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By Jarrod• 27 May 2014
Since its 1977 debut, Annie has been a perennially popular musical. Based on a 1930s comic strip - and set firmly in that era - it has been staged all around the world, and was even turned into a successful film starring the likes of Albert Finney, Tim Curry and Carol Burnett.
Annie is one of those musicals that's had such a cultural impact that you probably recognise more than a few of the songs, even if you've never seen the movie, or caught a stage production. It tells the story of an orphan (the titular Annie) who is taken from the care of a sadistic and drunken orphanage matron (Miss Hannigan) to live in the home of an eccentric billionaire (Daddy Warbucks). Jealous of Annie's good fortune, Hannigan plots with her brother Rooster to somehow profit from the situation, and preferably do away with the girl in the process. In case you're unfamiliar with the story, I won't spoil it any further, but suffice to say that US President Franklin D Roosevelt also plays a key role…
In 2012, Annie began a Broadway revival, which ran until January this year; in addition, a new movie version is currently in the works, starring Quvenzhané Wallis as Annie, and also featuring Jamie Foxx and Cameron Diaz. In the meantime, it's New Zealand's turn to get a taste of the live stage experience, with a new production featuring English, Australian and New Zealand actors.
Fans of English television comedy and drama will recognise many familiar faces - including stars of Hi De Hi, Allo Allo, Emmerdale, Eastenders and even Doctor Who. These imports are ably assisted by local choruses of children, playing Annie's companions in the orphanage, and three young Kiwi actresses who alternate the role of Annie.
Annie runs in Wellington at the St James Theatre until 8 June, before taking off for a season in Auckland. Fans of the film, or indeed of classic musicals in general, won't want to miss it.
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2018 is a Festival year, and no matter what you're into, this one looks to be quite the ride.
Arts & culture• By Jarrod• 1 Nov 2017
Running short on ideas to fill the school holidays? Fancy a bit of kid-friendly culture? Look no further!
Arts & culture• By Erica• 9 Oct 2017
Arts & culture• By Josiah• 19 Sep 2017
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Recent Posts from my other blogs: A Very British Haiku
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New blog – A very British haiku
My haikus are proving quite popular and are threatening to overtake this blog. I have therefore given them their own blog, which within the space of about 2 hours has already proven far more popular than this one. How bitter … Continue reading
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The 51st Super Bowl amusement will happen on February 5, 2017 at the NRG Stadium in Houston, Texas. Houston will have the Super Bowl occasion for a third time. The American Football Conference victor will play the National Football Conference champ for the NFL Super Bowl title. The Super bowl LI 2017 amusement will publicized on Fox Channel. You can likewise Watch Super Bowl live online here. As Super Bowl is one of the greatest occasions of the year the entire show will be an excellent one. The half time show is one of the fundamental attractions of Super Bowl and this year American artist, lyricist and performing artist Lady Gaga will lead the halftime appear.
Super Bowl 51 2017 Halftime show will be supported by Pepsi Zero Sugar. Lady Gaga said in a meeting that she will bring the best show for the football fans, that ones that are watching at home. Woman Gaga will play out a blend of old and new melodies amid the halftime appear. Look at snappy insights about the Super Bowl 51 2017 Halftime appear underneath.
Super Bowl LI Halftime Show Quick Details
Main event of Super Bowl 51 Halftime Show - Lady Gaga
Date of Super Bowl 51 - February fifth 2017 (Sunday)
Venue of Super Bowl 51 - NRG Stadium, Houston, Texas
Super Bowl 51 Halftime Show Sponsor - Pepsi
Super Bowl LI Halftime Show Live Stream
Observe Super Bowl LI Halftime Show Live Online Here


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Thunder at Spurs Game 1 - 4/30/16 NBA Pick, Odds, and Prediction
Oklahoma City Thunder (59-28) at San Antonio Spurs (71-15)
NBA Basketball: Saturday, April 30, 2016 at 7:00 pm (AT&T Center)
The Line: San Antonio Spurs -6.5 -- Over/Under: 202 See the Latest Odds
The Oklahoma City Thunder and San Antonio Spurs meet Saturday for game one at the AT&T Center.
The Oklahoma City Thunder are coming off a five-game series over the Dallas Mavericks. The Oklahoma City Thunder are averaging 112 points on 47.6 percent shooting and allowing 93.8 points on 43.6 percent shooting. Kevin Durant is averaging 26 points and 6.4 rebounds while Russell Westbrook is averaging 26 points and 11.2 assists. Serge Ibaka is grabbing 6.2 rebounds and Dion Waiters is dishing 2.2 assists. The Oklahoma City Thunder are shooting 36.4 percent from beyond the arc and 78.2 percent from the free throw line. The Thunder are allowing 29 percent shooting from deep and are grabbing 47.2 rebounds per game. The Oklahoma City Thunder have split their last 16 road games.
USA TODAY Sports
The San Antonio Spurs are coming off a sweep of the Memphis Grizzlies. The San Antonio Spurs are averaging 103 points on 48.5 percent shooting and allowing 81 points on 39.4 percent shooting. Kawhi Leonard is averaging 21.5 points and 4.8 rebounds while LaMarcus Aldridge is averaging 14.5 points and eight rebounds. Tony Parker is dishing 4.8 assists and Tim Duncan is grabbing 6.3 rebounds. The San Antonio Spurs are shooting 47.1 percent from beyond the arc and 82.4 percent from the free throw line. The Spurs are allowing 29.7 percent shooting from deep and are grabbing 42 rebounds per game. The San Antonio Spurs have not lost a home game all season. Kevin Martin is questionable with an illness.
This series has the potential to be the best in all of the playoffs, as both clubs have NBA title talent. We know the Spurs haven't lost at home all year, but the four meetings between these teams have been split down the middle. Also, the Thunder's two losses at the AT&T Center were decided by eight or less points. This is one of those series where you're probably better off taking the points whenever you can get them.
I'm siding with OKC and the points.


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How To Be A Data-Driven Marketer (When You're Not A Data Expert)
Scaling user acquisition online requires a multi-tiered marketing approach, especially if you're running a linear attribution model where multiple consumer touch points will lead to sign-ups and sales. Data will play a key role in your success, but knowing which data is important can be challenging. If data is not your area of expertise, focus on these metrics.
Display Advertising and Targeting
Effectively targeted display advertising is crucial to building a user base, and bid cost is an important metric when measuring targeting performance.
Display ad units differ by desired action, whether you're driving awareness with a CPM (Cost Per Mille, or 1,000 impressions) campaign or website clicks with a CPC (Cost Per Click) campaign. Your benchmark for these campaigns is your Cost of Customer Acquisition. If campaign spend is outpacing your user growth, it may indicate that your targeted audience is too narrow and expensive.
These metrics become more powerful when combined with programmatic (i.e. automated) ad buying. Programmatic buying can reveal which targeting segments are yielding the best results, allowing you to shift ad spending to the places it's most effective.
Social Engagement
Online marketers put a premium on engagements as a measure of social media content success. This makes sense considering that consumers are more likely to recommend a brand they've engaged with on social media, and they're more likely to make a purchase based on a friend's recommendation. It's also why marketers have moved towards video advertising on social media, which has proven to be significantly more engaging than written content.
Use engagement rate (engagements/ impressions) as a barometer for how your content is resonating with your audience, with the industry standard at 1%. This metric is even more important for mobile marketing since the majority of social media users access platforms on a mobile device.
Bounce Rate and Time on Site
Once you've driven users to your website, Bounce Rate and Time on Site are two metrics that measure the effectiveness of your site design. Bounce Rate is the percentage of visitors who close your site without clicking deeper than the homepage, Time on Site is the total time they spend while they're there. A high Bounce Rate and low Time on Site can both be caused by poor website design, but each metric only tells half the story. A 2013 infront study compared Bounce Rates across six companies and found that the company with a higher bounce rate could still be more successful due to the high volume of traffic their site received. In this case, Time on Site would help determine if users were leaving quickly or staying and digesting the homepage content.
Don't Over-Optimize
Fueled by data, it can be tempting to shift your marketing strategy frequently. But over-optimization will make your campaign sporadic and leave you spinning your wheels. Instead, focus on your broad strategy and make small data-driven tweaks throughout a campaign, and you'll quickly scale your user base no matter your level of data expertise.


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ICE detains undocumented taxi driver for a second time
(FOX 11) - The official word from ICE: "Our objective is to finally execute this longstanding court-issued removal order. So, we'll begin making arrangements to carry out the deportation." That, according to a statement from ICE Spokesperson Virginia Kice. It's not what the family of Gurmuckh Singh was hoping for.
Family and friends say Singh's a good man with no criminal record who has provided for his family as a taxi driver in Orange County and should be allowed to stay in this country.
He came here nearly two decades ago. His wife is a U.S. citizen. He has two U.S. born daughters. One graduates high school this year and hopes to go to college.
But, when Gurmukh Singh and his family went to court his pleas fell on deaf ears. His family couldn't hold back the tears. Singh says, "Last week my case was denied by the 9th circuit and I'm fighting here." Those who support him blame the attorney at the time, but the bottom line is for all that time he has been fighting that order that's dogged him. He was arrested in 2013 based on that order when his wife who is a US citizen tried helping him get his citizenship.
Lawmakers like Representative Alan Lowenthal tried to help him get a stay of removal and at one time says he was told by ICE if Singh filed all the paperwork, "Mr. Singh would not be deported. He would not be. It was not their priority."
Representative Lou Correa was also at the Federal Building. He said, "Mr. Singh has immigration problems. But, Mr. Singh is not a criminal and not a rapist. He wife is an American citizen. His daughters are US born citizens. He supports his family every day as a taxi driver working for the American dream."
But, when Singh walked into the Federal building for his ICE appointment that American dream became something more of a nightmare. He was arrested. Singh's attorney Monica Glicken says, "The ICE supervisor who spoke to us did explain that under President Trump... he gave orders that any person like Mr. Singh is treated like a priority for deportation regardless of his criminal history or lack of criminal history. Regardless of the fact that Mr. Singh has strong family ties in the United State."
The emotion hit the family like a ton of bricks:
His eldest daughter, Manpreet, told us, "I'm emotionally broken down. I feel like I don't have nothing remaining from within. However, I do want to stay strong for my family." She says instead of college she may have to work to fill in for her dad while he's detained and, perhaps, deported.
ICE officials say the decision to take Mr. Singh into custody was based on that 1999 deportation order. ICE officials say, "Over the last 18 years, Department of Homeland Security databases iindicatesMr. Singh's case has undergone exhaustive review. And, after examining the facts of Mr. Singh'scase, the courts have all upheld his original removal order." Meanwhile, family and supporters are asking the public to call into ICE and ask he be allowed to stay.
Here is the complete statement from ICE's Virginia Kice:
"Individuals with final orders of deportation, such as Mr. Singh, who have been released under orders of supervision are required to report to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) on a regular basis. During these scheduled appointments, the agency reviews the status of their cases to determine appropriate next steps.
ICE's decision to take Mr. Singh into custody Monday morning was based on a deportation order handed down by an immigration judge with the Department of Justice's Executive Office for Immigration Review (EOIR) in 1999. Over the last 18 years, Department of Homeland Security (DHS) databases indicate Mr. Singh's case has undergone exhaustive review at all levels our nation's legal system, including scrutiny by local immigration judges with EOIR, the Board of Immigration Appeals, and the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals. After examining the facts of Mr. Singh's case, the courts have all upheld his original removal order.
Regarding ICE's current immigration enforcement focus, this fact sheet on the DHS website details the federal government's immigration enforcement priorities. This administration has directed that DHS personnel should prioritize their enforcement efforts to target removable aliens who:
(I) have been convicted of any criminal offense;
(2) have been charged with any criminal offense that has not been resolved;
(3) have committed acts which constitute a chargeable criminal offense;
(4) have engaged in fraud or willful misrepresentation in connection with any official matter before a governmental agency;
(5) have abused any program related to receipt of public benefits;
(6) are subject to a final order of removal, but have not complied with their legal obligation to depart the United States;
or (7) in the judgment of an immigration officer, otherwise pose a risk to public safety or national security.
That said, while criminal aliens and those who pose a threat to public safety will continue to be a focus, DHS will NOT exempt classes or categories of removable aliens from potential enforcement. All those in violation of our nation's immigration laws may be subject to arrest, detention and, if found removable by final order, removal from the United States."
When we wrote back and asked the next step for Singh, we got this response from ICE:
'Our objective is to finally execute this longstanding court-issued removal order…so we'll begin making arrangements to carry out the deportation.'
Copyright 2017 FOX 11 Los Angeles: Download our mobile app for breaking news alerts or to watch FOX 11 News | Follow us on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and YouTube. Be a citizen journalist for FOX 11 and get paid – download the Fresco News App today.


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Trafficking in a North Atlanta Mansion
March 8, 2017
March 8, 2017, Sandy Springs, GA A young woman went to Atlanta with promises to become a model. At first, it looked like her dreams had come true. She lived in a mansion and traveled the country; however, she knew she was in trouble when her boss threatened to kill her. The 20-year-old woman from […]
Posted In: Breaking News


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Predators face adversity ahead of Game 5 vs. Ducks (May 20, 2017)
ANAHEIM, Calif. — The Nashville Predators' magic carpet ride through the 2017 Stanley Cup playoffs encountered major turbulence when they announced Friday that Ryan Johansen will miss the remainder of the playoffs with a left thigh injury.
The injury to Johansen, the team's leading scorer, was sustained in Nashville's 3-2 overtime loss to the Anaheim Ducks on Wednesday which evened the Western Conference Final at two victories apiece. Johansen underwent surgery in Nashville on Friday and the Predators estimated his recovery time to be in the range of two to three months.
Johansen collected 13 points (three goals, 10 assists) through 14 games, registered a team-best 54.3 percent faceoff win percentage and his average ice time (20:45) was second only to linemate Filip Forsberg among Nashville forwards.
With captain Mike Fisher's status unknown for Game 5, the Predators could be down to their two top centers in an evenly played series.
The Predators rolled through the first two rounds with little adversity, so this injury news will be the first major test for them given their lack of productivity at center behind Johansen. Fisher has yet to score a point in the playoffs and third-line center Calle Jarnkrok has registered a goal and an assist in 13 games.
With the Ducks already holding a significant matchup advantage at center with captain Ryan Getzlaf, Ryan Kesler, Antoine Vermette and Nate Thompson manning the middle, coach Randy Carlyle will look to exploit it as Anaheim tries to take one step closer to a Stanley Cup Final berth. Their last appearance was 10 years ago when they defeated the Ottawa Senators in five games to capture the franchise's lone Stanley Cup.
The Ducks evened the series with a 3-2 overtime victory on Thursday on Corey Perry's third overtime goal of the playoffs, matching the NHL record for most OT tallies in a playoff year with Mel Hill in 1939 and Maurice Richard in 1951.
Carlyle was behind the bench for the 2007 Cup victory and feels that the performance by players at two positions will determine the series winner.
"If our goaltender can outplay their goaltender, then our chances go up dramatically," Carlyle said. "If our centermen can outplay their centermen, our chances go up dramatically."
Despite missing an opportunity to take a commanding lead in the series had they completed the rally from a two-goal third period deficit, Predators winger James Neal knows his team has plenty of fight left in them.
"It's 2-2. Nothing's going to be easy," Neal said. "That's why it's the Stanley Cup is the hardest trophy to win in sports. And we should be confident in our group. We have a chance to go in their rink, win a game, and come back with a chance to win in our home building. So put a smile on our face, enjoy it, get ready, and feel good about a tough game in their rink and what can come from that."
The Predators will need goaltender Pekka Rinne to revert to the form he displayed in the two series wins over Chicago and St. Louis if they are to secure their first Stanley Cup Final appearance. Rinne posted a .951 save percentage in the first two rounds but has plummeted to .911 against Anaheim. Given that Rinne's season percentage was .918, it is incumbent upon the Predators' defense to limit the number of shots the Finnish netminder faces.
Rinne claims to have put the Game 4 loss behind him and knows he will need to be at his best behind a short-handed team.
"Game 4 has to be behind us already, and we have to focus on the next one," Rinne said. "That was a missed opportunity, but we battled back, and obviously didn't have a good start. We did not a good first period but we battled back and showed a lot of character."
FOX Sports Go
Today 9:30p ET NASCAR Victory Lane - Homestead
Today 9:30p ET Boxing - Premier Boxing Champions: Dirrell vs. Douglin REPLAY
Today 10:00p ET FOX College Football Playoff Predictions
Today 11:00p ET California at Stanford REPLAY
Today 11:30p ET UFC Top Ten - Upsets
Tomorrow 12:00a ET UFC Fight Night: Werdum vs. Tybura - Prelims REPLAY


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Hide contents , Show contents
Intro, Shape of the tree and branches, Adding flowers etc, Example flowers, Colours, Output, More options, Picture Quality, Commercial Use, Images
To get started making virtual flowers quickly, try the various wizards. Or follow through this short introduction which introduces some of the main features of the program.
To find the example virtual flowers that come with the program go to File | Open, or easier, File | Virtual Flower Files and you will find a drop list of them all there. You can use these to make your own virtual flowers. See Commercial Use.
Most of the help is within the program itself in the form of tool tips and extra help for the tools. To see a tool tip, hover the mouse over any tool - any drop list, text field, up or down arrow, button, radio button etc.
Many of the tips end with a three dot ellipsis like this this:
Choose pattern of trees to make...
This hows you that it is one of the ones with extra help. Use F1 to show the help window - then hover the mouse over the tool again to see its help.
In the case of pictures (tree, leaf etc), hover the mouse over the picture to see its tool tip.
Nearly all the windows are resizable - even when they have text fields, drop lists and buttons etc - hover mouse over lower right corner until it turns to a double headed arrow. Then keeping it as a double arrow, press the left button down and with it held down, drag to resize.
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You can change the overall shape of the tree by dragging on the image. Click on the relevant option at top left of the picture. This lets you change the branches, which changes the overall shape, the stalks, which change the way the leaves and flowers are arranged at the tips of the branches, then you can move the tree around, or you can hide the navigation text - when it is hidden, click at top left of the picture to show it again.
With these options, the effect you get depends on whether you click with the left button, right, or both together, and whether you drag horizontally or vertically. Experiment and see what these all do, or see its F1 help for the details.
To make the branches and trunk wide or narrow use Shape | Branches and adjust the radius. You can change the number of sides too - more sides make them more circular in cross section. You can also make them look rounder in the VRML output if you set the crease angle accordingly in Out | Output Options | Crease angle. If you set this greater than ninety degrees, even square trunks will get shaded in such a fashion as to seem fairly rounded when you use your model in a VRML scene.
To change the overall structure of the tree, see Shape | Tree. Increase the number of Layers to make a tree with more levels of branching and smaller twigs. You can also choose which type of leaf to use for your tree here, and then click and drag to change its shape - or do the same using Flowers Etc. | Leaves . The F1 help for the leaf picture gives more information about how to use it..
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Then, to add various things to the tree, depending on what you want, select sheet flowers, 3D flowers, or leaves, from the Flowers Etc. menu. You also need to select Tree has leaves and Flowers, and use the Add To window to choose which shape to add to which stalks.
If you want to make a geometrical shape with Virtual Flower, rather than a tree, go to Flowers | Objects, choose the geometrical shape from the menu and click the Single Object tree button. Or easier probably, use the new Objects wizard.
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You can also open any of the example virtual flowers and edit them to make new ones of your own. Go to File | Virtual Flowers Files and select one of the examples from the drop list. These also are the ones that get shown in the Screen Saver.
To turn your virtual flower around and see it from other angles while you are working on it, go to Picture | Picture. Here you can use click and drag to turn your virtual flower (two ways), right click and drag to move it about in the window, and hold down both together while you drag with the mouse to zoom in / out, and turn it in another way.
To set the tree spinning, drag on it and let go while the mouse is still moving. To stop it rotating again, click on it and release the mouse button while keeping it stationery - or use Options | Reset Zoom etc to get back to the original position.
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You can change the colours from Colours | Colours. Click on one of the colour bars, and then in the Colour Wheel that pops up, click to change the hue, saturation and brightness. Tip: you can also click on the Result patch and use the Insert and Delete keys in combination with Ctrl, Shift, or both, or on their own to vary the hue, saturation and brightness.
To have leaves, flowers, branches or stalks in several colours, click on the relevant colour bar. Then in the colour wheel choose Duplicate Colour, and change the second colour as you desire it.
By default each colour is used in turn, so if you have two leaves at the end of each twig, then one is in the first colour and the other is in the next colour. If you had a clump of six leaves at the end of each twig, and three colours, the colours would be used as: first, second, third, first, second, third. If you want to use the colours in some other order than this, unselect Colours | Colours | cycle branch colours (or cycle stalk colours), and then set the order for the colours you want to use in the Numbers | Numbers A window..
When you use the sheet flowers - flat polygonal or snowflake like symmetrical shapes, you can have several of the shapes in use at once, and they are linked with the colours, so the first sheet flower is used wherever the first colour is used, the second for the second and so on.
With the petals, the colours are used for each petal cluster in the flower in turn - e.g. you could make the inner cluster one colour and the outer cluster in another. If you want alternating colours in the same cluster, then do two at the same angle from the centre of the flower, with one of them rotated, and with half the number of petals for each. The example flowers may make it clearer how this works. With daisy like flowers, the sheet flowers colour is used for the flower heart.
With the geometrical shapes, from Flowers etc | Objects, by default each colour is used for one of the objects, selecting from the petal colours. However, you can also select the option to colour polygons by number of sides - then the first petal colour is used for the polygon with least sides (e.g. maybe triangles), the next for the next number of sides (maybe squares) and so on.
To add textures to your flower or tree, see Colours | Colours | Textures.
There's lots more to discover - look out for more details in the F1 help for all the buttons and other controls.
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Fractal Tune Smithy
When ready, you save it as VRML from Output | Output.
This window has a drop list of scenes to place the tree in, and a drop list of viewpoint files to select to add viewpoints to your scenes.
You can also use the Viewpoints window to add one more viewpoint to your scene, or to build up a viewpoints file one viewpoint at a time using Viewpoints | Add to viewpoints.
If you really get into VRML then you may well use other programs to build your scenes - the scenes in the drop list are just by way of a few examples to get one off to a quick start. You'll find many scene building programs at the VRML depository.
You need to install a plug in to see the scenes. The best one is probably the Cortona VRML client. Just visit their site and follow the instructions.
Try stepping through the view points in the view menu of Cortona to see the tree, flower, forest or avenue from various angles.
The examples are all saved with an animated tour as the first viewpoint, which keys in three seconds after you load or refresh the scene in your browser. To step off the animated tour, simply click on the scene. The tour stops at the point you have reached, and you can proceed to explore the scene on your own. Alternatively, move to the next viewpoint in the scene by selecting it from the drop list, or by using Page down in Cortona.
You can choose whether to add an animated tour of all the viewpoints to the virtual flower scene when you save the file - from Output | Viewpoints | Animated tour.
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You can animate the trees so that they sway, rustle or grow using Output | Animations. You can randomise the forests or avenues from Output | Randomise.
There are many other options. Here are a few highlights: Anaglyphs and stereoscopic pairs, Higher dim., Musical Geometries, How to make the musical geometries.
Tip: Each menu also has a multi-tab dialog with all, or the most frequently needed windows. You can change which windows you show in these, and change the order in which they are shown. Show the Organise window (also in Help | Organise Tabs), select which of the tabbed dialogs you want to edit from the drop list, click with the right mouse button to select / unselect until it shows all the ones you want to show in red, or drag to change the order, then click Apply Now.
Tip: you can use fractions for input, such as 1/3. More generally, you can use formulae too - see the help for Flowers Etc. | Petal Curve | Formula.
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Virtual Flower doesn't yet use your graphics card acceleration to show the trees and flowers, and so isn't nearly as fast at refreshing the picture as Cortona. I plan to add OpenGL rendering, which will be much faster. You will notice this if you show a tree with many layers or with many flowers each with a large number of petals, or other complex shapes.
Meanwhile, you may well want to set it to show a line or wireframe picture while editing the tree in Virtual Flower, to speed things up, especially when you do this interactively with click and drag. So, this is the preset when dragging. When you release, it changes back to a shaded tree / flower.
To choose change these settings go to to Picture | Options and vary the Speed / Quality.Varies from -1 to 5.
There are two settings in this window - one sets how the picture is shown while moving - either animated or because you are changing the shape or moving it (preset to wireframe), and the other sets how it is shown when you stop moving it (preset to solid and shaded).
Quality level 4 is suitable for many of the trees and flowers - this paints the shapes from the back of the scene forwards so that nearer shapes get overlaid on the more distant ones, which is often just what one wants.. However, if you use this method with polygons that intersect with each other, one of them has to go in front of the other, and whichever is the nearer of the two goes in front which isn't what you want.
The only setting that lets you see intersecting polygonal shapes is quality 5, which is also by far the slowest - but it lets you see any type of intersection - even very complex polygonal self-intersecting shapes (that's why it is so slow).
Finally, for a schematic layout, see Quality level -1- this shows all shapes as circles and branches and stalks as lines. So it lets you see how the leaves, flowers etc are connected to each other, and the number of layers in the tree. It's called the Connection graph in Shape | Tree. It can be handy to switch to this level when working with the more intricate shapes - such as a tree with many layers, or one with a large number of flowers each with many petals. The idea is that if you have a very complex shape you could switch to this level for a while so that you don't need to wait for the picture to refresh while you change the settings, then switch back to one of the others when you are ready to show the final version.
If you want to make the complete picture, and give it as much time as it takes to draw it, then use Picture | Show complete tree. Or if you want to wait as long as is needed to make the picture always in the normal course of events go to Picture | Drawing Options and set the time out high. When you have a high time out you may need to hold down the Control key to interrupt the drawing if it takes too long to do. The escape key has the same effect.
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Since these are demo shapes particularly included to help users get started, then it is fine to use them commercially. You can copyright your own shapes made with Virtual Flower. You have my permission to use the ones that come with the program too.
The installer itself is freely distributable.You may include it on any program download site or CD compilation - for program details see the pad file: vf_pad_file.xml.You may not sell the evaluation copy. You may not charge for other users to use Virtual Flower. If you wish to use the program itself in a commercial fashion (rather than images or animations made with it), or use the program itself to promote other commercial products, please contact me first to discuss ideas or make arrangements.
I hope this is reasonably clear. If you have any questions or want anything particular clarified then let me know. Robert Walker firstname.lastname@example.com
(This is not to be considered as a legal document, it is just information to help Virtual Flower users understand how I see the situation).
You can save the images using Images | Image Size and Save Image As - you set the size of the image to save there and can choose from various file formats. The Bitmap (BMP) and PNG formats are lossless so are the best to use if you want to edit it in another program and resave it. Use jpg alternatively if this is your final copy and you want a small file size. Most of the images work well either as Pngs or as jpgs.
You can also save the animation as animation frames which you can convert into an animation in other programs - for instance you could use a gif animator to convert them into an animated gif.
Or you can make an animated jpeg in flash format directly from Virtual Flower. You can also save as an animated png - generally that is a good format with a high quality losssless save, but when used in flash movies using the method used here then the size of the pngs approximately double so you will probably find high quality animated jpegs are a bit better.
You do all that from Images | Animation Frames.
Finally, you can also copy the image to the clipboard - go to the main window so that it is your active window (e.g. click on its caption) and use Ctrl + C. Alternatively, use Ctrl + Shift + C at any time when working with any of the Lissajous windows.
You may be interested to know that my music composing program Fractal Tune Smithy can make e-cards. This only works wth programs that can read the raw "eml" format - Outlook Express can however I don't know of any other that can. You can use any image on your computer so could use it to send your Virtual Flower images as e-cards. They are musical e-cards so optionally you can also add music to the card - as an attachment, or indeed if your recipient also uses Outlook Express you may be able to include the music as background sound so that the recipient hears the tune playing as soon as they look at the card. Alternatively you can also use FTS to make an html page for the e-card which you can then send in another e-mail program.
There is no gif or animated gif save yet - the plan is to add this in summer 2004. The reason for this is that patent royalties are high (thousands of dollars) for any programmer who wants to include a save in the .gif format as part of a program. The patent is for the LZW compression method used to make the gifs small, so strictly speaking, it is acceptable to add a save in gif format without compression, but the images will be huge files without it so no-one usually bothers with that idea. The patent doesn't run out in Europe until summer 2004 though it has already run out in the US. Since the software author lives in the UK then the Europe patent law surely has to apply.
The File | Save As option saves your work in the Virtual Flower format (*.LJ) which is only understood by the program itself - has data about things like the number of waves in every direction that wouldn't mean anything to any other program. Save your work in this format too so that you can come back to it later and edit it in Virtual Flower.
The idea is that you save your work as Virtual Flower files when you are working on them in Virtual Flower - and then when you want an image or animation to use in a document, web page or other program, you save those in these image and animation formats understood by other programs.
top, start of section
VRML is a kind of 3D version of HTML. You can have hyperlinks etc just as for HTML - instead of clicking on a link on a web page you click on a signpost or door or such like in a 3D world to take you to another web page or 3D world.
Your 3D world can also have play buttons to play music, or screens in the world to display movies and so on. Probably in the not so distant future something like this will be the next standard to replace HTML once computers are fast enough to make it practical (they nearly are now).
Meanwhile, it is mostly used for making VRML models and scenes which are embedded in web pages, or linked to from web pages.
You will find many scenes here:
Web3D applications gallery.
See also Mark Connell's The Most Complete List of VRML 2.0 urls
To view them (and your output from Virtual Flower) get the Cortona VRML client and follow the instructions.
You can embed a VRML model in a web page just as you do for any plug in:
<EMBED SRC="sunflowers.wrl" HEIGHT="400" WIDTH = "600"> </EMBED>
<NOEMBED>3D picture of sunflowers - needs a VRML plug in to view it</NOEMBED>
or link to it directly as you would to an html page : Sunflowers
When making Virtual Flowers for web pages, you will want them to be as small as possible to reduce the download time.
To reduce the size of the file for publication, use File | Virtual Flower Files | Compress Source File or Compress All.
This uses gzip compression, which is the standard for VRML models.
By default Virtual Flower also removes all the comments and extra white space before compressing the file. It also removes the virtual flower info from the end of the file.
Leave these in if you want your web site visitors to be able to show your virtual flowers in VF (and edit them) as well as the VRML browsers - select / unselect the appropriate check boxes in this dialog accordingly.
The best on line site for applications, tips, FAQs etc. is the VRML depository.
The best book I know on VRML is Teach yourself VRML 2 in 21 days by Chris Marrin and Bruce Campbell, Sams.net, 1997. Chris Marrin is one of the authors of the VRML 2 spec.
The best program for editing the VRML source must surely be vrmlpad from Parallelographics - the same company who develop Cortona.
They also make a free VRML screen saver - using this, you can install any of your Virtual Flower scenes as a screen saver;
Another great site for VRML info is VRML Works. Also, Micro Goodies VRML Tutors..
Daly Realism - and see particularly the Working Examples
You can reduce download times for textures in your scenes using Universal Media, which also has a great library of textures to use.
You can use any of your VRML files with an excellent free screen saver from Parallelographics designed to show Virtual Reality Modelling Language files.
First install the Cortona screen saver. You can configure it as you do other screen savers using Right click on desktop | Properties | Screen Saver | Screen Saver | Cortonal Saver, and click Settings.
Then in the Playlist, click on the ... button after the scene and browse to the file random_virtual_flower.wrl in your Virtual Flower folder.
You only need to select this single scene, because this one shows all your other virtual flowers in turn automatically. Each gets shown for a short while, together with a randomly chosen audio clip.
The audio clips used here are any ones in your Virtual Flower folder, and Virtual Flower files that you mark as okay to add.
Remake this file whenever you want to add new scenes or new audio clips to your screen saver scene, using Files | Virtual Flower Files | Remake random_virtual_flower.wrl
The example audio clips (in MIDI format) were made using Fractal Tune Smithy - which makes music like this from a short musical seed. So if you like them - give it a go and you can make many more such. You don't need to be able to read music or anything like that to use it - just select seeds from a drop list and play around with the various parameters to transform them into your own tunes.
You can also use any audio clips you may already have in any of the audio formats recognised by Cortona. It recognises mp3s for instance. To add them to the screen saver, just copy your audio clips into your Virtual Flower folder so that Virtual Flower can find them, then remake random_virtual_flower.wrl
To add / remove virtual flowers from the screen saver scene random_virtual_flower.wrl, go to Files | Virtual Flower Files, select the files in turn from the drop list, and select Ok for random virtual flower, for all the ones you want to include.
Ones that get left out will be shown with an *Excl* in the drop list.
Any virtual flowers that you have made with audio clips already are shown wtih *Aud* in the drop list. These get shown as usual in the screen saver, but are always accompanied with their own audio file instead of a randomly chosen one.
You'll find that the flowers and trees you make with Virtual Flower turn much more readily than other VRML models of similar complexity. Also, you'll find that the files are small - often only five or six KB or less after compression - so they are really fast to download as well.
Why is this? It's because the trees and flowers are made fractal fashion. To explain about fractals - let's take a tree as an example. It may divide into two branches,and each of those into two, and so on. It may continue in this fashion for maybe seven or more layers down to individual twigs. Real trees don't divide in quite such a regular fashion. but close enough to it so that this pattern is seen as "tree like".
The twigs and branches of a tree have the same kind of structure as the tree itself - a branch can look much like an entire tree. A shape that has the same or a similar structure at many different scalings is called a fractal. Strictly speaking a mathematical fractal looks the same or similar at infinitely many scalings. In some cases you can't tell the scale of the picture at all when you look at it - and others look very much the same at any of the scalings.
If you did all the branches and twigs of a tree as separate objects, the model would be several megabytes in VRML - an extremely long wait for a download!. It would also be very slow to turn and view from various angles. Because of this, most VRML scenes with trees in them do them as a texture, up until now anyway :-). This means that the tree is a flat object meant only to be seen at a distance. If you try to walk round the tree, it will probably rotate to face you, so that you always see it from the same side. If you are able to look at it really closely, you may also see the individual pixels of the texture.
However, it just so happens the VRML language lends itself very well to a fractal definition of an object, - some kinds of fractal anyway, and the trees get tiny in size. In fact, that's the origin of this program - my nephew had converted a 3D tree he made from another format into VRML, but found that it came to several megabytes in size. I figured out a way to make a tree (not the same one, but a tree) in a few Kb instead. This program was the result.
Leemon Baird's site: VRML Fractals - The First VRML Fractal Site on the Web - he made them some years before I did - though I didn't know that at the time. You can make them interactively on his page using an applet.
Fractal Garden includes some examples of another way to make a VRML tree, which is to have a script within the scene that makes it for you. This makes small VRML files too, though they are slower to rotate than these ones. The shapes of the script based trees can have random elements to them, while the Virtual Flowers ones can't if you want the branches to connect with each other smoothly.
This is a way to embed your VRML files into web pages in a format suitable for visitors who don't yet have a VRML plug in.
They follow the X3D standard - which is a subset of the VRML spec. designed to make small java applets practical.
You need to use a suitable java applet such as Anfy 3D (from Anfy), Blaxxun 3D, Cortona Jet,
VFL uses Blaxxun 3D by way of example. See Configuring for other applets to use it with one of the others.
If you use Blaxxun 3D commercially, you need to pay a license fee which ranges from $499 per year up to $1000 per year depending on the use - not surprising considering the quality of the product :-). However it seems that one can use it for free for personal use - without customer support. There's a more recent version of Blaxxun here - without the Walk template - however that version displays a Blaxxun banner on your models unless you license it. One may as well use the older version without a banner for personal use.
In Virtual Flower, use File | Files | Prepare for java applets. to make all the virtual flowers in your java applets folder, and the html files to navigate them with Blaxxum.
This just makes the web page for the applet. To get it to work you also need to add the applet itself to your java applets folder.
To do that, you need to download the Blaxxum SDK of course, and then look for the wizard bxWizard in the wizard sub-folder.
You then need to go through all those .wrl files one at a time and load them using the wizard. Then use the wizard to deploy them as X3D models.
Be sure to select BX3D archive format in the wizard - since you are deploying them into the same folder as the .wrl files - otherwise the wizard will over-write your .wrl files (but this is not such a big deal as VF will make backup .vfl files for each one if you edit them).
You'll want to select all the options in the wizard | scene | scene exporting section.
For at least one of them choose Walk, and then Study in the wizard | extensions, so that the walk.class and examine.class applets also get copied into the install folder (or just copy those files there yourself).
You should now find that the models work.
Then if you want to make any changes to your models at this point, one way to do it is to browse to the .wrl file in the java applets folder in Virtual Flower, edit it in VF, and resave - that way you can maintain special versions of all your.wrl files for Blaxxun in the java applets folder
I find quite a good way to preview a large number of models in turn before making changes is to deploy each in turn as say, a.html, then show that in your browser. So when you go to the next scene, just click Load Scene, then Deploy in Blaxxum, over-writing the old version, and then Refresh in your browser to see what it is like. Many will be fine as they were so you can go through those quickly, and then pause at the ones that need more work.
Some changes need to be made, particularly, java applets generally don't support protos, so you need to unselect Output | Options | Make from Protos. Virtual Flower automatically saves them like that when you use the Prepare for java applets button.
This can change the shape of a few of the virtual flowers, for instance, with bell flower you will find the flowers and stalks get out of sync.. That's because in order to use the alternative method without protos, it has to get resaved with Shape | Angles | Sync. order to apply A, R, & T with stalks if necessary selected.
Also Blaxxun only implements a single sky colour - so you need to make changes to the scenes that use gradations of colour for the sky and separate sky and ground colours. The "java_applets" sub folder already has suitable versions of the scenes that come with Virtual Flower already made. When you save a virtual flower from VF, it uses the scene in the folder it gets saved into in preference to the one in the install folder, if you provide one. This means your java flowers will automatically use these new versions of the scenes.
If one of the virtual flowers doesn't work and you decide to just leave it out you can do that in VF - unselect Files | Virtual Flowrer Files | Ok for Java Walk. and resave. You could then delete its html file - or indeed, before remaking them, delete all the html files for the other models, as the button will remake them anew anyway.
Some of the virtual flowers may be suitable for viewing in study mode - such as the geometrical ones and the ones with no land or sea. For those, select Java Study.Then when you are ready, click on the Prepare for Java Applets | All button to remake all the html files.
When you upload the files to a web site, you only need ot upload the BX3D, class, jar, and htm files.
You can configure for other applets by editing java_applets\templates\walk.htm
Here, **SCENE** gets replaced with the file name without the .wrl extension,**TITLE** gets replaced by the file name converted into a title by replacing underlines with spaces, and capitalising the first word, **NEXT** gets replaced by the url for the next web page, and **PREV** by the url for the previous web page.
Also **STUDY** gets replaced by a link to the study html file - you can just leave that out if you the applet doesn't use separate pages for Study and Walk mode.
The template file used to be called java_applets\java_applet_template.htm - if you have made this file already and want to use it, move it to the new file name and location.
At present, VRLM worlds have no shadows, because ray tracing is still far too slow for interactive models. If interested in making ray traced scenes, I suggest you explore Povray, which is also free.
You can convert some VRML files to Povray format using Paul Thiessen's vrml2pov. This is a beta that it seems hasn't yet made it to release. Works best for the save without protos and few layers, or the single object tree - try Flowers Etc | Objects | Single Object Tree in VF. It's a command line utility and if it works, finishes fairly quickly - if it hangs, it means it didn't work, just close the MSDOS window and try another file. One would expect the result to need some editing afterwards.
Some time in the the future I plan to add a save in Povray format to Virtual Flowers.
If you like Virtual Flower, you may be interested in my other fractal program Fractal Tune Smithy - many have commented that the fractal music and the fractal flowers go together. You can add a midi clip to your Virtual Flower using Output | Audio. Also use them in the Screen Saver.
You can also send musical e-cards of some of the virtual flowers on-line from my Music and Virtual Flowers page - this has a selection of virtual flowers, together with a selection of tunes from Fractal Tune Smithy for the background music.
You can also make cards off-line, with your own fractal music, and then send them directly via e-mail using Fractal Tune Smithy program. The music is sent as an attachment, and is also embedded in the e-mail as background sound. Most users of Outlook Express hear the tune start to play at once, when they look at the e-mail in their in box, though users of other e-mail clients will normally need to click on the attachment to hear it.
To make a Virtual Flower card in this way, first show your scene in the browser, use Alt + Print Screen to copy the image to the clipboard. edit in your graphics program, and save the graphic image with the same name as the .WRL file, though of course with the .jpg, .gif or .bmp extension.
Then copy the image into the e-cards folder for FTS, and you will find you can send it as a musical e-card in FTS by selecting the image in a drop list - see the help for the musical e-cards section of FTS for more details. Copy the .wrl file into this folder too, and you will be able to automatically send it along with the e-card, as another attachment.
Save several images and .wrl files into your FTS e-cards folder in this way, and you can send any of them whenever you like, or select one of them at random for each card. You can also customise the html templates for the e-cards.
There are three order types for Virtual Flower. For the current prices, see the on-line version of this page or contact firstname.lastname@example.com
Individual user and Home Use
Combined license for Virtual Flower, and Lissajous 3D - will also cover some of the other 3D programs I plan to develop in the future.
Site license Allows use of Lissajous 3D on any number of computers belonging to your organisation, and any number of users.
If you know what order type you would like and wish to buy on-line:
Buy now - Secure order (opens in new window)
If you are interested in my other programs, note the new Three for Two offer - Buy any two of my main programs Tune Smithy , Virtual Flower , or Lissajous 3D and get all three and my mini utilities as well.
If you need further information, read on.
To find out more, with answers to common questions and other order methods - see the Purchase page


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You've heard of the Latte Factor, right? (If you haven't, go read Desirae's post from last week, it's awesome).
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Reading about the latte factor got me thinking though… not about the small amounts of money I spend in a day, but about all the small amounts of money I save. Continue reading "My Top 15 Frugal Wins"


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Vatican Easter Vigil: 'Resurrection concerns whole of history'
At 10 this evening in St Peter's Basilica, the Pope presided at the solemn Easter vigil during which he administered the Sacraments of Baptism and Confirmation to seven catechumens from Albania, Belarus, Peru, Japan, Colombia and Cameroon. The celebration started in the atrium of St. Peter's where the Holy Father blessed the new fire and lighted the Easter candle. This was followed by the procession into the basilica with the candle and the singing the "Exultet." Then came the Liturgy of the Word and the Baptismal and Eucharistic Liturgies which the Holy Father concelebrated with cardinals. Referring to the significance of Christ's resurrection, Benedict XVI described it as "the 'greatest 'mutation,' absolutely the most crucial leap into a totally new dimension that there has ever been in the long history of life and its development: a leap into a completely new order which does concern us, and concerns the whole of history." "It is clear," he went on, "that this event is not just some miracle from the past, the occurrence of which could be ultimately a matter of indifference to us. It is a qualitative leap in the history of 'evolution' and of life in general towards a new future life, towards a new world which, starting from Christ, already continuously permeates this world of ours, transforms it and draws it to itself. "But how does this happen?" Benedict XVI asked. "How can this event effectively reach me and draw my life upwards towards itself? The answer, perhaps surprising at first but totally real, is: this event comes to me through faith and Baptism. For this reason Baptism is part of the Easter Vigil. ... Baptism is something quite different from an act of ecclesial socialization, from a slightly old-fashioned and complicated rite for receiving people into the Church. It is also more than a simple washing, more than a kind of purification and beautification of the soul. It is truly death and resurrection, rebirth, transformation to a new life." "The great explosion of the resurrection has seized us in Baptism so as to draw us on. Thus we are associated with a new dimension of life into which, amid the tribulations of our day, we are already in some way introduced. To live one's own life as a continual entry into this open space: this is the meaning of being baptized, of being Christian. This is the joy of the Easter Vigil." The Holy Father stressed how "the resurrection is not a thing of the past, the resurrection has reached us and seized us. We grasp hold of it, we grasp hold of the Risen Lord, and we know that He holds us firmly even when our hands grow weak. We grasp hold of His hand, and thus we also hold on to one another's hands, and we become one single subject, not just one thing." "'I, but no longer I.' If we live in this way, we transform the world. It is a formula contrary to all ideologies of violence, it is a program opposed to corruption and to the desire for power and possession. ... 'I, but no longer I.' This is the way of the cross, the way that 'crosses over' a life simply closed in on the I, thereby opening up the road towards true and lasting joy." Source: VIS


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Knockdown / Sarah Graves.
Electronic resources
View other formats and editions
Record details
- ISBN: 9781611205893 (sound recording : OverDrive Audio Book)
- ISBN: 1611205891 (sound recording : OverDrive Audio Book)
- Publisher: Chicago : Dreamscape Media, LLC, 2012.
Content descriptions
|General Note:
| Downloadable audio file.
Title from: Title details screen.
Duration: 9:19:34.
|Participant or Performer Note:
| Read by Lindsay Ellison.
|Summary, etc.:
| Jacobia "Jake" Tiptree discovers that the past she thought she'd laid to rest comes calling at her lovingly restored 1823 Federal-style house in Eastport, Maine. Back in her days as a hotshot financial manager she did business with plenty of shady characters, but she's still baffled as to the identity of her nemesis--until she receives a photo of a murdered man.
|System Details Note:
| Requires OverDrive Media Console (WMA file size: 134042 KB; MP3 file size: 262766 KB).
Mode of access: World Wide Web.
Search for related items by subject
|Tiptree, Jacobia (Fictitious character) > Fiction.
Dwellings > Maintenance and repair > Fiction.
Women detectives > Fiction.
Maine > Fiction.
|Mystery fiction.


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Namitha plays a Yoga teacher in Namitha I Love You which does not boast of any known actor or technician. Jayasimha Reddy who had worked in Telugu films is the director of this film. Namitha says that the film has an action oriented story and meets with her desire to experiment.
"I have played enough glamour oriented roles in my career. Even my three previous Kannada films with Ravichandran sir and Darshan were glamorous. But in Namitha I Love You the focus has shifted and I play the role of a Yoga teacher who tries to reform her students. I am also involved in a little bit of investigation and indulge in action against the villains too," says Namitha.
Here is wishing her all the best.
Images: Telugucinema.com


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staff: "2016 I will keep you in my memories
#cheese-in-the-trap #drama #hardwork and #passion #I-applaud
#hilarious #ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ why do you have so much to say? Maybe because you feel bad. If you don't wanna watch it, it's fine. But you guys are still watching it, and pointing fingers at us, attacking us. Meanwhile do you know how hard to staff must work and how much sweat goes into rendering the product? If you don't know, stop being noisy"
so it's those type of staff who made the drama like this...
post response:
original post: here
- ㅇㅇ |2016.03.02 12:14
- So he/she's saying that we it's wrong to criticize all movies and dramas.
- 2610
- ㅇㅇ |2016.03.02 15:59
- The reason why the public watched it was because we liked the webtoon, they talk as if they came up with all the work..
- 720
- ㅇㅇ |2016.03.02 16:38
- f*ck I watched everything and I'm not even the type to swearㅋㅋㅋㅋ But honestly, I'm curious whether the staffs read the whole series. Seriously there were scenes that I wondered if they would be able to film it, and when I got into episode 16, I realized that they won't. I wonder how pissed the webtoon author must be to see her characters suddenly turn into this. And also what the hell are they doing to Park Haejin ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ Yoojun is the main? Do you know that Yoojung is dating Seolㅋㅋㅋㅋ I seriously had no interest in Park Haejin but casting him as Yoojung was perfect and you had to shove everything aside
- 450


text:
The TechEd session on the Microsoft Certified Architect (MCA) program, presented by Sondra from my team, was HOT (red font! on purpose! can you tell I'm using Live Writer?). Although we are doing this same session next week via Live Meeting (register here), I took notes to share with those who couldn't make it. Here are said notes.
Everyone's an architect.
In IT, there is not much consistency in what makes an architect... lots of people have it in their titles but they all might define it differently. One of the presenters from HP pointed out that there were literally thousands of people at HP with "architect" in their title. So the MCA program came in to being to create a high-bar series of certifications to lock down, across the industry, what defines an architect. Designed by architects (not just MSFT architects, by the by), for architects.
Broad Architecture and Technology Specific
There is an MCA: Solutions and MCA: Infrastructure; both focus on broad architecture skills; software agnostic. There is also MCA: Messaging and MCA: Database (new)---you might also know these as the Ranger program--and they focus in depth on technology specific skills with Exchange and SQL Server, respectively.
Trusted advisor: Who are the MCAs?
One presenter posed this question: "What is the difference between hallucination and vision?" The answer was "the number of people who can see it," and he used that to sum up his view of being an architect... I thought that was great way to look at it--the need to take your technical skills and strategy to come up with an amazing vision and use your leadership, collaboration, and communication skills to make it happen in real life. Candidates must be
- practicing architects with 10 years experience, at least 3 in architecture, who have shown repeat success...
- vendor neutral/trusted advisory-in the case of Solutions and Infrastructure, in particular--there must be an assumption that the MCA will look for the right solution for the organization's next 5-10 years--this doesn't always mean a MIcrosoft solution
- There is a model for each of the four MCA areas that show an "ideal" candidate based on a combination of different skills/experience. it is different for each... but you'll note (if you look at the competencies--technical skills are not the majority... there is a lot of weight on Strategy, Leadership, Communications... )
- Messaging and DBA programs are only open to Microsoft employees and Gold Certified partners; the other two are now open for public registration
Grilled & picked apart: the MCA process
For Solutions and Infrastructure MCA candidates, all you have to do is:
- Register
- Document a project/solution from your past
- Present your solution to a "review board."
Piece of cake! Except that the review board was described as being "picked apart," being "grilled for a few hours.." and likened to a PhD dissertation. No cake. The review board is made up of already-certified MCAs and is series business and happens in person--we've held them in Redmond, in Boston, in India, in Paris, in Singapore... a few review boards each year. For the Messaging/DBA programs, add a four-week on-site training program, written tests, and lab tests in addition to the three-steps above. Still no cake.
More than an ice cream sandwich; less than a G5
What it costs: $25,000US for Messaging/DBA programs. $10,000US for Solutions/Infrastructure programs. It is expensive, because it is time intensive. It is expensive, because it is not intended for everyone. Also, candidates for this credential are at a level where it is most likely their large organization will sponsor their program fee.
More information:
- Attend the June 20 Live Meeting to get the info above, but presented better; plus a chance to ask your questions
- Find MCA info online
- Visit the MCA blog for the latest and some fun bits (i.e. what color are architects?)


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Black Nursing Tank Top
Bun Signature Nursing Tank Top
Our Signature Nursing Tanks allow moms to breastfeed any where and any time, easy as a snap. As classic basics they will certainly be a part of your journey with many years of use and love. This tank is especially awesome for tandem nursing or pumping at work.
Black snaps on the black tank keep it stylishly chic for play or work.
- 100% combed cotton; Made in USA of made in USA fabric
- ribbed; very stretchy and fits true to size; signature "bounce back" rib for nursing wear
- long length fits over the hips
- fits up to mid stages of pregnancy best
- signature under panel covers chest while nursing
- Our Signature Snap and Go Design
- custom colors and special garment dye for the softest feel
hand wash or machine wash garment in cold water; like colors ; delicate tumble dry or hang dry


text:
Rapper shot in the head after huge argument outside north London studio
A RAPPER has died after he was shot in the head outside a recording studio in Islington, north London, last night.
Police were called after gunshots were heard on a quiet residential street in Islington at 9pm and the man was taken to hospital where he died just after midnight.
They found a 25-year-old man – named locally as Dawood – with a gunshot wound outside Big House music studio.
The man, who has not yet been formally identified, was taken to an east London hospital where he was pronounced dead early this morning.
A police spokesman said his next of kin has been informed and a post-mortem examination will be held.
"It's must've been some sort of disagreement or something like that and then he was just shot in the head"Neighbour
A neighbour, who chose not to be named said: "It's quite a well-known studio. All the local rappers go there.
"It's must've been some sort of disagreement or something like that and then he was just shot in the head.
"I didn't see it but that's the rumour that's floating about, that he was shot in the head.
"He's so young - it's never the older ones. They don't know what they've got to lose and just start saying s*** about each other.
"When I moved here a couple of year ago, I thought it looked like a rough area, but it's really not.
"Nothing like this has ever happened here. You get the odd siren, because it's summer, but nothing like this."
No arrests have yet been made.
A 21-year-old witness saw the rapper dying in the doorway of the deserted studio.
He said: "I was just on my way up the road. It was really quiet. I looked inside and saw a body on the floor.
"Initially I thought he had been knocked out or something. But then I saw his head open.
"He had obviously been shot and there was blood everywhere. He was dying.
"I remember seeing a gunshot mark - a bullet hole - in the window so I knew that he had been shot from outside.
"It was a weird thing to see because there was no one around.
"I called the police and then I called my mum and told her not to be scared and said what had happened.
"It's been really effecting me. I've never seen anything like that. His head was just open."


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Disability Access Advisory Committee
The Disability Access Advisory Committee (DAAC) was established under Section 24 of the Local Government Act 1993 and appointed in 1995.
The aim of the Committee is to implement Council's Disability Access Plan.
DAAC do this by working with Council representatives to help prioritise assets and amenities for access upgrades, renewals, new works; and by working on projects and events with the community.
Current community and Council members are:
Community representatives:
- Roseanne Hall
- Jenny Wiggins
- Jeff Pearson
- Kathy Buttigieg
- Vanessa Clark
- Lee Jordan
- John Bates
- Shirley Anderson
Council representatives:
- Alderman Debra Thurley – Chairperson
- Alderman Kay McFarlane – Proxy Chairperson
- Ross Park - Access and Inclusion Project Officer
- Greg Boucher – Property
- Gopal Neupane – Engineering
- Samuel McCrossen - Planning
- Julie Andersson – Community Planning and Development
Service Representatives:
- Metro – under a Memorandum of Understanding with Council, Metro attend 2 meetings per year.
For information regarding the Disability Access Advisory Committee please call the Community Planning and Development Officer on 6217 9597


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how do the different laptops stack up?
I am a high schooler shopping for my first laptop which i want to use throughout my college years. other than the shell what are the differences between the different laptops? I'm likelly to often drop it so would the mac air break easier? advantages of each? disadvantages?
- Asked by Vanessa P from Portland
1 Answer from the Community
MacBook Pro would be the strongest most reliable laptop ever.
MacBook would be a lot less helpful (unless your a kid) But your almost in college.
MacBook Air wouldn't be good because it has no dvd drive and its tiny.
- Answered by Lynneda M from Granbury
- 05 25, 11


text:
Apprenticeship Recruitment Advisor, Northamptonshire
Job details
|Northampton College
|In the range of £17,288 – £18,059 pro rata, actual salary in the range of £7,475 – £7,809pa. Depending on skills, experience and qualifications
|Contract type
|Part Time
|Contract term
|Closing date
|Applications are closed
Ref: ME1617059
Hours/Weeks: 16 hours per week
Location: Booth Lane
Northampton College is the leading provider of Further Education in Northamptonshire, Graded "Good" by Ofsted and financially outstanding. Our state of the art campus and reputation puts us in a dynamic and unique position to meet both the learning and training needs of individuals and employers.
Our mission is to provide our community with the opportunity to develop through learning and this position has been created to support the college unemployment team to provide opportunities and support for unemployed people within our community.
You will manage the recruitment of employer apprenticeship vacancies. They will secure suitable apprenticeship placements for learners on full time programmes and NEETS within Northamptonshire in specific curriculum areas, namely:
Engineering, Hairdressing, Care and Child Care, Hospitality and Catering, Warehousing, Business Administration, IT, Accounting and Customer Service
Although specific experience within these areas is not essential.
For further information and an application form, please go to www.northamptoncollege.ac.uk
Job share may be considered for this post. This post will require a DBS check.


text:
Goal: To empower parents to take positive action and further engage in their children's lives.
- Dedicated Family Night
- Improved Communication and Conversation
- Education / Reading
- Physical Wellbeing
Five money tips for parents when it comes to high school graduatesShare these five tips with the high school graduates in your life to help them build smart money habits and start off college on the right financial foot.
KTAR Eyes on Parenting: When is it OK to call the police on your kids?Is there ever a time when you call the police on your child? Phoenix police sergeant Vince Lewis advises to consider whether your safety is in jeopardy.
Glendale fire reminds parents to watch kids around pools as summer nearsThe Glendale Fire Department is reminding parents that keeping an eye on kids around pools could save a life, especially as the summer heat approaches.
Arizona officials offer help to parents looking to address child's opioid abuseThe federal government has granted more than $12 million to Arizona to fight the opioid epidemic, but officials said parents should take matters in their own hands if they believe their child is abusing drugs.
Expert: Parents should be proactive in discussing learning disabilities with doctorsDevelopmental milestones are huge for children. But for parents who notice their child isn't making those milestones, when can they discuss learning disabilities with their doctor?
Firefighters urge parents to discuss fire safety after fatal Glendale house fireAfter a mother and her three children died in a tragic house fire in Glendale, officials with the local fire department are urging parents to discuss fire safety habits with their children.
Arizona program aims to address family needs, keep kids out of foster careThe Arizona Department of Child Safety has teamed up with an online faith-based program called CarePortal to help keep families in low-income neighborhoods together and out of welfare by addressing their needs.
Small toys and small children can cause big problems for parents, expert warnsLittle kids and little toys don't always go together as well as parents might think, according to Dr. Cara Christ, the director of the Arizona Department of Health Services.
Ducey: Parents should make kids aware of opioid dangersAfter Trump announced a plan to battle the opioid epidemic, Arizona Governor Doug Ducey said opioid addiction is a very passionate issue for him as well.
Here's how to help your child grieve the death of a loved oneAfter a 9-year-old Phoenix boy died Tuesday, parents of the boy's friends and classmates are left with a difficult task: How to help their child understand the death of a loved one.


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8.00 a.m., and I was already in the arrivals hall of the Labuan International Airport. I wasn't supposed to be here this early, but MASwings cancelled the later flight at 9a.m. giving me a choice of either an earlier flight or a much later flight. A stark reminder again of the numerous cancelled flights I have endured during my entire tenure at Labuan.
When I first moved to Labuan, airfares had been so cheap that I could fly back home twice a month. Only RM70 for a one way flight on their little propeller Fokker planes.
Then the whole MAS fiasco happened, bearing millions of losses. As a result, airfares became ridiculously expensive, sometimes charging as high as RM200++ just for a one way flight.And to make things worse, there were no other airline service providers offering the same route, save for Airasia, that cancelled their LBN-BKK-LBN flights within a mere few months of operations.
The only other option to get on and off the island was by 1) the nausea-inducing two and half hours ride in a small cramped ferry all the way to Kota Kinabalu; 2) via 30 mins of hurtling and bouncing on speedboats, appropriately dubbed the 'flying coffins' given it's small space and low roofs, (plus the numerous unplanned incidents such as steering wheels coming off mid-journey) to Menumbok Jetty; or 3) via the strangely renovated big car ferry (2nd hand from China!) that is slightly safer, but takes over 2 hours to arrive at Menumbok Jetty, after which another two and half hours drive or ride by bus is in order to get to Kota Kinabalu.
I say it's strangely renovated because of the seats inside that seem to be collected from a number of different vendors, the gloomy and rather filthy interior, and extremely cold air-conditioning settings. Aside from that, the ferry is often inundated by a number of problems, such as propellers falling off into the deep blue sea, and thus causing ferry services to be suspended for long periods of time, much to the agitation of the locals who wish to drive out to mainland Sabah.
Not exactly attractive options, and I make no effort to disguise my absolute disgust at the services that are available for the residents of Labuan. I paint no pretty pictures, just the sad truth. The whole ferry topic has been an intensely argued topic with certain ferry operators (and ministers!) pretending not to even know what the word 'monopoly' means. Things have been slightly better lately with the entrance of another ferry operator (with problems at the start up), but nothing lasts forever it seems. Especially not here.
So, rather than having to face 1), 2) and 3) above, I decided to splurge and enjoy a much more comfortable trip to Labuan this time, via plane. And enjoy the new facilities and sights of the now completed KKIA.
I already made an appointment at the lawyer's office at 2pm, so a later flight is totally out of the question. So I drag myself out of bed at 5.45am that morning, in a bid to arrive at the airport within good time.
But the question now is... what do I do with the 6 hours left until my appointment? And where shall I stay?
Decided: stay at the centre of town, so that a car is not needed to get around. And I already have in mind a place to stay - Ambassador Hotel 2, a small hotel that I've just passed by a couple of times the last few times I've been back, and looks pretty decent.
The hotel at the centre of town is just a mere 2-3km away from the airport, but it costs RM12.50. Taxis are mainly very old models of Toyota built in the late 80s and painted all white with mint green stripes on the side.
"Sorry Miss, we can only check you in at around 12pm", the receptionist glanced at me, the strange woman wearing a ripped (artistically, I might add) yellow tee. He must be thinking 'wth...?!'
Undaunted, I cheerily asked if I could just leave my bag at the counter, which he accepted, and off I was on my merry way. At 8.15 in the morning...
Can't sit at a coffee shop and have breakfast, as it was the fasting month. What to do, what to do.....
Ahh... museum!
The museum is located just a stone's throw away from behind the building where the hotel was located. The streets were filled with blue canopies, all ready for the Ramadan bazaar happening every single day starting the earliest at 2pm.
The abandoned Labuan hotel towered gloomily overhead, memories of an era long passed. I often try to imagine the hotel back in its hey-day - I was old enough to remember going there once upon a time with my parents, who wanted to listen some karaoke. Wonder what kind of scene will greet us should we decide to push open the glass entrance doors one day. Perfect scene for some Halloween party.
The doors of the museum were shut, a little too early to be inviting in guests. Noting that the tourism office next door was open, I decided to make a visit and pick up a few brochures. Perhaps a copy of the Labuan Food Trail that I saw my friend bringing around during my last visit, but there were none.
I sat there for a while, seeking solace from the sun, which burns hot even in the morning. After all, I was a 'tourist', and the place was free for people coming to seek information. Looking through the brochures, I found out that the museum only opens at 9a.m.
Seeing that there's still time before the museum opens, I decided to cross the road towards the Labuan Square which was built in 1990 to commemorate the island of Labuan being made Federal Territory in 1984.
It claims to be "the popular spot for major events and stage performances with its open air stage that has walk-up steps at the front and impressive cascading waterfalls at the back" according the description inscribed on a slab of marble.
The days of glory have ended, it's obvious to see.
I'm sorry to say that not much of an effort has been made to restore or maintain this memorable historic site. The place was in a state of disarray, with stagnant water in an otherwise beautiful fountain breeds mosquito larvae, and broken pieces of wood plus rubbish of all sorts and graffiti can be found on the steps leading downstairs to what I presume to be a storeroom.
Returning back to the museum, I noted that it is at last open. Refreshing gusts of wind from the air-conditioning units greeted me as I walked through the open doors and signed my name in the guestbook.
1775: Survivors of an attack on the British East India Company factory on Balambangan Island took refuge on Labuan
18 September 1846: Sultan of Brunei signed treaty and handed over Labuan to the British. 6 days later, on Christmas Eve, the Union Jack was hoisted up at Ramsay Point, to confirm Labuan as a British Colony.
Statistics of Labuan Population 1921 - 1991
1921 - 5,908
1931 - 7,507
1941 - 8,963
1951 - 8,784
1960 - 14,904
1970 - 17,189
1980 - 26,413
1991 - 54,811
Labuan population based on ethnic groups in 2000
Malays - 28,974
Kadazan Dusun - 4,884
Bajau - 4,106
Murut - 419
Chinese - 9,484
Indian - 650
Others - 1,889
Non-Malaysian citizens - 16,150
Mining in Tanjung Kubong, Labuan which began in 1847, was the first in Malaysia
Oil was discovered in Labuan in 1852
The railway stretching nine and three quarter of miles long was built in 1981, connected Tanjung Kubong to Victoria, was among the first railway lines in Malaysia, and the first in Borneo.
Labuan became the 2nd territory after Sarawak to issue its own postal stamp in May 1879.
Labuan achieve independence from the British under Sabah on 31st August 1963
In 1990, Labuan became an offshore financial centre.
I have deep-rooted family connections in Labuan, thus my interest in their affairs( read my blogs on Thoughts of Labuan and Labuan). While most of the family no longer lives on the island, the feeling of personal connection lingers on.
After the visit to the museum, decided to walk over to the Financial Park to find a bank and other things since I still had plenty of time. One of the first things I saw there was a coffee machine! Drinks at RM1 each. We don't even have this in KK!!
Found a whole slew of massage chairs all around the complex, so I sat on one and tried to get it going. Not functioning, hmmm... then a friendly local came and assisted me in switching it on, him (and a couple of other people) too seemingly interested in the chairs when I sat down. I decided to spoil myself and get a full 30 mins massage for RM10, almost dozing off in the process.
15 mins before 12pm, I decided that it was enough time to walk back to the hotel and try to check-in again. Labuan is a pretty walkable place, in spite of the heat. There are plenty of unobstructed walkways for pedestrians, most of them either covered or underneath some shade. There's also a lighted zebra-crossing for pedestrians to pass, and I found the motorists are generally very well behaved and disciplined when it comes to red-lights. As it is also quite a small town, everything seems to be within walking distance, or at least reasonably so. I spent a lot of time those 2 days walking around quite comfortably, unlike back home.
I arrived at the hotel, and they have a room for me! A Queen Superior room at RM108, but with the deposit I have to pay RM150. I wanted a single room, but I'm not going to wait, so I took it.
Proud. This would be the first time ever that I booked myself into a hotel alone, apart from my travelling days outside of Malaysia. Was very curious (and fearful) to see how good the room was.
They gave me a ground floor room, and down a long corridor with white washed walls I went. Obviously the hotel had just been renovated, judging by the boxes of tiles lining the sides of the corridor.
Rested for a bit, and it was soon time to go to the lawyer's office in Lazenda Shophouse, again just a short distance away, and in the same area where my first job as an auditor in Labuan was. After signing the necessary paperwork, I decided to buy some pastries from one of the more famous coffee shops in Labuan - Hup Juan. For a little over RM3, I bought a chicken curry puff and an egg tart. It would have tasted really great piping hot, but as it was the fasting month, I had no choice but to wait.
The rest of the day was spent walking around town while waiting for the time for my good friend Peny to pick me up so we can have dinner / breaking of fast.
First stop was the D'One Mart, a 24-hour supermarket. I still remember many years back, it used to be just a small shop that was famous for selling Gardenia bread products, including cake items such as Twiggys, that can be found only in West Malaysia. Guess that business was so good that the shop has expanded into a large supermarket that can rival the other big (and long-established) supermarkets such as Milimewa, Giant and Utama Jaya.
Yay!! My favourite :-p
It seems that Starbucks has arrived in Labuan at last! In the form of bottled coffee, not the cafe. Tempting
Dr Pepper has arrived on the shores of Labuan as well.
More pics.....
Don't believe we have a coin-operated laundromat in KK either?
I was wondering what happened to the library at Labuan Corporation, when I found it. Now in the formerly abandoned Wisma Oceanic, where lots of offices used to be located before the Financial Park was built.
Another popular food outlet in Labuan - Island Garden, an open air hawker stall serving Chinese and Western dishes
Labuan town seems to have ample spaces for public use. Park benches like these can be found in many places, and in good condition!
Strangling figs seem to be taking root everywhere in this island. Even on the smallest of trees.
Seeing I had a few hours left, and too tired to walk... I decided to do my hair at a local salon, as I was going to attend some expensive dinner at a 5-star resort on the same night, in aid of sun bears.
As I wasn't too vain either, I decided to risk having my hair reshaped at cut at Gaya salon, just next to Ambassador Hotel 2. That was the first time in a very long time that anyone gushed over my natural curls. Though I was trying hard not to be alarmed by the large chunks of hair flying past me as the hairdresser enthusiasticly chopped off my hair to give it 'more layers' and look 'sexy'.
The ending result for RM57?
They used only very good products, I noted.
All too soon it was time for me to leave Labuan again. If I had more time, and a means of transport, then I'd definitely explore more. Labuan is a very cheap place to visit, and plenty of places do not charge an entry fee at all, for example the Labuan Aquarium. But then, with no fee, we will have to be contented with places that have not been maintained very well.
Other places I love in Labuan:-
1. Botanical Gardens - where the remains of the bombed Government House can be found. A great place to go for an evening run, but I love the lakes that are there. I used to know every route through the gardens as I spent a lot of time there, though people tell me it's haunted. There is also a water park, or used to be, as it is now run down. It is located on the road where the old airport terminal used to be. Entrance is free.
2. Japanese Peace park - definitely a car required, as it is located in Layang-Layangan, a distance away from town. It was also the location where the Japanese army surrendered. It is again one of those places forgotten by time and crumbling away. But I love it there, and I used to spend many weekends at one of the stalls nearby selling the best barbecue chicken wings and satay with ketupat and peanut sauce ever! Salivating now...
3. Pancur Hitam - also requiring a car for a beach gathering. Lots of barbecue pits you can use here free of charge, and the place is kept really clean. Beaches are still so wild you can spot a few hermit crabs here and there. Not advisable to swim though.
Must haves:-
2. Lots of duty-free imported chocolates! Buy from the shops in town, not at airports or ferry terminals as they will cost far more. Where else can you find Danish, Swiss or Belgian choccies at reasonable prices?
3. Alcohol is also duty-free. I had a German friend who came and said the prices were way cheaper than back home.
4. For Sabahans having a hankering for snacks or breads that you can find in KL, they have Gardenia and High 5 here ;-)
Good (and cheap) Eats:-
1. Blueberries Cafe on 1st Floor, Financial Park. Halal. Very cheap and delicious. You can get bubble tea and a yummy piece of homemade chocolate cake for very low prices. Very popular during lunch hour as they have economy mixed rice on offer.
2. I absolutely love the nasi lemak at the Labuan Watersports Centre. I used to tapau every few mornings on my way to work.
3. Yummy Chicken? (Gosh, I can't remember the name!) - I love the tomyam mee, chicken rice is not bad either.
4. Choice - Indian food. Briyani, my favourite ;-) and mango lassi.
5. If you're looking to impress someone on a date, there's always Fratini's. The only Italian restaurant (I think?) on the island.
Oh, I can probably go on and on and add on more to my list as I think about it. But I better stop. I guess it is after all because 4 years of my life was spent on this island that I fondly think of as my second home.
" I'll be back soon!" was my only thought as I soared over the town on my flight home.