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NRL Rd 2 - Warriors v Raiders
NRL Rd 2 - Warriors v Raiders

Blair ‘on verge of tears’ over lockdown

Warriors veteran Adam Blair has revealed the emotional toll the uncertainty of New Zealand's indefinite Australian tour has had on the club.

Blair was on the verge of tears when asked what it was like to celebrate his 34th birthday last Friday without his wife and two children.

The Warriors have been stuck in Australia since March 13 after travelling across the Tasman for a supposed two-night trip to play Round 1 of the NRL.

Strict border controls issued while they were in Newcastle meant the Warriors would have to withdraw from the NRL if they returned to New Zealand.

A competition without the Warriors would cost the NRL millions in lost broadcast revenue every week, with no guarantee the New Zealand players would continue to be paid.

The Warriors have set up camp at a resort in Kingscliff in northern NSW and lost a "home" game against the Raiders on the Gold Coast on Saturday.

Adam Blair and the Warriors could be stuck in Australia for six months.
Adam Blair and the Warriors could be stuck in Australia for six months.

The club has committed to remaining in Australia for as long as the NRL is being played, a scenario which could see them stay away from New Zealand for six months.

Blair said while the team was grateful for the NRL's moves to keep them comfortable, the uncertainty of the situation was weighing heavily on them after a two-day trip turned into an indefinite tour.

"It was quite upsetting because I didn't get to see the kids (on my birthday) but it is what it is," Blair said.

"It's just the unknown for us.

"Every single day, when we seem to have pushed past it as a group, something else comes up again and there's another conversation. We put it aside then something else comes up.

"It's a unique situation for us. It's hard, but there's no excuses for us.

"We've got to make this our home and start realising as a group it's going to be our home now. We've got to buy into it. We are slowly but it's hard.

Adam Blair couldn’t celebrate his birthday with family.
Adam Blair couldn’t celebrate his birthday with family.

"Even though you speak as a group, you don't know how individually people are thinking deep down inside.

"We've got a really family-orientated group, a lot of Pacific Island boys who live at home with their families.

"It's about making sure we stay strong together and keep pushing forward."

The Warriors have flown in reinforcements, with a group of six players joining the squad during the week to bolster their depth.

They have to serve a 14-day quarantine before being allowed to play and Blair said the team would not begrudge any teammates that decided to return home.

"We've told the boys - if they don't want to be here because of their family then don't stay. We're supporting that throughout the group," he said.

"We're getting looked after pretty well. It's our families back home that the pressure is getting put on.

"A lot of the Aussie boys' partners don't have family back home and New Zealand is starting to get a lot stricter now. They're one step away from being locked in their house and don't have family support.

Adam Blair has given a revealing insight into life inside Warriors camp.
Adam Blair has given a revealing insight into life inside Warriors camp.

"My wife (Jess) and kids can come over here - I'm one of the lucky ones.

"But there's schools, uni. My wife is in the last year of uni, if she packs up now she fails.

"She has followed me everywhere I've gone and it's always about me. It's hard for her to make a decision.

"They can't stay with us anyway because you've got to go into lockdown for 14 days (when you arrive in Australia)."

The Warriors are scheduled to face Manly at Lottoland on Friday if the NRL's Round 3 games progress.

The Warriors have only scored six points, courtesy of a penalty try, in 160 minutes of football this season and have been widely-tipped to contend for the wooden spoon.

A veteran of 313 NRL games, Blair admitted the toll of their uncertain situation and mounting losses could be hard to cope with.

"It's a young group and we're stripped for numbers. The kids that have come in have been outstanding the last two weeks and performed for us," he said.

"We need to put away all the noise, which is pretty hard, and put in performances we're proud of.

"If we're not it's going to make our time away from our families a lot harder.

"We can't go out there and disappoint and get a scoreline like that (20-6 loss) all the time. We've got to be competitive and work hard as a group.

"We're trying to keep our preparation as normal as possible but that's hard because every day there is a restriction coming in for us.

"The hotel restaurant is getting stricter. The cafes across the road we shouldn't be going there because of (the player lockdown).

"It gets harder and harder every day."

Originally published as Blair 'on verge of tears' over lockdown


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Wilkes-Barre man arrested for drunken break-in at his girlfriend;s Dickson City home

A row of Dickson City police SUVs outside the borough building. FRANK WILKES LESNEFSKY / STAFF PHOTO

DICKSON CITY - Borough police arrested a Wilkes-Barre man Tuesday night for drunkenly breaking into his girlfriend's home.

Suffian Johnson, 31, 501 S. Franklin St., is charged with trespassing, criminal mischief and resisting arrest, according to a criminal complaint.

Shortly before 11 p.m., police responded to the 900 block of Carmalt Street where a woman, Kaylee Gibbs, reported that her drunk boyfriend just broke in through the front window.

Police said that Johnson struggled with them and they needed to use a stun gun.

Gibbs told police he had been drinking a lot in the past few days. He got angry when she refused to open the door and he pushed the window in.

Johnson was jailed in the Lackawanna County Prison in lieu of $25,000 bail. A preliminary hearing is scheduled Wednesday.

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Delayed Fuse- Creekside gold

It aint all about jumps in Whistler, this trail was so much fun to try and flow down!

Thanks to
250 London
Shovel Components

Credit: Dan Partington

jonnyoddy jonnyoddy 6/28/2019 5:14 AM

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Analyst estimates Apple iTunes’ movie and TV rentals currently at 475,000 per day

Apple Online Store“Gleacher & Co. analyst Brian Marshall, who follows Apple (AAPL), today offers up his attempt to size up the iTunes movie and TV rentals market,” Tiernan Ray blogs for Barron’s.

“He estimates Apple has 475,000 daily rentals on iTunes… He assumes 90% of the TV shows are rentals, and 75% are movies. Mind you, there’s no exact explanation for those percentages, but there you have it. Out of this, he comes up with an implied $60 million per quarter for Apple rentals,” Ray reports.

Ray reports that Marshall “argues that if Apple can grow iTunes rentals similarly [to Netflix], then ‘it is feasible iTunes annual rental revenue could exceed $1 billion by 2015.’ Marshall has a Buy rating on Apple shares and a $355 price target.”

Full article here.

[Thanks to MacDailyNews Readers “Wayne W.” and “iWill” for the heads up.]

  1. Well, hell aparently froze.

    An analyst that actually used some facts?

    “from Apple’s disclosure last week, in announcing it was close to selling its millionth AppleTV, that iTunes is seeing rentals and purchases of “over 400,000 TV episodes and over 150,000 movies per day”

    I went to the original story just to see where he pulled those numbers from and was quite surprised.

    Keep up the good work Apple!

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MacX Mobile Converter Spring Giveaway

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MacX Mobile Converter Spring Giveaway is the specially custom edition of MacX Mobile Video Converter, which can easily convert SD and HD videos to iPhone 5S/5C, iPad Air/Mini Retina, Android phones and tablets, etc, helping you enjoy a brand-new video converting experience across your mobile devices. This free mobile video converter also provides robust ability to edit video, extract audio and image from video files, while bringing the fastest speed and decent quality.

NOTE: MacX Mobile Video Converter Spring Giveaway is a limited-time exclusive offer from Digiarty Software. Please enter BX-VPEOVTSM-YCBHEX as the license key to activate it before April 10, 2014.

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1. Free convert both HD and SD videos, such as MKV, M2TS, MOD, MPEG, WMV, FLV, MP4 and AVI to iTunes, iMovie, Final Cut Pro on Mac so as to play on iPhone 5S/5C, iPad Air/Mini Retina, iPod Touch, Apple TV anytime.
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Retro microphone in front of brightly coloured audio waveform graphic
Podcasting Tips

3 Surefire Ways To Improve Your Podcast

On my personal Facebook page, I’ve got a photo album called “Looking Awkward Standing Next To Rock Stars” (I’ll link to it later if you fancy a nose). Not because I’m a stalker, but because before making animations for a living, I made a much easier living, working in radio. For 20 years, in fact, starting off as a Broadcast Assistant (coffee monitor) at BBC Radio Sheffield and ending up in London as the mid-morning presenter on the national rock station Planet Rock – hence the pics of me (looking awkward) next to Ozzy Osbourne, Alice Cooper, Dave Grohl etc.

That headache you’ve just noticed? Caused by heavy namedropping.

I’ve interviewed hundreds of people and learned a lot about how to get the most out of guests as well as tackling the technical side of things. Over the past couple of years, podcasts have become big (again) and as they often involve interviews, I thought it would be helpful to share some of this knowledge. Without further faff, here are my 3 surefire ways to improve your podcast.

1. Shut Up

If you’re interviewing someone on your podcast, when they speak, try not to make a sound. Not a “mmmn”, “yeah”, “ha” – nothing. This is way harder than you may think but it will transform the quality of your podcasts.

Real-life conversations are full of these short, often involuntary, utterances which show you’re listening and engaged. But you don’t want them all over your podcast for two important reasons:

  • They can be really distracting. I had to stop listening to one of Fearne Cotton’s otherwise enjoyable podcasts because of the continuous “yeahs” etc. when she was interviewing Dawn French. And once you’ve heard one, your brain zones in on them and that’s all you’ll hear.
  • (This is the important one) Those gaps between your guest’s words are where you’ll make your edits. And if they’re full of your vocal farts, it’ll be a pain to chop up.

It’s surprisingly tricky to do because you’re desperately trying to build a rapport in a short space of time. Not being able to chuck in those quick noises makes you feel rude. The solution is to become a very enthusiastic mime artist; open your mouth wide to show shock; raise your eyebrows for surprise; nod like mad for agreement. LOOK as if you’re hanging on their every word. Just don’t sound like it.

2. Shisho

Shisho is the ancient Japanese practice of…

Actually, I made it up. It stands for:

Shit In: Shit Out

Basically, what gets recorded is pretty much what your audience will hear. There’s an old gag in filmmaking: when something doesn’t look right during a shoot, you can always just “fix it in post” i.e. don’t worry about it now, whoever’s doing post-production (DBM Motion Graphics, for-unsubtle-instance) can sort it out later. And while there are improvements that can be made to audio recordings in the edit, you can only do so much after it’s in the can. So:

  • Get some decent microphones. RØDE make good quality, affordable mics. I’ve been using a pair of their M3 mics since 2012 and, despite plenty of abuse, they’re still great.
  • Use pop shields to stop plosives (words beginning with B and P) sounding unnaturally loud. Skint? Stretch a pair of tights over a coathanger – one perfectly usable homemade pop shield.
  • Wear headphones so you can hear what’s being recorded.
  • A quiet recording is easier to rectify than one that’s been recorded too loudly. Once it’s distorted, you ain’t gonna fix it.
  • Check a few sections of the recording before any guests leave in case they’ve not been recorded.

You don’t need expensive kit to get decent recordings, but a little research into mic technique and recording levels will go a long way. For editing, try Audacity. It’s free and can do everything you’ll need it to.

3. In-Person Always Wins

You will always get a better interview if you’re in the same room as the person you’re talking to. Yes, SKYPE and other such tools can get you chatting with people on the other side of the world but if you want to get the very best out of someone: meet them in person. That physical closeness really does make a massive difference to how naturally you’ll interact. Not being in the same room also means your voices will sound different due to the variations in acoustics, equipment etc. and that actually heightens the feeling of separation and can sound distracting.

Remember too, the interview starts before you begin recording. From the second you say hello, you should be “working” them: making them feel relaxed if they appear nervous; listening out for snippets of information which could be explored in the interview. Just because you haven’t hit record, doesn’t mean this isn’t a really important part of the process.

The only time I found being in the same room as the interviewee was no great help was when I interviewed the actor Jack Black who, from start to finish of a 30 minutes recording, didn’t open his eyes once. Prick.

KLAAANG! And that’s the final namedrop.

Rob Birnie and Jack Black
Jack Black with his eyes open, now I’m not talking to him. Strange.

Extra bits

2 Comment

  1. Great post, Rob. Love your sense of humour! Good tips for the podcasters out there, how hard it must be not to make those ‘I’m listening’ sounds. Pretty cool name dropping and I look forward to hearing more of your stories.

    1. Hi Imogen 👋 Thanks very much for reading and taking the time to comment. Yes, it’s really hard being completely quiet when someone else is talking – makes you feel like you’re being rude – but you’ll thank yourself when it comes to editing the podcast!

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1399 1499

Bone-dry, super-aromatic and breathtakingly elegant, this Muscat possesses a sophistication not often seen in the varietal. Lilac flowers and lemon zest aromas mingle in the citrus mouthfeel while a minerally streak of acidity dances throughout.

SKU: 3292350445052

On rare occasions, a chosen vintage of a wine may sell out or be replaced by a new release after your order is placed. With bottles of wine listed under $15, we will not hold up an order and will simply automatically substitute the wine with the comparable vintage. Please be assured that we will only substitute with a vintage for the same type, varietal and winery.

During extreme weather during the Summer and Winter months we do recommend delaying shipments. We do not like to ship if the weather is above 85 degrees or below 32 degrees. To ensure the safety of your product we do recommend holding the shipment. We will hold in our temperature controlled facility until weather permits.

During Checkout you may Choose the Hold Until Safe and we will ship it once weather conditions are suitable
In this case, we will watch the weather closely and will remove the hold and ship your order as soon as conditions permit. The release dates will vary, and because there is no specified date for delivery, the warehouses will ship it as weather permits. If the Hold Until Safe option is released and your order is shipped, you will receive a shipping notice with the tracking number link.
Clos de la Chapelle Muscadet 2017
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• Home
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Professional Development Opportunities

    • 02/27/2021
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    • Tan-Tar-A Resort, Osage Beach, MO

    • 02/28/2021
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    • 03/01/2021
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    • Tan-Tar-A Conference Center at Margaritaville Lake Resort, Osage Beach, MO

    The current pandemic has presented many challenges for those in the networking business.  However, we know that our members are looking forward to learning together at our annual Leadership Conference.  At our Fall Board Meeting, the MAESP Executive Committee made the decision to move forward in planning an in-person conference, while taking all the necessary precautions to host a safe and socially distant event for our members and supporters.

    Should it be necessary to cancel the conference due to ongoing issues surrounding the pandemic, MAESP will fully refund any funds used to secure your spot in the exhibit hall.

    The MAESP Leadership Conference will be held February 27 - March 2, 2021 at Tan-Tar-A Conference Center at Margaritaville Lake Resort in Osage Beach, MO.  This conference typically brings together over 500 principals, superintendents, college professors and Missouri State Department of Education representatives from around the state.  However, given the current situation, we expect to draw a smaller crowd this year.

    Exhibit spaces will first be assigned to MAESP sponsors and business associate members. Other assignments will be made on a first-come, first-serve basis.  If you are interested in becoming an MAESP sponsor or business associate member, please contact the MAESP office at 573-638-2460 or maesp@maesp.com.

Missouri Association of Elementary School Principals
3550 Amazonas Drive
Jefferson City, MO  65109

Phone: 573-638-2460
Fax:  573-556-6270

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