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Kim Goodwin – Silo-busting, Scenario-driven Design
August 8th, 2014
Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 31:34 — 16.5MB)
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Lately, Jared Spool has been mulling over what he defines as deliverables and artifacts in the design process. The idea is that deliverables are more authoritative and complete, whereas artifacts are more conversational and exploratory. Scenarios are an important part of the design process and Jared was curious where they might fit in. So he enlisted Kim Goodwin to chat about it in this podcast.
Kim is the VP of User Experience at PatientsLikeMe. She's also an author and expert on personas and scenarios. She believes that where you are in the design process defines whether scenarios are a deliverable or an artifact. The size and culture of your team is also a factor. A smaller team has less of a need for formal deliverables.
However, in larger organizations scenarios and personas serve as a great way to get everyone involved in the same frame of mind. Bringing stakeholders to interviews with users at the start of the design research helps solidify that the personas used to inform the design are shorthand versions of real people. This gives you a solid foundation to move forward with the design.
Recorded: June, 2014
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Full Transcript.
Jared Spool: Hey, you're listening to another episode of the SpoolCast. I am very excited about today's episode, because we are going to have a chance to talk with the most amazing, the most wonderful Ms. Kim Goodwin, who we have had at oh so many of our events.
The reason we keep having her back is because she is the smartest, most brilliant person we know on getting good products and designs out. She is going to talk at the User Interface 19 conference, which is going to be October 27-29 in Boston, Massachusetts.
She's going to be giving a full day workshop there on scenarios and how to design with them. We are just so excited about this. We're going to talk to her about that today. Hey there, Kim.
Kim Goodwin: Hi Jared. You sure know how to pump up a girl's ego.
Jared: Thank you. You deserve every word of it. I thought today we could talk about something that's been sort of rumbling around this casing of a skull of mine, which is this distinction that I've been working out between what I'm calling artifacts, and deliverables, in the design process.
Let me explain what I'm talking about, and we can talk about how scenarios might fit into this, if they do or they don't. Which is, a deliverable is something we hand to our clients, to our dev teams, to the people we're working with, and it becomes a resource that we use for the rest of the project, at least some major portion of it to come.
It could be wireframes, it could be usability reports. Things like that. An artifact is something we put in front of our stakeholders, in front of our users, in front of our peers, with the intent that we're going to explore some idea around them.
Deliverables have this sense of authoritative completeness, whereas artifacts have this conversational stimulus to it. First, let me start here. Does that distinction resonate with the way you think about design process? Do you think that these two things are there?
Kim: Hmm? That's a good question. I think there is a meaningful distinction, and I think it's one, as a professional, we maybe don't make enough. I think there's a lot of focus on beautiful deliverables, for lots of reasons, and maybe not enough on of the interim artifacts.
It's interesting, though, that you say artifacts have a conversational component to them whereas deliverables are authoritative. It depends on your role.
If you are, say, a consultant from outside, something that's just a conversation piece might be one of your deliverables. In fact, if you're following a good process it probably is, whereas in-house may get framed less as a deliverable, right?
Jared: Yes. For instance, an early draft of something might be more in the artifact category, but in its later drafts it might be more in the final deliverable category. I don't know. I'm still working through the idea.
Kim: It's a fuzzy line, but I think it's a vague but important distinction. If it's just an artifact, if it's just a thing that's meant to make an idea more concrete so that other people can discuss it, then, I think there's less pressure to make it perfect and precious, which sometimes we can do with our deliverables, right?
Jared: Right. A whiteboard sketch of an architecture, for example, or a concept diagram might be more in the artifact category, whereas that same diagram in a PowerPoint slide that is saying, "This is what we figured out we need to build and we're all in agreement to this," is more in the deliverable category.
It's a concept map and, in fact, it may not revolve from one to the other very much, but the way we use it, the context of use, I think, probably changes dramatically.
Kim: Yes. One of the determining factors in my head would be that context of use. I have this little construct in my head that I think of as the avocado model of teams. Avocados are delicious, why not compare teams to them?
Jared: I'm wondering if eventually it evolves into a guacamole model.
Kim: Maybe, after a long project, it does.
Jared: Things get mushy in my head.
Kim: It's true. In my head, the way I think of it is the center of the avocado, the big hard brown nut there, is the generative part of the team. Typically, just a couple of people working pretty much hand in glove, creating ideas, driving synthesis about the people's ideas. Not to say that ideas can come from outside that pair or threesome, but somebody's really got to pull that together into a coherent solution.
Beyond that, you've got some close collaborators. Maybe that's a couple of core engineers you're working with if one of those people isn't in the center of the avocado, a product manager, a subject matter expert.
Who's in which part of the avocado is going to vary depending on your organization. It's a small handful of people who need to review your work, probably every few days, to make sure you're really on track and you've got everybody's expertise incorporated. That's a great group of people to look at artifacts because they don't need a lot of explanation, they have plenty of context.
When you start to get to that outer skin of the avocado, the more distant stakeholders, the people funding the project or folks who may be our major decision makers but aren't that involved in the day today, need a lot more explanation than you could include in something that's just an artifact.
Those are the people you need the PowerPoint presentation for. To my mind, how close to that day today is someone is really what determines whether you need an artifact or more of a deliverable for that conversation.
Jared: That's really interesting. That's not something I'd considered before. This idea, that part of what distinguishes what I'm calling artifacts versus deliverables, is how much outside explanation you need to be able to look at this thing and derive and provide insight in reaction to it. Fabulous! That's really neat.
This gets me to the question I wanted to ask from the very beginning which is, if we talk about scenarios and personas, do they fit into either category or both categories? Maybe what you're telling me is they are, in fact, both an artifact and deliverable.
When you have them as a deliverable, you have to put more story around them, more explanation, whereas when they're in an artifact mode, because of the people you're talking to and where you're talking to them in the process, you may not need to do that.
Kim: I think you're right that they're both, really. This is one of those things that depend on where you are in the design process, on which part of your audience you're communicating with, and also on the culture and the size of the organization that you're working in.
If you're working in some tiny little startup, you have a small team, you'll sit across the hall from each other, around a big table, or whatever, you don't really need a lot in the way of formal deliverables. This is one of the arguments that only new ex-folks make. It's absolutely true. You don't need formal deliverables when you have the "two-pizza team," as people call it.
When you have some enormous team of 40 engineers, 50 engineers or more than that and their spread across a couple of continents, many time zones, and varying skills on the team, some people who are really experienced and people who are not that experienced, that's when you have to get much more formal about deliverables.
They have to involve a lot more explanation and be done with more detail.
Jared: That makes perfect sense. It occurs to me, as we're talking here, that we haven't really defined personas or scenarios. Maybe we should take a step back and just introduce those people for which these ideas may be a little new for them.
Kim: Sure. A persona is an archetype. For any given product or service, there are several different behavior patterns that you're designing for. If it's an enterprise setting, chances are those patterns have a lot of similarity to roles although they're usually a little more complex than just a role. You'll often have several personas within a role.
In the consumer world, those behavior patterns tend to center more on attitudes, goals, and things like that. For any given product, you might have two or three personas, six or eight personas. You could have more than that if it's a really complicated enterprise tool.
Their set of behavior patterns and goals distilled out of ideally qualitative research, you can certainly supplement that with quantitative research, represent a type of user. They do so in a more humane way than just a user profile would because they're, essentially, the stars of stories, which brings us to scenarios.
If a persona is your character, the scenario is your plot. Imagine putting your character in a situation. For any product or service, you generally are going to have multiple scenarios, situations that your personas will encounter, that are going to unfold in different ways.
The scenario is the ideal world version of that situation. If you put a magic black box in the hands of your persona, what would happen in that situation? How would that story unfold? Then, we use that to guide the design going forward.
Jared: I liked that you pointed out that scenarios and personas were about behaviors. A lot of people fall into the trap where they make them about census data, job titles, and things that are not necessarily behavioral.
Three people with the job title "nurse" may have completely different sets of behaviors as to whether they're a nurse in an emergency room versus a nurse in pediatrics doctor's office versus a nurse in a nursing home.
Kim: Absolutely. I think that people will often conflate personas and roles if you're looking at a business context or some non-consumer context because they sound like similar constructs, but context, skill level, those definitely make a difference in how many different personas you have.
For example, if you've got an IT guy in a small company versus one in a large company, the guy in the small company is responsible for the phones, the database, the network, probably the copy machine, anything that plugs into the wall is his problem and his level of expertise with any one of those things is probably relatively low.
Whereas in a big enterprise, that same IT guy is just responsible for one system.
Jared: Just the servers or just the routers.
Kim: Right. Job titles can be really deceptive that way, but that's very important that personas are much more nuanced, much more about behavior and demographics are just not that enlightening in most cases when it comes to personas.
I see a lot of people with huge persona sets of 20 people for 1 fairly simple product and they're making a bunch of meaningless distinctions based on things like demographics that don't really matter when in reality maybe they have 3 personas.
Jared: I've also seen teams – you can tell me if you see this too – which have the two personas: new users, existing users, and they bundle everybody into those two categories, again, without taking any consideration that there might be different sets of behaviors to look at within people who might be exposed to the product for the first time versus people who've been using it for a while, but some people use it every day and some people use it infrequently and what they do with it is different and all those things.
Kim: I've definitely seen that one. I don't see it as much as the overemphasis on demographics though, interestingly enough.
Jared: Interesting. You mentioned earlier Lean UX, and for people who might only have a vague notion of what that is, Lean UX is this – I don't know what you would call it. A movement? A variation? A dance? A song? Genre?
It's a way of approaching the design process that deemphasizes long-term deliverables and focuses on faster iterations and movement with small teams, like you said. The teams that could be fed out of two large pizzas happily.
Is that how you would qualify it? Is it something similar to that?
Kim: I think so and like any emphasis on a method, it's one of those things that works great in some context and I think is less appropriate in other context. There's no one right way to do UX. It's all about assessing what's the culture you're in, what's the size of team, and the type of problem you're working on and picking the right tools from there.
Jared: Let's get back to this idea of scenarios as discussion pieces for artifacts. Is there something that has jumped out at you recently where you were like, "Oh wow. Because we had this conversation about the scenarios of our users, we were able to move this project forward in an interesting way that we wouldn't have gotten to otherwise."
Kim: I think it happens all the time. I think that very often I'll see a designer who maybe has a single image of a static screen and then we have a conversation about what's the scenario here? How does this actually unfold? How does this screen change over time? That identifies a hole in the design, just in a design critique session.
This happens a lot with stakeholders looking at a design and saying, "Why didn't you design it that way or why don't you have this feature or this field or whatever?" Then we can have the conversation about what's the scenario in which you'd use that, and by the way, which persona is that for, and sometimes people realize that's kind of my pet idea.
I guess it doesn't actually make sense. It's good for containing scope and opinion and sometimes it's great for coming up with whole new ideas, but I think really that goes back to not just the scenarios as a tool, but the research that informs the scenarios and really looking at what is that user's whole experience? How would they frame what their experience is?
Because I find a lot of teams, particularly those who are focused on agile tools, like user stories, they're so focused on making their scope very small that they're not necessarily thinking about the entire breath of the flow from a user's perspective and very often the user experience is more at the epic level in agile terms than at the story level.
Scenarios really look at the whole picture, that whole experience, part of which might even be outside of your product and that's where I think the big wins are.
Jared: Thinking about this. A user story might be as a customer I want to tell the eCommerce system that I need to return this particular order, but the scenario could possibly talk about the larger context of why I'm returning the order. Maybe I ordered the wrong thing in the first place and maybe instead of fixing the return system, we should fix the way I chose the product.
Kim: The scenario would actually start with, "Huh. I need to buy a thing. Let me find the thing. Did I get the right thing?" And then would follow you through the return process because all of that is interconnected because when that persona arrives at your website, he or she has certain expectations about what you already know about her.
If you only start with the return process, does that persona remember when that purchase was made or what are all the things we should already know about her? What should we be anticipating and how could we, of course, ideally prevent that return?
A scenario really looks at that whole process of the relationship between product or service and person.
Jared: That makes perfect sense because in the olden days, if you wanted to return something to Amazon, you had to go find the Amazon order number for that product, which was printed on the piece of paper that was in the box that I may or may not have kept.
Now I just review my orders and there's a return this button. I never actually pay any attention to the order numbers. That element of the design has become almost useless to me, even though it's essential to the underlying database. I don't need to know it because I'm looking at pictures of the products I've bought. It's obvious which one I want to return and I never think about the order number.
Kim: That's exactly right and in fact, a scenario about that purchase from Amazon would also include the fact that at some point you get an email that says, "Hey. Review your experience with this product or with this Amazon market seller," because we're not just focused on the one tool.
If we think about the way organizations are created, chances are – and I'm speculating here – there's probably somebody at Amazon who's just worried about those follow-up emails and that's their piece of the system that they're responsible for.
If they only thought about that part of the interaction, they're missing opportunities to really make that a more integrated experience, to make it more delightful. To minimize my effort as a user by taking their knowledge about me from one stage of the process to another stage.
And so now you start there, and you can divide up your scenarios into much smaller pieces based on what your specific product responsibility is or what user you're using on that spread or however you chunk your work.
Jared: So returning to this thing that keeps gnawing away at me about artifacts, it sounds to me like what you're saying is that I could have one scenario that will actually be a discussion multiple times through my development process.
Because I keep coming back to it. I keep saying, "But what about the scenario where the person buys the thing and then returns it?" And I may be working on reviews, I may be working on the original purchase part, I may be working on the order processing, I may be working on applying credits.
I'm working off the same scenario each time. Does it happen that people might, as they dive a little bit deeper into the problem, start refining and reflecting on that scenario a little bit more?
Kim: Absolutely. I would say that scenarios happen at several degrees of granularity throughout your project. So early on, at the stage where you're being optimistic and you're not so worried about constraints, because you ideally want to spend at least a couple hours there on any given project.
That first scenario is totally broad. It's end to end process, across multiple channels if you're in the e-commerce world or something like that. Could cross multiple platforms, and it's optimistic.
Then, as you proceed, you're going to scope that scenario down a little bit because there are constraints in the real world, and the crazy thing you imagined that sounded great, you're not going to be able to touch that for another two years, right? So we'll leave that alone.
Then we might focus on just part of that scenario, and then flush it out with a bit more detail. And as we start to design that part of an interface or interaction, then we can put more details in as we start to make implementation decisions. And so, certainly we're adding color to that.
We're also, as the project proceeds, doing variants. So initially, we want to pick some very typical but very specific situations to use to illustrate our design, but not worry about all the edge cases. Over time, of course the design has to ultimately accommodate all of the weird things that people do, or even all of the semi-frequent things that people do.
But we don't want to drive the core of the design. Gradually, we get more and more into those as well. So it's interesting, now that I'm thinking about your deliverable versus artifact distinction.
And I would actually add a third in there, which is that sometimes scenarios are deliverables, where we write out the prose, and we have beautiful storyboards, and we put it in a PowerPoint or a document, and we use it to educate lots of people about the design.
Sometimes this scenario is just what you'd call an artifact where it's some bullet points we've outlined on the whiteboard and some storyboard sketches. But sometimes, there's even a lighter weight version, which is not even an artifact. It's just a conversation.
So very often, somebody will have a sketch on a whiteboard or a set of storyboards on the whiteboard and say "OK, that looks like it works pretty well for the scenario we were talking about, but what if this happens? What if this is the situation? How does the design adapt?"
And we talk through that as we sketch, but we don't ever even document it. We're still using scenarios as a design tool, but there's not even a written scenario artifact of any kind. Does that make sense?
Jared: Yeah, yeah. So it's just an oral discussion of what happens for this thing. And maybe that thing is a story we keep hearing from the support people. I would imagine technical support is a great research resource for those edge condition scenarios.
Kim: Yeah, sometimes. We don't get to those until later in the process. The early scenarios are much more informed by, I find ethnography to be a really great tool for starting those.
Jared: Yeah, I could definitely see that.
Kim: You have a lot of breadth from people, and you really focus on those key situations and just spending time with real users, getting them to tell you their stories, that's the perfect input to scenarios as design tools.
Jared: So, let's explore the deliverables for just a few minutes here. At some point, using your avocado model, which I really like, we need to make that sort of broader group, the folks who are on the skin or outside, maybe they're the onion and the tomato that goes into the avocado, right?
Kim: That's a tamale.
Jared: Yeah. So, these people need to figure out who have we been designing for, and what do we think these people do, and how did we map? So now, we're sharing deliverables, I could actually imagine a presentation where I'm actually there to present the design that I've created, but I start by talking about the personas and the scenarios to give context to the design.
So in some ways, the deliverable at that moment isn't truly just personas and scenarios, but it's this combination of here are the people, here is what they need to accomplish, and here is the design that we have imagined that will help them imagine this.
Maybe we compare it, the same scenario to the old design so we can see where the pain and frustration is. And we can compare and contrast, so that you can see how this new design has improved it. Is that something that makes sense?
Kim: In general, yeah. I think it varies a little bit depending on the type of design you're doing, whether it is more green field design or more iteration.
Jared: By green field, you mean?
Kim: Inventing new stuff. That's a little bit different from iterating something that exists right now. So, the first thing I do before I say "Here's a persona in a scenario" is "Here is the real humans we talked with. Here's what we heard from them." Ideally, you all joined us for those interviews so that they're real to you.
And that way, the personas are not this thing that we made up out of whole cloth, but instead they're a shorthand for the real people we've all met. So, one thing that I like to do is drag stake holders and team members along on user interviews.
Because then, if they join three or four user interviews and you're doing more than that, they will see enough similarity and also enough difference in those interviewees that when you talk to them about what you heard in other user interviews, they believe you. Just for a way that they don't if they didn't participate in any of the interviews.
Jared: Right, and if they've only gone on one, then they think everybody is just like that one. So you have to actually do more than one, right?
Kim: Exactly. That's why I always push people to join, say three to four interviews, because that's enough to give them a flavor without them latching on to that one person that, by the way, happened to be a little bit odd and think that that's the whole world.
Jared: Having them see three or four interviews, doesn't that give them a healthy respect for the complexity of the problem? Because the odds are those three or four people are going to be so radically different from each other that they're going to go "How the hell are we going to design anything for this variation?"
Kim: [laughs] Well, I think actually three or four interviews is enough to see both similarities and differences. Because they'll say "Oh, I've heard this theme come up over and over again."
Jared: Yeah, people keep talking about that.
Kim: Yeah, when we start to say "Here are the big trends." They go "Yep, I can see that" or "I didn't hear about that one, but I believe all the other ones so by extension I'm going to believe the one you're telling me about now."
Jared: Adds a lot of credibility to that, I could see that completely.
Kim: And they see the differences, so they certainly do gain a respect for that. So ideally, you want to get people bought into all that research before you ever show them personas. I see a lot of teams that say "Ta-dah! Here's our finished persona set."
Jared: The posters on the wall.
Kim: And posters on the wall are fine, but they should be reminders, they shouldn't be introductions as much as possible.
Jared: That's a really interesting point, yeah. So I guess you're doing it wrong rule. I guess I see the personas, the first time I think about these things I haven't had any research, so I'm getting introduced into the personas that way.
Kim: Yeah. I'm cautious about the phrase "You're doing it wrong" because I think there's a lot of different circumstances out there, but I would say that if you're a close participant in the team's decision making, then yeah, you probably are going to be a lot better off if you have had some first hand experience with the research.
If you have a giant team of 100 developers, you can't get everybody out there to do the user research right away. And so sometimes inevitably, people will need them for the first time. But as much as possible, that core team, that creamy center of the avocado, you really want to get them involved in the user search.
Jared: But I'm wondering if, going back to the deliverable thing and looking at the outer skin of the avocado, if it even makes sense. Before I start talking about personas, I actually start talking a little bit at least about the research. We went out, we visited this people, let me introduce you to some of the real people we met and the real problems they had. Now, let me show you the personas we created based on those.
Kim: Exactly. So, if you are trying to get people bought into your design for the first time when you show the design, you have already lost.
Jared: Interesting, OK.
Kim: Because buy-in starts, not just with the design. It doesn't start with the personas. Actually, I don't think it even starts with the research findings. Buying, in my experience, starts with defining the research plan. So, when you get the stakeholders around the table and you say "I have some thoughts on who we should talk to, what do you guys think?"
That's a really important conversation to have with all the right stakeholders, because if you come back with research findings and someone says "Oh, but you didn't talk to this kind of person", you already lost the argument.
Jared: Right, right. Those are not our real users, you need to talk to our real users.
Kim: Exactly. So you've got to start buy-in with the research plan. Even introducing personas and scenarios, you need to start earlier than that with checking in with the stakeholders, making sure that everybody's aligned.
Jared: Yeah, this all makes crazy perfect sense. I'm loving this stuff, Kim.
Kim: It's good stuff. It's always fun to talk with you about this, Jared.
Jared: Good, it's good. Well, I'm very excited about UI19 because you're going to come in and you're going to do a full day workshop where you're going to walk us through exactly how to build these things out, and how to use them in our work. That's really exciting.
Kim: It's always a great conference, I look forward to it.
Jared: And that workshop that you've done, you've done it a few times for us now, and every time it's one of the highest rated workshops we have, so I'm so glad you're coming back. So I'm looking forward to it. So for those of you who would like to attend the workshop, it's going to be in Boston in October, October 27th to 29th.
It's called the User Interface Conference, you can find out more information at UICONF.com, and we'd love to see you there. It would be really awesome to have you there. Hey Kim, thank you so much for spending the time talking to us today.
Kim: Thank you Jared, my pleasure.
Jared: And I want to thank our audience. Of course, you can check out the conference site, you can learn more at UIE.com. And you know what? If you have a chance and you really like these podcasts, if you could take a moment and visit the iTunes library and leave a little rating there for us.
And even if you don't like it, you can go ahead and do that too, but particularly if you like it we would love to hear your feedback and see what's going on there. So take a moment, do that. Thank you for listening today, and as always thank you for encouraging our behavior. We'll talk to you soon. Take care.


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Hey guys and gals. I'm not too sure if this has already been "discovered" or not, or if this has already been confirmed.
From what I know, the divers buckle was definitely on the Rotj Fett, but no photos confirmed that it was on the ESB Fett.
Having received that official pix photo (black and white with Fett next to Lando) you can sort of see it in there.
I could be completely wrong, so if anyone out there has that photo as well, please check it out and confirm that I'm not just seeing things LOL!!

subset: commoncrawl


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My first cosplay! Kaylee Frye from the Firefly t.v. series
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Pregnant (IVF) Worriers/ Warriors Part 5(667 Posts)
Hello ladies! Come and find me!
Should have said, this thread is for women who are worried/anxious/downright bricking it further to assisted conception (or just a darn long time trying, perhaps with some losses along the way). It's also for new mums- because in 'part 4' many of us had our babies! All newbies welcome, wherever you are in the greater scheme of things
I'm here!! there's a good article in times 2 today by Esther Walker on being a mother...
Waddles in, munching a biscuit.
So, had a sweep of my platypelloid pelvis (yes, that is the medically and probably more politically correct name for my black womble) and.....NUFFINK. As that crazy Icelandic little screechy woman Bjork said, 'it's Oh So Quiet' in there, it's oh so still (apart from an exceptionally wriggly baby). So, induction booked for Friday. Yip-fecking-yee. The naughty nipper has also turned so that s/he's slightly back to back, according to the midwife. All sorts of fucking buggery bollocks. Anyhow, no point in worrying about it .
How are we all ? Well done to mrsh for the brand new Fred. Considering she hasn't slept since 1974, the girl done good
noks surely there's a platypus joke in there?
Boo, can't read he article as I'm not subscribed.
Nooks, eat a curry, get on a trampoline and have sex. Not necessarily in that order. You've made it too comfy in there!
dilly there may be a platypus joke somewhere in my coffee coloured lady faloola. According to Mr Dils, you could park a coach load of platypus (plural for platypus please.....or this joke will die on it's arse) in your roomy.....oh, never mind
expat a trampoline ??!! You're pulling my weiner, right ? Who the frig suggested that as a way to start labour ? Sex ? Who the frig suggested that as a way to start labour ? Peter Penis has not visited Virginia Vagina for a while
in bloody ages round these parts.....so, I'll phone the Taj Mahal instead. Lucky it's on speed dial fat cow
Thanks MrsHY for the new thread.
MrsH found you and your lovely new thread - am marking my place waiting for Nippers very imminent arrival. Friday will be here before you know it Noks have you tried eating pineapple too? I am sure I read somewhere that this can also help.
Not wanting to over share especially at teatime but here goes!!! I seem to have a new
not so little friend. I have named him Percy, as in Percy pile!! Need I say any more??? I never had them through my pregnancy but Percy has made his presence felt in the last few days and the PrepH doesn't seem to be working. Any tips?
noks were you not dilated at all? What a drag. Still 5 days is ages when it comes to labour. I went for a long walk every day, that's supposed to help. Did not even contemplate trying to talk DH into DTD as I wouldn't have had me either.
mrs tx for the new thread!
Oh I forgot to say that I am 1cm dilated fairy so my body is trying to do something. My cervix is quite soft and the MW gave me a score of 5 on something or another (can't remember what). Totally forgot about that bit !
sweetie aah, the Rockford Files. I thought they were an urban myth post partum. Damn, clearly not !
Found you finally! Thanks MrsH for the new Fred. Do you think we will become Internet sensations we have around for so long? I sincerely hope not. I'm shite at being incognito.
Sweetie oh dear. You are in the wars aren't you? Sorry honey their not nice. My only experience of piles I'm afraid are my dad's over dinner stories about how my mum administers the necessary ointment after he has had his 'done'. My dad isn't known for his subtlety.
c'mon Noks Get your homey hoohaa to sneeze out this nipper . Couldnt it take a while for the sweep to work? Will you have another in a couple of days? how did it feel? Definitely get mrN on the case. Apparently what put it in will get it out. I also heard that bouncing is good. I didn't have a trampoline though. Just spent looong nights on the effing ball.
Just calmed a SCREAMING baby. Shame cause we had just had a nice time with me giving her a massage. Then I tried to feed her and bam, trapped wind again. Poor little mite it must bloody hurt. She is currently napping on me again. I don't have the heart to put her down and wake her up. Plus of course I love it that being with me calms her and makes her feel safe. I love her so much it hurts.
Hopefully we will have dinner earlier than last nights 10.15pm.
Noks cross posted. 1cm great! At least something is happening. Get mrN to rub monster munch on your inner thighs. That should tempt the nipper out.
Eeeeew monster munch on inner thighs- grim grim grim! Well done on your supermarket sweep nokster. I was partially soft and only 1-2cm after having regular and pretty powerful contractions for the best part of 5 hours so 1cm with no effort put in yet is great.
Shazz I love your posts, glad to hear the littlun is napping. It's been a good nap day here! Got an hour out of her in the buggy then two hours in the basket this PM- a first since she was a week old. Will post more later- littlun wants me to get my wammers out!
9am and I'm up and showered. Not quite to MrsH's standard of make up and straight hair yet but I'm getting there!
This is my fav feed of the day. It's a long one then shazlett falls asleep in my arms and I catch up on all the Christmas period dramas.
On our own today, DP at work. I've got my 6 week check up this aftie.
What is everyone else doing? Hopefully noks it's having a baby. Noks when you do have the nipper will you post a live feed into the delivery room?
Morning all! We had a great night. Bed at 7, brief feed at 4 and then sleep until 8. We've played since then and she's just gone down for a nap.
MiniAl has a vaccination later and then we're all off to the vet because it looks as if we've all picked up conjunctivitis ( sp?) :-(
I like mornings too Shaz. It's miniAl's most mellow time of the day.
Hope Shazlet's checkup goes well.
Hope Noks is having her baby right this second. I need my newborn fix.
go noks!!!
we have her 8 week jabs later, dreading them...
welcome ll. and congratulations! do you have a 20 week scan date? I think after that and once you feel movement it's a bit easier.
though then you mental about movement
ceara and buzz what news?
Choco how you doin'?
sweetie you poor thing. glad it's improving though. also so pleased the twins are doing well.
Found you! I thought you were all just being quiet.
Oh noks that's annoying but it is a few days away and people have babies in a couple of hours round here! At least there's an end in sight. I couldn't have faced any shagging at that stage and I'm sure DH was relieved (although he's so desperate probably not). Curry gave me indigestion and pineapples burn my tongue. It's a very frustrating time, shit tv is the only answer.
Al that's a great night. I would love that!
keep the jabs weren't nearly as bad as I thought they'd be, she shrieked but only for a minute.
No piles advice here, I had them when heavily pregnant but they did subside on their own. Lactulose probably helps, that's my universal panacea.
shazz I have ringlet napping on me now. I should try and put her down but I want her to have a nice sleep and I love sitting here holding her in the peace and quiet. I am a failure at all this sleep training stuff!
I have confirmed my return to work and AL until the end of the (academic) year. It's rather daunting. Especially when DH will be away and I somehow have to get both girls to school and nursery and then do my hour and twenty minutes commute and be back in time for them... <panics in advance>
Great night expat well done. I laughed at you all going to the vet. Has the cat given you conjunctivitis?! Miserable though. I hate that and the horrible cream that they give you to put In your eyes. The check up today is for me. Shazlett's 8 weeker is in 2 weeks. Good luck at the drs.
Keep good luck with the jabs. What ones do they have at 8 weeks? I'm so uninformed about jabs. I really need to catch up.
Onion I know what you mean.ive got shazlett in a sling to nap now and im getting on with some computer jobs but I've just skyped my parents and yet again my dad told me to put her down. Having said that he is the first to offer to hold her and let her nap on him. We call him the baby hogger. I just love feeling her close to me. Mind you she had just done a massive wet fart so goodness knows what her nappy is like
How do you feel about going back to work? So you will go back in Sept? How old will Ringlett be then? I'm already dreading having to go back. We don't have any money at the mo and I'm trying not to think about maybe having to go back after 9 months instead of a year and also full time instead of the part time that I'm hoping for. Still a lot can happen in 8 months. Fingers crossed.
I go back to work on 8 March and am getting myself in a bit of a state about it. Intend to go back 4/5 and negotiate a day workng from home. So that's 3 days in a crèche and dh can work from home too so she shouldn't have too many full days there. Have the biggie negotiation meeting with my boss next week.
Last night was a fluke but we were beginning to get a routine before Xmas so hope this a step in the right direction.
Tis a dog Sharon and I think it's false accuse because his eye looks ok now and mini al also looks fine now so it's just me and my massive over reaction
Keep good luck with the jabs. Mini Al gave me a wounded accusatory look but didn't cry. She roared for 20 solid minutes during the next one though. She emerged fine but I was traumatised for far longer!
another one with a baby napping on me...
shaz there are 2 jabs, DTP and rotavirus, and some oral drops for polio. calpol is at the ready...
onion gosh even the thought of going back to work... will she be 18m? sounds like your dh will need to do more of it all.
al I was just reading a sleep regression thread (scaring myself) sounds like you're doing so well! has she teethed yet?
dh tried a faster flow teat on her ebm bottle last night. much better. I think my flow is fast and she was like wtf? I tried the slow one and could hardly get anything out. but then I can't reach my nipple to see how that comes out
lovely day here. we will walk to the doctors and hope she'll nap on the way there.
shaz what sling do you have? I am tempted to get one but can't decide of it's sensible as she wants to be on me, or will make the whole thing worse...
all/onion did they feel rotten afterwards for days? friend told me hers was off for 4 days!!
No, m has had three lots of vacs, the third being today and so far nothing.
It is a big outing and she sleeps afterwards and will prob go to bed at good time tonight. Hope it is the same for you.
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text:
Strongsville School District explains 3rd quarter grading
UPDATE: Negotiators for the two sides called it a night, after more than 10 hours of talks in the federal mediators office, Thursday. SEA reports they will be back at the bargaining table Friday at 1 p.m.
(Strongsville) - Strongsville students say they plan to hold a rally at the gazebo in Strongsville's town square, Friday, if negotiators for the Strongsville City Schools Board of Education and the Strongsville Education Association do not come to terms on a new contract by the end of the week.
Thursday night, students, parents and concerned citizens crowded onto the sidewalk outside the Board of Education offices on Pearl Road, holding candles. They called it a vigil of hope, that the strike would end.
Teachers have been on strike for one month.
The School District has issued a release about how third quarter grades will be reported:
Strongsville City Schools will take an extra week to ensure accurate reporting of student progress in third quarter report cards. School administrators will oversee all grades entered for the third quarter, according to John Krupinski, superintendent.
"We wish our teachers had not chosen to strike, but since they did we must make provisions that are both fair and reflective of the education our students received throughout the entire third quarter," said Krupinski. "The approaches we are taking are in keeping with Board of Education policy. We are approaching kindergarten through grade 8 report cards differently from those issued to high school students."
Kindergarten Through Grade 8: "Third quarter report cards for grades 1 through 8, and progress reports for preschool through grade 8 for students on an Individualized Education Program (IEP) will be distributed April 12," said Krupinski.
"Interim kindergarten grades will be available electronically and based on work completed by March 1," stated Krupinski. "The assessment of student attainment of standards for first grade will be based on work completed throughout the entire third quarter. The assessment of student attainment of standards for grades 2 through 6 will be based on work completed by March 1, while the awarding of grades will be based on work completed throughout the entire third quarter."
"Specials and elective courses which were not taught, or not significantly taught March 4 through 22, will be assigned a report card grade based on work completed by March 1," said Krupinski. "Grades that need to be entered for the third quarter, once the teachers strike has ended, can be entered by the teacher and an updated report card can be requested by parents."
High School: Grades 9 Through 12: "Strongsville High School administrators are overcoming issues in ensuring the accurate reporting of third quarter grades due to the fact that many classroom assignments and makeup work turned in prior to March 1 has not been entered into the PASS grade book by teachers," Krupinski pointed out.
"To ensure there is an accurate reporting of student attainment of standards, third quarter grades will remain on hold with all students receiving a temporary 'incomplete' for all classes taken during the third quarter. We will distribute updated third quarter report cards to all students once the teachers are back in the classroom or third quarter grade books can properly be updated. Progress reports for grades 9 through 12 for students on an IEP will be distributed April 12."
"We have researched and considered all available options. We have determined at the high school and district level that this course of action will be in the best interest of our students while adhering to board policy," added Krupinski.
"Kindergarten through grade 12 students will not be penalized due to the strike, and their grades will either stay the same or improve when compared to grades earned through March 1," Krupinski said. "This is a fair approach to scholastic recordkeeping in our school district for the third quarter grading period."
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text:
James Porteous
Arlington, Virginia
The pathos with which Robert Lindsay described his need to flee his working-class roots and the "simple and uneducated people" that shaped his formative years was in the same Oscar-winning performance league as Blair's speech on Princess Diana's death ('I Feel That Blair Is A Man Trapped', January 13). I was one of those people brought up on the same street as Robert, and I am now so overjoyed that he finally recognises that we were "intelligent, loving and caring". Perhaps he could tell us in his next interview whether the reason that a significant amount of the street's inhabitants also managed to flee to more affluent parts of the country was because some of us were always given books and aspirations - or simply because we passed our 11-plus.
Sally Tivey
Decca Aitkenhead says Robert Lindsay didn't work for five years between the end of Citizen Smith in 1980 and Me And My Girl in 1985. It would be more accurate to say he didn't work in London - I was living in Manchester in the early 1980s and he was a big star at the Royal Exchange playing Archer in The Beaux' Stratagem in 1982 and Hamlet in 1983.
Andrew Cowie
Moseley, Birmingham
Jon Ronson - why not, indeed, move to Sweden and rent a house overlooking a fjord (January 13)? And when you find this house with such a fabulous view that - on a clear day - you can see Norway please let me know if you are willing to sublet it, as my current flat in Stockholm with a spectacular view of the Alps is getting a bit boring.
Jason Carter
Jon Ronson's article on the Thames whale (The Whale's Curtain Call, January 13) seemed slightly pointless given that it made no mention that, while the UK mourned the loss of one cetacean, the International Whaling Commission was being taken over by Japan and Iceland, and resumed commercial whaling - two developments that are already resulting in numerous but less visible whale deaths. Perhaps attention can be drawn to the substantive, related issues at the skeleton exhibition.
Joseph Wade
London N4
I wonder why Jon Ronson is not allowed to reveal the location of the Natural History Museum's storage facility. We, the local residents, know exactly where it is. It can hardly be a secret when neighbours find fibreglass dinosaurs peering over the garden fence.
Mary Mackenzie
London SW18
Can I take issue with Alexis Petridis's characterisation of the average man-bag sceptic? My reasons for disliking them are far simpler and less sinister than latent homophobia: they make you look like a tosser. An impression that can only be wholly substantiated by the knowledge that the wearer is prepared to spend £500 on one.
Adrian Lowery
London SW11
In response to Dr Tom Smith's assertion that "Our ears aren't direction-finding, like those of bats or deer" (January 13), well, of course they are. Otherwise how would we tell whether a sound comes from left, right, above, below or behind us? The doctor is also mistaken when he states that the size of the external ear plays no part in our ability to detect sound. Here's a simple experiment: while a friend speaks from some yards away, cup your hand to your ear - effectively increasing its size. Bingo! You can hear your friend more clearly.
Martin Palmer
Didsbury, Manchester
We moved to Ramsgate 20 years ago and recognise much in Tom Dyckhoff's description (Let's Move To ... January 6). Stunning sunrises over the sea, yes, and the amazing skies that Turner raved about. But "ace sunsets"? Ramsgate faces roughly south-east. Think about it ...
Mary Lister
Ramsgate, Kent
Send letters to Guardian Weekend, 119 Farringdon Road, London EC1R 3ER (email@example.com). A postal address (not for publication) must be supplied. For inclusion on Saturday, letters should reach us by first post on Tuesday, and may be edited.


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9:00 The Decisive Vote? with Tamar Jacoby, ImmigrationWorks USA; Dan Restrepo, Obama presidential campaign; Alfonso Aguilar, Latino Partnership for Conservative Principles; Rodolfo Espino, Arizona State University; Roberto Suro, University of Southern California; Stephen Dinan, Washington Times (Wilson Center)
9:00 What Roles for Foreign Direct Investment in the New Cuban Economy? with Ted Piccone, Brookings Institution; Richard Feinberg, Brookings Institution; Diego Ruiz, Pepsico Inc.; Chris Sabatini, Americas Society/Council of the Americas (Brookings Institution)
10:00 Investing in the Future: Higher Education, Innovation, and American Competitiveness with Drew Faust, Harvard University; Al Hunt, Bloomberg News; Glenn Hutchins, Silver Lake; Susan Molinari, Google; Jonathan Moreno, Center for American Progress; Gene Sperling, National Economic Council; Neera Tanden, Center for American Progress; David Weitz, Harvard University (Center for American Progress)
12:00 Forced Labor in Modern Russia: Questions about Legal Responsibility and the Protection of Worker's Rights with Alisa Oblezova, Fulbright-Kennan Institute Research Scholar (Wilson Center)
12:00 Shadow Financial Regulatory Committee with Richard J. Herring, University of Pennsylvania; George G. Kaufman, Loyola University Chicago; Marshall Blume, University of Pennsylvania; Kenneth W. Dam, Brookings Institution; Franklin Edwards, Columbia University; Robert A. Eisenbeis, Cumberland Advisors; Edward Kane, Boston College; Catherine Schrand, University of Pennsylvania; Kenneth E. Scott, Stanford Law School; Peter J. Wallison, AEI (AEI)
12:00 Clemency: Old Problems and New Solutions with Albert Alschuler, University of Chicago; Gregory Craig, former White House Counsel for President Barack Obama; Robert Ehrlich, Jr., King & Spalding LLP; Margaret Love, Task Force on Restoration of Rights and Status (Heritage Foundation)
1:00 A Wide-Angle View of U.S.-Japan Relations: Religion, Energy, and Domestic Politics with Koji Murata,Doshisha University; Kunihiko Miyake, The Canon Institute for Global Studies; Hisayoshi Ina, Tokyo Foundation; James L. Schoff, Carnegie Endowment for International Peace (Carnegie Endowment for International Peace)
2:00 Skin in the Game: How Consumer-Directed Health Plans Can Affect the Cost and Use of Health Care with Amelia Haviland, RAND (RAND)
2:00 Assessing the South Korean and Japanese Elections with Dr. Michael Green, Georgetown University; Dr. Gordon Flake, The Maureen and Mike Mansfield Foundation; Bruce Klingner, Heritage Foundation (Heritage Foundation)
3:00 Economic Statecraft: Developing Partnerships with the Private Sector with Rajiv Shah, U.S. Agency for International Development; Deborah McCarthy, U.S. Department of State; Nathan Younge, U.S. Trade and Development Agency; Don Scott De Amicis, Overseas Private Investment Corporation; Eric Postel, U.S. Agency for International Development (Wilson Center)
4:00 Was the Mexican Revolution of 1910 a Success? with Alan Knight, University of Oxford (Wilson Center)
5:30 The fourth great political revolution: 1789, 1858, 1928, and today with Arthur C. Brooks AEI; James Piereson, Manhattan Institute (AEI)


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text:
With more than 450 custom made quilts on display at this year's Pacific West Quilt Show, this 2012 edition is slated to be bigger and better than ever. The show takes place Aug. 24-26 at the Greater Tacoma Convention and Trade Center, and more than 6,000 quilting enthusiasts are expected to attend.
Displays featured during the show range from cutting-edge art quilt installations to the best examples of hand-made quilts that are both traditional and contemporary.
"If you love the art and tradition of quilting, and art in general, this show is spectacular," spokesperson Jane Moxey said.
The show will feature the works of local quilters as well as high-profile pieces from artists around the country. A variety of vendors will be selling everything from sewing machines to books and accessories that every quilting enthusiast should have in their arsenal.
"This is not your grandmother's quilt show anymore," Moxey said. Organizers will also offer panel discussions and professional development opportunities, lectures with experts and more.
The history and tradition of quilting will be placed at the forefront of the show, illustrated in a variety of ways throughout the course of the weekend. "The history of quilting is long and rich," Moxey said. "It has a wonderful American tradition."
She estimates quilting is a $2 billion industry in North America alone, adding that top-of-the-line sewing machines cost upwards of $12,000. "Around here in the Pacific Northwest, we have a real hotbed of fabric manufacturers, and a rich world of quilters that we plan to feature."
Quilters from 18 states will display their work, and a juried quilting contest will take place. Mayor Marilyn Strickland will attend and present the Mayor's Choice award, as well.
A panel of professional judges will select winners in nine different categories, which will be announced prior to the opening of the show, on Aug. 23. That night, the public will have a chance to preview the show for $10, as a way to avoid the weekend crowds.
The show takes place from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. on Friday and Saturday, and 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Sunday. Tickets are $10 daily, or $20 for multi-day passes. Association of Pacific West Quilters members receive multi-day admission for $10. Military families will receive a flat $10 group rate on Sunday. For more information, visit http://www.apwq.org.


text: Posted April 27, 2010 Pick # 48 - Jimmy Clausen QB- ND I hate Jimmy Clausen. Jimmy Clausen is one of the types of people that physically sicken me. If I had downed a few at the local, there is a good chance I'd eventually take a swing at Jimmy Clausen. If Jimmy Clausen can come on the field in a year or two and toss 25 + touchdowns or so every season, I'll wear his Ed Hardy designed jersey. We've heard just about every argument for and against so I'll just say this: Hurney and Fox have drafted 8 players in the first round that have been good to flat out stud level with 0 misses. They obviously had, at worst, a late first round grade on this guy. I'm going with history on this one. Best feasible scenario: Solid franchise QB Worst feasible scenario: Whiny pouty backup QB that will make great .gif material Pick # 78 Brandon LaFell WR - LSU He's had too many drops sure (and has tiny hands), but he was a red zone monster in the SEC and is a more than willing blocker. He's a bit risky, but this is the third round we're talking about here. Even if he only can spread the field a bit within the 20's and spring an outside run or two, he's an upgrade on anything we have and worth the selection. Best feasible scenario: Moose 2.0 Worst feasible scenario: Reggie Williams 2.0 Pick # 89 Armanti Edwards QB/WR/KR - App State He might have dropped to us in the 4th. He might not have. Thing is we've got him now. He's got the same skill set as a Brad Smith, Josh Cribbs or a Randel-El and I find it hard to believe he couldn't develop into a similar type player. Probably taken a smidge too high a price, but he energizes a local fanbase right before a possible lockout. That in and of itself could be worth the pick regardless of if he fizzles or not. I don't know about y'all, but I'm not sure I can take another team moving away. Best feasible scenario: #3 WR/Wildcat QB/Electric KR/Trick play guy Worst possible scenario: Preseason sellouts for 3-5 years Pick # 124 Eric Norwood OLB/DE - South Carolina So we got a guy who had more sacks and TFL than any prospect this year other than Brandon Graham in the 4th? And he's blocked several kicks? And we got another pick? I don't feel I need to go further. Best feasible scenario: Robert Mathis type edge rusher Worst feasible scenario: ST's demon for a few years Pick # 175 Greg Hardy DE - Ole Miss The size/speed/talent are there for a pretty effective player. The injuries and demeanor are there for a few years on the practice squad and an exit into obscurity. Best feasible scenario: Feared nickel edge rusher Worst feasible scenario: Favorite Huddle subject of "What could have been if our coaches yelled less/more." Pick # 198 David Gettis WR - Baylor As I said before, a 6' 3" 217 lbs WR who can run a 4.39 would have to had lost his arms in a calf roping accident to not be worth a late freebie 6th. Has never lived up to potential, but if he does... Best feasible scenario: KR and general ST demon. 4th "stretch the field" wideout. Worst feasible scenario: A slow Practice Squad death/promising track career Pick # 202 Jordan Pugh CB/S - Texas A & M Holds the distinction of being the only Aggie drafted this year. He's fast and athletic. Best feasible scenario: Back up S/CB and ST's guy Worst feasible scenario: Equipment carrier for a year in Spartanburg Pick # 204 Tony Pike QB - Cincinnati I don't get what people don't get about taking a guy who could end up being a franchise QB with your fourth 6th rounder that you can't trade. If you don't understand this pick, you just don't understand even the basic tenets of risk/reward. Seriously, this is betting $5 to win $500 on a reasonably plausible outcome. Best feasible scenario: Starting caliber QB that saves the franchise or nets a 2nd or even 1st rounder. Worst feasible scenario: Proof that there's actually something there with Hunter Cantwell worth pursuing. Pick # 223 RJ Stanford CB - Utah Played in a major school. Can run. Can jump. All I really need to know about a 7th rounder. Best feasible scenario: Dime CB/ST's/Marshall replacement Worst feasible scenario: Quote machine/fan favorite at training camp Pick # 249 Robert McClain CB - UConn Part of an impressive, overachieving scrappy defense that impressed me all year last year. He's got great size/speed and surprising press cover skills. Best feasible scenario: Dime CB/ST's/Marshall replacement Worst feasible scenario: Is there such a thing for the 249th pick of the draft? Overall, picked some talented players at need positions without reaching all that much. I don't like the fact they took as many "names" as they did, but maybe it all works out. If nothing else, I subscribe to the "you can never have enough pass rushers or DB's" and "draft a late round QB every year" theory, so we've done OK there. Right now, we're obviously judging what players were taken as in comparison to when we thought they should be taken, which doesn't count for much. Regardless, I see us getting at worst one future starter with multiple valuable role players. At best we've got a franchise QB, a new edge rusher, a true # 2 WR for the first time since 2003 and a dynamic KR for the first time since God knows when. That's more that what you can hope to expect with no first rounder. Grade: B (with an A+++++ ceiling, C- floor) 6 people like this Share this post Link to post Share on other sites


text:
Federal Maritime Commission Must Deal With Labor-Related "Difficulties"
June 26, 2014
In a recent letter to Federal Maritime Commission (FMC) Chairman Mario Cordero, the National Customs Brokers and Forwarders Association of America, Inc. (NCBFAA) asked the FMC to consider procedures addressing port disruptions resulting from unusual occurrences such as major force majeure events or labor-related difficulties.
Early last year the NCBFAA requested that Chairman Cordero's predecessor, Richard Lidinsky, likewise consider procedures to mitigate challenges during maritime labor unrest and severe weather conditions.
Motivated by the possibility of a strike at west coast ports commencing in the near future, the NCBFAA determined to once again petition the FMC for action on this issue. John Martin, principal of port consultant Martin Associates, told Supply Chain Management Review that broker's concern are understandable.
"When the West Coast was shut down twelve years ago, freight intermediaries were scrambling to find alternative routes and modes. It was a major challenge for all concerned."
As regards the specific procedures, the NCBFAA recommends that the Commission:
• Require carriers to develop and publicize their contingency plans concerning how they would provide service for cargoes moving into or out of the various U.S. ports during periods of unusual disruption events.
• Require carriers and marine terminal operators to amend their demurrage and detention tariffs to exclude any penalty portion of those charges from being assessed during the pendency of those events.
• Create internal clearing house for information relating to the timing and amounts of congestion-related surcharges that would be available to the public on the FMC's website.
"We are aware that the Commission did recently issue an advisory to the industry concerning the possibility of port congestion surcharges and when any cargo would be affected by such surcharges," the letter noted. However, carrier provided tariff publications and announcements in this regard to date have been "so indefinite as to be inconsistent with the Commission's regulations pertaining to the need to provide the public with accurate, reliable and useful information concerning the charges to be assessed."
In closing, the NCBFAA noted that it "would be willing to work with the Commission, the carriers and any other parties to address the issues raised above."
The Association reiterated its willingness to discuss this further and answer any questions the Chairman might have.
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text:
Superb Museum Aboriginal Bark Painting
- Sold for: Start Free Trial or Sign In to see what it's worth.
- Item Category: Ethnic, Folk & Native American Art
- Source: eBay
- Sold Date: Apr 17, 2007
- Channel: Auction House
This beautiful picture comes from the Naracoorte Museum collection that was deaccessioned around 5 years ago. The bark painting is in perfect condition with collection details on the back . It is by the artist Balir Balir who's works sell very well through auction. This is a particularly good example and large measuring 80 x 57cm in size. It dates to the early 70's. For this piece it will cost $35 USD to post anyw in the world and $11 within Australia. Please make sure to click on "VIEW SELLERS OTHER ITEMS" as this week I will be listing a good group of Indigenous art and artifacts including several nice barks, a papunya shield and a tile by Thancoupie. All at NO RESERVE!!


text:
Uses for toothpaste
Toothpaste is a common stockpile item in frugal households, and for good reason. It can often be bought on sale, and its mild abrasiveness makes it work wonders not only on your teeth, but around your home, too. What ways have you used toothpaste in your home?
Here are a few uses for white (non-gel) toothpaste:
Prevent foggy swim goggles:
Rub toothpaste on your diving mask/swim goggles to prevent fogging. Apply regular toothpaste to the lenses and rinse them. This will sound gross, but rubbing saliva on them works well, too. Give them a light rinse afterward. You can also fill a squirt bottle with a mixture of one part baby shampoo and two parts water. Apply the mixture and lightly rinse.
Fog-free mirrors:
To keep your bathroom mirror from fogging up, put shaving cream on it and wipe it off, or apply toothpaste with a damp cloth and wipe it off.
Chrome cleaner:
Toothpaste is great for cleaning chrome. Smear it on, rub with a damp cloth, then rinse and buff with a dry cloth until it shines.
Clean a flat screen:
Use a microfiber cloth. Flannel works well, too. Dampen the cloth with either water or water mixed with vinegar or isopropyl alcohol. To prevent damage, don't press hard or spray product directly on the screen. Another reader, Kellie J., from Indiana, shares: "My son scribbled on my computer screen with permanent marker. I wasn't sure how I would ever remove it, but I used rubbing alcohol and it came right off. After I admitted what happened to my husband, he said I could have used a little toothpaste or a pencil eraser, too."
Remove crayon on wall:
If you have a few scribbles to clean off a painted wall, try toothpaste and a damp cloth.
Water marks:
Have a water mark or ring on your table? Apply toothpaste and lightly scrub with a damp cloth to remove it.
Whiten nails from dark polish:
If you forgot to apply a base coat and your polish stained your nails, use some toothpaste to remove the staining. One reader, Penny from Kentucky, shares: "Use whitening toothpaste for toes that get stained from dark nail polish. I used a nailbrush, but an old toothbrush would work. Scrub and rinse."
Along the same lines, if you cut onions and the smell lingers on your hands, you can do a quick scrub and wash to make your hands smell better and clean your fingernails at the same time.
Quick zit fix:
This isn't intended for anyone with skin sensitivities or ongoing skin problems. With that said, a dab of toothpaste can sometimes help with the occasional bug bite or pimple. Another reader, Juls from New York, shares: "Put a small amount of toothpaste on the problem area before you go to sleep at night. Wash with cold water in the morning. It has the same effect as those pore pads. This dries your skin and gives good results."
Clean shoes:
Apply toothpaste to leather sneakers and rubber soles, then scrub with a damp cloth or toothbrush to remove scuff marks.


text:
Samsung Can't Hide Sales Secrets
Samsung's (SSNLF.PK) bid to keep certain sales data that were part of a patent court battle with Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) out of the public eye has failed. The negotiation was included in post-trial proceedings from the August 24 case in San Jose, California, where a jury found the Korean company guilty of violating six Apple patents.
U.S. District Judge Lucy Koh ruled on December 10 that Samsung was required to list the total number of units of infringing products sold during certain time periods. Samsung is appealing the ruling, but had sought to delay the implementation of the order until the appeal is heard by the U.S. Federal Circuit court. However, Koh did not think the appeal merited approval, Bloomberg said. "Samsung's appeal involves pricing information and profit margins," Koh wrote. The exhibit at issue "only lists the number of units sold in each of several recent months."
Separately, Koh on Tuesday granted Samsung's request to delay the publication of a document showing per-unit operating profit for two phones, pending an appeal.
The judge is yet to decide on Apple's request for additional damages in the case, but earlier rejected its attempt to block U.S. sales of 26 Samsung devices on account that the former failed to establish that consumer demand for the devices was driven by the infringing technology.


text:
RALEIGH, N.C. — The North Carolina General Assembly today passed a bill that does not repeal the discriminatory HB 2 law. Instead, it keeps in place the most harmful parts of the law.
The American Civil Liberties Union of North Carolina is delivering a letter to Gov. Roy Cooper urging him to veto the measure — although Cooper has voiced his support for the proposal and is expected to sign it into law.
The new bill bars any protections for transgender people using restrooms or other facilities in schools or other state or local government buildings. This means schools, court houses, city halls, government agencies, and more cannot allow transgender people to use the right restroom.
It also prevents cities from passing any protections for employment discrimination or discrimination by places of public accommodation — for LGBT people or anyone — until 2020.
"This is not a repeal of HB 2. Instead, they're reinforcing the worst aspects of the law," said James Esseks, director of the ACLU LGBT Project. "North Carolina lawmakers should be ashamed of this backroom deal that continues to play politics with the lives of LGBT North Carolinians."
The ACLU, ACLU of North Carolina, and Lambda Legal will continue to defend right of transgender people to use restrooms and changing facilities consistent with their gender identity, as federal law requires. The lawsuit, which includes claims for the damages inflicted by H.B. 2, will continue, and the legal team will seek to amend the lawsuit to challenge H.B. 142 as well....


text:
It seems as though MSNBC's Mika Brzezinski not only wants everyone to agree with her liberal ideology but also wants to silence all opposing political views.
Appearing on Morning Joe on Monday, May 12, the MSNBC co-host chastised Joe Scarborough for defending Senator Marco Rubio (R-FL) over the issue of climate change, arguing that "In order to defend him, you had to move all the way around to Al Gore and extremism. It was a long road to defend him there. Think about that one." [See video below.]
Even though Scarborough agrees with Mika that man-made climate change exists, simply by defending his fellow Republican he was condemned by his liberal co-host. Scarborough argued that Republicans are "not willing to just start shutting down factories and changing the way America does things tomorrow to throw millions and millions of people out of work. I don't know. I think there's some subtlety there."
Rather than allow for a conservative opinion to be heard, Brzezinski pounced on Scarborough and attacked Rubio's interview with ABC's Jonathan Karl. She told Scarborough "It took you five minutes to explain why Marco Rubio was okay in his answering. And he wasn't. It was a bad answer."
Earlier in the segment, Mika went even further by diminishing Rubio's credibility by slamming the Tea Party senator: "Why are we talking about Al Gore? If it was someone more substantial, we should talk more. But it was Marco Rubio playing to the base. I suggest we move on."
After Scarborough suggested that Rubio could be a serious 2016 candidate Mika swiped back "Well he could be if he would actually answer a question without the fear of the base." For his part, Scarborough retorted "If he would agree with you? I think if Marco Rubio is saying everything that you agree with he's not going to make it. He's not going to be a significant candidate in the Republican Party. He will be kicked out."
See relevant transcript below.
Morning Joe
May 12, 2014
6:13 a.m. Eastern
JON MEACHAM: What I so find interesting about that whole part of the argument is exactly why it is that the base of the Republican Party seems to feel so alienated from the science? What is it in the climate, so to speak, that means -- that suggests that you can't come to a conclusion that human activity is helping drive this and that we have to confront it? Not with a particular bill that's on the table this second, I'm not saying you vote for this or go to hell. But what is it right now that puts the scientific community so far beyond the pale for Republicans?
JOE SCARBOROUGH; Jon, I don't think it's science. In fact I know it's not science any more than Democrats like Paul Krugman are repulsed by math, simple math. They don't understand it. They reject it on trying to save Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid for Americans years to come. But on this issue, I think speaking of televangelists, I think the far left overplayed their hand back in '02, '03, '04, '05. Al Gore overplayed his hand. You can look at polls. Don't listen to me. Look at the polling Numbers from 2004, 2005, 2006. Americans were actually bought in to the concept of climate change and that we needed to move aggressively on it. Since that time, since the overreach, since there were the climate versions of the Salem Witch Trials where if you didn't believe in the most extreme view, that you were anti-scientist. Not only did Republicans wander away from the issue, but check the polling. Most Americans began wandering away from the issue. They overplayed it.
MEACHAM: But would you argue that what Rubio was saying is a rational response?
MIKA BRZEZINSKI: It's just not.
MEACHAM: I would argue that that's overreach.
BRZEZINSKI: Why do Republicans feel like they need to have that? That's an overreach as well. Obviously playing to the base and not reality.
SCARBOROUGH: First of all, we talk about Republicans, Republicans. We'll let Marco's words stand on their own.
BRZEZINSKI: Candidates.
SCARBOROUGH: I think Marco's, I think a lot of Republicans might agree with Marco, reflexively going against this sort of extremism Willie I was talking about before. But I would guess if, I don't know. I haven't seen polls on this, but certainly most of the Republicans I talk to, Willie, believe there is climate change. They are smart enough to believe that 7 billion, 8 billion people have had a huge impact on it. Especially what's happening in China. China's the number one producer of damage to the environment now. But they're not willing to just start shutting down factories and changing the way America does things tomorrow to throw millions and millions of people out of work. I don't know. I think there's some subtlety there.
WILLIE GEIST: You get the sense that, yes, Republicans who disagree with this point of view do disagree but they also resent being hit over the head with it for a decade and saying fall in line or else.
SCARBOROUGH: You're anti-science. Agree with Al Gore or you're anti-science.
GEIST: It doesn't mean they're right but you get that idea that now this is sort of a reaction to that reaction from Al Gore. The other thing is, if you look at polls where climate change falls in terms of people's concerns. For all the attention it get in the media, and believe me it is important in the long-term, voters just don't really care about it. When they go to a poll, they're not voting based on climate change. So that's not going to hurt Marco Rubio very much. Especially when you see that poll that only 25% of Republicans in particular say in a primary view climate change as a big problem and view it as manmade. That position he took, while it may be offensive to a lot of people, is not going to hurt him in a primary.
HAROLD FORD JR: The only thing I would argue in favor of Al Gore, Al Gore but for some of his comments and things he did. We wouldn't have I think the hybrid industry we have and the car industry would not have the mileage increase standards. It's important to remember the number one emitter of carbon in our environment is farming in the country. So I would give him a little more credit although I do agree with you Joe he did overreach a bit.
SCARBOROUGH: I'm not bashing Al Gore here. Listen, he -- and I've said this to him. He was a televangelist for climate change. And I think there have to be those people that are out there that are pushing hard and go as hard as they can go in one direction or another and I'm really glad he did it and he drew a lot of attention to that. I personally believe he did overreach and a lot of other people overreach.
BRZEZINSKI: But that reporter didn't overreach in his questioning. Why are we talking about Al Gore? If it was someone more substantial, we should talk more. But it was Marco Rubio playing to the base. I suggest we move on. What do you think?
SCARBOROUGH: Well, I disagree. I think Marco Rubio could be very significant in 2016.
BRZEZINSKI: Well he could be if he would actually answer a question without the fear of the base.
SCARBOROUGH: If he would agree with you? I think if Marco Rubio is saying everything that you agree with he's not going to make it. He's not going to be a significant candidate in the Republican Party. He will be kicked out.
BRZEZINSKI: Well, in order to defend him, you had to move all the way around to Al Gore and extremism. It was a long road to defend him there. Think about that one.
SCARBOROUGH: Actually, no I was just trying to explain–
BRZEZINSKI: It took you five minutes to explain why Marco Rubio was okay in his answering. And he wasn't. It was a bad answer. It was a totally normal question.
SCARBOROUGH: Let me do it in five seconds. A lot of us believe the left have overreached of this issue and we're not going to throw people out of work because of their ideological rampages.
MEACHAM: You would agree that it's not an irrational response from what you hear from Rubio to say that Republicans are now overreaching the other way.
BRZEZINSKI: Yeah. Including himself.
SCARBOROUGH: You can say that if that's how you feel about Marco Rubio, I'm a Republican, I believe in climate change. I believe that it's manmade. I believe that man has contributed to climate change. But Marco is right. It goes in cycles. And we'll see how those cycles play out. We're so arrogant as a people that if it happened to us last week, then it is, this is the worst thing that's happened on the face of the Earth. It's like those women that everybody knows that have a baby and they run around with a baby. And you would swear to God that they were the first women on the Earth to have a baby. They're not. They're not. We're not the --
FORD JR: I resemble that as a dad.
SCARBOROUGH: We're not the first people that have had climate change. Now am I concerned because it's a little more extreme than it's been in the past? Yes. But it's also been extreme in the past. We got to play it out and see what happens but I think we need to be careful. You're looking at a guy that's been talking about wanting to have CAFE standards to 40 miles per gallon. I've got no problem. Let's be careful, let's do everything we can do. I want a clean Earth. You know what? Industry can adapt to it. But I'll be damned if I'm going to throw millions of people out of work because somebody's going on an ideological tear.
BRZEZINSKI: That's a good answer but no one was. It was just a question that he didn't answer very well. But you do a good job with the question.
SCARBOROUGH: He didn't do it the way you liked it.


text:
A Framework For Separation Of Duties In An SAP R/3 Evironment
Little, Adam G. & Best, Peter J. (2003) A Framework For Separation Of Duties In An SAP R/3 Evironment. Managerial Auditing Journal, 18(5), pp. 419-430.
|PDF (114kB)
The majority of medium-to-large international organizations have adopted enterprise resource planning systems (ERPs) of which SAP R/3 is the current market leader. This paper proposes a framework for the separation of duties in SAP R/3. Separation of duties is viewed as a critical component of an organization's internal control structure aimed primarily at reducing opportunities for fraudulent activities. R/3 assigns profiles consisting of authorizations to users. Accordingly, R/3 facilitates the implementation of 'role-based access control', where these profiles may be designed consistent with organizational roles and assigned to users performing these roles. This paper proposes a framework for adequate separation of duties using a role-based approach in the Financial Accounting (FI) module of the R/3 system. Case studies were undertaken to refine the framework and to explore its application in a practical environment. This empirical research provided support for the adequacy of the proposed framework.
Impact and interest:
Citation counts are sourced monthly from Scopus and Web of Science® citation databases.
These databases contain citations from different subsets of available publications and different time periods and thus the citation count from each is usually different. Some works are not in either database and no count is displayed. Scopus includes citations from articles published in 1996 onwards, and Web of Science® generally from 1980 onwards.
Citations counts from the Google Scholar™ indexing service can be viewed at the linked Google Scholar™ search.
Full-text downloads:
Full-text downloads displays the total number of times this work's files (e.g., a PDF) have been downloaded from QUT ePrints as well as the number of downloads in the previous 365 days. The count includes downloads for all files if a work has more than one.
|ID Code:
|Item Type:
|Journal Article
|Role, Based Access Control, SAP R/3, Separation of Duties, Fraud, Authorization, Security
|Australian and New Zealand Standard Research Classification > COMMERCE MANAGEMENT TOURISM AND SERVICES (150000) > ACCOUNTING AUDITING AND ACCOUNTABILITY (150100) > Auditing and Accountability (150102)
Australian and New Zealand Standard Research Classification > INFORMATION AND COMPUTING SCIENCES (080000) > INFORMATION SYSTEMS (080600) > Information Systems Management (080609)
|Current > QUT Faculties and Divisions > QUT Business School
|Copyright Owner:
|Copyright 2003 Emerald Publishing
|Copyright Statement:
|Reproduced in accordance with the copyright policy of the publisher.
|Deposited On:
|09 Oct 2006 00:00
|Last Modified:
|05 Jan 2011 13:27
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text:
To refer to another class in the same source file, simply include the
runnable class file in the same directory as an image file, whose name
you specify in line 6 below (or, include a path or complete URL in the
file reference).
What's going on? The program actually contains two classes, one
(modifiedCanvas) in the same file as another (ModCanvas). The class
modifiedCanvas extends the Canvas class, which the java.awt package
contains. There's one constructor established in modifiedCanvas -- one
that calls for an Image object as an argument. That class paints the
specified Image object onto itself.
The public class (which is to say, ModCanvas) creates an instance of
the modifiedCanvas class by calling its single constructor with an
Image object retrieved via the getImage() method of the windowing
toolkit. That instance of modifiedCanvas is then added to the Frame
called demoFrame, which is finally made visible.
Here's the code:
import java.awt.*;
public class ModCanvas {
static public void main(String a[]) {
Toolkit t = Toolkit.getDefaultToolkit();
Image someImage = t.getImage("someimage.jpg");
Frame demoFrame = new Frame("A Frame with a Modified Canvas in
modifiedCanvas mc = new modifiedCanvas(someImage);
class modifiedCanvas extends Canvas {
Image savedImage;
public modifiedCanvas(Image someImage) {
savedImage = someImage;
public void paint(Graphics g){
g.drawImage(savedImage, 10, 10, this);


text:
We haven't done one of these mystery spots in a while. You know the drill…name that anonymous, bright green coupe. For good measure, and to get those brain waves going, we have thrown in the below Camaro monster truck. We can't make this shit up folks.
Entries Tagged as 'mystery ride'
Mystery Ride & A Camaro Monster Truck – Williamsburg, Brooklyn
September 16th, 2013 by
Mystery Ride – Jamaica Plain, Boston
August 15th, 2012 by
You know the drill car fans…name that ride
Mystery Supercar: 49th Street & Sixth Avenue
April 16th, 2012 by
Supercars are a rare breed. Rarer still are custom-bodied supercars based off of already existing supercars. Take this racy coupe spotted on 49th street for example. While difficult to recognize based on the styling alone, unless your an automotive super freak, the drivetrain, chassis and other major structural components are shared with one of Detroit's greats. So go ahead, name that obscure supercar…
Thanks for the spot Mike.
Mystery Truck: RT80 – Salt Lake City, Utah
February 25th, 2012 by
Spotted this unknown vintage military tractor trailer on I-80 outside of Salt Lake. Other than being a pretty cool rig, it's also interesting to note how much the breed of truck has grown over the years.
Anyone know the make and model? There's a super cool Man on the Move t-shirt with your name on it if you can name that rig.
Mystery Car: Beat Up Classic MB 4×4 – Naxos, Greece
September 12th, 2011 by
A member of the Man on the Move tribe spotted this interesting old mystery Benz while honeymooning in Naxos, Greece. A far cry from the plush luxury sleds coming out of Stuttgart today, the deteriorated little ute has certainly seen better days. Still, the rust and faded paint only add to the old world charm. It kinda looks like a vintage mail truck. Love the exposed horn, side exiting exhaust and what appears to be an early rendition of a clamp on hard top.
Tell us what year/model it is and you get an awesome Man on the Move T-Shirt to show off proudly to friends, family and colleagues.
[See more →]
Mystery Ride – Bridgehampton, NY
October 22nd, 2010 by
I stumbled upon this work in progress while investigating Corrigan's Service Station in Brideghampton. I probably shouldn't have lifted the tarp, but what fun would that be? Previous mystery rides have been way to easy for you. Hopefully this shot is a bit tougher. So, what do we have here? please weigh in after the jump and stay tuned for the full tour of Corrigan's garage..
Mystery Car – 10 FRWY Eastbound, Mid-City LA
July 28th, 2010 by
What's black, slilver and comes in 3 sizes? The awesome Man on the Move T-shirt you will win if you name the make and model of the fleeing classic pictured here. Throw down after the jump.
[See more →]
Mystery Ride – Boonton, NJ
April 14th, 2010 by
This turquoise gem from yesteryear was snapped inside Fred Kanter's massive car palace in Boonton, NJ. People have said that our last few mystery car posts were a bit too easy. So today we'll try something more obscure on for size. And, to make things even more difficult, I am only showing you pieces of the car (rear shot after the jump). Let's see what you got…weigh in below for your chance at a free, pre-shrunk Man on the Move T-Shirt.
[See more →]
Mystery Ride – Vista Street, West Hollywood
April 6th, 2010 by
I'll give you a hint…it was only sold on these shores for one year and needed to change its name as not to conflict with one of the General's popular models. Weigh in below with a make and model for your free Man on the Move t-shirt.
Mystery Ride – 17th & US1, Ft. Lauderdale
March 30th, 2010 by
Our pal Eric nearly collided with a telephone pole trying to capture this exotic drop top on US1 in Ft Lauderdale. The owner wasn't a big fan of the automotive paparazzi but Eric managed to fire off this shot of the car's well-sculpted rear end. We know the make and model – do you? Weigh in below with your guesses. As always, there is a free Man on the Move t-shirt for the winner.
[See more →]


text:
Order now to get it by: Saturday July 08 - Monday July 10
Get it on Tuesday July 4th with expedited shipping.
Select the expedited delivery option after adding this item to your cart.
Condition: New
Product ID: 219912
Delivery Information |Returns & Exchanges |Payment Methods
The Dunlop Play Smash Badminton Set is the perfect quality pick and carry away badminton set, and is great for a casual
game with friends or family anywhere. In the garden or park, or just for skill practice sessions, this set provides a
well rounded kit with everything you need to get playing quickly. Something you can enjoy in the sunshine all year
round, this Dunlop Play Smash Badminton Set offers a net and steel post set, and 3 durable shuttles with quality cork
base for a fast game. Contains: 4 durable steel rackets with steel shafts 1 Net 2 Steel posts and stakes to secure in
the ground 3 Synthetic shuttlecocks 1 Carrying Case Set up instructions MAKES A GREAT GIFT!
Franklin Sports Recreational Badminton and Volleyball Combo Set
Baden Champions Series Outdoor Combo Badminton/Volleyball Set
Jazzminton - The Paddle Game to Rule them All
Dunlop Play Smash 4 Player Badminton Set
Lifetime 90421 Pickleball, Badminton, & Quickstart Tennis Net Set
Combo outdoor play set of 3 Hook and Loop catch Speed ball & Badminton in mesh carryon bag
Badminton Set for Kids with 2 Rackets, Ball and Birdie
2013 Yonex Racket Combo Set


text:
This vehicle originally had 3 fault codes:
The EGR valve was replaced, as the shop tested it and found it to be faulty. After replacing a test drive was performed to confirm the repair. A P0405 (EGR Position Sensor Performance) returned.
To set a P0405 it takes one trip and EGR Position Sensor circuit less than 0.1 volt.
Each time the code was cleared it would return on a test drive or by running the EGR system test using a scan tool.
This should make it easier to diagnose as the problem is present at all times.
During the EGR system test the engine practically stalls. This indicates the EGR is working mechanically and electronically (since is it a linear EGR valve). The PCM can open and hold it open. No need to check that circuit right now.
I moved right to the EGR position sensor wiring. First I checked sensor ground at the EGR valve and PIN 27 on connector 2 at the PCM. It was 0.01 volts and reacted normally when loaded. Next I went to the 5 volt supply at the EGR valve and PIN 27 on connector 1 at the PCM. It was also good. Next up was the sensor signal wire. Once again I tested it at the EGR valve and PIN 22 on connector 2 at the PCM. It was when the valve was in the closed position and matched what the scan tool displayed.
This sensor works a little different than most potentiometers. It starts high (when closed) and goes low (when open).
Using a scan tool, I ran the sensor through it's range, the signal voltage followed along normally. My DVOM and scan tool both displayed the same voltages.
At this point everything appeared to be normal. I decided to run the system self test again. This time I noticed my DVOM and the scan tool did not match. My DVOM display 0.29 volts and the scan tool displayed 0.039 volts. This is a very large difference.
I went back to the component activation test where I have control over valve opening. The values matched again. Why would they match in one screen and not the other? Could be the aftermarket scan tool? Maybe, but I do not have to diagnose tools. I thought about my options and poked around the system a bit more. Nothing popped out on the fault code definition or flow chart. I decided to reset adaptations using the scan tool.
Once adaptations were reset I ran the system self test again. This time it took did not set the fault. To confirm I went for a test drive – The fault returned. Almost there I thought. I decided to disconnect the battery for a few minutes. After about 15 minutes I connected the battery and ran the test again with my DVOM and scan tool connected. The sensor now read 1.4 volts.
After wiping the PCM's memory clean a new voltage value was present and the fault code did not return with using system test or on a test drive.
One of two things was going on here. Either the adaptation values would not clear using an aftermarket scan tool and the battery disconnect did it or the PCM is faulty.
I waited two weeks to post this one to see what the end verdict would be and the vehicle is been fixed (confirmed with a phone call to customer). The battery reset (adaptation reset) fixed it.


text:
While media rooms have been the trend in recent years, it may not be feasible or even desirable in many cases to have an entire room dedicated to electronic media and movie viewing. For many families, the family room is the most comfortable room in the house, and with great access to the kitchen and a half-bath it can also be very conveniently located. Often a family room is a great room, so it is also big enough to accommodate everyone comfortably, whether you are entertaining adults or the kids are having their friends over for pizza and a movie. And as media equipment has become more compact and streamlined, it has become easier to create a media corner just about anywhere: in a master bedroom, a lanai or sheltered patio, or a family room, for example. If creating a family room media corner makes sense for your home and lifestyle, consider the following planning tips.
Choosing a Prime Location in the Family Room
The first order of business is to assess which corner of the family room would work best for a media corner. Pick a corner that isn't prone to producing glare from sunlight either on the screen or in the faces of viewers. If there is no way to avoid glare from a window, light-blocking shades can be used alone or in conjunction with other window treatments and drawn as needed. It's also important to choose a location in the room that will allow for optimum viewing from all seating areas. This is one reason why a corner often works best: It is easily seen from all other areas of the room. It also allows space behind for cords and components and, by nature of the corner, the media area will be somewhat recessed in the room, so it doesn't intrude into the rest of the room.
Choosing a Media Unit
There are many media units specifically designed for corners. Your main concern is to find one that will fit the size and number of components in your system, such as the TV screen, DVD/CD players, gaming systems, etc. The goal is to choose a unit that will house everything efficiently and neatly, so there are no unsightly cords or black boxes visible in the room. You also need to remember to leave enough clearance behind and around components for ventilation to avoid overheating.
Wireless speaker systems and newer flat screen TV's that don't take up nearly as much space as their recent counterparts make it easier than ever to fit a ton of fun electronic media into a small space. When designing your system think about what you want to do – i.e. watch movies, listen to music, play games, etc. – and customize your system from there. Also consider potential add-on components for the future. A media system that also includes room to store DVDs, CDs and ear phones can cut down on visual clutter.
Targeting "do it yourselfers," Jessica Ackerman writes regularly for WallDecorandHomeAccents.com, offering simple illustrations of contemporary metal wall decor.