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A new two-year exhibit featuring Woodstock in the early 1960s will open at 1 p.m. May 5 at the McHenry County Historical Society Museum in Union.
The exhibit will focus on two significant anniversaries in the 1960s – the 50th anniversary of the Historical Society (first established in Woodstock) and the 50th anniversary of Woodstock's All-America City Award.
A timeline of events (supported by photos and memorabilia) focuses on Woodstock's nomination and presentation in front of the All-America City jury in Detroit. It recalls Woodstock receiving the award and formal dinner celebration. A replica of a merchant window on the Woodstock Square decorated for the All-America City celebration will be on display.
John Strohm and Dan Andrew were instrumental in planning the presentation. They encouraged community support and generated enthusiasm for the project. I chose eight blockbuster 50" x 70" photos to illustrate the points of their presentation. The photos were titled: "A Safer City," "Better Health," "More Jobs," "Better Education," "More Fun," "Expanded Culture," "Better Living," and "Better People."
A special exhibit will feature the early history of the Historical Society and its founder, Mrs. Dorothy McEachren. Early items donated to the museum will be on display including the first donation, an 1885 Spring City Band uniform from Woodstock. The exhibit also includes volunteerism, new amenities, shopping, cultural touchstones and industries.
People highlights include Chester Gould, Emery "Tiny" Hansman and Mayor Frances Kuhn. Event highlights include industrial growth with the Borden's milk factory, opening City Park swimming pool, Woodstock's agricultural heritage and the Dutch elm disease destruction on the Woodstock Square. Agricultural events include the opening of the new Farm Bureau building in 1962.
I will be a featured speaker, along with Jo Smith, Alice Nulle, Sherry Anderson, Jim Keefe and Alan Belcher. Join us at 1:15 p.m. May 5 for a roundtable discussion about life in Woodstock 50 years ago.
Admission is free and light refreshments will be served. For more information, visit www.gothistory.org.
• • •
Congratulations to Matthew Wormley, who joined his father, Jim Wormley, and his brother, Ryan Wormley, as a financial consultant at Benjamin F. Edwards & Co. in Woodstock.
For the past 11 years, Matt worked with a major consulting firm relating to financial service companies. He lives in North Barrington with his wife, Alexis, and two sons.
Ryan and Jim are senior vice presidents of investments at the firm, along with Sandy Shay, senior registered financial associate.
• • •
Woodstock District 200 student works of art from all grade levels will be on display from April 22 to May 10 during normal business hours at the Woodstock Public Library, 414 W. Judd St.
• Don Peasley has been an editor, columnist and historian in McHenry County since October 1947. He began his association with Shaw Publications in 1950. He is a frequent contributor of articles and photos. He can be reached at 815-338-1533.


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Back in the Big CityMonday, July 29th, 2013
Not that Jogja isn't a big city, but Jakarta is way bigger. This past weekend I went to Jakarta with two other members of my group, Sam and Danica. We just wanted to explore the city and get out of Jogja life for a while, and it was definitely an adventure!
The airports set out food for the Muslims who are fasting to break their fast with, and I thought that was incredibly nice of them. I have found that Indonesians, whether they are Muslims or not, are always willing to go the extra step to help those who are fasting and it is an action that is much appreciated by those who are fasting.
After we arrived in Jakarta, we caught a cab to our hotel. Along the way, we drove on a highway that was surrounded by skyscrapers…we could have been in any major city in the US and it would have been very similar. It was nice to be in familiar surroundings again. Our hotel was five minutes from a major circle and only ten minutes from the National Monument, MONAS.
We managed to visit many places even though we were only there for a short time. One of the great places we visited was Kota Tua, or Old City. We went to Fatahillah Square, a central area in Kota Tua. It was a large square surrounded by museums on three sides: to the right, a puppet museum, to the left, a fine arts and ceramics museum and straight ahead was the Bank Indonesia Museum.
In the square, there were various street performers and vendors all trying to earn money from the flocks of tourists. We walked for about fifteen minutes until we reached a port where there were many ships docked. However, the route we took was not the scenic route so while Sam and Danica decided to walk the scenic route back to Fatahillah Square, I grabbed a taxi and arrived in minutes. As I waited for Sam and Danica, I noticed the children playing around the square. Many of them seemed to be without parents. Given that it was a Saturday, that was to be expected; however, many of them were very very young, and it made me wonder if they were street kids. One member of our group, Gillian, is
working with street kids in her NGO, Do More. I wonder how many street kids there are in Jakarta.
From Fatahillah Square we went to the largest mosque in Southeast Asia, Masjid Istiqlal. It was ENORMOUS, and amazing. The sheer size alone dwarfed all other buildings. It can be seen from MONAS and from above the fifth floor of most buildings. We arrived around 4:30, about an hour or so before the time to break fast and there were already vendors there setting up food and Islamic clothing items. The masjid is so large, we barely saw a quarter of it. There are offices, a school, a huge courtyard, and conference and convention rooms all inside this mosque. About thirty minutes before the time to break fast, masjid workers (they may be volunteers; I have no idea) hand out cups of water or tea and a takeout tray full of food to everyone in attendance. I expected tea or water and maybe two dates (a traditional meal for breaking fast) but this was a full meal; rice, what seemed like chicken curry, and dates. I wasn't feeling too hungry so I saved my food for later. After breaking fast downstairs, everyone hurried upstairs to the prayer area. I was just following the crowd of women because I figured they would lead me to the musullah (prayer area). When I entered the musullah, I literally stopped in awe. All I could do was stare around and above me in shock. I have never seen a masjid this large or this beautiful in its simplicity ever in my life. The floor was divided in two vertically, with men on the right side and women on the left side. Most masjids are divided horizontally, with men in front and women in the back, but I have been to some mosques where they divide it vertically so this was not a shock to me. The dome above my head was though. In the picture above, its the big white dome. It is 45 meters across (around 156 feet) and super ornate. Praying the sunset prayer in congregation felt amazing after having gone without praying in a large congregation for a couple of weeks.
For our last day in Jakarta, we decided to split up and do different things. Sam wanted to walk around the Business District and observe the city and Danica and I decided to go to a kite museum in the South. We had a bit of a hard time finding it because there were not many signs and it was very much "off the beaten track". It was really cool. They had kites from all different regions of Indonesia as well as many from other parts of the world. Some of the kites were over 10 feet tall and others had wingspans of 15 feet and more! The tour guide spoke enough English (and we spoke enough Bahasa) that we were able to understand everything he said. He explained the different purposes and uses of kites (religious, cultural, and just for fun) and showed us kites from different international and national kite flying competitions. After our tour, we sat down and were given paper, glue, scissors and thin bamboo wood tied for us. We were going to make kites. It was a lot of fun, making and designing your own kites. Ready made memento to remind us of this great experience!
All in all, our weekend in Jakarta was awesome. I didn't realize how much I missed simple things like hot water, showers, and sleeping with the AC and covers on. I will definitely not be taking those things for granted anymore!

subset: commoncrawl


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- Home
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Advise governments, organizations or businesses on political issues. Continue on to law school and become a federal prosecutor or litigation attorney. Serve as a campaign staff member in the next presidential election cycle. In addition to providing a solid foundation for continuing on to graduate school or law school, a political science degree can lead to an exciting career in government, business, education or politics after graduation from BVU.
As part of your studies, you will work closely with highly qualified faculty and gain an ample understanding of the political forces that shape our lives. You will develop critical thinking, research and communication skills, as well as acquire sophisticated knowledge of political behavior, governmental processes, constitutional principles, the law, and global affairs. Early on, you will develop professional skills through world-class internships, research projects, co-curricular activities and travel opportunities. These practical, hands-on applications will enhance your overall learning experience, broaden your perspectives, and provide you with valuable preparation for a wide variety of careers. As a political science major at BVU, you will hone your analytical and problem-solving abilities and become a more socially responsible and active citizen. Because the political science major complements a variety of other programs, including English, public administration, science or business, many students often declare it as a second major.
BVU is an original member of the American Mock Trial Association. Students can also take advantage of the university's relationship with The Washington Center for Internships and Academic Seminars. Read more...
Become an exceptional applicant to law school. As a pre-law student, you'll gain the competitive edge. Learn more...
I've worked with professors whose brilliance came in the form of inexhaustible capacities to care and heal a world much in need of both things. I want to pass along to my students as much of this as possible.


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Running just to stay in place
The idea that interactions between species matter goes all the way back to the origins of evolutionary biology in the writing of Charles Darwin:
What a struggle between the several kinds of trees must here have gone on during long centuries, each annually scattering its seeds by the thousand; what war between insect and insect – between insects, snails, and other animals with birds and beasts of prey – all striving to increase, and all feeding on each other or on the trees or their seeds and seedlings, or on the other plants which first clothed the ground and thus checked the growth of the trees! (On the Origin of Species, 1859: 74-5)This image of constant struggle among living things was more formally encapsulated in a 1973 paper by Leigh Van Valen (which paper is not, alas, available online), who proposed that constant coevolution with other species should mean that natural populations of living things are constantly adapting – in response to competitors, mutualists, predators, parasites – without gaining ground in the struggle, because the other species are also adapting. Van Valen lifted an image from Lewis Carroll's Through the Looking-Glass, in which the Red Queen tells Alice that, in the strange world of Looking-Glass Land, "... it takes all the running you can do, to keep in the same place."
They were running hand in hand, and the Queen went so fast that it was all she could do to keep up with her ... The most curious part of the thing was, that the trees and the other things around them never seemed to changed their places at all.
"... it takes all the running you can do, to keep in the same place." Image from Through the Looking-Glass, via VictorianWeb.
Van Valen's explanation for this result was that something must constantly act to prevent living things from becoming better adapted, and better able to resist extinction, over time – specifically, the Red Queen's race against other living things. Whenever a species "loses" the race, it goes extinct, regardless of how long the race has been up to that point. A similar pattern applies to the creation of new species – if coevolutionary interactions often help create reproductive isolation, then new species should also form at a roughly constant rate [$a]. Since this is what we observe, many biologists conclude that coevolution is responsible for the diversity of life on Earth.
What if the race doesn't matter?
Fortunately for the advance of knowledge, however, not all evolutionary biologists have the same perspective. Paleontologists, for instance, tend to think that the year-to-year dynamics of the Red Queen race don't make much difference in the longer run, over millions of years. They'd argue that most of the evolutionary change induced by coevolution between species is too variable and fleeting to have much effect on the rates at which species are formed and go extinct. Under this view, random geological events – continents splitting, mountain ranges rising, volcanoes erupting – are more likely to create new species and force them to extinction.
What matters more in the history of life, the biological environment, or the physical environment? Photos by Martin Heigan and Cedric Favero.
This contrast is the crux of a study recently published in Nature. The paper's authors, Venditti et al., examined 101 evolutionary trees estimated from genetic data, including groups like the dog family, roses, and bees. For each group's evolutionary tree, they determined the distribution of the lengths of time periods between speciation events. A majority of the trees – 78% – supported the exponential model. That is, 78% of the groups of organisms examined had evolved and diversified in a fashion best explained by geology, not coevolution. None of the groups fit the normal distribution, and only 8% fit the related lognormal distribution.
The Red Queen is dead, long live the Red Queen!
This result suggests that within many groups of organisms, the physical environment is a more common cause of reproductive isolation or extinction than the biological environment. However, this isn't to say that species interactions don't matter. As Van Valen originally noted, extinction rates may be roughly constant within large groups of organisms, like those examined by Venditti et al., but those constant rates vary from group to group. These differences in rate may still depend on species interactions, because species interactions can shape how prone a population is to reproductive isolation.
For instance, a group of plants that has lousy seed dispersers may form new species in response to much smaller, and more common, geological barriers than a group of plants whose seeds can travel for hundreds of miles. Additionally, species interactions that promote diversity within the interacting species may mean that when geology creates isolation, the resultant daughter species are more different from each other than they would otherwise be, and less likely to re-merge if they come into contact again. Under that scenario, speciation caused by the physical environment would act to preserve variation [$a] created by the biological environment.
So, perhaps the Red Queen doesn't operate the way we thought she did, with constant coevolutionary races spinning off new species and killing off others. But that hardly means that Red Queen processes don't matter in the long run.
Benton, M. (2010). Evolutionary biology: New take on the Red Queen. Nature, 463 (7279), 306-7 DOI: 10.1038/463306a
Futuyma, D. (1987). On the role of species in anagenesis. The American Naturalist, 130 (3), 465-73 DOI: 10.1086/284724
Stenseth, N., & Maynard Smith, J. (1984). Coevolution in ecosystems: Red Queen evolution or stasis? Evolution, 38 (4), 870-80 DOI: 10.2307/2408397
Van Valen, L. (1973). A new evolutionary law. Evolutionary Theory, 1 (1), 1-30
Venditti, C., Meade, A., & Pagel, M. (2009). Phylogenies reveal new interpretation of speciation and the Red Queen. Nature, 463 (7279), 349-52 DOI: 10.1038/nature08630


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April 16, 2013 —
On Friday April 12, 2013 at approximately 12:00 Noon, a NYSEG employee who was reading electrical meters in the Town of Bethel noticed a suspicious vehicle and suspicious subjects in the vicinity of 561 Harris/Bushville Rd.
The NYSEG employee mentioned the suspicious activity to a next door neighbor who called 911 and reported a burglary in progress. Sheriff's Deputies responded to the location but the subjects fled prior to the patrol's arrival.
An investigation at the scene indicated that the suspects did not gain entry to the residence but were able to crawl underneath and use a battery powered sawsall to remove numerous copper pipes. Based on descriptions provided by witnesses, deputies were able to track the vehicle carrying the stolen goods to Sims Recycling on Old 17 in Ferndale.
One of the suspects, Courtney Kashan, 24, of Livingston Manor used her NYS driver's license as ID when she redeemed the copper. Deputies picked her up on Saturday morning, April 13, 2013, along with Joshua Boyles, 24, at his residence on Dahlia Rd. Two additional suspects, Juan Morales 35 and Jorge Ramirez, 40, were arrested where they are employed as caretakers of the "Last Quarter Horse Ranch" on ST-55 in White Lake.
All four defendants were charged with Felony Criminal Mischief, and the Misdemeanors of Criminal Trespass, Conspiracy, and Petit Larceny. They were arraigned by Judge Kevin Rhyne in the Town of Bethel Justice Court and sent to the Sullivan County jail in lieu of $25,000 bail. The Sheriff's Office is investigating whether the four suspects are linked to any other recent thefts in the area.


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Floral Printed Pencil Skirt
Style: 570118911
Out of Stock
Sublimely soft pencil skirt in flowing tiers of flourishing flowers in black and white with pops of purple and rouge. Asymmetrical layers camouflage while creating a sleek silhouette.
- Sits at or below the waist.
- Asymmetrical tiers down the front and back.
- Invisible zip at side with hook and eye closure.
- Fully lined.
- 96% polyester, 4% spandex. Machine wash, cold. Imported.
- Regular center back length: 22"
- Petite center back length: 21"
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Australia ACCESS Global C-Haines Index +48 hour Chart
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About ACCESS Global
Australian Community Climate and Earth-System Simulator (ACCESS). Based upon the UK Met Office Unified Model system. ACCESS G is the global numerical forecast model operated by the BoM. It is run twice daily (00Z and 12Z) and provides forecast data out to 240 hours with a horizontal resolution of 25km and 70 vertical levels.
Weather News
A year of Australian weather captured in a calendar
Photographs of weather phenomena around Australia, some of them capturing rare events, have been chosen for the 2017 Australian Weather Calendar.
Temperatures soar in the west
Perth is enduring a sweaty end to the week, although a cool change is on the way.
Perfect storm photos: storm chasers give up their tips for taking best pic
While most Queenslanders sheltered inside during the past week of severe storms, a breed of professional photographers known as storm chasers were outside, braving the danger to get the best possible shot.


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Allied Nevada Gold Corp (ANV) Shares Enter Oversold Territory
In the case of Allied Nevada Gold Corp, the RSI reading has hit 30.0 — by comparison, the universe of metals and mining stocks covered by Metals Channel currently has an average RSI of 46.5, the RSI of Spot Gold is at 39.2, and the RSI of Spot Silver is presently 36.6.
Click here to find out what 9 other oversold metals stocks you need to know about »
A bullish investor could look at ANV's 30.0 reading as a sign that the recent heavy selling is in the process of exhausting itself, and begin to look for entry point opportunities on the buy side.
Looking at a chart of one year performance (below), ANV's low point in its 52 week range is $9.12 per share, with $41.02 as the 52 week high point — that compares with a last trade of $9.14. Allied Nevada Gold Corp shares are currently trading down about 3.8% on the day.
According to the ETF Finder at ETF Channel, ANV makes up 1.89% of the SPDR S&P Metals and Mining ETF


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Silvertone Crystal Triple Drop Earring
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Glittering simplicity you can wear with everything. Faceted stones drop from one arched link to another in rhodium-finish settings with crystal pavé sides. A match to the Silvertone Crystal Triple-Row Necklace. Glass crystals; nickel-free metal. Post back. 1" drop.
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A hard rock band has billed the U.S. government for "musical services" after learning that their songs were used during interrogations of prisonersat Guantanamo Bay.
Canadian rock/industrial band known as Skinny Puppy reportedly heard from a fan and former Gitmo prison guard that their music had been used as a form of torture at the military base in Cuba, reports ABS News.
While the band chose to bill the U.S. government for a "random evil figure" of $666,000 as compensation for the unauthorized use of their music, they don't actually expect to get a response.
A military spokesman told ABC News the Department of Defense has not received an invoice and is committed to the humane treatment of detainees.
The band says they have been made aware that four different songs of theirs had been used on at least four occasions to "inflict damage" on suspected terrorists in the prison.


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In this hack, I will show you how, with the help of sprites, you can create and animate player-controlled paddles for the SDL Pong clone you built in part one of this three-part series (part three is also online). For the uninitiated to the spidery language of video game programmers, a sprite is "a small graphic that can be moved independently around the screen, producing animated effects." Some might argue that the
SDL_Rect-based "sprites" we will use to represent the two paddles in our game are not proper sprites at all, but as I could not think of a better way to refer to them, sprites they are.
The first thing you will need to do is add some macros to control the initial positions of the sprites. It will once again be handy to grab your old geometry book, as well as a heap of scratch, or even graph, paper. The tricky part about 2D computer graphics is that you must make use of a so-called left-handed coordinate system. This sounds daunting, but it is as simple as taking a normal X-Y graph, throwing away all but the upper-right quadrant, and then having the audacity to suggest that Y=0 is not in the bottom left-hand corner of the quadrant, but rather in the top left. And to top it all, Y values increase as you move down in the quadrant. Revolutionary, I know.
If you are having trouble wrapping your head around this, simply imagine it's 1996 and your monitor is running in 640 by 480 resolution. Point your finger to the upper left-hand corner. You are now at (0,0). Move your finger halfway down the screen, but keep it flush with the left side of the screen. This is (0,240). Move all the way down and you are at (0,479) (not 480, since the screen is only 480 pixels tall and we started counting, like all good coders do, at 0). Move all the way right and you are at (639,479). All the way up from there is (639,0). Finally, put your finger right in the middle of the screen. That is (320,240) and that is where we want to place our ball.
Right, so back to the coding. Add these lines to the section where you are declaring macros, right beneath the screen width and height:
// Macro definitions
#define SCREEN_WIDTH 640 // width of the screen, in pixels
#define SCREEN_HEIGHT 480 // height of the screen, in pixels
// Width, height, and starting x and y coordinates of ball
#define BALL_W 4
#define BALL_H 4
#define BALL_X (SCREEN_WIDTH / 2) - 2
#define BALL_Y (SCREEN_HEIGHT / 2) - 2
// Width, height, and starting x and y coordinates of player 1's paddle
#define P1_W 5
#define P1_H 50
#define P1_X 0
#define P1_Y (SCREEN_HEIGHT / 2) - (P1_H / 2)
// Width, height, and starting x and y coordinates of player 2's paddle
#define P2_W 5
#define P2_H 50
#define P2_X SCREEN_WIDTH - P2_W
#define P2_Y (SCREEN_HEIGHT / 2) - (P1_H / 2)
Does all of this make sense, within the context of the devious left-handed coordinate system? The ball is a 4-by-4 rectangle (since X comes before Y in a coordinate set, I will always talk about width before height, to avoid confusion and brain malfunctions), and it is sitting right in the middle of the screen. We will track all three of our sprites by their upper left-hand corners, so positioning the upper left-hand corner of the ball at (318,238) results in it being centered. Player 1's paddle starts at (0,215), and extends five pixels to the right and 50 down. Player 2's paddle starts at (635,215), and also extends five pixels to the right and 50 down, putting its right edge against the right edge of the screen, just as the left edge of Player 1's paddle is flush with the left edge of the screen.
The next step is to create a structure that will hold all of our sprite-related information, as well as all of our game state. If you decide to write a game in C++, you would probably use a class for this, but we shall forge on bravely in pseudo object-oriented C. Add the following code just beneath the
Structure definitions comment:
typedef struct {
int running; // is the game running?
SDL_Surface *screen; // main window
SDL_Rect ball; // ball
SDL_Rect p1; // player 1's paddle
SDL_Rect p2; // player 2's paddle
int num_rects; // number of rectangles to update
SDL_Rect rects[16]; // rectangles to update
Uint32 black; // the colour black
Uint32 white; // the colour white
} GameData;
Related Reading
Retro Gaming Hacks
Since we have moved the
*screen pointer into the new
GameData structure, change the variable declarations from the top of the
main() function from:
SDL_Event event; // SDL events
SDL_Surface *screen; // main game window
GameData game; // game data
SDL_Event event; // SDL events
And change the:
if ((screen =
SDL_SetVideoMode( SCREEN_WIDTH, SCREEN_HEIGHT, 8, SDL_SWSURFACE ))
if ((game.screen =
SDL_SetVideoMode( SCREEN_WIDTH, SCREEN_HEIGHT, 8, SDL_SWSURFACE ))
(You just need to add a
game. before the
screen.) Now, right below the variable declarations, you need to initialize the
GameData structure:
// Initialise game data
game.running = 1;
game.num_rects = 0;
The reason that you added the
running variable to the
GameData structure is so that you can check the game state from any subroutine that takes a pointer to the structure. With that in mind, let's change the handling of the
SDL_QUIT event and the escape key ever so slightly, from:
if (event.type == SDL_QUIT ||
(event.type == SDL_KEYDOWN &&
event.key.keysym.sym == SDLK_ESCAPE))
return cleanUp( 0 );
if (event.type == SDL_QUIT ||
(event.type == SDL_KEYDOWN &&
event.key.keysym.sym == SDLK_ESCAPE))
game.running = 0;
Change the entire last line, but nothing else, and add a new chunk of code right after the end of the event loop:
// If we have been told to exit, do so now
if (game.running == 0)
This has the same effect as before, since breaking out of the main loop results in the program exiting through the use of the
cleanUp() function, but keeping track of whether the game is running in the
GameData structure allows you to modify it in function calls, which might prove useful later.
But the point of this section is supposed to be sprites, not the refactoring of the game's code to allow for extensibility! So let's return to sprites. Add the code shown in bold right after where you set the title bar's caption and hide the mouse cursor:
// Set window caption and turn off the mouse cursor
SDL_WM_SetCaption( "SDL Pong", "SDL Pong" );
SDL_ShowCursor( SDL_DISABLE );
// Get black and white colours
game.black = SDL_MapRGB( game.screen->format, 0x00, 0x00, 0x00 );
game.white = SDL_MapRGB( game.screen->format, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff );
// Initialise our sprite locations
resetSprites( &game, 0 );
We use
SDL_MapRGB() (see sdldoc.csn.ul.ie/sdlmaprgb.php) to grab the color values of white and black (foreground and background), as dictated by the color map of the main window. Then call the
resetSprites() function to draw the sprites.
And speaking of
resetSprites(), you had better get around to writing it, or it won't be doing much good. Add its definition right below that of
// Function definitions
int cleanUp( int err );
void resetSprites( GameData *game, int erase );
And add the following implementation at the end of the file:
/* Function: resetSprites()
* Moves all sprites back to their starting positions.
* Parameters:
* *game - game data
* erase - if true, sprites will be erased first
void resetSprites( GameData *game, int erase ) {
// Erase sprites from current locations?
if (erase) {
SDL_FillRect( game->screen, &(game->ball), game->black );
SDL_FillRect( game->screen, &(game->p1), game->black );
SDL_FillRect( game->screen, &(game->p2), game->black );
game->rects[game->num_rects++] = game->ball;
game->rects[game->num_rects++] = game->p1;
game->rects[game->num_rects++] = game->p2;
} // if (erasing sprites)
// The ball is a 2x2 sprite, centred both horizontally and vertically
game->ball.x = BALL_X;
game->ball.y = BALL_Y;
game->ball.w = BALL_W;
game->ball.h = BALL_H;
// Player 1's paddle is a 5x50 sprite, flush left and centred vertically
game->p1.x = P1_X;
game->p1.y = P1_Y;
game->p1.w = P1_W;
game->p1.h = P1_H;
// Player 2's paddle is a 5x50 sprite, flush left and centred vertically
game->p2.x = P2_X;
game->p2.y = P2_Y;
game->p2.w = P2_W;
game->p2.h = P2_H;
// Draw the playing field
SDL_FillRect( game->screen, &(game->ball), game->white );
SDL_FillRect( game->screen, &(game->p1), game->white );
SDL_FillRect( game->screen, &(game->p2), game->white );
game->rects[game->num_rects++] = game->ball;
game->rects[game->num_rects++] = game->p1;
game->rects[game->num_rects++] = game->p2;
} // resetSprites()
The first parameter passed into
resetSprites() is the
GameData structure, and the second one controls whether the sprites are first erased (by filling their current locations with black, the background color) before they are reset and redrawn. Since all we are concerned with right now is drawing the sprites, and have therefore set the second parameter
resetSprites() to 0, all
resetSprites() has to do is put all three sprites back in their original positions by setting the
w (width), and
h (height) of each rectangle to the initial values that we defined as macros in the beginning of this section.
SDL_FillRect() is then called, with the target surface (the main window) as the first parameter, a pointer to the
SDL_Rect structure that is being filled as the second, and the fill color as the third. Since
resetSprites() itself receives the
GameData structure as a pointer, it must de-reference the game pointer to get at the rectangle in question. But since that is a structure and not a pointer, it must pass the address of the
SDL_Rect structure to
SDL_FillRect(); again, don't worry too much about this if it is making your head hurt. As long as you always use this notation within the confines of the
resetSprites() function, you will be fine.
Believe it or not, calling
SDL_FillRect() does not necessarily mean that the screen will be updated to display the newly filled rectangle, since SDL has all sorts of performance concerns to weigh. This is why you will find the following three crazy lines of code in the
resetSprites() function:
game->rects[game->num_rects++] = game->ball;
game->rects[game->num_rects++] = game->p1;
game->rects[game->num_rects++] = game->p2;
What this code is doing is adding the three rectangles that were just filled to the array of rectangles that will be updated first thing in the main loop (well, once we actually write the main loop). Note that we are incrementing the
num_rects member of the
GameData structure in the same line in which we do the assignment.
To actually force the screen update, add the lines of code shown in bold at the very beginning of the main loop:
// Main loop
while (1) {
// (Re)draw the screen
if (game.num_rects) {
SDL_UpdateRects( game.screen, game.num_rects, game.rects );
game.num_rects = 0;
} // if (updating screen)
SDL_UpdateRects() takes as its parameters the surface to update (the main window), the number of rectangular regions to update, and the array of rectangles itself. Because only a few regions of the screen are being updated, you can achieve flicker-free graphics (for Pong, at least) without having to deal with double-buffering (which, in SDL, requires a hardware surface, and we are getting away with just a software surface).
gcc again to re-compile it:
gcc -g -Wall -I/usr/include/SDL -o sdl-pong sdl-pong.c -lSDL
and then run it (see Figure 1):
Figure 1. Paddle and ball sprites
You have drawn the sprites on the screen, and our little Pong clone is starting to look like an actual game--except for the fact that there is no actual gameplay as of yet. Let's remedy that by making the paddles movable.
You need to start by defining some concept of speed: how far should a paddle be able to move in one iteration of the main loop? Let's add some new macro definitions below the others in the sdl-pong.c file:
// Default paddle speed for players
#define P1_SPEED 3
#define P2_SPEED 3
// See the dir parameter to movePaddle()
#define DIR_UP 1
#define DIR_DOWN 2
// Number of milliseconds the game will sleep at the end of the main loop;
// the higher the number, the slower the game speed. Note that you will
// probably want to change BALL_SPEED, P1_SPEED, and P2_SPEED when you change
// this.
#define GAME_SPEED 30
GAME_SPEED is simply the number of milliseconds that we will delay at the end of the main loop, which we are already doing, but will now do properly. First, add a
game_speed member to the
GameData structure:
int running; // is the game running?
int game_speed; // the game speed
and initialize it:
// Initialise game data
game.running = 1;
game.game_speed = GAME_SPEED;
Then change the
SDL_Delay() line from:
SDL_Delay( 30 );
SDL_Delay( game.game_speed );
The reason for changing the delay time from a hard-coded number to a macro is so that you can easily change it at the top of the file and recompile for testing different settings. This is why I have made heavy use of macros thus far in this hack.
P1_SPEED and
P2_SPEED macros define the number of pixels that Player 1 or 2 (respectively) can move his paddle every
GAME_SPEED number of milliseconds. You must also add two members to the
GameData structure to represent this information:
SDL_Rect p1; // player 1's paddle
SDL_Rect p2; // player 2's paddle
int p1_speed; // player 1's paddle speed
int p2_speed; // player 2's paddle speed
(Yes, I did re-indent the comments beside the
p1 and
p2 members to line up with the new comments. That's how I roll.)
As a rule, whenever you add new members to the
GameData structure, you also need to add code to initialize them:
// Initialise game data
game.running = 1;
game.game_speed = GAME_SPEED;
game.p1_speed = P1_SPEED;
game.p2_speed = P2_SPEED;
game.num_rects = 0;
We will use the keyboard as our input device, which should work out quite nicely for a two-player game with only two controls per player. For Player 1's "up" and "down" controls, we pick the
A and
Z keys, and for Player 2, the
' and
/ keys. The only criteria asserted here is that the "up" key should be right above the "down" one, and that the controls for Player 1 and Player 2 be at opposite sides of the keyboard. Let's declare a new variable,
*keystate, which will hold the keyboard state:
// Declare variables
GameData game; // game data
SDL_Event event; // SDL events
Uint8 *keystate; // keyboard state
We will query the keyboard state using the SDL function
SDL_GetKeyState(), right after handling events in the main loop:
// If we have been told to exit, do so now
if (game.running == 0)
// Move sprites about
// Grab a keystate snapshot
keystate = SDL_GetKeyState( NULL );
SDL_GetKeyState() returns an array, with a true value at each element that corresponds to a key that is currently being pressed. We will use the same
SDLK_* macros that we used earlier to handle keyboard events, but this time as indexes into the
*keystate array. Right below the call to
SDL_GetKeyState(), add:
// Has player 1 requested a move?
if (keystate[SDLK_a])
movePaddle( &game, 1, DIR_UP );
else if (keystate[SDLK_z])
movePaddle( &game, 1, DIR_DOWN );
// Has player 2 requested a move?
if (keystate[SDLK_QUOTE])
movePaddle( &game, 2, DIR_UP );
else if (keystate[SDLK_SLASH])
movePaddle( &game, 2, DIR_DOWN );
See how reasonably the macros are named? And if you cannot guess one, you can always refer to the SDLKey documentation.
The only thing left to do is to define and implement the elusive
movePaddle() function. In the function definitions section of your code, add:
// Function definitions
int cleanUp( int err );
void movePaddle( GameData *game, int player, int dir );
void resetSprites( GameData *game, int erase );
And just before the implementation of the
resetSprites() function, add:
/* Function: movePaddle()
* Moves a player's paddle.
* Parameters:
* *game - game data
* player - player number
* dir - direction of the move (DIR_UP or DIR_DOWN)
void movePaddle( GameData *game, int player, int dir ) {
int new_y;
int moved;
SDL_Rect tmp;
SDL_Rect *rect = (player == 1 ? &(game->p1) : &(game->p2));
int speed = (player == 1 ? game->p1_speed : game->p2_speed);
// Compute the new y coordinate of the rectangle and the pixels moved
new_y = (dir == DIR_UP ? (rect->y - speed) : (rect->y + speed));
moved = (dir == DIR_UP ? (rect->y - new_y) : (new_y - rect->y));
// If the move would take us off the top or bottom of the screen,
// we may have to move less than speed
if (dir == DIR_UP && new_y < 0) {
new_y = 0;
moved = rect->y - new_y;
} // if (moving up less than speed)
else if (dir == DIR_DOWN && new_y > SCREEN_HEIGHT - rect->h) {
new_y = SCREEN_HEIGHT - rect->h;
moved = new_y - rect->y;
} // else if (moving down less than speed)
// If we have not moved, just return
if (moved == 0)
// Erase the top or bottom line(s) of the paddle
tmp.x = rect->x;
tmp.y = (dir == DIR_UP ? (rect->y + rect->h - moved) : rect->y );
tmp.w = rect->w;
tmp.h = moved;
SDL_FillRect( game->screen, &tmp, game->black );
game->rects[game->num_rects++] = tmp;
// Apply the new y coordinate of the rectangle
rect->y = new_y;
// Draw the new bottom or top line(s) of the paddle
tmp.y = (dir == DIR_UP ? rect->y : (rect->y + rect->h - moved) );
SDL_FillRect( game->screen, &tmp, game->white );
game->rects[game->num_rects++] = tmp;
} // movePaddle()
movePaddle() takes three parameters: the ubiquitous
GameData structure, the number of the player that is moving (i.e.,
1 or
2), and the direction of movement (either
DIR_UP or
DIR_DOWN). The first thing we do in the function is grab the
SDL_Rect structure and speed corresponding to the player that has moved, and assign them to local variables, as shown in this excerpt from
SDL_Rect *rect = (player == 1 ? &(game->p1) : &(game->p2));
int speed = (player == 1 ? game->p1_speed : game->p2_speed);
I make use here of C's ternary operator, which can be expressed as:
<condition> ? <true_expression> : <false_expression>
I use it just so that I can accomplish in one line what would take several using a standard
else control structure:
SDL_Rect *rect;
if (player == 1)
rect = &(game->p1);
rect = &(game->p2);
If you ever get confused by a ternary operator, simply "unroll" it as above: the bit after the
? would come after the
if, and the bit after the
: would come after the
The next step is to compute the new Y coordinate of the paddle, and then decide how far it has moved, as shown in this excerpt:
// Compute the new y coordinate of the rectangle and the pixels moved
new_y = (dir == DIR_UP ? (rect->y - speed) : (rect->y + speed));
moved = (dir == DIR_UP ? (rect->y - new_y) : (new_y - rect->y));
The equation for determining the new Y coordinate is quite simple. If the paddle is moving up, subtract the speed from the current Y coordinate; otherwise, the paddle is moving down, so add the speed to the current Y coordinate (remember that Y values grow downwards in a left-handed coordinate system). To determine how many pixels were moved, we just subtract the new Y coordinate from the old one. This is so that you can detect whether full movement would take the paddle off of the top or bottom of the screen (which you decidedly do not want). Here's how
movePaddle() does it:
// If the move would take us off the top or bottom of the screen,
// we may have to move less than speed
if (dir == DIR_UP && new_y < 0) {
new_y = 0;
moved = rect->y - new_y;
} // if (moving up less than speed)
else if (dir == DIR_DOWN && new_y > SCREEN_HEIGHT - rect->h) {
new_y = SCREEN_HEIGHT - rect->h;
moved = new_y - rect->y;
} // else if (moving down less than speed)
If you detect that the paddle has moved too far, simply reset the
new_y variable to the minimum value, if moving up, or the maximum one, if moving down. Remember, the X and Y coordinates of the paddle represent its upper left-hand corner, so when detecting movement off the bottom of the screen, we need to subtract the height of the paddle from
SCREEN_HEIGHT. After resetting
new_y, you must also recalculate how far the paddle has moved. It could be that the paddle has not moved at all, if it was already at the top of the screen and the player tried to move up, or if it was at the bottom and the player tried to move down. If this is the case, you can just return from the
movePaddle() function:
// If we have not moved, just return
if (moved == 0)
Now you need to handle the movement graphically. The first thing to do is to erase the paddle, but instead of simply filling the entire rectangle corresponding to the current location of the paddle with black (the background color), fill only the bit that changed. This is to eliminate flicker, the dreaded condition where the user can actually perceive the redraw operation--it looks like an old movie that was shot at fewer frames per second than modern ones. (Another way to avoid flickering is to use double-buffering, which SDL makes quite easy, but you must use a hardware surface for your main window, which we have avoided in this hack for the sake of code clarity and also to ensure that SDL Pong runs well on a wide variety of computing machinery.)
The region of the screen that has changed can be represented by a rectangle (and this is why we declared the
tmp variable at the top of the function) with the same X coordinate as the paddle (since the paddle cannot move horizontally, only vertically) and the same Y coordinate as the paddle, if moving down (since we need to erase the top few lines of the paddle); or the paddle's Y coordinate, plus the height of the paddle, minus the number of pixels moved. The width of the rectangle is the same as the width of the paddle, and the height is the number of pixels moved, whether moving up or down:
// Erase the top or bottom line(s) of the paddle
tmp.x = rect->x;
tmp.y = (dir == DIR_UP ? (rect->y + rect->h - moved) : rect->y );
tmp.w = rect->w;
tmp.h = moved;
If this numbers game does not make sense, try sketching out the rectangles on a piece of scratch paper (or graph paper, if you have it).
To actually erase the region, we call
SDL_FillRect() with the following parameters: the screen pointer, a pointer to the
tmp rectangle, and the background color (black). Then, we add the rectangle to the
rects member of the
GameData structure--the array of rectangles that are automatically updated at the beginning of the main loop, thanks to the coding we did in the sprites section of this hack.
SDL_FillRect( game->screen, &tmp, game->black );
game->rects[game->num_rects++] = tmp;
You now need to update the
SDL_Rect structure corresponding to the paddle with the new Y coordinate so that
movePaddle() knows where the paddle is next time it is called. We are nearing the end now; the only thing left is filling the new top or bottom region of the paddle. To do this, simply set the Y coordinate of the temporary rectangle,
tmp, to the new Y coordinate of the paddle, if moving up. Or, if moving down, the new Y coordinate plus the height of the paddle, minus the number of pixels moved. You can then proceed to fill the temporary rectangle with the foreground color (white) in the normal fashion:
// Draw the new bottom or top line(s) of the paddle
tmp.y = (dir == DIR_UP ? rect->y : (rect->y + rect->h - moved) );
SDL_FillRect( game->screen, &tmp, game->white );
game->rects[game->num_rects++] = tmp;
} // movePaddle()
gcc again to re-compile it:
gcc -g -Wall -I/usr/include/SDL -o sdl-pong sdl-pong.c -lSDL
Now run the game:
You'll be able to move the paddles around (Figure 2), but you still need to add a moving ball--check back the first week of the new year, when we'll cover just how to do that.
Figure 2. Pong, with moving paddles
Josh Glover has been hacking code for as long as anyone can remember. He is employed as a Unix systems administrator by Amazon.co.jp.
Return to the Linux DevCenter.
Copyright © 2009 O'Reilly Media, Inc.


text: Does anyone know if the isis IQ Duo is battery powered also? I've finally made my choice about which one to buy, but now my only problem is I need it to be battery powered because their will be times when i will not have access to an outlet. This is going to be a bummer, I've heard so many excellent reviews about it over the PIS.


text:
Chill'n in the Sun, Baseball's Officially Begun
ATTENTION-There are more pictures for this entry but MLBlogs is having issues with uploading pictures so when I can upload more I will…Thanks…D
While other fans are celebrating their opening day, Rockies fans wait patiently for Friday's home opener. The weather is supposed to be absolutely beautiful tomorrow and in Colorado warm sunny days with no snow in April is a good thing.
Today Rockies fans were allowed to enter Coors Field a day early with the purchase of a $6.00 ticket(proceeds going to the Rockies Foundation). The ticket came with a voucher good for a Rockies game during April and May, the chance to get a few autographs and the opportunity to watch the Rockies workout.
I received a text from Gary X about ninety minutes before the stadium opened letting me know that they were first in line.
When I arrived, I found Gary X and Alannah X rock'n first and second place in line along with Mike and Douglas close by.
They were kind enough to save me a spot..Thanks G🙂
After the gates opened everyone was determined to get a good spot in line for autographs. Not me, I noticed an empty outfield and the D-Backs were on the field taking BP. I headed straight for the pavilion and had the entire left and center field to myself for at least ten minutes.
As luck would have it, not even one baseball was hit even close to the outfield the entire time I was there, …all alone, with the snagging opportunity of a lifetime.
Still it felt good and I'm glad I got to do it.
After my ten minutes of private bliss the pavilion started to fill in and I mean fill in big time. There was an extremely good turnout for this Rockies "Workout For Charity". Fans relished this unique opportunity to see their team up close and personal one day before the Rockies season starts.
It was fun, fun to sit in the outfield and take in the sights. Fun to see familiar faces and talk Rockies baseball real time with good friends, it felt good to be back.
Jim and Joy and their son were sitting next to me in the pavilion.(Great to see and hang with you all).
Once the D-Backs finished their batting practice I asked Jim to watch my backpack and Mike and I hoofed it over to the first base side to take a few pictures of the pitchers who were over in right field doing their warm-ups.
That lasted all of about five minutes because I noticed the Rockies were starting to gravitate towards the batting cage. That was my clue to get my butt back over to the pavilion. There were probably six baseballs hit to left and center field but with all the people blocking the ability to move I didn't have a chance at any of them.
Gary X informed me that at one point I was looking the wrong way and I missed a toss up…It figures🙂.
Jason Giambi is the still man. I watched Giambi hit two baseballs into the third deck and another ball bounced off of the third level rail. The dude still has a lot of power in that swing and his swing was ON today. Tulo had a bit of a slow start but at one point hit about four homers into the pavilion behind me about fifteen feet.
Cargo launched a beauty into the third level and looked like the Rockies long term superstar was having a great time today. Props to Esmil Rogers (aka Mr Rogers today) for tossing out a bunch of baseballs to extremely eager young fans and for taking the time to sign for a group of fans in the first row of the outfield.
I'm ready. Everyone at Coors Field today was ready.
When I wake up, it will be opening day and I'll be at Friday, Saturday and Sunday's games.
I"m "D" The Rockpile Ranter and if you're not at 20th and Blake tomorrow gett'n your Rockies groove on you'll be missing all the opening day festivities.
I wish Tom Helmer and the crew at ROOT SPORTS the best tomorrow on their first day of broadcasting. That whole team is the best and we're lucky to have them.
Go Rockies…Let's change things up and start the season off STRONG…D
4 Comments
Hey D! Great seeing you today. We had a lot of fun and it was an awesom intro to the season. I'm bummed we won't be there tomorrow. Enjoy! 🙂
Sounds like you got the fever. I've got the fever….Rockies Fever that is. Sounds like you had a great time visiting with the Rantics at Coors today. Work kept me from hanging in the pavillion today. See you tomorrow!
Peas Out – Ken
Hey D,
Play Ball!!!!!! Wish I was going to be at the game today but I'll have my radio on at work.
And so it begins🙂
Great pics. Looking forward to the rest. You're not alone in having trouble with the uploads.
'Minoring In Baseball'


text:
New Vt. auditor announces 5 areas of study
MONTPELIER — Vermont's new state auditor says he's going to examine five areas of state government to make sure the state is getting the most for its money.
Auditor Doug Hoffer announced Wednesday he plans to examine the Department of Correction's three-year $53 million contract for health care services; two contracts in the Transportation Agency; the Agency of Administration's worker's compensation and injury prevent program and the cost effectiveness of state-issued cell phones.
Hoffer took office last month.
Hoffer says his office will also audit the state's "last mile" telecom project and the health information technology investments, but those audits will require considerable background research and analysis before his office can determine specific objectives.MORE IN This Just InMONTPELIER Gov. Full StoryBARRE Mayor Thomas Lauzon has fleshed out a plan to revive a package of local option taxes that... Full StoryBARRE It wont be built where city officials had hoped and it wont be as big as they would... Full Story
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text:
Ever since her ex-boyfriend spread those lies about her, Becca Chandler is suddenly getting all the guys—all the ones she doesn't want. Then she saves Chris Merrick from a beating in the school parking lot. Chris is different. Way different: he can control water—just like his brothers can control fire, wind, and earth. They're powerful. Dangerous. Marked for death.
And now that she knows the truth, so is Becca.
Secrets are hard to keep when your life's at stake. When Hunter, the mysterious new kid around school, turns up with a talent for being in the wrong place at the right time, Becca thinks she can trust him. But then Hunter goes head-to-head with Chris, and Becca wonders who's hiding the most dangerous truth of all.
The storm is coming . . .
This one sounds so good that I'm definitely going to have to email my Kensington contact and beg for a copy (hee.) but I'm not really digging that cover. Don't have a lot of strong opinions about it; do you? Also, every time I read about this book or see the cover, I think of this song and start singing it. My life, yo.
What are you guys waiting on?


text:
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text:
Jcb of the Twin Cities
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text:
Community Photos: Dec. 3, 2012
Pen Air FCU, Pensacola, Fla., celebrated the grand opening of its new branch in Foley, Ala. In other news, the CU co-hosted a shred event along with Consumer Credit Counseling Service of West Florida, Cintas and Pensacola Recycles.
Great Lakes FCU, North Chicago, Ill., held a "Chicks, Cars & Cupcakes" event educating women on all aspects of the retail automotive market, including purchasing, financing, maiintenance and safety.
American 1, Jackson, Mich., participated in a food drive for the hungry.
Tinker FCU, Moore, Okla., gave away a decorated Big Wheel to Summer Lunsford at the 2012 Big Wheel Nationals. Separately, the CU also awarded scholarships to eight students and worked with Operation Homefront to distribute 500 blankets to military families in need on Veterans Day.
Local Government FCU, Raleigh, N.C., held two shred-a-thons with local law enforcement.
Belvoir FCU, Woodbridge, Va., said Shannon Auto Sales, a member of the CU's Preferred Dealership Program, raffled off a 42-inch flat-screen TV to one of its members at the CU's 7th Annual Installation Appreciation Day. In other news, the CU also hosted a shred event, a free financial seminar and hosted a visit from U.S. Rep. Gerald Connelly.
EECU, Jackson, Mich., held a pet photo contest on Facebook. Separately, they awarded its quarterly Forward Thinking Partnership Program grant to Jackson County ISD Youth Center.
Vantage CU, St. Louis, awarded two $500 Visa gift cards to Mario Patton, a single $500 Visa gift card to Jill Eaton and $2,500 in gift cards to Pat and Nathanile Johnson as part of the CU's summer loan promotion. In other news, the CU hosted a free shred event and bicycle recycle day.
St. Anne's CU, River Falls, Mass., participated in the 39th Annual Musictown Parade Festival. In other news, the CU sold 109 fairy bears, raising $545 for the American Cancer Society. The credit union also participated in a bowling fundraiser for Junior Achievement of Southern Massachusetts, donated $1,500 to Kalamazoo Valley Habitat for Humanity, donated $2,320 to the St. Joseph County Literacry Council and donated $900 to Open Doors Kalamazoo.
Atlantic Financial FCU Hunt Valley, Md., put together a team to participate in the Susan G. Komen Race for the Cure 5k and raised $985 for the cause. In other news, the CU added De Novo Attorney Services as a new select employee group.
State Employees CU, Raleigh, N.C., capped of its75th anniversary with its annual membership meeting, which drew 1,150 members. In other news the CU's foundation received the Inaugural Corporate Philanthropy Award from the NC Museum of HIstory Foundation and hosted a visit from a Chinese banking delegation.
Seasons FCU, Middletown, Conn., matched a $250 donation, bringing the total to $500, for the Middletown High School's Unified Sports program.
Georgia United CU, Duluth, Ga., teamed with Star94 radio for the "Teachers Make a Difference Awards," and awarded a $2,000 scholarship to Joy Hurd, who also won a $500 cash prize and a $250 prize for her school and lunch for the entire school staff. Separately, the CU donated $500 to South Forsyth High School's "Pink Out Night" for breast cancer awareness, raised $8,000 for CUPAC during its 10th annual paintball tournament and donated $2,000 to North Forsyth High School's "Kick for Schools" program.
The Summit FCU, Rochester, N.Y., donated $2,000 to the NYCUF Disaster Relief Fund, and then Summit Employees donated another $1,250, prompting the CU to match these funds for a total donation of $4,500.
The Northwestern Illinois Chapter of the Illinois Credit Union League hosted a meet and greet with Cheri Bustos, who was running for (and was subsequently elected to) Congress. In other league news, ICUL announced the following award winners: 1st MidAmerica CU and Greak Lakes CU won the Desjardins Youth Financial Education awards, NuMark CU and Scott CU won the desjardins Adult Financial Education awards, Dora Maxwell awards went to Rock Valley CU, Streator Onized CU, 1st MidAmerica CU and Great Lakes CU and Great Lakes CU also won the Louise Herring Award.
Summit CU, Madison, Wis., co-sponsored with CUNA Mutual Group and several other local co-ops a "Co-op Connection" event to celebrate Co-op Month. In other news, the CU also hosted emerging leaders from the Dominican Republic who are participatng in the World Council of Credit Union's International CU Leadership Program.
McCoy FCU, Orlando, Fla., said CEO Alvin J. Cowans was recognized by the Central Florida Council of Boy Scouts for his contributions to the local community with 2012 Whitney M. Young, Jr. Service Award.
St. Mary's Bank, Manchester, N.H., donated $3,000 to the Organization for Refugee and Immigrant Success to upgrade their youth computer lab. Separately, the CU held a topping-out ceremony for its new headquarters. St.Mary's Bank also reported it is a United Way Pacesetter Organization, having pledged more than $50,000 to the charity.
UMassFive College FCU, Hadley, Mass., donated a police bicycle (the second of three promised) to the Three College Campus Police. Separately, the CU staff rasied more than $8,100 for the UMass Medicine Cancer Walk.
Washington Gas Light FCU participated in the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society's Light The Night walk and raised more than $3,000 for the charity.
Advanced FCU, Dallas, opened a new location in Lafayette, La.
Security Service FCU raised $202,000 for the Leukimia & Lymphoma Society.
Diamond CU, Pottstown, Penn., raised $81,190.46 for Relay for Life.
Educational Community CU, Kalamazoo, Mich., sponsored the $500 scholarship awards for Western Michigan University's homecoming king and queen.
BMI FCU, Dublin, Okla., was veted Best Credit Union in Central Ohio by the readers of Columbus C.E.O. Magazine for the fifth year in a row.
Columbia CU, Vancouver, Wash., won the statewide Dora Maxwell Social Responsibility award. Separately, the CU is adding a 20,000 square-foot addition to its main operations center.
Hartford Municipal Employees FCU, Hartford, Conn., said employees wore pink t-shirts in honor of Brease Cancer Awareness Month and made a donation to the Making Strides Against Breast Cancer Walk.
CRI Solutuions employees volunteered at Habitat for Humanity for Humanity Women Build day in Baltimore.
Dupace Community CU, Dupace, Iowa, helped Scott VanNata and Rachel Stecklein pruchase a house through its Individual Development Account program. Separately, credit union executives recently met with U.S. rep. Bruce Braley to discuss credit union issues.
Mountain West CU Association hosted its 22nd annual softball tournament and raised nearly $5,000 for Credit Unions for Kids.
Merck Sharp & Dohme FCU, Chalfont, Penn., raised $25,000 for Manna on Main Street and the Shepherd's Shelf through the CU's 13th Annual Chartiy Cow Plop event.
My Community FCU, Odessa, Texas, donated more than $53,000 to the Make A Wish Foundation. In other news, the CU lobbied the mayors of Odessa andd Midland, Texas to issue proclamation for Nov. 1 to be Credit Union Day.
San Antonio FCU provided mobile ATMs for attendees at the 2012 Wurstfest to New Braunfels, Texas. In other news, the CU has become the "Official Financial Institution for Roadrunners Athletics" as part of a sponsorship deal wit hte University of Texas at San Antonio.
Postal CU, Woodbury, Minn., collected 368 coats and raised $1,5000 for the Salvation Army's efforts to provide coats for needy children.
Trademark FCU, Augusta, Maine, donated $1,000 to the Augusta Food Bank.
Sussex FCU, Milford, Del., hosted several shred events to help reduce identity theft. In other news, the CU won the Friends of Education award from the Seaford School District.
Del-One FCU, Denver, Del., funded 10 loans totaling $1.2 million for school buses. In other news, the CU's foundation sponsored the Mud Run to benefit the Leukemia Research Foundation of Delaware and was awarded a 2012 Top Workplace award from The News Journal.
Innovations FCU, Panama City, Fla., said CEO david Southall spoke at the FEDEAC Annual Meeting.
PeoplesChoice CU, Saco, Maine, was named the No. 1 "Best Place To Work In Maine" for small/medium-sized businesses.
Champion CU, Canton, N.C., helped bring Halloween to local kindergartners after Hurricane Sandy delayed the annual Town of Canton Trick-or-Treating even this year.


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Thomas Lighting ceiling flush mount light fixtures
The fixture's socket wire insulation can degrade, leading to charged wires becoming exposed, causing electricity to pass to the metal canopy of the fixture. This poses a fire and electric shock hazard to consumers.
For additional information, contact Thomas Lighting at (800) 764-0756 between 9 a.m. and 5 p.m. ET Monday through Friday, or visit the firm's website at www.thomaslighting.com
About 83,750
This recall involves 28 different models of ceiling flush-mounted light fixtures manufactured between June 1, 2010 through November 25, 2010 with a diameter ranging from 7.5" to 13". All affected fixtures have a round base or canopy affixed to the ceiling and a dome- or cylindrical-shaped cover. The recalled fixtures have a variety of finishes including metal and/or clear or frosted glass and contain one, two or three light bulbs. Canopies are a range of colors including white, bronze, brass (gold) and nickel. Most models have a nib in the center of the dome cover in the same color as the canopy. Although the manufacturer's name, the fixture model number and production date can be found on a printed label on the ceiling-side of the fixture's metal canopy, consumers are advised not to remove the metal canopy from the ceiling in order to access this label.
Thomas Lighting has received 11 reports of defective fixtures which resulted in the home's Arc Fault Circuit Interrupter (AFCI) tripping. No injuries have been reported to the firm.
Consumers should immediately stop using the light fixture, avoid direct contact with the fixture and contact Thomas Lighting to arrange for a free in-home repair of the fixtures by a qualified electrician.
Electrical distributors and lighting wholesalers nationwide from July 2010 through July 2011 for between $19 and $50 as Thomas Lighting products.
Thomas Lighting, of Elgin, Ill; part of Philips Consumer Luminaires Corporation, of Elgin, Ill.
The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission is charged with protecting the public from unreasonable risks of injury or death associated with the use of
thousands of types of consumer products under the agency's jurisdiction. Deaths, injuries, and property damage from consumer product incidents cost the
nation more than $1 trillion annually. CPSC is committed to protecting consumers and families from products that pose a fire, electrical, chemical or
mechanical hazard. CPSC's work to help ensure the safety of consumer products - such as toys, cribs, power tools, cigarette lighters and household
chemicals -– contributed to a decline in the rate of deaths and injuries associated with consumer products over the past 40 years.
Federal law bars any person from selling products subject to a publicly-announced voluntary recall by a manufacturer or a mandatory recall ordered by the
To report a dangerous product or a product-related injury go online to www.SaferProducts.gov or call CPSC's Hotline at 800-638-2772 or teletypewriter at
301-595-7054 for the hearing impaired. Consumers can obtain news release and recall information at www.cpsc.gov, on Twitter @USCPSC or by subscribing
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A Day In The Life Of… The Datacaster
By: Jim Nelson
Have you ever wondered how the game is produced over the
internet? How box scores and stats are entered into the record book, or how you
can watch the game in real-time on your computer if you're not able to make it
to the ballpark? It's a job done entirely by one person … In this case,
me! My name is Jim Nelson, and I'm
the datacaster/stringer for the Fresno Grizzlies. I am in my fifth year with the
Grizzlies, working alongside the rest of my colleagues up in the stadium press
To land my job, I started by first taking a 10-page written
test issued by Major League Baseball Advanced Media (MLBAM). This test is based
on general baseball knowledge, and included many obscure questions that only a
true baseball fan would know the answer to. My testing then advanced to calling
games on paper; I was sent a series of plays as if scoring a live game, and it
was up to me to determine the calls. Finally, after a series of telephone
interviews with MLB in New York, I was offered a job with the Fresno Grizzlies.
At that time, I had no idea what I was in for, but I am glad I made the
decision to pursue it!
My gamedays start about an hour before each game when I go
up to the press box and grab the lineups for each team. I take my seat right
behind home plate, which I believe is the best seat in the house! I load the lineups, umpires, and even the
weather into the software
provided by MLBAM. Once I've made sure that all of the information is loaded
correctly, I get to go enjoy dinner with all the other folks in the press box.
Finally, it's time to play ball! I sit in my seat and as the
game begins, I start entering strings of codes into the computer. The coding is
much like a foreign language. I record every single movement, from pitch
location, balls, strikes, hits, walks, errors, and all player movement on the
base paths. For example, 54/sac/bg.1-2
translates into a sacrifice bunt hit to
the 3rd baseman, with the 2nd baseman covering 1st, and the runner advancing to
2nd base. Complicated, yet simple! Every move made during the game must be
entered– even things like a coach visiting the mound– as my accounting is the
official statistic for the record book. So who watches me, to see that I don't make
an error? During the game, I am connected via AIM with MLBAM colleagues in New
York City, who watch each and every major and minor league game in play. If I
make a mistake, they are able to catch it, and let me know. I then make the
correction as needed. It's always a
good night when I make it through an entire game without hearing from NYC!
Finally, while you're watching fireworks or other post-game
activities, or filing out of the stadium, I will be busy in the press box
reviewing my work; the stats will be compiled and the box score created. I get final
approval from New York that all of my information is good. At that point, the box
score is printed. I hand the information over to the Grizzlies media personnel,
who distribute it to both managers and all media, and at that point, it becomes
the game of record.
If you're not able to make it out to the ballpark, I welcome
you to follow the game in real time through the link at
1 Comment
Thanks for sharing your slice of life Jim! I spent a lot of time checking the screen-feeds for the "at-bat" feature both at home and at work last season to get the latest play updates. I can't decide which point of view I like best on it yet. I'll look around during my ballpark visit to Fresno in April and see if I can spot ya!
~Christine, Nevada.


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William "Bill" Davis
Class Year:1971
Outstanding Alumni Award Winner 2001
Bill Davis graduated from North Central College with degrees in psychology, sociology and anthropology. He is the north region director for the Department of Licensing and Adoptions for ChildServ. The agency is affiliated with the United Methodist Church and matches foster homes with foster children. His drive for understanding has taken him to International Conferences of the National Association of Black Social Workers held in Brazil (1986), Venezuela (1988) and Puerto Rico (1995). He received the Social Action Award from the Chicago Chapter of the National Association of Black Social Workers in 1992 for his role in facilitating public discourse on the potential harmful consequences of trans-racial adoption as well as the discrimination faced by African-American families wanting to foster and adopt African–American children.


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Monroe gets curtain call in Buc Blowout
It was another beautiful day at PNC Park. My second game of the year and every second of it was fantastic. Adorning my Ian Snell jersey with a purpose, as he took the mound for his third start of the season. Surprising enough Snell was very effective. Seven scoreless innings, three strikeouts and only four hits was his stat line in the afternoon contest. While Snell was anything but commanding he got the job done. Giving hitters favorable counts and throwing many pitches in the dirt you could tell there is still work to be done. However, Snell did everything anybody could ask for. He got pitchers to pop out or groundout and shut down the heart of the Braves lineup.
One lineup that was not shut down was that of the Pirates.
Look the poise in that man's eyes. Monroe jacked two bombs right to the heart of center field, 3-run shots to be exact. Without a doubt Monroe is the biggest power asset on the team. With 16 RBI and 6 homers in spring training, Monroe led the club. I said this man was going to be a threat and needed to get in the lineup. If you don't believe me go back some pages and check for yourself. Monroe has a sweet swing and connects on good pitches. All he needs is an opportunity.
What concerns me the most is our outfield situation. Make no mistake about it our outfield is great. We have good players who are blossoming (Moss), vets who are solid (McLouth-spelled it right didnt I Jon? and Hinske), guys with something to prove (Morgan and Monroe) and a wildcard who is supposed to be the real deal (Young.) It's crowded out there. I'm concerned that every player won't get their fair share and playing time will be limitied for all. While I do believe competition brings out the best in people, it may not be the best idea for the Pirates. We need to have an everyday lineup set in stone. Im not a big fan of the platoon system. It could work for righty-left matchups but other than that I think it sets up for turmoil in the clubhouse.
A 10-0 Pirate win capped off a great day. My good friend Andrew Schuerholz is a Braves fan and it was great to rub it in his face. If the name Schuerholz sounds familiar chances are it is. Andrew is the nephew of Braves VP and former general manager John Schuerholz. Uncle John hooked us up with great seats. Row D right behind home plate. It was cool sitting amongst the hot shots of the MLB. We were right behind a group of scouts from various major league teams. The Marlins, Brewers, Rockies, Dodgers and Blue Jays were all represented in two rows of seats. By witnessing the way the follow and critique the game I came to the conclusion that I want to be a baseball scout.
Each of the scouts had notebooks such as this one. It was a collection of the most extensive baseball data I have ever seen. Each player was evaluated down to the finest detail. Location of pitches, how batters looked at pitches and time between action was all taken down into account. It was amazing how these guys followed the game and knew how the players would do in certain situations. It's a cool job and something I would love to have more information on.
Once again it was another great day at the best ballpark in America. The sun drenched cty of Pittsburgh looked fabulous as always and added memorable moments I wont soon forget.
The view from our great seats…
3 Comments
no doubt man i'll be in section 131 so that's real close to the bleachers… I don't know what I'll have on because all my Pirates stuff is dirty, I'll probably just rock a hoody and some sweatpants or something, I'll definitely find you over there though. Let's hope it stays dry and LETS GO BUCS!
Wow, that' so cool that you had great seats, and right behind scouts too. I feel like the Red Sox should hire me as a scout. My project players always tend to do well. I liked Brandon Moss on the Sox last year, mostly because he hit a HR in the Japan series that was really important– but still. Don't the Pirates have the lowest ERA in baseball or something?
I have been outside of Bettis' restaurant many times but have never actually gone in and ate there, there's nothing but good talk about it around Pittsburgh, I'll have to hit that up sometime this summer. But yeah it was a rough game, luck for me the Jolly Roger hooked me and my friends up with some nice seats under the 2nd deck where we didn't get wet. I was wrong about sitting in 131 we were actually in 124. My friend knows the Jolly Roger so he gets us free tickets occasionally, haha. better luck tomorrow, let's hope Ohlendorf looks better than he did last time


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More often than not, I have such a wide variety of events to attend here in the Upper Delaware River Valley during any given week that it is sometimes perplexing as to how I will tie them all together with a neat bow when I sit down to write. Music, art, theatre and fundraisers, with a party thrown into the mix, do stimulate, but are frequently at opposite ends of the spectrum and challenge the thought process, as my fingers fly across the keyboard. The past few days were no exception and (figuratively) provided a mixed bag.
My first stop was in Liberty, NY for a festive event labeled a "Hickster Mixer" hosted by Akira and Ellie Ohiso (www.greendoormag.com [2]) whom I believe are on the cutting edge. Their ideas are fun, fresh and innovative, and the mixer invited members of the community to actively participate by bringing our own music (via iPods and the like) to be combined with the hundreds of vinyl albums provided by mix-master Jon Jon Thomas. He and his band of merry DJs kept the platters (and downloads) spinning throughout the evening, as folks were encouraged to purchase "Bethel Woods Center for the Arts County Cares for St. Jude Kids Boot Cards." (Say that three times fast.) For more information on the St. Jude boot card locations and related events, visit www.thunder102.com [3]. The party was swell, the music too loud, and ultimately Dharma (the wonder dog) and I made a not-so-hasty retreat before moving on to the next experience.
Live music was on the bill at the Silk Mill in Hawley, PA (www.silkmillharmony.com [4]) and (as it turns out) I was thrilled to be exposed to newcomer Nicky Egan, who, accompanied by phenomenal blues guitarist Kyle LaLone, blew the roof off the Boiler Room with her bluesy, sexy, heartfelt renditions of (mostly) original songs that reminded me of Janis Joplin mixed with Joe Cocker and a smidge of Bette Midler, while remaining truly unique and original. Egan (www.nickyegan.com [5]) is only 23 years old, but her stylized vocals and superb (IMHO) songwriting skills combine to create a world-weary groove that elicited an enthusiastic response from the crowd and excited me in a way that I've not felt in a long while. The evening was hosted by Harmony Presents' Jill Carletti, who was rightfully effusive over Egan, declaring that she is a "legend in the making," and I heartily concur. Honestly, I was wowed. There is something thrilling about being in on the ground floor of a performer's career and I relish the opportunity to hear Egan again. Meanwhile, her music is available (pay what you can) online and she has just released new material (and a music video shot in the Catskills) that is destined to become classic Nicky Egan.
Adding an evening of theatre was next on my list, so the dog and I hightailed it over to Highland Lake, NY (www.NACL.org [6]) to soak in the Strike Anywhere Performance Ensemble's production of "Same River," which the program describes as "an improvised, inter-disciplinary performance based on interviews with local residents." The written material goes on to say that "the improvisations are structured so that certain characters and points are hit each performance; however, blocking, choreography and music changes from show to show." While that much was clear, I felt that the piece was uneven and that the unstructured aspect created muddy waters that left me wanting more cohesion. Confused, I turned to the program repeatedly, which informed me that "the piece seeks to draw connections, to give voice to multiple viewpoints [on hydraulic fracturing, or fracking] and that we are all downstream, that the earth's water supply is all the same river." Okay.
Johnathan Carr's striking video design, coupled with sound designer Rolf Sturm's deft use of music and effects combined to elevate the show, even as the performers stumbled over the improv, searching for the right words, and stammering while attempting to incorporate local references (Jeffersonville, Josh Fox and Callicoon, to name a few). IMHO these mentions did not exemplify a solid use of "interviews with local residents," but instead seemed contrived, gimmicky and at times, sloppy. Presenting "multiple viewpoints" was also unclear, especially since two of the main characters were supposedly at loggerheads over the issue at hand, but the piece (not that there's anything wrong with that) is clearly slanted against fracking. The performers are talented, that much is clear, but the disparity between the scripted content versus the improvisational created troubled waters, that left me wondering where the direction was. Leese Walker helmed the performance and also appeared on stage (as several characters) which I rarely think is a good idea. Where her acting skills shone, her direction faltered and I found the interpretive dance/movement (Donna Bouthillier) and musical riffs (Rob Henke) distracting. To say the production was a mixed bag would be an understatement, since some of it was really polished and slick, while the rest was a bit of a mess. A perfect example of the validity that less is more, "Same River" needs simplicity, for still waters run deep.


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10 deadliest U.S. hurricanes
Published On: Aug 25 2011 11:30:09 AM PDT Updated On: Dec 27 2014 11:57:00 AM PST
As Tropical Storm Hagupit batters the Philippines, take a look back at the 10 deadliest hurricanes in U.S. history.
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I was flabbergasted today when our new nutritionist said, "The absolute best thing you can do for your child is to wean him."
We were there because he's 33 months old and is in the 7th percentile for height but the 27th percentile for weight. He's gained 3 lbs. and grown 1 inch in the last 4 1/2 months. He now weighs (finally) 30 lbs. and he's 29 inches tall. The doctor said if he drops into the 5th percentile for height that they'll want to run a bunch of tests. But, we're positive his problem is nutrition, not genetic or due to any illness.
He's our 5th child and, by far, the pickiest. Feeding him is like entering a war zone. He will slam his mouth shut and refuse to eat much, if anything, at some meals. If you give him a blueberry waffle, he'll take 2 bites. If you give him a bowl of grapes, he'll eat most of them...some of the time. If you give him potato chips, he'll eat until he bursts. But, he can't live on potato chips. It's very difficult and so stressful. I've been nursing him in the morning, and before naptime and bedtime. I've recently cut out the morning one to encourage him to eat breakfast. But, why must I eliminate the naptime and bedtime nursing if he's not going to eat food afterward anyway?
The nutritionist said the longer I nurse him, the longer he depends on the suck reflex and the less he depends on swallowing solids. He swallows food just fine. It's getting the food into his mouth that's the problem. Am I the only one who thinks the suck reflex explanation for a child who's almost 3 is beyond ridiculous?


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Subject: Pay Our Military Act [Public Law No: 113-39], Military Pay and Allowances
Subject law was passed and signed by the President on 30 September 2013. I cannot comprehend the rationale in Secretary Hagel's decision to interpret the law so strictly that they declined to follow through with survivor benefit payments to the families of those who made the ultimate sacrifice. The lack of transparency is also disappointing as you and your public affairs folks seem to be hunkered down in a bunker deep in the Pentagon.
I believe that an immediate resignation by those responsible for these despicable actions is the only honorable course of action. As a Viet Nam era veteran Secretary Hagel, you should understand exactly where I am coming from when discussing the responsibilities of leadership with regards to integrity and standing up for what is right.
The "pay and allowances" wording of the legislation signed by the President PRIOR to 1 October 2013 should have been sufficient to justify payments. While searching for an answer I discovered that that a group of House members sent a letter on 1 October 2013 detailing their concerns about the current administration's decision to order massive DOD furloughs. Their letter clarified the intent of the law to ensure that all DOD military, civilian, contractors, and U.S. Coast Guard would continue to be entitled to pay and benefits. Armed with that letter, a competent leader would have been armed with the authority required to keep the DOD working and get survivor benefits paid. Any residual details could be worked out later, or clarified with a phone call to sponsoring members of this group.
Another opportunity lost to get it right was in actions taken by the Congressional Research Service. They reviewed the law and their interpretation was that the law authorized survivor benefits. My own amateur search of several government resources on-line revealed that the term "pay and allowances" included the kind of payments that you have denied to survivors.
It seems that you missed a number of opportunities to arm yourself with sufficient justification to make the payments? "Pencil Pushers" needed to stay out of this one and leave it to honorable leaders.
There is no excuse for the additional pain dealt to surviving family members. The only rationale, as sick as it is, is that this was just one additional opportunity to continue the plan to "make it hurt" for the purpose of garnering sympathy in the battle over whether or not the U.S. Government should have to live within it's means like other working Americans do.
I'm sure you lay awake some nights wondering how many fewer names would be engraved on that memorial wall if leaders in high places had "fallen on their swords" when you were serving your country. Secretary Hagel . . . please identify those responsible and demand their resignations . . . even if it starts at the top!
Respectfully submitted.
Cliff Baker
Kenedy, TX


text: So I knew from the beginning that my work with give me problems with pumping. I requested a refrigerator because my studio has none and where my studio is located in a walmart they told me to use walmart's public refrigerator that 500 employees use..so instead I bought an ice pack that I would rather use..my boss also told me that I had to clock out everytime I pump which is ok but we have two paid 15 minute breaks so why can't I use those to pump? My most recent incident with my boss was this last tuesday we had a meeting 2 and half hours away so as soon as I got there I had to pump, so I asked her where the meeting room was so I could pump (mind u this was in a hampton inn hotel) she tells me to use the bathroom, I tell her no that is unsanitary and will not so she replies saying that "we will discuss this. I will not pump in her meeting" so of course I get upset and pissed and call my mom to vent and while I'm in my rage crying my boss comes near me and I let her know how disrespected I felt where she replies to pump in the hotel lobby.. Which fine I'm ok with because I'm not embarrassed for supplying the best thing for my child but still, i felt disrespected by her. With that said, what really got me upset was today while at work I had my sign up and pumped in the studios waiting room( studio and waiting room has no door) and a man walks in and I ask him "can I help you" .. He notices what I'm doing and gets embarassed walks out and while he is walking I hear him say something about disgusting and how I needed to do that **** in private.. I was shocked and just sat there thinking did that really just happen?!! I know that part of the law is that I have a place away from intrusion but knowing how my boss and company is I don't know how to come to them for any help because they obviously don't care about what I am doing! And also can I do something legally if she doesn't provide with a PRIVATE place like the law states? Help me please!!


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News Detail
Countdown to Commencement - Marissa Petta
This week's featured senior in the Countdown to Commencement video series is Marissa Petta, an English and Adolescence/Special Education major.
Petta was nominated by Dr. Deborah Uman, Interim Chair and Associate Professor of English, and Dan Kelly, Lecturer, Ralph C. Wilson, Jr. School of Education.
Petta, a First Generation Scholar, has a long list of leadership positions she has taken on as a student at Fisher, including President of the Student Advisory Board and President of the Resident Student Association. She has also served as a Student Ambassador, National Residence Hall Honorary Member and Publicity Coordinator, Orientation Team Member, Gospel Choir Member, and a Writing Center Tutor.
Uman said the one thing she will remember most about Petta is a session she led last fall at the Seneca Falls Dialogues, a conference dedicated to feminist activism that brings together students, faculty, and activists from the Upstate New York area and beyond. Petta, along with two other students, submitted a proposal on female adolescents and the messages society sends them, along with an analysis of the novel Abeng by Michelle Cliff.
"Marissa is an extremely bright, articulate, and committed student. Her work ethic is unparalleled and she challenges herself at every level," said Uman. Uman also said that Petta has made an impact on her, and the way she teaches.
"Because I know how much Marissa puts into every class she takes, I always want to make sure that I can match her in what I put into every class I teach," said Uman. "Her presentation at Seneca Falls really inspired me and reminded me that as teachers we can make a difference not just by the skills we teach but by the way we present ourselves and the subtle messages we convey."
Kelly said Petta's spirit has made a difference on the Fisher community and the community at large.
"Marissa has tremendous appreciation for her First Generation Scholarship, and as a result of that appreciation, has dedicated much of her time to the program," he said. "She clearly has a deep attitude of thankfulness for every opportunity she has had throughout her years at Fisher."


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Farmsteads in Latvia were given names, much like some farms you might find in the Canadian countryside today (Green Acres, Mapleview Farms, etc). The names were chosen in a similar way as well. They were named after nearby surroundings, people, type of farming, etc.
"Skrundenieki" was a farmstead in modern-day Nikrace pagast, olden-time Brinkenhof/Gross Altdorf estate located in the Aizpute district of the province of Kurzeme. The name means "people from Skrunda", Skrunda being the largest nearby city. (Possibly a clue that the original owners were from Skrunda? I have yet to prove.) It was listed as "vecsaimnieciba" or old, established farm on the census form of 1935, and was spring-fed. The farm existed since at least the early 1800's and probably even earlier.
My great-great grandfather Indriks Ziverts owned Skrundenieki at one point. The earliest I can prove his residence there is 1894. The baptism of his first child has he and his family recorded as residing there. During Latvia's independence in the 1920's, laws were passed that allowed Latvian peasants to purchase property much more easily, and it is perfectly possible that this is when Indriks would have become the owner of Skrundenieki.
Prior to 1925, Nikrace as a pagast did not exist, and the area was known as Brinki, from the nearby Brinkenhof manor/estate. (Side note: the old building that was Brinkenhof manor is currently for sale)
The residents of Nikrace attended Embute parish Lutheran church, (now in ruins) and the children would have attended Nikrace pamatskola (elementary school). At least 3 generations of my Latvian ancestors lived at Skrundenieki. My great-grandfather, Arturs Zīverts inherited the farm after his father Indriks passed, and most of his children were born there as he was. In October of 1944, as WWII ripped through Latvia, Arturs and family were forced to abandon Skrundenieki in order to flee for safety.
Nikrace pagast was subsequently savaged by the Soviets, and they constructed a nuclear missile silo and bunker there. (Pictures of the Soviet structures)
It should be noted that place names in Latvia typically have a German counterpart, or "exonym". Depending on the time period of a document you may come across, you might find the German version, or a Russian Cyrillic translation of the German name.