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I pray all my children and grandchildren will remember this through the good times and rough times. He is trustworthy and keeps His promises to His children.
Life of JMK and MEJK
Saturday, May 10, 2014
Monday, May 05, 2014
Though you're dancing to a different tune,
I do not love you any less,
How could I forsake my child,
Through whom I've been so blest
I don't pretend to understand,
The things I wish I could,
Did I do something very wrong,
Or not do what I should?
Counselors say don't blame yourself,
And they are right, of course,
But I search for answers everywhere,
I want to know the source
Then in my deepest contemplation
Enlightenment occurs,
It's not about myself at all,
The struggle's really yours
I don't need to understand,
And I guess I shouldn't probe,
Reasons will not solve a thing,
Or make you choose another road
My job is to support and love,
And that's something I can do,
A mother's love can't be undone,
It's unconditional and true
Most of all, I want you happy,
Which once was such an easy thing,
But now you must find it on your own,
And reap whatever it will bring
Baby, if your heart gets broken,
Because your choice is wrong,
I'll be there to help you mend it,
Just as I have been, all along
Guilt, I'll not lay on you,
I will abide by your decision,
And I'll respect the choice you make,
Without any opposition
With all my heart, I love you, honey,
I'll never leave you all alone,
Even when the Lord sees fit,
To take your poor old mother home
So smile, baby, life's hard enough,
Grab whatever joy you can,
And always know your mama loves you,
Though she may never understand
Copyright June 2004 by Virginia (Ginny) Ellis
Shared by Mamaw 27 on 5/05/2014 No comments:
Thursday, April 24, 2014
You are my SUNSHINE!!!! Logan, Dylan, Kaelyn, Jacob, Joseph, Addison & Jesse
You are my sunshine!!! Sweet memories from singing with Logan as a young child. Now I have lots of SUNSHINE with 6 more little grandchildren. Thank you Lord God for all these little blessings.
Shared by Mamaw 27 on 4/24/2014 No comments:
Sunday, April 13, 2014
Wonderful Weekend with some of the Grandkiddos!!!
Shared by Mamaw 27 on 4/13/2014 No comments:
Thursday, April 10, 2014
Monday, April 07, 2014
God's Gift of Flowers, etc!!!
|Short trip to Waco this weekend
|These poor chicken's on their last ride headed for a table near you, maybe even your table!!
|The roadways were filled with Bluebonnets.
Shared by Mamaw 27 on 4/07/2014 No comments:
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The Big East Is Just Getting Silly
Reports are out that the Air Force is moving from the Mountain West Conference to the Big East. You heard right a program based out of Colorado Springs, Colorado is moving to a conference in which most programs are on the east coast. This benefits nobody.
I know the Big East needed to do something because of the mass exodus of teams, but c'mon Air Force. Air Force now needs to play road games at schools like Connecticut, Rutgers, and South Florida and vice versa. The costs of travel from coast to coast will be extremely high and teams will be tired traveling back and forth.
The Big East has plans to add more teams to save its once mighty conference. Rumor has it that the Big East plans to court Boise State, Houston, Central Florida, and Southern Methodist. I thought the conference was called Big East not Big Anywhere-we-can-get-teams-to save-our-jobs Conference. All, but Central Florida, are not on the east coast and not helping anyone but the Big East executives. I hear Hawaii is looking to switch conferences, so the Big East should take a look as long as they are adding teams from just about anywhere.
I thought the Big East was taking a bit of a stretch when it included Marquette, DePaul, and Cincinnati but this is absolutely ridiciulous. Where will this conference expansion end? When we have two conferences, the Big 54 and the rest lumped into Big America? I know these teams are looking for more money and more of a competitive edge, but this has to stop. Conference expansion is not helping the NCAA, where the mighty get mightier and the meek and feeble get stomped on.

subset: commoncrawl


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X1950XTX development was already too far down the road, since it's based on a tweaked version of the R580 core. :)Originally Posted by rikbikboo
quite annoying that they didnt fit the 1950xtx with that sli connector i am still relegated to using a cable to connect the two dogonnit
Hi and welcome to the forums. ;)Originally Posted by Panos
That's a great card. Could someone please tell me where they sell them with the price posted on the review? Or is an estimate?
AMD Radeon RX 580 CrossFire in Prey at 3,440 x 1,440
25th May 2017
Fractal Design Focus G Mini Review
24th May 2017
Asus GeForce GTX 1080 11Gbps Strix OC Review
24th May 2017


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Home Honda Honda CRV ESP ABS pump module problem
Honda CRV ESP/ABS Pump module fault
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I get an e-mail, it's from MSN Featured something and it says something like this and I don't have their words: "If you don't want our regular notices then please click 'unsubscribe'." They were kind enough to think of me, so I thought. So I clicked "unsubscribe." And it took me to a "Canadian" (who [Read More…]
Archives for Nov 10, 2008 @ 15:30
The Trickery of Spammers
What about divorce?
How do we apply the Bible to situations of divorce? A pastor recently asked me about this. I'm interested in your response. This is one of the most common subjects I get asked about by my students at North Park. Scot, I've got just a few pages left in The Blue Parakeet: Rethinking How You [Read More…]
The Beginning of "Origins"
Many of you have asked about the new network I will be part of with Dan Kimball. We are still forming the "creative" team so it isn't even complete yet, but there is a website up that is our first announcement. We will be changing the name as we meet as a team but for [Read More…]
Gospel 29
The apostle Paul had a major toe-to-toe with Peter in Antioch, a city north of the Land of Israel. Here is the passage and it reveals Paul's gospel: [Read more…]


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Beans are the New… Everything
Hardly a day goes by that I don't eat beans or lentils in some form. Middle Eastern lentils and rice (mujjadara) and falafel… Mexican black beans with quinoa or rice… Indian Chickpeas with Spinach (Chana Saag)…Vegetarian Chili…Split Pea or Red Lentil Soup…Greek-style Gigante Beans (Yigandes Plaki)… these are the staples of my diet.
I am very bullish on beans.
I think they are one of the most underutilized foods in the American diet. Looking for a high-fiber, slow-digesting (low-glycemic, complex) carb to add to lunch that will keep you feeling full and satiated until dinner? Looking for a high-protein ingredient for your vegetarian meal that gives it real substance? Looking for a great source of iron without having to eat red meat? Looking for a cheap, convenient protein to keep around the house that will help you get dinner on the table in 20 minutes? There's a bean for that.
I know that beans have their detractors. Paleos exclude them from the diet, under the rationale that legumes were not part of the paleolithic (pre-agricultural, caveman) diet during which times chronic diseases like heart disease and diabetes were not prevalent. This is one of my major beefs with the Paleo diet, as I believe this is a dogmatic principle that throws out the baby with the bathwater; including legumes on a grain-free Paleo diet would make it far more convenient to follow long term, and provide much-needed fiber and folate–two nutrients whose intake may take a nose-dive when eliminating grains from the diet. It would also provide a high-quality, vegetarian source of protein to help balance out the high levels of animal protein that are part and parcel of Paleo living.
There are some who eschew beans as being "too high carb" for weight loss or diabetic diets. This argument drives me nuts. 1/2 cup of canned beans has about 110 calories, of which 6-8g are protein and 20g are carbs. Breaking down the carb content further, 6-8g are officially from fiber (non-digestible, non-caloric carbs), leaving ~12ish grams of "net carbs." But even these net carbs are likely inflated, as beans contain a type of starch called resistant starch. More and more research suggests that resistant starch behaves just like fiber, meaning that it, too, is not able to be digested. And practically speaking, I challenge you to eat 1/2 cup of beans with your normal lunch and then develop a hankering for something snacky 2 hours later. Impossible! The extra 110 calories of beans at a meal will likely save you from doing major snacking damage later.
Wait a Second… are there BEANS in my pasta?
Alas, I recognize that most others do not share my unbridled enthusiasm for beans. Which is why I'm quite excited to see a new wave of packaged foods that are using pureed beans or bean flours as a leading ingredient to boost up their protein and fiber content. (Or in some cases, as a gluten-free, lower-glycemic substitute for wheat flour). To me, this is SO much better than using highly-processed ingredients like soy protein isolate and inulin (chicory root fiber) to achieve the same protein/fiber credentials, or relying on high-glycemic rice flour to replace wheat for the gluten-free crowd.
Over the past few years, beans have shown up as the lead ingredient in foods like chips, cookies, pasta, and even tomato sauce! Dried beans and peas–seasoned with a variety of interesting spices– are also growing in prominence as a snack food. In my book, this little trendlet is officially here to stay. So I've decided to do a little product roundup and review of some great (gluten-free) products to look out for in your supermarket.
Bean Chips & Crackers
- I've blogged previously about Beanitos, my favorite low-glycemic, low-sodium substitute for tortilla chips. Made with bean flour and brown rice, they're high in both protein and fiber. The Chipotle flavor rocks, and unlike other chips, they are remarkably low in sodium. Per 1 oz serving, they have 140 calories, of which 15g are carbs (though with 5g fiber, it's really 10g of net carbs) and 4g are protein. If you can find them, I quite like Flamous Brands' Falafel Chips as well. Made from fava, chickpea and black beans combined with whole, organic corn, each 120 calorie serving also features 4g of protein and 4g of fiber.
- In the crunchy snack department, I prefer Beanitos to the Baked Lentil Chips marketed by the Mediterranean Snack Company, as the latter blend their bean flour with higher glycemic potato or pea starch. 110 calories, 19g CHO, 4g pro, 3g fiber per serving. Still, you could do a lot worse in the chip/cracker aisle, and I would still buy these for a party to serve with my hummus and dips in lieu of standard chips and crackers.
- There are a variety of chickpea flour based chips around, though the two I encounter the most are Humbles and Plocky's Hummus Chips. They're pretty comparable nutritionally. A serving is about 120 calories, and they're all baked so they have less fat (4.5g) than a typical chip. They have some iron (~6% of the daily value) and a decent amount of protein–3-4g or so per serving. Neither have much by way of fiber, though (1g or less). Plocky's are gluten-free, but not all flavors of Humbles are gluten-free, and even the non-gluten flavors are likely to be cross-contaminated, according to the manufacturer's website, so beware!!
- Bean thread noodles have long been on offer in Asian cuisine, but these are made purely from starch and lack much nutritional street cred. But a new version of bean-based noodles recently showed up in the Whole Foods near me: Organic Mung Bean Fettuchini (sic), by Explore Asian Cuisine. The nutrition label is a little odd, as they use a non-standard serving size, making it hard to compare to conventional pasta. When I did the math, it appears that a standard 1oz (dry) serving has about 107 calories, 11g protein, 6g carb and 4g fat. If the nutrition label is to be believed (I am always skeptical of these labels), that makes it about 20 calories less than a serving of conventional wheat-based fettuccine, with almost 3x the protein and 75% less carb. I'd like to believe this is accurate, but I'm still mulling it over. The company also offers Black Bean Spaghetti and Soybean Spaghetti.
- For even more bean action, top that mung bean fettuccine with Mama Jess' Bean Good Organic Bean Pasta Sauce, also at Whole Foods. It's red, its in a marinara sauce-shaped jar, and it tastes like pure tomato sauce to me! But after tomato puree, organic white bean puree is the next ingredient. As a result, each 1/2 cup serving has twice the protein (4g) of traditional pasta sauce with a comparable calorie and carb count (though the carb composition skews less toward sugar than a traditional sauce).
- Lastly, I am partial to making my own chickpea based pasta on occasion, in the form of Chickpea Spaetzle. Get the recipe here.
Snacking Beans
- While baked, seasoned chickpeas have long been a snacking staple on the Indian subcontinent, only recently have Americanized versions been showing up in U.S. markets. The Good Bean markets seasoned roasted chickpeas in sweet and savory flavors like Sweet Cinnamon/Vanilla and Smoky Chili & Lime. Each 1 oz serving is low in sugar (2-6g) and high in fiber (6g!) and protein (6-7g!). I LOVE this as a pre-workout snack or a portable snack instead of sugary, highly-processed bars. But if you're in the market for a bar, look for their new nut-free energy bar made with fruit… and beans! It's kind of genius. Oh yes, and all of their products are gluten-free, natch.


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Spanish Version of 'Breaking Bad' Shot Down by Sony
In one of the most bizarre stories of the year so far, the Spanish-language network Univision announced yesterday that it was planning to produce its own version of the hit AMC show 'Breaking Bad.' However, it turns out that the announcement was premature to say the very least. Sony, who produces the the show for AMC, says that no deal is in place at the moment.
Seth MacFarlane's Western Adds Neil Patrick Harris, Gets a Release Date
It was revealed today that Universal has agreed to co-finance Seth MacFarlane's upcoming Western comedy, 'A Million Ways to Die in the West,' finally putting the film on the fast track to production. After all, MacFarlane's 'Ted' shattered all expectations at the box office last year, so they'd be foolish not to. Also hidden away in the announcement: Neil Patrick Harris has joined the cast, adding another great name to a shockingly solid ensemble.
'Pirates of the Caribbean 5′ Director: Who's in the Running for the Job?
'Pirates of the Caribbean 5' is going to happen whether we like it or not. Sure, 2011's 'Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides' might have been a heaping pile of junk, but it was a heaping pile of junk that made over $1 billion worldwide. What can we say? People just love Johnny Depp. But with director Rob Marshall not returning and original franchise helmsman Gore Verbinski long gone, who will step behind the camera? A few potential names have emerged.
RIP Ray Harryhausen: Legendary Visual Effects Pioneer Dead at 92
Ray Harryhausen, who pioneered the world of stop motion effects and changed visual effects in cinema forever, passed away today. He was 92 years old.
'Star Wars: Episode 7′ — Mark Hamill Talks His Involvement and Potential Plot Details
A few days ago, a special screening of 'Return of the Jedi' was held at Entertainment Weekly's CapeTown Film Festival and audiences found themselves treated to a special appearance by Luke Skywalker himself, Mark Hamill. Over the course of two Q&As, the beloved actor spoke about his involvement in 'Star Wars: Episode 7' and the 'Star Wars' franchise as a whole confirming some information we already unofficially knew and revealing a bit more about the new trilogy.
'Star Wars: Episode 7′ — Watch J.J. Abrams and Simon Pegg Discuss the Franchise
For some 'Star Trek' fans, it was a slap to the face when director J.J. Abrams stopped going where no man has gone before and decided to journey to a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away. How will they feel when they see Abrams discussing how great 'Star Wars' is with the chief engineer of the Enterprise, Montgomery "Scotty" Scott (aka Simon Pegg)?
First 'Hangover Part 3′ Clip: Chow's Already Causing Trouble
After an early marketing campaign that did everything in its power to hide plot details, 'The Hangover Part 3' has started revealing its secrets at a rapid-fire pace. First, there was the recent trailer that finally let us in on the plot of the film. Now, we have the first clip, which sheds some light on what appears to be the film's main conflict.
Weekend Box Office Report: 'Iron Man 3′ Makes All of the Money
Look, we all knew that 'Iron Man 3' was going to make a whole bunch of money and open at number one at the box office and kick the summer movie season off in style. The question was never "Is 'Iron Man 3' going to make any money?", the question was always "What absolutely absurd amount is 'Iron Man 3' going to make in its opening weekend?"
SNL: Zach Galifianakis Welcomes You to "Darrell's House"
Although much of last night's SNL was fairly standard (albeit, very funny) stuff, there was one sketch where it felt like host Zach Galifiankis was allowed to run wild. The scene found the 'Hangover' star playing the host of a public access TV show about how to entertain guests in your home and...well...let's just say that you have to watch it.
SNL Presents a Hilarious 'Game of Thrones' Trivia Show
SNL has made fun of 'Game of Thrones' before, but with the third season of HBO's fantasy series reaching all time high ratings, it was certainly time for a revisit. However, the target this time isn't the show itself, but rather the fans. Check it out below.
SNL: Zach Galifianakis Kills With His Opening Monologue
Some SNL hosts just feel like they were born to be on that stage and Zach Galifiankis is one of them. Rather than do a traditional monologue, he performed six minutes of his oddball, avant garde stand-up comedy. It was a great reminder that he may be a big movie star now, but he's still one of the great modern comedians.


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Bend-La Pine Schools budget restores lost days
$138 million could mean more days, technology
BEND, Ore. - An extra $5 million in the Bend-La Pine Schools' proposed budget could mean new possibilities for the year to come, officials said Wednesday.
District officials have proposed a budget of $138 million for the 2013-2014 school year. They hope to add two school days back into the schedule, and invest in technology in the classrooms.
"It's something on the horizon to look forward to, because like I said, it's nice to look at the graph and finally see it moving in the other direction," said district budget committee member Lynn Hobson, who has two high school-aged kids.
With the money, the district wants to bring back two days of class that were cut four years ago.
"Every day they're out, they start losing information and they start going backward," Hobson said. "So every time we can keep them in the classroom, they're getting more out of it."
The second item on the list is a five-year plan to move kids away from using textbooks. Third graders through high school seniors would use laptops or iPads in the classroom. It's something school officials say should have been in place three years ago.
"So now you're talking about kids not only bringing home a text book, but bringing home every piece of information on the web and integrating it with what they're learning in the classroom," Hobson said.
Depending on challenges with the public employees pension plan, the district hopes they'll get even more money, allowing them to hire more teachers, assistant principals, and have less students in each classroom.
The budget is in it's early stages, and approval will lie in the hands of lawmakers in Salem.
Budget committee members will continue to hash out a plan through May and June. They must have it completed by June 30th.


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The Young Troubadour
Medieval Stories for Young Readers
Havelok the Dane
After the Anglo-Saxons had been living in England a long time and had become very different from the savage tribes that had first come to the and, the Danes, another band of people from northwestern Europe, conquered parts of the country. Havelok was one of the first of the Danish kings. It is almost certain that he was a real person, for his name is to be found in the old, old historical chronicles. The story of his adventurous life was told by many bards, and was finally written down in about the ninth or tenth century. As the events of this story took place partly in the new land, we can see that this tale is not so old as Beowulf. It was not written until nearly two hundred years later.
Click Here For This Page In PDF
The Tale
There was once a Danish king who had three little children, two girls and a boy named Havelok. When he was near death, he called for his best friend Godard, the man he believed truest, and made him promise to take good care of the children until Havelok should be old enough to become a knight. Now this Godard was a very wicked man. No sooner had the king died than he took the three little children, the oldest of whom was not yet five, and shut them in a cold, damp tower. Then he seized the whole kingdom of Denmark.
After he had taken possession of all the land, he went to the tower where the children were shivering with cold and faint with hunger. He killed the little girls, but he did not kill Havelok because the child cried so pitifully. Instead, he sent for a slave of his, a fisherman named Grim. "Grim," he said, "you know that you belong to me. Do my bidding and tomorrow I will set you free and give you gold and land besides. Take this child, tie an anchor around his neck so that he will sink, and throw him into the sea tonight at high tide. Let the sin be on my head."
Grim took the little boy and bound him tight with a strong line. Then he wrapped him in an old coat, stuffed rags into his mouth to keep him from crying, and carried him off on his back in a big black bag. When the fisherman reached his hut, he told Leve, his wife, of their great good fortune, how they would be made free on the morrow and receive gold and land besides. When Leve heard the news, she was so glad that she took the bag and threw it down with a bounce. The boy's head was hurt against a stone and he started to cry, but the rag in his mouth choked him. Then Grim and Leve went to bed leaving him on the hard stone floor.
At midnight Grim bade his wife stir the fire and bring a light so that he could see to get up and get ready to throw Havelok into the sea. As Leve went out to do so, she saw a bright light in the corner where the boy lay, just as if a sunbeam were shining from the old bag.
"Get up, Grim, and look. What does this mean?" she called.
Grim got up. They unbound Havelok and found the royal cross marked on his right shoulder.
"This is the true heir of Denmark," said Grim.
"He will grow up to be a strong king. He will punish the wicked Godard and hold all England and Denmark in his power.
Then Grim fell at the boy's feet and promised to serve and care for him. He knew that Havelok was the only one who could set him free, for Havelok was the only lawful ruler of Denmark.
Havelok was indeed happy to be let out of the big black bag. "Please give me something to eat," he said. "I am almost dead from hunger and the hurt of the bands on my hands and the rag in my mouth." Leve brought him bread and cheese and butter and milk and pasties. Havelok was so hungry that he ate a whole loaf of bread. Then Grim undressed him and put him to bed on a soft couch. The next morning Grim went to Godard and told him that he really had thrown Havelok into the sea. Instead of rewarding Grim as he had promised, Godard drove him away with hard words and threats.
Now Grim knew that if Godard ever found out the truth, he would kill Havelok and Grim and his family, too. So Grim secretly sold his corn and his sheep and his cattle and his horse and his swine and his geese and his hens. Then he strengthened his boat with a new mast and sail and stout cables and oars. When there was not a nail more wanting, he went aboard ship with his wife and three sons and two daughters and young Havelok. When they were about a mile from shore, a north wind arose and drove them to England. There Grim settled by the shore and built a little earthen hut for his family. The place where he lived is called Grimsby to this very day.
Grim was a clever fisherman and could make a good living with his net and line. He made strong baskets in which to carry his fish to sell in the town and country round about. In the morning he and his sons would set out with their baskets full of fish and in the evening would always return with those same baskets full of bread and flour and corn and beans. Whenever Grim caught a great lamprey, he carried it to the town of Lincoln and came back with his bags full of meal, mutton, pork, and hemp for the making of fishlines.
In this way they lived for twelve years. They would not let Havelok work because he was a king's son. It made him very sad to have to lie idle at home while Grim and his sons worked hard to support him.
"I am no longer a baby," he said at last. "I can eat more than Grim and all his five children. I must work for my living. It is no shame to work. I will set out tomorrow.
On the next morning Havelok set forth and in his basket he carried more fish than all the other four. He carried it well and sold it well. At night he gave over all the money to Grim and did not keep back a penny of what he had earned.
After that, he went out to sell every day. Soon there came a great famine in the land. Grim could not get enough corn and bread to feed all his family. He was especially afraid on Havelok's account, for Havelok was big and strong and could eat more fish than could be pulled from the sea.
"Havelok," he said, "I am afraid we must die, for we are hungry and have no bread. It will be better for you to go away. In the town of Lincoln lives many a good man in whose service you may earn a living. You had better go there; but, alas, you have no clothes. I must cut you a coat out of my sail or you will take cold." He took the shears down from a nail and made of the sail a new coat for Havelok. Havelok put it on, but he had no stockings or shoes and had to walk barefoot to Lincoln.
He had no friend in Lincoln and knew nowhere to go. For two whole days and nights he wandered around the streets without finding anything to eat, for no one would give him any work to do. On the third day came a call of "Porters, porters, all come here!" It was the Earl of Cornwall's cook, who wanted some one to carry home the meat he had bought at the market. Like a spark from the fire, Havelok jumped forward. He pushed down nine or ten men in his way, left them lying on the ground, and pressed forward to the cook. He took the earl's meat and carried it to the castle. For pay he received a penny loaf of bread.
The next day he watched for the cook near the market and soon saw him with many fish, which he had bought for the Earl of Cornwall. At the call for porters, Havelok knocked down in a heap sixteen stout men who stood in his way and took up a whole cartload of fish on his head.
Then he did not stop a moment until he reached the castle, where men took the load from his head. The cook, seeing what a strong man he was, said to him, "Will you work for me? I shall be glad to feed you, for the meat which you eat is well spent."
"Kind sir," Havelok answered, "I ask nothing better. Give me enough to eat, and I will serve you in any way you wish. I can fetch and carry, break sticks, kindle and blow the fire, skin eels, and wash dishes."
"That is all I wish," said the cook. "Go sit over there and eat all the bread and broth you want." So Havelok lived on at the castle and ate and worked. He carried heavy burdens gladly. He always spoke cheerfully. The little children in the meadows loved to play with him. All men of high and low degree spoke of his strength and beauty and gentleness. Still he had nothing to wear but the old coat made out of a sail. The cook was sorry for that and bought him brand new garments and stockings and shoes. When he was dressed in the new clothes, he seemed the handsomest man in all the world. At the Lincoln games, he stood taller by head and shoulders than the strongest man there.
In those days Earl Godrich of Cornwall had all England in his power, even though he was not himself king. The real king had died, leaving his little daughter, Goldburgh, in the care of Earl Godrich. He had promised to protect her and her country until she was of age and then to find her the handsomest and strongest man in England for a husband. So Earl Godrich had all the power in England in his hands until Princess Goldburgh should be twenty. He could send judges and establish courts all over the kingdom, appoint sheriffs and hangmen, and set swordsmen to rid the forests of robbers and bandits. As time went on, he could not bear to think of ever losing all his power and serving Goldburgh. He was a wicked man and cared nothing for his promises. He sent Goldburgh from the royal palace at Winchester to the seashore at Dover. There he shut her in a gloomy castle and kept her for many long, lonely years.
Now Earl Godrich had brought into Lincoln many strong men--earls, barons, champions, and bondsmen. Each year they held a contest of strength. One of the favorite games at these contests was called "Putting the Stone." Many had noticed the great strength of Havelok and at last some one asked him to try his hand at the game. He picked up the huge stone, lifted it above his head, and threw it twelve feet and more beyond the mark of the champions. Then talk of his strength spread more than ever until it even reached the ears of Earl Godrich. When Godrich heard of the strength and beauty of his cook's servant, he said to himself, "This Havelok seems to be the strongest and handsomest man in all England. I will marry Goldburgh to him. Then I can keep all the power in England myself, for, if Goldburgh is married to a man below her rank, she will lose the right to the English throne."
He brought Goldburgh to Lincoln with great ringing of bells and told her that he would give her to the fairest man alive. Goldburgh answered that she would marry no man but a king or a king's son. Then Godrich was very, very angry.
"You never will be mistress over me, my fine lady," said he. "Tomorrow you are to marry my cook's servant."
The next morning, when the bell at daybreak had rung, Earl Godrich sent for Havelok and said, "Do you want to marry, sir?"
"No," answered Havelok, "for how can I keep a wife? I can neither feed nor clothe her. I have no house nor stick nor sprout nor bread nor cloth, except a piece of an old sail. Even the clothes I wear belong to the cook, and I am his servant."
Then Godrich had him seized and beaten, and threatened to put his eyes out if he did not marry. So he forced Havelok to agree to be married. By threatening to burn Goldburgh alive, he forced her, also, to obey his commands. Soon Havelok and Goldburgh were married hard and fast. Now Havelok knew that Earl Godrich hated Goldburgh and would put her to shame if she stayed in Lincoln as the wife of a kitchen servant.
So he decided to take her back to the faithful Grim and his family. When Havelok and Goldburgh reached Grimsby, they found that Grim was dead, but his five children were still living.
They ran out joyfully to greet Havelok. Grim had left them horses and cattle and gold and silver. They offered to give all to Havelok and Goldburgh and to serve them faithfully. They built a roaring fire and spared neither goose nor hen to make a wedding feast.
That night Goldburgh lay awake grieving because she had been forced to marry the cook's servant and lose her right to the English throne. Suddenly she saw a light as bright as ten candles shining from Havelok's mouth. She was astonished. As she looked more closely, she saw a cross of red gold glowing on his shoulder. Then she heard a strange voice saying, "Goldburgh, sorrow no more, for Havelok is a king's son. He will rule over all Denmark and England and you will live to be queen of two countries."
The next morning Havelok told Goldburgh that he had dreamed a marvelous dream. It seemed that he was in Denmark on a high hill overlooking all the country. As he stretched out his arms to it, they grew so long that they surrounded the whole land, and when he went to draw them back, castles and towns clung to them, and keys fell at his feet. Then he dreamed that the same thing happened to him in England. Goldburgh told him that the dream meant that some day he would hold both England and Denmark in his power. She advised him to take Grim's three sons, Robert the Red, William Wendath, and Hugh Raven, and go at once to Denmark.
So Havelok and Goldburgh and the three brothers set forth for Denmark. They went disguised as travelling merchants. When they arrived at the province ruled by Ubbe, a great Danish earl, they asked him for permission to trade throughout the country and made sure of his friendship by giving him a gold ring. Then Ubbe asked Havelok to meet him at his castle and there feasted him and Goldburgh with the best of everything. After dinner he sent them to the house of Bernard Brun, the best man in town, to pass the night.
As they were all sitting at supper, sixty strong thieves attacked the house with long knives and swords. They broke the door through. Havelok jumped up, pulled up the door post for a weapon, and slew three at the first stroke. He gouged out the eye of the fourth and hit him on the head, struck the fifth on the shoulders, and broke the neck of the sixth. Still they all rushed on him like a pack of wolves and struck at him with stones, clubs, and swords until his blood flowed from twenty wide wounds as water from a spring. Yet he fought on and on until he had twenty men lying dead around him.
Hugh Raven heard the great clamor and, looking out, saw men beating on Havelok as blacksmiths beat upon an anvil. He called to his brothers to take up weapons and follow him. Robert the Red gripped a staff and William Wendath a club. Their host, Bernard Brun, held his ax. Then they sprang out like wild men and broke arms and knees and shanks and thighs and heads. They killed the whole sixty thieves.
In the morning Earl Ubbe heard of the fight and the strength of the stranger. He went at once to the house of Bernard Brun. There he found Havelok sorely wounded, but his leech said that Havelok's wounds could be cured. Earl Ubbe was so struck by Havelok's strength and fairness that he took him to the castle and put him in the room next to his own. That night he saw a light bright as day shining out of the room where Havelok lay.
"At this time of night only a thief has a light," he said to himself. "I must go and see what it means.
He went into the room where Havelok was sleeping. From Havelok's mouth came the bright light and on his bare shoulder glowed the cross, red as a ruby. Ubbe knew that these were signs of royalty and came closer. Then he noticed that no brothers could look more alike than this stranger and the former King of Denmark, and he knew that Havelok must be the King's son. He fell at Havelok's feet and kissed them until Havelok awoke. At first Havelok suspected some treachery, but Ubbe's promises to be faithful to him showed him that here indeed was a valuable friend.
The next morning, Ubbe made Havelok a knight. Then he called together all the people in his province and told them that Havelok was the real ruler of Denmark and that Godard was a traitor. They all swore allegiance to Havelok. Next, Ubbe sent messages far and wide throughout Denmark to summon all the barons and knights and sheriffs. When they were all at his castle, he told them that he had found their King's son.
Then Havelok was crowned King of Denmark. There was feasting for forty days. The nobles jousted, wrestled, put the stone, and hunted the wild boar. In the evening, the gleeman played upon the harp and the drum and sang ballads and read romances. King Havelok rewarded Robert the Red, William Wendath, and Hugh Raven by making them barons and giving them each broad lands and twenty knights to serve them.
As soon as the celebration was over, King Havelok and his barons set out to find the wicked Godard. Robert the Red was the first to come upon his tracks. When they all found him, he fought terribly. Even after his own knights had run away from him, he wounded and killed twelve of Havelok's men. At last he was captured and bound and cast into prison.
Then Havelok and Goldburgh and a large company of Danish knights sailed back to England and landed at Grimsby. When Earl Godrich of Cornwall heard that Havelok had become king of Denmark and that he and his queen, the true heir of England, had come to Grimsby, he commanded all his knights to join him at Lincoln.
Whoever disobeyed the command would be made a slave and held in slavery forever. When they had come together, he told them that the Danes were at Grimsby threatening to capture England. They all jumped to their horses and hurried to find the enemy at Grimsby. There a mighty battle was fought, and many brave deeds were done.
The fight lasted from sunrise until sunset. The wicked Godrich wounded Ubbe sorely and attacked the Danes and struck them to the ground on every side until Havelok came riding down upon his warhorse. Godrich cleft Havelok's shield in two. For a moment it seemed as though he would win. Then Havelok struck off Godrich's sword hand. After that he took him by the neck, bound him in chains, and sent him to Queen Goldburgh. He commanded that no man harm Godrich, for he was a knight and had the right to a fair trial by his fellow knights.
The Englishmen soon found that Havelok was a just ruler and that his wife, the fair Goldburgh, was the true heir to their kingdom. They came to Havelok and promised to serve him and they hailed Goldburgh as their own queen. They wanted to hang the traitor, Godrich, at once, but Havelok bade them wait for his trial by the knights. The knights tried him and sentenced him to death.
Then Havelok received an oath of allegiance from the English and was crowned King of England. He rewarded all his old friends generously, even the cook, whom he made Earl of Cornwall in Godrich's place. He sent all his Danish subjects home with many rich presents and appointed Ubbe to rule in Denmark in his name. After this King Havelok and Queen Goldburgh ruled happily in England for sixty years and had fifteen children, of whom every son became a king and every daughter a queen.


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Solar "Batch" Hot Water Heater, Help Please
1 Attachment(s)
Hello All,
I would appreciate a little input on constructing a solar "batch" water heater system.
It will be a typical type setup whereas a 50gallon black water tank will be encased within a box with glass panel(probably glass door). I live in south Alabama, btw. The batch tank will simply be used to pre-heat water going into my indoor Hot Water Heater. SEE SKETCH.
1) How hot can these batch tanks get and what do you do to protect against excessive heat/pressure buildup? I thought to install some sort of automotive type thermostat that could vent the box as it gets too hot?
2) Somewhat in regards to question one, should a tempering valve be installed on the batch water tank to protect against excessive hot water going through the lines and into our indoor Hot Water Heater? I read where someone damaged their cpvc piping because of too much heat so assume 3/4 Pex piping would be best?
3) If I use standard pipe insulation for the underground line (one) and enclose that in solid corrugated pipe (lowe's) how much heat loss can I expect? My hot line, which will run from the batch tank to the indoor HW heater, will be about 50ft in length and approxiametly 18 inches underground(top soil).
4) Should I connect the "hot" water line, coming from batch tank to HW heater, at the bottom drain valve or from top of HW heater via "cold" water in? I plan on supplying tap water to the batch tank from our cold line at master bath faucette? Can I turn off the valve at the cold water "in" to the HW heater itself as such? Maybe turn back on when I want to bypass the batch tank?
5) Can I also run a hot line between my master bath faucette and the batch tank? This would allow me to possibly circulate the hot water in having instant hot water to each faucette. However, how will this affect the flow of everything? I mean what happens when the batch tank is cold? Can I just tie in at a lower point then HW heater line?
6) Lastly, how do I protect the batch tank in freezing weather or from getting too cool? I know insulating lines within the box wil be required but how to keep temperature within the box itself up? Would building a housing somewhat partially below grade help?
Thanks, Ralph
I will be building a solar water heater in the future, though I am still gaining knowledge for this. No experience in this, hence my library of bookmarked sites. Enjoy them as you wait for someone more knowledgeable on the forum to answer your specific questions:
Sorry if they don't all cover batch heaters, glean what you can....
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Alpine skiing: Stone sisters, Linnerooth break school records
Savannah Stone, Thor Linnerooth and Alex Stone entered the record books of the Brainerd Warriors Alpine program Thursday following their performances in the Section 5 meet at Afton Alps.
In addition to the Stone sisters and Linnerooth, the Warriors qualified senior Mara Williams for Wednesday's state meet at Giants Ridge in Biwabik.
Savannah Stone became the first Warrior girl or boy to qualify for state four times. Linnerooth joined Andy Rangen (1995 and 1996) as the only two-time Warrior boys state qualifier. And, seventh-grader Alex Stone became the youngest Warrior boy or girl ever to qualify for state.
Savannah Stone tied for fourth in the girls race with a time of 1:02.63. After her first run she was in seventh place but on her second run she moved up three spots.
"We were concerned because Savannah really hasn't trained for about two weeks," Warriors coach Jim Ruttger said. "She's had a high ankle sprain, and she's had a lot of pain to deal with. She took a couple runs (Wednesday) on the course, and we were not sure until (Wednesday) whether she could race today.
"She was not quite 100 percent, and was maybe a little more tentative on her first run. Her second run was really a clean run. We saw what she's more capable of."
Linnerooth finished ninth in the boys race after placing 13th in his first run. The senior will make his second straight trip to state.
"Thirteenth would have qualified him for state, but he wasn't settling for that," Ruttger said. "He wanted top 10 and he nailed his second run.
"He nailed his two runs today, and did what he needed to do, and he's going to state."
Williams finished 16th in the girls race. The senior will make her first trip to state.
"Mara's just been skiing phenomenal the last few weeks," Ruttger said. "She had three wins in our regular season. You just want your seniors to ski well at sections. All you hope for is they ski the best they can. Mara had two great runs today. To cap her long career with a trip to state was just a great result."
Alex Stone finished 19th to grab the final girls individual qualifying spot.
"She's the youngest state qualifier we've ever had as an individual," Ruttger said. "As a seventh-grader, that's a huge accomplishment. That really bodes well for the future of our team."
The Warrior girls team finished fifth, behind four metro schools.
"Only 7.5 points separated third through fifth place," Ruttger said. "We were pretty happy with that result. When you consider we did that with a seventh-grader, two eighth-graders and a ninth-grader, out of our six skiers, for a young squad that's a great result."
The Warrior boys team finished 10th with Taylor Finger the closest behind Linnerooth in 38th place.
The top two teams, and the top 10 individuals not on those two teams, advanced to state.
Boys team scores: 1-Minnetonka 362.0, 2-Hopkins 351, 3-Orono 341, 4-Blake 320.5, 5-St Cloud Area 312, 6-Benilde St. Margaret's 280.5, 7- Wayzata 263, 8-Lakes Area 259, 9-Breck 249, 10-Brainerd 236, 11-Maple Grove 204, 12-Armstrong 167, 13-Mound Westonka 157, 14-Annandale 143, 15-Robbinsdale Cooper 113, 16-Waconia 77
Section champion: Brett Bremer (Hopkins) 58.74
Brainerd results: 9-Thor Linnerooth 1:00.67, 38-Taylor Finger 1:09.33, 51-Ben Thoele 1:16.76, 58-Gabe Gibson 1:21.59, 68-Grant Madison 1:28.20, Garett Lee DNF
Girls team scores: 1-Minnetonka 265.5, 2-Blake School 243, 3-Orono 230, 4-Benilde St. Margaret's 227, 5-Brainerd 222.5, 6-Wayzata 194, 7-St Cloud Area 158, 8-Maple Grove 124, 9-Armstrong 94, 10-Hopkins 91, 11-Breck 71, 12-Mound Westonka 63
Section champion: Rosie Hust (Orono) 1:01.32
Brainerd results: 4-(tie) Savannah Stone 1:02.63, 16-Mara Williams 1:07.58, 19-Alex Stone 1:09.68, 30-Hannah Moen 1:12.44, 34-Ashley Fitterer 1:13.70, 35-Emily Aga 1:15.24
Next: State meet, Giants Ridge, Biwabik, first run 10 a.m., second run 1 p.m., Wednesday.


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Aparthotel Ashanti
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TripAdvisor Reviews Aparthotel Ashanti Bibione
Travel Blogs from Bibione
Piran - Slovenian Istria
... largely Italian culturally but part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire until the end of WWI, then part of Italy through WWII, and then part of Yugoslavia until its breakup in the early 1990s. Most of the Italian population left the region after WWII, but from the sound of things the Austrians and Italians have all returned as tourists. And I can see why. Of all the coastal Istrian towns I saw I found Piran to be the ...
Another cool hilltop town. We had no WIfi there and thus it does not appear on our map. Penny here. One of the hilltop towns that we visited today was Groznjan. It was not so long ago that this town was forgotten but several artists have taken up residence there so it is slowly coming back to life. We are visiting these places at the end of the season so many ...
Hill towns
We are taking a car tour of the many hill towns in the Istria region. Our first stop is Buje which is very cute with a beautiful church at the top of the hill. I will attach a photo of it with a barrel vault ceiling. The weather has cooled down into the mid 50's this morning and there is forecasted high of ...
Koper, Slovenia
The ship docked quite early
and we had breakfast and sat on our balcony and watched the people leaving on the tours. The air was
getting hot and, at 11 am we disembarked. There was the usual mucking around
with passport control and then, off we went to see the city.
The old city is surrounded by a wall and just across where the
ship docked, there is an elevator that takes you ...
Koper, Slovenia
Koper was a very quiet town but we went for a good walk along the walled foreshore which we enjoyed. Koper is a city in southwestern Slovenia, situated along the country's 47-kilometre (29-mile) coastline, in the Istrian Region, approximately five kilometres (3.1 miles) from its border with Italy. Having a unique ecology and biodiversity, it ...


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Discussion in 'Chevy Impala Forum' started by Cableguy, Apr 6, 2007.
Found an old picture of the SS I used to have.
Sorry pic is a bit old
Do you ever wish you still had it?
Hey Tony, hows it going. Oh ya I miss the brutal acceleration and cornering it did. It was fun.
Got to drive an Impala SS in LA this week, and all I got to say is "Get up and gone" it has an awsome sound.
my dad is looking to buy one of those its maroon and has 13k miles on it...
Separate names with a comma.


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225 Central Park WestApt. 1005
Between West 82nd Street and West 83rd Street Upper West Side
This home has been sold
We have 61 similar homes for sale.
Subway Lines
Nearby Subway Stations
- Price$1,999,000
- TypeCo-op
- Bedrooms2
- Bathrooms3
- Rooms5
- Exposure N, E & W
Key Features
- Concierge
- Doorman
- Elevator
- Pet friendly
- Full park view
- Beamed ceiling
- Dishwasher
- Excellent light
- Great closet space
- Hardwood floors
- Modern kitchen
- Prewar detail
- Renovated bathroom
- Washer/dryer
DIRECT PARK VIEWS from this high floor 2 bedroom, 3 bath aerie!Loft-like open plan. 9ft ceilings. Hardwood floors.Granite counters, SubZero refrig. Washer/dryer in apt. Multi closets. Steam shower.A welcoming, warm space with amazing light!A wonderful roof deck overlooking the city. Garage in building.All these features in a full-service, Emery Roth building in an ideal location - on CPW, between 82nd and 83rd Streets.Pet friendly.First showing - Open House, Thursday evening, June 21 from 5.30pm-7.00pm.
Agent Ask me a question
firstname.lastname@example.com Email Me
Upper West Side
Upper West, from Central Park West to the Hudson River, 59th Street (excluding Columbus Circle) to 110th Street.
Every ten blocks of the Upper West Side seem to have its own character. The 70s and 80s have their share of "Classic Six" prewar apartments (that's two bedrooms, a living room, dining room, and kitchen plus a room for the maid or domestic staff, sometimes used as a home office) as opposed to a "Classic Seven," which has all these rooms in addition to another bedroom. Along Riverside Drive on the Upper West Side, some grand-scale apartment buildings with magnificent river views perfectly match the street's name. Meanwhile, the southern bit of the Upper West Side embraces the Time Warner Center, which has some of the most spectacular luxury condos in the city, along with high-end shops like Coach and Hugo Boss, once-in-a-lifetime eateries like Per Se, and a giant subterranean Whole Foods that seems to have the capability to hold every resident of the Upper West Side at once.
What's In The AreaDriving Walking
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225 Central Park West
Central Park West - 81st St7 mins
Central Park West - 81st St7 mins
Broadway - 86th St7 mins
The Alden was designed as an apartment hotel by the renowned architect Emery Roth, and opened by Bing and Bing in 1926-1927. The 15 story building was built in 1925 and converted into a cooperative in 1984. The historic Alden is a Landmarked Building, boasting a spectacular lobby with 24 hour doormen and concierge, beautiful planted and furnished roof deck with stunning views of Central Park, parking garage accessed from within the builiding, and bicycle room. The apartments range in size from studios up to five bedrooms in residences that have been combined. Hallways were recently renovated, and it has a resident management office and live-in super.
Additional features of this building include: Book exchange in laundry room, Newly renovated hallways, Bicycle room-$100 per year per space, 5 elevators, Beautiful roof deck with panoramic views of Centra, Verizon or Time Warner service.
- Prewar
- Built in 1926
- 16 floors
- 260 units
- Elevator
- Pet friendly
- Landmarked
- Concierge
- Doorman
- Central laundry room
- Common roof deck
- Common storage
- Garage
- High-speed internet


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I recently made a post positing the notion that "killer applications" start with "killer UI". Unfortunately, the vast majority of business applications are sorely lacking many of the ease-of-use UI features that consumer software is known for.
I thought it might be interesting to follow up that post with an interview with Jon Innes. Jon and I were colleagues at Siebel Systems and he has worked on enterprise software for Siebel and SAP as well as consumer software for companies such as Intuit and Symantec. He is currently a consultant who helps companies understand how to improve user experience. Jon is a member of UPA, HFES, and ACM CHI with a graduate degree in human factors psychology from New Mexico State and imminently qualified to discuss the impact and importance of UX/UI. He can be reached at info @ uxinnovation.com.
In this interview, I've asked Jon to focus primarily on back office enterprise application software, more commonly known as Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) software. This is typically complex software that enables companies to "run the business" and covers major functions such as: accounting, billing, invoicing, order management, etc. Due to the complexity of these applications, UI/UX is especially critical but has traditionally taken a distant back seat to functionality.
Q. Jon, ERP applications are typically "mandatory" applications. That is, if you are an AP clerk or call center agent or a member of the Purchasing department you must use an ERP application to perform your function — you spend your entire day sitting at a keyboard staring at a monitor feeding data into an ERP system. As a result, you would think that companies would be extremely focused on ensuring that workers were as productive as possible and that the UI/UX of the ERP software was as easy to use as possible. Why, then, is ERP UI/UX so challenging?
A. Actually Bruce, your question hints at the answer. "Mandatory" applications don't have the same feedback loops of consumer products. The AP clerk is unlikely to be involved in selecting the system and has little input into the requirements and design process.
This is historically one of the key challenges in enterprise software. There are so many stakeholders involved compared to consumer products and each of them tends to have conflicting agendas. This is the real reason ERP systems are known for having poor UIs. It is not the UX professionals involved, or the lack of resources, but the nature of the problem itself. Think of all the different stakeholders associated with ERP systems and their influence on the design and purchase of ERP software:
Individual Users
The individual users are the accountants, call center representatives, sales personnel, and countless others who record transaction-oriented data into ERP systems. In cases of self-service-oriented purchasing or expense reporting software, it could include anyone who is required to do those tasks in the company, not just the individuals in the purchasing or procurement functions.
Unlike consumer software end users, they don't have a say in purchase of ERP systems. They also don't have a way of providing feedback to the vendors about user experience problems.
Functional Managers
The functional managers on the team perform specialized functions in the organization. Examples include managers of sales divisions and customer support organizations. It's important to consider managers' goals for ERP systems during design, such as providing consistent ways of combining sales forecasts, or tracking support issues. This extends beyond what the individuals do with the UI to how that work is coordinated and measured. Functional managers occasionally have limited input into purchase decisions at companies. Unfortunately, they almost never have a direct line of communication with vendors to discuss product enhancements.
Enterprise Executives
As the "E" in ERP implies, the systems are designed to serve enterprises and their executive management. Examples include aligning sales predictions with manufacturing plans or the related staffing and support budgets. ERP systems are designed to meet the needs of the executives who are the ultimate customers and decision makers regarding ERP purchasing. They have significant influence on ERP vendors, but typically this is channeled through individuals with IT responsibility, such as the CIO or CTO.
Unfortunately, enterprise executives rarely, if ever, actually use ERP systems. So while they hold the purse strings, letting executives select an ERP system is much like having your grandmother select your clothes for you (thanks granny, that's lovely-)
Other Stakeholders
The other stakeholders include customers, business partners, and analysts that "guide" the customers of ERP systems. Ecosystem members have limited-to-no input in ERP purchase decisions. Analysts can significantly influence the decision makers, but rarely focus on user experience aspects of ERP.
Q. What are the other challenges beyond the feedback loop?
A. Another big factor contributing to poor ERP user experience is sheer complexity. ERP suites, which contain a broad range of functions, might have tens of thousands (if not hundreds of thousands), of pages or screens.
These screens are designed to be used in just a part of a company, such as the call center, accounting, or human resources department. As one would expect, the design reflect the philosophies of modern corporations. As such, ERP systems inherit both the strengths and weaknesses of this way of conducting business. One key weakness in both corporations and ERP suites is that their modularity makes them resistant to change.
ERP is software for corporations, designed by corporations. While this might sound like a good thing, consider that most large corporations suffer from poor cross-functional communications. This presents many barriers to good design. User-centered design depends on regular, rich interaction with users throughout the development process. Better feedback loops result in better designs. Unfortunately, insufficient feedback from the user (note the use of "user" and not "customer") is the norm in enterprise software today. Frequent interaction with users required for design iterations are rare compared to that in more consumer-oriented companies.
Q. What key techniques to making things easy-to-use apply to ERP UI design?
A. One key factor is just simple iteration in the design process. The iterative design process for a package of soap at Proctor and Gamble is subject to much more user feedback than most ERP modules. However, the problem is also in reaching the end-user. The ERP ecosystem is fertile ground for what former Microsoft COO Robert J. Herbold calls "the fiefdom syndrome." Many players in the ecosystem are solving for their own short-term interests. Here are some of the classic maladaptive behaviors:
- Most of us recognize that the end users of ERP systems would be the best source for many UI requirements, at least for streamlining existing work. Unfortunately, these users face the conflict that they are under pressure to get their primary job done. This makes them hard to engage in the design process, even if you can navigate the organizational barriers necessary to reach them at all.
- Managers of functional areas in large corporations often have limited recent hands-on experience with day-to-day transactional work. They are rarely the best source of information on how to design systems for their staff, but often they don't realize this. These managers also don't want day to day productivity of their teams impacted by IT initiatives like providing feedback on the design of ERP systems. Nor do they have the time or motivation to get involved in IT projects like ERP deployments; they simply aren't rewarded for doing so.
- IT departments in companies typically want to own the requirements for their ERP systems. Unless they have training and experience conducting user-centric research methods, they may not have the skills to do this work, at least at the level of sophistication found in consumer product companies. Making it worse, they are often discouraged by managers of functional areas when they do attempt to conduct any requirements analyses with end users. All too often, IT staff gets rewarded for introducing new technology, but not evaluated based on the impact this technology has on worker productivity. The net result is that corporate IT departments can become more of a barrier than a facilitator in any efforts to gather user feedback to refine ERP systems.
- IT consulting and professional services firms want to position themselves as experts to their customers. Often this means they fail to fully analyze the needs of each customer in detail, relying instead on their expertise. Rarely do they admit the need to conduct any type of user-centered requirements analysis. Doing so would require billing the customer for learning requirements for the ERP system, something they want to claim expertise in. Even if they do propose a detailed requirements analysis effort incorporating usability feedback, and have a staff skilled in doing so, this adds to the cost of the "scoping phase" of the engagement, which means it rarely gets approved. When requirements applicable across customers are discovered, this is often seen as an opportunity to create "custom solutions" for which each new customer is billed, rather than suggesting these enhancements to vendors.
- Sales people at ERP vendors are rarely motivated to assist in engaging the customer in any deep level of requirements discussions. They are primarily motivated to close each deal quickly. Any ongoing discussions with customers are typically viewed as conflicting with sales goals. Sales people may also want to avoid any possibility that customers perceive the current product as deficient, because it may impact short term sales efforts.
- Professional Services teams that are part of ERP vendor organizations are typically motivated on a project-by-project basis to gather requirements. Unfortunately, they may also be motivated to keep this information to themselves since this knowledge makes them more valuable. They may also develop "custom solutions" which they reuse unknown to the customer or the product teams.
- Support organizations often have plenty of insight into what is not working with deployed products. Rarely are they consulted before a customer actually deploys the product. Typically, they are rewarded for "closing" an issue as quickly as possible. This often results in them not having time to participate in requirements gathering efforts. When they do identify product improvements, they often struggle to get improvements implemented, as these are typically seen by product management as less strategic than new functionality driven by marketing considerations.
- Product management often has limited customer interaction due to the influence of the previously mentioned organizations. Even if they have significant domain knowledge, it often becomes outdated and or is limited to experience at a single company, which may or may not represent the market as a whole. All too often, product management is incented to focus on feature enhancements rather than usability and simplification. Another problem that occasionally arises is that product management may want to "own" requirement decisions so much that they fail to facilitate an ongoing dialog between user experience specialists or product teams and the customers and end users. Even when motivated to do the right things, they may struggle to overcome the organizational barriers within both their own company and those of any customers they do try to engage with directly.
- Development teams may not work closely with any of the above organizations. They are typically incented to deliver new functionality as quickly as possible and have little say in extending deadlines to address quality or user experience issues. In some cases they may not even work closely with product management, due to pressure to focus on completing development tasks on current projects. Rarely do they track objective metrics on UX related quality so tradeoffs go unnoticed at most companies.
- Another contributing factor is the lack of shared vision on user experience or other best practices within vendor organizations. Due to the size of ERP projects, many vendors have specialized product teams focused on each functional module, working with limited oversight. This means modules created by teams often fail to integrate well, creating usability issues that impair efficient collaboration among a customer's functional divisions and even design problems at the enterprise level. It also results in a new twist on the "it's not my department" problem when it comes to the UI design.
- When a product team member in a vendor organization, a user experience advocate in the partner or customer ecosystem, or an industry analyst tries to work with others to resolve user experience issues, the functional separation makes this difficult.
The end result is that ERP systems often look like they were designed by developers using different requirements, instead of a consistent, unified system. Efforts within vendor companies, customers, and the ecosystem as a whole are often uncoordinated. Interacting with other stakeholders requires navigating an ecosystem filled with individuals and organizations that have conflicting priorities.
Q. Ok, so you've done a good job explaining how various stakeholders can negatively influence the ultimate UI/UX of ERP. But irrespective of stakeholder influence, why can't ERP vendors make their applications look a lot more like a consumer application "out of the box" or in the case of a SaaS-based system, "out of the cloud"?
A. Well I think the good news is that SaaS solves part of the feedback loop problem. At least now the vendor of the ERP solution can tell if users are actually using it. In the past lots of money was spent on ERP that really didn't get fully used. Kind of like that funky sweater or tie grandma bought you for Christmas. Now it's like grandma lives next door, and she knows you never really wear those presents. That is of course if she's paying any attention which brings me to my next point.
The other half of the problem is mindset. You'd be surprised at how much the old "through it over the wall" attitude still exists at many SaaS ERP providers. For the most part they still don't have the kind of user-centered design process or UX metrics that folks at Apple, Yahoo or Google take for granted.
One of my clients who is a midsize SaaS provider in the ERP space has not run a single A/B (user research) test in almost 8 years of business. They have over 150 engineers and no full time UX staff. That would be unheard of in a consumer website company. Now days most early stage startups focused on consumer offerings hire dedicated UX staff and run tests like A/B studies long before they get series A funding or hire more than a dozen engineers.
Q. What are some things that companies can do to overcome the issues you've identified with poor UI/UX associated with ERP applications?
A. Test the usability of their products and fix the problems. According to research by Jeff Sauros (a former Intuit UX guy now at Oracle) "usability problems are almost ten-times more common on business applications than on websites. The ratio is around 2 to 1 for business applications and consumer software." His tests use what we call CIF-style summative metrics in UX.
Ten years ago, the Common Industry Format (CIF) for usability tests was defined after corporations like Boeing and Allstate realized the hidden costs of unusable IT. However, almost ten years after CIF was "adopted" as a standard, most IT organizations and industry analysts remain largely ignorant about CIF and related UX research methods, which can objectively measure if a product or service is easy to use. Salesforce.com probably does the best with this stuff, but even their level of effort lags behind a company like known for ease of use like Intuit.
This isn't surprising. According to the Standish Group, only 40 percent of IT organizations measure the success of the systems they deploy in any way! ERP customers should be asking for usability data like CIF metrics, and analysts should be publishing reports discussing usability test data not just opinions. Executives in CTO/CIO roles should be asking vendors about data on the usability of the latest updates to their offerings. Industry analysts should start asking about this kind of data too, rather than acting as extensions of ERP marketing departments to push further investments in IT, ignoring the high failure rate of ERP projects.
Another step in the right direction, some vendors have started focusing more on ethnographic studies of enterprises that specifically focus on workgroup and enterprise level factors in addition to end-user ease of use. These have long been recognized in consumer product companies as key to creating usable products. Studies of this type take time and planning, but they provide especially valuable data for designing useful, usable ERP systems where they highlight designs that don't support group or companywide collaboration well. I helped introduce these at Oracle as a designer in the '90s but upper management didn't' understand the value they provided.
Success looks something like this: CIOs start asking vendors why they haven't seen data on the ease of use of systems at their company. CEOs of ERP vendors start paying more than lip service to ease of use and UX. Finally, VC's should probably be asking for UX metrics when they start considering writing term sheets for ERP startups. Dave McClure and some of new UX savvy wave of early stage investors already do this when funding ventures like Mint.


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FreddieMercury.comIn a recent act of fantastic generosity, domain registrar company Tucows Inc. secured the domain name FreddieMercury.com and donated it free of charge to Freddie's estate.
We would openly like to thank Bill Sweetman and his team for their gift and allowing us to have the use of the best domain name for Freddie's musical legacy.
The domain currently points to www.loveroflifesingerofsongs.com, the site set up to celebrate the CD and DVD of the same name released in 2006. At this site you can also 'Sponsor A Star' for Freddie and donate to the Mercury Phoenix Trust.
For more info on Tucows Inc. go to www.tucowsinc.com.
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Huawei multiplies partnerships with software and service providers
Chinese telecommunications and networking equipment giant Huawei Technologies is partnering left, right and center at Cebit as it seeks to more firmly establish itself in Europe.
Chinese telecommunications and networking equipment giant Huawei Technologies is partnering left, right and center at Cebit as it seeks to more firmly establish itself in Europe.
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Berlin-based startup Relayr charmed the judges at the Code_n startup competition with its kit for building Internet of Things devices, and walked away with €30,000 (US$32,000).
So you want to track your water, electricity or gas consumption, but you still don't have a smart meter on your supply? Pixolus has a mobile app that makes it easier to keep track of meter readings, even with dumb meters.
SugarCRM has been busy, acquiring mobile app and data analytics company Stitch earlier this month and then this week, announcing with Deutsche Telekom a customer relationship management hosting service in Germany. The moves highlight the company's pr...
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HP OfficeJet Pro 8730
A smarter way to print for busy small business owners, combining speedy printing with scanning and copying, making it easier to produce high quality documents and images at a touch of a button.
HP OfficeJet Pro 8730
I've had a multifunction printer in the office going on 10 years now. It was a neat bit of kit back in the day -- print, copy, scan, fax -- when printing over WiFi felt a bit like magic. It's seen better days though and an upgrade's well overdue. This HP OfficeJet Pro 8730 looks like it ticks all the same boxes: print, copy, scan, and fax. (Really? Does anyone fax anything any more? I guess it's good to know the facility's there, just in case.) Printing over WiFi is more-or- less standard these days.
HP OfficeJet Pro 8730
As a freelance writer who is always on the go, I like my technology to be both efficient and effective so I can do my job well. The HP OfficeJet Pro 8730 Inkjet Printer ticks all the boxes in terms of form factor, performance and user interface.
Windows 10 for Business / Dell XPS 13
I'd happily recommend this touchscreen laptop and Windows 10 as a great way to get serious work done at a desk or on the road.
Windows 10 / HP Spectre x360
Ultimately, I think the Windows 10 environment is excellent for me as it caters for so many different uses. The inclusion of the Xbox app is also great for when you need some downtime too!
Windows 10 / Lenovo Yoga 910
For me, the Xbox Play Anywhere is a great new feature as it allows you to play your current Xbox games with higher resolutions and better graphics without forking out extra cash for another copy. Although available titles are still scarce, but I'm sure it will grow in time.


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|There aren't any publicly available listings in this building right now. Inquire about this space and we'll help you find the right fit!
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Located in southwest Houston, Meyerland is a 6000 acres charming suburb and the center of Houston's Jewish community.
It is also easily accessible with key Houston business, entertainment and cultural hubs such as Downtown and the Museum District all within a short drive from Meyerland.
If you are looking for a cosy neighborhood to set up your office space, Meyerland might just be the right area for you.
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Contact Jan Ackerson
Two More Tests for Prince Pembroke
Jan Ackerson
8/25/2008 / Humor
Prince Pembroke looked happily at the ribbons and medals displayed before him. He embraced the older man standing at his side. "Sir Seersucker, thou hast tutored me marvelous well! Forsooth, I couldst not have gained such breadth of wisdom in the princely arts, hadst thou not been my faithful companion."
Sighing, Sir Seersucker removed Pembroke's hands. "Y'know," he said, "now that you've passed Ye Olde English, you don't have to talk like that any more."
"Yessss!" said Pembroke, pumping a fist. "Anywaythose classes were hard." He fingered his medal for Recognizing Enchantments. "Remember when I thought that kitten was really an ogre?" The two men were silent for a moment, remembering. Seersucker patted Pembroke's back.
"Well, now that you've mastered Rescuing Damsels, you've only got two tasks left and thenyou'll marry Princess Serendipity. Ready, sire?"
"You bet!" Pembroke stroked the jeweled hilt of his sword. "Can I slay something?"
"Sorry. Your last two tests are Tolerance of Weirdness andDealing With In-laws." At the word in-laws, a shadow passed over the sun. "Sire, these will be your most difficult tasks. Can you remember all I've taught you?"
"You betwhen do we start?" Pembroke looked around, expecting to see a Weird Person lurking behind the curtains.
"Your horse is waiting. You're off to Jellonia, where the people arewell, you'll see. If you pass this test, you'll be ready for" Seersucker whispered. "the in-laws." Far away, a raven shrieked.
Several hours later, Pembroke approached a small castle. Night had fallen and Pembroke was weary, but eager to demonstrate his Tolerance. He worked the doorknocker and was greeted by two young men who introduced themselves as Mortarboard and Willy-Nilly.
"Happy to meet you," said Pembroke, relieved that his hosts seemed Not Weird.
Willy-Nilly took Pembroke's hat. "You're probably tired. I'll take you to your room." Hopping on one foot, Willy-Nilly and Mortarboard headed down the corridor.
"Well, that's weird," Pembroke mumbled, but he followed, hopping all the way, feeling smugly Tolerant. When they finally reached the door, Pembroke was winded. "Thanks," he said as they unlocked the room. "Saywhy do you hop on one foot? Not that there's anything wrong with that"
Mortarboard regarded Pembroke seriously. "Saves on shoes."
The next morning, Pembroke awoke after dreaming of Serendipity. He dressed hurriedly, then hopped toward the smells of sausage and eggs.
Mortarboard and Willy-Nilly were at the table, waiting. When he approached, they burst out laughing. "Why are you hopping?" asked Willy-Nilly. "We only hop on Mondays. It's ridiculous to hop on Tuesdays."
Abashed, Pembroke lowered his foot and sat. Breakfast looked scrumptious: honeyed porridge, fluffy eggs with sausage, bowls of mixed fruit. Not wanting to embarrass himself, Pembroke watched his hosts. To his astonishment, they sat on their hands and attacked their plates face first, surfacing seconds later with food-besmirched mouths. "Have at it, Pembroke!" said Willy-Nilly. "It's delicious!"
Pembroke lapped at his porridge. "It's delectable, butwhy no silverware?"
Mortarboard snorted. "Less work for the kitchen staff, of course."
Pembroke nodded thoughtfully. "Right. Well, then." He finished his breakfast and left the table with egg on his chin.
Days passed in which Pembroke found himself riding a goat, yodeling between noon and five o'clock, and painting his fingernails orange. For each Weirdness, Mortarboard had a reason. Pembroke wondered when this test would end so he could get to the In-law Test, and Princess Serendipity.
One morning Willy-Nilly suggested badminton. Feeling relievedbadminton was distinctly un-WeirdPembroke agreed. Mortarboard produced the equipment, then summoned a servant. "Bring the birdies!" Promptly the servant appeared, carrying a cage of twittering doves.
Pembroke gasped. Surely they weren't intending to use actual birdieswouldn't that hurt them? But Mortarboard and Willy-Nilly were in position, waiting for Pembroke's serve. He shuddered, then grasped a small struggling dove and tossed it into the air, preparing to swing
and it flew away. Mortarboard and Willy-Nilly laid down their racquets.
"Man, we really thought you were going to pass." Mortarboard shook his head. "We had you doing every weird thing we could think of, and you were so kind-hearted. I can't believe you blew it by being willing to whack that dove."
"Was thatthe exam?" Pembroke smacked his forehead. "Rats! Well, there's still the In-law testmaybe Serendipity will still take me, even with one failed subject"
"Ummm, about that" Mortarboard said. "Serendipity's our little sister. This was the In-law Testyou blew it, Pembroke."
Pembroke sat heavily in the grass and rested his head on his racquet. Overhead, a dove took careful aim.
Jan is a Christian who has traveled through sorrow and depression, and has found victory and grace. She dedicates all writings to her Heavenly Father. Check out Jan's website at
Copywrite Jan Ackerson--2006
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Beautiful Life On The Beach Video
You wanted a video? Is that what I heard earlier this week after I posted photos of lots of living sea creatures in the low tidal pools? If so…. I'm delivering! I captured some footage of the awesome SHARKS EYE, STARFISH, SAND DOLLAR, FIGHTING CONCHS, BABYS EAR and an incredible LESSER BLACK-BACKED GULL. Wherever in the world you might be, sit back and enjoy the beautiful life on the Sanibel beaches.
Read More
Sanibel Shark Week… Featuring The Shark Eye Shell
Whoa! Shark!
Naaaaa, it's not the Jaws type shark so you don't have to get out of the water for this one. Actually you want to get IN the water to see this type of creature… it's a SHARK EYE (Neverita duplicata or as I always say "Shark's Eye) seashell. Over the years of beach combing, we've been fortunate to have found these shells in so many different life stages to share with you so I thought this was the perfect week to sum up some of the cool things we've learned about the SHARKS EYE. Why not… it's Shark Week!
When this MOLLUSK is still alive, its amazing to see the animal wrapped around it's shell like we found in my post The No Place Like Home On Sanibel.
Here's a video of a live SHARKS EYE in action I filmed for a post in 2011…
We only see the live SHARKS EYES at low tide scooting around in the sand but we seem to find a lot of empty SHARKS EYE shells washed up on Sanibel and Captiva especially after storms. We started to realize we don't normally find the operculums. When Clark and I found another live one, we paid closer attention to the operculum to see exactly what it looked like so we could make sure not to miss one washed up on the beach. Why don't we find them washed up on the beach more often? Dunno exactly but I'm assuming because they are so paper thin that they crumble easily when the animal dies and dries up. They also look like a small piece of broken PEN SHELL or a brown leaf so they are easy to overlook. Anyway, here's what the OPERCULUM looks like when it's attached to the healthy animal still in his shell…
Almost a year after I made this video, low and behold, Clark found our first SHARKS EYE OPERCULUM washed up on the beach.
We've also seen juvie live SHARKS EYES sliming around finding their way…
We've seen lots of other live babies scooting around at low tide on Sanibel along with teeny tiny eggs in the SHARK EYE EGG COLLARS.
This is what the EGG COLLAR looks like that the female SHARKS EYE lays. If you see a ring like this while at the beach that feels and looks sort of like freshly made hand crafted paper, take a closer look then place it back in the water if that's where you found it. There are hundreds of itty bitty baby SHARKS EYES in there. Cool, huh?
What do SHARKS EYES eat? They are carnivores who love to make a meal out of bivalves but at times they are cannibals …. so one SHARKS EYE will eat another SHARKS EYE. (Hmmmm… that happens with the fish type Tiger Sharks too on occasion). You can tell another SHARKS EYE ate this SHARKS EYE in the next photo because it makes a beveled edge hole just like this. CLICK HERE to see that story.
There are two types of these MOON shells that look similar and are hard to distinguish between the two of them. See how much higher the spire is on the shell on the left? The one on the right is a Neverita duplicata (SHARK EYE) and the one on the left is a Neverita delessertiana ( FALSE SHARK EYE) I'll do another post to show you the aperture side so you can see another difference but I usually just look for the "eye" that looks popped out.
Have you heard me talk about the "Paul Newman's Eye"? Paul Newman was an Academy Award winning hunky actor known for his incredibly beautiful, brilliant blue eyes (I know, funny I thought I needed to explain who he was, right? But anybody under 30 might not know! LOL Oh wait y'all would know "Newman's Own"- thats the guy. haha) Anyway, not all SHARKS EYES have a blue center but when they have that handsome brilliant blue "eye"… it's called a PAUL NEWMAN'S EYE.
See how many different sizes and patterns they have. Gorgeous!
I had so many nice comments on my last post about the differences in SCALLOPS and that y'all really like my educational posts. Me too! I have oodles of photos and gobs of great information about shells AND beach bling that I've built up over the years, so I need to start combining them so we all can find the information a little easier. It'll take a while, but it sure will be fun looking through so many older posts that have been buried by newer posts.
Dont worry, I'll still post any shelling updates on the beaches but hopefully once a week I'll pick a shell to research so we can see all the cool stuff we've learned over the years.
But speaking of shelling updates… I hope to see you tomorrow on our iLoveShelling cruise to Cayo Costa with Captiva Cruises at 9am- Come join us tomorrow! CLICK HERE for information and some new dates for iLoveShelling Shelling Adventures into February 2015 …
Read More
There's No Place Like Home On Sanibel
I love to travel… but more than anything, I love to come home to my beautiful island of Sanibel. Sanibel is like getting to finally sleeping in your own bed or taking your first good breathe of fresh air.
Yep. Super Sheller Clark found this beautiful ALPHABET CONE last night at the Lighthouse beach. We just couldn't wait any longer to see our own contented beach. Clark was looking at this CONE like it was a long lost friend.
I was enjoying all the signs of a beautiful life on our islands. I picked up this gorgeous KINGS CROWN (above) then realized it was full of life and health so I was happy I scooped up so much sand with "him". He went right on his merry way when I put him gently back where I found him. The Gulf of Mexico was so full of life! I found a live SHARK'S EYE too…
There were lots of live PEAR WHELKS too…
And live KEY HOLE SAND DOLLARS. Did you notice I put the whole common name of this SAND DOLLAR? Sine we found those cutie tiny SAND DOLLARS in Thailand, I've been trying to figure out what type they are… when I realized that I've never said which ones ours are that we find here in SouthWest Florida. KEY HOLE SAND DOLLARS!
And live LIGHTNING WHELKS…
In the next photo of this same LIGHTNING WHELK, I wanted show you how much lighter the other side was but do you see that little string on my left hand ? While on our trip to Thailand, we were blessed by a Monk who wrapped this string with a knot around our wrists. I was told it was called a "spiritual line" and we are to wear it until it falls off and not to cut it off. It is for good luck, good health and to remind us every day that today is special so live it that way. I immediately thought of those strings I used to tie around my finger to remind me to do something. So every day now when I look at this string on my wrist I am reminded that today is a gift.
We even saw MANATEES wallowing in the shallow water just a few feet from us. Talk about a welcome home! Oh I love this place. Check out the video…
I hope the spiritual line this Buddhist Monk blessed us with rubbed a lot of luck onto these full of life MOLLUSKS and SEA LIFE to live an even longer healthier breeding life.
PS- I'll show lots of more photos of Thailand soon!
Read More
A Live Shark's Eye Video
I saw something unusual halfway buried in the sand near the Sanibel lighthouse at low tide. I reached down to find a large ball of meaty slime… which turned out to be a SHARK'S EYE MOON SNAIL very much alive.Read More
Follow the Yellow Shell Trail
Instead of following the yellow brick road, Julie is following the track of a live yellow BABY EAR at low tide. She sees the path on the sand bar and then follows the trail, digs in the sand and gently pulls up the yellowish mollusk. Are you ready to see what they look like? This is the first time I've ever seen a live one in person! Ready? Here you go…..
Really…this isn't a photo of a handmade ravioli or smooched ball of wet dough. It's a baby ear mollusk that practically surrounds it's whole shell…..and it's very slimy!
I saw Leigh and her niece and nephew, Julie and Jack (Ft lauderdale), having the best time playing out on the sand bar in front of Holiday Inn on Sanibel. They were digging around, giggling and running back and forth. I had to see what all of the fuss was about. They also found live SHARK'S EYES and SEA ANEMONES.
On the right hand side of the PEN SHELL is the egg casing collar for more baby shark eyes. It was Mother Nature's huge touch tank out there last night. Now meet Leigh's nephew, Jack. He loves the sea anemones.
Leigh and her family come to Sanibel a lot – every time the tide is really low. Of course, after they are done looking and learning about the mollusks and sea life they find, they gently put them back where they found them.Read More


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CORAL SPRINGS, Fla. - The University of Richmond Spiders men's golf team stayed within striking distance of an Atlantic 10 championship on Saturday, shooting a second round 290 (+2) to head in to Sunday's final round in fourth place with a score of 575 (-1). George Washington leads the Atlantic 10 Championship 11-team field with a total of 568 (-8).
Junior Nick Austin had a great day on Saturday despite the soggy conditions at the Heron Bay Golf Club, shooting a second-round 70 (-2). Austin heads in to Sunday's final round tied for seventh place with a total of 142 (-2), just four strokes back of the leader.
Classmate Daniel Walker continued his strong play at the A-10 Championship, carding a second round 74 (+2). Walker is now tied for 11th overall with a 36-hole total of 144 (E).
Sitting in a tie for 19th place overall are teammates Brad Miller and Jack Wilkes with scores of 146 (+2). Miller shot a 75 (+3) on Sunday, while the sophomore Wilkes totaled a 74 (+2).
Rounding out the Spiders' effort on the day was freshman Colin McDade. After shooting a 78 (+6) on Friday, McDade came back on Saturday to card a 72 (E) and is tied for 36th with a total of 150 (+6) overall.
The Richmond Spiders men's golf team will to finish strong at the Atlantic 10 Championship on Sunday morning, with tee times scheduled to begin at 8:30 a.m. Live stats for the third and final round of action can be found at RichmondSpiders.com.
Atlantic 10
Heron Bay GC - Par 72
Second Round Team Standings
1. George Washington 568 (-8)
T2. Charlotte 570 (-6)
T2. Xavier 570 (-6)
4. Richmond 575 (-1)
5. Rhode Island 580 (+4)
Richmond Golfers
T7. Nick Austin 142 (-2)
T11. Daniel Walker 144 (E)
T19. Brad Miller 146 (+2)
T19. Jack Wilkes 146 (+2)
T36. Colin McDade 150 (+6)