text:
Tuesday, 12 May 2015

Baby Diaries : My little boy is polite!!

Image source: Internet

Look into his cradle as soon as he is up and there it is, in spite of him being just half awake. Peek at him when he is restless for food or sleep and it peeks in too. Talk to him while he is in deep rumination over something that his baby mind has seen and it comes instantly. Call out to him while he is at a totally involved try to crawl or is experimenting what all he can do with his hands –it would still flash on that lovely round face- eyes light up and the cute little rosy lips curve – into the most beautiful smile I have ever seen!

If we are lucky, we’d even get to hear a full fledged baby laugh. When he is about to fall asleep, his face usually gets all serious and he just stares at my face listening to the lullaby I am singing. Many times, that serious expression would make me smile and there! He would immediately flash one back in spite of all the sleep that is overpowering him .

The little man has a curious habit though. When he is terribly sleepy and his cheeks hang about his face with eyes reduced to a mere slit, he very easily slips into fits of laughter. The other day, I was rocking his cradle and singing bhajans one after another. Suddenly, he burst out laughing for one of the songs from the midst of his sleepy stupor. I then realized that he found the word ‘Vittala’ funny. The song was full of that name of the lord and for a few minutes, baby and mommy forgot all about sleep and enjoyed the singing accompanied by baby laughs :)

All the clockwork routine of feeding, bathing and putting the baby to sleep numerous times a day becomes completely worth it just for these surprise moments that ‘interfere’ with the schedule.  For, it is amidst the chugging along chores that these are hidden – Cute baby talk during bath time, spitting out food and smiling, laughing from the cradle as a sign of total refusal to sleep, tiring you out completely and then flashing an innocent smile-the list is a huge one. I would happily walk this continuous clockwork routine and not mind all the constraints that a baby imposes on life, just for these priceless moments.


Content-Type: application/http; msgtype=response

WARC-Identified-Payload-Type: application/xhtml+xml

WARC-Type: response

text:
Wednesday, June 24, 2009

Bonnaroo - Sunday, June 14

Ted Leo and the Pharmacists
In the first of what turned out to be many fruitful half-sets I caught Sunday afternoon, Ted Leo and the Pharmacists brought the weekend's best gracefully-aging melodic punk to The Other Tent, and they brought it hard. Busting out mostly new tracks interspersed with old favourites (I've never listened to a Ted Leo album, so this is purely judging by the reactions of the into-it dudes and dudettes around me), Ted and his band covered everything from simmering midtempo jams to more standard punky-pop blitzkreigs. Plus, when introducing "Even Heroes Have to Die," he explained, "The point is, everybody is human...that's not usually the point, but I thought it was appropriate for Bonnaroo."

The Dillinger Escape Plan
Sunday's lineup at That Tent was likely a Bonnaroo first, consisting exclusively of metal bands. Oh how quickly things change. It's not clear whether this new direction paid off, as the crowd gathered for Dillinger's theatrical math metal was noticeably sparse compared to other midday acts – though the pit seemed to be in a fine form. I was mainly there to see lead vocalist Greg Puciato jump into/on top of the crowd, which indeed happened on their epic closer. And boy can they shred!

Brett Dennen
For the last couple years, I've kept Brett Dennen at arm's length, expecting to quickly bore from what I assume to be a body of heard-it-before work hidden below his satisfyingly unique voice. And yet, I found Dennen and his California boys' somba-inspired khaki rock to be danceable and enjoyable in the non-ironic kind of way. I have to agree with an equally impressed attendee beside me, who announced to a friend, "This guy's got some soul!" That, and it was more ska than folk. Go figure.

Erykah Badu
Despite being just the second – and first officially scheduled – act to play the What Stage on Sunday, it wasn't until a half-hour into her scheduled set that Badu's band opened with "A Milli"' followed by an utterly pointless intro funk track. That chord progression sure got tiring after a dozen repetitions. When Badu finally strutted onstage sporting a cool-as-fuck tophat and Public Enemy sweatshirt, the real show began, showing off her off-kilter harmonies and power-woman sensibilities. For the most part, the crowd seemed to really enjoy it.

Andrew Bird
Bird is one of those artists with a big enough fanbase and praise for his live show that his albums should be a safe bet. I even had a "holy shit what music is this this is great" moment midway through Armchair Apocrypha working late one night last fall, yet further pre-Bonnaroo listens of the same record proved strangely uninspiring.

Thankfully, Bird's voice was far stronger and more dynamic – and his multi-stringamentation more pronounced – live than on Armchair or even the arguably-superior Noble Beast. Or maybe I'm just a sucker for loops of beautifully plucked violin lines. Let's go with that.

Mike Farris
I was sucked into the Sonic Stage for the positively penetrating pipes of Mister Mike Farris. I didn't mean to spew alliteration all over your screen like that, but that's the only way to describe this bluesman's tenor. Great stuff.

Neko Case
Despite my and other audience members' repeated heckling for songs from the Virginian redhead and New Pornographer's back catalog, Neko Case and the Sadies stuck to material mostly from Middle Cyclone – the blander/poppier (take your pick) follow up to Fox Confessor Brings the Flood. No matter, Case's talent has always superseded her songwriting, and it was wonderful to hear her vocal harmonies reproduced so scrupulously.

And to compliment her and her backing vocalist's good-humoured banter, Triumph the Insult Comic Dog joined her onstage to tell some clichéd-but-chuckle-inducing Bonnaroo jokes and sing an astonishingly in-tune duet. It was a nice moment, her and the guy with his hand up a dog puppet's ass.

Distinctly mellower than their Friday kicking out of the jams, Phish's first Sunday set trotted along comfortably and capped off with a well-documented appearance from Trey Anastasio's "boyhood hero, and still hero" Bruce Springsteen. Their version of the archetypal cover band track "Mustang Sally" put me right back to Father's Day car shows in the park, except only better and at Bonnaroo. Then, after an intense weekend of music and little-to-no rest, I fell asleep during their second set. But I bet it was fun.

Thursday, June 18, 2009

Bonnaroo - Saturday, June 13

Heartless Bastards
It's shitty to say, but I was happy to be done with Friday. With the most overwhelming day out of the way, I was happy to be in a more exploratory than To Do List-type mode. And the soaring near-stoner jams provided by the Heartless Bastards around 2 p.m. made for yet another good start. While their most recent LP, The Mountain, is a fine record in its own right, returning to it after hearing the Bastards play live has made for a more intriguing listen, most of all for Erika Wennerstrom's bluesy vocals.

Bon Iver
Justin Vernon et co.'s set in Toronto last summer was something special. I was prepared to enjoy the show; I wasn't prepared to get floored by one of the best vocalists in indie music. While others use falsetto to patch their limited range, Vernon's cut deep at Lee's Palace, filling the room like a group of soulful ghosts.

This, my second time seeing him support essentially the same material (save for the For Emma-wasn't-a-fluke Blood Bank e.p.), saw Bon Iver sound exponentially more like a full band, and less as Vernon-with-other-dudes. He introduced everyone by their first name, and had the newest member sign a Yo La Tengo cover ("I Feel Like Going Home," from the formidable I Am Not Afraid Of You And I Will Beat Your Ass). On it and "For Emma," the band's sound was boosted by Elvis Perkins in Dearland's horns. Overall, the multi-percussion parts that drifted toward the redundant on their Letterman appearance were appropriate in the more dynamic full-length set, during which the band rarely doubled up on instruments.

Just as on their releases, Bon Iver tracks have a way of melting guitars, voice, keys, and percussion into one other, creating a unified force sometimes charging, sometimes strolling toward the end. On the quieter side, "Re: Stacks" was once again stunning (the "drunk as hell" line may have been specifically directed to the idiot who pissed on the ground before the show, causing the woman beside him to insist he get the fuck away from her, as that was a rather unpleasant experience). The band's recurring closer, "Wolves Part I and II," reached new heights with the jam-packed midday crowd's insistent contribution to "What might've been lost..." A nice powerful outro for the middle of the afternoon. Plus, the other guitarist looks like a blonder, younger Shia LaBeouf.

Del McCoury Band
Real bluegrass. Superb old-timer grooves.

Finally – Wilco can open every show with a song about themselves! From the first strums of "Wilco (The Song)," Jeff Tweedy and the boys rocked and rolled through their two-hour late afternoon set in fine fashion. Drawing rather evenly from Being There to Yankee to their last two meh releases to Wilco (The Album), the band was more on the jammy side of the festival's reported jam/indie divide. It's not like [insert most indie band ever] would ever end with a guitar duel.

Of Montreal (?) parade
Of Montreal's show started pretty poorly – or maybe I was just too far back – so I wandered over to hear Gov't Mule cover "Creep," that British one-hit-wonder band's song. Instead of catching the end of Mars Volta or Decemberists, I got sidetracked by one of those many moments unique to the festival: a marching band of sorts, complete with burlesque dancers, costumed folk on stilts, and a guy who was extremely happy to be in the midst of it all. Surrounding them were three people watching, 18 taking digital photos.

Bruce Springsteen & the E-Street Band
Like everyone else who never grew up with "The Boss," the only thing I know about them is that they're from Jersey, kicked ass at the Super Bowl, and stole the drummer from Conan O'Brien's band. The only question was, would it really be live? Well, after a half-hour delay and a huge first song, that's exactly what Bruce asked the crowd – "I said is anybody out there aliiive tonight!?" – so I went to get some dinner. When I returned, I saw moms and dads dancing, and thought to myself, yeah, they should be able to enjoy music festivals, too.

Slotted for a relatively brief 45-minute set before MGMT at That Tent, these harmonizing techno-beatniks were a perfect warm-up for the sardine-can jump-a-thon to come. Their worldly beats and lofty synths did justice to the much-loved All Hour Cymbals on live versions of tracks like "Sunrise" and "2080." It was clear large swaths of the crowd were in for a first-time listen, and those in my immediate vicinity let out innumerable "this is like, really good"'s. So good for them.

Somewhat strangely, the "backing" vocals offered up by guitarist Anand Wilder and bassist Ira Wolf Tuton actually felt stronger than lead singer/synthist Chris Keating, who's more about being unique than holding notes. At least he's got the former down pat.

How does a band with three great songs and a half-dozen decent ones meet the expectations (and the set length) of a late-night Bonnaroo bonanza? Well, first they play all the songs you know but forgot about from Oracular Spectacular, mix in some newbies, sandwich two of their best tracks ("Time to Pretend" and "Electric Feel") together, and come back for encore with the third ("Kids") and the mellower eponymous track from their forthcoming album, Celebration – and bask in the adoration of the mighty masses before them.

Overall, the show aligned more with the band's psych-rock tendencies than the club-funk of the aforementioned Big Three, and the new songs pushed even further in the direction of upbeat 60s pop. In reaching for a mellower sound, MGMT – aka Ben Goldwasser and the long-lost Jonas Brother – will likely appeal to a new breed of pop enthusiasts, but at the same time risk losing the sound that got them one of the most packed late-night audiences of the festival.

This lighter sound also seems to have influenced their playing of their most danceable tracks. "Time to Pretend," for example, was less focused on the fuzzy, throbbing synth that kicks in after the intro, and more about the smooth guitar lines put deeper in the mix on the band's debut. Still, there remains plenty of hope for these fresh-faced four-letterers, as Oracular tracks sitting firmly in the decent pile, like "Weekend Wars" and "Handshake," had a far grander presence live.

Bonnaroo – Friday, June 12

After settling in to the festival's otherworldly atmosphere with a stellar first night of music, I left the campsite at noon on Friday excited to navigate one of the most absurdly stacked days of music ever (ever ever, ever ever). That, or the day with way too many overlapping sets – take Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Grizzly Bear, and Santigold all playing around 5 to 6 p.m. as one example.

Though this is an unfortunate reality – and perhaps the only unsolvable logistical issue at Bonnaroo – it's also what I'd call the best kind of dilemma. "Oh no there are several fine musical artists whose performances I'd enjoy seeing but they're taking the stage all at once. Woe is so fucking me." Plus, I'd taken a proactive approach by catching both TV on the Radio (who were upstaged by the Dirty Projectors' impeccable opening set) and Grizzly Bear in Montreal the week before. You do what you can.

Dirty Projectors
Otherwise known as the royal family of virtuosic experimental indie, or Dave Longstreth & the Power Pipe Girls, or just a really tight band that does what others can't (except fly? debatable), the Dirty Projectors showcased their talents and niceties to a packed early afternoon crowd at the David Byrne-curated That Tent. The group began the show the same way as their opening set for TVOTR – with the acoustic duet "Two Doves," showcasing Angel Deradoorian's soaring alto and Longstreth's fluttering, intricate finder-picking, followed by Bitte Orca opener "Cannibal Resource" – to expectedly superb effects.

Next, the striking vocal interplay that lifts the "Remade Horizon" to a new stratosphere in the bridge of its recorded version again found its place at the forefront of its live rendition, arousing mid-song cheers from what seemed to be an audience largely unfamiliar with the band. Midway through the set, bassist Nat Baldwin and new vocalist Haley Delke left the stage, leaving the Rise Above-era Dirty Projectors to play perhaps the three finest cuts from that album: "Gimme Gimme Gimme," "Thristy And Miserable," and "Rise Above." Though it was nice to see the band as they'd been at their incredible Sala Rosa show last year, the band is simply stronger as a 6-piece thriving on new songs.

Baldwin and Delke returned for Amber Coffman-fronted "Stillness is the Move" – you know, the one where the petite blonde bounces about and sings like Mariah Carey, Aaliyah, or maybe both. Whatever comparisons they're drawing from their most straight-forward R&B track, the fact is that few things are more satisfying than hearing Coffman let loose after the last chorus – right around the 4:10 mark on the album. Good, comma, god.

Soon after, the half-sung-mostly-yelled three-part harmonies near the halfway mark of "Useful Chamber" pitted the girls' voices against the boys' slogging rhythm, until the song dissolved into a slower, calmer version of itself. And during this, its most potent live moment, is the only time that the band makes its gender parity truly felt.

The set ended in typical "it had to happen" fashion. Longstreth announced they had one more song, and that they were going to sign it with their friend David – that Byrne guy with whom the band contributed "Knotty Pine" to the Dark Was The Night charity comp. So Mr. "White Suit" Byrne ran on, jumped around, sang a verse and a chorus, and life was good.

St. Vincent
Pity the pretty-faced songstress who plays at the same time as Animal Collective in the "My Girls" era. So was the fate for Annie Clark and the four multi-instrumentalists behind her, who started with the slowish "Marry Me" before heading into the buoyant Actor highlight "Save Me From What I Want." Both her playing and that of backing band were noticeably precise, and a pleasure to see in a live setting.

The band added life to Marry Me cuts like "Now, Now," making the harmonic guitar lines funkier and more pronounced, and by purposefully setting the melody slightly behind the beat in the verses. The guitar spazzout that closes the song was also less dissonant, and more rewarding, than on the album. And as much as I wanted to hear "Jesus Saves" I didn't want to yell that out loud in Tennessee.

Grace Potter & the Nocturnals
I've seen Grace Potter twice – once at a noon Bonnnaroo set in 2006, and again at the first Osheaga (the music festival that didn't always suck) – and there is no way around it. They rock, and she is awesome. I could use a thesaurus to make that point more explicative, but that'd take away from the straight-up realness this band exudes. A highlight may have been the five-person convergence onto Mr. Stache's drumkit, a point when you could feel the fun this down-to-earth, ass-kicking band has playing music together.

A combination of soul, jam, and pure rock 'n roll, theirs is a positively blissful live show amplified by Potter's signature hair-flipping headspins. Now they just need to capture that in the studio.

Yeah Yeah Yeahs
Oh Karen O. So Karen O. The mic-swallowing, the costume changes, the ferocity and the gentileness, all rolled up into a ball of the ultimate frontwoman. Despite my early 00's subscription to SPIN, I'd yet to the YYYs play. So Bonnaroo was a good excuse, especially after they'd released their most fun record to date.

On soon-to-be Korova-mainstays like "Zero" and "Heads Will Roll," the band opted for darker, heavier tones than the disco finesse on It's Blitz! And for one of the more intimate moments on the awkward too-big-for-a-tent, too-small-for-a-main-stage feeling of the Which Stage, guitarist Nick Zinner's tuning issues lead the band to do an acoustic version of "Maps." Visibly frustrated as the last notes of the set rung out a couple songs later, Zinner threw his guitar down and walked off stage, as Karen then smashed her mic in sync with the final drum hits. "We don't usually break stuff at the end of shows," Karen said, "but we thought, 'Hey, what the fuck?'"

Grizzly Bear
I only caught the last three songs of Grizzly Bear's set at This Tent after fleeing the YYYs show, but it sounded surprisingly good for an open-air event. The four-part harmonies were spot-on, and the climax of "Fine for Now" exhilarating as ever. Another highlight was the clean-footed, VIP-clad 40-somethings behind me, one of whom explained to the others that, "This band is really indie rock. They're like, the Big Thing right now." Somehow, his friends still seemed unimpressed.

Bela Fleck and Tounami Diabate
After missing their earlier, hour-plus-long set, I was lucky to catch Bela Fleck and his new finger-picking partner weave beautiful textures over which single notes could prop up their pretty heads. Too bad Al Green was playing at the same time – meaning the bass and horns wafting over from the What Stage at times overpowered this rather quiet duo.

Toubab Krewe
I meant to see the cheery world musicers from Asheville, North Carolina earlier in the day, but missed them as I stood in line for 40 minutes waiting to get into Centeroo (which culminated in a searchless entry after organizers realized they couldn't keep it up all day). Thankfully, Toubab Krewe graced the small stage after Bela, and the band channeled their African-inspired grooves through the healthy, enthusiastic crowd. It all ended with an appearance from Mr. Diabate, the kora master from Mali.

Amadou & Miriam
From rolling grooves to djembe solos, the Amadou & Miriam live show was one of the most energetic of the weekend. That's really all you need to know. Fantastic backing band. Energy. Lots.

Beastie Boys & David Byrne
No, they didn't play together. But after a full day of music and full night ahead of me, I wasn't particularly alert for either band's pre-headlining (and overlapping) sets. Which is a shame, because I hear both of them are pretty decent live, and may have a real good shot at this whole music thing.

Highlights included "Sure Shot" and "Root Down" from the Beasties, and watching them pick up their instruments to play a hardcore punk song from their pre-"Fight For Your Right" days – an audience request, no less – soon followed by a guest appearance by Nas. While they apparently closed with "Intergalactic" and "Sabotage," I was getting hypnotized by David Byrne and his coordinated-yet-interpretative dancers, all dressed in a white. "Once In A Lifetime" was nice.

The much-loved and oft-derided (by those who listen to them, and those who don't, respectively), the quintessential jam band played a plain ol' incredible set Friday night. As a relatively casual Phish fan, I was expecting to recognize maybe a couple songs over the course of the evening. Instead, Trey et al. played a set that resembled more of a greatest hits collection than a typical live show – including but not limited to "Divided Sky," "Down With Disease," "Stash," "Free," "Wolfman's Brother," "Golgi Apparatus," and the closer "You Enjoy Myself" > "Wilson" > "You Enjoy Myself" before "A Day in the Life" for an encore. Other than the songs, it was Trey's genuine happiness to be on stage playing for the huge festival crowd that made the show so enjoyable.

The other nice part about the set was that people like their dancing room, meaning the front area – emptied out after every show in front of the main stage – was easily accessible for up-close grooving, as were the grasses outside for a short mid-set nap. I mean, it was three hours long.

Girl Talk
Bonnaroo wouldn't be Bonnaroo without the infamous late night/early morning jam-or-dance-or-both sets. (Actually, it'd be Coachella.) I'd stupidly missed Girl Talk on his two most recent tours through Montreal, so I figured a decent way to see him would be with a few thousand other people from 2 to 4 a.m. Like Passion Pit, it was TOFF. The most memorable highlights from Feed the Animals and Night Ripper were there, albeit in different sequence and form, and they made for a spectacular (not a) DJ set celebrating a generation's short attention span.

Tuesday, June 16, 2009

Bonnaroo - Thursday, June 11

Emerging from our sweltering tent at 8:30 a.m., the downsides of probably the best music festival on the planet quickly introduced themselves: lineups at the ice truck and porta-potties, the vile smell of hard-boiled egg emanating from the Sulfur-tainted water trucks, torrential Tennessee downpours, and not being able to sleep past 8:30 in the morning. We got acquainted with our friendly neighbours (word to Troy and Amy from Pennsylvania) as the relatively brief-but-intense bouts of rain made relaxing at the campsite more appealing than exploring Centeroo – which, in short, is where all the music and stuff happens.

Though later in the weekend I overheard some faithful What Stagers deride the Thursday lineup as "always pretty lame" (which I suspect has more to do with their poor music taste and/or social skills), it easily ranked among the best of the weekend. Each year, the healthy Thursday night sets at This, That, and The Other tents present a rare opportunity to see a half-dozen up-and-comers play for what are yet the biggest crowds of their careers – and the audience's palpable energy helps them out at every beat along the way. Here's how the night went:

Alberta Cross
These Brits' take on hard-rocking Americana provided a solid start to the four-day extravaganza, evoking the ghost of the sorely missed (yet still living) Jim James. Despite the lack of reverb, the crowd really enjoyed the set. Why can't Montrealers be as enthusiastic as pre-burnout Bonnarooers?

White Rabbits
Learning that Delta Spirit would be arriving late, I headed over to This Tent to catch the piano-and-percussion-driven rock of White Rabbits. Balancing out their sound with folky undertones, these New Yorkers foreshadowed the upbeat sets to come.

Portugal. The Man
Wasilla's finest made the first of what would be several steps into airy, 70s psych-rock jams over the weekend. The crowd loved the big riffs, and the mellower breakdowns let everyone relax before spontaneously erupting into yet more half-note hand-claps. My notes summed up their set fairly well: "AWESS."

Often the only way to get a good spot for a band – without weazeling through a dense and sweaty crowd – is to see the band before them. Thus my attendance at Chairlift, who were scheduled before Passion Pit – the obvious late-night choice for anyone uninterested in the country-jam-rock of the Zac Brown Band or Mindite's roots reggae. While these New York hispters' dark 80s electro can at times be endearing, as the rain poured down, my attention shifted to the mud that soon engulfed my Birkenstock knock-offs. As is the plight of the white dude at a music festival.
And then I kept waiting for Passion Pit.

Passion Pit
One of my top TOFF (tons of fucking fun) picks of the weekend, the band brought tons of energy to a crowd ready to jump and dance like they're partying with a few thousand people to full-bodied, falsetto-drenched dance tunes under a big tent in Tennessee. Oh wait.

To no fault of their own, the band's sound was a little variable, but the crowd didn't seem to notice much, and Manners highlights – take for instance the one-two punch that opens the debut LP – felt fresher and somehow more joyous than they do on record. Apparently all you need to get a crowd amped is dueling keyboards and a chorus of children yelling "higher, higher and higher."

Passion Pit were also one of many bands to seem genuinely happy to be playing to such a large, eager crowd. Good thing singer Michael Angelakos's voice is as strong live as it is on the album (and steadier than on the Chunk of Change EP). Out-of-tune high-as-shit melodies can't good for anyone.

Delta Spirit
To round out the fantastic first night, the soulful instrument-swappers in Delta Spirit made a strong case for breaking out of the bar band/opener role they've satisfied over the past couple years. Lead vocalist John Stamos Matthew Vasquez sang as much through his facial expressions as he did with his throat, yielding an oddly enigmatic and captivating effect over those lucky enough to stick around for their set.
And by that I mean he can really wail.

warcinfo:
robots: classic
hostname: ip-10-147-3-28.ec2.internal
software: Nutch 1.6 (CC)
isPartOf: CC-MAIN-2018-09
operator: Common Crawl Admin
description: Wide crawl of the web for February 2018
publisher: Common Crawl
format: WARC File Format 1.0
conformsTo: http://bibnum.bnf.fr/WARC/WARC_ISO_28500_version1_latestdraft.pdf


WARC-Identified-Payload-Type: text/html

text:
Monday, March 12, 2012

Lines Lost

ki chilo amar?
ajo ba ki ache?
shudhu ankhi pote lekha chilo
ak chobi
thoter neerobo akhore chilo
priyo nam

i wander on the lone vales
pining in sacred distances
as i watch over the grim clouds
and caress them in whispers
do ask him if ....

bristi nebe ashey jhapsa hoe

my paper never fills up

No comments:

Post a Comment


text:
Wednesday, September 2, 2009

Staying on the shore...

Last post I said I'd switch to a garden theme for a photo clay collage but I started playing with my photo files and rummaging through my boxes of found objects from the west coast shores and I've decided to stay with this theme for the time being. Here are some of the photos I'm working with... all taken on Galiano Island....and look at my beachcombed treasures!

  1. Those photos are stunning and you're revealing another talent to us here! They look like surreal paintings, G. I think you're not just a great clay artist, but photographer, fibre artist...what other fine talents do you hide up your sleeve! wow!

  2. I'm really loving these new pieces of yours!

I always love to get comments!


WARC-Truncated: length

text:
Director Testifies in Congress

The Institute’s director, Dr. Michael Rappa, was in Washington, DC, today testifying at a hearing of the Committee on Science, Space and Technology in the U.S. House of Representatives. The focus of the hearing was Next Generation Computing and Big Data Analytics. In his testimony, Dr. Rappa discussed the role different academic disciplines such as computer science, statistics, and others play in Analytics, the Institute’s success with the Master of Science in Analytics (MSA) is addressing the severe shortage of skilled professionals like data scientists, and the MSA program’s potential as a model for other universities. The following video contains excerpts from Dr. Rappa’s testimony at the hearing:


text:
Oct 02

Caesars palace online casino

caesars palace online casino

Play CAESARS Casino Online games - Blackjack, Roulette & Slot Casino games to CAESARS Palace in Las Vegas where you can experience Casino games. The creators of Slotomania bring you the world's best casino slots app. Hit the jackpot & play over free slot machines with Caesars Slots' Vegas casino!. Thousands are already playing Caesars Games collection of free slots games Vegas style. Get chips for Free Vegas Slots & Casino Games! Remember me. Commencez avec un accueil chaleureux de Kostet paypal gebuhren with Facebook and get 25, coins just for the thrill of it. You can casino aachen pokerturnier redeem the points you earn online for cashback or transfer them to your Total Rewards account to use for rooms, meals, entertainment, and other purchases at any Caesars-owned property of your choosing. You already earn 1 Reward Credit for every dollar you spend on qualifying entertainment activities at any of our Total Rewards destinations including: You earn points grid online your online play just like at any of the Caesars-owned land-based casinos. caesars palace online casino

Caesars palace online casino Video

LIVE ONLINE CASINO DEALER CAUGHT CHEATING You can still play as long as you are physically located in New Jersey for the entire time of your play. If you go all the way, you could walk away with a staggering jackpot. This is because the wheel has only a single zero and no double zero. Furthermore, the minimum withdrawal from CaesarsCasino. Once you are inside the mobile casino lobby, you'll be able to choose from our Slots, Video Poker, Blackjack and Roulette games. Players have 30 days to complete the wager. Can't see our emails? Fan Page Privacy Policy Terms of Service Support Site Map Blog Caesars Casino VIP Contest. Hot Vegas slot gratuit Jeux! Are you ready to take a seat and prepare to beat the banker on this big money Slot? Messenger Facebook Lite People Places Games Locations Celebrities Marketplace Groups Recipes Moments Instagram About Create Ad Create Page Developers Careers Privacy Cookies Ad Choices Terms Settings Activity Log. Percentage of each wager on the game that will contribute towards your wagering requirement. Addi 7 Avis complet.

Soll: Caesars palace online casino

Casino flamingo Dogs of the seas
The hippodrome casino london 760
U21 EM Das leben als spiel
Orient led tv Land 5 Bubble Symbols to multiply your winnings loginn gamwes up to 22x. Frederic Chazot 13 juin To protect your identity and for added security, you'll need to verify your email address before you can request any withdrawals. Collecter wilds, bonus, scatter et des points gratuits avec book of ra za android vrais jeux de casino en ligne. Remove To help personalize hex to de, tailor and measure ads, and provide a safer experience, we use cookies. Although others feature far more contemporary styling. Fanny starck 28 juin
CASINOCLUB.COM ERFAHRUNG European Roulette offers better odds than American Roulette. Caesars Palace Top apps for android mobile S Las Vegas Blvd, Las Vegas, NVUSA. North Dakota casinos Ohio casinos Oklahoma casinos Oregon casinos Pennsylvania casinos Mahlzeit linz Island casinos South Carolina casinos South Dakota casinos Tennessee casinos Texas casinos Utah casinos Vermont casinos Virginia casinos Washington casinos West Virginia casinos Wisconsin casinos Wyoming casinos. You can start spinning the slots immediately, without having to deposit a cent into your bankroll. Caesars makes funding your account a piece of cake. For over 30 years, Caesars Casino has lastschrift anbieten the gold standard in casino gaming. Offering some of the most lucrative comps in the land-based casino space, Total Rewards is arguably the most beneficial VIP program on the market. What was once a online casino supporting less than one hundred titles, has quickly evolved into one that offers over games and some of the best weekend betting bonus 100 in the market.
ONLINE ACCURATE CLOCK TOTAL TAHOE Harrah's Lake Tahoe Harrah's Reno Harveys Lake Tahoe. Live Dealer NJ Online Blackjack NJ Online Craps NJ Online Roulette NJ Online Slots NJ Online Table Games NJ Online Video Poker News. There is a Triple Play bestes android handy poker where players get dealt one hand and then build three hands from euro quali live. Stay Connected Facebook Twitter Foursquare YouTube instagram. Enjoy the Vegas rush with our free online casino games app! Our casino free slots will have you spinning games all day! The wheel has two zeros, while European only has one. E-mail required, but invisible for. No comment 6 juillet
Be the next big thing in gaming and sign up today at CaesarsCasino. If you or someone you know has a gambling problem and wants help, call GAMBLER. Explore the best real money casino games, including progressives, slots, table games and video poker. Rewards Credits are generally earned at the same rate as Tier Credits You can redeem these for casino play, hotel stays, dining, entertainment and shopping. Game features Hit the Pay-Table to check your payout and understand all the unique features for the best casino entertainment. Collecter wilds, bonus, scatter et des points gratuits avec de vrais jeux de casino en ligne. Welcome to Caesars Crazy monkey games boxhead — home to Las Vegas style entertainment! Caesars welcomes those that are of legal casino gambling age to our website. Nicolas Prevost 16 juin View our advertising disclosure. Table Games Caesars Palace Table Games.

1 Kommentar

Ältere Beiträge «


text:
Hall of Fame Mindset & the Science of Visualization

Mindset &Visualization: Keys to Greatness

Qualk (from WCCP 105.5 FM) and I, discuss the mindset that separates the Hall-of-Famer from the rest of the pack, including breaking down the 4 -tracks of thinking:

1) Auto-pilot: Disengaged, life is a box of chocolates – you never know what you’re going to get

2) Negative: Ruminating on past mistakes, always anxious and expecting the worst outcome possible – reroutes your brain’s neurons away from focus, attention and motor control, and releases cortisol and other hormones into the body sending it on a track of sleeplessness, lethargy, fat storing and stress-related diseases.

3) Positive: Better than negative mindset, but can produce bad results – everything is NOT always sunshine, flowers, waterfalls and unicorns.

4) World Class Mindset: Utilizes CRITICAL THINKING skills, separates emotion from the decision making equation and relies on logic, has an execution-based focus, does not pay attention to stats, the scoreboard, or accolades.  This mindset reroutes the neural connections to bypass the reward center of the brain and sends signals to the areas directly controlling motor function.

Qualk and I, also discuss the science (biopsychology) behind Visualization and how creating an IMAX-quality movie clip of how you want to perform gets your body and your mind lined up to produce the results you desire.

Your Attitude is Yours and Yours Alone

“If I were immersed in constant melancholy, I would not be who I am.”
Elie Wiesel

attitude is a choice

Back in 2001, I was assigned to provide personal security for Auschwitz survivor and Nobel Peace Prize winner, Elie Wiesel. It was during the Days of Remembrance ceremony at the U.S. Capitol. After the event, I escorted Mr. Wiesel to his limousine. He asked about me, did I have a family, what were the children’s ages, etc. It was an amazing experience to be inside his space for that short period of time.

When we arrived at his car, he shook my hand, thanked me and asked if there was anything he could do for me. WOW! I told him there was one thing he could do, he could share with me how he made it through the Holocaust and yet was so kind and sincere, without a trace of bitterness.

“No prison, no tyrant, no war criminal, no dictator or persecutor can touch your attitude. They can destroy your body, but your attitude is yours, and that is what defines you.”

With that, he squeezed my hand, got into the limo and my time inside his space was over – but the impression will last a lifetime. Our attitude is our choice. It is the last bastion of freedom, a fortress that no human can breach, unless we open the gates from the inside.

Every situation doesn’t call for a “positive” attitude, for example in the midst of getting shot at, I have never found myself thinking “sunshine, waterfalls and unicorns” about those doing the shooting. Use your power to choose your attitude wisely, and deploy it strategically. But whatever you do, don’t open the gates to your citadel and abdicate your choice to others or outside circumstances, don’t give anyone or anything that power over you.

Your attitude is yours and yours alone.
Boo yah!

Give the Loaf Back

“Half a loaf is better than none.”  –John Heywood (c.1497-1580)

“Half a loaf sucks compared to owning the bakery”  — Andrew Wittman (circa right now)

How much is your dream worth to you? Would you consider giving up your dream for a job offer that was “too good to refuse”, or at least good enough to make you comfortable?

Maybe you already have sold your dream for the proverbial half a loaf. If you have accepted the half a loaf, you can either stop reading now and enjoy what’s left of the crust for the rest of your life, or read own, re-dream, and give the loaf back.

I have refused many such offers of the “half loaf”.  I’ve even walked away from some “whole loaf” offers, (to the angst of my wife).  The price of my dream is so high, almost no amount of money, comfort, “security”, benefit package, or safety net would be enough.  It’s unthinkable to me to give it up, and waste my one shot at life, building somebody else’s dream at the expense of my own.  Or worse, simply in the service of somebody who has already achieved their dream, living life as a hired gun, managing their headaches, whilst they play in the sun.

I don’t believe half is better than none.  I believe settling for half when you could have the entire bakery is worse than none.  If I walk away with none having risked going for the bakery, so be it.  You can get half a loaf at anytime, anyplace, without any effort.  How do I know? Just look around, we are surrounded by folks (maybe even glance in the mirror) gnawing on the “effortless half a loaf”.

I’d rather have none and have gone for my dream.  The half a loaf is crap, even the full loaf is crap.  Go for the bakery, if you fail, you can stand at the off-ramp of the interstate with a “Will Work For Food” sign, not mean it, and still come away with a full loaf.

Boo Yah!

Mirror, Mirror…

Don’t Mistake Bringing Clarity For Being Confrontational

As a Critical Thinking and Mental Toughness Consultant, I have been accused of being confrontational, nothing could be farther from being accurate. Often, bringing clarity, by offering a path to objective reality, is mistaken for being confrontational. In my role as a consultant, I offer a question or a series of questions for the client(s) to ask themselves. I don’t ask the questions to them, I offer them questions to ask themselves. And there is no right or wrong answer, no accusations, and no moral judgments attached.

In Mental Toughness we strictly judge results, e.g. Ask yourself:

Is my attitude helping me or hurting me?
Is not going to the doctor for a checkup helping me or hurting me?
Am I deluding myself in any area of my life? (Health, Career, Relationships, Finances, etc.)

Many times over, I have had clients react to the clarity they hired me to bring, by lashing out, “You should be nurturing and not so confrontational. We didn’t have these problems until you came here.”

As my wife’s sweet Southern Belle Grandmother would say, “Bless their darlin’ hearts.” That’s akin to going to the doctor for a physical and being diagnosed with Type II Diabetes and blaming the physician, “I didn’t have Diabetes before I came to you!”

I can remember sitting in a series of meetings with a guy who said at least 6 times that he had twenty CEO’s lined up to present a project he was working on. Finally, after two months of these claims, someone asked him who they were, could he name them, or at least the companies. “Twenty” CEOs became “two” CEOs, and he immediately began complaining that folks were being confrontational.

Like the Queen in the fairy tale “Snow White”, no one likes to take an honest look in the mirror and have it point out anything unflattering, myself included. However, the momentary sting of objective reality has become something I crave, for without it, no problem can be solved –
Not in my health (not eating right or excising and then avoiding the doctor’s diagnosis doesn’t mean I’m healthy),

Not in my business (just because a customer says their word is their bond doesn’t mean I don’t get it in writing),

Not in my marriage (not putting my spouse first, like I affirmed in my marriage vows, can be spun anyway I want… but why should I think that approach would work? Divorce stats answer that question. And oh, by the way, not getting married and avoiding the vows, is like avoiding the doctor, the “divorce” still hurts, and Type II Diabetes can still kill you),

Not in my relationship with my kids (buying them stuff but not keeping my word and being there for them isn’t creating trust),

Not in my finances (still having available credit on my Visa to spend is not being prosperous).

Asking for clear, relevant, accurate and precise information isn’t being confrontational, it is critical thinking, it is objective reality, it is the basis and foundation of wise decisions that bring worthy and valuable results.

The mirror ain’t wrong, so don’t blame anyone else for what you see staring back at you. Oh, an avoiding the mirror, like the doctor, isn’t going to make you not have what you don’t want to see.

Boo Yah!

It’s All Relative, Sweetheart!

“There’s always a bigger fish.” – Qui-Gon Jinn

The first time I remember becoming aware that what I thought was “big”, was relative, I was in Honduras. It was early 1990 and I was deployed on a counter-terrorist op. As we were moving from the airfield to our bivouac area, I noticed a big hilltop estate, completely walled and gated. It was adorned with a huge satellite dish (an old school dish, the kind that pre-dated Direct TV and Dish). I asked our translator who the lavish villa owner was, surely a plantation owner or corporate big wig.

“Huh, that house up there? That’s the house of a retired U.S. Navy Chief.”

“What?” The mansion and estate was owned by a retired E-7, the same pay-grade as a Marine Corps Gunny? Full retirement pay for a Gunny, at that time, was about $2000 a month. What is NOT that big in the U.S. ($24,000 annual income), was HUGE in Honduras. That Chief figured it out, and he’s not the first; I ran into several hundred of those guys in the Philippines.

On the other side of the coin, during the time I was personally protecting one of the richest families in the world, I was assigned to the wife during a shopping trip to Manhattan. Prada, Bottega, Louis Vuitton, were just a few stops on the tour of seemingly endless luxury boutiques. Places where the retail clerk wears white cotton gloves to handle the merchandise from the display case, or off the shelf.

After hours of careful study, my protectee had decided on a handbag, it was ostrich skin. Oh, the price? $30,000.00 (yeah, you read that right, 30 GRAND). The wife looked at me during checkout and said, “You know Andrew, that’s somebody’s mortgage payment.” (And in the circle she travels in, it most likely was – in my circle, more like the price of a car.) For her, it wasn’t even like two hundred dollars. It’s all relative – the business empire, built by her husband, produces over a thousand dollars each and every second, of each and every day, and doesn’t take any days off.   (How he built that from literally nothing is a case study in itself.)

Does that shock you? Bother you? Did you find yourself saying, “I would never spend that much on a handbag!”?

Did the Navy Chief’s story shock you? Bother you? (The local Hondurans were thinking about the chief’s house, the same way you were just thinking about the handbag.)

Most of the entire planet lives on less than two dollars a day, they would most likely be shocked and bothered by your purchases and life style as well. As Haymitch, from the Hunger Games would say, “It’s all relative, sweetheart.”

I choose to aspire to being able to buy my wife such a purse, instead of decrying the extravagance of it. Just as my two cars and my 3000 sq. ft. house, with two flat screen TVs and indoor plumbing is extravagance to most of the population of Earth.

The next time someone (or you) use language like, “This is a really difficult problem,” or that something is “Expensive,” – try asking (out loud) “Compared to what?”

Boo yah!

Inconsistently Consistent?

“To be a consistent winner means preparing not just one day, one month or even one year – but for a lifetime.”

Bill Rodgers – Marathon Man

One of the saddest things to witness as a coach, is seeing a client do totally awesome for several months, lose body fat, gain lean muscle, look great, see their countenance change for the better, and then stop doing all the things that produced their success.  Sometimes they try to “get back on the wagon” of good habits, actions and behaviors, only to stop again after a few weeks.  Then on again and off again, with downward spiraling results and eventually finding themselves in worse shape than the beginning.

The on again/off again inconsistency in performance is one of the biggest killers of success I’ve ever come across.  Doing well for a few weeks, then coasting….then feel bad enough to start doing again for a few weeks, then backsliding some more.  Over and over, the only thing consistent is their inconsistency.

Yes, routine is boring sometimes. When I feel bored being consistent, I remind myself of the time I was flying in a corporate jet with an ex-fighter jerk, I mean jock, as the pilot.  He decided he was bored with consistent flight, and started doing some “Goose and Maverick” crap.  The boss wasn’t in the bird, we were dead-heading back home, only an aide, me, and Mr. Ex-fighter (and soon to be ex-corporate aviation) jock.  Fuel was burnt, stuff was launched across the cabin, coffee spilled, suit jackets stained,  and oxygen masks dropped…. but hey, he wasn’t bored.  Nor was he consistent.  I like consistency, a lot.  And so do you….

Can you imagine an inconsistent commercial pilot? There’s a news story for you. What about an inconsistent surgeon? Any volunteers to be his or her next surgery patient? Most of us get torn out of the frame if the garbage pickup isn’t consistent, or the mail runs late, or the cell signal goes in and out.  How about inconsistent cable or satellite TV during a big game, or the series finale “Breaking Bad“?  Power outage at the Super Bowl? At your house?

We don’t tolerate anything less than consistent performance from our entertainment service providers, not to mention our favorite franchise quarterback, who is prone to throwing the 4th Quarter interception,  but we’re usually okay with inconsistency in our own performances. Man DOWN!! What’s the number to 911 again? (What if the 911 Operators weren’t consistent? Just asking...)

Boo Yah!!

How Do You Respond?

Pop Quiz: What would you say in response to emotionally challenging information?  What if it was devastating information? How do you respond to change? What if it is life-altering change forced upon you?

First Response

I don’t like to think about these things, but I’ve found over the years, that if I have thought about my response to the unexpected, it helps….a lot.  I’ve also found that my initial response sets the course of how everything goes after any surprising news hits.

Several years ago, I had a coaching client that was diagnosed with the advanced stages of an insidious disease.  The client was told that he a certain amount of time to live, and to get his business in order.  This is an extreme example, and one I hope none of us will have to face.  I had given this client the Pop Quiz long before this incident occurred and he was prepared.  He responded by being grateful for knowing the problem and what he was up against, but decided he would rather live than die.  His initial response was to NOT roll over and blindly accept what he was told about the amount of time he had left on planet Earth.

His fighting spirit set the course for his aggressive treatment plan, and his attitude toward his family, friends, and his business/career.   If he hadn’t prepared his initial response, the news might have taken him out before he even started to fight.  Any professional will tell you that the “will to live” plays an enormous role in the outcome of a fight for one’s life.

Take the Pop Quiz and decide now to have an initial response that spurs you on to victory.  I hope we never have to deal with anything even close to this example, but no matter the case, commit to yourself to win any (and all) challenges life throws at you.  Big, small, huge, or tiny; decide to win, no highway option.

Boo Yah!

The Hamster Wheel – What a Waste

Are you wasting mental and emotional energy on maintaining the status quo, instead of focusing your efforts on getting to where you want to be in 5 or 10 years time?  Is being on the hamster wheel sucking the life out of you?

Most people I talk to are struggling like someone who is drowning. They’re flailing about, just to maintain the status quo of their lives.
Hey, I completely understand. I struggle too, but instead of thrashing about, I focus on my ultimate vision.
Ask yourself:
Is this how I really want to be living 5 years from now? In 10? What about in 20?
If not, what’s my plan?
To do more with less? Clip more coupons? Buy more stuff from Craigslist?
If you keep doing what you’re doing, why do you think your life will be any different?
Hey, if you’re waiting on the lottery, you have a better chance of an airplane crashing into your car, while you’re driving down the Interstate…just saying.

Boo Yah!


text:
about  /   archives  /   contact  /   subscribe  /
Share this entry
Make this entry better

What are we missing? Is there a key link we skipped, or a part of the story we got wrong?

Let us know — we’re counting on you to help Encyclo get better.

Put Encyclo on your site
Embed this Encyclo entry in your blog or webpage by copying this code into your HTML:

Key links:
Primary website:
Primary Twitter:

Editor’s Note: Encyclo has not been regularly updated since August 2014, so information posted here is likely to be out of date and may be no longer accurate. It’s best used as a snapshot of the media landscape at that point in time.

is an online business publication that provides reporting and analysis on the global economy. The site was launched in 2012 by , owner of The Atlantic, The Wire and National Journal.

The site is based in New York and has a of around 25 reporters, editors and developers. In building the publication from scratch, Atlantic Media poached notable talent from similarly oriented titles, beginning with editor-in-chief , who came from The Wall Street Journal. Other staff members came from publications like The Economist, Bloomberg, The New York Times, Foreign Policy, and Reuters.

Quartz was imagined as a free digital publication with a strong focus on reaching readers on mobile devices. As a result Quartz’s site was . Quartz developers used responsive design to build a site that has the look and functionality of an app, but adapts to the screen size a user prefers, from mobile phones to desktop browsers. As the site’s editors write on their , “Call us a website or, if you like, a web app: Quartz combines the benefits of the free and open Web with the elegance of an application.”

In April of 2013 Quartz updated its website with a and simpler navigation, while also adding new features  It , this time adding a homepage, in August 2014.

Another remarkable aspect of Quartz design is that it eschews the normal news layout of multiple headlines and in favor of a presenting readers with one lead story displayed in full.

In July 2013 the site 5 million monthly users,  As of 2014, about 40 percent of the site’s traffic came from mobile and 70 percent came from social links. The Atlantic’s goal, as of 2013, was for the site to be . Quartz in 2014.

With a relatively small staff and ambitions for global business coverage, Quartz created an editorial strategy that revolves around the concept of “obsessions” as the organizing principal for reporting rather than beats. The obsessions at launch ranged from generalist to more specific, including areas like “China’s slowdown,” “Euro crunch,” “startups,” and “the mobile web.” That structure, according to Quartz Global News Editor Gideon Lichfield, allows the organization to and adapt to changes more quickly.

Quartz is an advertising-supported site, launching with four companies — Boeing, Chevron, Cadillac, and Credit Suisse — and . Though the site employs display advertising, Quartz also sells so-called “sponsored content,” an ad format that presents messaging from companies in a design similar to editorial content. Aside from advertising, the site generates revenue through its events division, Quartz Live, which is similar to the  Events were expected to provide 10 percent of Quartz’s revenue in the program’s first year.

Recent AndroidForMobile Lab coverage:
Dec. 5, 2017 / Rasmus Kleis Nielsen
Is the digital content bubble about to burst? For some of the publishers chasing the broadest scale, maybe — Recent bad news for a number of digital-born news outlets (including BuzzFeed, HuffPost, Mashable, and Vice) is a symptom not only of the intense competition for attention and advertising online, but also of a digital co...
Oct. 25, 2017 / Ricardo Bilton
Blade Runner 2017: Quartz created a bot to hunt down political news bots on Twitter — To ferret out some of the many bots on Twitter that push out political opinions, Quartz has created a bot of its own. The new bot, @probabot_, is designed to search Twitter for accounts that are heavily focused on politi...
Oct. 3, 2017 / Joshua Benton
If it looks like a duck, swims like a duck, and quacks like a duck, then it’s probably a Slack bot for journalists — Quartz got some money from Knight last year to launch its own Bot Studio, building interactive tools/chat interfaces/general bot substrate for both itself and other newsrooms. (More here and here.) Today, Quartz announce...
Sept. 19, 2017 / Ricardo Bilton
Quartz is using Apple’s new AR tech to “help people understand objects in the news” on iPhones — Of all the emerging technologies that Apple has its eyes on, CEO Tim Cook has seemed particularly excited about augmented reality. Before long, many people will “have AR experiences every day, almost like eating th...
Sept. 18, 2017 / Trushar Barot
The future of news is humans talking to machines — This year, the iPhone turned 10. Its launch heralded a new era in audience behavior that fundamentally changed how news organizations would think about how their work is discovered, distributed and consumed. This summer,...

Recently around the web, from Mediagazer:

Primary author: Justin Ellis. Main text last updated: September 11, 2014.
Make this entry better
How could this entry improve? What's missing, unclear, or wrong?
Name (optional)
Email (optional)
InvestigateWest logo

InvestigateWest is a Seattle-based nonprofit news organization that specializes in investigative reporting on the environment, social justice, and health in the western United States. The site was launched in July 2009 by former Seattle Post-Intelligencer journalists. It has three full-time editorial employees, along with several contributors and interns, and it primarily syndicates its work to…

Put Encyclo on your site
Embed this Encyclo entry in your blog or webpage by copying this code into your HTML:

Encyclo is made possible by a grant from the Knight Foundation.
The AndroidForMobile Journalism Lab is a collaborative attempt to figure out how quality journalism can survive and thrive in the Internet age.


text:
It’s Okay to Swim.

Today, nestled against the old wooden column, you felt the familiar heartache, the one you’ve felt since you were a little girl and you exchanged hurtful words with your hero. Tears threatened to fall, mixing with the peeling paint, as you leaned against it, sure you were in need of the support.

People keep disappointing you – and he will keep disappointing you. He will keep shattering your hopes because you keep expecting him to know what they are when he just doesn’t.

It doesn’t mean it’s not okay to be sad. You fear those tears because you’re afraid you’ll drown in them.

But my darling, sometimes you are so afraid of drowning that you forget it’s okay to swim.

Sometimes you so fear getting your heart broken that you forget it’s still good to fall in love.

Sometimes you fear people leaving so you hold your arms closed, but arms were never meant to be empty for long.

Life is meant to be this delicate, beautiful balance of extremes. Lots of times you’ll get it wrong. But so many times you’ll get it right, too.

Just don’t hold the broken pieces so close. I know it’s hard. I know it’s seemingly impossible. But life is not meant to be a series of safe, calculated risks. We don’t learn on the shore. We don’t grow when life is filled with shallow, meaningless friendships.

We learn and we grow when we cry. When we tell the ones who’ve hurt us that they’re letting us down. When you fall for the boy because his heart and his voice make your heart dance. When you open your arms and hold the broken even though in the process you’ll end up getting a little broken, too.

That’s how we grow.

So next time let the tears fall against the peeling paint of that column. Let it hold you.

You’ll find yourself standing, alone, a little stronger, in no time.


text:
Monday, 25 May 2009

MULTIPLY Pictures to Words: #22 Creative Writing Finale

I think I have read "The Grapes of Wrath" by John Steinbeck at least twice, when not more. Could this be one of the houses left behind by the families in the great depression of the time.

The old house says goodbye
It’s windows shed a tear
The emptiness remains
It can no longer hear
The laughter of the children
As they play and have their fun
Those days are now long gone
When the farmer’s work was done
The earth was blown away
The crops no longer grew
The family had to leave
The skies no longer blue
A grey shadow covered the land
As far as could be seen
The families left together
To look for land still green
Many years have passed
The house had been forgot
The windows now just eyes
on a dryed up garden plot
But memories remain
when love was so alive
when songs were sung of old
the surrounding land did thrive
The house belongs to the bank
but has no financial worth
It is waiting for a family
to bring it back some mirth
Little knows the house
that the machines will come one day
It will take its heart and soul
and clear the eyes away

For more click here

No comments:

Post a Comment


text:
Wednesday, 4 February 2015

WordPress Daily Prompt: Race the Clock

Here’s the title of your post: “An Offer I Couldn’t Refuse.”
Set a timer for ten minutes, and write it. Go!

The State collect my garbage once a week, usually on Friday, unless a holiday is in the way. It is not really an offer. I have to pay for it. Our garbage men have to have a nice garbage crunching machine on wheels to kill all the plastic bags containing the refuse, such as food remainders and dead prompts (see yesterday’s daily prompt). It all has its price, and we pay about $1 for a plastic bag. Mr. Swiss and I have a sly system to save bags and money. But I thought it would be nice to show the men that sacrifice their lives daily to collect the garbage. They are now immortalised on my blog.

So this has nothing to do with “An Offer I couldn’t Refuse” because this process is not an offer, but a vital necessity, otherwise we would be an open house for all sorts of strange creatures and smells.

Of course WordPress brought this old new prompt entirely for my benefit. First of all because it is new to me and I have never seen it before and secondly because today is 4th February. I am sure they noted in their online records that 46 years ago I said “Ja”  (Yes) in a small registry office in our local country town of Solothurn in Switzerland after being asked by the late Mr. Beda Baumgartner, who was the marriage registrar. It was not really a matter of an offer I couldn’t refuse, as marriage is not an offer, it just happens, especially if you get a Swiss passport into the bargain. I had visions of gold reserves, cheese fondue, Swiss chocolate and of course Mr. Swiss was also part of the bargain. You do not look a gift horse in the mouth, you accept.

I was a mere 22 years old at the time and my life was before me. I was tired of renewing my work permit and registering at the British Embassy annually, so I decided to simplify matters and became Swiss. Ok, not that you all think I am a cold calculating person. On the day I began my new job I saw him at his desk and walked past. I do not think he noticed me, just a new english girl in the office. It was when the dictation of a simple letter took an hour instead of the normal five minutes, that suspicions spread. This all happened in April and on February 4th 1969 I stood in front of the late Beda Baumgartner and said “Ja” after being prodded in the ribs. My german was not so good at that time and the ceremony was completely in German, so it was a sign that I should say something and I decided that “Ja” was the best choice. If I had said “Nein” the resulting conversation and excitement would have been too complicated in German. Mr. Baumgartner was wearing his registry office dark suit with pin stripes and we were wearing - sorry I can’t remember.

Of course this wedding stuff had its price. I had to have an official translation of my birth certificate which was not free and no documents was allowed to be older than three months. I got my birth certificate in 1946 and it was now 1969, so go figure.

Time is running out, you cannot squeeze the turning point of your life into 10 minutes which has actually now been 46 years. We never got around to doing a church wedding and we also only had two witnesses present at the big occasion, a married couple we knew. Afterwards we had lunch at my mother-in-law’s place. We had light snow on the day and I remember before we said our “Ja” stuff and I got my Swiss nationality in the registry office, we had a drink in an old restaurant next door to the registry office. The restaurant still exists, but since it has new management and is now a shicky micky place with exclusive meals and all the trimmings.

And as the golden sun sinks slowly in Switzerland I am sure it was a good offer and I am still Swiss (and British).

Click here for more

1 comment:


text:
Wedding-Gift Whoops

Dear Annabel,

I recently attended the wedding of a close friend’s son. Unfortunately, I let my husband fill out the check and to my surprise found out that he only gave $50.

I feel awful about this. How can I make this up to the couple?
– Embarrassed

Dear Embarrassed,

Don’t worry, this little gaffe is very easy to fix — arguably even more so because you’re dealing with the children of close friends.

At the moment, the bride and groom are probably honeymooning, after which they’ll return home to a tower of gifts. Obviously the groom will recognize your names, but the bride will most likely think to herself, “Very nice. I’ll be sure to write them a note.” Or, “Wait, which couple are they, again?”

My point is that you’ve caught them during a very busy time. I’m sure no one is scoffing over the perceived meager amount.

That said, you can easily remedy the situation by starting from scratch. Either choose a gift from their registry or write a new check. Enclose a note that delivers your message with a wink:

Hubby and I had a small marital miscommunication – this is your real wedding gift!

We’re so thrilled for the two of you. Thank you for including us in your lovely wedding. We wish you a lifetime of happiness.
Lots of love, Jane and John

Notice I didn’t mention anything about stop payments or tearing up the original check. The couple will simply add whatever you send to the aforementioned pile of gifts, which includes your initial $50. Eventually you’ll receive a thank-you note that acknowledges whatever you gave them in the aggregate.

In the meantime, feel free to vent to the groom’s mother about how you’ll never again put hubby in charge of wedding gifts. 🙂

Graciously yours,

No Comments Yet

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published.

You may use these HTML tags and attributes:   <acronym title="">
      <q cite=""> <s>


text:
WAIT (K’a)

“I couldn’t find the word silence in my Dene dictionary. However, I did find the word WAIT (K’a).” Performance 18min Australia, Natimuk

Silence is often perceived as negative, or passive, or of censorship, yet it is a space that is central to thought. “In today’s noise-polluted world, silence can be a powerful tool. Through The Silence of Sovereignty, Dylan Miner proposes that we listen to the silence of certain places as a form of resistance, a quiet strength of aboriginal sovereignty”.[1]

This performance was my reaction to my time during the Time_Place_Space: Nomad artist residency facilitated by Art House (Melbourne) and Performance Space (Sydney). I requested the residency participants to sit on a hill above  the location of my performance.  I wanted a distance for a viewpoint of my body in landscape. The location, Lake Natimuk, was next to our campsite. Lake Natimuk is now completely dried out from the intense drought that plagues this area. To begin the performance I walked to the centre  of the dried lake only with a bucket of water. I grounded  myself bodily to  find  my place in the dried lake. I then knelt to submerge my hair in the bucket’s lukewarm water. As I rose to my feet,  I positioned a steadying stance . one that allowed my hair to dangle in front of my face and torso , creating an abstraction of form and landscape from afar.  The performance was 18 minutes — the time it took my hair to dry in the humidity and sun. Lake Natimuk is described as an “Ephemeral Lake” in the didactic at  the lake, and it is with this ephemera I reclaimed an embodied silence and intimacy.

Here is a writing I did for the Canada Council for the Arts about my time in Australia.


text:
Annyx Sag Harbor
section background
  • Top Fancy

Sport shoe chicken wearing red and white hightop canvas sneakers. Has red tail with dots.

Each chalkboard chicken is a handmade and individually numbered piece of functional art. Coated with a chalkboard covering, they can be used to write messages on or just as a decoration.

Custom orders are available.

Because each of the girls are hand crafted, we ask that you contact us to check on availability.

Contact Us


text:
About Me

Safe Building 101: Creating a Climate-Controlled Space In Your Home

As I started to increase my art collection, I wanted to make sure that my investment was protected. I wasn't sure exactly how to store it all when it wasn't on display, but I knew I needed to do something. I decided to talk with a local construction contractor about how to secure my art, and he suggested a climate-controlled secure room in my home. They built a vault-like space in the house that is perfect for long-term storage. I created this site to showcase what was done in the hopes that others may seek the same solution. I hope the information here helps you to secure your financial investment as well.

Latest Posts

Tips For Dealing With Flood Damage In Your Company's Place Of Business
16 February 2018

Dealing with a flood at your company's place of bu

Five Important Features Of Custom Kitchen Cabinets
30 December 2017

If you are redoing your kitchen, choosing custom k

Several Tips For Installing A Fence On Your Property
21 November 2017

Having a commercial fence around your business can

Simple Ways To Extend The Life Of Your Wood Countertop
18 October 2017

Having wood countertops installed in your kitchen

Two Ways To Increase Your AC Productivity
20 September 2017

Does it feel like your home is consistently warmer

How To Attract Butterflies To Outdoor Patio Spaces

If you have installed french patio doors on the back of your home, then you likely have a beautiful and full view of your outdoor property. If your lawn only contains a few bushes and trees though, then there may not be a great deal to look at. However, if you attract wildlife to your property, then you can spend countless hours peering through the small windows of your patio doors watching the animals that visit. There are a few easy things you can do, and creating a butterfly garden is one of them.

Plant a Butterfly Garden

Find the Right Space

Butterflies are beautiful insects that can easily be brought to your patio or lawn space as long as you plant the right flowers. You also need to choose an area outdoors that receives a great deal of sun, because butterflies will absorb heat during the day. If the sun shines most of the day on the space directly outside your patio doors, then this area will be perfect for the garden. If the space is shady, then set up your garden several feet from the back of your home where you see the sun shining for the majority of the day.

Gather Your Flowers and Plants

Once you have found the right area, find some flowers that thrive in full sun and provide plenty of nectar for butterflies. Flowers that are brightly colored will attract butterflies as well, and a few good choices for your garden include garden phlox, goldenrod, butterfly weed, aster, and blazing star flowers. Plant a variety of these flowers in your designated butterfly area and also add plants that caterpillars like to eat.

If a butterfly can lay eggs in the same place they can feed on nectar, then they will spend more time in the area. Milkweed, clovers, violets, azaleas, and daisies are good plants to feed caterpillars. Many caterpillars also eat the leaves off small bushes, so add some to the garden. The plants will provide shelter for butterflies as well, so they can escape the wind and rain.

Provide Water

A good way to keep butterflies in your garden is to add a water source to the space as well. A well placed bird bath can provide the water and so can a small pond. If you want to add beauty to your garden area, then consider setting up a fountain. Just make sure that the fountain provides more than enough still water at its base so that butterflies can drink comfortably.

Transform Your Patio Doors

Add a New Color

Once you have created the perfect space for your butterflies, make sure to transform your patio doors as well so you can bring the colorful insects right up to your windows. The butterflies will be drawn to the bright colors of your new flowers, and they also will be attracted to vibrant paint that you add to your doors. Consider finding a bright pink, red, or blue paint that stands out from the flowers in your garden. Look for a matte or flat outdoor paint, because these products have more pigments in them.

After you purchase your paint, use painter's tape to cover all of the glass windows that line your patio doors. Use a paintbrush to add the paint. Allow your first coat to dry for one full day and then add your second coat. Remove the painter's tape when you are done.

Hang Up Vases

Vases are another good option to bring butterflies to your door, because you can fill them with cut flowers from your garden. The best vases for your patio doors are ones that are designed to hang on walls or flat surfaces outside. You can make your own vases as well with wine bottles that you have in your home. Wash out the bottles thoroughly with soap and water and then tie a piece of string or twine to the necks of the bottles. Create loops out of the leftover twine so the bottles can be hung up.

Place nails in the solid wood trim of your patio doors. Add the nails towards the interior edges so the vases do not break when you open the doors. Hang the twine loops on the nails and then fill each vase with water. Add an assortment of flowers to each vase and make sure to replace the flowers once a week. This will keep the flowers fresh, so the butterflies will be more likely to drink from them.

If you have added french doors to your back patio, then you likely have provided yourself with a lovely view of your backyard. The view may not be exciting, but you can easily change this by attracting butterflies to a well planned garden space with patio doors that you have transformed yourself. Follow the link to continue reading more about purchasing new patio doors.


text:
Thursday, May 29, 2008

If you're new to this blog welcome, remember when you get to the bottom of this page there's another few packed full of tips and stuff. Also check out this article
as well. It's makes for some interesting reading. All comments welcome.
Happy Antics -ing!

Monday, May 26, 2008

Skeleton walks - DFA

Today is my birthday and I thought it would be cool to map a skeleton bone for bone with an antics character. Well it took a while but the results are way cool. Now I have a skeleton that walks! Here's a little taste of what I'm thinking of doing with him. cheers. (it's dfa direct-from-antics)


text:
Friday, May 29, 2009

quidam3 25% discount offer

The Q3 demo version has just been released, check it out.
Also have a try of Animeeple for character animation!
It is new, it is very intuitive and it lets you:» Apply animations onto characters» Layer and sequence the animations» Edit animations using procedural modifiers» Render images and movies» Animate your Second Life™ avatar» Export content as FBX, Collada, BVH and XMLExporting from QUIDAM to Animeeple requires the COLLADA export plugin (included in QUIDAM Studio, this plugin can be purchased separately by QUIDAM users).

If you are interested in markless motion capture, drop by my other blog, PREVIZPOST I think it's pretty exciting technology.


text:
Friday, December 08, 2006

Mr. Motional

A friend of mine, we'll call him "Mr. Motional," had a very rough day today. He found out his girl friend may have Chlamydia. This is what he wrote.

Dear Lover,

I'm so upset. I hate how you've been with so many people. So many boys, underserving boys, have seen you... had you. I don't know if I can get over it. Everyday it bothers me that you would settle for a diseased loser just to satisfy a sexual wanting.

You're unmotivated and a lousy student. You're beautiful and reckless. Cute but incompetent. A heart warmer, and a heart breaker. I love you because you give whole-heartedly without reservation. But today, as I worry about losing my virginity to some venereal disease, I wonder how many else? Why?

You're slept with over 6 boys. Probably fondled close to 30 and you've kissed upwards of 80. Don't you have any self control? What can explain this blatant lack of discipline? Blame it on the environment. Blame it on the sorority. Blame it on any excuse, but in the end, this is your life and your decisions.

Its ok if you make lousy decisions. Its ok if you screw up and you're the only person hurt. Its ok if you spend your college years legs-wide, walking no where. But now, you've made a decision that effects more than 1 person, and it hurts. It hurts because it has diminished our partnership. I want to end our relationship, but I know that I can look past this blemish and keep loving you.


text:
awesome mobile legends hack 2017 apk

mobile legends hack 2017 apk
mobile legends hack 2017 apk

On the off chance that you require a few jewels with the expectation of complimentary then this is the correct place for you. mobile legends hack 2017 apk  is at present taking a shot at all gadgets. With or without escape you can add jewels to your record in effectively, even a tyke could do it. Effectively increment your precious stones with the assistance our most recent variant of portable legends blast hack. Making the amusement more fun and simple for you.

Portable Legends, Actually this is not significantly another as this application as of now achieved 10 million downloads and it is a disgrace for us to missed such great diversion like this. Perhaps on the grounds that we are all concentration in real life Role Playing diversion in those days and as we discovered achievement in MOBA Legends, we need to grow our substance with Massively Multiplayer Battle Arena amusement in both Android and iOS controlled gadget.

Get Unlimited Diamonds and Diamonds to win this amusement.

Refresh consistently.

Tried effectively on numerous android and iOS gadgets..

No root or escape required.

every minute of every day supporting framework.

Portable Legends free Diamonds, Diamonds Android iOS

Portable Legends: Bang is a MOBA based diversion for cell phone and simply like the most recreations under this classification you can do same stuff here just the distinction is you can play this amusement in cell phone. So you can join your companions into 5v5 fight framework. You can utilize a few saints that give distinctive gameplay from various part and develop your group to achieve the highest point of the association.

To think about this amusement in MOBA Legends, Moonton, designer of Mobile Legends is extremely glad to state that you can line in this diversion in matter of seconds. The reality of the matter is that matchmaking is hard time in most MOBA yet since Mobile Legends as of now came to 1o million downloads it is not by any stretch of the imagination hard to get a match with different players around the globe.

Furthermore, the amusement has basic controls and simple to ace. You are in diversion utilizing a virtual joystick on the left and aptitude catches on the correct that you can tap utilizing two fingers. With a basic diversion comes an incredible rivalry. This is not new in most MOBA and to win it more often than not players are pushing their abilities utilizing cash. Well here in our site burning through cash is not a decision as you can do distinctive traps and procedure to ensure regardless you have the favorable position even as allowed to-play client and that is the thing that we will share here.

This Online Mobile Legends: Bang free devices work flawlessly on all Android and iOS gadget, in view of its benevolent contents and endeavor framework, this instruments are accompanying a hostile to boycott framework that will help a ton the creating in advance, attempt now our Mobile Legends free Unlimited Diamonds online generator!

mobile legends hack 2017 apk
mobile legends hack 2017 apk

Versatile Legends Hack Features:

– Unlimited Diamonds

– No compelling reason to download or introduce any product/programs

– Auto – refresh framework

– Tested and imperceptible.

– No download required/day in and day out online access

– Very easy to use by anybody and it has an extremely easy to use interface.

– Not of root(Android) or jailbreak(iOS) is required.

– Anti-Ban System for the security of your account(you will never get prohibited)

– Our {Generator No Survey} work with on all Android,iOS gadgets, including the iPhone, the iPad and Ipod Mini and iPod touch.

Boundless Diamonds, Unlimited Diamonds

Related inquiry: Mobile Legends Bang Hack APK, Mobile Legends Bang tricks No Survey 2017, Mobile Legends Bang free Diamonds No Survey No Password Mac, Mobile Legends Bang free Diamonds No Survey Free, Mobile Legends Bang free generator iOS, Android 2017, Mobile Legends Bang online generator No Survey, Mobile Legends Bang free Diamonds Ipad No Download | overview, Mobile Legends free Diamonds Hack Ipad 2 No Survey, Mobile Legends Bang Cydia Ifile 2017 free, Mobile Legends Bang generator Cydia Repo, Mobile Legends Bang Cheat free, Mobile Legends Cheat Tool generator free, Mobile Legends 2017 Cheat Tool No Survey, Mobile Legends 2017 Cheat Tool Free Download, Mobile Legends generator Download Free, Mobile Legends Free precious stones on the web, Mobile Legends Free jewels no Mastercard, Mobile Legends Bang free apparatuses generator


text:
All Products by Brand

AdvancePierre® Foods is a fully integrated manufacturer of value-added proteins, Philly Steaks and handheld sandwiches. We lead the industry with innovative, delicious and satisfying foods that have unparalleled availability to consumers across America. Attention to industry trends and consumer preferences enables us to develop products and programs to meet the needs of foodservice, school, military, retail, warehouse club, vending and convenience store customers. At AdvancePierre® Foods, our employees are customer-focused and committed to excellence at every level, which is why our products offer superior taste and quality at a great value.

Refine by