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About CodyCross

Words Of Wonders CodyCross is a well-known, recently released game developed by Fanatee. It has many crosswords divided into different worlds and groups. In each world, more than 20 groups of several puzzles in each. Here are some of the worlds: Library, Fauna and Flora, Amusement Park, London, Department Store.

© 2018-2020. Answers, all group, walkthrough CodyCross.
When using materials of our website the active link to the site is required!
This site is not related to the CodyCross app. All intellectual property, trademarks and copyrighted materials are the property of their respective developers.


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The Chainvey Tubular Drag Conveyor for Coffee

Chainvey_CoffeeRendThe MPE Chain-Vey® for Coffee

CHICAGO, IL — Modern Process Equipment Corporation (MPE) features its Chain-Vey tubular drag conveyor exclusively designed for the superior transport of coffee products. From whole bean roasted coffee, to ground and green coffee products, the MPE Chain-Vey offers the most gentle and energy efficient transportation for all phases of your production process. Its flexible design and compact footprint is sure to fit virtually any facility configuration. With a dust-tight enclosed design, you can be certain your coffee is protected from the surrounding environment. The MPE Chain-Vey also features clean-in-place capabilities with automated wash cycles for sanitary conveying needs. Better coffee requires a better conveying solution. Better coffee requires the MPE Chain-Vey.
For more information, please visit www.chainvey.com or contact MPE directly at solution@mpechicago.com.

About MPE
Modern Process Equipment Corp. (MPE) is the world’s leading manufacturer of precision particle reduction equipment. MPE has been supplying its customers with superior particle size reduction solutions for over fifty years, earning the reputation as the place to go to improve product yields and reduce the generation of unwanted fines. MPE aspires to design and manufacture the most modern, innovative and highest quality equipment with the most responsive, practical and timely service possible. For more information about MPE’s complete line of equipment, contact Modern Process Equipment, Inc. 3125 South Kolin Avenue, Chicago, IL 60623; call 773-254-3929; visit www.mpechicago.com.

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new patients at Cohn Health Institute

Have you been to several health care professionals and still not found the answers your looking for? Let Cohn Health Institute assist you with finding the solutions you deserve. The knowledge, compassion, and expertise found in our offices will give you back your lost hope…it’s our promise!

The Steps

1. To begin your holistic health journey today, call our office at (714) 754-8008 and one of our supportive staff members will assist you with scheduling your initial appointment.

2. Prior to your first appointment please download, print, and complete the appropriate form from the below list and bring with you to your initial appointment. If you do not have access to a printer, please arrive at your first appointment 30 minutes early and our staff will assist you with the process.

If you are having a medical emergency, call 911 or emergency medical help.

New Patient Information

Arbitration Agreement and Chiropractor Informed Consent to Treat

NTAF Health Questionnaire

Metabolic Assessment Form (Bio Health Diagnostics Survey)

Pediatric Intake Form

Acupuncture Intake Form

3 Day Diet Log


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A kind of introduction to the game, often in the form of a separate level (mission, script). The tutorial aims to familiarize the player with the control system and the basic rules of the game.

The interactive tutorial is intended to be a more accessible and effective form of learning the rules of the game than printed or digital instructions. Usually, completing the tutorial is not mandatory. The exception is a situation where it is not a separate level, but is integrated into the beginning of the game; in this case, however, there is usually the option to turn off messages with explanations and hints.

pets in Coin Master

Everything about pets in Coin Master

Animals are your companions in Coin Master. They help players in various aspects of the game and make passing through the villages much more interesting. I will present some interesting facts about pets in Coin Master


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Community, Diversity and Inclusion

students walking at Murkland

The College of Liberal Arts is deeply committed to being an inclusive community in which diverse backgrounds, identities and perspectives are respected and celebrated in our curriculum, our scholarship and artistry, and in our everyday practices and interactions.

Messages/Announcements from Dean Dillon

faculty and students in hallway

Programs of study, courses and curricular initiatives that focus on issues of diversity and inclusion

faculty in conversation

Faculty research and artistry that explore diversity and inclusion themes and topics

pop up barbershop in the Museum of Art

Projects and events that aim to increase diversity and inclusion across the College, University and community

Spotlight on Alumni

  • inductees

    Diversity Hall of Fame, Black Pioneers

    Liberal arts alumni lead the way in social justice and equity.

    Read the story


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True Ghost Story: Haunted Painting

True Canada ghost stories – ghost report from Canada sent into our website.

Location: Canada

The following report was sent into our website:

“Hello everybody, I’m a new member and would like to share this story with you. I’m an artist. One of my first works was a large surreal scene in oils on hardboard in the pointillist technique. It was a desert scene with an ascending line of crumbling columns across the picture; a road wound around the pillars from the horizon into the foreground, small body parts, genitalia and face forms were incorporated into parts of the columns, and floating in space on one side was an outstretched hand – palm up – supporting a bare tree, the roots wound around the fingers. I used my own hand as the model and incorporated long fingernails. I wanted to represent the ghost of a truck behind one of the pillars on the winding road; ideally, it was to have been the main subject of the picture but i was dissatisfied with the result and couldn’t seem to get it just right, so finally I gave up and painted it out.

The picture was taken to the office where I worked (a transport company) and hung there for a few months, until a client saw it and took it to a gallery owner she knew; it sat in the back of the gallery for a while but was never exhibited; the owner didn’t like it. In time I retrieved it and took it home.

While it was in the gallery, my mother got cancer and died; the transport company suddenly went into liquidation after three years of successful operation and one of the owners fell ill and died. A friend wanted a picture for his office wall, so I lent it to him and within three months he was abusing alcohol and his business folded. I then lent it to other friends to put in their home and within a few weeks, their stable and happy marriage of fourteen years began to disintegrate; while the woman left her three children to go out with another man, the husband spent many hours with us trying to make sense of things. After that, my mother-in-law had the painting for a while, and went through a rapid succession of stressful jobs; at that time her home was broken into and she was robbed of a possession of great sentimental value.

My husband felt the painting wanted to be ‘at home’ so we kept it with us until we moved to Canada in 1980 and brought it with us. Within four years, I gave birth to a son. Two weeks after his birth, I woke in a panic one night, as I had a vision of his body wrapped from head to toe in bandages floating in blackness above the end of my bed; I swung my legs onto the floor to go and save my baby, but there were evil spirits under the bed which grabbed my ankles and held them so I couldn’t move. A week later he died of SIDS. Within 10 months, my husband 44 years old was taken by a massive heart attack. After his death, I took an axe to my painting and destroyed it. I do not have a photograph of it. I have not painted anything in the surreal style since then.”

Submit your true ghost story here


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The closest color to #c8b8bc in the CSS4 color palette is silver which has the hex code of #c0c0c0.

Perhaps you'd like to see the intersection between this color and Crayola® or CSS3 palettes?

  • Sketchbot (USA), 2012
  • aluminum, plastic, assorted electrical components, javascript, html, css and....
  • Gift of Google Inc..
  • s-g-1
  • This object is part of the Digital collection.
  • Chair, Air-Chair, 1999
  • gas-injection molded fiberglass-reinforced polypropylene.
  • Courtesy of Herman Miller.
  • s-e-2214
  • Table, Table First, 2007
  • gas-injection air-molded polypropylene, fiberglass, thermoset high pressure....
  • Courtesy of Herman Miller.
  • s-e-2212


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Object ID
Object Name
Object Collection
Date Created
Alternative Name
Bridal Apron
46.8325200000 cm. W x 74.4550200000 cm. L The width was taken at the bottom of the apron. Since this is a textile, the dimensions may change depending on how it is displayed., Item (Overall)
Object Entities
Marlas, Helen (is related to)
Access Points
Object Description
Blue and burgundy, wool background with detailed gold, blue, green embroidery. The top part of the apron has a light blue background and gold embroidery that has two spirals in the middle that meet to make a point. The main part of the apron has a red background and is divided into three parts. the middle part has a rectangle, while the two sides are in the shape of narrow trapezoids. The areas are separated by golden embroidery. Each area is bordered with gold, dark gold, blue, and green intersecting half circles that face toward the center of the shape that they are bordering. Inside of this border, there is another border of golden embroidery that looks like connected treble clef symbols. Below the main part of the apron, there is a thin strip with a with a blue background. It has red, green, blue, yellow, gold, and dark gold intersecting half circles on it facing upward. There is a border around the apron with gold loops, and at the top there are two bigger loops for securing the apron. The back of the apron is light brown with diagonal stripes.
Aprons are a part of the traditional dress for Greek women. The karagouna was a traditional wedding outfit of Thessaly in Central Greece, and included an embroidered red apron.
Rights and Reproduction
The content on this site is made available for research and education purposes only. The use of these materials may be restricted by law or the donor.

Any other use, such as exhibition, publication, or commercial use, is not allowed except by written permission in accordance with the NHM Image Rights and Reproduction Policy.

For questions on image rights and reproduction, please contact nhmcollections@hellenicmuseum.org
Apron, 1900s, Threads of Tradition: The Wedding, National Hellenic Museum, https://collections.nationalhellenicmuseum.org/Detail/objects/6437. Accessed 09/26/20.


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With over a hundred episodes produced from 1992 to 1998, Batman: The Animated Series is commonly regarded as not just one of the greatest cartoons ever made, but one of the best depictions of Batman in any medium in the character's 70-year history. Under producers Alan Burnett, Paul Dini, Eric Radomski and Bruce Timm and with a note-perfect voice cast led by Kevin Conroy as Batman, The Animated Series racked up classic after classic, with stories that were marked by being truly accessible and exciting for all ages. It changed super-hero media forever, and created a legacy that continues today with Timm's work on the new Green Lantern cartoon.

In short, it's absolutely phenomenal and we love it. But even with the high standard of quality set by the series, there are some episodes that stand out beyond the others as the best of the best. So today, I've gone through the entire series to bring you ComicsAlliance's picks for The Ten Best Episodes of Batman: The Animated Series!

The Forgotten
Story: Jules Dennis, Richard Mueller & Sean Catherine Derek
Director: Boyd Kirkland

Any top ten list for something as beloved as Batman: The Animated Series is going to provoke its fair share of disagreement, and I fully realize that there are people who are going to count my opinion as absolutely worthless for giving one of the episodes that's commonly regarded as the worst of the series a top slot over classics like Harley's Holiday or the award-winning Robin's Reckoning. But to be honest, there are two kinds of people in this world: Those who think Cool Hand Luke starring Batman is awesome, and those who don't.

As much as you can decry this episodes as being a shameless, blatant... well, let's just be nice and call it an homage to that film, as much as the sequence of events that follows Batman being conked on the head, getting amnesia and having to labor in a prison camp while his disguise somehow stays firmly in place, and as much as this really just boils down to a story that pits the world's greatest crimefighter against a fat guy...

...those are all things I love about it.

The Forgotten is unique. It breaks almost every rule of the series. It's not set in Gotham City, there's no arch-criminal, there's barely any actual Batman (most of the issue is spent with amnesiac Bruce Wayne), there's a complete lack of logic in the fact that nobody recognizes one of the richest men in the world or puts things together when he goes missing and Batman shows up, and it even has scenes with actual sunlight. There's a good reason why most fans of the series write it off, but it not only proves how adaptable the show's version of Batman really was, it shows a crucial side of Batman's character. The title of the episode points it out: The men who were abducted to work as slaves were forgotten by everyone -- except Batman. He's not just a billionaire who gets his kicks by putting on tights and punching out guys who want to blow up the water supply, he's a man utterly dedicated to saving those around them from the criminals who would ruin their lives.

It's heavy handed, it's illogical, it's goofy as all hell, but when Bruce Wayne remembers what he does and why he does it, and Conroy's voice shifts back into his almost snarling Batman growl to tell the other prisoners "We're getting out of here," it also brings us one of the best moments in the entire series.

Over the Edge
Story: Paul Dini
Director: Yuichiro Yano

While we're on the subject of stories that shouldn't work, we have Over the Edge. Under normal circumstances, a story that ended with "but it was all a dream!" would be automatically consigned to the dregs, but here, it works.

Part of that just comes from context. Paul Dini's script is working with a world that has already established dreams, hoaxes and imaginary stories as viable concerns, both in the larger tradition of super-hero stories and on Batman: The Animated Series specifically. The truly amazing Perchance to Dream, in which Batman battles his way out of an dream world because it's quite literally too good to be true, had not only set up the rules, but provided the perfect context for what happens in this one.

But what really makes it work is its sheer brutality. Like The Forgotten, Over the Edge lives up to its title: Batgirl's death leads Jim Gordon onto a grief-stricken path of revenge that sees him declare outright war on Batman, discovering his secret identity, destroying Wayne Manor, bringing down Nightwing and Alfred in chains. It's the worst case scenario for the good guys, and it's not the villains bringing them down, it's that they turn on each other out of vengeance.

And unlike most stories that use the device, the fact that it all happens in Barbara Gordon's dreams doesn't detract from the drama -- they add to it, and builds her character in an interesting way that before then, the show hadn't really addressed. It reinforces the danger that she's living with as a character. Not the physical danger of death or injury, but the emotional danger of the deception that comes along with hiding her identity from her father, and how it's his trust in her and in Batman that's at risk.

It's an interesting exploration of character and consequences that doesn't talk down to the audience even when it's conveyed in sequences built on violence and shock value, a tightrope that only the best stories manage to walk.

Story: Kevin Altieri, Paul Dini, Bruce Timm and Joe Lansdale
Director: Kevin Altieri

Generally speaking, it's a bad sign when Batman barely shows up in your Batman story, but Showdown is one of the most memorable episodes of the series, for a lot of reasons.

For one thing, it's got one of the best set pieces, and that's saying something. Owing to the influence of the Max Fleischer Superman cartoons and movie serials of the '40s -- which led to the beautiful aesthetic of the show's title cards -- an awful lot of Batman: The Animated Series was built around those dynamic, memorable set pieces. Even mediocre episodes like Prophecy of Doom, in which Batman fights a balding con man duping gullible rich folks out of their inherited millions (basically the opposite of The Forgotten), features that incredible scene where Batman fights a guy in a gigantic planetarium where Saturn had razor-sharp, damsel-threatening rings. Why the hell did this small-time confidence man have a planetarium deathtrap set up? Who cares, Batman punched a dude right through Uranus! That's amazing!

But I'm getting off the subject. In this episode it's steampunk airships in the wild west raining cannon fire down on locomotives, which makes for a great visual -- and despite the fact that the first frame of the opening credits had a blimp in it, it's not the sort of thing you usually saw in the dark, art deco noir setting of Gotham City:

The second thing Showdown accomplishes is that it fixes one of the few problems with one of Batman's greatest villains: Ra's al-Ghul. The first rule of good writing is that you show instead of tell, but because Batman's adventures take place in the present -- whenever that present happens to be -- we just have to take Ra's's word for it when he says he's an immortal who's been kicking around for 500 years. By this point in the series, we've seen him go into a Lazarus pit and come out a little stronger and a little more nimble, but that doesn't show that he's an immortal. He tells us and we go with it.

In this issue, even though it's related as a flashback told by Ra's, we're shown everything, and made to understand that yes, this guy has been working these schemes for longer than Batman's been alive. It both validates his claims and suddenly makes him scarier -- if he was able to do everything he does in this episode a hundred years ago, what can he do with the resources that he has today? -- and at the same time, the end of the episode also humanizes him, making him sympathetic.

That's one of the things that The Animated Series excelled at -- fleshing out the vilains just as much it fleshed out its heroes. There aren't a whole lot of recurring characters on this show that don't have layers crafted into their personalities, and the hint of pleading that David Warner gives to Ra's al-Ghul's voice when he speaks to Batman, his worst and most persistent enemy, adds an immeasurable amount to the character.

The most memorable element of this episode, though, is who acts as our protagonist in the absence of Batman: Jonah Hex.

Before The Brave and the Bold, before Justice League, before Superman: The Animated Series, there was Jonah Hex on Batman: The Animated Series, and our first hint of a larger animated DC universe beyond Gotham City. Even the Zatanna episode took place in Gotham, with Batman as the focus and a version of Zatanna that fit more easily into a supporting role -- she was just a stage magician. Here, however, we have a fully-formed protagonist on his own.

Hex is a different kind of character than Batman -- we know within the first five minutes that he's a killer and a bounty hunter -- but Lansdale's script goes out of its way to draw parallels between him and Batman. It all leads to the creation of the fully shared universe that would arise later on in the franchises that would follow after Batman's success, all while telling its own grand adventure.

Almost Got 'Im
Story: Paul Dini
Director: Eric Radomski

Almost Got 'Im is unquestionably one of the most beloved episodes of The Animated Series, to the point where I'm sure there are people who won't believe that I'm saying it's only better than 102 others.

Either way, it's expertly crafted on just about every level, right down to the way it was animated. Right from the opening sequence, in which the villains are introduced solely by close shots of their hands as they play poker, and it's a testament to how sharp and distinctive the designs were that you can identify them by such a small piece.

And then there's the big reveal at the end, where Batman's shadow emerges from Killer Croc's body as a light swings back and forth over him. There's a similar reveal at the end of a previous episode, The Cape and Cowl Conspiracy, and it's done well there, but this sequence -- credited in the DVD commentary to animator Glen Murakami -- blows it away in terms of sheer style. It's just this perfect example of the visual language of comics translating to animation in one beautifully memorable sequence.

It's also hands-down one of the smartest episodes. The premise alone is a brilliant inversion on the traditional formula, having the bad guys casually hanging out telling their stories, in which Batman is their villain. I imagine it was pretty tough to pull off, too -- it's a 22-minute cartoon that manages to tell stories with four villains, plus Catwoman and Harley Quinn, plus a surprise reveal that makes the second time you see it even better than the first.

It all comes back to the set pieces, and it's there that Dini shines, with his animated origin for Batman's giant penny that sets a tone of slapstick Silver Age fun, then transitions smoothly into the Joker gleefully electrocuting Batman and attempting to chop Catwoman into actual cat food.

It's the perfect blend of genuine, threatening danger and lighthearted fun that worked so well for the series, and it's only underscored once you get to the point where you realize that Killer Croc's rock-stupid lines and pratfalls were all just Batman in disguise, showing the bad guys how dumb he thinks they are while doing the most villainous thing of all: Luring them into a trap.

Like I said, it's a fantastic inversion of expectations, right down to Batman responding to Harley Quinn's taunts of only being able to capture her or save Catwoman -- the classic love-interest-in-distress trap -- by casually turning off the deathtrap and pasting her one.

Unlike some of the other episodes on this list, Almost Got 'Im doesn't add anything to the show's grand mythology, with the possible exception of the rarely seen moment of Batman enjoying himself. All of its pieces are already in place when it starts, from the established relationship between Poison Ivy and Two-Face to the sexual tension between Batman and Catwoman, and nothing really changes at the end. But it takes all of those pieces and puts them together so well, with stylish animation and enormously clever touches, and ends up making one of the most perfect episodes of the show.

Story: Paul Dini
Director: Kevin Altieri

To say that Harley Quinn was the breakout character of Batman: The Animated Series is underselling things quite a bit. She was hugely popular with fans, and for good reason: She's at the center of some of the show's best episodes, from the slapstick, relatively uplifting comedy of Harley's Holiday to the miserable tragedy of Mad Love. But of all the Harley-centric episodes, Harlequinade does it the best.

It doe severything you want a Harley Quinn story to do, and it does it with the absolutely perfect setup of having Harley and Batman team up in order to stop the Joker from blowing up Gotham City with an atomic bomb -- a plot that would be flat-out ridiculous in most cartoons, but works perfectly with this show's concept of the Joker.

Just from that, you've got the buddy-cop comedy that comes from contrasting Harley's giddy enthusiasm with Batman's grim, eye-rolling exasperation with her -- Conroy's subtle frustrated sighs and furious orders to behave are the perfect foil for Arleee Sorkin's delivery -- but as the episode goes on, it gets deeper. It has those same notes as Harley's Holiday, where you want her to succeed and get away from the Joker, but with that same note of heartbreak because you know she can't that shows up again in Mad Love, but combined into something better.

And, just to cap things off, it's the only episode of Batman: The Animated Series to feature a genuinely hilarious musical number, in the form of a catchy tune about domestic abuse from 1946 called "Say That We're Sweethearts Again."

Batman slamming his forehead into a table while Harley sings will never not be hilarious, and the same goes for the Joker's Snoopyesque World War I Flying Ace routine at the climax of the episode.

And again, it's that comedy that makes the sadness of Harley's relapse into loving a man that was about to blow her up with an a-bomb -- even if it's done in the form of a goofy Honeymooners reference -- have an emotional weight to it that her other appearances just don't match, no matter how hard they try to recapture the feeling of this one, or how enjoyable they manage to be in the process. It's rare for any series to do an episode where the main character steps aside to take a supporting role to let a minor character shine, and for it to be done this well is downright unheard of.

The Man Who Killed Batman
Story: Paul Dini
Director: Bruce Timm

The Man Who Killed Batman is one of those perfect high concept plots that sells itself to the reader immediately, just on the strength of the title and the image that goes with it. The very idea that Batman could die is unthinkable -- the show itself is named after him, so even the kids the series was aimed at would have a hard time buying that he actually died -- but the fact that it's some wide-eyed, lemon-shaped goon cowering underneath that title immediately makes that question irrelevant, and replaces it with "okay, well how did this guy do it?"

And the rest of the episode lives up to that title, using it as a springboard to tell a story that's almost unbelievable in how clever and sharp it is. Everything about the episode is designed to increase the reputation of both Batman and the Joker. We learn from the very beginning that the regular criminals of Gotham City have pretty much resigned themselves to Batman's presence and given up on attempts to kill him themselves and decided to take a completely different set of tactics -- Sid the Squid is brought in by his "pals" for the sole purpose of slowing down Batman while he beats the crap out of him. And when he actually does kill Batman -- or at least, when he seems to -- everything changes around him.

The best bits of the episode, though -- and this will come as a surprise to no one -- are from the Joker.

The genuine sadness that the Joker feels at Batman being killed takes a layer of his character that shows up in the comics and translates it to the small screen version with a beautiful economy, and the same goes for his rage that someone else managed to accomplish it. The scene where he quietly tells Harley to put the loot back because there's no point in committing crimes without Batman -- the only time in the series where Mark Hamill's voice drops out of the high-strung, theatricality that he ususually uses for the Joker -- is just remarkable.

In the end, it all comes back around to building Batman into a towering, mythical figure. It's not just that he explains how he survived with the blunt "I swung away before it exploded" in the casual, off-hand style that anyone else would use for "I went to the grocery store," it's how he makes his entrance. Everyone believes that he's dead, but then gunshots -- deadly to a lesser man but less than an inconvenience for him -- and then he just cold into a man's house, dossn't even break stride as he disarms him with a shuriken, and then starts throwing a crime boss through the furniture.

And it's not even for our benefit we see all this happening -- presumably, if we've been watching this show, we already know Batman is a badass. We've seen him as the hero in every episode. But here, and this is what makes this episode remarkable, seeing Batman the way the criminals see him: Unstoppable. Ruthless. Terrifying.

It's also worth noting that Dini manages to pull off a script that gives almost everyone a happy ending. Batman's alive and well in Gotham City and punching out crime boss Rupert Thorne, so he gets what he wanted, Sid the Squid goes to prison with the reputation that he always wanted, and even the Joker gets to fight Batman again, which is exactly what he wanted. And we get a phenomenal piece of television.

Joker's Favor
Story: Paul Dini
Director: Boyd Kirkland

If The Man Who Killed Batman is the perfect illustration of why Batman is so terrifying to the crooks of Gotham City, Joker's Favor is the other side of the coin: An incredible story of why the villains are so terrifying that Batman is necessary.

When the focus is on Batman, it's easy to lose sight of the tension that's being created. Again, the set pieces the show used so well come to mind: Once you've seen Batman survive a deadly roulette wheel or the Maze of the Minotaur or Sid the Squid's explosion or a Death Planetarium, day after day, week after week, it becomes routine. We start to know that there's nothing they can really throw at Batman that can stop him, and the fiction, the illusion of danger, becomes fragile.

But in this episode, the focus shifts to someon elese, someone who's the diametric opposite of Batman. Charlie isn't the exceptional billionaire crimefighter, he's just a dude who wants to get through a traffic jam. He's the everyman. He's us. And when he becomes the target, we become the target, and suddenly the Joker's scary again.

You can't hide from the Joker. He'll find you. He'll kill your family. There's nothing you can do to stop him, because you're just some dude and he's the most terrifying criminal mastermind in a city of criminal masterminds. And you never know what he's going to do, or when he's going to do it.

As much tension as there is in the Joker effortlessly cutting through the Witness Protection Program and the sinister threat that goes along with it, the best part of this entire episode is when Charlie finds out that all the Joker wants from him is to hold a door open for Harley. It plays right into the unpredictability that makes the Joker such a great villain, and acts as a false resolution that makes the next twist -- that he's leaving Charlie to be blown up along with Commissioner Gordon -- hit even harder. It's a murder set up like a joke -- setup, escalation, punchline, kicker -- that fits his character perfectly.

Joker's Favor gives us an adventure with comedy and tension that conveys two crucial ideas. First, that while Batman himself is the indomitable, unstoppable crime-fighter, the people around him are not. They're fragile, and the things that he deals with on a daily basis are unimaginably dangerous to him. It changes the stakes -- Batman doesn't "lose" by coming to harm himself, he loses by by failing to stop others from coming to harm. That's where the tension is in this episode.

The second idea spins directly out of that, subverting it for the surprise when it's not Batman who defeats the Joker, but Charlie himself. And if Charlie's us, then we beat the Joker. It might verge on pandering, but it's an incredibly satisfying and pretty inspiring ending. Plus, the Joker's melodramatic terror and cowardly running to Batman for protection is a genuinely funny visual, and an incredible contrast with his menacing actions earlier in the episode. It only reinforces the theme of the Joker's unpredictability, and does so in a phenomenally enjoyable way.

Heart of Ice
Story: Paul Dini
Director: Bruce Timm

If there's one defining strength of Batman: The Animated Series, it's the humanity that it gave to its characters. It's not just that they were well-rounded, it's that they felt like real people that viewers could identify with. Characters like Ra's al-Ghul and Poison Ivy weren't just unrepentant bad guys, they were people with legitimate complaints taken to an extreme -- much like Batman himself, but with a morality skewed to destruction while his was built on protection. And in Heart of Ice, took that idea and applied it to Mr. Freeze with an award-winning skill.

The fact that they were able to do this at all is impressive. The fact that they were able to do it with a blue man in a robot suit and a bubble head who gets defeated by chicken soup is mind-blowing. Dini and Timm provided what is unquestionably the definitive take on Mr. Freeze, making him a character whose emotionless evil is a facade that hides a brutal, sympathetic tragedy.

The fact that he leaves one of his own henchmen to his fate after his legs are frozen solid is the perfect way to characterize Mr. Freeze as a ruthless, unfeeling monster, and in a lesser show, that would've been where it stopped. But as Heart of Ice continues, it becomes clear that Freeze is anything but -- he attempts to deny himself his emotions because he can't take the pain of them. Even the way he phrases it himself is, if you'll pardon the expression, chilling:

"You beg? In my nightmares, I see my Nora behind the glass, begging to me with frozen eyes."

This isn't a man who doesn't feel. It's a man who feels too much, and that's the most humanizing element of all.

Even the fact that Batman catches a cold in this episode -- which leads to both a ridiculous pun and a gag ending that are completely forgiven both because of how fun they are and what surrounds them -- gives us a piece of vulnerability for the character that we rarely see.

Story: Alan Burnett and Randy Rogel
Director: Kevin Altieri

Heart of Ice got a lot of press (and an Emmy award for writing) and it deserved every bit of it, but in terms of crafting a villain with humanity, Two-Face is even better.

The origin of Two-Face -- done, of course, in two parts -- succeeded not just because the episodes themselves are great, but because the larger show itself had taken the time to establish Harvey Dent as a character in previous episodes. He's portrayed unambiguously as one of the good guys -- he's even the unsuspecting victim in the episode that introduces Poison Ivy -- all of which leads to the idea that he's someone Batman has to save. So when we finally get to his tragic fall and his rebirth as a villain, it not only has more emotional weight because we know Harvey Dent -- or at least, we think we do -- it's one of the few times that we see Batman fail.

Based purely on that setup, Two-Face had a lot going for it, but the way the episode itself played out took things to the next level. There's an amazing brutality in the crime story at the heart of it -- the good man being brought down by the city full of corruption, as much at war with the darkness in himself as he was with evil around him, the fact that his happy ending is taken away from him, that he can never be with Gilda even though she still loves him, every bit of it is gut-wrenching.

And that's before Batman is even involved in a story that reflects his own tragic origin and the old chestnut of the duality in himself. It tests him on a mental level that brings a level of moral ambiguity that the average super-villain plot never reaches. Batman has to turn against his own friend --a friend to both Batman and Bruce Wayne -- to protect someone he hates, because he's devoted to a higher ideal.

If Batman: The Animated Series is marked by never talking down to its audience, then this episode is the best example of how. It's a story with no happy endings: Everyone loses, and because their story continues, they all have to live with that.

Story: Dennis O'Neil
Director: Kevin Altieri

Let's get this out of the way right up front: There is no episode I could've chosen as the best that everyone who loves Batman: The Animated Series would agree with, and I'm well aware that for some fun-loving sticklers, picking a two-part episode that's nothing more than a strict adaptation of a story from the comics is doing a disservice to all the episodes that were unique to the show. Whatever episode you're thinking of that I forgot about, believe me, I considered it.

But The Demon's Quest is perfect.

There's a reason the comics this episode is based on are considered to be some of the best Batman stories ever printed, and The Demon's Quest is a perfect translation. It's not just a showcase of everything that's great about Batman, it's a showcase of everything that's great about adventure fiction, period.

There are exotic locations. Clever detective work. Thrilling action. Danger. Doomed romance. Plot twists. A villain that, more than any other opponent that Batman faces over the course of the series, is shown to be his equal on every level, from wealth to skill to sheer cunning. It's an episode that shows what Batman is up against, and builds on the idea tha the's not only devoted to fighting against crime and evil, but fighting for justice and life. And when he kisses Talia at the end, then leaves her alone to return to Gotham City, we see how devoted he is to his mission, above his own interests and happiness.

We never need to be told that Batman is dedicated, or that Ra's is ruthless, or that there's a connection between Batman and Talia -- we learn it all through the grand action of the story.

And then there's the technical aspects of it. Ra's al-Ghul and Talia are beautifully designed, and David Warner's voice, with the refined menance that it brings to the part, fit him perfectly. Ubu's design makes him simultaneously a threatening physical presence and an incredible source of comic relief, and the reveal that it's not the gigantic musclebound bodyguard that presents the threat, but the slight, older man in crisp suit is an incredible reveal that makes Ra's seem even more threatening by contrast.

The action moves from one thrilling set piece to the next, all rendered in some of the best animation on the series, buidling to the iconic confrontation between Batman and Ra's, a duel set against a backdrop of flames, as the world explodes around them.

Forget about adamantium, y'all: That is the hardest metal known to man.

The character, the humanity, the drama, the action, the music, the animation -- everything about this episode is perfect. It adds to the characters while defining them, and it takes something that was already great and brings it to the screen in a way that feels uniquely exciting -- which is exactly what the series as a whole did. It's the perfect example of how the show built on, added to and in some ways even defined a character and his world that had already existed for half a century, and does it so perfectly well.

It's everything that's great about the entire series boiled down to one single adventure, and that's what makes it the best.

(Special thanks to ToonZone's extensive gallery of title cards and screenshots)


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Laura White Pottery VT Mug 12oz
Laura White Pottery VT Mug 12oz
Laura White Pottery VT Mug 12oz
Load image into Gallery viewer, Laura White Pottery VT Mug 12oz
Load image into Gallery viewer, Laura White Pottery VT Mug 12oz
Load image into Gallery viewer, Laura White Pottery VT Mug 12oz

Laura White Pottery VT Mug 12oz

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These mugs are designed for the Vermonter at heart.  Each piece is made completely by hand so while similar, no two will ever be the same  Dishwasher, microwave and Oven Safe.

Completely handmade in Woodstock, VT by Laura White.

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The first statistician

I like to share with beginning statistics students the aphorism of C. R. Rao

Uncertain knowledge + knowledge about the extent of uncertainty in it = Useable knowledge

And it just occurred to me that the extreme limit of this dictum is that if you are infinitely uncertain, if nothing is knowable, the knowledge of that fact in itself is highly useable. The realisation of which would seem to make Socrates the first statistician:

Well, although I do not suppose that either of us knows anything really beautiful and good, I am better off than he is – for he knows nothing, and thinks that he knows. I neither know nor think that I know. In this latter particular, then, I seem to have slightly the advantage of him. (Apology, translated Benjamin Jowett)

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0 Replies Latest reply on Apr 12, 2016 8:50 AM by mlanoe

    Rouding error when computing svctm

    mlanoe Lurker

      I did some comparisons between Sigar and Linux iostat and I feel that the 'svctm' value computed by Sigar is not the same because of a rounding error.

      Here below is the result on my computer:

      Sigar iostat: svctm=0.05

      Linux iostat: svctm=1.31

      A manual computation using /proc/diskstats shows that the actual value of svctm is 1.31.

      The value is computed with these following formulas in linux_sigar.c:

      tput = ((double)ios) * HZ / interval;

      util = ((double)(disk->time - iodev->disk.time)) / interval * HZ;

      disk->service_time = tput ? util / tput : 0.0;

      I think it would be better to use this following formula to avoid rounding error:

      disk->service_time = ios ? ((double)(disk->time - iodev->disk.time)) / ((double)ios) : 0.0;

      What do you think about it?


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Cron Job to Warm Cache

First of all is there a reason to use your ee cron command instead of creating a cron job normally, I’m not clear on what the difference is?

I want to create a cron job that loads a webpage, would I just use the standard format something like this?
wget -O - >/dev/null 2>&1

So would this be correct?
ee cron create --command=‘wget -O - >/dev/null 2>&1’ --schedule=’@every 10m’


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Best way to do RCA sync thru?

I’m designing a module(1) that’s going to have RCA Sync In (to a LM1881) and I’d like to have RCA Sync Thru also, but I’m not sure the best way to accomplish this. I had been planning on using the portion of the Cadet 1 schematic that does this. Video/sync in, terminated by 75R to ground, and it goes to a LM6172 buffer via a 499R (and to the LM1881 via a cap), and the buffer outputs the thru signal:

But recently I noticed that Syntonie’s VU001 handles Sync Thru a little differently… Input is directly tied to output, a jumper can terminate input to ground if you want, and input goes to a LM6172 buffer via a 499R and continues to the rest of the circuit:

So, I’m curious if @creatorlars or @syntonie (or anyone else who understand video electronics!) would care to comment on benefits/drawbacks to the different methods. One thing I like about the Cadet method is that users never have to deal with a termination jumper, since the input is always terminated. I don’t have anything that syncs via RCA, so I can’t test for any noticeable differences in behavior.

(1) I’ll be talking about my module more soon, but as a teaser, it’s a simple Arduino Nano-based module that’s being designed to be a multifunction cool-lowres-digital-shapes/text generator. Hopefully some people are interested in it, but even if they’re not, I won’t mind… I’m mostly designing it for myself since it’s something I really want.

Both approaches are valid. Generally there is a buffer when it’s a frontpanel jack, but maybe not one if the sync is just going to an LM1881 and meant for backplane distribution. The primary advantage to the second circuit is that you do not necessarily need U1.2 (the opamp buffer) if, for example, you are terminating the sync at the LM1881 and not going further with it. That may be just perfect for your project’s needs.

Do you mean not going any further with it in my own module but the thru output can still be used by other modules (if the termination jumper isn’t set)? If so, then that would indeed be perfect, since it’ll let me reroute one of the trickier parts of my PCB!

(edit to clarify this question:)
Do you mean I could do this?

1 Like

Hi @joem and @creatorlars, the buffer (U1.2) can probably be bypassed and the circuit will work in a similar manner. I’ve added it so the front RCA input and the sync in on the back have independent input load (so you can set the sync termination without affecting the front input termination), so it avoid having the signal at the front RCA to be unterminated when using it as a distribution amplifier. Also, felt bad having this extra op amp with no use :upside_down_face:

The schematic you posted looks right, no need for an op amp if you send the signal to the sync extractor directly and doesn’t require further processing.

@syntonie I would have done the same!
And yes, @joem that looks like a fine drawing to me! Just don’t forget your power bypass cap for LM1881. :slight_smile:
**Very important: ** If you do this method, your sync signal input net (the one shared between RCA jacks and Jumper_3 and 100n cap) should be as short as possible. Jacks should be adjacent to each other, termination resistor and lm1881 input pin should all be together in a cluster. Don’t let the sync run thru an interconnect or travel across the board.

Since no-one else has commented on this aspect of your post yet: yes, interested in your module! I have a similar idea on my “get around to this one day” pile too :slight_smile:

Thanks @creatorlars and @syntonie! This has been extremely helpful!

Funny you should mention that… I did forget it in my initial schematic drawings and caught when I made a breadboard prototype, but then forgot to update the schematics and only caught that a week ago! So I’ve forgotten it twice so far! Ha!

I’m going to do a proper post about it sometime when I have time, now that I’m far enough along with it to hopefully not abandon it.

It had been on my “get around to this one day” pile too, but then when I became unemployed during the first month of pandemic lockdown, I had all the time in the world to work on it! :slight_smile:


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  1. Hi, thanks for your explanation. It help's a lot to clean up my system a little ... Regards Cappy
  2. Ok THX. I am a little bit scared, but I'll do it 🙂 What about the "old" folders like 2.7 or 3.3 or 4.0 and many more at home/use/.cura May I kick them out as well?
  3. Hi, I am using cura 4.5.0 as appimage on a mint system. I found out that the qmlcache folder is roughly 4GB big. Is it allowed to delete those qmlc files? Cappy
  4. Ok ... got it. I did not dare to click on the "connect to octoprint" button again. This is why I was not check all the options ... :-) Thx for ur help Cappy
  5. Hi, I checked it yesterday. Unfortunately the GCODE will be transfered to the SD-Card and the filename will be cropped. Is there a chance to save it to a local Pi folder? Cappy
  6. 😵 Really? I hadn't even noticed this option ... I'll check it later at home. THX
  7. Hi guys, I am just following this ... Had probs with opening the freeCAD files as well. Cappy
  8. Yes ... but it is for start the print ... not for just saving the GCODE
  9. Hi all, I am using CURA 4.4.1 on Linux Mint. My 3D-Printer is connected via Octoprint. CURA is able to start a printjob directly at octoprint ... but is it possible to save generated GCODES to octoprint without starting the printout immediately? Cappy
  10. Hi all, are there any comments to my suggestions? I like the plugin, but there is some space for improvements :-) Cappy
  11. Oh great, that's right ... now I checked this option. It is working well now ... great plugin I have two sughestions for improvement. 1. On hitting "ENTER" the changes will not be aplied. 2. I need the object name at the beginning of the file name ... not at the end, otherweise it is not possible to find it in a long list of files. cappy
  12. Hi, maybe it is a stupid question, but I do not know what the plgin is desired for? I just set {print_time_hours} for testing. On saving to gcode file ... no autmatic prefix is set. On sending directely to printer ... no prefix. Is there a kind of howto available? Merry XMAS Cappy
  13. Hi all, I am quite new to the board. My printer is a 3rd party machine but I am using Cura on a Linux System. I added all my PLA filaments to the program settings. The most important value in my opinion is the print temperature. The slicer is set to "custom" and I've choosed some settings for my access. The pre-set PLA printing temperature is never considered. I always have to enter the material settings again ... check my desired temperature and input it manually to the slicer or change it later in GCODE. What am I doing wron
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text:
Primary Care in Rochester and Kasson

Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19): If you have questions about COVID-19, please visit our COVID-19 page.

David Sanborn M.D.

Care Team

Baldwin 4 B3 Care Team

David M. Sanborn, M.D.

Locations / Programs

Baldwin Building 4th Floor
221 Fourth Avenue SW
Rochester, Minnesota 55905

Department / Division

Community Internal Medicine

Community Internal Medicine cares for patients age 18 and older. Our providers offer general health and wellness care, including preventive exams. They also help manage complex medical conditions, such as heart disease, emphysema and diabetes.

Medical Specialties / Interests

Internal Medicine

Personal Interests

Cooking and baking, reading, film.


text:
Health Care Veteran David Hall Joins Board of Directors for Compass

davidhallRALEIGH, NC (February 7, 2013) – David Hall, a veteran in the health care industry for more than 25 years, has joined the Board of Directors for Compass Surgical Partners, a Raleigh, NC, based firm that specializes in the management, acquisition and development of ambulatory surgery centers (ASCs), in addition to other outpatient-based strategies.

"We are privileged to have someone of David Hall's caliber serve on our Board," says Sean Rambo, Compass Co-founder. "He is well known as a leader in the health care industry, and his involvement further solidifies Compass' strategic direction and position in the marketplace."

Hall has a long career in successful executive operations for the hospital and outpatient health care industries. He served as Executive Chairman of Titan Health Corporation, a venture-backed enterprise with partner ASCs that successfully merged with United Surgical Partners International (USPI) in 2011. Prior to that, he served as President, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of ASC Network Corporation, which was bought by HealthSouth, and Executive Vice President at Medical Care America, which, at the time, was the largest operator for outpatient surgery centers in the United States. In addition, he has served as Director of Cogent Healthcare, Inc., a private hospitalist and intensivist company, and Radiant Research, a comprehensive clinical research and development company.

"David will provide Compass with guidance in the areas of governance, capital structure, operations, financial management, hospital partnerships and opportunity assessment," adds D.J. Hill, Co-founder of Compass Surgical Partners. "We are excited and looking forward to him helping us take Compass to the next level in the industry."

9131 Anson Way
Suite 304
Raleigh, NC 27615
Get Directions

Main Contact

Main:  919.329.2882
Fax: 888.510.6266
This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Development Contact

Scott Bacon CFP®, MBA
VP of Business Development
This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Cell: 919.797.3629

Our mission is to create high-value partnerships that provide exceptional surgical services to the local communities and provide a positive return on investment to each partner.

Copyright © 2020 Compass Surgical Partners
Site Design by Swarm Interactive | Site Map

Compass Surgical Partners


text:
Thinking as a subversive activity

While a number of posts on this blog have been dedicated to calling in to question the claims of contemporary management theory to enable managers to predict the future, there can be no doubt that much of it is dedicated to controlling employees. Or rather, there are always new developments in management theory aimed at increasing organizational efficiency and effectiveness but which have the effect of disorienting employees and keeping them permanently on the hop. Management theory is replete with suggestions for dividing, atomising, reorganising and scrutinising employees whilst denying them time to sit together to make sense of what is going on. In fact, usually they are discouraged from doing so: it is quite common to find people expressing antipathy towards meetings which might turn into ‘talking shops’, or alternatively sense-making opportunities may be described as a ‘luxury’ which the organisation cannot afford. Of course, I am not recommending that people spend more time in meetings simply for the sake of it, but I am always interested when people I am working with tell me that they don’t have the time to think about what’s going on.

The effect of constant management initiatives can be disorientation and a lack of time to deliberate. It contributes to conditions favourable to accepting heroic and transformational leadership or authoritarian working relationships which appear to cut through uncertainty. One might argue that the way that managers are encouraged to manage creates the very conditions for which more managerialist methods are deemed to be the remedy: the dynamic is self-amplifying. Leaderism thrives where employees are both destabilised and demoralised.

One way of dividing employees against each other is by introducing competitive performance-related pay and a grading system such as the so-called ‘rank and yank’ system. During the once yearly performance appraisal 20% of the employees are praised and rewarded, 60% are told that they are satisfactory but that they should work harder to aspire to being in the top 20%, and the ‘bottom’ 20% are told that they are on notice to improve otherwise they will be asked to leave. This keeps everyone on their toes by creating anxiety and a continuous insider/outsider dynamic. Those at the ‘top’ want to hang on to their status, those in the middle aspire to the revered status of the top band and fear dropping into the bottom, and those at the bottom may be terrorised into conforming or perhaps see the writing on the wall and leave. And so the workforce is kept in constant churn.

Another way of achieving the same effect is to reorganise constantly and oblige employees to reapply for jobs in a new structure which is designed to realise a new vision and a new culture. The stated idea is to engineer wholesale change at a stroke and implement ‘necessary reforms’. Managers might propose this because they are trying to be ‘agile’, because they are trying to be ‘lean’, or because they are creating a purchaser/provider split, which was the organising principle around the last NHS restructuring. Managers invited to apply for jobs in NHS England, for example, were told that the new structure was a chance to resolve all of the problems of the old way of doing things: they would be working in ‘one organisation’ with shared values and mission.

The difficulty is that post-reorganisation very little is shared for months because all of the existing working relationships are disrupted. Not only this, but in any reorganisation there are winners and losers, people who have jockeyed for position and will have triumphed, or lost out, which provokes very strong emotions both in survivors and victims. Of course, sometimes working relationships do need to be changed, but if everyone’s working relationships are fractured at the same time, those who survive in the reorganisation are left disorientated and wondering which way is up.

Next there are a variety of ways in which work life is increasingly scrutinised, measured and ranked. This is done by measuring the key strokes on computers, by listening in to telephone calls to ‘ensure quality and for training purposes’, by placing CCTV cameras in offices, classrooms and lecture theatres, or by introducing software which employees are obliged to fill in to account for every minute of their day. In the UK civil service, for example, employees must fill in a system called Clarity where they must account for their working day in 15 minute blocks. Even if a civil servant is travelling during the working day they must account for this in Clarity by choosing ‘travelling while working’ or ‘travelling while not working’. (Guess which category most civil servants pick?) The ostensible reason for introducing such a system is to increase productivity and to remind civil servants that they have to account for every pound of tax payers’ money. As a result, civil servants have to think about what they are doing as well as how they will present what they are doing, which leads to inevitable gaming strategies. Nor does the system say anything about the quality of the work being completed.

Perhaps the most egregious example of keeping employees under surveillance is used by Amazon, where picker-packers are tagged as they run round hangar-like warehouses, much as convicted offenders on home leave are tagged. The tags are connected to GPS systems which monitor the employees’ walking speed as well as their location. This ensures that they are all working at a trot and don’t take too many toilet breaks.

Another way of sorting, ranking normalising and engendering fear and anxiety are school and hospital inspection regimes, Research Excellence Frameworks for universities, and grading systems for care homes. OFSTED, the British schools inspectorate, has now introduced snap inspections which take place with only 48 hours notice. This means that school staff have to be constantly vigilant, always up to date, and always looking over their shoulders. No teacher wants to be the one who lets the side down. In some organisations employees are kept constantly busy trying to achieve ‘ambitious stretch targets’, i.e. targets which are impossible to achieve. One academic institution I know instituted ‘challenge meetings’ where employees were ‘challenged’, often in very robust terms, to account for why they haven’t met the targets which everyone knew were near impossible to achieve in the first place.

The net effect of all of these methods of scrutiny is to create the Panopticon which Jeremy Bentham recommended for managing prisons and which Foucault represented as an account of contemporary society. Surveillance becomes ubiquitous and natural so that we begin to discipline ourselves and each other.

It is very hard to avoid being weighed in the court of authoritarian judgement in contemporary organisational life. The overwhelming implication is that employees cannot be trusted to do their best unless there are constantly monitored, cajoled, evaluated, appraised and reorganised.

In these circumstances it is easy to see why meetings convened to make sense of what is going on seem to go very much against the grain of the rush to improve. Developing some detachment from the constant flux of organisational life, asking questions, raising doubts can be experienced as subversive activity and may not be welcomed.

6 thoughts on “Thinking as a subversive activity

  1. Grant

    My interpretation of the thrust of your writing is that despite many years of management education, many things are just like they used to be. In the NHS the language might be different e.g collaboration, co production, engagement, patient centredness however the lived experience of the application of these words would have been familiar to Ford and Taylor..

      1. Grant

        If right – it’s a sad indictment to our lack of progress. Perhaps we are fundamentally wired to assert power over each other?

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St Marys

Posted by dazesaday @dazesaday, Jan 16, 2019

Will I have a problem or where do I go to get help to getting to an appointment to St Marys which is app a mile and a half from where Im staying.

The Mayo Patient shuttle will pick you up and deliver you to the St Mary's entrance. The shuttle drivers are amazing in how well they take care of wheelchair patients or anyone needing assistance. The shuttle makes regular scheduled stops all day with a route between the Clinic and St Mary's.
Once you arrive at either area, there are volunteers available to assist you to your appointment area. And they have wheelchairs available for use.
When I needed wheelchair assistance, they meet me at the shuttle drop off and had a wheelchair waiting, even helped me to get on/off the shuttle. The shuttles are Handicap friendly.
I sent you the link for the Concierge chat line. It is open during business hours. You can ask your specific questions and you can learn of the possible assistance that is available to patients. You might have a brief delay until the "Live Chat Line" link shows up at bottom right corner of the page.

Here are some videos that might be helpful (I sent them all so you can select the ones that fit your needs)

Liked by dazesaday

Hello @dazesaday, did you check with your hotel to see if they offer a shuttle bus to Mayo?

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text:
Cluttered Chaos

junk pile

The cluttered lives of the average homeowners in Fairfield County is astounding. Thanks to a booming economy and nonstop advertising coming at all of us from every direction. You can also thank the ease of shopping online and free shipping, huge stores like Walmart, Home Depot, Costco, Lowes, do we really need all this stuff?. Its gotten to the point that homeowners in Fairfield County have so much stuff, that in a short time turns to “junk” ?..and they find themselves in a situation that, they have to pay a junk removal company to get rid of it all !

The United States has 4 % of the world’s children but consumes 50% of the world’s toys,” In households with children , the toys can take over all available extra space, the Children’s toys and objects spill out of their bedrooms into kitchens, living areas and bathrooms. The push to become consumers and to value Stuff, starts at an early age…Read more in this continuing junk removal saga next week…

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“purse of wisdom”

A mangled metaphor about the abundance of clear lessons to be had in this craziest of years. It initially came from pondering the universal ones.

How can anyone deny the reality of climate change while the country literally burns around them?

Why does it take a senseless racist murder in another country for 432 deaths in custody in Australia to even make the news?

How is the science of vaccinations under attack during a global pandemic?

Then I had some personal lessons to learn. Working from home made me feel disconnected and unmotivated, doubting my abilities while lashing myself with guilt for not being more grateful.

I applied for a new job and lay awake the night after the interview worried I’d get it. But I would have taken it just for a permanent position, out of fear of the future and to run away from my doubts.

Not long afterwards I applied to go back to study, not to learn something new and move forward, but to get a qualification for what I already do. To prepare for a fallback career in teaching, out of fear of being an old has-been designer.

Maybe these lessons are just as obvious from the outside. That rather than give up, I should believe in myself and keep trying. That instead of aiming low I should be learning skills to build the projects I’m passionate about.

Maybe I need to be more forgiving, and not just more grateful.

“drone #3”

I just ignored the obvious, and kept plugging away at this drawing. A moment of stress and tiredness amongst a pretty happy year (obvious elephant not withstanding), that got chosen as a good exercise… mechanical is easier than biological! Turned out better than expected, didn’t quite nail the textures

The first one was youthful feelings of vulnerability and loneliness, and a homage to the mannequins of de Chirico, with a “secret” message in the blocks.

Have to look up the date – 1996?

Only a couple of years back, 2017. Love those oil can birds!

One last for the year. Really the absolute reduction of this concept, the ball and chain dragging, treadmill spinning, Sisyphean task.

There’s some positive spin you could put on this, maybe it’s all downhill, and it’s been a pretty amazing year… but a pretty tough one in patches. I still haven’t quite gotten hold of the idea of never catching up, of never having an empty inbox, of letting unimportant tasks be done badly or never.

After a lot of drawing procrastination, this one came together quite quickly. Set myself a deadline to do it before the new year. Got four weeks off, going to catch up on all the things I’m behind on…

too hard, didn’t finish

Drawings have been few and far between this year. Not that it’s been a bad year, the time at the Botanic Gardens getting my hands dirty with design again, an awesome family holiday to Japan, but wondering what it was all about. Being more of a manager than a designer. Being more inspired to code than draw. There are no comics where the hero settles down to being a dad and public servant in middle age!

Hence a drawing about my self-image and its changes over time. Which then seemed pointless and self-indulgent – ‘who will ever see it?’ – or more strongly – ‘who would care if they did?’

Ringing ears and dark ales

But then I went out for a boys night and saw some amazing heavy bands at the Crown and Anchor.* They were old dudes, my age, living the dream and smashing it. We ended up talking to some of them outside afterwards, I was confessing my lack of motivation and they were inspiring. Do it for the love of it, do it for yourself.

And I did. Got all motivated and made good progress to a point… then just stepped back to my coding project. Got really obsessed with it, staying up late and on weekends trying to get new things to work. And they did work, and the satisfaction was massive. But no drawing was done.

Intrinsic demotivation

I’ve been doing more management training at work, as well as a great questionnaire about personal strengths. Lots about how to motivate people, and much pondering on how to get it to work with my staff, or my two headstrong daughters! Turns out there’s a whole lot about challenges and learning something new.

So I started comparing coding and drawing. The first seems like a hard sell. After a day of being on a computer at work, sit at another screen at night, mostly in a bare bones code editor typing Javascript that I mostly didn’t understand. Spend weeks trying multiple things, searching forums, just to get a single thing to work. Being elated when it finally worked. Then seeing the next thing I could do to build on it. Loops.

Drawing should be a no-brainer. Something I’ve always loved and is quite meditational. Something that’s always been a strong part of my self identification. Now a thing where my skills are getting rusty, having to spend longer to produce drawings that aren’t as good as they were before. Oops.

This drawing really was the straw that broke the camels back, but also that finally made it clear. The thing I find hardest at the moment is drawing people. With a good reference pictures, and at a big enough scale I can can still get it together. I was really enjoying this when it was all about the perspective and the pen outlines of the canvases. Then it was going to be lots of detailed small drawings of people, often specific people like the family shot set in Japan… the only one that I actually finished.

Too long, didn’t read

At this point you’d be expecting some resolution, some truths, but they’re never that easy. I’m not ready to give up on drawing yet, but there may be a few more posts about writing a novel along the way!

*Thanks again for the birthday tickets cuz!

8 and 10

Passed cystoscopy number 10 yesterday. Maybe it was because I’m on a week’s holidays, but I was pretty blasé about this one. No drawing even!

On the bus to the hospital there were a group of Down Syndrome teens on an outing. It was a sunny day and they were having an infectiously fun time. But it also made me intensely grateful for the health of my two daughters. Why do we need reminders to feel it?

It was my wife who remembered it would be 8 years nearly on the dot since my first surgery. Cancer and family deaths in the past have given me bursts of motivation, seize the day, etc… but it never lasts. My life is going well and I wallow in happy complacency, feeling a moment of guilty regret after a night of bad television. Should have done some drawing. Looking at my gut in the mirror. Better do some exercise.

There’s a blank board on my desk waiting to be drawn on, a bookmarked headless CMS waiting to be downloaded, a novel synopsis waiting for the difficult second half, and a blog post waiting for a pithy ending. How lucky is that!

As a family we weren’t really that resilient. We all need extra time and space to ourselves to keep our equilibrium. If we do more than one thing in a day we feel frazzled. Travelling to Japan was the crucible for that.

We really surprised ourselves with some crazy adventures of endurance. The epic train, bus and icy mountain climb to spend a half hour at the snow monkeys was the high point. We all had our moments of losing it, but we pushed through and got some great rewards for it. Crepes after 9pm in Harajuku anyone?

This idea came together on that journey, rollercoasters and bullet trains and giving yourself up to the ride. It doesn’t look much like what I initially imagined, with arrows peppered everywhere and blood. It also doesn’t have much of the zen asymmetry of Japanese prints I was aiming for, but it does have a ludicrously accidental mirroring of the banner and the serpent!

Despite being a bit of a train wreck of mediums it needed no resilience to draw, coming together in a two week purple patch of late night sessions. The unexpected revelation was after a week or so of repeated scribbling, trying to get the feel of the coiling serpent in tiny thumbnails, I threw caution to the wind and just started on the big A2 board. The freedom of big drawing gestures was amazing, so I’ll have to start going big and to hell with the practicality.

I just have to learn how to take good photos instead of scanning!

A reminder to myself from today, vowing to let other people do crap work and not stick my nose in. A play on cutting it off instead, I originally imagined it as a leaping action pose wildly slashing with a sword to narrowly slice, leaving a skull-like nose stump. As you do. Maybe Japanese flavoured with a samurai sword and Tengu mask. Or Venetian flavoured with Scaramouche mask and ruffled collar both being chopped. Both with a conveniently big nose.

But I’ve already got one half-started drawing, so maybe I can let myself do something quick and dirty too!

chauvinist apocalypse

I watched one of my all time favourite movies over the weekend, Blade Runner, set in an apocalyptic 2019 as imagined in 1982. I had dreamed of chartering a helicopter to fly over Los Angeles just to fully live the alternative real version.

There are no offworld colonies, no flying cars, but we do have sex robots. You don’t need a feminist reading to be disturbed by the movie, a reconstructed male view will do just as well.

I always loved Rachael. She was beautiful and doomed, and I wanted to be gritty and tough and rescue her. Now she just seems like a blank for the male characters, or a teenage boy, to project their fantasies on.

Tyrell makes her as an experiment, loading her up with girl memories to make her chaste and uptight, obediently tottering on heels where she’s told to go. Deckard isn’t interested until that identity and her elaborate hair unravel, then he overwrites with his own operating instructions: “say you want me” – “I want you.” Afterwards he leaves her passive in his bed while he works through the rest of the plot, returning at the end of the movie to issue a second set: “do you trust me?” – “I trust you.”

That’s not even getting into details of the love scene where Deckard kicks the door shut so she can’t leave and throws her against the wall. Or that Sean Young’s tears in the scene were real because Harrison Ford actually threw her against the wall. Or the reports of repeated bullying she was subjected to by Ridley Scott.

I often remark on the great and tough female characters of sci fi, Ellen Ripley and Sarah Connor especially. Rachael, sadly, is not one of them.

Just for a change, I was delayed completing a positive picture by going on an awesome overseas holiday!

The year kicked off with a bang, splitting my job to spend two days a week at the Botanic Gardens, and on the countdown to that holiday to Japan. Walking through the gates into lush green those first few mornings I knew I needed a botanical metaphor, that there was growth and optimism in flower.

The return of the budding avatar was a given, but it was the rebirth from the ashes that made it real. There’s been some fire on paper in the metaphors, and in life over the last year or so, bottoming out my stress levels and sleep deprivation.

Been too long since the cycle kicked over, let the new baktun begin!

darker grass

I was ten when ET came out. Unequivocally I thought Elliott should have gone with the aliens, had no hesitation about the idea of leaving family and world behind. Two years later, I was appalled Tom Hanks didn’t swim away with Darryl Hannah at the end of Splash. Into the unknown with a girl!

Maybe all of my generation’s teenagers felt alone and different, but I remember watching the couples easily making and breaking and remaking like interchangeable pieces of a simple jigsaw. And feeling like a piece from a different type of puzzle altogether.

I spent too much time with my own thoughts, and smoking weed probably didn’t help that, but eventually found my own way. There was a long planned but never started picture idea in my early twenties. A wild lone wolf me following a harsh and isolated path through the night, pausing to look in the window of a bright and warm house, pausing to look at a mirror self inside. A self connected to a family, peering out at the darker path.

Looking back at some of the things that darker self did, taking social risks I couldn’t imagine now. Loving going to parties where I didn’t know anyone so I could be free of worrying what people thought. Moving to another city not knowing a single person. That me was fearless, but often very lonely.

Two decades later I’m inside that warm house, a piece in my own puzzle connected with family and purpose, wondering where the hell that guy outside would have finished up. Watching movies with themes of alienation, and hoping they’ll have a happy ending.


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No One Retires Up North

March 30, 2014

Another Pinterest find that I’ve found true (more often than not).

via Pinterest

via Pinterest

“Say what you want about the South but no one ever retires and moves up North.” Unless there are grand kids involved, I don’t think I have ever heard of anyone leaving a non-Northern area of the country and moving North to retire. In fact, more and more of my friends who are not from the South are seeing their parents move South. It has actually been a bonus for a lot of my friend groups because we have all of the sudden had places to have group reunions on the South Carolina, Georgia and Florida coasts! Blame it on the usually nice weather and often cheaper cost of living… not to mention the good food and nice people 🙂

I’d totally retire here…. in like another, what 40 years? (IDK, who knows what retirement age will be when I get there).

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Weekend breakfasts: a meal unlike any other of the week, mainly consisting of delicious food that can be heavy and filling but it will surely make you and your tummy happy.

Bacon and Eggs Breakfast Recipe - Cookin5m2-4 Apple Butter Bourbon Pancakes Recipe - Cookin5m2-2You wake up, you go to the kitchen, bring the pot of water to a boil, make a cup of coffee or tea, prepare breakfast, eat breakfast on the porch enjoying the morning sun. Continue reading

Breakfast Sandwiches Part I

How many times have you heard breakfast is the most important meal?

Don’t start counting. We all have. Countless times.

Breakfast sandwiches part 1_cookin5m2-1

You will not appreciate a good breakfast until you’ve had one. I’m not talking about those breakfast buffet where I go and fill my tummy until I can barely move and be able to skip lunch. I’m talking about a breakfast you make and eat at home before going to work that will keep you full, or at least managing, until lunch time. I’m starting to discover some.
Continue reading


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Microbial populations associated with the Irish brown seaweeds, Ascophyllum nodosum and Laminaria digitata, and their biotechnological applications

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Bargain store Century 21 closes its doors after 60 years

Century 21 Stores — a destination for bargain hunters looking for fat deals on designer dresses and shoes, cosmetics and housewares for nearly 60 years — has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy and is winding down its business, shutting all 13 stores across New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Florida.

In a statement, Century 21 said that the decision followed nonpayment by the company’s insurance providers of approximately $175 million due under policies put in place to protect against losses stemming from business interruption. That insurance money helped it rebuild its flagship store, a magnet for locals and tourists in downtown Manhattan after it was damaged by the September 11 attacks, the New York-based company said.

“We now have no viable alternative but to begin the closure of our beloved family business because our insurers, to whom we have paid significant premiums every year for protection against unforeseen circumstances like we are experiencing today, have turned their backs on us at this most critical time,” said Century 21 co-CEO Raymond Gindi in statement.

Century 21 says it’s starting going-out-of business sales at all of its stores and online.

The seller joins more than two dozen retailers that have filed for bankruptcy since the pandemic, which has forced nonessential stores to temporarily close. Notable brands to go bust include Brooks Brothers, J. Crew, Neiman Marcus, J.C. Penney and Lord & Taylor.

Lord & Taylor to close all its stores 00:22

Brooks Brothers will be purchased for $325 million by a retail venture owned by licensing company Authentic Brands Group and mall owner Simon Property Group. Lord & Taylor, one of the country’s oldest and most iconic department stores, permanently closed its remaining 38 stores earlier this month.

Gindi said that if Century 21 had received “any meaningful portion” of the insurance proceeds, it would have been able “to save thousands of jobs and weather the storm in hopes of another incredible recovery.”

The company said that it’s removing from the bankruptcy court a lawsuit pending in the Supreme Court of the State of New York against several of its insurance providers based on their failure to compensate the company for its losses under the policies. The company is requesting that the bankruptcy court expedite the adjudication of the suit for the benefit of its stakeholders.