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SciFi Weekend: Doctor Who, Hell Bent; Batman v. Superman; The Expanse; Transparent; Outlander; Supergirl; Fargo; You’re The Worst

Doctor Who Hell Bent

The season finale of Doctor Who, Hell Bent, concluded the three part story which began with the death of Clara Oswald in Face the Raven. It turned out that the ending of last week’s episode, Heaven Sent, contained some misdirection about where the finale was going. While the Doctor did return to Gallifrey, this was not at all what the episode was really about.

The Doctor returned to Gallifrey as a war hero, and used this return to save Clara. While the leaders on Gallifrey were concerned with the identity of the Hybrid, it turned out that the Doctor did not really know the answer. His priority was in saving Clara.

Face the Raven appeared to end with the Doctor allowing Clara to die as there was way to prevent her death. Now he was willing to break all the rules and risk the fracturing of time to save her. Clara was pulled out of time just before the moment of her death,  in between heartbeats and lacking  a pulse, not really living. She was informed of her condition by a general on Gallifrey: “Although you are conscious and aware, in fact you died billions of years ago. We have extracted you at the end of your time stream. Once you have finished here, you will be returned to your final moments. Your death is an established, historical event.”

The Doctor was willing to break the rules of time, as he had done on occasions before, and to defy the leadership on Gallifrey. He killed a general to demonstrate how far he would go to save Clara.  They escaped through the Matrix, one of several references for things established in old episodes, and escaped in an old school TARDIS. As he had started out, the Doctor escaped Gallifrey in a stolen TARDIS, this time with a functioning Chameleon Circuit. They escaped the Time Lords by going to the last hours of the universe, where they met up with Ashildr, who the Doctor had made immortal earlier this season in The Girl Who Died.

While the identity of the Hybrid was never definitively revealed, Ashildr had what came closest to an answer. She theorized, “‘What if the hybrid was to people.‘A passionate and powerful Time Lord and a young woman so very similar to him – companions willing to push each other to extremes?” The Hybrid might have been the Doctor and Clara working together.  Whether this is the actual answer, it was still a meaningful description of who the Doctor is.

The problem now is Clara was only alive in a form with some very timey-whimey stuff which threatens the space-time continuum. Plus at any moment she could be returned to the moment of her death. The Doctor believed that Clara had to have her memory wiped to return to earth and lead a normal life, where she could not be found from her memories of being with the Doctor. (I’m not sure what would have happened the first time she had any type of medical exam and was found to be lacking a pulse). It would be a sort of repeat of how things ended with Donna Noble, although the need to wipe Donna’s memory was more straight forward on Journey’s End.

Clara was watching in on the Doctor’s conversation with Ashildr and was not willing to give up the best years of her life, or her memory of them. Ultimately matters were left to chance, and it turned out that it was the Doctor, not Clara, whose memories of the other were wiped. This might make Clara safer as nobody could use the Doctor to get to her. Perhaps it also made sense for the Doctor’s memories to be erased if they were not going to remain together. As we saw on The Snowmen, it took him on hundred years to get over the loss of Amy and Rory, and after over four billion years he has not gotten over what appeared to be the death of Clara.

On the other hand, this is not the first time that the Doctor has lost a companion. Is  Clara that much more important to the Doctor than Rose Taylor, Donna Noble, or Amy Pond? Plus it is never clear why the Doctor and Clara could not continue to travel together.

Doctor Who Hell Bent 2

Throughout the episode, scenes were interspersed with the Doctor at an diner speaking to a waitress played by Jenna Coleman. By the end, we finally realized the meaning of these scenes, with Clara knowing who the Doctor was, but the Doctor not remembering her. The Doctor told Clara what he recalled of this story, even believing that he would remember Clara if he saw her, but he did not. He did see an image of her when he got his TARDIS back due to Rigsy’s memorial graffiti, plus The Doctor got a new sonic screwdriver.

Despite the matters left unanswered on this episode, it was all worthwhile for the ending in which Clara, who had already become like a Time Lord, ended up in her own TARDIS with her own companion, Ashildr. Again, it is not clear why Clara can travel with Ashildr, but not with the Doctor. While we will probably not see Clara again on the show, I bet this will launch a lot of fan fiction.

Doctor Who Extra videos for Hell Bent can be seen here.

Doctor Who returns on Christmas Day with The Husbands of Rive Song. The synopsis has been released:

It’s Christmas Day on a remote human colony and the Doctor is hiding from Christmas carols and comedy antlers. But when a crashed spaceship calls upon the Doctor for help, he finds himself recruited into River Song’s squad and hurled into a fast and frantic chase across the galaxy. King Hydroflax (Greg Davies) is furious, and his giant robot bodyguard is out of control and coming for them all! Will Nardole (Matt Lucas) survive? And when will River Song work out who the Doctor is?

The Batman v. Superman trailer was shown on Gotham last week. As I know some superhero fans are not watching Gotham due to the lack of superheroes, I’m posting it above for those who might have missed it.

The Expanse officially states on December 14, but the first episode can be seen online here.

Amazon will be releasing season two of Transparent on December 11, but the first episode was made available early.

The second season of Mozart in the Jungle will be released by Amazon on December 30.

Outlander returns for a second season this spring. Teaser above.

Supergirl has been picked up CBS for a full season. The show still seems to be trying to figure out where it is going without being too much a clone of The Flash, and sometimes struggles to be in Superman’s shadow while contractually being unable to show him as an adult (with a younger version of him to be seen this season). Now that it has a several episodes under its belt, it is starting to show more promise.

Meanwhile on CBS’s sister network, The CW Network, the annual cross over episodes of The Flash and Arrow has aired. It served largely to set up Legend’s of Tomorrow, but was a fun two hours with the casts of both current shows getting together again. During the week there was also another round of rumors of a cross over episode between Supergirl and The Flash, with this once again denied (but not ruled out for the future).

Fargo season three will take place a couple of years after the first season, and could include some of the same characters.

FXX has renewed You’re The Worst for a second season. While an argument could be made that the show had stronger dramatic material from Aya Cash this season, I do hope that she gets over her depression and the third season returns to the dynamic between Gretchen and Jimmy of the first season.

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  1. 1
    David Duff says:

    'Fargo' is superb, quite bonkers, of course, but then in America anything is possible!

  2. 2
    Ron Chusid says:

    Fargo sure got more bonkers in Monday’s episode (although I wonder if they have shown it yet in your part of the world). While a lot can happen in America, Fargo goes beyond what is possible here.

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AIP Publishing opens new doors

On May 19, 2014, AIP Publishing opened its new offices at 1305 Walt Whitman Road, Suite 300, in Melville, NY, not far from its former location. The new office has a modern design and open floor plan, matching the culture that AIP Publishing is striving to achieve. The new work space combines a truly open environment with a diverse set of spaces to enable focused work, collaborative meetings, as well as more informal and ad hoc events. “When designing this space as an ‘office for the future,’ we wanted to leverage our vision to be a great place to work, providing the benefits of accessibility to co-workers, to facilitate more interactions and enable our staff to contribute in new ways. Together, we can better advance AIP Publishing’s offerings and better serve the research community,” says CEO John Haynes. The move was orchestrated by Wendy Marriott, head of IT Operations. The new company looks forward to many productive and innovative years in its new location.


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Films with: Powell, Michael

Black narcissus
Majesty gives way to mystery, and marks a harrowing descent into madness, when a young British nun is ordered to establish a convent in the remote Himalayan mountains. Sister Clodagh (Kerr) is a serious young novitiate assigned to lead a crucial mission, with the reluctant recommendation of her Mother Superior. Together with a disparate group of nuns, Sister Clodagh will face strange peoples and customs, a harsh and unforgiving climate and a wrenching struggle with her own past that will prove the ultimate test of her devotion and faith.
DVD 1598
Set in England during the early days of World War II, a Danish sea captain and his passenger are kidnapped by a cell of Nazi spies operating from a basement in London's Soho. The plot progresses as a chase that puts the characters in one peculiar set of surroundings after another. Most of the story takes place under blackout conditions, in which the great city becomes a mysterious dark labyrinth.
DVD 5305
Edge of the world
Martin Scorsese presents this exquisite drama directed by Michael Powell. On a remote island off the coast of Scotland times are changing and as two young people plan to leave the island conflict and tragedy erupt.
DVD 1292
Films of Michael Powell
A matter of life and death: British flyer Peter Carter survives a jump from his burning plane without parachute and wakes up in a nether world between Earth and the next life. He is informed that he should have died and must go to Heaven, where he is put on trial for his life. He falls in love with June, an American radio operator. Age of consent: Based on the life of controversial Australian artist Norman Lindsay. Lindsay is a jaded painter who heads Down Under looking for a way to revitalize his creative soul. His self-imposed exile is interrupted by Cora, an uninhibited young woman on her own journey of self-discovery.
DVD 6716
I know where I'm going!
A headstrong young woman travels to the Scottish Hebrides to marry a rich industrialist. On the way, she meets a young naval officer and realizes that some things are more important than money.
DVD 1586
Life and death of Colonel Blimp
Based on cartoonist David Low's parody of the old-fashioned British professional soldier, set in his ways and unable to adapt to the brutality of modern war. This story follows the career of Clive Candy, at first an idealistic, young Boer War hero, then a brigadier general, serving honorably in World War I. Finally, by World War II, he has become a bald, overweight, querulous old man, angry that his age and military experience are held in contempt, and bewildered that his lifelong code of gentlemanly conduct has become an anachronism in a world threatened by a monster like Hitler.
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Peeping Tom
A study of a voyeuristic maniac who kills women while filming them with his 16mm camera.
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Red shoes
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Thief of Bagdad an Arabian fantasy /
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Helping Customers with ebooks – one example

February 20, 2011
Posted in: Board Member Posts, Buzz

I find it interesting to see how individual libraries deal with the growing number of ebooks, ebook readers, digital content … and patrons that bring in a wide variety of ebook readers, expecting help (and expecting to download ebooks).

Here’s how Rapid City Public Library has dealt with it – by creating a website explaining what ebooks are, and what they provide their patrons.

Their ebook guide covers:

  • how to download ebooks (I love their “Five Steps to Start eReading” list)
  • individual ebook readers (with videos showing how to download books from their library on some of the pages)
  • an FAQ with more explanation if needed
  • an ebooks blog that highlights new titles, etc.

Nice job, Rapid City Public Library! So – how does your library help customers with ebooks? Let us know!

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Wednesday, May 30, 2007

May 30, 2007 - Witchita

Witchita for Wichita was not chosen for any particular reason other than the fact that it amused us this morning. We probably should have held out for Halloween, but it just wasn't meant to be. This is the rarest sort of typo - a letter added that shouldn't be there. This can be found in the C section of the library typos pages, meaning that it was found between 8 and 15 times in Ohiolink. We assume that this typo applies to both the city in Kansas and Wichita Falls, TX. In any case, if this typo is in your catalog, you're not in Kansas anymore.

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A case of gastric metastasis from renal cell cancer during the sequential targeted therapyReportar como inadecuado

A case of gastric metastasis from renal cell cancer during the sequential targeted therapy - Descarga este documento en PDF. Documentación en PDF para descargar gratis. Disponible también para leer online.

International Cancer Conference Journal

pp 1–4

First Online: 04 April 2017Received: 27 December 2016Accepted: 12 March 2017DOI: 10.1007-s13691-017-0286-x

Cite this article as: Uehara, S., Yuasa, T., Fujisaki, J. et al. Int Canc Conf J 2017. doi:10.1007-s13691-017-0286-x

Historically, gastric metastasis from renal cell cancer RCC has been extremely rare. As RCC is now being treated with various agents of targeted therapy, however, the rate of unusual visceral metastases might increase as outcomes improve and follow-up periods grow longer. Here we present a valuable case of gastric metastasis from RCC detected in a routine CT scan during sequential targeted therapy. A 73-year-old man was referred to our hospital, presenting with left renal cell cancer with multiple lung metastases at stage cT1bN0M1. He received first-line targeted therapy consisting of sunitinib and subsequently underwent left radical nephrectomy. He then underwent sequential therapy consisting of interferon-alpha, sunitinib, everolimus, and axitinib for multiple lung metastases. Five years after nephrectomy, a follow-up computed tomography scan revealed a 2.2 × 1.6 cm mass in the stomach without any symptoms. Gastrointestinal endoscopy disclosed a polypoid lesion at the gastric fundus. Endoscopic submucosal resection was performed. Microscopic diagnosis revealed gastric metastasis from RCC. As various new therapeutic agents increase survival periods for metastatic RCC patients in this era of targeted therapy, clinicians must watch for metastasis in the stomach, though this was formerly a rare event.

KeywordsRenal cell carcinoma Gastric metastasis Targeted therapy  Download fulltext PDF

Autor: Sho Uehara - Takeshi Yuasa - Junko Fujisaki - Yasuhisa Fujii - Shinya Yamamoto - Hitoshi Masuda - Iwao Fukui - Junji Yones

Fuente: https://link.springer.com/

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Does Sleep Play a Role in Memory Consolidation A Comparative TestReportar como inadecuado

Does Sleep Play a Role in Memory Consolidation A Comparative Test - Descarga este documento en PDF. Documentación en PDF para descargar gratis. Disponible también para leer online.

Sleep is a pervasive characteristic of mammalian species, yet its purpose remains obscure. It is often proposed that ‘sleep is for the brain’, a view that is supported by experimental studies showing that sleep improves cognitive processes such as memory consolidation. Some comparative studies have also reported that mammalian sleep durations are higher among more encephalized species. However, no study has assessed the relationship between sleep and the brain structures that are implicated in specific cognitive processes across species. The hippocampus, neocortex and amygdala are important for memory consolidation and learning and are also in a highly actived state during sleep. We therefore investigated the evolutionary relationship between mammalian sleep and the size of these brain structures using phylogenetic comparative methods. We found that evolutionary increases in the size of the amygdala are associated with corresponding increases in NREM sleep durations. These results are consistent with the hypothesis that NREM sleep is functionally linked with specializations of the amygdala, including perhaps memory processing.

Autor: Isabella Capellini , Patrick McNamara, Brian T. Preston, Charles L. Nunn, Robert A. Barton

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Saturday, 22 January 2011

Nobody's Perfect

No, nobody’s perfect, and no quiz is either, although 15 to 1 came close. Rather closer than 12 Yard’s ‘Perfection’, which I caught for the first time on the BBC last week. Let’s be fair, though – very few quizzes could approach that standard. So let’s judge it on its own merits, shall we ?

Right , its confession time. I haven’t been able to catch a whole show yet – see, I told you I was busy – so any of my comments must be viewed in this light. But I’m fairly confident that I’ve got the point of how it works. You might have more than one game in one show. At the start of a game there are four contestants, one of whom will be randomly selected by the computer. That one will play for the money, and the other three – now christened the Usual Suspects – will play to frustrate them contestant and deny them the cash. Sort of. There are several rounds. In each round the contestant is asked a number of true or false questions. If the contestant answers them all perfectly – hence the title of the game – then they win the round. If not, then the Usual Suspects will be told, for the sake of argument – the contender has three answers correct, and one wrong. So all they have to do is supply a correct set of answers. Sometimes they do, and sometimes they don’t. If they give more correct than the contender, then they win the round.

Whoever wins the round gets to choose two categories from a selection , which will be question categories for the final round, where the money can be won. It’s in the contender’s interest obviously to select categories they think they can answer. Its in the Usual Suspects’ interests to select categories to make the contender struggle. Why ? Well, once the rounds have all been played out then the questions in the six categories get read out. If the contender has a perfect set of answers, then the money is his or hers. If not, though, they can enlist help of the Usual Suspects. Lets say that the contender is uncertain about the answers given. They can turn to the Usual Suspects. If any one of the Suspects knows for certain that there are wrong answers, they can negotiate their own fee for coming out and sorting out the answers. So if the prize – which starts at £1000, but rolls over when not won – is £3,000 lets say, a canny player might reasonably ask for half of that if they are certain of the answers.

I suppose that this part of the show is a tiny bit reminiscent of Sky’s unenjoyable Sell Me The Answer – but much less nasty. Come to think of it this sort of gimmick was originally used in The Vault , and that wasn’t a bad show. This isn’t a bad show either. Its not the best thing since sliced bread, admittedly. There aren’t enough questions for my taste – you know me, the more questions asked in a show, the more I like it. Its central to the workings of the show, but I don’t particularly care for a non stop diet of true or false questions either. But that’s just me, and by all means feel free to disagree with me. This is made for a teatime audience, most of whom probably aren’t quizzers, and bearing this in mind it does just fine. I like Nick Knowles – he’s a good, safe pair of hands whose served his time on Who Dares Wins and the less than impressive Guesstimation. The show is fairly simple – despite the way I’ve probably made it sound, and I think this will be part of its appeal. The Beeb have 3 teatime quizzes firmly established in the shape of Weakest Link, Eggheads and Pointless. Could this make it four ? It could, although I do know its been held back in the can, as it were for a little while, so your guess is as good as mine.

davidbod said...

It's not exactly been held back in the can. Almost every single episode had to reshot when it was realised that some of the Usual Suspects could see an answer screen that they shouldn't have been able to see. So that was the delay.

Londinius said...

Ah, that would explain it. Many thanks for the information David


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Wednesday, 7 July 2010

Welcome to my world!

Well here it is, the first post! I've been wanting to set up a blog for ages but couldn't decide if I should write one about cooking and recipes or crafts or living in a male dominated household. In the end I decided that a day to day blog would cover all these areas.

As well as keeping a record of what's going on in our house, I'm hoping to have a Recipe of the Week and a Craft of the Week. (Depending on the scale of the craft this might mean just an update of how it's progressing rather than a new one each week, but it's good to be ambitious!)

I'm also looking for readers to get in touch with any ideas they might have that are relevant, especially favourite recipes that I can try out and adapt to be wheat and dairy free for my 7 and 1 year olds.

So in order to launch my blog I thought it only fitting to start with a Chocolate Cake as the Recipe of the Week.

Old Fashioned Chocolate Cake
In a bowl mix:
6oz wheat free self raising flour (I've found Doves Farm to be the best)
2 0z cocoa
In a pan mix:
4oz dairy free margarine
4 oz sugar
4 desert spoons golden syrup
and heat gently until melted.
In a jug measure:
1/4 pint soya or rice or oat milk
and beat in 2 eggs.
Now add the egg/milk mix to the melted margarine mix and then add all of this to the flour mix.
Whisk with a balloon whisk until the flour is all mixed in.
Pour into two greased and base lined 7 inch sandwich tins.
Bake for around 20 mins at 180c.
Once cooled sandwich together with butter icing made by beating together:
4 oz dairy free margarine
10oz icing sugar
2 oz cocoa powder.
You can make this by using ordinary self raising flour, margarine and milk but if you do then you only need one egg and not two.

  1. Lovely looking cake!! I think I'll try this recipe today. Mmmm.. thanks.
    Dawn x

  2. I hope this is a 'start as you mean to go on'. Start with chocolate. Go on with chocolate. And on, and on... You get my drift?
    We luuuuuv chocolate.
    Good to 'meet' another blogger!
    Love, Anne x

  3. What a fantastic way to start, my auntie cannot take wheat, maybe I'll make this for her. xx

  4. What a lovely looking cake! I think Im gonna have to make it! Nice to meet you :) my name is Elizabeth! I look forward to reading more post from you in the future!

  5. I made the cake!!!!

    Very light and so delicious!! Officially my favourite chocolate cake recipe now. And I love the generous quantities of icing in the middle, mmmmm...!!

  6. Good, so glad you liked the cake. It's my favourite too!

  7. So glad to have found this blog my daughter is wheat, dairy and other things free and so nice to find real recipes that I know we'll actually make - going to give this a go in a minute - wish me luck x

I love reading everyone's comments, so thank-you for taking the time to leave them! I try and respond to them here too, so do check back later on.


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People all around us are searching for inspiration. They scout their social media feed, multiple times a day, for the right quote, the right picture, the right spark to help them. The world around us gives enough reasons every day to question if we actually “have what it takes.” Buy this. Do that. Believe this. Each and every one claiming…

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14 May 2014

T-Minus One Month

Whew! I cannot believe it is the middle of May. In one month exactly, we will be undertaking the Reyes Family Exodus and moving South of the border forever.

How am I feeling right now? Exhausted. Sad. Excited. Homesick. Frustrated. Nervous. I feel a big mixture of emotions all throughout the day. The summer months are starting here in Oregon, the weather has been beautiful, and I dream of splashing in the waterfalls and climbing through the old growth forests. But this year, that won't happen. I'm not going to climb Multnomah Falls. I'm not going to splash in the Sandy River and get sunburned.
Cecilia and I hiking in the Columbia River Gorge last summer

No, instead I'm going to be walking all over my beloved TJ. I'm going to be taking the stairs and climbing up the hills. I'm going to be shopping at sobreruedas and crossing back and forth between two countries on almost a daily basis. I'm going meet new people, learn to live a new, simpler life, and learn to live with my husband again and be a normal couple. My years of the back and forth are coming to a close. It makes me nervous.
Hiking down the "short cut" built into the hill out of tires by our old apartment in TJ last fall.
It's not the first time I've tried to start my life over. I've moved around a bit, but I always end up back at my parent's house. It's so amazing how my parents have dealt with me and put up with me for so long. They've done nothing but support me, even when they knew I was making mistakes. That's how super awesome my Mommy and Daddy are. I'm afraid to fail at life in TJ. I'm almost terrified that I'm going to be back in Oregon, having to face all of the "I told you so" and my failures. I don't want to fail in Mexico. I want to change who I am, simplify my life, and make it. I want to make something out of my life, out of my family, and not let the border beat me. I want to succeed at something.

But I am scared.

However, one of my favorite authors, Neil Gaiman said something:

2014 is about me and being brave. I can do this. I can get past the fears that have held me back from living my fullest life possible and move forward. This means an actual physical change of location. This means, an actual change of scenery, friendships, employment, and living situations. I've done this before, and I will probably do this again before my lifetime is over. If I don't fight for my family, who will? I'm terrified...but I'm doing it anyway.

  1. Good luck in your new adventure! It sounds like you are being very brave!!

    1. Thank you! I need all of the encouragement and good thoughts/prayers/vibes!

  2. I believe in you and once all your family is all together and trust in God. Everything will work in your favor.

  3. Hi!! I saw Emily's post about your move. Good luck with your move! I was there 3 years ago. I have now been in Mexico for 3 years. We have moved a lot in 3 years, trying to find the right place here. We are now in Matamoros, and I cross the border almost daily. It is trying at times. At times, you will doubt yourself and your reasons for moving, but in the end you will be glad you did. Good luck, and I am now following your Blog.

    1. Thanks for stopping by! I need all of the encouragement/examples I can get so I don't freak out! Thanks for the support!


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Monday, May 3, 2010

Adorable Antagonists - Again

It used to be that Josiah and David were my squabblers, butting heads senselessly like the two silly goats we have in our pasture. However, they are (mostly) past that stage; and recently when a guest in our home observed them and said, "They get along so well!" I could smile and nod and say honestly, "Yes, most of the time," and breathe a prayer of thanks that we all survived their tempestuous bickering stage.

But now, it's these two...
...David and Tobin, who are in the stormy phase of Learning to Get Along with Your Brothers 101. They are incredibly skillful at knowing each other's buttons - and pushing them. For example, Tobin will start to "croak" hello to Shav; and as soon as he does, David does it, too, diverting Shav's attention from Tobin to David. It drives Tobin nuts - and it happens every day. And every day, I say, "Tobin, it's OK for David to talk to Shav, too," and "David, it seems like you're just doing it when Tobin does it, and that bothers him; can you wait until a different time to talk to Shav?"

Or another example: Tobin pulls the tail of a stuffed lion in Shav's room to make the music play as I'm putting Shav in bed for a nap. David comes along and pulls it more (since he's stronger, he can pull it harder and make it stretch out longer and produce more music). Tobin bellows at this intrusion on his privilege (of pulling the tail), and David asserts forcefully that it's OK for him to pull it, too.

These days, the word "antagonize" comes up a lot in conversation. Getting a 5 year-old and a 2 year-old to not only understand the word but CHOOSE NOT TO DO IT is a formidable task.

It's a good thing I've been down this road before (with Josiah and David) and have seen the positive results that come from continually reinforcing appropriate ways of relating to each other.

It's a good thing that, because of this, I have firm hope that, in time, David and Tobin will have the maturity and self-control to lay down their own selfish desires in order to show true love to each other.

It's also a good thing that they're so stinkin' cute. ;)

1 comment:

Sally said...

Oh, oh, oh! You mean that even with their big age difference (Tobin & David) you still have these problems? Hannah knows how to make Paul squeal, and she delights to do it. We are working on these things. I am encouraged to know there is hope for improvement before they're 20 years old.

(There was ceaseless fighting and scrapping at home between siblings. There was always several in the fighting stage.)


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Sunday, May 2, 2010

You Are Worth More

~ I took this picture of my mother's gloved hand holding a robin's egg - April 26, 2010

At the beginning of this week, my mother came into our kitchen one afternoon holding a sad sight: a robin's egg, broken into pieces, but with a baby robin still inside it, its body developed enough to fill up the whole egg and its beak visible at the crack in the shell. It's not at all uncommon to find broken robin eggshells around here, and usually it's a happy discovery. We can think of the baby robin who outgrew the shell and is now cheerfully flitting around the yard hunting for worms. But to see a shell with the dead baby in it was another matter altogether. I can't remember ever seeing one quite like that; and although it was interesting to see it for scientific reasons, it did pluck at my heartstrings to think of that baby dying before it even got a chance to leave its shell.

Even more, however, the sight reminded me of these comforting verses from Matthew. God knew about the broken shell on the ground; He knew about the robin who didn't even get to fly once; and if He does that, how much more does He know - and care about - the intricate details of my life?!

Out of respect, my mother cradled the broken egg tenderly in her hand. How much more does He cradle us in His powerful but gentle hands?!

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Fun summer engagement photos

In the past few weeks I've been pleased to spend time with several very fun couples making engagement portraits in the DC area. For me this is one of the best parts of the wedding photography process, because I get to be with couples without all the time-pressure (and emotional pressure, too) of the wedding day, and we often get in to situations that would never occur when everyone is all dressed up.
This is Krupa and her fiancé, Ronak. I first met Krupa around 17 years ago when my wife and I moved in next door to her family. Best neighbors we've ever had. Sadly they've moved away now, but only by a few miles. When I learned Krupa was engaged I could scarcely believe it, because I still think of her as a kid in junior high. As a present to celebrate her engagement, we got together at Ronak's house one very hot afternoon.
These photos were actually made at the end of our time together shooting. Krupa had seen the idea of using water balloons in a magazine somewhere and had filled about five or six of them as a possible photo prop. But we realized pretty quickly that those were going to be used up in just a few seconds, and for any decent water fight we needed gallons, not ounces. The hose came out, and that's when the real fun started. Plus it helped them cool off on one of those not-so-rare 90-plus degrees days.
It was actually in December of last year when Matt's mother contacted me, wanting to give an engagement portrait session to her son and his bride-to-be, Lauren. Because he's finishing up post-graduate work, it was some months before we could all get together out at a nice winery in the Virginia countryside.

When we met up at Bluemont Vineyards west of Leesburg, conditions didn't look entirely promising. Rain was in the forecast, and I spent quite a bit of time preparing special neoprene covers for my gear so I could keep cameras and lenses dry while letting Lauren and Matt slog through the downpour. Fortunately, though, the rain held off just long enough for us to make some fun pictures, and the soft overcast light created a nice mood. The tasty bottle of Viognier didn't hurt, either.

Back in the Leesburg area for another shoot with Mary and Brian, we met fairly early in the day in order to beat the summer heat. It was a good thing, too, because it was in the 90's when we finally wrapped up and it kept on getting hotter. But we had some pleasant breezes and a very pretty morning as we trekked around Merriweather Manor, where they held their wedding celebration.
The image below was the photo they selected for the big print to show off at the wedding. Mary loved the giant tree looming over them as they strolled along. She had picked up some flowers in the meadow during our morning together, and they made a nice accent to the scene.
You may notice that all the photos above were made with longer lenses. Lately I've been shying away from my wide angle lenses for portraits and opting for the compression and separation you can get when shooting closer to the telephoto end. Most commonly I'm using my Nikon 70-200mm f/2.8 for portraits, though sometimes I bring along my 300mm f/4 if I really want to have extra weight on my shoulders. The 300 really is wonderfully crisp, though: the only downside being that I have a little less flexibility in composition as my subjects move around, so that's why the 70-200 is the lens I rely on the most for these situations.
But there are times when it works using a wider lens, particularly when you have a big sweeping vista like the one above to show off. I really loved the texture of the tall grasses, and they seemed to go on forever. The owner of the manor, Andrew, told me that people sometimes ask why he doesn't mow it down, and he tells them that he thinks it just looks too nice to put it to the blade.

And I did play with shooting very wide when Krupa and Ronak started their engagement photo session. Both of them, they told me, are just big kids at heart, and one of the things they enjoy doing is playing on the swings in the playground near his house. So I got up on just about the top step of his fancy ladder from Costco and leaned out as far as I dared while they swung up on either side of me. They had fun, but it turned out that I didn't see the sort of motion effect I was looking for, and it also happened that whenever they were close enough to me and their arcs were somewhat synched up that they ended up being on the outside edges of the frame. What I probably needed to do was to get up much higher and shoot longer, maybe renting a cherry picker. (Note to self: get a cherry picker.) In the end, the water fight pictures were so much more fun that we chose one of those for the big picture.

One final photographic note: just about all these images were made just with natural light. I did throw in a bit of fill light with a diffused small speedlight when I was shooting Mary & Brian by the red window of the barn, and used a shoot-through umbrella to fill in Lauren & Matt by the barrel on the porch at the winery, because they were under a large awning.

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Thursday, 20 June 2013

I like to be in AmericAH, okay by me in AmericAH (tra la la)

Well I’m back.
Yes, it was AMAZING.  Very quick round up:
1)      Cunard transatlantic liner – I thought I’d find it tiresome dressing for dinner since I essentially live in jeans and stress about any kind of clothes; I really enjoyed it.  We’d loaf about reading during the day or going to the Planetarium or LINE DANCING (to my eternal shame, I loved line dancing) and then dress up, go for cocktails (there was a harpist or string quartet in either of the bars we went to) and then for dinner.  Then often a big band in the evening (me singing (quietly) Chattanooga Choo choo made me very happy) and watch the ballroom dancers or a film or the theatre....  All very civilised.  And I didn’t stress about the way I looked (although I wouldn’t let P buy official photos as they were so awful of me) but really just enjoyed it.

2)     San Francisco – again I loved it.  It’s so much nicer and friendlier and prettier than Noo York.  It does clearly have a bad homeless problem but generally it’s just a lovely city.  We went to a couple of lovely places to eat (Boudin, Tony’s and Colibri especially)and one dire Chinese and a hilarious pitch black ‘secret’ prohibition themed bar where we drank ridiculously strong cocktails to 40s music (thanks Dizzy Girl!).  Our hotel was central and friendly.  We did a movie themed tour of the city and went to Alcatraz and otherwise just walked about or got trams!  Again, P stopped me singing the Trolley song – I bet Judy Garland was quaking in her grave.  And I have never seen so many Starbucks EVER.  Not an endorsement - I prefer independents but it was a really obvious feature of the city.

3)     Sonoma – we loved it.  We did a wine tour which has given me a lot to think about and went to an amazing restaurant (Girl and the Fig) that was our best meal of the holiday.  It was a really laid back, happy place and we’d like to go back.  We also went to possibly the most beautiful winery ever and an amazing deep south style diner.

4)     Lake Tahoe – Beautiful place with a lot more there than we had time to do.  We did a long boat trip to really enjoy the dramatic colours of the lake - emerald, violet and teal.  And we had an hilariously and enthusiastically themed cowboy room - even the loo roll holder was a spurred boot and the curtains were denim, held back with scarlet bandanas.  Most other things featured cowboy hats, boots (even the vase was a pair of boots) or horseshoes.  We had 'Howdy' spelt out in barbed wire above the bed!

5)     Yosemite – again, very beautiful and HOT.  We did some hiking which was very tough at 8,000-9,000 feet as you just can’t get enough oxygen into your lungs.  And my hands and wrists massively swelled up.  I wouldn’t go back just because it’s a really long drive to get anywhere but I’m glad we went.  Although to my sorrow, we never did see a bear.

6)     Big Sur – beautiful coastal scenery (think Cornwall at its best on a BIG scale) and bonkers Hearst Castle.  We had a cabin (shed) in the woods with a fire pit that sent P into frenzies of adolescent pyromania and ate at the v posh Nepenthe where we watched agog the table next to us “interact” by taking it in turns to make a short presentation, a eulogy for the girl whose birthday it was and to explain their choice of gift.  The waiter and P exchanged much eye-rolling and the waiter explained that everyone from Silicon Valley was like that.

The flight home with BA was horrendous – I’ve flown with them twice in the past 6 months and both flights have been my worst two ever.  It’s embarrassing that this is our national airline.  Other than getting that hell over, it’s very sad to be back.  We’re choosing our next holiday as a way of fending off the post-holiday blues and fancy Virginia next year – anyone been there or know it?  It has a national park, vineyards and history – sounds like a winner.

 I must say, I’m fed up with our horrid wet, cold summers (which are predicted to be the norm) and quite fancy emigrating to the US.  Not sure that’s terribly easy though.  I’d certainly love to work in the wine industry there (although not necessarily in California – I’d rather live in New England.  Where I strongly suspect there are no vineyards, sigh.).

I am sure I put on weight although I did not go mad and the portions were not as crazy as New England.  On the boat it was possible to eat well but moderately as the portions were quite small – which suited me.  And you can always have more if you want to.  I think I only had pancakes for breakfast 4 times in 3 weeks which I think was very restrained!  I did eat quite a lot more carbs than usual though – mostly bread.
So, back to a concentrated effort at dieting.  My plan is to do ideally 3 starve days a week (occasionally 2), the other week days will be low carb with small portions of healthy food and the weekends will allow for some wine and a little carbiness.  I don’t think I’ll be weighing any time soon since it seems to plunge me into an abyss of misery and despair; I will just do this and see how my clothes feel.  By which I mean I hope that they will get looser!  I have a whole wardrobe of clothes that are too small for me which I’d really like to be wearing.  And I have to lose some weight to get into my winter coat comfortably before winter starts.  Which I hear will be the weekend so is possibly a bit ambitious.
I had a largely successful starve day yesterday (first day back at work) which wasn’t as painful as I’d feared and tomorrow will be a starve day too.  Then the weekend at last which looks a bit dull – personally as well as weather-wise.  Hmm, time to check out that emigration dream!

Seren said...

Welcome home! Glad you had an amazing time, sounds wonderful. We have had a few lovely sunny days over the past few weeks (honest Injun!) and hopefully more to come. Good luck with getting back in to the dieting groove.

Lesley said...

Great to have you back and great to hear you sounding so light and bubbly.

Your trip takes me waaaay back to a holiday I had with my parents when I was about 13 or 14. We went to New York, San Francisco, LA, Grand Canyon, Las Vegas, Lake Tahoe, Yosemite, Big Sur, Sonoma/Napa Valley (not necessarily in that order) and it was brilliant. I doubt it was as luxurious as your trips sounds (think motels on the road) but it was a laugh.

Even the cruise sounds good and I don't think of myself as a cruise person - ballroom dancing - were the passengers dancing too?? It might be worth going on a cruise if we got to waltz, tango and rumba every night!!

Well done on getting back to it and well done for making sure you enjoyed it and didn't fret about your weight!!

Lesley xx

c macd said...

Hi! Was wondering when you'd be back.
The hol sounds fab and I'm glad you were true to your word and did not have your weight dictate your every waking moment and emotion on the trip.
Welcome back to diet world though....I think we're all struggling here right now!


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Lightning Phantom II

by Bryan Ball
Managing Editor, ’BentRider Online
January 4, 2015

Lightning Cycle Dynamics is best known for their much beloved and enduring P-38. However, their less-expensive model also has a very loyal following. Much to the relief of those fans, the Phantom II has returned after a brief production hiatus. It’s also hit the ground running with a host of improvements.

The frame is stronger and a bit lighter, the seat has been updated slightly and the tilting steering column is now standard. Wheels and components have also been brought up to date.

20150104 Phantom II review

The 2015 Phantom II comes with a mostly Shimano Deore 27-speed drivetrain using a Sugino crankset and Tektro V-Brakes. The new 559 rear and 406 front rims are slightly aero-shaped ARDC units with 24 spokes in the front and 28 in the rear. The Phantom II rolls on Primo Comet tires. The total package weighs a very reasonable 28.5 pounds for the large frame and retails for $1,795.

Build quality also seems to have stepped up a notch. The frame’s welds and things like the seat and idlers appear to me a bit nicer than on previous Phantoms.

Lightning delivered my test Phantom II with an optional spring loaded front idler that makes adjustment easier for dealers. It’s a bit unsightly but works well and runs quiet. It can be replaced with a single idler without any chain rub for most riders.

One advantage that the Phantom II has always had over the pricier P-38 is its adjustability. The seat angle moves between 50 and 65 degrees and the boom can telescope to fit riders between 5′7″ and 6′ 6″ or so on the Large model I reviewed. There is a smaller frame with a 16″ front wheel for shorter riders.

I’ve always found Lightnings to be very comfortable bikes and the Phantom II was no exception. The P-38 is more closed and has a sort of “love it or hate it” riding position but the Phantom II is much more accommodating. Lightning’s improved seat is also quite cushy and breathable. It’s also much easier for riders with shorter legs to get their feet flat on the ground than it was in the past, but the smaller frame size with its smaller front wheel will still be needed by some people for sure.

Lightning’s locking stem isn’t as pretty as some other folding steering risers but it does work exceeding well and allows for a wide variety of hand positions. The Phantom II now comes with trigger shifters which is a bit rare on a recumbent but I really like them. They fit the bike’s ergonomics very well.

The Phantom II’s geometry and overall design are a bit old school. The wheelbase is quite short when compared to something like a Bacchetta Giro or RANS Rocket but I really like the way it handles. The low speed handing is very direct but by no means twitchy. Once you’re used to it, very tight parking lot or bike path turns are surprisingly easy.

Although the Phantom II is quite nimble at low speeds, the high speed handing doesn’t seem to suffer. It’s “happy place” seems to be somewhere in that 15-30 mph range where the bike will reside most of the time. At those speeds, the Phantom II was almost hands-off stable.

Like most Lightning’s the Phantom II is surprisingly fast. It’s not particularly aerodynamic or light but something about that Lightning seating position seems to eek every bit of speed out of a design. It doesn’t have quite that magic “zing” of its much more expensive P-38 big brother but it’s close. The Phantom II is definitely every bit as fast any other bike in its class.

I spent most of my time riding the Phantom II on my local bike paths cruising along at 15-20 mph looking at the sites. It’s a fantastic bike for that. It’s got a very smooth ride, it’s comfortable, it’s quiet and the upright seating position gives you a good view of what’s around you.

The Phantom II can also easily accept fenders, fatter tires, a rear rack, a kickstand and almost any other accessory you want to throw at it. It’s very easy to customize this bike for fast cruising, touring, commuting or almost any other purpose you can think of. There’s even an outrigger quad kit available if you’re worried about your balance.

Of course the Phantom II isn’t perfect in every way. The graphics are getting a bit long in the tooth. The stock idler doesn’t look very refined either.

Those caveats aside, I’m very glad to see the Phantom II back. It’s comfortable, easy to live with, reasonably priced and quick enough to satisfy most riders.

Lightning Phantom II

Highs — Comfortable, Versatile, Pretty quick

Lows — May be a bit old school for some

MSRP — $1,795

Source: ’BentRider Online


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Tuesday, October 29, 2013

bww - engaged

Reese's got engaged almost a month ago.  I had such an amazing weekend.  Took pictures for a young man in our church who proposed to our pastor's oldest daughter.  It was such a sweet proposal.  They are such a sweet couple.  You may remember them from this  Prom Post and now they are engaged!

These two have been dating for 2 years and now they are engaged.  Congratulations!

I told you love was in the air around here.  After this sweet proposal, I spent the rest of the day with Reese's her BFF and her fiance' taking engagement photos.  Here are a few of those shots.

Reese's proposed to her Maid of Honor in the garden.

How sweet is this?  I just love the idea of proposing to your Maid of Honor.  We didn't do things like this whenever Santa and I got married, back in the day.  We didn't make a big deal out of the proposal like young people are doing now.  I just love it!!

This is Reese's best friend, Furby, she is going to be the maid of honor in the wedding.  How adorable is this idea?  Be sure to tune in later this week, to find out Reese's fiance's candy name and see some cool engagement session pics.

Here is your black and white shot for this week!   I have loved this shot since the first time I saw it online.  I think it is a great shot for showing off the engagement ring.

  1. Lots and lots of fun memories here. Hopefully more to come!

  2. Beautiful photos - especially your B&W one! Coming to you via B&W Wednesday.

Thanks so much for leaving a comment . . .I just love them!!


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The 3 F’s

Holy Feel, Felt, Found. Batman!

When I was young and first introduced into the customer service world, I was taught that the best way to deal with an angry or difficult customer is to simply respond with the feel, felt, found method. If you’ve never heard of this method I will explain it here.

This is how it goes: the customer calls in and has a major issue with a limo. Maybe the limo air conditioning didn’t work. The customer complains on and on about the AC not working. I respond Gee, Mrs. Jones. I’m sorry that you feel this way. I have heard of other customers who have dealt with this with other companies and they felt the same way. But what we’ve found is that usually we can always make it up to you. This De-escalates the customer.

If it doesn’t work the first time, simply repeat it a different way. After a few rinse and repeat cycles, the customer usually calms down.

It opens the door for future business. It lets the customers know that you understand how they’re feeling. It allows you to reaffirm their feelings by saying that others have felt the same way. And then it opens the door for you to suggest an alternative method of correction. You can offer up a great solution. The solution can be in your best interests and the customers best interest.

But where do we draw the line as business owners? When do the needs of the customer simply become too much for us to manage your potential negative are you?

I had an old boss that use to tell me it’s OK to fire customer.

The problem in our industry is simply that as the years go by we become very calloused to our customers needs. We start to classify our customers as whiners or winners. I got a whiner on line 2.

Unfortunately when I hear my managers on the phones with their clients, I recognize that they can often be very calloused too. This really doesn’t help our business though. I believe we need to maintain a level of integrity by maintaining and holding true to the positive results of handling the customer correctly.  You owe it to yourself and your company to give every customer the benefit of the doubt.

I believe it’s OK to bring up your biggest fear when discussing something negative with a customer. I might even say something like my biggest fear is that you go out and tell other people that I wasn’t able to make you happy. I want you to know for the record that I certainly have your best interest at heart. And… I hope that I can find a solution to your needs and find a way that you leave here happy.

However, I’m willing to take the risk that I might not be able to please you but may it go down today in your record and in mine that I tried everything I could.

Maybe this is no solution for guys on the street battling it out in business. However, these are things I’ve held true to and had great success with. I have found that if I attack a problem head-on people are usually grateful.

The 3 F’s


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Thursday, December 31, 2009

Happy New Year

As the old year fades away and we ease towards a new year, I harken back to one of my most memorable New Year's Eves. It was in the early '80s. My kids were small; my mom was babysitting because we were going to a party. Three lousy drinks in four hours did this teetotaler in! When we returned home at 12:30 a.m. I insisted my ex drive my mother home. She said she'd be fine. I talked incessantly about the dangers of being out after midnight. I pointed at my husband and then at my mom. I ordered her to get in and him to drive. She got in the car and he drove her home, three doors down.

Folks, don't drink and drive tonight, not even three doors down. Mom and I laughed about this incident for years. That is why I do not drink.

Happy New Year 2010. Blessings and publication credits to all.

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23 Things I Learned About My Career at 23

That Working Girl

As you read this, I've turned the ripe old age of 24. Not yet mid-20s, but close enough to taste it. Far from being a pro at navigating my career, but seasoned enough to know a thing or two. As I took time to sit back and reflect on the last year in my personal life and career, it became clear to me that 23 was a year of learning and growing like never before. Below are 23 things that I learned about my career and myself while I was 23 – all things that have collectively contributed to where I happily am today!

1.) Take the risk first, figure it out later. I moved across the country without a definitive plan six months ago. I found a job, apartment and friends that I love – it all fell together naturally. Don't overthink it if you can help it (I sure did, though, let's be honest).

2.) Less is more. 23 was a big year of decluttering – now, I'm used to living a more simple, streamlined life, and I love it. No need to binge shop at Forever 21 when I really don't need to.

3.) Create a savings plan and stick to it. It's never too early to start. I've always been frugal, but this was a big year of financially planning out my future, paying down student loans and more. As soon as you're out of college and making even the tiniest of salaries, save as much as you can.

4.) Every job has a honeymoon phase. You can't expect every day at work to feel just as magical as the first. Challenges pop up at the most inopportune times, yet you will overcome them.

5.) Guard your time. This is something that was very difficult for me, but necessary. Be kind to others and invest in your community, but also leave ample time for your own personal development. I spent a lot of time at 23 coaching others on their career, reviewing resumes and making connections when I should have been doing the same for myself.

6.) Don't block yourself off. In the same vein of saving time for yourself, also don't become a hermit. This was equally as difficult for me – some weeks I would have back-to-back events after work, and then next I would do nothing but go to work and transition to my bed with Netflix at home. Find a good balance.

7.) Quit your job. ...stick with me on this one. If you find yourself inconsolable while on the job and questioning your entire professional existence while struggling to keep up with emails...it might be in your best interest to move on. I do not condone quitting just when times get tough – but when you feel this way for weeks on end, it's time to reevaluate.

8.) Going out during the week is a myth. I thought my 20s would always be full of post-work happy hours with a chic martini in hand. When you're working full-time and tending to your side passion, this is just a tab ambitious.

9.) Your relationships shape who you are. After moving, I realized that I had left behind a few relationships in Atlanta that weren't the best for me. Some folks that I associated with brought out the catty, judgmental, "Mean Girls" side in me that I didn't even know existed. I realized I had no obligation or desire to invest in these relationships anymore, so I cut them loose.

10.) Be a real person in the workplace. It's possible to be professional while also remaining personable. Don't be so uptight to the point of seeming standoffish – this was a challenge!

11.) Corporate American isn't for me. Before entering the workforce, I had dreamy visions of working 14-hour days, wearing the badge of being "busy all the time," wearing super high heels and working my tail off for the corner office. I don't want that anymore. Actually, give me the farthest thing from it.

12.) Working for someone else isn't for me. I also learned this, in a huge way, at 23. Entrepreneurship is for me. And that's a scary thought. No, I'm not going to be leaving my full-time job anytime soon, but knowing that my end goal is to be my own boss is empowering and comforting.

13.) Succulents are the best plants in your 20s. Too busy to remember to water your plants? Succulents don't care.

14.) I love design. One of the best things that my new role has taught me is that I love design! I used to focus solely on the writing component of old jobs, but the combination of writing, social media and design in my new role is pure happiness.

15.) Always ask for more. I know this is scary, but always ask for more when negotiating your salary. Don't get lowballed. The worst thing that can happen is getting told "no;" the best thing that can happen is getting paid what you're worth.

16.) Don't just go for "any job." The farther you get into your career, the more important it is to be selective about what opportunities you go for.

17.) Your body changes once you start working. This is one that I hate to admit, but it's true! What do you think happens when you're primarily sitting for 8 hours a day? Gravity happens. Making time for fitness is key.

18.) Sleep is awesome. A mere two years ago I was staying up until 1 a.m. regularly, working on projects and homework. This was my norm. Now, I'm typically in bed by 10 a.m. at the latest, and I don't regret a thing.

19.) Learn new skills. Just because you'll never sit in a classroom again doesn't mean that you have to stop learning! I re-learned the entire Adobe Creative Suite at 23 and it was the best decision.

20.) Immerse yourself in your community. Sure, it was awkward going to those first few "getting to know you" events in Denver, but I feel like I'm slowly but surely getting to know my community. Bloom where you're planted.

21.) New York will always be around. I still go through periods of feeling like not moving to New York a few years ago was a big oops. NYC will always be there, waiting. Until then, I'll keep growing. Oh, and I'll keep growing my bank account because I'm really going to need it there.

22.) Don't play the comparison game. It's easy to start comparing your job to others' when you're scrolling through LinkedIn, but save yourself the trouble and realize you're in exactly the right place right now.

23.) You can start over today. This is the great thing about being 20-something – if I wanted, I fully realize that I could start my career over today. You can too.

What important lessons have you learned in your career so far? Leave your thoughts below or tweet @HeyWorkingGirl!


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Monday, February 16, 2009

Letting Go

I did not have a good weekend.

Have you ever had a moment in life that you aren't certain how it happened? You look at the start of the conversation and the end of the conversation and you can't figure out how you got from one end to the other?

That was my weekend with the DLS...
Going into the weekend, I was excited to spend it with him. No big plans, no expectations but he left this morning for a long term project in Maryland so we knew we wouldn't see each other for a while. Therefor, the weekend was supposed to be fun and relaxing. No pressure, no conversations, and no expectations.

Wow, were we waaaaaaaaaaaaaay off.

Major conversations, two ugly fights and I ended up coming home on Saturday night. He texted me last night and we're going to talk some more tonight but I hate to think this might be the last time we're together, that our fun ended so badly and that we weren't able to enjoy being together and saying goodbye gracefully.

1 comment:

littlesack said...

that really really does. Im sorry...I hope the conversation makes things better.


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Friday, November 11, 2011

{Family Photo Session: Erica, Michael & Mason}

Happy Veterans Day! It's not often the calendar strikes a date like 11.11.11. So, what
are you doing on this lucky day? Whatever it is -- bonne chance!

I love getting to work with new clients. It gives me a
shot of inspiration every single time. These guys came
to me on referral from Jenny. We had a small world
moment when we realized that I work with Michael's
mom at one of my jobs.

Anyway, I had a great time with them. Their beautiful
kiddo, Mason, was on the move. So, he gave me a run
for my money -- literally -- and I enjoyed it.

It was my first time doing family photos down at
Tempe Town Lake -- a location I definitely want to
use again. What a lovely spot to spend a Saturday
morning. The water was so peaceful and having sand
in my toes made me feel like I was actually at the
beach for a minute. Delightful.

I have so much editing to catch up with. I have three shoots in the hopper and another
one to take on Sunday. So, I'm hoping to do a lot of it this weekend. 'Tis the season! I'm
quite looking forward to it. Just me, a cup of tea, some music, and photoshop. Mmm.

Yeah right! More like I'll edit while I should be sleeping or in between working, doing
laundry, exercising, taking down Halloween decorations, playing with the dogs, and
running errands. But no complaints! Life is good, and I wouldn't have it any other way.

Kristi said...

Beautiful family! Great shots, Sam.

Trujen said...

Love the action shots!
Little man has some energy, huh?!

Family is beautiful. They all have great smiles! Don't always get that. They look happy together. :o)

So, composition wise... LOVE the shot with just dad under at bridge, maybe??? How crazy would that look if they was in color? Anyway, it's a great shot with lines all over. Nice job!

Little man is adorable! Facial expressions are so cute!

Trujen said...

Excuse me, I forgot how to type!

*under A bridge not At.
*if He was in color, not They

I'm sure you got my drift though.

Also wanted to say, mom has beautiful eyes! So big and pretty! She reminds me of someone but I just can't name who.
Her hair is similar to what I've been thinking of cutting my like. Maybe just a little shorter???


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Wednesday, May 13, 2009

"I've Got Some Advice, For You Little Buddy"

I'm loving gunmetal greys at the moment. A colour I would never touch before... who knows, red might be next! LOL. Never.

I have a special post just on OPI Earthquake! for you when the competition is all over :)

What I used:
  • Three coats of OPI Earthquake!
  • Silver rhinestones
  • OPI Rapi-dry for the glue

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Bad Credit Loans - Salvage To Your Credit Status

Any one may need a financial help anytime. Since, getting the financial helps with the adverse credit status always found to be a tougher task, you may be puzzled at that time. Now, the market is full of diverse options, every one can have resort here. Out of the several financial helps, it the bad credit loans that is helping you even with your bad credit status.

Bad credit loans are mainly devised to help those who are finding themselves tough at availing a loan facility, for their bad credit. Usually, one may have these sub prime issues for financial irregularities in the previous that can even assign with CCJs, defaults, arrears, IVAs and even to bankruptcy to them depending upon the severity of the financial mistakes.

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This loan facility has a diverse range of loan amount matching your personal circumstances and financial profile. The range of amount that is generally available here varies from £5000 to £75000 with flexible and longer repayment duration. You can here, repay the amount over a period of 25 years depending upon your convenience.

The rate of interest with this loan facility can be found somewhat higher, because of your less than perfect credit. However, it's your personal circumstances and financial profile that too can decide a particular rate for you.

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[GET] Linked (The Guardian Series Book 2) Ebook Free Download Link

Ebook Informations

Book Title:Linked (The Guardian Series Book 2)
Author:Heather Bowhay
Ebook ID:182428
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Number Of Pages:365
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File: Linked The Guardian Series Book 2.PDF
Size: 19 MB

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DMCA Report - File Removal Request

Highlight Reel is Kotaku’s regular roundup of great plays, stunts, records and other great moments around gaming world. If you record amazing feat while .... Possibly, but most people don't know they're born. Fiona Sampson, London Yes, but not if you have too much drink. Ian Osborne, Horsford, Norfolk Ray Bradbury ( .... Abusive Parents: From start of series, Weiss heavily implies her father was abusive towards her and possibly her sister while they were growing up.. The Hollywood Reporter is your source breaking news about Hollywood and entertainment, including movies, TV, reviews and industry blogs.. It looks like you’re trying find page may have been moved or not longer exists. Please try using our search function find your content. Are you looking .... The sixth UK series of The X Factor was broadcast ITV. It began airing 22 August 2009 and finished with grand finale 13 December 2009..


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Tuesday, 30 April 2013

Barry M - Gold Mine Glitter

I really fancied a new glitter nail polish, as I am still searching for that Revlon nail polish here. I have searched in several boots stores and no luck :( has anyone seen this?

My nice long nails didn't last, middle one snapped as I was trying to pull my dog away from running in the road.

  1. I've possibly seen that shade in the boots in my town, I don't think there's as many beauty junkies in Newcastle because I can tend to find things noone else can XD

    I love the Barry M shade too! X

  2. I haven't seen that shade in the Boots stores in Leeds, but The Original Factory Shop has started selling Revlon duos, so try there! I love the love the Barry M glitter you have used! :)

Please comment regarding the post. Please do not post links adverting you blog, Thank you.

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[rsyslog] Create log files based on host name

Erik Tengblad erik at tengblad.net
Mon May 26 09:15:06 CEST 2008

Hello all,

First of all, let me apologize in advance for the somewhat newbie-ish
nature of this question. I'm sure there's an easy way to solve my
problem, but I've been looking for an answer for weeks now without being
able to find one.

Here's the deal;
A friend and I am currently working as interns at a company.We've been
tasked with setting up a central logging service for one of their test
environments. Getting rsyslog to write to the log server is the easy
part. What we're having trouble with is setting it up (both on server
and client side) so that

1) All the log files are written per host. IE, we want rsyslog to write
seperate log files based on the host from which the logs are being sent.
Say we have 10 machines, each called host01 to host 10. We want all the
log information from host01 to be written to /var/log/host01/logfile.log
and so on. We've tried achieving this using templates and the :hostname,
isqueal, "host01" feature, but we just can't get it to work. Most likely
we've not used the correct syntax in the rsyslog.conf file.

2) We want all log information containing a certain string to be written
to separate log files as well. So everything containing 'zyx' should be
written to /var/log/host01/zyx.log and everything containing 'abc'
should be written to /var/log/host01/abc.log and so on.

As I said, I'm certain there are easy ways to achieve this using
rsyslog, but we're too inexperienced at using the app to know how to do
it. Hopefully someone on here can help us out a bit. :)

Thanks in advance,
Erik Tengblad

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Our Book Launch at Hobbycraft

hobbycraft little button diaries book launch 9

Our book launch at Hobbycraft on Saturday was THE most fun. We were really excited about it (and also a bit nervous that it would just be the two of us, some balloons and 1oo paper plates to play with). It was so lovely seeing our books on display and for sale, we haven’t seen them in a store before, so we were definitely a bit giddy (and probably uncool) about it.

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2014 – We’re Ready For You!

Every year, January’s arrival seems to get hidden in the foggy build-up to Christmas, and then… Kaboom! There it is, with its expectations and promises of new starts… all destined to flop at the first hurdle. This year, we’ve been a little under-prepared and even feeling a touch unmotivated, so we thought it would be a good idea to jump on the resolutions bandwagon (even if we are a few days late). Plus, we figured, if they are written down in black and white, they’ll be harder to ignore. We thought long and hard over what resolutions to make and came up with these:

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Becoming an ACA Instructor

February 26, 2016

Love being on the water and working with people? Becoming an American Canoe Association (ACA) certified instructor may be just the thing for you! For almost 40 years, the ACA has been the leader in paddlesports education. Through the certification process a trainee becomes experienced in a specific and proven set of paddlesports best practices. Instructor Certification Workshops (ICWs) are offered in a variety of craft and venues including: River Canoeing, Canoe Touring, River, Kayaking, Coastal Kayaking, Surf Kayaking, Rafting, Stand Up Paddleboarding, and Safety & Rescue. The General Requirements for ACA Instructor Certification maintain that the instructors should be at least 18 years of age, must maintain a current ACA Membership and SEIC dues, must maintain an appropriate level of First Aid and age appropriate CPR trainings. The specific criteria for all certification levels and disciplines are available online. ( The certification process is fairly straightforward and includes: Resources:
  • Participate in an Instructor Development Workshop (IDW) and pass an Instructor Certification Exam (ICE). These courses are offered either as separate courses with time between for skills and presentation development and practice, or can be offered concurrently (at the discretion of the Instructor Trainer) as an Instructor Certification Workshop (ICW).
  • Perform paddling skills consistently with demonstration quality
  • Demonstrate effective teaching skills
  • Demonstrate technical knowledge of paddlesport
  • Demonstrate appropriate safety & rescue ability
  • Demonstrate effective group / course management and positive interpersonal skills

Visit & paddle beautiful Marblehead, MA


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Pinned Post: Remembering Ilan Halimi

Thursday, 19 January 2017

Obama sheds his sheep skins

During  the last few days, this caricature has become obsolete, the "jacket" has been well and truly dropped.

"...Before leaving office, US President Barack Obama prepares to release terrorists referred to as "Nuclear weapons of the jihad", some of al -Qaeda's most notorious hate preachers and "top explosive experts", to Saudi Arabia."

Orders from Obama's "King" ?

(a picture = a thousand words)

Another  "Thousand Words" about the race-baiting fortunately-soon-to-be-EX-POTUS:

+ another 1000 words

I think that Obama's actions were  due neither  to incompetence nor do I think that he is a windbag.  I fear  it's much darker than that and I hope that we will get to know the true motivations behind Obama's actions and attitudes  rather sooner than later. Meanwhile,  as the man said: "When the consequences of incompetence are the same as the consequences of malice, it is wiser to assume malice...."

+ another thousand words

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Saturday, December 27, 2014

SSCS 2014

So there has been lots of eating and drinking and phone calls to faraway relatives and generally feeling in a holiday mood. Ah, Christmas - so nice.

And Chookyblue's ( annual SSCS swap was, as usual,  part of all the feel-good stuff. My gifts went to Anne Heidi (lappemor. in Norway. I made her some gifts with an Aussie touch and she loves them. I used Ballarat girl Emma Jean Jansen's Terra Australis fabrics for the pouch and the little drawstring bag. Patterns for both were by Aussie designers, as was the pattern for the stocking. The kangaroo buttons in the parcel are by Barb Smith in Bendigo ( and so is the button on the Christmas decoration I made, which was designed by Marg Low ( another Australian.

My swap parcel for this year was from Clare in NZ, who blogs at As well as the lovely cross-stitched ornament shown in a previous post, and a yummy marshmallow star, Clare sent this lovely wall hanging which looks right at home with all my other handmade Christmas things. The holly branch she added makes it extra-special. It's not a great photo -sorry.

Thanks so much, Anne Heidi and Clare, for being part of my Christmas and special thanks to Chooky for making it happen again.

Sunday, December 7, 2014

Fun with fabric and felt

Me again. Just after deciding yesterday that I was over all this handmade-for-Christmas malarkey, along came Amy from Nana Company with a delightful tutorial she wrote for EHow. Are these  Christmas stockings cute or what (Amy's are gorgeous but I'm pretty happy with mine.) The very very pink one is for my daughter, the blue one for her boyfriend and I'm keeping the one with the star button.
I'm off to raid my big bag of felt - I feel another stocking waiting to be made. And you're heading over to Amy's blog to admire hers and find out how she made them, aren't you? Run, don't walk. Have fun.

Thursday, December 4, 2014

Lucky me

The postie delivered a huge box of goodies today from Emma, my secret partner in the Instagram swap I mentioned in yesterday's post. I opened it straight away ( and yes, I was allowed to, so there!) and was amazed by Emma's generosity.  How could I not be - just look at what she sent.

I am looking forward to a cup of that fancy tea later and am dreaming of a fish pie made in my new Jamie Oliver pie dish. There's a needlebook and pincushion, chocolates, pins and two tissue holders.  That was all in one package, wrapped in a tea towel. The other parcel contained this wonderful cushion and I love everything about it - those happy scraps (especially the owl and typewriter key prints) the grey background the border and backing prints and the artfully concealed zip.   I'm feeling very lucky - and very thankful.  I  shared some chocolate with Mr LRH because I'm nice like that and because the poor bloke is a bit limpy after straining a calf muscle this morning while collecting food hampers for his church group to deliver tomorrow. I'm not nice enough to share that cushion though! Like Chooky's, this was a happy swap to be involved in - fun to give and receive, and that's what these swaps are all about.

Wednesday, December 3, 2014

Hello again

I'm way behind on the blogging front. Since my last post, there's been some good stuff and a little not-so-good stuff. C'est la vie.  Anyway, here I am again, enjoying life and making stuff.

I'm in two Christmas swaps this year; one on Instagram and Chooky's Secret Santa Christmas Swap, which I am doing for the 5th? year. The sewing mojo disappeared for a while - coincidentally with the appearance of a bad cold and hay fever for me and a bad cold and hay fever AND shingles for Mr LRH following a few days in Canberra - but luckily came back in plenty of time for crafting for Christmas.

Santa delivered my SSCS parcel nice and early - it was from Clare, who blogs at craftladyinkiwiland and contains this gorgeous ornament which will be displayed in my sewing room all year round. It's meticulously (and patiently) stitched on fine linen. And look at the instruction on the parcel's label  "Do not open until 25th December" - do you think she really means it? (I can almost hear Clare and Chooky in chorus : "Yes, she does!" Thank you so much, Clare, I can't wait to open the parcel - but I will, I promise! It's nice to have stitching connections across the ditch; as I've mentioned in a previous post, I was brought up in NZ after moving from Scotland with my mum and dad when I was two years old.

And I enjoyed making for my SSCS partner, who lives somewhere overseas. The parcel I sent was really light but was pretty pricy to send nevertheless; postal charges just seem to go up and up constantly. No doubt I'll be moaning to myself about this again in the next few days when I post parcels to my two brothers in NZ and cards to family and friends overseas.

The Instagram swap was also fun; I made gifts from brightly coloured fabrics (which took me out of my colour comfort zone - not  a bad thing at all) as these seemed to be my secret partner's preference.

Now I'm off to the sewing room to make a drawstring bag for brother number 3 - my brothers are all getting drawstring bags (it's okay, they don't read my blog) and a special coaster each. Choosing the fabrics has been fun - my youngest brother in Auckland enjoys painting, so his bag features paintbrushes; I'm using Melody Miller's wonderful arrow fabric from her Cotton and Steel range for  brother number 3 in Wellington (which doesn't mean he likes archery; I just loved the fabric and I hope he does too) and my brother in Townsville enjoys fishing, so his bag is patterned with - guess what?

But before I go, here's a little stitching-related extra. I live in Ballarat and today is the 160th anniversary of the Eureka Stockade Rebellion. The battle lasted 15 minutes, many of the rebels and several soldiers and police were killed and while the battle didn't go the miners' way, it's regarded as the foundation of Australia's democracy. Representatives of several stitching groups plus community members including little old me painstakingly handstitched a replica of the original flag with its stars of the Southern Cross. It was a very proud moment when I saw  'my' flag flying from a rustic flagpole early this morning at a ceremony at the site of the battle. It was a wonderful thing to be involved in.


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Chevalière d'Eon

A 17th century French person who lived variously as a man and as a woman at different times. D’Eon was, by some, believed to be properly assigned as female, and so returning to “proper gender” after passing as a man. Post-mortem examination revealed d’Eon to be physiologically male.

LHMP entry

Friedli provides an extensive examination of “passing women” -- defined as women (using current terminology, it might be better to say “persons assigned female at birth”, but Friedli uses “women” and I will follow that here) who live, work, and/or marry as men for some period during their lives. This is specifically distinguished from theatrical cross-dressing or overt cross-dressing as a sexual signal. While the phenomenon is far from confined to the 18th century, there seems to have been a fascination with it in England, beginning in the late 17th century.

(by Rose Fox)

This chapter opens with an overview of the Chevalière d'Eon: MAAB, legally declared female by Louis XVI, wore men's clothes. Fascinating person. Transvestism was called "eonism" for a couple hundred years thanks to the Chevalière. "For several years, d'Eon's gender was the subject of numerous bets and legal proceedings." "D'Eon's story teaches us that as long as we live and breathe, the culturally mediated body is an unreliable agent of truth."

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Grocery Shopping Bump and Grind

The rules of etiquette state that the amount of personal space in between strangers is 4+ feet. We all know that this rule goes out the window during times when it can’t be avoided, like today when I needed to go shopping.  My neighbourhood grocery store is relatively small for the size of the community it serves. The isles are so narrow that they only have those small, two basket carts in order to allow people to shop. It’s also totally expensive but that is neither here nor there. It is also ridiculously busy. I have yet to find a time that I can shop comfortably and leisurely without feeling like I have to rush to get the hell out of there. Today I went in for a quick few items so I was in the express line, along with 9 million other people. Generally when you are standing in line you try to allow a little room in front and hopefully in back for people to move and manoeuvre their carts and baskets. Today it was like the game Rush Hour but much less fun.  Apparently the guy behind me didn’t get the memo on personal space. He was so close that his breath was blowing the hair by ears making me cringe. Then the bum bumping began. His basket kept hitting me in the ass. Not, once or twice but ongoing in a kind of rhythm. All I kept thinking was “thank god it is not his penis”.


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Our Unity in Christ
In Support of the Anglican Covenant
An Apologetic Series

By Paul Avis

The future of the Anglican Communion is in jeopardy. The Windsor Report proposed an Anglican Covenant, centering on mutual commitment, to secure a unified future for the Communion. The Anglican Covenant is the only credible proposal that I am aware of to help hold this family of churches together. The alternative to the Covenant is to allow the present sharp tensions to be worked out in the formal separation of some churches of the Communion from others — and that means schism, and the fracture and possible dissolution of the Anglican Communion.

The Covenant is not perfect and it is not completely clear to me how the “consequences” aspect of it will be worked out, if it comes to that. But I don’t think that is the most important thing about the Covenant. The key, for me, is that by subscribing to the Covenant, Anglican churches will signal in a serious way their intention to remain together. They will signal this to themselves, to all the other Anglican churches throughout the world, and to other Christian world communions, who are watching anxiously and do not want to see the Anglican Communion finally fail as a worldwide fellowship of churches. Such a failure would indicate a serious weakening of Christianity and its witness on the world stage. It would also bring grief and heartbreak to millions of Anglican Christians around the globe.

But is the Anglican Covenant asking too much of member churches? Does it fatally compromise the hard-won autonomy of the “provinces”? I think not. “Autonomy” cannot be the first thing that we have to say about ourselves as Anglican churches. I think the attributes of the Church of Christ in the Creed come much higher up: unity, holiness, catholicity and apostolicity.

The very first thing we want to say about our church is that it belongs to the one, holy, catholic and apostolic Church of Jesus Christ. But if we belong, with others, to something much bigger than ourselves, then we belong together and not in autonomous isolation. So interdependence must be a key denominator of Anglican ecclesiology and polity. The Covenant seeks to flesh out in practical terms what interdependence might mean.

For churches that exist in a relationship of interdependence, it seems not too much to ask of us that we consider the common good of the Church as a whole and of the Anglican Communion as a part of that whole. This takes us to the heart of what is meant by catholicity. “Catholic” is from the Greek kat’ holon, “according to the whole.” To be catholic is to be deeply conscious of being part of a wider whole and to act accordingly. The virtues of forbearance, patience, restraint, willingness to consult and to accept a degree of accountability to others come into play here. “Bear one another’s burdens and so fulfill the law of Christ” (Gal. 6:2).

Is the Anglican Communion that important? Is it worth saving? Is the Communion worth fighting for? My answer to that question is an unequivocal Yes, and there is a profound theological reason for saying that. Communion (koinonia in the Greek New Testament) is not something that is man-made. It is not a human artifact and is not at our disposal.

Communion — whether between individual Christians in the Body of Christ, or between particular churches within the universal Church — is something given in the realm of grace. It is intimately connected to the sacraments. In baptism we are brought into communion with the Triune God and one another; in the Eucharist — Holy Communion — we are sustained and strengthened in that communion. Communion is God’s greatest gift to us in this life and it will be completed and fulfilled in the next.

Any expression of communion is to be treated with great respect and care. It is an imperative of Christian love to seek communion with our fellow Christians. We are called to seek, maintain and extend communion. To do that we are inspired by the Holy Spirit, who is sometimes conceived as the bond of communion between the Father and the Son. Ultimately, then, the future of the Anglican Communion is not a political matter, but a spiritual issue. I believe we should consider the Covenant in that light.

The Rev. Dr. Paul Avis is the general secretary of the Council for Christian Unity and canon theologian of Exeter Cathedral. He is the editor of the journal Ecclesiology and the author of several books on Anglicanism, including The Identity of Anglicanism: Essentials of Anglican Ecclesiology (T&T Clark, 2008).

The Living Church launched Our Unity in Christ, a series of essays supporting the proposed Anglican Covenant, in February 2011. An introduction and complete index to the series are available here.

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Why You Should Fight the Money Taboo

Are you willing to talk to others about money questions or difficulties you have? Do you find yourself ashamed by your financial situation? It is my belief that money is the one great taboo in our society. And I believe that this taboo is a cause of many financial problems.

This afternoon I am going to be meeting with many people to discuss financial issues they have and provide whatever advice I can in a very unusual situation. I will only be meeting with each person or couple for a few minutes and a part of the expectation of me is to get beyond that taboo to discover financial issues. My advice is being offered at no cost to these individuals and it is a great opportunity for them to begin setting a course to improve their financial well-being.

Unfortunately, much of the time I have with each individual will be spent trying to get them to open up about any financial issues they may have. And I feel certain that I am often unable to reach the people with the greatest difficulties because of the shame they feel about their situations.

So I sit here wondering this morning how different might many of our financial situations be if we were comfortable speaking about and seeking help with our finances. How much more full might our lives be if we stopped secretly worrying about our money and instead got help and dealt with our money issues? How much more time would we have to pursue fun and joy versus thinking about our finances?

I plan to explore money taboo more in future posts. Now I have to prepare to break through that taboo in order to help people.

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Wednesday, 2 April 2008

(April) showers of new work!

Here is a Photoshop sketch I made using the WACOM after I did some similar drawings in my sketchbook, to try and make some sort of vague model sheet and come across a bit professional.

This shows that roughly six heads are equal to his whole height, although I'm fairly sure that I won't stick to closely to that purely because of how I draw, but we'll see!

So, rather than to obviously continue this with animating Swimmerman I looked through my storyboards for something I fancied trying as I'm still kinda testing the WACOM and getting used to it again after being away skiing for a week.

Snake? Snake...?! SNAAAAAAAAAAKKKKKKKKEEEEEE?!??!!???!!!!!!*

*let's see how geeky some people are then... where's that from?