dull

Tian Mu Shan and the Leeches

2009-07-28T20:46:00.000-07:00

The graduate department of our university put together a wonderful trip to Tianmushan, a mountain nature preserve that has two peaks approximately 1500 meters high. The department arranged a bus and allowed me to fill it with some friends and past students. Here we are: Amery, Chris, Peter, Tim, Anita, Sophie, Rebecca, Jack, Sue, Danny, Lisa, Sarah, Jenny, Vincent, Sara and Blue! Xiao Zhou has been so great all year - I send him all of my copies via email every week and he has them printed and ready to go for me every Tuesday morning! I feel quite spoiled as all of the other teachers have to make their own copies.Sue, with my student Lisa, a 2nd year law student. Since this is a preserved area, there are many large trees and it is SO green! It was also very hot today, probably 90 degrees, and cloudy. Very humid and warm!Sue found some sort of chrysalis from some long gone resident. We saw these all over the place, and the forest was abundant with butterflies. Maybe this fuzzy fellow will build one too!Xiao Zhou, and another one of my past students, "Blue". I think she always wore blue in my classes, but today she wore red!Peter and Jack took a break and hung out by one of the many waterfalls we passed on the way up the mountain."Sara" and "Lisa", two of my law students... Peter and Jack talked to Chris, who is studying for his masters in Precision Measurement. He is also a very fast runner and is the fastest hurdles runner in Zhejiang province. They like the same video game, Warcraft 3, so they had plenty to discuss. Rebecca and Anita came with us too, and it's always a pleasure to have them around. They get on so well with the boys and Sophie LOVES them!Peter with Jenny. He is now about the same size as most of my students :).Here he is again... I think he's now taller than Rebecca and Anita.... but he hasn't passed me up... YET!Jack found a creative way to get across the stream - shimmy across a fallen piece of bamboo. I was SURE he was going to go into the water but he made it across without a problem. Here's Chen Ye, "Sara" next to one of the large trees in this dense forest! Sue and Anita admiring the foliage...Now we're half-way up and it's very warm out. Everyone is soaked to the bone with sweat and we're all hot as you can see from our red faces! We found a nice resting spot beside the trail and sat down for some lunch. They brought a spread of duck-wings, some sandwich fixings, cookies and other munchies for lunch.Then Peter noticed something on Jack's leg. It was a LEECH! Yuck! I managed to pry it off of him with my fingernail. Here it is stuck to a chopstick. One of the other teachers at the university warned me that leeches are prevalent at Tianmushan and I should take great care to wear long pants. I took it as so much Chinese folklore and thanked her for the advice -- but it was TRUE!When we got home tonight, Sue pulled off her socks to find a leech had bitten her through her sock and her wound bled for quite awhile. They are really amazing creatures. They put some kind of anesthetic on the bite area, so you don't feel them bite. Their saliva contains anti-coagulants so the wound bleeds and bleeds. Sue's was still bleeding a couple of hours after we got home and treated it! The green path that we were walking on - so tranquil - it looks deceptively cool, but it was so HOT!Sophie found a little fountain and tried to splash me the best she could!The fountain comes down this bamboo trough that originates near the waterfall. Many people drank from it but I wasn't going to risk it only 7 days before going home!We did however put our heads under it, and it felt GOOOOD. Thank goodness for short hair. The girls with all of that long black hair decided not to have a go.Taking my turn... so refreshing!We took a little side-trip to a really stunning waterfall...Here we all our for a group shot!Making our way up the slippery rocks...All the more difficult with Sophie on my shoulders. She decided that riding was more fun than walking. I can't say I blame her!... a view up the ultra-green path! Finally a break at the lookout point. It was a bit cloudy so the view wasn't that good, but it sure felt good to rest after carrying Sophie up here!Anita, having a break after a tiring hike!... and here we are, 2/3 of the way done! Rebecca and Anita are standing in front of a tree that died about 80 years ago and is more than 2,300 years old!We're all egging Sophie on. "Sophie, can't you please WALK? You're so LAZY!"We made it back to the bus down the mountain and transferred to our bus back to Hangzhou. We all had a great time today being out in nature!

Stacey Marie Barker

2009-07-16T01:29:00.000-07:00

Girl's Vegas Trip!

2009-07-13T19:20:00.000-07:00

A couple weeks ago I went to Vegas to celebrate the birthday of not one, but TWO very important birthdays of my friends, Amy and Tiffany. We got a van to hold all eight of us and stayed at The Venetian.Amy went a little crazy writing on our van!There was so many memorable moments but here's just a few:-Before we even left town, one girl forgot her underwear.-I decided to do a fake tan for the first time and burned myself really bad! (I STILL have the light lines on my back!)-One girl fell out of the van! Twice!-A gas station guy asked, "What does Vegas or Bush mean?" but what was written on the van was "Vegas or Bust!" So that became our slogan.-We got amazing hookups everywhere we went, just for being a group of girls!Birthday Girl #1: The beautiful Amy.Birthday Girl #2: The beautiful Tiffany.Vanessa knows how to rock a photo shoot!Yep, I posted this one cause I look goood!My two favorite (G-Rated) quotes from the weekend:"I love big words and when you use them, I kinda love you a little.""Every time I'm sad I'll think of her falling and I'll be happy again."This weekend was one filled with rainbows, cookies, bubbles and midgets (or technically, a Dwarf.) It will go down in history as being one of the most fun times ever to be had by yours truly!

Need for Speed Undercover Patch v1.01.18 now available

2009-07-13T01:41:00.000-07:00

If you've got the need for speed, then you'll definitely need this: v1.0.1.18 patch is now available across all platforms that Need for Speed: Undercover is in - and that's quite a list of platforms: Xbox 360, PS3, Wii, PSP, NDS, PC, mobile and PS2.For this patch, you'll once get into high-intensity police chases, as well as get introduced to the new "Heroic Driving Engine". This new feature uses a unique technology that is capable of generating high-performance moves up to 80mph.There's also the Challenge series, which you can get for free, featuring 60 new events in two new game modes. Here, you can also earn up to three new cars. Wanna add another diamond to your collection? Then make your pick with the premium Boss Car pack, which you can get for US 5 (400 MS Points).Here's what's included in this sweet fleet of new mobiles: Carmen's Shelby GT500 Chase s BMW M6 Chau Wu s Mercedes-Benz CLS 63 AMG G-Mac s Lamborghini Gallardo LP560-4 Hector s Nissan 370Z Nickel s Dodge Viper SRT10 Rose s Porsche 911 GT2 Zack s Volkswagen SciroccoRelated Need for Speed: Undercover Articles:Crossing the finish line: NFS Undercover finally reaches App Store

berlin!

2009-07-02T18:38:00.000-07:00

Ok, this post is gigantic. What can I say. Berlin is my favorite city in the world, and it's a vegan/green living mecca. In exchange for posting tons of photos, I will not use any words. If you want specific information about anything or any place you see, feel free to ask me. For comprehensive vegan Berlin information, look at this post on the PPK, where Sarahbean and Mihl posted hugely valuable information. Their lists were basically our guides! And, I got to meet so many awesome vegans and bloggers on this trip, including Mihl and Ditte. This was an amazing trip. Berlin, ich liebe dich!latté made with soy milkmunching on a hawaii burger at yo-yojojo enjoys one of our many many cupcakes from Cupcake (yes, jojo from Brighton)yes, vegetarian doner!vegan gummi bears- seriously addictiveyet another Soyamilchkaffeelemon cupcake!apple tart with vegan whipped creamvegan brunch. plate 1 of many...our group came from 5 different cities and most of us crashed together- so fun!yay photobooths!Mihl & bazu, about to enjoy some fine German beerSudanese vegan food.you heard me right.another vegan restaurant, co-owned by an Iranian-German lady. um. vegan Iranian German food.you heard me right.^ this is where you find it. It's in the Kreuzberg neighborhood.Berlin has many, many healthfood stores, including an all-vegan supermarket! Above you see that Germans have a huge selection of veggie spreads and pates to choose fromsoup,and hot dog at Hot Dog Soup. That's what they serve!Lots of different hot dogs, including hawaii dog, above.the last 3 remaining Berlin revelers, right before leaving our hostel room...This post didn't even scratch the surface! The one thing everyone can agree that Berlin is is OVERWHELMING. you can see the rest of my photos from this trip here.

Raphael Matos and Richard Antinucci Savor Showdown on Sunday

2009-07-01T19:00:00.001-07:00

Championship Contenders Comment on Upcoming Contest at Chicagoland
by Allan Brewer
allan@indyproracer.com
AFS Andretti Green Racing’s Raphael Matos. Photo: ChrisJonesIRL
Months of preparation, and a sixteen-race schedule spanning from March to September, culminate on Sunday (September 7th) when AFS Andretti Green’s Raphael Matos and Sam Schmidt Motorsports’ Richard Antinucci square off at Chicagoland Speedway to determine who is going to go home with the Firestone Firehawk Cup—the prize for winning the 2008 Firestone Indy Lights championship.
Both men, who are competing in their first full year of Indy Lights competition at twenty-seven years of age, were solid preseason co-favorites to win the Cup; and neither has disappointed their fans or their teams in a season-long quest for the crown.
The pair have see-sawed the points lead back and forth from the green flag that waved over the streets of St. Petersburg in Race One to kick off one of the greatest years ever of Indy Lights racing.
Now with a single contest remaining, the last two contenders standing will settle the issue on the 1.5 mile oval near Joliet, Illinois.
Stakes High as Both Drivers Aim for IndyCar Futures
For both men the Firestone Firehawk Cup validates their credentials to move upward into the IndyCar Series.
Raphael Matos’ three victories (St. Pete, Watkins Glen and Mid-Ohio) and seven top-five finishes are bolstered by four pole position starts over the sixteen-race 2008 season.
An Indy Lights championship in tandem with the Champ Car Atlantic championship he won in 2007, and the Star Mazda championship he claimed in 2005, can boost him into the limelight as IndyCar ‘silly season’ gets underway (early) this year.
“I hope I will be in an IndyCar (next year),” Rafa offered. “There are a lot of things going on right now, and that’s my ultimate goal. That's what I'm working hard for.”
“I truly believe having the Indy Lights championship can help me in negotiating for next year. I have a great team that could easily support a car for me in the IndyCar Series,” he said.
“So let's hope.”
Richard Antinucci has shown the kind of consistency of finish, and speed on the big oval at Indianapolis, that leads to championships at the Indy Lights level and beyond.
Sam Schmidt Motorsports’ Richard Antinucci. Photo: RonMcQueeneyIRL
Two wins (also at St. Pete and Watkins Glen) compliment nine top-five finishes and eleven top-tens that could be enough to sway 1998 Indianapolis 500 winner Eddie Cheever to roll out an IndyCar team in 2009 with nephew Richard at the wheel.
Most importantly, Antinucci ran a convincing second to Panther’s Dillon Battistini at the Freedom 100 on Carb Day (May 23rd) at Indianapolis Motor Speedway. The feat established his potential on the 2.5 mile oval that hosts the grand-daddy of all American races, the Indy 500.
“I hope Eddie and the whole Team Cheever manage to pull something together to do part-time, full-time, or just the Indy 500 in the IndyCar Series,” said Antinucci, “because that's where I really want to be. That's where I think his (Eddie’s) heart is, too.”
“We'd both like to work together,” he continued. “We did really well last year in the few races we did. We ended on a very positive note. We've also done a Grand-Am race together and it went really well. The results were good, fastest lap, all that.”
Something Must Give as Matos and Antinucci Focus on the Same Goal
Matos takes 472 points into the final racing battle at Chicagoland Speedway, a neck ahead of Antinucci’s 469. The closely-fought competition has left both racers anticipating the climax.
“I'm really looking forward to this last race,” said Antinucci in the final pre-race interview of the 2008 campaign, “because we've brought ourselves to this point and we have a chance.”
“We're almost going in even,” he continued of the skinny three point deficit that separates him from leader Matos, “as if the championship race started this race. It's definitely a fair crack at it.”
“I think the approach will be pretty much the same as everywhere we've been,” countered Rafa with his turn at the microphone. “We’ve shown great speed pretty everywhere we've been. We won three races on a road course, and we had two pole positions at the mile-and-a-half oval courses.”
“We tested last week at Chicago,” he said, “and we have a great car for that track. I'm looking forward to it. I think we'll have an extremely good package for the race.”
“Everybody's wishing me good luck from Brazil,” he finished. “Hopefully I will bring this title for them, to all my family, friends, and obviously my team.”

Using IValueConverter to format values in RadControls for Silverlight

2009-06-30T20:17:00.001-07:00

It’s often necessary to modify or format some of the raw data received by your data tier application or other data sources. In Silverlight, you can create your own value converter and introduce your own formatting rules. In this blog post I will create a simple value converter that formats double values, and then use it with a RadComboBox. First, let’s create a class that will represent our data source. The equivalent of this class in more realistic scenario would be a proxy class generated by your data tier application in case you use RIA services. public class Data : List { public Data() { this.Add(new Item() { Name = "Ferrari", Price = 120000 }); this.Add(new Item() { Name = "Mercedes", Price = 100000 }); this.Add(new Item() { Name = "BMW", Price = 90000 }); this.Add(new Item() { Name = "Ford", Price = 50000 }); } } The Item class can be any class that implements the INotifyPropertyChanged interface. In this case the Item class has only two properties Name and Price. To data bind the data source class we have just created, you should set the DataContext property of RadComboBox like this: Data context = new Data(); radCombo.DataContext = context; Since we want to bind our RadComboBox to the items that are contained in Data, not the Data class itself, we can either use the DisplayMemberPath, a property of RadComboBox, or create an ItemTemplate. Otherwise, if you just simply set the DataContext to the data source you will end up with a ToString() representation of your Data class. To have our two properties, Name and Price, appear in a single ComboBoxItem we should create a custom template. Here is a sample implementation of this: The result of running this code should be similar to this: Obviously, we cannot distinguish whether the numbers part of the combobox item are prices or telephone numbers. What we would like to achieve is simply format the UI representation of this values without modifying the data source itself. In Silverlight and WPF you can use the IValueConverter interface to introduce your own format logic. The interface has two virtual methods that you should implement: Convert and ConvertBack. Here is a simple implementation of a converter that formats the Price property of the data source class to its currency representation. public class NumericConverter : IValueConverter { public object Convert(object value, Type targetType, object parameter, CultureInfo culture) { if (value is double) { var num = (double)value; return num.ToString("C", culture); } return value; } public object ConvertBack(object value, Type targetType, object parameter, CultureInfo culture) { double num; if (double.TryParse(value.ToString(), out num)) { return num; } return DependencyProperty.UnsetValue; } } The Convert method is the place to introduce you custom logic. The ConvertBack method should do the inverse of what Convert does, but Silverlight isn't making use of it, so you can leave it not implemented. Note that the data binding engine doesn’t catch exceptions by custom converters. In order to anticipate any problems with the conversion process of your data type, you should return DependencyProperty.UnsetValue. Now you can declare the value converter in the resources tag of your control like this: You should also associate your custom converter to the property you want to use it. Now if you run the application your RadComboBox should look similar to this: It’s important to note that you can use the value converters in any control in your Silverlight application. Value converters are also very useful when dealing with DateTime types.

Wakarusa 2009 Lineup, Schedule Posted

2009-06-28T21:06:00.000-07:00

Ive got a set of festival announcements that I wanted to post and comment on a bit, as the festivals that have been announced this year are all looking pretty amazing from where Im sitting. Theres so much uniqueness in the way festivals are occurring these days, with Carries post called Festival Fever fully summarizing the sentiment Ive long tried to express through the content on the blog overall.
In deciding to see a festival these days, aside from the line-up, a big part of the draw is the festival setting. Castle, pirate ship, barn, or mountaintop equals yes. Expo Center, mini-mall, or dusty-field-with-faint-smell-of-manure is probably a no. The setting cannot be underestimated. After all, you are basically trapped in one location for 10 to 12 hours.
I think the boys putting on Wakarusa were especially aware of this consideration, especially given the police troubles in the past when the festival was still being held in Lawrence, KS. But this year, theyve moved locations and theyre setting up shop at Mulberry Mountain in Ozark, Arkansas. The festival is set for June 4th-7th, and the lineup features The Black Crowes, Govt Mule, and STS9 as the top of the bill. Read on for the full lineup.
Wakarusa 2009 Lineup
The Black Crowes
Govt Mule
STS9 (2 huge sets!)
Yonder Mountain String Band (2 huge sets!)
Les Claypool
G Love Special Sauce
Matisyahu
Gomez
Cross Canadian Ragweed
Galactic (2 sets including a special late night set)
Shpongle
Buckethead (special late night set)
Sly Robbie
Railroad Earth (2 big sets)
Steve Kimock Crazy Engine featuring Melvin Seals
Perpetual Groove (2 big sets)
Porter Batiste Stoltz (2 sets)
JJ Grey MOFRO
Jimmy Herring Band
The Egg
20/20 Soundsystem
Lucero
Split Lip Rayfield (2 sets)
The New Mastersounds (2 sets)
Jason Isbell the 400 Unit
EOTO
Trombone Shorty and Orleans Avenue
Secret Chiefs 3
Boombox (2 sets)
New Monsoon (2 sets)
Moonalice (2 sets)
Jacob Fred Jazz Odyssey
Ott
Ganga Giri
Telepath
Cornmeal (2 sets)
Joe Purdy (2 sets)
Jessie Baylin (2 sets)
Langhorne Slim
Dusty Rhodes and the River Band
Cedric Burnside and Lightnin Malcolm (2 sets)
Big Smith (2 sets)
Josh Phillips Folk Festival
Elmwood
Dirtfoot (2 sets)
Giant Panda Guerilla Dub Squad
Pretty Lights
Heavyweight Dub Champion
Underground Orchestra (2 sets)
Mishka
Jonathan Tyler the Northern Lights
DJ Rekha
Chuck Love
Wax Fang
Madahoochi
Scythian
Old School Freight Train
My Dear Disco
Radiohiro
The Hood Internet
Blue Mountain
Hoots and Hellmouth
Samantha Crain and the Midnight Shivers
Burnin Smyrnans
Public Property
Elephant Revival
Euforquestra
Hana Pestle
Turbine
Mayola
Charliehorse
Tom Foolery
Jason Sterling
My-Tea Kind
Gem
Funkotron
Uncle Lucius
GreenSugar
Damn Bullets
LFDC Funk
David Hasselhoff on Acid
The Corduroy
Mountain Standard Time
Copesetic
The Moai Broadcast
Uniphonics
Reelfoot
Gum
Blue Martian Tribe
Runnin Wild Band
Spotting Waldo
LFDC Funk
JamBase has their customizable schedules up with the set times for the weekend posted.
In terms of success or not, Wakarusa has definitely been hanging in there over many of the other festivals that have already decided to shutter their windows and stop operating for a bit until the economy improves. But I hardly ever find the reason to get out and travel for this festival. It seems that its great for the regional heads that want to see some live music and camp in the middle of the field at the beginning of summer, a rite of passage so popular in the Midwest that even the chicks cruising up in their Cherokees partake in the festivities. And this is fantastic, but for me they never seem to stray past the obvious lineup choices for this festival. I think in some ways theyve done the opposite of what Bonnaroo has done for mixing up the notion of genres and headliners at music festivals to offer up more diversity in the crowd that may be attending year to year, and I hope it keeps working for them.

arguing over phone law - living with parents (LONG, you can skip to bottom LOL)?

2009-06-23T21:19:00.000-07:00

I was just on the phone arguing with a company. I use a website to order goods. It asked for my phone number when I signed up, I don't have one (I had a mobile but it broke and I just don't use anything anymore). As you know, the box has a star and doesn't let you leave it blank, so I ended up putting some random number in the end, like 12344321. I live with my parents (im young lol not a bum:) ). My parents have a house phone. This is not my phone. I do not answer it, I do not use it at all except for emergencies or very important things. That is besides the point. Very important things does not include any old website that wants to datamine our information. My question is, websites ask for your phone number, I do not give out MY PARENTS phone number, which would be the only number to contact me on. (in fact I do not speak to ANYONE by phone. I only use email, letter or go in person... anyway...) So I am arguing with customer services. I got an email saying my order was canceled for security reasons so I had to phone them to 'resolve' it. They said they cancelled my order because I did not put my correct phone number in. I told them I do not have a registered phone number, so what are you talking about? How can my phone number possibly be wrong when I don't have one? (they also said, a few people have ordered with the same number, I said, maybe it was me in the past? or are you saying someone else used my phone number, what does that have to do with me or my order? then I looked at my account and realised my # was a fake non number, so I also doubt anyone used the same one LOL) I also ordered from this website before and the order went through fine. This time however, there was a huge sale on, I planned to spend around £400 and got around £100 off, and by some freak coincidence they decided to cancel this order and said that my account looked dodgy. Even though I went through the checks okay and got sent a recipt saying they were preparing my order (yes I know that's not a guarantee, but my point was that my bank cleared it, but they cancelled it right after that - before they shipped/charged my account. Since they charge the cards when I ship I know that 1- my card was not declined, they declined my order, and 2- technically I have no order as the contract isn't made until they charge my card - stupid loophole the sites all have) I am trying to argue it with them just to get them to make some sense because I know they are lying to me and just don't want to give me the discount. Because the cancelled a couple of hours after the sale ended, meaning that I can't simply re-order without paying £100 more. They asked me where I was phoning them from. I said, I am using my Dad's phone. They said they will phone me back. I said, but I do not have a phone number, email me. They said they can't email such info. I said, well I don't give out my parents phone number. I finally decided that I would give it out for this one time so they we can resolve the issue, but told them, this is not MY phone number, but you can contact me on it today to resolve the issue. They are phoning back later. Now, my card went through fraud checks and passed fine, but their internal system claims that something is not matching up. The only thing I can think of is that I might have given the Bank my parents phone number to contact me on, as the bank is VERY important and won't talk to you by email (I agree it's unsafe) so I might have given the bank my (parents) home number. But obviously this is not me saying that this is my legal phone number or what not. It is me saying that the bank can contact me on that phone number. That's the only way I can see it not matching up What do you think? It's really confusing, but I know they are trying to rip me off and they said all I can do is re-order and pay full price (surprise!) if I want the items. I asked why I was able to order 5 months ago with the exact same details and method, no problem. They said they are not sure, I said find out. That is why they are phoning me back. I expect more bull though. I want to know what the law says (UK but any other law would be of interest) about phone numbers. The phone number is not registered to me. It's a weird situation.. He said to me, you have a mobile, you could have given a mobile number, and I said to him do not to tell me what I do and do not have. I do not have a mobile number to give out, (and as far as I know, there is no law requiring people to own a phone, and there is no law saying that you cannot order online without a phone number, as the whole point of the internet is to order via the internet.) (FYI I don't give out my parents phone number because twice I bought something online and they phoned and started discussing my order with my parents which I now know is actually illegal due to privacy laws, but anyway, nothing you can do about it really, so I don't give out that number anymore to ANY ANYONE, only the bank.) Anyone able to answer instead of just judging me? Basically my only question is about the law regarding 'my' phone number, if I am over 18, and have no registered phone. Isn't it true that I have no phone number? Does the law say that I MUST have a phone number and must give it out to all who ask ? Not as far as I know. [PS- Does anyone know if Verified By Visa ask for a phone number when you sign up? I can't remember as I signed up like a year ago. And yeah in future I will probably buy a mobile & give that number out..] ..gosh sorry I just noticed a lot of little mistakes like typos and missing words LOL..hope you can ignore them I should have re-re-read .... thankyou C9 I am so glad someone actually took the time to read and see my side + didn't just insult me, god knows how you managed to follow it LOL. If your emails are on I will send you an email to tell you the result. I reckon they will give in. Yes it was a UK site. But a big company so i'm not sure if they would really do that purposely? But it seems far too fishy to me. I told the guy on the phone that when he phones me back the result I want is that I get my order, get my discount, and if I don't I will absolutely be taking it further as I am certain something funny is going on. I would still like to find out what exactly is going on, even if they do give in and put my order though. It sounds like one weird excuse to me, I have a good mind to report them to consumer groups regardless. But I wanted to ask about phones to be sure. thanks x .. :) Not sure about my credit, but I ordered with a debit card not a credit card, and like I say I got through a specific fraud check on my visa debit card, that my bank set up, and it was the actual company who decided to cancel my order even though it got the all clear from the bank fraud checker. Good to know anyway. then what did they match my number up to? I do not own or am not registered to a phone number? also what was the thing about having orders with the same phone number. You didn't answer my question, I don't need you to state the obvious, it's quite clear I gave a fake number, that is nothing to do with the question. So either answer it or get lost. also I ordered before in the same way and it worked. like the other guy said, I do not have a phone number and there is no law saying I need to have one. To use the site I needed to enter a number, there is no law that requires you to give people your real phone number. but they didn't try to phone the number, the just emailed, and the last companies breached privacy laws so I do not care what their t&c claims they'll do with my data. I am asking why coincidentally did they object when I ordered the exact same way as last time, only this time I was getting £100 off, and I PASSED the checks. There is/was no reason for them to bother about my phone number. A phone number also does not have anything to do with fraud when the address, name, passwords, email and fraud check were all okay, and phone numbers can and do change often. In which case they should honor the sale as I made the order during the sale

One Tequila, Two Tequila, Three Tequila, Floor Or Cocktails With Giada

2009-06-22T20:42:00.000-07:00

(Sorry, I just love that George Carlin quote...Giada didn’t even serve tequila.)Giada At Home with Giada De Laurentiis Cocktails With CouplesSpiced Cocktail NutsCheese-Stuffed Dates with ProsciuttoCrispy Zucchini and Potato PancakesBlueberry-Limoncello CoolerGosh, Giada looks good in purple. Is that a bit of lilac on her eye lids? No, maybe not.Giada is having a get-together for the engagement of friends John and Corinne. She’s making a few snacks and one special drink before they all go out to dinner. I think cocktail entertaining is particularly well-suited to Giada. She’s such a gracious hostess.She starts with spiced cocktail nuts, which will be cooked in a low oven for 45 minutes. Giada whips 2 egg whites until frothy. Interesting. I wonder if the egg whites are a substitute for fat. That’s a good idea as long as they don’t come out gummy or gluey.Giada mixes together 2 cups of roasted, salted almonds, 2 cups of roasted, salted cashews and 2 cups of regular walnuts. If she’s cooking them for so long, why is she starting with roasted nuts and why not do her own salting? Giada likes the “crunch” that the egg whites give to the nuts. Heh? I don’t quite get that. She says it’s more like a brittle that you have to break up.To the nuts, G adds 2 tablespoons curry powder, 1 tablespoon cumin, cardamom, cinnamon, cayenne pepper - as much as you like - garlic salt (ick) and ¾ cup granulated sugar. OH, adding the sugar makes the egg whites more understandable. She stirs that all together and spreads the nuts onto a Pam-ed baking pan with Pam in one layer. She puts them in a 250°F oven for 45 minutes. For her jazzed up potato pancakes, she substitutes some zucchini for the potatoes. She peels 2 lbs. of potatoes, halves them and grates them in a flash in the food processor. She grates the zucchini right on top of the potato. She transfers that into a kitchen towel.Wait, where’s the onion? The potato has already turned a bit brown and every good potato pancake maker knows that the acid from the onion help to prevent that. You can also soak the grated potato in water to prevent the discoloration, but then there's a lot more liquid to squeeze out.Giada squeezes the towel really tightly around the vegetables to get all the liquid out. She adds the vegetables to a clean bowl. Still no onion? She adds 2 egg whites to keep it light because they’re going out to dinner. I would just throw in an entire egg.BTW, a standard egg is 2 oz. - the white is one ounce and the yolk is one ounce. That’s why it’s okay to substitute a whole egg for 2 whites. That’s helpful to know if you ever freeze the whites. One egg white is 2 tablespoons. 4 egg whites will measure half a cup.Giada adds store-bought seasoned bread crumbs, salt and pepper. Onion? Giada! She DOES add 3 cloves of garlic and chopped rosemary. She reminds us that fresh garlic has tightly closed cloves and is sticky. She likes to chop it fine, so that no one gets a big hunk of garlic. This is where I would absolutely use a garlic press. (And I would do my recently arrived at, but probably OLD wife’s tale, thing of getting rid of that center stalk in the garlic clove. I’m convinced that causes its bad rebound effects.) She stirs in the garlic. Nope, she is definitely not adding onion.She heats a skillet on high and adds a bit of oil. Giada adds PRE-GRATED (where is Aunt Raffi when we need her?) Parmigiano-Reggiano to the mixture. Of course, she bought very high quality cheese, but that’s a pretty big container and I’m not sure she’s going to use it all up anytime soon.Until I learned that Parmesan cheese didn’t come out of the brightly colored, big-holed container in the door of the fridge, I used to HATE it. Cheese is expensive, so I want to get my money’s worth. If that means having to grate it fresh, so be it. I often use pecorino when I can’t stomach the price of Parm, but NEVER pre-grated.She stirs in the cheese and, THIS is different, she pours out the entire (onionless) mixture into the heated sauté pan and then she pats it down into one giant pancake (still onionless). WELL! I have to say I didn’t see that coming. Giada covers it with cheese and drizzles over a bit of olive oil and cooks it on the burner for 8 minutes and then bakes it at 450°F for 20 to 25 minutes.Interestingly, Giada used this same recipe in a holiday special. Although in THAT recipe, she DID use onion instead of garlic. I have no problem with her recycling a recipe. When I come across a great recipe, I use it for years…for decades actually. The Giada at Home kitchen is quite gorgeous.Giada checks the bottom of the pancake and sees that it’s browned and then she turns it out upside down onto a Pam-ed baking sheet. Oh! That’s new too. She’s not just throwing the sauté pan in the oven.She takes out the nuts, they look good.Giada starts her dates. She mixes a ¼ cup goat cheese with a ¼ cup mascarpone. Both should be at room temperature. She chops basil really finely and adds that to the cheese with salt and pepper. She unwraps thinly sliced prosciutto.She grabs a date. They’ve been pitted already and they have a slit in them. Did she buy them like that? I have some FANTASTIC dates from the Shields Date Gardens in Palm Springs, which I keep in the freezer, but they have pits.Giada spoons some of the cheese mixture into the big Medjool dates. She wraps a half slice (cut lengthwise) of prosciutto around each one and stabs it with a toothpick or “cocktail pin”. I guess they have fancy names for things in LA. Hers ARE reusable, though.She breaks up the nuts and puts them in a bowl. The dates are plated. After the potato pancake has cooled, she cuts it into little squares with a serrated knife. G dollops a bit of mascarpone cheese on top and finishes it with a few spikes of rosemary. Pretty. This is a nice recipe and you could add different things to the pancake mixture. Maybe prosciutto (if you weren’t serving the dates and the potato pancakes weren’t a religious tradition), bits of smoked salmon to garnish, or even a fine dice of red pepper would look good IN the pancake or on top.Everything is in clear glass bowls or on clear glass plates. That’s her theme, she says.Oh darn, sorry to all you college guys, the cameras don’t follow her upstairs to change. She comes back to the kitchen in that gorgeous purple dress (she is stunning beyond words…) and gets started on the cocktail, which is a thing of beauty on its own. I think that IS lilac eye shadow.She puts fresh blueberries in a (clear glass) pitcher. She adds lots of torn mint on top and then pours an entire bottle of Limoncello into the pitcher. She pours in a cup of sparkling water. (I’m guessing Fresca isn’t the way to go here.) She stirs it gently. THAT is lovely. She takes a large (clear glass) “bucket” filled with crushed ice and jams her glasses into it to get and stay cold. (Can you even buy crushed ice?). Her friends have arrived.She pours the Limoncello cocktail into the glasses. Everyone is impressed. She toasts to the engaged couple. They chow down. No one falls in the pool after all that limoncello. The sun sets.

Birthday cake

2009-06-21T19:53:00.000-07:00

Yoga for Cancer

2009-06-18T19:16:00.001-07:00

Cancer patients often find themselves in distracted states of mind—bombarded as they are by frightening, sometimes contradictory, information, subjected to invasive, painful procedures, and not-always-compassionate medical care. When our minds are so grievously disturbed, we may find it impossible to make crucial decisions or relate satisfactorily to our family and friends. Practicing Pranayam, meditation and relaxation help in reliving tension. When the tension is released, energy can flow more easily in the body and allow patients to experience a sense of well-being and strength—a balance of body, mind, and spirit.The most compelling reason why cancer patients are turning to yoga is that:It shows us how a person stricken with a serious illness, instead of "running away" from their threatened body, Patients can connect more strongly to their body andBegin to experience self-empowerment and well-being.Improved sleep pattern.As we engage our physical selves in the precise body gestures of yoga, our minds come along, growing accustomed to focusing on the affairs of this moment and leaving worries and future-thinking behind. As we breathe and meditate, our minds grow more clear and steady.The physical benefits of yoga seem obvious to a cancer patient. Range of motion, flexibility, strength, relaxation, and a sense of bodily well-being are enhanced by practicing the postures. But there is an additional, more mystical, benefit of yoga. Depending on what parts of your body are affected, what type of cancer you have (or had), and your physical abilities, your practice will be specific to you. You may not be able to safely or comfortably do the posture the way the teacher or someone else is doing it. That's okay. Modify or change the position so it feels good for you. You will find out what works for you, what you are able to do, and what helps you to move in a positive direction.When you are practicing a posture, do what you can without creating more pain. You may feel discomfort, but going to the point of sharp pain is not going to benefit you. Sometimes the postures are easier if you don't try as hard - if you actually do less. Ask yourself if you can let go of something: it could be tension or holding in the body, or it could be an expectation or judgment you have about yourself.Dissolving tension with Pranayam The term pranayama combines prana, breath, with yama, meaning extension or control, and describes a crucial practice in yoga. This "science of the breath" involves attention to inhalation, exhalation, and retention or holding.When we are frightened, we hold our breath or breathe shallowly or raggedly. To open up the chest again, one can practice breathing techniques based on pranayama, such as abdominal breathing, deep breathing, bellows breathing (with forceful abdominal exhalations), and alternate-nostril breathing. (As breath practices can have powerful effects on the body, they should be learned from a qualified yoga instructor, for safety's sake.) Done properly, they can dissolve stress and emotional excitation, freeing the mind from anxiety

We now resume our original posting schedule ...

2009-06-17T19:49:00.001-07:00

ETA: I just looked at my counter stats -- what in the hell precipitated nearly 1000 hits last Wednesday (July 9th)? Was I mentioned somewhere?At last, a few quiet moments.It's week #2 here in beautiful Albuquerque, and I feel like I should write a whole bunch of posts about the trip out and all the myriad adventures we've had. Actually, I feel like I should have been writing said posts all along, but you know how it is. Now that we have our own internet -- instead of having to go to Flying Star to use theirs -- I can start posting on a more regular basis.But for tonight, a collection of random stuff:- My cats did very well on the drive. Minx was a bit mouthy at times, but for the most part, just meowed for a bit before settling down and sleeping the whole way, like the other cats- United Airlines sucks. They canceled Dancing in Socks Guy's connecting flight out of Chicago -- which had already been seriously delayed -- at the last possible minute. The plan was that he would fly to Manchester, NH where I would pick him up. I'd then drive most of the night while he slept, then he would take over and we'd switch off until we got to our stop in Fenton, Missouri. As it happens, our best option turned out to be for me to drive seventeen frigging hours to Chicago, pick him up, and then let him drive to Fenton.- Speaking of Fenton, if you ever need to stop there for any length of time, and if you have pets, stay here. They let us keep all four cats in the room! Yeah, there was a cleaning fee, but it beats trying to sneak them in. It was well kept, clean, and judging by the number of "pet in room" signs on the doors, very pet friendly.- The new job is going well so far, though not much is going on since it's such a new company. That will change this week. Everyone has been very nice and friendly, and I'm really looking forward to the work.- Living with Dancing in Socks Guy has been fine. I always assumed that issues would crop up, since we've both lived alone for so long, and this is the first time either of us has lived with a romantic partner. But, I also had faith we'd be able to adjust. So far we have. No huge issues have cropped up, just the minor shit you'd expect. Like all my copper kitchen decorations. Despite what he says it does not look like TGI Friday's in here. As I tell him, he's living with a woman now. It's shelf paper and guest towels from here on out, baby!- The corollary to that is that I live with a man now, and it's all DIY with no respect to aesthetics now, baby! Oh, I worried a bit at first when we went to Lowe's and he'd eye the big foam panels and start yapping about making inserts for the big living room windows for the winter. But, I've learned to just tune him out when he says stuff like, "You know, I'd just need to get a reciprocating saw and ..."- That said, we probably will do the panels. Fuck aesthetics, they're single pane glass and this is an older complex and while we have natural gas, heating costs will be through the roof. But otherwise, our new place is nice and roomy, a necessity when you have six cats.- Speaking of cats, his two and my four are getting along a whole lot better than we dared hope. Thundercat and Morsel were smart enough to be submissive to Slinky and Ed, since we were in "their" space. My girls were not so smart. But, aside from a bit of hissing and all the first day or so, things have settled down, especially since we moved into the new place which was a no-man's land, in terms of feline territory. The four boys are all to the point where they will sleep on the same bed/sofa, and all six eat in the same space.- If you have six cats you'd better be damn sure to clean the litter boxes and vacuum every single day.Elle

My Mind on My Money and My Money on My Mind

2009-06-16T20:49:00.000-07:00

Several weeks ago I caught Ben throwing away a half full box of Frosted Mini Wheats. When I protested he wondered what the big deal was. As I pointed out, there's a depression on and there might soon come a day that he would give anything to have those stale mini wheats back. And I was only kind if joking.The state of the economy has definitely changed the way I value pretty much everything. I am careful to not waste food and to keep our clothes in good shape. (Though I did throw out a pair of W's jeans that did a poor job of containing some explosive diarrhea last week). I'm careful to visit the discount meat section at the grocery store and have identified what items should be purchased at Costco, showing great discipline to avoid the numerous money traps there. I shop around for bargains and really think about what I want (materially and in life) before I make purchases. Even small ones.Neither Ben nor I feel insecure about our jobs. We're paying the bills, we're staying afloat and we're extremely grateful for that. So much so that we realized that we needed to work harder at managing our money and coming up with creative ways to save more. We feel we have a moral responsibility to be good stewards of the blessings we've been given. I'm not sure we really understood that until things got so bad for the country (and world) as a whole. So in a way, the recession has been good for us.We are now budgeting very carefully and tracking every dollar we spend. I found a great Excel based budget planner online that I downloaded for $9.95. It allows us to set a budget, accounting for all kinds of different expenses, track actual spending and compare. It's a great value for the cost, far cheaper than Quicken and other home accounting software. Daily tracking takes discipline but the accountability that it creates is super helpful. Whenever Ben or I spend anything, we send the other a text. Both to have a record of it so we remember to enter it in, but also to make our spending transparent.Money was always something that scared me and in my life I've had the tendency to hide from it. But that's a mistake and one that I'm hell bent on fixing. If you are disengaged from your finances, I urge you to take control of it ASAP. There aren't many things we can control in life but your money is one of them. It's very empowering to face it and make your money work for you, instead of the other way around. And I truly think that working hard at this with Ben has been great for our marriage. It solidifies our partnership and reinforces our shared values.I'm sure I'll be talking about bargain hunting and thrifty living a lot around here. I'm actually beginning to see it as a game that I intend to win. And if you've got any great money saving ideas, please share.

Well....HELLO!

2009-06-15T20:39:00.001-07:00

Well, HI there. How are....THINGS? I have been MIA for a while, yes yes I have. I have good reason to be. I moved in with Dave and we don't have internet! So obn my days off I come to my moms. Today is the first day I remembered to blog! So, whats new other than I live with the man of my dreams? Not to much. I turned 25 last Tuesday. That was a joy. Dave cooked me dinner, and made me stress about what we were doing for my birthday. lol. On Wednsday Leana took me to Swanky Bubbles *MY FAV* and then went to see Mama Mia. Why oh WHY! Don't bother, bad movie. I worked Friday and Saturday. Well, when I walked into work on Saturday there was an envelope that said Erin. Do Not Open till 4:30. So, all day it killed me. Inside was a card (a FRIENDS card) and a note saying to go home and look in the cabinet by the dishwasher. When I got home I rushed to the kitchen and found a box with another envelope. This one told me to get ready and be on my way to my sisters by 7:01pm. I was to wear the dress in the box (I wound up wearing another one, but that is besides the point). So, I got dressed and ready and waited a half an hour at Meghans. At 745pm I was going to get my next clue. She brought down a gift bacg and ANOTHER envelope. This one said to put on my gift (a claddaugh ring that is PERFECT) and open the front door at 8pm. So I did as instructed. There stood Dave all dressed with a single red rose. When we walked outside, there was an SUV Limo waiting for me. Inside was Leana, Meghan, Johanna, Frank and Garlan. All holding a single rose for me. We drove around for 2 hours and then wound up at the Stone Grille for a 3 hour open bar. It was amazing. I will never forget this birthday as long as I live. Other news..I am sick. As A FREAKING DOG! The baby got my mom sick, and she got me sick. My dad even has it. I cant swallow and I have a fever that comes and goes. It blows. Oh well, I better head on home. Guitar Hero II awaits!

2002 Toyota Solara SLE (Philadelphia) $2820

2009-06-14T20:34:00.000-07:00

2002 Toyota Solara SLE V6 Coupe Price: $2800.00 VIN #: 2T1CF28P32C598439Body Style: CoupeMileage: 92,945Engine: 6 CylinderFuel Type : Gasoline If you want more details and pictures please contact me at : clkwendy@gmail.com If you want more details and pictures please contact me at : clkwendy@gmail.com (PPE) Loose clothing should not be worn all jewelry should be removed and long hair should be tied back Wood shavings generated during turning will also need to be periodically removedpictures often resembled the psi shape Ting assigned the name J to it which is one letter removed from

Black and white

2009-06-13T16:57:00.001-07:00

Undercapitalized

2009-06-12T07:58:00.000-07:00

I think that the banks have been investing wisely. Wall Street paid enormous amounts to put The Precious into the White House. They are getting their dividends now. Yves Smith of naked capitalism has been going hammer and tongs at the proposals coming out of the White House. Read the whole article, but here are some key points from his her recent post, The Bad Bank Assets Proposal: Even Worse Than You Imagined (my emphasis throughout):Dear God, let's just kiss the US economy goodbye. It may take a few years before the loyalists and permabulls throw in the towel, but the handwriting is on the wall.The Obama Administration, if the Washington Post's latest report is accurate, is about to embark on a hugely expensive "save the banking industry at all costs" experiment that:1. Has nothing substantive in common with any of the "deemed as successful" financial crisis programs2. Has key elements that studies of financial crises have recommended against3. Consumes considerable resources, thus competing with other, in many cases better, uses of fiscal firepower.The Obama Administration is as obviously and fully hostage to the interests of the financial services industry as the Bush crowd was. We have no new thinking, no willingness to take measures that are completely defensible (in fact not doing them takes some creative positioning) like wiping out shareholders at obviously dud banks (Citi is top of the list), forcing bondholder haircuts and/or equity swaps, replacing management, writing off and/or restructuring bad loans, and deciding whether and how to reorganize and restructure the company. Instead, the banks are now getting the AIG treatment: every demand is being met, no tough questions asked, no probing of the accounts (or more important, the accounting).***What we have from Team Obama is a bigger abortion of a :"throw money at bad bank assets" plan that I feared in my worst nightmare. And (when we get to the Post preview), they have the temerity to invoke triage to make what they are doing sound surgical and limited.Those who remember the origin know that triage means focusing on the middle third of the wounded on the battlefield : leaving the goners to die, leaving those wounded but stable to fend for themselves for the moment (they were in good enough shape to wait to be transported or hold on to be treated later). The middle third, those in immediate danger but who might nevertheless be salvaged, got top priority.The concept of "triage" recognizes that resources are limited, tough decision need to be made, and some are beyond any hope. But in Team Obama Newspeak, triage means everyone can be saved because resources are presumed to be unlimited:***So we the taxpayers are going to eat a ton of bank losses that should instead be borne first by stockholders and bondholders This program should be labeled the Pimco bailout plan, since the giant bond fund holds a lot of bank debt. That show what a fiction Obama's populism is. It's mere posturing and empty phrases. Look at where the dough goes, and it is going first and foremost to the big money end of town.Now I do no labor under the delusion that there are cheap or easy ways out of our financial sinkhole. People are suffering, and we are only partway through the process of contraction and writeoffs. I heard of a suicide today, a jewelry dealer who was $400,000 in debt (also owed a lot of money but unable to collect) who threw himself off 10 West 47th Street (from someone else in the building, this is no urban legend). A tragedy, and a visible one, and there is plenty of less acute but no less real trauma afoot.But Team Obama is taking the cowardly approach of distributing the costs among the most disenfranchised group in the process, namely the taxpayer, when there far more obvious and logical groups to take the hits. Shareholders and bondholders bought securities KNOWING there was the possibility of loss. A lot of big financial institutions have been on the ropes for over a year. A security holding is not a marriage. When conditions change, prudent investors reassess and adjust course accordingly. If anyone is long a lot of dodgy bank paper now, they have only themselves to blame. Any why are rank and file bankers still exempt from pay cuts when the workers in another failing US industry, autos, expected to take big hits?***The most amazing bit is the government acts as if it has no leverage. Look how Paulson sent teams in to inspect the accounts of Fannie and Freddie and put them into conservatorship. The reason it is obvious that this program is a crock is that it has ben cooked up in the complete and utter absence of any serious due diligence on the toxic holdings of the big banks.As we discuss in a separate post, the one punitive element, executive comp restrictions, are mere window-dressing. Welcome to change you can believe in. Ah, yes, the triumph of Whole Foods Nation, where we will all be progressive, exercise regularly and floss after every meal, where the Blogger Boyz will call the shots and rule the world with their mad posting skillz. Eh, not so much.An inability to escape conventional wisdom, along with weak-kneed capitulation to the myth of "bipartisanship" combined with a lack of political vision is what Krugman warned us about as regards The Precious about this time last year and damn if the Shrill One wasn't right. Paul needs to change his name to Cassandra.We are already 10% of the way through the first 100 days of the Obama administration (and I'm only counting business days, mind you) and we are watching him squander the political capital of the election.AnglachelPS - And the Shrill One welcome Yves Smith into the Ancient and Hermetic Order of the Shrill:Shock and oyMartin Wolf has it right:First, focus all attention on reversing the collapse in demand now, rather than on the global architecture.Second, employ overwhelming force. The time for “shock and awe” in economic policymaking is now. …Unfortunately, what is coming out of the US is desperately discouraging. Instead of an overwhelming fiscal stimulus, what is emerging is too small, too wasteful and too ill-focused. Instead of decisive action to recapitalise banks, which must mean temporary public control of insolvent banks, the US may be returning to the immoral and ineffective policy of bailing out those who now hold the “toxic assets”. You know, it was widely expected that Obama would have a stimulus plan ready to pass Congress even before his inauguration. That didn’t happen. We were told that this was because the economic team was working flat out on the financial rescue.In fact, when it comes to bank rescue it’s hard to see much evidence that anything was accomplished during all that time; the team is still — still! — running ideas up the flagpole to see if anyone salutes. And the ideas look remarkably bad. (Welcome to the Ancient and Hermetic Order of the Shrill, Yves.) Meanwhile, when it came to stimulus legislation, when Obama finally introduced his economic plan he immediately began negotiating with himself, preemptively offering concessions to the GOP, which voted against the plan anyway. (And Obama appears, in the name of bipartisanship, to have thrown away a Senate vote he may well need.) As a wise man recently said, failure to act effectively risks turning this slump into a catastrophe. Yet there’s a sense, watching the process so far, of low energy. What’s going on?

The autopsy on Huber's KC career

2009-06-11T19:10:00.000-07:00

Roughly five hours after my last post about the Royals' questions left unanswered with spring training waning, several have been checked off the list. Jorge de la Rosa? Designated for assignment today and thus out of the picture (hooray! from my standpoint). Kyle Davies? Optioned to Omaha, thus clearing the fifth rotation spot for Brett Tomko (mixed feelings, as neither had any business, probably, being in the Royals' rotation; I'm betting Tomko's $3 million price tag had as much to do with this as anything.). Justin Huber? Flipped to the Padres for the ever-unknown player to be named later. While I guess a PTBNL is better than losing Huber on waivers, this brings to an end an odd, likely frustrating career for Huber as a Royal. Let's retrace our steps here. In July 2004 Huber, then a nice catching prospect who hit for a .900 OPS at the Mets AA site in 70 games, comes to KC in a deal for IF Jose Bautista, who has gone on to mediocrity with the Pirates after being dealt the same day from NY to Pittsburgh for Kris Benson and another now-former Royal, Jeff Keppinger. Sounded at the time like a steal for Allard Baird. However, Huber had injured his knee shortly before the trade and wouldn't play for a KC affiliate in 2004, which would be the first of several injuries to plague his Royals' career. He debuted instead at AA Wichita in 2005 and hit .343 with a 1.002 OPS while committing 12 errors with a .981 fielding percentage in 66 games at first. He infamously got a "chance" at KC later that season with ever-injured Mike Sweeney again on the DL and got a whopping 12 ABs from manager Buddy Bell before being sent back to Wichita. Shortly thereafter he earned 2005 Futures Game MVP honors over the all-star break before being moved up to Omaha. He hit for over a .900 OPS at Omaha in 32 games to earn a September call-up when the rosters expanded but didn't hit in 78 ABs in KC. An Achilles tendon injury cost him some development time in the Arizona Fall League that year and he started the '06 season once more in Omaha. Another Sweeney injury earned Huber a call to KC in May '06 but he was Bell's third choice in the mix of Matt Stairs, Doug Mientkiewicz and Huber (bringing on the "Dougie doesn't deserve that" comment from Bell regarding Mientkiewicz losing time to Huber at 1B), so Huber got 10 ABs in 16 days and went back to Omaha with a position switch to left field. A hamstring injury derailed the remainder of Huber's season and he didn't make it back to the field for Kansas City. Another nagging hammy injury hurt the first half of the 2007 season for Justin (he also had some finger injuries in there somewhere in '05-07) but he managed to hit for an .853 OPS in 77 games at Omaha and got another September call, only to get 10 ABs in 8 games from Bell. This year he was out of options so it was a case of either there's a spot for him or not. Apparently the Royals couldn't justify giving Huber a shot -- defensive liabilities were the biggest detraction in reports -- so today he gets shipped to San Diego. Rotoworld is already reporting he should see time in the Petco outfield with Jim Edmonds being injured. Hopefully he makes the best of it and one-time Royal pitcher, now Pads manager Bud Black gives him an actual shot in San Diego. In another move today that partially explains de la Rosa's DFA'ing, the Royals picked up RP Ramon Ramirez from the Rockies for a player to be named. I guess I'm more enthused about this pickup than the Brad Salmon one, but it's still nothing spectacular. We'll see how Ramirez does out of the pen for KC. Being out of Coors Field should help him return to some decent minor league form. He also had a nice '06 season with the Rocks. Also, pitchers Chin-Hui Tsao and Roman Colon as well as C Ken Huckaby were also sent to the minors today to further trim down the roster. Ken covers the Royals on his blog The Pipeline.

Are you facing any middle-age crisis?

2009-06-10T20:07:00.000-07:00

I just turned 42 and I still don't know if I am in a middle-age crisis which others have spoken about. There are moments of depression when I feel I should have done better in my life and that things could no longer be reversed as they are. But over-all, life has been good to me. But at the end of the day, it was my choice to be where I am today and I stand by my decisions, good or bad.

So am I facing a middle-age crisis? I think not. I guess it is all in one's state of mind to accept having a crisis or not. We become better individuals not by the situation we face in life but by how we respond to each situation as it presents itself to us in various forms.

How about you my friend? Your inputs are most appreciated.

Space saving

2009-06-09T20:00:00.001-07:00

Small spaces can be a challenge to live in and to decorate. And they definitely put your ingenuity to the test when it comes to storage. But there are sneaky ways to make your space look and feel bigger. Here’s how.Leave it hangingIt’s a good thing that hanging kitchen implements in full view is still in style, because they make for great storage tricks. You’ll always know where your pots, pans and utensils are and your counter spaces will be free. Create hanging spots, too, for keys, dog leashes and all that other clutter that makes your home feel smaller. Today’s floating shelves are also great things to hang: they provide a landing space for your books and favorite objects without taking up a lot of visual (and real) space like a bookcase might. The mirror trickYou probably know that putting a mirror on the wall can expand the visual space of a room, making it look large and perhaps even brighter (especially if it reflects a window or a nice view). Mirrors are great for decoration because they do not take up any space. Double upIt’s a couch, it’s a spare bed, it’s a double-duty piece of furniture! There are plenty of “super” versatile furnishings on the market today that are just right for small spaces. Consider couches that easily convert to beds, ottomans that flip open to store extra linens, nesting cocktail tables that go from one to three in no time, and dining room tables that double as desk Tuck it awayWhen it comes to smart storage, where there is a will there is a way. Slide some thin boxes under your bed for your sweaters. Tuck tax records into a stack of baskets or decorative vintage suitcases. Store bathroom towels in an over-the-toilet shelving unit. Build shelves or narrow cupboards wherever you can between studs in your walls. Be creative and mindful of space.

The Dead Weather, Marco Benevento

2009-06-08T20:31:00.000-07:00

The third major music project featuring Jack White is called The Dead Weather, and they just announced their first U.S. tour starting on July 13th in D.C. at the 9:30 Club. Ive got money down that NPR will be webcasting that show, so Ill be hoping on that to get a sample of what the band sounds like. I still think its crazy that White is being the drumkit in this band. Also in the band are as follows: fellow Raconteur Jack Lawrence, Dean Fertita from Queens Of The Stone Age, and Alison Mosshart of The Kills. The Dead Weather 2009 Tour Dates 6/11 Louisville, KY City Block 7/13 Washington, DC 9:30 Club 7/14 Washington, DC 9:30 Club 7/16 New York, NY Terminal 5 7/18 Boston, MA House Of Blues 7/19 Ottawa, Canada Ottawa Blues Festival (Rogers Stage) 7/21 Montreal, Canada Olympia De Montreal 7/22 Toronto, Canada Kool Haus 7/24 Detroit, MI The Fillmore 7/25 Columbus, OH The LC Pavillion 7/27 Minneapolis, MN First Avenue 7/28 Chicago, IL Vic Theatre 7/29 Chicago, IL Vic Theatre 7/30 Nashville, TN War Memorial Auditorium 8/17 Denver, CO Ogden Theatre 8/18 Salt Lake City, UT The Depot 8/20 Seattle, WA Paramount Theatre 8/21 Vancouver, Canada Commodore Ballroom 8/22 Vancouver, Canada Commodore Ballroom 8/23 Portland, OR Roseland Theater 8/25 Los Angeles, CA Wiltern Theatre 8/27 Pomona, CA Glasshouse 8/29 San Diego, CA San Diego Street Scene 8/30 San Francisco, CA Outside Lands Music Arts Festival 10/4 Austin, TX Austin City Limits Festival - Zilker Park Speaking of Marco Benevento, hes still got a bunch of dates booked all the way up through High Sierra Music Festival here in California on Fourth of July weekend. Cant wait. Marco Benevento 2009 Tour Dates 05.12.09 Hartford, CT Real Art Ways with Reed Mathis and Andrew Barr 05.13.09 Philadelphia, PA Johnny Brendas with Reed Mathis and Andrew Barr 05.14.09 Merkin Concert Hall New York, NY with Reed Mathis and Andrew Barr 05.15.09 Boston, MA The Pardise opening for TLG 05.29.09 Woodstock, NY MOUNTAIN JAM - 07.3.09 Quincy, CA HIGH SIERRA MUSIC FESTIVAL 07.18.09 Sante Fe, NM New Mexico Jazz Festival

PHP 5.3 RC2 Highly Optimized for Windows

2009-06-07T19:50:00.000-07:00

Howdy, I've been working for many months with Pierre Joye - well, really many people in the PHP community - on getting PHP to run faster on Windows. Pierre has been working rapidly on upgrading libraries (Pierre pioneered the work to get PHP and its hoard of dependent libraries updated and properly compiling on Windows), replacing old POSIX-emulation code with native calls, patching bugs, and about a million other things, all of which had a huge impact on performance and stability of PHP on Windows. For my part, I've been spending my time behind the scenes by feeding information to Pierre that he needs, testing, analyzing, and finally by constructing a new build process that enables us to take advantage of some pretty sweet optimization technology in Visual Studio. Starting today, you can find snapshot builds of PHP 5.3 that are built using my optimized build process on the windows.php.net site. A few notes: Over the course of the next couple of weeks, I'll be explaining how this build process works, and making available the tools that make it all possible. Only the non-thread-safe version is available, so you need to use FastCGI with IIS in order to use it. Since this is a radically different build than the ones that had been traditionally used to create the Windows PHP binaries, you should download the binaries and test with them, but you probably should avoid using them in production just yet. If you have any feedback about the builds, leave me a comment, or email me.

Tweenbots Restore Man’s Sense of Teamwork

2009-06-06T22:00:00.000-07:00

I was forwarded a link recently to www.tweenbots.com, an art/science/social experiment that sends a little “robot” on a mission which requires the help from strangers. “Over the course of the following months, throughout numerous missions, the Tweenbots were successful in rolling from their start point to their far-away destination assisted only by strangers. Every time the robot got caught under a park bench, ground futilely against a curb, or became trapped in a pothole, some passerby would always rescue it and send it toward its goal. Never once was a Tweenbot lost or damaged. Often, people would ignore the instructions to aim the Tweenbot in the “right” direction, if that direction meant sending the robot into a perilous situation. One man turned the robot back in the direction from which it had just come, saying out loud to the Tweenbot, "You can’t go that way, it’s toward the road.” I couldn’t help but smile and think of how wonderful it is to see complete strangers collaborate toward a shared goal ... and a goal they really had no idea about before requiring their action. I also thought about how teams collaborate toward a shared goal. Whether building websites, developing software, or hosting events, it’s the shared effort toward a common goal that breeds success. In the case of Tweenbots, all that was required was a moment to stop and simply decide to help: a little push or a quick hand to guide the Tweenbot in the right direction. So often it’s the little actions that mean the most. I like to think that the “little things” are sometimes what helps move projects in the right direction, as well: a thoughtful hallway conversation, a few minutes at the whiteboard working out an idea with members of the team, taking time to understand the perspectives and needs of the teammates and what they require to help reach the goal. Imagine if the people in the park during the experiment had not only helped the Tweenbot on its way to reach its goal, but had communicated with one another about what that goal was, and agreed to help the little guy get there. How much more quickly could he have arrived at his destination? How much less effort would it have been for him and everyone else involved if he had had attention the duration of his trip? In the context of sites and software, I realize we have a *shared* goal and requires everyone’s help, attention, and communication. The robot can’t get across the park on its own. What do you find is helpful in working toward a shared goal? What restores your "sense of teamwork"? Write a comment and tell us what you think. Stay in touch with us through Twitter.

bebe' amore'.

2009-06-04T20:19:00.000-07:00

Okay, I am pretty certain my blog title is incorrect French, but you get the message...er...pictures, as I am sharing in this post.And...No, this is not yet another post about my grandbabies. (I said I wasn't going to turn this blog into a Gramma Cupcake brag book, and I intend to keep my word.)It's a post about a photographer that specializes in baby photography. (Um, yes, that is my grandson in the photo!) France Photography is the name of Kellie France's photography business. She's located in Carson City, Nevada and works all around the norther Nevada area. (she gave me permission to share these pictures!) She does some charming vintage style things (check out her blog!)as well as traditional and more artsy looks. The photo shoot was such fun, and we were so excited to see all of the proofs. Now, we just all have to figure out which ones we will choose!

Kentucky Derby winner Mine That Bird can't dig up any respect

2009-06-03T18:47:00.001-07:00

The next time you hear a player complain he gets no esteem The next time you hear a star grouse about lack of respect Tell them to shut up. Tell them you've seen the ultimate in being dissed, and they're not in the same ballpark.We speak, of course, about Mine That Bird.You remember, the 50-1 shot who came down the stretch of the Kentucky Derby like someone had attached a V8 engine to his tail. He'll try to win the Preakness Saturday and continue what would be a remarkable Triple Crown Cinderella run. But notice the news? The jockey who rode Mine That Bird in the Derby has dumped him for a girl horse.That would be Calvin Borel, a splendid rider whose head can obviously be turned by a pretty face. It's this filly, Rachel Alexandra. She's the home wrecker. Borel was her jockey in the Kentucky Oaks which is something like a Title IX race for female horses the day before the Derby and they were so far ahead at the finish line, the rest of the field would have needed sonar to find them.The next day, Borel and Mine That Bird won a shocking Derby. But he was so smitten with the filly, he decided to be with her if she runs in the Preakness. "Best horse in my life," he said in Louisville, and already, this eternal triangle was starting to sound like the cover of People magazine.Where has that left Mine That Bird? Think of the humiliation back at the stable with the other Thoroughbreds. You win the Derby and your jockey leaves you for a horse named Rachel. You could barely show your face at the morning workout. Some loudmouth colt will surely trash talk, "Hey buddy, where you going get your jockey Saturday eBay?"Wait. It gets even worse. Turns out, Rachel Alexandra, the jezebel, has been in danger of not even getting into the Preakness. She wasn't pre-nominated, meaning she has to clear a wait list, as if she were trying to fly out of Chicago on the Wednesday before Thanksgiving.And if she wouldn't make the field, that'd put Borel back aboard Mine That Bird. So the champion of the Kentucky Derby would have to be content with being ridden on the rebound.For a while, it looked like the owner of Mine That Bird was going to enter a second horse just to take the last Preakness spot and keep Rachel Alexandra out of the race, so Borel would be available. I forget what horse it was maybe one of the Budweiser Clydesdales, since he'd be there just to take up a spot. But the owner changed his mind.Oh, if only horses could talk.First of all, there were those Kentucky Derby odds. NFL teams get annoyed if they're four-point underdogs. How would 50-1 go over?If someone had put a microphone in front of Mine That Bird after the Derby, we can pretty well guess what he would have said: "Nobody gave me a chance. The only people who thought I could win were the people in my barn."Racing always seems a little unfair, anyway. The owner gets the prize money. They trainer and jockey get the acclaim. The bettors with winning tickets get the payouts.What's the horse get a second helping of oats?And now comes this national red face for Mine That Bird. I don't know what happens when he and Rachel Alexandra bump into each other Saturday at Pimlico, and the filly is carrying his jockey. It'll be like Brad and Jen and Angelina at the Academy Awards.About the only thing left for Mine That Bird to do is kick a little hind quarter Saturday. Imagine what could happen if he loses first his jockey, and then the Preakness to the filly. Anyone here have the number for a good horse therapist?

My new cat

2009-06-02T20:09:00.000-07:00

Introducing the newest member of my four legged furry family: Capri.Pretty kitty close-upShe's a tortoiseshell, about 1 1/2 years old. The kennel Aussie goes to found her when she was around 5 months old. They spayed her, got her all the necessary shots and tests, and put her up for adoption in a cage in their main office. I saw her for the first time last May, when she was about a year old. She had been living in their office for over 6 months at that point. When she still hadn't been adopted in August, I crumbled. In mid-September I drove out to the kennel and brought Capri home. It's been 3 1/2 years since my cat Snip passed away, and when I couldn't get Capri out of my head, I knew it was time to get another cat.It's been an adjustment. It's been over 15 years since I had a kitten in the house, for one. Fortunately, Capri likes dogs, and since Aussie was raised with my first cat, Snip (also a tortoiseshell), she accepted Capri's presence quickly. But since Capri had only lived either as a stray or in a cage in an office, she had no idea what life in a home was like. It took a good week before she'd come out of hiding in the bookshelves (that space behind the books on the bottom shelf is ideal for hiding). It took another week after that before she'd let me touch her. I've had to adjust to having my toes attacked at 2am (silly me for moving in my sleep) and training myself to watch for cat toys (I've already crushed one ball by stepping on it and almost falling in the process).Now, two months in, Capri has made herself at home. I've learned she LOVES treats. Specifically the kind that are crunchy on the outside and soft on the inside. Catnip has no effect on her (WTF?). And she loves toys that make noise (little mice, balls that jingle, etc.). Capri is a talker, proving to be quite the mouthy cat. She's learning to like being brushed, but clipping her nails is a battle that involves wrapping her in a towel in a futile attempt at protecting myself from getting scratched.Lounging comfortably on the back of the couchToday we made our first trip to the vet. It took me a good 15 minutes to catch her and stuff her in the carrier. I almost had her once, but the dog decided to "help" and Capri escaped. Eventually I caught her again and we made it to the vet with minimal damage to my person (a few scratches, but nothing severe). She got all her boosters, and has been given a clean bill of health. She's also been microchipped, which I highly recommend. We'll see how long it takes her to forgive me for the injustices she suffered today.

Leave me alone.or...

2009-06-01T21:03:00.000-07:00

Number pile clock

2009-06-01T18:52:00.000-07:00

Warning! Labels!

2009-05-30T20:18:00.000-07:00

This bag's warning symbols are at once horrifying and hilarious.Kind of like when Sarah Palin danced along to Amy Poehler's rap on SNL.You see it, and you sort of laugh, but then you sort of go, "Oh my GOD."And then you blog.(More on this below.)The really sad thing about my last post is that the blocks from my apartment to Whole Foods and TJ Maxx are all numbered and on a grid.Versus traveling in the other direction from my apartment, which involves some really tricky stuff. Like, there's a highway underpass where roads go from being on a grid to being in something of a really off-centered and broken clover, with one-way roads becoming two-way roads and two-way roads becoming one-way roads and, MY FAVORITE, one-way roads that just end. So you're driving down the one-way street thinking you're going the most direct way ever, except then all of a sudden it becomes one-way in the OTHER direction, and you have to turn off it and go some totally wrong direction and next thing you know? You're miles from where you intended to be.I have to navigate this maze anytime I want to go to the nearby shopping center, which is what I was doing yesterday to go to Office Max. Except I maybe got a little confused and ended up driving directly to Office Depot in an entirely different shopping center. Potato, po-depot.I was on a quest to get an all-in-one printer/scanner, since the one I have is old and clunky, and all its cables are missing. I popped in, looked for about 5 minutes, found a good one for a good price based on all of extensive research (extensive research = "I should get a new printer/scanner!"), and left happy.Until I got home and spent a good two hours doing the install.I eventually had to call for help with the install, which I hate doing because 9 times out of 10, the customer service person thinks you're an idiot. (Or maybe that's just me.) The guy I talked to yesterday was professional, but could not completely disguise the contempt in his voice for having to walk another dingbat through an install process. And so with this guy, as with ALL the customer service guys I end up on the phone with, I try to focus on NOT sounding like a dingbat. Because hey -- I DO know what I'm doing, I'm NOT technically disabled, and the customer service guy will soon be realizing that the fault is HIS and NOT MINE and I will be vindicated. Save your contempt for an actual dingbat, buddy.But of course yesterday, with the snottiest man EVER on the phone, the problem WAS mine. And not a big, thorny, justifiable problem, either. My entire issue was that the USB cord wasn't plugged securely enough into the printer. So my install failed -- TWICE -- because I didn't push the cord in hard enough.Anyway.Aside from having the ability to print wirelessly in my own home (which, I will not lie, makes me feel like I live in the future), I now have the ability to scan again. And as I've been saying, I have alllllll kinds of goodies to start sharing with you.This morning, I decided to grab a box I have full of "random" pictures, to see what would inspire me. I sat down with it, opened the lid, and was utterly confused. These aren't my pictures, I thought. What the -- oh ACK! And GAH! And...ACK!Of all the decorative shoe-like boxes in the entire world, we happen to have TWO of the exact same ones in this house. One is full of my old photos. The other is full of love letters between Ish and his ex from I don't even know when.And while this isn't the point of this post at all, I will say this: I think it's sweet that Ish has kept these. In fact, despite an incredibly painful and unpleasant ending, Ish has never been anything but respectful of his relationship with his ex. I appreciate that and think it says a lot about his character.That doesn't mean that accidentally opening the wrong box filled me with glee. No, it was a little more "throw up in my mouth a little, close the lid, return box whence it came." Bah.And ALL THIS is to say that I have not scanned anything new yet, but at least owning a (working) printer/scanner is one step closer.In the meantime, I will show you the most frightening images ever, that came on the plastic bag the printer was wrapped in.The first one is telling me, I think, not to let my child go crawling around with a plastic bag on its head. Except that's not what I see.Image AIf your Tylenol Gel Cap suddenly sprouts appendages,do not try to balance an old-fashioned television set on it!The second image is probably telling me not to put the bag on my head. But again, how can one be sure?Image B:If you are using your giant hand to secure a water bottleover your head, DO NOT sing opera!Want to join in the fun?What would your captions be for these horrifying, hilarious warnings?

Tuesday Tidbits - GFCF Thanksgiving Links

2009-05-27T17:39:00.000-07:00

Welcome to Tuesday Tidbits!This edition is devoted solely to a look at what other GF and GFCF bloggers are posting about the Thanksgiving holiday. So please visit these people and try some of their recipes, or some of their special tips to make this the best GFCF Thanksgiving ever.The wonderful Gluten Free Goddess, Karina Allrich, has posted a lot of tips to make for a great GFCF Thanksgiving, including what to use to thicken the gravy, using coconut milk for your pumpkin pie, and many more, plus links to many of her suitable for Thanksgiving recipes.The Gluten Free Mommy (Happy Birthday Natalie!!) is being sneaky - she posted a recipe for Bean and Canadian Bacon Soup!! But hidden in this post are links to a lot of Natalie's favorite Thanksgiving recipes. And anyone who has tried one of Natalie's recipes knows they will be putting something delicious on the table!Shauna and the chef are thankful for a lot of things this year, especially for their precious Little Bean. The Gluten Free Girl has posted what she is thankful for, as well as some of her favorite Thanksgiving recipes.Dear Carrie, the Ginger Lemon Girl, has reposted her Thanksgiving menu guide from last year. Not only does she provide recipes, she also has a shopping list and a timetable for a great Thanksgiving feast!Gluten Free Bay not only has posted her own gluten free menu, but she also has links to some other great menus as well!I also need to give a shout out to the folks at 5 Minutes for Special Needs who also posted links to some of the Thanksgiving menu ideas listed above.For some great GF vegan Thanksgiving ideas, check out Sea's menu planner at the Book of Yum.Rachel at The Crispy Cook also has lots of vegetarian Thanksgiving ideas (and some for the carnivores too!). I'm with you on that canned cranberry sauce Rachel!Even more vegan Thanksgiving options, courtesy of I Am Gluten Free.Twitter friend Bonnie Sayers, editor of the ASD site at BellaOnline, has compiled a lot of GF and GFCF recipes for Thanksgiving, as well as other Thanksgiving ASD resources, which you an find here. She even include some from me! Thanks Bonnie!Another Twitter friend, the Hello Kitty Mama, has also posted a nice set of Thanksgiving recipe links, and included one of mine too. Thanks!!Okay, let's get on to some specific recipes:I will have to admit I am not a big fan of green bean casserole, mainly because of the french fried onions that top it. But I am a big fan of Michelle, the Minivan Driving Soccer Mom, and her recipe for GF french fried onions may make may try that casserole after all! Note: just use your favorite CF milk in place of the milk she uses to coat the onions.Okay, I may get to liking this green bean casserole idea after all. Gluten Free Mommy Natalie has her own version, with a recipe for homemade cream of mushroom soup! Again, use CF milk in place of the milk for GFCF.The one thing I did not put on my GFCF Thanksgiving menu planner yesterday was cranberries. I was planning on making just a boring old cranberry sauce until I saw the Ginger Lemon Girl's repost of her Thanksgiving Cranberry Cobbler. I can't wait to make it!An aside here. Sea at the Book of Yum had put the Adopt a GF blogger event on hiatus, but has brought it back with a special Thanksgiving edition. And yes, the entry deadline was November 24, but she is gladly taking late entries. You must post by December 1, and, not only do you have to let Sea know who you are adopting, but you also need to let her know which recipe you will try! Why am I saying this here? Because, for the second time, I am adopting Carrie and will be posting this weekend about her cranberry cobbler. So stay tuned!Okay, let's finish this off with some desserts:Staying with the cranberries (Do you have to let it linger...oops, sorry) Sea has posted great recipes for Cranberry Muffins and Cranberry Pecan Coffee Cake. I think Yum is definitely the word here!How about cranberries mixed with apples? Karina has the recipe for you- the Gluten Free Goddesses Apple Cake with Cranberries.We have yet to talk pumpkin! So how about we do so now:Dear friend Katherine gave me a shout out, so I am more than happy to return the favor! The GFCF Mommy has reposted two of her favorite pumpkin recipes, for GFCF pumpkin pie and for the GFCF marbled pumpkin cheesecake I talked about yesterday.And then back to Carrie, who is full of wonderful recipes for this holiday! Here is her recipe for Pecan Pumpkin Pie bars.I realize I have just hit the tip of the iceberg here - there are lots of great Thanksgiving tips and recipes out there for you to enjoy. I encourage you to check out the blogroll I have on the right sideboard for other great bloggers with Thanksgiving on their mind.And, finally, the disclaimer. Many of the recipes I have listed here are GFCF, but there are some that may only be GF, and there are some blogs I link to in the sideboard that are not GFCF at all. Make sure you read the recipe carefully, and make any substitutions that you need to make your recipe GFCF. For GF, usually that means just using your favorite GF flour blend and baking ingredients. For CF, you can check out my CF baking and cooking substitution list here (or on my menu bar).I will be back with a post on Thanksgiving, but in the meantime, thanks for reading, and please travel safely this holiday.

Drinking With The Girls showing on BBC 3 by DigiGuide Staff

2009-05-26T18:00:00.000-07:00

Drinking With The GirlsDrinking With The Girls, showing Tuesday April 21st on BBC 3 at 9:00pmDocumentary in which Cherry Chadwyck-Healey explores women's attitudes to alcohol and finds out exactly why women use and, in some cases, abuse the bottle in Britain. Statistics show that women in England and Ireland are reported to be the biggest drinkers in the world, drinking up to 11 times more than their German or Italian sisters. In this documentary, Cherry goes on seven nights out with seven women who embody the seven ages of drinking. Cherry joins these women at seven very different stages of life, drinks their tipple of choice in their environment, and looks behind the statistics to understand their reasons for drinking large amounts.The seven stages identified in are: Underagers; Student Boozers; 20s Pullers; 30s celebrations; the 40 something Mums; Midlifers; and Grannies. What factors are at play in each of these seven stages? Is it the traditional British reserve, a chance to pull, peer pressure, more responsibility, more disposable income, more excuses for celebrations, an escape from the stresses of life, a confidence boost or a break from the boredom of life? View the full reviewGet a reminder when Drinking With The Girls starts...

nungryscpro on 'Userscripts.org in 2008' @ Mon, 13 Apr 2009 18:43:45 +0000

2009-05-25T18:51:00.000-07:00

--Under the old system there were 0 cookie grabbing scripts for keyword "neopets". How many scripts were there for neopets? There were 0 cookie grabbing scripts out of around 90. As of right now, there are 18 out of 123. A little less than half of the scripts since the unlisted feature was removed have been cookie grabbers. Hell 3 out of my 16 scripts use it. You should try using GM_setValue and GM_getValue instead. If you're worried about making the scripts work in browsers besides Firefox, greasekit emulates GM functions and there is Opera Userscript for Opera users. Highlighting is done on the client-side. Checking for document.cookie would have to be done on the server-side. Of course. If that can be written to work client side, think of all you can do server side. As far as manually approving unlisted scripts... whatever happened to the idea of having a real community Reviews Discussion. There's a help file for unlisted scripts unlisted scripts. It says there to email admin. There are a lot of people that care about us.o and are willing to help with the workload. There are currently 405 pages of harmful/spam scripts. How many will still be there next week?

Big Mouth

2009-05-24T18:16:00.000-07:00

Tickle me Eno

2009-05-22T17:53:00.000-07:00

In My Free Time

2009-05-14T18:45:00.000-07:00

If I were truly a woman of leisure, I like to think that I would do a lot more visual art. While I was never brilliant at it, I liked drawing as a young person and am a nonstop doodler. I spent a summer playing around with oil paints and would like to do so again. I think printmaking is a beautiful art and have some ideas for what I would like to make -- if, you know, I knew how to make prints. I bought a sketchbook and some pencils on a whim a couple weeks ago. It's probably the just the weather, but I've been feeling like a creative change is on its way, and I've been trying to pay more attention to any spark of an idea I've had lately. It's been six months since I resigned, and I've had a little more time to stop and pay attention when that creative subconscious waves its little hand and then looks away, whistling innocently.I'm one of those people who, when doing a new thing or working on a project, feels like she really can't get started on something special unless everything else that should be done is done. I feel guilty putting up a Christmas tree when the laundry isn't folded. I hesitate to work on my writing-for-pleasure if I've got editing-for-pay I could be doing. And it's not from a sense of duty -- far from it. It's more a feeling of ritual, of making something special in its own space, instead of going with a creative flow when I feel it -- or at least trying to find a balance between the two.So in light of that, the other day, when I felt like playing with the pencils and sketchbook for the first time and I had some time to kill, I decided that I would just sit right down and draw what was in front of me. No arranging, no looking for something easy or interesting -- just draw what was there, if only to get a feel for the pencils and paper. And what was in front of me? A battered, 35-year-old tacklebox, which used to belong to Matt's grandpa and is now Maia's. And of course, it was at a crazy angle to my line of sight -- it was pointing directly away from me, so it was hard to show its third side. In any case, this is what I came up with: Yesterday our power went out in the late afternoon because of an ice storm. No power also means no water and no heat. We went into town for a fast-food supper (and bathrooms), swung by the grocery store for s'more fixins, then settled in at home in the living room with books, sleeping bags and candles in front of the fire. Maia conked out pretty quickly, and John sat up reading Harry Potter by candlelight. I had plenty of work I could be doing online, but instead was brought into the quiet of the evening, the rain outside and the soft talk of the fire inside. I made an old-fashioned blog:That one looked a lot better by candlelight. But, you know, it's a start.

Time for a bruiser

2009-05-11T17:49:00.001-07:00

The churchs new English head is a tougher customer than his predecessor NOT everyone speaks warmly of Archbishop Vincent Nichols, the new head of the Catholic church in England and Wales. That, in fact, may bode well for his ability to fight its corner in the hard discussions about religion and society that loom. For the relative liberals who form the majority among Englands Catholic bishops, their new leader is a bit too conservative (that is, too close to Pope Benedict XVI); some would call him a deserter from liberal causes that he once embraced, such as racial and social equality. And for the clever advocates of old-time religion (many of them young) who abound in cyberspace, the new archbishop of Westminster isnt far enough to the right.

Are you Diligent or Lazy?

2009-05-08T19:48:00.000-07:00

I become sort of lazy these days. I play cards, hang out, go to the movies with someone else. All in all, I am capable of committing every kind of lazy "crimes", wasting so much precious time. Where is the hard-working me anyway? Someone told me that you could sort of enjoy the idle life. To be honest, I don't like it and I don't mean to be lazy!Let me adjust this sloth attitude and hit my head with a hammer now.

Two Cornell '09-'10 Opponents in the National Top 3!

2009-05-08T19:41:00.000-07:00

ESPN's Dick Vitale projects Kansas as No. 1 and Syracuse as No. 3 in his 2009-2010 preseason rankings. As we previously published, Cornell is expected to face both teams. Vitale writes:Now that the season is over and North Carolina cut down the nets at Ford Field it is time to go to the VBDI (Vitale Bald Dome Index) to look at the future.It is difficult to predict next season until we know which players opt for the NBA draft and see if other decide to transfer. For now I will give my early top five for the 2009-10 season:1. Kansas. Believing Sherron Collins and Cole Aldrich will be back next season. Rock chalk Jayhawk fans should be thrilled. Bill Self has a couple of recruits coming in plus transfer Jeff Withey will help. The Morris twins will get better and better.2. Duke. Mike Krzyzewski's squad will be solid especially if Gerald Henderson decides to return to Cameron Indoor Stadium. Kyle Singler and Jon Scheyer will have big seasons. 3. Syracuse. Jim Boeheim will have an exciting team. I love Jonny Flynn's enthusiasm and energy. The addition of Wesley Johnson, a very capable scorer who transferred from Iowa State, will be a factor.4. Purdue. Having JaJuan Johnson, Robbie Hummel, Etwaun Moore and company back makes the Boilermakers a dangerous squad.5. Michigan State. Let's stay in the Big Ten. Tom Izzo has Big Ten Player of the Year Kalin Lucas leading the way. Raymar Morgan, Draymond Green, Delvon Roe, Durrell Summers and Korie Lucious form a talented nucleus.Wow, we have to wait until April 2010 in Indianapolis to see which team cuts down the nets.

FDR's Hundred Days and the Triumph of Hope

2009-05-07T20:38:00.000-07:00

I admit to reading this one because Obama was reading it and because so many pundits have been citing similarities between the Depression in the 30ies and Roosevelt’s first 100 days of New Deal legislation and the situation currently faced by our new president. I ended up seeing more differences than similarities between the two presidents and between the two situations—which doesn’t mean the book isn’t not only interesting but timely. By the way, I agree with the author that this time around 100 days won’t do it. And even with Roosevelt, as Alter says, his most significant legislation, Social Security, passed later in his Presidency.While the book tends to zero in on the 100 days, the author obviously found that, writing to a general audience, he had to give considerable background on Roosevelt—which he does in a series of short chapters which I found fun to read even though I’m fairly well read on Roosevelt the person and the president and have recently read a good complete biography (Edwards, FDR). In most chapters there was an anecdote or fact that I’d not heard before so I couldn’t accuse Alter of just regurgitating what other writers have written.Alter makes much of the comment by Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes that Roosevelt’s primary asset was not his mind but his “first class temperament”—that the title of the first book I read about Roosevelt (by Geoffrey Ward). However, Alter does honor the suggestion, made by Edwards among others, that it’s not clear whether Justice Holmes was talking about FDR or about Teddy Roosevelt. But temperament is an important issue in the book and timely because so many have noted that one of Obama’s greatest assets is what most call, these days, his “unflappability”. In temperament they may not be all that similar, but for both Obama and Roosevelt, likability is an important part of the appeal and the ability to talk to “the people” (not just the politicians) in a way that clarifies complex issues and involves the listener in solutions is of critical importance.Alter gives considerable space to Eleanor in this book too: her despair at giving up her privacy to become first lady, her discovery of a new and historically significant role for the first lady, and her function in keeping FDR in touch. Because of his paralysis, the extent of which the American people did not know, Roosevelt was more vulnerable to what we now call the “bubble” the President exists in. In the 30ies Eleanor began traveling the country and the world, going down in coal mines—and eventually into war zones—to talk to “ordinary Americans” and bringing her insights back to the President. From the first, Roosevelt recognized the danger that the President grow “out of touch”, reminding us that Obama’s fight to keep his Blackberry isn’t just his technology fix, but his recognition that Presidents can easily become bubble-dwellers.

Let's Cool It!

2009-05-07T00:47:00.000-07:00

Ahhh.... the long, hazy, hot, humid days of summer..... they're officially here :) This is the time of year when most of our outdoor activities are done early in the morning and afternoons are reserved for swimming and relaxing. For the last week, however, all we can manage to do is avoid the numerous thunderstorms that darken nearly every day. This week, Emma, Claire, and I wanted to share a bright and cheerful recipe for some wonderful Strawberry Lemonade. It is very easy for the little ones to help out with...and they love eating as many of the strawberries as possible, so you have to work fast! This is the perfect drink for relaxing in the shade after a nice long swim or for sitting inside in awe of the thunder, lightning, and rain...as is the case for us ;) Strawberry Lemonade 5 lemons about 1 1/3 cups for the lemonade and 1 lemon sliced in rings to add to the cups and the pitcher 1 pint fresh strawberries, diced, chopped, sliced, or pureed...it's your choice 8-10 cups water 1 cup sugar Wash each lemon and strawberry very well. You will need the juice of about 4 lemons if you are using an electric juicer. If you are using good old muscle power and a hand juicer, you may need 5 lemons or so. Add the juice to the pitcher along with the sugar and stir. Add the water and strawberries. You may prepare your strawberries in a variety of ways, you can dice them, slice them, puree them, mash them, freeze the slices....whatever you prefer. For ours, we diced them, then mashed them just a bit to release the juices. Stir the strawberry lemonade mixture and add the lemon slices for garnish. Sip slowly and Enjoy! **Hi, I'm Sandra! I have been married to my wonderful husband for 12 years and I am a homeschooling mom to four blessings. You can learn more about me here. I would love for you to stop by and visit with me at my blog, My Inspired Heart, and see what creative adventures my family and I are up to!

the. killer. business!

2009-05-05T23:41:00.000-07:00

I’ve figured out what to do with the more than 6 billion people who will need to be buried after they’ve passed-on. And how to make a handsome profit on the whole operation, too. That’s right: subscription burials! Good morning, and welcome to DeathEx, your friendly, local, death experts. We provide a full-service, personalized, and streamlined funeral experience. For the low price of $19.95 per month*, your loved ones can be interred in our state-of-the-art burial vaults. Our staff of morticians, burial consultants, and grief guides are here to help you in your time of loss. For the complete duration of your loved ones’ interment, you can contact our staff at any time with questions, to schedule a visit, or to upgrade burial facilities. Our mourning chambers allow you the privacy you need when grieving over family and friends. We provide flexibility in supporting multiple group sizes, from 1 to hundreds. Whether you come alone, or are a part of the funeral crowd, DeathEx will ensure your complete comfort throughout the process. For more information, please call us at 800 DEATHEX, or feel free to peruse our website: http://deathex.com. PS. Don’t miss our bereavement buffet where you can partake in a remembrance meal for your departed friends and family.^ *Some additional terms and conditions may apply. $19.95 service is representative only. Other service levels are available. Please see your certified burial subscription consultant for further details. ^Buffet costs and contents subject to change.

Why not use Blackberry PIN

2009-05-05T00:26:00.000-07:00

Tom Watson has come out today on a Birmingham Website, The Stirrer, to say he feels smeared by events of the last 48 hours. He then adds this: "Because I'm a blogger and a I've got a big engagement with digital technology they are trying to nail me" Watson said. "But it's precisely because I'm engaged in that world and I know what I'm doing, I wouldn't send this kind of material by email." Watson says he was misquoted and The Stirrer will be amended shortly. The editor of Stirrer agrees it was a misquote.pLink to new post when it comes. Interestingly, The Tories have already stopped using texts for super-secret communications. I know of at least two shadow Cabinet departments which now communicate by Blackberry PIN - of which no record is ever kept. If you ever want to send RedBox confidential tips by PIN, my number is 2555BAAA Fascinatingly, Unseen writes in the comments In any case, PIN-to-PIN messages are transmitted unencrypted, via Blackberry's servers, and there have been several court cases (finance fraud, mainly), where these messages have been used in evidence. So perhaps they aren't as anonymous as people think. Someone ought to tell the Tories.

Rare Nineteenth Century Quilt

2009-05-03T21:21:00.000-07:00

National Gallery Victoria hangs beautiful and rare early nineteenth century quiltLate in 2007 the National Gallery Victoria (NGV) acquired, through generous donation, a rare and valuable ‘frame’ quilt about which very little was known. The quilt was given to the donor two decades earlier by someone who had, in turn, been given it by relatives who were also unacquainted with the original maker.Quilting was a common pastime of genteel and middle-class women in colonial Australia, yet there are only a few extant examples of these quilts in Australian collections. Quilts of this type were particularly popular in the first half of the 19th century, with examples using similar fabrics and designs found in England (and subsequently Australia) from between 1800 and 1860.A large medallion-style, pieced patchwork, the quilt comprises many graduating, linear borders around a central panel. The particularly impressive central design consists of appliquéd cotton chintz partridge and flower motifs executed in the broderie perse technique (a technique used to appliqué small flowers and leaves using a tiny chain stitch). While on the reverse, embroidered in black cotton cross stitch is the enigmatic dedication: E. Dickins / The Gift of Her Mother / Finished When 60 Years / Of Age.Sadly for us, no date accompanies this dedication, although it has been suggested that the embroidered ‘signature’ may mean that the quilt was sent to an early Australian settler as a gift – a practice that has been previously documented.When the quilt first arrived at the NGV it was in a fragile condition. Damp storage had caused mould and mildew to develop while the presence of iron in dye mordants had corroded fibres, resulting in areas of discoloration and loss over time. The surface of the quilt was badly soiled and despite initial cleaning with a low-suction vacuum, it still appeared grimy.On the recommendation of our Textile Conservator a wet-cleaning treatment in de-ionised water was undertaken (to remove degradation products and to minimise their effect on the quilt in the future). The challenge, however, was the quilt’s large size. A tank was custom-built by NGV’s Conservation Art Technician, which enabled the quilt to be completely submerged. At times this required the assistance of nearly all the conservation staff! Yet the result has left the quilt in a much-improved state both visually and structurally.Through the process of acquisition and a combination of expert opinion and curatorial knowledge, the NGV has also endeavoured to recover some of this quilt’s lost history.A quilt is usually dated from the most recent fabrics used in it. In this case, we discovered that many of the printed cotton fabrics along the outer patchwork bands were similar to those seen in 1840s dresses from the NGV Fashion & Textiles Collection. The floral chintz was also found to resemble fabrics from the 1830s. The most exciting revelation, however, was that the central bird chintz fabric could be identified as an English furnishing chintz called Partridge and May Tree printed circa 1815, making our quilt a valuable piece of textile history.While the name of the maker and the actual date of the quilt’s completion may never be known, it remains a rare surviving example of textile endeavour and a significant example of early domestic skilled handicraft.The quilt has just been hung on the 2nd floor of National Gallery Victoria at Federation Square, Melbourne and will be on display until March 2009. Entry is FREE.National Gallery of Victoria 180 St Kilda Road Melbourne Vic 3004 AustraliaTelephone: +61 3 8620 2345 Mobile: 0438 582 727Fax: +61 3 8620 2555ngv.vic.gov.auKeep informed of the latest NGV exhibitions, special events and programs atThe Ian Potter Centre: NGV Australia and NGV International by subscribing to NGV@RT, the NGV's free e-newsletter.Annette Gero helps NGV to aquire their new wonderful old quilt & identifies the central 1815 fabric, "Partridge & May Tree" This quilt has an interesting story. It turned up some time ago at the Victorian Quilters, annual Quilt Show and was shown to Mary Hitchens, the President of Vic Quilters. It was obviously special, so the owner was advised to donate it to a museum or institution. The owner tried four times and each time the quilt came back with words like "doesn't fit into our collection? or "it is the wrong time period?!Meantime, Annette Gero was researching the early fabrics in several other wonderful early 19th century quilts for inclusion in her new book "The Fabric of Society, Australia's Quilt Heritage from Convict Times to 1960, (See http://www.annettegero.com/ for information about the book, The Fabric of Society). As soon as Annette heard about this new quilt she was keen to include it in her book and the delighted owner gave her permission. Research into the fabrics of the quilt by Annettte revealed that "The bird chinz fabric in the centre of the quilt was an English furnishing chinz called Partridge & May Tree printed c1815. It is block printed in madder colours with pencilled blue on a tea ground. The birds and trees appeared in many fabric variations between 1814 and 1816 *This Partridge & May Tree fabric is in the Victoria & Albert Museum's Textile collection, however there are also reproductions and Annette found a roll of it in the USA. She was able to send the NGV some of this reproduction fabric so it can be exhibited with the quilt when it is on show. In addition Annette found that "The floral chintz within some of the outer borders is unknown but has been dated against similar fabrics from c.1830. The flowers along the border are very similar to those in the centre of a chintz quilt brought to Australia from England by the LLoyd family in 1833 (also in her book) and the fabrics here date from c1825-30.* Several months after undertaking her research into the quilt Annette was contacted by the textile curator at NGV to say they had been offered an old quilt and could she give them an opinion as to whether this was an important quilt! The curator obviously knew this was a wonderful example of an early 19th century quilt but the acquisition committee needed an outside opinion. Annette's research on the fabrics was invaluable in providing this proof. There are about 10 such quilts in Australia of similar age and quality of early fabrics. These quilts are probably equal to any other quilts of their period found in the world. We are extremely fortunate to have them in this country as part of our quilt heritage.

TMI Risk

2009-04-28T21:53:00.000-07:00

If you're on Facebook, you've seen or even done one of the numerous "25 Random Things About Me" lists. I was looking for another archived entry, and saw this...and decided to update it. I've stricken the out-of-date answers from my 7/23/2004, and replaced them with current, accurate ones. Enjoy. Or not. Whatever. WHAT COLOR ARE YOUR BEDROOM WALLS? eggshell white whitish, made more so by our use of natural halogens. WHAT BOOK ARE YOU READING NOW? Beneath the Surface by Bob Reccord...we're looking how to create a small group resource of it for men. A couple I'm working through...The Reason for God by Keller, and Confessions of a Reformission Rev. by Driscoll. And Acts by Dr. Luke. That NAMB resource never happened, by the way. WHAT'S ON YOUR MOUSE PAD? At work -- the NAMB logo A giant plain red surface with a white-out stain from a predecessor. At home...I think its the one of Kelli and me, from a photo taken a few years ago Denver Broncos football field. FAVORITE BOARD GAME? I like many equally -- Trivial Pursuit, Scene It, Scattergories, the one I can't think the name of, and Life, Clue, and Monopoly with the kids. FAVORITE MAGAZINE? ESPN Magazine (although the last issue was LaaAAAA-aaaame!) and Entertainment Weekly. FAVORITE SMELL? Yeah, I'm not really a "scent" guy. I mean, I like good smelling stuff, but I don't have a file in this folder upon which to refer. Update: Almost five years later, and I still got nothing for you. FAVORITE COLOR? Navy blue and forest green. LEAST FAVORITE COLOR? Brown. Brown and I have come to terms, mostly because of the potty humor of the UPS slogan. Now, I'm kind of an anti-yellow person. HOW MANY RINGS BEFORE YOUR ANSWERING MACHINE PICKS UP? Yeah, I don't know the answer to that. Does anyone have an answering machine any more? I never call my own voice mail, so I still don't know the answer to the modern equivalent of this question. MOST IMPORTANT MATERIAL THING IN MY LIFE? Once you have an event where you lose everything (like our fire in 2000) the only material objects that matter are people. Photographs and keepsakes follow. FAVORITE FLAVOR OF ICE CREAM? I'm pretty keen on Phish food on the rare Ice Cream indulgences I still like Phish Food, but my favorite is now either Pralines and Cream, or Chocolate Fudge Brownie. Ice cream is still pretty rare in our home, though. DO YOU BREAK THE SPEED LIMIT DAILY? Maybe not daily, but near-daily. I rarely if ever break the speed limit now. I'm just not in as big of a hurry as I used to be, I guess. DO YOU HAVE A STUFFED ANIMAL IN YOUR ROOM SOMEWHERE? If we do, it's not on my cognitive radar. STORMS - COOL OR SCARY? Cool, but I was a little freaked out by our last big one because the lightning was CLOSE!. FAVORITE DRINK? Vanilla Coke update: Zero, Sonic's Strawberry Lime-ade with extra strawberries, Ice-cold 2 1%milk, natural iced tea, and lately, Diet Coke update: Zero with real Lime added. WHEN IS YOUR BIRTHDAY? What? You missed it? It was just a few days ago. Still July 19, the 200th day of the year, except on Leap Years. FAVORITE VEGETABLES? Olathe Sweet Corn, on the cob. If you haven't had it, you haven't lived. IF YOU COULD HAVE ANY JOB, WHAT WOULD IT BE? Details may change, but continuing the work of discipling, ministering, serving, sharing. update: I love what I'm doing, where I'm doing it, and the people with whom I do it. IF YOU COULD HAVE ANY COLOR HAIR, WHAT WOULD IT BE? I'd like the summer blond look, but it doesn't work on me. I like my hair color...even with the increasing number of gray follicles showing up alongside the dark brown of my youth. HAVE YOU EVER BEEN IN LOVE? Never like I am now, with my bride. TOP THREE FAVORITE MOVIES (IN ORDER)? In order is tough. 1. Braveheart 2. Moulin Rouge 3. Benji: Off the Leash Tommy Boy. update: These are still probably the same, but I would add Chicago and Dogville to that list. DO YOU TYPE WITH YOUR FINGERS ON THE RIGHT KEYS? Yes. Except on the top number row. WHAT'S UNDER YOUR BED? Assorted children's toys, long forgotten. Very little right now...Cotter's birthday gifts for a few more days. A sock that is right in the middle and too far to fetch. WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE NUMBER? 37, the perfect combination of my two favorite numbers. 73, on the other hand, is unpleasant on virtually every level. update:oh my goodness, this is still so very true...73 makes me all oogy feeling, even to look at it. FAVORITE SPORT TO WATCH ON TV & IN PERSON? Football! update watching my kids play basketball is up there, though. It is a blast to watch them on the court. WHAT IS YOUR SINGLE BIGGEST FEAR? An incapacitating accident FAVORITE CD OF ALL TIME & RIGHT NOW? Such a creature does not exist. My library consists of several to which I could listen again and again.update: Still true, mostly...but Pearl Jam's Ten probably is at the top of that list of favorites. FAVORITE TV SHOW OF ALL TIME & RIGHT NOW? All Time: Seinfeld; Now: I don't know. Probably The Swan. Right now? The Office and Lost. HAMBURGERS OR HOT DOGS? Hamburger. THE COOLEST PLACES YOU'VE EVER BEEN? The Canadian Rockies, I guess. WHAT WALLPAPER AND/OR SCREENSAVER IS ON YOUR COMPUTER RIGHT NOW? At work, its some funky picture of reflecting steel marbles unknown. at home, it's that Windows dog that's on everyone else's for people like me, who are too busy expressing their creativity elsewhere pictures of the family. DOES MCDONALD'S SKIMP ON YOUR FRIES & DO YOU CARE? Don't know. don't care. not a big McDonald's fan. FAVORITE CHAIN RESTAURANT(s)? Pappasitos. Still like Pappasitos, but favorite has to be Abuelos. IF YOU HAVE A BOY (OR HAVE ANOTHER BOY) WHAT WOULD YOU NAME HIM? Cole. or Contraception, since he'd be #4 "Miracle," since it would mean he was born without the environment of a uterus. IF YOU COULD LEARN TO PLAY ONE INSTRUMENT OVERNIGHT, WHAT WOULD IT BE? If it can't be the pan flute, it would have to be the piano. The guitar, since we just bought one for Kelsi. Your turn. answer in the comments, or at least link to yours there or post it on your own Facebook page.

Sharing Our Legacy

2009-04-27T00:18:00.000-07:00

QSGA Conference – October, 2008The Southern Queensland Quilt Study Group is inviting us to Brisbane for the 2008 Conference. They have already had a lot of interest from local quilters and are looking forward to having a strong contingent from the south and west. The annual Queensland Quilters' Quilt Show starts the Wednesday following our Conference – so it would make a really nice week away in sunny Queensland – just packed full of all things associated with our chosen artistic outlet!!!We have whetted your appetite – you want to know all the details – here goes – put these dates in your diaries.Venue – WATERMARK HOTEL, Wickham Terrace, Spring Hill, BrisbaneFriday, 17th October – Drinks & Dinner (at your own expense) at the Watermark HotelPre-registration availableSaturday, 18th October – Conference Room, Watermark Hotel – Speakers include:Lorraine Cazalar of the Qld. Women’s Historical Society,Gail Chalker on the Rosewood Redwork Quilt that is being reproduced by the South Queensland QSG membersDr. Annette Gero – Gold Rush QuiltsKaren Barrett – Quilting Legacy of Ruth Stoneley & Denise Lawson (Brisbane Quilters)Margaret Rolfe – Rajah Quilt & their descendantsMichael Marendy – Conservation of QuiltsMargie Creek – A Family’s Legacy of QuiltsPam Holland – Topic to be announcedThere will be a dinner in the evening at the Watermark (this cost is NOT included in the Conference cost), we will have a guest speaker and a Silent Auction that will benefit the Qld Women’s Historical Society.Sunday, 19th – We plan to have the choice of three very interesting venues for you to visit.Now that takes care of the Conference – you will have Monday and Tuesday to fill before the opening day of the Craft Show at the Convention Centre. This Craft Show includes the Queensland Quilters' Quilt Show. We are working on a couple of interesting outings that will take you to different parts of south-east Queensland. As these details are confirmed, you’ll be advised via the Newsletter, and Blog.Accommodation will be available at the Watermark Hotel – they have set a conference price that is reasonable. Any accommodation bookings are to be done directly with the Watermark Hotel.The Watermark Hotel is centrally located in Brisbane – just opposite the Roma Street Parklands, a short taxi ride to the Convention Centre for the Quilt Show – we are sure you will enjoy your stay there.Bookings open in July, 2008 for members and then to non-members in August 2008. A registration form will be available in the next newsletter and we look forward to receiving lots of forms. As we said at the beginning, there is already a great deal of interest in the Conference by Queensland quilters. Start planning your week away in Brisbane, October, 2008.If there are any queries, you can contact Sue Morrison (Convenor of the Conference) on mailto:ggodhabits@optusnet.com.au

Interesting lover T-shirt

2009-04-22T23:41:00.001-07:00

Cocktail Drink

2009-04-22T23:20:00.000-07:00

Cocktail Drink Bartending Software - Learn Cocktail & Drink Recipes And Bartending ... cocktail drink . Screwdriver is a popular cocktail made with orange juice. orange juice with a carbonated orange drink produces a cocktail known as a Hi-Fi.. Mixed drinks. Includes a great selection of cocktail recipes.. Cocktail Recipes. Distilled Spirits. Mixology- Tips & Tricks. Drink Presentation. What is a Cocktail?. Offers holiday and classic cocktail recipes as well as many martini recipes. cocktail drink Mix is your one stop cocktail recipe catalogue. Craft the perfect cocktail with help from eHow's drink experts. Recipes range from classic cocktails like vodka gimlets to clever concoctions such as pomegranate. Bartending & Drink Recipe Software. Features hundreds of drinks in a searchable database, plus chat and links. cocktail drinkcocktail martini cocktail soundtrack cocktail round table cocktail square table cocktail shrimp recipe cocktail lounge cocktail shrimp cocktail dinatoire cocktail hat cocktail vintage red cocktail dress cocktail fruit cocktail ring white dress cocktail cocktail wedding cocktail mexican shrimp short cocktail dress cocktail tahiti beijing cocktail cocktail cake Cocktail Drink Bartending Software - Learn Cocktail & Drink Recipes And Bartending ...Free iPod Video iTunes Holds 2 Million Songs, 15,000 Podcasts & 10,000 Audiobooks

Gus Van Sant and Sean Penn on "Milk"

2009-04-19T22:25:00.000-07:00

Sean Penn is the front-runner for best actor and Gus Van Sant is nominated for best director at tonight's Academy Awards. Writer Brad Balfour has done a Q&A with both men that is up on Huffington Post so I've pulled out a few of the more interesting questions to share with you all as you get ready for your Oscar parties. Q: At what point did you become committed to making or being part of this story? GVS: I've done a few films [with] gay characters, but not super-positive gay characters. I heard about this project through Rob Epstein, [the director of the electric, Oscar-winning documentary, The Times of Harvey Milk,] who had heard that [director] Oliver Stone was no longer going to make a version of the film that was at Warner Brothers. So I was interested in it, and got wrapped up in studying it. But I think that political stories are always really interesting to tell, so they're often avoided because they can get--I guess--boring, basically. Q: Since you gave such a seamless performance, did Harvey stay with you while you were playing him and seep into your daily life? Has he changed you as a person? SP: The answer is that he did stay with me. How, I'm not entirely sure--I haven't given it a lot of thought. When something comes in that you become aware that it's there, you think, "Oh, don't go away." In terms of humanity, one likes to think that with each day and each person that comes into your life directly or indirectly, there's some growth of some kind, hopefully, in a positive direction. Certainly with [Harvey], there would have been but I can't identify it. In a very immediate way, there's a lot of--let's say--timeliness to this story that we've all been hearing about, in reference to the recent experience that we've had. But I can't be more specific than that. Q: Since November 4th there's been an escalation of tensions and discord between the gay and "faith" communities; how did that impact on the performance of the film at the box office, for even an ostensibly sympathetic figure like Harvey Milk, we were seeing such raw hatred against gay people every day on the streets and in the press. GVS: Well, we're seeing both. There's raw hatred and then there's also the support. Both sides are playing out in press and in the community. It's the nature of the battle, and it's encased in the film as well. SP: It's also important, though, to remember that the tension is not between the gay and the faith communities. The tension is between the community which in fact really is gay, and a pseudo-faith community which has nothing to do with God, love, or anything of real "faith" and it's really just hypocrisy and hatred. So any faith community that deserves the title "faith community" really won't have a problem with these issues. Q: Sean, you made the sexuality shown in the movie really successful; it was so nonchalant and casual that it was really effective. It seemed natural and interwoven into the story so that the audience didn't really think about it. SP: Well, Cleve Jones said something really great. Early on, we had put together a dinner for a lot of the people that had been involved in Harvey's campaign. He said one of the myths is that we're all just the same, it's just the sex that's different. He said, "In reality, we're very different, it's just the sex that's pretty much the same." The difference, of course, is living with bigotry and oppression and all of that (crap). And that was where the focus went. The rest of it is, for some people, a guy gives them a boner, for somebody else, it's a woman. So it was an approach, the sex is the sex is the sex is the sex, but the other part was really the heart of the picture. Q: Do you have any thoughts on how the world might have been a different place if Harvey Milk hadn't been assassinated? SP: I think less people would've died of AIDS. I think Ronald Reagan would've been forced to address it. It was a tragic loss. He wouldn't have stood quietly. He was a leader, and he happened to be focused on the gay movement. The impression was--there was a popular notion initially that this was a "gay disease." Certainly a huge numbers of homosexuals died related to it and all that. I think he would have advanced that argument a lot sooner. People are dead because he died too soon.

YouCity

2009-04-18T20:17:00.000-07:00

YouCity, Your Neighborhood In 3D YouCity.com - YouCity - New York - 3D Maps - About About YouTime : "YouCity is a neighborhood-based social network site that helps you connect with local people sharing the same interests. It is a website where you discover on a fun 3D map the city hotspots and exciting local events through people like you. YouCity combines real-life neighborhood context with social context to provide the first true integration of online social networks with local geography. It creates online neighborhoods that not only mirror every corner of the real world we live in but also change the real world and benefit people's everyday life through revolutionizing the way people creating and sharing local information and interacting with each other and places around them...."(YouCity.com) + (YouCity Blog)YouCity is een sociaal netwerk die je een stad laat verkennen zoals (the Big Apple) New York en ook nog eens op een visueel aantrekkelijke manier. Je kunt door de straten dwalen en alle gebouwen bekijken en zo een stad een beetje leren kennen. De 3D Kaart laat allerlei informatie zien. Best indrukwekkend! Beertjes Weblog by Peter Franken

Riding up to Hsinshe

2009-04-16T19:18:00.000-07:00

On Sunday morning my man Drew and I hopped on our bikes and rode over to Fengyuan and thence to Hsinshe from a little road just off Dead Dictator Park there. They were having some kind of long-distance race that day, and the road was crowded with contestants (as always, click on any pic to be taken to its Flickr page).We took a little lane called Nan Ken (south creek) Lane out of Fengyuan directly up to Hsinshe. The road follows the creek up a very gentle slope almost the entire way, the last 500 meters being a very steep grade that I had to walk but a real bicyclist should be able to do. Of the several ways I know to get atop the ridge and into Hsinshe, it offers by far the gentlest slope. Aside from the top, the worst slope is actually the first 200 meters.The lane is not difficult to find. As you leave Fengyuan, at the far end of Chungcheng Park, there is a Family Mart on the right. Turn right there, and you'll see the signs in Chinese for Hsinshe and Shuiching. The lane heads south for a bit, and then hooks around to the east.When I came through here the day before, these men had just started building this wall. This is less than 24 hours of work. Li hai!The road tracked the creek, which was, like so many Taiwan waterways, the object of reconstruction by local governments.A gate into the forest....We followed the signs for Hsinshe.....Drew, looking cool in his spiffy cycling clothes, strikes a pose.The road is lined with pipa growers, who had enclosed their pipa fruits in 12A pipa bags. Betcha didn't know there was such a thing.....This very large home had a guardhouse, and atop the guardhouse was a tee. If you look down the creek, you can see the sand trap on the grass about 125 meters away, behind a small tree.Drew waits as I take a break.A panorama of the orchards near the top of the road.Excellent views back towards Taichung.Drew snapped this picture of a disheveled, beaten blogger we met on the road. He looked nothing like my svelte, sexy self.It was a bit hazy today, but this view from Rte 129 across this valley towards the Central mountain range is one of my favorites on the island.It was especially sweet after fighting my way up the hill, so I created a panorama of it.We stopped for cold drinks in a small town near Hsinshe. There local families process mushrooms, an important product of the area around Hsinshe.Cutting up mushrooms.A pile of discarded plastic bags full of soil used as a medium for growing mushrooms. The soil under the fruit trees is composed of such discards.On our way home we took Rte 88 back down to Fengyuan, basically a controlled fall from Hsinshe, a wonderful end to a great morning. Even the rampant trash dumping in the local streams couldn't dampen it

Cindy Crawford Sizzles in String Bikini

2009-04-16T07:33:00.000-07:00

Filed under: Swimwear and Lingerie, Celebrities with StyleWhat's the hottest thing to wear if you were one of the world's biggest models in the 90s? Apparently a purple bikini. First 40-year-old Helena Christensen hit the beach in a lavender shade (see the gallery below), and then 43-year-old Cindy Crawford showed off her killer figure in this plum purple suit. If Crawford's latest shoot for Allure left you wondering (or hoping!) about the role of Photoshop in creating her to-die-for figure, these latest shots confirm the mom of two doesn't need any help from the art department. Not that she's totally perfect mind you. "I think I look pretty good for 43. But I don't look the way I did when I was 23," she told Allure. "So if Star magazine or whatever wants to print a picture of me on the beach from the back, at the worst possible angle, and say that I have cellulite, I'm like, guess what? I do, and I never said I didn't." We'll have to take her word on that because we checked a lot of angles and couldn't find any proof! For more gorgeous celebs in itsy bitsy bikinis check out the gallery below. Sexy Stars in their 60s Vacationing with her husband on Saint Barths, 62-year-old Soap star Susan Lucci showed off her fabulous bod in this itsy-bitsy green bikini.Do you love Lucci? See her strut her stuff on the Heart Truth catwalk. INFphoto The one and only Grace Jones took to the stage at Camden's Roundhouse in London and wowed the crowed with both performance and her bod! Now 60-years-old, the former model and Andy Warhol muse still has to die for legs and a sense of style all her own. Ben Yacobi / WENN.com Once the princess of punk, Debbie Harry, at 63, is now the embodiment of Baby Boom chic. Of course, no matter how (um) old she gets, the Blondie front-woman will still rock out and will never give up her signature yellow mane. Dimitrios Kambouris, Getty Images Taking a dip during her Hawaiian vacation Goldie Hawn looked sexy and much younger than her 63 years. Fame Pictures Helen Mirren has played a royal so often that she could probably take over for a real one, but she apparently hasn't got a bit of the Queen's stuffiness. The Academy Award-winner has been everyone from a naked housewife (in "Calendar Girls") to a tough-as-nails detective (in "Prime Suspect"), and even at 63, is confident enough to let herself be photographed in a teeny red bathing suit. starsurf / Splash News Don't call her granny, gray-haired or anything that even hints that she's something less than fab. At 69, Tina Turner still has a great growl, glorious gams and gyrations that could kill. And the singer shown during her 50th Anniversary tour at Madison Square Garden is not alone. Click on for more stars who just keep on rollin' well into their 60s. It's hard to say if Mia Farrow is better known as an actress (everything from "Rosemary's Baby" to a baker's dozen Woody Allen films) or her spectacular romances (marriages to Frank Sinatra and Andre Previn, and a fabulously sordid split with Allen). Still, at 63, the single mother-of-14 shown at Hong Kong International Airport is so burrowed in humanitarian work as a UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador and an activist against the genocide in Darfur, that Time named her one of 2008's 100 most influential people. Andrew Ross , AFP/Getty Images The most successful female recording artist ever 18 No. 1 hits in the U.S., 70 Top-10 hits since 1964 the 64-year-old Diana Ross is still supremely cool. In 2007, she had the finalists on "American Idol" rocking her songs. In 2008, she not only captured a BET Lifetime Achievement Award presented by her five kids and Stevie Wonder but she also headlined at Radio City Music Hall in "Divas with Heart." Larry Marano, Getty Images She was immortalized as the delicately beautiful Lara in the 1965 romance, "Dr. Zhivago," and in the nearly 45 years since, Julie Christie shown here at the 2008 Academy Awards -- has clearly lost none of her allure. The It-girl of her generation, she's kept a lower profile in recent years, making only a handful of movies 2005's "Away From Her" won raves for her haunting portrait of a woman lost to Alzheimers and in 2007, at 66, marrying for the first time. Lester Cohen, Getty Images Ever since she appeared in "One Million Years B.C." clad in a ripped-to-tatters bikini, Raquel Welch has been the embodiment of raw sexiness. And, at 68, it doesn't look like she's lost her groove. These days, though, she wears suits more than bikinis, running a business that's included everything from fitness videos to wig collections to QVC jewelry. She's even served as a face for MAC's "Beauty Icons" line. Tony Barson, WireImage Permalink Email this Comments

cat dull too

2009-04-07T13:44:00.000-07:00

Eno.

2009-04-07T13:20:00.001-07:00

Cartoon Angel sanctuary

2009-04-07T13:18:00.000-07:00

What's inside a star?

2009-04-06T17:40:00.000-07:00

Even more incredibly, just by looking at starlight astronomers can discover what a star is made from.The light that we see is just one kind of radiation known as 'visible light'. Other kinds include X-rays, ultraviolet, microwaves, radio waves and infrared. Different stars give out varying amounts of these signals, known as their 'spectrum'.When measured, the spectrum appears as a series of bright and dark lines positioned at specific points or 'frequencies'. This is the blueprint of a star and provides a wealth of information about what is happening inside.As elements are heated inside the star, they absorb and emit energy, creating a 'blip' in the star's spectrum. So the position and strength of these lines reveal what elements are inside the star. Stars are classified into 'spectral types' according to the shape of this spectrum.Find out what happens inside a starLooking back in timeAlthough time travel isn't physically possible yet, we can see back in time just by looking out into space.Light from the Sun takes 8 minutes to reach Earth. So we are seeing what the Sun looked like 8 minutes ago. The faint Proxima Centauri, our nearest stellar neighbour, lags behind by 4.2 years. So, the further we look out into space, the further we are looking into the past.The distance that light travels in a year is called a 'light year'. The furthest that astronomers have ever seen are about 12 billion light years away, from a time just after the Big Bang, when the Universe was just a baby.

Weighing a star

2009-04-06T17:38:00.000-07:00

Weighing a star isn't as difficult as it sounds as you don't need an enormous set of cosmic scales, just one equation. The more massive a star is, the more energy it gives off. So first of all, astronomers measure the star's 'luminosity', the rate at which it emits energy. Then they can work out its mass.Measuring a star's temperatureOnce the mass of the star is known, you can calculate the temperature inside its burning core. Stars perform a delicate balancing act between gas pressure pushing outwards and gravity pulling inwards. Mathematical equations can be used to map this. Then by measuring the size and mass of the star, astronomers can calculate the temperature of the core.

Twinkle twinkle little star

2009-04-06T17:35:00.000-07:00

Stars twinkle because they are very far away, and so appear as tiny points of light in our night sky. Some of this light is absorbed by moving air in the Earth's atmosphere, making the star appear to sparkle.
Planets, like Saturn or Jupiter, don't sparkle. This is because they are a lot closer to the Earth and so they look bigger in our sky than stars.

Rather than being points of light, planets are small discs. As their light is more spread out, even if some of it is absorbed by our atmosphere, some of the light still filters through, so the planet doesn't twinkle. This means that you can tell the difference between a planet and a star without even needing a telescope, just by seeing if it twinkles!

look up to the sky

2009-03-31T19:45:00.000-07:00

for fun

2009-03-30T01:11:00.001-07:00

catch my eye

2009-03-27T18:14:00.000-07:00

hair stye

2009-03-27T18:13:00.001-07:00

dullous

2009-03-26T19:33:00.000-07:00

How to kill Boring ?

watch movies,listen to songs,viw the news,still bored...