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hardware-happy, part 2

9:25 am hardware

The things got more interesting when I changed original nv 5200 fx to ati 9800 pro. First, the wrapping effect immediately disappeared (does it mean ati and nv drivers read DDC dirrefently)? Second, the output is now _deadly_ slow. Scrolling (one line!) in xchat window is visible (takes a good fraction of second!). Tried both XAA and EXA acceleration. It seems something important is missing… DRI is also a mistery – in Xorg.0.log it is said to be enabled but glxinfo clams it is not.

Looking for some repository with xorg 7.3 for gutsy – may be it would help.

10 Responses

  1. Jan Schmidt Says:

    X thinking DRI is available while userspace doesn’t usually means the wrong mesa lib is installed. On ubuntu, try making sure libgl1-mesa-dri is in place.

  2. Stemp Says:

    I had the same sort of troubles with my ATI 9600.
    The mesa dri were not installed. I had to install the package libgl1-mesa-dri manually.

  3. Sergey Udaltsov Says:

    Stemp, Jan, thanks, I’ll check for that package!

  4. fraggle Says:

    That’s why I vowed years ago never to buy another ATI card :-)

  5. Sergey Udaltsov Says:

    fraggle, AFAIK OS nv drivers suck, nouveau is very young (and not available in gutsy), so what would you use on powerpc?

  6. Marius Gedminas Says:

    One thing worth trying is XAA with the XAANoOffscreenPixmaps option. It made a huge difference in window scrolling speed when I first tried enabling the Composite extension a while ago.

    Ubuntu carried a patch to X that enabled this option by default, but IIRC they dropped the patch recently (it caused some problems in other areas).

  7. Sergey Udaltsov Says:

    Thanks Marius, I tried that as well – it did not change a thing :(

  8. Sergey Udaltsov Says:

    libgl1-mesa-dri was already installed :(

  9. Sergey Udaltsov Says:

    The problem is resolved! There was an old package xserver-xgl which spoiled the whole party!

    Thanks a lot lads for the food for thought…

  10. Tormod Says:

    > repository with xorg 7.3 for gutsy

    That would be the “hardy” repository :)


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UDP and Windows 8 apps

The Windows 8 app I’m currently working on requires me to send some data over a wireless network using UDP. This is usually done by using the Socket class contained in the System.Net.Sockets namespace. However, this isn’t supported in Windows RT, which replaces the behavior of Socket with several equivalent classes. The class used for UDP is DatagramSocket. While the code using DatagramSocket is relatively short and simple, there are some intricacies involved in getting it to function properly, so in this post I’ll make things simpler by providing a working example.

At a conceptual level, the steps required to open a UDP connection and send data are very simple:

1. Create a local socket.

2. Connect to a remote host.

3. Send data to the remote host.

The code itself is short, so let’s break it down line-by-line. Bonus points if you can guess what I’m working on from the IP address and port numbers!

Creating the local socket

The first step is creating the socket, in this case a DatagramSocket:

DatagramSocket udpSocket = new DatagramSocket();

One advantage of DatagramSocket is that I don’t have to specify what kind of protocol I want to use, because it sends exclusively UDP packets.

Next I need to bind the socket to a local port, which specifies which port you want the UDP packets to originate from. This is done by calling the DatagramSocket.BindServiceNameAsync() method. In my case, I’ll be using the port number 5556:

await udpSocket.BindServiceNameAsync(“5556”);

It’s as simple as passing a string containing the port number. I use the await keyword here because BindServiceNameAsync() is an asynchronous method. For more documentation on the await keyword and Windows RT Tasks, check the resources at the end of the article.

Connecting to a remote host

The second step is to open a connection to a remote host. In this example I want to connect to the IP address, but the DatagramSocket.ConnectAsync() method takes an instance of the HostName class as an argument. So first I need to create a new HostName to represent the remote host:

HostName remoteHost = new HostName(“”);

Again, the argument I’m passing is a string containing the IP address or URL I want to connect to. I can then open the connection by calling ConnectAsync and passing the HostName I just created and the port I want to send data to on the remote host:

await udpSocket.ConnectAsync(remoteHost, “5556”);

Sending data to the remote host

Once the connection is established, it’s time to send data. The DatagramSocket class doesn’t contain any methods for sending packets, so I need to use the aptly-named DataWriter class. The first step of sending data is to create a new DataWriter, passing it the OutputStream property of my DatagramSocket, udpSocket:

DataWriter udpWriter = new DataWriter(udpSocket.OutputStream);

Now, say I want to send the string “juncti juvant” to the remote host. DataWriter doesn’t have any single method to handle this operation; sending data is a two part process. First I need to write the data to the OutputStream:

udpWriter.WriteString(“juncti juvant”);

Check out the documentation on the DataWriter class to see what other kinds of data you can write.

The data isn’t heading to the remote host yet; now I need to actually make the DataWriter send a UDP packet. To do this I call the DataWriter.StoreAsync() method:

await udpWriter.StoreAsync();

And with that, a UDP packet containing the payload “juncti juvant” is on its way to the remote host!

My combined code to send a UDP packet consists of the following:

// Create a new socket and bind it to a local port
DatagramSocket udpSocket = new DatagramSocket();
await udpSocket.BindServiceNameAsync(“5556”);

// Open a connection to a remote host
HostName remoteHost = new HostName(“”);
await udpSocket.ConnectAsync(remoteHost, “5556”);

// Send a data string to the remote host in a UDP packet
DataWriter udpWriter = new DataWriter(udpSocket.OutputStream);
udpWriter.WriteString(“juncti juvant”);
await udpWriter.StoreAsync();

DatagramSocket: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/apps/windows.networking.sockets.datagramsocket.aspx

HostName: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/apps/windows.networking.hostname.aspx

DataWriter: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/apps/windows.storage.streams.datawriter.aspx

await keyword and Tasks: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/hh156528.aspx

Comments (4)

  1. Christopher Conner says:

    Just to make sure I understand, is this class available from the Windows RT environment?

  2. Yes, it's available in the RT environment!

  3. How do know what exceptions could be thrown, for example if the address were in use when: BindServiceNameAsync()

  4. As far as I know, that information isn't listed in any central place. The code example at the bottom of the following link will give you an idea of how to deal with that method throwing exceptions msdn.microsoft.com/…/jj635238.aspx

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Reunited adoptee Cecelia Reekie to speak on intergenerational legacy of residential schools

Cecelia Reekie at the closing event of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission in Ottawa.

A woman who has “walked in two worlds” will share her insight as part of the President’s Leadership Lecture Series at UFV on October 11. Cecelia Reekie will speak at the Abbotsford campus on Wed, Oct 11 at 6 pm in the Student Union Building.

Cecelia Reekie of Langley is a proud member of the Haisla Nation who visits schools as a cultural presenter.

But as a child and young woman, she was not strongly connected to her culture or history.

Like many Aboriginal children in the 1960s, Reekie was adopted by a white family, and was raised as the daughter of a United Church minister and a teacher, only vaguely aware of her heritage.

“I wasn’t part of the Sixties Scoop where so many were taken forcibly from their families. My journey was a slightly different one. But I shared similar experiences to those who were,” she notes.

When she grew up and had a family of her own, the pull to find her birth parents became strong enough to act on it. Her adoptive parents were supportive of her quest.

At the age of 26, she found her birth mother, who revealed the identity of her birth father, who is a member of the Haisla Nation from Kitamaat.

“My life, and my eventual reunion with my birth family and community, is my own personal journey through reconciliation,” Reekie notes. “That’s why reconciliation is so important to me. It weaves together all the strands of my own story. All parts of my life experience define who I am today. I have walked in two worlds.”

When Reekie reunited with her birth father, she began to learn about the Indian residential school experience and the damage it did.

“My father went in to residential school in Port Alberni at 10 and didn’t see his family for four years,” she says. “It has had intergenerational effects on all his children. I grew up not knowing that history at all. Through my dad sharing his stories with me, I began to understand.”

Cecelia Reekie with her birth father Cecil.

Part of Reekie’s reconciliation journey was volunteering for the Truth and Reconciliation events when the TRC visited Vancouver. She invited her birth father to come along and he did, at first as an observer. But he was moved by what his fellow survivor were sharing, and decided to testify himself.

When the TRC held its closing event in Ottawa, Reekie attended, coming full circle from a child raised in the United Church, to an adult reconciling with the damage that the actions of church and state inflicted on her family.

Reekie’s UFV President’s Leadership Lecture Series presentation is connected to the ongoing Witness Blanket exhibit.

The Witness Blanket, created by master carver and Kwagiulth artist Carey Newman (Ha-yalth-kingeme), is on display at UFV until Nov 8. The Witness Blanket installation incorporates images from the residential school era, as well as items reclaimed from, and actual pieces of, residential schools, churches, government buildings, and traditional structures across Canada.

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Category Archives: Urban Meyer Points and Stares

Shelley Meyer is pointed to and stared at.

You had to know letting yourself get painted into a corner equating Colin Kaepernick and Aaron Hernandez wouldn’t be a good look.

Bless your heart.  Maybe the next time your hubby warns about the perils of social media, you ought to listen.  In the meantime, I’m sure a lot of his players appreciate your thoughtful sentiment.

Filed under Political Wankery, Social Media Is The Devil's Playground, Urban Meyer Points and Stares

The next chapter of Corch’s book writes itself.

Oklahoma whips Ohio State’s ass and this ensues afterwards.

One can only imagine the steam coming out of Urban Meyer’s ears.  Which is what probably led to this.

Damn, Baker, fun means never having to say you’re sorry.  Although this is a subtle touch.

Eh, kid, Corch could teach you a thing or two about what constitutes a big deal.

As always, though, gallows humor is the best humor.

Filed under Big 12 Football, Urban Meyer Points and Stares

“[Blaming players] drives me insane.”

In fact, blaming players makes Corch so insane, he blames Boom for something Boom never said.

Meyer also said Muschamp “blamed us for Florida,” referring to a perceived lack of talent left for Muschamp when Meyer departed before the 2011 season…

It’s not clear if Muschamp ever directly suggested the cupboard was bare when he took over for Meyer. However, at the time of his Florida firing in 2014, Muschamp told CBS Sports, “[We] changed the culture of the program that was labeled by the previous head coach [Meyer] as ‘broken.’ He said it. I didn’t.”

We all know what “culture” references to Meyer’s stint at Florida mean and they’ve got nothing to do with talent, other than that the talent was the excuse for the culture.  Which means someone’s full of shit here, and it ain’t Boom.

How big a jerk do you have to be to get me to defend Will Muschamp?

Filed under Agent Muschamp Goes Boom, Urban Meyer Points and Stares

Dabo disses Corch.

I can feel a whole new book of grievances coming on.

… Swinney said he doesn’t watch many Big Ten games during the season but felt the conference was overrated after watching Ohio State in preparation for the bowl game.

“Go back to last year. We’re trying to figure out a way to put four Big Ten teams in the playoff,” Swinney said. “And I didn’t pay no attention to the Big Ten. You just kind of buy it (the Big Ten hype), right? That’s just what’s out there. And then we get ready to play Ohio State and I start watching the tape, I watch every single game and I go in and tell our guys, I’m like, ‘Boys, these guys are in trouble.’ I mean, I’ve watched the whole league, I’ve gone through the whole league both sides, these guys are in trouble. And that’s exactly what happened.”

Next time your teams meet, Dabo, I’d keep an eye on how many timeouts Meyer keeps in his pocket in the second half.  Just sayin’.

Filed under ACC Football, Big Ten Football, Clemson: Auburn With A Lake, Urban Meyer Points and Stares

My favorite year

Without a doubt, in my lifetime as a college football fan (as opposed to a Georgia football fan), there’s no season I have enjoyed more than the 2007 one.  It was absolutely and unpredictably nuts from start to finish, with plenty of stops along the way.

So, it is with great pleasure that I share with you SBNation’s tribute to that season.  Check out the following pieces in particular:

The end result:  the only national champion to lose two regular season games in multiple overtimes.

Crazy as hell.  But great.  I doubt we’ll see another season like it again.

Filed under BCS/Playoffs, College Football, Georgia Football, Nick Saban Rules, The Evil Genius, Urban Meyer Points and Stares

“… year in and year out, it’s still Saban and Meyer versus the field.”

This year’s Georgia class is certainly something worth getting excited about, but when you read this David Wunderlich piece comparing the talent of Alabama, FSU and Ohio State, you realize Kirby Smart still has a long way to go.

I mean, this is friggin’ impressive/depressing, depending on your point of view.

Looking more at the top end, I counted how many players each team had rated at 0.9400 and above. That will tell me how many players the programs have in the 5-star and top half of the 4-star range. Alabama wins, of course, with 45 such guys — more than half of its 84 scholarship players. Ohio State has 35, and Florida State has 28. These truly are three of the most talented teams in the country, yet Alabama outpaces the other two with startling ease in some ways.  [Emphasis added.]

This goes to show how much Saban and Urban Meyer are sitting on top of the game right now. Florida State is a consensus College Football Playoff contender and the expected champion of what was arguably the game’s best conference last year. It has a roster that nearly every other FBS program would gladly trade for its own. Yet Alabama and Ohio State have noticeable talent advantages over it.

When you recall what David had to say about Georgia’s roster, in comparison, it’s hard to avoid the depressing option.  You could make the argument that Alabama’s second team is talented enough on its own to make a run to win the SEC East.

Kirby’s got to keep grinding, that’s all.

Filed under Georgia Football, Nick Saban Rules, Recruiting, Urban Meyer Points and Stares

How the rich stay richer

Is it wrong to think that if Nick Saban and Urban Meyer are against something, I should probably be in favor of it?

Two marquee coaches who have remained steadfast in their opposition to adding an early signing day are Alabama’s Nick Saban and Ohio State’s Urban Meyer.

Saban’s objections are that an early signing period reduces the amount of time coaches have to evaluate prospects athletically, academically and socially. Also, he said a player signing early may not play as motivated his senior high school season and added there might not be any available scholarships for late-blooming prospects.

“We would probably make some academic, character and maybe evaluation mistakes, because you aren’t even seeing a guy play during his senior season,” Saban said several months ago. “The other thing from a high school coaches’ standpoint, I mean what is really the guy’s motivation to play, and really work hard to get better to play for his team in his senior year?

“Ultimately, every player should have the opportunity to make official visits, to develop relationships.”

Meyer has been even more outspoken opposing an early NSD.

“I hear the reasoning is because there’s so many decommitments,” Meyer said. “What the hell does that mean? So because 18-year-olds – excuse me, 17-year-olds – are decommitting, let’s give them a legal document so they can’t decommit? That’s not very smart. Young people have a right to choose where they want to go to school. Period. Let them decommit a hundred times. That’s why they’re called 17-year-olds.

“So I don’t understand, whether it’s lazy, whether it’s, you know, I don’t understand why this big push. Now they want to move junior, like have official visits in their junior year. There’s some kids that don’t even have ACT scores. They’re bodies are gaining 18 pounds. Why not move it back to their sophomore year? It’s bizarre. You’re going to see more transfers and more mistakes made in recruiting than ever if they keep pushing this thing up.”

Chaos, I tells ‘ya!  And that can’t be good for Alabama and Ohio State.

By the way, Nick’s doing great in the character evaluation department.  He just needs more time.

Filed under Nick Saban Rules, Recruiting, Urban Meyer Points and Stares


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Guy Cribb’s Channel Story

Guy Cribb’s Channel Story

Picking up the action after Antoine Albeau and Guy Cribb successfully crossed the English Channel in howling autumn gales, here’s Mr. Cribb with the whole story from this bold feat.

“There must be easier ways to get windsurfing on the TV” I thought as I was bounced high out of the water and twisted round in mid air off the hellish chop, on the verge of a catapult for about 5 hours, with cramps almost everywhere!
We left Cherbourg at 10am (9am UK time) in a south westerly wind with Antoine Albeau on 6.7m NP RS Racing and 111 Starboard iSonic and myself on 5.8m North Sails Ram on 110 litres Mistral Slalom board. By the time we hit the wind line we also hit confused chop in the notorious currents around the Cherbourg Peninsula. In the first hour both Antoine and I stacked it a few times losing control overpowered sailing really broad, the sign of things to come.

Celebrating victory on the UK shores

Albeau & Cribb blasting

Tearing up the English Channel

However we could not slow down as we didn’t have permission from the French authorities to leave their shores, so we needed to cover the first fifteen miles or so as fast as possible. Needless to say, they didn’t catch us. Although as Antoine and his team arrive back to France today, there may be some unexpected press coverage…
As the waves got bigger we begun to loose sight of each other and the boats. If one of us had fallen and had not been able to lift the rig, we may well of had to use our flares to attract the boats attention, even though we were never more than about a hundred metres apart.
The wind was dropping badly in the big swell, and we could quite often come right off the plane in a lull only to rise to the crest of another wave and be totally out of control over powered accelerating wildly down a mountain into a pit filled with chop. The chop was massive triangles of pain that caught us out loads of the time, stopping our acceleration causing the sails to totally over power and forcing us to have to really put the muscles into overtime. I often found myself bounced into mid air and slowly twisting before a jolting flat landing, that I would try to control through spin out and arms burning, or just accept my fate and flop into the ocean.
The supertankers were absolutely trucking across our paths, and silently appeared out of the poor visibility firstly just as a huge grey shape, then as colourful giants churning through the Channel with engines groaning even in that wind.
We had plenty of stops, on one I really thought I couldn’t go on. Antoine and I sat on board the English rescue boat whilst the French boat kept an eye on our kit that was adrift for about 30 minutes. In this time we were both feeling very sea sick, as was pretty much everyone on the boats. I was weak and uncomfortable having been stuck on port tack for so long I genuinely thought I could not finish. When it came to jumping off a relatively safe boat for my kit, with Antoine already up and running on his, I could barely bring myself to do it. By now I was cold, sick, in pain and with zero energy. Oh, and lots of cramp too, this was when for the first time in my life I even got cramp in my thumb.
At one stage the GPS was indicating we were about 10 miles to windward of the direct route, but despite the agony of being frozen on one tack, we had to get close to England before we made any decisions to change tacks so we powered on- as it was, after a slight change in the swell and probably wind direction, we arrived in UK waters just off Durleston Head west of Swanage Bay- only a mile or two upwind of Poole, so almost a direct hit.
We then spent about 45 minutes playing for the cameras off old Harry Rocks and Swanage with such a renewed energy knowing we only had a few miles to go and nothing could stop us.
We landed at speed onto Sandbanks Beach to a mass of media- more press in fact than windsurfing has had in the UK for probably 15 years, after 6 hours of being at sea and probably nearly five hours of serious blasting.
We were totally elated, so much so the pains seemed insignificant.
Apologies to everyone watching the event live online- our tracker malfunctioned in the conditions (it worked perfectly on Ellen’s yacht sailing around the world- shows how rough it was on the RIB!) and my phone died in France, hence the lack of photo text updates. In fact this morning they finally all were delivered- 24 hours too late.

I have received so many texts and emails offering congratulations and showing support that I can not answer them individually, but they are all very welcomed, so to all you “massive thanks for that support.”

Also to everyone who has donated to the Ellen MacArthur Trust at your help is going to personally change the lives of lots of children and their families next year, taking them from a low point most of us could not imagine to a place that I can only think is an even greater high than the elation we feel when everything comes together in a perfect storm windsurfing.”

PWA / Andrew Buchanan

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Viewer’s Videos: Sara Kellett

“Since returning from Cape Town I have been trying to make the most of the winter winds, waves and fairly warm weather here in the south west. There has been some pretty wild storms, some of which have been fun, and others which have just been a little too extreme. But I’m trying to make the most of it as I am going back to Vass, to work for Ocean Elements, at the beginning of April so won’t have any waves to play with before too long. However, I am hoping to come back for the BWA events in Wales and Ireland this year which will be good.

The video was filmed during the February half-term whilst my Dad was around to do the filming so thanks to him (he really wants to be out sailing too). The spots are all my local places in Devon along with a trip down to Cornwall. It’s pretty varied, and very rarely perfect, but that’s what makes sailing in the UK so much fun. Enjoy!

Thanks, Sara.”

Newsletter Terms & Conditions

Please enter your email so we can keep you updated with news, features and the latest offers. If you are not interested you can unsubscribe at any time. We will never sell your data and you'll only get messages from us and our partners whose products and services we think you'll enjoy.

Read our full Privacy Policy as well as Terms & Conditions.


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(Closed) TV episodes you can watch over and over

posted 4 years ago in The Lounge
Post # 3
2876 posts
Sugar bee
  • Wedding: March 2013

ive watched a fair few dr who episodes more than once (with david tennant)

Post # 4
514 posts
Busy bee
  • Wedding: June 2013

@kaylee26:  I have watched SATC like three or four times. I also love the episodes Sanctuary and Death and all his Friends are so crazy I could watch them over and over.

Post # 5
2955 posts
Sugar bee
  • Wedding: February 1998

King of Queens, Seinfeld and Big Bang Theory love theses shows:)

Post # 6
7564 posts
Bumble Beekeeper
  • Wedding: January 2013

Sex and the City and Friends Laughing

Post # 7
4664 posts
Honey bee
  • Wedding: August 2013

@kaylee26:  All of firefly, yes!

And any 10th doctor episode of doctor who, especially the Family of Blood two-parter and any of the episodes with the master or with Donna.

Anything from the first four seasons of The West Wing

All of Sherlock

Post # 8
406 posts
Helper bee
  • Wedding: April 2013

i can rewatch any breaking bad episode. i love that show!

Post # 9
10454 posts
Sugar Beekeeper
  • Wedding: February 2014

Season 1 of Game of Thrones. Awesome!

Post # 10
1082 posts
Bumble bee
  • Wedding: December 2010

Greys Anatomy

Post # 11
2196 posts
Buzzing bee
  • Wedding: March 2014

The first and second seasons of The West Wing, again and again and again 🙂

Post # 12
2254 posts
Buzzing bee
  • Wedding: October 2012

Veronica Mars, Friends, How I Met Your Mother, Game of Thrones, Newsroom. Clearly, I watch too much TV. =/

Post # 13
2657 posts
Sugar bee
  • Wedding: October 2012

How about what shows that you can watch over and over. I like to fall asleep to Cheers and Rules of Engagemant.

So many more!

Post # 14
502 posts
Busy bee
  • Wedding: October 2013

Lost. I’ve rewatched these so many times I’ve lost count. I like how I pick up on things I didn’t notice before.

Post # 15
927 posts
Busy bee

The episode of the office where Jim proposes to Pam!

Post # 16
427 posts
Helper bee

Friends, It’s Always Sunny, Reba, Roseanne, King of Queens…Probably many more I can’t think of at the moment, too!

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Ohigan, Rosh Hashanah and Autumn: The Other Shore

by Bob Schwartz

“The goal of our life’s effort is to reach the other shore, Nirvana. Prajna paramita, the true wisdom of life, is that in each step of the way, the other shore is actually reached.”
— Shunryu Suzuki

These days in September, three celebrations coincide: Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year; Ohigan, the twice-yearly Japanese celebration of the equinox; the autumn equinox itself.

One way to harmonize these is to look first at Ohigan. The name literally means “other shore”, and is taken two ways. There are the ancestors honored who have crossed over to the other shore. And there is the crossing over to enlightenment, on the path of the paramitas (perfections): giving (dāna), morality (śīla), patience or forbearance (kṣānti), effort (vīrya), concentration (dhyāna) and wisdom (prajñā).

Then there is Rosh Hashanah, the Birthday of the World, the start of Ten Days of Awe, during which through teshuva (turning), tefilla (prayer) and tzedaka (righteousness) we emerge by the time of Yom Kippur on the other shore as newer people in a new year.

It is autumn again. Summer is left behind again. We can live with giving, morality, patience, effort, concentration, or wisdom, or not. We hope at least to arrive safely on the other shore of winter, maybe more enlightened or newer.


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On Display

Posted: February 25, 2013 in General Photography

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again—Spring is right around the corner…and winter is right around the other three.  The past two winters have been relatively tame around these parts, so tame in fact that I had forgotten what four foot high piles of snow on either side of the driveway look like.  This past weekend was a perfect example that the snow machine is in perfect working order as around ten inches of new snow joined the previous seventy five feet of snow we already had.  Ok, I am exaggerating a bit as it is more like a hundred feet of snow!

I gave myself a few goals for this coming year and so far so good.  One of those goals involved a re-examination of my photographic endeavors of the previous year and that goal was to stop going to a location and taking six million photographs of, basically, the same thing.  True, in this day and age of digital photography the film is free but I soon discovered that I was becoming good at one thing and one thing only—pressing the shutter button.  I wasn’t seeing the beauty around me, I wasn’t appreciating the beauty around me, I wasn’t capturing the beauty around me, I was standing on a beach or hill at sunset, testing the lifetime of batteries and storage capacity of memory cards.

Sure, I might catch a good one here and there, but the fact remained that when I got home and transferred the photographs to the computer for processing I increased my skill in yet another area—hitting the delete button as shot after shot after shot fell far short of anything I was prepared to put my name to.  Discouraged but not ready to give up I took a suggestion offered by a world class landscape photographer and stopped filling the memory card with redundancy.  It’s amazing how much better your photography becomes when you start treating those memory cards like rolls of film and that is exactly what I vowed to do.  My current camera memory configuration allows for the capture of around 1200 images before it’s time to pull the cards and that, to put it bluntly, is a bit on the excessive side. Hence the new goal—stop taking so many damn pictures and start taking a few good ones.

barnstorm-other pages post

‘Barnstorm’  Empire, Michigan

Mission accomplished—on average, the shutter on my camera now snaps open and shut about 90% less than it used to and it has made all the difference.  Granted, I haven’t magically become a world famous photographer or even the most famous photographer of the street I live on, but the results speak for themselves.  Sometimes, when we ask for a bit less we end up with a lot more.  I spend more time researching and planning what, exactly, it is that I am going to do at the location I am planning on visiting and even find room to toss in a few contingency plans in case things don’t go according to my wishes—a common occurrence.  Given the amount of snow we have had this winter, that contingency might involve looking for a new angle on the mailbox at the end of the driveway if I were to get stuck short of my destination…for example.

Another goal I set for myself is directly related to the first and that is to obtain around one portfolio worthy image per month.

One.  Per month. For the Portfolio.

I have fully embraced the ‘quality not quantity’ mindset and, to my surprise, less has become more.  No doubt there are billions of photographers out there who can take a hundred photographs per day and all will be Facebook post-worthy or fast-tracked to the Louvre, but I am not that guy.  In fact, I don’t think I will ever be that guy.  It wasn’t easy to make this change, in fact, it has taken months and still feels a bit alien to me but beneath that feeling of discomfort that comes from change is another feeling, a feeling of great satisfaction that doing something outside of my comfort zone has led to results far beyond what I was achieving doing the same old same old.  Time to retire?  Not likely!  One of the beautiful things about photography is that you are always learning and if you are willing to take an honest and open minded look at your work, those changes might be for the better.

I have a lifetime of learning to go and I can’t wait for the next step in this journey.

My final goal has been one surrounded by some difficulty—finding wall space.  Don’t get me wrong, I’m not doing this for the money—I would have starved years ago—but I do desire to have real life examples of my work, at the very least, enjoyed by others and that involves wall space that isn’t my living room.  As luck would have it I was recently contacted by Mark O’Shaughnessy from the Traverse City Art & Design Studio and soon after our first meeting  I found myself in possession of one of the rare luxuries in the art world—wall space.

Point betsie winter 2012 FB

‘Point Betsie Lighthouse’ Crystallia, Michigan.

Once again I am leaving a comfort zone and, once again, I get the feeling that the time is right for another step on this journey.  For this particular display I have chosen two photographs from the past few months of work, Barnstorm, taken on a gorgeous sun filled February day near Empire, Michigan, and Point Betsie Lighthouse, a personal favorite from beautiful Crystallia, Michigan, on an icy cold day at the end of December, an area that is well known to Northern Michiganders and a favorite with many photographers.  Todd and the rest of the crew at McMillen’s Custom Framing have, once again, done a stellar job with the presentation and framing of the images.  The images will be on display through March and April alongside many other fantastic photographs and original artworks from artists around the Northern Michigan area.

For complete details of events, shows, and artists displaying works at the studio make sure to visit their Facebook page,  Traverse City Art & Design Studio.

When we let go of our dreams we must be wary of embracing the wrong side of life.

Bob Simmerman

Across the street from Bronson Lake.

  1. Congrats on your new opportunity Bob, and I really like what you’ve written here. Your new approach is the approach I’ve taken over the last year and a half. I too used to run around snapping the shutter like crazy. I’m much more likely to take my time now and really think about my shots. The improvement is certainly noticeable to me. I still take too many shots, but old habits are hard to break. My biggest problem is not deleting anything. Even when I have 10 identical shots.

    • bobsimmerman says:

      Thank you for the kind words, Craig. It has been difficult to change a behavior that I have engaged in for years but it has been worth it. I used to solve my picture file storage space problems with the purchase of a new hard drive and that has to stop!

      I was going through some older folders a while back and in one of them I must have had 200 images of identical shots, I have no idea what I was thinking at the time. I think part of it stems from the fact that I have taken the time to drive in to a location I might as well make the most of it by snapping off a few hundred photographs not realizing that few if any of them will ever see the light of day.

      It got to the point were it felt more like a job I didn’t like as opposed to a passion that I enjoy immensely.

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text:
Make Things – Pay It Forward Art Project 2010 – post edit*

*  I stole this pay it forward art idea from Suzanne.  Find her lovely blog here.

Since only one person (yea Jewyl!!) responded to my original post about this,

I thought you all could use a little reminder.

So, here’s the deal:

The first five (5) people to leave a comment on this post will get something made by me.

This offer does have some restrictions and limitations so please read carefully:

  1. I make no guarantees that you will like what I make. Whatcha get is whatcha get.
  2. What I create will be just for you, with love.
  3. It’ll be done in 2010.
  4. I will not give you any clue what it’s going to be.
  5. It will be something made in the real world and not something cyber.
  6. I reserve the right to do something strange.  :)
  7. In return, all you need to do is post (or forward) this text into a note of your own and make 5 things for the first 5 to respond to your note.
  8. Send your mailing address if you don’t live close to me!

Got it?

Okay, get to writing those comments!

3 thoughts on “Make Things – Pay It Forward Art Project 2010 – post edit*

  1. I want to leave a comment, but don’t know what to make for five people. Yikes. So, guess I won’t leave a comment. However, this is a really great idea Becky.

    • Too late – you DID leave a comment! 😀 I’ll bet there are five people out there who would LOVE to get a teeny something made by you! I think a cd of one of your choir performances would work! What about putting the pay it forward note on facebook and giving that to your commenters? Music is art!

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text:
Learning Spanish

For the past two years, I’ve been learning Spanish.
I wasn’t really intending to learn Spanish when I started out, I just fell into it.

I’d been umming and ahhing over learning Spanish after returning from a trip to Spain and I had been wondering if technology could in some way make the learning process less painful.

I found out about an app called Duolingo and decided to give it a try.
Once I had done my first lesson it asked me to save my progress to maintain “my streak” and I was hooked.

Within a few months I’d found a tutor online with Italki and I was properly getting into it.

Since then I’ve also been doing a weekly “language exchange” with a chap in Madrid (using an app called HelloTalk).
We talk in Spanish for 30 minutes, then in English for 30 minutes.
It’s good fun, a little more relaxed than my lessons and we get to learn a lot about each other’s cultures.

I’m not yet fluent, I have to plan out what I am about to say in English then translate it into Spanish.
I also still have a tendency to translate what I hear into English before I can understand it and respond.
That obviously slows me right down.
But with time that translation layer will go away and I’ll start to think and communicate directly in Spanish.

I’d often wanted to start learning a foreign language but had been put off by the thought of attending classes.
But now I’ve found that it’s possible to learn a language to a decent level just using the internet.
And without spending much money either.
I pay for my lessons but Duolingo and my language exchanges are free of charge.
I think now that with the amount of free apps and websites available for language learning there’s never been a better time to learn a foreign language.
If you’re thinking of tackling it just download Duolingo and give it a try.
As they (might possibly) say in Spain, qué es lo peor que puede pasar (what’s the worst that can happen).

Blog ported to WordPress

I’ve just finished porting my blog to WordPress.
My blog was originally written in Java before most blogging platforms existed.
This means that the code for it is old, and becoming increasingly difficult to maintain.

I wanted to make a small change recently and very quickly hit dependency hell.
So I decided maybe I should just port it all to WordPress and have one less legacy project to maintain.

Importing it was simple enough.
I generated a full RSS feed (remember those?) and used one of the provided importing tools.
The tricky part was maintaining permalinks.
Most people don’t seem to bother with this step when migrating blog platforms.
But I think it’s still pretty important.
It’s a permalink after all.

The way my blog generated them was different from the way WordPress does them.
So I ended up writing a script that converted them to WordPress format then tested each URL against the deployed site.
Any that resolved emitted the code for an Apache redirect into a text file.
Any that didn’t I had to fix up by hand.

Finally I was able to paste the redirect codes into my Apache config and send it live.

The only thing I’ve not been able to do yet is grab the old blog comments.
That’s still on my todo list.

How I am getting things done with Trello Workflows

As the resident Trello* fanboy amongst my friends I recently put together an email explaining a couple of ways that I get the most out of Trello.

I call these “Trello Workflows”.

In the interests of “sharing the knowledge” I’m converting that email into a blog post.

* Disclaimer: I get a month of free Trello Gold if you sign up using that link above.

The workflow for day to day stuff

The first of these workflows is for tracking day to day tasks.

Workflow for day to day stuff

The initial idea is explained in part 2 of this post by Ryan Carson.

Before you do anything, take 19 minutes and organize your todos for the day. I wake up at 4:54am every day, grab a coffee and open up my personal Trello Board and prioritize. Limiting this to 19 minutes keeps you focused and ensures you don’t spend all your time prioritizing instead of doing.

Please note that you don’t need to get up at 4:54am to do this.

I discovered this system from Leo Babauta of Zen Habits who has a few things to say about it too.

I’ve reworked this system a little and “made it my own” but the basic ideas are the same.

Changing it to suit you is quite important. I don’t like to have lots of non-critical cards in my Later list so I eventually created a “Rainy Day/Ongoing” list where I could put all of the tasks that are non-essential but that I’d still like to get around to one day.

I’ve been following that system for about 18 months and it’s amazing the amount of stuff I manage to get sorted now.

I no longer have to worry about forgetting to do things – I just make sure I track them on the board.

The only thing I have to remember to do is a quick daily review and then to have the discipline to add cards to it whenever new tasks roll in.

The other nice thing is that if you set a due date on a card and add yourself as a member Trello will email you a reminder when it’s due.

I’ve set up a template Trello board based on this that you can clone and start using.

The workflow for Big Goals

The second workflow is for managing the big goals.

You know, learn Spanish, climb Mount Everest, the kind of stuff that takes months or even years to accomplish.

Workflow for Big Goals

Again, there’s an excellent blog post explaining it all.

Some people call them “dreams”. Some call it a bucket list. I call them big, gray, looming rocks. No matter what you call them, we all have them: the things we want to do and experience before we die. Making your own bucket list gives you some perspective on your life and what you want out of it. But writing bucket lists and creating vision boards around them can only do much. Emptying that bucket calls for action.

The basic principle is to break down each task into smaller and smaller chunks until you’re left with 2-3 small things to do in a given week.

For example, one of my goals is to speak Spanish fluently (I’ll get around to climbing Mount Everest next year), my tasks for this week are to complete the next two stages of an online course I’ve signed up to.

Each of those steps is probably only 20 minutes work so I’ve committed to spend less than an hour a week on it.

This means that I’m not going to overload myself and burn out which then means that I have a better chance of achieving my goal.

I’ve only been doing this latter one for a few weeks but I’ve already felt the benefits.

I’ve found that I am making time to do these tasks whereas in previous weeks I would just completely forget about them.

I’ve set up a template Trello board based on this one as well.

Let me know how you get on with these by contacting me through the blog or pinging me on Twitter.

Running an exim secondary email server on EC2

A while back I set up an exim server on EC2 for secondary email – at the time I tested that it worked and it all looked fine.

It accepted emails for my domain then forwarded them on to the primary as expected.

The one critical thing that I didn’t test was what happened when the primary was down – it seemed like it might be difficult to test so I didn’t bother.

This proved to be a mistake.

Last weekend when the primary email server did actually go down I found out the hard way that my secondary was bouncing all emails.

Investigations determined that it was trying to deliver to itself after discovering that the primary was down.

This caused an email loop which was eventually bounced back to the recipient with the error “Too many received headers”.

This made no sense to me and prompted much head scratching.

After much searching online I figured out what was happening, and more importantly, how to fix it.

When exim detects that a host is down it moves on to the next MX DNS record listed (if any).

It then compares its own IP address(es) against the resolved MX record to make sure it doesn’t try to deliver to itself – this is the part that was failing!

The reason it was failing was that EC2 instances run with a NAT‘d IP address – meaning they have a private range IP address which differs from the elastic IP that I had assigned it (and was effectively recorded in the DNS record).

Exim had no way of knowing that it was trying to deliver to itself – hence its confusion.

The fix was fairly straightforward – exim provides a config setting for this situtation.

extra_local_interfaces = YOUR_ELASTIC_IP_ADDRESS

Add that to your /etc/exim4/conf.d/main/000_localmacros file and restart exim (I’m assuming an ubuntu style setup here).

Finally, on to testing that this fix works properly – it proved to be a simple case of stopping exim on my primary for a few seconds while routing an email through the secondary (using mutt on the command line) and checking the exim logs.

It now accepts emails and puts them upon the queue (sudo mailq) for a fixed amount of time before being forwarded to the primary.

This tip also applies if you’re running an Exim secondary on any sort of NAT network, not just EC2.

TODO: Refactor this

Anyone who’s worked on a sufficiently large code base will have probably come across a comment like this one.

// TODO: Refactor this

No doubt left there by some well-meaning developer and probably ignored by everybody else since.

Sometimes it will be accompanied by a rant about exactly what’s wrong with the code in question.

Comments like this serve no useful purpose!

They may serve as a bit of a stress-relief for the person inspired to write it but other than that are a waste of time. If the person leaving it wasn’t inclined to do the refactoring then what makes them think someone else will?

Or maybe they optimistically think they can come back when they get some free time and do it. They almost never will find that free time – the comment will sit there until the developers on the team no longer even notice it anymore.

Here’s what I like to do when I come across some code that I think could do with some refactoring…

Consider working on it right away

If I have time and/or it’s in scope I’ll try to refactor it there and then.

If I can’t do it right away…

Raise a tech debt ticket in the bug tracking software

This creates an actionable task that can be discussed by the team and tracked.

Leave a TODO comment referencing the bug tracker number

This ties the code in question back to the ticket.

Add my name/initials to the comment

This gives people someone to talk to if they happen across the comment.

Oh yeah, and I save the rants for down the pub!

Fixing UTF-8 encoding on my Tomcat websites

Just spent a few hours fixing some UTF-8 encoding problems on my blog.

I had a problem with non-ascii character being displayed incorrectly.

Turns out that I had a number of different problems to solve.

First I read through Cagan Senturk’s (very useful) UTF-8 Encoding fix (Tomcat, JSP, etc) post.

Fortunately I’d already read Joel Spolsky’s epic unicode post so I had the theory.

First off I needed to make sure all my JSPs had the correct pageEncoding at the top.

I also added the ‘Content-Type’ meta header to my template file.

Next I needed to wire in the EncodingFilter that Cagan so kindly provided.

That meant that non-ascii characters in my JSPs rendered fine but I still had two problems.

Any text that I entered into a form was still being screwed up, as was anything read from the database.

Stack Overflow had the solution (as usual) for the form input.

I needed to amend my Tomcat config to ensure my connector had ‘URIEncoding=”UTF-8″ ‘ added to it.

That fixed the form input problem.

That just left my Postgres database.

I first used ‘psql -l’ to see what encoding my database had.

It was set to ‘LATIN1’ – obviously it needed to be ‘UTF-8’.

To fix this I needed to drop and recreate my database.

Luckily this was only my local development database (my production one was already UTF-8) so that was simple enough.

Finally, after all that was done, I had proper UTF-8 support on my site.

And to prove it – here’s some non-ascii content from the UTF-8 SAMPLER website.

¥ · £ · € · $ · ¢ · ₡ · ₢ · ₣ · ₤ · ₥ · ₦ · ₧ · ₨ · ₩ · ₪ · ₫ · ₭ · ₮ · ₯

Tumblr repost

For some reason a photo I posted to Flickr a few years ago has been reposted like crazy on Tumblr.

I only found out via the stats after a few people faved it on Flickr.

Interestingly, it’s been on Flickr for four years and in that time received 29 favo(u)rites.

Once it was posted to Tumblr It managed 336 likes/reblogs in about a week (not sure how I can check that timespan but it was certainly pretty short).

More grist to the mill for the “Flickr is dying” meme (or I’m just not very popular on Flickr).

Adding Sphinx to your Java website with jsphinx

I’ve been using Sphinx on my FilmDev website to search user’s recipes and it’s been working really well.

So well that I wanted to add it to my Java websites too.

Setting up Sphinx on a rails site is made very easy thanks to the Thinking Sphinx plugin.

Unfortunately there is no such plugin for Java so setting it up requires a little more work (though not too much).

First off I downloaded and configured Sphinx until I could call search on the command line and get results back from my database.

I then grabbed the sphinxapi.jar from the downloaded package and dropped it into my WEB-INF/lib directory.

The Java source for that jar is included in the downloaded package – plus a file called “test.java” that I used as the starting point for my own code.

The test.java code works but is fairly basic, I’ve expanded upon it a fair bit and have put it in a github project called jsphinx.

Feel free to grab this code and use and amend as appropriate for your own site.

I encourage you to share any changes you make by forking it on github.

Bear in mind it’s coded against the 0.9.9-release version, I have no idea if it works with the 2.0.1-beta version.

The code includes examples for doing weighting, filtering and ordering.

The command object also supports pagination.

I’m using the code on this blog right now and it works great.

The final thing in that code is something to handle delta indexing.

That’s enough of an involved topic to warrant another blog post…

A problem with the Internet

A while back I ordered a pair of boots on-line.

When I filled in my details and clicked submit I got an error page.

That sort of thing makes me nervous – did my order go through or not?

I checked my email and had no order confirmation email, but decided to leave it for a day to be sure.

So, the following evening as I had no confirmation email I tried again – this time the order went through perfectly and I got my confirmation email.

All good.

Two weeks later I got an email saying my boots had shipped, again, all good.

Five minutes later (I think you can see where this is going) I got a second email saying that my boots had shipped – this one had a different order number though.

I replied to the second order and told them I had only ordered one pair of boots (I decided not to tell them about the error page as I figured it might confuse matters).

I got a swift reply:

So sorry about that, there must of been a problem with the internet at that time. Your card has been refunded for the second order.

“Problem with the internet”?

Problem with their crappy website more like!

Blog repurposement

I started writing this blog in June 2002.

This was before the days of making money from blogs – back then it was all about linking to interesting stuff you found on the web and posting brain dumps about various things in your life.

Back then it was just another blog – not a particularly insightful or popular blog but a blog nonetheless.

Nowadays most blogs are different, they are targeted to a particular niche and usually written by someone with a “blogging strategy”.

The point about having a strategy means they are blogging for an ulterior motive (promote a product, earn money through advertising etc.) rather than blogging for the sake of blogging.

At this point I recommend you go read Rise of the Tablog as it makes the point about the current state of blogging far better than I can.

At some point in 2006 I decided I should try to only post about stuff related to software engineering and computers. That’s right, I’d also decided to target a niche.

I didn’t really have a strategy – I’d just seen where everyone else was going with their blogging and felt I should do the same.

This was the point my blogging slowed down – mainly because I was only posting when I had something to say on the subjects I’d decided I should write about – rather than my original “any old crap” brief.

Around 2007 I bought a bike (the first I’d owned in 20 years) and decided to blog about the experiences of taking up cycling again.

In line with my above thinking I started a bike blog.

That seemed to work well at first as I had about 5 or 6 posts in mind when I started it.

The problem was after writing those posts I didn’t really have that much more to say on the subject of cycling. I tend to add one or two posts a year now if that.

I’d also created a photoblog which originally just contained photos but then I decided to use it for all my photography related posts too.

This leads me to where I am now – three different blogs, all neglected in one way or another.

And only feeling able to blog on the subjects of software, photography or cycling.

What about if I take up Kayaking and want to blog about it?

Do I start a Kayaking blog too?

Note: I have no plans to take up Kayaking.

So, I’ve decided to fix this rather untenable situation I’ve gotten myself into with the following plan.

1. Make this blog more of a general purpose blog again – ie, post more often on a wider range of topics.

2. Continue posting photos on my photoblog but try to keep the longer stuff on this blog.

3. Move the cycling blog to Tumblr – Tumblr makes posting very simple so this will hopefully remove some of the “posting friction”.


text:
Slacking on the Job

23 Jan

Bongo on the trail with his leash stretched behind himYou see what’s attached to me?

No, no! Not the leash.

Well, I guess you can’t see what’s attached to my leash, but you can probably figure it out.

My person is on the other end of it.

It’s kind of a burden sometimes but it’s one of my jobs.

I’ve got to take her out so she can get her exercise.

I thought all dogs had this on their job description.

But I found one today who doesn’t seem to think so.

Brown dog hiding in the bushes

Who is that hiding in the bushes?

I wonder if she ditched her person by going places her person couldn’t follow.

Brown Dog

Here she comes.

Hey brown dog, if you’d stay on the trail like me you could be doing your dogly duty and giving your person exercise.

Brown Dog on the trail

Say what?

Don’t tell me what to do.

It’s a little late to be hitting the trail now.

Where is your person anyway?

Brown dog walking away

Fine. Be that way.

What is it with these personless brown dogs anyway?

It seems to be turning into an epidemic around here.

Posted by on January 23, 2014 in Bongo, dogs, humor

Tags: , , , , , ,

36 responses to “Slacking on the Job

  1. The Editors of Garden Variety

    January 23, 2014 at 10:42 am

    Very cute!

    • Bongo

      January 26, 2014 at 1:53 pm

      Thanks. And thanks for stopping by and commenting.

  2. misswhiplash

    January 23, 2014 at 11:06 am

    What a beautiful dog she is..she looks so elegant. I do hope that she had just mislaid her person and was not lost or abandoned..that would be terrible. Keep your eyes and ears open.xxxxxxx

    • Bongo

      January 26, 2014 at 1:56 pm

      Patrecia, I think maybe she just wanted to go on a longer walk than her person did.

  3. Kimberly M. Ringer

    January 23, 2014 at 11:11 am

    Ohhh I hope she hasn’t lost her person or her family! That would be so so sad. She has a collar. Were you able to see if she had a tag on her to say who her people where?

    She’s very pretty.

    • Bongo

      January 26, 2014 at 1:57 pm

      Kimberly, she had tags, but she wouldn’t let my person get near enough to read them. I bet she just wanted a longer walk than her person did and probably found her way back home when she got tired.

  4. fredrieka

    January 23, 2014 at 12:10 pm

    she has a collar. Mom only puts me on the leash when we are not home. I am lucky she trusts me on the 17 acres we live on I love to run and she is to old and slow to run with the leash

    • Bongo

      January 26, 2014 at 2:00 pm

      Fredrieka, you are so lucky to have all that space to run in. The only place I get to be off leash is in our back yard or the dog park. My person says I might run off anywhere without fences. I have no idea why she thinks that.

  5. sueannporter1

    January 23, 2014 at 12:15 pm

    Bongo, I hope that brown dog didn’t bark too much. Bailey has a dog across the street that barks every time she comes outside, for no reason at all just bark bark bark. Bailey does not like it!

    • Bongo

      January 26, 2014 at 2:01 pm

      Sue Ann, she did bark at us a little. There are some other dogs in my neighborhood that bark if I walk by while they’re in their yards.

  6. Two French Bulldogs

    January 23, 2014 at 12:45 pm

    Bend down and keep rubbing the string against a rock. It may break and you can run from your person

    • Bongo

      January 26, 2014 at 2:02 pm

      Great idea Lily. Maybe I could run off with that new dog I just met.

  7. Genevieve Petrillo

    January 23, 2014 at 2:13 pm

    I bet somewhere nearby there is a frantic person, running, not walking, and carrying a leash with no dog attached. Yikes.

    Love and licks,

    • Bongo

      January 26, 2014 at 2:03 pm

      Cupcake, we never found that person – but then, we never saw that dog again either. I hope they both found each other.

  8. FireBonnet

    January 23, 2014 at 2:55 pm

    She looks pretty well cared for, so I bet she just dropped her person off for a rest and will head back and pick them up soon.

    • Bongo

      January 26, 2014 at 2:04 pm

      FireBonnet, that could be it. I bet her person got tired and she wanted to go for a longer walk.

  9. Patricia

    January 23, 2014 at 6:59 pm

    Maybe she just needed some alone time. Those of us that are female sometimes feel that way.

    • Bongo

      January 26, 2014 at 2:06 pm

      Patricia, maybe that’s why she wouldn’t hang out with me. I thought she might need a friend, but I guess not.

  10. Dalton

    January 24, 2014 at 3:17 am

    I hope her person wasn’t too far away, you will have to keep a look out for her!

    • Bongo

      January 26, 2014 at 2:07 pm

      Dalton, I’ll keep my eyes open for a person holding a leash with no dog attached.

  11. eripanwkevin

    January 24, 2014 at 6:03 am

    OMD! Without a leash, humans get easily lost on your trails Bongo…..You have to tell them that they should bring a leash for attaching their humans!

    • Bongo

      January 26, 2014 at 2:09 pm

      Kevin, you are so right. I’m always having to give people directions on my trails. I’d better tell that dog to find her people before they get seriously lost.

  12. Mags Corner

    January 24, 2014 at 10:53 am

    We think maybe she forgot to attach a leash to her person and they got lost. We hope she finds her person soon and gets them on leash. Hugs and nose kisses

    • Bongo

      January 26, 2014 at 2:10 pm

      Chancy and Mumsy, I hope she finds her person soon too. Otherwise I might have to get a new hat. Search and Rescue Dog.

      • Mags Corner

        January 29, 2014 at 11:01 am

        We hope her person is not lost but we know you would make a super Search and Rescue Dog sweet Bongo.

  13. angelswhisper2011

    January 25, 2014 at 12:28 pm

    Bongo, maybe they show you how it is to walk in freedom…you know, without a leash. So maybe you let your person walk without it 😉

    • Bongo

      January 26, 2014 at 2:26 pm

      Little Binky, I keep trying to convince my person she doesn’t need to attach herself to my leash but she won’t go for it. I think she’s scared to go for a walk by herself.

  14. colliesofthemeadow

    January 26, 2014 at 6:12 am

    I’d like to be personless… heheheheh….. just kidding old guy. But, getting away for a while would be nice! -Ginger

    • Bongo

      January 26, 2014 at 2:38 pm

      Ginger, it would be great if the two of us could go for a romp in the woods together. With no leashes with people attached.

  15. dianeskitchentable

    January 27, 2014 at 10:09 am

    And you take your responsibilities very seriously Bongo. Good thing your person has you around or who knows what kind of stuff she’d be getting mixed up in. I’d bet that other dog’s person is getting more than a walk though – more like a run trying to find him. Funny he didn’t seem to want to come walk with you though – I’d walk with you…Lola

    • Bongo

      January 27, 2014 at 10:52 am

      Lola, I’d love to walk with you any day. But you’d better bring Diane because it’s our job to make sure our people get exercise.

      • dianeskitchentable

        January 27, 2014 at 1:53 pm

        Bongo, she’s soooo slow!

      • Bongo

        January 28, 2014 at 12:08 pm

        Lola, we can take our people for a short walk and then let them keep our leashes (they might need them so they feel more secure) and we can take off running.

  16. marina kanavaki

    February 4, 2014 at 4:02 pm

    Another female conquest, Bongo? Is she really personless? If so, maybe she needs some tlc from you!

    • Bongo

      February 6, 2014 at 10:38 pm

      Marina, I saw her again yesterday and she actually came up and greeted me and wanted to play. Then her person and another dog showed up. I guess she just likes to run ahead of the pack.

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Posts Tagged ‘size

Update on Enzyte

The biggest irony here is that despite all that has purportedly transpired, as detailed below, the Enzyte “male enhancement” infomercials are still running on late-night TV here in the U.S. The shitbag shysters must be trying to raise money to pay the $100 million scam-judgement against them.

Only in America.

February 29, 2008

Jury Forfeits $33 Million Assets Of Execs Convicted In Enzyte Scam

Windsor Genova – AHN News Writer

Cincinnati, OH (AHN) – A U.S. District Court jury has ordered the forfeiture of over $33 million worth of assets of four people convicted for duping hundreds of customers into buying a herbal dietary supplement that purportedly enlarges the male organ.

Ordered to pay the estimated proceeds from their conspiracy, fraud and money laundering crimes were Steven E. Warshak, 42, president and owner of Berkeley Premium Nutraceuticals and TCI Media Inc.; his mother, Harriet, 75; Paul J. Kellogg, 41, in-house lawyer of Berkeley; and Steven P. Pugh, 38, a warehouse manager of Berkeley.

The jury convicted the four on Feb. 22 after finding them guilty of illegally earning millions of dollars from the sale of Enzyte over a five-year period. According to a press statement of the Justice Department, the four shipped the dietary supplements to customers who did not order the product, billed customers through their credit cards without authorization, misrepresented their business activities to their customers and the merchant banks they worked with, and laundered their earnings through personal bank and investment accounts.

The jury also found that Berkeley Premium Nutraceuticals and TCI Media posted false advertising on Enzyte and money-back guarantees as well as prevented customers from canceling orders and getting refunds.

Aside from the $33 million restitution, the four executives are facing a monetary judgment of $100 million in their final sentence.

Update: All four of the aformentioned Enzyte executives are now serving jail sentences, while Enzyte’s production facilities were acquired December of 2008 by a third party, who continues to manufacture and advertise this worthless product. Wikipedia writes:

The conviction threw the company into bankruptcy. In December 2008 the assets were acquired from bankruptcy court for $2.75 million by Pristine Bay, affiliated with Cincinnati developer Chuck Kubicki who said he wanted to keep the company’s 200 employees in one of his property buildings in suburban Cincinnati at Forest Park, Ohio. Pristine Bay LLC has the same mailing address as Kubicki’s Cincinnati United Contractors. Pristine Bay’s statutory agent, Chance Truemper, is a property-development coordinator for CUC. Kubiciki said he would change the company name but would keep the brand.

Pulled Pork for the Common Man

This article was originally published in The Land of Farts and Sunshine.

I hate Bob, the Enzyte guy, with a passion. Or maybe I just hate what he stands for – sometimes it’s hard to tell the difference. Either way, I’ve had more than my fill of the Enzyte “male enhancement” infomercials. I can scarcely avert my eyes and hit the mute button fast enough when the Bob’s rigid (no pun intended), smiling mask appears.

I hate the Enzyte commercials because, 1.) They are stupid, and because 2.) They are stupid.

Seriously, though, it’s ludicrous to think that a guy can lose his drawers at a middle-American suburban pool party, and all the retro ladies (where did they come from? – this is 2007) are going to be either charmed, or awed, and his wife is going to be proud. How about shocked, traumatized, and mortified?

It pretty much goes to show you, however, that some American men hold their “little buddy” in the highest of esteem, else Enzyte wouldn’t sell so well. Capitalizing on the hope that at least some men will psychically graft their head onto Bob’s shoulders, the manufacturer of Enzyte, Berkeley Premium Nutraceuticals, has made millions selling a product that simply doesn’t work. Last year, they also had to pay out $2.5 million in a class action suit, accusing the company of deceptive business practices. Mind you, these “deceptive practices” had nothing whatsoever to do with whether or not the product actually produces “male enhancement” (because “male enhancment” is deliberately vague enough to mean almost anything, and certainly vague enough to account for any placebo effects that men taking Enzyte may experience, which they might interpret as “enhancement”). The lawsuit, rather, concerned unethical business practices, like billing customers for product they never purchased, and not giving refunds, even though refunds are ostensibly the company’s policy.

Continue reading ‘Pulled Pork for the Common Man’


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Urology: Urethral fistula. Diagnostic in Germany, Aachen

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The Rejected Body: Feminist Philosophical Reflections on Disability

Front Cover
Routledge, 1996 - Philosophy - 206 pages
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The Rejected Body argues that feminist theorizing has been skewed toward non-disabled experience, and that the knowledge of people with disabilities must be integrated into feminist ethics, discussions of bodily life, and criticism of the cognitive and social authority of medicine. Among the topics it addresses are who should be identified as disabled; whether disability is biomedical, social or both; what causes disability and what could 'cure' it; and whether scientific efforts to eliminate disabling physical conditions are morally justified.

Wendell provides a remarkable look at how cultural attitudes towards the body contribute to the stigma of disability and to widespread unwillingness to accept and provide for the body's inevitable weakness.

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About the author (1996)

Susan Wendell is Associate Professor of Women's Studies at Simon Fraser University, British Columbia. She is the co- editor, with David Copp, of Pornography and Censorship (1983).

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Hand-Forged Knives

Thursday, 3 August, 2017   3 days
Hillsboro, WI
Fully booked

Waiting list

This event is fully booked, but you can add yourself to the waiting list.

Enter your details below to be informed by email when a place becomes available. You must respond promptly to the email to secure a place if one becomes available.

You will be notified by email if a space becomes available.
This is optional but may be useful for the event organiser.

Tickets / Booking types

Standard Registration

Instructor: Robert Schultz

This three-day class is in honor of instructor Robert’s blacksmithing mentors Jim Batson and Chuck Patrick, who taught him everything he knows about knife-making. Students will begin by forging a blade of high carbon steel, which will then be heat-treated (hardened and tempered) to create a very useful, edge-holding knife. Choose antler, bone, or hardwood for your handle material, and pour pewter or use forged steel for bolster and pommel fittings. All finishing will be done using files, stones, and sandpaper. Inquire about on-site camping options.

Date: 8/3/2017 - 8/5/2017
Register deadline: 7/13/2017
Time: 9am - 4pm each day
Class Fee: $300
Location: Hillsboro, WI

Course details and location directions will be emailed to you 1 week before the course. Please provide accurate contact information to ensure that you receive these details.

Hillsboro, WI


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Something i found interesting

An article i came across in yahoo.It is something i have faced many a times so it perhaps is close to my heart.Don’t know how many of you might agree with me in this…

10 Things Not To Say to Your Childfree Friends

Parenting can have a huge impact on friendships. But you can maintain your bond — with some insight into the childfree point of view.

By Jillian Mackenzie

My boyfriend and I don’t know yet if we’re going to have children — but over the last few years, the majority of our friends have taken the plunge. During that time, I’ve learned a few things about how to keep friendships strong when you don’t have parenthood in common. Here are 10 things not to say to your friends who don’t have children.

1. “When will you finally have kids?”
Once you have offspring, you want your friends to share the experience. But please don’t loudly ask this question across the table at Thanksgiving dinner or at a baby shower. Although many people are happy to be childfree or waiting, the situation may be more complicated. A friend could be facing infertility, in the agonizing position of having a spouse who doesn’t want children, or otherwise in a complex struggle over the issue. Bring it up privately with close friends, or wait for them to share with you.

2. “We always wanted to have a family.”
If you use the expression “have a family” to mean “have children,” you inadvertently send a message that people without kids are… family-less. Family comes in many forms: significant others, parents, siblings, nieces, nephews, cousins, neighbors — happily, the list goes on!

3. “I only invited other parents.”
Having children is the norm, and people who are childfree can sometimes feel isolated or excluded. So invite us to birthday parties! Sure, there are some people who just don’t like kids and have no desire to spend an afternoon surrounded by them. They can decline the invitation, and the rest of us will cheer when the birthday boy takes his first bite of cupcake.

4. “Are you hung-over?”
If you had kids when you were on the younger side, you may have transitioned abruptly from staying out bar-hopping to night feedings and Yo Gabba Gabba — and years later, you may assume that we’re still acting like our crazy twentysomething selves. But just because we don’t have kids doesn’t mean we aren’t growing up.

5. “You’re so lucky you get to sleep in/shop/travel.”
We understand that you give up a lot to be the amazing parent you are — and we do appreciate our extra cash and free time, and god, yes, the sleep. But too many offhand comments like this make us feel like you assume the reason we don’t have children is that we’re lazy, selfish, or shallow. The decision is never that simple.

6. “This must be birth control for you.”
Parents often make this joke when their kid is being loud or persistent, and we understand it’s because you’re worried the situation is bugging the hell out of everyone around you. Don’t stress — a good friend understands that your kid is going to have a meltdown once in a while. We can take it. And, of course, a crying toddler is not actually a tipping point in our decision to have kids. We’re not that shortsighted.

7. “Your dog/cat/parakeet is your baby.”
Pets are a huge part of many people’s lives, whether or not those people have children. But it feels like a consolation prize when you put it like this. That said, ask about my cat; I’m happy to pull up my latest photo of her adorableness.

8. “I can’t die; I’m a mom.”
During a recent brief terrorism scare in New York City, a friend said to me, “I have to get out — I can’t die; I’m a mom.” We know you have someone depending on you in an unprecedented way, but there are people who love and depend on us, too.

9. “I’m sorry it’s taken forever for me to call/email/text you back.”
Don’t start every correspondence with an apology. Your life is insane and letting us know you want to make time for us is appreciated. But don’t stress so much: My life is busy too, and more often than not, I didn’t even notice a lag.

10. “You wouldn’t understand.”
We know there are many things about parenting you will turn to your mom friends to talk about. And, honestly, with anyone other than a close friend, that’s probably best — I lose interest fast when someone I don’t know well talks too much about their kids. But when we’re real friends, don’t let our relationship fade because you’re afraid of boring us with parenting stuff. Just like we used to listen to you talk about your ex, we want to hear about what’s important in your life now. And we hope you’ll do the same for us.

Distance hardly matters

Being away from family hurts at times.But since all those close to me are in my heart,i feel better.Thanks to Telephone and Internet,it is now possible to atleast speak and even see the person!!There are times when i do miss meeting and spending time especially with my Parents but its alright.There is always this feeling of loneliness,sadness,a feeling that i cannot be there for them whenever they need me but that is Life!!!Since i cannot be with them in person,i try to make it upto them by calling them whenever i can.It is because of them that i am here right now.A relationship between parents and their children is one of the best relationships that exist in this world.

After All it is said, ” Blood Is Thicker Than Water”.


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Sue Daniel- Psychodramatist, Australia

Sue-DanielSue Daniel is a psychodramatist (TEP), individual and group psychotherapist, and a consulting psychologist (MAPs).  She is the Director of the Psychodrama Institute of Melbourne (PIM), Chairperson of the Australian and Aotearoa Board of Psychodrama (AABP), a member of the Board of the International Association of Group Psychotherapy and Group Processes (IAGP) and visiting Professor at the Muroran Institute of Technology, Hokkaido, Japan.

Workshop Description:

Active Listening: Applications of sociometry and psychodrama in one to one psychotherapy.

Active Listening involves being in the moment, making something from what the client is communicating, verbal or non-verbal.  The ability to both listen and see clearly in the moment is vital.  We need to be able to recognize, value and identify what is emerging in the other and ourselves from moment to moment.  Knowledge of sociometry and role theory serves this process.  In this workshop I will be using specific sociometric activities and relevant psychodrama techniques.  This workshop is designed for those working with individuals, couples or families who are interested in furthering their one-to-one counselling, supervision or psychotherapy skills.


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Explore BrainMass

Feminist Theory

Feminist theory is a major contemporary sociological theory that analyzes the status of women and men in society with the purpose of using that knowledge to better women’s lives.

There are four major types of feminist theory¹:

  1. Gender Differences: this perspective examines how women’s location in, and experience of, social situations differ from men’s. The values associated with womanhood and femininity are just one reason as to why men and women experience the social world differently.
  2. Gender Inequality: gender-inequality theories recognize that not only is women’s location in, and experience of, social situations different but also unequal to men’s. Theorists argue that women have the same capacity for men as moral reasoning and agency, but patriarchy and the sexist patterning of the division of labor has denied women the opportunity to express and practice this reasoning.
  3. Gender Oppression: the gender oppression perspective argues that not only are women different from and unequal to men, but that they are actively oppressed. Two of the main theories in this framework are psychoanalytic feminism and radical feminism. Radical feminists believe that conscious calculation cannot fully explain the production and reproduction of patriarchy.
  4. Structural Oppression: those who study this framework posit that women’s oppression and inequality are a result of capitalism, patriarchy and racism embedded in the social structure.

A current trend in feminist theory is to analyze and question the differences between women and how other minority identities intersect with gender. How do the experiences of an Aboriginal woman in America differ from those of a white, black or hispanic woman in America? This is called intersectionality.

1. Crossman, Ashley. About. Sociology: Feminist Theory. Retrieved May 8, 2014, from

Female Genital Mutilation Prevention

I need some assistance. I am working on this paper on FGM (female genital mutilation) and got stuck The question is to present two strategies that would implement if working with a family that supports this cultural practice. And provide a rationale for the strategies you have chosen and how they relate to the underlying c

How Masculinity and Violence are Valued in the United States

Explain how our idea of masculinity values various forms of violence, and how our idea of femininity turns women into victims. Can you see this in your own life--whether you are a woman or a man? How? If you feel comfortable, try to give some specific examples. Look for some online resources that suggest what we can do in the

Gender Inequality in the Workplace (Globally)

Gender inequality continues to be an on-going issue in the workplace on the global level. The difficulty lies in precisely pinpointing the reasons for this inequality, as the authors for this unit attempt to do. Consider both gender-related articles and find common threads that may help explain this multifaceted problem in c


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Block Periodization Versus Linear Periodization: Which Is Better?

Doug Dupont

Contributor - Health and Fitness News, Reviews

Strength and Conditioning

Periodization, the planned distribution of work during exercise, has been around for decades, but few gym-goers actually use it. In a recent Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research study, two kinds of periodization were compared to see which would make the participants stronger and more powerful.

The first kind of periodization studied is called traditional periodization, and is sometimes called linear periodization. Traditional periodization is when the load of your lifts gradually increases over the course of a cycle, typically one that’s planned for a training year (usually referred to as a macrocycle). As the load increases, the volume decreases as a result.

The traditional method was compared to block periodization. The basic idea of block periodization is that each macrocycle is divided up into three distinct mesocycles. A mesocycle is a chunk of the training year that focuses on a specific goal. Each mesocycle is lined up in a specific order so that the results of the first mesocycle feed into the next in a logical pattern. Hypertrophy is developed first, followed by a mesocycle of strength, and finally a third mesocycle of power.

Fitness, strength and conditioning, programming, periodization

In the study, researchers compared traditional periodization to block periodization using a four-day-per-week workout over the course of fifteen weeks. They tested the participants both before and after the program in a selection of strength, power, and explosiveness exercises. The lifts used were the same between both programs (two pressing days, a pulling day, and a leg day that included a few upper body lifts), and the total workload was the same as well. This means that the volume multiplied by the load for each program was identical. Because of this study design, the only difference between the programs was a timing of the intensity and volume to fit into the framework of each design.

Overall, block periodization won the day. The athletes improved bench press performance significantly more in both strength and power when compared to the traditional periodization. There was, however, no difference between the two in leg strength or power. The researchers speculate that because the participants were well trained, the frequency of training was too low for the legs to see a difference.

It should be noted that the mesocycle of traditional periodization is usually a year long. However, this program lasted only fifteen weeks. While the evidence in favor of block periodization is strong here, it’s possible that the traditional periodization is getting short shrift. Block periodization, by design, is made up of shorter mesocycles that may get superior results in the short term, but perhaps not the long term.

That said, it certainly seems as though working with block periodization is the way to go, at least over a fifteen-week period. Without some major failing, it isn’t likely that a program that shows better results in the short term won’t also be better in the long term, but it is possible.

If you aren’t currently periodizing your workout plan, it may be a good time to start based on this information. Bear in mind there are other forms of periodization as well, like the conjugate method employed by many powerlifters, in which more than one trait is worked at a time. Whatever plan you choose, having a plan is better than having none.

1. Sandro Bartolomei, et. al., “A Comparison of Traditional and Block Periodized Strength Training Programs in Trained Athletes,” Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research, 28(4), 2014.

Photo courtesy of Shutterstock.

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Top 6 Reasons You Should Join a Swim Club

Alan Kipping-Ruane

Triathlon, Endurance Sports

Most triathletes want to know the secret of how natural swimmers can just, well, swim! Ask any masters or Olympic swimmer what his or her swimming secret is and 99% of the time you will get the same answer: he or she joined a swim club or team at a young age and/or belong to a swim program currently. So, below are the top six reasons why you should join a swim club:

1. Getting Faster

The best reason you should join a club is to swim faster. This outcome results from coached sessions, other athletes pushing you to your limit, and a quality swim workout that isn’t the same as swimming by yourself. Getting up early for a swim practice can be daunting at times, but putting in the time and effort with a swimming club will pay huge dividends come race season, as well as helping out with reason number five.

Fitness, coaching, group exercise, swimming, swimming technique

2. Meet New Athletes

Triathletes tend to train alone, which often means swim-workout torture. When you don’t have anyone to talk to at the pool, your swimming starts to feel like a chore. Joining a master’s practice will surely guarantee that you meet new athletes. Top college swimmers, All-Americans, and Olympic swimmers might just be in the next lane, but if you aren’t training together, how would you know? Going to practices will help you learn more about other athletes and might just score you training advice from a high-caliber swimmer for free.

3. Learn to Swim With Better Technique

Swimming programs will increase the number of swim sessions you have during the week. With an increase in distance and speed, one thing that will start to improve drastically is your technique. With coached sessions and other athletes watching you, you’ll begin to identify areas of your swim technique that need work. Paying for video analysis can be quite expensive, but receiving personal attention from a coach or a handful of athletes looking at you might just fix that terrible head position you have in the water.

4. Coaching and Accountability

5:00am swim practices are never fun. I never liked them and they only got harder when I joined the Navy. The one thing that always kept me coming back, though, was my coach and accountability I felt to my fellow rescue swimmers and team. After you meet a new coach and athletes, they tend to notice when you miss a practice or cut a warm up or cool down short.

Do you want to let your new teammates or coach down? Do you want to make everyone wait on you in the morning before the practice starts? Having that accountability can help you become a better swimmer by forcing you to break out of old or bad habits.

Fitness, coaching, group exercise, swimming, swimming technique

5. Competing

When swimming with an adult program, there are actually meets in which you can compete. Running and road cycling races are easy to find with a quick online search, but how often do you hear about a mile or 500m swimming competition? This type of competition can give your season a new focus and provide you the confidence you need to crush your next race.

6. Patience

I don’t think I can actually count on all toes and fingers the number of athletes I have coached over the years who have had to learn patience when it comes to swimming. We live in an instant gratification society and I find it hard for triathletes to fully get that swimming is long-term development. Not. Short. Term. You need to develop and have the patience to know that the time spent working on proper form now will give you enormous rewards come the future.

In addition to these top six reasons above, there are plenty of other benefits from swimming with a group such as new friends, increase in stamina, and more. Don’t be left behind while your competition surges ahead of you during the swim. Take the extra time to find a program that suits you and just have fun! You never know what you may learn or discover.

Photos courtesy of Shutterstock.

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Entry #1 – Dean Nohria’s World Introductory Tour

First Stop – London, England

The Economist world headquarters

Dean Nohria literally hit the ground running for the kick-off of his international tour, landing at 5 a.m. at Heathrow Airport and arriving in downtown London just in time to freshen up for a 9 a.m. meeting with a team of journalists from The Economist. Much of the discussion focused on the role and reputation of business in the wake of the economic crisis and what business schools can contribute to changes and improvements.  Nitin spoke at length about the importance getting students to think deeply about their sense of purpose in life — not just in regard  to themselves but to the greater society. The Economist editors were also interested in learning more about the School’s shift to being a more global institution. Nitin spoke about our global research centers and the increase in the number of  international cases.

We sped from the Economist to the BBC radio headquarters at Bush House, where Nitin spent more than 30 minutes taping an interview with Lesley Curwen of BBC World Service for a segment to be broadcast next  Monday afternoon.. In addition to further discussion about business reputation and globalization, they spent time discussing the Tony Hayward situation.

The Dean spent the afternoon meeting with HBS alumni. This trip is part of a consultation period he’s embarking on. He will be meeting with alumni and business leaders, among others, to engage them in a discussion about the future of HBS and how we can ensure that our graduates are equipped to be leaders in the 21st century.

Next up . . . Mumbai. Familiar surroundings for Nitin. Completely new to me. And let’s just say that “fever pitch” doesn’t begin to describe how excited India is to welcome home their native son – the new dean of Harvard Business School.

Stay tuned.


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Tooth Prop for Short Film – “Diemension”

Just finished a life size tooth prop for a Twitter friend of mine Rob Bish, @XzombishX who is making a short film along with two of his friends, Jim Dolan and Dazza Field called ‘Diemension‘ that is about a man that searches for more than his world  … Tagline “It’ll melt your teeth!!” … 😀

He’s starting to shoot in the next couple of weeks so keep a look out for more news.

The tooth in the script is a big molar tooth that the protagonist in the film pulls out and notices it has a strange blue effect where his fingers have touched it.

I sculpted the molar from Fimo polymer clay that you buy in the shade you require. I mixed a yellow and white to get a basic cream shade as a base. I use a pasta making machine to mix the clay but you can mix the colours by hand, especially with small amounts.

These photos show the tooth with a basic coat of white acrylic on the upper, enamel covered part of the tooth.

2013-01-31 19.05.36 2013-01-31 19.05.25 2013-01-31 19.05.13 2013-01-31 18.49.51 2013-01-31 18.48.16

The following photos show the tooth from lots of different angles which I painted with various washes of yellow and ochre acrylic to achieve the natural staining.

2013-01-31 19.30.53 2013-01-31 19.31.04 2013-01-31 19.37.58 2013-01-31 19.38.08 2013-01-31 19.38.18 2013-01-31 19.38.28

These last photos show the final stage where I added the blue strange marbling effect. I achieved this by mixing a bright blue acrylic with silver, to give it a brighter more unnatural look. I used a very fine brush and cocktail stick to apply the paint, and then blurred it slightly with a damp cotton bud.

2013-02-07 17.43.15 2013-02-07 17.43.28 2013-02-07 17.44.19 2013-02-07 17.44.44

(I held the tooth for the last few shots for scale).

2013-02-07 18.20.53 2013-02-07 18.21.36

I finally sealed it to protect the paint with Plasticote Clear Sealer acrylic spray.

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Tag Archives: hugo & sons

Brunch At Hugo & Sons

For my first visit to Hugo & Sons, just a short walk from my apartment, we met my parents for brunch. Although the zucchini frittata and the roasted eggplant both sounded good, I only had eyes for the pizza. I … Continue reading

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The latest issue of the Islamic State's weekly newspaper al-Naba released two days ago warned that another terrorist attack in Britain was "definitely coming."

Al-Naba, a 16-page color newsletter, is distributed within ISIS territory but is also posted and distributed online via the usual ISIS mediums such as Telegram and social media.

Britain, said an article within the newsletter titled "Blessed Battle of Manchester: A new lesson for tyrants, Crusader States," thought it "was safe from the wounds of the Mujahideen."

"Protected by the sea they have long relied on isolating themselves" and thought "their exit from the European Union would save them."
"A soldier from the Islamic State" in Manchester, the article continued, "has unleashed terror throughout their country, they rushed to spread the army in the cities, mobilizing police and security in the streets for fear of a new attack," which "is inevitable, God willing."

ISIS branded British security and vigilance across cities and towns a "costly, exhausting situation."

ISIS also needled the UK for "their abandonment of John Cantlie," a British war correspondent who was kidnapped in Syria in 2012 and has been forced to write propaganda pieces and film video segments for his ISIS captors. Cantlie was last seen in December ISIS videos reporting from Mosul.

Though Al-Naba usually focuses on events within ISIS territory, Ohio State terrorist Abdul Razak Ali Artan was featured in a December article calling the first-year student "one of the Mujahideen of the Islamic State" who "attacked a gathering" at the school, causing "serious injuries."

British authorities are treating tonight's ramming of pedestrians on London Bridge by a white van speeding at about 50 mph and a stabbing at nearby Borough Market as terrorist incidents.

Last month in Rumiyah magazine, which is published in several languages including English, ISIS published a remedial step-by-step pictorial for lone jihadists on how to use a heavy vehicle to kill, walking would-be terrorists through how to acquire a vehicle and which targets to strike.

"The ideal vehicle," said ISIS, has a "slightly raised chassis and bumper," is a "double-wheeled, load-bearing truck" that "large in size, heavy in weight" and is "fast in speed or rate of acceleration."

The suggestions for ideal targets also illustrated examples. Corresponding to "large outdoor festivals, conventions, celebrations, and parades" was a photo of an LGBT event. As during the Pulse nightclub attack last summer, Ramadan is currently overlapping with LGBT Pride Month.

A busy London street next to an Underground stop was shown as the "pedestrian-congested streets" example. After "outdoor markets," ISIS suggested "outdoor rallies," and used a photo of a 2012 May Day rally in Paris.