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The crop insurance program is now the centerpiece of the U.S. agriculture safety net.
Below are some of the most common questions about crop insurance, which farmers have called their most important risk management tool. The answers to each, including useful links to additional information, are just a click away. If you still cannot find what you are looking for, feel free to contact Laurie Langstraat at (913) 685-2767 or contact here.
What is crop insurance?
There are two types of crop insurance. First, U.S. multi-peril crop insurance is a risk management tool that producers purchase to protect against the loss of their crops due to natural disasters such as hail, drought, freezes, floods, fire, insects, disease and wildlife, or the loss of revenue due to a decline in price. Crop insurance is federally supported and regulated and is sold and serviced by private-sector crop insurance companies and agents. In 2015, 1.2 million polices were sold protecting more than 120 different crops covering 285 million acres, an area larger than Texas and California combined, with an insured value of $102 billion.
Second, Crop-Hail policies, which are not part of the Federal Crop Insurance Program, are sold by private insurers to farmers and regulated by individual state insurance departments. Many farmers purchase Crop-Hail coverage because hail has the unique ability to totally destroy a significant part of a planted field while leaving the rest undamaged. In areas of the country where hail is a frequent event, farmers often purchase a Crop-Hail policy to protect high-yielding crops. In 2015, Crop-Hail liability was $37 billion, and premium was $977 million.
The Federal program came to prominence following years of costly, inefficient ad hoc disaster bills as a way to speed assistance to farmers when they need it most, while reducing taxpayer risk exposure. Today, crop insurance is the main risk management tool of farmers and ranchers.
To read more about the history of crop insurance, click here.
See a video overview of crop insurance here.
Read more about crop insurance in general here.
How does crop insurance benefit the public?
Not only does agriculture feed and clothe us all, but the food and fiber system accounts for roughly 15 percent of the U.S. economy. Therefore, it is in the public interest to have a financially stable agricultural sector that produces the nation's safe and affordable food and fiber supply and supports the rural economy. That necessitates the presence of a publicly-supported safety net for farmers, who increasingly face variable weather patterns that challenge the food production system. In the United States, this safety net is crop insurance, whose need was most recently demonstrated by floods and drought in 2011 and the widespread drought of 2012.
Crop insurance is the primary risk management tool farmers use to financially recover from natural disasters and volatile market fluctuations; pay their bankers, fertilizer suppliers, equipment providers and landlords; purchase their production inputs for the next season; and give them the confidence to make longer term investments that will increase their production efficiency. Without effective and affordable crop insurance, catastrophic production losses would sap the rural economy by setting in motion a series of harmful events: farm failures and consolidation, job losses, farm-related small business failures, financial stress on rural banks and reduced investment in U.S. agriculture. A financially healthy rural economy requires a financially healthy farm production sector.
Furthermore, by 2050, the United Nations projects a 34 percent increase in global population and a 70 percent increase in demand for food. As the number of consumers expands globally and the climate continues to exhibit more intense weather events, there will be increasing pressure on the global food production system.
In the United States, the ability for farmers to purchase crop insurance is this nation's "insurance policy" against disruption and financial instability in the food production sector. Crop insurance is also critical in helping new and beginning farmers obtain credit and enter farming and become the next generation of producers that meet the growing global food and energy needs. The 2014 Farm Bill strengthened provisions for new and beginning farmers by providing them with an additional 10 percent premium discount and allowing them to use higher average yields until their own actual yields are available.
Watch a video that explains why Congress turned to crop insurance as the foundation of the farm safety net.
How does crop insurance benefit taxpayers?
Crop insurance is an effective taxpayer investment that helps ensure the stability of America's food, feed, fiber and fuel producers and promotes rural economic growth.
Absent crop insurance, the cost of natural disasters that cripple America's farmers would fall directly on the laps of taxpayers, which happened repeatedly before the widespread use and availability of crop insurance. In fact, 42 emergency disaster bills in agriculture have cost taxpayers $70 billion since 1989, according to the Congressional Research Service.
The 2014 Farm Bill cemented crop insurance as the cornerstone of farm policy. Under this policy, farmers shoulder a portion of the risk along with private-sector crop insurance companies. Unlike the past, farmers must first purchase crop insurance — putting "skin in the game" — before being protected, and must shoulder a portion of the losses through deductibles. This ensures that farmers are active participants in risk management and that taxpayers are not being asked to bear all the burden of natural disasters in farming.
Congress eliminated direct payments and has moved farm support from traditional price support programs towards private sector-delivered crop insurance. The net effect has been a downward trend in farm safety net spending.
What is the role of the Federal government in crop insurance?
Congress created and provides funding for the modern-day crop insurance system through the Federal Crop Insurance Corporation (FCIC) as a way to help farmers manage the risks of natural disasters and market fluctuations. The activities of FCIC are carried out by the Risk Management Agency (RMA) of USDA. Lawmakers intended for the system to largely replace the need for ad hoc disaster legislation, thereby helping to shelter taxpayers from the full costs of agricultural disasters and avoiding the need to enact new disaster assistance following every major disaster.
To this end, FCIC/RMA sets program standards, approves new products, sets premium rates and discounts farmer premiums. The Federal government further makes crop insurance affordable for farmers by offsetting delivery costs that would otherwise be built into the premium. However, this Administrative and Operating (A&O) delivery cost reimbursement to the companies does not fully cover their actual delivery expenses. The Federal government also reinsures the crop insurance companies (known as approved insurance providers, or AIPs) through the Standard Reinsurance Agreement (SRA). The reinsurance involves the government and the companies sharing in the underwriting gains and losses of the program.
Thanks to the success and effectiveness of crop insurance, there have not been any widespread calls for ad hoc crop disaster bills over the past several years, despite 2011 and 2012 being two of the worst weather years on record. By comparison, 42 emergency disaster bills in agriculture have cost taxpayers $70 billion since 1989, according to the Congressional Research Service.
What is the role of the private-sector crop insurance companies?
The private-sector crop insurance companies employ agents and loss adjusters who sell policies to farmers and determine the extent of losses, collect premiums and pay claims. The crop insurance companies also share in the underwriting gains and losses of the program. In good years, the government collects a portion of the underwriting gains and in bad years the private sector absorbs a share of the losses, thus reducing taxpayer exposure.
The companies employ more than 20,000 licensed agents, certified loss adjusters and company staff. (For more information on the role agents play, click here.) Furthermore, companies invest heavily in technology, infrastructure efficiency, training programs and service improvements for farmers and ranchers.
Beyond fulfilling their delivery and service obligations, insurers have contributed to improving the program by providing input and feedback on the implementation of ever-changing rules and policies.
Farmers benefit from private-sector efficiency, which speeds payments when needed most, and taxpayers benefit from reduced overhead costs and strict procedures to combat waste, fraud and abuse. View a video on private sector efficiency here.
For example, in 2011, farmers in Texas received $2.6 billion in indemnities due mostly to drought. Of this, more than $1.3 billion was paid by mid-September of that year. During the 2012 devastating drought, USDA Under Secretary Michael Scuse traveled across rural America and gave farmers his business cards with the instruction to call if there were any problems or concerns about crop insurance or the speed of assistance delivery.
"I have yet to have a single producer call me with a complaint about crop insurance," he said. "That is a testament to just how well agents, adjusters, the companies, and Risk Management Agency (RMA) worked together in one of the worst droughts in the history of this nation."
Watch a video that discusses why affordability, availability and viability of crop insurance are so crucial.
Is crop insurance like other forms of insurance?
What makes Federal crop insurance unique from other insurance products is that companies involved in selling Federal crop insurance must sell a policy to any farmer at the premium rate set in advance by the Federal government. Crop insurance companies cannot refuse to provide protection, raise the premium rate or impose special underwriting standards on any individual producer, regardless of risk.
View a video overview of crop insurance here.
This is not the only example where the Federal government has stepped into the insurance markets to ensure wider availability of insurance for those who live, or work, in harm's way. One of the largest programs is the National Flood Insurance Program, which provides coverage for flooding that historically was often unaffordable or not available through private companies without government support.
Similar to the flood insurance program, crop insurance is sold, administered and delivered by the private sector, taking advantage of the efficiencies and speed of the competitive market to get claims processed and paid after disaster strikes.
Although the Federal government has been involved in crop insurance since 1938, it was not until Congress decided to use private-sector delivery with incentivized sales and reduced the cost of farmer premiums that crop insurance became as widespread as it is today. Insured acreage rose from 206 million in 2000 to 285 million in 2015, equaling approximately 90 percent of the U.S. cropland planted in 2015.
Get more information on crop insurance here.
What is the crop insurance program's record on waste, fraud and abuse?
The structure of crop insurance is such that companies have dollars at risk on every policy and are thus financially incentivized to reduce fraudulent claims. The industry has extensive training and education efforts including a certified loss adjuster proficiency program in which all adjusters must participate.
Because program integrity is vital for continued public support, fighting fraud, waste and abuse is a key priority for the industry and the USDA through the Risk Management Agency (RMA) and the Farm Service Agency (FSA). There are numerous monitoring, review, audit and other oversight requirements in the Standard Reinsurance Agreement (SRA). The private-sector crop insurance industry and RMA have fought to minimize fraud and have implemented effective and unprecedented measures to deter and identify false claims. The program has been a pioneer in the use of data mining, conducting thousands of reviews of claims data to ensure a high level of program integrity.
Quoting from RMA's previous Administrator William Murphy's 2011 Congressional testimony, "RMA continues to make significant progress in preempting fraud, waste and abuse through the expanded use of data mining. ARPA (Agriculture Risk and Protection Act) directed RMA to employ data mining technologies to program compliance and integrity efforts, and provided the funding necessary to support these activities.
"ARPA also provided a role for FSA to assist RMA in further program compliance and integrity. RMA subsequently entered into a contract with the Center for Agribusiness Excellence (CAE) at Tarleton State University to develop and maintain appropriate data warehousing and data mining capabilities. Annually, CAE produces a spot-check list of producers engaging in questionable behaviors which is provided to FSA for further investigation. With the assistance of FSA offices, RMA and the insurance companies conduct growing season spot checks to ensure that claims for losses are legitimate.
Brandon Willis, current Administrator of USDA's Risk Management Agency, which manages the Federal Crop Insurance Program, has said "The Federal Crop Insurance Program is a central component of our nation's farm safety net, and when one farmer takes advantage of that system, all farmers are hurt. To preserve the safety net for honest, hard-working farmers, the Risk Management Agency actively works to decrease fraud, waste and abuse in the Federal Crop Insurance Program."
What is the Improper Payment Rate for crop insurance and what does it mean?
An improper payment occurs when funds go to the wrong recipient, the right recipient receives the incorrect amount of funds (including overpayments and underpayments), documentation is not available to support a payment, or the recipient uses funds in an improper manner. When improper payments are identified, they must be corrected. For example, if a producer receives an indemnity payment that is too high, the excess must be returned.
The government reporting website states the following: "Not all improper payments are fraud (an intentional misuse of funds). The vast majority of improper payments are due to unintentional errors. For example, an error may occur because a program does not have documentation to support a beneficiary's eligibility for a benefit, or an eligible beneficiary receives a payment that is too high—or too low—due to a data entry mistake. Also, many of the overpayments are payments that may have been proper, but were labeled improper due to a lack of documentation confirming payment accuracy. We believe that if agencies had this documentation, it would show that many of these overpayments were actually proper…"
The Risk Management Agency (RMA) estimates and reports improper payment rates for the Federal Crop Insurance Corporation Program. RMA reported an improper payment rate of 2.20 percent for FY 2015, decreasing by more than 50 percent from 2014.
Read more on the background and issues pertaining to improper payments here, beginning on page 198.
Why is private-sector delivery important and why is it considered a strength of crop insurance?
Private-sector delivery is a chief strength of crop insurance because time is of the essence when a major loss occurs. Even during the government shutdown in 2013, the private sector continued to pay indemnities to farmers, ensuring that they recovered from their losses.
Government-run programs of the past were notoriously slow in their ability to deliver payments to farmers, often taking as long as 18 months to two years after a disaster for help to finally arrive.
Crop insurance, on the other hand, is a highly dynamic program, which is closely tailored to each producer's operation and can only be successfully managed and delivered by the private sector. The private sector has also proven that it can deliver assistance into the hands of farmers usually within weeks of the claim being finalized. That is why farmers, and farm groups, have made crop insurance one of their top priorities in the Farm Bill.
Critics have advocated government takeover of crop insurance delivery, which was soundly rejected by lawmakers, Administration officials and farm leaders.
Does crop insurance have a role to play in the climate change debate?
Absolutely. The years 2011 and 2012 were among the most costly ever for U.S. agriculture due to extreme weather.
Regardless of one's opinion of the climate change issue, there is no disagreeing that farmers are dealing with unusual weather events. At a minimum, climate change is projected to introduce a whole new level of uncertainty into production agriculture, bringing periods of more intense heat or cold, abnormally high or low moisture and altered weather patterns.
Crop insurance will play a critical role in helping America's farmers face this uncertainty by enabling them to better deal with climate change and to rebound from its extremes. A financially sound, affordable and universally available crop insurance program helps ensure that as global income, population and urbanization expand, America's farmers have the resources and capacity to meet the increase in both domestic and foreign demands on food, feed, fuel and fiber.
William Hohenstein, director of USDA's Climate Change Program Office, noted, "…agriculture has been and will continue to be significantly affected by changes in climate conditions." Hohenstein pointed out that USDA released a climate change effects and adaptation report in 2013. "There's a lot of potential for the crop insurance program to help make farmers more resilient to [climate] change by addressing risk," he said.


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subset: commoncrawl


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Serena and Venus Williams remain on course for a third straight meeting in a Wimbledon final. The sisters advanced in similar fashion Monday, beating hard-hitting opponents in two tight sets.
Serena continues her march Tuesday against China's Li Na in the pick of the quarterfinals, while Venus meets Bulgarian upstart Tsvetana Pironkova. Pironkova and Petra Kvitova make their Grand Slam quarterfinal debuts.
Serena Williams (1) versus Li Na (9)
Li is in good form, having won a Wimbledon tuneup in Birmingham and eliminating Poland's Agnieszka Radwanska (a particularly tough opponent on grass) with ease in the fourth round. Li's power baseline game can trouble anyone.
Serena needs no convincing.
"She always gives me a run for my money," said the world No. 1.
Serena leads 4-1 in their head-to-heads, although all five encounters have been close. The last three sets between the pair, January's Australian Open semifinal included, have gone to tiebreaks. Serena's serve was the difference, and she has produced a generous 39 aces the previous two matches.
Prediction: Williams in three.
Venus Williams (2) versus Tsvetana Pironkova
Venus won't be taking Pironkova lightly, either. At the 2006 Australian Open, the Bulgarian beat Venus 9-7 in the third set.
Pironkova crushes the ball almost as hard as anyone from the baseline, and should be higher than her current ranking of 82nd. She's still struggling with consistency.
"She's talented and she can beat some top players every now and then," Venus said. "So I have to be on the watch for that, continue to play my game as I am now."
Venus stuttered slightly in the fourth round against Aussie Jarmila Groth, who possesses a game reminiscent of Pironkova's. Twice Groth failed to serve out the second set.
Prediction: Williams in three.
Kim Clijsters (8) versus Vera Zvonareva (21)
Clijsters turned it around before it was too late against fellow Belgian Justine Henin in the fourth round, eking ahead 13-12 in their head-to-heads. In winning the second and third sets, Clijsters served well, was consistently good from the baseline and put away comfortable volleys.
The win must have done loads for her confidence, because Henin had won five straight against Clijsters in majors.
Zvonareva reached her first Wimbledon quarterfinal when Jelena Jankovic retired because of a knee injury, trailing by a set and 3-0. What a surprise. The only reason the Russian drifted out of the top 10 was because of an ankle injury sustained last year. Zvonareva is trying to overturn an 0-5 record against Clijsters.
Prediction: Clijsters in two.
Petra Kvitova versus Kaia Kanepi
No one possibly could have predicted this quarterfinal. Kvitova, a lefty from the Czech Republic and ranked No. 62, entered Wimbledon on a three-match losing streak.
Kanepi, a big right-hander from Estonia, boosted her ranking from outside the top 100 to its current spot of 80th thanks to better results the last 1½ months.
Kvitova trounced fourth-ranked Caroline Wozniacki in 45 minutes in the fourth round, and Kanepi, a qualifier, eased past Kvitova's fellow Czech, Klara Zakopalova, in routine fashion, 6-2, 6-4.
Kvitova trails their head-to-heads 2-1.
Prediction: Kanepi in three.


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Triple Rock manager Kermit Carter moving on, Turf's Ryan O'Rourke coming in
This lover of TV personality cardboard cutouts is cutting out from Triple Rock.
Triple Rock Social Club manager and talent buyer and cracker of jokes Kermit Carter announced today that he is moving on. Carter's new gig will be booking shows and assisting at Mystic Lake Casino's smaller stage. After six years at the West Bank rock club, this guy who will be missed even more than Free Bacon Wednesdays, which were discontinued back in July. When reached by Gimme Noise, Carter confirmed that the bacon change had nothing to do with his decision.
On a day already filled with local venue discussion following Turf Club's sale to First Avenue and the recent announcement that the Artists' Quarter is closing, there has been a lot of upheaval of late. And this shift brings another club titan into Minneapolis too.
See Also: First Avenue to buy and take over Turf Club
Long-time Turf Club booker Ryan O'Rourke has confirmed he is taking over as head of booking at Triple Rock. Hell's Kitchen vet Mike Siddell is also booking shows there. Dave Welte is taking over daytime management. According to First Ave's Nate Kranz, this move will mean that they will absorb O'Rourke's responsibilities at Turf. "If we need more people, we'll have to go out and find somebody," he says.
Meanwhile, Zombie Pub Crawl is Carter's last hurrah at Triple Rock and then he's heading to work at Mystic Lake on Monday, October 21.
Here is his farewell message from Facebook:
Afternoon friends! Just wanted to publicly say thank you to the ownership, management and staff of one of the greatest rock and roll clubs in the country. Thank you Triple Rock Social Club for making me laugh, cry, love and experience more life than I thought I could handle. Thank you to all of the bands, agents and managers for making this job something bigger than just a job and allowing to me to have a hand in helping you achieve your goals. Thank you to all of the beer and booze folks that have tried to sell me stuff, but then ultimately became people that I looked forward to seeing on a regular basis. It has been a fun ride, but I will be getting on another roller coaster soon and I am excited about the future. I have interacted with so many incredible people over the years that it is a bit overwhelming for me as I look back. Thanks to all who have helped me along the way. I will see you all soon I am sure.
Thanks and love! Kermit
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Capital Markets
Company Overview of Atlas Holdings LLC
Company Overview
100 Northfield Street
Greenwich, CT 06830
United States
Founded in 2002
Key Executives for Atlas Holdings LLC
Atlas Holdings LLC Key Developments
Atlas Holdings LLC announced that Cheri Reeve has been appointed Chief Financial Officer. In her new role, Ms. Reeve will have senior responsibility for all finance functions of Atlas Holdings and its related entities, including Atlas Funds and associated investment vehicles. Ms. Reeve most recently served as Vice President of Finance at Atlas. She joined the firm in 2010 after serving in senior financial roles with the Commonfund.
Atlas Holdings LLC has no plan for further acquisitions but it will continue to evaluate bolt-on purchases.
On January 1, 2015, Atlas Holdings LLC launched Aludium - its newest operating company with the acquisition of rolling mills in Spain and France from Alcoa. Included in the transaction are mills located in Amorebieta and Alicante (Spain) and Castelsarrasin (France), as well as the Cindal research and development facility in Alicante. Aludium will be led by Chief Executive Officer Arnaud de Weert, an experienced aluminium industry executive, who previously served as President of Novelis Europe and COO of Constellium. Arnaud will work closely with Ruano, who is responsible for Aludium's day-to-day operations. Formerly Operations Director-Europe for Alcoa's European rolling mills, Ruano has more than a decade of experience leading aluminium production facilities, including the three mills that comprise Aludium.
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Home > News > Press Releases > Crozer-Keystone Health System to Host a Holiday Toy Drive to Benefit Delaware County Families
Published on November 09, 2012
This holiday season, Crozer-Keystone Health System will host a Holiday Toy Drive to help less-fortunate families in DelawareCounty. From Nov. 26 to Dec.14, members of the community are invited to contribute new, unwrapped toys at Crozer-Keystone hospitals. All donations go to the Community Action Agency of Delaware County, which means every toy donated will be benefit a local family.
If you would like to make a donation, toys can be dropped off in the marked bins located at the following locations:
We are looking for new, unwrapped toys. The toys will be donated to children under 15 years old. Some possible gift ideas for children in this age range include/are as follows:
Established in 1990, Crozer-Keystone Health System is the largest employer and provider of health-care services in DelawareCounty. The system comprises five hospitals as well as a network of primary care and specialty practices and the Healthplex® Sports Club Call 1-800-CK-HEALH (1-800-254-3258) or visit www.crozerkeystone.org for more information.
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Suite 300
Havertown, PA 19083
eNewsletters from Crozer-Keystone Health System help keep you up-to-date on your health and well being. View recent editions or sign up to receive our free eNewsletters.


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Zooblebee - Transformers by technodrumguyWatch
©2011-2016 technodrumguy
I took my eldest two daughters (8 & 4) to McDonalds for lunch one Saturday and in their Happy Meals they had Zooble's. While they were playing I couldn't help but notice one of the two they received kind of looked like the newer version of Bumblebee (Yes I collect Transformers)...so i bought one before we left and decided to give it a paint job.
Here are the results.
Thanks for looking!
Here are the results.
Thanks for looking!


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Friday, October 10, 2008
3 comments
Belly shot! Ha ha ha!
Ok...just a quick update...I havn't been around forever, but thought I'd do a quick update on my pregger status!
I'm at 32.5 weeks! Only about 8 weeks to go for full term...woohooo!
As you can see....I havn... Read more
Tuesday, July 22, 2008
7 comments
My baby is the length of a carrot right now. I love that. I bought carrots at the grocery store today and just had to stare at one for a minute.
We also finally got our scale unpacked...discovered it had been destroyed in the move so boug... Read more
Sunday, July 06, 2008
3 comments
I have been seriously MIA from Sparkpeople for the past couple of months....
1. We finally moved and I'm in Arizona now! Been here for 5 days...still don't have a place to live, but I'm hoping that is remedied on Monday when we sign a lea... Read more
Sunday, May 25, 2008
4 comments
Or at least checking out these mega sturgeons at the fish hatchery. We took a day to go see all the cool fishies....it made me long for summer sun and water...pools...waterfalls, sprinklers....
But not swimsuits. Bleah...my belly is alrea... Read more
Monday, May 05, 2008
3 comments
Its been one of those weeks that remind you why you should be thankful and grateful for all the good luck, karma, blessings, happy dust...whatever you believe in that brings good things to life.
Just last week I was in tears (hormones??) ov... Read more
Friday, April 25, 2008
13 comments
Oh my...yesterday I got confirmation of something I'd suspected for the last little while...
Holy Cow....8 weeks and 4 days along as of today. what great and exciting news for me! My DH and I were a little surprised ... Read more
Friday, April 18, 2008
6 comments
I have an announcement to make...
I know...try and keep the tears of joy from dripping into your computer keyboard. I'm sure many of you are thinking, "How fantastic that t... Read more
Monday, March 31, 2008
3 comments
It began today. And thank goodness it has! I'm finally (mostly) over this awful cold and I feel a ton better. The bad news is that my weight increased by 2.5 pounds today....
Since yesterday.
But, I'm weighing in for my PINK TEAM! ... Read more
Sunday, March 30, 2008
1 comments
What an awful last few days.
I was sooo sick. I don't even know where it came from, but it hit suddenly and sent me straight to bed. Probably didn't help that I've been working lots of hours and pretty stressed out.
So, this weekend ... Read more
Thursday, March 27, 2008
5 comments
I feel like junk. Tired. Congested. Ugh.
Thats all I have to say about that.... Read more
Tuesday, March 25, 2008
3 comments
I went off track...maintained for the last few months and now I'm putting myself back on track...picking up the same habits that I did when I first started this process.
Its TOUGH.
I'm feeling hungry and a little grumpy. I feel withdr... Read more
Wednesday, March 19, 2008
10 comments
Why does life get so crazy when you are ready to get going again. I am taking a break...not from exercising and nutrition (although that has naturally happened) but from stress. I cannot handle the stress that I am feeling lately...its work...... Read more
Monday, February 25, 2008
7 comments
I'm back.
What a SLUMP I've been in. I'm lucky I didn't gain back 5 pounds. I logged on today to put in my ZERO pound loss AGAIN. And it made me mad.
Why am I being so whimpy right now? Why when the going got tough did I get th... Read more
Monday, February 11, 2008
7 comments
I'm feeling awful whiney today. I feel grumpy that I didn't lose any pounds. I feel loaded up with spinach salads. I feel snarly about having to exercise still today.
I'm in a very WHY ME mood. Why am I the one to get fat? Why does ice... Read more
Monday, February 04, 2008
4 comments
I need a cool tattoo like that. :)
Ok...seriously...I actually lost more than a 0 point something number this week! I was so excited! It started to show up last Friday and I prayed to the scale gods that it would stay that way until my M... Read more


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Kai Ken Puppies For Sale
Home » Dogs » Kai Ken Puppies For Sale
Puppies Available! Simply request Pet Breeders contact you promptly! Breeders will email or call you with specific breed information and available pets and prices. Request Kai Ken Puppy Information
Also known as Kai Inu, Tora Inu or Tiger Dog, these dogs have existed since medieval times in the mountainous regions of Japan and were designated a natural monument in 1934 due in part to the work of a dedicated breeder, Mr. Haruo. These are one person dogs, rather recalcitrant and headstrong, and are the least responsive of all the Japanese breeds. They make good watchdogs. Coat colors are black/brindle and red/brindle. Groom daily to keep the coat in great condition. These dogs weigh 35 to 40 lbs. and stand 18 to 23" at the shoulders. Contact the dog breeders below for your next family friend.
Ask us how many people looked for this Dog Breed in the last 30 days. (541) 476-2105


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Monday, January 31, 2011
6 comments
I'm starting to get more focus on what I want to accomplish. For the month of February, I've decided to do the following. It's a short month, so if it doesn't work out, I'm not committed for too long!
1) Eat 'vegetarian' until 6PM. While... Read more
Sunday, January 30, 2011
3 comments
I was thinking about it yesterday, and I'm going to change my fitness minutes to 60 minutes per day. Previously, I was planning on doing 30 minutes per day.
Back when I moved to Seattle and was losing weight, I rode my bike 1 hour after ... Read more
Saturday, January 29, 2011
4 comments
I recently bumped into some photos my best friend posted of me right before I moved to Seattle. We made this big road trip from Denver to Seattle. Apparently she took some pictures I had forgotten about.
I was shocked.
Read more
Friday, January 28, 2011
1 comments
I receive a lot of great comments on my food/cooking blogs, so I've decided to take another swing at making a food blog! I'll still keep blogging my fitness and health goals on Spark, but I'm moving my recipes off to my new blog: shortc... Read more
Thursday, January 27, 2011
2 comments
Wednesday, January 26, 2011
6 comments
Often when reading the message boards, you'll find posts from frustrated Sparkers with comments like this:
"I hate my skinny friend. She eats whatever she wants, and never gains weight."
"I hate going to the gym because of all the ski... Read more
Tuesday, January 25, 2011
4 comments
Monday, January 24, 2011
9 comments
The holidays were not good to me. I'm pretty much glad they are over, and I'm looking forward to a clean slate with the new year.
Between holiday food, holiday depression, general depression, and just plain lack of motivation, I've discove... Read more
Tuesday, January 18, 2011
2 comments
When I say 'Ramen Noodles", what do you think of?
Did you think of this?
Ramen noodles is the 'national food' of Japan. It's healthy, and delicious.
... Read more
Sunday, December 12, 2010
3 comments
Easy. Fast. Not two words that are usually combined with "lasagna".
Many of us have the stereotypical image of the Italian mother/grandmother simmering sauces and taking all day (and all the dishes in the house) to make lasagna. Most of ... Read more
Tuesday, November 02, 2010
3 comments
Sometimes I think back on my old life, and I just shake my head in disbelief. I didn't know how to cook for the longest time because I had this image in my head of cooking taking a long time and a lot of preparation.
There certainly are me... Read more
Friday, October 15, 2010
6 comments
Thursday, October 14, 2010
8 comments
Ever heard the saying? There's a step before this.
Give a cat a bath and it will put you in the hospital.
I'm not one of those people that gives cats baths regularly. Neither of us particularly enjoy the task very much. So I only do... Read more
Wednesday, October 13, 2010
3 comments
Tuesday, October 12, 2010
9 comments
Yesterday, I noted how much healthier a French/Spanish diet is compared to the US. Today I'm going to talk about the similarities with the country that is very similar to us with our obesity crisis: England.
Culture wise, I think Canadians... Read more


text:
Isis Browser Code Released
The Isis Project has released the source code for the Isis Browser, a core application of HP's webOS platform.
According to the developer blog, webOS requires a fast, standards-compliant web browser engine to provide the core of the standalone browser and the rendering technology for the platform and its apps. Thus, the developers chose QtWebKit to power webOS. The blog states that WebKit is also the point of integration between the underlying System Manager, which will be open sourced later this year, and the web rendering layer of webOS.
According to the blog, the developers have benchmarked the new Isis webOS browser and have found it to be extremely responsive compared with other browsers made for general consumption. Isis Browser is compatible with HP TouchPad devices running webOS 3.0.5. It supports HTML5 and CSS3 as well as legacy products like Adobe Flash and Netscape Plug-in API (NPAPI) plugins to allow them to run in non-X11 environments.
The source code for the Isis Browser stack, QtWebKit, and Qt 4.8 is available on GitHub and is distributed under the Apache license. Project information and the technical documentation for this release can be found on GitHub and the project website at http://isis-project.org/.
Issue 25: Raspberry Pi Handbook 4th Ed./Special Editions
Buy this issue as a PDF
Microsoft Visual Studio Code v1.0 is available for Linux!
Linux users can now download and install the Windows code editor
Open Container Initiative announces Image Format Project
New initiative will address security and interoperability concerns around container technology.
Red Hat Lures Developers with Free RHEL and Container Development Kits
Developers can use RHEL as a development platform without a subscription fee.
Microsoft Brings the Linux Command Line to Windows
Windows users will soon have native access to the Bash shell.
Internet Research Group Proposes Better Email Standard
Improvements to SMTP will provide better guarantee of confidentiality
New Nvidia Driver Offers Wayland Support
Graphics vendor embraces new reality in Linux graphics
Inventor of Email Dies
Pioneer Ray Tomlinson bequeathed the @ sign to billions of Internet users
Microsoft Announces Linux Version of SQL Server
Redmond says its classic database tool will run without Windows
Strange New Attack Lets an Intruder Gain Access Through a Mouse Dongle
New intrusion technique affects most non-Bluetooth wireless mice
GDP-ivi: Linux Platform May One Day Drive Your Car
GENIVI Alliance announces the release of the first beta of the GENIVI Demo Platform ivi9.


text:
Online Exclusive: The Extended Glen Taylor Interview
As the Minnesota Timberwolves plunge into the 2006-07 regular season this week at Target Center, fans' enthusiasm for the team is at its lowest point in over a decade. And small wonder. Over the past two years, the Wolves have plummeted from a playoff berth in the Western Conference finals to the second-worst record in the conference, a span that saw their win total drop from 58 to 44 to 33. During this freefall, there have been numerous calls for the firing of the Wolves' personnel director Kevin McHale, and even some talk of unloading the franchise superstar Kevin Garnett in order to rebuild the team from scratch.
The tenures of both McHale and Garnett coincide almost exactly with the period during which Mankato businessman Glen Taylor has owned the franchise. Whatever one thinks of the job Taylor has done, he has always been forthright with the fans and the media, and he has been willing to put his money where his mouth is when it comes to improving the ballclub.
Two weeks ago, I went down to the headquarters of the Taylor Corporation in Mankato and spoke with Taylor for nearly two hours. It was a remarkably candid conversation even by Glen Taylor's standards.
City Pages: How is owning the Timberwolves different from your other businesses, and how is it the same?
Glen Taylor: What I think is different—in my experience owning the Timberwolves, I see it as being like the time that I spent in the Legislature, though that wasn't "business" in one sense. It's so very public. And everything that you do is known by everyone. I think in politics I did a pretty good job of being realistic and saying, well, this is really what happened, this is why I did this and that. I have found in politics that just telling the truth, even if the people don't like to hear it, has always been the best.
The other businesses that I'm in are all private businesses, which allow us to make decisions and then have time to [watch them] play out. And internally we have to recognize doing good or making a mistake, but it's an internal thing and it's much easier to do. It's among friends, and it's just much more comfortable. When I got involved in basketball, the part that is like politics is that you're running a business and though it's a private business in one sense, the public, your fans, kind of see it as their company or their team. In that sense, I think—I'm not saying it was a shocker, I understand it, but my experience in politics has prepared me for how open you have to be. The Timberwolves are not near as big as a lot of my other businesses. But in the eyes of the public, it's one of the main companies out of Minnesota.
CP: Is there a corporate culture that's the same for the Timberwolves as in your other businesses?
Taylor: The corporate culture in the basketball part, I would say, is different. Because first of all, I deal with a lot of contracts, even with my coaches and the management people. In our [other] businesses, I really don't have contracts. We hire people, we sort of assume they're going to stay with us and work with us. If they get a better job, we understand why they would leave. In the basketball part, there's a couple of things. There's number one, the players and the agents. And on some issues you can't talk to your employees, you gotta talk to their agents. And it's interesting how different players use that. Some players feel very comfortable in talking to Glen Taylor directly. Some players do not feel comfortable. So they talk to their agent who doesn't talk to me, who would talk to the coach or talk to McHale or somebody else even first.
And so, by the time I get the information on a situation, it's probably at least third-hand. And for me that's always difficult. Am I making the right decision based on the right information? Because I'm not even sure I got the right information. The other thing in basketball that's definitely different is that you commit to salaries and you're gonna pay the salary over five years or three years no matter what the performance is. All the other businesses that I have been in, you give a salary to do a basic job and if the person is in the position to make more profits, you bonus them. But it's only based upon what they do.
CP: I think a lot of people were surprised—I was surprised—that you didn't fire Kevin McHale this year. Did it ever enter your mind? What kind of conversation did you have with him at the end of the year?
Taylor: But if I fired Kevin, that would have to be [because] I had a plan to end up with something better. If I knew of changes that I could make, that would make us better, would I hesitate to [fire McHale]? I wouldn't, because I have fairly compensated Kevin and all that, and Kevin would not make an issue of leaving, I don't think. That's not the problem. I guess I would just say to the public, at the time last year, I didn't know of a person—and we have had different people that have asked for that job—I didn't see a person that I thought would do the job better than Kevin.
We're addressing that issue a little bit by bringing back some people and picking up the staff. Now let me just say, let's talk about Kevin a little bit. You have to remember it isn't like Kevin came and begged me for the job. I took over a franchise very quickly, and we had a problem with the team. I knew Kevin's name, didn't really know him personally. I came down and asked Kevin, could he help me in the basketball things? He said to me, Glen, that's not what I do. I don't even know if I could do that. And I said, well, but you do know how to play basketball, you've seen how to win, you knew those things. I know the business part, so let me try to help you with the business part.
But Kevin was very realistic up front in saying, "Okay, I'm growing a family. I earned my money already. I have some priorities, this isn't like I'm doing this for money now." So you understand, and he says, "You know, I love to hunt. I love to fish. I love some other things." I mean, he was always up front with all of those things. He didn't want to do basketball and give up those other things in his life. So it's not like he said, "I'm going to work 80 hours a week, or 70, or 45 hours a week."
In turn, I didn't give him two years to train him or anything. It was on-the-job training. Quite frankly, things went pretty well. But we started with a team that had been run poorly. We took a big risk—which I have always let McHale make—on drafting Garnett. That paid off. We took a risk on Stephon [Marbury]. I can't be critical of Kevin [McHale] for that. It didn't work out, but I absolutely don't know what he could have done to change that environment. I personally met with Stephon, I personally met with his agent, and was just told it didn't have anything to do with Kevin. Stephon was going to go to New York no matter what we did. It forced us into a number of trades that have not worked out well for us.
So one might say, with [Terrell] Brandon, for example, "Well, geez, Kevin, that sure didn't work out very well. But that trade was done in a short period of time, kind of based upon, "oh, cripes, everything else is falling out, this is the only thing on the market." And I'm not sure that would go down as a bad trade, except that [Brandon] got injured and the guy just didn't seem to know how to handle the injury.
There are certain individuals—like, you know, we lost Rasho [Nestoveric]. Had not planned that. I guess I have never said this before, but I will be very blunt about that—Rasho only left because of [former coach] Flip [Saunders]. He liked Kevin, he liked me, he personally met with me. If we would have traded the coach, he would have stayed. But he did not like how he was treated by Flip. Rasho said number one he, he wanted somebody with more discipline, he wanted somebody with more consistency, he didn't see this coach was doing that. He was told that if he went down to San Antonio, he would get that. Now I don't think it's worked out so well down there. But I was talking about Kevin [McHale]. I don't know what I can say about Kevin on that particular trade—we lost a center that Kevin went out and helped recruit, brought here, helped train, all that stuff.
I can tell you that Chauncey [Billups] left not because of Kevin but because of Flip. Now, have we said that? We didn't want to say that about Flip because he was here at the time. But I think since then it's been stated that Kevin asked me if I would pay for Chauncey. I said I would. Kevin said he would, went to Chauncey, Chauncey said he would stay, because we were going to offer him the same [money] as Detroit. But then Chauncey went to Flip and said, would you play me, and Flip—I'm not saying that Flip said the wrong answer, but he said, "I'm not sure that I think that you're our starting guard." Chauncey then went back to Kevin, and Kevin says, basically, we're going to be truthful. Kevin could have said to Chauncey, "oh, we're gonna start you." And I know some GMs do that stuff. Then they get the player but they have an unhappy player. But Kevin doesn't do that.
So, you know, we've lost some good people, but Kevin's kind of taking the fall on these things, and personally I know that that hasn't been the case.
CP: But more recently, you've had a situation where you have more contracts tied up through 2009-10 outside of Garnett, than almost every other team in the NBA. And a lot of those deals—Mark Blount, Marko Jarich, Trenton Hassell, Troy Hudson—are ones where you have extended the time and money commitment without improving the team.
Taylor: Should we walk through some?
CP: Sure.
Taylor: Okay. So we went out and brought in Sam [Cassell] and Latrell [Sprewell]. Big decision on our parts because it was big bucks. But I paid it. That was a big gamble. But Kevin gave me the information—well, let's just say he sold me on it. Whatever. I went along with it.
CP: And with good reason.
Taylor: But there is a story. Here's two guys, they're characters, but for one of the first times in the history of our business, we are bringing some guys on the team who are a little inconsistent with the way that Kevin would bring them in. His feeling after talking to them was, they're getting toward the end of their careers, and maybe they will do more "we" than "me" just because they have the chance to win. They had told him, yes, we're changing, this will [work].
And quite frankly, it worked out for one year. I mean, it fit exactly with Kevin's plan. The second year was just a disaster, because Sam started out saying I want a contract. And I wanted a contract. I said, Sam you got two more years [on your current deal]—play one more year, and we'll do that. And he says, I want the contract now. And I said basically, no, no, play another year. I don't mind giving you a contract with one year to go. But, you know, play it. And he eventually came down, after talking to his agent and Kevin, and personally met with me. We went away with a deal—talked to his agent about it and everything—so he says, do I have your word that next year you will talk about a contract after the year?
I said, you have my word. I'm not putting anything in writing, but you have my word that that's what I'm going to do. Well, he didn't show up for camp the very next day. He went back on his word. Now, Latrell sort of did the same thing. Kevin did offer him a contract. Quite frankly, it was fortunate he didn't take it. [laughs] But I mean, he said, Kevin actually gave him probably a million dollars in an offer each year more than he should have offered. Maybe three million more than he should have. But Latrell said he wanted $12 million or $11 million [a year], something like that. We were [offering] $6 or $7 million.
His comment about "feeding my family" wasn't really the issue with me. That was just—that was a bad thing. What was worse was that he said, "Well, then, maybe I shouldn't play so hard" or something like that.
CP: I think it was, "Why would I want to help this team win?"
Taylor: Yeah. That I took issue with. And I would add, so you know, that he got a letter from me personally saying that, if that's the thing, you and I got big trouble because I'm not paying you. I basically said that. Now, in fact, he probably showed me up, because he didn't play three-quarters speed. [He played full-speed.] But he never said that again.
Okay. Troy Hudson. Again, I would just say the negotiations did not go well. We should have gotten them done sooner. We could have got it done at less money.
CP: Why did you give in and leave out any injury clause on that Hudson contract? That was the final sticking point in your negotiations, and it turned out to be crucial.
Taylor: Because the NBA wouldn't let us.
CP: Wouldn't let you do a clause that said we will pay you only if you don't get injured?
Taylor: Yeah.
CP: Why? Because it was against the collective bargaining agreement?
Taylor: Yeah. And our problem was that we had promised him some [incentive] money, and that was the condition when we sent it to the league. We tried every way we could to get around it. Nobody has ever asked me that before about that contract, but it was one of those things where we offered him more than we would have offered him because of the [injury] conditions we'd put in there. And then, as it ended up, we lost [the injury clause] when we sent it to the league.
But let's be honest here. You could say, "Glen, maybe you should have checked it out earlier." And I would say, yes, I didn't check earlier because I thought they wouldn't have proposed it unless they thought that this was a legitimate [provision]. It certainly sounded reasonable to me. I didn't see why the league wouldn't do it. But I'll say again that maybe we should have checked that out before we go out and make an offer.
CP: Did you ever have the option of bailing on the offer?
Taylor: I suppose at the end, we could have walked away and backed out on our word. We haven't done that to players. When the league said "you can do it this way, but you can't do it that way," I guess we could have said at that time, we are withdrawing our offer.
So we ended up with the contract. And if he had been healthy, nobody would have noticed. Quite frankly, he has not worked out and we don't have insurance on him. It is the worst of all worlds. We have to pay him even though he has been hurt.
CP: Let's talk about Marko Jaric.
Taylor: Yeah, that's a different deal. So Sam has got to go at that point. I would have gotten rid of him no matter what. But I think we had other players [we could have acquired for Cassell]. But [McHale] really wanted this guy Jaric. Kevin and the staff, and, as it ended up, the coach.
CP: If I remember right, Casey thought Jaric would help build the defensive identity he wanted for the team.
Taylor: Yeah. And I would just say that they sold me. I had seen him play before and I didn't see quite what they saw. But they were saying, "Gee, the guy is 6-7 and he can play all these positions, and boy, wait until the fans see him." Here's what I would say to our fans on that: Let us see what happens this year and judge that. Because whatever we did last year, we really messed up.
And actually [he] is a player who comes and talks to me, so I can tell you what I know about him. Number one, he was really eager to come here. He would do anything the coach asked of him. I don't know that he wanted to play point guard nor did he think he should be playing there. But this is just a guy who won't back off, and if he is told to do that, he does that. I think, as we all saw, he got exposed. The opponents realized that, "If we put a little fast guy in there, it kills their whole defense."
Because we built a defense around pushing guys certain ways, and we put in a guard who couldn't do that. So all of a sudden Garnett's got to do it differently and Trenton's got to do it differently, and no one is doing their job anymore. It not only kills your defense, but there is a breakdown between the players because they aren't trusting each other on defense anymore. You lose a little trust in a guy, and pretty soon you start questioning the guy.
And all of a sudden, that whole thing started to break down. Now talking to Marko and kind of asking him after the fact, he said, "You know, I came in, I didn't say anything, I was willing to do it. I'm going to go back and look at it." He said, "I worked so hard that summer. I came here so enthused starting out. And it was just like I hit a wall." He said, "It had never happened to me before, but I just hit a wall. I am tearing after these guards and my mind was like just trying to keep up with it. I had never been there before."
And then he lost confidence in himself, and everyone lost confidence in him. And so then you say, "Gee, you gave a number one draft choice and Cassell for this guy?"
CP: What about the deal with Boston? Because I heard different things. I heard Banks was the key to it. Some people were saying the key was Ricky Davis because of his quickness and his ability to play defense and get up and down the floor on offense. But the one that really got to me is that you were trading a center who had an expiring contract, Michael Olowakandi, for a center who has a lot of money owed him for a lot of years down the road, Mark Blount. And Blount's skill set is such that it seems you are going to be asking Kevin Garnett to do a lot of the dirty work of rebounding and interior defense.
Taylor: Yeah, I would say that the trade with Boston was pretty complicated. Even the reasons for doing it.
CP: You mean the friction between Garnett and Szczerbiak?
Taylor: I'm just saying there was probably more to it that had to do with Wally that we have chosen not to talk about—that Kevin has never said and we have never said. I am just going to say that no matter what I say, people are going to deny it. But I would say some things came to a head that forced us to get into something we didn't necessarily want to do. I think it would have been pretty dangerous for Kevin McHale not to do the trade. That kind of thing. And that's all I'll say about that.
You also had Michael, and the Michael thing was festering on the team. It wasn't that Michael went up and down [in his on-court performance]. It was that Michael... Very seldom do you see someone with such poor relationships with the other players, and I am saying all of them. It was just that they could not feel he was a team player.
What we were dealing with, with a new coach, was probably some potential problems in the locker room. And I think we were forced to go out and get the deal we got. It is a little bit like, after you got that deal, you have to go out and manufacture the positives of the deal. So that's why you heard a number of things.
CP: So the deal was more about erasing negatives that creating positives?
Taylor: When we started out. Okay. Ricky [Davis] is a person McHale has always liked. This is not the first time he has tried to get Ricky. He's different from Wally, but I don't know that we dropped down there. We got a lower contract and Wally's contract was going to create a big problem for us later on. And the relationship in the locker room was way better. So we had the [approval] of our players and all that. If we could have done [Szczerbiak-for-Davis] straight up, that would have been a deal. But to get rid of Michael, we had to take Mark. It isn't that we didn't like Mark and didn't want Mark. He's a good player and not a bad guy. But the pay isn't right. And we really had, at one time, what we thought was a third-team option that could be worked out.
CP: So all those rumors about turning around and trading Banks right away were accurate?
Taylor: Yeah, all those were out there. But they all fell apart. And so then it was, should we do the [main Boston] deal or not do the deal? Let me talk for a minute about Mark. Good character. Probably what we were concerned about was, did he have a poor work ethic? We checked with a lot of people, and most of the people said it's not his work ethic. He'll do what you ask him to do, but he is what he is. So I think McHale understood all that.
Again this is the question: Can you use Mark and Kevin [Garnett] without hurting Kevin? Is there a way to bring Mark out [away from the basket] that can open up things for Kevin to do some things? Part of our answer was that Eddie [Griffin] could do all that dirty work. At the time, you could lay out a good scenario that Eddie can do this and that. So you do the trade.
CP: So Eddie was behaving himself around the time of the Boston trade?
Taylor: Yeah, we thought. At that time I thought he still had the confidence of the coaches. So when we did the trade, we still think Eddie is in the picture. Now we knew that Eddie should have had his eyes fixed and there is a problem with his shooting. But we were basically telling him, Eddie, just rebound.
CP: Exactly. You don't want him shooting anyway.
Taylor: Now somehow, when we bring in Mark, Eddie is disappointed that he's not the starting center, that Mark is the starting center, and Eddie thinks he's being replaced and backs off. And the coach gets disappointed in Eddie. The coach doesn't play him anymore, and the whole thing just goes to heck. I think we know without speaking, everybody knows this, that Eddie has to be really careful not to drink. If he doesn't drink, then things are good. But I think that caused a lot of problems. We've also always known that Eddie is a person who has to be very close to the coach. When he came here, it was said very well that Eddie needs support. He is not one of those guys who could care less what people think, like Latrell Sprewell can care less. It rolled off his back. But then there are people like Eddie, and we have others like him on our team...
CP: Who need to be bucked up?
Taylor: Yup. We know that. And once that happened, we turned to Mark Madsen, who is an altogether different player.
And then what happened on Banks was, we had a chance to trade him. But then a player on the team we were making the trade with got injured and they had to keep the player we were going to get. So they came back and said, would you wait a month to do the trade? We didn't see any problem with that, because of course we had a chance to try out Banks. So we put Banks in and I think we saw some really good things and we knew that he might be our best option for the next year. So we decided we'd better play him out, get him good, get him ready in case he was our best option [for 2006-07].
So that was Banks.
CP: [THIS FIRST SENTENCE OF Q: HUH?] It what you don't have now that was important to you and people aren't talking about that. I understand your explanation. But on that score, Rex Chapman is gone now. He was involved in that locker room stuff that happened right around that same time. Did that have anything to do with it, or was it strictly a Kevin and Wally thing for that intervention?
Taylor: That is an area I'd just as soon not comment on. I want to tell the fans as much as I can, I think you can see that. But I also think there are certain things that have happened that I don't think are in anybody's interest to talk about because it will only hurt someone. I will say to you that the trade of Wally—because the question was we need to look at Kevin [McHale]—that Kevin making this trade, part of it was because of the dynamics that just happened, that Kevin saw that, "Okay I probably have to go and do some changes here." I am willing to say that yes, there were some dynamics that happened that I would prefer hadn't happened, and it was a situation where I never really personally got close enough to find out what exactly happened with this or that. And I did hear about it and it was sort of exposed, and now you have to deal with it. And I'd rather not get into the personalities but there were some things that happened in the last year's change-over that maybe wouldn't have happened if we'd had a seasoned coach. But we had a new coach and he was under pressure at that time to win.
CP: On that subject, there are a lot of people who view the arrival of Randy Wittman as the hiring of a coach-in-waiting, so that if you're not happy with the way Coach Casey takes the team this year, then Randy will take over.
Taylor: Yeah, that's an interesting thing, because we thought of that before. Dwane was going to bring in some people, we knew that. And that scared me a little bit. But we didn't want to tell him who to bring in. It was to our advantage that Dwane went out and recruited Randy Wittman!
I really like Randy, we know Randy, and Randy is really good. So I know why you are asking the question. And I said, "Geez, Casey, I'm really happy. You could have picked this guy or that guy and you picked Randy." And then Randy calls. He's thought of the same thing too, and he called me personally and said, "Listen, if I am coming up there to replace Casey, and that's the deal, I'm not coming." He said, "I am going to be in this league too long, everybody will know that, and you are not doing me a favor, Glen, if that is the deal." And I said to him, "It isn't any deal. Casey is the one picking you. He is the one interviewing you. I would love for you to come, but you talk to Casey and you make your decision."
CP: That says something about Casey.
Taylor: And it says something about Randy too. He was saying, I am here only if I can help Casey become a winning coach. I will get my opportunities either way.
CP: On a related matter, somebody might also look at Freddie Hoiberg and say that you are grooming him for the general manager's job if McHale doesn't work out or decides to leave.
Taylor: And when we look back over Kevin and his time here, as I said to you, we didn't have a person to bring in and replace him. So let's be realistic: Do I criticize Kevin for that, or do I criticize myself? So now I am working through this situation. Again, had we planned on Freddie? No. Were there other people around the league who wanted to come here [and possibly be groomed to replace McHale]? Yeah. But would they have worked out? No, not with my personality and the way we run things.
But all of a sudden the situation landed the way it did with Freddie. It wasn't his intent. I made the decision. Kevin didn't even make the decision that Freddie wasn't going to play anymore [after receiving a pacemaker for his heart during the off-season in 2005]. I made that decision. I didn't even ask Kevin; I told Kevin. I had a heart thing, and I know what happens. I am very competitive and I know Freddie is very competitive. I know what's right and that is, we are not going to put the pressure on him. We are going to pay him all his money.
We were paying him his money, and he was free to go on to another team if he ever got healthy. I wasn't trying to save any money on Fred. It was just the right thing to do. And as it worked out, it was really the right thing to do. I didn't know he wasn't going to get well and come back in three months and play. But it worked out.
When Freddie said he wasn't going to play anymore, I said, "You'd really go back to coaching? How about staying with us instead?" And he said, "Doing what?" And I said, "Grooming you for something." But I want to do it different than with Kevin. Kevin, I just threw in.
I said, "I could have made it like, if I wanted Kevin to be gone, I could say I'm bringing in Freddie." But for my fans and for the organization, I don't think that would have been the right thing to do. I am in this for the long run. To me, it is like, "Bring in Freddie. And bring in some other support." So we brought Rob Babcock back. Why? Because Rob probably helped Kevin on a number of things. Kevin used Rob. Where Kevin is visionary, Rob is thorough; he is Mr. Write Everything Down and make sure nothing goes wrong. And when they were together before, that was a good team.
Freddie will have to learn the business side. I'm going to have him learn from Chris Wright about the business side. It is going to take me a little longer, but I am grooming him, and I think someday he is interested in being the GM. I don't think there is any question as to why Freddie is doing this; it is not to be the assistant GM or the scout. And I don't even think it is to be the coach at this point. So I think Freddie has made up his mind that someday he wants to be an executive in the NBA. We are grooming him. If he ends up with some other company or some other team, so be it. I would still do it for Freddie and I would still do it for our team. I also know that Freddie likes to live in Minnesota, that he's got family here and that he had a chance to go with the Clippers and he chose not to go with the Clippers and he stayed with us for less money. So I'm just being practical in saying, well, where do you think this is going?
So I am saying to our fans, yeah it is easy for you to say, go out and get somebody else. But I think teams just do that, they just change, and you aren't any better than you were before. But McHale absolutely had no problem—as a matter of fact, it's the opposite—McHale is not afraid to have somebody around to replace him. He doesn't need the job.
I will say this: Kevin has devoted more time and energy this last year knowing where the team is. He has gone out on more scouting trips. In the long run it isn't where he wants to go, but he is doing that anyway. But I have to have a better staff. Not to be critical, but maybe I should say, Kevin should have built a better staff around him. I think I can be critical of Kevin for that. But also, maybe I, Glen Taylor, who is supposed to know business, should have known better and gotten him more help. This is why Glen is not as critical of Kevin as others on the outside, because he has been all alone. Rob Babcock could have stayed here probably, but I helped Rob get the [general manager's] job up in Toronto.
So things could be different a year or two from now. What we are doing with Freddie, number one, we have done a lot better job of giving responsibility to a number of people.
CP: So you are saying that there is more discussion and that Kevin is delegating more?
Taylor: Yup. So I am saying to our fans: Maybe it would feel good to some people to get rid of Kevin. I don't personally believe it would have made that much difference to our team. I think we could have brought in another GM and he could have changed and rearranged our whole team and then we'd have to go through three or four years of building. Kevin McHale said we should try and build a good team around Garnett and put forth the money and the resources to do that, and I agreed with him. And we are doing that. He laid out a plan, and what he said was, "It's the guard, it's the guard, it's the guard." We had Banks. We didn't think we were going to get [Mike] James. We put him on our map, but we thought he was going to go to the [Houston] Rockets. Garnett got involved in that, the best he ever has. I got involved, and I am more involved now in recruiting.
CP: Garnett's involvement in getting Mike James was the best he's ever put forth for this team?
Taylor: Yes. But we talked. We handled it a little differently. I told him beforehand what the plan was, and you can see that Garnett is different this year. He's come in and he's very positive. He said, what's the plan? And I said this is the plan. And after I got done talking to Mike James, I went to Kevin [Garnett] and said Kevin, would you call him and see what you think? I want to make sure because this is what I hear and this is what I think. And he came back [after talking to James] and said, "Geez, this is good." We're not talking about basketball so much as the ability to lead, confidence, and some of the other things Kevin wants out of the team.
And that's what he was afraid of about Banks. He knew Banks was athletic, but he was saying, "When we get to the end of the game, it is going to be me. But with James, he can probably get the ball into my hands or into Ricky's hands, or most likely he'll take the shot just like Sam took the shot. I liked those days when I had three options." And so he has confidence that James will take the shot if he's open, he has confidence that James will get him the ball into his hands, and he has confidence that James can get the ball into Ricky's hands. So Kevin [Garnett] helped on getting James.
And then we ended up with Randy Foye [in the college draft], and that's who the guys really wanted. So then the Banks deal wasn't really needed. McHale had talked to Garnett and said, what do you really want? And Garnett said, I want an experienced guard. I have done the best when Sam was here, and with an experienced guard, I am a better player.
CP: Are you involving Garnett more? Because one of the things Garnett used to say that puzzled me was, "They don't talk to me."
Taylor: I and Kevin have both involved him more. I have always talked to him. But the relationship has changed. In the past, he wanted a lot of times to be in the conversation and wanted the information, but he didn't feel confident enough to say, this is what I want.
CP: So he didn't want the responsibility?
Taylor: Well, it just didn't go that way. I don't know what his reasons were. But this year was different. There was no question: He was very clear on what he thought he could do and what he could do. And he took way more time and was way more patient in listening to McHale, because I sat in on that. He listened to McHale, he heard McHale and what the plan was, and his questions were different, they were more directed. I just saw him as more deeply involved in the plan. And because of that, we got him more involved. He made the commitment that, okay I will get into doing certain things this year. I will take the guys out for lunch [on a regular basis during off season workouts], I will bring the guys into practice. But you've got to get a guard then. Get me the guard. And he also wanted a strong [big] guy. And I'm not sure we got that. He wanted two things; the guard and the strong guy, the banger. And we may have the strong guy in [second round draft pick] Craig Smith, but we didn't get the veteran guy.
We are trying to put all the tools together. We've asked Ricky [Davis] defensively—he has got to be better at that. The coaches are seeing to that, and that is the coach's responsibility, not Kevin's. And so far Ricky is giving all the right answers, but we'll see. He hasn't always been the best defensive guy for us. But I also see that Garnett has gotten himself way closer to Ricky, and I think that peer pressures are probably as good as any for players.
CP: Let's back up a little. Kevin Garnett has always been regarded as a great team player. But there have been situations when a hard decision was required, and the franchise player—who is obviously a compelling force in the whole equation—would say, "It doesn't involve me," or "I am not involved in that decision." What I am hearing you say now is that Kevin has a more tangible leadership responsibility.
Taylor: Yeah, I'd really prefer that you ask that question of him. But that's my observation of him.
CP: But you guys have always been close.
Taylor: Yes, and so let me see if I can address why I am saying that. The meetings that we had with McHale and with the coach that I sat in on, I've seen it there. What he has done and communicated this summer, and how he has communicated back after the James thing. He not only talked to James but called me back right after talking to James and told me what he thought. He said he was happy with James. So there have been those little extra things he is doing. I think part of that is just recognition. I think Kevin has always wanted to be a leader and has been a leader. But I think the recognition of how to be a leader has been growing with him. It is maturity. If you ask me, it is age, being married, that kind of characteristics of maturity that you see happen in other people is happening to him.
I think we saw it in the camp. We had our own [off-season training] camp, and Kevin spoke to the team. He did it differently than I have seen him do it before, what he said and how he said it. It certainly was different than last year, way different than last year.
CP: The Cassell and Sprewell situation still left a bad taste in his mouth.
Taylor: Last year, yes. And then last year, I think if Kevin had had his druthers, I think he would have liked if we had gotten a coach—he didn't have a name in mind—who maybe had coached ten years, a coach he had confidence in. He didn't know Casey, he didn't know what to expect. He had always had Flip, and he was thinking, gosh, what is he going to do? I can see this year that he knows Casey, and Kevin has always reacted with more comfort to stuff that he knows. This year I see him asking Casey all kinds of questions: We did it this way last year, why are we doing it this way this year? That kind of stuff. And he used to do that stuff with Flip. So there was a lot of new stuff and a lot of the guys were gone last year. All of a sudden he was the leader, and what does that all mean?
CP: If Kevin ever decided he wanted to leave, would you try and make that happen? Or, if despite the best efforts of you, Kevin, and Kevin McHale, this team is not performing well with the core you have, would you ever consider moving Kevin without his asking?
Taylor: I don't think it will happen either of those ways. I think the way it would happen is more like the second thing: We have surrounded Kevin with players we want and that he thinks he wants—not 100 percent, but as much as we can—and for some reason, it doesn't work. That's how I think it would come, and I think then we would come to a mutual conclusion.
I don't know who would come to the other first. But let's say I went and said, Kevin, we are not doing well. I think Kevin would then say, Well, with my salary and my deal we are not going to win here. I want to go where I have a chance to win. Would you trade me? Or I might say to Kevin, Kevin, you can stay here, but I've got to bring in young guys. Do you want to stay here? And my guess would be that he wouldn't really want to go through that.
But I think it is a mutual thing. We've been together so long that I don't think he is going to independently come to me and say, Glen I want to leave. I think he would have done it by now if he wanted to do that, and he has never done that. He has always said, and we have said, I want to play with you my whole life and I hope we are together and we have a good team. And we both have said, Yeah, but that means we both have to believe we are going to win. So I think there could be a scenario [where he leaves], but I don't think it will be because Kevin puts pressure on me or that I would blindside him. If it happens, it will be because we talk to each other and say, you know, it isn't going so good this year. I think we need to sit down at the end of the year and talk. And I think we would both know what we are going to talk about. That is how my relationship works with him.
People say, "Just trade Kevin." But the possibility of trading him to a team that could win is not easy. He knows that, too. If he became a free agent, the only teams he could sign up with are very poor teams, probably not as good as the Timberwolves. So it has to be a thing that is good for him and good for me. You'd have to sit down together and he would have to say, Yes I am willing to do it. I will give you time to negotiate a deal. These are the teams I would go to. And that list couldn't be too limited, and would have to be very private, or we wouldn't be able to negotiate a good deal. Then we would have to negotiate a deal that was good for us—a couple of young players and a couple of draft picks, so we could build a team around [that trade].
Right now we've got Shaddy [Rashad McCants] and we've got Foye, and they are players you could potentially build a team around, depending on how they develop.
CP: How crucial is this season for this franchise? You guys have been on a path. Almost since you took over ownership of the team, it has been the three of you—you, Kevin McHale and Kevin Garnett. And you have hit some highs, nearly making it to the NBA Finals one year. But the last two seasons have been two steps back. A third step back this year, and one would assume that something more drastic needs to happen.
Taylor: I think that is fair. Because I will say that I do not anticipate that we are going to take a step back this year. My anticipation is that we will play better. My goal is that we win our division. I really believe that is possible. And because of that, we probably would end up with home court advantage, and then, placing us against certain other teams, if certain things happen on our team, I think we could beat any of those teams.
But quite frankly, a number of things would have to happen. I will say to you that that means guys like Marko, Trenton, Ricky and probably Hudson—let's take those four. One or two of those guys, something dynamic has to happen. They have to be way better than people expect in order to make us a much better team. You could put Eddie [Griffin] down as another player-at a different level, but if Eddie would do that and be much improved. [WHAT THE FUCK DOES HE MEAN TO SAY IN THAT PREVIOUS SENTENCE?] That's how I think this year will be measured. I don't think it is on a Randy Foye.
CP: Last question. When you hired Dwane Casey last year, you said you were taking a risk, getting an inexperienced guy. There are some really positive things about him personally. But in terms of results, he didn't have a good year.
Taylor: No. When I talk to Dwane, I still like Dwane and believe in him. But I think Dwane knows himself that he has to improve. I have got to ask Dwane—which I haven't done yet, but I will before the season starts—what do you anticipate out of this team? So we will get that set that, and that is how he will be measured.
I haven't asked Dwane that question yet. In fairness to Dwane, I want him to see what James is like. He wanted James and thinks he is good, and I want him to have the entire preseason to work with the team and see what he's got. Before the season starts, I will have that conversation with Dwane and the other coaches, and ask, what do you think you can deliver? They are going to set a realistic goal. But if for some reason they don't believe in the team, then I have a serious problem.
I've talked with him a lot, and he likes the team. Now it's more a matter of, let's go through the teams [in the league] and see how many you think you might win or lose against them. From that, you would think, do I want to go to the end of the year if things are not going well? In the worst of all cases, if you are halfway through the season and it isn't going the way you think it should be going, do you wait or not wait?
Let me just speak to the Flip thing a little bit. I am not likely to change coaches. That would not be my preference, because what I went through with Flip was a lot of bad things. What happened on Flip, basically, he came to us and said, I'm thinking about quitting. Kevin and I talked him into not quitting, saying "Don't give up. Let's do this and let's do that." Kevin is really good about stuff like that: "Just try this. Or play some other guys." I told him, "Just take Sprewell out and sit him on the bench. I'm not going to holler at you because he isn't going to be around next year anyway."
He didn't do that, but Flip kind of came to us and said he was going to quit. We talked him out of it, but before long we were seeing the players quit on Flip. Now that is another whole issue. And when we went to Flip and said the players are quitting on you, you need to step aside, he initially said okay. Our initial thing was, take two weeks off to rest and let us evaluate this.
CP: So you are saying that Flip had ample warning? He said he was blindsided.
Taylor: I am saying Kevin did not do that. He came to McHale first, and asked McHale if he should step down. And McHale didn't have an answer. He didn't necessarily think Randy would do better and still thought Flip was a pretty good coach. So instead he said, here are some suggestions, try them and do all this stuff. Then, after we saw the team quitting on Flip, Kevin came to him and said, Okay, I'm going to have you stop.
CP: Was it supposed to be couched as a leave of absence at the time?
Taylor: Whatever Kevin said. I talked to Flip then, not Kevin, and said, I know this is a tough thing. We are not kicking you off the team. Just take a little time and let us evaluate this thing. He said, good, thank you, that kind of thing. [I said] let's not call it a firing, let's not call it anything.
He agreed, and that's what I thought we had. About four days or five days after that, he said we fired him. Well, I don't know what Kevin said exactly. Yes, Kevin said [Flip] was done. And maybe Flip was truthful in that Kevin did say, "you are not coaching tomorrow night; I have taken over." Kevin did come to me and say, "I'm not going to turn it over to the assistant coaches. It is such a mess, and it's my responsibility."
CP: So before Flip said anything about being fired, you still felt in your mind that there was a possibility that he would return?
Taylor: Yup. And I had that conversation with him later on, and asked him if he wanted to come back. Before we hired Casey. I said, "I told you the door was open. Nobody had ever said you were fired, even after you said it. I am saying to you, I have not come to that conclusion." Now I knew that he still might come to me and say, well you've got to fire McHale before I come back because I don't like the guy now, or something like that.
CP: And that's wouldn't have been an option, would it?
Taylor: I am just telling you what I said to Flip. I asked, Do you want to come back? And he said, I just think too many things have happened now. Thank you for asking. No, I will not come back under any circumstances. That has never been reported, and I just wanted to say that.
So, getting back to Casey. Firing a coach is not an easy thing for me, and it is consistent with me on all my businesses. Good people go through difficult things from time to time, and they make mistakes. But I don't give up on good people. Now I realize that, like politics, this business is a little different. If players give up on somebody, you have to do something. But I know in my businesses, if I have to give up on my leader, that is a very difficult time. When Kevin replaced Flip, that wasn't just a snap decision or one conversation. We talked to the players and talked to different people.
I am not mad at Flip. Things worked out. He got a really good job in Detroit. Now when you are asking about Dwane, if it goes that way, it will start quietly with conversations. Flip acted like it was a surprise and I was like, Flip how can you act like that? It wasn't a surprise. And I don't think I would do it that way to Dwane either. If it really goes bad, it is going to be a mutual thing. And then we will be in a predicament, because Randy said he didn't want to come here if it was to replace Dwane. If we ever had to fire Dwane, does that mean we couldn't replace him with Randy?
None of that stuff has been talked about. We don't have a [contingency] plan at all in that way. We are really pleased that he brought some other assistants in, and we are confident that he can do the job. But he has to prove it. I told him last year I was disappointed. And he is man enough to say he got too much under pressure and should have taken more risks.
With Flip, we never really asked what he was going to do and what he expected, because he always was doing pretty well. But publicly I just want to defend Kevin a little bit when it comes to Flip. Kevin did not run the team and tell Flip to do this or that. As a matter of fact, Kevin backed off a little bit. Early on, Kevin was really involved in running the team. But he and Flip were so close that every night at half time, those guys would sit down and talk. It became more difficult as it went along and Kevin gave him suggestions. Flip felt more confident as the coach and Kevin backed off.
But I don't think it got better for Flip when Kevin backed off. I heard conversations where Kevin would say, "But Flip, that team had you figured out, and they were doing this and this." Later Flip would usually say, "we watched the film and Kevin was right." And sometimes Kevin would say, I never would have done what Flip did during that game, but it worked. They were pretty honest even when they disagreed, is what I am saying.
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Wayne Rainey MotoAmerica Video From 1978 through 2006, we – the Americans – had a..
Anstey to Pilot YZR500 Yamaha in Formula 1 Classic TT Fresh from shattering the outright..
Marco Simoncelli 58 News The late Marco Simoncelli will never be forgotten. The wild-haired Italian..
Yamaha MotoGP Video
With 50 years of GP racing, Yamaha shared many laughs with the world. And the team continues to create laughter, such as this humorous video contrasting the old and new champions of MotoGP.
2011 Laguna Seca MotoGP
Yamaha and GE Capital have announced the return of one of the most entertaining activities of the Red Bull U.S.
Laguna Seca MotoGP
Yamaha has announced that Former World Champions Kenny Roberts and Eddie Lawson will participate in a very special fan lap promotion during a scheduled break in practice and qualifying for the Red Bull U.S. Grand Prix on Friday, July 22.
2011 MotoGP
One glance below at the breakdown of Jerez's nine-year MotoGP history and it's easy to see who dominated at the Spanish circuit: Valentino Rossi.
Paton Two-Stroke V4
The Paton Company is getting ready for another big challenge, with the introduction of a new 500cc four-cylinder Grand Prix racer powered by the unique Paton V4 two-stroke engine.
It's obviously a motorcycle for track use only, but with its 190 bhp power delivery it's more than capable of generating adrenalin for any motorcycle fan lucky enough to ride it.
In 2009 Valentino Rossi has continued to grow his legend and cement his place in the history of Grand Prix Motorcycle Racing. Valentino Rossi's ninth (9th) career title is his seventh (7ht) in the premier MotoGP class and his fourth since joining Yamaha in 2004.
2009 Valentino Rossi 14th MotoGP Season Statistics
• Valentino Rossi has now matched Mike Hailwood and Carlo Ubbiali with nine titles in all classes. Only Agostini with 15 has more.
MotoGP World Championship leader Valentino Rossi made an early foray onto the Laguna Seca tarmac today, taking part in a Superkart exhibition alongside fellow Yamaha legends Kenny Roberts, Eddie Lawson and Wayne Rainey. The foursome made four laps in Superkarts powered by a specially-prepared Yamaha TZ 250 engines, which lap the 3.601km California circuit just a couple of seconds slower than the MotoGP bikes.
The Italian and the three Americans hold an impressive 18 Grand Prix World Championship titles between them, including three each for Yamaha.
Last Friday afternoon, June 26 at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca, three Legends of Laguna Seca: Kenny Roberts Sr., Eddie Lawson, Wayne Rainey and their crews took to the track to shake down the Yamaha SuperKarts to get ready for the Red Bull U.S. Grand Prix. Valentino Rossi was not able to join the practice as he was busy scoring his 100th victory in Assen, the Netherlands. The Grand Marshal, Colin Edwards, was also busy in Assen finishing fourth on his YZR-M1.
"The most uncomfortable thing I've ever driven," said Roberts.
Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca announced that a new event the 'Festival of Legends – Wings and Wheels' will be debuting in fall 2010 at the world renowned race track. A special preview of the event will be on display at this year's Red Bull U.S. Grand Prix in the Yamaha Market Place on July 3 – 5, 2009.
The Festival of Legends exhibit at the race will have an eclectic range of historical motorcycles, including the new future F-450 racing class, linking motocross, supermoto and road racing models with those classic bikes from Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca's celebrated past racing pedigree.
The American Motorcyclist Association (AMA) is pleased to announce the next member of the AMA Motorcycle Hall of Fame Class of 2009: accomplished racing director Gary Mathers. Mathers — who produced 48 championships in road racing, dirt track, Supercross and motocross for Honda and Kawasaki — will be among the motorcycling heroes honored at the 2009 induction ceremony at the Hard Rock Hotel & Casino in Las Vegas this Dec.
"A great flame follows a little spark," wrote the great Italian poet Dante Alighieri. His country has proven over and over again that intimate, passion-driven designers and craftsmen can grow into robust enterprises whose business model remains true to their original spark.
So it is with Spidi of Vicenza.


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SXL R1 - Devout Warriors (Page 5) by tiakanekoWatch
©2012-2016 tiakaneko
|| First page || Second page || Third page || Fourth page || Fifth page || Final page ||
Don't be shy! Come talk to me and leave a comment! :3
Ferruccio, my baby! My big boy! Save the day! <3
Xia Ming Fen ©
Dalaigh Hayes ©
Pokemon © Gamefreak/Nintendo/Satoshi Tajiri
GOOD GOD how did he survive that EXPLOSION?!
What a trooper x'D And then Xia's happy face of
relief~ /pinches cheeks
What a trooper x'D And then Xia's happy face of
relief~ /pinches cheeks
oh, super powerful job on the explosion like effect, and water is really hard to do but you did it with impressive detail and believability
AHMG, I was really unsure about the explosion... And worried that I couldn't do all the water parts nicely at all, but water was surprisingly easy to do! X3
Aww "That's my boy" osuhafosuhfd why do I find this comment so incredibly cute oasudhoashfosdfohu ;A;
Best..action stuff..EVER!!
waaahh why is your pages so clean? haha I really love your coloring. *-* and that explosion, it looks amazing. <3


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Reports: Robinson, Stringer into Hall
Updated: April 3, 2009, 10:35 PM ETESPN.com news services
Michael Jordan will share the spotlight with at least two others when the Naismith Hall of Fame's Class of 2009 is announced Monday.
Former San Antonio Spurs center David Robinson and Rutgers Scarlet Knights women's coach C. Vivian Stringer will be named to the Hall, according to local reports.
Robinson and Stringer will join other likely inductees, which include Jordan and John Stockton, when the election announcement is made in Detroit during the NCAA Final Four. Enshrinement ...
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Amphetamine/Dextroamphetamine - will this drug keep you awake?
- Posted:
- 25 Feb 2012 by babygirl888
- Topics:
- amphetamine, dextroamphetamine
Answers (3)
19 Mar 2012
It does not keep me awake unless I take within 15 minutes of feeling a sleep attack coming on then it will stop the attack. If I take it later then the first 15 minutes, I still end up going to sleep no matter how hard I try to stay awake. I only take .5 mg which my doctor says is a low dose. I have take 10 mg tablet and 10 mg time released capsule with same results. I must have it or I can not function. If I take at 6 pm, I still end up asleep at 7,8,or 9. We don't know why it works this way on me. However, if I take it at 1:00 or thereabouts (some days my attack happens at 11 am, noon, 1 or 1:30 PM) as it is first coming on, then I can be up and active (able to think) until 10 pm or so. I've been taking it for at least 7 years and I have seen no side affects and no addiction, no withdrawals. I'm 70 now.
5 Mar 2012
Yes; amphetamine stimulates the CNS so you would be more alert and awake and focused. And less drowsy and fatigued. But caffeine would probably do better if you just need to stay up longer. There are some possibly side effects with amphetamine and it is easy to fall into dependency on the drug. Have some Pepsi-max or an energy drink, that would probably suit you better.
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