text:
Venezuelan Oilman: Rebel With a New Cause
By JUAN FORERO
Published: February 9, 2003
CARACAS, Venezuela, Feb. 8 — He wears pastel-colored suits and wire-rimmed glasses. His thinning hair is neatly combed. Restrained and a little stiff, he speaks in the dry tones and jargon-filled language of a technocrat on such obscure topics as 1958 American oil regulations or 1930's energy policies in Venezuela.
In short, he looks and sounds every bit the oil executive he is — the president of one of the largest, most complicated and, these days, most embattled companies in the world, Petróleos de Venezuela.
But make no mistake, Alí Rodríguez still sees himself as a revolutionary. His boss, after all, is President Hugo Chávez, whose sharp tongue and efforts to remake Venezuelan society have left the country deeply divided and on the edge of economic collapse.
Though his résumé makes no mention of it, Mr. Rodríguez has leftist, some would say radical, credentials. For 20 years, he was a clandestine agitator and a fighter in a Cuban-inspired rebel movement, where he specialized in political proselytizing and making bombs, according to former guerrilla comrades.
"I am still a revolutionary, of course," said Mr. Rodríguez, 64, who remains a member of a party, Fatherland for All, on the left fringe of the government's coalition. "But it is under different conditions, in accordance with the realities of the day."
The irony of how the son of a humble Andean farmer became an idealistic guerrilla and, years later, rose to the upper echelon of a widely hailed company makes Mr. Rodríguez shake his head and smile. To be sure, he does not seem entirely comfortable poring through planning documents, but though he does not carry a rifle anymore, he still says he is fighting to shake up the system for the betterment of the poor.
Still, the reality is that today's rebels are his former oil executives. For more than two months they have been out in the streets protesting against Mr. Chávez and, by extension, Mr. Rodríguez's management of Petróleos de Venezuela S.A.
Indeed, thousands of Petróleos workers helped to topple Mr. Chávez for a few days in April, and then gave backbone to a national strike of several weeks that strangled oil exports to Venezuela's main customer, the United States.
Mr. Rodríguez may have once believed in hemispherewide revolution. But these days, as he looks out from his penthouse office, he sounds more like an unforgiving capitalist. He vows that the thousands of dissident workers who went on strike — and continue to strike — will never return to their jobs.
"Their movement seriously damaged the company and the country," Mr. Rodríguez said, his ire just slightly shaking his calm demeanor. "That is why I am indignant at what happened, because it makes our work so much harder. We have to reduce investments, and that means a loss of possibilities, a retreat for the country."
"There is no possibility of an amnesty whatsoever," he added.
Petróleos de Venezuela, once valued at $110 billion, is producing just half what it did before the strike, which ended in the non-oil sector last week after 63 days. Moribund oil fields are sanding up, losing the ability to produce oil; the company's reputation is in shambles; and the 9,000 workers Mr. Rodríguez has fired represent a loss of experience and skill.
Whether to take back striking workers is one of the critical decisions Mr. Rodríguez has made as he tries to guide Petróleos de Venezuela through venomous political waters into uncharted territory.
To his left are hard-liners in the governing party who believe Mr. Rodríguez was too lax in purging dissenters and too close to the global oil industry to be of much use to Mr. Chávez's reforms.
To his right are those who accuse him of allowing ideology to cloud logic, resulting in a scaled-down company that will generate far less wealth than before.
Those who know him see Mr. Rodríguez as independent, decisive and clear on how to reshape the company. He has a plan to break the company into eastern and western divisions, making the Caracas headquarters, where dissidents planned antigovernment walkouts, obsolete. He proposes reducing the company's scope, possibly selling off refineries and other assets overseas.
Mr. Rodríguez insisted that Venezuela would soon export as much petroleum as before the strike, about 2.7 million barrels a day, most to the United States. He suggested that as demand grows in the years to come, so would Venezuelan supply.
But the company he envisions would also conform more to Mr. Chávez's vision, to generate a steady stream of revenues for social programs. It would also continue forging ties with the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries.
"I think that effectively, at least culturally, the true nationalization of petroleum is coming," Mr. Rodríguez said recently, though he emphasized that foreign companies would continue to operate here. The role of a company that controls such riches, he said in an interview, is to "incorporate that value of the natural resource for the maximum benefit."


text:
Coca-Cola to Invest $2 Billion Over Five Years in India
BANGALORE - Coca-Cola Co. said Monday it will invest $2 billion in India over five years, as the soda giant and its bottling partners plan to spend $30 billion to build capacities and on marketing in emerging economies.
The Atlanta-based maker of Sprite and Thums Up soft drinks, Minute Maid juice and Kinley packaged drinking water, as well as rival PepsiCo Inc. have been targeting growing demand for convenience foods and drinks in emerging markets as North American soda sales have been tepid in recent years.
India offers robust growth prospects for food and beverages makers as its growing economy--estimated to grow 7.6% this fiscal year through March 2012--is leaving more disposable income with an expanding middle class. The country is also seeing its middle class increasingly adapting to Western tastes and spending more on beverages and processed foods.
Despite global uncertainties, India has been attracting long-term investments. Data show foreign direct investments in India in the January-August period surged 50% from a year earlier to nearly $21 billion.
In a statement, Coca-Cola said its investment is aimed at capturing more of the opportunity in the Indian non-alcoholic ready-to-drink beverage market, which it said has enormous growth potential.
The company and its bottling partners plan to invest in marketing and brand building, distribution expansion and capacity addition in India, it said.
"India is one of our most important growth markets," Ahmet C. Bozer, Coca-Cola's president for Eurasia and Africa group, said in the statement.
PepsiCo said late last year that it aimed to triple revenue from India every five years and would invest in installing new capacity and new plants over the next few years.
Coca-Cola, the world's largest non-alcoholic beverage company, has invested more than $2 billion in India since it re-entered the country in 1993. It had been banned here for 16 years until 1993, for refusing to divulge its secret recipe.
Coca-Cola employs more than 25,000 people in India, nearly 4% of its employees worldwide.
The investment is aimed at capturing more of the opportunity in the Indian non-alcoholic ready-to-drink beverage market, which has enormous growth potential, the U.S. company said in a statement.
The company and its bottling partners plan to invest in marketing and brand building, expand distribution and increase manufacturing capacity, it said.

subset: commoncrawl


text:
Confirmed: Geoff Johns Is the New President of DC Entertainment
Comic Books, Film, TV
Every day this year, I will be examining the first pages of random comics. Today's page is from Death's Head II #2, which was published by Marvel (Marvel UK, to be exact) and is cover dated January 1993. Enjoy!
For some reason, I obtained the entire Death's Head II mini-series several years ago. I think someone knew I liked comics and just gave me a bunch of them – these were in the bunch, and I know several issues of Hyperkind were in there too. Anyway, I think I've read this series once, and even though I got them when I enjoyed this kind of book more than I do today, even back then I knew it was crap. But that doesn't necessarily mean we can't get a good first page, does it?
Dan Abnett simply sets the scene here, as he at least engages in some of that wacky banter that even "serious" comics engaged in back in the day. I mean, there's something inherently stupid about a man dressed in a bright yellow and blue costume with claws coming out of his hands fighting a dude with a horned head and a giant codpiece, but most Marvel and DC books these days are so deadly serious that they never wink at the audience. Abnett isn't exactly doing that, but at least he goes over the top with his description – the reader needs popcorn and a ringside seat to the "fight of the year" between Wolverine and Death's Head. With not a lot of prose, Abnett gives us the names of the participants and the fact that they're in Paxton, Oregon (which doesn't exist, by the way, in case you needed to know). So he does his job for a splash page – tells us some very basic information, hyperboles it up, and gets out of Liam Sharp's way!
It's Sharp who defines this mini-series, because it's really very NINETIES X-TREEEEEM, and Sharp was pretty good at giving the readers what they wanted. Sharp was only 24 when this comic came out, and he got a lot better over the years, but this is standard pencil work for far too many comics of this era, in case you're a young'un who missed the 1990s. Sharp designs the page perfectly well – our eye travels down the diagonal well, and Wolverine balances Death's Head nicely. Sharp can't resist some ridiculousness, though – Wolverine's right arm muscles bulge crazily, and Death's Head's legs are … well, they're something. The thing that might bother a new reader is the weird right arm of Death's Head, because it's too long and it simply looks like a mass of metal, to the point where, because it's behind Wolverine, we might wonder whether it's actually his arm or not. However, Abnett and Sharp show us pretty quickly that Death's Head can somehow regrow and reform his arm in whatever shape he wants, so a reader's confusion would be momentary. As this is before comics got all serious (which means blood and guts fly freely), the only indication we get that Wolverine is wounded is the ripping costume next to Death's Head's arm. Sharp adds some blood to his arm and face, but it's not all that bad. It's a bit tough to "read" the scene without thinking about how wrong the drawing is – did Wolverine leap at Death's Head, and if so, from where? Is Death's Head supporting Wolverine with the arm, or is Wolverine falling toward his opponent? How did Death's Head not impale Wolverine if Wolverine was leaping through the air? Did Wolverine somehow twist in mid-air to avoid that massive right arm? What the fuck is up with that codpiece? But if we can move past those nagging doubts, Sharp does give us a fairly dynamic splash that gets our juices flowing for the big throwdown. Helen Stone does a good job with the colors, too – as with most of these mainstream comics, she has no choice but to use the standard colors for the costumes, but Sharp wisely draws Wolverine so Stone can emphasize the yellow in his costume, which contrasts nicely with Death's Head's blue. She chooses browns and greens (and a weird pink) to surround the two main characters, so that their bright colors stand out among the drabness of Paxton, OR. It's one place Stone has some leeway, and she chooses wisely.
I guess the only good thing about this comic is that somewhere in England, a teenaged Kieron Gillen read this thing obsessively and decided to use Death's Head in S.W.O.R.D. many years later. So there you go!
Next: Well, I've done this before, and my random pulling of comics has turned up another issue that has been recolored, and I have two different versions of it! Come along as we examine what modern coloring can do (or can't do!). Can you find the other instance of recoloring I've shown in the archives?
"I think someone knew I liked comics and just gave me a bunch of them – these were in the bunch, and I know several issues of Hyperkind were in there too."
This is exactly how I ended up with a bunch of Death's Head II comics. I don't remember these books being out in the States, so I wonder how these other people ended up with them to give to me.
And is the next story Flex Mentallo? I believe you touched on the re-coloring bit in a previous article.
The Lotus FX was awful but there were some good DHII comics before and after this one
Just a point about your reference to Deaths Head in SWORD there, that was actually Deaths Head 1, who was an entirely different character as well as a different series, so it was more likely either that series or the Transformers series he originated in that was favoured by teenage Gillen.
Ian: That's weird. WHO HAD THESE COMICS?!?!?!?
No, it's not Flex Mentallo. I already featured Flex, but it was before the new collection came out.
Sandra: This is the only Death's Head comic I've ever read, so I'll have to take your word for it!
Whitster: Ah, I see. I forgot that were more than one. That's probably it, yeah.
These Death's Head books, especially the Death's Head II mini and beyond, were pretty popular in the states from what I remember. I would see lots of the Marvel UK books have some slight bit of popularity for a while, mainly due to the inclusion of Marvel heroes in a lot of the books.
Killing Joke next, maybe.
Oh, good or bad, I only meant to say that I thought that you meant "the original" when you wrote "I obtained the entire Death's Head II mini-series several years ago". Even discounting the previous character Death's Head I, there were comics about Death's Head I earlier.
I never really liked the Death's Head II saga myself. I was a fan of the old school DH stories. (And the SWORD appearance was great, since it featured the Transformers-sized pre-Doctor encounter DH.
(And Furman's What if Death's Head had Lived is easily one of my favorite stories, though appropriate to nothing here._)
Giant Fail on the background art, surprised that you didn't mention that the upstairs area is clearly bigger than the downstairs can support if there's to be a stairway there, you'd bump your head a few steps up. Who cares, though? It's Wolverine! WOLVERINE!!!!!
And I'm pretty sure most towns, even in eastern Oregon, have paved streets like everyone else.
I really loved this comic. I have a full run of any Abnett and Lanning penned appearances DH2 made including, I'm proud to say, the Mys-Tech mini). Though it may not seem like it on the surface, it was a pretty self-aware comic of the testosterone-fuled 90s without being a parody and had a lot of fun with the "themes" of that time. The last issue of the ongoing is especially fantastic.
Ganky: Hmmm. That's a good point about the stairs. I'm not sure what Sharp was going for. And maybe it's a recreation of an Old West town, hence the non-paved streets!
eh_ver: Maybe I'll have to re-read it. I've only read it once, and maybe I just wasn't catching onto the parodic elements.
I was wondering about the length of Wolverine's claws… and right now it struck me that it is not even a matter of artistic license: there is no way for such long blades to fit into his _forearms_, let alone his hands.
Unless they bend or something.
Luis: I never comment on the length of Wolverine's claws, even though you're absolutely right. So many artists have made them too long over the years that I tend to chalk it all up to "It's KEWL!" and leave it at that!
you got me looking at the stairs now, and I've spotted they slop down towards the back which is doing my head in
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ODT Online
ODT /directory
Otago manufacturing data continues to lead the countryas all
regions are still in expansion mode, but all showed some
cooling in overall activity during April.
While the manufacturing sector has now been in expansion for
19 consecutive months, the level of expansion was not as
strong as the previous month, possibly because of the effects
of Easter and Anzac Day creating a long holiday for many,
according to the latest BNZ-Business New Zealand performance
of manufacturing index, released yesterday.
BNZ economist Doug Steel said, despite what looks like a
''holiday-induced slowdown'' in April, the trends in the
index remained strong, especially in employment.
''Buoyant construction and agriculture sectors look
supportive on the demand side,'' he said.
An index reading above 50 indicates expansion, and below 50,
Nationally, the index fell 2.8 points from March to 55.2,
while Otago's 2.1-point dip to 57.7 was far ahead of the
other three regions; the northern North Island was down to
53, central North island dropped to 51.3 and
Canterbury/Westland was at 50.1 points.
Mr Steel said the total annual value of building consents,
both residential and commercial, had now pushed beyond $12
billion, and past its previous peak in 2008.
''The positive outlook for construction in particular should
underpin further manufacturing expansion for the foreseeable
future. It looks like manufacturers are gearing up for it,''
he said.
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text:
Excellent points!
You know, I've been all up in Hill's grill about this, but you do indeed make an excellent point. Thanks.
You know, I certainly dont want to belabor the tedious discussion about Clintons gender problem,
Then please, I beg you, don't.
Most excellent - tipped to dailyKos and TPM.
Thanks for cutting through the crap on this one, Erica.
Sweet photos!
Dowd has hated Hillary forever, or at least since she let Bill "get away with" the Monica thing. Ever since her hubby blew his wad all over that tramp's dress, Hillary's name has been mud in Dowd's view. It's as if she thinks supporting Hillary is like excusing male infidelity. Or something. I'm just guessing here, but the woman has issues.
Aw yeah, ECB!
It's interesting and sad to see how much emotional baggage we as Americans have over the Clinton sex scandals. Blame Bill, blame Hillary, ignore the issues in favor of the scandal.
I'm not a big fan of Hillary - she seems like just another politico, in bed with big business as usual (go Edwards!) - but it is ridiculous to treat her as anything but the strong-minded, independent woman she obviously is. It is ridiculous to suggest that weakness was why she stayed with Bill. It is ridiculous to allow all of our personal baggage about marriage, sex, and infidelity to affect our judgment regarding the political process.
Ridiculous, but inevitable.
I totally agree. There is no gender card in play here. She's a politician, acting like a politician. Move along...
And Bush himself never said Saddam was behind 9/11... but he plotted the dots and let you connect them while having his surrogates in the media make those arguments in a more direct fashion.
An unusually lucid, thoughtful post on gender. Also worth noting Arnold has larger breasts than most female candidates.
I will not be suprised if Hillary takes up hunting or something just to get some votes from those who would be impressed by such a stunt. She is not beyond it.
I agree with everything you just said. For me the only problem I have with Hillary Clinton is that pretty much every single one of her policy positions is horrible. If you set the bar as low as "not what Bush would do" then Hillary's fine, but I'd like to do a little better than that.
Do you know who really is a wiltingly weak little flower? That Eli Sanders. One single Slog poster says "grow a vagina" and he like won't stop whining for a week. Dude's being a puss about it and taking it out on Hillary Clinton. Eli Sanders is the one saying "leave me alone, I'm a weak little girl!" not Hillary.
Seriously. No joke. I think you're totally right about this. Are you on drugs today?
terrible post. are you saying hillary was acting like a woman? what? the pics you show are of men being oh so manly. what did clinton do that was oh so womanly? are you saying playing the gender card is womanly? i'd hate to think that.
Having once managed a campaign with a woman candidate, I'm very familiar with the double standard. If a male leader is seen as pushy and aggressive he gets lauded for being "tough" and "an effective leader". There is no expectation that he be seen as nurturing, or sensitive.
If a woman shows similar traits she's a bitch.
Also Matthew is on to something. Maureen Dowd *clearly* has issues.
If Hillary casterates Bill she will win in a landslide.
sorry, let me clarify what is motivating my post. if hillary wins (as i've posted before) i think that would be great. no only is she qualified for the job, but it's embarrassing that we've yet to have a female president.
your post, however, suggests that men play the gender card when they pose with guns and dress up like army boys and what not. the equivalent would be more like when ECB suggests that a woman understands woman's issues better than a man, or poses for a picture doing something that is traditionally "mothering" or nurturing, i'd guess (forgive me if i cannot get my stereotypes correct -- i try not to internalize them).
you, instead, suggest that hillary playing the gender card (if she did at all) is equivalent to men doing stereotypically manly things. the former is not like the latter because one of the two has the possibility of being received positively.
so, your post -- to me -- just comes off as a way to make fun of men in politics. your message is what, then? don't vote for a man again, because look at things men like doing? that is the sort of message that will not help hillary get elected.
For fucks sake...
These are great points to bookend this conversation with.
I know you get paid per blog, but is payroll ever like
"OK you said the same exact thing in this post...and this one...here you added a picture...THAT COUNTS FOR 1."
No. 19: I'm actually salaried. But thanks for reading!
@13 - see, you're trying to get the discussion around to actual policy, instead of getting just a bit too caught up in political campaigning as a spectator sport the way Eli and ECB and journalists in general and the politically attentive in general and, annoyingly, myself as well unfortunately seem to. But that just isn't as captivating somehow.
good point, but... how do you think people would react if obama made a speech in front of an all black audience patting himself on the back for making it in the "white boy's club" of american politics? some might call it "race-based self-pity", i.e. playing the race card.
and another thing - isn't sexism directly implied when one uses terms like "boy's club" and "glass ceiling"?
she's a politician, and manipulating emotions in order to score votes is nothing new. but let's at least be honest about it - she IS playing the gender card. it's definitely gotten way more air time than it deserves, but it is what it is.
Note how seldom playing the gender card works for men -- you're either masculine or you're not.
@23 so true. in fact, it might be more difficult (at this time) for a man to be elected who was not viewed as a manly man then for a woman to be elected.
kerry and dukakis were both victims of this. either of them to complaining about it would only have served to have made it worse.
@17 --
"so, your post -- to me -- just comes off as a way to make fun of men in politics. your message is what, then? don't vote for a man again, because look at things men like doing?"
You are reading all kinds of things into this post that aren't there. There's no hidden message! Just go back and read it again.
@22: Obama would absolutely be accused of that, and that's pretty fucked up, too.
Gah! That last picture looks like something out of a Clive Barker movie.
ECB: (from 19/20)
my bad!
i'm not reading anything into this that isn't being strongly implied. or did i miss which one of those candidates is currently running for president? what? none? so she's holding current candidates to the standards of former candidates.
okay, that's fine. but that means my next question would be, what is that standard?
to play the gender card. this, she implies they all have done. and how do they do it? subtly (not by saying "i'm playing the gender card" -- just like hillary didn't say it), by do very manly things and being photographed.
she is implying a four things here: one, that only men can hunt and play army (which i disagree with), two, that playing the gender card is acceptable (which i find unfortunate), three, that there is no difference between doing something stereotypically manly (or stereotypically womanly) and playing the gender card.
and four, of course, she implies that as many women complain about being treated in a sexist manner as men play with guns. this is the worst one. did margaret thatcher play the gender card when she was photographed on a tank? no, she appealed to the opposite gender. big difference.
there are strong women just as there are strong men. to say that only men get to be viewed as strong is perhaps sexist, but it is certainly unfair. to say that a leader must be viewed as strong is a relic of paternalism, perhaps, but at present a necessity.
so mocking men who are photographed being strong in order to support a female candidate (who was not photographed doing something strong but instead was accused of subtly playing the gender card) does not help hillary's cause.
am i making any sense?
Gross! You know Arnold totally farted doing that pose...
one more try: sexist people are going to judge hillary. i'm just saying it is better for her not to give them fodder.
ecb's post reminds me of when i was in elementary school and some guy was threatening to beat me up. i thought saying something clever was a good idea. it was not, as the bullies were never impressed. the respected strength, and that was it.
if hillary want to stand against such a bully, it will be her strength of character that triumphs (which she has), not remarks that might be mistaken for playing the gender card.
HRC's reaction when people challange her has nothing to do with being a woman, it has everything to do with being a paranoid.
Holy shit, are we still reading about this?
ps way to align Hilary Clinton with a bunch of assholes
Nice post.
Everyone who thinks that talking about "the issues" will show Hillary to be a terrible candidate-
Whuh? I've said it before- except for the war, there isn't a GNAT'S ASS difference between her and Obama. Or Edwards, for that matter. So we talk about character and tactics because WE ALL HATE REPUBLICANS AND WANT A CANDIDATE WHO WILL DO TO THEM WHAT THE ROMANS DID TO CARTHAGE.
Thank you for your time.
Without getting into it, I disagree that ECB is implying any of the things you say she is in @29. But I do agree wholeheartedly with your last paragraph in @31, especially the "mistakenly" part.
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text:
It Only Took 40 Years to Catch Up
Steve Prefontaine's Last Significant Record Is Finally Broken at the U.S. Olympic Trials
Eugene, Ore.
Steve Prefontaine's last significant record fell Thursday night, freeing American distance runners from the burden of chasing a legend who died in 1975.
By crossing the finish line of the 5,000 meters in 13 minutes, 22.67 seconds, Galen Rupp eclipsed by 13 hundredths of a second the U.S. Olympic trials record that Prefontaine set in 1972. The duration of that record was a testament to the athletic brilliance of Prefontaine, who at the time of his death held every American record from the two mile to the 10,000 meters.
Yet it was also an unflattering reflection on distance-running American men, who since 1976 have collected exactly one Olympic medal in events longer than 800 meters: Meb Keflezighi's silver in the marathon in Athens in 2004.
Even still, Rupp's achievement bolstered hopes for a distance-running medal among American men this summer at the 2012 Olympic Games in London. Alan Webb, who in 2001 broke Jim Ryun's 36-year-old national high-school record for the mile, described the competition at this week's U.S. trials as much stiffer than when Webb won the 1,500 meters at the 2004 trials.
"If you win or place at this meet and are on the team, then you have a legitimate shot of winning an Olympic medal," said Webb, adding that the difference this year is psychological as much as physiological: "These guys really believe they can go to an international competition and compete."
A spokeswoman for USA Track & Field said she could find only two remaining records for Prefontaine: the six- and three-mile school records for the University of Oregon. But, "those are far from commonly run distances anymore," said the spokeswoman.
Prefontaine, who died at age 24 in a car wreck, remains ubiquitous in American track. Here at the University of Oregon's Hayward Field, where Prefontaine set many of his records, spectators and competitors alike wear T-shirts bearing his image. A meet called the Prefontaine Classic was held here earlier this month.
Like Prefontaine, Rupp is an Oregon native. After breaking his hero's record Thursday night, he signed autographs and dispensed high fives. "They love their distance running here," Rupp said.
In the race, Rupp surged past Bernard Lagat with 20 meters to go as a crowd of more than 20,000 roared. Having also qualified for London in the 10,000, Rupp said he is now intent on winning an Olympic medal, an accomplishment that eluded Prefontaine.
Then again, at 26, Rupp already has lived two years longer than did Prefontaine.
Rupp, who placed 13th in the 10,000 meters in Beijing four years ago, is a veteran of international competition who has benefited from top coaching and financial support as part of the Portland-based Nike Oregon Project.
He also has worked to become a more complete runner. Rupp put together a remarkable effort earlier this month at the Prefontaine Classic, where he ran the 5,000 meters in 12:58.9 to finish third behind Great Britain's Mo Farah and Kenya's Isiah Kiplangat Koech. The race was run at a scorching tempo, with the trio posting the three fastest times in the world this year. But it also exposed one of Rupp's well-chronicled weaknesses: an inability to outkick other runners near the end of the race.
Rupp, who at 5 feet 11 and 138 pounds will never possess the explosiveness of an NFL free safety, has trained with Farah to develop what he calls "finishing speed." Before Thursday, Alberto Salazar, Rupp's coach, mapped out his strategy. Salazar knew that Rupp probably could play it safe and break from the pack with several laps remaining.
"But you know what? You're going to have to beat people in the last lap in London—the last 100 [meters] specifically," Rupp recalled Salazar telling him. "So you need to start getting ready for that now. If you can't do that here, then you may as well forget about London."
Heeding Salazar's advice, Rupp hung with the pack for most of the race as Lagat worked from the front to reel in two runners who had attempted a break. Then, with about 100 meters remaining, Lagat got a gap on Rupp, and it appeared as if things were playing to form: Lagat, after all, had beaten Rupp in all previous meetings.
Against all odds (and precedent), Rupp summoned a late charge to edge Lagat by 15 hundredths of a second. The strain on Lagat's face was evident as Rupp pumped his fist and the crowd went bananas. Lopez Lomong placed third to take the final Olympic qualifying spot.
"I really just told myself, 'Keep your head down, keep your form good and keep driving to the finish,'" Rupp said afterward. "I wanted to make the team, first and foremost, and you can't be worried if one guy gets around you. Just keep driving and don't panic. That's the real important thing."
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Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief
Author: Rick Riordan
By: Viren Baharani
Book Cover
Main Characters
is a twelve year old boy who goes to the Yancy Academy School. His best friend is Grover. Percy lives with his mother, Sally Jackson and his step father, Gabe Ugliano. He does not know who his real father is. At first Percy thinks that he is a nobody, but later finds out that he is actually the son of
. He is offered a quest to retrieve
´s master bolt from the
and decides to take Annabeth and Grover with him. At the end, Percy retrieves the bolt and prevents war.
He protects Percy from monsters and is his best friend at the same time. Grover is half man and half goat and wishes to get a searcher's license to search for
. He helps Percy on his quest to the Underworld to retrieve the stolen master bolt.
Daughter of
, God of Wisdom. She is a champion in fighting and also helps Percy on his quest to the Underworld. Annabeth has curly, blond hair, gray eyes, and a deep tan.
came to camp when she was seven, since she was disliked by her father.
There are various settings in this book. The main setting is in New York City where Percy's house and the Half-Blood Camp is located. Another main setting is in
Los Angeles
where Percy fights many monsters and where the entrance of the Underworld is located. In Percy´s house, Percy lives with his mother, Sally Jackson, and his stepfather Gabe Ugliano. Later, Percy´s mother realizes that Percy should go to the Half-Blood Camp since it is very dangerous for Percy to live in the outside world. In the camp, he does lots of training and is protected from monsters at all times. When Percy, Annabeth, and Grover reach Los Angeles they fight many monsters and finally find the entrance to the Underworld. Overthere they reach Hades´s palace where they find out that Hades was not the thief.
Percy Jackson goes to the Half-Blood Camp where he finds out that he is actually the son of Poseidon, God of the Sea. When everyone in camp finds out who Percy really is, he is offered a quest to retrieve Zeus's stolen master bolt from the Underworld. It is asked to be returned to Zeus before the
Summer Solstice
. On his journey, Percy fights and defeats several monsters with the help of Grover and Annabeth. When he reaches the Underworld, he finds out that Ares and Luke were the real thieves and not Hades. Finally, he returns the bolt to Zeus and his mother is rescued!
Percy lives with his mother, Sally Jackson and his stepfather, Gabe Ugliano in
New York City
. Percy has
and is very frustrated about this. Worst of all, Percy does not know who his real father is. Sally Jackson decides that it is time for Percy to go to the Half-Blood Camp, a camp just for
like him. On the way, Sally Jackson is unfortunately crushed into a shower of gold by the
and is now in the Underworld with Hades. At the camp Percy discovers that he is actually the son of Poseidon when he gets injured and magically gets healed with water. In the camp, demigods are protected at all times and train all day long. Overhere, Percy makes many friends such as Annabeth and Luke. One day, he is offered a quest to retrieve Zeus´s stolen master bolt from the Underworld from
. Worst of all, everyone falsely accuses Percy for stealing the lightning bolt. He takes Annabeth and Grover on the quest to help him. On the quest, Percy faces many monsters including
herself. Hades tells the three kids that even his helm of darkness is missing. Mysteriously, the lightning bolt ends up in Percy´s bag. Hades immediately takes it away from them. They find out that Hades did not steal the bolt. It was in fact,
, the war god, and Luke. Percy returns the bolt to Zeus and manages to prevent war and clears his name. Percy´s mother is rescued too! At the end of the book, Percy decides to go back to the camp only during the summer and happily stays home with his mother.
Time line
* Percy lives with Gabe Ugliano and his mother, Sally Jackson.
* Sally decides that Percy should go to the Half-Blood Camp, for demigods just like him.
* On their journey to the camp, Sally Jackson is crushed into a shower of gold and is in
the Underworld now with Hades.
* Percy is offered a quest to retrieve Zeus`s stolen master bolt and even decides to take
Grover and Annabeth with him.
* The three demigods travel to many places and defeat several monsters.
* They reach the Underworld and find out that Hades is not the thief.
* Ares and Luke are the real thieves and attempt to kill Percy, but fail.
* Percy returns the master bolt to Zeus and then saves his mom!
Connections to the Text
To the class
In the Yancy Academy School, everyone makes fun of Percy because of his dyslexia. Percy feels extremely angry and upset because of this. Unfortunately, this takes place a lot in classrooms in all schools. One should not make fun of anybody, because this can really make them feel unwanted, and that feeling is horrible! Everyone should respect their peers.
To me
Percy and Annabeth just love going on different quests and adventures. Just like both of them, adventure fascinates me, and someday I would love to go on a quest too. Who knows, maybe the day will come soon.
To the community
Percy is very helpful to the community and its people. In fact, he cares more about other people than about himself. For example, when
, a monster, attacks Percy, he is more concerned about the people near the monster than getting killed himself. I love my community too. I believe in helping others in the community, especially those who are old and in need. I do a lot of community service and I think this should be encouraged among us all.
To my Family
At first, Percy does not know who his real father is. His mother, Sally Jackson, is married to Gabe Ugliano who is always drunk and plays poker the whole time with his friends. Gabe just hates Percy! However, he later finds out that his mom had only married Gabe because his strong human scent protected Percy from the monsters. Just like Percy´s mother is always protecting him, my family is always protecting me too. They always want the best for me and guide me the right way. They are willing to sacrifice anything for me, and I know I can really count on them. I'm really grateful for such a caring family.
To the World
Percy has a medical problem called
and is very frustrated that he has this problem. Life is very hard for him. Today more and more people are diagnosed with ADHD. Scientists are trying to find out what is the cause of this medical problem and how to treat and cure it.
I thoroughly enjoyed this book. It kept me entertained from the beginning all the way to the end of the book. It was full of adventure and suspense. I just love these types of books! The book was full of twists. I never suspected Ares, or in fact Luke, to be the lightning bolt thief. The Percy Jackson Series is now one of my favorite series. Another thing I loved about this book was that at the same time you are learning about all the Greek creatures and gods. If I had to rate this book, I would give it a five out of five stars. People who like action and adventure should really take the time to read this awesome book. I wonder how the next book of this series will be!!
About the Author
Rick Riordan was born on the fifth of June, 1964 in San Antonio, Texas. He has written several books. Some of which include:
The Red Pyramid
The Percy Jackson Series
The Maze of Bones (39 Clues)
The Lost Hero
Tres Navarre Series
Here is an interview with Rick Riordan.
to watch it.
Below is the trailer of the movie. Hope you enjoy it!
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Wow, if the poop stench wasn't bad enough, syringes? That's nasty.
"Ah! The ole number 22, clean reliable public transportation, the chariot of the people, the ride of choice for the poor and very poor alike, sure some folks prefer... "
It could have been worse, they could have sat next to you....
the smell travels with you for the rest of the day.
Combine all that with NEVER running on time. They should PAY ME to ride the fucking bus.
I've started biking to work.
I took the 8 this morning and a guy got on and started walking toward the back, and when the driver asked him for the fare, he was very aggresive and said "I ain't got it." It's because of things like that that some Metro drivers will turn all their anger and frustration on those of us who ARE trying to play by the rules when we are a few cents short. AARGH. I love our bus system, but I can totally understand why people might not want to ride. Some of the crap--even literally!--that bus riders have to deal with is horrid. We need transit cops!!!!
I think somone should invent a bus that burns lecherous bums like that for fuel. We could lessen our dependence on fossil fuels, and make the Metro experience less painful.
I'm no stranger to Bus stories commuting to a swing shift downtown job, but my gist is towards another sort of 'bum'.
Ever wonder why the folks who commute into town, pay beucoup (sp?) bucks for garage parking pay nothing for bus shuttles?
An interesting side story - developer Martin Selig once made a deal to pay for the free ride zone to be expanded near properties he owned in Belltown.
As I recall it was something along the lines of 50k a year for the expansion, no memory of how many square blocks it was.
He never paid, though there was a signed contract - and the expansion continues.
Typical for downtown folks, of all sorts. I'm reminded of comments comparing the idle poor with the idle rich...
-Douglas Tooley
Tacoma, WA
P.S. - Perhaps the Queen Anne, International District, and Capitol Hill Community Councils could make the same 'deal'?
Why all the bum haters?
If you live in the city, you know what to expect.
Better yet, just buy a freaking car like normal people and leave your hate for someone who deserves in -- cyclists.
I think selig still owes seattle city light something like 700K for electric bills he has never paid.
So that's where my dime bag fell out. I've been looking for those dregs.
Hmm... this was good effort ecce baro, but I think you may have pushed it a bit too far. Coming down on cyclists at the end tipped it past effective trolling and straight into satire.
Be careful to avoid that in the future or you might become a useful member of the slog.
ok, i am now convinced that ecce homo is not real.
Ha! Dirge is my hero of the day.
Yes, indeed. During the summer months especially metro buses smell something like a cross between a french cheese shop, a neglected urinal and a sewage plant, probably something close to what it would have smelled like standing in the doorway of a Parisian cheeseshop toward the end of the 19th century, with the streets littered with human and equine feces.
to quote my friend sabrina, "what the fuck's a bus?"
Get rid of the ride free zone and make people pay before they get on. If Seattle wants a ride free zone for shoppers they should get their own buses and keep them within the zone.
I'm sorry there are homeless people but Metro shouldn't be their personal Winnebago.
It would be great if Metro had clean and comfortable buses like Community and Sound Transit.
An ex-girlfriend of mine got on her bus and sat in a puddle of piss. So nasty.
Look first everyone!!
I've been working on it. I have some pretty good plans drawn out and will be presenting them to King County Metro on Tuesday.
Not everyone can afford a car in this town so we need to make sure the buses are safe, clean, and reliable.
They need to replace the #7 and #49 with nicer, newer buses. Those things are the workhorses of the system and need to be upgraded. Why upgrade a bus that is only going to get dirtier? Well, let's hope it will cut down on the accumulation of grime.
Metro bus drivers are not required to enforce paying of the fares, supposedly that's a law-enforcement matter. So some do, and some don't.
I have seen a bus driver (a large, male one) refuse entry on the bus of disruptive whacko. He said "I know who you are and we've received many complaints about you. You cannot board the bus." I was so grateful.
Yeah, Ecce is just trolling, to the max. "What's the one thing that will offend people who read this post? Or better yet, two things?" That's what he posts. In chat rooms, you can set it so posts by crappy people don't even show up on your screen. Shame this can't work like that.
So anyhoo, Yes. Agreed with everyone except Ecce at all times, ever. Metro sucks ass hard and must be improved for the sake of humanity and the environment and so on. How about instead of not paying for the bus, we get huge tax breaks for non-car-owning? That would be dope.
The skyline doesn't evidence it, but Seattle is a city. Property crime and unpaid bus fare? Get a grip. Try New York, Boston or even Portland (talk about burnouts) public transit. I've seen men exposing themselves and people attacked with knives.
On the other hand, at least I saw transit cops once in a while in those cities. Considering that people won't jaywalk in Seattle for fear of a ticket, it's pretty clear from the behavior I've seen that no one thinks there is any chance of a cop being on a bus. From the behavior at 3rd and Pike, no one thinks there's any cops there either, what are cops doing in this town besides harassing bar owners and prostitutes? And there's no reason that drivers should pursue an altercation over an unpaid fare if that's what the letter is suggesting.
Hey Christopher,
my point, since you are incapable of understanding it is. If you hate metro, then buy a car.
If not, STFU about it.
If you don't like homeless people then do something about it. Give them more money, help them with addictions, etc. Or better yet, buy em a one way bus ticket to portland.
But please include all those wannabe capital hill and u-dstrict fake punks losers with all the body piercing and bad tattoos and stupid hair colors. "Dude your hair is brown, not pink, and it looks stupid". Those fucking idiots really need to go.
All this bitching but what have any of you done to confront Metro on these issues? Seriously folks, We have to ride the ASSES of Metro on King County to get them to do something about the overall service of Metro. We are great at giving them money to run the system for the rest of the county but Seattle seems to get fucked up the ass all the time. WHAT IS UP WITH THAT!!???
I seriously have not seen any improvement in service in the city of Seattle for Metro since I moved here in 1995. The only thing they have done is buy new busses and new uniforms. But they never seem to clean most of them; especially the ones like the 70 series up the the U-District or the #7 (now #49 and #7). One would think that after years of service Metro would have the brilliant thought to clean more frequently the busses that are notoriously dirty at the least. (even pulling them off route throughout the day if needed).
I have written to Metro and called to complain but no one ever responds. So maybe us Slog readers (many/most of us) who ride the bus need to organize and confront Metro. And if Simms does not like it, we can vote him out of office along with Nickels.
My bus smelled like farts yesterday.
Buses are for losers.
@19: the 49 uses all new buses already.
oh, and the idea that you are entitled to ride for free on the buses until they forbid poor people from riding on them? hateful, selfish, and typical of seattle.
Oh I forgot, Metro Drivers are a perfect example of the hate part of my love/hate relationship with labor unions. No matter how incompentent the driver, the union will always cover the driver's ass.
Cato has point, how about some Stranger sponsored town hall meeting with Metro Transit and that 'green' mayor of ours (green meaning environmentally, not just flush with Indian casino cash from his son and graft from Big Dig benefactors).
It's my understanding that the Metro drivers are trained not to confront un-paying passengers for public safety reasons. That said, we're supposed to have plain-clothes transit police on the buses, and I would think that they would focus on the super-skeezey routes like 2, 5, 10, 15/18/21, 14, 43, the 70's to name a few. It's not doing anyone any good if they're just riding the 550 back and forth to Hellvue.
I'd like to add that I have seen the drivers refuse entry to repeat offenders many times, thank goodness.
You know, when I see a used syringe, I usually pick it up and stick it in a bottle or can and dump it in the trash.
If I see someone doing something obviously illegal, I'll attempt to notify an authority about it or even *gasp* confront the person with a "what are you doing?".
I find it interesting that the OP comes to the conclusion that as some small percentage choose not to pay (and break social and legal conventions), that no-one should. I'm pretty sure if we all adhered to logic like this, we would live in a pretty crappy world.
YES, please Stranger, sponsor or co-sponsor a bus forum. That would be really great. Of course, it would be a 4-hour bitchfest, but maybe some better organizational effort will come out of it, like a Commuter Club or some such thing that could represent bus riders en masse, rather than all the nickeling and diming complaints that Metro gets.
Boylston @ 30:
newsflash: we do live in a pretty crappy world
newsflash @32
Do something about it.
Okay Stranger Staff: We have put you out on the floor. You guys have more ties with the power that be to get Metro, the County Executive (the Mayor would be good but Metro is not a city agency, it is County) to have a community town hall to talk about improving Metro's service in SEATTLE. Not the rest of King County but SEATTLE. Can we do this?
Someone bragging about stealing a digital camera from the Re-bar? Damn, if I was on that bus I would have call the police on my cell phone right away. Maybe someone had already filed police report on the stolen camera. Instead of complaining to Last Days, Id take action. But then again, I ride a bike, to avoid the bus!
I love the bus.
The worst part is that I hear ST is talking about making the LR run on the honor system. Theoretically transit cops are supposed to occasionally check that riders have paid their fare.
Given the regular performance of our transit cops, that means the light rail will be a multi-billion dollar rolling homeless shelter.
Can't wait.
Eh. I rode the bus for nine years, and it was a rare occasion that the bus was actually messy. On one occasion there was some vomit. There were occasionally some stinky bums. Once, it was very clear that someone had pissed his pants while sitting.
On the other hand, while being driven in a van, a friend projectile vomited on me from behind. Another time, someone in the front seat put his head out the window and puked while we were going 70 mph on I-5. It coated the window.
Let's face it. We're biological creatures. When we interact, nasty stuff will sometimes happen.
I offended Ecce homo enough he cursed! I win! Hahahahaaha! I trolled the troll!
@ 38, Apparently you have not ridden Metro... lately?
I'd also like to commend other people for ignoring his posts completely. You've shown more restraint and sense than I could muster. Excelsior!
you should try the 76. its full of lily-white businesspeople & smells like lavender sachets.
of course it doesn't go anywhere useful except to 65ht & roosevelt, and my house.
I always hear these stories and realize that my bus expereince is totally different. I ride the 37 from Alki to downtown everyday. My bus is filled with well dressed (mostly wommen) downtown business people going to and from work. People sit quietly and read, listen to their Ipods or stare out the window in quiet contemplation. It is actually a time I look forward to everyday because for me, it is downtime when I have no obligations and can just sit a read or enjoy the beautiful view of the Sound.
The only thing that sucks about the bus for me is that it does not run often enough (and is becoming more and more crowded impacting my quality of bus life) and Mariners Games. I hate the Mariners because it regularly causes me very long delays getting my bus home. Often I wait over an hour for my bus to show up.
elswinger @16:
Get rid of the ride free zone and make people pay before they get on. If Seattle wants a ride free zone for shoppers they should get their own buses and keep them within the zone.
This brings me to a great example of how we could check off so many boxes at once if we did real bus rapid transit -- rather than just making our conventional bus service more frequent and then slapping a pretty BRT label on it. For BRT routes, give each stop a real loading area. No more ride-free zones, you have to pay to get in the loading area. The charge can still be nominal. Not only does that cut down on the freeloaders but it makes loading that much faster. Of course, with real BRT, you have buses whose passenger compartments are level with the loading platform, so it makes loading another n degrees faster.
OK, so there's still the minor detail, "Do you go honor system?" I was going to ask the same about Sound Transit, but MHD already answered @37.
I think it should be pointed out many routes are clean and not bad; but at the same time those tend to be people commuting to and from work Monday through Friay 8 to 6 pm. If you want the REAL metro experience travel outside that window.
Perhaps the Stranger (that claims to be all about public transit and aniti-car) needs to hold public officials to a simple test: If they want the endorsement of the Stranger they need to get rid of their cars and use bikes/scooters/bus and maybe FlexCar. I am tired of elected officials saying how pro-transit they are and then still hop in their cars to go everyplace in Seattle.
It's amusing how many people whine and complain about people doing illegal things on a bus, yet they have a perfectly good working cell phone on them they could use to phone the Transit Police or 911.
How hard is that?
@40 No, it's been a couple years now. After I became an insurance agent, I had to get a car.
@43: "I hate the Mariners because it regularly causes me very long delays getting my bus home. Often I wait over an hour for my bus to show up."
Here's another case study of how, if we say we want to do BRT, then let's do real BRT. With real BRT, the buses have their own dedicated lanes and, to the extent they have to cross traffic, they get signal priority. So no matter how bad the Mariners or Seahawks traffic, the buses should still run pretty darn close to on-time.
Of course, I'm under no illusion that Ron Sims and King County Metro are in any way motivated to do this unless we hold the proverbial gun to their heads. The question is, how do we do that?
The bum haters should be executed by the state, summary execution with a single bullet to the head.
So should people who associate their cars with success. You're not a winner because you choose to burn money on your fucking cars- I make as much money as anyone else and choose not to waste it on a environmentally unsound waste machine. You assholes can die in the fucking gutter too. Aspirational yuppy shit.
#46 Complaining to Metro does nothing. You get either a busy signal or a voice mail tree. I have never spoken to an actual Metro employee on the complaint line. And complaining to the driver does nothing, other than maybe they kick YOU off the bus for causing trouble.
As far as I know there is no Transit Police nor is there a budget for one.
You can't call 911 unless someone's life is in danger. They don't want the number used for vandalism or property crime because that is low priority to the cops.
#35 As it was a property crime there would be no investigation.
I'm not talking about all you car owners. I'm specifically talking about the wannabe winners who think a car makes them better than a. the homeless, or b. the people who choose to take the bus. It's middle class faux elitists who think they're important and everyone else are subhuman that piss me off, usually people who went to college and managed to not learn anything by going for the money.
Regarding Transit "cops"... Here's what usually happens on those occasions I've been witness to it: the driver calls the command center and then PULLS OVER, disrupting the entire route timing (pissing off millions). She then lies to every passenger on the bus about why we are pulled over, with the exception of the smug white man sitting at the very front of the bus who for some reason is her confidante. We wait. We wait. More waiting. She threatens to call the cops (ah! the irony) on the kid who keeps coming up to the front to ask why we are stopped. Finally the 'cops' come and interview the driver, then board and launch an investigation/confrontation of the offending individual. What has happened, I wonder? Has someone been stabbing an elderly woman with a dirty syringe, or is a knife at someone's throat? What could possibly be happening to create such an annoying delay? The answer filters up to my seat after a few minutes: a kid. Had an unlit cigarette hanging from his mouth. He was black.
Oh my god.
I am a devoted and daily bus rider... But come on, Metro. Priorities! Priorities!
I have been riding buses to and from work downtown for about 15 years. Here's what I have observed: The buses are reliable and clean (and the AC is a blessing), the drivers considerate (even friendly - kudos Jack!) and the cost can't be beat. The elderly, the handicapped and students rely on the buses more than anyone else for their transportation needs. The poor primarily use them as mobile homeless shelters in the free zone. There are many more working commuters using the buses now than there were 2 years ago. The only reliable source of transportation after a snow storm is a bus.
No one at Metro ever addresses the homeless freeloaders, because doing something about them involves stopping the route, delaying the passengers and the driver while someone coerces a law enforcement official to take 5 minutes out from harassing black people to roll over to the bus in question to handle the matter. And by then the offender has usually barged off the bus and far out of sight, off to harass someone else in a society that permits the free reign of these sorts of assholes.
It's too much of a time waster for Metro to actually do something about this, and little reward should they actually try, so they don't.
I'm not from here, and I've never understood the point of the free zone. I do ride the 16 occasionally, and it does seem like the only benefit is to remove the cost of bus fare from a dime bag and save groups of lazy teens from having to walk. Everything here is an exercise in trying to out-PC each other (see the comments to the Indian pow-wow story), but are there any real defenders of this useless subsidiary and, if not, will Metro Transit think about shit-canning it?
It also really depends on where the buses are going/coming from. In my experience, the 49 is the pits. It travels from the ID/Pioneer Square, to 4th & Pine, to Broadway, to the U District. Can that selection of neighborhoods get any worse in terms of unwashed/troublesome passengers?
On the other hand, I've never had a problem on a bus heading to/from West Seattle.
My daily bus ride is generally pleasant and uneventful. Except that one time I had a hangover and it was everything I could do not to spew on my fellow passengers.
#54 A great deal of the homeless people who get on in the ride free zone wind up riding the bus all day, even outside the zone. They know, odds are, that the bus will wind up in the free zone again.
Vegetable lasagna: the ride-free zone is a benefit to everyone INCLUDING PEOPLE WHO NEVER RIDE THE BUS. By not collecting fares downtown, the bus saves several minutes at each stop, which really adds up in a congested downtown.
Also, reinstituting fares downtown without simultaneously mandating collection is pointless. The people who are the problem ride free EVERYWHERE; they wouldn't pay downtown whether there was a fare or not.
Enforcing fares is a driver-safety issue. If you think it's annoying to sit near these people, imagine driving them around ALL DAY LONG. Drivers are simply not equipped to be policemen too.
What would be nice to see is a code of conduct that's enforced. Transit cops arrest farejumpers and other disruptive persons, and they get sentenced to long jail terms, or harrassed out of town.
#60 - Which is exactly why I think that the Ride Free buses should remain downtown. Commuters could ride them the outlying areas to the North (Seattle Center), and South (International District) to transfer to the pay routes. That would mean less bus traffic downtown too.
Finally, I would also make the buses that go to the hospitals on First Hill free to the public as well.
Fnarf, I guess that's sort of an issue, but one week of enforcement here and there would solve it. It's nothing more than a habit that people abuse the free ride. Free zones don't exist in Manhattan, and this isn't an issue.
Finally, the challenge was to suggest ways to improve the service. The best you can do is suggest adding to jail overcrowding with long sentences for ridiculously minor offenses and to harass people?
I feel pretty exhausted after taking the bus, I think because I'm on high alert of my surroundings for the entire ride, trying to make sure I avoid getting splattered by errant bodily fluids or other nastiness I've seen reported by Last Days and Slog about the joys of riding the bus.
I do worry about what might happen if I was so bold as to call 911 about someone who seems dangerous. I'd like to think I would, but it's a confined space, and you can't just exit whenever you want, so I think it is unfair to pick on riders for not calling 911 and placing themselves in potential danger.
If someone is already so crazy to be acting disruptive on a bus, what exactly is going to stop them from turning the full brunt of their craziness on someone who appears to be trying to get them in trouble?
I have been astonished by the number of pitbulls that I have seen on the bus lately. I called metro the other morning to ask what the policy is - why the drivers are letting these dogs on. They are obviously not service dogs.
The dude at the metro transit police said that there is no rule against bringing ANY dog on the bus. They don't check whether a dog is a service dog. These pitbulls are huge dogs that, if provoked by another dog on the bus could cause a dog fight in the middle of a fucking bus!
Metro needs to get the pitbulls off the busses.
in the words of the old song, 'mercy mercy mercy mercy'!
i've been a dedicated bus rider since i moved to our fair city in 1979. i don't own a car, so i rely quite heavily on public transit. and in all those years, i seem to have missed all the terrors you posters have experienced. no fights, no vomiting, and certainly no dog smirmishes. i can't recall ever feeling like my life was in danger. i have, however, felt like killing the people who incessantly yammer into their cell phones, obvlivious to all else around them. while i am not too thrilled about loud teenagers in the back, or the mentally ill musing aloud about UFOs, the CIA, and whatnot, it beats the shallow, brainless yuppie loudly chatting on her razr about her sex life.
and one other thing, folks, especially for those of you who haven't lived in the puget sound area all their lives (like me 'n fnarf).
people out here like to drive cars and live in suburbs BECAUSE WE LIKE LOTS OF ROOM. we like having homes with big yards and no public transport. our ancestors fled places like new york city and philadelphia because of the density and lack of privacy. they went to washington state because it wasn't crowded!
and that's why suburban sprawl is everywhere and people won't get out of their cars and take the bus. we want ROOM.
64: Maybe they should remove you from the bus for being a paranoid freak.
Maybe they should ban you from the bus for being a paranoid freak.
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text:
Monika Bauerlein
(Monika Bauerlein has been managing editor of City Pages since 1990.)
What I know so far: That it's possible to do what you love and love what you do. That the bad guys don't always win. That sometimes they do. That the whole is greater than the sum of its parts. That sometimes a first draft is better. That all the whining about people not wanting to read is crap. That everyone has a story, though not everyone tells it. That all the whining about the state of journalism is just so many excuses from people who have no interest in trying. That it's about asking questions and poking holes and deflating every balloon. That if you smell it, feel it, have it in your gut, it's probably there. That people can tell when you're bullshitting.
That lies are just stories in disguise. That there's no greater rush than a whiff of truth. That a second's instinct is worth more than three weeks of research. That three weeks of research can uncover most secrets. That some secrets will stay. That music, as Miles Davis says, is in the spaces between the notes. That "family" is more than the people you're related to. That you're never as smart as you think you are. That resentment is a waste of time, but fury bears fruit. That the real heroes are never sung.
David Carr
(David Carr, who edited the Twin Cities Reader from 1993 till 1995, is editor of the Washington, D.C., weekly City Paper.)
In the early Eighties, I would be chewing through the darkest part of the night on the sixth floor of the 600 Building on First Avenue, ostensibly crashing on a deadline for the Twin Cities Reader. There'd be some writing, much swizzling of beverages copped from the display window of the Haskell's on the main floor, and, if colleagues were about, abundant trash talk about Those Rat Bastards Across the Street.
Who did they think they are, those punks at City Pages? We were clearly the dominant paper and preoccupied conversations in every part of the community--except music, and who gave a damn about that? And yet, as I'd work later and later into the night, I'd look down on the third floor of the Butler building, and peering through the window I'd see Tony Schmitz or Phil Weiss busting their asses deep into the night. What kept them going? Did they know, somewhere in their incredibly large craniums, that 20 years later the floor I worked on would be section 222 of Target Center and the paper I worked for would end up existing only in the archives of the Minneapolis Public Library?
Back then it was a death match, with City Pages' Tom Bartel vs. the Reader's Mark Hopp. They were both mean as hell, but Bartel competed as if he'd been dispatched as one of Beelzebub's own Hounds of Hell. He leveraged his paper's street cred on music and found a smarty-pants editor named Steve Perry who had a mountainous chip on his shoulder and a raw, visceral hatred of The Man to go with it. Years later, when City Pages emerged from Stern's foray into the market as the far more viable title, Perry's ugly superciliousness in victory obscured the fact that he and Bartel did an amazing thing. Nowhere else in the nation did an upstart alternative overtake the dominant paper. While the Reader was busy relocating to the suburbs and resting on nonexistent laurels (remember "A Civilized Alternative"?), Perry found and cleared a path for the likes of Will Hermes, Monika Bauerlein, Jennifer Vogel, Britt Robson, Terri Sutton, and a legion of other talented writers who were more than happy to join him and Bartel in their endless jihad against the Reader.
After my tour as a writer in the Eighties, I returned in 1993 as editor of the Reader to lock horns anew with Perry et al. I never had so much fun in my life. The newspaper war is a relic of a different media age, but nobody told us that. We'd jog to the rack to see what Those Rat Bastards had come up with on a particular week: a need to keep cognitive dissonance at bay left us focused on the lefty cant of our competition (there was plenty of it) and obscured our view of their news enterprise (there was plenty more of that).
City Pages held a rigorous, steadfast mirror to all aspects of Twin Cities culture, arts, and politics, business, and nonprofits. And if they canonized Ron Edwards along the way, who could blame them? Edwards can talk more shit than a landlord on rent day.
The Reader, in spite of hosting a like corps of talented writers, attenuated through years of neglect from out-of-town nincompoops who had no idea what to do with the paper. Stern came in, bought both, closed the Reader, and in time Bartel and Perry were gone as well. Once the sting of the loss faded--I felt it even though I was 1,000 miles away--I was thrilled that some of the bylines I loved sharing an office with showed up in City Pages, which was bulked up and invigorated by monopoly.
So is the Twin Cities better served by a single, strong alternative paper? Not really. But the one that remains well reflects the city it inhabits and purports to cover--I've always been a City Pages reader and still am.
I miss the jihad, though.
Craig Cox
(Craig Cox was with City Pages from 1985 until 1989, spending most of that time as editor. He is now managing editor of the Utne Reader.)
You can't trust this memory thing. I'm almost 30 years removed from air force basic training, for instance, and I recall none of the horrors of barking drill sergeants, only the surprising frivolity of the obstacle course. Nearly 20 years after my father's descent into cancer and a too-early death, I've pretty much blocked from my memory the months of tortuous uncertainty in favor of the cleansing relief of his funeral. I suppose that's just the way we operate.
So when I have occasion to recall my late-Eighties stint at the helm of City Pages, I'm inclined to forget the dreary midnights, cranking out yet another cynical column or feature, or the volcanic managers' meetings, or the paycheck that never quite measured up to the workload. I'll remember instead the exhilaration of beating the Strib or the Reader to a story, the manic thrill of reporting and writing a cover feature between Wednesday and Monday, and the oddly satisfying knowledge that we were always kind of making it up as we went along (not the stories, mind you).
A lot of it was pretty much an inside joke, of course: the hip jocularity, the Uptown pose, the too-righteous indignation at the first whiff of hypocrisy. It played well at the C.C. Club and First Ave. and other shrines of the tiny New Wave Ghetto, where our only real audience lived, but what it must have meant to the guy who picked up the paper off the bus stop bench on his way home to Columbia Heights on a Thursday night I can't even fathom. In our minds we were providing the masses with a rambunctious alternative to the mainstream media, not a free tabloid full of bar ads.
You've got to learn your craft somewhere, though, and in that place and at that time, I can't imagine having a better vehicle for our collective rant or a livelier classroom for Reporting 101. I learned a lot on the third floor of Butler Square, but my epiphany came three or four jobs down the road, when I finally realized that our grubby City Pages crew wasn't alone in its delusions and misconceptions and hubris, that this business of delivering ideas and information to that little slice of the world we hope is still reading is well-populated with uncertainty, fear, and downright cluelessness. And if that's not some balm to a guy with a lousy memory, I don't know what is.
Will Hermes
(Will Hermes, City Pages' arts and music editor from 1993 to 1997, is a freelance writer and senior editor for Spin.)
In these free-for-all days of late-stage capitalism, brand names--of newspapers and magazines, restaurants and radio stations, clothing lines and sports franchises--don't guarantee a goddamn thing. Companies are bought and sold by shadow figures, staffs remade, and "products" remodeled by spreadsheet logic. Whether you get the cookie you'd hoped for, or one of those dog biscuits passed off as Famous Amos after the inventor was pushed out of his own company, is a crapshoot at best.
But when a spirit of shared obsession infects a group of people, it can be a hard thing to drive out. I took a job as arts and music editor with City Pages back in 1992 after working with (and admiring the writing of) editors like Jim Walsh, Terri Sutton, and Helen Antrobus. City Pages arts criticism then, as now, was by turns funny, obnoxious, erudite, pretentious, impassioned, self-indulgent, confrontational, navel-gazing, flippant, and flipped out. When these qualities were balanced, it was a beautiful thing. When they weren't, it still beat the hell out of the neutered, focus-group arts coverage of the mainstream.
As a writer and editor, I was in love. Obsessed. And over time I was surprised to find that my fantasy of the "alternative press" wasn't all delusional. The Chicago Manual of Style was happily chucked out the window whenever appropriate, powerful assholes were called assholes, and lame art was trumpeted as such. I saw some of the subtle and not-so-subtle ugliness that happens when advertisers and publishers try to influence content. But integrity ran remarkably high, and the editors and writers were left largely to their own devices.
They took those devices and ran with them pretty good. I believe City Pages produced some of the bangin'-est political commentary and arts writing penned in this country over the past ten years. Various journalism awards have testified as much, if you believe awards. In his recent "Artist of the Decade" essay for Rolling Stone, Greil Marcus quoted lines from City Pages' Kurt Cobain postmortem cover story, if you believe glossy magazines.
The editorial staff I worked with were world-class obsessives--among them Steve Perry, Jennifer Vogel, Monika Bauerlein, Britt Robson, Julie Caniglia, Rob Nelson, Michael Tortorello, Josie Rawson, Phil Anderson, Joe Hart, David Schimke, Beth Hawkins, and a busload of mad-talented contributors and interns. Maybe the era was golden; I'd be a poor judge. All I can say is I stayed four years and was sad to leave. As I watch daily newspapers, alt weeklies, and magazines reach what seems like a new nadir, getting dumber and duller by the day, and not expecting Internet salvation anytime soon, I trust the City Pages spirit of shared obsession will continue to produce writing that matters, that lives up to its brand name, that looks from the Twin Cities out to the world and back again, that locates a regional voice that's not parochial, that speaks truth to bullshit, and--when required--bullshits with the best of them.
James Lileks
(James Lileks, a City Pages contributing writer from 1985 till 1987, is the Backfence columnist for the Star Tribune.)
City Pages saved my life.
In the middle of the Eighties I was working the 2:00 a.m. shift at a convenience store, a lone, scowling geek in a green grocer's apron, standing behind a big bright window. Bullet bait. Come on in! Rob me! I'm all alone. The store had a bar rush--happy blurry drunks; dateless, thin-lipped outstate guys with pimply shaved necks and thick glasses; giggly, sauced sorority fillies. But by 1:45 I had the place to myself. Sometimes you'd get a haggard soul who came in for some inscrutable combination of goods (mothballs, popsicles, Brillo pads, butter), and you'd watch him on the cameras, wondering if he was assembling dinner, a bomb, or the courage to stick a gun in your ribs.
Robbery and failure: That's what I thought about on the late shift. Things were not going as planned. I'd done everything right--years at the U, years at the Daily. I'd expected to get a nice little job as an essayist, and if that failed, well, I'd fall back on my art history minor. But now I was out of the Daily, eased out by mutual consensus (there's little that's more pathetic than someone hanging on at a college paper) and no job as a Professional Ruminator had presented itself. So I was working at Ralph and Jerry's Market & Culture Centre, waiting for the night when I stammered Yessir! to a twitchy man with a gun, emptied the till into a bag, and got shot. It would be a lit major's death: expiring on the tile floor of a minimum-wage job, wondering whether to quote the last words of Dylan Thomas or Goethe.
Then City Pages, or rather Craig Cox, called. He wanted an article about late-night convenience-store clerking. Right up my alley: No research required, and I could quote myself. It didn't feel like the big chance; it felt like the last one. I wrote a strenuously unfunny piece, mannered and desperate; he guided me through the requisite revisions and ran it. One piece, one hundred bucks. I quit my job.
Over the next few years, City Pages gave me some of my favorite assignments. I was restaurant critic for a while. Given my asbestos palate, Taco Bell tastes, and utter lack of knowledge about food or cooking, it's surprising we were only sued for libel once. (We won.) I did some features, and ended up sharing a column with Mike O'Neill. He put my alt creds to shame, since I'm about as alternative as Kraft cheese. But this was during City Pages' Happy Period, when it decided to be a spending-and-getting rag--just like the Reader, but ten percent added social conscience. You could write about a baguette store without having to condemn the phallocracy.
If City Pages hadn't called when they did, I might have ended up one of those muttering gray souls who hang around college towns forever, scowling over unsellable work in small cafés, unable to wander ten blocks from the U without getting the shakes. Then again, if they hadn't called, and I'd survived a robbery, I could have sued the owner and used the money to nourish a career as a novelist.
On second thought, thanks for nothing.
Michael Phillips
(Michael Phillips was with City Pages from 1983 until 1987, most notably as arts editor. Now he is a theater critic for the Los Angeles Times.)
City Pages gave me my first full-time job, which meant a lot more to me than it did to City Pages. No matter. Too late to rescind the offer. I took it. For three years, I took it and took it and took it.
Most weeks it was heaps of fun, and when it wasn't, it still seemed like it was. The paper in the years 1985, '86, and '87 may have been more fun to do than to read, in ways cruelly reminiscent of the end-credit outtakes from the Cannonball Run movies, where Jamie Farr and Adrienne Barbeau and everyone else are laughing their asses off, as if to say: See what sportive glee we brought to ourselves, creating this for you?
And look how well those movies turned out.
The luckiest and most-pretty-good thing I remember as a writer in those years was a profile of former St. Paul playwright August Wilson. The story entailed a trip to New York, on a wee budget, and hanging out with Wilson (much barrel-bottom wine, in his room at the Hotel Edison) one night during preview week of his play Fences. The story came out and Wilson won the Pulitzer Prize a week later. Cause and effect, obviously. Or at least the timing made us look like we knew what we were doing. Which we didn't. But sometimes we did. I miss the making-it-up vibe of the City Pages. I even miss the survival paranoia, which turned out not to be justified, but did turn out sadly anyway, since the war between the Reader and City Pages killed the Reader.
Competition remains better than no competition, or less of it.
Britt Robson
(Britt Robson, a City Pages associate editor and staff writer from 1993 until 1998, is a Minneapolis freelance writer and remains a frequent contributor to the paper.)
Murray Tate was losing his mind. He'd sit through long conversations with old friends, waiting patiently to remember who they were. He'd fight back panic-stricken tears when he lost track of his wife at the mall. He'd learned to walk through the nine-foot apparition at the top of the stairs, and to ignore the little people he saw out in the back yard. He told me these things when he was lucid, between stories that rambled or hopped off the tracks when his brain betrayed him. He and his family let me into their lives, then thanked me after I wrote about it.
Kevin Garnett was reading a promotional spot for a Mankato radio station. All day long, he had flawlessly fielded the same questions, over and over again: At age 18, was he mature enough to handle the responsibility of playing professional basketball? Was his mother in town? Who would take care of him? Now, reading the radio copy with the media's well-meaning, yet condescending queries preying on his mind, Garnett kept stumbling over the same line. The man-child who would become perhaps the most charming and certainly the highest-paid player in all of team sports was as rattled as I would ever see him. "Could happen to anybody," I said after another failed attempt. He looked up, tapped the top of my shoulder with his fist, and nailed the line within the next two takes. Before spinning away to his next stop on the media gauntlet, he winked at me.
Greg Johnson was wracked with AIDS. In the spring of 1996, he had lain in bed for weeks with barely enough energy to walk to the bathroom, while his partner of eight years withered and died. He had updated his will, sold his house, and determined what music would be played at his funeral. But a new cocktail of anti-AIDS medication seemed to be working. After coming to terms with his own death, at the time I met him he was tentatively imagining the unthinkable: survival. He spoke of mundane, life-and-death decisions: A new dining-room table, he decided, might be a good investment if he lasted another two years. One night at the Leaning Tower of Pizza, he raised a beer mug with an emaciated arm, and we toasted his health.
Being with City Pages put me in touch with Murray Tate, Kevin Garnett, Greg Johnson, and dozens of other people I'll never forget. And I got paid for the privilege.
Terri Sutton
(Terri Sutton, City Pages' arts editor from 1991 to 1993, remains a frequent contributor to the paper.)
Last spring I heard two local writers reminiscing about irreverent, pugnacious times at the late alternative weekly, the Twin Cities Reader. I confess I was startled. When I arrived in Minneapolis, around 1987, the Reader struck me as the safe, suburban choice. The paper with its fists up, the paper with punk-rock attitude and grounded political smarts, was City Pages. I had been riding out (hiding out from?) the Reagan-Bush years within the scruffy tribes now known as "alternative rock." Discovering the yaps of another unsatisfied, undernourished underdog--published weekly!--fed a hunger for a stronger community that might accomplish more than a few nights of drunken bliss. I still read the music articles first, of course.
When I started contributing rock criticism to City Pages, my (suburban) relatives would tell me, "Oh, you're writing for the Reader now, aren't you?" This was maddening, but good. It made me want to write even more true to the pissed-off, feminist, anarchic self that concealed itself at family gatherings: leave that "fuck" in the text, shock the readers, help fashion an identity that even casual grazers can't ignore. City Pages printed anything I threw at it, including--to at least one reader's disgust--personal revelations about menstruation and abortion. The paper became a place, whether physical, in the Third Street offices, or virtual, on the page, where we could frankly argue the worth of everything from Ebonics to Nevermind, the war on drugs to the Guthrie's latest. It lived its name.
Like any city, the paper did have its uglier aspects. The "we" that argued in City Pages was not very diverse: Despite various roundtables, interviews, and freelancers peppering the mix, the news and arts editors were (and still are) uniformly white, college-educated, and under 45. Political savvy notwithstanding, I think that imbalance did show up in what we covered and how. Some of the business-as-usual "office politics" that went on in those days I would now call emotional harassment. (Do all small businesses drift into nasty family psychodynamics?) And sometimes, reaching for radical viewpoints, we ended up merely sensationalistic or, worse, exploitative (mea culpa, as much as anyone's).
A more subtle problem was that City Pages had less and less claim to the title of "underdog." As the paper grew, the Reader diminished. There was little of substance anymore to define oneself against. The City Pages arts sections upped the ante by taking on a more national and intellectual focus. The news section seemed to stagnate, awash in the ambiguities of the Clinton reign. And then, suddenly, the Reader was eaten up, and City Pages, by default and purchase by a major media chain, turned into the fat, self-satisfied bully, the establishment we'd always loved to hate. It was all just a little disconcerting.
Today when I look at City Pages, I see a struggle to create a well-rounded and responsible, if still eccentric, identity as top dog. What wasted limbs can be strengthened now that the paper is not pushing against the Reader's mushier fare? What are the limits of freedom before the corporate hand slaps it silly? I should mention that City Pages is still printing whatever I throw at it--although what I'm throwing has changed, as the paper has: fewer cluster "fuck" bombs, more questions, less certainty. I've learned something about inviting the subject and the reader (urban and suburban) inside an article, rather than just trying to blow shit up. I think the paper in general has begun capturing the spirits of its place (people, plants, buildings) better than ever before.
Some readers may mourn the loss of City Pages' outspoken political edge; I'm not unsympathetic. But it seems to me obvious that the political analyses editor Steve Perry encouraged at the paper remain bedrock in much of the current paper, from Rob Nelson's striking film reviews to Dara Moskowitz's penetrating food columns. It only appears not-in-your-face if you're taking it for granted (by the looks of the Letters column, City Pages is attracting quite a few readers who aren't yet aware that entertainment is never simply entertainment).
Beyond this foundation, the greatest pleasure about the paper right now is its unpredictability. As an avid reader for 12 years and counting, I can't express how wonderful it is not to know what to expect. Those who were taught to expect nervy, fists-up attitude from City Pages might do well to track down this city's new weekly, Pulse. Or, better, start your own. Because the Cities always benefit from a discontented underdog.
Jim Walsh
(Jim Walsh, City Pages' music editor from 1989 to 1993, is the pop music columnist for the St. Paul Pioneer Press.)
I love newspapers. I love seeing them tucked under people's arms on the street. I love seeing noses buried in them on buses, and used ones scattered in coffee shops. I love how they feel and sound; the clank of the single-copy box, the fwump of delivery against the doorstep in the morning. I love how old ones smell. I even love them as litter, kindling, rainwear, and, yes, fish-wrap. And while this romance has been on for quiet some time, I know exactly when I fell in love with newspapers for good: while standing in front of the boards in the City Pages offices every Tuesday afternoon for almost four years in the early Nineties.
The boards were where all the pages were clipped up on a wall for inspection before being sent off to the printing press in Shakopee on Tuesday nights. I can still hear the murmur of my fellow workers lolling around those boards, proofreading stories, cutlines, and headlines. Nowadays as I write, there are certain words I can't use without thinking about the energy the boards threw off, and some of my former City Pages colleagues. We constantly bugged each other for better words, for definitions, for the perfect words. When we found them, as it approached four o'clock on Tuesdays, we'd sign off on our pages and get on to the next week's issue. That was the single most thrilling office moment of the week: The paper was almost to bed, the Tuesday brainstorming meeting-slash-encounter group session was pending, and for the most part, everyone was exhausted but excited. We were a small staff, ink in our blood, and even though nobody ever said it out loud, what we were trying to do was change the world. And maybe spread a little love.
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Release Date:
April 19, 2011
Rating: r - Nudity, Violence, Profanity
A grieving widower goes on the hunt for his wife's killers, and discovers they are in fact shape-shifting hyenas in this vicious tale of terror from writer/director Eric Weston (Evilspeak, The Iron Triangle). When his wife becomes the victim of a savage attack, Gannon (Costas Mandylor) decides to take the law into his own hands. Gannon's vigilante mission takes an unexpectedly shocking turn, however, when he encounters a homeless man named Josiah (Meshach Taylor) who reveals the African legend of shape-shifting hyenas who disguise themselves as human. Upon unearthing evidence that a local pack of hyenas led by the cruel Wilda (Christa Campbell) has been stalking the area, Gannon vows to exterminate every last one of the creatures. Later, Gannon finds an unusual ally in the form Valerie (Amanda Aardsma), an alluring, half-human/half-hyena who isn't afraid to turn on her pack. ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi
- Genre: Horror
- Category Horror Comedy
- Theme: Mythical Creatures, Metamorphosis
- Studio: Lionsgate
- Run Time: 01 hr 32 min
- Language: English
- Subtitle Language: Spanish , English
- Picture Format: widescreen
- Release Date: April 19, 2011
- Director: Eric Weston
other Info.
- Online Item #: 13338366
- Store Item Number (DPCI): 246-06-4856
- Made in the USA or Imported


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Volkswagen: Princess
Advertising Agency: .V., France
Art Director: David Derouet
Copywriter: Emmanuel de Dieuleveult
Director: Bart Timmer
Production: Henry De Czar
Soundtrack: The
Published:November 2011
10 comments
TempleDec 19, 2011 - 11:23
I have to say that seize the moment was done much better by Fiat in this one:
Nike DieselDec 19, 2011 - 18:32
I'd say neither one of them. Both are silly jokes not related to the brand whatsoever. Both ads could've been for anyone.
WordfruitDec 20, 2011 - 2:19
On the astronaut post, I wrote 'not really there yet', but I'm changing my mind. I like them both.


text:
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OK guys, being through the game for a couple of weeks so I want to share my personal experience. Give me questions and topics to cover so I'd be able to fill this guide.
Arkandian Explorer is a dungeon crawl game. It's the third reincarnation in series after Crusade and Revenant. Be warned that game may run slowly and contains some bugs. As for gameplay, in my view some aspects are overcomplicated and, sadly, plot is close to non-existent. Except for this, Explorer is a good example of semi-casual rogue RPG.
If you experience save game issues, try right-clicking on game screen, go to options and allow unlimited data storage. When going for badges or high scores, you can easily monitor your progress through View Highscores → Friends panel.
A description from game developer is here.
Part 1: Early game (needs some polishing but 99% complete)
Part 2: Mid- and late game (not finished yet)
Part 3: Dungeons & tactical battles reference (needs polishing but mostly complete)
Part 4: Crafting recipes
Part 5: Some extras (not started yet)
I'd like to credit vesperbot and VolcanoTX for contributing to this guide. :)


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Type: Posts; User: Andy Symons
"Everyone says this isn't very uncommon for a chessie". Not sure who "everyone" is, but I wouldn't listen to a word those people say. Good luck.
Please count me in: Andy Symons
#9 FTCH AFTCH Get The Party Started
Charlie Ross
I was told, since it won't be exposed to weather, that the sealer will just make the floor slick. ??
I've went back and read a few threads on kennels. Recently poured concrete, for kennels, that is under a lean-to on the side of my pole barn. Would like to put the new kennels up now, but debating...
Awesome Bill. I will pass the good news on to her boyfriend (Sniper) and son (Goose)!!!!
Thank you Jim!
Never had a problem, like you outline, with Sniper. He is a hard charger too. Maybe Chesapeake's are just smarter than most dogs!
Some might question "serious" when describing me, but I fit "trainer" (some may question that too!), "with grounds in Coal City &Wilmington"!! PM me Canada if you would like to get together sometime.
Can someone tell me if there is an add on to the 550 to attach a short lead? The collar strap ring, if you run the collar strap through it, does not have enough room to hook a lead to it. My old Pro...
Recent years, the spring Grand has had 400+, 400+, 360+ and 400+ dogs.
Ran my 5, got my MH, and went back!!
Hunt N. Illinois and wouldn't hesitate under the OP's scenario. As long as I can see him, it's a go without hesitation.
Yea, but it was "amusingly obvious" you knew nothing after your first post!
1. Not true
2. Not true
3. Not true
4. Need a 2x4 to train, also, not true
Congrats to Sniper's girlfriend Judy and Bill Burks on their AM 2nd! Also Bill and Porter on their JAM.
Geez Wayne, it's one thing to have a great product, it's another to be able to provide it to your customers. I'm in the market too, but everything I want is "out of stock" at TK. I've looked at...
Don't limit yourself geographically.
Congrats on the new pup Jim. Look forward to seeing you guys at a hunt test down the road.
Go to page 8 in the HRC rule book. Yes your dog can participate without being registered.
Andy Symons
FC-AFC Citori's No Holds Barred (Free), LF
"Real hunting situation", my dog still sits. I use primers at the line when training for HRC. Comes down to basic OB, IMHO. Sit means sit no matter the noise created.
Congrats Susan!!
Congrats Susan!!
Nate, clean out your PM's.
The pass rate this spring was 11%. That's all I say. Already on the blacklist for comments about the "tricks" in the last two Grands, wouldn't want to find out if there...