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Plan 9 from Outer Space
Plan 9 from Outer Space
Greetings, my friend.
We are all interested in the future, for that is where you and I are going to spend the rest of our lives. And remember my friend: future events such as these will affect you in the future.
You are interested in the unknown, the mysterious, the unexplainable. That is why you are here. And now for the first time, we are bringing to you the full story of what happened on that fateful day. We are giving you all the evidence, based only on the secret testimony of the miserable souls who survived this terrifying ordeal. The incidents, the places — my friend, we can not keep this a secret any longer. Let us punish the guilty. Let us reward the innocent.
My friend, can your heart stand the shocking facts about grave robbers from outer space?
Copyright © 2012 - 2016 sketchbook.ercles.com
All rights reserved


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1-Owner! Low Miles! All Wheel Drive! With very low miles, this 1-Owner Hyundai Tucson GLS with All Wheel Drive is a great choice for buyers on a budget! Don't break the bank with a brand new Tucson, when you can get this gently used Tucson for less. This truck was just turned in off lease, and has barely been driven in 3 years. It's clean in and out, and could be the one you've been hoping to find. Call or stop by our showroom today to see this incredible truck for yourself. While you're here tour our dealership and see all of the amenities that our dealership has to offer. our dealership prides itself on taking care of our customers before, during and after the sale. We hope that you will take advantage of our amenities package, which includes: access to our state-of-the-art customer lounge! access to our massage therapy room! 1 year of complimentary maintenance! free car washes FOR LIFE! Sorry but we cannot extend special Internet pricing without a printed copy of the on-line pricing, and your in-store price may exceed our special on-line pricing. To take advantage of our special Internet discounts, please print this page and present it to your salesperson. To qualify for special internet pricing, vehicles must be financed through dealer with no more than 10% down on applicable vehicles with Tier 1 credit approval. Special prices do not include additional fees and costs of closing, including government fees and taxes, any finance charges, any dealer documentation fees, any emissions testing fees or other fees. All prices, specifications and availability subject to change without notice. Contact dealer for most current information.
Price may exclude tax, title, tags, governmental fees, any emissions testing charges and any finance charges (if applicable). Unless otherwise stated separately in the vehicle details, price does not include documentation, processing, administrative, closing or similar fees. Current mileage may vary due to test drives and vehicle relocation.

subset: commoncrawl


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California Palace-the Legion 6 ReviewsHighly recommended!
I must agree with the other reviews. Very good food, service and ambiance is really nice to spend an afternoon with your girlfriend. The very best exh...
Bighorn Grill 2 ReviewsBigHorn Grill
Unfortunately, Big Horn Grill has closed! Their other restaurant, Girasole in Pleasanton is still open.
Bimbos 365 Club 2 ReviewsSwanky, retro, classy
This is the last Italian night club in the City. Nice small venue that offers good music and standup comedy. The best thing about Bimbo's is it's location in North Beach. Tons of great food nearby, cool bars, excellent scene.
Tres Agaves Restaurant 4 ReviewsMargaritas by the Pitcher
Stumbled here during a Giants pregame warmup. The margaritas are on the rocks and @ $27 bucks a pitcher is just enough for 3 people to have two margaritas each. That breaks it down to about $4.50 each drink or around $5.00 per margarita which is wayyyy cheaper than what you would pay for at the ballpark. Lesson learned, drink the Tres Agaves margaritas and you and your wallet won't be sorry.
Caesars Italian Restaurant 2 ReviewsYahoo Recommended!
This place was recommended as one of the best Italian places in America. It is also known for its delicious calamari. They supposedly have the best steak and sea food in town from what I heard.


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There's always a story. It's all stories, really. The sun coming up every day is a story. Everything's got a story in it. Change the story, change the world."
~ Terry Pratchett
Winter Star at Sunrise – Everyday a Story
Wonderful photo. Really intriguing.
Stories, stories, stories. We are and life is a continuous story.


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Blake Shelton and Jennifer Hudson Are Feuding on The Voice (and Putting the Real Housewives to Shame!)
Girls star Lena Dunham was one cute little girl!
The Golden Globe winner posted an adorable childhood photo of herself on her Instagram page last week.
"Sandy Hollow Day Camp posse lived fast & was young," the now 26-year-old captioned this pic.
In the vintage snapshot, Dunham sports long blond locks, a green shirt and cute smile while posing with two boy friends outdoors.
Who knew young Dunham would grow up to be a writing-directing-acting triple threat?!


text: Employers? Post Jobs and More Job Seeker Sign In Home Jobs Your Profile Resources Your Account Job Seekers Sign In New Job Seeker? Sign Up Overview Your Saved Jobs Your Job Alerts Your Profile Your Documents Your Applications Help Welcome to ASCB Online Job Board Featured Employer About Us Benefits News Open Jobs Company Information Set up a Job Alert to be notified when Colorado Hospital Association posts new jobs. About Us VIEW "NEWS" FOR THE LATEST CAREER EVENT AND JOB INFORMATION CHA is committed to connecting quality health care professionals to ensure that all Colorado health care employers have an adequate supply of physicians, nurses and other necessary providers and have created the CHA Career Center where you can post or find a job, register for a career event, get career coaching, find recruitment resources and stay current on Colorado health care news. Collaboration with groups who share our commitment to improving health care in Colorado is fundamental to our success and we value our relationships with the following organizations: Colorado Center for Nursing Excellence Colorado Healthcare Association for Human Resource Management Colorado Hispanic Nurses Association Colorado Nurses Association Colorado Rural Health Center Colorado Urban Workforce Alliance Denver Area Health Care Recruiters Association Eastern Colorado Council of Black Nurses Employer Partnership Office - United States Army Reserve Benefits The Colorado Hospital Association is committed to connecting employers, talent and educators. News Make Colorado Your Life Destination Meet Colorado Health Care Employers Wednesday, October 4th Register for updates and information. http://events.constantcontact.com/register/event?llr=tog6xvgab&oeidk=a07eef18l820de8c52e Set up a Job Alert to be notified when Colorado Hospital Association posts new jobs. Back to Top Error Close Continue Powered By


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Media organizations protest anti-media resolution passed by Punjab Assembly
Journalists and media organisations staged country-wide rallies to protest against the anti-media resolution passed by Punjab Assembly on Friday, July 09, 2010. The assembly resolution condemned 'sections of the media' for their 'irresponsible behaviour' that could have a "negative impact on the future of democracy and rule of law."
The resolution was moved by Sanaullah Khan Mastikhel, a member provincial assembly (MPA) of the Pakistan Muslim League (Nawaz) the ruling party in the Pakistan's most populous province of Punjab. The resolution was passed unanimously by the provincial assembly.
Among other things the resolution said: "The Punjab Assembly has reservations regarding the irresponsible propaganda being conducted against democratic institutions, political leaders and public representatives by some sections of the media and believes this propaganda can have a negative impact on the future of democracy and the supremacy of law in Pakistan." The resolution unanimously condemned the "unnecessary propaganda campaign against democratic institutions and public representatives" and demanded "responsible sections of the media avoid presenting baseless, humiliating and irresponsible programmes against democratic institutions and political leaders in the larger interests of the nation and the country."
The resolution called upon "responsible, independent journalists" to come forward to discourage the trend of irresponsible reporting and character assassination of political and apolitical personalities for vested interests." The resolution also demanded that the government constitute a committee to take note of this situation and present recommendations regarding the conduct of the media.
In their speeches on the resolution MPAs from the different political parties strongly criticised media groups, anchor persons and reporters terming them "blackmailers of lower degree, corrupt and a threat to the democracy".
The resolution led to protest and condemnation from the media personnel and organizations, including a countrywide protest on Saturday July 10, called by Pakistan Federal Union of Journalists (PFUJ). The resulting protest demonstrations by unions of journalists, press clubs, media organisations and journalists' bodies condemned the Punjab Assembly resolution and the Punjab government for patronising the anti-media campaign in order to deprive the people of their "right to know" by such tactics. The PFUJ declared that it would continue its protest till the withdrawal of the biased, undemocratic, unethical, unconstitutional and arbitrary resolution adopted by the Punjab Assembly.
A joint meeting of editors, publishers, journalists and media workers organised by Council of Pakistan Newspaper Editors (CPNE)on Monday July 12, strongly condemned the resolution as "shameful" and passed a resolution demanding that Punjab government withdraw the resolution unconditionally and to apologise for this anti-media stance.
PML-N leaders tried to control the damage by retracting from the anti-media stance. PML-N President Nawaz Sharif in a press conference in London ask the party to expel MPA Mastikhel from the party while PML-N Senator Pervez Rasheed said that the moving of the motion against media was a mistake and the party would take steps to redress the situation. The PML-N has also decided to issue show cause notice to Mastikhel, the mover of the resolution against the media.
Source: Pakistan Press Foundation (PPF)


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Rainbow Riches Reels of Gold Slot Machine Review
If you are a fan of the Rainbow Riches franchise of slot machines, and the odds are pretty good that you are since millions play slot machines from this franchise every day, it's likely that you have been keeping an eye out for the newest entry into this franchise – and it's here with the Reels of Gold slot machine!
Combining all of the special features, advantages, bonuses, and beautiful design that the old versions of the Rainbow Riches franchise had to offer, this latest entry offers plenty of action for newcomers and established veterans of the slot machine world.
There's plenty of fun (and profit) to be had!
General Overview Of The Game
For starters, this game is pretty simple and straightforward on the surface. You are going to have five different reels and 50 different pay lines to play, but if you're looking to really mix things up you can start to do different combinations and different wagers that give you every opportunity to land the kind of sky high profits and windfall jackpot you've always dreamed of.
The action is just as fast-paced and frenetic as you'd expect from a Rainbow Riches kind of game, and the graphics are as good as it gets in the online slot machine world today. This is what you've come to expect from the legendary developers behind Rainbow Riches, and this latest version of the franchise is already one of the most popular slot machines out there.
Reels Of Gold First Class Game-play
As we touched upon above, this is a game that really caters to all different kinds of slot machine players regardless of the type of action that you are most interested in.
On the one hand, you have simple and straightforward pay lines for newcomers or more casual players that just want to kill some time and hopefully hit some bonuses and some jackpots.
On the other hand, you have the opportunity for a lot of strategy when it comes to wagers across multiple pay lines – and that's where the big bonuses, multipliers, and jackpots are going to sit.
Design And Layout Of The Game
Every Rainbow Riches game has been designed to be about as beautiful as an online slot machine can be, and the Reels of Gold slot machine is absolutely no exception.
It features the same colourful interface, jaw-dropping graphics, and special effects that make it one of the most cinematic and engaging slot machine franchises available to be played today. You definitely don't have to worry about getting bored when you play Rainbow Riches Reels of Gold, that's for sure.
Special Features And Bonuses
So many different bonuses are going to be available it's impossible to mention them all, but the most common ones are going to be balloon bonuses that multiply your wagers across your pay lines, free bonus round spends, free spins, WILD symbols, and so much more.
Reels Of Gold Final Verdict
There are plenty of different slot machines available to be played today, but you'd have to be at least a little bit crazy not to spend some of your time playing the Rainbow Riches Reels of Gold game. It's just that good!


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Acne rosacea is one of the chronic skin disorders characterized by the reddening of the cheeks, nose or forehead. Individuals who are suffering from rosacea are those of 30 years of age and above. Research shows that one out of twenty people in US is suffering from rosacea. Despite the effort put in place by medical experts, the treatment for this condition has not yet been found.
Causes of Rosacea
The main cause of rosacea has not yet been established up to this very day. However, it is believed to be an inherited condition. Some doctors have also linked it to bacteria infection and also immune disorders. Treating the condition at its early stages is often regarded as a wise idea. This is because; if the disorder is dealt with quickly it may never have a chance growing further. If the situation is left to progress, the redness of the cheeks, forehead or nose may become permanent. Women are more vulnerable when it comes to rosacea than their male counterparts, men however happens to experience harsher rosacea conditions than women.
Experts in medical field have discovered several factors that they believe can cause or trigger rosacea. It should be noted that these rosacea triggering factors differ from one person to another. Since rosacea affects the face alone, it is therefore believed that these triggers must have something to do with the blood vessels found in the face. Alcohol, coffee, stress, exposure to the wind or heat from the sun and highly spiced foods are few of the things that can generate the condition. The main challenge that many individuals encounter is the fact that there is no familiar cause and it differs from one individual to another individual. Luckily, medical researchers have established a connection between rosacea and digestive disorders.
A good number of people suffering from rosacea have been tested and found to possess very minimal level of acid in the stomach. When one is having very small stomach acid, perfect digestion of chief food minerals cannot take place. For this reason, the growth of fungal bacteria in the skin will have high chances of taking place. Research has also indicated that deficiencies of vitamin B- is very familiar with majority of rosacea sufferers, therefore, helpful bacteria or probiotic organisms in biological terms are often suppressed or killed.
Treatment and Remedies
While the actual treatment of rosacea is yet to be found, there are more things that one can do to restrain the condition. This is because, leaving the conditioned untreated can become far much extreme in the long run. While foods and drinks have been adversely mentioned to be some of the rosacea causes, avoiding them would be a wise idea. Doctors can also help individuals on ways of eliminating toxins from the body as it can also help in facilitating digestion of minerals and vitamins.
Some individuals have managed to treat rosacea with natural occurring medicines. But again, the natural medicines cannot completely heal acne rosacea since they can only help in reducing effects of the condition. Some herbs are good in improving digestive process in the body hence can lay a vital role in dealing with rosacea.


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Room was neat and comfortable -- our stay, although short, was very pleasant and your staff was very courteous.
Great location Hotel was a bit run down. Beds were ok although we were told we would have two queen size beds but they were doubles. Sheets where clean but very thin and worn. I won't be staying here again. You get what you pay for!
Cerca de las tiendas que necesitaba Necesita una capacidad fecha mal.
El precio era bueno y estaba cerca de todas las cosas de Knoxville. Necesita una renovación.
Very efficient check in. Pillows
Most things. No alarm clock.
Location and price
Location The room I was given allowed smoking and stank. The mattress covers had cigarette burns. The bathtub drained VERY slowly. A concrete support column on the corner of the building near my room has a major crack and has shifted, which was disconcerting.


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Accenture Telecommunications Analytics Manager in United Kingdom
Title: Telecommunications Analytics Manager Location: United Kingdom Job Number: 00495860
Role: Telecommunications Analytics Manager
Location: London, Manchester and Edinburgh
Travel: 60-100%
Salary: £73,000 – £98,000 Benefits
Closing Date: 31/8/2018
The digital revolution is changing everything. It's everywhere – transforming how we work and play. Are you leading the way as a digital disrupter? Accenture Digital is driving these exciting changes and bringing them to life across 40 industries in more than 120 countries. At the forefront of digital you'll create it, own it, and make it a reality for clients looking to better serve their connected customers and operate always-on enterprises. Join us and become an integral part of our experienced digital team with the credibility, expertise, and insight clients depend on.
Accenture Digital is powered by three practices –Mobility, Interactive, and Analytics. As part of our Analytics practice, you'll deliver analytically-informed, issue-based solutions that help clients make faster, smarter decisions. You'll play a critical role in helping them tackle complex business issues.
Job Description:
In the right hands (yours!) and handled strategically, the massive amounts of information our clients collect today can become their most valuable new asset. And the ability to gain actionable insights from that data is critical to produce tangible results. If you are passionate about helping clients make faster, smarter decisions to tackle their most complex business issues, we want to meet you.
Your Role:
There will never be a typical day at Accenture Analytics, but that's why people love it here. The opportunities to make a difference within exciting client initiatives are unlimited in the ever-changing digital landscape. Here are just a few of your day-to-day responsibilities.
Management scientists need to have both a deep understanding of the business problems faced by our clients, as well as an expert grounding in the analytical techniques that will be used to address them.
Key Responsibilities:
Understand the telecommunication industry and related challenges - show how analytics can help address and solve these
Show the whole value chain from data to results
Deep knowledge of Network area (fixed and mobile), of its evolution and relation with telecommunication business and functions (marketing, customer operation) so to be able to explain offerings and solution both to CTO and CMO
Understand Analytics capabilities (predictive modelling; forecasting, customer segmentation and behaviour, …)
Understand and translate client requirements into a tailored solution offering deal approach, solution plan leveraging standard process methods, deliverables and the right collection of offerings
Experience and understanding of proposal and cost estimates would be helpful
Should possess good cross-functional knowledge to represent service delivery related functions and project and people management experience (such as transition management, delivery management, solution conceptualization, quality, etc.) Participate in Information Management/Enterprise Data Management efforts and management of project teams through all phases of the project lifecycle from scope and planning, requirements gathering, design, development, testing to going live.
Business case development
Required Skills:
Quantitative degree preferred (Econometrics, Statistics, Mathematics etc
Network specific industry experience
Value Proposition Development
Solution Configuration
Business Case Development
Proposal Development
Solution Realization Approach Development
Proven problem analysis and problem solving skills
Strong customer references
Exceptional presentation skills – dynamic presenter with ability to convey technology and business value propositions.
Good listening skills, and an ability to ask questions and probe to uncover issues
Proficient understanding of integration, analytic and database technologies
Good interpersonal, communication and presentation skills – able to present to CXO's
Able to explain complex concepts in non-technical language
Basic Qualifications:
Prove experience in working in Telecommunication Industry
Analytics experience (customer insight, BI, data mining, data management architecture)
Extensive experience in delivering analytics, preferably in the telecommunication industry
Bachelors Degree or equivalent
What's in it for you?
All of our Digital professionals receive comprehensive training covering business acumen, technical and professional skills development. You'll also have opportunities to hone your functional skills and expertise in an area of specialisation. We offer a variety of formal and informal training programs at every level to help you acquire and build specialised skills faster. Learning takes place both on the job and through formal training conducted online, in the classroom, or in collaboration with others. The sheer variety of work we do, and the experience it offers, provide an unbeatable platform from which to build a career.
On top of this, we have an extensive benefits package which includes 30 days' vacation per year, gym subsidies, private medical insurance and 3 extra days leave per year for charitable work of your choice!
What are the next steps?
If this sounds like the ideal role, career and company for you, click below to apply.
About Accenture
Accenture is a leading global professional services company, providing a broad range of services and solutions in strategy, consulting, digital, technology and operations. Combining unmatched experience and specialised skills across more than 40 industries and all business functions—underpinned by the world's largest delivery network—Accenture works at the intersection of business and technology to help clients improve their performance and create sustainable value for their stakeholders. Accenture drives innovation to improve the way the world works and lives. Visit us at www.accenture.com at http://www.accenture.com/ .
Accenture is an equal opportunities employer and welcomes applications from all sections of society and does not discriminate on grounds of race, religion or belief, ethnic or national origin, disability, age, citizenship, marital, domestic or civil partnership status, sexual orientation, or gender identity, or any other basis as protected by applicable law.
Closing Date for Applications 31/08/2018
Accenture reserves the right to close the role prior to this date should a suitable applicant be found.
Job: Analytics


text: I was born and raised in a home where both of my parents were believers, so I grew up in a church. Even though I grew up with a lot of biblical training, I knew I needed more. I came to the Bible Institute because I wanted to get a better understanding of God's Word and know Him better than I already did. I wanted to not only know what I believed, but why I believed it and really make my faith my own. From my two years at the Bible Institute, I received all that and more! It was a tremendous time where I laid a solid biblical foundation in my life and grew so much in my relationship with the Lord!


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3 Weddings Tips from Someone With Experience
How to Plan the Perfect Wedding of Your Dreams
So, you've just gotten engaged, and you're probably thinking: "Now What?" The perfect wedding can seem like an impossible task, especially for those on a budget. The perfect wedding will require hours of planning, making phone calls, shopping around venues and more. After all, your wedding day is going to be one day you will never forget. In order to make sure that your wedding day goes off without a hitch, it requires a good amount of planning.
Choosing a Venue
First and foremost, choosing the venue for the wedding and reception is one of the first things you should do in planning for your wedding. In many cases, the venue may be booked months ahead of time, which means your wedding date may very well be selected by the venue. Don't be afraid to visit many different wedding venues in your search for the perfect venue.
5 Key Takeaways on the Road to Dominating Events
Choose an Officiate
Learning The Secrets About Celebrations
The next step in the wedding planning process is finding someone to officiate the wedding. Do you want to go with a trusted friend or pastor, or would you just like a judge to marry you? After you select someone to officiate your wedding, then you can work with them to decide the order of ceremony. For example, will there be an exchanging of vows? Prayer?
Choosing Decorations
After the boring stuff is out of the way, now for the fun part. Selecting the right decorations can turn your venue into the perfect wedding of your dreams. Spend a little time online and find some inspiration to find the perfect theme that fits your personality. Swing by your local craft store and look for some ideas that will match your theme.
Choosing a Photographer
The next step in the wedding planning process is hiring a photographer. Spend some time looking online for some photographers close to you. A great portfolio is important, but also make sure that you're on the same page as far as the wedding day will go.
Selecting a DJ or Band
After you've selected the venue and decorations, then it's time to plan the party! Look around on review sites like Yelp to read about some great DJs around you. Selecting the right DJ will help you make sure that your reception is one to remember. Take some time and speak with your DJ about song choice, order of events, and more.
Choose a Caterer
The final thing that needs to be done is selecting the perfect caterer. First, be sure to talk with your fiance about which type of food would work best for your reception. When selecting the menu, be sure your decision fits your budget; this is often the biggest expense of the whole wedding day.
Now that you've made all the necessary plans for your big day, all that's left to do is enjoy your wedding day!


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A home without art is a home without joy. Find the perfect piece to ignite your imagination among Overstock.com's gallery of canvases. Each magnificent work is wrapped with museum-quality readiness for immediate hanging so you may showcase it in your home the minute it arrives. Bold, brilliant prints in styles ranging from classic to contemporary will grace bare walls with arresting shapes and inspiring landscapes. Bring the delight and dazzle of visual art into your space and marvel at the transformation and elation it can deliver. As they say, creativity takes courage; therefore it is a wise thing indeed to celebrate it.
If you need further help or information please visit our Online Help Center
Shop Overstock™ and find the best online deals on everything for your home and your family. We work every day to bring you discounts on new products across our entire store. Whether you're looking for memorable gifts or everyday essentials, you can buy them here for less. Not just anyone's mobile outlet, your mobile outlet.O.co ® Eziba®


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Agility@Scale: Strategies for Scaling Agile Software Development
Restarting this blog
ScottAmbler 120000HESD Tags:  announcement 9,703 Views
It's been awhile since I've posted anything here, but that will soon change. I'm excited about some ideas that I have for upcoming blog postings around disciplined agile architecture and what it means to take a disciplined approach to agile solution delivery. Organizations around the world are finding that Disciplined Agile Delivery (DAD) provides a solid foundation from which to scale agile, and I'm going to continue sharing my observations and experiences about scaling DAD here in this blog.
As many of you may know I left IBM in June 2012, after a six-year stint as Chief Methodologist for IT within IBM Rational, to form Scott Ambler + Associates with Mark Lines. Mark is my co-author on the IBM Press book Disciplined Agile Delivery, a topic I've written about extensively in this blog over the years. Since I left IBM I've remained in contact with several key people within Rational and have started working with them on several fronts. For example Walker Royce, Alan Brown, and myself are co-authoring a paper about scaling agile which we hope will be accepted at a prestigious academic conference in 2013. I'm also working with IBM Rational at the upcoming Agile Development Conference East in Orlando, November 4-9. Both Mark and I will be presenting on DAD and Rational will have a booth and be throwing a party on Wednesday night which I'm looking forward to. Rational has thrown some pretty good conference parties in the past and I'm guessing that they will do so this time too. Hope to see you there.
In short, stay tuned as there's some exciting stuff coming your way soon.
Agile Myth:High Quality Costs Less than Low Quality - Busted! (at scale)
ScottAmbler 120000HESD Tags:  rup quality agility-at-scale 1 Comment 9,541 Views
Yesterday I was involved with a workshop around agile development at scale. At one point in the conversation we started talking about the relationship between cost and quality. Some of the people in the workshop were relatively new to agile and still believed the traditional theory that to build in high quality it costs more, sometimes substantially more. This does appear to be true on traditional waterfall projects, but some people were making the mistake that this was an "natural law of IT" which also must apply to agile project teams. I naturally jumped on that idea and described how agile developers have found that writing high quality code leads to lower development costs and shorter time to value, in direct contradiction to traditional theory. A few people struggled with the idea for a bit, and one was pretty adamant that in some cases the need for very high quality does in fact lead to greater cost and time. He talked about his experiences on large-scale Rational Unified Process(RUP) projects and in particular how some URPS (usability, reliability, performance, and supportability) requirements can increase your cost. At this point Per Kroll, co-author of Agility and Discipline Made Easy: Practices from OpenUP and RUP, jumped into the conversation and pointed out although higher quality does lead to lower cost in most cases, using Toyota's lean approach to manufacturing as an example, that the agile community didn't completely have the relationship between quality and cost completely correct. My spidey sense told me that a learning opportunity was coming my way.
Per and I had an offline discussion about this to explore what he'd been observing in practice. In most situation it appears to be the case that higher quality does in fact lead to lower costs and shorter time for delivery, something that Per and I had observed numerous times. This happens because high quality code is much easier to understand and evolve than low quality code -- the agile community has found that it is very inexpensive to write high quality code by following practices such as continuous integration, developer regression testing [or better yet test-driven development(TDD)], static code analysis, following common development conventions, and agile modeling strategies. When you "bake in" quality from the start through applying these techniques, instead of apply traditional techniques such as reviews and end-of-lifecycle testing (which is still valid for agile projects, but should not be your primary approach to testing) which have long feedback cycles and therefore prove costly in practice. But, as we've learned time and again, when you find yourself in more complex situations of Agility@Scale sometimes the mainstream agile strategies fall down. For example, in situations where the regulatory compliance scaling factor is applicable, particularly regulations around protecting human life (i.e. the FDA's CFR 21 Part 11), you find that some of the URPS requirements require a greater investment in quality which can increase overall development cost and time. This is particularly true when you need to start meeting 4-nines requirements (i.e. the system needs to be available 99.99% of the time) let alone 5-nines requirements or more. The cost of thorough testing and inspection can rise substantially in these sorts of situations.
In conclusion, it does seem to be true in the majority of situations, which is what the level 1 rhetoric focuses on, that higher quality leads to lower development costs. But at scale this doesn't always seem to hold true.
PS -- Sorry for the corny title, but a couple of days ago at the Rational Software Conference I had the pleasure of interviewing Jamie Hyneman and Adam Savage from the Discovery Channel's Mythbuster's show as part of the conference keynote. They're great guys, BTW, who have had a really positive impact on motivating children to be interested in science (apparently kids like to see stuff get blown up, go figure).[Read More]
Mapping Scrum Terms to Standard Terms
ScottAmbler 120000HESD Tags:  scrum agileadopt 2 Comments 9,374 Views
The Scrum community has adopted a different set of terms than the other agile methodologies. This is done on purpose to help people realize that Agile approaches are different than traditional approaches, which can help in their adoption, but it can also hinder people's understanding because some of the terminology is not only non-standard it really doesn't make much sense. Because of this I'm often asked by people that I'm coaching to convert back and forth between terms, and recently wrote a detailed article on the subject. The following summarizes the mapping:
For more details read my article Translating Scrum Terminology which includes explanations of a wider range of Scrum terms and discussions of why some of them really are questionable.
Further reading:
[Read More]
The 5Ps of IT
ScottAmbler 120000HESD Tags:  spi agileadopt adoption 9,212 Views
Just like there are 5Ps of marketing, there are also "5 Ps" of IT:
My experience is that to be successful at software process improvement (SPI) across your entire IT department that you must address these 5Ps. How you address each issue, and to what extent, will vary based on your situation.
Scaling Daily Stand Up Meetings
ScottAmbler 120000HESD Tags:  scrum metrics agility-at-scale agile 2 Comments 9,116 Views
Recently I visited a customer who had adopted Scrum. They were a few sprints, what Scrum calls iterations, into the project and were running into some difficulties. Although I was primarily brought in to educate senior management on disciplined agile software development, I was also asked to sit in on the team's daily stand-up meeting so that I could hopefully provide some suggestions as to how to address the problems they were running into.
Their work area was fairly typical. They had some whiteboards which they were using for project planning and tracking, with sticky notes to indicate what work had been taken on by each team member. The current status of the task (not yet started, in progress, and completed) was indicated by putting each sticky note in a corresponding column for the status and corresponding column for the team member. This allowed everyone on the team to easily share their status and to see the status of everyone else. On the sides were sketches of the architecture as well as some business oriented models. In addition to Scrum the team had adopted several practices from Agile Modeling, in this case they had done some initial requirements envisioning and architecture envisioning, as well as practices from Extreme Programming (XP) for construction. In short, they had followed a fairly common strategy of combining practices from various agile methods.
This would have worked perfectly fine if they had tailored the practices to reflect the situation that they were in, but instead they adopted them "straight out of the book". First, the team was distributed, with most of the team in the location that I was visiting but some people located in two other distant cities. Therein was the source of most of their problems. The people at the other two locations weren't getting much value out of the daily stand-up meetings, even though they would dial in, because they couldn't see the project status information. Although people at this location were trying their best to represent these distant people in the daily stand-ups it wasn't working well – their status information wasn't being kept up to date and for some people it was a bit of mystery as to what they were actually working on at all.
This team also had 30 people in it, which isn't a big deal although it can stretch the limits of the simple modeling and planning tools (in this case paper and whiteboards) that they were using. Because the team was larger they were investing a fair bit of time creating burn down charts at both the iteration/sprint and project levels. One of the unfortunate implications of using manual tools for project management is that any associated metric/status reporting in turn becomes manual as well. Considering how the agile community is so concerned with working efficiently, I find it comical that we have a tendency to overlook our own potentially unnecessary bureaucracy such as this.
The problem was that the team was applying strategies, in this case using sticky notes and whiteboards to capture the detailed iteration plan, applying similar strategies to capture key models, and were verbally relaying of status information between sub-teams. There are perfectly fine strategies for smaller co-located teams, but not so good for large or distributed teams. The solution was to recognize that they were in an Agility@Scale situation and needed to tailor their approach to reflect this fact. In this case they needed to forgo some of the manual tools and instead use electronic tooling such as Rational Team Concert (RTC) to share information across disparate locations, in particular the work assignment and corresponding status information. RTC also creates common agile reports such as burn-down charts based on the activities of the developers, providing accurate (nearly) real-time information while removing the burden of status reporting. The RTC project dashboard does more than just this, to see an actual example of one visit www.jazz.net to see the dashboard for the RTC development team itself. You can also see their actual work item list too, a more advanced version of Scrum's product and sprint backlogs.[Read More]
The Snowflake Analogy
ScottAmbler 120000HESD Tags:  agile 8,864 Views
When you're inside, safe in the warmth of your home watching snow fall on your driveway outside, all snowflakes look the same. But, when you look at a snowflake up close, particularly when you do so under a microscope, you quickly discover that all snowflakes are in fact unique.
It's the same with IT projects. When you look at them from afar, particularly from a very high level, they all look the same. However, when you look at them up close, you quickly discover that they too are unique. The agile scaling factors, which are really just general scaling factors applicable to all types of IT project regardless of paradigm, help to make this very clear. For example, when it comes to team size some teams are small, less than ten people perhaps, some are medium sized, and some are very large (with hundreds of people). When it comes to distribution some teams are co-located in the same room, some teams have team members in different cubicles in the same building, some have people working in different buildings, and some even have people working in different countries. Many agile teams work in regulatory environments, in fact the July 2009 DDJ State of the IT Union survey reports that one third of agile teams must comply to industry regulations, although clearly many agile teams do not have this as a concern. That's only three scaling factors. The point is that a small, co-located team working in a non-regulatory environment will work much differently than a fifty-person team working in three different locations, which in turn works differently than a two hundred person team in the same building working in a regulatory situation. Different teams, facing different scaling issues will work in different ways – unique snowflakes from a process point of view.
Scaling Agile: An Executive Guide
ScottAmbler 120000HESD Tags:  agile-scaling-model agileexec agility-at-scale whitepaper asm agile 8,771 Views
My new paper Scaling Agile: An Executive Guide is now available. As the title suggests the paper overviews how to scale agile strategies to meet your organization's unique needs.
The executive summary:
Agile software development is a highly collaborative, quality-focused approach to software and systems delivery, which emphasizes potentially shippable working solutions produced at regular intervals for review and course correction. Built upon the shoulders of iterative development techniques, and standing in stark contrast to traditional serial or sequential software engineering methods, agile software delivery techniques hold such promise that IBM has begun to adopt agile processes throughout its Software Group, an organization with over 25,000 developers. But how can practices originally designed for small teams (10-12) be "scaled up" for significantly larger operations? The answer is what IBM calls "agility@scale."
There are two primary aspects of scaling agile techniques that you need to consider. First is scaling agile techniques at the project level to address the unique challenges individual project teams face. This is the focus of the Agile Scaling Model (ASM). Second is scaling your agile strategy across your entire IT department, as appropriate. It is fairly straightforward to apply agile on a handful of projects, but it can be very difficult to evolve your organizational culture and structure to fully adopt the agile way of working.
The Agile Scaling Model (ASM) defines a roadmap for effective adoption and tailoring of agile strategies to meet the unique challenges faced by a software and systems delivery team. Teams must first adopt a disciplined delivery lifecycle that scales mainstream agile construction techniques to address the full delivery process, from project initiation to deployment into production. Then teams must determine which agile scaling factors – team size, geographical distribution, regulatory compliance, domain complexity, organizational distribution, technical complexity, organizational complexity, or enterprise discipline, if any — are applicable to a project team and then tailor their adopted strategies accordingly to address their specific range of complexities.
When scaling agile strategies across your entire IT organization you must effectively address five strategic categories — the Five Ps of IT: People, principles, practices, process, and products (i.e., technology and tooling). Depending on your organizational environment the level of focus on each area will vary. What we are finding within many organizations, including IBM, is that the primary gating factor for scaling agile across your entire organization is your organization's ability to absorb change.
Challenges in Scaling Agile Development
ScottAmbler 120000HESD Tags:  agility-at-scale survey 8,258 Views
Timo Tenhunen has recently published his master's thesis, Challenges in Scaling Agile Software Development , and has been kind enough to make it available online. I suspect you'll find it to be an interesting read.
Tragic Mistakes When Adopting TDD
ScottAmbler 120000HESD Tags:  agileadopt tdd design specification requirements agile testing 8,049 Views
My January 2010 DDJ Agile Update, Tragic Mistakes When Adopting Test Driven Development (TDD) , is now online. In the article I summarize what I consider to be common, and tragic, mistakes that I'm seeing organizations make when they attempt to adopt TDD.
These mistakes include:
The article also goes into potential benefits of TDD as well as potential challenges that you're face when adopting it.
Eliminating Waste Depends on Context
ScottAmbler 120000HESD 7,892 Views
On Twitter one of the people that I follow recently tweeted in jest "I am waste". He had been tweeting about the problem that people will often pay consultants for their advice yet will not follow that advice once it's been provided (yet will often still keep paying for more advice). Perhaps in this situation his efforts were a waste, or perhaps the real issue was that the customer had a long learning process and hadn't yet come to the point where they were willing to act on the advice, we may never know. But I have to think that there are other situations where this person isn't a waste, regardless of his claims.
This got me thinking that something is a waste in one context yet in another context may be quite valuable. Or, as the old saying goes, one man's trash is another man's treasure.
For example, consider the following simple value stream:
[Activity A: 10 min] [Wait time: 20 min] [Activity B: 10 min]
Without considering the context, the wait time of 20 min represents 50% waste in the overall process that we should try to eliminate.
What if that wait time provides people with a much needed rest? With time to contemplate? With time to destress? Eliminating that wait time, or even reducing it, could result a degradation of performance. In this case, one person's waste (the wait time) is another person's treasure (rest time). The implication is that we need to work closely with the people intimately involved in a process if we're to help them to improve it.
Context counts.


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When I decided to make this trip up to Lerwick for Up Helly Aa I didn't know anything at all about the Shetland Islands, except that they were way up in the North Sea and they have cute ponies.
Did I ever tell you that I grew up on horses, and that my very first pony was a little grey Shetland named Buttons? I was so happy to visit his tiny cousins back on his ancestral home.
I still have a lot to learn about the islands since we stayed close to Lerwick during our four days although we did manage a quick drive over to Scalloway the day before we left. So what did we think of the town?
It was dark when we arrived on the ferry. The winter days are short in January and the sun hadn't even started to glow over the horizon when we arrived at our guest house at 7:30 in the morning. It was a quick drive, maybe five minutes if you know where you're going. It took us two or three minutes longer because we didn't. Thank you Google maps and GPS!
Oh, did I tell you guys about our brilliant stroke of luck on the ferry? My girl and I shared a bite to eat for dinner, and then decided to head to our cabin to read and sleep the journey away. We knew we would be sharing our room with two other women, but had no idea who they were. When we came in we managed to make enough noise to wake the dead (sorry!) and the one mystery roommate who was already napping in her bunk woke up and introduced herself.
And now I have a new life-long friend! (Insert stalker music here)
As we chatted we quickly realized that we were the same age, both American, both have two children, both been divorced, both married sexy Scottish men, and both lived in the UK. And she's a blogger! (That is one little personal quirk that only a very few of my friends share with me, so I was very excited.)
Everybody meat Jean, writer of the lovely Alba Living blog.
We quickly hit it off, and spent the next four or five hours chatting the night away. I love it when serendipity smacks me across the head like that!
She was headed to Lerwick to research her upcoming cookbook (stay tuned, I'll let you know when it's published!) and was kind enough to offer us a ride to our guest house since she brought her car along on the ferry. Thank you so much, Jean!
She also spent the whole evening of Up Helly Aa with us watching both torch processions and galley burnings. Nothing bonds a new friendship like nearly freezing to death during a storm!
By another stroke of luck, the guesthouse we booked was less than two blocks from the burning site, so Jean, my Girl and I were able to run inside and warm up in between processions, and again after the big galley burned before heading out to the halls where we continued to party the night away. What a life saver that was (quite literally).
SO! Back to our first impressions of Lerwick.
Our first day there my Girl and I decided to hit the streets and explore the town. It was cold and windy, but a beautiful day. We were staying only a short distance from the town center and could reach it quickly by walking over the hill towards the harbor, and through this little passage that became very familiar to us over the days. I think we walked up and down that narrow alley about fifteen times!
It was perfect and dropped us right in the middle of the town, just a block from the market square where the morning procession would march through.
The main street is lined with shops where you could find any number of hand crafted items, candies, food, wine or just about anything else you wanted. I especially liked this shop as it shares a name with Brian's Dad.
You don't know how close I came to buying this hand knitted sheep hat, just because it made me laugh.
We found our favorite local cafe (Osla's) on that street, which was right next door to Da Noost, a local pub where we spent our first evening listening to a really fun Ceilidh band bring down the house.
Lerwick also has a really good museum right on the water front which has an excellent walk-through display of life on the Shetlands through the ages, and a viewing platform in the boat builders' shop. Their cafe was quite good too.
As we walked around we found the Town Hall, where the Jarl Squad would stop in after their photo shoot on their ship.
Lerwick turned out to be a very cute, easily walkable and friendly town which has kept it's charm while also staying modern and well maintained.
Just outside of town, but still in walkable distance if you bring your good shoes, is Clickimin Broch, a three thousand year old farmhouse turned defensive compound.
As my Girl and I explored the south end of town and around The Knab outcrop the wind was blowing right off the sea. It nearly knocked us over, and we had to fight our way towards the coastline.
But what a great experience! The waves were pounding the rocks, and the spray was flying seventy feet in the air!
As we strolled our way back, she was a wild mass of hair. I bet she won't forget her ponytail next time.
The coast was so beautiful, we decided to visit again during our last evening there. We went for another walk on a much calmer night and caught a stunning sunset.
As we walked along the coast we saw at least five harbor seals bobbing in the water just off the rocks. They were too shy to stay close enough for photos, but still a sight to remember.
I can definitely recommend a visit to the Shetland Islands during the winter. The days are short but gorgeous, there will be very few tourists (except for Up Helly Aa week, of course) and it will be cold, but it will still be worth the trip. I would go again in a heartbeat, and hope I can bring Brian up here to see it some day soon.


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The Old Trafford crowd have had plenty of heroes to worship over the years, with Manchester United enjoying plenty of success. One man who epitomises everything good about the Red Devils' recent form is Michael Carrick. An often underrated deep-lying midfielder. Read More »
Daily Archives: March 9, 2017
Is it time for Theo Walcott to leave Arsenal?
It has been a subject continually broached, season after season, with Arsenal and their players underperforming year on year. This campaign, the Gunners are already out of the Champions League, they had to watch Manchester United lift the EFL Cup, and they are a long way off the top in the Premier League. Read More »
Sergio Ramos: the epitome of the sub-standard modern day defender
Sergio Ramos is heralded for his goalscoring ability. However, he is a sub-standard defender; the epitome of the modern day defending crisis. Read More »
The three best strikers in the Premier League right now
Our 'three best' Premier League series returns today, and this time it is the most important position of them all; strikers. These are the guys that are so heavily relied upon to find the goals, and when they aren't in form, they are often thrown under the bus as the fall guys. Read More »
J.League 2017 Match Day Two continues familiar theme
Japan's football season, the J.League kicked off last week; seemingly nothing went to the usual plot. This round of fixtures continued along the same theme with a surprising set of results. Read More »
Manchester City Slip Up At Home Against Stoke City
Wednesday night saw Manchester City face up against Stoke City at the Etihad stadium. It was an interesting fixture even though nobody could get on the scoreline. There were chances at both ends but both sides were unable to break the deadlock. Read More »
Could Nottingham Forest and Notts County merge?
Clubs are often built on their strong individual identity, it's their colours, crest and supporters which make the club what it is. But, what about if you combine two clubs? An almost unthinkable prospect for most supporters – but in times of peril, could these two Nottinghamshire teams come together and go forward? Read More »
Why Arsène Wenger deserves a new contract.
Will he or won't he sign, that's the question that will be on the mouths of every Arsenal fan from now until May. Arsène Wenger's contract saga is a soap opera that's set to run into the sunset with the whole world eagerly watching. Read More »
Champions League: Borussia Dortmund also made a strong statement
Last night was all about Barcelona and their memorable and historic comeback (6-1) victory over Paris Saint-Germain, however, another team also ran riot and absolutely obliterated their opponents in last night's Champions League round of 16 fixture. Dortmund is standing up and they must be counted. Read More »
Barcelona's epic comeback against PSG: 4 Lessons for Premier League teams
We don't get to see games like this every day; one that Barcelona defied the football gods, overawed the entire universe and then went on to make history with their epic and classic display against Paris Saint-Germain in the UEFA Champions League on Wednesday. Read More »
Can Manchester United win the Europa League this season?
Later on today, Manchester United continue their Europa League campaign with an away game against FC Rostov. We're now down to the last sixteen, so my question is can the Red Devils go all the way? Read More »
Barcelona comeback glosses over glaring loss of identity
It was the greatest comeback in Champions League history. A 6.1 mauling of Paris St Germain that will reverberate across European football. Are the great Barcelona back? or does this result merely cover over some deeper more serious problems that this current Barcelona side face? Read More »
Are Middlesbrough sleepwalking towards relegation?
Aitor Karanka's side slipped into the bottom three after a disappointing 2-0 loss to Stoke on Saturday. Middlesbrough's form has gone quietly under the radar, but they'll have to be careful if they want to remain in the Premier League. Read More »
A moments appreciation for Stoke City's Joe Allen
Joe Allen is only 26-years of age. I personally find this hard to believe, the guy seems to have been around in football forever and is certainly a name you will be used to hearing. But not always in a positive way. Read More »
Meet Kazu Miura, the oldest outfield footballer in history
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Twice in two days, now, I have found myself disagreeing with fellow Round and White authors. The first occasion was mostly semantic. Jordan Street believes Tyrone Mings fully intended to mash Zlatan Ibrahimović's brains to a pulp in the clash between Manchester United and Bournemouth which subsequently sees the duo facing lengthy bans. I'm not so sure. Ultimately, we agree both ... Read More »


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Ok, so this isn't really a useful WANK for a lot of you, because I doubt you'll be doing a lot of gardening here when you're in Korea, but this was something we were really fascinated in and wanted to share with you. Our coffee shop, You Are Here Cafe, is about to open on Saturday, and we're doing our best to make the place look as spiffy as possible.
Going to the flower market was really interesting for us, because it reminds us about things we take for granted. Like, we're functional in Korean, and haven't felt any issues with speaking it for quite a while now, but when we went to the garden there was a world of vocabulary that we were never taught. How the hell do you say "perennial"? Soo Zee didn't even know what it was. She had to explain it to the flower lady and get the term out of her.
Also, we grew up with gardening in our lives, Martina moreso than myself, but we're used to lawns and lawnmowers, digging up dirt, pulling up weeds, and all that. In Korea, though, majority of people don't own lawns. Most people live in apartments. It makes me wonder how a flower market can stay in business for so long, with so few people to be able to plant things.
Another thing that shocked us about gardening in Korea (yes, I know this is a weird topic that you'll probably never have to experience but listen to our stories!!!) is when we bought different seeds for our garden. We bought some sunflower seeds, for example. We got a packet of them. When we opened up the packet, you know how many seeds were in it? Two. GOTDAMN TWO SEEDS. 2. The number 2. It's 1 bigger than 1. They sold us two freaking seeds! Why the hell do you need to make a package for TWO SEEDS?!?! We spoke with Soo Zee about it afterwards and it seems this is common practice, selling seeds by the couples. What the hell?!
Anyhow, if you're coming on Saturday, our garden isn't fully done yet. We're still planting some more things there. We realized that the previous owners let everything overgrow, and a lot of it was rotting, so we had to prune down a lot, unfortunately. We'll grow it back, bigger, healthier, stronger.
Question, though: we have no idea how many of you are coming on Saturday. If you are coming, please fill out this form below. And by fill out the form, I mean click the little button saying you're going. We're just curious. We have no idea. We're expecting ten of you to show up. Gracie and Unicornsgalaxy. We better see both of you there!
[gravityform id="39″ name="Will You Be at You Are Here?" title="false" description="false" ajax="true"]
Also, tomorrow on Reddit we're gonna do an AMA from our coffee shop, so we'd love to see you there 12PM, Korean time. We can't do a LiveChat there, YET, so we figured a LiveChat with text would be an interesting alternative :D
Otherwise, we've got some extra scenes from this week's video as well, if you're interested :D
And lastly, I'm surprised we're even publishing videos with all the craziness that's happening. Today was a full day of labor. Tomorrow we've got another gigantic day, and Saturday's the grand opening! But we've got another video Saturday as well, so for those of you outside of Korea we're not neglecting uuuuuuuu! Click on the button below so you won't miss out on all the fun :D
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Martina, I think you need to get a small hoya plant. They look like this http://thisisjustforfunval.tumblr.com/post/92171226984/giving-new-meaning-to-flower-boy . Give or take an element. It would be a nice homage to a group we all know you guys love.
Wish I could be at your grand opening. It's nice seeing all the pics Nasties are shared on twitter. Continue to have a great grand opening and fruitful business from this day forward :)
Those little bb plants are succulents. Fun fact because I'm currently obsessed with them:. Accidentally knocked off one of the leaves? No problemo! The leaf with eventually start growing tiny roots and a new plant will start at the base of the leaf! Bb succulents for all!
I've found succulents do best in bright, indirect light. I keep mine on my covered porch so they don't get drowned by the rain
I keep all my mint in pots for fear of it taking over my yard/house/life. I've heard of people having good results containing it in raised beds though
Lemongrass is really hearty, repels bugs and smells nice. Portuluca (moss rose) is very pretty and grows fast. I think I saw one in the video? Peonies are perennial too! I know martina likes those :)
No idea about climate and availability but have you thought about fruit trees or bushes? Fig trees, blueberry bushes etc. I have a miniature peach tree in a pot on my back porch. I got little golf ball sized peaches from it this year!
/plant dork
I may be out of my depth here, but It seems like the earth you're using is kind of bad… Maybe the enriched earth you added will be enough for the flowers but if you want nice grass I recommend you mix the earth of the entire garden with enriched earth (ugh don't know these words in english!). I also recommend carpet grass if you want to be quick. It's real grass, but it comes in rolls and you just lay it down othe ground. Water it it A LOT the first 3 days and it will grow by itself. But it needs at least 5cm of good compact earth under it for the roots to reach down.
Just a thought! I know nothing about gardening but I helped with my aunt's garden for my cousin's wedding so I know a couple things a bout earth and grass now. In the end it poured the entire wedding party OTL. But I had fun.
The café and garden are going to be amazing. I can't wait to see it! It won't be for a couple of years though, so please take good care of it in the meantime!
Where'd my comment go? Did it get eaten? I'll post again. XD
*Owlish blinking* Me? You hope to see me there? Awwww! ♥♥♥ I don't think it's going to happen though since I live on the other side of the world and have no plans on going to Korea just yet (maybe next year). I'll be at the opening in spirit though! ^^
I love the flowers! I'm a big lover of the wild flower look… you know the one where you see it and you want to put on a twirly dress (Simon, don't deny it…I bet even you feel like putting on a twirly dress when you see wild flowers) and skip and twirl and dance through it until you collapse in a heap of giggles and then make pretty flower crowns. Unfortunately, the few times that I attempted to plant flowers outside my apartment, they didn't last long. The soil is no good and won't allow anything to grow. :(
*Owlish blinking* Me? You hope to see me there? Awwww! ♥♥♥ I don't think it's going to happen though since I live on the other side of the world and have no plans on going to Korea just yet (maybe next year). I'll be at the opening in spirit though! ^^
I love the flowers! I'm a big lover of the wild flower look… you know the one where you see it and you want to put on a twirly dress (Simon, don't deny it…I bet even you feel like putting on a twirly dress when you see wild flowers) and skip and twirl and dance through it until you collapse in a heap of giggles and then make pretty flower crowns. Unfortunately, the few times that I attempted to plant flowers outside my apartment, they didn't last long. The soil is no good and won't allow anything to grow. :(
OMG! Soozee with the pores thing! I thought I was the only one! If something has numerous pores or like heaps of dots all close together it disgusts me. Like when something thick (like soup) is boiling in a pot it's so gross because of all the bubbles. I always try to explain that to people but nobody gets it haha.
Martina I love love LOVE your hair in today's video. More pink than normal?? :D
I was really surprised that you could find so many plants. Here in Indiana many of the seasonal greenhouses are already closed and all of other stores are closing everything out.
I was all excited about Nasties sending you seeds from around the world and then I woke up. I forgot about how invasive species are often pretty innocuous in their native habitat. Chinese Wisteria. Feral hogs. Kudzu. Asian Carp.
Ughhhhhh I wish I could be there for the opening, but sadly, I won't be in Korea til September 2. But in the morning on September 3, I'll totally be there and I'll also be dragging along my friends for breakfast and milkshakes XDDD Can't wait to see you guys! I hope you keep us updated as to when you'll be at the cafe so we Nasties can at least get a glimpse of you <333
You guys, I'm gonna try and make it up to Seoul from Cheonan for your grand opening. I have to prepare for a spoken word thing that I have at Southside on Sunday night, but you know, EYK has been so important to me while I was preparing for Korea, and especially while I've lived here. You guys are the best and I'm so very happy that you're opening your own coffee shop! And Martina, your flower knowledge! Quite impressive. Do you guys want some basil? I have some basil and some mint and I'm leaving soon for China. Anyways, maybe I'll just bring it and leave it near your coffee shop. HAHAHAHAHAHA! No, but really…
SOUTHSIDE?! That's an awesome place. Now that you mention it, we might just go there Sunday. What time is your thing?
So I know this was kind of an out of the ordinary video for you guys, but I really liked the editing style. The words, while I'm probably not going to remember any of these, were fun to see in Korean and "learn" a bit a long the way. I know that it can be a challenge for you to try out new styles, there is always someone who is unhappy if you don't do the EXACT same things as before, but I enjoyed seeing new styles of videos as well!
Congrats on the opening. I hope it goes smoothly (it won't, I have experience with that!)
Oh! And Martina, the squirrel story reminded me of another awkward wildlife messing with your garden story. This one time when I was a kid, we woke up one day to find that all the flowers in our garden had had their heads cut off – just the part with the petals, the stalks and leaves were all still there, they hadn't been dug up or anything. So my mom got really freaked out, like "Oh my god, some creeper came to our garden and attacked the flowers and is this some kind of serial killer thing?" so she called the cops and they agreed that it was sketchy and would patrol around our neighborhood. Then she was talking to one of our neighbors and turns out, it was a deer that went around eating all the flower heads :P Ridiculous.
*grumbles and pouts* taunting me because I live on the other side of the world? Nice guise, nice…. But you can make it up to me by getting me a pretty zippy garden hat like Martina's. I am not even joking. My regular garden hat is a pain in the @$$.
Lol, you are right about mint. It is so useful and so horribly invasive and hardy. We used to run the car over the mint patch that grew up in our back yard just so we could try to control it's growth, but it kept growing back.
Pretty flowers, I can't wait to see the coffee shop, I'm so proud of you guise! *sniffs and ugly hugging* lol. But I loves you all! I hope you didn't buy the ivy, or it's just me but I hate that stuff. The last residents who lived here planted some and it's always trying to take over my garden and since it's so warm and humid in Korea, it would be even worse!
When Martina mentioned that she wants mint and they could make mijito from it,
this was the first thing i could think of :
When my sister and I moved in together that was the first thing we bought/made and it is awesome ^^ (also I thought that mint kept bugs away? or is it only the basic mint, cause we keep it in our kitchen and we used to have a huge problem with flies but now they're gone O.o)
OH MY GOSH THE BABY CACTI!!!!! Squeeeeeeee!
It's okay, Leigh, I don't know anything about flowers, either.
The garden is going to be really pretty!!! And thank you for still posting videos despite being so busy.
If there was a "I'll be there in spirit" button, I'd be clickin' all up on that. But hope the Grand Opening goes awesome!
And I am super impressed by Martina's gardening/flower knowledge! I think a lot of people assume gardening is just "stick a plant in a pot/ground and you're done." But most of the time, it is a lot more complicated than that. Also, that flower market looked amazing! Does anyone know how the cost of flowers in Korea compares to North America? I was just wondering since it was mentioned in the blog post that there were only two sunflower seeds per pack. How much was that pack of two seeds?! I'm in Florida and we can get a pack of about 15-20 (organic, not sure if that is more expensive) seeds for around $2.50. Is that about the same for other places?
O_O selling a packet of seeds with only 2 seeds in?? what the??
T_T i WISH i could be there for the opening!!
I find this so amazing! The journey you two have been on in the last 5/6 years! I mean, when you first started making videos you had no idea just what would become of it and how much it would grow! Now you have a studio, you've met so many people, and now opening a coffee shop! I'm just so happy for you guys!
I'm a Plant Sciences/English major, and I'm ALL about gardening…so, when I saw this, I squee'd pretty hard core! I'm hoping this doesn't come off as…snobbish, or lecture mode, or anything like that, but I have a few tips that may help (unless you already know them, then ignore my ramblings!), and I hope to help in some way.
-Don't buy rosemary and expect it to grow back, Korea doesn't have the right climate for it, and that makes it an annual.
-As for mint, you'd be surprised how creative you can get with containers and mint growing in them. Have fun with it, it may end up being an awesome quirk for the garden to have weird containers.
-Try looking up companion plants for some of what you have, because they may not like growing near certain other plants, whereas ones you didn't think of will make others grow crazy. Weird fact, roses love garlic.
-Testing the soil, using something simple like a mason jar with water, may give you an idea of what to expect to do to the soil for the future as well.
-If you want seeds, ask and you shall receive!
-Also, I may be able to recommend some gardening sites that may help any other questions that come up.
I can't wait to see how everything looks, and I hope you guys have a fantastic opening! Good luck!
Definitely gonna be there! Three of us are going (so you can just add two more to that poll XP), and we're gonna try at be there by 10am. =D
Also… Morning glories are my favorite flower! If you planted some of those, I'd just be staring at them most of the time. XP
I planted Morning Glory seeds but they need time to grow. :D YAY!!! See you on Saturday! So exciting!
Totally worth the effort, I say. Those things are GORGEOUS!
Oooh, the memories! My mom used to be a flower..arranger? (she taught flower arranging classes).. and I remember going to that flower market with her every month or so when I was a kid. I always loved it because there is so much to see! Can't wait to get back to Korea so I can go to there with my mom again. AND so I can visit your coffee shop! I won't be able to make it to the opening (sniff) but I'll definitely become a regular once I move back to Korea in September!
Good luck with the final preparations, guys!
I will sound corny i know it but the most beautiful flower there is SooZee…ok hit me!
Hahaha. I'm more amused by your name than your comment, which also was awesome :)
Does anyone else frantically pause these videos to see how to do Martina's hair styles?!?!
I cannot be the only one!
I keep forgetting to to a tutorial because I think they're strange Martina concoction hair styles. One day I will make a hair tutorial!!!
OHMERGERD I'M SO EXCITED FOR THIS GRAND OPENING! Do you think you'll still be there at 2pm? I have an appointment earlier in the day :(
Also, did Martina do something different with her bangs?
WE'RE GONNA BE THERE ALL DAY! Well, we're gonna need a break because we can't stay for 15 hours, so we'll go out to eat from time to time, but we'll be there all day otherwise!


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The 'Silent Killer' is out there. With no known cure, cancer of the Pancreas has become a worst case scenario for those who contract the disease. Recent deaths from pancreatic cancer include Patrick Swayze, and the late Opera singer Pavarotti. Even Supreme Court judges are at risk (Ruth Ginsberg http://www.hollywoodmemoir.com/ruth-bader-cancer-surgery), so why do we not know more about Pancreatic Cancer? How to recognize pancreatic cancer gives notice that as our bodies change, we must change how we live and be responsible for our own condition. Learn how to recognize Pancreatic Cancer and then get diagnosed by a qualified physician upon the discovery of any physical or emotional ailments that come to your attention immediately.
Things You'll Need
- You/Other
- Health history
- Current health
- Notepad
- Marker
Get a check up by a primary physician. Being healthy starts with knowing where you need to do more to stay as healthy as you are today. From today you can begin to track how your health is maintaining, getting better, or worse. With any medical concern a practicing physician should always be aware of your health problems or worries.
Start a personal health chart. Become your own best diagnostic tool by understanding and charting you daily conditions. Recognize Pancreatic Cancer by the subtle symptoms that will eventually get progressively worse. A personal health chart may be the one good tool that we forget to include with our own healthy habits.
Chart feelings of pain, jaundice, and depression. Pancreatic cancer is known as the 'Silent Killer' because of the vague signals it gives to us over time. Patients describe a pain in the abdomen that feels like it radiates towards the back. The Pancreas is located below the stomach, reach toward our back. Pain that originates from this area should be monitored. Jaundice is sometimes more easily noticeable by a person with good health. Depression should be monitored and charted in your personal health chart and a doctor made aware when these things occur.
Alert your doctor to other abnormal health conditions as they occur. While you chart one symptom others may present themselves to you. An elevated blood sugar level called Diabetes Millitus is also a potential symptom of pancreatic cancer. Loss of appetite is usually the one symptom that when it occurs a patient realizes there is a problem. Catching pancreatic cancer before a large loss of weight occurs can give a patient hope for a better outcome. React to changes in your daily health condition and be ready to recognize pancreatic cancer if the symptoms are there for concern.
Change bad habits for good ones. Pancreatic cancer is associated with smoking. Quitting bad habits will give your health a boost. Whenever you notice signs of illness you will chart them on a daily basis. Consistently charting your personal health condition daily will give you a better chance of spotting the 'Silent Killer' as it attempts to affect you or a loved one.


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Parent's Handbook
NLP & Common Sense Guide for Family Well-Being
by Roger Ellerton PhD, CMC
Order Your Copy
Book Reviews
Table of Contents
About the Author:
Introduction to Chapter 7: Six Primary Parenting Roles
Your children need your presence more than your presents.
Parenting is the process of helping your children to 1) become aware of their potential, 2) expand their wings beyond their family and 3) perform and evolve at the peak of their abilities in a safe, supportive environment. It involves drawing out their strengths and helping them to bypass personal barriers and limits in order to achieve their personal best.
Each child is a unique individual, and each has their own schedule for growing up. At each stage of their growth, their needs and expectations from their parents will change. To meet these needs, parents take on different roles and communicate with each child according to that child's focus, style and age requirements. As a parent, you play six primary roles - sometimes two or three at the same time; at other times, one specific role may dominate. These roles correspond to the six logical levels, and they range from providing your child with the necessities of life (environment) to making them aware of their potential in a larger context than their current experience with their family or circle of friends (spirituality). Robert Dilts (From Coach to Awakener, Meta Publications, 2003) refers to these roles as: Caretaker/Guide (environment), Coach (behavior), Teacher (capabilities/strategies), Mentor (beliefs/values), Sponsor (identity) and Awakener (spirituality/purpose) - the terms in brackets being the logical levels.
Caretaker and guide
Each of the above roles includes follow-up on your children's progress by providing respectful and timely feedback. This feedback includes praise and suggestions for improvement to help them learn and grow. For example, as a coach you provide feedback with regard to the actions your children have or have not taken, while a mentor will model and provide direction on specific beliefs or values that are important.
These competencies of caretaking/guiding, coaching, teaching, mentoring, sponsoring and awakening are essential skills for supporting your children. Each of the different levels of support requires a different interaction between you and your children, as well as a different tool set. Many situations will require a combination of these competencies.
As with the logical levels, these roles have a hierarchy. The skills related to a particular role must include and also transcend the skills of all of the previous levels. That is, a teacher must have and exhibit the skills and abilities of a coach, a caretaker/guide and more. On the other hand, a guide may not possess or need to exhibit the skills and abilities of a coach.


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GM Repair Problems? Ask GM Repair Expert Now.
Hi, I'm Chad ,Welcome To JustAnswer, I'm reviewing your question and I will be be posting a replay ASAP
hey how are you
let me look up few the circuit diagram for it , there is few things we can check .


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When looking through my recipe file, I found Six Summer Cake Recipes, Each is fresh and has a fresh fruit flavor. Whether it is citrus, pineapple or berry-each one is ideal for Summer.
where vintage and thrifted meet cottage living
By Meegan 3 Comments
This post will have affiliate links. Each purchase you make, I will make a commision, at no extra cost to you.
You can create your own with a grocery store bouquet of flowers. I try to buy mine in the expired date section. They are usually just a few dollars, with gorgeous petals and colors.
This post contains affiliate links. I will make a commission from any purchase you make, without any extra cost to you.
I just love flowers of any kind, color and species. This time of year I like corals and whites of any shade.
By Meegan 2 Comments
Do you ever have a picture in your mind of something you want, but you can't find it anywhere? Does it happen to you a lot? It does to me.
I have been looking for a smallish wreath to hang on my shutter. I wanted something for Spring for my shutter. But, to no avail-I haven't found one. So I decided to make my own DIY Cherry Blossom Wreath.
I purchased 2 stems of cherry blossoms from Joann's. They were 50% off-AWESOME… I cut all the little branches off with wire snips. Easy.
Using floral tape I connected each of my stems together.
Have you ever used floral tape? You can purchase it at any craft store, or floral supply.
Tip: When you use floral tape, you need to stretch and pull to make it "stick". If you just wrap it , it will fall apart and not work. So make sure to pull and stretch for a good, secure hold.
I made the wreath in no time at all. By bending my branches a little, I formed a circle. Then there was the problem of the green floral tape showing on the brown branches.
To "hide" the floral tape, I decided to hot glue the extra blossoms over it.
You can see that I strategically placed blossoms over the floral tape, and Voila!! I have a small Spring wreath hanging on my shutter
Do you walk by your newly created craft to admire it? Confession: I do! I love when I can picture something and it comes out just as I imagined.
Let me know if you make a DIY Cherry Blossom Wreath. I really would love to see it and hear about your success.
This post contains affiliate links at NO extra cost to you.
I am well over 700 posts on my blog now. That seems almost impossible to me. Some posts are excellent and others, well, let's just say they could be much better.
I have been in the process of updating and revamping some of my older posts. Hopefully they will be a little more desirable and eye catching once I am done. Cross your fingers for me, okay?
There are affiliate links at the end of this post at no extra cost to you.
Just head down to your local store, search through the buckets of flowers and choose one with your favorite colors and flowers. Sound too easy? Let me show you How To Create Beautiful Vignettes With Supermarket Flowers the easy way.
All of these ideas are great for everyday use, parties, baby showers, and as a gift.
It is always fun to look back and see what I have been doing over the past month. It helps me see what I have been doing and helps me keep on track with my projects around our home. In turn YOU get to see as well. Yay!
By Meegan 2 Comments
Happy Monday! It has been a full week with lots going on around our home. New babies coming into our family, lots of visitors, and Spring is in full force around our home. That brings me to why I am here today. I want to show you How to Make a Floral Arrangement (in a few easy steps)
It does take a little time to make your first floral arrangement, especially if you are picky. (SO, it does take me awhile) BUT, once you get what you like, it's easy peasy from that point on.
It was a great weekend. I went to a bridal shower that was gorgeous! I had so much fun just looking at all the details. I worked on a few projects here at home. AND I am ALMOST finished with our bedroom. Just a few more details until I can share the WHOLE thing with you. You are gonna love it!!
It's a beautiful Monday and I have the Monday Blues. (Like always) BUT today is special because I have special Summer edition of my Summer Top 12 Posts. It's fun for me to look back and see all that I have shared with you. I hope you enjoy them as well.


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Alexander Hall Mortgages Types of mortgage Cash back mortgages
Cash-back mortgages are often aimed at first time buyers and the mortgage lender will offer a lump sum of cash at the start, or sometimes at an agreed point during the term, of your mortgage.
Usually the cash-back is offered as a package of benefits (e.g. linked with a discount) but pure cash-back mortgages are not uncommon. Mortgage lenders may offer a sum of money towards the cost of legal fees or survey charges. This could be, for example, £200 to £1000 as a flat amount, or a percentage of the mortgage loan.
In return, you typically have to agree to take the mortgage lender's standard variable mortgage rate.
Cash-back mortgages often have an early repayment charge which varies between lenders. Usually, these apply for a set period of time e.g. 2 or 3 years; however there may be some cash-back mortgages which have longer early repayment charges.
View today's best cash-back mortgages


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civil rights act of 1964
Valerie Elverton Dixon 6-29-2010
Truth is a two-edged sword that cuts both ways. We may wield it against an enemy with great satisfaction. However, the truth also cuts us, and does so with a fare-thee-well.
Ian Danley 4-15-2010
The following blog is a response to the passage of controversial immigration legislation in Arizona.


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Acoustic Research debuts AR for Her speakers
Acoustic Research has introduced a new line called "AR for Her." The line will feature a Bluetooth speaker, made to look like a clutch handbag, that streams music from up to 30 feet away. A built-in microphone and rechargeable battery are also featured in the speaker.
The speaker will come in black, white, white with pink polka dots, and leopard print. Acoustic Research plans on updating the look each season while introducing more accessories. The speaker collection will be available in spring 2014.
Related Stories
- AirPods Wireless Charging Case rumoured to be available in Dec. for $69
- Apple's wireless charger set to debut in 2018; Belkin's coming this week
- Report: Apple won't launch wireless charging accessory for iPhones today
- LTE Apple Watch will share phone number with iPhone; new Apple TV may have A10X chip, 3 GB RAM
- Beats launches Studio3 Wireless Over-Ear Headphones
- Marshall unveils Wireless Multi-Room Speaker System


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In the unlikely event that Alex Rodriguez did not know where he stood with the upper management of the New York Yankees, he surely knows it now.
On Monday, Yankees owner Hal Steinbrenner said that at times the Yankees have been "disappointed" with their $275 million third baseman, a day after GM Brian Cashman told ESPN's Buster Olney that Rodriguez "probably ... couldn't live up to" the 10-year contract extension the team gave him after he opted out of his original 10-year, $252 million contract following his 2007 MVP season.
Speaking at a press conference to announce Yankee Stadium's new long-term deal to host college football's Pinstripe Bowl, Steinbrenner was asked about Cashman's comments, which he said he did not hear.
"That may be true. It's a big contract," Steinbrenner said. "That's a philosophical argument, I guess. It's a big contract. We all hope he's going to act like a Yankee and do the best he can to live up to it. How about that?"
A-Rod, is out until at least the All-Star break after undergoing a second hip surgery in January and is currently under investigation by Major League Baseball for his alleged involvement with the Biogenesis "anti-aging clinic" in Miami.
Pressed further on whether Rodriguez had acted like a Yankee, Steinbrenner said, "We'll see. We'll find out when he comes back. I know he's been working hard to come back. He knows what it means to be a Yankee. He knows what we expect of him and he knows what his teammates expect of him."
Steinbrenner was then asked if the Yankees had been disappointed in Rodriguez, who over the past two seasons has averaged 17 home runs and 60 RBIs while posting a .275 batting average.
"There have no doubt been times that we've been disappointed in him and we've conveyed that to him," Steinbrenner said. "He understands that. Look, everybody is human. Everybody makes mistakes. If you've got a guy over the course of 10 years, there are going to be times any of us makes mistakes in that period of time."
During his tenure as a Yankee, in addition to the Biogenesis investigation, Rodriguez was revealed to be a steroid user before the 2009 season. Also, last October, in the midst of a horrendous postseason in which he was benched for three possible elimination games, he was alleged to have flirted with a woman in the stands behind the Yankees dugout, flipping her a baseball in an attempt to obtain a phone number.
Steinbrenner refused to specify whether his disappointment with A-Rod was in regards to on-field performance or off-field behavior, and sidestepped a question about the current state of the MLB investigation into his alleged dealings with Biogenesis, suspected by baseball of supplying players with illegal performance-enhancing drugs.
"We haven't been told anything," Steinbrenner said. "He's been in Tampa, he's been rehabbing and we hope he comes back strong. There's innocent until proven guilty, right? We haven't heard a thing."
Among other topics Steinbrenner addressed was the status of contract negotiations with star second baseman Robinson Cano, who will be a free agent after this season.
"There's nothing new to report," he said. "Something significant, believe me, you guys are going to be the first to know."
Asked how Cano's recent switch from super agent Scott Boras to relative neophyte Jay-Z would change the dynamic of the negotiation, Steinbrenner said, "We had a good relationship with Scott. We'll see. I guess we'll see. We had a good relationship with Scott; it's been a lot of years. My dad certainly had his dealings with him. Scott's been around a long time. It is what it is. Whoever the agent is, that's who we'll be dealing with."
Inevitably, the 43-year-old son of The Boss was asked how his volatile dad would have handled the past week, in which the Yankees were swept by the Mets and dropped two of three to their divisional rivals the Boston Red Sox, dropping to three games off the pace in the AL East.
"He went through a few of these things," Steinbrenner said. "Sometimes he handled them better than others; some of you guys were here. I can't really say. Maybe he would have been fine."
But losing four to the Mets?
"They're the crosstown rivals, there's no doubt about that," he said. "But I concern myself more with the teams in our division. You have to. Does it feel good? No. Does it sting? Yes, absolutely."
Overall, however, Steinbrenner said he was satisfied with the performance of his team so far.
"I think a lot of people expected the doomsday scenario," he said. "I didn't think anybody would think we would be three games out of first place in the American League East. I think the team has done well against adversity. The last week has hurt, there's no doubt about it. It's not a fun place to be when you're slumping. But let's try to keep in perspective on the fact that we're still very much in this fight and we're right at the top."


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Corporate OverviewThe Procaccianti Group (TPG) currently owns and/or operates 64 hotels in 24 states and employs approximately 8,000+ people from coast to coast with 120 professionals based at the corporate headquarters in Rhode Island.
TPG is seeking energetic, service-oriented individuals to participate in the strong growth that we are experiencing. With 50 years of real estate and hospitality management, our available positions are as diverse as our business ventures. TPG offers a wide variety of managerial and entry level positions with a competitive/attractive salary, 401k & benefits.
Job Description
The Front Desk Supervisor is responsible for daily supervision of the Front Desk staff, quality service, guest satisfaction and safety. Supervises check-ins, check-outs, and resolves guest requests in safe and efficient compliance with policies and procedures, brand standards, and federal, state and local regulations. Supervises the processing of guest bills and collection of payments in compliance with cash handling, credit card processing and accounting policies and procedures.
Complies with all guest service basics such as uniforms, name tags and proper guest greeting. Knowledgeable on hotel facilities and services to assist guests as appropriate. Ensures all communication containing Company, hotel, brand and guest information is consistent with privacy policies, practices and regulations. Impresses guests with quality and timely service in a pleasant and friendly manner.What you will be doing
- Supervise the Front Desk staff. Ensure new associates are equipped with the necessary knowledge and skills to achieve job expectations. Evaluate the staff's job performance and coach and counsel as necessary. Clearly communicate to associates the standards of performance and their role in contributing to individual and team success. Ensure all required training occurs including orientation, safety, fire, alcohol awareness, food handling and blood-borne pathogen. Ensure staff compliance with internal controls, policies, procedures, standards and regulations. Insist on a work environment that is free from harassment.
- Supervise and process guest check-ins and room assignments following the hotel's rate structures, discounts and sell/upsell strategies. Accommodate special requests when possible.
- Supervise and process check-in/check-out and collect payments in compliance with cash handling, credit card processing and accounting policies and procedures.
- Answer inquiries about hotel services, in-house events, directions, local attractions, etc. Assist guests with check cashing, safety boxes, additional guest room keys, transportation, etc.
- If necessary, walk guests in a professional and courteous manner and in compliance with policies, procedures and brand stands.
- Supervise and process pre-register, block reservations and, as appropriate, same day and future reservations. Cancel room reservations according to policies and procedures.
- On time and at work when scheduled and in proper uniform.
- Attend department meetings as scheduled.
- Consistent professional and positive attitude and actions when communicating with guests and associates.
- Comply with policies and procedures. Practice safe work habits and comply with sanitary, safety, security and emergency procedures. Write shift reports including reports on any incidents of theft, accidents or injuries when assigned. Check with manager / supervisor before leaving work area for any reason.
- Perform special projects and other responsibilities as assigned. Participate in task forces and committees as requested.
- Other duties and tasks as requested by management.
Equal Opportunity Employer