text:
Ex-NPR vet Bob Edwards ripped into the radio network for firing Juan Williams over remarks he made on Fox's "The O'Reilly Factor" earlier this week and claimed his former employer is deliberately unloading its senior members.
Edwards, former "Morning Edition" host who now works as Sirius XM Radio, said he thought the firing of Williams after saying he felt uneasy when he saw passengers wearing Muslim garb on board a plane during an interview Monday had as much to do with NPR's policy toward its senior members than political correctness.
"I think particularly senior people are vulnerable, and I know at NPR they would like to unload my generation and move on to the next," Edwards told Niteside at the Center for Public Integrity's 20th anniversary party at the Newseum in Washington, D.C. Thursday night.
U.S. & World
When asked if 56-year-old Williams' firing was an example of this, Edwards said: "I think they found a good excuse, and it's a shame, but you know there are fewer jobs now unless you want to blog and hope to be an entrepreneurial type."
NPR said in a statement that the remarks that led to Williams' termination were "inconsistent" with the editorial standards and practices and "undermined his credibility" as a senior news analyst at the station.
Edwards, who was removed as host of "Morning Edition" in 2004 and left the station shortly afterward, said he found that reasoning suspect.
"I don't quite understand what it's (the firing) about since the man is a commentator and it's understood he's going to have opinions when he's on television," Edwards said. "NPR seemed all right with that for quite a few years."
He later added, "I don't know how Juan could be suspected of harboring any bigotry."
On Thursday, Williams signed a three-year, $2 million contract with Fox on Thursday.
NPR declined to comment.


text:
SIR ALEX FERGUSON acknowledges a settled defence will be crucial for Manchester United in Europe this season.
The memories of last year's embarrassing group stage exit were fresh enough for Ferguson to leave Robin van Persie and Shinji Kagawa out of his starting line-up for the weekend win over Wigan.
Both should be involved against Galatasaray at Old Trafford tonight, providing the firepower needed to shoot United to an expected victory in the opening game of their latest Champions League quest.
However, it is at the back Ferguson knows his side must improve.
Rarely have United been able to field a regular defence during a three-season period of group stage matches on home soil that has secured a paltry total of three wins.
Already this term, Chris Smalling and Phil Jones have been ruled out for extended periods, forcing Michael Carrick into service as an emergency central defender.
Even allowing for Rio Ferdinand missing the odd game, such measures should not be required again now that Jonny Evans has recovered from an ankle injury.
But Ferguson realises the position is precarious – and of huge significance.
"At the moment with Smalling and Jones long-term, I'm left with three centre-backs, Vidic, Ferdinand and Evans," said the United boss.
"If I was guaranteed two of those being fit for the rest of the season I'd take that gladly right now.
"It's not been the case in the last two or three years, when we have had a really rough ride.
"I've had to alternate centre-backs. Go back two years ago and we had Carrick, (Darren) Fletcher and (Patrice) Evra there.
"That's a key issue. I can't hide that. I just hope I get a bit of luck in that respect."
The situation is not helped by a goalkeeping power battle between Anders Lindegaard and David de Gea.
Twelve months ago, Ferguson responded to mistakes from De Gea in his first few weeks as a United player by insisting the Spain youngster was his number one.
But with errors continuing to be made, that situation is no longer certain.
Lindegaard was selected against Wigan and though De Gea may return tonight, the odds must be against the former Atletico Madrid man retaining his place for Sunday's crucial trip to Liverpool, where he was blamed for United's FA Cup exit last term.
"The most important thing I'm trying to achieve is experience of the English game," said Ferguson.
"They are both young and don't have the experience of an Edwin van der Sar or Peter Schmeichel so alternating is not a problem for me.
"That's the policy I have been adopting and I'm comfortable with it."
Ferguson confirmed Kagawa is fit to make his European bow after shrugging off a back complaint he picked up on international duty with Japan.
The summer arrival from Borussia Dortmund has quickly struck up an impressive partnership with Van Persie, although even with Wayne Rooney sidelined, Ferguson does have alternatives in attack, in stark contrast to his defensive woes.
Javier Hernandez is one. Due to a series of setbacks, the Mexican struggled to emulate his stellar debut season last term.
However, after being given an extended summer break by Ferguson, who told Hernandez he could not link up with his country's gold medal-winning Olympic squad as had been anticipated prior to London 2012, the 24-year-old is refreshed and ready to play a full part in United's quest for silverware.
"I don't like comparisons," Hernandez said.
"Some people thought my first season was very good, others felt it was okay. The last one was bad for some people, others thought it was okay or good.
"I enjoyed my break. Only time will decide whether it helps me but I am happy. I am enjoying myself.
"I still feel I am the luckiest player in the world to be at this club.
"I will be ready when the boss needs me, whether that is to start or be a substitute.
"I am focused on the most important thing, which is tomorrow's game."

subset: commoncrawl


text:
- 3 Beds
- 2 Full Baths
Property TypeResidential – Condo
SubdivisionSNOWBRIDGE SQUARE CONDO
Listing Date01/10/20
Year Built1973
AreaCopper Mountain
Property Description
Spacious 2 bedroom with huge loft that captures the sunny and spectacular views of the Copper Mountain ski slopes. Underground, heated, assigned parking space with elevator and carts to make your arrival easy. Close walk to the slopes. Enjoy the hot tub with south facing slope views after a day on the mountain. New carpet just installed. Neighboring unit also for sale. See video walkthrough!
Presented By
- City Lot
- NearSkiArea
- Near Public Transit
- Mountain(s)
- River
- Ski Area
- Creek/Stream
- Golf
- Trails/Paths
- Public Transportation
- Jetted Tub
- Vaulted Ceiling(s)
- Elevator
- Electricity Available
- Natural Gas Available
- Municipal Utilities
- Phone Available
- Sewer Available
- Water Available
- Cable Available
- Sewer Connected
- Baseboard
- Central
- Common
- Hot Water
- Common Area
Financial Information
3 Beds 3 Baths
2 Beds 2 Baths
2 Beds 2 Baths
2 Beds 2 Baths
1 Bed 1 Bath
2 Beds 2 Baths
We get asked this question a lot. Below is a tool that gives you the ability to see what the market is like in your community. Find out what homes like your own are selling for right in your back yard. Simply enter in your address, choose the proximity of the search and find out market data for other homes that are selling near you.
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Until then, enjoy the tools!
The data relating to the real estate for sale on this website comes in part from the Internet Data Exchange program of the Vail Multi-List Service, Inc.
Copyright © 2020 Vail Multi List, Inc. (VMLS). The information displayed herein was derived from sources believed to be accurate, but has not been verified by VMLS. Buyers are cautioned to verify all information to their own satisfaction. This information is exclusively for viewers' personal, non- commercial use. Any republication or reproduction of the information herein without the express permission of the VMLS is strictly prohibited.
Listing courtesy of Your Castle Summit, LLC


text:
Congrats to the following winners of ONE YEAR DRYER BALLS.....
Carra (OHHHH man she is getting blessed with her third win of a giveaway from Gaertegang)
AND THE GRAND PRIZE WINNER OF THE COMPLETE LAUNDRY SYSTEM is.......
I have sent you all an email...please respond in 48 hours.....Thanks to all who entered!!!
If you haven't already enter my GREEN TOYS GIVEAWAY ENDING SEPT.2nd at NOON!!
Monday, August 31, 2009
Winners of the Complete Laundry System/Dryer Balls!
Congrats to the following winners of ONE YEAR DRYER BALLS.....
Posted by The Gaertegang Homestead at 6:45 PM 4 comments
Labels: Giveaways, Product Giveaways/Reviews
Winners ofGreat Homeschool Shirts!
CONGRATS to Carra!!! She is the winner of the Great Homeschool Shirts Giveaway!!
Remember they are still running their $5.99 T-shirt special through September 10th....so don't forget to run over and check them all out...just do it now!!!
Thanks to all who took the time to enter....
Posted by The Gaertegang Homestead at 6:39 PM 2 comments
Labels: Giveaways
Friend Making Monday!
This is my first time participating in "Friend Making Monday". I loved the idea of getting to know others (and you getting to know me) better......20 Questions!!!
1. Do you cook every night?
That is a YES for me! We eat at home as a rule.....I always try to cook extra when I make a meal in order for me to get two suppers, which gives me a night off of cooking. We are a left-over loving family.....
2. What kind of laundry soap do you use?
I have been using the complete laundry system as of late....but before that I used Tide or ALL. I have been experimenting with only using 1/2 the amount recommended of detergent to see if it still cleans the clothes.....When researching the complete laundry system I found out that H2O alone actually cleans 98% (or something close to that)...so I thought the actual amount of detergent I need to use should be pretty minimal. So maybe consider trying out using smaller amount so detergent to stretch it farther, which in turn saves some money also!!
3. Do you do laundry everyday or loads at a time?
Well I have actually done it both ways...depending on the season of life I am in. Right now I am making it an everyday thing. 1-2 loads a day and that has been working well and I don't feel overloaded with a crowded laundry room.
4. How often do you eat out?
Not very often. I would day once or twice a month is the normal for us. Also to clarify we usually would do a drive through....or get some pizza and eat it at home. It seems to be easier to do with the 4 kiddos. I love that we get to kick back and relax and eat at home....with mom getting the night off from the kitchen!
5. Where do you usually eat out?
Well no one certain place all the time....We love to eat at small "hole-in-the-wall" places. No waiting, most always great food without the sticker shock prices on the menu. Since Justin travels daily within a one hour radius of our house, he finds these neat little places to eat with his customers, then he takes me there to visit some of these places on our date nights........speaking of date night I could really use one!!!!...hint.....hint!!!
6. Favorite Retail store?
I would have to say Target...although I don't have one really close (about a 35 min drive)....I love to go when I get the chance....I love their Shabby Chic line!!!!
7. Favorite drink?
Well on an everyday basis...my coffee....I look forward to sitting and sipping on my coffee each morning as I read my Bible. I never used to drink coffee until about Feb. of this year.....but with 4 kids I have found what a difference some caffeine in the morning can make! I must add that my coffee has LOTS of sugar in it and my favorite French Vanilla Coffeemate creamer!
8. Do you take vitamins? If so what kind?
Nope...I always did when I was pregnant or nursing.....but then it seems to fall by the waste-side......I probably should....
9. What % of the household chores do you do?
Well I guess I have never figured it up that way......I do a good portion of them...but Justin is always a willing helper whenever I ask him...sometimes even when I don't ask (BONUS!)
10. Do your kids do chores?
Well that seems like a no-brainier to me!! YESSSSS!!!! How can I better teach my kids responsibility and accountability? Each child has a daily list of chores they are in charge of completing...even Julia has a few things she always helps mommy with :)
11. Do you attend church?
YEP!!! Just as important as church, we also attend Sunday School......what a great gift it has been to be a part of a church that "teaches biblical truth" in a comfortable small environment. We are thankful for the growth we have experienced through learning so much by attending each week...even when sometimes we would rather stay in bed and sleep in. It is always worth it and we are ALWAYS glad we push ourselves out of bed and getting out to the door to worship our creator!
12. Do you use a housework schedule?
YES.....I find if I keep myself and my household organized it runs much smoother....not perfect mind you...but with much more efficiency and less stress. Everyone knows what is expected and what to expect next.....
13.Do you keep a working budget?
I think most of you know the answer again is YES!!! BOTTOM LINE: If we don't we get lazy!! Even with good intentions and being frugal...if you don't track your spending you don't hold yourself accountable......
14. What do you do at night as a family?
EVERYTHING.....we are pretty much always together.....riding bikes...working in garden...working in the garage with dad or grandpa....playing on the swings...taking a walk....if we can be outside then we are.....We are an outdoor kind of family!
15. How do you prepare for the week?
I meal plan...I check the calendar every Sunday afternoon so we all know what is coming in the week ahead and can be ready for it...I like to blog and schedule my post for a week at a time....which doesn't always happen.....then anything I add to my daily posts is BONUS!
16. What does your morning look like?
7:15a wake up
730-8a Quiet time, coffee
8-830a get ready for the day, breakfast, kitchen clean-up
9a start Lance with school work
915-945a quick de-clutter of the house, start laundry, switch dishes
950a-10:15a pre-school time with Zach (usually Julia sits in also)
10:20a-11a finish chores, switch laundry again, go through mail, ect
11a-1130a free time...usually reading with the younger kids or a game or outside time
1145a start lunch prep
12-1230p lunch, clean up, sweeping under the table
younger two nap after lunch and then I read aloud a chapter with the older two and then school Caleb while Lance continues with his work.
17. What time do you get up?
Well I answered that above around 7am....probably should be 630a I just can't seem to push myself out of bed then....
18. What time do you go to bed?
Justin and I aim for 10p......sometimes it creeps to 1030p....
19. How do you manage all the paperwork that floods you house?
I have a file cabinet where I keep paid bills, insurance, monthly expense stuff, and all that.
I have a basket where I keep bills until they are paid....then they get filed.
I open mail daily and recycle all the junk first thing so it never has the chance to pile up and lay around.
20. How do you keep your house organized?
With a lot of effort!!!! I only wish it would just naturally happen, but reality says there is no way it can without a major effort and plan on my part. I am an organized person by nature and by choice also. To me I firmly believe a house that is well maintained in routine, and has orderly manner to it is essential FOR ME!!! I know not everyone functions this way....but I know I DO!!! We do stray from routine sometimes....but as a rule, we like a schedule :)
Posted by The Gaertegang Homestead at 2:01 PM 4 comments
Labels: Friend Making Monday
"Boys" Weekend #2
Not this past weekend, but a week ago, Caleb and Justin took off to another Bluegrass Festival. Instead of Michigan they headed to OHIO. Caleb was so excited to get his chance to have Dad all to himself! For some reason, not many photos were taken, but they had lots of fun!! On the first night they actually got rained on a bit...Dad woke up to a wet sleeping bag.....nothing a little sun wouldn't dry out!
The festival was all indoors this go around.....Here is one of the many bands they enjoyed..
Posted by The Gaertegang Homestead at 6:00 AM 1 comments
Labels: family, Special moments
Sunday, August 30, 2009
Walgreens/CVS this week!
Here is what I got at Walgreens already this week!
1st trans.
Colgate 360 toothbrush
Glade 2oz. candle
2 Kraft cups of Mac & Cheese
Iceland water
Rembrance toothpaste
Mens razor system
Carefree Panty liners
-89 coupon for FREE snickers
-.99 coupon for FREE Iceland water
-1.19 (b1G1 coupon) Mac & Cheese
-.60 for in-store ad for Mac & Cheese
-2.50 for FREE Glade candle
tax was $1.22
I received RR for several things I bought!!!
$2 RR carefree liners
$4 RR for Men's razor
$5 Remb. toothpaste
$2 for toothbrush
2 Trans.
2 milks
2 Coffeemate
Walgreens diaper
Walgreens wipes
-$1.00 Coffeemate coupon
tax .73
Just shy of $16 for 15 items....GREAT since that included a pack of diapers, wipes, Coffeemate creamers!!!!
CVS~~~ I had no ECB's left after stopping and printing off some pictures last week, so I only stopped in for a second to grab...
1 Milk
Glade candle
Bounce Laundry Bar
Huggies wipes
-.75 for wipes
-$2.50 Bounce bar
-$3.00 Candle
tax $1.01
TOTAL $11.22 with 8 ECB back
ECB's I got back
$6.99 for the candle
$1 milk
$1 Bounce Bar
Posted by The Gaertegang Homestead at 11:42 AM 1 comments
Labels: Bargain Finds
Friday, August 28, 2009
Just a quick reminder to enter my THREE giveaways going on right now!! Two out of the three end this weekend!!!!
Have a relaxing weekend and check in with me on Monday to see if your one of the winners!!!
Posted by The Gaertegang Homestead at 6:00 AM 0 comments
Labels: Giveaways, Product Giveaways/Reviews
Thursday, August 27, 2009
I love all my sunflowers!!
Purple aster add a real splash of color to the end of the summer!!!
Rose Sharron...I would love to transplant this bush somewhere that people can see it...I just haven't been brave enough to try it yet....
Morning Glory...I have some covering my mail box also....Love the great purple color!
I think I have some cosmos getting ready to start blooming.....so you guessed it..more pics to come...
ALSO put on your calendars SEPT. 19th at 930AM Perennial Flower Exchange Party!!! If you live near me and are interested in joining in on the fun......email ME!!!! I will send you the info you need to know all the details!!
Posted by The Gaertegang Homestead at 6:00 AM 1 comments
Labels: Flowers
Wednesday, August 26, 2009
Mid-Week Funny!!!
Oh this is my little sweet Julia....In case you live on some other planet and you are unaware of the fact that she is my only girl...after 3 great boys.....than you know she might just be a bit on the, shall we say "spoiled" side. Not the bratty spoiled kind...just used to having mommy to herself often, being held a lot....that sort of thing......loves having my attention and being wherever I am at all times!!!
So we've been having a little bedtime issue here for the past month. When she is laid down for her nap and bedtime she doesn't stay there for long......down the stairs she comes...up the stairs I take her....and we do this at least twice to ten times......This never used to be an issue, but it is now! I know there is no other reason than....she is seeing what she can get away with.....but we have been very firm with this issue and for some reason she is not a fast learner in this area.
So here is what we found when we went to bed one night....after several daddy confrontations of not staying in her bed.......
Sleeping at the bottom of the stairs...we have a door at the bottom of the stairs. Funny that she thought she needed to come down the stairs, but not go through the door, because that would warrant another "daddy confrontation."
Then that next afternoon I waited 10 minutes after putting her in bed and thought...."Great I haven't heard anything she must have actually stayed in her bed...." I open the door and find this! Sound asleep already.....and yes I notice she is in the same clothes as the night before.....guess we didn't get her out of her sleeping clothes till after nap...Hmmm well that's how the cookie crumbles sometimes at our house! I am sure that never happens at your house though.......Happy Wednesday!!
Posted by The Gaertegang Homestead at 6:00 AM 1 comments
Labels: Everyday Living, family, Mid Week Funny
Tuesday, August 25, 2009
Final Seeking Financial Freedom
Now that we have made it through the book.....
Here are the STEPS TO FINANCIAL FREEDOM
(aka: The Money Map)
Destination ONE:
SAVE $1,000 for Emergencies
Destination TWO:
Pay off Credit Cards
Increase SAVINGS to One month's living expenses
Destination THREE:
Pay off ALL consumer debt
Increase SAVINGS to 3-6 month's living expenses
Destination FOUR:
Begin saving for major purchases (home, auto,ect)
Begin saving for retirement
Begin saving for children's education
If you want to start your own business, begin saving
Destination FIVE:
Buy affordable home
Begin to prepay mortgage
Begin to invest wisely
Destination SIX:
Home mortgage PAID OFF!!!!
Children's retirement FUNDED!!!
Confirm estate plan is in order
My retirement is FUNDED!!
I am FREE to volunteer my time working for the LORD!!!
Well that is it, we finally made it through the whole journey.....I hope you have learned something helpful along the way! I would love to hear any comment or testimonies about anything that has happened as a result of being faithful stewards....Leave me a comment or send me an email!!!
Posted by The Gaertegang Homestead at 8:53 PM 1 comments
Labels: Finances, Seeking Financial Freedom
New Picture of the Kids!
I really needed to take some recent pictures of the kids...I know I take pics all the time, but posed pics...ya know the ones most people actually go somewhere and have done....Well you know me...cheap-o that I am!!! I decided to take their pics myself and then go have what ever enlargements I needed done at CVS, Walgreens, or Walmart. Before we started I told the kids we had to do "good serious" pics first then they got to do some silly poses.......So I will only share this not so posed pic with you first..it actually is one of my fav....I love all the smiling and laughing from Julia and Lance!
Lance, 3rd grade, 8 Years Old....although I don't know how he is 8 already?
Caleb, 1st grade, 6 Years Old
Zach, Pre-School, 4 Years Old
Julia, 2 Years Old...my little helper!
So now all I have to do it make the time to go get the pics enlarged and distributed.....
Posted by The Gaertegang Homestead at 6:00 AM 2 comments
Labels: family
Monday, August 24, 2009
Making Memories That Last...
Justin and Lance took off two Friday mornings ago and headed to a bluegrass festival in Michigan. Lance was completely filled with excitement at the idea of "just him and Dad going " e off on an adventure together! Above is a pic of the stage area.....
Since it seemed silly to pull the camper (and the diesel drinking truck) up the road 3 hours for just the two of them they decided to "tent it".....Hubby even rigged up a little tarp awning so they could get in the shade if need be....
Here is a shot of Lance hanging out watching some music...
Here is the boys taking some time for some chess...and a snack
A shot of the crowd....also enjoying the music....
This was Lance's favorite band "The Grascals"...the woman in the group is their banjo player (which is the instrument that Lance plays)....she is Bluegrass's reigning Banjo player of the year...
This is hubby (he said he looks dorky with his old cruddy long-sleeve shirt on) with Rhonda Vincent...really great band...we saw them about 8 years ago at a festival near by...
Well this is on their second night of watching music till midnight....Lance had heard enough, he thought sleeping sounded like a better idea....
I am so thankful that I have a husband who is so excited about making memories with our boys. I really couldn't tell you who had more fun Justin or Lance. What a special time for them to really bond away from all the other distractions of life...one-on-one.....What GREAT times!!
Posted by The Gaertegang Homestead at 6:00 AM 0 comments
Labels: family
Wednesday, August 19, 2009
Great Homeschool Shirts GIVEAWAY!
Great Homeschool Shirts has offered to giveaway this shirt!!! (white, adult small)
8.Enter my Complete Laundry system giveaway!! Or tell you did!
Posted by The Gaertegang Homestead at 2:16 PM 26 comments
Labels: Giveaways, Homeschooling
Tuesday, August 18, 2009
I made the Twitter Leap!!
Well I did it!! I am a newbie of twitter!! Don't ask me how to navigate anything at this point...because I am really still clueless at this stage in the game....So I am going to give you a chance to educate me....my first issue I can't upload a photo...it says my pic is to big.....so how do I make it smaller if I don't have any fancy photo shop stuff?
What are the must know things I need to know? Are you on twitter...leave me a link so I can follow you!!! You can now follow me by clicking here!
BTW : You can also add another entry to each one of my giveaways if you follow me on! twitter.....
Posted by The Gaertegang Homestead at 3:59 PM 1 comments
FREE POSTER from Walgreens!
Posted by The Gaertegang Homestead at 10:52 AM 1 comments
Labels: Bargain Finds, Deals to Check out
Monday, August 17, 2009
GREEN Toys Review/Giveaway
GREEN TOYS generously sent the Gaertegang two products to review! First I wanted to share some details about this company that drew me to their site!!!
MADE IN THE USA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! (keeping American working...love that!!)
Environmentally friendly: Toys are made from recycled milk jugs!!!!! SO COOL!
SHIPPING: Even their product are sent in recycled materials...NICE!!
The sand play set is the first item my four year old got to check out!!! Zach was very excited as soon as he saw it....off to the sand box he went!!! I will tell you plastic toys don't usually last long around here with three boys in tow...but these product from the GREEN TOY company are totally different!!!!!!!!! I was defiantly impressed with the durable qualities they have. This set is not bendy and flexy (Are those real words??? Well if not, they are here!) and easily broken. I would highly recommend it to anyone !
LOVE the jump rope as well..Nice durable rope....same with the hearty handles! The boys are excited about learning jump rope....Mommy is getting a kick out of watching them get the hang of it....and if I can keep them from using this great durable jump to tie one another up I will declare it a complete victory!
Seriously these are absolute top quality products. If you have little ones that you are buying toys for you, consider these reasonably priced toys that are going to last. Not only will you feel good about getting great products, but you can feel good about supporting a company who makes recycled products.....IN AMERICA!!!!!
Now for the giveaway portion!! Green Toys has offered to give a reader of Gaertegang one of their great jump ropes!!! (Open to Us only)
DEADLINE for entries will end at NOON on September 2, 2009
Here are the ways you can enter ( Leave a separate comment for each entry)
1. Visit Green Toys and tell me what you would buy!
2. Follow Gaertegang...or tell me if you do!
3. Subscribe to Gaertegang..or tell me you do!
4. Enter the Complete Laundry System giveaway...or tell me you already did!
5. How many kids are you buying gifts for at Christmas? (Including my own :6)
6. Follow me on Twitter!
Posted by The Gaertegang Homestead at 5:47 PM 35 comments
Labels: Giveaways, Product Giveaways/Reviews, Twitter
Home School Idea
As most of you are aware, we home school our kids, and we started school earlier this month. Well, I was thinking today of some different ideas I could do throughout the year to keep our days fun, and everyone's attitude (including mom) on the positive side. During our school days we are very structured. I think it needs to be, because number one mommy needs her sanity and order to keep everyone on task and us working to achieve the educational goals of the day. Reason number two, if things aren't under wraps I never know who is doing what or where they are in their day's work, the things they are struggling with, ect. My children do plenty of independent work, but I also like to have my hands very involved in what they are learning...I think we all benefit from this approach. On the other hand there is only ONE of me and 4 of them, so a time structured approach to our day works well for us! Enough rambling already, the idea I came up with was "NO WORK-sheet Wednesday!" AKA: Sneak in FUN educational stuff, without them realizing they are schooling!
I don't know about your kids and their school work, but we do our share of worksheets in a day. No matter your approach a break in the regular routine is a good thing once in a while. So on this WEDNESDAY I am going to give it a whirl. My approach to this idea is somewhere in this realm: I will have the kids complete each subject that they normally do each day just eliminate the worksheet part and input something FUN (anything apart from worksheets). I think this will be a great chance for me to get out all those great flashcards that I have (laminated and all!) and actually use them more often. Along with the million other FUN things we have in the school cabinet that we never "get-to". We will do more things orally, maybe even throw in some history on CD, books on tape.......I am not totally sure how our day will look at this point, these are just some of things I am thinking of trying out this week. I am hoping that this day will really help us in keeping the FUN in school and not everyone feeling like every day is the same old thing. While I am all for routine, and order I think this idea; if implemented the right way will reap many good benefits...
So come on tell me what you think? Do you already do something like this in your home school days?
Posted by The Gaertegang Homestead at 3:38 PM 0 comments
Labels: Homeschooling
Sunday, August 16, 2009
Ahhh Tomatoe worms!!
I went out to my garden, and what did I find? TOMATOE WORMS eating away at my ever riping crop...Grrrrrr! I pulled three of those fat things off of my plants....Ohhh so yucky!!! I picked the ones that were ripe or almost ripe and now I am hoping they don't eat to much until I can dust them!!!! I think that is what I need to do....
So my week is sure to entail some tomatoe juice making and de-tomatoe worming (I know it's not a real term...but I love making up my own stuff around here!) More school action is also on the agenda...not sure about much else.....
Posted by The Gaertegang Homestead at 9:20 PM 0 comments
Labels: Everyday Living, Garden Updates
Saturday, August 15, 2009
Complete Laundry System Review/Giveaway
Call your mama, email your girlfriends, Facebook your friends, Twitter till your heart is content...point being everyone needs to know about this giveaway...and better yet how to get their hands on this amazing product!!!!!
As you can tell, I can't even begin to explain to you how excited I was to get to test the COMPLETE LAUNDRY SYSTEM. Well actually maybe I can explain it to you......
This honestly is a must have product because it makes sense in so many ways for everyone to have...to get the scientific explanation on how this system works go here...they explain it better than I can. Here is what else I can tell you:
The first thing you need to know is that you can throw out your detergent...you know that expensive stuff that breaks the budget every time you have to buy.....because you don't need it anymore!!!!!!!!!!!! If that fact alone does not grab your attention, I do not know what will....there is more! I really wanted to give this system a run for it's money the first time I used it....so I used it on smoke smelling, dirty clothes from our weekend of camping. I was really blown away that when I pulled the clothes from the washer the smelled smoke free and were totally clean.........WOW!!!!! I could go on and on about how everyone really needs one of these systems....Let me tell you the cost of the system is just shy of $50.00! I know that is would be easy for even a small family to justify buying this product paid. It would pay for itself in no time, by not having to buy detergent anymore!!!
So are you ready to win one? Silly question.....of course you are!!!!
You can choose one of the following to do to enter, or do all of them and increase your chances of winning!!! Remember you have to leave a separate comment for each entry!
Fern, at Mystic Wonders Inc, has been such a pleasure to work with and she has generously offered several prizes for you all to WIN!!
Grand Prize: COMPLETE LAUNDRY SYSTEM
Winners 2,3,4,&5: DRYER BALLS
Deadline for entries is August 30th, 2009 at NOON!!! (US entries only)
1. Visit here and tell me an interesting fact you learned.
2. Are you seriously going to consider buying one if you don't win one?
3. Follow gaertegang...or tell me if you already do!!!!
4. Subscribe to gaertegang..or tell me if you already do!!!!
5. Blog about it!!! Leave me a link so I can visit you!
6. Facebook about it!!!
7. Twitter about it!!!
8. Be the first one to make a button for gaertegang that I LOVE!!!! (5 extra entries)
9. If someone jumps on that last offer quick and you see a button...add it to your blog and get 2 extra entries!!!!!
10. Follow me on Twitter!
Posted by The Gaertegang Homestead at 10:11 AM 60 comments
Labels: Giveaways, Product Giveaways/Reviews, Twitter
Friday, August 14, 2009
Coming SOON!!
I am excited to be starting TWO new giveaways for all the gartegang readers!!!!! You will not want to miss out......really they are that GOOD!! So stay tuned.....Have a great weekend!
Posted by The Gaertegang Homestead at 11:17 PM 0 comments
Labels: Giveaways
Fun in the Sun!
A couple of weeks ago it the boys decided we really needed a painting day....they ask me all the time, but we usually never get to it. So this day we made it happen! I used the bottom of my left over egg cartons to make the paint trays...it worked great...
Zach had a great time! Sad to admit but I think this was his first time finger painting...
Lance is my perfectionist! Since we decided to use our fingers it took him awhile to get his picture just how he wanted it....
This was his final product!
Caleb kept saying how much fun he was having!
This is his final product...
Julia and I had fun painting a picture...Actually I did most of the picture painting......as you can see she was more concerned with painting her toes than the paper.....Can you tell she likes her toes painted? Yep, I indulge her is doing so!!!
Speaking of painting toes....tomorrow (8/15/09) is the last day to take advantage of the Piggy Paint discount (15% off everything..including sale items)!!!!! If you want to check out what is currently on sale, use the gaertegang discount code (GGANG15L) and get free shipping (when you spend $25) then visit Piggy Paint NOW!!
Posted by The Gaertegang Homestead at 7:00 AM 2 comments
Labels: Deals to Check out, family
Thursday, August 13, 2009
After almost 7 years of waiting.....
After almost 7 years of waiting I finally have my picket fence!!!When we moved into our house, the pasture where they used to have horses had a run down coral where they worked the horses....The posts we leaning the boards where a mess, so we torn it down and kept the lumber in case we wanted to recycle it into another project.....Well I always thought taking the boards and ripping them down the middle and then cutting them to size and putting those picket points on them would be a great way to reuse the wood!!! Well it took awhile for it to happen, but better late then NEVER!
Hubby and my great father-in-law took care of ripping the boards and put the points on the end. Then the next day I built the fence sections....oh so fun....Then I decided I would paint the fence BLACK. I know...I know....white is much more traditional, but I was going for a different look. I loved the thought of planting some bright flowers by the fences and seeing those colors really pop with the black fence as their background...
With all the prep work done in building the fence, now we were ready to set the post (also recycled from the horse coral) so we could mount our fence to them.....Here is our little helper Julia! Grandma and Grandpa Gaerte took the boys to a special Indian Pow Wow and Julia stayed behind and helped out with the project!
Okay so a BIG ROUND OF APPLAUSE for my STRONG hubby who had to dig all 5 of the post holes with this old school digger!
Here is a view of the finished product! Now I get to figure out what kind of flowers to plant in front of and behind it....... THANKS HONEY for all your great help!!!
Posted by The Gaertegang Homestead at 7:00 AM 2 comments
Labels: Everyday Living, family, Remodel Project
Wednesday, August 12, 2009
Seeking Financial Freedom Part 16
Welcome if you are visiting us for the first time here on Wednesdays!! If you want to start at the beginning of this series click on Seeking Financial Freedom on the right hand side of the screen..you will have to scroll down a bit to find it....
PERSPECTIVE****What's really important?*****
Thanks for joining us this Wednesday!! Perspective is the subject this week! Here are a few highlights from the chapter.
MONEY WILL NOT BRING YOU HAPPINESS (p147-148)
Solomon, the author of Ecclesiastes, had an annual income of more than $25 million. He lived in a palace that took 13 years to build. He owned 40,000 stalls of horses. He sat on an ivory throne overlaid with gold. He drank from gold cups. The daily menu of his household included 100 sheep and 30 oxen in addition to fallow-deer and fatted fowl.
Obviously, Solomon was in a position to know whether money would bring happiness, and he did not hesitate to say that riches do not bring true happiness."He who loves money shall never have enough. The foolish of thinking that wealth brings true happiness! The more you have, the more you spend, right up to the limits of your income." Ecclesiastes 5:10-11
Money will buy:
A bed but not sleep.;
Books but not brains;
Food but not an appetite;
A house but not a home;
Medicine but not health;
Amusement but not happiness;
A crucifix but not a Savior.
IS MONEY EVIL? (p148-149)
Money is not evil. It is morally neutral. Money can be used for good, such as supporting missionaries or building hospitals. Is also can be used for evil, such as financing illegal drugs and pornography.
Examine closely 1 Timothy 6:10 "The love of money is a root of all sorts of evil." The Bible does not condemn money itself, only the misuse of or a wrong attitude toward money.
WILL GODLY PEOPLE ALWAYS PROSPER FINANCIALLY? (pp149-150)
Some Christians embrace one of two extremes. Some say if you are really spiritual, you must be poor because wealth and a close relationship with Christ can not exist. The second and opposite extreme is the belief that if a Christian has faith, he or she will enjoy uninterrupted financial prosperity.
However we have already said that money is morally neutral and can be used for good and evil.
More importantly take a look at three reason why the godly may not prosper.
you may giving generously, but acting dishonestly. You may be honest but not fulfilling your work responsibilities. You may be a faithful employee but head-over-heel in debt. You may be debt free but not giving.
Romans 5:3-4 reads, "Tribulation brings about perseverance, and perseverance, proven character."
Hebrews 11:1-35 list people who triumphed miraculously by exercising their faith in the living God. But in verse 36 the writer directs our attention abruptly to godly people who lived by faith and gained God's approval, yer were poor. The Lord ultimately chooses how much to entrust each person. And sometimes we simply can't understand or explain His decisions.
COMMITMENT: I will consistently study the Bible to maintain God's perspective on money and possessions.
Posted by The Gaertegang Homestead at 7:00 AM 0 comments
Labels: Finances, Seeking Financial Freedom
Tuesday, August 11, 2009
Garden Update!
This is a shot of all my tomatoes coming on! I think there is gonna be a great deal of salsa, spaghetti sauce, and tomatoe juice that come out of this patch!
I harvested the last of my cabbage this weekend...I made two batches of colesaw to take to two different gatherings on Sunday!
Here is a shot of my strawberry patch.....my starts are sending out runners like crazy...Mmmm I can almost taste the strawberries for next year. Here is my corn of course.....I planted two differents varieties..one early...one late....but I planted these in June, after my first batch of seeds never came up. I think I will get one more picking of green beans before I pull the plants....I think I will just freezer what I get this round instead of canning them.....
Posted by The Gaertegang Homestead at 7:00 AM 1 comments
Labels: Garden Updates


text:
With the wedding of the year (and the best re-enactment ever) behind us, the Windsor Knot will no longer be posting.
For up-to-the-minute doings among the crown-wearing set, visit our Royals section, where TODAY delivers all the regal news.
Until a certain other prince decides to tie the Windsor Knot, here are some Will-and-Kate pieces to tide you over.
Thanks for visiting!
Slideshow: Duchess Kate's royal style
Slideshow: Will & Kate's royal wedding
Slideshow: Wacky royal wedding memorabilia


text:
Psychiatric Problems in Children and Adolescents Infected With HIV at Birth
|The safety and scientific validity of this study is the responsibility of the study sponsor and investigators. Listing a study does not mean it has been evaluated by the U.S. Federal Government. Read our disclaimer for details.
|ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier: NCT00100542
Recruitment Status : Completed
First Posted : January 4, 2005
Last Update Posted : January 21, 2011
- Study Details
- Tabular View
- No Results Posted
- Disclaimer
- How to Read a Study Record
|Condition or disease
|HIV Infections Mental Disorders
|Behavioral: Psychiatric interviews
Research has shown that HIV is able to penetrate the blood-brain barrier and may significantly affect the central nervous system (CNS). Although the effects of HIV on the CNS are not fully understood, there is growing evidence that the effects are psychosocial in nature; HIV infected children experience higher rates of psychiatric symptoms and hospitalizations than their uninfected counterparts. Confounding the HIV CNS relationship is evidence suggesting that the CNS effects of HIV may also be related to antiretroviral treatment. This study will examine the rates and severity of psychiatric symptoms in both HIV infected and uninfected children and adolescents. In addition, this study will determine the relationship between duration of antiretroviral treatment and psychiatric symptoms.
No treatment will be given as part of this study. The study will last for 96 weeks and be divided into two parts. In Part 1, HIV infected and uninfected participants and their caregivers will complete a series of measures and questionnaires regarding mental health, pain, and adherence to treatment. In Part 2, all participants and their caregivers will complete a subset of the original measures at Weeks 48 and 96. This follow-up part of the study will assess any long-term changes in psychiatric symptoms. In addition, a subset of HIV infected and uninfected participants and their caregivers will take part in psychiatric interviews at specified study sites. A portion of these interviews will be audio-taped.
|Study Type :
|Estimated Enrollment :
|800 participants
|Observational Model:
|Case Control
|Time Perspective:
|Official Title:
|Psychiatric Co-Morbidity in Perinatally HIV-Infected Children and Adolescents
|Study Start Date :
|April 2005
|Actual Primary Completion Date :
|September 2006
|Actual Study Completion Date :
|September 2006
All HIV infected and uninfected participants and their caregivers.
Behavioral: Psychiatric interviews
Measures and questionnaires regarding mental health, pain, and adherence to treatment. No actual treatment or intervention is given as part of this study.
Choosing to participate in a study is an important personal decision. Talk with your doctor and family members or friends about deciding to join a study. To learn more about this study, you or your doctor may contact the study research staff using the contacts provided below. For general information, Learn About Clinical Studies.
|Ages Eligible for Study:
|6 Years to 17 Years (Child)
|Sexes Eligible for Study:
|Accepts Healthy Volunteers:
|Sampling Method:
|Non-Probability Sample
Inclusion Criteria for HIV Infected Participants:
- Acquired HIV through mother-to-child transmission
Inclusion Criteria for HIV Uninfected Participants:
- HIV uninfected
Inclusion Criteria for All Participants:
- Living with same parent or primary caregiver for at least 12 months prior to study screening
- Willing and able to provide consent or assent
Exclusion Criteria for HIV Infected Participants:
- Acquired HIV through adult high-risk behavior, blood transfusion, or abuse
Exclusion Criteria for All Participants:
- IQ of 69 or lower, for participants whose primary language is English. More information on this criterion can be found in the protocol.
To learn more about this study, you or your doctor may contact the study research staff using the contact information provided by the sponsor.
Please refer to this study by its ClinicalTrials.gov identifier (NCT number): NCT00100542
|Study Chair:
|Sharon Nachman, MD
|Department of Pediatrics, Stony Brook University
Other Publications:
Publications automatically indexed to this study by ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier (NCT Number):
|Responsible Party:
|Wende Levy, IMPAACT
|ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier:
|Other Study ID Numbers:
U01AI068632 ( U.S. NIH Grant/Contract )
|First Posted:
|January 4, 2005 Key Record Dates
|Last Update Posted:
|January 21, 2011
|Last Verified:
|January 2011
Treatment Experienced
Treatment Naive
Anti-Retroviral Agents
Mental Disorders


text:
http://www.logos.com/training/objectmodel and http://www.logos.com/training/weblinking
Also, there is a lot that is not well described in Object Model Reference. For specific inquiries see the Logos automation newsgroup: http://www.logos.com/support/lbs/newsgroups
Now, calling a Libronix grammar from BW--how do you want to call it? To find whether a particular Bible reference is found in it, you could (1) call the Exegetical Guide for that verse and look in the Grammar section (my preference), or (2) call for a search of that resource or collection for a Bible reference.
If you want to put your cursor over a BW original language or mophology text and find the topics for 'Verb', 'Participle', etc. (like BW analysis window shows for its grammars), I don't have a clue. First, you'd have to figure how Libronix would do it itself.


text:
Rabbi Yeshayahu Hollander's speech at the joint press conference with Mr. Adnan Oktar (May 12nd, 2011, Istanbul)
RABBI YESHAYAHU HOLLANDER: I would like to add a few words of my own. We are here at a very interesting junction of history. We have worked with Mr. Oktar, now it is the fourth year and things developed much faster than we thought. We all know of the new developments in the Arab world in Tunisia, in Egypt, in other places where people are getting freedom which they have not had yet. In the Talmud, Samuel said, one of the sages said that in the time of Messiah, there will be no more subjugation of the nations. This is also brought by Maimonides word for word that there will not be subjugation of the nations. As a child, I understood this to mean that the Jews will not be subjugated by the nations in which the Jews lived. There was no state of Israel and Jews were in a diaspora. And in many places they were suffering, and I understood this to refer to the Jews [only]. But it is quite clear now that it is not referred to the Jews alone. It refers to all of humanity. In the time of Messiah, people will not be subjugated not by only by other nations but not even by their own governors. Now we see before us that this is exactly what is happening.
And when Mr. Oktar told some years ago that I will see Messiah and I will serve in the Temple, in Solomon's Temple when it is rebuild. I in my heart said I don't really believe him but it would be very nice if it would happen. Well, it seems now that things are moving a lot faster than I have thought. And Messiah is nigh, is close to us, and freedom will reign from shore to shore in one end of the world to the other. And all people in total freedom will worship the Almighty insha'Allah. Thank you very much.
Related Works


text: The innovative Alpine Performer fashioned from impressively tough and abrasion-resistant 3-D polyamide fabric, with integrated hybrid shell for enhanced support and protection. The shoe is very light and comfortable and comes equipped with a range of proven and patented Mammut technologies: Base Fit, Rolling Concept, and the newly developed Mammut gripex Sonar sole technology with its all-round safety and grip concept. The wedge is made from ultra-light injected EVA IP. The VENtech lining used at the front of the foot ensures fast wicking and drying for an optimal climate. This high-tech shoe also features the technologies Memo Foam, 3-D Textile, Liquid Rubber and 360 Heel Support. It incorporates reflective elements for increased safety after dark.


text:
hard(redirected from hard and fast)
Also found in: Dictionary, Thesaurus, Medical, Idioms.
1. Chem (of water) impairing the formation of a lather by soap
2. (of alcoholic drink) being a spirit rather than a wine, beer, etc.
3. (of a drug such as heroin, morphine, or cocaine) highly addictive
4. Physics (of radiation, such as gamma rays and X-rays) having high energy and the ability to penetrate solids
5. Physics (of a vacuum) almost complete
6. Chiefly US (of goods) durable
7. politically extreme
8. Brit a roadway across a foreshore
Quality of a material that is compact, solid, and difficult to deform.


text:
Today I decided to facilitate my need for a media player that maintains a playlist (I won't go near Windows Media Player as it's too bloated now, and Winamp's overkill), using the MCI. It seems to work (i.e. It plays), but the mechanism I'm using to display the current time of the track seems to be a smidge inaccurate:-
Now, I've tried printing the raw value of sp.dwReturn and as the values it returns aren't clean seconds (e.g. 1023 after 1 second) it wouldnever keep time properly (It skips seconds sometimes). I was hoping there was a notification mechanism for this as it would be more accurate. Ideas?Code:(At start of playback, do a SetTimer(hwnd, 0x1234, 1000, NULL). At the end, KillTimer.) (In WindowProc) case WM_TIMER: { char szTitle[256]; MCI_STATUS_PARMS sp; ZeroMemory(&sp, sizeof(MCI_STATUS_PARMS)); sp.dwItem = MCI_STATUS_POSITION; mciSendCommand(wDeviceID, MCI_STATUS, MCI_WAIT | MCI_STATUS_ITEM, (DWORD)&sp); wsprintf(szTitle, "%s - [%02u:%02u]", playlist[iCurrentSong].szTitle, (sp.dwReturn / 60000) % 60, (sp.dwReturn / 1000) % 60); SendMessage(hwnd, WM_SETTEXT, 0, (LPARAM)szTitle); break; }


text:
Bearing down defensively
INDIANAPOLIS — The Green Bay Packers aren't the only NFC North team seeking defensive improvement. Nor is Mike McCarthy the division's only head coach with an offensive background looking to get more involved with his defense.
A little more than a week after McCarthy stood in the Lambeau Field Legends Club area and promised that his team's defense "is going to change some" and that he would "set the vision for the defense; (defensive coordinator) Dom Capers and the defensive staff will carry it out," Chicago Bears coach Marc Trestman more or less said the same thing Thursday at the annual NFL Scouting Combine at Lucas Oil Stadium.
"Obviously the most important part of this offseason is rebuilding our defense to a stature that's expected of us at Halas Hall, in our community and our fan base," Trestman said. "It's wide open this year and everything's on the table this year in terms of where we're going defensively."
Like McCarthy, Trestman's area of expertise is offense. He was hired a year ago to help fix quarterback Jay Cutler and renovate an offense that had gone stale under head coach Lovie Smith, a defense-oriented coach, and a cast of offensive coordinators.
Now, just as the Packers are looking to tweak their scheme and add playmakers — "We need more impact players, we need more players making plays on defense," McCarthy said in his season-ending press conference after an NFC Wild Card loss to San Francisco – Trestman was discussing the same reality. While his defensive coordinator, Mel Tucker, will retain his autonomy over the defense, Trestman did bring in three new assistants — defensive line coach Paul Pasqualoni, linebackers coach Reggie Herring and assistant line coach Clint Hurtt — because the Bears wanted "experienced coaches who have had numerous stays and stops and positive experiences running 4-3, 3-4, multiple-front defenses," said general manager Phil Emery.
"We felt we had to do some things [differently], but the starting point was we felt Mel could lead and coach the defense," Trestman said of Tucker, who essentially ran Smith's scheme last season. "[The defensive coaches] are meeting to learn more about their styles and the pre-existing defense and where we can go with our existing players, knowing that there's going to be a lot of change."
Among those changes: While the Bears will remain a 4-3, one-gap scheme on defense, Emery said the Bears will use "a wide variety of alignments" to throw off opposing offenses; defensive end Shea McClellin – the guy whose sack of Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers shelved Rodgers for eight games with a fractured clavicle – is moving to linebacker; and perennial Pro Bowl defensive end Julius Peppers, coming off a 7.5-sack season and carrying a salary-cap number north of $18 million for 2014, could be released; and the Bears could be without two defensive stalwarts, defensive tackle Henry Melton and cornerback Charles Tillman, who are set to be unrestricted free agents.
As a result, Trestman suggested that the Bears won't decide on what exact changes they'll make on defense until after free agency and the draft, so they know who the players are that they'll be tailoring their defense to.
"To lock ourselves in and be so narrow-minded that, 'This is what we're going to be,' when we don't have the players to get it done would be – to me – not very [smart],"
Trestman said. Asked if he wanted more say in the defense, Trestman replied, "I'm not sure what that means. I hold myself completely accountable for what happened to our football team defensively. It starts with me."
The Bears' defense finished tied for 30th in the NFL in scoring defense (29.9 points per game), 30th in yards allowed (394.6), dead last (32 nd) in rushing yards (161.4), 15 th in passing yards (233.1), tied for last in sacks (31) and tied for ninth in takeaways (27).
The Packers' defense, by comparison, finished tied for 24th in scoring defense (26.8 points per game) in 2013, 25th in yards allowed (372.3), 25th in rushing yards allowed (125.0), 24th in passing yards allowed (247.3), tied for eighth in sacks (44) and tied for 20th in takeaways (22).
And like the Packers, the Bears feel they need to not only alter the scheme but also alter the personnel.
"For the most part, it's going to be a defensive-oriented draft in terms of where we're going," said Trestman, pointing out that the Bears overhauled the offense last year with 10 new players and a scheme change. "That doesn't mean we won't draft an offensive player. We're going to draft the players we think are best at the time, where our football team is at the time of the draft.
"We know we can do it. We left the Halas Hall believing that this would be something we're going to go through defensively, just like we did offensively last year. And it's exciting."


text:
For those on the ramparts of the world's sole superpower, the digital winds are blowing an icy chill through the triumphant glow of the post-Cold War.
People in Washington play lots of games, but none for higher stakes than The Day After. They played a version of it in the depths of the Cold War, hoping the exercise would shake loose some bright ideas for a US response to nuclear attack. They're playing it again today, but the scenario has changed - now they're preparing for information war.
The game takes 50 people, in five teams of ten. To ensure a fair and fruitful contest, each team includes a cross-section of official Washington - CIA spooks, FBI agents, foreign policy experts, Pentagon boffins, geopoliticos from the National Security Council - not the soldiers against the cops against the spies against the geeks against the wonks.
The Day After starts in a Defense Department briefing room. The teams are presented with a series of hypothetical incidents, said to have occurred during the preceding 24 hours. Georgia's telecom system has gone down. The signals on Amtrak's New York to Washington line have failed, precipitating a head-on collision. Air traffic control at LAX has collapsed. A bomb has exploded at an army base in Texas. And so forth.
The teams fan out to separate rooms with one hour to prepare briefing papers for the president. "Not to worry - these are isolated incidents, an unfortunate set of coincidences" is one possible conclusion. Another might be "Someone - we're still trying to determine who - appears to have the US under full-scale attack." Or maybe just "Round up the usual militia suspects."
The game resumes a couple of days later. Things have gone from bad to worse. The power's down in four northeastern states, Denver's water supply has dried up, the US ambassador to Ethiopia has been kidnapped, and terrorists have hijacked an American Airlines 747 en route from Rome. Meanwhile, in Tehran, the mullahs are stepping up their rhetoric against the "Great Satan": Iranian tanks are on the move toward Saudi Arabia. CNN's Christiane Amanpour, in a flak jacket, is reporting live outside the US embassy in Addis Ababa. ABC's Peter Jennings is quizzing George Stephanopoulos on the president's state of mind.
When suddenly, the satellites over North America all go blind ...
God, Voltaire said, is on the side of the big battalions. Not any more, He ain't. Nor on the side of the richest or even - and this may surprise you - the most extravagantly well wired. Information technology is famously a great equalizer, a new hand that can tip the scales of power. And for those on the ramparts of the world's sole superpower, the digital winds are blowing an icy chill through the post-Cold War's triumphant glow.
Consider this litany. From former National Security Agency director John McConnell: "We're more vulnerable than any other nation on earth." Or former CIA deputy director William Studeman: "Massive networking makes the US the world's most vulnerable target" ("and the most inviting," he might have added). Or former US Deputy Attorney General Jaime Gorelick: "We will have a cyber equivalent of Pearl Harbor at some point, and we do not want to wait for that wake-up call."
And the Pentagon brass? They commissioned their old RAND think-tank friends, who combed through the Day After results and concluded, "The more time one spent on this subject, the more one saw tough problems lacking concrete solutions and, in some cases, lacking even good ideas about where to start."
Not that nothing is being done. On the contrary, there's been a frenzy of activity, most of it little noticed by Washington at large. A presidential commission has been established; the FBI, the CIA, and the NSA have created their own specialist I-war teams; interagency bodies, complete with newly minted acronyms like IPTF (Infrastructure Protection Task Force) and CIWG (Critical Infrastructure Working Group), have been set up; defense advisory committees have been submitting reports thick and fast, calling for bigger budgets, smarter bombs, more surveillance, still more commissions to combat the cyber peril.
Yet, for all the bustle, there's no clear direction. For all the heat, there isn't a great deal of light. For all the talk about new threats, there's a reflexive grasp for old responses - what was good enough to beat the Soviet Union and Saddam Hussein will be good enough to beat a bunch of hackers. Smarter hardware, says the Pentagon. Bigger ears, says the NSA. Better files, says the FBI. And meanwhile The Day After's haunting refrain is playing over and over in the back of everyone's mind: What do we tell the White House?
A little digitally induced confusion might be par for the course in, say, the telecom industry or even on the global financial markets. But warfare is something else altogether. And while the old Washington wheels slowly turn, information technology is undermining most of the world's accumulated knowledge about armed conflict - since Sun Tzu, anyway.
What is an act of war? What is an appropriate response? Who's the first line of defense? What does "civilian" infrastructure mean when 90 percent of the US military's communications travel over public networks? Are we ready for a bonfire of civil liberties in the name of national security? Do we need an army? A navy? An air force? Does it matter whether we have them? And how do you encourage free and informed debate about an issue of unimpeachable importance without setting off panic?
Interesting questions all, unless you happen to be the men and women who get paid to keep the United States - or any other country - sleeping safe within its borders. In which case, those questions are a nightmare.
For a crisp, succinct summary of I-war - not to mention a taste of the threat's reality - you could do worse than glance at the Chinese army newspaper, Jiefangjun Bao. The following summarizes speeches delivered at last May's founding ceremony for Beijing's new Military Strategies Research Center:
"After the Gulf War, when everyone was looking forward to eternal peace, a new military revolution emerged. This revolution is essentially a transformation from the mechanized warfare of the industrial age to the information warfare of the information age. Information warfare is a war of decisions and control, a war of knowledge, and a war of intellect. The aim of information warfare will be gradually changed from 'preserving oneself and wiping out the enemy' to 'preserving oneself and controlling the opponent.' Information warfare includes electronic warfare, tactical deception, strategic deterrence, propaganda warfare, psychological warfare, network warfare, and structural sabotage.
"Under today's technological conditions," the summary continues, "the 'all conquering stratagems' of Sun Tzu more than two millennia ago - 'vanquishing the enemy without fighting' and subduing the enemy by 'soft strike' or 'soft destruction' - could finally be truly realized."
Please note that there's no namby-pambying about defending the motherland. A Chinese take on the Critical Infrastructure Working Group this is not. The object is to vanquish, conquer, destroy - as deviously and pervasively as possible.
That's one of the factors that makes I-war discussions so fraught: Like the technology that makes it possible, the landscape is vast, hard to visualize, and infinitely flexible. I-war can be the kind of neat, conceptually contained electronic Pearl Harbor scenario that Washington strategists like - collapsing power grids, a stock market software bomb (Tom Clancy's been there already), an electromagnetic pulse that takes the phone system out. Or it could be something completely different: An unreachable, maybe even unknown, foe. Grinding you down. Messing with your collective mind. Driving you slowly, gently nuts. Turning around your high-powered, fully wired expeditionary force in Somalia with a single, 30-second videoclip of one of your boys being dragged behind a jeep. Weaponry by CNN.
The question is whether the creaky old Cold War decision-making juggernaut is up to it. "It's gone from think tank to commission to task force," says one Senate staffer, "and then the White House has put it back out for another commission. Nobody wants to get near it, because it's being presented in such humongous terms." And because jumping in requires wrestling with some of the most contentious issues around, from civil liberties and cryptography to the size of the Pentagon budget - not to mention heavy doses of what still remains, for most of area code 202, mind-bendingly impenetrable technology.
The whole Washington mind-set may be part of the problem. "The threat is distributed," says Georgetown University computer science professor and crypto wars veteran Dorothy Denning, "but the government's first response is, 'OK, who's going to be in charge?' It's the age-old hierarchical approach, and I'm not sure whether it will work this time." Denning is notorious on the electronic privacy scene as a crypto hardliner, but on I war, she sounds almost forlorn. "The problem is that the technology leaps ahead of the security, and that's going to be with us forever. What we need to do is come to grips with our vulnerability and do the best we can." Hardly a Churchillian call to fight them on the beaches, and not exactly the kind of rhetoric that might get the blood stirring on Capitol Hill.
Looking at I-war through the conventional military prism is scarcely more inspiring. No weapons to stockpile. No US$50 billion panacea programs. No Ho Chi Minh Trails to bomb. No missiles to monitor. No rear bases - possibly no immediately definable enemy at all. The I-war threat is, by definition, so overwhelmingly unstructured that any attempt at a top heavy response could actually be worse than doing nothing. Nor will expensive new toys help: as the NSA's and the FBI's crypto warriors are already finding out, most of the technology involved is simply software - easy to duplicate, hard to restrict, and often frustratingly dual-use, civilian or military. It doesn't take a nice, fat sitting duck of a factory to manufacture software bombs; any PC anywhere will do.
The writing on the wall? John Arquilla, a professor at the Naval Postgraduate School in Monterey, California, and a leading Pentagon I-war thinker, puts it bluntly: "We have spent billions in the last few decades on large, expensive aircraft carriers, strategic bombers, and tanks. The information revolution suggests nothing less than that these assets have become much more vulnerable and much less necessary." (See "Netwar and Peace in the Global Village," page 52.)
The Pentagon's immediate response is among the hoariest in the military playbook: Cover your ass. Its brand-new Defense Science Board Task Force, chaired by two former DOD assistant secretaries, went out on a limb to recommend expanded I-war training (there's already a School of Information Warfare and Strategy, part of the National Defense University, outside Washington) and tightened security for the US military's information systems - the ever-expanding category now known as C4I (command, control, communications, computing, and intelligence). The report did include a provocative call for legal authority to allow "DOD, law enforcement, and intelligence agencies to conduct efficient, coordinated monitoring of attacks on the critical civilian information infrastructure." And for good measure, it recommended spending $240 million to establish a permanent Red Team - a putative hostile foe, sort of a Day After team in reverse - to begin routinely probing key US information systems for weak spots. Total price tag: $3 billion over five years, enough to pay for a couple of B-1 bombers.
Play Number Two: Pass the buck. Says John Petersen, president of The Arlington Institute and a regular Pentagon consultant, "Any time things start to smell like something other than killing people and breaking things, people in the military start pointing in other directions" - which in this case means the intelligence community and law enforcement.
Spooks and cops may well be better suited to the task, at least for holding up the defensive end of I-war. But better is only relative. I-war trashes time-honored distinctions between law enforcement and intelligence, between Americans and foreigners, between the kinds of surveillance permitted at home and what starts at the water's edge.
Undaunted, the FBI has created a Computer Investigation and Infrastructure Threat Assessment Center, expanding the bureau's three existing computer crime squads to 56 nationwide - one in every major field office. More tellingly, an executive order signed by President Clinton last July created an interagency outfit called the Infrastructure Protection Task Force. Chaired by the FBI and including representatives from the DOD and the NSA, the task force is charged with developing a "threat model" and "countermeasures." To these ends it is mightily empowered to demand "assistance, information, and advice" from "all executive departments and agencies." Says John Pike of the watchdog Federation of American Scientists, "The IPTF reeks of what everyone always worries about: the nebulous control authority. There are people who were looking for a hunting license, and they seem to have gotten it."
One proposal quietly making the rounds on Capitol Hill is to let the NSA engage in domestic monitoring, partly on the theory that digital technology makes distinctions between "domestic" and "foreign" artificial. Where's the water's edge in cyberspace?
That's just one looming I-war flashpoint. Another is an adjunct to the raging crypto debate: despite broad-based encryption's obvious merit as part of an I-war defense, the NSA and the FBI oppose it out of hand, on the grounds - not entirely unreasonable - that it makes their mission of listening in on potential enemies more problematic. The NSA, in particular, is looking on mournfully as encrypted communications spread around the world, obscuring its view even as the threat of I-war dramatically raises the stakes. In closed-door hearings where "black" budgets are debated, a powerful collision looms. And your local representatives may eventually be asked to ratify some tricky decisions - just as soon as they finish figuring out how to read their email.
If you're looking for someone to talk to about the vulnerability of computer networks, it would have to be Howard Frank, director of Darpa's Information Technology Office. Frank was on the team that 25 years ago invented the Internet - Doctor Frankenstein, if you will, now quietly trying to protect his creation from hostile new forces swarming around it.
Frank, an amiable, courteous man, patiently answers questions and puts things in perspective. The Internet, he says, was never designed to survive a nuclear war. Claims that it was designed to be invulnerable are urban myth, he's happy to tell you.
Frank is a Day After veteran; he even supervised one of the sessions. But at one point in our interview, he lets slip a remark so melodramatic that we can confidently expect it to be written into a Hollywood I-war blockbuster. We're chatting about last summer's big West Coast power outages, when suddenly he exclaims, "Each time I hear about one of these things, I say to myself, 'OK, it's started!' And when I find out it really didn't, I just think we've bought some additional time. But it will start."
So what do we do? "We've created a technology over a period of 20 or 30 years. It's going to take 10, 20 years to create an alternative technology that allows us a more sophisticated set of defenses."
That long? Who knows? It's like the drug war, or urban dwellers' perennial battles against roaches. It's not hard to grasp the problem, but solutions remain evasive, slippery, beyond reach.
Not that no one's looking. Darpa, for instance, is actively soliciting proposals for "research and new technology development related to the survivability of large-scale information systems whose continuous operation is critical to the defense and well-being of the nation." They're talking serious business here. They're talking survivability. And what they have in mind is not just any infrastructure "hardening"; this is cutting-edge stuff, grounded in the latest theories of ecological computing - digital versions of genetic variation and immune response. "There are naturally occurring models of survivable systems provided by biological organisms, populations, and societies," declares Darpa's request for proposals. "This research program uses these examples for metaphors and guidance about how to design survivable information systems."
Well, good luck to them. In the shorter term, more immediately practical ideas are also being pursued. The Defense Science Board estimates that to harden up US information networks will range from $3 billion for a so called Minimal Essential Information Infrastructure - a dedicated emergency system to keep necessary services running - to a pie-in-the sky $250 billion (roughly the Pentagon's annual budget) to globally secure everything to top-of-the-line DOD "Orange Book" standards. But the latter figure is vague, to say the least: from a technical point of view, it is essentially impossible to distinguish between the global telecom net, the US national network, and a single-purpose military one. Worse, nearly all those cables and switches belong not to Uncle Sam, but to highly competitive, deeply cost-averse private companies still glowing with satisfaction after their escape from Washington's regulatory shackles. A White House staffer who's been working on the issue puts it this way: "It's one thing to say to the private sector, 'You have a responsibility to defend yourself against hackers.' Fine, everyone's in favor. But if you suddenly say the threat is a foreign government or a terrorist group, there's no way in hell they're going to want to pay for that. They look at us and say, 'Isn't that your job?'"
The most concerted attempt to sort out those issues is being made by the Commission on Critical Infrastructure Protection, established by Clinton's executive order last July. Former Deputy Attorney General Gorelick described it in a Senate hearing as "the equivalent of the Manhattan Project." Chaired by Robert "Tom"Marsh, a retired US Air Force general with long-standing military-industrial ties, the commission is charged with acting as a liaison between the government - all the usual-suspect agencies are involved - and the private-sector companies that own and operate "critical infrastructure," from TV broadcasting transmitters to long distance phone and data lines. Public hearings are being held around the country; the ultimate aim is a report evaluating the scope of the threat and recommending strategies to counter it.
There are plenty of bright ideas out in the freelance I-war market. In fact, there's a whole cottage industry, starting with Infowar.com, a sprawling commercial Web site run by longtime I-war enthusiast Winn Schwartau (see "Information Warrior," Wired 4.08, page 136). William Church, editor of the London-based Journal of Infrastructural Warfare (www.iwar.org/), proposes I-war "Special Operations Squads" with "one goal, and only one goal: go out and patrol for the enemy" - on the networks. ("It is a very small flick of the switch to go offensive with these teams," Church notes helpfully.)
More out-of-the-box thinking comes from Robert Steele, a retired US Marine and former CIA intelligence officer who heads a consulting firm called Open Source Solutions Inc. Steele argues for what he calls "SmartNation," a sort of electronic Neighborhood Watch in which "each individual node - each individual citizen - is educated, responsible, alert, and able to join in a networked security chain."
Michael Wilson, a shadowy "OpFor" (that's "opposition forces") consultant and frequent contributor to online I-war debates, argues for universal strong cryptography. "While we're at it, who knows that there isn't something even better at the NSA?" Wilson asks. "Open the technology up - get out the strong crypto, security, authentication, et cetera. Ship the scientists out from Fort Meade to computer hardware and software developers. Think of it as investing the Cold War peace dividend, to help strengthen the society to weather the next wars."
The idea of confronting the threat of I-war by, in effect, opening up national security does have its appeal. Marc Rotenberg, director of the Washington-based Electronic Privacy Information Center, sees the I-war debate as a possible doorway to a full-scale reexamination of national security and the institutions devoted to guarding it. "Now's the time to bring more of the NSA's activities into the public light. If there are these looming threats, you don't want to keep the debate locked up in the White House basement or the back rooms of the Pentagon."
In the strange-bedfellows way of so many information revolution debates, that's not a problem for an I-war insider like John Arquilla. "Unless we grapple with the problem that information warfare is not simply a military problem," he says, "we won't be able to grapple with I-war at all."
Downsize the Pentagon? Fund cheap I-warriors instead, to fight in the electronic shadows? Arquilla again: "Clearly there is an institutional concern about making radical shifts away from a hardware-heavy military. Nevertheless, budgetary constraints will ultimately drive us in this direction." He won't be drawn on specifics, but the possibilities are obvious enough - halve the Pentagon budget, for instance, and put the savings toward a massive upgrade of the country's networks, using tax breaks and other incentives as a lure. "What will make it possible will be someone pointing out the savings that could be realized,"Arquilla says. "Institutional redesign is hot, politically, and this needs to be an issue in the next presidential cycle." Calling Al Gore.
The good news is that we have been down this path already: in government as in industry, downsizing and efficiency go with the territory. The bad news is that the magic of the marketplace isn't very reassuring protection against, say, a team of underemployed Bulgarian computer scientists working for Saddam Hussein.
But it is a fair bet that, sooner or later, we will find ourselves stumbling toward a genuine national debate - not, one hopes, in the wake of a real electronic Pearl Harbor. Certainly no elected official is likely to challenge the plausibility of the I-war threat, so long as the risk exists that events might spectacularly contradict him. The issues will be how to go about countering the danger, and how to do so without setting off a mêlée over hot-button issues like domestic spying, privacy rights, "hidden" enemies, and official regulation of privately owned networks.
That's not just a tactical problem: when the FBI, the NSA, the CIA, and the Pentagon get together to talk about national security, a lot of people start reaching for their copies of the Bill of Rights. And when the threat everyone's talking about is from faceless foreign hackers, terrorists, and bomb makers - why not throw in a few child pornographers - it is a fair bet that paranoid demagoguery will not be absent. It's happened before: look at the 1950s. The best will lack all conviction, the worst will be full of passionate intensity, and the political fabric will start to fray.
All of which, of course, could sound a lot like what our Chinese friends call "soft destruction." As William Church says, "The most damaging form of I-war is political war or psychological war." And pretty much anything can be part of it: power outages, network breakdowns, clever disinformation campaigns - anything "to get the populace to feel that the country is going to hell."
Those whom the I-war gods would destroy, they first make mad.
Netwar and Peace in the Global Village
The future of armed conflict is not smart battlefields, it's networks and information being used to defeat uniformed forces. An interview with John Arquilla.
By Ashley Craddock
__Pentagon adviser John Arquilla has a name for low tech responses to high tech warfare: netwar. And he believes that future conflicts will be dominated not by superpowers and nation-states but by small, distributed groups - ranging from criminal gangs to rebels like those in Chechnya and Chiapas - who can exploit information technology.
Known in some Washington circles as the "Dark Prince" for advocating a radically leaner, less hierarchical US military, Arquilla is a professor of information warfare and special operations at the Naval Postgraduate School in Monterey, California. His new book, In Athena's Camp: Preparing for Conflict in the Information Age, coauthored with former RAND colleague David Ronfeldt, will be published this summer.__ Wired: What forms will future conflicts take?
Arquilla: The Gulf War has been heralded as the first information-age war, but I see very few new Gulf Wars. What I do see are many netwars, fought by networks. That's not simply armed battles between uniformed forces; it's the kind of conflict waged by terrorists and criminal organizations and revolutionaries - even by social activists. It's a very different kind of conflict; in fact, it's sometimes quite hard to call it war anymore. And yet it is, because it is a form of conflict and often has military elements. What's so new about that?
It's all-channel interconnectivity that distinguishes the true modern network - each node can connect quite directly with any other. What's fascinating is that smugglers, pirates, other forms of criminals, revolutionaries, and terrorists have always organized along networked lines. Now they are marrying up with the information revolution, and it's giving them vast new capabilities.
We're also going to see more netwar because one can wage this kind of conflict without large field armies - and indeed without sophisticated technologies. In the wake of the Gulf War, it doesn't make a great deal of sense to challenge the United States directly or conventionally. Only a few armies - quite advanced ones - will engage in the high tech wars of the future. Instead, there will be a profusion of challenges to American interests. And it's this kind of conflict for which we are not prepared.
Is the US military willing to move away from traditional strategies?
Every serious thinker about the future of the American military is considering that. The basic units of maneuver no longer have to be large battle groups - mechanized divisions or full air wings - because another trend in the information age is the growing lethality of even very small formations of men and machines. What we may see is far smaller units - between 500 and 700 troops. A squad of infantry can call in a tremendous amount of accurate firepower today, and this is made possible precisely because of the information revolution.
At the same time, if the battlefield is going to be sharply diminished in terms of the units of maneuver and their size, then the need for hierarchy is much less. Hierarchies were designed to deal with mass armies, to control hundreds of thousands, even millions, of troops. In fact, the traditional hierarchical structure designed to control a mass army may simply limit the capabilities of these new forces. And the military is sensitive to this.
Is the Pentagon learning its lessons?
My greatest concern is that the emphasis is too technological in nature - we tend to think of information war as cybernetic, as unmanned systems. And this is simply not the case. We could well find ourselves up against opponents who use other means of spreading information and other forms of organization. The military is quintessentially hierarchical. Someone has to be in command - that will never go away. But we mustn't forget that nonstate actors don't have any such constraints.
What can the Pentagon do to deal with those kinds of mismatches?
Nation-states and their hierarchical administrations are extremely ill suited to dealing with very nimble networked opponents confronting us. The information age implies generalship by the many, the decentralization of authority. This is highly inimical to traditional military strategy. As Napoleon said, Better to have one bad general than two good ones. Nevertheless, in the American military, efforts are being made to create hybrid forms of organization, in which the commander in chief has what in the business world is called top sight: he knows the big picture but allows a great devolution of authority, with subordinates waging the campaigns.
Has that worked?
Our early efforts have not been fruitful. We're facing a variety of networked opponents even as we speak: the transnational criminal organizations - drug cartels, for example - and the various proliferator networks that are spreading weapons of mass destruction throughout the world. These are just a few examples of the types of opponents we face, and yet as we look at the American government's approach, we still see an extremely hierarchical, centrally controlled effort, whether to fight a drug war or counter weapons proliferation.
Do things look any better for dealing with more conventional threats?
There is not a lot of evidence that we have understood the implications of smaller armies, of less linear fighting, or indeed of the notion that the context of conflict is much different. For instance, the DOD has a policy of being able to wage two conventional wars nearly simultaneously. And whenever a crisis arises, the question asked is: How soon can we get a field army - between 300,000 and 400,000 troops - to some location to fight Desert Storm-style? But the fact is that those occasions will probably not arise.
But aren't new information capabilities one of the reasons the United States won the Gulf War so quickly?
The direction the military seems to be heading - grafting these new information technologies onto our existing understanding of warfare and our existing structures - is a big mistake. An instructive example is the Franco-Prussian War. In 1870, France had a machine gun, really the first effective one in the world. But because it was mounted on a gun carriage like an artillery piece, it was kept back with the long-range artillery. What would have been an absolutely winning advantage very seldom came into play. The effects were catastrophic.
If the US military simply grafts new information technologies onto existing structures, it risks being defeated in a major conflict of the future. Keeping large formations of massed forces, for example, simply creates large targets.
So have we seen the last wars involving massed armies?
I don't think so. If both sides enjoy similar levels of technology and fight with equal skill, what we'll see is the inability of either side to gain control and a return to the emphasis on attrition and maneuver. My hope is that prior to the outbreak of these conflicts, we will raise up a generation of officers who realize that, above all else, the information age speaks to the value of human capital in war, as well as the fact that we cannot always count on fighting an opponent with extremely rudimentary information capabilities, like the Iraqis. We have to think about the possibility of fighting opponents who are as well armed and well informed as we are.
What stands in the way of serious change?
Militaries that change are usually militaries that have been defeated. And so this is a very difficult time for the United States. We have a formula that has worked. We won the Cold War. We won the Gulf War. Doing things this way is costly - a quarter of a trillion dollars spent on defense each year. Do we want to take a chance on a new way of fighting solely because it may mean we'll be able to do it less expensively? I would say that we must, because we have economic constraints to which we must respond. But we also have to decentralize our military for the same reasons that businesses are decentralizing.
How will this affect the global power structure?
There's been a long debate about whether information technologies tend toward good or evil. My greatest fear is the rising capabilities of states and nonstate actors who would use information technology to spread traditional forms of influence and power. A kind of information-supported imperialism may emerge. And a form of criminal mercantilism may be enabled, practiced by various pirate organizations around the world.
That doesn't sound particularly cheerful.
The darkest possibility is that states, realizing the power of networks, will align themselves with transnational criminal organizations, which will serve as their proxies as they wage an unending low-intensity netwar.
But there's another hypothesis: Because free flows of information vastly increase the costs of repression, authoritarian and totalitarian states will find themselves having greater and greater difficulty maintaining control. My greatest hope is that the information revolution raises the possibility of globally disseminating a set of common values and agreements about the nature of human rights. Interconnectivity - and the social, political, and sometimes military capabilities that come with this interconnectedness - can help to break the chains of those around the world who remain under authoritarian control. It is possible that new information technologies portend the rise of a global civil society that will be self-governing and more peaceful.


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Applying Local Patches to Ebuilds
This page documents how to apply your own local patches to ebuilds when they are built, without having to actually modify the ebuild itself.
First, install app-portage/foobashrc:
root # emerge app-portage/foobashrc
This will install the script foobashrc.bashrc at /etc/portage/. It is intended to be used in the emerge process through /etc/portage/bashrc (see Hooking In the Emerge Process (Gentoo Manual)). If you do not have your own bashrc yet, you can just link it to foobashrc.bashrc:
root # ln -s /etc/portage/foobashrc.bashrc /etc/portage/bashrc
To complete the installation you need to add
foobashrc_modules = "localpatch"
to your /etc/make.conf. By un-/commenting this line you can easily activate/deactivate localpatch.
How it works
By default, localpatch will look into /etc/portage/localpatches in order to search for patches. This can be changed by setting LOCALPATCH_OVERLAY variable within /etc/make.conf.
The actual patches for a package are placed in subdirectories with one of the following naming schemata:
- ${CATEGORY}/${PN}-${PV}-${PR} - example 'app-foo/bar-1.0-r1'
- ${CATEGORY}/${PN}-${PV} - example 'app-foo/bar-1.0'
- ${CATEGORY}/${PN} - example 'app-foo/bar'
Only the patches within the first matching schema are used and are applied within numerical order.


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Ahh, summertime. I love the lazy days of summer and have spent the past 10 days enjoying Miss L and our more relaxed schedule.
Today was a movie day, thanks to a 60 percent chance of rain. "Mirror, Mirror" finally made it to the $2 theater near us, so it was the perfect remedy to a rainy day.
It's just an OK movie but the costumes! Oh, the costumes! The late Eiko Ishioka (who won an Academy Award for Bram Stoker's Dracula) just blew me away with her over-the-top designs. The textures, the details, the colors — total eye candy. I also spied some familiar fabrics.
Being a total fabric addict, I had to hop on Google to find pictures to back up my discovery: That's quilting fabric! One dress was definitely from the Kaffe Collective and there was another featuring motifs from Pillow & Maxfield's Gypsy Bandana Line. On closer look, I saw that Patty Young's Andalucia was used for the skirt on the same costume.
My fabric geekiness knows no bounds.