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Young Hip and Married Welcomes Jane, our newest officiant!
Fri, Mar 6 2015 09:14 | civil wedding ceremony Vancouver, creative Vancouver wedding, forest wedding, marriage commissioner, marriage licence, marriage Vancouver
I'm not sure how this all started, but I've been officiating the weddings of friends and
family for almost 15 years. But this year I've joined a group of fabulous officiants and
will be doing the weddings of perfect strangers! It's a new adventure and one that I'm
thrilled to begin. Here is how it officially started:
Shawn called asking if I was available to do a wedding Sunday morning (it was
Thursday). "It's an elopement near Mt. Seymour." Eager to officially get started with
Young Hip & Married, I said, "Sure! Send me the details." And then he added, "So,
the couple wants to do a 45 minute hike to the wedding site - are you ok with that?" I
knew the forecast for the weekend: after two weeks of miserable rain, I would be
hiking to a wedding ceremony on the most beautiful day of the year! "Sure, I'll hike" -
but (in typical Jane fashion) I began to wonder, what does one wear when hiking to a
wedding site?
After a brief chat with the couple, it was determined I should definitely wearing hiking
boots because this was going to be a muddy, root-ridden, potentially icy hike. "But
we are going to wear our wedding clothes! Fiona is wearing her wedding dress, long
underwear and hiking boots!" "Uh, ok?" I attempted to look fancy while hiking by
wearing all black.
I headed up to Seymour and quickly spotted a few people gathered around a big
bouquet of sunflowers in the busy, snow-less parking lot. Anne-Marie was snapping
photos of the prep work as we tried to figure out a way to get the flowers and snacks
(read: beautiful picnic) to the site. The trail was busy with onlookers applauding
Fiona's efforts to hike in her wedding dress! Although the trail was very washed out
because of the lack of snow, she managed to make it to the site with minimal dirt on
her dress. After about 90 minutes of hiking (with stops for photos) we made it to the
most spectacular spot for a wedding.
The options for the backdrop included an ocean and entire city view or a
mountainous scene. We got settled and chose the perfect spot for Eric and Fiona to
recite their beautiful, personally crafted vows, exchange rings and first wedded kiss.
There is something about handwritten vows that bring an element of surprise to the
ceremony. They wrote the vows separately and revealed them in the moment. Their
friends, who were instrumental in their meeting, joined me in witnessing a simple yet
profound moment of love. We all relaxed in the sun between a variety of photo
shoots and then headed back down the trail.
I was so thankful to be able to help this lovely couple (who I later found out live just a
few blocks from me!) have their perfect mountain top experience! I'm looking forward
to joining more couples on their big day in my first wedding season with Young, Hip
& Married
Kiyomi & Tim's September 6th, 2014 Wedding
Wed, Mar 4 2015 08:47 | custom wedding ceremonies, forest wedding, Marriage Commissioners, Vancouver Island marriage commissioner, wedding commissioner, Wedding Vows, young hip and married
Our Vancouver Island officiant, Mike, had an amazing opportunity to marry Kiyomi and Tim on September 6th, 2014. It was a truly beautiful setting for an absolutely amazing couple, who are now both from New Zealand. Kiyomi grew up in Canada, spending the summers at the Alders, where they celebrated their amazing day.
This wedding was so beautiful in the details, that weddingbells.ca featured it. You can click here to see more amazing pictures and details about this fabulous couple.
Julia, from Ameris photography out did herself in capturing the wonder and beauty of the day. Seeing the smallest details and capturing them. She shared her experience, you can read that here.
Thank you Kiyomi and Tim for including Young Hip and Married in your amazing day!
Free Wedding and Vow Renewals in Vancouver FEb 14th 2015
Thu, Feb 12 2015 07:23 | justice of the peace, langley, Marriage Commissioners, Vancouver marriage commissioner, Vancouver officiant, Wedding Vows
Comments (2)
Magical Moments from Manjimup to Hacienda
Tue, Dec 16 2014 09:15 | civil wedding ceremony Vancouver, commissioner, creative wedding, marriage, marriage commissioner, marriage licence, marriage Vancouver, officiant
Lunch time Fairytale
Thu, Nov 6 2014 09:52 | civil wedding ceremony Vancouver, marriage commissioner, marriage in Vancouver, marriage licence, marriage Vancouver, Vancouver wedding officiant Bobbi Salkeld, wedding commissioner, young hip and married
Hunter and Xylia - August 28, 2014
Fri, Sep 19 2014 10:47 | celebrant, civil wedding ceremony Vancouver, commissioner, creative Vancouver wedding, forest wedding, marriage, marriage commissioner, marriage licence
Sat, Aug 23 2014 06:24 | Bobbi Salkeld, vancouver marriage, Vancouver officiant, Vancouver wedding, wedding officiant
August has been aLOVEmazing.
I've married best-friends, quick-connections, slow-builds, big-dreamers, and faithful-partners. These couples are as wonderfully different from one another as my dresses are the same.
I think all I want to say with this post is thank you, to these young hip lovers, now married and so hopeful.
Every time I stand up there with you, in front of your most beloved guests, I am renewed in love. This means more to me than you'll ever know.
Thank you for welcoming me into your story and into your ceremony space.
Congratulations to our officiant Mike and his family!
Tue, Aug 19 2014 08:53 | civil wedding ceremony Vancouver, marriage commissioner, Vancouver Island, Vancouver Island marriage commissioner
Our Vancouver Island Officiant Mike Bidell has recently welcomed a new addition to his family!
Everyone one at Young Hip and Married sends their warmest Congratulations!
Welcome Mirabell Kindness Bidell!
Rethinking the First Fight Box
Thu, Aug 14 2014 09:03 | commissioner, creative wedding, custom wedding ceremonies, Marriage Help, wedding commissioner, wedding officiant, Whistler Justice of the Peace
I've seen a post floating around the internet about a First Fight box. The idea is that at your wedding ceremony you put a love letter to each other and a bottle of wine in a box and nail it shut to be opened when you have first fight. The opening and reading of the letters are to be a reminder of your love for each other. And also creating a nice moment in your wedding ceremony.
When I first read the article I thought it was a really sweet idea. But once I thought about it, I realized if I had a first fight box at my wedding, we would have cracked that sucker open 3 days after our wedding!
You see we married 6 days before Christmas and put off our Seattle honeymoon until the new year. But we stayed at a bed and breakfast to at least have a bit of something special after the wedding. I made sure to book a romantic place with a hot tub. However, my amazing husband did not pay attention to the owner when he explained how to work the hot tub lid. And after being at the B&B for a few hours, we were finished using the hot tub and my husband went to replace the lid, breaking a one of kind art sculpture in the process. I was angry and mortified. I hid in the closet and let him deal with the owners calling off the balcony to see if everything was alright. I was fuming, how could he have done that! Now we had to pay for this art piece with money we didn't have! Enter our first fight. However, one piece of advice we were given and without realizing it we put it into practice, was to fight naked. So the the fight didn't last long to say the least. Now we can laugh about it, but wow was I mad at the time.
So as I was thinking about this first fight box I thought it should be revamped. Rather do an anniversary box. Write a love letter to each other leading up to your wedding then with a bottle of wine, nail the box closed. Then on your first anniversary you open the box, read the letters while enjoying your wine. It's like a built in little date. But don't let it end there, each year add a new letter to the box with the others and a new bottle of wine. I would have loved to have 10 love letters chronicling our love last December on my 10th anniversary.
Rather then focus on something that is negative, like a fight, which is bound to happen when two people are doing life together as a team. Put the focus on the positive your yearly anniversary.
Lani's big day!
Sat, Aug 9 2014 07:10 | creative Vancouver wedding, justice of the peace, marriage, marriage commissioner, marriage licence, marriage Vancouver, Whistler Wedding Officiant, young hip and married
We love weddings and we LOVE our officiants!
Any chance to brag about them, we will take it!
If you have had the chance to meet our Lani, you know she has an amazing zest for life and she has worked with many of our couples to make their wedding days amazing and one of a kind.
Today is her day!
She's counted down, arranged her officiant, bought the dress, picked her flowers and lost plenty of sleep over the excitement of it all.
Today we are so thrilled to be able to wish our very own Lani a HUGE Congrats on her wedding!
Lani we love you and so happy for you!
I can't wait to be able to post YOUR wedding pictures!


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It was our first trip to Maldives as we wanted to celebrate our 15th wedding anniversary. We were recommended Dhigu over Veli by our tour agent and we can't thank her enough. Dhigu looks more "poshed" than Veli which looks a little run down and tired. We stayed for 4 nights and didn't want to go home.
We stayed at the Sunset Water villa and it was an amazing experience waking up to the clear blue sky and sea... having rays and sharks swimming past our villa. Awesome!
We also went diving and had an amazing dive instructor Ella who was every so patient with us, cos we have not dived for 15 years.
We also did the sunset fishing, though disappointed that the rest on the boat caught fish but we didn't... nevertheless, it was an amazing experience fishing in the dark.
We did a half board but food was not spectacular. Potato chips were US$7 a tin and coke at US$5. I certainly would buy my own stash and bring in next time.
We did a couple spa too and it was so nice to receive a massage while looking through the hole and see the nemos and fish swimming around.
On the whole, the service staff were polite and detailed. I can't count the number of times they came to our room to make it up or top up our water.
- Official Description (provided by the hotel):
- An idyllic tropical island paradise set in the South Male Atoll, just half an hour from Male international Airport, Anantara offers the Maldives resort experience you've only dreamt about, with two lush islands, Dhigufinolhu and Veligandu Huraa. Unwind on endless white sand beaches, palm-fringed islands and pristine coral reefs. ... more less
- Reservation Options:
- TripAdvisor is proud to partner with Travelocity, Expedia, Booking.com, Minor Hotel Group Limited, Splendia, Orbitz, Hotels.com, Odigeo, Jetsetter and Tingo so you can book your Anantara Dhigu Resort & Spa reservations with confidence. We help millions of travelers each month to find the perfect hotel for both vacation and business trips, always with the best discounts and special offers.
- Also Known As:
- Anantara Dhigu Resort And Spa
- Anantara Dhigu Hotel South Male Atoll
- Anantara Resort Maldives
- Anantara Maldives
- Anantara Hotel Maldives

subset: commoncrawl


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Be the first Find.HamptonRoads.com user to add photos or videos of Crazy Buffet & Grill
A long lineup of sushi, sashimi and kimchi greets visitors at this former Food Lion in the Greenbrier section of Chesapeake. Beyond the sushi and a raw bar stocked with crab legs, oysters on the half shell, steamed shrimp and mussels, stands a series of buffet tables featuring a host of selections that include General Tso chicken, kielbasa and...
The place is one of the biggest buffets I think I have ever seen. They have everything from pizza, for the picky eater, to ribs, fish (cooked and sushi), & hibachi. The food is always good, and fresh.
Plenty of food to select from and lots of space for big parties. A definite go to for the hungry. Service is typical for these type of restaurants, but can't complain.
If you don't see your business listed on Hampton Roads, please add your business listing.
With a network of sites receiving over 13 million page views per month, we have lots of opportunities for you to make an impression. Learn more...
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where did you get this? all the food we've been able to find at Linuxtag was some feta sandwiches or cake. There's only so much chocolate cake we can eat for lunch!
There's an area downstairs, across from where the speaker's and press area is, but you need to be a 'booth babe' / have a project badge to get in. It was free, too.


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Looking for something to do on Sunday afternoon? The Library will screen the Ken Burns film "The Dust Bowl," free, as a lead-in to a major exhibit, which will open in early January. "Dust, Drought, and Dreams Gone Dry," a national traveling exhibition about the causes and aftermath of the historic Dust Bowl period, will be on display at Mesa Public Library from Jan. 7 to Feb. 20.
"Dust, Drought, and Dreams Gone Dry" will be accompanied by a series of free library programs, including lectures and film screenings. The first film screening, of the Ken Burns Film "The Dust Bowl," will be from 12:30-4:30 p.m. Sunday in the Upstairs Meeting Rooms at Mesa Public Library.
The exhibition recalls a tragic period in history — the drought and dust storms that wreaked havoc on the Great Plains in the 1930s — and explores its environmental and cultural consequences. It raises several thought-provoking questions: What caused fertile farms to turn to dust? How did people survive? What lessons were learned?
Mesa Public Library is one of 25 sites throughout the United States and one of only two in New Mexico selected to present the exhibition and associated public programs in their communities.
Looking for something to do in Los Alamos once Christmas is over? Why not bring a friend to a Big Band dance?
Monday is the annual Big Band after Christmas Dance in Los Alamos.
The dance is free open to the public, but donations are encouraged. The dance is from 7:30-10:30 p.m. at the Immaculate Heart of Mary Parish Hall, 3700 Canyon Road. Proceeds from the dance will be used to help the IHM youth group.
Music will feature the Los Alamos Big Band with featured vocalist Rene LeClair. The Los Alamos Big Band has been playing at dances throughout northern New Mexico since 1984 under the direction of Jan McDonald, who for many years was the bandleader at Los Alamos High School.
The band features the danceable music of the Big Band Era such as "In The Mood," "String of Pearls," "Sing, Sing, Sing" and "Moonlight Serenade." They also play other danceable music such as "Moon River," Latin numbers like "Besame Mucho" and even "Rock Around the Clock." Several new Christmas tunes will also be featured.
Decorations and refreshments will be provided by the IHM Youth Group.
Recently, the Los Alamos Public School choirs combined for a festive event at Los Alamos High School. The choirs performed as an elementary, middle and high school choirs and then combined as one large ensemble.
Registration for the next session of dog training classes offered by the Los Alamos Dog Obedience Club (LADOC) will start Monday.
Classes this session will include Puppy Kindergarten, Basic Manners, Agility, Canine Good Citizen, Introduction to Scent Work, and Rally Obedience, which will begin the week of Jan. 26.
Three new, one-session "Try It" Classes (Agility, Scent Work and Rally), and "Cujo to Compadre" (for dog-aggressive dogs) will also be offered.
Schedule, guidelines and registration form will be available on the LADOC website (ladoc.dogbits.com) and at the LADOC building, 246 East Road. Registration is first-come, first-served, and classes often fill quickly, so timely registration is advised. Registration materials must be postmarked by Jan. 16.
Ecologist Karla Sartor has been a board member at the Pajarito Environmental Education Center for the past three years. In October, she was the guest speaker at the Nature on Tap Series, which focused on the topic of prescribed burns.
Sartor told PEEC in a recent interview that she chose that particular topic because with proper planning, prescribed burning can help prevent fires, protect communities, and improving watershed and forest health. "There is a huge need for more prescribed burning, and a need for more people who are qualified to do it effectively and safely," she said. Fire is a sensitive issue in Los Alamos and planning for prescribed burns is crucial. The way a prescribed burn is considered might reduce the severity of wildfire risk in the future. The burns are helpful in preventing large, high intensity fires.
Sartor was accompanied by Craig Martin, who from 2005 to earlier this year, was in charge of the prescribed burning for Los Alamos County and he spoke of his experience.
Once again, it is time for my semi-annual column, for when there is some down time.
I would like you to spend some time over the next two weeks either doing not much or doing something fun with your kids.
I enjoy this time of year when people ask, "What plans do you have for winter break?" My answer is, "A whole lot of nothing."
Once you get through a little holiday hustle and bustle, spend some time chilling out, hanging around and schedule some time to do nothing together.
Did you know the public library lets you borrow books for free? A book is a paper collection of words that…just kidding. The point is that sometimes we need to unplug and just find some solace in doing the simplistic things.
Let your kids see you reading and encourage them to do it too.
Purchase some cocoa and cookies, rent a movie and push back the living room furniture. Next, grab every pillow and blanket you can find and toss it into the middle. Then lay back and prepare for memories to form.
My next idea is one for any day other than the actual celebratory days of Hanukkah, Christmas, or Kwanzaa and that is to eat dinner around the table. If you do that every day anyway, then you are asked to eat on the floor around the coffee table, perhaps while playing a board game.
For a last minute holiday gift, why not consider giving someone entry to all the national park areas in the country for a full year? Come by the Visitor Center at Bandelier National Park and buying an Interagency Annual Pass.
With this pass, the recipient can visit all the National Park Service areas all over the country (think Petroglyphs, Pecos, Grand Canyon, Everglades, Glacier, Rocky Mountain and 395 others), as well as areas under the Bureau of Land Management (Tent Rocks — Kasha Katuwe), United States Forest Service (Mount St. Helens), and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife (Bosque del Apache or Las Vegas Wildlife Refuges).
In addition, the Valles Caldera National Preserve may begin honoring these passes sometime in 2015. For $80 the pass is good for a year from the month it is purchased, so one bought this December is good through the end of December 2015. Many of the larger parks, such as Yellowstone or the Grand Canyon, charge $25 per visit, so the pass can repay its cost in just a few visits. This year's passes will be available while supplies last.
Dec. 21-27, 2014
For information, call the Betty Ehart Senior Center (BESC) at 662-8920, the White Rock Senior Center (WRSC) at 662-8200 and "Day Out" (adult day care, 8 a.m.-4 p.m.) at 661-0081. Reservations must be made by 10 a.m. for daily lunches.
Betty Ehart
8:45 a.m. Cardio
11:30 a.m. Lunch: Chicken stew
Noon Grief support
7 p.m. Ballroom dancing
8:45 a.m. Variety training
11:30 a.m. Lunch: Fish and chips
1 p.m. MindBody massage
6 p.m. Mahjong
7 p.m. Bridge
7:30 p.m. Table tennis
8:45 a.m. Cardio plus exercise
10:45 a.m. Music with Ruth
11:30 a.m. Lunch: Carne asada
1 p.m. Downton Abbey show
The Los Alamos Animal Shelter, 226 East Road, 662-8179, has a great selection of adoptable pets just waiting for their forever home, so come adopt a new best friend today! Be sure to check out the Petfinder website for pictures of all adorable adoptable animals:
SHELTER HOURS: Noon to 6 p.m. Monday – Friday, 11 a.m. to 4 p.m., Saturday and noon-3 p.m. Sunday.
Also, be sure to check out the website at lafos.org, to get more information about volunteering, adopting and donating, as well as read up on some of your favorite animals and learn more about special needs animals or cats and dogs currently in foster care.
All adoptable pets are microchipped, spayed or neutered, and up-to-date on vaccinations.
Aztec — A 14-week-old, male, gray tabby with white paws and tummy. When he was just getting used to humans, he was cautious and preferred to watch as his more outgoing siblings explored their new territory. Now he is right in the middle of things. He seeks out your attention with a sweet little meow and has a soft, gentle purr when you pet him. He would probably do best in a quieter home where he can feel confident and loved.
Los Alamos
Los Alamos Middle School, 2101 Hawk Dr.
Date inspected: Sept. 5
Violations: All repairs completed and violations corrected.
Status of Establishment: Approved. Follow up from previous inspection. No further follow up required.
Baked in Tesuque, 135 Tesuque Village Road
Date inspected: Sept. 25
Violations: Three moderate-risk violations Dust accumulation in walk-in ceiling and around skylight. Trash dumpster lids open. Baking equipment not NSF or ANSI approved.
Status of Establishment: Approved. Follow up required on Oct. 15.
Tesuque Elementary, 1555 Bishops Lodge Road
Date inspected: Sept. 30
Violations: None.
Status of Establishment: Approved. No follow up required.
Dream Cakes, 46 Chaparral
Date inspected: Sept. 30
Violations: None.
Status of Establishment: Approved. No follow up required.
Santa Fe
Joseph's, 428 Agua Fria St.
Date inspected: Sept. 26
Violations: Two moderate-risk violations Thermometer in the bar under counter unit is not working. Dishwasher is not dispensing sanitizer.
Status of Establishment: Approved. No follow up required.
Black Mesa Winery in Velarde received top honors at the 15th Jefferson Cup Invitational Wine Competition held last month. Three of its wines placed in the top 95 wines in the competition, two of which were given the competition's top award. There were more than 700 wine submissions from the 26 states that were invited to participate in the 2014 event. This year is the first time a New Mexico Winery was invited to the competition.
Awards in the top 95 category are the equivalent of Double Gold medals in other competitions. Black Mesa's winning wines were the 2012 Burd Vineyard Montepulciano, the 2011 New Mexico Cabernet Sauvignon and their Cosecha Ultima, a late harvest dessert wine made with grapes from the Las Parras Vineyard in Abiquiu. The 2011 Cabernet Sauvignon and the Cosecha Ultima also were chosen for the competition's highest award, the Jefferson Cup. Their fourth submission, the 2011 Coyote, received the Jefferson Cup Award of Merit.
Black Mesa has received notable awards in other recent international competitions, receiving multiple "Best in Show," "Best in Class," "Platinum" and "Diamond" awards, as well as numerous Double Golds.
Tourism Santa Fe announces the 2014 Farolito Design Contest open to all current and new followers on the @cityofsantafe Instagram social media platform from now until midnight Christmas Day.
Contestants who make and photograph their own creative farolito can post the image on Instagram using the city holiday #SantaFeJoy, the city's ongoing #howtosantafe and the contest #Farolito. They also need to "tag" the Tourism Santa Fe handle "@cityofsantafe" in their post and they'll automatically be entered to win prize packages from a variety of local hotels, restaurants and cultural attractions.
The entries will be judged on three qualities: creative design, holiday spirit and image composition. Volunteer judges are Rod Lambert, manager, Tourism Santa Fe Community Art Gallery, Enrique Limón, arts & culture editor, Santa Fe Reporter and Bryan Cooper, production manager, The Santa Fean. Anyone else can be a judge too — a People's Choice Prize will go to the post that receives the most overall engagement of likes, comments and reposts.
Winners will be announced on Tourism Santa Fe social media channels Instagram, Twitter and Facebook on Dec. 30, on the contest webpage, and all entries will be "pinned" on the Tourism Santa Fe Pinterest page.
Bernalillo County Cultural Services and the Southwest Women's Law Center announce a call for entry for women artists residing in New Mexico to be featured in an upcoming exhibit "Unconfined: Empowering Women through Art."
This art show will feature two-dimensional artwork by the selected women artists, women artists who are detained at Metropolitan Detention Center (MDC) and young women at the Juvenile Detention Center (JDC).
The exhibit will span the month of March in celebration of National Women's History Month, known locally as Women and Creativity Month. The art exhibit will be on display at the African American Performing Arts Center Gallery.
Presently, women at MDC and young women at JDC are participating in artist led workshops. Through movement, meditation, and hands-on art making, the art classes bring creativity and self-expression into an otherwise barren environment. Each participating artist is asked to share the story behind her artwork. These stories will be posted alongside the artwork.
Submission Requirements:
• Women artists residing in New Mexico are invited to submit their artwork by Jan. 30.
• Up to three artworks in .jpg format
Angel Fire Resort received four inches of new snow over the past weekend. The colder temperatures are allowing the resort to continue to make snow as well. Angel Fire opened Dec. 12 and has 25 percent of the mountain open and they expect to open more trails over the next two weeks.
Chaco Culture National Historical Park will conduct its annual Christmas Bird Count on Dec. 22. Participants will meet at 9 a.m. in the Visitor Center lobby. Members of the public are encouraged to join park staff for a day of birding.
This event provides valuable information on local bird populations, and is a great way for volunteers to experience more remote areas of the park.
Experienced birders from the Four Corners Bird Club of Farmington will be assisting with bird identification. Participants need not be experts, but must be prepared to hike several hours off trail across semi-rugged terrain.
Plan to bring a field lunch and snacks, plenty of water, sunscreen and clothes for varied winter weather conditions. A camera, field guidebook, and binoculars are also suggested.
Participants must arrive at the Visitor Center by 9 a.m. to join in the bird count. To sign up contact Jessica Guenther, firstname.lastname@example.com or 505-786-7014, ext. 242.
Winter is a great time to visit the park and wander through the Chacoan structures. Wildlife is much easier to view this time of year. The park will be closed on Dec. 25 and Jan. 1, however the campground will remain open.
Savanna Strother may only be 7 years old, but she dreams big. The first grader at Mountain Elementary says wants to be a rock star when she grows up and she may already be on her way to success.
During the Chamisa Carnival in October, Strother's stepmother Nicole put in a bid to the silent auction where one of the prizes was "Be a Pop Star For a Day." Savanna's name was chosen and she showcased her talent during a lunch time performance Nov. 14 in the Mountain Elementary School cafeteria. Her and three friends sang "Let It Go," from the movie "Frozen." Sophie Saenz, Sydney Buck and Brooke Smit joined Strother in song. "Everyone knew how to sing that song," Strother said.
"We thought she might get scared and freeze up," Strother's grandmother Celia Browne said. "But no, she sang loud and clear. We were very proud. We could even hear her more than the other girls."
In addition to the performance, the Pop Star For a Day prize gave Strother a chance to lead the Pledge of Allegiance and read the day's announcements.
After the performance, Strother was escorted to a "pop star" throne, decorated bright with sequins and glitter and received the entire pop princess experience — sporting rock star sunglasses.
Los Alamos High School Driver's Education instructor Scott Pomeroy has students educating other students before the holidays with posters throughout the school. Students are encouraged to text friends #X to let them know they will be driving and won't respond until it is safe.
Sunday is Winter Solstice. All over the world, people have kept track of the passing of the seasons with markers built into such things as structures, stones and the horizon.
At Bandelier, there are several places that may mark the position of the sun on dates including the solstices and equinoxes.
One of them is the entryway to Tyuonyi, the large pueblo in Frijoles Canyon.
It will be the annual ranger-guided walk to watch as the sun rises over the canyon walls and casts shadows in alignment with Tyuonyi's entry walls.
There is no way to be sure that the pueblo was built that way on purpose, but Winter Solstice is an important date to many cultures.
In the northern hemisphere, it is the day that the sun turns back northward and days begin to lengthen, promising the return of warm days and growing crops.
The walk begins from the front of the Visitor Center at 7:15 a.m. and lasts about an hour; the trail is level and paved, and only about 400 yards each way.
No sign-ups are required. Participants should dress warmly, in layers and with warm shoes. If the sky is overcast, the walk will be rescheduled for the next day.
For more information call the Visitor Center at 672-3861, ext. 517.
The annual Children's Bazaar was held at the Trinity on the Hill Episcopal Church during the Winterfest celebration on Dec. 6.
Children had the opportunity to shop for gifts for family and friends, while parents relaxed and enjoyed refreshments. Gifts were wrapped free of charge.
Donations were collected at the church days before the event. Proceeds went to support youth choir members to attend choir camp and support medical clinics through the Episcopal Relief and Development. To read the thank you letter to the community, see page the opinion page. Courtesy
The Los Alamos Little Theatre has announced a fundraising effort to support the purchase and installation of an assisted listening system in the Performing Arts Center, the facility in which LALT theatrical productions are staged.
"We have heard from many patrons over the years that their enjoyment of our productions would be greatly enhanced with an assisted listening system," said LALT President Gracie Cainelli. "This system generates a signal that can be picked up directly by most hearing aids. They can be found in many facilities in Los Alamos County, such as Fuller Lodge and the Bradbury Science Museum."
The system that has been identified for the Performing Arts Center will cost about $3,000 for parts and installation, and will include a limited number of headsets for those without compatible hearing aids.
"Los Alamos National Bank has committed to provide $1,500 toward the purchase of this system, or about half of what we need," Cainelli said. LANB's contribution comes through its community reinvestment program.
Copyright © 2015
The Los Alamos Monitor is your source for local news, sports, events, and information in Los Alamos County and Los Alamos, NM, and the surrounding area.


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Ricky Martin & Twins Pose For Spanish 'Vanity Fair'
Check out Pop singer, Ricky Martin and his two precious 3-year-old twins, Matteo and Valentino, on the cover of Spanish Vanity Fair's April issue. In the article, the proud dad shares his family with the world speaks on the donor, past relationships, and more. Take a look at what the 40-year-old had to say.
On his egg donor: "I did not rent a womb. That expression is used by fundamentalists. They loaned me an abdomen … I would give my life for the woman who helped me bring my sons into this world."
On past relationships with women: "I've slept with women and I've fallen in love with them and I've felt wonderful things. There was love, passion. I don't regret anything, any of the relationships I've lived, they taught me a lot, both men and women equally."
On a change with Spain's same-sex marriage law: "If they touch [the law], now as a Spanish citizen, I would stand up and unite with my community."
Ricky, we are so happy to see you guys are doing well and by the way, Mr. Carlos is so handsome! great job!.
[Photos: Vicky Sanz/ Spanish Vanity Fair]
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~Be Blessed & Stay Humbled


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Cooperative Correlation Based Spectrum Sensing for DMB-T Systems
Free registration required
Executive Summary
Cooperative spectrum sensing scheme for Digital Multimedia Broadcasting-Terrestrial (DMB-T) system in China is investigated in this paper. There are three frame header modes defined in DMB-T Standard. For frame header mode 2, the only PN sequence is utilized to perform waveform-based spectrum sensing, and an improved synchronization algorithm is proposed. For frame header mode 1 and 3, extended Pseudo-Noise (PN) sequences are proposed to be the local correlation sequences to perform waveform-based spectrum sensing. The performance of the proposed schemes is analyzed theoretically.
- Format: PDF
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Superfoods & Supplements for Cats
We began Cat Faeries in 1993 to provide healthy things for cats. We are finicky about quality and the integrity of the maker of any product. Everything we offer here meets our very strict criteria.
We have selected an assortment of items to benefit aging cats, as well as young cats who we wish to see age gracefully and painlessly. Let's keep our feline friends happy and healthy!
Organic Red Clover Seeds, for sprouting - from Canada. 4oz bag of seeds.
4oz bag of seeds
In Stock
Easily and quickly sprout your very own Kitty Spaghetti, a health giving spout which cats like, and that you can stir into a cat's canned cat food, or homemade cat food. You can add them whole or give them a rough chop before adding to food.
These little sprouts are sky high in anti-oxidants. Your cat's fur will become fluff-city, and gleam! And don't let kitty have all the tasty and healthy fun: you can add sprouts to your salad, scrambled eggs, a sandwich, on top of a bowl of potatoes or vegetables, on a burger, or in a lettuce wrap.
Sprouts are alive!
A handout which you teach you everything about making sprouts and giving them to your cat will accompany your order.
ProNova Fish Oil - 500mg - 60 count
Guaranteed free of heavy metals like mercury and radiation
In Stock
You'd need to eat buckets of fish to get a good amount of Omega 3. ProNova Fish Oil is from Scotland where the fish is harvested humanely and produced by a company known for being an environmental leader with strong ethics. And that's ProNova who also tests every batch of fish oil for Mercury, other heavy metals, and radiation.
To say that Cat Faeries are finicky about quality is an understatement! We spent a huge amount of time seeking out fish oil that we consider to be safe and it wasn't easy. We looked at fish oils produced just for cats and we looked at fish oils produced for people. But no other brand could or would discuss the concern of heavy metals or radiation.
You'll find cheaper fish oils – that's the problem, they are cheap in every way from the questionable quality of the fish, and in production of the oil. You and your cats deserve the best which is why you are a Cat Faeries customer in the first place!
Fish oil soft gel may be punctured and oil squeezed into food - it is suggested that each cat get one soft gel every 24 hours. If your cat is easy to pill you could give one soft gel orally every day. For people - follow the instructions on the bottle.
Daphne and Madeline both say:
"Ok feline brothers and sisters, get ready for your fur becoming 'fluff city' and your body feeling loosey goosey like a kitten again! One fish oil soft gel a day should keep you pooping perfectly - constipation be gone! We cats have noticed that our fur feels like butter. We both feel like spring kittens because of what this fish oil is doing for us. And our "Maid" says she's feeling years younger, which is good, because we keep her very busy tending to our needs!"
These statements have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration.
This product is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease.
Joints 60g Powder - Bixbi Organic Pet Superfood
In Stock
Packed with natural antioxidants, this unique medicinal mushroom formula fights free radical cell damage caused by age, exercise and stress. It aids circulation, eliminates toxins and fights inflammation at the source. Also, JOINTS is made with NEM® (Natural Eggshell Membrane) — clinically proven to reduce joint and soft tissue pain. Keep your cat/dog moving with JOINTS.*
Recommended Uses:
- Therapy for cats (or dogs) with sore joints, arthritis, soft-tissue irritation or inflammation
- Preventative for highly active and older animals
- Use alone or in conjunction with the IMMUNITY formula
Instructions: Add to food. This can be dry crunchies, canned, or home made. For sick cats or dogs double the dose for the first 7 days.
*These statements have not been evaluated by the Food & Drug Administration. This product is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease.
More Detail:
- Natural Eggshell Membrane (NEM) contains natural concentrations of chondroitin and hyaluronic acid, which are clinically proven to reduce pain and stiffness, and increase mobility
- NEM has been shown to be five times more clinically effective than glucosamine and chondroitin combined
- This mycelia blend possesses polysaccharides that provide similar benefits to those of natural omega 3 fatty acids; the natural anti-inflammatory properties of these polysaccharides make them a gentle alternative to harsh anti-inflammatory steroids and other potentially toxic pharmaceuticals
- Contains naturally occurring chondroitin and hyaluronic acid
- Mycelia in the proper combinations adaptogenically bring a pet's irritated, over-stimulated immune system back into equilibrium
Colloidal Defense - 2 fl. oz.
2 fl oz
Protect your cat (and yourself) from viruses, bacteria and parasites.
In Stock
Colloidal Defense is a highly effective product that combines gold, silver, and silica into a specific combination that has proven effective against many pathogenic substances, including bacteria, viruses, and yeast. Other colloidal silver products rely solely on the antimicrobial properties of silver. These products typically rely on significant levels of silver for effectiveness. The problem becomes too much silver is toxic to the body. This is not the case with Colloidal Defense.
Colloidal Defense uses relatively small amounts of gold and silver because we find the specific combination is more effective that high amounts of silver alone. Gold will potentate the effect of silver. Silica stabilizes the electromagnetic frequency created by this combination. It is this frequency that stimulates the immune system.
Laboratory Study
Colloidal Defense was tested under Dark Field Microscopy. Dark Field protocol is a well accepted test for determining the vitality of the blood, measuring the size and activity of both the red (erythrocyte) and white (leukocyte) blood cells. It can also detect and identify foreign organisms such as, viruses, bacteria, yeast and parasites in the blood.
The study involved 5 human volunteers ages 18 - 55 that ate the same diet for 24 hours. A blood sample was taken and evaluated. Two half droppers of Defense were administered sublingually. Another blood sample was taken 15 minutes after ingestion of the product. The results showed that Colloidal Defense effectively removes rod-form and L-form bacteria from the blood. Rod form bacteria is disease causing. L-form bacteria grow from the natural flora in the body when conditions are too acidic. While not disease causing in their own right, the toxins produced from their reproduction are very weakening to the body and increases susceptibility to disease. They also serve as a marker for the blood being too acidic.
Interestingly, Colloidal Defense also improves the vitality of erythrocytes and increases the size, population, and activity of leukocytes. Leukocytes act as scavengers helping the body to fight infection. By additionally promoting the vitality of the red blood cells (erythrocytes) indicates that Colloidal Defense is an effective therapy for anemic conditions, and considerably less toxic than many iron dietary supplements.
External Application
Colloidal Defense is also effective in eye and ear infections and can be directly applied. Colloidal Defense is made from pure 99.99% gold and silver. Colloidal silica is pharmaceutical grade. It is also safe for children of all ages and animals.
Cat grass is a very important part of a cat's diet. It's full of vitamins and minerals that they may not get from either homemade/raw food or commercial cat food. Ever wonder why your cat might like to chew on houseplants? They need the chlorophyll just like we do. And the greens help them pass fur balls. Houseplants are potentially dangerous. If your cat goes outside and nibbles on lawn, it is not safe as it could be full of pesticides or herbicides. Now with these seeds keeping a crop of very safe, healthful grass going for your cat year round is easy pie!
Botanical Interests selected a species of oat grass that really appeals to cats. The blades are smooth and delicious. And for we humans it's so easy to grow. All you need is a 6 inch flower pot – no green thumb is required! Best of all its grown indoors and it can grow in any climate. Many years ago we sold wheat grass seed and one of our most loyal customers lived at The North Pole. If she could grow it there, anyone in the lower 48 can grow it too!
Seeds are untreated. No GMOs. Instructions are printed on the package. Makes a great gift!


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Possible Answer
Honda and Acura Navigation Center Employee Purchase Program. In recognition of being a current employee, retiree, friend and/or family member of American Honda Motor ... - read more
Welcome to the DCH Employee Purchase & Referral Program You're a proud member of DCH and we want you to buy your vehicle at a DCH dealership. And, as an Ambassador of ... - read more
Please vote if the answer you were given helped you or not, thats the best way to improve our algorithm. You can also submit an answer or search documents about honda employee purchase program.


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He's putting up the same numbers he did in 2008, why in the world would we buy him out now?
Because he doesn't score 5 goals a game like he did that one time. Therefore he is lazy and he sucks and he is overpaid.
- number9, FlashyG and jimmyemeryhunter like this


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Posted by lily on Thursday, April 7, 2011 at 11:52pm.
first we observe that the motion of the ball is uniformly accelerated motion (because of acceleration due to gravity while it's in the air), thus we use this formula to find time:
h = ho + vo*t - (1/2)*g*t^2
ho = initial height
vo = initial velocity
t = time
g = acceleration due to gravity (9.8 m/s^2 = 32 ft/s^2)
making the ground as the reference or the origin (thus at this point, the height = h = 0), ho is thus equal to 350
0 = 350 + 20*t - 1/2*32*t^2
0 = 350 + 20t - 16t^2
since it's a quadratic equation, we either factor it or use quadratic formula,
t = [-b +- sqrt(b^2 - 4ac)]/(2a)
t = [-20 +- sqrt(20^2 - 4(-16)(350))]/(2(-16))
t = [-20 +- 150.997]/(-32)
t = -4.09
t = 5.34
since time is always positive, we get the positive root:
t = 5.34 s
hope this helps~ :)
It depends on many factors not said in the problem. How high does the ball go before it starts coming down, for example.
The problem is not solvable.
Ok. Someone else was smarter than I. I should have waited, I guess.
Answer this Question
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www.dailymail.co.uk said:
TLC's reality TV show, My Strange Addiction, takes a look into the less-than-orthodox compulsive habits of some interesting characters.And, true to form, it has delivered some colourful tales in its second series run.
Saving the best for last, the series finale, last night, featured a woman who is so close to the memory of her late husband that she eats his ashes.
26-year-old Casie, who was widowed just two months before filming the show, is unable to stop herself from dipping her finger into her husband's urn of ashes and taking a lick of the grey dust.
She says she first tasted the remains of her husband, Shawn, when she transferred the ashes from a temporary cardboard box into a special memorial urn.
'Some of it spilled out on my hands. I didn't want to just wipe him away, so I just licked it off my fingers.
'And here I am today, almost two months later and I can't stop.'
Read more...


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This is a film program I would sign up for in a minute if I were looking to get an advanced degree. Study this Social Documentary Curriculum and share it. Woodbury University (www.woodbury.edu) is creating a groundbreaking advanced degree program in Media for Social Justice. Students in the two-y...Read More »
As part of its commitment to support national cinematography production Gabriel Figueroa Film Fund offers on its second year in a row a grand total of USD $138,240 to Mexican projects.Read More »
The Europe-wide, one of a kind workshop program SOFA - School of Film Agents - which supports international film professionals and mediators in the realization of film cultural projects will take place from August 15th – 24th, 2014 in the Polish city of Wroclaw.Read More »
"Virunga" premiered at this years Tribeca Film Festival on April 17, 2014, in the WORLD DOCUMENTARY COMPETITION, and was graciously screened again, last night, with the generosity of Bennett Miller, the Cannes 2014 Winner for BEST DIRECTOR, for his latest film "Foxcatcher," which will be released in...Read More »
This shows the current U.S. distributors and what they are buying from whom from January through June 2014.Read More »
Oldham College is leading the way on national digital developments with involvement at two prestigious events in London recently - one at the House of Commons with the Skills Minister - and the TeenTech Awards with celebrities including Stephen Fry and James May.Read More »
In "Honour," writer/director Shan Khan's debut feature, a young woman named Mona lives a double life in London, free and self-determined in public but chafing at home under the strict precepts of her devout mother.Read More »
Power to the Pixel is now accepting applications to The Pixel Market, the prestigious cross-media project finance market taking place during the annua lPower to the Pixel: Cross-Media Forum 7-10 October, in association with the BFI London Film Festival.Read More »
The third edition of the internationally renowned TV series workshop started yesterday in Berlin featuring highly acclaimed experts such as U.S. Showrunner Glen Mazzara, Nick Brown of Sam Mendes' company Neal Street Productions and Peter Nadermann, CEO of NadCon-Film who will be discussing the inte...Read More »
Marlene Forte, the actress who plays Carmen Ramos, the Ewing family's longtime Mary Poppins-like superintendent and mother of Elena (Jordana Brewster) on TNT's "Dallas" and I spoke today about the "uncorking" of the second half of Season 3 on Monday, August 18 on TNT. The story line for the rest of ...Read More »


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What is happiness? You might say it's the absence of sorrow or problems, or freedom from suffering. It might be just feeling good about life and the world around you – or whatever just happened to put that smile on your face. Maybe you can ask your smartphone's intelligent agent for an answer. What I've noticed is a growing body of research that seeks to understand what happiness is, what conditions contribute to it, how age influences what makes us happy and much more. More significantly for this blog, some of that research explores happiness within the context of user experience.
What sort of experiences contribute to happiness the most? Does buying a new flat-screen television make us happy? How about a trip to an exotic location? Or maybe it's just having a quiet breakfast and reading the newspaper? For our library community members it might be getting the answer to their question or a renewed confidence in their ability to complete a challenging research project.
It's only natural that when people have a truly great experience they want to share it with their friends or social network. So they tell people about that great vacation or they tweet about their new car's super-comfortable driver's seat or maybe even that tasty soup they had for lunch. New research suggests that as much as we want to tell other people about our great experiences, our family, friends and colleagues may actually dislike hearing about it. Our personal happiness, when shared, may make others less happy – even if they "Like" it on Facebook or respond positively to your status update.
It may all be in the way we share the stories about our best experiences and with whom we share it. According to the research, people are much more likely to prefer hearing about a more mundane or common experience than an extraordinary experience that few others will ever experience.
That got me wondering about a great library experience. We librarians would always wish for our library-using community members to tell their friends and family – especially the ones who don't use the library – about their (hopefully great) library experience. Word of mouth marketing can't be beat – right. How do other people react to those library stories? If librarians better understood the impact of people sharing their library stories would it change anything about the way we approach the delivery of the library experience?
I think these findings could bode well for librarians who pay attention to design and delivering a satisfying experience – the type that results in people being happy to have access to library community services. In the research study participants watched either high or low rated films. The researchers believed that those who saw the high rated films would have the better experience – which they did. What surprised the researchers is that afterwards the majority of the people preferred to commiserate about viewing the low rated films rather than discuss the much better film.
The takeaway for the researchers was that a great individual experience tends to be non-social. Others are not interested in discussing that high-fidelity experience, for example, your two-week luxury trip to Hawaii. In a social situation, people will prefer to hear about or discuss a more routine experience, one that they can relate to and would by no means judge or interpret as bragging.
Either scenario works to the advantage of a great library experience. If the experience is well designed to create a sense of happiness in individuals that works well on the non-social level. As a community member, just having had a great experience at your library, leaves through the front door, he or she can feel a sense of happiness about their trip to the library. If this individual then decides to tell others about their library experience in a social setting, there is minimal likelihood that others will feel uncomfortable talking about it.
Hearing about someone's experience at the library is hardly the same as that person talking about cruising around in their Lamborghini or sharing the details of a meal at an expensive restaurant. Everyone can relate to being at a library, even if they are non-users. "The pleasure of a social encounter is built on commonality. People are more likely to enjoy talking about an ordinary experience they have all had rather than hearing about the fabulous one they didn't."
For librarians, delivering a great experience – one that makes people happy – is, to my way of thinking, a no-lose proposition when it comes to people talking about their life experiences. The challenge for librarians is getting community members into the library so that they can have that great experience. That assumes we have done our work in advance to design and deliver an experience worth having. If those conditions are fulfilled then the odds are strong that libraries will receive the type of word-of-mouth marketing that makes a difference in a community.]]>
After it's groundbreaking work in bringing design thinking to the field of education, what was next for IDEO? Libraries!
While librarians across the different spheres of the profession have paid more attention to user experience, the virtues of design thinking as a method for identifying and then developing appropriate solutions for challenging problems is rarely discussed in the library literature. One exception – my 2008 article on design thinking that appeared in American Libraries. The new Design Thinking for Libraries: A Toolkit for Patron-Centered Design could change how librarians respond to design thinking as a method they can use to improve their libraries.
What may have been off-putting in the past about design thinking from the librarian perspective is the possible association with business. It was perhaps perceived as a business driven process. Librarians and business don't always mix well. You know…libraries are not businesses and shouldn't be run like they are…resisting the corporatization of libraries. Whatever your position on that observation, let's agree that business can offer some potentially good ideas that librarians may want to adopt. While its true that many of the examples of what IDEO can do with design thinking have a business orientation to them (such as the shopping cart project), what IDEO is offering is unrelated to business. It's about design. The Toolkit makes clear that what really matters is the value of design in developing thoughtful solutions regardless of the environment in which it is applied.
There are three components to the toolkit.
The first document is the core component that goes into depth about what design thinking is and provides details on each phase of a design thinking process. What's presented here is slightly different than the key areas of design thinking one discovers in the video that covers the shopping cart project (empathize; information sharing; deep dive; prototype; evaluation). Rather, it is based on Tim Brown's classic article on design thinking that appeared in Harvard Business Review. That breaks design thinking down into three components: inspiration; ideation; iteration.
For those new to design thinking this will be of little consequence. Over the course of the toolkit, the reader is introduced to all these component parts in one way or another. What's great about the toolkit is the level of detail it provides on how to conduct the different parts of the design thinking process. Whether it's a brainstorm session or creating prototypes, there's practically a step-by-step approach to getting it done.
The second document is an activities workbook. This is chock full of resources that would be helpful to support a design thinking project. It's got worksheets for everything from icebreakers to creating prototypes to obtaining evaluation feedback. I wish I had this workbook the first time I tried a staff retreat based on design thinking practices.
The third document is a "quick guide" for those constrained by time (who among us isn't these days). It's a condensed version of the full blown toolkit. This might be useful for introducing colleagues to the ideas behind design thinking, but to really get a design thinking project underway, it will require a more serious investment of time – using the toolkit and activities workbook.
No doubt, with the growing popularity of ethnographic studies in academic libraries, some of the toolkit content will be familiar to librarians, but this new IDEO toolkit will really enable librarians who want to establish design challenges for themselves and their patrons to finally make great use of the design thinking process. While it may take some time for design thinking to enter into the mainstream of librarians' conversation, I think this guide will play a significant role in bringing more attention to the benefits of the design approach. I don't doubt that come a year a two from now, librarian conferences will be featuring more than a few presentations on design challenge projects.]]>
Here's a fairly common experience. You have a conversation with a colleague and you could swear that you remember sharing some important detail or update. When you see that person a week later and ask about the status of that request you mentioned, he has no recall of it. Did you forget to mention it or does your colleague have a bad memory?
You meet a fellow librarian at a conference and get to chatting. You recall a speaker from last year's conference and share something memorable you heard. Your friend thinks it was actually a different speaker who said that, and she remembers the point of the talk being somewhat different than your recollection. Someone's having an inaccurate memory of an event, but it is you, the friend or possibly both? If enough time has elapsed since the original event it's possible that our memory of what happened or what was said can grow a bit fuzzy.
We're constantly being flooded by new information and experiences, so it's reasonable to expect stored memories could become jumbled. Because our memory works in strange ways it's also possible that we remember things in a different way than the way they actually did happen. OUr mischievous brains also have the capacity to create entirely false memories – things that never happened or represent a significant reworking of what really happened. A common human experience indeed, and one that's a bit frightening when considering the damage that a severely manufactured memory can do.
For experience designers this presents a challenge. If one of the goals of designing experiences is to leave someone with a great memory of your library, the people they encountered and the great service they received, what's the point if we all have malfunctioning memories that either remember selectively at best or completely incorrectly at worst or even more bizarrely could construct an entirely false memory. How do you design an experience for that scenario? What may help is having a better understanding of how human memory works and whether there is a strategy for improving the odds that an experience will be remembered as accurately as possible – or at least the good parts.
So what do we do about designing memorable library experiences when we know memory is faulty? Some advice comes from Koen AT Claes in a blog post titled "Should We Focus on User Experience?". Claes acknowledges that the actual experience and the memory of that experience are two different things:
The inconvenience for UX is that all of our decisions are made based on memories. Unfortunately, UX design focuses on the experience part, while a great experience does not necessarily get remembered as such. UX design should be a function of the memories it creates.We should design for memories, but obviously we cannot design actual memories. We can only hope to imprint positive memories via the UX we design…Thinking back, we can never judge an experience, only the picture constructed by the bits we remember.
Does that mean it is pointless to create a great experience? Of course not, but it suggests that it is important to pay attention to designing for a memorable experience because in the long run the memory is likely to matter more than the actual experience…and thanks to our faulty memory that could be a problem.
Claes is unable to offer much in the way of specific advice or ideas for designing experiences that will find their way, wholly intact, into long-term memory. She recommends following the advice of Chip and Dan Heath from their book "Made to Stick" and the SUCCES model (Simple, Unexpected, Concrete, Credible, Emotional, Stories) as a strategy to create "sticky" experiences that have a better chance of making it into long-term memory. Unfortunately, as Claes puts it there is no easy way, no list of top things we can do to design experiences for better memories.
If Claes is correct about designing for memory rather than the actual experience, that may be somewhat liberating in that we might be able to worry less about the overall experiences we design for interaction with our library and focus more on creating a good memory. Perhaps that means focusing energy on the end of a transaction in order to have people leave with a good feeling, even if it does get a bit fuzzy over time. It may call for something particularly good or pleasant as people leave the library.
To be on the safe side though, I would continue to advocate for designing for totality. Make the entire library experience as good as it can be from start to finish, from the first touchpoint to the last. It's possible that much of a good library experience will end up jumbled, disjointed and mis-remembered. If we have done our experience design work well though, enough of the memory of the library experience should come through as a pleasant story with a good ending. All the more reason to avoid, at all costs, having community members leave on a sour note. Given our faulty memories, a bad experience, no matter how small a part of the total experience, is apt to be the dominant memory – and that's not good for us.
P.S. – If you'd like to learn more about false memories there is a good TED talk by psychologist Elizabeth Loftus, an expert on memory. She explains how we can remember something that did not happen to us or, more frequently, we simply forget the details of what actually happened and we construct an altered memory. Loftus has given expert witness testimony in dozens of criminal cases, and helped to win many of them by demonstrating the reliance on false memories to arrest individuals. If you need further convincing about the failings of human memory, watch this talk.]]>
I never thought I'd be writing a post that points to something McDonald's is doing, but I recently discovered they maintain an Innovation Center that allows the fast food company to study and potentially improve the McDonald's user experience. It's an idea worth exploring. I have had an occasional experience at McDonald's, usually when there are no other options. For example, two years ago I was visiting a library and needed to take a break for lunch. Given the location and the time available there was not much else to choose. I ordered a salad (pre-made) and a cup of coffee.
As one might expect the experience was about convenience, speed of delivery and low cost. The most significant barrier to having a good customer experience at McDonald's, I think – and there probably more than a few from which to choose – is the limited options and a "take it this way or go elsewhere" design. If I wanted a little milk for my coffee instead of the standard creamer packet I would need to buy a bottle of milk. For the customer, convenience comes at a cost.
Times have changed and McDonald's is struggling to grapple with its longest sales decline in company history.Competition on one end of the spectrum from cheaper fast-food restaurants and on the other end from healthier restaurant options is putting the squeeze on McDonald's profits. As many other organizations do, when competing on price or product alone isn't working, look to improve the experience. That's the gist of this article that was reprinted in Sunday newspapers around the country. To that end McDonald's has run an Innovation Center since 2001.
What's changed is that instead of simply finding ways to cut ten seconds off the time it takes to fry, package and deliver a burger, a diversified staff now works to improve the service experience. "The focus is really on what customers are looking for" said Melody Roberts, senior director of experience design innovation. I was looking for a small container of free milk for my coffee. Who knew that McDonald's employs a senior director of experience design?
What I thought was interesting about this article, and I'm sure McDonald's is not alone in developing such a facility, is the idea of creating an entire replica of the store and setting it up to maximize the testing of customer service options and the collection of data about customer experiences. Just imagine having the capacity to make on-the-fly modifications to experiment with a minor change and the ability to bring in real people, not paid actors, to engage with staff and the environment for the purpose of studying actual customer transactions.
Now imagine some type of design hub for libraries. What if we could create a working model of a library where we could invite in people to have service interactions, use the study spaces or work collaboratively, and openly capture information about how the library is being used. A lab-like setting could also allow for experimentation with new types of services. The people using the library could be instantly polled about their likes and dislikes, and we could ask them to try the service again after having made user-centered adjustments.
Harvard University operates the Library Innovation Lab, and the intent is to experiment with new ideas that could prove beneficial to libraries and their member communities. Most of the innovations tend to be technological in nature, such as new software to enhance the discovery process. It's a lab that experiments with innovations that could be useful to all types of libraries. Have the folks who run it ever thought about using it as a hub for researching the library user experience? I doubt it's set up to tackle that type of work.
Chicago's public library received a Gates Foundation grant to explore new innovations and configurations that would improve the library experience. The Next Library 2014 Conference invited librarians from around the globe to learn more about service innovation. These two efforts are steps in the right direction, but they fall short of providing the library profession with a true experience design hub. The value of these initiatives is that they demonstrate we can put resources into experimental labs where the outcomes can benefit all librarians, not just those working in a single sphere of the profession.
I'm not suggesting that creating such a hub would be an easy thing to do. Creating, organizing and staffing a mock library innovation and experience center would be no simple task. It would require some sort of national effort and funding to set up, staff and maintain the operation. Perhaps it could be set up within an existing library and staff from different regional libraries would be tapped to participate in various experiments and service testing.
What's learned could give librarians better insights into what community members are looking for from their library. That information could help libraries of all types to improve the customer experience, whether it was service at a desk, by virtual modes or through websites. Who knows what else could be accomplished with an experimental service design hub?
I would like to know what our community members' "milk container" request is. What's that minor but crucial element that could make the difference between a decent experience and a truly great one. Do we, as a profession, have the desire or grit to create a library experience design hub? I'd like to know what you think. Crazy idea or something worth pursuing?]]>
If you are a librarian who is embracing design as a methodology or strategy for giving your community members a better library experience, you owe it to yourself to spend sometime exploring IDEO's Design Kit. This totally free package of resources mixes text and video to deliver support and instruction to non-designers who want to incorporate design practices into their work. There are also ample case studies to help you understand how the design techniques are put into action.
I just finished reading Tom and David Kelley's latest book Creative Confidence – lots of great ideas and insight into what contributes to creativity – so I was curious to see what David Kelley had to say about creative confidence in under two minutes. Kelley's video introduction into methods for building your confidence in your own ability to be creative, did a fine job of sharing the book's key points – quickly. Every design kit video I watched was under two minutes.
One of the design processes that serves as the core of the kit is HCD – Human Centered Design – defined as a creative approach to problem solving that starts with people and ends with innovative solutions that meet their needs. It means designing from the perspective of the people you are trying to help. HCD consists of three phases: Inspiration; Ideation; Implementation.Libraries are getting into "making" activities in a big way and that's an important part of the HCD process because you have to make things – that's where prototyping comes in – to find out if the inspired ideas can lead to workable solutions. Above all, the people with the problem are the ones who have to embrace the solution. The important thing to know about HCD is that anyone can practice it. You don't need to be a designer. You just need to start with the people.
There's a lot to the toolkit site and you learn how to navigate it by poking around and exploring different areas. You might find it easiest to start with the three main areas: mindsets; methods; case studies. Drill down and explore in each one. This will give you a better idea of what the kit has to offer and how it's delivered. But no matter how you tackle it, you can't go wrong. No matter what path you follow in the toolkit you'll be gaining lots of new ideas to share with colleagues.
And if your HCD process takes you into some ethnographic research, well there's a new and free "Simple Introduction to the Practice of Ethnography and Guide to Ethnographic Field Notes It's a good starting point for familizing yourself with the practice of ethnography.]]>
More librarians are taking an interest in exploring how user experience design, coupled with a design thinking mindset, can help them deliver a better library experience to their community members. This is evidenced by the increase in libraries adding user experience librarian positions and even UX units, going beyond user satisfaction surveys and into ethnographic research to truly understand the library experience from the user perspective. There is also an increase in the number of librarians writing articles about UX and giving presentations on related topics. Expect to see more conferences and workshops based on UX themes. This trend is moving the library profession beyond perceiving UX only as a method to improve the online experience to acknowledging that it applies, perhaps more importantly, to the total library experience.
As they grow more interested in adopting UX approaches, I hope librarians will take time to read and understand how UX evolved into a recognized dimension of competition in multiple industries. For example, reading Pine and Gilmore's seminal work The Experience Economy, would offer perspective on how industry moved from competing on price and convenience to competing on the quality of the experience (e.g., convenience store coffee vs. starbucks). This demonstrated that people (not everyone but many) would be willing to pay a premium for a better experience – and that could be defined by taste, treatment, ambience, etc. The end result was to design an experience that exceeded expectations, created meaning and loyalty and gave the consumer a memorable experience that sparked the consumer's desire to repeat it.
We may now be moving beyond the experience economy into the "purist economy." Today, there are only a few industries exploring this territory and there are limited numbers of consumers who seek out this level of experience. More than a few experts believe that what is a small market today could be the next wave on which service and product industries compete, outdoing each other to deliver the purist possible experience. According to an article titled "Brewing the Perfect Cup" by Danielle Sacks in September 2014 issue of Fast Company, the third wave is a movement of purists who are committed to taking every part of an experience to the level of obsession with quality, uniqueness (not just being different – more than that) and quite possibly an elitism that sets the purist apart from the mere aficionado.
Just as Starbucks succeeded in moving coffee lovers from convenience store brands and office coffee pots to $4 expressos and frappucchinos, a new generation of firms want to tap into those coffee lovers and convert them into purists. One of those companies is called Joyride and its mission is to spread:
…coffee religion. It is one of a rising army of startups seizing on the financial opportunity to convert Keurig, Dunkin' Donuts, and Starbucks drinkers into coffee purists. Known as the Third Wave, this movement started a decade ago by a splinter group of true believers who approach every part of the coffee life cycle with meticulous obsession…a cup of black coffee so dimensional, they believe, that there's no need to pollute it with milk or sweeteners–and so valuable that it can earn a price tag as hefty as $7 a cup.
The article points to this as a growing food trend noting that "yogurt, chocolate, and juice have made this leap from commodity to mass delicacy". Want to offend a coffee purist? Put milk in your java. One purist likened it to putting ketchup on a steak. No wonder some coffee drinkers regard purists as elitists or snobs – but snobs who will pay an even higher premium for an even better experience. And as they have their third wave experience, purists are not apologetic. Rather, they revel in their enjoyment of a higher form of experience.
It's hard to predict if these third wave experiences will go mainstream or remain limited to a small cadre of purists. The firms bringing the products and services to the marketplace certainly hope they can convince coffee lovers to become purists who can tell the difference between obscure flavors with just a few sips of a black coffee. This movement, to my way of thinking, goes into territory beyond the superuser. The superuser is certainly passionate about a product, and can make the difference between its success or failure, but enjoying a product and discovering new ways to use it is not quite on the same as the purist's insistence on only the best and being willing to pay a significant premium to get it.
Offering a higher quality experience can also have the affect of turning a community member into a more passionate library user. There are examples from other service providers that benefit from designing experiences for the passionate people who really thrive on what is being offered – usually something that cannot be easily obtained through the Internet. It may be the person in your community who eagerly anticipates new and unique acquisitions, seeks out historic artifacts found in special collections and archives or who appreciates cultural programming. We lack the capacity to reach every person in our communities. It may be wise to avoid expending effort to attract those who will never connect with librarians or who may believe that libraries no longer offer value to the community. Passionate library user. Yes, we can reach them and design experiences to create a bond. Purist library user? While it would no doubt be advantageous to have a core of such committed supporters, it is also possible that an obsessive community member could have a much higher level of expectation – and demands – than most libraries could meet.
It will be interesting to see if the third wave experience has a significant impact on our coffee consumption behavior. If it does, and there is evidence that a segment of any market desires the purist experience, expect to see similar types of movements in other services and products. Before Starbucks none of us would have thought it possible that people would routinely go out of their way for coffee beverages at double or triple the price. Now no one thinks twice about it. Never underestimate the power of the human desire for unique and memorable experiences, and where it will lead.]]>
When Ranganathan stated his fourth law of library science, "Save the Time of the Reader" he probably did not intend for us to create a library experience that operates under the same principles as a fast food restaurant – whose fourth law just happens to be "Save the Time of the Eater".
What Ranganathan most likely intended was for us to be efficient and knowledgeable so as to avoid squandering the time of our community members, yet not be so overly hurried that we deliver a rushed and impersonalized interaction – one that might seem more at home at a fast food restaurant.
Ranganathan lived in a rather different world than our own. In 1931, when he developed his theory of the five laws, the world moved at a much slower pace. "Save the time of the reader" was an encouragement to be well organized and efficient so the reader would be able to efficiently access needed resources. We live in a world where people expect instant gratification, instant access and instant support. Their lack of tolerance for waiting almost demands that libraries are designed to save time.
Perhaps we ought to give this some thought. Maybe the library should look for exceptions to the fourth law. Quite possibly there are times when we should break the fourth law and do things to encourage users to expend and not save time.Libraries could offer a different experience that encourages slowing down, being leisurely – forgetting to check the clock for a while.
Researchers at the University of Toronto found that the presence (and patronage) of fast food restaurants can contribute to a heightened impatience and a lowered tolerance for waiting. Their experiments, which prompted participants just to think about or see reminders of fast food chains, revealed that these stimuli cause people to rush through their reading, express a desire for timesaving products and express less happiness from certain types of slow music. While acknowledging there are multiple factors in our lives that contribute to our impatience and need for speed, they believe we can take steps to improve our patience and appreciation for taking more time to savor life – such as avoiding stimuli like fast food joints or intentionally seeking out spaces or experiences that reward slowing down the pace.
It's been said that convenience trumps quality every time. That may explain why fast food restaurants stay in business. I'm not suggesting we can improve the library experience by making it inconvenient. I do believe there might be something of value in being the place in our communities where people can get that counter-stimulus, the one that contributes to an appreciation that it takes time and some effort to achieve high quality outcomes.
The library as the place that invites you to slow down and enjoy some browsing. Come in and talk to a librarian about your reading or research interests. Sit in on a lecture or book club discussion. Get absorbed in a new idea and immerse yourself in the literature. There will no doubt be times when efficiency and saving the time of the reader takes priority. I think we can aspire to be the place where there's more to life than getting the fast food treatment.
How about a library law for that? Give the reader quality time.]]>
One of the early design thinking influences for me and other librarians was the Maya Design Project for the Carnegie Libraries in Pittsburgh. In 2004 the Carnegie Library moved into some unprecendented territory when it hired Maya Design to totally rethink and redesign the library from the user experience perspective. This being the early days of the Blended Librarians Online Learning Community, we were tremendously interested in learning more about how design was being used as a technique to understand user needs and expectations, and how the design process was being applied to the work of reshaping that library.
We were also fascinated that non-librarians were invited to do all this work. That type of work would seemingly fall within the domain of librarian expertise. What did the designers know about libraries and those who used them? What special skills did they bring to the project? The answers came from Aradhana Goel, one of the MAYA Design experts leading the project. As our guest for a Blended Librarians webcast (unfortunately the archive is no longer available) Goel gave us some great insights into the design process as she shared some visuals and explained how the designers were taking a systematic design approach to understand the customer journey at Carnegie. We learned that designers like Goel didn't need to be library experts. They only needed to be experts in the design process and using it to improve the library experience. That said, Goel emphasized the importance of working closely with subject matter experts.
It was a great learning example to understand the value of design thinking for "reinventing the customer experience", as Carnegie Libraries described it. What if we could take what Maya Design did for just one library and instead ask a design firm to apply its design thinking process to the entire ecosystem of libraries. An interesting idea no doubt, but given the breadth and depth of that system, inclusive of all the different types of libraries and many different member communities it almost seems like an overwhelming and impossible project.
But according to an article in the New York Times about some recent projects by IDEO, the design industry's most globally recognized firm, there is a movement from designing specific products and services to tackling entire systems and re-designing them from the ground up. In this particular article, IDEO's work for a Peruvian entrepreneur to design a low-cost network of private schools is profiled. Though IDEO has experience in helping some health care and education organizations to re-design their operations for efficiency and a better user experience, the Peru project is far more ambitious in its scale. IDEO needed to design every component of the school system, from the buildings, to the classrooms to the teaching training and even what happens in the classrooms. In the three years since IDEO began the project, it now includes 23 schools.
It got me to thinking, what if IDEO was asked to build a library system from scratch, using no preconceived notions from the current system. Whatever it ended up being, I imagine it would probably be radically different from the way our libraries work now. Two things would happen at the start.
First, the team that IDEO would assemble to work on the project would have one librarian. Everyone else would represent different disciplines such as business, anthropology, marketing, engineering, health care and more. IDEO often brings together a truly diverse squad of individuals to bring many different perspectives to a project. One librarian would bring some expertise, but would eliminate preconceived notions about what the library should be or a host of reasons why certain things wouldn't work (e.g., "But how would we get the books back to the shelves…").
Second, the research process would be user centric. The team would probably have less interest in talking to the librarians, except as subject expertise is needed. They would primarily seek out individuals who use libraries as well as those who never do. Observation, conversation and journey mapping are techniques employed to gather data to inform a deep dive about library use. Out of that process would emerge ideas for a library system that would break the mold of the traditional model.
It's hard to imagine exactly what a design firm like IDEO would come up with for a completely new library system. Perhaps it would be less fragmented than our current structure, and we'd have public, academic and corporate libraries working more as a system, sharing resources and offering more interchangeable services. Library facilities might undergo some dramatic change in ways that would make them more intuitive to the community members and less reflective of librarian practices. IDEO might see a natural fit between libraries and publishing, thus encouraging more libraries to serve as vehicles for writing and publishing.
What I do know is that IDEO would spend time prototyping new versions of any library system they'd design, and that would give both librarians and community members the opportunity to weigh in on how well that system met their needs. While we may never find IDEO tackling the American library system, it is possible that we will see individual libraries connecting with design firms to guide them in totally rethinking what it means to deliver library services. Then again, what if IDEO taught librarians how to do their own systemic redesign? I think more us would discover that design thinking is a path to improving the quality of the library user experience. That would be rewarding for both librarians and their community members.]]>
In a previous post I wrote about appreciating getting personal attention in a retail setting, particularly when it was of the pre-emptive nature. Many retail stores are fine when it comes to good customer service, but too often I need to initiate the transaction by tracking down someone who can help me. It was quite a different experience to have a store employee go out of her way to help me get what I needed – without me asking for assistance – and to get me on my way quickly. I called this post "Greeters – NO; Pre-emptive Support – YES".
Not everyone agreed. There are some folks who prefer to be left alone to figure out things on their own. They may actively avoid store employees – and they certainly hope there's no door greeter. I can understand how that can be a turnoff for some folks, but I can support delivering a more pre-emptive support approach in a library. More than a few libraries have sent their staff out roaming the facility for that exact reason – to be visible and available to help and to be proactive in asking community members if they need assistance. It's not uncommon to have student workers wear vests or other objects so that people will ask them for help.
But it could be that too much pre-emptive support is not necessarily better. At least that's how Teppi Jacobsen sees it. In a post over at When You Put It That Way Jacobsen share a recent experience shopping at Target – and it wasn't the good kind of experience. She's a loyal Target customer, but her last visit has her thinking differently about their relationship. The problem in a nutshell – too much pre-emptive support. Everywhere she turned in the store another customer associate asked her if she needed help finding something or if she was doing all right. Eventually it put her over the edge:
I still love you Target. But if you don't stop having your people hassle us with that ridiculous question over and over, I may have to shop somewhere else with awful customer service, just to be left alone.
It's a good point and one we all need to keep in mind when it comes to experience design. Too much of a good thing is not so good for the community member. Perhaps the best way to avoid this type of attention overkill is to centralize the point of pre-emptive support. Perhaps it only happens at the entrance or at strategic points on other floors, such as near a stairwell that leads to a service zone. Staff could communicate about strategies for approaching community members, but doing so in a way that avoids the type of pushy, poor customer service that Jacobsen experienced.
It's probably more so the case in our libraries that we pay too little attention to individuals who may be in need of help but won't ask for help for any number of reasons. Being pre-emptive can also mean improving the design of signage to improve wayfinding or doing customer journey analysis to identify and eliminate barriers that cause patron confusion. A better designed library experience is quite likely to cut down on the need to constantly ask if help is needed – and if people are able to navigate the library on their own it won't be.
Whichever strategies we employ to help the confused or lost community members to find what they do want, let's bear in mind what may have annoyed Jacobsen the most. It was more than just the number of times she was asked if help was needed. It was the distinct impression that the store personnel who were asking the question really didn't care whether or not she was finding what she needed, but were only doing so because they were told by managers to keep doing it or because they were bored. That's a trap we want to avoid. When we do offer help it's important to make a sincere effort. When we fail at it, they will know.]]>
Velveeta cheese has hardcore users? Who knew? In an age when consumers are focusing on natural and organic products I would have thought that Kraft's Velveeta processed cheese would be struggling to keep it's place in the dairy section. While you can forget about finding Velvetta at Whole Foods, the reality is that the product is not only still found on supermarket shelves, but thanks to Velveeta lovers, it is in demand. Few cheese products can in fact claim to have caused a "Cheesepocalypse".
It wasn't always that way. As consumers began to show a preference for natural and organic foods, the trend suggested a processed cheese like Velvetta had a shaky future. When Kraft, owners of Velveeta, conducted consumer research they found that the majority of Velveeta buyers purchase it once or twice a year. They discovered something else – that only ten percent of their buyers accounted for forty to fifty percent of Velvetta sales. The individuals in this much smaller, yet active cohort were called "superconsumers". In their article "Make Your Best Customers Even Better", the authors state that a superconsumer is defined:
by both economics and attitude: They are a subset of heavy users who are highly engaged with a category and a brand. They are especially interested in innovative uses for the product and in new variations on it. They aren't particularly price sensitive. Superconsumers tend to have more occasions and "jobs" for a product.
My key takeaway is that understanding superconsumers makes for a big change in the way we think about marketing our services. The conventional thinking is that to be successful we need to keep expanding our services to the non-user, light user or lapsed user. How can we get them to see how great our product or service is? Those who advocate identifying superconsumers and concentrating on them believe success is achievable by finding ways to appeal to these incredibly loyal customers – who are typically demanding more new resources and services. Once the superconsumers are identified, it is easier to connect with them, build a stronger relationship and encourage them to make more use of the library (and share their love of the library with others).
Consider a new approach many academic librarians are trying, the personal librarian. This requires a considerable investment in making contact with every incoming freshmen and possibly transfer students as well. The point is to provide academic support to a new student who is rather unfamiliar with the library services, but it's also an opportunity to convert some new students in to regular library users. Perhaps that investment would be better applied to identifying library superusers and giving them more personal service. Done well,that might lead to the superconsumers communicating the library story to the new folks on campus.
So how would a library identify its superusers? What are their characteristics, and what distinguishes them from the "heavy user"? It's about more than quantity. Heavy users may come through the door every day or they might borrow large numbers of books, but that alone may not qualify them as superusers. What differentiates superusers could be:
* variety of the resources and services they use
* willingness to try new services
* they love to tell other people to use the library
* they have an emotional attachment to the library
* have built a relationship with a library worker
* would be angered if we eliminated a service
I'm not sure if these are the right ones, but I believe they suggest we would need to do some new assessment and analysis of our community members to identify the users who demonstrate one or more of these characteristics. Superconsumers, once identified and contacted, are more open to giving permission to the company to send e-mail or text messages. Kraft found it much easier and more economical to just focus on their superconsumers rather than trying to reach everyone. As I've written before, no library is ever going to connect with every member of the community – just as Kraft knows not everyone wants to eat Velveeta. The superconsumer strategy may be a better way to engage existing passionate users and encourage them to make even more use of the library.
As the authors suggest, a library can do well by showering those who love the library the most with more attention and caring.]]>


text:
beautyberry seeds
dclegg_gwNovember 1, 2012
Anyone have any purple beautyberry seeds you would like to sell or trade? Thanks
Chemocurl zn5b/6a Indiana(zone 5/6)
Hi dclegg,
I'm sorry, but buying and selling isn't permitted on GW.
As suggested above, you might want to try trading for some at The Seed Exchange which is quite active.
I'd suggest you first get set up for trading though by setting up your Member Page email link so that you can easily be reached for trading. See link below. Also you can either set up your member trade list (instructions also in the link below) or else list what you have available for trade in your trade post there.
Here is a link that might be useful: addressing newbie and newer member issues


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