in Alejandro De Aza in the sixth for the sec0nd Sox run and A.J. Pierzynski who tripled in Konerko all the way from first for run No. 3.
And we can't forget three others–De Aza who tripled in the eighth and scored on a Brent Morel single to give the Sox a 4-2 advantage (the fifth run scored on a wild pitch) and Hector Santiago, who recorded his third save.
OK, let's give it to Dayan with a bunch of honorable mentions.
Sox note of note: In the category of nothing's perfect, it's interesting to note that the three regulars in today's lineup who weren't very heroic were the same three hitters who had such poor seasons a year ago: Adam Dunn, who K'd four times, Gordon Beckham, who struck out on three occasions, and Alex Rios, who struck out twice. In all fairness, Rios did smack a double and was at the plate when the final Sox run scored on the wild pitch.
A.J., De Aza Among Early Sox Contributors
I'm not planning on purchasing playoff tickets just yet, but we all should be happy at what we've seen of the Sox as they've concluded their initial road trip with a 3-2 record.
* A.J. Pierzynski is on fire with two homers, six RBIs and a .313 batting average.
* Alejandro De Aza also has a pair of homers (hit in the same games as A.J. hit his) and is hitting a respectable .273 from the leadoff spot.
* Paul Konerko is homerless, but has driven in five runs and has an OPS of 1.100.
* Adam Dunn is hitting only .222 with just one homer and two RBIs, but looks much, much better and has an on-base percentage of .364.
* Dayan Viciedo has zeroes in HR and RBIs, but is hitting a somewhat acceptable .267.
* And there are always early-season stragglers looking to break out. In this case, Alexei Ramirez, Gordon Beckham, Alex Rios and Brent Morel all need to get things going. I have to admit I'm concerned about Beckham and Rios while Alexei always gets off to a slow start.
* Chris Sale has to be the top early story here with his terrific performance against the Tribe in his first ML start. The other Sox victories were credited to Matt Thornton in relief against Texas and John Danks, who was far from in command yesterday in Cleveland, but gutted it out and benefitted from the 10 runs of support he got from his teammates.
* The pen has been solid with relievers Jesse Crain, Nate Jones, Addison Reed and Thornton all possessing 0.00 ERAs. And aside from surrendering a leadoff ninth inning homer in the opener against Cleveland, closer Hector Santiago has been impressive with his two saves.
Now it's time to go home and convince the Tigers that they're human.
Sox Will Have to Bring Their "A" Game as Tough Foes Dot April Schedule
Happy Opening Day! And now the flurry of questions about our 2012 White Sox will begin to be answered.
The April schedule won't be a cakewalk. First it's three against the Rangers, beginning this afternoon, then three vs. the Tribe–all on the road–then home for three against the mighty Tigers and four vs. the Orioles. The month concludes with a six-game road trip to Seattle and and Oakland and a four-game homestand against the Red Sox.
I hate to get ahead of myself because facing the two-time defending American League champs the next three days is imposing enough. But the facts are the facts. The Sox, in need of getting off to a good start to excite the South Side fandom, have their work cut out for them.
Today, we'll see Robin Ventura's managerial debut and a new lineup that will look like this:
DeAza, CF
Morel, 3B
Dunn, DH
Konerko, 1B
Pierzynski, C
Rios, RF
Viciedo, LF
Beckham , 2B
Danks, P
One mystery is the identity of the closer. Ventura has been mum on the subject, but it seems Matt Thornton, Hector Santiago and Addison Reed are the likely suspects, in no particular order.
One game won't make or break the season, but it sure would be nice to get out of the box with a "W" against the league champs. And it would be even sweeter if Dunn is a big part of it so he can exorcise those 2011 demons sooner than later.
A Little Bit of This, A Little Bit of That
Glendale, AZ—The uncertainty I'm feeling about the 2012 White Sox remains after having witnessed five spring training contests. As has been the pattern since the Sox left Sarasota for Arizona, the record is below .500–2-6 as of this morning. While that in itself is not serious cause for concern, all things considered a win is always better than a loss.
A few observations that contribute to the continuing uncertainty:
* Adam Dunn (knock on wood) looks much, much better. He's making contact and looked his old powerful self with a three-run shot and a solid double against the Rangers last week.
* Alex Rios really hasn't made an impression one way or another. A bit disappointing for those of us hoping for his revival.
* John Danks is struggling with his command. He doesn't seem concerned since it's happening so early in the spring, but it's something to keep an eye on.
* Nestor Molina, who was acquired for Sergio Santos, got lit up in his first appearance, but seemed to be much more relaxed in a good outing the next time he took the mound. Simon Castro, who came to the Sox in the Carlos Quentin deal, had an appearance he'd like to forget. Entering the game in the top of the ninth with a 6-5 lead, he imploded with a walk, a wild pitch, a hit batsmen and then surrendered a grand slam home run, sending the Sox into defeat. Neither one will make the opening day roster, but much will be expected of both as early as this summer so it's worth watching.
* I like what I've seen of Brent Morel. I think he'll just get better and better. His infield mate Gordon Beckham, in somewhat of a do or die situation, has also been a positive. Defensively, they will combine with Paul Konerko and Alexei Ramirez to give the Sox a stellar infield presence.
* Matt Thornton is the leader in the clubhouse for the closer role, but youngster Addison Reed is lurking. Seems like the call won't be made until the end of the spring.
* Tyler Flowers, the backup backstop, has struck out a lot, but has shown power. Those who have watched him see his potential at the plate, but he's yet to show it on a consistent basis.
* One reserve position player will likely be selected from Eduardo Escobar, Ozzie Martinez, Dan Johnson, Dallas McPherson and Jim Gallagher. I would say Johnson is the guy right now.
It's just been that kind of a spring.
10 Days to Pitchers and Catchers
Scott Merkin whets our White Sox appetite today on whitesox.com with some facts, figures and projections to chew on:
* Pitchers and catchers report on February 23
* Full squad reports on February 28
* First Spring Training game, March 5, vs. the Dodgers at Camelback Ranch
* Opening Day, April 6, at Texas
Merkin's Projected Batting Order:
Alejandro DeAza CF, Gordon Beckham 2B, Paul Konerko 1B, Adam Dunn DH, Alex Rios LF, A.J. Pierzynski C, Alexei Ramirez SS, Dayan Viciedo RF, Brent Morel 3B
Projected Rotation:
John Danks, Gavin Floyd, Jake Peavy, Chris Sale, Philip Humber
Projected Bullpen:
Matt Thornton Closer, Jesse Crain RH setup man, Will Ohman LH setup man (with all other spots up for grabs). Key bullpen prospect to watch is Addison Reed, who very well might be the closer (my two cents, not Merkin's).
New Guys:
Nestor Molina RHP, Dan Johnson 1B, Ozzie Martinez IF and, of course, the skipper Robin Ventura
Key Losses:
Ozzie Guillen, Mark Buehrle, Sergio Santos, Carlos Quentin, Juan Pierre, Omar Vizquel, Ramon Castro, Jason Frasor
An Inspired Choice
It doesn't escape me that the day the world was mourning Apple visionary Steve Jobs, the personification of thinking out of the box, that Jerry Reinsdorf and Kenny Williams named Robin Ventura manager of the White Sox.
All we've heard since Ozzie left for South Beach is that the top candidates were Sandy Alomar, Jr., Dave Martinez and Terry Francona. Then, yesterday, the Sox fooled us all and chose one of their own who has absolutely no professional coaching or managing experience.
I think it's a terrific, inspired choice on multiple levels. Ventura is a proven leader, he is familiar with the White Sox, he'll have credibility with the veterans, will nurture youngsters like Brent Morel, Gordon Beckham and Dayan Viciedo and will somewhat offset the loss of Guillen in the eyes of the fans. He will also be great with media in a non-Ozzie sort of way. He will be thoughtful with a touch of wry humor as opposed to his predecessor's 24/7 stream of consciousness. And, as far as I know, he doesn't have a twitter account.
As you would expect, many in the baseball community have come out of the woodwork very skeptical of the move. Everybody from Tigers' coach Gene Lamont, a former Sox manager, to a legion of baseball writers. With experienced men out there for the taking, they're saying, how can the White Sox pick someone with absolutely no experience?
My answer to them is that managing a baseball team is not rocket science. It's about leadership. Everything else can be learned. What Ventura doesn't know about pitching, he's got Don Cooper. What he needs to understand about other facets of the game he'll have an experienced bench coach and another quiet professional in Harold Baines. And in time, Robin, who was a smart player and a consummate pro as well as being enormously popular, will know all he needs to know.
Nobody, including Ventura, knows how this will play out. But with high risk there's high reward. And although Mr. Jobs most likely didn't know the White Sox from the Red Sox or Stan Williams from "No Neck" Williams, I think he would have approved of this decision.
A Crazy Night at the Cell as Sox Move Above .500
Last night, after the White Sox failed to score Alex Rios from third base with nobody out in the bottom of the 11th inning against the Indians, it felt like it just wasn't going to be our night–and, more to the point, it's just not our year.
The Sox ultimately survived the 14-inning, 5 hour and 21 minute marathon, 8-7, thanks to Juan Pierre's game-winning single, but it was a maddening night for those of us watching the game. A game that put us over the .500 mark for the first time since April and moved us to within a half-game of the second-place Tribe.
Here's what I mean:
–The Sox collected an impressive 22 hits, led by Paul Konerko and Brent Morel with four each, but stranded 16 runners.
–We threatened the record books with five triples (Rios, Alejandro De Aza 2, Alexei Ramirez, Tyler Flowers), but only two of them scored.
–The bullpen outpenned the Cleveland pen, as all six full-time relievers saw action. But Chris Sale gave up a homer to Travis Hafner in the eighth and Sergio Santos blew a save in the ninth to allow the Indians to tie the game and send it into extras.
But in the end, the Sox were able to pull it out and there were a host of positives. In addition to Konerko, Morel, the five triples and a mostly solid bullpen, Pierre homered (only his second) and had three hits in all. De Aza also totaled three hits and two RBIs (he's pictured above sliding in with one of his triples) while Flowers had a double and a single and drove in a run. Even a struggling Gordon Beckham came through with a 14th inning double and scored the winning run.
It was a long night and I'm still trying to wake up. I would be feeling a whole lot worse if the uplifting win was, instead, a disheartening loss.


text: miyakoji Posted September 4, 2013 On the English and Japanese wikpedia pages for the D51 there's mention of some that were abandoned in the area of Dalny (I've seen various English spellings of this). With the help of a Russian speaking friend I was able to figure out which word is the name in Russian, and after some copy/paste I was googling it. Here are a few images I found: http://otktravels.narod.ru/travels/sakhalin/SAKH_185.htm http://otktravels.narod.ru/travels/sakhalin/SAKH_186.htm http://trainpix.org/vehicle/30319/#n29604 one that looks operational: http://trainpix.org/vehicle/70220/#n79098 an English page: http://www.internationalsteam.co.uk/trains/russia02.htm If anyone is inclined to do more searching, the Russian spelling of the place name is Дальнее I still want to find it on google maps. 1 Quote Share this post Link to post


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I am convinced that human nature involves a collection of tendencies and
contradictions that have prevailed for hundreds of thousands of years and will
not change in the foreseeable future. The basic expressions of humans are now
inflected by a huge increase in population. The idea of a global community was
based on wealth creation and the hope of social innovation. Some observers have
been optimistic, but the reality is that problems have increased with population
growth and events are monotonously recurrent - only the names and places change.
The behaviors remain the same. While news reporting is focused on samples of
current events called "news" there are underlying scripts that repeat with many
variations. The news is not new. The scripts are built into human nature and
will not charge in any foreseeable future.
I am impressed by optimistic humans who work to solve the world's problems even when successes are modest.
Problems recur. Success turns to failure. In this 21st century, a more realistic
philosophy of human life is required as we recognize that it is impossible to
permanently change human nature by social and political means - by education,
persuasion, coercion and law.
Leaning and Guha-Sapir summarized the threats to humans in the 21st
century:" The effects of armed conflict and natural disasters on global public
health are widespread. In the years ahead, the international community must
address the root causes of these crises. Natural disasters, particularly floods
and storms, will become more frequent and severe because of climate change.
Organized deadly onslaughts against civilian populations will continue, fueled
by the availability of small arms, persistent social and political inequities,
and, increasingly, by a struggle for natural resources. These events affect the
mortality, morbidity, and well-being of large populations. Humanitarian relief
will always be required, and there is a demonstrable need, as in other areas of
global health, to place greater emphasis on prevention and mitigation... armed
conflicts persist, with entrenched internal violence lasting for years, in
countries such as Sudan, The eastern Democratic Republic of Congo and Kenya.)
Advances in small-arms technology and struggles over natural resources of
international value (water, oil , natural gas and rare minerals) make conflict
resolution challenging. Civilians bear the burden. Families are forced to move
from their homes to escape internecine violence. Refugees cross national borders
and are legally entitled to assistance in United Nations (UN)–managed camps. But
increasingly since the mid-1980s, people have been unable to cross international
frontiers and so remain internally displaced. They are often at higher risk for
malnutrition and disease than residents or refugees. (Natural Disasters, Armed
Conflict, and Public Health. Jennifer Leaning and Debarati Guha-Sapir. N Engl J
Med 2013; 369:1836-1842 November 7, 2013)
In Surviving Human Nature, I review the most urgent problems that
all humans share. I suggest solutions based on a current and detailed
understanding of human nature. I realize that all the issues I discuss are
complex. My goal is to harvest some of the best ideas from a voluminous
literature and present these ideas with insights into human biology and human
history. I am examining the negative features of humans without relinquishing
hope. I am naturally optimistic and I have enjoyed a privileged life. At the
same time, I am well informed and not afraid to confront the negative aspects of
my nature and human nature in general.
Optimists look forward to continuing social progress in the 21st century.
The hope is that rapidly regenerating social and economic problems are solvable
by improving policy and allocating money to programs. One hope is that inspired
politicians will be elected to office and will, by some administrative magic, do
better than previously elected administrators. However, meaningful political
changes emerge slowly and are built from the bottom up rather than imposed from
the top down. A civil society is built from many constructive organizations that
thrive in local communities. Citizens of the 21st century can be quite sure that
top-down solutions will not work and the tendency toward centralized political
and economic control will need to be modified or abandoned. The realist will
recognize that "social progress" is not a progression of rational responses to
problems, proceeding toward some ultimate solution for human deficiencies and
Close by, I am aware of a society that is self-indulgent and often
unrealistic. Canada is often viewed as a peaceful country with an enviable
quality of life. This is an overview that averages the good and bad features of
Canadian life. Becoming a Canadian does not change the critically disputatious
nature of the country's human citizens. There are deep dialectics in the human
mind with constant battles between optimism and pessimism, suspicion and trust,
approach and avoidance. There is also a deep narcissism in each human, based on
the conviction that "I am the center of the universe"
Human groups are preoccupied with real and imaginary threats from enemies
and spend much of their time and resources defending against and attacking
enemies. The view that the good and the bad are products of culture is now
yielding to the deeper insight that the dialectical nature of the human mind is
built in. This innate dialectic generates culture not the other way around. In
this 21st century, a more realistic philosophy of human life should emerge as we
recognize that it is impossible to permanently change human nature by social and
political means - by education, persuasion, coercion and law.
Humans require regulation using a system of rules that are an external form
of behavior coding. External regulation can evolve and improve by creating and
maintaining stable social and political structures in a democratic
infrastructure. Democracies are, however, unstable and vulnerable to internal
dissolution as much as external attack. Democracies require elaborate internal
rules and surveillance to prevent subgroups from achieving control over critical
functions such as the money supply, police, courts and military forces.
Subgroups are always competing for resources and control so that no civil
society can be considered stable and enduring without an energetic and educated
population of activists who are prepared to defend freedoms and privileges on a
daily basis. Smart people can break through old paradigms and recognize patterns in human
nature. This is happening all the time. Good, new ideas always impress me and I
always ask -why didn't I think of that? A new, good idea can spread from person
to person and can make people smarter and more effective in the world. A good
idea may seem obvious once you understand and accept it, but before someone
comes up with the idea, you are ignorant. Humans who do not have access to new
ideas and learn only a few of the old, worn-out and bad ideas are stuck with
being ignorant.
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25 Gorgeous Holiday Table Settings
Check out these dazzling table settings and centerpieces for sparkling inspiration when hosting get-togethers for family and friends this holiday season.
Keep in mind: Price and stock could change after publish date, and we may make money from these links.
April 16, 2015
©HGTV fan single_mom_on_a_budget
Photo By: Rennai Hoefer
Sparkling Pinecones
Dress up a simple place setting with a pinecone and name tag cut from scrapbook paper and attached to a whitewashed pinecone studded with silver dragees. Photo by Matthew Mead
Dinner Music
Antique sheet music makes a chic, unconventional base for this white-and-silver place setting. Top the music with a silver charger, an ironstone dinner plate and a silver bread plate. Then, roll up a monogrammed linen napkin in a simple silver ring. Photo by Marian Parsons; Create a Classic Silver and White Tablescape>>
Rustic Elegance
Treat your guests to the luxury of using different plates and bowls for each course. Serve soup in simple wooden bowls, follow with a salad on a delicate ironstone plate and finish with dinner on a square wooden plate. A crystal goblet adds a touch of elegance, but the wheat pattern ties in to the natural theme. Photo by Marian Parsons; Make Rustic Christmas Table Decorations>>
Dip-Dyed Vintage Flatware
Whether you use old flatware or vintage finds from a thrift store, you can amp up your holiday table setting with dip dye. Make it easy and use the spray paint version. Get the instructions here>>
Cross-Stitch Poinsettia Napkins
Bring a touch of modern folk art to the table. This poinsettia design is simple and an adorable addition to your holiday dinner. Download our free printable poinsettia, and follow our easy instructions to make your own napkins.
Simply Chic
Subtle seasonal touches, like sprigs of holly tucked into silver napkin rings, a mini poinsettia centerpiece and garland wreaths along the sideboard, give this simple table setting quiet sophistication. Photo courtesy of Tara Riceberg
Holiday Minimalism
Transform everyday white dishes and napkins with a simple napkin ring embellishment. Best of all, it's temporary: simply hot glue a small scrapbooking embellishment to the tops of plain rings. When the holidays are over, simply remove the embellishments and save them for next year. Photo by Layla Palmer
Cottage Christmas
This three-tiered centerpiece combines silver ornament balls, sparkling starfish, strands of jewelry and holiday greenery while adding a creative and vintage touch to a cottage-style dining room. Design by HGTV fan single_mom_on_a_budget
Simply Elegant
HGTV fan Leanne Michael Interiors wanted to maintain the simplicity of this neutral dining room during the holiday season. Birch branches and bird nests were dusted with gold powder for a subtle Christmas glow. Gold candles and sparkling accessories deliver just the right amount of elegance.
Winter Wonderland
White on white makes a simple yet striking table setting during the holidays. HGTV fan single_mom_on_a_budget stacked ceramic white plates and finished each setting with a wrapped gift box for a striking touch.
Blue Christmas
Designer Katrina Giles used icy blue, silver and black as her holiday color scheme. The white and blue plates pop against the shimmery black placemats, and silver snowflake wrapping paper works as an easy table runner that's ideal for a quick clean up.
Au Naturel
Bring the outdoors in with a woodsy, nature-inspired centerpiece. HGTV fan JenniH used decorative vine and ornament balls along with feathers, garland and white birds for a stunning table display. The silver, white and gold color palette provides a pleasing color contrast.
Touch of Drama
Create a dramatic holiday centerpiece by combining bold red accessories. Bright red ornament balls, berry sprigs and glittery tinsel garland surround a plain white candle in a clear crystal globe to create an eye-catching centerpiece.
Bountiful Centerpiece
Designer Melissa Michaels stylishly dressed up her kitchen table for the holidays. "Take an ordinary wreath and fill the center with fruit and vegetables such as apples, limes and artichokes, and weave some sparkly garland around the wreath for a unique centerpiece," she says.
Non-Traditional Colors
"Christmas doesn't always have to be green and red," says designer Cindy Aplanalp. "You can extend your fall decorations into the winter by using gold as a holiday color." Cindy's holiday table setting brings in hints of Christmas hues, but allows natural tones of golden yellow and brown to shine through.
Golden Touch
HGTV fan glam-tastic relied on gold as the primary color for this holiday tablescape. A decorated garland centerpiece and berry sprigs in the chandelier add traditional holiday flair to an elegant dining room.
Silver and White with Greenery-Trimmed Chandelier
Greenery draped around this dining room's chandelier is a fresh, lush look. The winter wonderland continues on the table with rustic bottle brush ornaments and a sparkly white Christmas tree. Sprigs of evergreen and pinecones accent each place setting.
Jingle Bells
HGTV fan dianneh stacked several patterned plates for individualized holiday table settings. An oversized bell holds the personalized name cards for each guest.
Simple Settings
Designer Katrina Giles used robin's egg blue ornament balls as name card holders for each place setting. The name cards are made of black glitter yardstick and silver letter stickers and can be used from season to season.
Glamorous Dining
HGTV fan KeithC brought holiday flair to a plain white tablecloth. Red-wire decorative ribbon marks each individual place setting. A flat, rectangular mirror is topped with white berries and roses for a glamorous centerpiece.
Minimal Decor
HGTV fan happyeastcoasttransplant added red ribbon to each white chair and red-berry garland above the four mirrors. Until guests arrive, glass jars full of holiday candy serve as table toppers.
Fanciful Feast
Nothing says elegance like gold tones. HGTV fan Knaugher paired gold and burgundy for an exquisite table display.
Winter Snow
HGTV fan AprilD26 used winter snow and ice as the inspiration for her holiday tablescape. Crystal glasses, a blue table runner and silver accents create a graceful and elegant dining experience.
Black and White
HGTV fan mlwzinger opted for black and white decor instead of typical holiday colors. A splash of gold adds holiday shimmer to each place setting while the black and white theme matches the modernity of the space.
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E4991A RF Impedance/Material Analyzer
|Product Status:
|Obsolete | View Service Options
A replacement for this product is available:
Key Features & Specifications
Basic accuracy
- +/- 0.8 % basic accuracy
Sweep parameters
- Frequency: 1 MHz to 3 GHz
- Oscillator level: Up to 1 dBm/0.5 Vrms/10 mArms
- DC bias level (Option E4991A-001): +/- 40V or +/- 50 mA
More features
- Windows-styled user interface
- Built-in VBA programming function
- Data transfer through LAN interface
Versatile measurement options
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- Temperature characteristic measurement (Option E4991A-007)
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Temperature characteristic evaluation
The temperature characteristic test kit, the E4991A-007, is a new solution of temperature characteristic measurement for components and materials. This option provides highly accurate temperature characteristic analysis capability within the wide temperature range from - 55°C to + 150°C with a powerful temperature drift compensation function.
For more information about impedance analyzer, please visit Impedance Analyzers.


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Following the likes of Hollywood celebrities like Hilary Duff, Victoria Beckham, and Raven-Symone (to name a few) and even Bollywood (Aamir Khan), Amitabh Bachchan has launched his own blog, which he updates almost daily.
ADAG owned bigadda.com recently roped Big B to start his own blogging site. In the blog, Big B talks about his life, film shoots and more. About his blog he states, "I am still illiterate towards this medium and beg to be excused for any errors or expectations from me. But as time goes by and the systems fall into place, there shall hopefully be a more refined presentation."
In other Bachchan news, Amitabh recently injured himself on the sets of the forthcoming Aladdin co-starring Riteish Deshmukh. On Monday, during a fight scene for the film, Big B hurt his back severely and he had to be taken to Mumbai's Lilavati Hospital for orthopedic examination. Supposedly, Bachchan underwent X-ray and MRI scan of his back. Nothing serious was detected with the injury. On his new blog, Amitabh thanked his fans saying ,"your generosity and concern for my health is so endearing and warm. Thank you for it!"
It will be interesting to see how successful his blog becomes. Whether it will prove to be as successful as Aamir's is something we have yet to see. In the meantime, you can keep track of Big B here


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Love using shrubs but wish they didn't take so long to make? Well, Funkin is eliminating some of the shrub schlep, launching what it is calling the first commercially available shrub.
Growing its range of easy-to-use syrups and purées, Funkin Pro Beetroot Shrub Syrup is made with natural ingredients including beetroot juice concentrate, rosemary extract and spirit vinegar. According to Funkin, the shrub syrup tastes just like its traditional counterpart, with a great balance between sweet and tart. And it comes with a two-year shelf life.
Made in partnership with Jägermeister and Be At One bar group, the shrub's suggested serve is the Jäger Mega Drive, a combination of Jägermeister, Chambord, Funkin Pro Beetroot Shrub Syrup, blueberry jam, lemon juice and maple syrup.
'Funkin Pro Beetroot Shrub Syrup is the first commercially available shrub on the market and provides outlets with a way to create and serve complex, full-flavoured cocktails that are perfectly balanced,' said Funkin managing director Andrew King.
'As leaders in cocktail innovation, the latest product to join our range of Funkin Pro Cocktail Syrups taps into current consumption trends. Shrubs, which date back to the 15th century, have been making a comeback on cocktail menus,' he continued. 'The shrub is a perfect offering for ever changing consumer and on-trade demands.'
Funkin Pro Beetroot Shrub Syrup is available in packs of six 36cl bottles.


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27 Feb 2010, 5:20 PM
Hi all... I've been using ExtJs for some while now and I love it. But we've gotten to a point where we are trying to eek every little bit of performance possible out of our page render times. and as great as the ExtJs framework is, it is a huge performance hit due to its size. I'm interested to know if I should anticipate any problems on using Ext-core for initial loading (most page wouldn't need much more than ext-core to initiate menu's and what not) and then later in the lifecycle dynamically bootstrap the rest of the ExtJs framework so that I can benefit from Ext.Direct, Ext.Window, etc.... any help on the matter would be appreciated.


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The first post of this Blog was all about how I had finally gotten my wife to play World of Warcraft with me. Since then, we've enjoyed countless adventures in Azeroth and Outland, made many good friends through our guild, and progressed to content I had only really dreamed of seeing when I first rolled Elionene back in late March of 2007. All of these are things that I thought I'd never do.
When I first started playing Warcraft, I didn't have a lot of time to put into it. I played a few hours here and there, but I was newly married, and we had just moved to Boston, so I was rarely ever able to put large chunks of time into the game. My little night elf hunter slowly but surely made her way to the mid 40s over a few months. I think I made it to level 70 in January of 2008 after 20 days played or so. That was a feat for me since I was a really casual player. During those months I had of course gone over all of the cool equipment and gear I could get in the top raids and things, but it didn't take long to realize the time investment that those raids needed just wasn't going to happen for me.
I wasn't too concerned. I'm on an RP server and the raid progression is slow there anyway. Moon Guard had only been around since The Burning Crusade came out, and it was well known for fostering a healthy role playing community that wasn't so hell bent on "beating" the game. A couple months before turning 70, I had lucked into finding a role play guild, Veritas, that was also eager to run dungeons and instances, things that I was beginning to appreciate but never had much time to do.
I fell into a routine of getting up before work and early on Saturdays before my wife was awake, using that time to play and level, and if I could find anyone, run an instance. I would post notices on the guild boards, but not many people wanted to run Blood Furnace with me at 6 in the morning. But then through an interesting set of circumstances, I met some people while doing Skettis dailies early in the morning. They were new to the server, and we helped each other get that silly prisoner out of tree tops a few times. Not too much later, I find they had joined their alts to Veritas, and as it turns out, they were from across the Atlantic which meant that 6 AM was more like 11 AM. Boom. I have a steady group of people to run dungeons with.
Before I know it, I'm leading a group of five people through Steamvault every Saturday morning for Cenarion Expedition reputation. Me? Leading a weekly dungeon crawl? Ha! We affectionately called our group the Crack of Dawn, and we still run together, though we've moved on to other dungeons. And that's because most of us that needed the CE rep got to exalted. And now my Night Elf is riding around on a freaking Hippogryph. I love the way that Night Elves look on these, especially for the lore of Warcraft. Makes me a little sad when I see horde on them.
Soon after starting the Sat. morning run. I got my wife to play with me. And now WoW has become our premium form of entertainment. She and I are both active in the guild. She just got her main, Lal, to 70 and decked out in Primal Moon Cloth and the Whitemend set. She's more than ready to heal Karazhan. Oh yeah! I'm in Karazhan too with Elionene! And Lal is set to join us in the near future. We may even do Gruul's soon, which would be my first official 25 person raid.
If you've read any of the blog before this post, you've read a lot of these things as they happened. It's just awesome to me that I didn't expect to ever come as far as I have. At one point, I wasn't sure if playing for an hour or two a week was worth it, but circumstances change and now we play all the time. So what's left to do?
Well, for a long time, I've wanted to play every class, and every race as well. There are still zones I've barely stepped foot in, and loads of quests I've never done. It seems daunting to think I'll ever achieve that goal, but then again, I didn't think I'd ever see anything beyond a 5 person instance either. Or that I could convince my wife to play with me, and she LIKES it. So it might take awhile, but I'm looking forward to the challenge knowing that anything is possible.
Monday, July 28, 2008
1 comment:
- Unknown said...
Hello there! I just recently found your blog, and I wanted to say kudos to you and yours for breaking into end game.
Oh! I almost forgot... names Wyrmsfire... and I have my own blog as well. You may check it out if you like.
I'm on the Roleplaying realm of Earthen Ring, and a casual player as well. Though I'm not quite as lucky as you to have my wife playing.
Anyway, just wanted to say hi. I've linked your site on my list and hope to see more from your wonderful site.
Take care!
- July 30, 2008 at 6:31 AM
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What is the PSAT?
Confused about the PSAT? We've got some answers to common questions and info on why your teen should take this particular "practice" test seriously.
Confused about the PSAT? We've got some answers to common questions and info on why your teen should take this particular "practice" test seriously.
The Preliminary SAT/National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test is a standardized test administered by the College Board and National Merit Scholarship Corporation (NMSC). But unlike most "pre-tests" that serve as practice material to prepare students for the real exam, the PSAT is much more. Students who score high enough on the PSAT are entered in a competition for a scholarship from the National Merit Scholarship Program. This program awards one-time scholarships ranging from $2,500 to $5,000 as well as scholarships ranging from $500 to $10,000 per year.
- How is it different from SAT & ACT?
The PSAT can only be taken once per school year. Students who are sophomores or younger are allowed to take the test, but to qualify for the National Merit Scholarship, students must take this test as a junior.
- How is it administered?
Unlike other standardized exams, registration for the PSAT is done at your teen's high school, and the test is taken every October during regular school hours at participating high schools.
- What if my child is homeschooled?
You may contact a nearby school offering the PSAT/NMSQT and request to take the test there. There is no online registration process. Registration must be done at a participating high school.
- How much money does it cost?
The test is offered at a fraction of the cost of other standardized tests. There is a $15 fee per student tested. In some cases, schools may charge an additional fee to cover administrative costs. The College Board offers fee waivers to juniors who come from a low-income family and demonstrate financial need. These waivers are given out to juniors through the request of school administrators and are allotted on a first-come, first-served basis.
- So, what's on the test?
The PSAT is broken into five sections: two Critical Reading, two Math and one Writing section. The Official Student Guide to the PSAT/NMSQT offers reviews to aid in preparation and can be picked up from your teen's guidance office in September. Practice tests are also available online.
- How are the scores used?
The National Merit Scholarship Corporation receives all the scores. Each section of the test is scored between 20-80 with an overall score ranging from 60 to 240. The selection for the scholarship is based on how well the students do in comparison to peers in their region. Each state has a specific PSAT Selection Index, which is used in part to qualify students for the National Merit Scholarship.


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I have a TiVo that I wish to transfer programs from. The TiVo only has a wired interface and I need to access it wirelessly.
I configured a secondary router to be a Wireless Ethernet Bridge and will connect the TiVo to it. Right now I have a laptop acting as a client for testing purposes.
The hardwired laptop client of the secondary can access the Internet and can ping devices that are connected wirelessly to the primary. HOWEVER, when I ping the secondary router or the laptop client FROM a primary client I get a "Destination host unreachable". (Windows message)
When I examine the primary router's network map of clients (Merlin firmware) I see that while the secondary router and the laptop client have unique IP addresses they all share the same MAC address (the secondary router's Wireless interface MAC address).
Is there a solution to this problem?
Internet searches have been fruitless.