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October NPD – DJ Hero sells 122,000, Brutal Legend 216,000
DJ Hero fell short of analyst predictions in the US last month, selling only 122,000 units.
Bear in mind the music game was only on sale for four days in the reporting period.
Here's the platform breakdown, courtesy of Gamespot:
- DJ Hero (360) – 62,000 units
- DJ Hero (PS3) – 39,000 units
- DJ Hero (Wii) – 19,000 units
- DJ Hero (PS2) – 3,300 units
In addition, Brutal Legend sold 216,000 across 360 and PS3. Like this:
- Brutal Legend (360) – 150,000 units
- Brutal Legend (PS3) – 66,000 units
For the rest of the news from last night's figures, hit this.
Sometimes we include links to online retail stores. If you click on one and make a purchase we may receive a small commission. For more information, go here.

subset: commoncrawl


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Wow – where did that come from?June 27, 2016 at 1:38 pm | Posted in rheumatoid arthritis (RA) | 3 Comments
Tags: aches, arthritis, Brexit, flare, joint pain, knee pain, methotrexate, RA, rhematoid arthritis, Rheumatoid arthritis, rheumatoid arthritis (RA), rheumatology, sleep, stiffness, stress, tiredness, work
I haven't posted for a while because I haven't really had much to post about – health-wise I've been good. I've been a bit stiff in the mornings for the last few days, but nothing to write home (or indeed blog) about. Then today I woke up stiff and tired, having had a migraine try to start in the night (successfully stopped with drugs!) I really couldn't wake up for an hour or so this morning – not literally, I got up, had breakfast, went to work, but felt really brain fuggy. (Can't blame the methotrexate as I take it Monday evenings and it's Monday morning!)
Then when I got up to go to lunch, or rather tried to, I started to stand up and ended up collapsed back in my chair. No dramatic pain or anything – I was just so all-over stiff that joints weren't doing what they were supposed to do! So after sitting a minute or two and flexing various bits (luckily on my own in the office so no one to see how weird I looked) I managed to get up and go for a short walk. I've been trying to walk about 1.5 miles at lunchtime but today I didn't make 0.5 miles! The stiffness did mostly ware off but I was left with significant pain in the good ol' left knee, where I usually get a flare if I'm going to have one. I'm really hoping I'm not!
Perhaps it's the stress of 'Brexit' – the 'Wow – where did that come from?' title could also apply to that and it seems that partially to blame (apart from racists, stupid people and perhaps a handful of people with genuine concerns) may be the polls (as opposed to the Poles, which a lot of East Anglia would like to blame, I'm sad to say). The polls kept saying we'd vote to stay, so people decided that it wouldn't matter if they had a 'protest vote'. 'Let's vote leave, just so the government can see we're annoyed with them – we'll end up staying anyway.' I've actually heard people say it, and then there's this http://article in the Independent. No doubt people like this thought they were being terribly clever and original, but you get enough people doing the same thing (not that original after all guys) and guess what, we end up voting Leave.
Never mind the embarrassment of waggling stiff limbs about randomly in front of people, I feel embarrassed to be English at the moment! (I would say British but the Scots voted to stay!)
Hopefully the stiffness and knee pain will be a short-term issue. Alas, the same cannot be said for the state of Britain!
Really hoping to get a full day's work inJanuary 26, 2016 at 3:13 pm | Posted in arthrits, arthrits, rheumatoid arthritis, fibromyalgia, joint pai, rheumatoid arthritis, rheumatoid arthritis (RA) | 3 Comments
Tags: aches, arthritis, fatigue, flare, joint pain, knee, methotrexate, pain, RA, reaction, Rheumatoid arthritis, stomach upset, stress, tiredness, work
Well the knee is certainly a whole lot better and I'm now tapering off the steroids – I ended up with 11 days on 40 mg and then a taper down to nothing. The bad news is, not surprisingly, it's not 100% better yet, and so far I haven't managed a full day's work since this started. Fortunately (not from a financial standpoint, but otherwise) we're not that busy right now. I'm not too worried as that's often the case in January and there are things simmering away that should come in over the next few months, and it does mean that if I just can't manage a full day then so be it. At least the boss can't get cross with me! (Having said that, I'm probably my own harshest critic, so I guess I can get cross with me!)
On top of the whole knee thing, yesterday I had what was pretty much certainly a full-blown methotrexate-related stomach upset, so I'm very glad now that I'm going on the injected stuff in a couple of weeks! Feeling OK today, if a little tired, but I was a complete wreck for a while last night – thank heavens for Imodium is all I can say!
Still, even if I don't last all day today at work, I'm confident that I'll be doing so by the end of the week, so things are on the up! I hope things are going well for all of you too.
The day from hell!January 7, 2015 at 9:53 pm | Posted in Me | 2 Comments
Tags: aches, broke, car insurance, Churchill insurance, cracked rib, New Year, RA, Rheumatoid arthritis, Spanish lesson, stress, work
Happy New Year everyone! OK, as soon as I wrote that title I realised that today actually hasn't been that bad. I'm not ill (although I made up for that in December with a bad, chesty cold, a cracked rib from coughing, and a stomach upset, as well as RA niggles), the family's not ill (including cats) and nobody's died … well, of course people have died, but no one close to me. (Terrible news from France though!)
So what's made the day from … erm, purgatory? Well it probably started yesterday when I was definitely suffering from methotrexate brain fug! I was just forgetting almost everything, and what I wasn't forgetting I was getting wrong – unhelpful in the first week back at work! Today began bright and sunny and I was munching my breakfast thinking 'Today's bound to be better than yesterday! What a lovely day. La la la la la …' Silly penguin! Tempting fate that was.
It all started to go down hill when the lovely sunny day led to having to de-ice the car – a good upper-body work-out for sure, but not much fun with a cracked rib. Then I got into work and remembered a big piece of work I'd been putting off since November so thought I'd better tackle it. BAD idea. It went horribly wrong – I ended up having to delete my 'Normal template' in Word because I'd got a lot of formatting in there I didn't want by accident – and then realised I had just deleted a lot of macros and formatting I DID want … so had to put all that back in again. All in all I spent about five hours doing this work and can only bill the client for about 45 minutes of it!
Then I got home and found a letter from the DVLA – or those of you not in the UK, that's the folks in charge of driving licences and car tax. 'Ha, reckon this is a scam' I said to hubby. 'It says I've got no car insurance!' I then discovered that the letter the car insurance people had sent me in September saying it was renewal time did NOT say, as I thought it had when I glanced at it, that it would automatically renew if I didn't contact. In fact it said I had to phone to renew and I'd misread it! So I've been insurance-less (which is illegal!) for three months. BUMMER! (I'm a VERY law-abiding penguin as a rule and was quite horrified!)
So with about an hour to go before my Spanish lesson and supper only half cooked I rang the insurance people and asked to renew. Had I renewed in September it would have cost me approximately £190. The quote tonight was approximately £290. (If you wondering who NOT to insure with, it's Churchill). 'Come on,' I said, 'You can do better than that, surely!' knowing they can ALWAYS drop the price if you twist their arm … but he couldn't. Very pleasant chap but 'I can only tell you what's coming up on my screen.' Paid the £290 and said, 'I do have 14 days cancellation, don't I? I'm just letting you know, I WILL be cancelling!' He said he quite understood and that's how we left it.
So I managed to finish supper as my poor Spanish teacher was also having a bad day and she texted me to say she was running late, which worked for me! We had a long talk in 'Spanglish' about insurance companies and how rubbish they are!
Then I went on line to check what deals I could get. Instead of £290, I can get a similar deal with someone else for around £150 – outrageous! And what's worse, I could get a deal with Churchill for £170! I phoned and told them that and got 'Sorry, my hands are tied. I can only apologise. There's nothing we can do as you've already had the new policy discounts when you took out the new policy.' I said they had to be joking – how could the claim there were any discounts on that – and he said sorry again …
Then I checked my poor, ailing post-Christmas bank account and discovered that I couldn't afford to pay out for another insurance at the moment and THEN cancel the Churchill one and wait for a refund – so I've got to wait for some money to transfer from my slightly less ailing work account into my personal account before I make the swap. I will do it in the next couple of days when the money's cleared. So cross that I didn't just take the time to go on line in stead of thinking, 'Just get it done quickly with the one you've been with before.' That'll larn me!
So all in all I ache, my work day was pants and I'm broke … but like I said at the beginning of the post it could be much worse. Flippers crossed though that from now on it's going to get much better!
Un próspero año nuevo a todos mis amigos en línea!
A day (or two) in my life with RAMarch 23, 2014 at 9:58 pm | Posted in arthrits, rheumatoid arthritis, fibromyalgia, joint pai, Me, rheumatoid arthritis (RA) | 19 Comments
Tags: aches, autoimmune arthritis, blog carnival, joint pain, knee, NHS, pain, physical therapy, physio, physiotherapy, R.A., RA, rhematoid arthritis, Rheumatoid arthritis, rheumatoid arthritis (RA), rheumatology, sleep, stiffness, stress, tiredness, WAAD, WAAD blog carnival, work, World Autoimmune Arthritis Day
This post will be part of the Word Autoimmune Arthritis Day Blog Carnival. WAAD is May 19th 2014 but you can sign up for it now over at the site. This year's theme is "A Day in the Life of an Autoimmune Arthritis Patient." I hope I'm not cheating, but I'm going to describe two days – one just post diagnosis and one post-"control" where I am now!
4:00 am A day in March 2008
Wake up hurting – everything's hurting. My neck and shoulders are very stiff, my back aches, my feet are killing me, one arm is numb and the other has pins and needles going from shoulder to finger-tips – but oddly only the little and ring finger.
Worry – a lot. Come on, I was diagnosed as 'likely' are in November last year, and definitely in February – so how come it's still not sorted. OMG, what if it never does get sorted? Am I going to end up a wheelchair? Will I cope? Will hubby cope?
And where the heck is that physio appointment they promised me months ago?
4:00 am A day in March 2014
7:00 am March 2008
Wake up feeling completely un-refreshed and cursing myself for having spent an hour in the middle of the night worrying instead of sleeping. Worry some more as I creak my way gradually out of bed, gently testing bits of me to see how mobile they are. The relief of shaking off the pins and needles and then plunging my hands into warm water is enormous.
7:00 am March 2014
Wake up, blinking the 'sleep' out of my eyes. Slight stiffness. Hubby draws the curtains and says, 'How's the Penguin?' 'Stiff and achy,' I reply, but then I realise that this is nothing to how it felt a few years ago, really NOTHING, and instantly feel a bit better.
7:30 am March 2008
Take a hydroxychloroquine and a diclofenac and wonder if they're helping or not. I know I have to wait another couple of months to find out. It's frustrating!
7:30 am March 2014
Take a hydroxychloroquine and an 'arcoxia' cox-2 inhibitor. I had to stop taking the diclofenac eventually after a nasty stomach upset – the arcoxia are supposed to much worse for the stomach, but so far don't seem to be worrying mine!
8:00 am March 2008
The stiffness is just starting to think about wearing off. My left knee is very swollen and I hobble out to my car using a stick, to head off to work. I'm wondering how I'll make it through a whole day!
8:00 am March 2014
Stiffness? What stiffness? Did I say I was stiff and achy this morning? Heavens! I'd forgotten. That wore off in about ten minutes.
9:00 am March 2008
Work – chat to colleague – drink strong coffee – work some more. Try to remember to MOVE because otherwise I freeze into place and struggle to get out of my chair when I need to later.
9:00 am March 2014
Work – chat to colleagues – drink decaffeinated coffee (this change has nothing to do with the RA, but I have rosacea and the symptoms of that are drastically decreased by drinking only decaf coffee rather than 'caffeinated'), work some more. Move when I want to – it's not a particular issue any more.
12:00 pm March 2008
Strewth I'm stiff – I got a bit too involved in some interesting work and haven't moved out of my chair for an hour. Now I'm in the embarrassing situation of needing a 'comfort break' rather urgently and thinking it's going to take me five minutes to un-stiffen enough to get there!
Time for the next diclofenac. Oh no! I've left them at home! Mad dash home in the car to get one, and then back to work.
12:00 pm March 2014
Lunch time – get up, stretch a bit, possibly say 'creak', which makes my 'Junior Penguin' colleagues chuckle, but really I'm quite mobile. Grab a bit of lunch and go for a mile walk – I know it should be longer … and faster … but it's about what I can manage comfortably in the time I can spare and my knees aren't right, though much better than they were a few years ago.
Happily no lunch-time tablets any-more – as life-style changes go, this one has had a surprising amount of impact ! I'd really hate to have to go back to trying to remember lunch-time tablets again!
3:00 pm March 2008
Really wondering if I can last until five. If I was on my own I'd be out of here – but I've got an employee now and I feel I should set a good example so I stay.
3:00 pm March 2014
Wow – I love this job – time for a bit of a coffee break and then back to some really interesting transcription about language usage … followed, for a bit of a change, by some transcription about sheep diseases! Variety – that's what I love!
5:00 pm March 2008
'I'm tired and I wanna go home' but we're really busy and I've promised someone to get some work back to them this week – I'd better stay a bit longer, even though I feel soooooo tired and achy!
5:00 pm March 2014
I'm outa here – life's too short! My way of working these days is to delegate or subcontract what I can't fit in between 8am and 5pm Monday to Friday. I've got about 15 hobbies (and one hubby… and friends) and I want time to enjoy them all… especially as, let's be honest, I don't know how long I'll be able to carry on with some of my hobbies, especially those involving a lot of walking or using my hands! I don't feel negative about it though – things are going well at the moment and I'm making the most of my free time!
6:00 pm March 2008
Still at work.
6:00 pm March 2014
Just leaving a friend's house. I've popped round for a post-work chat and coffee. Feeling pretty fine.
7:30 pm March 2008
Just about manage to get some supper on the table. I only arrived home half an hour ago so it's 'oven fish and chips'. 7.5g of methotrexate tonight, with another diclofenac, another hydroxychloroquine and a lansoprazole (stomach settling tablet).
7:30 pm March 2014
We've eaten already – I like to eat early and have the evening to play in – especially as I'm usually in bed by 9:00 pm these days – I find an early night makes a huge difference to my general well-being.
Tablets were 17.5g of methotrexate (yeah, it's gone up a lot but I don't care – it's working, and there's still room for it to go up a bit more … although I do worry sometimes about what happens if/when I'm up to 25g and there's nowhere else to go because my symptoms are too mild to get anti-TNFs etc. on the NHS!), and another hydroxychloroquine and a lansoprazole.
9:00 pm March 2008
Getting ready for bed – head still buzzing with what's happening at work, worries about health, worries that I'm not finding time to do the things I love and speak to the people I love, worries, worries, worries. Heaven knows when I'll get to sleep. Read a book for a bit to try to take my mind of it.
9:00 pm March 2014
In bed sipping a cup of decaf coffee that hubby's just made me. Feeling satisfied that I've done a bit of Spanish 'homework' and managed quite a chunk of embroidery and a bit of crochet this evening, while watching an interesting documentary on the telly and discussing it with hubby later in some depth. Reading a good book on my iPad and feeling very relaxed.
10:00 pm March 2008
Oh no – I really don't feel sleepy. I'll read some more and try to relax. 'Come on Penguin – light's out' says Hubby. 'Just another five minutes' I say, knowing he'll be asleep in four and I can carry on reading!
10:00 pm March 2014
11:00 pm March 2008
Better put the light out. Toss, turn, toss, turn.
11:00 pm March 2014
1:00 am March 2008
At last … zzzzzzzzzzzz…..
1:00 am March 2014
2:00 am March 2014
Wake up – stiff, in pain, pins and needles – wriggle about until I feel vaguely comfortable, lie awake for 20 minutes and eventually drift off to sleep.
2:00 am March 2014
Wake up – roll over – zzzzzzzzzzz…………….
And so another day starts in the life of Pollyanna Penguin …
How do I not overdo it tomorrow?January 2, 2013 at 10:33 pm | Posted in Me, rheumatoid arthritis (RA) | 2 Comments
Tags: aches, arthritis, fatigue, flare, flare-up, joint pain, knee, R.A., RA, rheumatoid arthritis (RA), rheumatology, sleep, stiffness, stress, tiredness, work
Today was my first day back at work – knee flare seemed to be pretty much over: the swelling had gone right down, it didn't feel terribly hot, but it was achy now and then. Hurrah.
However, now the other knee had started to ache – RA, or just a reaction to me walking 'funny' because of the left knee flaring? I don't know – but to add to the mix, today being my first day back at work meant it was also the first day since the holidays where I haven't spent a significant amount of time with my feet up – and I'm really feeling that this evening, as I sit here typing with an ice pack clamped between my knees, and the heat pack waiting for me in bed!
Here's the thing though – we're moving offices tomorrow!
Fortunately hubby has the day off and has been volunteered, slightly unwillingly but with good grace, to be my feet, and the facilities manager in the building is also going to help us lug stuff, and then my two colleagues are both fairly fit … so hopefully I can pull out a conductor's baton from somewhere and just direct operations!
Will I never learn?March 18, 2012 at 9:11 am | Posted in arthrits, rheumatoid arthritis, fibromyalgia, joint pai, Me, rheumatoid arthritis (RA) | 2 Comments
Tags: aches, arthritis, doctor, fatigue, flare, flare-up, GP, joint pain, NHS, RA, rhematoid arthritis, rheumatology, sleep, stress, tiredness, work
No … probably not!
It's just possible, maybe, perhaps, that I've sliiiiiiiightly overdone it this week! The plan for this week was that on top of work (quite busy) I would also have: the dreaded surgery Patient Panel on Monday – bound to be acrimonious as they're introducing a telephone triaging system which has gone done like a lead balloon with most patients; my second Spanish lesson on Wednesday (a drive all the way in tew the ci'ee (aka Norwich); on Thursday morning a reunion meeting for a course I attended last year (again in the ci'ee); an Embroiderers Guild talk to attend on Friday night (in the ci'ee); a botanical drawing course all day Saturday (an hour's drive away); and finally taking mum out for a mother's day meal (in the ci'ee again) today.
I had also committed to growing a sour-dough started for 'Herman the German Friendship Cake', with the extra starter to be passed on to three friends on Thursday and the cake baked on Friday.
What I hadn't considered when taking all this on was the possibility that BOTH the 'junior penguins' might be off sick (there's a dreadful sinusitis bug raging around our wee town at the moment!) and that I'd therefore be incredibly stressed at work, trying to meet deadlines and earn money for three! Hubby suggested I needed a notice above my desk: 'Penguin: Working to earn your sick-pay.'
Something had to give – and unfortunately it was the reunion, which I was really looking forward to. I obviously couldn't have the time off work with the other two both sick! I went to the patient panel – and walked out after 1.5 hours, having spent the first 45 minutes wasting time discussing stuff we've been discussing since it started in 2008. It was just starting to get acrimonious when I said sorry, I had to go, but I'd made my points by then.
I was already tired by Wednesday but determined not to miss the Spanish lesson, as it was only the second one, even though my brain was pretty fogged by the end of the hour and I'm not sure much went in! I must remember to say no to the generous offer of Spanish-strength coffee when I arrive; I didn't get much sleep that night due to caffeine buzz!
Nevertheless, the work got done, the cake got baked (and delicious), the talk got went to (see – told you by brain's fugged – can't do grammar proper at the moment) and the plants got drawn, but I have a nasty feeling I'm heading for a flare – or at least a fizzle! Well no, let's be honest, I'm HAVING the fizzle and hoping it's going to be a damp squib and not a flare!
At least mum's driving us into the ci'ee today for our Mother's Day meal so all I have to do is eat and pay. Think I can manage that!
The joys of a winter routine hospital appointmentDecember 23, 2011 at 9:03 pm | Posted in Me, rheumatoid arthritis (RA) | 1 Comment
Tags: arthritis, consultant, diagnosis, doctor, GP, hospital, joint pain, R.A., RA, rheumatoid, Rheumatoid arthritis, rheumatology, stress, weather, work
I really hate the winter half of my six-monthly hospital appointments. I suppose it could be worse. I have the nurse practitioner visit (usually bad) in summer (not so bad), and the consultant or registrar visit (usually OK) in winter (not so good), so you could say it balances out. I have just had my visit to the register – a very nice young lady who, while obviously struggling with the basics of the English language, still clearly had an excellent grasp of autoimmune diseases! It took rather a long time to find any of that out though.
At the risk of sounding like one of those very bad school essays ('What I did on my holidays: I got up at 4am. Mummy was cross and said go back to bed. I got up again at 6am. We left the house at 7am. We arrived in Wales at 11:30 am' etc.) here's why I hate the winter appointment. I left work at 10:15 for what should have been an approximately half-hour drive to the hospital for an appointment a bit after 11. Why leave such a long time? Because it's December. The weather was a bit rubbish and if you have an appointment you can guarantee to get stuck behind something slow. I did. Then there's the car parking – always fun. I struck gold in the third car-park I tried. As you can imagine, after driving round three car parks, all for several minutes, I was starting to cut it fine, but as soon as I reached the Rheumatology Department I realised I need not have worried. The waiting room was heaving! I handed in my appointment letter, took my seat and waited … and waited … and waited. The usual charmless nurselet called me in, did the 'weigh and wee' and then I got sent to the equally busy inner weighting room … where I waited … and waited … and waited.
After about an hour a nurse came out and wrote next to my consultant's name on the notice board 'running one hour late'. Twenty-five minutes or so after that, I finally got seen. Fortunately I'd taken in a good book. Unfortunately, as it wasn't so cold as last year, and they were probably even more short-staffed, no one offered us a drink. I hadn't had time for a drink on arrival because it was time to check in, so I was a bit parched.
Useful appointment with nice registrar followed, which culminated in a further referral (who knows where, who knows when … but no hurry, nothing urgent!) and a blood test. 'Will you give me a form so that I can get the test at my GP?' I asked. 'No, no,' she said, no doubt intending to be most helpful, 'you have it here. Just go to the blood test department …'
So, by now thirsty and pretty peckish too, but thinking I'd better get this done before heading for a café, I went and found the blood test department. Guess what? The waiting room was heaving AGAIN. That's another reason for hating the December appointment. People get ill in the winter!
I went up to reception and got a ticket – 73. The number just called was 63. Only ten, I thought. Surely it won't be that long. 'What's the waiting time likely to be, just roughly?' I asked the receptionist. 'Hmm,' she said. 'Could be up to 45 minutes … but it might be much quicker.' Aaaaaaaaaaaargh. 45 minutes? Aaaaaaaaaaargh! And we were so busy at work too. So I phoned the duty junior penguin at work and went 'Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaargh' down the phone at her. (It's in the job description – 'be prepared to listen to senior penguin going aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaargh periodically'.)
As it turned out though, the queue did go down quickly. All of a sudden they were charging through people and I was the only one left, and then my number came up, and in I went to be processed. (It did feel a bit like that this time, but given the numbers they were having to get through, I can't really blame them!)
And so back home, stuck behind another slow lorry most of the way and then, somewhat peculiarly, a slow ambulance! I eventually got back into work at around 2.15.
Four hours out of work: total time with medical staff, approximately 15 minutes. Frustration factor: high.
Merry Christmas, Felis Navidad, Feliz Natal and Happy Chanukah to all.
Knee CosyDecember 17, 2011 at 12:13 pm | Posted in arthrits, rheumatoid arthritis, fibromyalgia, joint pai, Me, rheumatoid arthritis (RA) | 9 Comments
Tags: aches, arthritis, cold, flare, flare-up, joint pain, knee, knee cosy, pain, R.A., RA, rhematoid arthritis, rheumatoid, Rheumatoid arthritis, rheumatoid arthritis (RA), rheumatology, stiffness, stress, warm, weather
Oh crumbs – it's snowing! You may remember that in my previous post I was winging about the cold the other day; well, it's colder.
Yesterday the journey home was worse than I ever. I had a hectic day at work but I felt fine (if a little stressed) … and then I left the office to go home.
The moment my left knee found itself outside it started to complain, and the complaints got louder as I drove, to the point where I knew I wasn't able to concentrate a hundred percent on my driving. Not good!
Although I get the 'traditional' sore and achy hands and feet of RA, the worst affected thing has always been my left knee, and if I have a flare that's usually where it starts. This is the first year I've really noticed the cold affecting it though.
I've been trying to think of a way to keep that knee warm, specifically while driving. A lap blanket (Afghan in the US I believe) wouldn't be safe, as it might slip into the foot-well and get tangled with my driving foot. (Fortunately, considering the sate of the left knee, I drive an automatic!)
I've decided the solution might be a 'knee cosy'! I'm not quite sure yet how it would work. Perhaps a combination of a sports-style knee protector and a pouch that could incorporate one of those gel reusable hand-warmer type things?
I'm disappointed, but not surprised, to discover I'm not the first person (by a long, long way) to think up the neat 'knee cosy' moniker, but people are using it as a name for lap blankets, not for my cunning plan. I may have to make this my Christmas craft project!
Split personalityNovember 21, 2011 at 9:44 am | Posted in arthrits, rheumatoid arthritis, fibromyalgia, joint pai, fibromyalgia, rheumatoid arthritis (RA) | 5 Comments
Tags: aches, arthritis, exercise, fatigue, fibromyalgia, joint pain, knee, neck pain, pain, R.A., RA, rhematoid arthritis, rheumatoid, Rheumatoid arthritis, rheumatoid arthritis (RA), sleep, stiffness, stress, tiredness, weather, work
Well more split Penguin really – my right side is ready to take on the world this morning, but my left side just wants to go back to bed with a hot-water-bottle (or perhaps Enormous Cat on hot-water-bottle duty). This is not my usual pattern – usually I have, for instance, a bad knee and a worse knee, or a pair of bad shoulders, but this morning everything on the right is fine but my left hand, elbow, shoulder and knee are all stiff and painful!
I rather suspect that this has as much to do with fibromyalgia than it does with RA, because although the knee and elbow feel joint-related the shoulder is definitely muscular … well, when I say definitely it's actually hard to be sure I find, but it doesn't feel like the usual rheumatoid arthritis pain. I've had a few problems in the last few days with it, having foolishly swung round to grab something behind me on Saturday and then found myself curled up in a ball on my chair going, 'Ow, ooops, I really shouldn't have done that'.* Unbelievably I then did exactly the same thing twice on Sunday! It's such a dumb thing to do for someone who knows damn well they get problems in neck and shoulders! I blame the fact that they'd felt so good lately that I've been less aware of having to be careful … which I suppose is something I really can't complain about.
Oh well, I have a mountain of work to get through today thanks to the over-enthusiasm of a colleague on Thursday who, forgetting I was on my own for the first half of the week, may have bitten off more work than we can chew, so I'm going to have to let the right side rule!
*This is the expurgated version
Tips on coping with RAApril 10, 2011 at 8:29 am | Posted in arthrits, rheumatoid arthritis, fibromyalgia, joint pai, rheumatoid arthritis (RA) | 3 Comments
Tags: aches, coping strategies, RA, rhematoid arthritis, Rheumatoid arthritis, rheumatoid arthritis (RA), stiffness, stress, tiredness, work
Someone just posted a request on tips for coping with RA on the NRAS Healthunlocked site that I mentioned previously, so I thought I'd 'cross-post' mine here, although I'll add to them a bit because I didn't want to hog the post on that site!
Not saying all these will work for everyone, it's just what works for me!
- Make sure you take all your tabs and don't be afraid to use pain relief too! You're not proving anything by struggling through without paracetamol (or whatever). I also have a wax bath for my hands when I need it, a TENS machine and a front-fastening neck brace. Hardly ever have to use any of them but they're there if I need them! (So long as I remember I have them!)
- PACE YOURSELF. It's not good saying, 'I'm just going to battle through with my usual routine' because that'll just make things worse. On the other hand, to stay positive I definitely don't get into the thought pattern of 'I mustn't plan anything in advance, because RA might get in the way.' Yes, it might, and it often does, but you still have to make plans and have things to look forward to.
- ACCEPT HELP! – but at the same time make sure to stay independent as much as you can. So for instance I make sure I get referrals to physio when I need them and go and nag the doc if I need to. And make sure I don't turn away offers of help from good friends and colleagues. But at the same time I won't just sit about and let people run around after me when I feel fine – tempting though it might be sometimes!
- TREAT YOUR FRIENDS RIGHT: I don't think you can't spend all the time moaning to your friends or they start thinking, 'Where's the Penguin I used to know? I don't like this one!' On the other hand, a REAL friend will at least listen when things are really bad, offer to help and MEAN it! If they don't do that, then perhaps they're not real friends anyway! They expect the same thing in return of course. If they don't it then you're not a real friend either!
- In my case I'm extremely lucky to have a wonderful hubby who, bizarrely, enjoys housework, so that's one big burden taken away from me! I'd recommend a house-work loving partner to anyone with RA but I guess they're pretty rare!
- SLEEP! Really make sure that you get enough sleep if you possibly can, and if you need to then try a herbal or a prescription sleeping thing, because getting enough sleep makes everything else better!
I strongly suspect that one could help oneself by being tidy and having a place for everything and everything in its place. This would negate the need to try to kneel down and search under the bed with bad knees, and then find whatever it is isn't there anyway … However, as I'm the messiest person I know and was doing just that scrabbling under the bed thing only yesterday, I can't put that in as a personal recommendation really!
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Dear Walmart, Where's Black Barbie?
When a Black mom can't find a Black Barbie in her local superstore, she's forced to have conversations with her toddler she's not ready to and doesn't want to have. So she's penned a letter getting Walmart together.
An Open Letter to Sleep (From an Exhausted Parent)
A new dad to twins realizes that he may never have the relationship with sleep that he used to have. At least he has a sense of humor about it.
Show This To Your Daughters: The Five Mentors Every Teen Girl Should Have
The five mentors every girl should have—an excerpt from Famous! How to Be the Star of Your Show: A Teen Girl's Guide to Embracing Her Fabulous Self, by Taiia Smart Young.
Forgiving My Father: How My Son's Unconditional Love Convinced Me To Embrace My Dad
Forgiving my father was a tricky proposition—until my baby boy embraced his grandfather with open arms, pure love and zero judgement.
Indulging My Daughters' Passions: How Summer Activities are Helping Our Girls Touch Their Dreams
When it comes to avoiding summer slide, indulging your kids' passions goes a long way to helping them continue to learn and get them closer to their dreams.
A Black Teen Father in Pursuit: a Father's Day Appeal For Mentors To Help Young Dads
A father who had his first child at age 15 shares his experience as a teen father and the importance of mentoring.
No Elsas (or Rachels) Here: One Mother Prays that She Can Teach Her Daughter to "Identify" as Her Own Beautiful Self
Black girl beauty is in the eye of the beholder—and on the tongues of those who love our Black girls and should be telling them they're beautiful.
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By DOMINIQUE CLAYTON I've always been a busy body. Restless, imaginative, outgoing and fearless. I left home at 17 to go to college across the...


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IMDb > Brent (Character)
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- Knocked Up (2007) Played by Bill Hader
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Make Healthy Breakfast Choices
…choice—keeping you feeling full longer and your blood sugar steady. * DO Include Healthy Proteins in Your Breakfast: Farm-fresh organic eggs, avocado, and whey protein are all healthy breakfast choices. * DO Eat Plenty of Fresh Fruits and Their Juices: Blueberries, strawberries, raspberries, bananas, peaches…Read More


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Hi. I tried to add a new plugin to the directory, but my URL got truncated. When I tried to resubmit (putting the full URL in the description), it complained that the name was taken, presumably by my first submission.
I'd love to be able to finish the submission, since it worked out well with my first plugin, but I am at a loss as to where to turn.


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Former anti-Semite and radical Muslim Kasim Hafeez now embraces Zionist faith
Our take: Kasim Hafeez was raised as a Muslim and through his familial and friendship relationships, that faith turned not only into a radical belief, but turned him into a man who held nothing but contempt for Jews. It wasn't until he tried to tear apart the Zionist belief system that he ended up turning toward it. He eventually visited the Holy Land and found nothing but kindness which forever changed not only his perspective but also his heart.
Once an ardently anti-Israel and anti-Semitic radical Muslim, now a proud Zionist. Not too many people own that bio, but that's exactly how Kasim Hafeez describes himself.
Hafeez was born into a British Muslim household to Pakistani parents "and with the constant drip of indoctrination at home and in my circle of friends, became both anti-Israeli and anti-Semitic in my teen years," he writes on his website. He says his father would frequently praise Adolf Hitler, describing the Nazi dictator's only shortcoming as his failure to kill even more Jews during the Holocaust. In his community, he was bombarded with messages calling for the destruction of Israel which was perpetually presented as a terror state.
Hafeez says he bullied Jews in college and it was only after reading Alan Dershowitz's "The Case for Israel" that he began to doubt his beliefs. In fact he had planned to read the book as an exercise in deconstructing the "vile Zionist propaganda," but it ended up challenging him to the core.
Copyright 2016, Deseret News Publishing Company


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I suddenly feel stubborn about my subdomain on localhost not working. My
/etc/hosts file looks like this:
127.0.0.1 localhost
255.255.255.255 broadcasthost
::1 localhost
fe80::1%lo0 localhost
127.0.0.1 develop2win.de
127.0.0.1 develop2win.de
127.0.0.1 alomvar.localhost
Putting all host names for one IP in one line like this does not work either:
127.0.0.1 localhost alomvar.localhost develop2win.de www.develop2win.de
I also restarted the DNS resolver appropriate for OS X 10.9 Mavericks with the following command:
dscacheutil -flushcache; sudo killall -HUP mDNSResponder
But issuing
nslookup alomvar.localhost on terminal yields the following:
Server: 192.168.178.1
Address: 192.168.178.1#53
** server can't find alomvar.localhost: NXDOMAIN
That is the IP of the router in my local network. It appears like the localhost hosts file is skipped for resolution in this case. Before the process
develop2win.de was successfully resolved and pointed to a local Apache virtual host. But now not even that works anymore, same error as above (WTF?). However, looking up plain
localhost works fine, still:
Server: 192.168.178.1
Address: 192.168.178.1#53
Name: localhost
Address: 127.0.0.1
Update 1: I did a reboot, too, without any change. It seems like DNS queries are not resolved locally at all but sent to my router instead.
What am I missing? Did somebody else try to set up a subdomain for localhost on OS X Mavericks? This is not even about Apache, just the DNS thing.
Here is a screenshot of my DNS configuration in system preferences, by the way. Since I do not have enough reputation yet to embed images, this is a link to external site.
Update 2: I performed checks with
host and
ping commands in terminal, as dave_thompson_085 pointed out. For localhost it works fine:
$ host localhost
localhost has address 127.0.0.1
But for the subdomain not:
$ host alomvar.localhost
Host alomvar.localhost not found: 3(NXDOMAIN)
Pinging localhost works fine, too:
$ ping localhost
PING localhost (127.0.0.1): 56 data bytes
64 bytes from 127.0.0.1: icmp_seq=0 ttl=64 time=0.048 ms
64 bytes from 127.0.0.1: icmp_seq=1 ttl=64 time=0.078 ms
64 bytes from 127.0.0.1: icmp_seq=2 ttl=64 time=0.085 ms
64 bytes from 127.0.0.1: icmp_seq=3 ttl=64 time=0.076 ms
--- localhost ping statistics ---
4 packets transmitted, 4 packets received, 0.0% packet loss
round-trip min/avg/max/stddev = 0.048/0.072/0.085/0.014 ms
And now, irritatingly, so it works as well for the subdomain:
$ ping alomvar.localhost
PING alomvar.localhost (127.0.0.1): 56 data bytes
64 bytes from 127.0.0.1: icmp_seq=0 ttl=64 time=0.039 ms
64 bytes from 127.0.0.1: icmp_seq=1 ttl=64 time=0.042 ms
64 bytes from 127.0.0.1: icmp_seq=2 ttl=64 time=0.075 ms
64 bytes from 127.0.0.1: icmp_seq=3 ttl=64 time=0.091 ms
--- alomvar.localhost ping statistics ---
4 packets transmitted, 4 packets received, 0.0% packet loss
round-trip min/avg/max/stddev = 0.039/0.062/0.091/0.022 ms
How can I ping without problems but not resolve the subdomain? Apparently it should work like this, when I look on how other people did it around the internet. I am not a crack regarding networking. I probably broke something else than what is directly needed to set this up.
I also executed
digon localhost and the subdomain. The output is rather long and I think this question is cluttered enough already. See this file for dig output.
Update 3: When disconnecting my Mac from the network (disabling ethernet network adapter)
host fail looking up localhost, too.
Update 4: I found out that works within browsers to show the Apache virtual host listening to the so named host. It is not a solution to the problem, but a circumstance I can live and work with. However, I am still interested in resolving the issue. If anybody got any further idea, tell me.


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Taking a knee: Professional football and its mysterious postgame prayer
Beyond the obvious incongruities, there is also the criticism of whether players overstep their roles by turning the field into a worship space where a religious practice could be seen as a publicity stunt.
Concerns like these surrounded the postgame prayer from its very first season.
In a February 1991 post-Super Bowl column titled "Save your prayers, please," Sports Illustrated writer Rick Reilly eviscerated the prayer trend.
"I don't think your average fan goes to football games to be touched. I don't think that when he loads up the Thermos and pays $10 to park, he's looking to get proselytized," he wrote. "The only conversions he cares about are extra points. I hope that the NFL will have the good sense to curtail these huddles."
The chaplains tried to ignore Reilly's outcry, but leaders in the NFL seemed to be listening. Richie remembers that attendees of the 1991 NFL owners meeting discussed the enforcement of the league's non-fraternization clause, a move that would put the prayer circle in jeopardy. The clause sets a time limit for how long players can remain on the field after a game ended.
"Never once was anything done about that rule until after the 1990 season," Bratton explained. "At that point, they announced that they would begin to enforce (the ban), that players had two minutes to be in the locker room or they'd be fined."
Concerned but not yet ready to comply, Richie was amazed when he saw the 1991 season schedule. On Sept. 2, the first Monday night game of the year, the 49ers and Giants would meet again in a rematch where the fate of the postgame prayer could be at stake.
In the end, a Giants-heavy circle gathered that night for a prayer, and when the fines didn't come, the chaplains knew the ritual was safe.
"Within a matter of weeks, (the postgame prayer) spread throughout the entire NFL," Richie said. "Within a matter of a year or so, it was happening in college football."
Even after 24 seasons, some critics still question the participants' sincerity when so much of a player's career depends on his public image, noted Eric Carter, an associate professor of sociology at Georgetown College and author of "Boys Gone Wild: Fame, Fortune and Deviance Among Professional Football Players."
"For the guys who have gotten themselves in trouble, (the prayer) is a good way to shift perception," Carter explained.
Additionally, it's plausible how the ritual might become part of a player's superstitions. During the research phase of writing his book, Carter said he talked to players who thought bad things would happen if they didn't participate in the postgame prayer.
"They felt like it was something that had to be done at the end of the game," he said. "It was about support but it was also about the superstitious element."
Fourth Quarter: A lasting legacy
Amukamara said there are definitely players who come to the prayer circle for nonreligious reasons, but that doesn't detract from his own experience: "Regardless of whether my team wins or my team loses, I still want to give thanks to God," he said.
Similarly, Richie urges fans to not forget about the many professional athletes whose faith in God guides them throughout their NFL careers.
"Imagine you're a 24- or 25-year-old kid built like a Greek god, earning $10 million a year, with women throwing themselves at you. Do you think that's an easy Christian life to live?" he said. "The level of sincerity of these guys is amazingly high."
Richie and Bratton are aware of the variety of motivations at play in contemporary prayer circles, but they say their initial vision is still being realized.
"I was always looking for ways to have conversations with people. I'd ask questions like, 'Did you see those guys praying after the game? What did you think about that?' I had no idea what God was going to do with this," Bratton said.
Both men are now retired from chaplaincy work, catching a glimpse of a prayer on television a few times each year.
"I don't think any of us would ever want to take the credit" for the postgame prayer's success, Bratton explained. "God gets the credit. That's what I say."
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Hello, I'm Damian Kleiman. I try to make my best to create great software using web technologies, eg. Ruby On Rails, PHP, AJAX and others. I have expertise in Ruby On Rails and several PHP frameworks including CakePHP, Laravel, Symfony, Yii and Zend. My goal is to satisfy my clients by creating the needed software on time.
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"Making my way to the NHL and playing in the best league in the world for 13 seasons has been a dream come true," said Kubina in a statement released by the NHLPA.
"I will be forever grateful for the experiences and friendships that I have gained over the course of my career, including capturing the Stanley Cup in Tampa in 2004."
Taken by Tampa Bay in the seventh round of the 1996 draft, Kubina played 970 NHL games with the Lightning, Toronto Maple Leafs, Philadelphia Flyers and Atlanta Thrashers, scoring 110 goals and making 276 assists.
The big defenseman also played in three Olympics for the Czech Republic winning a bronze at the 2006 Turin Winter Games. He was also a member of three gold medal-winning teams at the world championships.
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Travel Blogs from Bangkok
Day 1 - Melbourne to Bangkok, Thursday 7 November
On Monday 4 November 2013, I relocated from Sydney to Melbourne. I hired an Apollo 3 Bert high top van, and Noel Lockett and I left Sydney at 7am and drove to Melbourne. We stopped to have lunch at a diner in Gundagai along the way and arrived at my new home with Noel at 55 Napier Street, South Melbourne at 5.20pm, which was earlier than we …
Around and About Bangkok
... where the famous 46m gold leafed reclining Buddha lives; absolutely amazing! There were various temples within Wat Pho with each temple having its own unique theme. This has so far being my favorite. That night we went to the Sky Bar, which on the 64th level of a luxurious hotel (where Hangover Part 2 was filmed). Being up there really makes you appreciate just how big Bangkok is! However, getting there was a long ordeal. ...
Another busy week around Bangkok
... and I opted to try public transportation rather than taking a taxi all the way. We had to take a short cab ride to the closest skytrain station and then after a short 15 minute ride we were at our destination. The public transport here is fantastic, it is just too bad that the skytrain (or subway) hasn't made it out as far as we live yet. Anyway, we met up with the other Canadians at a great little restaurant and enjoyed a meal ...
Back in Bangers
... scheme resulted in massive losses, apparently the result of a grossly mistaken strategy, inept planning and scurrilous skimming by opportunist administrators. Estimates of losses to Thailand varied between USD8 and 20 billion.
Heads would roll, it was said. Amongst those that did was that of then Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra. This and several other factors between 2011 and 2013 resulted in her impeachment. Aside from the rice programme, there was ...
... here so far. It just felt right, being so far above the noise and chaos for a moment, taking a deep breath of warm, smog-filled air before heading back down again. From this platform I could see Chatuchak, I could see down the BTS, I could see forever. It was incredible. After this most productivity was stilted. I had been playing around with flashcards (visually aids) all day and I was bored of it. When Becky returned and ...


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In 2007, writer J Michael Straczynski began his run on Marvelâs âThorâ series. His Eisner-nominated stories brought Thor and the Asgardians back to Earth and featured the Machiavellian machinations of the title characterâs brother, Loki. In September, JMS finishes his run on âThor,â but Lokiâs intrigues are far from over. Novemberâs âThorâ #604 marks the beginning of a six-issue stint by writer Kieron Gillen and artist Billy Tan, who put the Thunder God on the offensive against his brotherâs latest scheme. CBR News spoke with Gillen about his plans for the series.
Kieron Gillen is no stranger to magical and mythological elements like those found in âThor.â The writer is best known for his acclaimed Image Comics series âPhonogram,â about a mage who uses the medium of Britpop music to interpret magic. Gillenâs also writing the âDark Avengers: Aresâ miniseries for Marvel, starring another god of myth.
âAbstractly, those are all fantasy books and thatâs what people mainly know me for; even though the fantasy we did in âPhonogramâ is very much the other end of the scale,â Gillen told CBR News. âEveryone references Shakespeare with âThor,â but itâs also very much a modern fantasy epic. Itâs probably the closest thing Marvel has to something like âLord of the Rings.â Thatâs the way JMS crafted it. Itâs all about these characters and this very clear conflict in character and interest.â
When editor Warren Simons offered Gillen the 'Thor' title, the writer was both shocked -- because heâs still a relatively new name at Marvel -- and a little intimidated at following in the footsteps of JMS. Once he considered the offer, though, Gillenâs interest in the project grew. âIâve read what JMS has done and is doing. Itâs a fascinating and brilliant place to leave off,â Gillen remarked. âI think of it as a chess game. Before me there was this grand master chess player moving some pieces around and then he essentially left the table and now weâre in an end game situation. Iâm playing moves from a really interesting position and Iâm set up for checkmate in about four moves. Iâve just got to choose those moves really.â
Making those moves allows Gillen the chance to explore the many interesting facets of Thor. âYou can talk about Spider-Man and the X-Men being the public faces of Marvel, but as a working setting the Marvel Universe spins on the axis of three characters: Captain America, Iron Man, and Thor,â the writer stated. âThose three characters show you different aspects like what it means to be human and heroic, and in the case of Thor heâs historically been one of the Marvel Universeâs most powerful characters in terms of heroism.â
âWhat I find interesting about that is he's a Norse god. Thorâs not like us and doesnât try to be like us,â Gillen continued. âHeâs marching to the beat of his own drummer. Thereâs this disconnect between who he is and where he operates and it doesnât tear him apart as much as other characters whoâve been in that situation. And the fact that heâs not like us and doesnât pretend to be makes him an interesting person to show you problems on a larger scale. Thatâs what fantasy does and thatâs why heâs fundamentally a fantasy character. Fantasy expresses fundamental human concerns on a much larger canvas. Opera would be the word. Itâs one that I tend to over use when talking about Thor. Itâs not the idea of a fat lady singing, but of these enormous emotional scenes. In writing those scenes Iâm stopping just short of melodrama.â
Gillen thinks part of the reason âThorâ is packed with emotional scenes is because the Thunder God has to deal with problematic family members like Loki or his deceased father, Odin. The character also has to regularly tackle dilemmas that arise from the way the mortal and the divine world intersect and interact. âYou saw that in the relationships between Thor and the Oklahomans in JMSâs run [when Asgard was brought back at the beginning of JMSâs run, it floated above a small town in Oklahoma]. That lead to some of the gentler and touching moments in the series,â Gillen said. âNow that the Asgardians have relocated to Latveria things have changed. The mortals in that area are very different from the mortals in Oklahoma, especially Doctor Doom, who has a much different relationship with the divine.â
Indeed, Doom finds the very idea of gods to be offensive. âTo him itâs like, âIf youâre a god then who am I?â Heâs brilliant beyond all belief but heâs perhaps not as good as he wants to be and rubbing him up against gods like the Asgardians means you start talking about things like hubris,â Gillen explained. âI donât think Doom would view the Asgardians as gods. Heâd view them as some people heâs playing host to in his country. Doom is not a guy who bows.â
Gillen finds Doctor Doom to be an interesting foil for Thor and almost any superhero because, he said, the Doctor is the dark reflection of characters like Batman and Captain America. âThere are these characters that are seen as the pinnacles of what humanity is all about and if youâre a more cynical person you might say Doom is one of those characters,â Gillen said. âDoom may be brilliant and incredibly capable but heâs also a very nasty portrait of humanity. Heâs greedy, jealous, and overbearing. The fact that he is a darker paragon of humanity makes him my favorite Marvel villain.â
The other main villain of Gillenâs arc is of course Loki, who the writer sees as being motivated by rage and hatred. âHeâs pretty petty for a god isnât he? Thereâs a sense of an enormous grudge with Loki. He feels slighted and one of the best things about JMSâs run has been Lokiâs slow burn plot to zap everyone in the world and bring it down in flames,â the writer explained. ââLoki would like his revenge paid in full and that revenge is also very important to him. Some people if they could remove that from their lives they would. They have a sense of, âI wish I never hated in the first place.â Not Loki though. Heâs glad he hated in the first place. That hate defines him and makes him very pure. He often hides his motivations but when Loki really wants to show how he feels itâs primal. We return to idea of the opera in that Lokiâs feelings are primal and dark things. Itâs like his feelings are this black hole that the rest of the universe revolves around.â
Loki's hate may drive him, but itâs also made him a bit shortsighted. âHe knows exactly what he wants, but whether that will make him happy is another question,â Gillen said. âWithout that hate, I'm not sure what Loki would be like. It's not like he's got larger plans. He's all about the family drama. He wants to supplant his father. It's not about what his father was able to do. It's about the power play in that structure as opposed to the structure in larger society.â
In addition to Thor, Doom, and Loki, the other important character in Gillen's story will be Asgard's current ruler, Balder the Brave. âThe core of this story is the interactions between those four characters,â the writer said. âAnd I think putting Balder on the throne is very interesting because he's not Thor. Thor would have done things differently and Balder being on the throne moves the series in a more interesting direction.â
Gillen is also fond of several Asgardian supporting characters. âI think the romance between Kelda and Bill is fantastic. It gives the series real heart,â the writer stated. âAnd I really like Heimdall. I think I'm going to use him a bit more in my run than JMS did. The way JMS used him made Heimdall a fantastic lingering image and made me want to see more of him.â
One difference between Gillenâs and JMSâs run on âThorâ is pacing. âI couldnât move as quickly as I plan to move if JMS hadnât put all the pieces where they are. I suspect if he had continued his next issues would have been quick as well,â Gillen said, adding, âWhat I donât want to throw away from JMSâs run is the sense of grandeur and one of the ways you equate grandeur is panel space. You need more room for images to linger. You donât play punk rock guitar, which is usually what Iâm prone to do if left to my own three issue devices.â
To help capture and convey the power and grandeur of âThor,â you need an artist with a fantastic visual flair and Gillen believes his collaborator, Billy Tan, is just such a talent. âThere is a grace and clean line to his work but thereâs also this angry side, which I think is found in my favorite work by Billy,â the writer said. âThe first three issues of my run are very dark. Iâm playing scenes with this Eastern European dark fantasy vibe. Weâre in a pretty dark place and thatâs what I think Billy is going to be really good at. Plus I hope he likes drawing rain.â
The action in Gillen and Tanâs âThorâ run will be both visceral and emotionally resonant. âIâm going for large scale fantasy. I want this to be a very emotional book. Thereâs stuff that I want to do at the end of this book that had me tearing up when I was plotting it out yesterday,â the writer stated. âWhen I say that I donât want to imply that itâs just going to be everyone sitting around holding each other and crying for days. This is the end game. It feels like an end of days situation. As the plot flips and resolves, emotions will be felt at enormous intensity. Physical and emotional conflict abound.â
Kieron Gillenâs story has an ending, but when asked if heâll set the stage for a larger âThorâ tale, like the rumored âSiege of Asgardâ crossover, the writer was cryptic. âAll I can say is that I want to leave the book in as interesting a state as it was when I arrived. I want whoever comes after to me to have the same dramatic and interesting possibilities that were given to me.â
âThorâ is Gillenâs most high profile comics project to date, and the writer intends to make the most of it. âIt feels fantastic to be on this enormous stage. These are very big characters in a situation with enormously high stakes,â he said. âI should be scared to death, but I'm just cheerfully intimidated because this is a fantastic opportunity to do some really interesting stuff and thatâs what drives me the most these days.â


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Instant Home Remedies for 20 Common Health Problems
…to be very effective at sloughing off dead tissue, preventing infections and providing a clean wound. Papaya pulp contains the proteolytic enzymes papain and chymopapain which have been used for centuries to remove warts and other skin imperfections. Apparently, the pulp also has components that exhibit…Read More


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From the Desk of Dr. Karen Haynes
President's Welcome
This webpage of presidential updates delivers on my pledge of open and clear communication with the Cal State San Marcos campus community. Along with my speeches, open forums, and video messages, these timely web reports will convey my thoughts about pressing issues and recent events directly to all of you, and this new avenue of communications seems fitting for our tech-savvy 21st-century campus! As I am a firm believer in two-way communication, I hope you will send me your thoughts via my firstname.lastname@example.com e-mailbox. I'm eager to hear what's on your mind and learn which topics you might like me to address in future reports.
January 29, 2015
Showcasing CSUSM on the Journalist Roundtable
Welcome (and welcome back for everyone who is returning) to CSUSM for our Spring 2016 semester! Earlier this month, I was invited to sit with local journalists Kent Davy and Alison St. John for an interview about Cal State San Marcos for the Journalist Roundtable program on KOCT The Oceanside Channel which airs on Cox Cable channels 18 and 19.
I was pleased to talk about CSUSM and the people, programs, and achievements that set us apart. I shared some thoughts on the future of our University.
You can click on this link to see my interview. Best wishes for a productive and successful spring semester!
December 22, 2015
The Promise of the Higher Education Act
This year is the 50th anniversary of the Higher Education Act (HEA), signed into law by President Lyndon B. Johnson on November 8, 1965. Though not often the subject of campus or community conversations, the HEA has a profound and positive impact on students at Cal State San Marcos (CSUSM), as well as on college and university students throughout the San Diego region and across the nation.
The HEA is the source of federal student financial aid programs, including Pell Grants for low- and middle-income students, federal student loans, and various other programs that help disadvantaged students access higher education. With the HEA past due for reauthorization, it is important to appreciate its importance in the current higher education environment and to hold our Federal legislators accountable for giving it the support our nation's students deserve. (Read about the Higher Education Act)
December 2, 2015
Statement on Diversity
Students from universities across the United States are speaking. From Missouri, to New Haven, to Norman, and locally at Claremont, a diversity of student voices are being heard. They feel unwelcome, unsafe and unappreciated.
The common, shared experience being voiced is that universities are ignoring complaints of ongoing hostility toward students of color at these campuses. In reaction mode the universities are forced to take last-minute measures to navigate the delicate balance of a strategic and respectful vision of what diversity means in an academic institution.
I am pleased that at California State University San Marcos our commitment to diversity and inclusion is not just window dressing but transparent through our long-standing commitment to implement best practices designed to help all students feel safe, valued and appreciated. Rather than reacting, we choose to hold ourselves accountable by being proactive and strategic in our efforts.
As the president of CSUSM, I am personally committed to and fully support our students, faculty and staff as we move forward together to protect and nurture an environment where racism and marginalization cannot flourish. I trust that you know that I am committed to ensuring diversity and inclusion stay central to our mission, vision, core values and strategic priorities. As testament to this transparency, I proudly share a few examples of how we have approached and sustained diversity through several strategic efforts just in the last year alone. (Read our Statement on Diversity)
September 2, 2015
Kicking off Fall Semester with Cuba...and the Campaign
Fall semester is under way, and the campus is alive with the energy of more than 14,000 students – our largest student body ever! Here's a picture of me on September 1st with our energetic first-year students at the annual CSUSM 'Leave Your Mark' event. Several exciting things are happening just in the month of September alone, and I wanted to share a few of them with you. (Read about our Campaign)


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As I said in yesterday's introduction, my job as an engineer on the Windows Vista team is to improve performance. I wanted to look at a study that measure a key area that we focused on for Windows Vista – consistent responsiveness during the times that matter most to users (when starting up their machine, after being idle, and when you are under the gun running tons of apps, etc.).
To objectively measure how we did, I've been working with a company named Principled Technologies. If you've been involved in the (admittedly somewhat niche) specialty of perf testing over the last decade you likely know the people if not the company. We commissioned Principled Technologies to develop, run, and document the results of a set of tests that compare the performance of Windows Vista RTM and Windows XP on common business tasks. Today they published their findings here. I am, of course, really excited by the results.
Now you should read the whole report, but I wanted to talk a bit about their key findings:
l "Windows Vista was noticeably more responsive after rebooting than Windows XP on several common business operations."
As I alluded to, yesterday, superfetch is the key driver behind this. I want to point out, though, that 'after rebooting' can be seen as a proxy for lots of cold operations. Rebooting is just the easiest to reliably measure. The second bullet is:
l "Overall, Windows Vista and Windows XP were roughly equally responsive on most test operations. Windows Vista was more responsive on some operations, and on those operations on which it was more responsive, Windows XP typically responded only a half a second or so faster."
This is great, especially since Windows Vista is doing considerably more out of the box (e.g. UAC, Defender, search indexing, etc.). One of the most interesting bits for me was their 3rd highlight... you can run Aero without guilt!
l "Windows Vista Aero had little effect on the responsiveness of Windows Vista. Over 95 percent of the response-time differences between tests we ran with and without Vista Aero were under a tenth of a second, and all of the differences were under one second."
We put quite a bit of effort into making sure that the new visuals were as efficent as possible and it really paid off.
For the truly technical, as you would expect, the report lists exactly how PT developed and ran these tests. The short answer is that they used a range of machines (laptops and desktops, 512M to 2GB, mix of graphics cards & processors, high-end and bare minimum, etc). I encourage you to dig into the report to learn more about the perf of Windows Vista compared to XPSP2. All in all, we were more consistent - better on cold and still doing well on warm; users can come to their machine and begin working, regardless of what state the box is in.
Anyhow, in the next couple of posts I think that I'll focus on some of the things that you will run into when designing and running a performance evaluation like this one. For example, one thing that PT did that I think is important is that they ran the same workload three times on each system before beginning their timed runs. This put the system into a quiescent state by allowing SuperFetch to learn and tune itself for the work it would be facing - similar to what it does in the wild, for real users. This is important to consider because otherwise you will get weird data that is much less repeatable.
Let me also take a second to note that a lot of the advice I am going to be giving in these next posts will be targeted specifically at performance benchmarking. I am not talking about how to maximize the performance of the everyday system (we'll do that in later posts). Perf tests are almost always automated to ensure consistency and repeatability. So I'll focus on the benchmarking impact of some key features in Windows Vista (such as SuperFetch and UAC) which may not generalize to all situations.
Well, now that we've gotten all that straight, go read the report, and come back in a couple of days. In my next post I'll start talking about preparing a system for accurate, repeatable benchmarking.


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Arts Council of Tuscaloosa to host 20th Druid Arts Awards
Published: Friday, April 12, 2013 at 3:30 a.m.
Last Modified: Thursday, April 11, 2013 at 10:42 p.m.
The Arts Council of Tuscaloosa will host the 20th Druid Arts Awards at 6 p.m. Thursday in the Bama Theatre. The awards banquet will honor educators, artists and volunteers in music, visual arts, dance, literature and theater.
What: Reception and ceremony honoring local educators, artists and volunteers in the arts
Where: Bama Theatre
When: 6 p.m. Thursday
Cost: $20
More: 205-758-5195. www.tuscarts.org/druidartsawards.
The Arts Council has been promoting and celebrating the arts since its inception in 1970.
"We wanted to find a way to honor those in the community who were going above and beyond to make the arts what they are in Tuscaloosa," said Sandra Wolfe, executive director of the Arts Council. "It gives the community a chance to honor and recognize the individuals for their commitment to the vibrant art community in Tuscaloosa."
The council oversees 50 nonprofit arts and cultural groups, whose programming and educational service have helped distinguish Tuscaloosa as a hub for art and entertainment. The council also manages the city's historic Bama Theatre.
"We brought the awards back to the Bama Theatre several years ago, which is home to a lot of the arts organizations and performances," Wolfe said. "This year we are recognizing the 75th anniversary of the Bama Theatre as part of the Druid Arts Awards."
Anyone can make nominations. A committee of members from the Arts Council board of directors make selections based on the nominating essays. Wolfe says the awards banquet is the best way to show support and appreciation for the people who make the arts work.
"It shows the community it is not an organization. There are people that are involved with these organizations, and their contributions are vital to the success of the organizations," Wolfe said.
Some of this year's recipients include The Cavell Trio as musical artist, Rick Bragg for literary educator and Leslie Poss for theater artist. Wolfe praised Poss for her contributions and commitment to the arts.
"What she is doing is keeping live music as part of theatrical events," Wolfe said. "It would be so easy for an organization to decide to use canned music. She is working with the organization and keeping the artists on stage to create an impressive end product."
Additional award categories include Patron of the Arts, Corporate Sponsor, Tuscaloosa's Home Grown and special awards. The reception will begin at 6 p.m. in the Greensboro Room, with the awards ceremony beginning at 7. For more, see www.tuscarts.org/druidartsawards.
Reader comments posted to this article may be published in our print edition. All rights reserved. This copyrighted material may not be re-published without permission. Links are encouraged.
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I am very much dis-organized sort of person. usually when ever i have any important piece of paper , letter , document , bill . i forgot or throw it and sometime when i need it years later then i repent it.
I was thinking that i should scann evrything from bills , letters , Business cards.
But my main worry is how i can organize them or where should i store them online.
May with some category Listing dates , search etc.
even if its paid thats ok
It it possbile in Google Docs??


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ODT Online
ODT /directory
The charred remains of her Dunedin family home remind Tere
Singh how lucky she is.
Mrs Singh's house - which she owns with her husband Sahib -
is gone, but it can be rebuilt, she says.
''When we were standing there watching the house burn it was
hard - it was scary,'' she told the Otago Daily Times
''But I look over at my daughter and there's nothing as scary
as losing my daughter and family.''
Mrs Singh was asleep in her Chambers St house - as was her
9-year-old daughter Aarti, brother-in-law and sister-in-law
and their children - when fire woke the family's dog, Scooby,
just before midnight on Thursday.
''I heard my nephew screaming and he opened my door which
made me get out of bed and then I felt the heat,'' she said.
''I didn't know what was going on. As I left my room all I
could smell was smoke.''
It was Scooby's barking which woke her nephew, she said.
''It was thanks to our dog - man, and woman's, best friend.
''I will have to buy him a big dog biscuit now.''
Although the family had lost its possessions, ''I haven't
lost everything'', Mrs Singh said.
''I still have my daughter and family. Everything else can be
Mr Singh was at work at the time and had not noticed the fire
engines going past the family's North Rd restaurant.
Fire safety officer Mike Cahill, of Invercargill, said the
family was ''very lucky ... very, very lucky''.
''If it wasn't for the dog barking then they may not have got
With no working smoke alarms - as they had been removed for
home repairs - the barking of the dog alerted them to the
Neighbour Joe Va'atu'itu'i woke to the sound of the family
yelling and ''I thought it was a domestic''.
Instead he saw the shell-shocked family staring at ''the
massive blaze''.
He rushed back into this student flat and told his flatmate
to ring 111 and within minutes firefighters arrived.
Another flatmate went outside to hose a bush and the side of
their property - ''so our place wouldn't catch fire'', he
One of the windows in their property smashed as a result of
the fire, while another neighbour's property suffered damage
to an external wall.
Six appliances and the command unit from Dunedin attended,
and one person was taken to Dunedin Hospital for treatment
for minor smoke inhalation.
The family salvaged what they could from the charred remains
of the home yesterday.
Mr Cahill said the cause of the fire had yet to be
Mrs Singh said the family intended to rebuild their house.
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A name, residential address, and (preferably residential) telephone number is required from readers who comment on ODT Online. These details will not be visible to site visitors.
When will people leave these in place? What would have
happened if there was no dog? More fatalities due to not
using smoke alarms. Renovations aside, they did not need to
be removed from all rooms
A front page story about a hero dog saving a family from a
fire and no photo of the dog? What were you thinking... Great
that the family is safe but we all want to see the hero of
the moment, especially when that is the headline.
Where's the photo of the hero, ODT? Ive always said a dog is
the best burglar/fire alarm so thank god they had one.
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to add your business to the ODT/directory. Quick link to
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Ensign - Gore, Southland Express -
Invercargill, Southern Rural Life - Otago and
Southland, The Courier - Timaru, Courier Country - Canterbury and
West Coast, Queenstown Times - Queenstown, Mountain Scene -
Queenstown, The Oamaru Mail - Oamaru, The
Greymouth Star - Greymouth, Hokitika Guardian - Hokitika,
West Coast Messenger - West Coast, The Ashburton Courier -
Ashburton, The News - North Canterbury, Extra! schools
publication, Property
Times South Canterbury


text:
Language Poets Use
Not available
(If any tax is payable it will be calculated and shown at checkout.)
Mrs Nowottny's chief aim in this 'valuable book which could serve as a useful introduction to practical criticism' is to inquire what it is that makes the language of poetry poetic. The book grows out of the leading trends today in ideas about language and the way is works but to the maters discussed Mrs. Nowottny brings a keen mind of her won and considerable powers as a literary critic. Stressing the continuity of poetry with other uses of language she shows how under the control of the poet's purpose everyday language contributes to the achievement of the most complex and profound effects, and she illustrates these effects with a wealth of examples.
Bloomsbury Publishing; Read online
Title: Language Poets Use
Author: Winifred Nowottny
Title: Language Poets Use
Author: Winifred Nowottny
Buy, download and read Language Poets Use (eBook) by Winifred Nowottny today!
More Literary Criticism
Critique of the Power of Judgment 2000 US$ 32.80 477 pages
How to Read Literature Like a Professor Revised 2014 US$ 14.99 314 pages
Darwin and Faulkner's Novels 2008 US$ 29.00 256 pages
The Literature Review 2012 US$ 37.00 233 pages
Subject categories


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Man of Tai Chi
- Studio: RADiUS-TWC
- Release Date: Nov 1, 2013
Critic Reviews
- Critic score
- Publication
- By date
For fans of wushu flicks — or action movies in general — Man Of Tai Chi presents a rare appreciation for the art of conveying movement on screen, while also serving as an impressive physical showcase for its star, stuntman Tiger Chen.
It's the kind of solid, small-scale, entertaining action flick we probably need more of these days.
The brutally efficient shooting style Reeves employs to film master choreographer Yuen Woo Ping's breathtaking fights...is refreshingly grounded and old-school kinetic.
With his thoughtful exploration of the conflict between desire and responsibility, and his self-reflexive exploration of the themes of voyeurism, ambition, and personal identity, Reeves's debut shows signs of a talented filmmaker.
The fight is the thing in Man of Tai Chi, Keanu Reeves's down-and-dirty and generally diverting directing debut.
If you have a yen for martial-arts action, Man of Tai Chi could do the trick depending on how seriously you take Reeves' performance. At the film's worst, it's empty yet still attractive (much, it can be argued, like Reeves).
The fights are strong (though the 49-year-old director's are slo-mo), and the surface is calm. Say "Whoa!" if you like, but it's cool.
Keanu Reeves's five-years-in-the-making directorial debut won't dispel the notion that his acting range begins and ends with monotonous recitations of "whoa." But this wuxia does establish him as a deft helmer of cinematic combat.
While weighed down by digressions and contraptions, Man of Tai Chi is an adequate and ambitious effort from a first-time director, who could have enhanced his on-screen philosophical arguments with a bit more depth and done with a touch less of the admittedly riveting man-to-man melee.
Basically the anti-"Kill Bill." Both movies are quilted together from their auteurs' favorite Asian action flicks, but where Tarantino's was overheated, Reeves' is elegantly iced.
A modestly entertaining martial arts melodrama with impressively staged fight sequences that help compensate for a stale plot and some less-than-stellar acting.
Suffice to realize that Reeves' opening salvo is an ambitious and heady mix of the glorious (if overtold) past, the tense present, and the imperfectly perfect realm of Chen's fighter, his conscience, and blow upon blow upon blow. The concoction works, despite – or maybe because of – its unjaded, fantastical familiarity
The script here is pretty stale stuff, with an under-developed side story of the cop (Karen Mok) on Donako's trail and dialogue (in English and Chinese) that is often banal.
The film ultimately doesn't live up to this early potential, as Keanu Reeves loses his way in the third act with too many false climaxes.
There's little in the way of drama, character depth or mise-en-scene to distract from Tiger Chen's technically dazzling display of human combat in Keanu Reeves' helming debut.
Despite its shortcomings as a narrative, Man Of Tai Chi nevertheless feels like Reeves made exactly the movie he set out to make, assuming he didn't set out to create a movie that was "good" by any stretch of the imagination so much as intermittently entertaining, albeit probably not for the reasons intended.
If for some reason you find yourself in a theater watching the martial arts adventure Man of Tai Chi...feel free to take a nap during the non-fight sequences.
The film is stale Chinese popcorn from the get-go, with only Chen's wiry guilelessness and wicked athletic skills to keep it remotely edible.
User Score
Generally favorable reviews- based on 53 Ratings
User score distribution:
Positive: 7 out of 8
Mixed: 1 out of 8
Negative: 0 out of 8
Nov 18, 2013This review contains spoilers, click full review link to view. I thought this was a brilliant directorial debut from Keanu. It's very well put together, with tons of brutal action, a banging soundtrack, a great concept for the story and just all round entertainment. Keanu seems to capture the spirit of the classic martial arts flick perfectly, demonstrated not only by the directing style but in his role as the archetypal lead henchman. His performance borders on Grindhouse and makes me think he'd be perfect for that genre too. I don't know how the guy looks so young as well. He's either been cloned at some point or as had a facelift. A great martial arts flick and one I'll definitely be watching again.… Full Review »
Nov 1, 2013It may not be groundbreaking, but Man of Tai Chi represents an agreeably old-fashioned picture for martial arts fans and a solid debut forIt may not be groundbreaking, but Man of Tai Chi represents an agreeably old-fashioned picture for martial arts fans and a solid debut for first-time director Keanu Reeves. The music is sizzling and Tiger Chen doesn't need wires, it's spectacular. Man Of Tai Chi is one of the best martial arts films after Gareth Evans's The Raid.… Full Review »
Dec 31, 2015The fights are spectacular - Tiger Chen doesn't need wires - the camera work is cool, the music sizzling.
Watch this movie hereThe fights are spectacular - Tiger Chen doesn't need wires - the camera work is cool, the music sizzling.
Watch this movie here http://www.watchfree.to/watch-29d10d-Man-of-Tai-Chi-movie-online-free-putlocker.html… Full Review »


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The Redskins selected Brian Orakpo No. 13 overall back in 2009. Obviously that pick has worked out but what about the rest of the draft. Our friends from SB Nation DC take a look.
The Redskins selected Brian Orakpo No. 13 overall back in 2009. Obviously that pick has worked out but what about the rest of the draft. Our friends from SB Nation DC take a look.
What do Chris Harris Jr., Richard Sherman, Patrick Peterson and Darrelle Revis have in common? They're all excellent NFL corners — and they all rank behind Josh Norman when it comes to ratings in Madden 17.
The Bronco (93 overall), the Seahawk (92), the Cardinal (91) and the Jet (91) should be proud of the grades handed to them for the next edition of the legendary video game. It's Norman, though, who's at the top of these top-notch defenders, checking in with a skillset that's good enough for a 94 in the eyes of EA Sports.
"Norman is expected to be a lock down corner for the Redskins this season," reads the description underneath Norman's name in a post ranking the elite cornerbacks that was published Thursday. "He is best in zone with his 97 zone coverage rating, but has the ability to match up in man to man situations with 90 speed and 92 man coverage."
These numbers are subject to change during the course of the season, so if No. 24 has a rough outing or two, he could tumble down a few points and give up the crown to someone else. As it stands now, however, Madden thinks he's the preeminent man at his position.
And that's something Odell Beckham Jr. can't say.
After opening training camp on the Physically Unable to Perform list, Redskins coach Jay Gruden announced that LB Perry Riley has been activated and will practice on Friday.
Riley went out last December with a foot injury and missed the Redskins run to the NFC East title. A six-year veteran, Riley was drafted by the 'Skins in 2010 and emerged as a starter in 2011. Riley struggled somewhat early in the 2015 season, but his play was improving into the second half of the year.
"I expect him to come on and continue his strides," Gruden said of Riley's improved play.
Coindence or not, Riley's play improved once Will Compton took over at starting linebacker for Keenan Robinson.
"I think it did," Gruden said of Riley playing better paired with Compton. "Maybe it's just the whole entire defense got better as the season went on."
Gruden said that the defense as a whole was becoming more comfortable with new coordinator Joe Barry, and that should only increase this season.
Some think with a $5 million cap number - and a potential savings of $4 million if he was released - Riley could be subject to a roster squeeze. But after Compton and Mason Foster, Riley is the only inside linebacker with significant NFL experience on the roster compared to Martrell Spaight, Steven Daniels and Terence Garvin.
It will be interesting to watch Riley's return from injury, both to see how he looks, and to watch where he fits with the defense. In nine games last season, Riley grabbed two interceptions and 24 tackles.
RICHMOND—Josh Norman was brought to the Redskins to help the defense. But he's trying to solve one of the potentially biggest problems facing the other side of the ball.
In a part-time role last year, running back Matt Jones fumbled the ball five times, losing four of them. This year Jones is projected to be the full-time running back and if he continues to fumble at the same rate Norman and company will be coming onto the field a lot sooner than they planned on many occasions.
Norman has taken it upon himself to try to fix this. When Jones is carrying the ball Norman makes an effort to knock it out of the back's arms. It's become a running competition between the two.
"We crack up all the time because [Jones] knows when he comes to that hole I'm looking for that ball," said Norman. "I'm punching; I'm looking to get it out of there."
So far, Jones is doing a good job with ball security, something he's been working on all offseason.
"He's holding that thing high and tight and I don't know if I've got him once yet," said Norman.
Norman said that his goal is to knock the ball out of Jones' grasp five times during training camp.
"I'm going to be lurking, trust me, I'm going to try and get it," he said. "And that makes him better because he knows he's going to have to hold that thing tight."


text:
THE HUMAN sacrifice is about to begin in "Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom," and the evil Mola Ram approaches the caged victim. Then, in a scene of splendid grotesqueness, he actually reaches into the man's chest - his hand roughly piercing the skin - and rips out the still-beating heart. He holds it aloft as the victim is lowered into a molten lake, at which point the heart bursts into flames. So ends the wicked triumph.
Mola Ram would not have been out of place in the Phillies' dugout the last couple of Octobers.
It has happened a couple of times now - when the Phillies have authored a great postseason moment and then followed it up by eviscerating their opponent. It happened after Matt Stairs hit the pinch homer at Dodger Stadium in 2008. It happened after Jimmy Rollins banged his two-out, two-run, walkoff double into the right-centerfield alley at Citizens Bank Park in 2009. Now, this.


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- Wal-MartGM - Walmart.ca, 2012 - present
- TravelocityVP Site Experience, 2010 - 2012
- Travelocity CanadaGM of Canada, 2010 - 2011
- Sears CanadaAVP eCommerce, 2008 - 2010
- Home DepotSr Manager eCommerce, 2002 - 2008
- Nortel NetworksSr. Consultant -Business and Market Planning, 2000 - 2002
- Our Iceland Adventure (current)
- Evolving Shift (current)
Simon Rodrigue, as GM of Walmart.ca, is spear-heading the aggressive growth and positioning of Walmart as the leading multi-channel retailer in the Canadian market. Responsible for all aspects on the online business, digital marketing and integration with the stores Simon is building a high performance eCommerce team with the focus of delighting the Canadian consumers on each and every interaction with Walmart online.
Before joining Walmart.ca Simon led the eCommerce and Interactive Marketing teams at two of Canada's top retailers : Sears Canada and Home Depot Canada as well as the Site Experience organization for Travelocity North America.
Over past the 10 years Simon has led some of the largest and fastest growing online businesses in Canada and is recognized as a leader in Interactive Marketing, eCommerce and Social Commerce practices. Simon has spearheaded the evolution of traditional media plans to mixed media strategies, launched supply chain transformations leveraging direct ship best practices, implemented master data management strategies unlocking the hidden value of product data and built some of the top eCommerce teams in Canada.
Simon has also worked in various operational and merchandising leadership roles within The Home Depot Canada, and served as a Senior Business and Marketing Consultant with Nortel Networks Global Services, enabling start-ups and aiding Fortune 50 companies to develop global, emerging business strategies.
In his spare time, Simon blogs about innovative trends and events within the interactive marketing and eCommerce industry at evolvingshift.com, speaks at various industry conferences all while trying to controls his babbles @SimonRodrigue.
- CarletonB. Comm - Corp Finance, 2000
- Clash of Clans
- Boom Beach
- Clash Royale
Breaking News – Android Apps on Google Play
Breaking News is the fastest source of trusted news, monitored by many of the world's largest newsrooms, companies and governments.See what'
Wal-Mart adding fresh food to e-commerce offerings
World's largest retailer to start a fresh-food pickup service in the Ottawa region in the coming weeks, with plans to expand
Anki Drive Starter Kit
What happens when you combine good old car racing and cool video game control complete with weapons upgrades? Anki DRIVE brings you car raci
24 Count Crayons
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text:
I am running SQL Server 2005 EE.
When trying to perform a full database backup I receive the error message:
Failed to pause catalog for backup. Backup was aborted.BACKUP DATABASE is terminating abnormally.
After googling the issue, it seemed to be related to Full-Text Search not running properly, and so I checked and sure enough FTS was stopped. However, when attempting to start FTS, I recieved the following error message:
Service Dependency Deleted (ObjectExplorer)
I googled this error and found the following advice in a WordPress blog (kind of worried about following this advice as there was no explanation about why I would do this).
- Open the registry key HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet \Services\msftesql
- Rename the value DependOnService to anything
- Restart the server
Any advice would be greatly appreciated.