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A Developer’s Job Mirrors The Project Lifecycle

The topic of what is a software developer’s job comes up quite often. Obviously, they are paid to write code, but that is a very narrow definition. As a developer gets more senior, they are asked to design the various components of a system, instead of just coding a task. With agile development, the idea of unit tests crept into the job description as well. Lastly, the developers need to be able to deploy the application in a local development environment on their computer as well as possibly deploying it to a testing server as well. So, even though the primary task of most developers is to write code, their whole job mirrors the software project lifecycle of Analysis, Design, Development, Testing, and Deployment.

As a junior-level developer, analysis is limited to the tasks assigned to you. You need to review the requirement and understand what needs to be done. This is a fairly simple task, and very limited in scope. This allows you to affect small portions of the system as you learn and grow. As you become more senior, analysis is done at the groups of features because the group of features could affect the design of the system as a whole. As you review the features, you may start thinking about the types of technologies used. Does it make sense to implement a message bus or should you use a publisher/subscriber (pub-sub) model? This starts to bleed into the basic design tasks as well.

Design is the basic task of determining what components and methods to create , and how they interact. For a junior developer, this is typically limited to just some methods within an object, or a very small group of objects. Senior developers get the more interesting task of determining what the major components are that make up the system and potentially breaking these larger components into smaller ones. The design is also greatly affected by the technologies being used. Continuing with the same example, a message bus implementation will require components that listen to the bus and parse messages before passing information to the core business objects. In a pub-sub model, the business objects themselves could be the subscribers and will receive notifications directly.

This part of the job is the reason you became a developer in the first place. The majority of a developer’s job is to write code, and many take much joy from the process. Junior and senior developers all write code typically, though a senior engineer may write code for more interesting problems, while the junior developers are focused on less critical tasks. There are a few important things to note. First, development in a project is normally one of the longer phases. Second, writing code is likely 50% or more of the developer’s day. This keeps most developers happy enough, but developers tend to complain a decent amount anyway.

For the early part of a developer’s career, testing will be considered the bane of their existence. However, as agile processes have gained adoption, a lot of this can change. Unit tests are being written by most developers now, even in the most waterfall-process-driven companies. The value of unit tests is very high, and there are huge benefits of having unit tests during the maintenance of a product. I have written before about the importance of unit tests, and no developer should consider their code complete without some level of automated testing. Another part of a developer’s job is writing scripts that make the QA process easier. Developers may need to script automated loading of data, or even creation of the entire testing environment. The benefits of this may not be obvious, but how much time is lost in creating an appropriate environment to do testing in, and recreating that environment when QA testing needs to be repeated.

Production deployment, or even deployment to the QA environment, is a current thorn in my side. In many larger organizations, there is likely an IT group that controls the production and QA deployments of all applications. This means that the development team needs to write detailed instructions on the correct way to deploy the application. In smaller companies and consulting agencies, developers will need to script the deployment activities so that the installation is as simple as running one command. Why is this needed? There is always more than one thing that needs to be done to install an application. At the minimum, there is basic configuration that needs to be modified for the installed application. In some cases, there is some data initialization that is required in order for the application to function correctly. If the installation is a little more complicated, there is the application deployment, and copying files to various locations. All of this is fairly easy to script and allows you to recreate a development, test or production environment very quickly.

In larger companies, developers may not get a taste of all of this, and it is disappointing. Without feeling the pain of each part of the job, you do no understand the difficulties within each phase of a project. If you are a product development company, you should be deploying your own application to determine how difficult or complicated it is to install. As a developer, you should be writing tests in order to feel the pain that QA goes through when testing the application. If you are not doing these things, then you are not really doing the full job of a developer and will be missing some experience along the way.

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Submission Date Dec. 5, 2012
Executive Letter Download

STARS v1.1

University of Colorado Denver - Anschutz Medical Campus
PAE-8: Support Programs for Underrepresented Groups

Status Score Responsible Party
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Institution has mentoring, counseling, peer support, affinity groups, academic support programs, or other programs in place to support underrepresented groups on campus.

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Date of Graduation

Spring 5-12-2017

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Master of Public Health (MPH)

School of Nursing and Health Professions

First Advisor

Erin Grinchtyeyn

Second Advisor

Dhrubajyoti Bhattacharya

Chronic disease is quickly overtaking infectious diseases as one of the biggest threats to population health worldwide (Egger, 2012). Studies have shown that plant based diets are effective at reducing prevalence but are also a viable complimentary treatment approach to healing. Further investigation is needed into how plant based diets can reduce risk of recurrence, specifically as it relates to a cancer diagnosis. The Ceres Project is an organization that provides a healing foods philosophy to the care of cancer patients through meal delivery programs at low to no cost. The aim of this research study was to implement the first trial of The Ceres Transition Program, which tested three treatment groups to determine what manner of additional support is needed for clients to establish a long-term dietary commitment to the Ceres food philosophy. A total of n=34 participants were randomly assigned to 4 groups, 3 treatment groups and a control that received only cash to use at the individual’s discretion. Two groups received three nutrition and cooking classes held over the course of eight weeks in conjunction with a cash stipend or vegetable box supplement. The final treatment group strictly received a vegetable box for eight weeks. Pre-post surveys were implemented to evaluate baseline and endline eating behaviors by phone. Although the study lacked adequate sample sizes, preliminary data suggested that both cooking skills and cooking attitudes improved over all three treatment groups. Increased sample sizes for the next trial will allow for further manipulation of the data to reveal specifics between class and control and whether fruit and vegetable consumption increased with the intervention. Lastly, it will be important to understand whether the dietary recommendations lasted past six months to a year thereby demonstrating a long-term behavior change. Implications for policy should focus on increasing SNAP EBT transfers for farmer’s markets to also include Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) deliveries to those living with cancer. The rationale for this is that a debilitating illness significantly effects energy levels necessary for shopping for and preparing healthy food due to cancer treatment. Eliminating this barrier may help to increase fruit and vegetables consumption during this challenging period. Finally, establishing programs that can offer nutrition and cooking education with a Food as Medicine philosophy should be incorporated into the treatment of chronic illness in primary care settings as it may help interrupt the progression of red flag markers into a confirmed diagnosis.


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Document Type

Joyce Carol Oates draws extensively on news stories, as well as on elements of her own family’s past, to find inspiration for her works of fiction. She has written about the Chappaquiddick incident involving Ted Kennedy and the JonBenet Ramsay murder case. She has worked the Niagara Falls Love Canal environmental scandal into the framework of The Falls and taken inspiration from sordid events from her own family’s past in the beginning of The Gravedigger’s Daughter. However, in none of these examples does Oates purport to relate the precise real-life “facts” of the historical events. Indeed, for an author who believes in the multiplicity of truths such a task would be superfluous, if it was in fact possible, given what she perceives as the inherently “error-prone” nature of our species. “Language,” she writes in her essay “On Fiction in Fact,” “by its very nature tends to distort experience. With the best of intentions, in recalling the past, if even a dream of the previous night, we are already altering – one might say violating – the original experience, which may have been wordless and was certainly improvised.” In response to what she sees as the problematic nature of language, memory and the artificial nature of writing, Oates has cultivated a self-described “psychological realism” that seeks to depict a greater realm of truth beyond the world of facts, that is to say the truth of emotion and felt experience, “states of mind [which are] real enough – emotions, moods, shifting obsessions, beliefs – though immeasurable.” This article compares both fiction and non-fiction works by Oates – notably, A Widow’s Story, Sourland, The Falls – in a discussion of the fluctuating frontier between the two genres and the notion of psychological Truth that this tenuous relationship reveals.


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  • The synthesis of 5-substituted hydantoins

    Murray, Ross George (University of St Andrews, 2008-06-25) - Thesis
    The Bucherer-Bergs reaction is a classical multi-component reaction that yields hydantoins, which can be hydrolysed to afford α-amino acids. Hydantoins have many uses in modern organic synthesis, and this moiety has been ...


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Radioactive fish study retracted for “significant and extensive” corrections

The authors of a study estimating how much radioactive material from two sunken Russian submarines is taken up by fish in the Barents Sea have retracted it, citing the need for “significant and extensive” corrections.

Here’s the notice, from Environmental Pollution:

This article has been retracted: please see Elsevier Policy on Article Withdrawal (

This article has been retracted at the request of the Authors.

The authors have informed the Editor and the publisher of the journal that substantial parts of the article need corrections. These corrections are so significant and extensive that the article could no longer be considered to be same as the one originally submitted, reviewed and accepted for publication.

The paper has been cited twice, according to Google Scholar, and its authors are at the Institute of Marine Research in Bergen, Norway, which studies the Barents Sea, among other projects. We’ve asked the corresponding author, Hilde Elise Heldal, for details on the needed corrections, and will update with anything we learn.

In the meantime, here’s the original paper’s abstract:

Dispersal of 137Cs from Komsomolets and K-159 is simulated using realistic rates and hypothetical scenarios. Furthermore, spatiotemporal 137Cs concentrations in Northeast Arctic cod and capelin are estimated based on survey data. The results indicate that only pulse discharges from K-159 will cause concentrations of 137Cs in cod muscle exceeding the intervention level of 600 Bq/kg fresh weight. A discharge of 10% of the 137Cs-inventory will result in concentrations in muscle of cod exceeding the intervention level for approximately two years. In fact, a discharge of 10% of the 137Cs-inventory results in an overlap of 8e30% between the different size groups of cod and levels that exceed the intervention level during the first year after the discharge. For capelin, individuals less than one year old during the first year after a discharge are more likely to be severely affected by discharges comprising 50% of the

And here’s a story on how this sort of research is used from Yale Environment 360 magazine.

Update, 7:45 a.m. Eastern, 10/17/12: Heldal tells us why the paper was retracted*:

Short time after we had published the article I received critical questions from a colleague at another Norwegian institution. The questions made us go through our model inputs, and it turned out that they were wrong, giving 137Cs concentrations in cod and capelin wrong with a factor of 1000 (1000 times to high). We were asked by the editor of the journal to write a corrigendum. It became, however, too extensive, as we have to change both parts of the text and some of the figures. The article was therefore retracted. We are now in the process of rewriting the article and will resubmit it to the same journal within short time.

I cannot say how sorry I am for this, it shouldn’t happen. However it did. I have learned that modeling can be difficult and you should be extremely critical to what comes out of the model.

*Note: This quote (via email from Heldal) has been edited since it was originally posted, at Heldal’s request. She claimed that she did not know we would be posting her comment, but as we pointed out, Ivan identified himself as a Retraction Watch blogger and included a link to Retraction Watch in his email to her.

2 thoughts on “Radioactive fish study retracted for “significant and extensive” corrections”

  1. Perhaps it is time for an additional category “honest mistake” and some positive acknowledgement for candid replies? Just a thought…

    1. Thanks for the suggestion. We frequently acknowledge candid and forthright responses such as this one. Whether we can make a judgment call on honest errors requires some thought.

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Welcome to RetroTracks
- Remember that awesome tune? We do too.
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Allister Brimble

Allister Brimble (born 1970) is a video game music composer. Allister has written music and sound effects for the videogame industry since the mid 1980s for a vast array of games, such as Driver, Project-X, Superfrog, Alien Breed, Assassin, Colonization, Descent II, Dizzy series (except the first game, Dizzy), Slightly Magic on the ZX Spectrum and the Amiga.

More recently, he has composed music for the games RollerCoaster Tycoon 1 & 2. For Chris Sawyer's Locomotion, he created a couple of songs out of different eras, from 1900 to present day.

He also produced various audio tracks, as "Brimble's Beats", that were distributed on coverdisks of magazines including CU Amiga and Amiga Format.

Alien Breed: Special Edition '92 Commodore Amiga
ATR: All Terrain Racing Commodore Amiga
Body Blows Commodore Amiga
Body Blows Galactic Commodore Amiga
Fantasy World Dizzy Commodore Amiga
Full Contact Commodore Amiga
Project-X Commodore Amiga
Spellbound Dizzy Commodore Amiga
Superfrog Commodore Amiga
The Lawnmower Man Super Nintendo Entertainment System (SNES) / Super Famicom
The Lost Vikings Commodore Amiga
Treasure Island Dizzy Commodore Amiga
Ultimate Body Blows Commodore Amiga CD32
X-Com: UFO Defence Sony Playstation (PSX)
Zeewolf Commodore Amiga


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Tag Archives: bias supply

Oregon Electronic Model A3 Variable Voltage Regulated Power Supply

Here’s another project I just finished at Rain City Audio:

This vacuum tube power supply from an engineer’s test bench can replace a radio or test circuit’s power supply to help with troubleshooting or experiments, with up to 400V for B+ and 6.3V 5A for the heaters. It needed some new capacitors, then fired right up and works perfectly! Continue reading

Posted in Electronics, Radios and Tubes, Vintage | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment


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Index to shorter

A tree and its fruit

Advent reflection for the association of anglican women

All Your Needs

An eye for an eye

Anzac day and resurrection

Be One

Believe in Him And He will feed you

Bread (2012)

Feed my Lambs

Flesh and Blood

Following Jesus

The Forgiven Sinner

Holy Spirit Baptism

If it causes you to sin, cut it off!

Lost Sheep

Jesus is coming…

Jesus presented in the temple

Laws and Commandments

Mary anoints Jesus’ Feet.

The lectionaryThe Lectionary

The One who sent Him is true

Our Creator Loves us

Sermon for Epiphany

St Andrew’s Day

The Sound of Silence

Sylvia’s Advent.

Temptations in the Wilderness

The Details of Your Life Matter to God

The First Must be Last

The Parable of the Good Samaritan

The Spirit of the Lord is upon me

The Ten Lepers

The Wedding at Cana

The Wise Men

This Little Light of Mine

Upside-Down Blessings

What the gospel means to me and how I am living it

What’s the Sabbath for?

Wilderness and Lent

You are Never Alone

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Blind, by choice?

LENT 4A – 26th March, 2017 – St Barnabas’, Rivervale & All Saints’, Belmont

BIBLE READINGS: I Samuel 16:1-13; John 9:1-41

+ In the Name of God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit.   Amen.

Jesus said, “I came into this world for judgment so that those who do not see may see, and those who do see may become blind.”

Twenty years or so ago, during a break from parish ministry, I was working for a St George’s Terrace law firm.  One day, during the lunch break, I was walking through the Hay Street Mall when, distracted by a street performer, I stumbled into another pedestrian and fell over.  My “victim” called out, “Look where you’re going!” I turned and saw that he was carrying a white stick and waving it in my direction.  It was, to say the least, an embarrassing situation: I, who am fully sighted, had tripped over a blind man 😦

Today’s readings – especially the Gospel – talk about the contrast of light and darkness and of seeing and not seeing.

The prophet Samuel is looking, at God’s instruction, for a new king for Israel. As instructed, he comes to the home of Farmer Jesse to see which of Jesse’s sons is the chosen one.  Samuel meets the tall, dark and handsome Eliab, Jesse’s eldest, and immediately thinks that this is the one.  But God says, “Do not look on his appearance or on the height of his stature, because I have rejected him; for the LORD does not see as mortals see; they look on the outward appearance, but the LORD looks on the heart.”

How often do we fall for the most attractive person – whether in politics or business or relationships – blinded to the real person inside?  And how often have we despised people who don’t seem to measure up physically or intellectually, but who turn out to be the wisest, the most compassionate, the most genuine?

So Samuel is forced to move on.  He meets each of Jesse’s sons in turn, none failing to meet with God’s approval.  Having run out, he asks Jesse if there are any more. “Oh, there’s only David – but he’s just a shepherd!”  Not anything to write home about, and certainly not king-material.

But as soon as David appears, God says, “Rise and anoint him; for this is the one.”  It also turns out that this David “was ruddy, and had beautiful eyes, and was handsome.” Take hope, everyone, you don’t have to be ugly to be acceptable to God!  🙂

Samuel is in tune with God and is eventually able to see the wood for the trees, as we say.

The Gospel story – that of Jesus, a blind man and the Pharisees – is, in dramatic terms, both comedy and tragedy.  Perhaps we can call it a “tragicomedy”.

Comedy is properly described as a story with a happy ending.  Various bad things may happen during the course of the play, but to use the title of a Shakespearian play, “All’s Well That Ends Well”. There are usually funny and ironic people and plotlines, and you could summarise it with “They all lived happily ever after”.  Jesus’ parable of the lost son is one such “comedy”.

Tragedy, on the other hand, never ends well. We often see the “decline and fall” of someone apparently beautiful, respected or powerful.  Jesus’ parable of the rich man and Lazarus would be more in the tradition of tragedy.

Today’s Gospel, then, is both tragedy and comedy, depending whether we are following the fortunes of the blind man or of the Pharisees.

Firstly, the blind man:

Here he is, blind from birth.  Jesus’s disciples seem less concerned with the man’s predicament – how does a blind man with no social welfare or technology survive in a hostile environment?  They want to discuss theology!  For the record, we might suggest that the disciples are rather blind in their own way.

Thankfully, Jesus dismisses the theological stuff by saying that the blindness is no one’s fault – but that it will lead to God’s glory. He’s not going to argue theology when there is human need.   So he creates mud, puts it on the man’s eyes, and tells him to go and wash.  He does as he’s told – no discussion, we might note! – and comes back healed.

Have you ever seen pictures of children just after their cochlear implant is turned on, and they can hear for the first time ever?  I suspect our once-blind man had a similar expression.

So, his eyes are opened and he can see.  But now begins the journey of gaining the sight which is faith in Jesus.  He runs into people who keep asking him, “What happened?”, “Who did this?”, who is he?” And then he meets the religious leaders of the day, the Pharisees! [This is where we all boo, isn’t it?]  The Pharisees don’t like anything which challenges their authority and that of their faith.

Our man is asked, again and again, the same questions.  His answers reveal his growing faith:

  • “The man called Jesus made mud…”
  • “He put mud on my eyes. Then I washed, and now I see.”
  • “He is a prophet.”
  • “I do not know whether he is a sinner. One thing I do know, that though I was blind, now I see.”
  • “Here is an astonishing thing! You do not know where he comes from, and yet he opened my eyes. We know that God does not listen to sinners, but he does listen to one who worships him and obeys his will.  Never since the world began has it been heard that anyone opened the eyes of a person born blind.  If this man were not from God, he could do nothing.”
  • “Lord, I believe.”

His faith has grown, his “spiritual” eyes are opened and he believes in Jesus; his life is irrevocably changed for the better – body, mind and spirit.

The Jewish leaders, the Pharisees, are on a reverse journey, however.

They talk about Jesus thus:

  • “This man is not from God, for he does not observe the Sabbath.”
  • “Give glory to God! We know that this man is a sinner.”
  • “We know that God has spoken to Moses, but as for this man, we do not know where he comes from.”
  • “Surely we are not blind, are we?”

It is clear that the Pharisees increasingly reject Jesus.  His actions and teaching continually threaten not only their beliefs, but also their power and status, not to mention their relatively cordial relations with the Roman occupiers of their land.

My Dad used to tell me that his grandfather often told him, “There’s none so blind as them that don’t want to see”. I’ve also heard it said as, “My mind is made up; don’t confuse me with facts.” And how true that is for the Pharisees and other enemies of Jesus.

But never for us?  🙂

Well, in Lent, we are particularly challenged by the teachings and requirements of Jesus:

  • “Repent for the Kingdom of God is at hand.”
  • “Take up your cross daily and follow me.”
  • “Who do you say that I am?”
  • “You must be born again / from above.”

And we find ourselves called to leave behind our blindness and to walk in the light Jesus brings.   “I came into this world for judgment so that those who do not see may see, and those who do see may become blind”, he says, and leaves us with the choice.

The Pharisees move on into tragedy; the blind man into light and life.

As my unintended victim in the Mall said, “Look where you’re going!”

The Lord be with you!


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Archive for the ‘Italy’ Category

Speaking of Bubbles… Part Two

July 13, 2012

There is a lot of average to shitty Prosecco out there.  That is ok I guess since most Prosecco is meant for aperitivo hour in Italy, just something to casually drink alongside little finger snacks at the local bar before sitting down to dinner where the serious wine drinking and eating begins.  Some people even desecrate Prosecco by pouring peach purée into it, something called a Bellini, supposedly this is a popular cocktail around the world, I don’t believe it.  Prosecco should be meant for better things.

To review, Prosecco is a sparkling wine from Italy, more specifically the Veneto area in the Northeastern corner of the country (where Venice is).  Most of the production takes place in the towns of Conegliano and Valdobbiadene, just south of the Alpine mountains.  Prosecco is not Champagne, Prosecco is Prosecco.  Prosecco is made mostly from Glera grapes, also known as Prosecco grapes.  The bubbles in most Prosecco happen when you add sugar and yeast to still wine and let it re-ferment in a pressurized steel tank.  The yeast eats the sugar making alcohol and that gives off  CO2 gas which cannot escape the vat and it is all bottled under pressure.   This is called the Charmat Method or Metodo Italiano or Metodo Charmat-Martinotti (Named after a French guy who perfected an Italian’s invention).  This is a quicker, easier way to make sparkling wine and it is cheaper, and it can be done on a massive scale.

There are many great examples of inexpensive Prosecco produced in the Charmat Method that everyone should chug down, but I want to tell you about an extra special Prosecco that is made the old fashion way.

Christian Ca’ Dei Zago of the farm Ca’ Dei Zago crafts some of the coolest Prosecco from just 4 hectares of vines.  His idea is to guide the grapes from harvest to bottle with no extra energy.  This means no pesticides in the soil, no machine harvest, no extra sulphites are added, no commercial yeasts, all the wine is gravity fed.  The secondary fermentation takes place in each bottle (which Christian bottles by hand) with no dosage (sugar and yeast).

Instead the wine is bottled with a bit of residual grape sugar that eventually re-ferments on its own making lightly textured bubbles.  There is no filtration and no disgorgement (where the sediment is removed and an additional sugary-syrupy mix of wine is added and a cork is shoved in).  This sparkling wine is lively and chalky, lemon zesty and bone cracking dry.  You could start a meal with it for sure but it would easily carry all the way through a butter and cream rich meal.

Delicious, delicious noble lees, embrace them.  Think of them as flavor crystals.

Ca’ Dei Zago “Col Fondo” (with sediment) Prosecco di Valdobbiadene . $20. Imported by Williams Corner Wine.

Finding The Pretty From Puglia

January 24, 2012

Puglia, subtle rolling hills, fertile plains with lots of sunshine, pretty.  Puglia, surounded by The Ionian and Adriatic Seas, very pretty indeed.  Puglia gave us the calzone, the pretty pasta shape of orecchiette and the pretty looking tarantula.

What’s not so pretty about Puglia is its mass production of wine.  Tied with Sicily for bulk output of grape juice, Puglia has long supplied the rest of Italy (and the rest of the world) with cheap, forgettable table swill.  Wine from Puglia is frequently used to thicken up wines from other regions and is also a base ingredient for many vermouths produced in the northern city of Turin.  Commercial wines from Puglia can taste roasted and oxidized, dirty and alcoholic.

Grower-producer wines can be pretty though.  There are people that make distinct and balanced wines from grapes that they grow themselves  from vineyards passed down through generations.  Wines that are a thoughtful celebration of Puglia’s hotter than Africa climate.

Azienda Agricola Pasquale Petrera di Orfino Rosa is a pretty wine estate that produces pretty wines.

Big, rich, spicy and fragrant you would never believe that the pretty Fatalone wines have a sinister alcohol content…

2007 Azienda Agricola Pasquale Petrera “Fatalone” Gioia del Colle Primitivo.  $17. Imported by Williams Corner Wine.  A slick, high octane, dark fruit attack that is perfectly balanced by a refreshing dose of minerality.  Aged for 18 months before release.  Drink it with roasted meats, spicy pasta dishes and aged cheeses.

2009 Azienda Agricola Pasquale Petrera “Fatalone” I.G.T. Terres Primitivo.  $15. Imported by Williams Corner Wine.  From free run juice that is fermented in contact with the grape skins for only 30 hours, this wine is light and lively.  Almost rose in color but structured and spicy.  This is a perfect pizza wine.  Serve it slightly chilled.

So Long Joe Dressner, Thanks For Everything

September 19, 2011

By now you probably have heard that Joe Dressner passed away after a long fight with brain cancer.  Of course you know Joe is responsible for Louis/Dressner Selections, an importer that brings in natural wines from small, independent vignerons throughout the world.  Most of the wines that have been discussed on this blog are in fact Louis/Dressner wines.  They are quite special, Joe Dressner was special, he will be missed.

Thankfully the culture of wine, especially his kinds of wines will carry on.  To salute the man I had to check in a few of my favorite wines from his portfolio.Here are a couple of wines from the most northern part of Italy, Trentino-Alto Adige.  The area butts up against Austria and Switzerland and is surrounded by the Rhaetian Alps and the Dolomite mountains.  The region has only been part of Italy since the collapse of the Austro-Hungarian empire after World War 1 and is split into two different cultural areas.  Italian speaking Trentino in the south more associates themselves with Italian heritage, the food is similar to what you would find in the Veneto, a lot of polenta and pasta with an even more heavy emphasis on butter and cream.  You will also find wild game, mushrooms and salt-cured beef.  The German speaking northern Alto Adige (Südtirol as the locals know it) has a more Austrian background, you will find wurst, cabbage, rye bread and buckwheat noodles and of course their greatest contribution Speck.

The Nusserhof estate, run by Elda & Heinrich Nusser, exists on 2.5 hectares within the city of Bolzano.  The steep and difficult to work vineyards are situated in an unusually warm area.  The wines produced have a ripe and concentrated character due to low yields from healthy, organically grown grapes.

(2007) Heinrich Mayr Nusserhof Blatterle. $25.

Blatterle is an indigenous varietal that was nearly extinct (who is knocking down doors to drink Blatterle?).  Traditionally it was made into a sweet dessert wine, this example is bone dry.  The wine is labeled as Vino da Tavola.  By Italian law the vintage can’t be shown but it is identified by the last two digits of the lot number, look for the L07.  By all accounts this wine should have been consumed a few years ago but I was curious to see how it was holding up.  Surprisingly it had a lot of creamy richness to it, not much going on aromatically but the wine picked up a lot of weight in it’s time in the bottle.  The usual apple and pear fruit profile has dropped off and transformed into a salty, mineral thing.  Still very enjoyable, and very different.

2005 Heinrich Mayr Nusserhof Lagrein Riserva. $35.

Lagrein is also an indigenous grape of semi-ancient origins and generally has a clumsy, woodsy tannic structure along with low acidity. Not the case with Nusserhof’s.  The Lagrein Riserva was showing nicely.  It is round and rich, bright and savory, like the oily essence of fresh espresso mixed with black, inky fruit.  This is a wine for mountain men.  Evidently this wine can age magnificently, the bottle I opened was just getting started.  One whiff of its chocolatey, earthy and fresh herbed bouquet you will be in love.“Weingut” is German for wine farm.  Wine labels from Alto Adige are mostly in German.

 Check your back labels for importer information.  If you see the “Louis/Dressner” name it means the wine is going to be something special and unique.  Thank you Joe Dressner for bringing these types of wines to all of us.

“The Natural Wine Movement is not a movement with a leader, credo and principles. If you think there is a Natural Wine Movement sweeping the world, triumphantly slaying industrial wineries and taking no hostages, then you are one delusional wine drinker. The Natural Wine Movement thinks that you might want to lessen your alcohol consumption for a few months.”

Joe Dressner, 2010

Tasting Report With The American Civil War Center at Historic Tredegar: The Sparkling Wines of Emilia-Romagna!

September 6, 2011

We all love Emilia-Romagna in Central Italy.  We love and lust over the possibility of owning a Ferrari or Lamborghini.  Our favorite cheese is Parmigiano-Reggiano, our second being Grana Padano.   We can’t get enough Prosciutto di Parma or Mortadella.  We insist on only the finest, aged Balsamic vinegar to drizzle over roasted butternut squash.  We love Lasagna.

What we love most of all are the sparkling wines of this region.  There is nothing more magical then the pairing of fatty foods with these bubbly brutes.  Emilia-Romagna is Italy’s heartland and the center of the gastronomic universe.  Aside from Lambrusco, Emilia-Romagna does not have many press friendly, famous, superstar wines, meaning one can find great value, and great surprise from off the beaten path growers.

For this tasting Richmond Wine Culture is joined by The American Civil War Center at Historic Tredegar.  Tredegar is located right here in Richmond down by the James River and is the nation’s first museum to interpret the Civil War from Union, Confederate, and African American perspectives.

The first 2 wines come from Cà de Noci, a property run by two brothers intent on continuing the thousand year old legacy of working with indigenous grapes and crafting wines that taste of the region.  Their farm sits up against a walnut forest (Noci means walnuts) and has just 5 hectares devoted to vines planted on rocky limestone soil.  “Querciole” is 100% Spergola, which in the old days was confused with Sauvignon Blanc and has a naturally high acidity level making it ideal for sparkling wine production. “Sottobosco” a blend of three different red grapes: Malbo Gentile, Lambrusco Maestri and Lambrusco Grasparossa.  These particular clones can resist the humid growing conditions in the area and are able to flourish without the use of pesticides and chemicals.  The wine is labeled as simple table wine because it does not grow within any of the delineated DOC Lambrusco Zones.

Richmond Wine Culture:  “I love this bottling of “Querciole”, it has a natural secondary fermentation that takes place within the bottle giving it a dancing frizzante characteristic.  The aromas are fascinating, something like orange peal and wheat.  In the mouth I get plenty of salty fruit and sprightly zing.  Perfect for cleansing the palate for that next bite of cured meat.”

The American Civil War Center at Historic Tredegar:   “Upon entering the newly constructed pavilion, visitors begin their tour with “What Caused the Civil War?” an interactive film which orients your visit. As you continue through the exhibit, enjoy rotating artifacts, detailed timelines, unique hands-on activities, additional films, and more. Continue to move into the War years (1861-1865) and finish with the post-war “Legacies” section which helps to put our world today into perspective.”

Richmond Wine Culture:  “The “Sottobosco” for me is the most exciting of the two, like the “Querciole” it gets its bubbles from a natural secondary  fermentation.  People tend to think sparkling reds from this region are sweet and syrupy, not this wine!  It is tannic and chalky, superb with rich cream sauces and cured pork neck.  Definitely a little strange.”

The American Civil War Center at Historic Tredegar: “In 1860-1861, the United States split apart. How did we get to that point?  Why did the Southern states leave the Union?  Was war inevitable?  What were the combatants fighting about?  You can explore these and other questions at the Center and learn what motivated Unionists, Confederates, and African Americans.”
Camillo Donati is a third generation wine grower located right outside of Parma.  Malvasia is an ancient varietal historically associated with the Mediterranean but now can be found throughout Italy.  Camillo produces both sweet and dry versions.  All the wines are fermented on their skins without temperature control or added yeasts or any form of acidification.  The Malvasia Secco also has a secondary fermentation naturally in the bottle without the addition of any sugar.  The bottle is closed with a crown cap and will throw off a lot of sediment.

Richmond Wine Culture:  “I am really taken by this example of Malvasia Secco.  It has a very unusual orange color, like a hefeweizen or an IPA, even some kind of cider.  Kind of smells similar to beer as well.  There is plenty of bitter almond notes to go with the coriander laced fruit.  It is almost painfully dry.  This bottle screams for grilled sausages and fried dough.

The American Civil War Center at Historic Tredegar: “The Center is a place to learn about the Civil War—its causes, its course, and its legacies. It is a place where the people who decided America’s future tell their stories. Here, all of the main stories—Union, Confederate, and African American— get significant space together for the first time. By understanding these three perspectives on a subject that is still divisive almost a century and a half later, we can begin to see the war differently—as a shared national heritage.”

Alberto Tedeschi makes only one wine from one grape, Pignoletto.  Alberto farms just 2 hectares of land by hand, too small to bother using a tractor.  No fertilizers, chemicals or any other nonsense are used in the vineyard.  The grapes are fermented in open vats and then the finished, dry wine is transferred to large wooden barrels to mature and rest on its lees for 15 months before bottling.  Theses wines with their big structure can evidently age for years.

Richmond Wine Culture:  “Alberto Tedeschi has produced an exciting and racy wine.  The color is golden, the nose is complex almost overwhelming with big time rosemary, sage and dried fruits.  The mouthfeel is rich and opulent but is very fresh and cleansing.  The aromatics circulate within the back of the throat.  This is relatively inexpensive compared to other sparkling wines meaning it could be hard to find if it wasn’t a little strange.  Another great bottle for the table, I love that it also has a crown cap. ”

The American Civil War Center at Historic Tredegar: “What effects do you think the war continues to have on America? We hope that you will visit the American Civil War Center to learn more about how the Civil War and its aftermath shaped our country today. The Center provides a framework for thinking about the impact of the war on us today. We encourage you to think about these issues, learn about them, and discuss them with others.”

2008 Cà de Noci Vino di Tavola Sottobosco Frizzante. $20. Imported by Louis/Dressner Selections

2007 Cà de Noci Vino di Tavola Querciole Frizzante. $30. Imported by Louis/Dressner Selections

2008 Donati Camillo Malvasia Secco dell’Emilia IGT. $25. Imported by Louis/Dressner Selections

2008 Alberto Tedeschi IGT Emilia Spungola Bellaria.  $25. Imported by Louis/Dressner Selections

All available in the Richmond area!

Weird Wines!

July 29, 2011

Not so much weird but rather a pleasant surprise.  Surprise coming from the loud ‘pop’ when you uncork it, this wine has bubbles!  Not fine like Champagne or Franciacorta, more like a light, frothy Saison ale.   Imagine if wine and beer had a baby, sort of.

2009 Bera Arcese Bianco Piemonte, $13.  Imported by Louis Dressner Selections (yet again!).

The Vittoria Bera family hails from Sant’Antonio which lies in the village of Serra Masio which belongs to the municipality of Canelli inside the province of Asti in the region of Piemonte in the country of Italy.  The Bera’s have been making wine since 1785 specializing in the production of fizzy Moscato d’Asti.  They were the first to grow and bottle wine in the Canelli area and never succumbed to the international 80’s craze and desire for sugary, mass-produced Asti Spumante.  They also grow Arneis, Cortese, Favorita, Dolcetto and Barbera, all on slopy, steep, calcerous marl soils.  The farming is entirely organic and the handpicked and sorted, crushed grapes are vinified simply on its native yeast culture.  The Arcese Bianco is a blend of Arneis, Favorita and Cortese.  The bubbles come from a natural, secondary bottle fermentation.  It is slightly yeasty, a little pine nutty but soft and peachy with lovely acidity making this wine refreshing and chuggable in the summer.  Drink it in The James River with an egg salad sandwich and a bag of salty chips.

Welcome to Richmond Wine Culture

February 27, 2011

There are a lot of ways to make wine.

The number of methods makes it seem like wine can be made anywhere in the world. One can easily create a vineyard on a plot of land (away from trees) with well-prepared soil (through tilling, weeding and composting) that has good drainage and a steady flow of water (either by rain or irrigation) ample sun (from Spring through Fall) and enough dry air (or chemical spray) to keep rot and mold away.

If owning and maintaining a vineyard is too costly or labor intensive, one can easily source grapes from differnet growers and have the fruit delivered
to his/her newly constructed, state of the art winery. There, one can fill the mechanical hopper and crusher-destemmer (to separate leaves and twigs and such) to prepare the grapes for a brief, chilly stay in a heat exchanger.  After this, the grapes will get blasted with sulphur dioxide (to prevent fermentation and to slow down oxidation) then move on to a full-on mechanical stomp in a pneumatic press to produce the juice. The juice is then pump pump pumped into settling tanks (add some carbon dioxide in gas form) and then pumped again into the fermentation tanks.

Added here are some specially selected yeast strains intended to impart special characteristics into the finished wine.

The colder the fermentation, the fruitier and more aromatic the wine; the hotter the fermentation, the quicker the tanks can be refilled with the next batch. From there, the wine can be refined in new, more costly oak barrels, or, to keep it cheap, oak chips and saw dust can be thrown into the fermenting wine. After a run through the sheet filtration system the wine is ready to be bottled and slapped with a label!

These are generalized steps of course. One can easily buy the juice already crushed to ferment at will, or buy finished wine and manipulate anyway wanted. The easiest way to make wine, though, is to hire a consulting oenologist to do it all…

There are ways to grow wine, as well.
Wine is an agricultural product and comes from longstanding cultural traditions. Many Artisan growers uphold responsible farming and reflect a sense of place through their wines. When wine is grown rather than constructed, the process honors the land, natural growing cycles, and the integrity of heritage. And, it often tastes better, offering more complex and fresh flavors.

Richmond has access to all kinds of beautiful, real wines. Richmond Wine Culture will let you know where to find these special wines in local shops and restaurants. Join us online for discussions with wine distributors, restraunteurs, and wine shop owners to explore our city’s wine culture. Here, you will find information about noteworthy wine events around town (and notes on which tastings to avoid.)  To thoughtfully think about wine, Richmond Wine Culture will not provide unclear tasting notes like “Stewed gooseberries” or “Asian-spice box” or “Peruivan tree bark” or other ultimately senseless descriptors.  Instead, we’ll talk about how a wine is used to complement cuisine. Richmond Wine Culture will explore off the beaten path wine regions and direct you to wines that celebrate those regions.  We’ll cover the best ways to enjoy these special wines.

We look forward to tasting with you!


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The Heart of Prescott: Exploring Downtown

In this Vlog, Colton and his wife Madeline explore the sights and events offered by downtown Prescott as a popular destination for students. From old fashioned candy shops to lemonade stands, downtown Prescott offers something for everyone to enjoy. Check out the Vlog below!

Drop us a comment or suggestion with ideas for what you’d like to see next!

Prescott- Arizona’s Christmas City

Often regarded by many as “Arizona’s Christmas City”, Prescott sure does put on the holiday cheer around Christmas time every year.

December 6th started out as a pretty normal day for me. Got to sleep in until 10:30 a.m., with nothing on the agenda until my first final (physics) at 2:45 p.m. After a late breakfast/early lunch, I headed down to the post office. To my great joy, my new camera had finally been shipped to the school (my old camera’s fate involved a sketchy tripod, a cliff, and fortunate warranty service). After eagerly opening my Sony a6000, I asked my suitemate/best friend if he wanted to go downtown and play with my new camera. All seemed normal as we pulled out of the Embry-Riddle campus and headed down Willow Creek Rd. However, as we neared downtown the traffic began to be unusually thick for Prescott.

We knew something was up when we saw buses unloading at Chipotle. After driving through the shopping complex unsuccessfully searching for a parking spot, we opted to leave my truck at a nearby park. We began to realize that something big was going on as we spotted a high-school band warming up. It quickly hit us that we had arrived just in time to see the beginning of the annual Prescott Christmas Parade. And it seemed as if half of Arizona had come to enjoy the show as well.

The entirety of the Courthouse Square was covered with thousands of kids and adults alike lining the streets, eager to catch a glimpse of the grand parade.

And grand the parade was. Ranging from toddlers in too-large of cowboy outfits, to a dozen greyhounds tugging at their leashes, the parade offered a huge variety of entertainment and Christmas spirit.

One of my favorite parts of the parade was the section of Classic VW’sDSC00099

And then there’s the ‘cute’ section of the parade

After watching about an hour of the parade, I hurried back to the school to take my physics final (I think it went well!).

That night, I travelled back downtown to see the city courthouse lit up with Christmas lights for the first time in 2014. This event was just as busy with people as the parade, only this time everyone tried to fit into the courthouse square. Saying we were packed like sardines was an understatement, but luckily I had my extra tall tripod and was able to get some good shots of the beautiful building.

Waiting for lighting…DSC00145

And the Courthouse/surrounding 163 trees lit up in all their gloryDSC00165 DSC00168 DSC00169 DSC00171


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Classical ringtones to your ZTE you will find in this section. Only the best and most popular Classical ringtones and phone calls in format .Mp3. Before you download any tone from the section Classical ringtones, you'll be able to pre-listen ringtone, and after this - download it for your mobile device. Do not forget to vote for our proposed music for ZTE. Your vote can help us understand what you like, thus we will make every effort that would be on site regularly to update and add Classical ringtones for smart phones, iPhone, Android OS devices.
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Classical ringtones to your ZTE. Download free Classical tones for mobile phones


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Evaluation of New Technologies for Traffic Monitoring

Increasing rush-hour congestion on the interstate system has necessitated the evaluation of Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS) instrumentation to keep the traveling public informed of traffic conditions and commute times. The latest traffic monitoring technology takes advantage of the number of Bluetooth devices carried by the public (phones and headsets) as well as newer vehicles that incorporate Bluetooth capabilities. Bluetooth radio ranges are generally limited to 30 feet; however, new devices on the market can detect Bluetooth emissions from as far away as 250'. Electronic devices typically have an "electronic" serial number known as a MAC (Media Access Control) address. Bluetooth monitoring detects this identifier at Point A and places the MAC in a database. The mean travel time can be calculated if that same address is detected at Point B. Privacy is assured since any one MAC address is not tied to a specific owner. Side-fire radar has been in use for some years but has been shown to be useful in terms of its ability to provide vehicle length, lane occupancy, point speed and direction. Studies have shwon that side-fire radar provides reliable data under ordinary circumstances. Accuracy appears to decline with increasing congestion as would be found in a work zone. An important point to consider with both of the technologies to be evaluated is that neither are intrusive nor do they require specialized installation procedures as would be found with standard traffic monitoring devices such as loop detectors.

    • English

    • Status: Completed
    • Funding: $100000.00
    • Contract Numbers:

    • Sponsor Organizations:

      Federal Highway Administration

      1200 New Jersey Avenue, SE
      Washington, DC  United States  20590
    • Project Managers:

      Gazin, Jack

    • Performing Organizations:

      Arkansas Department of Transportation

      P.O. Box 2261
      Little Rock, AR  United States  72203
    • Principal Investigators:

      Gazin, Jack

    • Start Date: 20110701
    • Expected Completion Date: 0
    • Actual Completion Date: 20130630
    • Source Data: RiP Project 32810

    Subject/Index Terms

    Filing Info

    • Accession Number: 01466704
    • Record Type: Research project
    • Source Agency: Arkansas Department of Transportation
    • Contract Numbers: TRC1202
    • Files: RiP, STATEDOT
    • Created Date: Jan 3 2013 3:21PM


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Hourglass Plush Double Mattress

SKUHOUR-P-DB | 124099

was $449 now $299

  • Description

    Experience bedding innovation! Hourglass combines the latest technology and premium materials to produce a durable comfortable mattress to suit all comfort requirements. The range combines traditional bonnell pocket spring and variable comfort layers to provide affordable comfort and quality.

  • features & specifications
  • Delivery & Returns

    rise+shine can assist with delivery and assembly of your goods. Full details here.

    Each of our products are provided with warranties/guarantees for faults or defects under Australian Consumer Law. If you believe your mattress/furniture may have a manufacturing fault please contact your nearest store and we will arrange for an inspection.

    If you change your mind about a mattress/furniture purchase before delivery please notify us immediately. Cancellation of an order that has gone into production may carry a restocking fee up to 20% at the manufacturer’s discretion.

    120 Night Comfort Promise

    For your peace of mind, rise+shine offer a 120 Night Comfort Promise for all mattress purchases. See details here.

our stores

Highpoint Homemaker Centre
13 / 179 Rosamond Road,
Maribyrnong VIC 3032

(03) 9317 3338

Get Directions

Thomastown Homemaker Centre
6 / 308 Settlement Road
Thomastown VIC 3074

(03) 9465 2536

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Knowledge Center

Spring cleaning tips

Feb 5
Category | Helpful Tips

box full of clothes and toys

Spring cleaning tips

The new year is in motion and spring is in sight. It's a great time to evaluate the things you have in your home, declutter, and donate. Donating things you no longer need will free up space in your home and allow your items to better serve someone else who needs them. Decluttering your home can seem like a daunting task, but sorting through your home will be more manageable if you tackle it in these four categories: Toys, books, wardrobe, and furniture.

Declutter and Donate -  spread the love

If you have children, or are an adult with a healthy toy collection of your own, toys and entertainment items are a good place to start. Look through and donate the entertainment items that have been outgrown or no longer hold interest. If these are your children's toys, involve your kids in the process of going through their toys to teach them the positive impact of clearing space. Make sure to include them in donating their toys so they can understand and appreciate that their toys are going to children who might need them. If these are outdated electronics, look locally to see if there are programs near you that accept old technologies for teaching or recycling.

Trust the Dust - a signal that it might be time to let go

Sort through the books that have been collecting dust on your shelves. Used bookstores, schools, libraries, and thrift stores will be thrilled with your donation.

Undress the Mess - figure out what you love and use

Clearing out your closet is a great opportunity to create more order in your daily routine. Oprah Winfrey’s closet hanger experiment is an excellent way to create space in your closet. Turn all of your hangers to the reverse direction in your closet. Every time you wear a garment, flip the hanger to the correct direction. After six months, evaluate the articles of clothing with hangers still facing the reverse direction and consider donating them.

Does your household have a pile of tennis shoes that are too worn to donate? Nike’s Reuse-A-Shoe Program can still put those dirty kicks to good use. The Reuse-A-Shoe Program takes old sneakers and turns them into footwear, apparel, and sport surfaces through Nike Grind. Nike placed Reuse-A-Shoe bins in every one of their retail locations and accepts any brand of athletic shoes for this program.

Go Big - out with the old

If you have gently used furniture and appliances you no longer need, there are many charities that will come to you and pick up your donations for free.

Decluttering your home can reduce stress and maximize space in your home. Donating the gently used items you no longer need will ensure that your things will be used and help the community after you part with them. Make it a positive activity and get everyone in your household involved in decluttering your home and spreading the love!


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Choke Me!

Here’s my “Freaky Friday Fashion” pic of the week. A choker? Choke her? Hmmmmm….too bad I didn’t have these earlier at an event when I was forced to sit next to diarrhea mouth (the self absorbed human who could not stop talking about how great she was). I would have gladly worn these!  And used them! Not for the sake of fashion, but for the sake of ridding myself from the heinous, cackling, crow. On the other hand, maybe I would have rid her instead (insert evil laugh)!

Oh lighten up! I’m getting my Halloween groove on!

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Tag Archives: Jetboil

Jetboil: Taste Freedom!

By George Ferree

Whether you are a backwoods culinary artist or a trail-blazing, Mountain House munching machine, Jetboil has a new stove that will awaken the gear junkie in all of us. Jetboil has been leading the outdoor industry in self-contained, rapid boiling stove systems for years. These stoves feature an integrated burner and pot system that pack down with room for a fuel canister inside of the pot. MSR has recently edged its way into the rapid-boil market with its new, totally rad Wind Burner. Jetboil and the MSR Wind Burner are killer when it comes to heating water. They both have boil times of just over two minutes for a half liter of water and are as efficient as a fox in a hen-house.

Jetboil has recently upped their game yet again with a new and improved stove valve. This new valve allows for uncompromised simmer control, a feature sorely missed in rapid boil stove systems until now. The new valve allows for performance down to 20oF, a big improvement from previous models. Jetboil has introduced two new stoves featuring the valve: the 1.8L Sumo and its little brother, the 1L MiniMo (pot volume being the only difference between the two).

Capture2The Jetboil stove has long been a center piece of my camp kitchen in the backcountry, the front country, and the car country. It is very stable and is convenient hell. The neoprene wrapped, lidded pot attaches to the burner which then screws straight into a canister of fuel. What this means to you is that you can literally hike with this in your hand while boiling water (I’ve seen it done).

If you geek out over super lightweight multifunctional gear, this stove system is for you. It’s lightweight, packs down into itself, and has a lid with a pour/sipping spout and a strainer. Thanks to the pot’s fold out handle, it also doubles as tankard for post-hike, celebratory beers. If you, like me, are all about eating better in the backcountry than you do at home, then this stove is also for you. The flux ring on the bottom of the pot (and optional pots and pans of various sizes) helps to pull heat to the edge of the dish delivering a more even heating surface. The new burner allows for an extremely fine control of flame output required for more delicate dishes. An included foldout tripod clips onto the bottom of the fuel canister increasing the unit’s stability by at least half a percent, if not more.

The new Jetboil: boiling water for a morning brew, simmering stews, crisping crepes, and cooking a slab of cow to perfection are all now doable in one bodacious and compact cook system. Jetboil: Taste Freedom!

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Southbound: episode 6

October 16th 2006
Written by: Bryan Wolf and Joe White

  It is amazing to think that it has been almost exactly two weeks since we crossed over into New Hampshire . Tonight, we sit in the Dartmouth College Library just a mile from the Vermont border. We will cross over late tonight after updating the journal and dinner in town. The NH – VT border marks a big milestone for us. Its marks our 2nd state completed (hardest 2), 20% finished, 440 miles, and 40 days of continuous backpacking. This is my longest consecutive backpacking trip ever, but lets not forget that it is Ice Man’s first backpacking trip. Both of us are still excited and feeling great.Falls on Moosilauke

After our night camping under the I-93 bridge outside of North Woodstock , we had a beautiful short hike back into the mountains. That night Ice Man built his first fire on his own with no fire starters or fuel from the stove. It was a nice size fire that kept us warm before dinner. That night, we had the heaviest rainfall of the whole trip. In the morning the stream beside the shelter had risen almost a foot higher than the day before. Ice Man was excited to summit Mt. Wolf , but disappointed that no one actually put a sign at the top. The sadness didn’t last long. We stopped later at a stream to filter some water and the water filter has been making strange noises. Well, as Ice Man was pumping water, a moose walked up behind him making a similar grunting noise as the water filter. It was the funniest thing. The moose stopped just 10 or 15 feet away and looked at us, and we just starred back. It didn’t take but a few seconds before it realized that we were not another moose, and took off running. There wasn’t enough time to even get the camera out.

We had hoped to climb up and over Mt. Moosilake , the last of the White Mountains, before the following day was over. The rain slowed us down, but not nearly as much as the beautiful mile climb up Moosilake. Almost the entire climb paralleled a brook with endless cascading waterfalls. We stopped at the shelter just below the peak instead of risking night hiking. As the night went on, the weather cleared, the mountains hidden in the clouds came out, and the night sky was perfectly clear. It was a great sign of what was to come, or so we thought.Mt. Moosilauke

In the morning, there was a 1/2 inch of snow on the ground, our boots were frozen, and the water filter was iced over. We boiled 4 quarts of water for the day and used the stove to de-ice our boots. We were not expecting this to happen anytime soon. It was a miserable start to a great day. The views from the top of Moosilake were clear. To the east, was the taller rugged White Mountains that we already conquered, and to the west, hahaha. We were a little bummed out to be standing on a mountain that was taller than anything to come in a long while. On the maps, we started to see not just mountains labeled, but also hills.

We knew we were leaving the hardest part of the trail behind as we came down the mountain. The trail almost instantly became smoother and more gradual than before. We ended up doing 16 miles that day even after taking a two hour snack break at the bottom of Moosilake. We wanted to make sure we could make it into Hanover by this morning, so the following day we pushed out a 20 miler over smaller mountains and fields. Yesterday, we made 18 miles to the edge of town. We were hoping to stay in town, but there was nothing cheaper than $80 a night. Luckily a wonderful man, named Dwight offered us a place to stay for the night.Osprey Pack

We were so excited. He had a wonderful family and he and his wife treated us very well. They treated us to hot showers, laundry, and a fabulous dinner. He mapped out the town and dropped us off to wonder around. We stopped by Ben & Jerry’s ice cream and Murphy’s Pub. It was nice to sit and relax for a while. We slept on a nice comfy bed with a down comforter and our own bathroom right next door. It was excellent. We came into town this morning to resupply and tie up loose ends.
We are going to experiment with our diet this week by doubling our calorie intake. According to backpacker magazine, winter hikers that hike for 8 hours need 5 to 6 thousand calories a day. I think we were somewhere in the ballpark of 2500 on a good day. Food is heavy, but we are loading up this time. The only thing harder to hike with other than an aching body is a hungry stomach. It is amazing the diet we can handle out here. It really is. The plan is to be in North Adams , Mass. in 9 days which is where we hope to update you once again, but it may come sooner. We have to resupply in a town again in a few days.

This exert was originally published on It’s content has not been edited from the original post.

by: Bryan Wolf

My first memory of Hanover is that of randomly hiking up on Dwight and his son. It was a great display of faith and trust on his part to extend his hand and his home.  There couldn’t of been five minutes in conversation before he offered showers and home cooking.  This was an amazing surprise after what was one of the very hardest nights and mornings on the trail.  What we came to find out at dinner, is that Dwight was one of the original founders of Jetboil.  We will always have a wonderful story and proudly sell Jetboil because of the good nature we received that day, besides they are great stoves too!

Depite the top of Mt. Mooilake being one of the more difficult mornings, it was also one of the more thrilling. I remember and often revisit that adrenaline rush that comes with harsh weather and long exposure to the elements of our raw world.  My boots had frozen and took the first two miles to thaw, even after which my feet remained frozen for several more. The first time you face these challenges, and the first time you realize the severity of your choice to do a winter thru-hike is scary.  At the same time it is exhilarating and makes you feel very alive.  It is these experiences that build your confidence and knowledge in these trips.

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A Book for Christmas!

A Book for Christmas!

Yes, today finally my book “Implementing Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central On-Premise” has been published!

Link https://www.packtpub.com/application-development/implementing-microsoft-dynamics-365-business-central-premise-fourth-edition

About the Book, Topics and Author

This book is not a bible, is not a course, is not a workshop, it’s just a book! (another book on Dynamics NAV and Dynamics 365 Business Central) and I hope you enjoy it; it’s not easy to write a book about evolving systems, something will be missing and something will have been treated superficially, please be patient!

The topics are chosen by the Author, the editorial line by the Publisher, It could be one of the last books on Dynamics NAV (a great product) and one of the first on Dynamics 365 Business Central On-premise and SaaS (a glorious product!). Given the large number of Dynamics NAV active users in the world it was decided to start from NAV 2018 and to introduce Dynamics 365 Business Central talking about the October’s updates.

I’m not a writer, I’m a consultant and I have a job… and many Go-lives! I’ve been asked to update an existing book related to Implementation of Microsoft Dynamics NAV and this I did, I got the best existing reviewers Duilio and Stefano (which I thank for the patience shown), authors of a book about Development in Business Central.

I also thank my family for the time not dedicated to them, I will forgive soon playing more to the Pokémon with my 7-year-old son Luca.

“All” donated to Charity

As always, all earnings will be donated to charity to my four adopted children and their families, if you want to contribute to cause just buy the book, but it is not a fundraiser.

Packtpub: “since December 17th we’ll be launching our annual $5 sale on our packtpub.com website, stay tuned!”

Book dedicated to my Mother and ALL my Family

Thanks and Merry Christmas from My International Family!

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Dyan Cannon Quotes

Being born again means you have a new concept of yourself.

Einstein said, if everything exists as a substance of qualities, and qualities exist only in mind, then all is mind.

Even when there are times that we're not happy, happiness will creep in.

God uses whoever he wants.

God's love doesn't leave out Jews or Muslims or anyone.

Have you ever noticed when you start getting happy, you say, uh-uh, I'd better watch out. I feel too good. Something's going to happen.

I have become down-hearted, I have become discouraged, I have become depressed. I'm just like you. I'm a human being and I have my problems.

I really always expected to somebody to make me happy and I don't think you can really enter into a relationship until you are happy.

I wanted to star in a western opposite Robert Redford. That was my plan for my life.

I was going to go make a film in Greece. if they caught you with this much marijuana, they threw you in jail, no questions asked, and I was trying to stuff it in my deodorant bottles. I thought, what I am doing?

I was seeking a real love, a real deal, and I have been seeking it for a lot of years. And in that seeking, I found that God's love is real.

Shakespeare said, nothing is either good nor bad but thinking makes it so.

The Bible says, as a man thinketh in his heart, so is he.

They offered me millions and millions and millions of dollars to write books about Cary. That was between us. That was private. I'll always love him.


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Oak Island, NC Beach Research Project

My husband and I have always wondered what it would be like to live at the beach. He tried to get coastal jobs multiple times when we were a young married couple.  When more kids were born and jobs more intense, we just went where the jobs were and took all our job transfers in stride. Every town opened up new adventures, good friends and wonderful churches. Each transfer was unique and awesome.  We couldn’t have chosen better towns to live in if we tried to ourselves.

Our kids are grown now and my work has reduced to a slow simmer.  It has us wondering where we will won’t to live for the next season of our life.  I felt that I only got a good feel for our new towns when I worked there and immersed myself in the community. My new adventure will help us do just that in the beach town of Oak Island, NC.  It is a tiny blue collar working community that just happens to lie on the Atlantic Ocean. It is not pretentious at all. It is just a sweet, southern fishing village with Atlantic salt water on one side and Intracoastal fresh water on the other.  The town manager is from Columbus, NC.  That is right down the street from Hendersonville.  I enjoy talking to him about our idea and hope of possibly retiring there.  He says that we will absolutely love it7-Holiday1 and I look forward to finding out for myself.

Our plans have been unfolding in a perfect way and our prayers are that we be in God’s will and for wisdom in knowing which way to go. First of all, a job opened right away.  I loved the look of this cute little restaurant called Bob’s Dogs.  It is very close to the beach and owned by a sweet couple that started the business from scratch about 4 years ago in order to obtain their dream of living on OKI. The hours sounded great because they usually close at 4:00. That leaves plenty of time to explore the island and surrounding mainland.  Next, we found a perfect rental for me.  It is in a safe gated community and is furnished with all utilities included.  I will be a local there for all intents and purposes.  My husband will be there on long weekends in June and almost half of the month of July.

We look forward to discovering and forming a more informed opinion about this island we might call home. If we discover this is not the place for us, we will have a journal of a unique experience and the gratification of marking it off our list without always wondering “what if”.

We discovered the island after watching the movie Safe Haven with Josh Duhamel and Julianne Hough.  I love this interview they did about the movie and the area after the filming.

Hydrangea Cupcake Bouquet.

I have a favorite hobby of cake decorating. I especially like making flowers for cakes and cupcakes to look as real as possible. When I needed to take cupcakes to church this morning, I was wondering how I should transport these, because when we downsized I got rid of my cupcake carrier.  It was bulky and had a couple of rust spots.  So I decided to make a bouquet with a silver pitcher, floral oasis, and toothpicks.  I hope you like it.  This was an easy way to carry with just a little clear wrap over it to transport.

When putting it together, I thought that with more planning time I could next time put fake moss around the oasis to look even more real.


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Article of the week – Evangelos Kremmydas

HR Management as a value-adding contributor

by Evangelos Kremmydas (Greece), an outstanding Rome Business School’s student.

To begin with, by adding value we mean helping the employees and the organization itself to gain value in a measurable way. In the next paragraphs, we will briefly present two examples of HR Managers that are adding value to their organization via their work.

The first example is Hollie Delaney, Director of Human Resources at Zappos. Ms. Delaney emphasizes the company’s customer orientation by defining Zappos not as a company that sells shoes but as a customer service company that just happens to sell shoes. In order to formulate the core values of the company, all the employees were actively involved. Their responses to specific questionnaires were filtered and the following core values of were listed:

1. Deliver WOW through Service

2. Embrace and drive change

3. Create fun and a little weirdness

4. Be adventurous, creative and open minded

5. Pursue growth and learning

6. Build open and honest relationships

7. Build a positive Team and Family Spirit

8. Do more with less

9. Be passionate and determined

10. Be humble

In order to focus on those values from an HR perspective, the following new practices were applied:

 Regarding recruiting, interviews are based 50% on culture fit

 On-boarding training consists in a 4 weeks training that focuses on the culture and fit of the company

 Any potential employee who decides to quit after the four weeks of training is offered a full month’s salary. This action shows Zappos’ commitment and respect towards all its employees, including those who decide to leave the company after their initial training.

 Hiring slowly, firing quickly. At Zappos a lot of emphasis is placed upon culture fit. As a result, people are carefully screened before being hired. However, if, at a later point, it is realized that an employee is not a part of the culture of the company, this is a sufficient reason for him/her to be asked to leave.

We can observe that the first two and fourth practices are related to the establishment of a high performance work system, since the emphasis is placed on the culture fit and thorough training is obligatory during the first four months of work. In this case, Delaney acts not only as a Culture and Change Steward but also as a Strategy Architect, since those roles contribute to the creation of human resource practices that support the organization’s cultural values, that are also in alignment with the core values of the company.

The second example is Laszlo Bock SVP, People Operations at Google. According to Bock, Google’s success in recruiting stems from three core elements:

1. Setting an incredibly high bar regarding the quality of the employees and never compromise on it.

2. Assessing candidates objectively with scientifically proven criteria, procedures and questions.

3. Providing candidates with a reason/vision to join.

Regarding the benefits, Google has made investments in the non-standard benefits provided to its employees, which range from micro-kitchens to dry cleaning services and car wash facilities. According to Bock, the purpose of those benefits is to create a sense of community and bring people together. In his opinion, innovation cannot be manufactured in an organization, however certain conditions can be created in order to maximize the probabilities of innovative ideas appearing and ideas flowing freely throughout it. In this example, it becomes apparent that Bock is acting as a Culture Steward, since the above practice amplifies the value of innovation that already exists in Google.

Also, there is a very specific rule that regulates the composition of Google’s HR Department. Bock calls it the rule of the three thirds. One third of the people working at Google’s HR department are accomplished HR professionals and come from a traditional HR background; another third has a strategy background and is usually made up of consultants; and the final third is composed of people that have advanced knowledge in the fields of analytics and usually hold a degree in, for example. statistics or mathematics. In this way, Google’s HR Department combines the experience of HR professionals with the acumen of strategist consultants and the experimental spirit of data analysts. In this case, Bock is evidently acting as a Business Ally, since the composition of Google’s HR Department enables it to cooperate harmoniously with managers from different departments in order to achieve the organization’s strategic goals.

From all the above, it becomes clear that successful HR managers establish practices that are in alignment with the culture promoted by their organizations and also go beyond the traditional HR manager role by expanding into other organizational strategic management areas.

1) Dessler, G. (2013). Introduction to Human Resource Management. In: Human Resource Management. 13th ed. Essex: Pearson. 30, 32-48.

2) Laszlo Bock on Google’s Approach to HR. (2014). Laszlo Bock on Google’s Approach to HR. [Online Video]. 28 February 2014. Available from: [Accessed: 29 October 2014].

3) The Best Recruiter at Google | Talent Connect San Francisco 2014. (2014). The Best Recruiter at Google | Talent Connect San Francisco 2014. [Online Video]. 23 October 2014. Available from: [Accessed: 29 October 2014].

4) Hollie Delaney, HR Director, (2014). Hollie Delaney, HR Director, [Online Video]. 19 September. Available from: [Accessed: 29 October 2014].

Evangelos Kremmydas (HR Generalist)

© Rome Business School 2019 - All Rights Reserved


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Different Strokes for Different Folks?

Capitol Building

June 15, 2013

The other day I wrote a post about certain nobles, contemporaries of Nehemiah, who would not dare to associate with common people doing common labor. Today’s post is related to that idea.

Luke 11:46 NASB – But He (Jesus) said, “Woe to you lawyers as well! For you weigh men down with burdens hard to bear, while you yourselves will not even touch the burdens with one of your fingers.”

The brazen irresponsibility of laying down requirements on the citizens, when the ones loading them on people’s backs make sure they are not subject to the same rules, is an affront to the Almighty. (There’s a clue for you. Yes, I believe Jesus and The Almighty are One.)

Is such practice not a tacit admission that the requirements are not desirable or good? If they were, why not gladly also submit to them? God hates differing weights and measures. This practice surely qualifies for that definition.

Every law from which Congress exempts itself ought to be void. DOA.

“You go first; we’ll follow.”

Photo via: Morguefile

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Slow It Down: The Sixth Day of Christmas

A pile of Christmas gifts in colorful wrapping with ribbons.

Queen Bee on Flickr

December 30, 2018 (First published Dec 2015)

We are halfway through Christmas.

How does that statement affect you? Do you think it’s crazy?

The more I dwell on this 12 Days of Christmas thing, the more I like it.

The sixth day of Christmas remembers St Egwin of Worcester, who died on December 30, 717. He was known as the protector of orphans and the widowed.

I just encountered an interesting suggestion for celebrating Christmastide, or the 12 Days of Christmas. Here it is:

Open your Christmas gifts throughout the twelve days of Christmas.
This may be extremely hard for young children to do, but it would give you the opportunity to treasure each gift you receive. Wrap a box containing a word or a Bible verse that describes a gift Jesus gives us (i.e., love, joy, salvation). Open this with the other gifts each day, or use it as an alternative gift to open on each of the twelve days.

What do you think?

I like it. A different mindset would be required, though. If you want to see more ideas, here is the article I read this morning.

Stirring now in my memory is the first extended family Christmas In which I participated with my wife’s family. This was several months before we were married. Annette comes from a big family: her dad had 11 siblings. This means puh-lenty of cousins! (I love her family and feel right at home with them.)

We were in Colorado Springs in 1969. Dozens of cousins had gathered in a little house near downtown. Anticipation was electric on Christmas morning. The Nativity story was read and a prayer given. Burned into my brain cells is the scene that followed.

Sustained Noise. Chaos. Scrambles for packages. Flying gift wrap.

It didn’t take more than 5 minutes. All done. Now what shall we do the rest of the morning, and afternoon, and evening?

I didn’t know such Christmas practices existed! My background was small immediate family events, where we extended the time. (Not that we were not also focused on gifts.)

Decades later, this idea of spreading out the opening of gifts over the length of Christmastide has a satisfying appeal to me. It is a totally different approach. Appreciation and gratitude would be cultivated.

It could not hurt so slow down and relish the season, could it? Remember those who have gone before. Remember God Incarnate, and the dreadful reason He came to this earth in the first place.

What do you think?

This is the sixth in a series of 12 consecutive articles on the 12 Days of Christmas. Here are links to the rest of the series:

The 12 Days Have Begun!: First Day of Christmas

What Did You Get for Christmas?: Second Day of Christmas

Most People Missed the Good News: Third Day of Christmas

An Event, But So Much More: Fourth Day of Christmas

Are You Still Playing Carols?: Fifth Day of Christmas

Silvesterpunsch: Seventh Day of Christmas

Let It Snow (or not): Eighth Day of Christmas

Whatever Happened to Christmas?: Ninth Day of Christmas

We Long for Transcendence, but Look in the Wrong Places: Tenth Day of Christmas

So Done with the Holiday: Eleventh Day of Christmas

Those Who Are Wise Still Seek Him: Twelve Day of Christmas

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The Politics Of Being Pro

If I were to ask you whether Albert Pujols was the best player in baseball, yes or no, I would only get a simple answer to what is a complicated question. Pujols was the leader in home runs, not to mention the top of virtually every baseball statistic there is within the last ten years. But he hasn’t hit a home run in over one hundred games and his batting average .269, way below his lifetime average of .329. You also have other players such as Jose Bautista who are now dominating the areas Pujols once did. And yes, this does have something to do with politics.

The same situation above also happens when you ask people if they consider themselves to be pro-life or pro-choice. Gallup recently came out with a poll that read “American’s Still Split Along Pro-Choice, Pro-Life Lines” with 49 percent saying they were pro-choice and 45 percent saying they were pro-life. While the poll asks people whether it is acceptable for a women to have an abortion under certain circumstances, it never asks which circumstances or why. It doesn’t help any policy maker decide how to vote on this issue, how his/her constituency feels about it, and what policies would they accept if enacted.

That is why Third Way, a Washington think tank, asked more questions to figure out what the American people really think about this contentious issue. In 2008 they came out with a study called A Consensus on the Abortion Debate—Reducing the need for abortion while preserving the right to have one. One of the questions they asked people was if they agreed with the statement “I support abortion rights, but I believe we can find common ground to reduce the need for abortions in America while still protecting a woman’s right to have one.” This was supported by 83 percent of Democrats, along with 50 percent of Republicans, including 43 percent of those who considered themselves pro-life.

The point here is that while there are plenty of Americans who feel strongly about this issue, the majority of them believe there is wiggle room. By asking people whether they are pro-choice or pro-life pushes them into a box to define themselves when neither definition fits. Both terms are nicely phrased slogans made up by the two sides to fit on advertisements and enable people to understand and explain where they are coming from. Every election cycle candidates are asked where they stand on abortion, but doing so doesn’t fully define their position as it wouldn’t for anyone else. The debate then lacks the serious conversation that is needed to move forward and only scratches the surface of the policy questions that need to be discussed.

Since it’s always important to start with the points where everyone agrees, the Third Way poll showed 72 percent of American’s favor enacting policies that will reduce “the number of abortions in America by preventing unintended pregnancies and supporting women who wish to carry their pregnancies to term.” That means abstinence only education is not a solution, but safe sex education and funding programs that will help women during and after their pregnancy is.

This particular Gallup poll was so close, if new, randomly chosen people were asked the same question the numbers could easily be flipped around. But even so, both sides tout when they see more American’s state they are on their side.

I remember watching Mike Huckabee do an interview (must have been The Daily Show) and he said something along the lines of “I believe a fetus is a living being, but I also believe we have to take care of it when it is born.” Now that he’s not running for President, I hope he and other major players won’t allow the health care debate to get overwhelmed with hyperbole, so that way the President and members of Congress can really say they represent the American people.

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Filed under abortion, Politics, pro-choice, pro-life, Third Way

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