text:
USAID Impact Photo Credit: USAID and Partners

Archives for USAID

USAID’s Battleground: Expanding Access and Strengthening Health Systems

Administrator Shah: “Our experience with GHI has made it clear: our largest opportunities to improve human health do not lie in optimizing services to the 20% of people in the developing world currently reached by health systems; they lie in extending our reach to the 80% who lack access to health facilities. That is where the success of everything I’ve discussed today will be determined.  That is our battleground.  And I am proud to say: that is where USAID will lead the fight.”

Today, in a packed auditorium at NIH, Administrator Shah outlined a global health agenda around five transformational goals.  Dr. Shah believes that we can achieve the following by 2016: save the lives of over 3 million children; prevent more than 12 million HIV infections, avert 700,000 malaria deaths, ensure nearly 200,000 pregnant women can safely give birth, prevent 54 million unintended pregnancies, and cure 2.4 million people infected with TB.  To achieve these ambitious goals, he emphasized the need to strengthen health systems by empowering community health workers and midwives by equipping them with better diagnostics and treatments.

As part of the President’s Global Health Initiative, USAID helps countries integrate their health systems across WHO’s six health system “building blocks” (human resources; medical supplies, vaccines, and technology; health financing; information; leadership and governance; and service delivery) and within their national infrastructure.  Recent activities included: strengthening health care financing in Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia, and Senegal through the use of national health accounts; helping nine countries implement human resource information systems; and instituting performance assessments to raise standards for HIV services in six Central American countries.

USAID in the News

February 8, 2011: In an editorial, Voice of America writes that 50 years after USAID was created, the agency still remains a vital actor in U.S. global presence. VOA also notes that USAID “has become a quiet force for progress: preventing disease and disasters, stabilizing societies and expanding free markets, and changing with the times to best serve the people of the developing world.”

February 11, 2011: Voice of America reports that private businesses are being encouraged to assume a greater role in development efforts as part of the Obama administration’s agricultural development initiative. In an interview with Voice of America, USAID’s Greg Gottlieb, head of the food security bureau, stated that the agency is looking towards economic growth as a way to increase development. “We want to work more with the private sector than we have in the past.”

USAID in the News

Weekly Briefing (1/31/2011–2/4/2011)

January 31 Reuters reports that at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, the world’s preeminent companies announced a major plan to invest in agriculture projects in Tanzania and Vietnam. USAID Administrator Dr. Rajiv Shah championed the plan, stating “we believe it is smarter and more efficient to support agriculture than to prevent the more costly famines, food riots and failed states that we will face if we do not make these investments.”

January 31 The Washington Post reports that new contracts from USAID have been awarded to Cardno Emerging Markets of Arlington and Chemonics of DC for professional, administrative, and management support services.

February 2 Foreign Policy’s “The Cable” blog reports that Senator Lindsey Graham, who is expected to be named the ranking Republican on Senate Appropriations’ State and Foreign Operations subcommittee, plans to “use his position…to increase State Department and USAID funding for Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Iraq and increase the civilian side of various military-civilian partnerships.” Senator Graham noted that the State Department and USAID “help win this struggle against radical Islam.”

February 3 In an editorial, Voice of America reports on USAID’s new approach to development and cites USAID Administrator Dr. Rajiv Shah’s recent speech at the Center for Global Development. During his speech, Dr. Shah said that, thanks to a series of reforms called USAID Forward, “our agency is fundamentally changing, becoming more efficient, more effective and more businesslike.” He added, “We are seeking to build something greater: a modern development enterprise.”

February 3 In a blog posted on The Huffington Post, President of the Kraft Foods Foundation Perry Yeatman supports USAID’s new reform efforts and describes how “inspired” she was by USAID Administrator Dr. Rajiv Shah and his perspective on U.S. foreign assistance. Speaking at Davos, Dr. Shah said that USAID’s work is not just “from the American people” but actually “for the American people.”

February 4 The Washington Post reports that U.S. Senator Lindsey Graham could soon be in a leadership position to support USAID. Final decisions have yet to be made, but if Graham is named the ranking Republican on the Senate Appropriations subcommittee on state and foreign operations he will be in a key position to make the case that US national security considerations
“require a fully financed diplomatic and development effort.”

From the Field

In Kenya, partnering with Pact Kenya we will hold a Trauma Healing and Social Reconciliation Workshop to develop a team of trainers/experts in the region to enhance the sustainability of people to people/social reconciliation processes.  By helping individuals deal with trauma, we hope to improve relationships between communities in the area and create environments more receptive to peace-building interventions.

In Tanzania, along with the Ministry of Health and Social Welfare and DFID, we are procuring $10 million in contraceptives to avoid stock-outs.  The event will be used as a platform to advocate for adequate budgeting and disbursement to ensure contraceptive supply in public sector health facilities.  We will also use the event to highlight the positive outcomes from donor partnership and coordination.

In the West Bank, we will hold our biannual press round table to update the local West Bank media of USAID activities in the area.  We will do the same in Jerusalem with Gaza journalists.

USAID In the News (1/24/2011–1/28/2011)

January 24: In an exclusive interview with Foreign Policy’s “The Cable” blog, USAID Administrator Dr. Rajiv Shah responded to calls from Republicans in Congress to cut development and foreign aid, stating it would undermine US national security. Shah explained that it would not only put USAID’s reforms in jeopardy, but have “real and drastic negative implications for American power and the ongoing missions in Afghanistan and Pakistan.”

January 25: The Washington Post published a story on USAID Administrator Dr. Rajiv Shah’s recent speech at the Center for Global Development. The Post reported that Shah outlined a new vision for USAID with the goal of replacing the agency over time by “efficient local governments, by thriving civil societies and by a vibrant private sector.”

January 26: The Huffington Post published an op-ed by USAID Deputy Assistant Administrator for Africa Larry Garber on the recent election held in Southern Sudan. In the piece, Garber underscored the importance of the vote and how significant it is given the challenges the region has overcome in recent years.

January 27: Foreign Policy’s “The Cable” blog presented statements made by State Department’s outgoing Director of Policy Planning Anne-Marie Slaughter arguing for the increase of funding for USAID and the State Department.  She called for budget increases in targeted areas for certain USAID and State programs in order to implement crucial reforms and streamline the system.

‘Modern Development Enterprise’ – A Major Address by Administrator Shah

As featured in the White House Blog

Last week, USAID Administrator Dr. Rajiv Shah gave a major address to over 200 non-governmental organizations, think-tanks, academics, and international development leaders hosted by the Center for Global Development. The text of the speech as prepared for delivery can be found here.  Dr. Shah’s speech on The Modern Development Enterprise addressed the current state of development and formally announced the Agency’s 50th anniversary.

In his speech, Dr. Shah recognized the important role of religious and community groups in providing assistance to those most in need around the world. I thought you’d be especially interested in the excerpts below:

  • American Values:  When we prevent violence in Southern Sudan, we’re not just avoiding future military involvement; we’re also expressing America’s values.  When schoolchildren organize bakesales to pay for anti-malarial bed nets, they are expressing America’s values.  When more American families gave money to the Haiti relief than watched the Super Bowl, they were expressing America’s values.  When church groups across America raise money and volunteer to support children orphaned by AIDS, they are expressing America’s values.
  • Communities of Faith:  I’m proud to know that USAID is one of CRS’s largest supporters.  But I’m also proud to know that we support a wide-range of faith-based organizations, from Samaritan’s Purse to the American Jewish World Service. Organizations of faith not only express the moral values of millions of Americans, they also provide some of the most dependable support systems for millions in the developing world. In Kenya for example, 30% of all healthcare services are provided by Christian Hospitals.  Our success depends on listening to communities of faith, connecting with them deeply, and supporting the vital work they perform around the world.
  • Food Security:  Instead of merely providing food aid in times of emergency, we are helping countries develop their own agricultural sectors, so that they can feed themselves.  We launched Feed the Future – bringing together resources across the federal government and engaging in deeper partnerships to extend the impact of our efforts.  We are now leveraging more investment from countries themselves and from other donors.  Firms ranging from General Mills to local African seed companies are all doing more.  As a result, in just five of our twenty focus countries we will be able to help nearly 6.5 million poor farmers – most of them women – grow enough food to feed their families and break the grip of hunger and poverty for tens of millions of people.
  • Global Health:  In our Global Health Initiative, instead of a scattered approach that fights individual diseases one at a time, we are pursuing an integrated approach that will generate efficiencies and strengthen health systems.  We are now working with partners such as the NIH, CDC and PEPFAR to leverage recent advances in science and technology, especially in high return areas such as vaccinating children, preventing HIV, malaria and TB and focusing on childhood nutrition during pregnancy and the first two years of life.
  • Smart and Transparent Investments:  I want the American taxpayer to know that every dollar they invest in USAID is being invested in the smartest, most efficient, and most transparent way possible.
  • 50th Anniversary:  This year, USAID will celebrate its 50th anniversary. Our legacy is filled with incredible accomplishments. Throughout those fifty years, we have contributed greatly toward ending an incomprehensible measure of human suffering, and I urge you to learn more about our Agency’s rich legacy through our newly launched anniversary Web site,  But if I am lucky enough to live another 50 years, I hope I am also lucky enough not to witness our centennial. Instead, I hope we will be commemorating the success of USAID’s mission.

Ari Alexander serves as Deputy Director at the Center for Faith-based & Community Initiatives and the Coordinator of Global Engagement.

USAID’s January Frontlines

FrontLinesRead the latest edition of USAID’s premier publication, FrontLines for these stories:

A farmer in Balochistan, Pakistan, displays wheat affected by wheat stem rust, a disease that can destroy a significant amount of crops. USAID is working in the agriculture sector here and in other parts of Pakistan to prevent the damage caused by the rust. Photo credit: USAID

Read these stories and more in the new issue of FrontLines. If you would like to automatically receive FrontLines every month, you can subscribe here.

In the News (1/18/2011–1/21/2011)

January 18: In a profile piece, The Washington Post highlighted the work of a senior USAID official and his experience in Afghanistan, Pakistan and Burma. The USAID employee stated that he has been “very fortunate to have worked on important foreign policy priorities.”

January 20: In an interview with Reuters, USAID Administrator Shah said he plans to cut millions as the Administration looks to make budget cuts and as the agency seeks to restructure itself. Dr. Shah argued that administrative changes save about $65 million in operating expenses, and added, “We’re actually embarking on perhaps the most aggressive operational reform of a major federal bureaucracy. If we get the support for it, we will save American taxpayers hundreds of millions of dollars over time.”

January 21: UK’s The Guardian newspaper reported that in a major speech given on January 19, USAID Administrator Shah stated that the agency plans on cutting costs and becoming more business-like in an effort to gain public and congressional support for US foreign assistance.

Moving the Business of Development Forward

Guest post from Sara Messer of ONE. Originally posted on The ONE Blog

Sara Messer, ONE’s policy manager for aid effectiveness, had a chance to speak to USAID Administrator Raj Shah about a few new changes at the agency and how ONE members can help. Watch her exclusive interview in the video below.

During an exciting and provocative speech hosted by the Center for Global Development yesterday, (watch the full speech here), USAID Administrator Raj Shah explained how his agency is transforming into a “modern development enterprise.”

Last year, USAID unveiled a slew of reforms, labeled USAID FORWARD, that fundamentally change the way the agency works in order to become “more efficient, more effective and more business-like.” Mr. Shah has already begun implementing many of these reforms, which include a renewed focus on results through stringent evaluations, a change in business and procurement practices to gain efficiency, and a spotlight on science and innovation to create better, more cost-effective development tools.

What is prompting all of these changes? Now more than ever, many realize that development is not just an idealized notion, but “is as critical to our economic prospects and our national security as diplomacy and defense.” At a time when every government agency and program is under scrutiny for their effectiveness and cost savings, Mr. Shah made a compelling case for the continued support of USAID’s mandate. By promoting and supporting economic growth and good governance in developing countries, the US is creating new markets for our exports, strengthening valuable partners in the fight against extremism, and promoting American values of generosity and goodwill. The US cannot afford NOT to lead the way in responsible and accountable global development.

How will this happen? To fulfill this obligation, Mr. Shah announced a number of even newer changes that USAID is making to its workforce, its strategy and its implementation plans.

  • To be accountable to both taxpayers and beneficiaries, USAID is rolling out a new evaluation process conducted by independent evaluators and measured against baseline data with results published within three months on the new USAID Dashboard.
  • To ensure the successful implementation of reforms and signature initiatives like Feed the Future and Global Health, USAID will continue to strengthen its staff and skill-sets, including an increase in mid-level hiring to bring in more qualified technical expertise.
  • To improve efficacy and impact, USAID is making tough decisions on resource allocations, planning to scale back or close missions in countries that are graduating as aid recipients and focusing resources on “critical” regions where needs are greater and impact can be maximized.
  • And finally, to improve efficiency and save costs, USAID is reforming its contract and implementation processes. Administrator Shah was firm in his resolve to demand real accountability from partners and contractors with which USAID works, to increase competitiveness and to fund more local NGOs and entrepreneurs that will ensure sustainability of development investments in the long-term.

Perhaps most telling was Mr. Shah’s recognition that the business of development is to put itself out of business. He acknowledged that “we must seek to do our work in a way that allows us to be replaced over time by efficient local governments, thriving civil societies and vibrant private sectors.” As USAID celebrates its 50th anniversary this year, we all look forward to a future 50 years from now when the agency will have fulfilled its mandate and is no longer necessary.

Week 9: The Modern Development Enterprise

50th anniversary logo

Today, USAID is fundamentally changing—becoming more efficient, effective, and businesslike—which ultimately helps our investment dollars go further.

Our effort to transform how development is delivered reflects the beliefs of the President and the Secretaries of State, Treasury and Defense: development is as critical to our economic prospects and our national security as diplomacy and defense.

We have an obligation to make sure our reform efforts go beyond building an updated version of an aid agency. We are seeking to build something greater—the world’s first modern development enterprise.

Executing a Clear and Focused Strategy. Like an enterprise, we are developing and executing innovative and focused strategies across our areas of excellence.

We recognize the enormous development progress the world has made in recent decades. But we also realize that more has to be done, and more of the same will not be enough. We must embrace a spirit of innovation to change the way we work.

  • Food Security. Instead of merely providing food aid in times of emergency, we are helping countries develop their own agricultural sectors so they can feed themselves.
  • Global Health. We will transition away from a scattered approach that fights individual diseases one at a time; we are pursuing an integrated approach that will generate efficiencies and strengthen health systems.
  • Disaster and Crisis Response. Based on lessons learned in Haiti and Pakistan, we’re reforming our approach to disaster assistance to speed the time between response, recovery and long-term development.
  • Economic Growth. We are rejecting the traditional assumption that a series of development projects alone will lead to growth and are instead developing partnerships for growth with countries committed to enabling private sector investment.

  • Democracy & Governance. Instead of merely paying to hold elections, we are now funding new open government technologies to quickly and significantly increase transparency, so citizens can hold their own governments accountable.

We are bringing a similar spirit of innovation, science, technology and strategic thinking to areas such as education, water, and climate. In each of these core areas, we have already or will soon release comprehensive strategies that detail how we can achieve development gains faster, more sustainably, and at lower cost so more people can benefit.

Measuring and Evaluating Our Work. Like an enterprise, we are relentlessly focused on delivering results and learning from failures. USAID used to be the world leader in development evaluation, but we have fallen from that distinction.

We are working to ensure we’re spending American taxpayer money in the most responsible way possible. To help meet this goal, we’ve introduced an evaluation policy that will set a new standard in development. This policy includes:

  • Independent third-party evaluation of major projects;

  • Baseline data collection and study designs to measure our actual impact in the field; and

  • Public release of evaluations within three months, whether they indicate success or failure.

Delivering Shareholder Value. Like an enterprise, we are focused on delivering the highest possible value to our shareholders—the American people and the Congressional leaders who represent them.

We have created a suspension and debarment taskforce to monitor, investigate, and respond to suspicious behavior among our contractors and partners.

We will also deliver savings by reducing our footprint in countries where development successes have created the conditions where American assistance is frankly no longer necessary. By 2015, we believe USAID can graduate away from assistance in at least seven countries, starting with Montenegro in 2012.

Serving Our Customers. Like an enterprise, we are listening to and improving the way we serve our customers—in our case, the people of the developing world.

We seek to do our work in a way that allows us to be replaced over time by efficient local governments, thriving civil societies and vibrant private sectors. We have launched aggressive procurement and contracting reforms, and to improve competition, we’ve announced that no contract extensions in excess of $5 million will be non-competitively granted without the personal clearance of the USAID Administrator.

As USAID approaches its 50th anniversary this year, we are reflecting upon about the ultimate benefits we’re delivering. We’re not only helping the people we serve, we’re creating jobs for Americans, helping keep us safe at home, and reflecting our core American values.

We create economic opportunity by helping develop strong trade partnerships in countries that will be the growing markets of tomorrow—relationships that create jobs here at home.

We keep America safe by playing a direct role in national security—working directly with the military to help stabilize volatile regions like Afghanistan and Pakistan, or preventing conflict in Southern Sudan.

And our work reflects our American values—working with students, families and communities of faith to address the needs of the developing world.

Ultimately, creating the modern development enterprise will help advance prosperity and security both in the developing countries that need it most, and within our own borders. This reflects the beliefs of both President Obama and Secretary Clinton—that together we have the power to create the world we seek if we have the courage to embrace the opportunity.

Now is the time to invest in USAID’s capabilities, so we see the day when our assistance is no longer necessary.

If you missed the speech, you can see it here.

Page 91 of 109:« First« 88 89 90 91 92 93 94 »Last »


Content-Type: application/http; msgtype=response

WARC-Truncated: length

WARC-Type: response

text:
Premiere Pro CC Bug Fix Update (7.2.2)

Today we are releasing an update to Premiere Pro CC. This version (Premiere Pro CC 7.2.2) contains a number of important bug fixes and is recommended for all users. Please note that this release does NOT contain the extensive new features recently revealed as forthcoming; more information on when Adobe Creative Cloud members can expect to see that major update will be coming soon.

Users can install this update directly from the Creative Cloud desktop application.

A list of notable issues resolved in this release appears below.

  • Audio could drop out during playback.
  • Red frames were sometimes seen on export, particularly with XDCAM HD 422 smart rendered exports.
  • Older AMD GPUs were showing performance degradation, sometimes significant.
  • Erratic playhead behavior was observed when scrubbing in the Timeline in Mac OS X 10.9.x.
  • Rendering a sequence could cause red frames to be generated with XDCAM HD 50 clips with Preview Rendering Setting of XDCAM HD 50 NTSC 1920×1080.
  • XDCAM HD 422 QT files were sometimes not decoding properly.
  • Performance issues were seen when working with growing files.
  • The Locate Media dialog could not open with the correct location even though the “Path:” field started with a valid initial guess for location.
  • Transitions on speed-changed multicam clips were removed when flattening.
  • Multi-camera previewing could go black in Program Monitor when the selected camera did not extend to the current playhead position.
  • Timeline clips’ FX badge popup menu (Motion, Opacity, Time Remapping) could be difficult to open.
  • Multicam Sequences could move in the timeline when flattened if they had speed changes applied.
  • Source settings were not accessible from a Merged clip created from a R3D / RED video clip.
  • Smart rendering Canon XF files could result in stalls during the export
  • Transitions were erased from multi-camera sequences after flattening.
  • Some growing XDCAM files could play back with unwanted artifacts.
  • The order of effects applied to a multi-camera source sequence could reverse after flattening.
  • The display could go to energy saving mode during long periods of playback.
  • Spanned CanonXF media on an XSAN could import incorrectly.
  • Duplicate bins were created for each sequence imported from a single project.
  • Project import could take a long time if the project being imported contained offline media.
  • Occasional hangs occurred when adjusting volume in the Clip Mixer.
  • Marque selection in the Project Panel sometimes selected items in the incorrect order.
  • Double-clicking in the Project Panel when in list view could invoke the Import dialog unexpectedly.
  • Audio from P2 media could import incorrectly.
  • Export To Tape could exhibit issues if a file was growing at the same time.
  • Red Rocket failures could sometimes occur with 16:9 media.

Sorry, the comment form is closed at this time.

Sorry, the comment form is closed at this time.

Creatives all over the world are producing amazing work with Premiere Pro -

Tell us your story HERE

Ask a Video Pro Webinars

A Front Row Seat - webcast presented by Jason Levine & special guest, Siân Fever LIVE from IBC Show 2015

Recent Sessions

Using Character Animator - presented by Dan Ramirez

Filmmaking from Scratch - presented by Dave Basulto

My Filmmaking Toolkit - presented by Maxim Jago

Think Like a Colorist, Work Like an Editor - presented by Robbie Carman

The Editor's Journey - presented by Vashi Nedomansky

What’s Next for Adobe Pro Video Tools - presented by Jason Levine from NAB Show 2015

Managing Video Formats with Adobe Media Encoder - presented by Joost van der Hoeven

The Filmmaking Workflow with Premiere Pro & Creative Cloud - presented by Christine Steele

Secrets to Running a Great Wedding Video Business - presented by Summeyah & Jawad Mir

Blurring the Line Between Indie & Hollywood - a panel discussion featuring Rob Legato, Dave Ginsberg, Kyle Alvarez & Meagan Keane at Sundance Film Festival 2015.

After Effects for (almost!) Everyone - presented by Joost van der Hoeven.

Bring Color Grading to Your Editorial Workflow - presented by Patrick Palmer.

LOG and RAW Workflow & Adobe Tools presented by Robbie Carman

Boost Your Career with a Killer Reel presented by Rod Harlan

warcinfo:
robots: classic
hostname: ip-10-171-96-226.ec2.internal
software: Nutch 1.6 (CC)/CC WarcExport 1.0
isPartOf: CC-MAIN-2015-35
operator: CommonCrawl Admin
description: Wide crawl of the web for August 2015
publisher: CommonCrawl
format: WARC File Format 1.0
conformsTo: http://bibnum.bnf.fr/WARC/WARC_ISO_28500_version1_latestdraft.pdf


text:
What I Was Thinking About As She Died

My grandfather, my sister, my younger brother, myself and my grandmother.

My grandfather, my sister, my younger brother, myself and my grandmother.

There are two things I will always remember about my grandmother’s death. One is the way her arms and legs chilled immediately but her forehead remained warm for hours. Her brain, I realized, was an engine that had been running for 94 years and only slowly was winding down. The other was this thought: Could she have known she was going to die that day?

My grandmother was 94, an avid bridge player, energetic hospital volunteer, enthusiastic hair salon patron, savvy email user. The last one she ever sent me read: “When you arrive at the airport go down to the baggage department {basement}…you will see a kiosk with names of transportation suggestions, look for American Taxi, be sure it’s not a city taxi.…Any questions call me, I’ll be anxiously awaiting your arrival.” After not seeing her for over a year, this past January I flew from New Orleans to Chicago to visit.

Somewhere over southern Illinois squares of farmland became glazed in white. By the time my plane began its descent the earth was capped in an icy fog, the temperature was -6 F. Chicago was frozen. Bundled in sweaters, expecting to stay just the weekend, my only luggage was a small bag stuffed with magazines, a pair of slacks and collared shirt to wear to dinner that night and a special New Orleans gift, vegan Mardi Gras king cake. Grandma was a meat and potatoes Midwesterner, baffled by veganism, and several other things about my life as a freelance journalist.

Why I didn’t want a regular job at a newspaper or magazine, why I slept on the floor and not in a bed, why I kept my hair so long—my girlfriend Karen had cut it the night before my flight. And yet grandma was not a relic, she had changed over time. When my mother had told her back in the early ‘70s that she was going to apply to law school (many law schools had only just begun accepting women), my grandmother declared it would ruin her career as a house wife. But once my mom graduated and took a job with Legal Aid in New York City my grandmother became proud of her daughter, the New York City attorney. And even though my own stories were rarely her cup of tea, she read them all and emailed me thoughtful comments. “I really liked your article,” she wrote after reading my piece about Inuit bigfoot sightings. “It was most interesting and makes you think of what might be around them that they don’t know.”

Other Great Reads: Death practices of the Inuit

Upon landing I followed her directions, walked down to the baggage department, found the kiosk, called American Taxi and was soon on my way to the city’s northern suburbs, zooming past cars greyed from winter’s road salts. In the suburbs, homes resembled gingerbread houses, snug under a thick blanket of snow. “Oh Justin,” cried grandma, as I opened the door to the home she had been living in since 1949. “I am so glad to see you.”

I think back to that last day and look for clues as to whether she could have known death was near. We spoke about my latest stories and I showed her the Etsy site where Karen sold her clothes. We looked through a photo album of a family vacation to Florida compiled by my mom’s youngest brother. “I just don’t know why he took so many pictures of these fish-shaped mailboxes?” wondered grandma, smiling. Then we had lunch. In her tiny linoleum-floored kitchen, with cabinets painted a time-worn baby blue, I opened the refrigerator door, inside was practically barren. A loaf of sourdough bread, a package of American cheese slices, a plastic bag full of lettuce and a container of Trader Joe’s hummus. From a Lazy Susan, grandma retrieved a quarter-full jar of Skippy peanut butter, delicately excavated with a butter knife. “Don’t worry if you finish it,” she said. “I have more in the basement.”

I later learned that my grandmother had spent weeks chatting with her bridge friends about what to feed me. I think to her veganism meant renouncing food in general. But when someone recommended hummus she proudly purchased a container. I toasted bread for us and grandma piled Cape Cod potato chips on our plates. We ate at her kitchen table, where sat a snipped-out Chicago Tribune article she had set aside for me and a tiny television. For the longest time on the wall was a picture I had drawn as a child of a mottled blue monster devouring the Chicago skyline. We both had seconds of potato chips then Grandma eagerly cut into the king cake, warming slices in the microwave. “Delicious!” she exclaimed. It was to be her last lunch.

And that evening was the final dinner. “If Grandma could have designed her last meal,” my brother Jeff later told me, “It would have been exactly what happened.” We dined with my grandmother’s beloved niece and her husband at the Jewish country club she had belonged to for over half a century. It was a sprawling stone building on a golf course. The extravagance and enforced formality made me cringe but for grandma, it was the world. I wore the khakis and collared shirt and she carted me around to her friends, most of whom were ten years younger than her and not in nearly as good of shape, decorated with canes and walkers and worrisome splotches on their faces. Nonetheless, Grandma spoke of them as if they were teenagers. She called them all girls, as in, “Justin, I want you to meet one of the dearest girls I know.” I felt like I was at a very formal high school social.

Grandma ate a lamb chop she couldn’t stop talking about and in the middle of a lively conversation about Japan she had a spell. Her face froze in mid-speech, she stopped talking and it looked as if she might pass out. But the incident only lasted a moment, her niece asked if she needed some help and grandma said no. We finished dinner and even ate dessert, mango sorbet with a wafer. Picking up our coats, her niece slipped me a note with her number. “I’m very worried,” she said. “Please call if anything happens.”

That night, I walked grandma up the long carpeted flight of stairs, past the bedrooms of my mother and her two brothers, which were still much as they had left them, with yearbooks on the bookshelves and photos on the wall, to her own bedroom, where she had lived alone since Papa Bill passed away 16 years ago. “It usually isn’t so difficult,” she told me, huffing. In the morning grandma was not well and I drove her to the doctor. He immediately called an ambulance. Her heart was beating at twice the normal rate.

Standing around her bed in the Emergency Room with my mom’s eldest brother and his wife, who had driven up from the city, a thoughtful cardiologist explained the situation. My grandmother had atrial fibrillation, they had given her medication to stabilize her heart rate, after a few tests she should be able to come home. She couldn’t be in better hands, it was the same hospital where every Tuesday she volunteered. Her boss, a vivacious woman named Leah even dropped by to say hello.

“Caryl!” she exclaimed. “What are you doing here darling?”

“Oh Leah,” my grandmother replied, a little embarrassed. “I had an incident.”

A 65 year-old gentleman who also volunteered at the hospital, and whom my grandmother had worked with for many years had died unexpectedly just two days prior.

“He passed away in his sleep,” explained Leah.

“I heard,” said grandma, “What a wonderful way to go.”

They moved on to discuss other things, but a bell rang in the back of my mind. When you are young you can safely push the thought away, but eventually people around you start dying, and you are forced to confront that someday you will, too. At 94, my grandmother had seen her husband die, her sister Louise die, and many of her closest friends die. This was one reason why she had begun hanging out with a younger crowd (women in their 80s), because she was outliving all her contemporaries. “It’s a tough thing about growing old,” Grandma had told me over lunch. “Your friends keep dying.” And yet watching them go had made her intimately familiar with the process. When my brother Jeff visited with his girlfriend the year before the three of them had taken a walk in the Chicago Botanic Garden.

“Jeffrey,” grandma had said, over the pleasing gurgle of the Waterfall Garden. “Are you going to get married before I die?” Jeff was taken aback, but Grandma knew her time was not infinite, and she wanted to make the wedding.

The general opinion, I have learned in four years of interviewing people for this blog, is that Americans have lost their way with death.

“We don’t get to see just how dead someone who is dead actually is these days, for me seeing that was life-affirming.” – A designer of deathware

“People are afraid to die, and they are afraid that if you mention death it will bring death.” – Director of Hollywood’s Museum of Death

“In the West, you die and we just put you in the ground and move on, there’s no tradition, no culture, no celebration.” – A forensic artist who has worked with police agencies around the world

“In the nineteenth century we had a much closer relationship with the dead body.” – Author of a book on grave robbery

“Today people die in hospitals, we don’t see dead bodies, they go to the morgue and disappear.” – A Victorian death scholar

“I believe when 19th century funeral directors said, ‘let us take the burden from you, let us handle it,’ is when people became fearful of death.” – founder of a funeral photography business

“It’s because we hide behind death that kids are confused. Kids should know that death is forever, it’s not like in cartoons and it’s not like Xbox 360.” – Author of a children’s book called, “Mommy, what is dead?”

“Once you spend time thinking about death you realize certain things you thought were important are not, and other things you thought were not important are.” – a high school death education teacher

“Mortality is the fundamental form of existence, nothing lasts forever.” – A particle physicist

“You just don’t see when death is going to come.” –  Vice President of a company that cleans up after accidental deaths

Tests were done and grandma got transferred to her own room. She requested some items from home and my uncle and I went to get them, a People magazine, a book, her hearing aid. In a paper bag, I placed a few slices of king cake. When we returned to the hospital we realized we had forgotten her cell phone and my uncle went back to get it, I stayed with grandma. A nurse arrived and offered her tea and me some water then left, saying to grandma, “Thanks sweetie,” as she went. Another nurse arrived and showed her how to work the TV, grandma was a big Chicago sports fan. And it was at about that time that her eyes rolled back, her mouth dropped open, her neck arched out like a swan and a strange sound came from her throat. It was not awful.

The nurses called for help. Alarms rang. Doctors rushed into the room, I walked out. A nervous chaplain came to see me in the waiting room. “If you need anything,” he said. “I’m here.” My uncle returned, I caught him by the elevator. Then we got the news, her heart had stopped. The doctors tried valiantly to revive it and eventually did but the process had taken about thirty minutes. “She has been out for a long time,” explained the cardiologist. “She’s 94 years old, I’m nearly 100 percent positive there is no activity in her brain.” Her heart was very weak, he said, it would probably stop again during the night.

But my grandmother was not yet dead. There was color in her face, movement in her body and although she was breathing through a tube her heart was softly beating, about 30 beats per minute, half the normal rate. My uncle began the difficult task of calling family members to tell them the news. I stood by her side. I held her hand, it was cool. I read to her from a book of 8th century Chinese poetry I had in my bag, including this one by Tu Fu:

After sudden rain, a clear autumn night.
On golden waves the sparkle of the Jewelled Cord.
The River of Heaven white from eternity,
The Yangtse’s shallows limpid since just now.
Reflections, pearls from a snapped string:
High in the sky one mirror rises.
Afterlight which fades as the clock drips,
Still fainter as the dewdrops settle on the flowers.

Suddenly, she clenched my hand, then flung it away. Did she not like Chinese poetry? Was she trying to tell me something? In resuscitating her the doctors had cracked some ribs, perhaps she was in pain? I ran and got the nurse.

“Caryl,” he spoke loudly into her ear while gripping her left hand, “Caryl.” But she did not respond. Another nurse tapped her Achilles, a spot which apparently always produces a reaction, but she did not move. The nurse took out the breathing tube and checked to see if she was breathing on her own, she wasn’t. The hand movements were involuntary.

Some minutes earlier, I had called my mother in New York to tell her the news. I knew it was going to be difficult, my mother had talked nightly with grandma on the phone for as long as I could remember. Upon hearing what had happened my mom immediately began wailing. It was a tragic soulful wail, and yet it was so reassuring to hear her emotion. Something about the hospital, as friendly as everyone was, stifled the desire to bawl uncontrollably. The corners were too sharp, the floors too glossy, the lighting too unnatural. Grieving is possible, I felt like I was silently being told, but please keep it to a minimum, keep it within the lines.

But then again, it may not have been the vibe of the hospital making me feel that way, it may have been me. I had never witnessed a death before. Did I even know how to grieve? Speaking with my mother dissolved any confusion. Her anguish was reassuring. This is what we do. We cry. We read poetry to people whose brains doctors say are dead. We hold cold hands that have lost the ability to feel. We search for signs of life. We do things that don’t necessarily seem rational, but do seem right. “You must be there for me,” cried my mother. “You must be there for all of us. You must hold her hand, and whisper in her ear, and tell her each and every one of us loves her.”

And I did. When you are there, standing beside a body whose life is fading, something subconscious takes over. And embracing the body is as natural as swallowing food, breathing air, avoiding a flame. Nothing else mattered, the room dimmed, the entire hospital disappeared, this was the power center, that bed in front of me and the person in it. There was no other thing to pay attention to, the moment was occurring. It commanded everything. Life is rare, and here it was, going. My grandmother’s heart rate dropped to 15 beats per minute, and to 10 and to zero. She was gone.

Before we left I kissed her forehead one last time. More than an hour had elapsed since she had passed. Her arms and legs were now quite cold but surprisingly, her forehead was still warm. I thought of the brain as a slowly cooling engine, but I also thought that perhaps something indefinable was taking its time getting out.

Other Great Reads: How to plan the perfect funeral

It wasn’t until my aunt and uncle had gone back to the city, all the sad calls made, dates for the funeral tentatively set, flights booked, journey for the rest of the family begun, that I was back again alone in grandma’s house, where just the other day we had eaten our simple lunch. I was unpacking the items my uncle and I had brought to the hospital, the People magazine, the book, the pieces of king cake when for the first time, I actually noticed the book, The Beginner’s Goodbye, by Anne Tyler. Grandma’s bookmark, which was the receipt from the local library, had been stuck at the beginning of Chapter 2. The first line was:

Here is how she died.

On a frigid January day with temperatures at -10F we buried my grandmother. My uncles, my mother and I all said a few words. That night, friends and family dropped by the house, that strange empty time-capsule of a home I had come to adore was now packed. There was tons of food but I chose to finish off the king cake. Everyone asked me how I was, and I said, “I am fine.” I really was, but I was also thinking about the page she happened to have been on in her book. Could she have known?

Flying back across the country, tracing the squiggles of some half-frozen river, it struck me. She had been alive for 94 years, and as my brother had learned that day in the botanic garden, she was well aware she would not be alive for that many more. My grandmother had done what many people are unable to do, she had come to terms with death. The question suddenly seemed ridiculous. In her own way, she had known.

gma and i

9 Responses to “What I Was Thinking About As She Died”
  1. Larry says:

    Happy Mother’s Day, Mom, Love, Donna, Larry, Annie, Lauren, Jordyn, Houston, Tatum, and Milo

  2. KC Savage says:

    What an eloquent commentary on your Grandmother’s passing. Your skillful communication is a gift to your family and to us. My condolences to you and to your sweet Mother.

  3. Krista de Jonckheere says:

    I am one of your Mom’s sorority sisters. She obviously passed her caring heart to you, and she must be so proud of you. What a precious tribute to your grandmother! I know that she is smiling in heaven as each person reads your tale. It certainly will be with me for a very long time…My love to your Mom and to your whole family.

  4. BJ says:

    Justin–how beautiful! I am so glad you were there for her and for the whole family. Your grandmother was one of my favorite people–as are you.

  5. Jonathan says:

    My father passed away a few years ago. I was blessed enough to be by his side as he left. I noticed the same thing that his hands immediately began to grow cold. I kept my hand on his head to feel his warmth as it brought me comfort. Very well written post.

  6. Bob Acker says:

    My condolences, Justin. Your writing expresses sincere appreciation for your grandmother that is clear to the outside observer. A Catholic priest at the Air Force Academy chapel suggested during Easter mass that if we dare to love, it is inevitable that we will suffer heartbreak. For many of us, consolation exists in the hope we will meet our loved ones again. Did you feel that you detected an endurance of the living spirit when you wrote “something indefinable that was taking its time getting out”? I wish you well with your writing, all the best in you journeys.

  7. Debbie says:

    What a beautiful tribute to a beautiful and very special woman. Well done.

  8. Mac Bowen says:

    Brilliant and self-aware reflection, friend, and you know she would be proud! My own experience as a provider mostly contained by the sharp cornered culture is that one of the greatest things we can do is validate those awkward, unfamiliar feelings and re-assure that grief is normal and must be expressed however personally felt. I must echo that we have become so detached from death now (and birth even), people that you would think would be preparing are often caught unawares. The medical institution has exacerbated this, and though your grandmother’s death sounded graceful, our default to maximally intervene often makes it less so. My heartfelt thoughts go out to the Nobel clan.

  9. kimbo says:

    Well said. Your observations are beautifully honest.

Leave a Reply

Read our Privacy Policy


text:
Quick guide to Oracle IRM 11g: Server installation

Quick guide to Oracle IRM 11g index

This is the first of a set of articles designed to assist with the successful installation, configuration and deployment of a document security solution using Oracle IRM. This article goes through a set of simple instructions which detail how to download, install and configure the IRM server, the starting point for building a document security solution. This article contains a subset of information from the official documentation and is focused on installing the server on Oracle Enterprise Linux. If you are planning to deploy on a non-Linux platform, you will need to reference the documentation for platform specific information.

  1. Introduction
  2. Downloading the software
  3. Preparing a database
  4. Creating the schema
  5. WebLogic Server installation
  6. Installing Oracle IRM

Because we are using Oracle Enterprise Linux in this guide, and before we get into the detail of IRM, i'd like to share some tips with Linux to make life a bit easier.
  1. Use a 64bit platform, IRM 11g runs just fine on a 32bit server but with 64bit you will build a more future proof service.
  2. Download and install the latest Java JDK package. Make sure you get the 64bit version if you are on a 64bit server.
  3. Configure Linux to use a good Yum server to simplify installing packages. For Oracle Enterprise Linux we maintain a great public Yum here.
  4. Have at least 20GB of free disk space on the partition you intend to install the IRM server. The downloads are big, then you extract them and then install. This quickly consumes disk space which you can easily recover by deleting the downloaded and extracted files after wards. But it's nice to have the disk space spare to keep these around in case you need to restart any part of the installation process again.

Downloading the software

OK, so before you can do anything, you need the software install kits. Luckily Oracle allows you to freely download every technology we create. You'll need to get the following;

 You can use Microsoft SQL server 2005 or 2008, in this guide i've used Oracle RDBMS 11gR2 for Linux.

Preparing the database

I'm not going to go through the finer points of installing the database. There are many very good guides on installing the Oracle Database. However one thing I would suggest you think about is enabling TDE, network encryption and using Database Vault. These Oracle database security technologies are excellent for creating a complete end to end security solution. No point in going to all the effort to secure document access with IRM when someone can go directly to the database and assign themselves rights to documents. To understand this further, you can see a video of the IRM service using these database security technologies here.

With a database up and running we need to create a schema to hold the IRM data. This schema contains the rights model, cryptographic keys, user account id's and associated rights etc.

Creating the IRM database schema

Oracle uses the Repository Creation Tool which builds your schema, extract the files from the rcu zip. Then in a terminal window;

cd /oracle/install/rcu/bin

This will launch the Repository Creation Tool and you will be presented with the image to the right. Hit next and continue onto the next dialog.

You are asked if you are going to be creating a new schema or wish to drop an existing one, you obviously just need to click next at this point to create a new schema.

The RCU next needs to know where your database is so you'll need the following details of your database instance. Below, for reference, is the information for my installation.

Hostname: irm.oracle.demo

Port: 1521 (This is the default TCP port for the Oracle Database)

Service Name: irm.oracle.demo. Note this is not the SID, but the service name.

Username: sys

Password: ********

And then select next.

Because the RCU contains schemas for many of the Oracle Technologies, you now need to select to just deploy the Oracle IRM schema. Open the section under "Enterprise Content Management" and tick the "Oracle Information Rights Management" component. Note that you also get the chance to select a prefix which defaults to "DEV" (for development). I usually change this to something that reflects my own install. PROD for a production system, INT for internal only etc.

The next step asks for the passwords for the schema users. We are only creating one schema here so you just enter one password. Some brave souls store this password in an Excel spreadsheet which is then secure against the IRM server you're about to install in this guide.

Nearing the end of the schema creation is the mapping of the tablespaces to the schema. Note I had setup a table space already that was encrypted using TDE and at this point I was able to select that tablespace by clicking in the "Default Tablespace" column.

The next dialog confirms your actions and clicking on next causes it to create the schema and default data. After this you are presented with the completion summary.

WebLogic Server installation

The database is now ready and the next step is to install the application server. Oracle IRM 11g is a JEE application and currently only supported in Oracle WebLogic Server. So the next step is get WebLogic Server installed, which is pretty easy. Depending on the version you download, you either run the binary or for a 64 bit platform (like mine) run the following command.

java -d64 -jar wls1033_generic.jar

And in the resulting dialog hit next to start walking through the install.

Next choose a directory into which you will install WebLogic Server. I like to change from the default and install into /oracle/. Then all my software goes into this one folder, all owned by the "oracle" user.

The next dialog asks for your Oracle support information to ensure you are kept up to date. If you have an Oracle support account, enter your details but for most evaluation systems I leave these fields blank.

Again, for evaluation or development systems, I usually stick with the "Typical" install type which you are next asked for.

Next you are asked for the JDK which will be used for the server. When installing from the generic jar on a 64bit platform like in this guide, no JDK is bundled with the installer. But as you can see in the image on the right, that it does a good job of detecting the one you've got installed.

Defaults for the install directories are usually taken, no changes here, just click next.

And finally we are ready to install, hit next, sit back and relax. Typically this takes about 10 minutes.

After the install, do not run the quick start, we need to deploy the IRM install itself from which we will create a new WebLogic domain. For now just hit done and lets move to the final step of the installation process.

Installing Oracle IRM

The last piece of the puzzle to getting your environment ready is to deploy the IRM files themselves. Unzip the Oracle Enterprise Content Management 11g zip file and it will create a Disk1 directory. Switch to this folder and in the console run ./runInstaller. This will launch the installer which will also ask for the location of the JDK. Look at the image on the right for the detail.

You should now see the first stage of the IRM installation. The dialog warns you need to have a WebLogic server installed and have created the schema's, but you've just done all that above (I hope) so we are ready to go.

The installer now checks that you have all the required libraries installed and other system parameters are correct. Because nearly all of my development and evaluation installations have the database server on the same system, the installer passes these checks without issue... Next...

Now chose where to install the IRM files, you must install into the same Middleware Home as the WebLogic Server installation you just performed. Usually the installer already defaults to this location anyway. I also tend to change the Oracle Home Directory to Oracle_IRM so it's clear this is just an IRM install.

The summary page tells you about space needed to deploy the files. Unfortunately the IRM install comes with all of the other Oracle ECM software, you can't just select the IRM files, everything gets deployed to disk and uses 1.6GB of space! Not fun, but Oracle has to package up similar technologies otherwise we would have a very large number of installers to QA and manage, again, not fun. Hit Install, time for another drink, maybe a piece of cake or a donut... on a half decent system this part of the install took under 10 minutes.

Finally the installation of your IRM server is complete, click on finish and the next phase is to create the WebLogic domain and start configuring your server.

 Now move onto the next article in this guide... configuring your IRM server ready to seal your first document.

Post a Comment:
  • HTML Syntax: NOT allowed

Oracle IRM protects and tracks your sensitive information no matter where it goes. It combines business friendly encryption with role based usage rights and auditing.

11g quick guide

« September 2015


text:
Monday Aug 03, 2015

Oracle is Sponsoring LinuxCon North America

LinuxCon is the leading annual technical conference in North America that brings together a unique blend of core developers, administrators, users, community managers and industry experts. This event is designed to provide a much needed collaboration and education space for the Linux community.

This year Oracle will be one of the key sponsors and we have a keynote session that features Wim Coekaerts as speaker.

LinuxCon will be showcasing multiple products including Oracle Linux, Oracle OpenStack for Oracle Linux, Oracle VM and MySQL in the following sessions:

Visit the Oracle booth in the showcase area to connect with our speakers and technical experts.

Visit LinuxCon NA website to get more information.

Co-located event: OpenStack Day Seattle 2015:

There's also co-located event OpenStack Day Seattle 2015 where Oracle OpenStack expert Wiekus Beukes will present Enterprise Ready OpenStack on Thursday, Aug 19 at 4-4:45.

Wednesday Oct 15, 2014

Oracle Virtualization at VMworld Barcelona

Here is a pic from our booth at VMworld Barcelona. Join Oracle at booth #301 to talk to product experts and learn about the latest on Oracle VM, Oracle OpenStack for Oracle Linux, Oracle VM VirtualBox, and Oracle Secure Global Desktop!

Thursday Sep 18, 2014

Hello Oracle OpenWorld – 10 days to go

Here is a blog post on the virtualization presence at Oracle OpenWorld by Oracle's Doan Nguyen:

After you have planned your evenings to see the Five Great Bands, join us in the day for a great line up of informative and thought provoking sessions. Learn useful hands-on practical concepts to take away and apply when you get back.

GEN8471– Oracle Virtualization Strategy and Roadmap
Virtualization is interesting but do you know how virtualization is deployed, developed and driven revenue for Oracle? Get the insight on how Oracle has ruggedized virtualization for the enterprise and how you can benefit from the experience. While at it, hear Wim talk about the strategy and roadmap.

CON8472 – What's New with Oracle VM Server for x86 and SPARC: A Technical Deep Dive
Look under the hood and see what’s new with Oracle VM for both x86 and SPARC. Join long time product experts John Falkenthal and Honglin Su and you’ll be surprised at what you might have missed.

CON8356 – Oracle's Next Generation Software Defined Networking (SDN) Platform for Public and Private Clouds
Andrew Thomas, Julie Wong and Sam Bendinelli have been very busy. Join this terrifically brilliant trio as they give you an exclusive peek into Oracle’s next generation SDN work they have been brewing.

Do plan to checkout Ronen Kofman’s sessions on OpenStack. A must see. The Hands-on lab is at capacity but you can still join Ronen in his sessions.

Now to get hands-on, there’s no better way than to just do it. Think Database-as-a-service is for the savvy? May be not. Join us in this Hands-On lab, lead by seasoned field experts with deep experience in deploying large enterprise systems and databases.
HOL9122: Build a Private DBaaS Cloud with Oracle VM and Oracle Enterprise Manager 12c
Too complicated you say? Too much work? Not really. Using Oracle VM VirtualBox, we’ve pre-built the environment. Join us for the test drive and build your own Database-as-a-service:

Tuesday Sep 16, 2014

Get OpenStack Savvy at OpenStack Silicon Valley

OpenStack Silicon Valley is sold out, but if you are one of the lucky few attending today, please stop by and visit the Oracle OpenStack team. Chat with Ronen Kofman, director of product development and get the scoop on what he and the team has been up to.

Monday Mar 04, 2013

HIMSS 2013, Day 1

We just wrapped up day one of HIMSS13 in New Orleans. HIMSS is always a really important event for us because so many healthcare organizations leverage Oracle technologies. And desktop virtualization lends itself perfectly to healthcare, especially with "caregiver mobility." This simply means that doctors and nurses can move from place to place and retain secure access to patient data. In our case, it also means desktop mobility between PCs, iPad and Android tablets, and in-room mounted thin clients.

We're here with some really amazing folks from the Oracle Healthcare team and the Oracle desktop virtualization team, and we're going to get some videos up for you over the next few days shot live on the show floor.

And if you're here, please stop by and say "hi" to us! As usual, the entire Oracle booth is being hosted with Oracle desktop virtualization, and we'll go into more detail on that in our next post.

Monday Dec 03, 2012

December events for Oracle VM

Where in the world is Oracle VM in December? Whether you are in the US, Asia or the UK, you can find us in December at any of the events below:

Birmingham, United Kingdom
December 1st – 5th, 2013
Check out the Oracle Virtualization Strategy and Roadmap Session on December 5

Las Vegas, Nevada, USA
December 3rd – 6th, 2013
Visit the Oracle Booth to learn about Oracle VM and Optimized Data Center Solutions.

Sheraton Macau, Macau, China
December 11-13, 2013
Oracle VM & NetApp Storage Connect integrated solutions to simplify virtualized infrastructure management

Tuesday Nov 13, 2012

DOAG 2012 and Educause 2012

Oracle understands the value of desktop virtualization and how customers have really embraced it as a top tier method to deliver access to applications and data. Just as supporting operating systems other than Windows in the enterprise desktop space started to become necessary perhaps 5-7 years ago, supporting desktop virtualization with VDI, application virtualization, thin clients, and tablet access is becoming necessary today in 2012. Any application strategy needs to have a secure mobile component, and a solution that gives you a holistic strategy across both mobile and fixed-asset (i.e., desktop PCs) devices is crucial to success.

This means it's probably useful to learn about desktop virtualization, even if it's not in your typical area of responsibility. A good way to do that is at one of the many trade shows where we exhibit. Here are two examples:

DOAG 2012 Conference + Exhibition

The DOAG Conference is fast approaching, starting November 20th in Nuernberg, Germany. If you've been reading this blog for a while, you might remember that we attended last year as well.

This conference is fantastic for us because we get to speak directly to users of Oracle products. In many cases, those DBAs, IT managers, and other infrastructure folks are looking for ways to deal with the burgeoning BYOD model, as well as ways of streamlining their standard desktop and access technologies. We have a couple of sessions where you can learn a great deal about how Oracle can help with these points.

Session Schedule (look under "Infrastruktur & Hardware")

The two sessions focused on desktop virtualization are:
  • Oracle VDI Best Practice unter Linux (Oracle VDI Best Practice Under Linux)
  • Virtual Desktop Infrastructure Implementierungen und Praxiserfahrungen (Virtual Desktop Infrastructures Implementations and Best Practices)
We will also have experts on hand at the booth to answer your questions on using desktop virtualization. If you're at the show, please stop by and say hello to our team there!

Educause 2012

Another good example is Educause. We've gone the last few years to show off a slough of education oriented applications and capabilities in the Oracle product portfolio. And every year, we display those applications through Oracle desktop virtualization. This means the demonstration can easily be setup ahead of time and replicated out to however many "demo pods" that we have available. There's no need for our product teams to setup individual laptops for demos -- we can display a standardized Windows desktop virtual machine with their apps all ready to go on a whole bunch of devices like your standard trade show laptop, our Sun Ray Clients, and iPad.

Educause 2012 just wrapped, so we're sorry we missed you this year. But there is always next year! Until then, here are a few pictures from this year's show:

You can also watch this video to see how Catholic Education Australia uses Oracle Secure Global Desktop to help cope with the ever changing ways that people access their applications.

Monday Oct 15, 2012

Oracle OpenWorld 2012, Live From The Show Floor Videos

At shows like Oracle OpenWorld, we like to catch up with the session speakers and other experts with short video clips that we post on our YouTube channel. For Oracle OpenWorld 2012, we put together this handy playlist of server and desktop virtualization related videos:

We were also able to catch up with a few Oracle Linux partners at the Oracle Linux Pavillion. You can find those videos here:

And if you'd like to look at the slides for any of our virtualization presentations or any other Oracle OpenWorld session, have a look at the Oracle OpenWorld 2012 content catalog. There's a lot of great information there!

Monday Oct 08, 2012

Oracle OpenWorld Live 2012 Videos

The Oracle virtualization team is back from a very successful Oracle OpenWorld! Hopefully you were able to come to the show and talk with our virtualization experts at the demo booths or in our sessions. But if you didn't, you can get a summary of what we talked about from a number of short videos. In this post, we're going to highlight the Oracle OpenWorld Live videos, and in a future post we'll cover the videos we shot ourselves (once we get them all posted!).

If you missed it, Oracle OpenWorld Live carried keynotes and interviews with all kinds of folks during the show. They also archived these segments so you can watch them at your leisure. I've gone through the videos and selected some that highlight virtualization:

If we missed you this year, we hope to see you at OpenWorld 2013!

Wednesday Aug 01, 2012

Videos from BriForum Chicago 2012

We had a really wonderful show at BriForum Chicago last week! Thanks to everyone for stopping by our booth and coming to our session. It was great to meet all of you, answer questions, and get to hear about how you're using desktop virtualization.

We recorded some videos at the show, and got into a couple of areas we haven't yet touched on. One, is a video in Spanish by Jorge Angel. Another really interesting one is with Brad Lackey where explains the architectural security differences with Oracle Virtual Desktop Infrastructure. We also have a video from our featured speaker Phillip Fiedler from Open Technologies, giving a quick summary of his session. Really interesting stuff! Here are the videos we did on the show floor:

This is the official video made by the folks of our demo. The video is hosted there, so you'll need to click the thumbnail here and hop over to their page to see it, but it's worth it!

Wednesday Jul 25, 2012

Live from the show floor at BriForum Chicago 2012

The Oracle desktop virtualization team is on the show floor here at day 2 of BriForum in Chicago. As you might have read on this blog before, BriForum is just a fantastic event. The sessions here cover current industries trends and best practices, but my favorite sessions are the "thought leaders" style talks. There are a lot of really smart people at this show and they share their latest thinking on desktop virtualization with the attendees. Think TED talks, but focused on desktop virtualization. Really great stuff.

Oracle is very proud to be a platinum sponsor of this event. We're sponsoring giveaways, lunch tomorrow, and we have a nice booth showing off our desktop virtualization portfolio. We also had a speaking session yesterday that featured Brad Lackey from Oracle and Phillip Fiedler from our partner Open Technologies. Brad and Phillip gave the crowd some real world tips for deploying VDI, with a focus on the healthcare use case.

To get a sense of what we're doing here, you can head over to the Oracle virtualization YouTube channel. We've posted a couple of videos there already, with more to come.

If you missed us at BriForum, keep an eye on this blog, Twitter, and Facebook for your next opportunity to see Oracle desktop virtualization in person. And if you're going to Oracle OpenWorld, there are a number of sessions you can attend focused on desktop virtualization.

Thursday Jul 19, 2012

BriForum 2012 Chicago is almost here!

We had a fantastic experience last May at BriForum 2012 in London. This year's BriForum show in the US is coming up next week in Chicago, and once again, we'll be there as platinum sponsors.

If you're coming to the show, here is how you can connect with us:

  • We'll be demoing our desktop virtualization portfolio at booth 19
  • We have a session Tuesday, July 24 at 10:05am with our partner Open Technologies called "Desktop Virtualization: Lessons from the Real World".
  • We'll have several Oracle desktop virtualization experts on-hand for informal discussions.

 If you're not coming to Chicago, you can still follow what we're up to at the show in these ways:

  • We'll be posting here on the virtualization blog.
  • Follow us on Twitter where we'll be doing live updates.
  • We'll also be updating on Facebook.
  • We'll be recording and uploading videos from the floor on our YouTube channel.

We're excited to be part of BriForum and look forward to seeing some of you there!

Thursday Jul 12, 2012

Oracle Virtualization at Oracle OpenWorld 2012 Part 3

Mini-Series Entry 3 of 3: Server Virtualization Sessions

This is the third entry of a three part mini-series looking at Oracle server and desktop virtualization at Oracle OpenWorld 2012.

In our previous entries, we covered the Oracle Virtualization keynote session, hands on labs, and desktop virtualization sessions. Below are four key sever virtualization sessions for you to enjoy at this year's Oracle OpenWorld.

Session ID: CON6814
Ready to get more value from your server virtualization investment? In this practical session, experts from Verizon and Oracle explain how to get the real benefits of IT flexibility, agility, and efficiency by using server virtualization while saving time and money and avoiding hassles. Discover tips and tricks for using Oracle VM 3, Oracle Linux, and Oracle Enterprise Manager 12c to rapidly deploy enterprise applications in hours or days instead of weeks. Learn about innovations for automating all deployment functions, and hear about best practices for configuring and managing networks and storage. The session will help you save time and money, reduce data center errors, and help you realize the full potential of server virtualization.

Session ID: CON8487
The latest generation of Oracle Real Application Clusters (Oracle RAC) and database technology provides an agile database deployment infrastructure optimized for running on bare metal hardware. The same architecture can be used on Oracle VM to further benefit from template-based deployments or virtualization-based environments in general. Attend this session to understand the key considerations for transitioning to or running Oracle RAC in an Oracle VM-based environment. The session includes a live demo showing how the new deploy cluster tool streamlines deployment of Oracle RAC.

Session ID: CON8727
Many IT organizations need different OS and hardware to address stringent service levels and meet competitive pressures. Oracle VM enterprise-class server virtualization offers a high-performance architecture and the broadest workload support. It provides server virtualization for Oracle's x86 and SPARC architectures plus tight integration support for OSs such as Linux, Oracle Solaris, and Windows. Oracle VM Server virtualization gives users the best combination of price, performance, certification, and advanced features to make the entire software/hardware stack for enterprise applications easier to deploy, manage, and support. This session covers the latest Oracle VM technology updates and transforming your data center to the next level of efficiency while reducing operating costs.

Session ID: CON8734
Virtualization has changed how IT delivers information and business services. As IT organizations migrate from traditional computing data centers to cloud-based infrastructures, traditional virtualization offers only part of what the migration requires. Stacks of enterprise applications driving crucial business services and management orchestrations-hardware to software to cloud-based services-are fundamental ingredients of a successful migration. This session covers Oracle's virtualization and management offering: Oracle VM, its integration with Oracle Linux, and cloud control/lifecycle management with Oracle Enterprise Manager. See how the Oracle VM/Oracle Virtual Assembly Builder 11g integration can help you simplify and standardize enterprise application deployment to the cloud.

Session ID: CON8735
You've consolidated your server farms-mail servers-but what about enterprise application workloads, database, business apps? These are crucial and are running on Oracle Solaris, Linux, and Windows. How hard is it to manage this application sprawl? This session shows the benefit of Oracle VM for virtualizing Oracle and how Oracle VM Templates have foundational tools for speeding enterprise application workload virtualization for rapid deployment of applications such as Oracle Database and Oracle's Siebel Customer Relationship Management. You'll learn about recipes for deploying applications with more than 90 predefined Oracle VM Templates for your Oracle applications, in minutes, not days or hours. You'll also hear how to manage virtualized application sprawl with Oracle Enterprise Manager.

Session ID: CON7393
Cloud computing can be implemented in several ways: public, private, hybrid, or community. To add to the deployment choices, cloud computing services can be offered as infrastructure as a service (IaaS), platform as a service (PaaS), or software as a service (SaaS), with or without full self-service capabilities. This session lays down the foundations for business cases for going to the cloud, using key common drivers and common use cases.

  • Outsourcing
  • Core competency
  • Portfolio rationalization
  • Infrastructure consolidation

As we get closer to the event, we'll do another post on the virtualization product demos you'l be able to see at the show. And remember, there are over 1,700 more Oracle OpenWorld sessions in the content catalog.

We look forward to seeing you at Oracle OpenWorld 2012 on September 30th!

- The Oracle Virtualization marketing team

Wednesday Jul 11, 2012

Oracle Virtualization at Oracle OpenWorld 2012 Part 2

Mini-Series Entry 2 of 3: Desktop Virtualization Sessions

This is the second entry of a three part mini-series looking at Oracle server and desktop virtualization at Oracle OpenWorld 2012.

In our previous entry, we covered the Oracle Virtualization keynote session as well as hands on lab sessions you won't want to miss. Below are four key desktop virtualization sessions you can also add to your calendar.

Session ID: CON8799
The U.S. Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) in Rome, New York, and partner Northrop Grumman provide the foundation of the Secure Access Baseline for the Enterprise (SABER) accredited desktop solution. At SABER’s core are Oracle desktop virtualization products. In this session, representatives from AFRL and Northrop Grumman join an Oracle speaker to discuss the unique security challenges of deploying desktops with extremely strict security requirements and how all organizations can benefit from following the SABER example when deploying their desktop architectures.

Session ID: CON8801
Over the last several years, use of personal devices in the enterprise has dramatically increased, with IT organizations rapidly learning to adapt to this changing landscape of application and desktop access. This session describes how Oracle desktop virtualization can help IT embrace employees’ use of their own devices for work-related activities while making applications, data, and desktops more secure and manageable.

Session ID: CON8802
Using public and private clouds has taken hold as a common way to deploy services to the enterprise. A burgeoning addition to the cloud model is cloud access to desktop applications. With Oracle’s comprehensive portfolio of hardware and software, engineered to work together, a complete desktop cloud solution can be designed for accessing Oracle Applications and other enterprise applications. In this session, learn how a complete cloud-based desktop application access solution can be deployed with Oracle technologies.

Session ID: CON8733
Oracle VM VirtualBox provides high performance, support for numerous virtual appliances available in the Open Virtualization Format (OVF), multiplatform application development and testing, 2-D/3-D graphics acceleration, and cutting-edge features—including the ability to teleport a running virtual machine between hosts. Oracle VM VirtualBox is a useful tool for developers who need to port code across different operating environments. Because Oracle VM VirtualBox enables hosting of multiple guest operating systems on a single machine, a developer can easily switch operating systems in no time, simply by changing between different desktop windows. In this session, you will understand why it will be your favorite tool as well.

You can read more about these and about 1,700 more Oracle OpenWorld sessions in the content catalog.

Tomorrow, we'll look at server virtualization. See you then!

- The Oracle Virtualization marketing team

Tuesday Jul 10, 2012

Oracle Virtualization at Oracle OpenWorld 2012

Mini-Series Entry 1 of 3: Hands-On Virtualization

This is the first entry of a three part mini-series aimed at highlighting server and desktop virtualization at this year’s Oracle OpenWorld.

Oracle OpenWorld 2012 is fast approaching! If you are as excited as we are about the fascinating new Oracle virtualization content featured at Oracle OpenWorld 2012, you won’t want to miss this blog mini-series. We will be highlighting sessions that cover advances and innovations in our products, our product strategy and roadmap, and hands on labs for step-by-step instructions from our field and product experts.

In the blog mini-series you will learn about:

  • The Oracle Virtualization general keynote session
  • Hands-on labs
  • Key Oracle server and desktop virtualization sessions

In this entry, we will cover the Oracle Virtualization keynote session and the hands-on labs you won't want to miss.

Session ID: GEN8725

Oracle offers the industry’s most complete and integrated virtualization portfolio enabling organizations to realize benefits beyond simple consolidation as they transform their data centers into flexible cloud-based infrastructures. Join Oracle executives and experts to learn about Oracle’s desktop-to-data-center virtualization solutions, such as the OS, with built-in management integration at all layers that can help you virtualize and manage the complete computing environment, from physical servers to virtual servers and applications. This “don’t-miss” session offers details of the latest product updates and strategy; product roadmaps; integration with enterprise applications; and real-world examples of how Oracle server, desktop, and storage virtualization is benefiting customers.

Here are our top picks for Hands-On Labs for Oracle OpenWorld 2012:

Session ID: HOL9907
This hands-on lab demonstrates the performance (using an industry-standard load tester) and roaming capabilities of Oracle Virtual Desktop Infrastructure with Oracle’s Sun Ray Clients, Apple iPad and other clients.

Session ID: HOL9558
This hands-on lab takes you through the planning and deployment of an infrastructure as a service (IaaS) environment with Oracle VM as the foundation. It covers a range of topics, from planning storage capacity, LUN creation, network bandwidth planning, and best practices to designing and streamlining the environment for ease of management. Learn from deeply experienced field engineers and product experts.

Session ID: HOL9559
This hands-on lab is for application architects or system administrators who will need to deploy and manage Oracle Applications. You’ll learn how Oracle VM Templates can turn you into a power user who can virtualize and deploy complex Oracle Applications in minutes. Longtime field-experienced engineers and product experts will show you, step by step, how to download and import templates and deploy the applications.

Session ID: HOL9870
The purpose of this hands-on lab is to demonstrate the functionality and usage of Oracle’s enterprise cloud infrastructure for x86 with Oracle VM 3.x. It covers:

  • Creation of VMs
  • Migration of VMs
  • Quick and easy deployment of Oracle applications with Oracle VM Templates
  • Usage of the Storage Connect plug-in for the Sun ZFS Storage Appliance
You can find these and other great sessions on the Oracle OpenWorld 2012 Content Catalog. Start checking now to better plan and organize your week at the conference. Then you’ll be ready to sign up for all of your sessions in mid-July when the scheduling tool goes live.

While the hands-on labs allow you to directly interact with Oracle virtualization products, the conference sessions allow you to hear from a wide variety of industry experts on how they're using they technology in real world deployments, solving specific challenges, and more. In tomorrow's entry, we'll start talking about the many conference sessions related to Oracle server and desktop virtualization you can attend during the show. See you then!

- The Oracle Virtualization marketing team

Get the latest scoop on products, strategy, events, news, and more, from Oracle's virtualization experts

« September 2015


text:
National Sleep Awareness Week 2010

Apparently, my body didn’t get that particular memo.  It also didn’t get the memo that the average person falls asleep in seven minutes.  For once in my life, I’m above average, but I don’t want to be!  Going to sleep after midnight and waking up at 5.00 AM is not a good combination.

Some things that happened during this seriously interminable day… Nature’s Path Peanut Choco Granola Bars:

It was pretty similar to the Peanut Buddy flavor!  Huge chunks of peanuts, but the taste wasn’t too nutty.  I couldn’t really detect the chocolate, though, beyond its texture.

Romaine, roasted Brussels sprouts, tofu steak, roasted kabocha.  Clearly, I set off my smoke alarm.  What’s life without some of that?  But unlike my last subpar kabocha, this one was perfectly “dry” and flaky, just the way I like it.  I didn’t like that I had to peel it, but I get a little freaked out sometimes about eating the skin of non-organic vegetables, especially if they’re grown in Mexico!

Moophrey burger (with steamed broccoli, carrots and cauliflower, and bulgur with garlic salt) … the flavor of this is fine, but the texture is just so strange!  It’s kind of … stringy.  I just can’t get used to it.  But I probably will buy it again at some point since I don’t really have much of a variety to choose from…

Verbal vomit!  Not too much of it, since I feel like I’m regurgitating (no pun intended!) the same words over and over again.  But I am practically making myself dizzy from spinning in these circles.  I saw my nutritionist tonight.  Most of the time, when I leave after my appointment I’m sure I’ll be 100% compliant, but that almost never ends up happening.  I don’t know where all that will goes, but I am apparently incapable of doing anything that is supposedly for my own good.  Because I am, evidently, nothing but a big fat wuss.  Since we’re such forward-thinking people, my nutritionist informed me that I need to be at X weight before she goes away for the summer, “And you’re not even close.”  I have no idea where I am according to her, but her definition of “close” tends to vary depending upon whether we’re going up or down, so I don’t know what to make of this.  It didn’t help that it came after a total “fat day.”  They seem to happen far too often.

As an aside, I make no secret of how desperately my mental health depends on my moving out.  Yeah, most people in my community live at home until they get married.  But most people actually get married.  There is a greater chance of finding ice cubes in hell than there is the possibility that any half-sane person will ever want to marry me, so that would effectively have me living with my parents forever.  Which is not going to happen, since I refuse to allow it.  My sister told me today that if I move out, it will “kill” my mom.  Since when do I need to sacrifice my sanity to cure her empty nest syndrome?!

Just a couple of bits of “business” …

First, is anyone else having weird problems uploading pictures to WordPress?  Sometimes when I first upload it, all I see is a red X, but if I click to insert it into the post, the picture shows up.  Strange.

Second, I really want to try Kashi’s Heart to Heart Warm Cinnamon Oat cereal.  I’ve had no success in locating a box with a kosher symbol on it.  It would be this one, near the net weight at the bottom of the box:

Anyway, I’ve e-mailed Kashi about this several times.  I understand that it takes time for the new boxes to hit store shelves, but for heaven’s sake, this has been going on for months now!  If you happen to have a box of this cereal lying around, would you mind checking whether it has the symbol on it?  And if it does — where on earth did you find it?!

Have a lovely Tuesday; here’s to hoping it doesn’t crawl by like Monday did.

“To know all is not to forgive all.  It is to despise everybody.”
~Quentin Crisp
(I thought I’d end on a nice cheerful note!)

18 responses to “National Sleep Awareness Week 2010

  1. i’ll look for the cereal for you!

    and dude, i htink i’m going to be stuck at home FOR THE REST OF MY LIFE because no one will marry me! AUGH!

    today was an epic “tear your hair out” kinda day.

  2. SERIOUSLY? The average person falls asleep in 7 minutes?!
    mines more like 45 minutes.. yikes.. :|

  3. aw cmon, you will make some man relaly happy some day, i know it! and he will be more than half sane ;). weird that it’s sleep awareness week, in my clinical psych class we’re doing a unit on sleep!

  4. im asleep the moment i hit the pillow. i run n gun for 18-19 hrs, sleep for 5. Repeat. When i hit pillow, im out.
    And girl i moved out when i was 16..needless to say the folks and i arent and weren’t real “close”. nuff said. :)

  5. Come on, be nice to yourself! I am sure you will find a good partner! From what I read here, you sound like a wonder, conscientious person.

    When my therapist was telling me stuff I needed to work on (a bit different, I know) it all seemed so clear when I was there, but I had a hard time remembering it when I left. I am very self-destructive as well. Each day is a fight!

  6. we’re v. relaxed kosher here! Lots of kosher cereals, no kosher symbols!

  7. Haha! I feel like no one will ever want to marry me either. Actually someone would have to like me in the first place before marrying me. I know I’m still young, but I can’t wait to move out of my mom’s house. A lot of people my age have moved out and I still feel like such a kid. :(

  8. I feel the same way as you… because of all the social isolation I experience as a result of my ED, I feel like I’m never going to get “out there” to meet someone. But don’t write yourself off like that! Life can change in an instant; we never know what the future will bring. Just have faith :)

  9. great post…as far as moving out – yeah – you have to do for YOU and your life hun…don’t live for others’ happiness ;)…and I picked up those NP bars the other day – but in the MAple flavor yum ;)

  10. 7 minutes?!! Gah, it takes me at least an hour, usually more. Funnily enough I slept so well at the start of recovery, I think my body needed the rest, and when I started turning into my usual insomniac self I got worried that I was doing something wrong. But no, I just don’t need all that much sleep apparently. I still function and my mood isn’t affected so it must be OK.

    I hear you on the moving out thing. I hope you manage to escape soon ;) it’s mostly money that’s holding me back right now, but I have plans…

  11. L, you will make a wonderful spouse for someone some day. We haven’t even met in person, but I know you have a lovely personality that someone else will find incredibly charming, too. Not that you need me to tell you this, but it can’t hurt.

  12. Blimey, I’m lucky if I get to sleep in 7 hours! But I don’t really need it anyway, so it’s not so bad unless the insomnia continues for months on end. It must be awful to really require a decent amount of sleep but be unable to get any shut-eye :(

    Mmm, that granola bar looks lovely. And you have me craving Kabocha again now. If only I could find one to end my green-skinned squash hiatus.

    I can understand the desire to move out ~ I feel the same way but am constrained not by marital woes but by the inadequacies of my ridiculous excuse for a brain: wouldn’t inflict myself on anyone else but couldn’t cope alone. I don’t think there’s no hope for you at all! You just don’t realise all of the positive qualities which you have and, trite though it is, no-one can love you until you love yourself because your lack of confidence is the only thing holding you back. You’re beautiful (yes, you ARE!), smart and have the most wicked sense of humour of anyone I have ever ‘met’. You’d make a brilliant wife, if that’s what you want.

  13. it takes me AGES to fall asleep as well! ugh. so frustrating! its probably stress though. drink some tea before bed and read a nice book :] maybe that will help?

    you are AMAZING girlie and someone is definitely going to marry you :] maybe moving out will help with that situation too! and i agree, i sometimes feel guilty about leaving my mom alone when i go off to college but its not our responsibility to make our PARENTS feel better you know?

    keep fighting darling <3 totally with you with that nutritionist thing too

  14. WordPress is doing the same thing to me…grrr. It takes me a lot of time to upload these pics, and there’s nothing more frustrating when the the pic doesn’t even shows up!

    That salad looks yummy though! I need to try tofu in a salad. Do you eat it raw or grilled?

    Thanks for the pb bar review…I wonder how I’ll feel about a chocolate pb bar that doesn’t taste chocolate.

  15. Pingback: Spring Break That Wasn’t « Blue Eyed Heart

  16. Pingback: Healthy Heart For Love Handle Exercises

  17. Pingback: Moanday « Blue Eyed Heart

  18. Pingback: Sleep?… « Blue Eyed Heart

Leave a Reply

Fill in your details below or click an icon to log in: Logo

You are commenting using your account. Log Out / Change )

Twitter picture

You are commenting using your Twitter account. Log Out / Change )

Facebook photo

You are commenting using your Facebook account. Log Out / Change )

Google+ photo

You are commenting using your Google+ account. Log Out / Change )

Connecting to %s


text:
Mark Richt can’t lose control of what he never had.

A calmly rational explanation of why Georgia doesn’t sign every eligible kid in the state:

“I want players that our coaches want, because that’s a relationship that’s very important,” said Richt, who said he typically sees more family loyalty to the university from rural areas in the state compared to the Atlanta area where players may have migrated from other parts of the country. “Most of the guys in Georgia (on other teams), we went after but just didn’t get them. We can only sign something like 20 (players) a year or something like that, and there are something like 150 players coming out of the state every year so we can’t get all of them.”

Not that it’s going to sway a single fan who gripes about every four-star Georgia recruit’s signing with another program as evidence of epic fail in Georgia recruiting.  Math is hard for some people.

Filed under Georgia Football, Recruiting

31 responses to “Mark Richt can’t lose control of what he never had.

  1. Billdawgs

    Maybe it’s because I’m not from Atlanta but I tend to gravitate toward the recruits we sign that are from cities like Columbus, Macon, Augusta, Albany, and others from small town south Georgia.

    You definitely get a stronger sense of community, state pride, and loyalty that you never really see from the Metro area. Its refreshing.

    • Bright Idea

      UGA will always have difficulty in ATL because every negative incident in Athens is blown up by ATL media. Alabama media prays that they don’t have to criticize Tuscaloosa or The Plains. Big difference there. What are the odds of a UGA recruit ultimately getting arrested in Athens as opposed to a Bama or Auburn recruit getting arrested on or near those campuses?

  2. “Calmly rational”? Right, like THAT’S gonna resonate with our fan base.

  3. Russ

    Don’t cloud the issue with facts.

  4. AusDawg85

    Alabama signs 120, why can’t we?

  5. I’ve never wanted all the players in Georgia – that’s not the issue. The issue is, of the top 10 to 20 players in Georgia that we want, which is most of them, we should get way more than our fair share, probably the majority, being the home team.

    But I think it might be changing anyway, and we may start getting more of the Top 5, Top 10, the really elite guys that are game-changers. This year could be the start of something new in recruiting.

    • Jack Klompus

      i agree here.

    • Cosmic Dawg

      Yes, the criticism is that we are often not in contention for the state’s best athletes, not that we should sign more kids in general.

      I chalk some of that up to wanting kids who fit the culture, sometimes top prospects are not in positions of need, etc. But we could ramp it up, to be sure.

      On the flip side, we do seem to be recruiting Fla, NC, and SC pretty well. Would be great to have more homegrown, but ultimately I prefer having kids who are excited to be here and fit CMR’s standards.

  6. Bulldog Joe

    Math is hard for some people… or something like that.

    • Tim

      I find that there are three kinds of people in this world when it comes to math: those who get it and those who don’t.

    • IndyDawg

      Reggie Ball says 4 out of 3 people have trouble with math.

  7. But but but Auburn is ranked #2 so far with mostly GA players!

    To Ivey’s point, I would like for us to snag a few more top GA guys, most especially, please please please, more top O-linemen. Really. Can we start doing that?

  8. Rex

    Alabama’s great because they get the best. Whether a guy wants to feel like family I could care less. Herschel wanted to go to Southern Cal. Let that one sink in for a few minutes.

    • AthensHomerDawg

      Dooley thought he might make a better LB than RB. Let that one sink in.

    • PTC DAWG

      Alabama also doesn’t mind sign 5 classes every 4 years. They are fine with it. About half the teams in the SEC are fine with it. Thankfully UGA is not of them.

      Now sure, Saban can coach, but could Bama be doing what they do without the ability to heavily cull their recruiting mistakes?

    • Red Dawg

      I can’t remember exactly what it was called but didn’t Lewis Grizzard write an article “Thank God for Mrs. Walker” or something?

  9. AthensHomerDawg

    How many Mr. South Carolina Football have we taken? I’m sure North Carolina would like to keep a few wide receivers and running backs in state as well. And Tennessee keeps all it’s best talent in state. Where was Stafford and Murray from?
    just sayin’

  10. Cousin Eddie

    I want the top 15 from GA and then the other 5 to 10 from across the country as long as they are the top 1 or 2 at their position. Dang it I want my Cake and the best cake from around the country no matter where its being cooked.

    Sometimes you are going to get someone better from out of state and sometimes you will NEVER get the instate kid for one reason or another not that it doesn’t aggravate me but that is the way it is.

  11. Jack Klompus

    By the way Senator, this is a College Football Blog…Calmly Rational has no business here.

  12. cube

    I hate to be Debbie Downer but I have to call attention this…

    “We can only sign something like 20 (players) a year or something like that”

    I hope nobody is honestly mystified as to how we end up with only 65-75 scholarship players on the roster at times.

  13. stoopnagle

    It’d be nice to be on the radar of the #1 recruit or pos. player in the country when he’s from Georgia at least once in a while. (Crow not withstanding)

  14. Mayor

    Sure, there are only about 120 D-IA football players coming out of Georgia each year. And, yes, UGA gets its share of them. But on the whole the very best of those 120 players leave the state. Bama, Auburn, UT and now South Carolina get rich at Georgia’s expense every year. Southern Cal? Big 10 teams? Notre Dame? They all raid this state. Do we get some good players from out of state? Absolutely. All you have to do is look at Murray, AJ Green and Gurley to know that. But if you look closely you will also see the top guys in Georgia leaving the state every year, too. Bama kicks Georgia’s ass in recruiting in Georgia annually. Auburn’s right there behind them, too. Why? It’s not just as simple as they out recruit us. It’s the whole B-M thing: Lack of institutional support (IPF anyone?), a disciplinary system that can only be described as insane, scheduling games to maximize $$ rather than to maximize chances of winning (I’m not talking cupcakes-I’m talking season openers on other teams’ home field, etc.). When things go bad everybody wants to fire the HC. Maybe it’s not the HC’s fault, at least not only his fault. Maybe it’s the President, the AD and that whole group of hangers-on at B-M. Let’s get rid of THEM and let’s see what good can happen. Rant over.

  15. Atticus

    I agree with this, I simply can’t understand why we haven’t been able to recruit the OL at a higher level???